Get some insights and background information about the open think tank about mobile media and communication.
DIGITAL. TRENDS. FUTURE.
14
Sep
Sep
Interview with Lauri Hirvonen, Senior Business Development Manager at NOKIA and founding member of dotMobi. He talks about the history, present and future of dotMobi at the mobileinnovationweek.com in Toronto.
13
Sep
Sep
Dom Sagolla was one of the first emloyees at Twitter and is now publishing a book about the micro-blogging service, called 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form
Dom writes about the definitive history of Twitter, from an insider’s point of view, about the new grammar rules for short-form writing, and a catalog of writing styles and includes inspiring quotations from comedy to poetry from some of the best writers.
Here is a Video Interview I recorded at the Mobile Innovation Week in Toronto.
11
Sep
Sep
I will be speaking at Mobile Media World 2009 in Toronto next week. The event is part of the Mobile Innovation Week and features a selection of the leading experts in the mobile and telecommunication industry.
I will be speaking about key trends for the next decade of mobile media and will presented my latest publication
Mobile Future @mocom2020: A collaborative vision of the future of Mobile Media and Communication
08
Sep
Sep
Getting information as fast as possible and on the spot is the trend. So what could be more direct than having information fired directly into the eye?
A new generation of contact lenses built with very small circuits and LEDs promises bionic eyesight. Today — together with his students — Babak A. Parviz, bionanotechnology expert at University of Washington, is already producing devices that have a lens with one wirelessly Radio Frequency powered LED. To turn such a lens into a functional browser, control circuits, communication circuits and miniature antennas will have to be integrated. These lenses will eventually include hundreds of semitransparent LEDs, which will form images in front of the eye: words, charts, imagery enabling the wearers to navigate their surroundings whithout distraction or disorientation. The optoelectronics in the lens may be controlled by a seperate device that relays information to the lens’s control circuit. Another use could be the monitoring of the wearer’s health and biomarkers f.e. cholesterol, sodium, kalium or glucose.
A few barriers have yet to be taken in order to produce such a device. Materials are not compatible with one another; all components have to be assembled onto about 1.5 square centimeters of flexible, transparent polymer; and of course the lens needs to be completely safe for the eye. Parviz mentions that the LED for example is made of aluminum gallium arsenide, a toxic material that should first have to be encapsulated in a biocompatible polymer.
Last but not least: seeing the LED-light switching on and off is one thing, but seeing something comprehensible in dense resolution to the eye is something else.“The true promise of this research is not just the actual system we end up making, whether it’s a display, a biosensor, or both. We already see a future in which the humble contact lens becomes a real platform, like the iPhone is today, with lots of developers contributing their ideas and inventions.”
Contact lenses have always been about improving natural sight, so whatever information they may bring to our eyes in the coming future… may the view be clear.
Via: justgetthere.us
08
Sep
Sep
The packaging industry is developing smart new packaging solutions for the retail market. Especially for fresh product a smart label or a digital display integrated within the packaging could show the consumer the freshness and quality of the product. A milk package could show you when it is not a good idea to drink it anymore.
Another example is this hourglass-shaped freshness label for meat products (designed by To-Genkyo). The label contains special ink that changes its color based on the amount of ammonia emitted by the meat (the older the meat, the more ammonia it releases). Like an hourglass, the bottom half of the label “fills up” as the meat ages. Consumers can judge the product’s freshness at a glance.
When the meat is no longer suitable for sale, the ink blocks the barcode at the bottom so that it cannot be scanned at the cash register.
The Freshness Label was presented at the Good Design Expo known as one of the leading design events in Asia. The event showcases thousands of well-designed products under consideration for the year’s Good Design Awards. Over 2,000 items ranging from consumer electronics, automobiles and furniture to office equipment, building designs and sporting goods were exhibited at this year’s event, which was held at Tokyo Big Sight in August 2009.
