9 posts tagged “sms”

I've been quite absent from the blog lately, mostly because I've been tied up on some fantastic projects. Most recently working behind the scenes at the recent YearlyKos convention which rolled through Chicago. We did some cool text-to-screen stuff in conjunction with LocaModa out of Boston. At one point the Edwards campaign picked up on our efforts and asked their supporters to spam our onsite screen! It was truly inspirational seeing almost all the Democratic candidates up close and personal. The political blogger community is an energized, tech-forward bunch to say the least!

Lastly, the title of this post refers to one keynote session led by Andy Stern of SEIU. At the end of his talk, he pulled out a cellphone and asked people to text 35328 to answer a poll question. I knew text messaging had arrived when a union guy asks you to text. Obama and Edwards seem to have the most sophisticated web 2.0 operations right now. Both Edwards and Obama are on Twitter, and Obama even has his own custom shortcode. I'm looking forward to seeing what the campaigns roll out as the 2008 elections draw near.

I was on the CTA bus heading home today when I saw a bus ad asking the question What Makes You Feel Better? It was ostensibly an ad for Swedish Covenant Hospital, but what was cool was the invitation on the ad to text your response to the question to 30364. If you visit the website, it displays a list of recent responses, as well as the ability to upload your own photo. Not surprisingly, you see a lot of pictures of cute kids and puppies. I thought this was a nicely done advertising spot that brought in text messaging in a relevant way. I went home and researched the company behind the shortcode, and lo and behold pleasantly surprised to find it was yet another Chicago-based company! This makes at least 4 companies I know about involved in the mobile marketing arena here in Chicago. Must be something in the water (or lake maybe) !

Through a fortunate coincidence, I'll be in Minneapolis this weekend visiting friends and also playing the Least Dangerous Game. It's like a treasure hunt / hide&seek game, except what you're seeking is the game's founder who's hidden himself somewhere in the Twin Cities area. And all the clues are issued via Twitter. I'm geeked about it, though I'm at a disadvantage because I don't know the area well enough to get around and will only have public transportation to rely upon.

Locamoda was one of the first companies in the TTS (text-to-screen) space. With the new players on the scene, it's good to know they're stepping up their offerings. They are looking for more beta testers for this new release. Email Jayne if you're interested. 

Here's an interesting news post from the UK. Apparently T-Mobile has sponsored a contest to find the best romance poet text messenger. They should run something like this stateside. Twitter a while back ran something similar in conjunction with a poetry magazine where the task was to write your bio in 160 characters. It beats reading updates from your friends about them doing laundry.

{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

Dan Gillmor posted an entry on his blog about a small test that was conducted in San Diego that allowed people to send sms reports that were then overlaid on a Google Earth map. This is the first I've heard of a real attempt to connect mobile citizen media via cellphones geocoded to maps. (Okay, not actually the first. There's Flagr, but I could never get it to work with my Sidekick 2).

On my recent car trip to Michigan, I logged our journey using SMS and Plazes. This is a cool service where you can geolocate yourself using your cell phone. However, for maximum accuracy, it really needs you to supply a street address. When you're on the interstate highway, this isn't always easy. I noticed though that what is available are an abundance of billboards and road signage. It would be cool if someone figured out a way to incorporate a simple geomarker on that sign that would tell you the precise location you're at. This geomarker could be a shortcode to text to that would return the latitude and longitude coordinates, or maybe the address of the advertiser.

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.