John Whelan is Off Portal and Off Net!

MMS Lazarus

Great post this morning on MMS from Ajit Joakar in the mobile applications club at e-academy.
Best to post the article in full:

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As the mobile applications club reaches 700 members and we aim to reach a
1000 this year - we hope to encourage more discussions on trends in the
industry.

Our focus remains the same as articulated in OpenGardens
(www.opengardens.net)
a) How to make money in the mobile data industry
b) Innovation
c) Disruptive applications and
d) The 'garage' entrepreneur i.e. the start-up/small company wanting
to make a difference.

As the industry grows and matures .. many applications that started out
as 'proof of concept' in the last few years are now becoming more
mainstream

Consider the impact of mobility/MMS on journalism.
The application itself is not new. And as we will see below, is now
evolving into mainstream usage

There are many approaches to using mobility with news/media
The 'mobile alerts' approach is the oldest - with publications like the
FT and BBC leading the way
However, as MMS matures and mobile blogging takes off, there is a logical
trends towards 'community journalism'
Last year saw the first moves away from pure 'mobile alerts' to MMS /
community journalism.

In the simplest case, Mobile Operator Oskarmobile in the Czech republic
takes the more traditional 'MMS magazine' approach
http://www.oskarmobil.cz/en/services/mms/mms.php#6
Meanwhile, in May 2004 in Norway, MMS journalism was tried out by (among
others) by Norwegian journalist Øyvind Woie
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story875.shtml

Closer to home, ITV tried filing news 'on the spot'(June 2004).
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/June2004/7896.htm

Even our event last week(OpenGardens launch and Tomi's presentation)
attempted 'on the spot reporting' with club member Alfie Dennen's
application http://moblog.co.uk/

However, the biggest successes are seen in South Korea
Oh My News(http://english.ohmynews.com/) is a collaborative online
newspaper with a readership of two million, and more than 26,000
registered citizen journalists. It has played a part in two general
elections in South Korea.
(http://pjnet.org/weblogs/iggers/archives/000184.html + presentation from
Tomi Ahonen)

The mainstream media continues to react predictably. The initial reaction
is 'ignore it' since revenues are too small.
The second reaction is .. 'try to sell content'. Both are missing the
point.

Here are some questions/insights to consider. Seek your views

Insights
a) The lack of easy availability of 'Location' does not seem to have
affected applications like 'on the spot reporting'.

b) Community is the key. The old contact v.s. content debate. That's
why the existing players may not win the game.

c) The problem with content is - people can get it from other sources.
But add interactivity/community and we have a whole new equation

d) Video (and the ability to send video by MMS) are likely to be key
drivers.

e) There are many interesting possibilities
As per http://www.160characters.org/news.php?action=view&nid=1190
It would be possible to generate 'first night reviews' through many small
reviews collected from viewers

What do you think?
Is anyone developing these applications ?
Do you think mainstream media/newspapers will win the game or will new
players take over this space?
It is a classic disruptive application - with the large media players
getting little revenue at the moment and hence perhaps ignoring it - at
their peril?

Kind regards
Ajit

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posted by alatto @ 11:09 AM