4 posts tagged “mobile”

{sub}version

An interactive conceptual art object in play during Version ‘07

Instructions

Text the word version to 41411 using your cell phone. You will receive a reply message momentarily.

Don’t like the result? Change it. You have the power.

Reply with up version followed by your new message (140 character limit)

Example: up version in every heart there is the power to do it

Now everyone else who texts version to 41411 will get your new message.

Want to see all the new messages as they get created? Reply Y to the invite sent to your phone.

Standard text messaging charges apply. For more info about this project, or to contribute via the web, visit www.textmarks.com/version

Breaking news on the cool front: a new Silicon Valley startup called Sonopia has publicly launched and is offering nonprofits, other organizations, and even individuals the opportunity to create their own branded mobile carrier. This seems like an excellent idea, especially for non-profits as a way of generating income from their constituencies. The marketing potential for this seems almost limitless. I'm going to sign up this week and play around with it and report back how it goes. Why should Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon have all the fun?

Sorry, I realize the above title sounds like a graduate dissertation topic. What it means is that I think it would be cool if someone were able to figure out a way to access and leverage certain behind-the-scenes data streams like credit card transactions in a given geographic area, or cell tower activity levels, as a way to gauge the social popularity of a given merchant, venue, or local area. For example, if you knew that there was an abnormally high number of credit card charges on a Friday night at your local pub, you might assume that there was either a party, concert, or special sports event going on there. You might also conclude that there was a football game going on at Soldier Field if you saw a large spike in cell phone traffic on a particular Sunday in January.

Are there any companies working on gaining access to these kinds of data sets? If so has anyone been able to make any sense from them and perhaps make them available to other researchers or to the general public? Would there be a way to aggregate this data usefully without compromising security and privacy at the individual level?

AKA Grinding at the far end of the Long Tail

I can't help but think of more and more applications for wireless messaging. Tomorrow in Chicago, the mayoral and aldermanic elections are happening. Wouldn't it be useful to have a mobile texting network for pollwatchers to report any fraud or abuse? Later this year, the Chicago downtown business association is sponsoring Looptopia, an all-night festival taking place over the entire downtown area. These types of dispersed geographic events happening in a discrete packet of time, are excellent candidates for flashmob-style community coverage.

The problem is, there isn't a vehicle for organizing and promoting these types of activities. While mobile startups are being born by the minute, consumer adoption is cautious at best. People are more protective of what comes into their cellphone than into their e-mail inbox apparently.

I'm considering putting up a webpage to aggregate these types of opportunities in hopes of attracting a like-minded group of users not afraid of texting their way into this brave new world.