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  • Hello you. I'm the 35-year old Managing Director of Future Platforms, a software company which creates delightful mobile experiences. We work for lots of people you've heard of (Nokia, the BBC, Orange, and EMI) and many you won't have come across.

    When I'm not doing that I read a lot, write here, and practice Aikido. I share my home in Brighton, a seaside town on the south coast of the UK, with four cats and a badger.

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« Spooks mobile game | Main | Designing mobile audio »

November 08, 2005

MobileMonday was ace. Initial fears that I'd had upon seeing the storm of sign-ups were unfounded: the signal:noise ratio was high and interesting folks were roaming about.

An explanation of my slightly rambly notes followed:

Dennis Hettema of OP3 kicked off with an intro to ShotCodes. I found this a little high-level (but then I'm spoilt - this is something that isn't new in the mobile industry and there have been lots of similar things proposed over the last 4-5 years). But then Dennis passed around a printed Shotcode and I gave the app a go, which worked perfectly: always heartening.

Richard Jelbert was up next, giving an interesting insight into launching a location-based service for child tracking: most of the challenge of which seemed to be around regulatory issues rather than technology. The necessity of double opt-ins, verifying users are who they say they are, complying with codes of practice... all these seem to cut down the commercial potential and imply greater risks. Good to hear about problems here, not just successes: hearing about how well someone has done doesn't really help me deliver better products, finding out where they tumbled and fell over does.

Finally, Chris Yanda (BBC mobile guy) eschewed PowerPoint and battled a dodgy microphone to give an introduction to the gloriously low-tech Coast Project: using signs at coastal locations to indicate the availability of mobile services. Again: regulations (how high a sign can be, where it is) and practicalities abounded.

All this and a chance to catch up with the mobitopians (JimH, Rafe and Martin were all there and Russ happened to be this side of the pond which was lovely), the most enthusiastic man in the world, then off to the pub with the Orange interaction ninjas until the train home beckoned... whereupon I bump into Martin and JimH again and gabble at Martin all the way down the Brighton/London line.

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