links for 2007-05-03

May 03, 2007 | Comments

MEX day 1

May 02, 2007 | Comments

I'm camped out at MEX for 2 days, wearing my analyst/blogger and FP hats.

It's been interesting so far - great bunch of folks, an intimate atmosphere, good venue, and some familiar faces. I like the format too - talks or panel discussions with frequent breakout sessions.

I'm here as a guest to take notes formally, so won't be publishing an exhaustive report, but some impressions and thoughts so far:

  1. Cliff Crosbie of Nokia was excellent talking about the importance of the retail environment, though we weren't clear what percentage of handsets are sold via this channel nowadays. Message: if you want to sell these products, make sure your sales force are knowledgeable, confident, and appropriately incentivised.
  2. Mike Grenville's break-out session on retail, where we concluded that we need simple pricing, building trust by letting users try things out, and across-the-value-chain incentives so that sales staff benefit from educating customers about mobile data services.
  3. The Prada phone has sold very well, and (coincidentally) has the strictest ever guidelines for retail display.
  4. There's a contradiction between wanting openness in all business dealings, and a well-integrated user experience running from content, through handset, to network.
  5. Big Brother vids generated 50x the traffic for Vodafone live and 10x as much revenue when they were made free to download as when they were sold.
  6. Vodafone see mobile as a satellite of fixed Internet use nowadays, apparently.
  7. The address book keeps being mentioned as a gateway to Internet services: score one, Mr Johnston :)
  8. Telecomms is Apple-obsessed right now, and (I think) ignoring that fact that the products their jealous of (ipod, Walkman) are all single-use devices whilst mobile is general purpose.
  9. Christian Lindholm: "Skype is interesting because of its intergenerational appeal"
  10. Contextual UIs which take the environment into account are (a) hard and (b) of questionable value.

All this, and Mr Heathcote lurking in amongst a crowd of on-brand Happy People in Nokia presentation...

links for 2007-05-02

May 02, 2007 | Comments

links for 2007-05-01

May 01, 2007 | Comments

Shinto and ubicomp

April 30, 2007 | Comments

A lovely genre-spanning post from the Keitai-L list on a possible relationship between animism and an acceptance of ubiquitous computing in Japanese culture. Unfortunately this post hasn't made it into the archives of the list yet, so here it is in full; it's from Robert Osazuwa Ness:

"Shintoism's concept of place and things and implications to applications of ubicomp and location-based mobile technology.

Shinto involves the worship of kami (神), or gods. According to
Wikipedia,
"Some kami are local and can be regarded as the spirit or genius of a
particular place, but other ones represent major natural objects and
processes". This is a cultural and religious contribution to the
conversation on the relationship between the virtual world and the
real.
Kami can be defined as virtual objects because they cannot be
perceived
through the naked senses, but are nonetheless we perceive them
mentally and
they have specific qualities in our imaginations. A kami is a body of
virtual qualities ascribed to a physical object or place.

Locational and object-based characteristics of Shintoism originated in
shamanic beliefs brought from the Continent (China) and the Korean
peninsula. At first this was worship of kami who inhabited things.
Ceremonies were held outside before iwakuras, a small space or
alter made
of stones. After the arrival of Buddhism, the idea of building
"houses"
for kami arose and shrines were built.

The development of Shintoism has been intertwined with Chinese
Buddhism as
well as other Chinese philosophies, and is generally part of the
Chinese-born idea of a monist nature of existence (天人合一, man
and nature are
one) that has influenced many belief systems in East Asia (though
it should
be point out that this way of thinking has largely been lost in
present day
China).

The most interestingly theme in Shintoism is reverence for nature and
natural beauty. Thus kami are ascribed to objects and places that are
striking in their natural beauty. More interestingly, Wikipedia
quotes, "As
time went by, the original nature-worshipping roots of the
religion, while
never lost entirely, became attenuated and the kami took on more
reified and
anthropomorphic forms, with a formidable corpus of myth attached to
them."
I feel this implies that kami could easily be perceived in urban
settings,
especially with high-tech themes. Moreover, the reification,
anthropomorphism, and myth have direct implications to digital
installation,
and story-based events such as urban gaming.

Modern day Shinto is better viewed as a cultural mindset than as a
religion. In other words, it is an implicit factor affecting
behavior,
rather than an explicit set of goals (such as do something so you
can get to
Heaven and avoid Hell). This is highlighted in the fact that
expressed
belief in Shinto as a dogmatic religion has declined since the War
while use
of Shinto artifacts, participation in ceremonies, and other Shinto
practices
have remained popular.

The implication here is a unique cultural openness of the Japanese to
growing Ubicomp applications. The kami represent a cultural
precedent for
ascribing virtual qualities to real objects. The fact that
Shintoism is a
way of thinking rather than a dogmatic religion has the potential for
innovating on Shinto concepts in the design of Ubicomp and location-
based
applications without fear of treading on the sacred (although
sensitivity
and respect are still required).
"