07
Sep
Sep
We realize Social Media Marketing activities for clients on platforms such as YouTube, facebook, twitter, flickr, Xing etc. I always recommend to start recording and publishing your own videos, e.g. corporate speeches at events or official statements of the management.
I often get the question “What camera do you use for your professional YouTube Channel?” so I want to give you some insights.
For the project of the European Patent Office we used several Flip TV cams (Flip Mino HD Camcorder With 4GB Internal Memory With Widescreen – Black
Furthermore we covered the event at the EPO twitter Channel @EPOorg and reached a wide influencer network online.
Here you can see an example of an interview of the EPO’s president filmed with our Flip cam and uploaded a few minutes after by the team of Ahead of Time.
Finally I would say, that we have increased the “reach” and improved the “footprint” of the corporate event through the strategic use of Social Media Marketing.
Here are my two recommendations for video productions on YouTube:
(1) Flip Mino HD Camcorder With 4GB Internal Memory With Widescreen – Black
01
Sep
Sep
EBay Inc plans to sell a 65 percent stake in its online phone unit Skype for $1.9 billion to private investors including Silver Lake and a venture firm run by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen.
Shares in eBay rose 40 cents or 1.8 percent to $22.54 on Nasdaq after the news.
The deal values Skype at $2.75 billion, according to the Internet auction house, which had bought the phone company in 2005 for about $3.1 billion.
The group buying Skype also includes London-based Index Ventures and the Canada Pension Plan, in addition to Silver Lake and Andreessen’s firm Andreessen Horowitz.
The deal lets eBay focus on its PayPal electronic payments service as well as its flagship auction service, the company said.
EBay originally planned to spin off Skype next year. John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, said in May that a $2 billion valuation would be low for the growing Internet telephone business.
In 2007, eBay wrote down about $1.4 billion of its investment in Skype, conceding it did not fit in with the rest of its online auction business.
“Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments business,” Donahoe said in a statement.
EBay expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter. The transaction is not subject to a financing condition.
(Via Reuters)
01
Sep
Sep
Internet auction and services company EBay Inc has reached a deal to sell its online telephony unit Skype to a group of private investors, the New York Times said, citing two people briefed on its plans.
Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm headed by the Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, is likely to be among the investors in the group, the paper cited the people as saying. London-based Index Ventures and Silver Lake Partners may also be involved in the deal, one of the people told the paper. The paper added that the value of the deal, which is likely to be announced later on Tuesday, had not been disclosed. EBay spokesman Alan Marks declined to comment on the report.
In May, EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said a valuation of $2 billion would be low for Skype.
Since eBay bought Skype, the company did not announce major developments nor any innovative new products or services. May it is because of the structure of the size the institution “eBay” has become. Skype was not the leader of digital innovation since years. Thus it has always kept their loyal customers and delivered very good quality of service.
From my point of view there are three key opportunities in the VoiP market for Skype:
1. Reach: Skype is the biggest Online Social Network, twice as big as facebook, but they do not use the full potential of the SNS (Social Networking Software), yet. There are many opportunities to develop new applications, open APIs or useful functions to use Skype as a Social Network.
2. Global telecommunication: Since the start of Google Voice a huge discussion is going on about the future of telecommunication. The network operators such as AT&T or Deutsche Telekom and mobile network operators are getting under pressure because customers can change and manage several telephone number very easily. I think now it’s time for such a service and to roll-out a mainstream VoiP Service like Google Voice – this could be easily realized by Skype as well. Don’t you think?
3. Speed & Innovation: Since the company would be kind of “independable” again. The speed of innovation and business development would be increased rapidly. The goal of the investors might be to really strengthen the company. May be they are also looking to get the global VoiP leadership and then partner or even sell the company again to a major player. Thus this speed and acceleration of innovation might be something very healthy for Skype and I am already thinking about what they could develop for us loyal users.
Language
Digital Leaders
A global network of some of the smartest and influential people in the internet, mobile and tech-industry.
www.DigitalLeaders.co
www.DigitalLeaders.co