What’s stopping you from using a mobile device, like your phone, to access your email?
Cost? Indifference? Technical Inability?
If you’re still one of the great majority not using your phone to access email (I was surprised to find that very few of us do +/- 10% according to estimates), there are any number of reasons that could be the root cause, but a new market entrant, Peek has placed a heavy bet that cost is what’s been stopping many and they have introduced a sleek new offering to do something about it.
Peek’s first device is a slim handheld that shares similar look and functionality to early Blackberry devices, which much like Peek were designed to do one thing only, and to do it well - access your email. Unlike earlier RIM offerings, though, the Peek is available without any contract at a price of $100, with a monthly access fee of $19.95.
I just recently started accessing my email from my mobile phone, when I succombed to my tech geek side and purchased the iPhone, but prior to that, I was no less attached to my work email, I just carried my laptop with me nearly everywhere. For me, the move to on-the-go email access was one of convenience - and I don’t mind blurring the lines between work and home too much - a noted characteristic of just over 40% Net Geners according to our latest research.
Our latest research also shows that cross generationally, email is considered integral to successful work completition, with 73.6% of Net Geners, 73.0% of Gen Xers and 65.4% of Boomers agreeding with the statement that “Email is a necessicity for doing your job as well as you can.” Now, we’ve all got the friend/family member who is addicted to their Blackberry/Smartphone as well as the friend/family member who swears they will never subscribe to the always-on work life enabled (read: encouraged) by ubiquitous email connectivity.
What side of the coin do you fall on? Is Peek really on to something here, or have they totally missed the boat by assuming cost, not lack of interest, is the real barrier to mass mobile email adoption?
Wired’s Threat Level has a story up about how researchers have created a facebook application that’s capable of delivering Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks using nothing more than a facebook application and its users. The application, Photo of the Day, is installed by users who want a daily photograph. When users load up the page/photo of the day, the application sends a server to a third-party server (the one being attacked) and requests a large file from it, usually a high resolution image. This high resolution image is silently downloaded to the user’s computer, and not displayed. The effect of this is that by simply using the application, users are draining bandwidth from some targetted server. If enough users are using the application in this way, the server could get overloaded with requests, and rendered inaccessible to the people who are actually trying to visit it. Read More »
I’m in Krems Austria at the Talk of the Future Conference. I have the opening keynote this morning. Last night I heard an amazing talk from Dr Franz Joseph Radermacher, head of the Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing and the Chair of Computer Sciences at the University of Ulm. Member of the club of Rome and an expert in artificial intelligence.. It was a profound talk. My notes are below:
The issue is not the individual. The issue is human kind as an intelligent system. We’ve been living for 4 million years. What keeps us together? Communication.
Innovations are powerful mechanism to change input output mechanisms. There is a universal mechanism of communication where by superior innovations become part of standard procedure. It took 4 million years to get us to 20 million people. 8,000 BC. Up to that point we were hunters and collectors. Read More »
As those who know me know, I have some strong feelings about twitter (as strong as a feeling about a webapp can be): namely that it’s just a forum for personal vanity, and that in people’s day to day lives, there’s not really a need to post an update every two minutes answering the question “what are you doing?”
But, I’ve always been willing to concede that twitter may well have it’s use in the business world, and we’ve had some great discussions with a company called CoreMedia, who uses a homebrew version of twitter internally to great effect. I only know in general terms how it works, but it seems to go like this: everyone at work networks up with one another, and they’re able to ask questions to one another with an @coworker message. Individuals can also just put up generic notes about what they are doing, or ask questions without any specific recipient. Read More »
I’ve been looking into new ways that people can use mobile devices. Both Google and Apple have offered big prizes for people who develop applications for their Android and iPhone platforms. There are lots of location-aware applications that offer immediate access to information that’s relevant to wherever you happen to be, but they’re all pretty drab in their execution. Except for Enkin.
