This, of course, leads to the interesting dynamic that if you are looking for a pay-as-you go plan for 3G cell phone services in Israel, you better go study up on your Tagalog or Thai, because you aren’t going to find marketing info about that stuff in Hebrew. (‘Cuz, if you speak Hebrew, you’ll just get phone on a contract.)

As with many things, adoption relies heavily on a user-friendly interface. User experience clearly makes or breaks any technology, as evidenced with Apple vs. Microsoft.

Great post as usual, Shannon. I’m excited to see what’s next.

Thanks for raising some great issues. The concept of “mobile changes everything” is really key when looking at how people communicate.

I spent several years in West Africa growing up, and often we didn’t have a functioning phone (or we had the only phone that worked in our neighborhood). Since there was often no one to call, we made plans the old-fashioned way When we were in Lagos, my dad, brother, and I would bike around town on Saturday afternoons, popping in to see friends and have a soda, and invite them to our home for a movie on Sunday night. And if one of us was away for a while, we would number our (snail mail) letters so we’d have a useful chronology of events if a later missive arrived before an earlier one. For example, my parents once opened a letter from me that started “I’m out of the infirmary now” before the one that explained I’d been sick.

Maybe partly because of my background, I’m constantly amazed and excited about the ways that mobile is opening up communications to and creating new connectivities for people in far-flung places. Your graphic from Erik Hersman’s presentation really resonated with me, and has gotten me thinking about what untapped technologies might be out there to solve some of the issues he raises.

Now I’m going to check out Erik Hersman’s presentation.

Best,
Daria

Very interesting post. A couple of things I see in mobile (SMS) that could be better used:

1. Short Code branding: I see someone like your employer having an opportunity to brand their short code (both WINGS and RWINGS) are currently available for lease (usshortcodes.com is the registrar). Especially as MMS becomes more prevalent, the opportunity to stream multi-media will be great for such a product. I think SMS will remain a very easy way to navigate (ie – your business card example). Text highlight to WINGS, for example, could return either a link to click or MMS push going forward. You’d also have opt-ins and marketing notifications sent from a branded code vs a generic shared short code. The NYJETS do this well, actually.
The same premise holds true for a company like HILTON which has an easy branding opportunity and can easily engage in a text your zip to HILTON for the nearest locations. And advanced system could respond with availability queries. If nothing else, I think smart companies should own their brands as a placeholder until mobile really shakes itself out. The downfall, of course, is the $1000 per month fee for a vanity short code. I do think that is hindering growth as shared short code apps only have so much brandability.

2. Most people still don’t realize that they can text Google for free (46645 or 466453). The same type of apps are easily done via private label and offer companies an opportunity to engage their consumers in a way relevant to them.

3. You make a great point with your 62% opt-in example. Mobile marketing is still a novelty and carries a curiosity factor beyond just product interest. Smart marketers can leverage this.

4. Being a Flyers fan, I’m still agitated about the other night. That’s all I’ve got for now :-).

The regulating bodies can be a definite inhibitor to innovation, but so can weather conditions. I think regulation is just another environmental factor. ;)

Mobile technology has a strong foothold there without anyone consciously perpetuating the technology or services. This adaptation of technology happened organically. Also, I don’t think there are the same kinds of monthly services in these locations. I know there are charges associated with connectivity, but I believe they work differently. Erik Hersman could probably tell us a bit more about this.

Providing children with laptops is definitely a great cause, but if electricity provides a greater challenge than connectivity, this doesn’t necessarily solve the connectivity problem or take into consideration the level of technology already integrated into these peoples’ lives.

I think a lot of SOLUTIONS are already happening while so many “wait for infrastructure,” and to my delight, you show that communications — effective communications — are part of that movement.

Another way of looking at it, though — what makes this all work — is that it is now so easy for more people than ever to band together and build their own grass-roots infrastructures. (Was it ever not easy? Hm…) I’m thinking mom n’ pop alternative fuel stations in the heartland as well as that awesome village mobile phone kiosk.

We are more limited in developed countries, were regulating bodies are torn between protecting us regular folks and bigger business interests. Another limiter: We’ve been able to lean hard on centralized power generation, ISPs and corner gas stations. We’ve forgotten our resilient, resourceful, human roots.

So, yes, the possibilities, as you say, are wide open. I predict more spam :-) but I also look forward to the translated/translatable wisdom from far and near corners that will inspire me.

The appearance of netbooks, the existence of skype et al, and companies offering monthly access to the internet is ushering in internet usage and portability to so many more people than cellphones. One company that is beginning to answer this dilemma is One Laptop per Child http://laptop.org. The inexpensive cellphones are woefully inadequate to prove useful in using the internet. The ones that come close to providing more than just email tantamount to a threaded text message are really expensive especially for those who can afford it (see iphones).

The true barrier, however, is setting up widespread free/inexpensive cellular/wifi networks. Regardless of the machine being used, if you don’t have a proper network set up to access the worldwide network then all of this is moot. The same thing goes for an electrical network with ample charge points.
In order for internet access for all to become a reality there needs to be a confluence of all of these factors- electricity, device, price, and access along with network.

Once these barriers have been surmounted all that is left is the language barrier. There are companies that are making an effort to translate from one language to another on various services but the language barrier will only be brought down this service is not thought about. For a true seamless global internet network to exist an automatic translation service needs to be integrated into every form of communications platform- text, talk, social media, web pages, email etc.

As technology becomes more sophisticated things get less expensive quicker and quicker. The great thing about all of this is that many different people are coming at the problem of worldwide connectivity from many different angles. With time the answer to this will be solved naturally by crowdsourcing the problem.