Mobile

Consumer / Mobile / People / Technology — 2 Comments
2
Oct 09

Thoughts on RICA

If you missed it, a new piece of legislation came into effect in June that requires all cellphone users to register their sim cards. I’m not going to get into why I agree with this and why I don’t, because I have my own views on it’s effectiveness.

However, I will share why I won’t be registering my sim card. In South Africa, identity theft is still a reality yet we are obliged to hand over all of our personal information to anyone who asks for it. I’m quite annoyed by this as I hate filling in documentation, but more importantly I don’t feel comfortable sharing my personal information with just anybody.

In the article, they mention that “all information will kept confidential in a secure database”. I would like to question how secure that database is if I can go to numerous outlets around the country to register. If it is so secure and confidential, then what happens if I need to update my information? How does someone at one of these outlets assist me? If they can retrieve and update my information, then I don’t trust the system because there are thousands of outlets and thousands of people who can access this information.

I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit and this is what I think is going to happen in 18 months when the registration window expires for existing sim cards. All the major mobile operator networks (Vodacom, MTN and Cell C) will submit a letter to government stating that they cannot de-active the sim cards that have not registered due to the large quantity and the effect it will have on their business. We will be granted an extension period.

What are your thoughts on RICA?

Mobile / Presentations — No Comments
28
Jul 09

What If A Phone Was A Library

I had the privilege of being invited to speak at Internetix, an annual conference hosted by Internet Solutions, which happens in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. I was given the topic “What If A Phone Was a Library”, where I focused around access to information via the mobile web and mobile applications. I also touched on the commerce opportunities that have been created as well as some of the trends around location and mobile video.

Mobile / Presentations — No Comments
20
Jul 09

Future of Mobile Targeting

Below is the presentation I gave at the 2nd Annual Mobile Marketing Summit hosted by Marketing Mix. I spend a great deal of my time working on mobile targeting capabilities, technology and theories at TinyImpact. The presentation was just a high level introduction into the targeting capabilities that mobile as a medium offers.

Mobile / Technology — 28 Comments
22
Oct 08

MobilePress – WordPress on iPhone and Mobile Handsets

Today is really exciting, we’re launching MobilePress one of our first components to Project Wolf. It’s a plugin for WordPress, the most popular blogging software in the world, which allows users, designers and publishers to extend their audience and service by having specific themes for specific mobile devices or browsers.

We have a very neat iPhone theme in production, however due to some bugs we have held it back. The iPhone theme available with this release has some minor AJAX enabled on certain pages.

Note: This is not Project Wolf, only a component of Project Wolf. Our launch date for the new product will be announced shortly.

Mobile — 2 Comments
7
Oct 08

Mobile – Location Based Search & Advertising

Location is one of the rising trends in the mobile industry at the moment. In a world where relevant content and information is starting to become more important, location based technology is a great enabler to relevant content and information. Imagine being able to find and locate almost anything you are looking for, all from your mobile handset.

The Case: John Needs Sushi
I’ll quickly run through a case scenario. John, who travels a lot, has found himself in a town he has never been to before. He has no idea where anything is and all he has is his mobile handset. He is hungry and in the mood for Sushi, and he is not sure if there is a Sushi restaurant nearby.

John grabs his mobile handset and types in “sushi”, using CellID technology his location is automatically determined. After John has clicked the “search” button, the results are shown on a map and John can now find the nearest Sushi restaurant. He can also request directions to the address of the restaurant.

Types of Location Based Search
In terms of structuring location based search results, I have identified two types. These types depend on the type of search you are performing.

  • Radial Search
    If a user performs a search for something nearby, then a radial search is performed. The radius can be set to a default by the search engine or changed by the user. Lets assume the default radius is 5km, if no results are returned within 5km then the search engine will increase the radius until it finds results. The search engine will return no results within 5km, however display that there x results within ykm radius. The nearest results would then be the most relevant and important in this case.
  • Point-to-Point Search
    If a user is traveling or looking for directions from Point A to Point B, then a point-to-point search is performed where the results are confined to anything between the two points. The challenge with this type of search is either to return the results from all possible routes or ask the user to define one route. Once the route has been determined, the search engine can then perform the search within the selected constraints.

Location Based Advertising
Why is location based advertising so special? Once again, it ties in with being able to target people who looking for specific information at or withing a specific location. Therefore if advertising is location relevant or specific, it has a greater chance of being more relevant to the person. Even if they are not performing a search, information that is location specific to the person’s current position can be just as relevant.

Google – Search with My Location

← Older Entries