Enkin is a mapping system that bridges the digital and real worlds. Typical mapping applications show a bird’s eye view whatever location is being investigated. What Enkin does is something called “Live Mode”, which provides an overlay of rich digital information that you use when you look at anything. That probably isn’t very clear, so check out the movie. Skip to about 2:40 for the really cool stuff:
I blogged earlier about how I was running out of space for contacts on LinkedIn. You see, after you have 500 contacts, the actual number is no longer listed on your profile — instead, it says 500+. I suppose this to discourage people that want to pester add people they don’t know. IMO, 499 looks like “wow, that guy is really networked”, where 501 looks like “wow, that guy is really needy.”
From now on, when I add people, my plan is to delete someone to make space for them, at least as long as I have people in my network that I don’t remember why they are there.
Another social networking “embarrassment of riches” program is the friend wheel. I’ve blogged before about how too many friends makes the wheel unreadable. They’ve addressed this by allowing customization. The wheel above only includes friends with whom I share at least two links. Not only does it make it readable, it is also richer as the single dot looked a little lonely. And, yes, Thusenth Dhavaloganathan, you can still easily find your name.
Google Docs are not new. All the same, last week Caleb, Will, Jude, Ben and I decided to try using them for a project at the office. Up until then, I had only ever used Google Spreadsheets as an in-the-cloud host for files I was working on, or to share files with people easily for asynchronous editing. This was not the case for our project. Instead, we used it synchonously.
The project was to go through our research catalogue and back-tag existing content with a standard set of tags. To accomplish this, we needed to define the standard set of tags in a way that was easily accessible for all of us, and somehow it didn’t seem like that we’d enjoy much success copying and pasting from a physical whiteboard. So, we figured we’d try out Google Spreadsheets for an in-office project. It was awesome. Read More »
So of course there is now the interesting phenomenon of online dating sites. These communities, like lavalife, have become commonplace and are a great way to connect people looking for love. I have some friends who have used these sites before and have gone out on dates or even found love - but, initial interactions are still online. What if you saw someone on the street, in the mall or on a subway and felt a feeling akin to ‘love at first sight’. What would you do?
Well, when New York web designer Patrick Moberg saw HIS ‘girl of his dreams’ on the 5 train (and let her slip away) he didn’t let that stop him. He turned to his 8 million fellow New Yorkers (not to mention the rest of the world) to help him find this mystery girl.
I’ve been trying to immerse myself in the world of social media over the last few months, and it has been quite an eye-opening experience. As I’ve navigated this remarkably inter-connected little world I’ve probably read several thousand blog posts on the topic, and most of these – predictably – seem to focus on the people Malcolm Gladwell would call the “mavens” and “connectors”.
For the six of you that may not have read his book, “mavens” are the intense gatherers of information and impressions that are most likely to pick up on new trends, and “connectors” are people with a broad network of acquaintances that trust their opinion. Whether the actual term used is “trend setter”, “nfluencer”, “bzzagent”, or any of the many of the others you are likely to come across in the social media blogosphere, the focus seems to primarily be on how these two types of people are using new social media tools.
Seeing this led me to ponder a simple question – what about everyone else? What about that staggeringly large group of people that are neither mavens nor connectors (and particularly those one might call anti–social) - are their social media appetites distinctly different, and if so what are the implications for companies pursuing a social media strategy? More pointedly, will this great mass of people slowly get in line with the adoption curve that mavens and connectors are setting in social media, or might they do something totally different – something that would put some of the prevailing theories regarding cohort behavior into question? To begin looking into this issue, I wanted to start with a particular application where I sense line is being drawn in the sand – Twitter.
Don’t ask me how it happened. I was just planning to check my email last night, but for some reason I ended up on the United Nations website. I spent a couple hours searching through the information. It was amazing how much it contains. Dan Herman actually wrote a blog post about it a few months back.
