Facebook mobile users are twice as engaged as web site only users.
Facebook have SMS deals with 220 mobile operators!
Facebook have two versions of their mobile websites, one designed to support touch and another traditional WAP input.
Some of the most active countries include Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa.
Hints that the next wave of development comes from deep integration with manufactures – i.e. on home screen, address book. Android developers should look at using “Intents” to hook into other OS or app events (i.e. post photo to Facebook from phone gallery).
Despite the apparent simplicity of Craigslist, the man Craig definitely has a firm understanding of trust and reputation systems. I was happy to read this bullish outlook for the future:
Restating the bottom line: we are already seeing a shift in power and influence, a big wave whose significance we’ll see by the end of this decade. Right now, it’s like the moment before a tsunami, where the water is drawn away from the shore, when it’s time to get ahead of that curve.
This guest post was written by my girlfriend, Micol, aka @psymic. She doesn’t always like capitals at the start of sentences, but we both care strongly about the following issue.
we entered the low stone building by a heavy wooden door standing ajar, and stepped into a chilly room. the entire place was crammed with boxes of produce, freshly harvested and washed, beads of moisture still clinging to the cabbages and crisp curly kale. the carrots on the other hand, were righteously filthy, crusted in dirt like some 6 year old after a day making mudpies in the garden. onions, leeks, potatoes, broccoli, parsnips the size of my head, beetroot, chard, spinach and lettuce, a cornucopia of squash and pumpkins sprawled over the floor like a centerpiece you can pick from. i was giddy with glee and filling paper bags like a kid in a candy story. a refrigerated (did it need it?) section showcased local dairy products like goats cheese and yogurt, and a butcher shop at the back was stuffed with cuts of meat, pheasants (plucked and wrapped), guinea fowl and sausages of every sort. there were locally made jams and honey, biscuits and breads. there were no lemons.
this is the kind of place where you can find the freshest foods, knowing the veg has been cut, plucked, twisted, clipped or pulled up from the ground, possibly that very same day. the meat is from beasties which have spent their lives literally chilling in the forest, doing a bit of rooting, a bit of digging, and a lot of munching. you can pick up some yummy gifts for family (thats what i say but they never actually get that far) like smoked garlic from the isle of wight, and chilli rub for barbecues. in short, the award-winning Warborne farm is the kind of place you make a detour for when you are a couple of foodie geeks exploring the new forest national park, and you wont leave without a car full of luscious edibles.
and Warborne farm is the kind of place which due to a great big pile of odds stacked against it, will be closing after christmas, once everyone’s got their birds delivered for the big day. people just arent visiting the farm shop enough. one of the reasons is that the prices are higher in the farm shop than at the local supermarket. that is not open to discussion, the price of a bag full of freshly picked organic kale, crisp and lively, will undoubtedly be slightly higher than a bag of chopped up, withered kale from a supermarket shelf. you are in fact paying a premium for your food to be beautifully fresh, organic, and grown in the area. but let it be known that george heathcote, who owns and runs the farm, ensures the price of his produce is always lower than or matching the prices at the local waitrose.
so for people not willing or interested in spending the extra few quid on their shop, there is the supermarket. but there are those who can afford it, and yet still dont make regular trips to the farm shop. the reason is semantic. to be called a farm shop, it is not possible for the shop to stock foods they do not grow themselves or are not grown locally. although they would happily stick a basket of lemons in the shop, they would have to change nomenclature. residents in the area want to get their shopping done in one fell swoop, so the local somerfield, or even waitrose is a quicker option. this is understandable, and this is why its a real shame that the local government isnt doing more to help support independent farmers like George and his crew.
why discourage the obvious hard work and dedication it takes to make a place like Warborne farm? The food they produce is of excellent standard, and the farm shop is a little jewel of a find. imagine how excited we were to discover it, what an awesome place crammed with delicious grub, and so unique… but then how disheartening it is to hear that it just wont be around much longer. places like Warborne farm should be supported through hard times, not made to jump through silly legislative hoops that supermarkets never seem to have to deal with (or have armies of lawyers to work through). if they want to stock loo roll and lemons, then let them – they will be providing an essential service to local residents, as well as being a special destination for food enthusiasts who find their way there. Warborne farm is what makes this country beautiful and rich, and able to sustain a positive future. they fight for quality and traceability in the food we eat. but keeping the place going has become an exhausting battle for George and his gang, one that just doesnt seem worth it anymore, even if his loyal customers have begged him to reconsider. farmers get a bum deal in this country, and its outrageous! they should be rewarded and their enterprise encouraged, or pretty soon we’ll be depending on imports for all our food, from cherries to chicken, bacon to bread.
support enterprise. support quality and traceability. support small businesses, and wonderful, unique places like Warborne farm!
