Thursday, January 31, 2008
You Can Take It With You; The Buzz Around “Information Roaming” Reaches A New Pitch
In the lead-up to Mobile World Congress, there are a range of new ideas and concepts gathering traction around enhanced presence, “location-aware” apps and services, and the intersection of content (information) and context (where we are, what we’re doing and the communications medium that does the job best).
Industry focus on more enhanced and contextually-relevant mobile services has grown over the last months, boosted by a slew of M&A that involves location (Nokia & Navteq), mapping (Microsoft & Multimap) and personal mobility (Google & Jaiku). Location, or rather location “awareness,” is also a hot topic at mobile search & advertising conferences - even though it was not the intention of organizers to turn the discussion to presence. Mobile Search & Advertising Forum 2008, an invitation-only conference organized by the Wireless World Forum that took place in London just this Monday, is an excellent case in point.
There the debate quickly shifted to mobile local search and the plethora of apps and services that have presence at the core of their value proposition. The consensus: Location is a must-have ingredient of all mobile content and services, including search and advertising. What’s more, offerings that can harness location, presence and the assortment of clues users leave behind as they browse the Web and other information repositories - such as profiles, preferences, purchasing patterns and indications of their social graph -
Put all that together, and companies - mobile operators included - can cover the bases to deliver a new breed of enhanced mobility services that are truly customized and contextually-aware. But the real crowd-pleaser would be the flexibility to move between communications environments as the need and the situation merits: instant messaging for immediate discussions when both parties know they are present and in “chat mode;” Twitter-like services for updates on-the-move; voice-to-text for quick blog updates or voicemails; and the list goes on.
One better - and a feature that would ultimately benefit companies in the search & advertising space - would be the ability to combine this functionality with a self-learning system that would connect the dots to predict my communication needs based on my past behavior. This was a lively discussion point during the forum. Matt Snyder, Founder & CEO of ADObjects, an advertising strategy and consulting firm, coined the term “information roaming.”
As he put it: Users can already roam from network to network, so why can’t they “roam” from communication scenario to communication scenario (fixed, mobile and all the permutations in-between)? It would be even better if the other information around interaction, such as the numbers we call, the people we communicate with, even the search queries we make, could somehow be a part of the mix. Then we would literally be able to take it with us - wherever we go regardless of device/platform/situation.
The audience had some food for thought, and you could hear the “click” as a few service providers connected the dots in their mind. Information roaming is more than a nirvana for prosumers and the companies that have built their bottom line of new ways to serve them up content and services (even commerce and advertising) tailored to their individual needs; it’s a potentially lucrative business model companies can embrace today through the spread of Unified Communication (UC) and advances in personal mobility services.