The website is filled with research papers, news, and reports highlighting what innovative governments, businesses, and educators can do to empower the people. It also breaks them down into a variety of case studies like Debate Europe where European citizens can share their opinions, concerns and ideas on the future of the European Union. The French National Commission of Public Debate (CNDP) has an innovative site that allows citizens to debate on infrastructure projects in France. Chunceon, Korea citizens have direct web access to the Mayor’s office to submit ideas and then receive feedback on them. Seeing case studies like these can really help allowing people to interpret and to better understand the opportunities available to their countries, states, provinces, and small towns. They even have some of our own Anthony Williams’ stuff in there. Read More »
The BBC has announced an upcoming tv special: Britain From Above. The special makes use of aerial photography and computer visualization to show the flow of traffic, the use of telephone networks and even the flight-plans of planes in British airspace. It’s very cool and somewhat frightening, that’s a lot of public data, I’d like to see where it’s all from, and to see if spill over into the public domain. Data enthusiasts might not have the resources and horsepower of the BBC, but I’m sure that some pretty cool mashups could be done with other data sets. For instance, how much is travel/cab usage different on days with bad weather? What percentage of British drivers speed? And just how many people really do phone their parents after an episode of Dr. Who?
Look for the special on bittorrent trackers sometime after August 10th.
I just watched George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead last weekend. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s your typical zombie apocalypse movie – the reanimated dead wreck havoc, attempting to eat the living; mass hysteria ensues; a small band of survivors kill zombies in gruesome ways until they realize the inevitability of their fate. Now, for the non-zombie fans, the interesting thing about this particular movie is the sub-plot that tells of the group of film students’ need to document the end-of-days (kind of similar to the movie Cloverfield). Now, I’m not one to argue the “facts” in a film about zombies, but here’s where it gets a little whacky. The movie postulates that if there was a zombie apocalypse, the fall of big media would result in bloggers taking over, leading to infinite voices and more spin:
“The mainstream had vanished with all its power and money. Now it was just us, bloggers, hackers, kids. The more voices there are, the more spin there is. The truth becomes that much harder to find. In the end, it’s just noise.”
Clearly, George did not read Wikinomics. It’s true that big media would fall with studios being overrun by the living dead, and that bloggers and citizen journalist would carry on. But, all accounts we’ve seen of bloggers and citizen journalists suggest that the more eyes you have on a story and the more voices you have reporting, the less spin there is. In fact, the truth is usually obfuscated by big media, not the other way around. Moreover, in times of crisis, we’ve seen that small groups of individuals working together online have been extremely affective at mobilizing aid and sharing information – just think of the Katrina People Finder Project and other related initiatives.
If this picture of the enterprise octopus doesn’t encourage you to read Sam Lawrence’s post on enterprise technology (how it’s moving from file-centric to people-centric), I don’t know what will… wikinomics readers should particularly like the “co section” of the post: co-creation, co-operation, co-learning, co-ordination, co-respect, co-solve.
As reported by Daniel A. Begun on Hot Hardware yesterday, an interesting new study has been released from researchers at Ohio State University and the University of California that indicates the use of instant messaging (IM) can improve productivity. The finding that may be particularly counter intuitive to many people is shown in the following chart:
Note: Actually I just realized that the company which produces phidgets is at phidgets.com. Apparently they’re located in Calgary, Alberta, so much closer to home for Canadian readers of the blog.
All of it works via USB connections and they offer things like servo controllers:
With over half of the world’s population owning a mobile phone and with networks covering over 90% of people, the impact of these devices is set to be greater than that of PCs. A recent study highlights the potential for improving life in developing (as well as developed) countries through mobile communications. The study outlines several cases of how NGOs have adapted mobile technologies to deliver services.
The report lists 11 case studies in three areas: Global Health, Humanitarian Assistance and Environmental Conservation. Although I highly recommend reading the entire report here are a few highlights of the more creative ways that mobile phones have been used:
• A South African NGO called Cell-Life started an HIV/AIDS “Aftercare” program for rural and poor patients who have little access to healthcare services. A worker equipped with a mobile phone makes home visits to 15-20 patients. Data on each patient is captured and sent via text message to the organization’s database. It is then used to provide individualized care to the patient while yielding valuable information about the AIDS epidemic in each region.