Sadly I couldn’t make it to BarCamp London 7 this weekend, but thought it would still serve as a decent enough occasion to share some thoughts about the Rummble API via the interwebs. The API officially launched last month at Over the Air, however I was the first person to take it for a spin outside of Rummble in February. Since then I have taken an active role in developing Rummble, which explains the odd personal (we) rather than possessive (they) pronoun
First, the Rummble API isn’t just about putting dots on a maps and retrieving local reviews and ratings. Not only is there a tonne of data at your disposal, but there’s also far more happening under the bonnet. It exposes a powerful trust profile algorithm, which is the product of years of research and coordination with founders in the field of subjective logic and reputation theory, giving developers the flexibility to seamlessly embed personalised relevant content.
Rummble loves Twitter! Earlier this year we began an experiment called Tremors which scans the Twittersphere for content about locations. We’re now parsing over half a millions tweets per week, with a 90% match rate where a location has been established. Tremors data now forms part of our own core services and API. You can even sort results by tweetiness!
Rummble recognises that ratings and reviews doesn’t fit into every mobile LBS use case. Users are also free to check-in to locations, and we handle the optional sharing the location updates via Twitter, Facebook and Fire Eagle without further API integrations.
There are infinite cool new possibilities with the Rummble API and we want you to be creative. We’re a small and dynamic geek-friendly team based in London who have wide open door to developers. Come and visit us for a chat over coffee about your requirements. There are no support charges, and if parts of the API need tweaking then (in most cases) we can add new features upon request.
You won’t get stiffed with API fees! Be confident that Rummble aren’t cruising for developers to send regular invoices to – we want to work with the most creative technical minds to create engaging social location-based apps and games. Founding members of the Rummble Developer Program will receive numerous benefits in the long term.
Example code for Java, PHP and C# is currently available to help you breeze through OAuth and start rocking! Get instant access to Rummble’s registered users. Auth via Twitter and Facebook is also supported, which is a much bigger number
I’ll be talking more about the Rummble API at openMIC Mobile Innovation Camp in Guildford on 4th November, and hope to see you there!
I first saw Layar demo in June at Mobile 2.0 in Barcelona. Their concept is clever – instead of collecting street-level imagery from around the World, the service combines your live surroundings via the camera with layers of local information. Rather than trying to visualise a description of the interface, you should check out the below video.
The exciting news is that Layar recently announced an API, which cleverly enables third parties to create custom layers (overlays) with their own content, populating Layar (the app!) with a wealth of quality local information.
I’m really excited about the potential for augmented reality. Watch this space!
This made my day and motivated me to make the extra effort to either record future presentations live or from the comfort of the office. Despite having only created a single slidecast, I’m convinced that they have much more value than a silent shared presentation, and would encourage anyone to read the SlideShare slidecasting FAQ and give it a go.
If you haven’t already, please do watch the slidecast and read the related blog post. Feel free to share your feedback, add to your SlideShare favourites and embed the presentation in your blog.
Mashup*Being Location Aware took place last Thursday at Ogilvy UK in Canary Wharf. I had the pleasure of sitting on an experienced panel of GIS experts, and spoke about my perspective on location-based services. The debate was moderated by Tony Fish and further insights and analysis were offered by Dr Daniel Arthur of International Policy Dynamics.
My positive subjective view on the location-based market opportunity were backed up some research stats in Gary Gale’s presentation:
“The (User Location Market) … will nearly triple in revenue this year, to $1.3 billion from $485 million in 2007, and will reach $8 billion in 2011.” – Gartner Research
Here’s a slidecast of my talk (note that this post continues below):Being Location Aware
I sacrificed my slides about privacy to stay within the 5 minute slot, to avoid friendly fire a friendly reminder from Tony Fish. However location privacy emerged as one of the main topics of the evening.
Steven Feldman raised some valid concerns about the current lack of consumer awareness regarding location privacy, and the possible implications of openly geo-tagging data. For example, a geo-tagged photo of your neighbours new Ferrari is posted online and a few days later it vanishes. Will there be a high-profile divorce case based upon evidence obtained from a locaton-aware service? (Maybe location isn’t the real problem in the latter?)
There is now an immense potential to openly share information, and it might not be immediately obvious why and how to be selective about the level of information to share openly. Among the benefits of sharing “private” location information are more dynamic social and contextually relevant services.
Sharing doesn’t always occur across completely open channels. Here are some ways in which location privacy is/should be managed:
Gary Gale and Ed Parsons explained that Yahoo! Fire Eagle and Google Latitude both work on an opt-in basis. In other words, by default your location isn’t shared with everyone. Most traditional holders of private information instead require you to opt-out.
Granular privacy controls should be easy to use and tightly integrated with leading location provider services. Per application, this should include:
who – which groups or individuals (similar to Facebook friend groups).
location accuracy – exact location, current town/city or hide location.
time – colleagues can find you within working hours, but not on evenings and weekends.
