Freedom Trail DiMO (Digital Mobilities) Project featured on the next Mobile Monday Boston Event

The next Mobile Monday Boston event is going to be a great one! The theme is location based services and there are going to be fantastic speakers.

We are going to have a demo table to showcase the DiMO project, and then we will have a lightning speech on the project, by Ashley and myself.

The next meeting of Mobile Monday Boston will be on June 18th at 7PM. Our topic is Mobile Location. Jeff Glass will be our moderator.

We will have speakers on mobile location from 7pm to 8pm at MIT Sloan, room E51-335, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

Immediately following the speaking portion of the event, we’ll have complimentary food and drink at the Cambridge Brewing Company. Our sponsors are Autodesk, WHERE, and TeleAtlas.

If you are coming, please RSVP.

Looking fwd to see you!

ConnexTo loves Wiffiti!

During the previous Mobile Monday Boston, Stephen Randall from Locamoda presented their "writing on the wall" product suite: A series of fun interactive games, or interaction sessions where you stand in front of an electronic display and send SMSs to play games or interact.
"Our platform enables any phone to interact with screens connected to out-of-home networks, combining the power and reach of the web with the immediacy of the mobile phone"

One of their coolest applications is Wiffiti (Wireless Graffiti): these are virtual text boards that you can place on a real LCD in, say, a bar, on your site, blog, whatever. people can SMS to your Wiffiti to interact with you and/or others. This is really cool!!! I got an invitation to have one for myself today (Thanks Jayne!) and started using it. setup is easy and the first message was there in 5 minutes. See at the bottom right corner of my blog on this page, this is mine. You can send me a msg by sending @020406 (Space) your-message to 25622. OR, you can scan this code with ConnexTo and fill in your message:

Here's my Wiffiti itself: send me a msg and you'll see it here




Looking a bit closer, I think Stephen and his team made some good decisions with this product. For a start, Stephen was a founder of Symbian: he knows exactly the pain of creating a client application, getting that reach on enough phones/audience (Does phone xy support JSR-123 blah blah?), and then getting it on people's phones. So the waffiti thing doesn't require any client, no installation, no reach issues, none of that. Everyone has SMS, everyone know to use it. If I recall correctly Stephen still has non-gray hair on, and that's probably (in part) why.
Second, its a cool interesting, simple application. its engaging: the minute Stephen pulled it on the screen at the event, people started playing. He needed not say a word. This could go big.

The Economist is writing: "Between double espressos, patrons send text messages to the 50-inch screens...In March one woman received a marriage proposal via the Wiffiti screen at Toscanini's café (ooh...too geeky for me-AR)"


And if games, interaction, promotions aren't enough, why not reduce restaurant wait time?

VERY COOL!

Network World Partners With Nextcode's ConnexTo For Mobile Barcodes In Publications

This is big news for us: Network World (NWW) is an online and print publication, and they are starting to use ConnexTo codes to bring their subscribers closer to their brand and content.


As a first step, subscribers will be able to scan the code to get to their mobile site and get more information, read more etc. NWW obviously are thinking further down the line and are planning to make use of the unique advantage of mCodes: provide useful, positive experience to the subscriber immediately as they scan the code (namely, locally on the phone w/o having to go to the network to fetch whatever action is required): "(NWW:) We plan on creating a more immersive mobile online experience, such as being able to post a comment on an article through your phone or read other readers' comments."

Scott Shaffer has added a few of his comments on this (read here): "I think proprietary codes like mcodes, have a great chance of adoption because consumers will be able to recognize the distinct code and WILL KNOW what functions/applications are associated with them...ConnexTo's 2d barcodes look different, and perform a lot better, than most mobile barcodes."

Here's more coverage of the story from BtoB, The Magazine for marketing strategies, the story by Marie Griffin:
"Although it may look ordinary, the text box is somewhat revolutionary. It is likely the first time a business publication in the U.S. has offered its readers the option of getting to the information they seek on a Web site via the mobile Internet without keying in or clicking."

Avril Lavignes fans get real time mobile updates and content

Another great step in bringing the crowds closer to community and services, (From 4Info blog:) Nettwerk has partnered with 4INFO to bring Avril Lavigne's fans real-time mobile updates and live messages from Avril. Fans can sign up for these messages on Avril's official website and Myspace page. Fans can also text the word “Avril” to 44636 (4INFO) to receive a menu of the latest Avril-related news, gear, promotions and concert and tour information.

This is really cool because its step taken in the North American stage, where things are maybe a little behind in some respects compared to other geographies. It seems like 4Info have got a lot going on, but this one has a lot of sizzle and will (hopefully) make its way into a large community.


I have to say I'm very happy for Nettwerk: First, I very much like their holistic approach when it comes to content distribution: they aren't cut-throat thirsty to get the dime out of your pocket. They will let you hear the music, experience it and then you can decide you like it enough to make a purchase. Second, this isn't the first step they've taken into the mobile space: they had tried going in with BNL ConnexTo campaign before. They're trying different approaches and will end up taking the ones that work.

Last, I love Avril's music. Like many other great stuff coming out of Ontario, she's really great, and has a good web presence and much more.

Good stuff.

Here's my little contribution: scan this code using ConnexTo to sign up for Avril's mobile updates, get content and much more:

BMW mobile code scanning campaign

BMW launches integrated marketing campaign in EU involving Semacode technology (read here). This is a huge positive move on a car brand that again confirms the market growing interest in mobile code scanning integrated marketing campaigns. According to Semacode blog, the program involves all that's needed from a marketing campaign: customized code readers, distribution channels, advertising, value to the consumers etc. they've thought it through.

I'm really happy for the guys at Semacode: putting competition aside, this is a very good deal and it does good for all the players in the space. It's a young evolving space and there's enough for all of us to chew on, so this kind of win raises the interest all around. Good stuff guys!