• The World Food Programme piloted using text messages to alert refugees and displaced people about the availability of food aid. The project was launched in Syria, where many of the 1.4 million displaced Iraqis rely on the agency for survival. Whereas before, the WFP would need to rely on local NGOs to help with distribution, the text messaging campaign proved far more accurate and effective.
• FishMS is a service in South Africa that allows consumers to make more informed decisions about the seafood they buy. A user can text the name of a fish to FishMS and instantaneously receive a message indicating whether the species is sustainably harvested. In just over a year the service received 30 000 inquiries from concerned shoppers.
The report outlines several other case studies of how mobile technologies are allowing people to connect, self-organize or receive vital information to improve their lives. While initiatives such as the One Laptop per Child are commendable in trying to bring the information age to developing countries, it certainly seems that mobile technologies will remain one step ahead.
My name is Caleb. I am another new guy here at nGenera aka (New Paradigm). This post is about a bone that I, and many other students, have to pick with the current education system.
In college, everyone has those professors that can really get under your skin. It drives us crazy because, when they look at you, you can almost see their mind weighing the value of your comments and opinions upon the number of degrees you have. If you’re a freshman, you might as well be five years old. This attitude could be one reason why many frustrated people view school as being “just another hoop to jump through.”
This message is not a shot at professors…well, maybe some professors (the kind nobody likes, that get the frowny faces on ratemyprofessors.com), but more a shot at the way many universities see their students. Are students assets or liabilities to administrators? Read More »
I came across the notion of shrinking the world down to 100 people in a blog post by Jim Estill. I figured I’d look into it a bit deeper (I powered up the Google machine), to see what stats I can come across that would surprise me. I came across a film project called “100 People: A World Portrait“.
The project will find and capture in film, photography, music and text 100 individuals who represent the global population, proportionate to annual global surveys and statistics. This World Portrait will be used to make an introduction between the peoples of the earth and to facilitate a greater understanding of the diversity and the commonalities among us.
Looking through the stats of the people who would be part of the ‘ideal’ 100, it’s interesting to compare the world you would picture in 100 people to the actual 100. I’d love to see the same idea applied to one of the world’s many global firms. Take a look at some of the stats after the jump to see how different your image of the global 100 is to the actual. Read More »
With over 2,200 fuzzster friends and 1,654 non-furry friends (read: humans), McGuirk is clearly a social networking star.
During my Internet stumbling the other day, I came across the website fuzzster.com and a whole new world was opened to me – the world of social networking for your pets. Sites like fuzzster, petster, dogster, catster and even hamsterster have been around for years, and some have managed to generate quite a sizable userbase. (Dogster has hundreds of thousands of furry friends from nearly 200 countries!) Read More »
Bill Vadja, CIO of the US Department of Education, joined us in Washington for our Government 2.0 launch meeting and in the spirit of fair trades I thought I’d give one of his key projects a little press. The School 2.0 initiative is led by the Director of the Office of Educational Technology, Tim Magner, and focuses on how the education system needs to proactively adapt to changes in our global economy.
You can download their nifty map here. It’s quite similar to our nifty network map shown here:
Regardless of the source, what these models entail is a focus on a new, networked form of education. A model shaped by the following (amongst other) factors: 60% of new jobs require a post-secondary education; 22% of college freshmen are taking remedial math courses; allophones form a growing proportion of the workforce; and the number of college students in the U.S. choosing engineering as a major fell 20% between 1993 and 2002.
Technology and the US election I've written several times about the impact of social networks on this year's US Presidential election - see here and here. And let's be honest, the use of such networks and new web 2.0 technologies has been dominated by Obama. He’s embraced social networks like no other candidate in an attempt to connect with [...]