Information about places you’ve been is usually less sensitive than your current location. A location “trail” is however quite sensitive, but could be the key to more contextually relevant services and hyper-local advertising.
Rummble CEO, Andrew Scott, pointed out that the location-based service industry should avoid fuelling (often inaccurate) tabloid horror stories by continuing to develop a solid privacy foundation while focusing upon the benefits of sharing information with location-aware services and how to use them effectively.
….if this is your first time at BarCamp then you must give a presentation. No shirt. No shoes. No rules. Tyler Durden would be proud.
Well actually it’s not quite that hardcore – you don’t have to give a presentation (I jest – of course you can keep your shoes on )
I’ll cut to the chase and say that BarCamp fits the bill for the tech startup world. There are many people with brilliant ideas, businesses and a passion for what they do who want to share and learn in a relaxed environment. It’s a lot like most good networking events, but with free presentation opportunities.
BarCamp is a well self-organised free “unconference” where all participants are encouraged to give a presentation about their chosen topic. At the start of the proceedings all participants are encourages to wrestle over a few stack of post-it notes and sharpies (marker pens) in order to scribble down and stick their preferred topic on the schedule.
Despite the apparent scotch tape and toothpicks, BarCamp is now attracting sponsorship from tech heavyweights, so don’t be surprised to find people from Yahoo! or Google lurking amongst eager bootstrappers.
The Twitter back-channel keeps everyone posted on what’s happening – #barcampmiami rose to one of the most popular Twitter trends during the event. There are a number of sporadic talks running in parallel, so keeping in sync via Twitter helps catch the buzz.
There are no glossy schedules, hopefully fewer headaches for the organiser and less unnecessary costs. If someone backs out of a talk you can count their slot being taken quickly.
I learned new things from some awesome people and was delighted to share by presenting in the courtyard sun about Agavi PHP Framework. It was fun, despite there being no hope of the projector working.
Sales pitches are discouraged and against the whole BarCamp ethos. Thanks however to @alexdc for making an announcement about Total Hotspots for iPhone during his introduction – people from BarCamp and FOWA should find the app genuinely useful since it enables them to find the best nearby free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.
I can’t believe that I went to BarCamp Miami before doing BarCamp London. I’d love to be involved in bringing this fantastic concept to UK shores, however it appears already to be a massive success, with the first 50 BarCamp London tickets selling out in under 30 seconds. Wow!
I don’t know a great deal about Yoga, but suspect the position in which I’m writing this post on board the BA207 to Miami would be called “praying mantis”.
After a few days of remote working beside a pool (why not?), and Sunday hanging out at BarCamp Miami, my final destination will be Future of Web Apps (FOWA Miami). My mission is to spread the word, gain and share knowledge, and of course seek out serious partnership opportunities over cocktails with silly names on South Beach.
Wi-Fi is huge in America, and Total Hotspots for iPhone has Miami covered – including some of the best free locations. I’m sure it will come in useful for people attending FOWA and BarCamp Miami.
Unfortunately Wi-Fi is still non-existent on transatlantic flights. Gogo launched Wi-Fi services on some busy domestic US routes late in 2008, having received over $265 million in financing. Their aim is to make inflight Wi-Fi a reality with a roll out across over 2,000 commercial aircraft by the end of 2009.
However, at this time, the lack of connectivity isn’t necessarily a bad thing for me. Eight hours is an unusually long time to sit with a notebook (analogue) crammed with new ideas and a to-do list (digital) in need of pruning; all without the distractions of email, Twitter or real work. My appreciation for the RTM iPhone app has reached new heights (no pun intended)!
Please do Tweet or email me if you’re going to or @ FOWA or BarCamp Miami!
Aside from a few tweets, I’ve not yet had the chance to blog about the big event of last week. After just a couple of months in incubation, Twestival parties were thrown in 202 worldwide cities to raise funds for charity: water, that brings essential clean water to some of the most impoverished people. Donations are still being accepted and over 80 countries are yet to be counted, however the total raised is already in excess of $250,000!
This is an awesome achievement for Amanda Rose and all other organisers, and also testament to the power of Twitter as a platform for connecting people and making things happen. Rummble and Total Hotspots together pledged to donate £1 for each of our iPhone apps downloaded during Twestival and will soon figure out exactly how much was raised. A big thanks to everyone who helped spread the word and downloaded the app.
Sadly I couldn’t make it to 
Mashup*
BarCamp is a well self-organised free “unconference” where all participants are encouraged to give a presentation about their chosen topic. At the start of the proceedings all participants are encourages to wrestle over a few stack of post-it notes and sharpies (marker pens) in order to scribble down and stick their preferred topic on the schedule.
After a few days of remote working beside a pool (why not?), and Sunday hanging out at 
