steps towards mobile social networking...

...getting to be a crowded field...

so, sharing images and video from your mobile device is nothing new (albeit a richer experience today than mere months ago, by virtue, among other things, of higher quality image capture capability and faster/fatter broadband wireless connectivity). indeed, it's been two-and-a-half years since i first posted on the shozu / flickr solution, two years since i commented on vizrea and zonetag (which introduced an early if somewhat rudimentary geotagging solution), a year-and-a-half since i reviewed fotojive and blip.tv, and, finally, about a year since i covered comvu, a mobile streaming/webcast tool... nokia's recently released "share on ovi" (a key element of the overall nokia ovi internet services initiative) is yet another take on this theme - an elegant community-oriented implementation of the twango assets nokia acquired last year. and, trust me, there are any number of other alternatives out there to share content to and from your mobile device on a real-time basis.

and then there are the clients, widsets/widgets or web-based solutions designed to maintain your (mobile) presence and/or participate on-the-go in your myspace and facebook communities. mashing various solutions together is getting easier and easier, e.g. with shozu installed on my n95, one click sends whatever image i capture directly to my flickr account where it's immediately cross-posted to my facebook. initial set-up is quite painless, and from there on the actual functionality is transparent to me. same can be accomplished using a variety of alternatives, many referenced in the paragraph above.

and the mashing up continues. the marriage of location-based data with user-generated content is well underway - and this goes beyond simply geotagging images with location-based metadata. it's more about adding social-oriented context to your content. what nokia is doing with share on ovi and its nokia maps are examples (and, sticking to my randomly self-imposed rules, i'm not posting here to do nokia promotions, so 'nuff said on that stuff). but there are other examples as well...

the folks at gypsii have come up with a variation on the theme that merits checking out. simple on-line registration process, simple application download to your device. while definitely not my style, i'll let them speak for themselves in the following excerpt from their website: GyPSii allows users to share their real life experiences in the virtual world using mobile devices and the web. It is a social networking, search & location based suite of integrated mobile and web applications - for users to share, view & upload pictures, video, text and POI (points of interest) with a Geo-location - place and track each other in their select communities. Find people and places, points of interest, map and navigate to them all.

ok... so, that may be a bit hyperbolic (i've yet to test out all of the features), but there is something cool about this, whether capturing an image and cross posting to facebook (simple couple-clicks plug-in) with relevant geo-related metadata and associated map, or just randomly sharing your real-time geoposition. thing is though, beyond the initial "gee whiz" factor, gypsii faces the same challenges confronting any social networking upstart - the value of the solution is directly dependent on the critical mass employing the solution - or, in other words, it's all about building your subscriber/user base. the cross-post to facebook does allow me to share location and content with non-gypsii users, but not necessarily to quickly interact with them. and the search and location and POI functionality are only as good as the user-generated data that's been shared by other gypsii users. the same, incidentally could be said of ulocate's "where" solution, notwithstanding "where"'s paid POI content. "where," and ulocate's recently-acquired "buddy beacon" are actually quite cool (the former being live, the latter only launched on helio so far), and, frankly, should have merited an independent post, but shit, i've been busy...

the point of all of this? there's a lot going on. the momentum is fast. the complexity is daunting. the moving parts are many. the number of players engaged no less so. .. watch this space.

couple more from the morgan files...

additional classics courtesy of morgan rooting through the old albums. click on the thumbnails to zoom in...

morgan's 1st birthday...

early heavy reading - check out the title of book...

a classic july 4th shot...

classic, truly classic...

so... morgan's been digging through old photo albums and scanning pictures up to facebook. she came across an old favorite that i had almost forgotten - captured in a public square in guayaquil, ecuador - circa 1990-1991.

there is so much going on here...

- the contrast between an almost-glowing, towheaded morgan and the aging, something-less-than-well-bathed park regular (presumed).

- the further and startling contrast between morgan's all-too-white tennis shoes and the old dude's scarred and crusty bare feet.

- the strange, impromptu cupped-hand periscope through which the latter seems to be examining morgan.

- the iguana feasting on watermelon at morgan's feet, or the other one starting down the tree to get his fill.

- and, of course, perhaps most entertaining, the bizarre pepsi-branded signage admonishing park visitors not to mistreat the iguanas.

click on the image to zoom in. classic indeed...

so, let's recap...

...i've been quite quiet in recent weeks. so, what's been going on?

- company's been doing the re-org thing which has resulted in no end of transitional activity, new job, building new team, etc. etc. (and, all the while, continuing - at least through years' end - the old job).

- whole industry's going through a rather significant transition as well. value's shifted in short order from access, to devices, to digital/online services and content, but not (just) in the context of the latter standing alone. rather, while, yes, internet-based content and services are significant revenue-builders in their own right, so too do they add incremental value to devices and, yes, access. the race - across multiple dimensions - is on. and in force.

- meanwhile, kids are doin' great. kick ass soccer out of brogan (and of course the quad boys as well). cullen and luke nailed junior olympics qualifying times in swimming. ryan's taught himself guitar - and is seemingly scary talented. morgan's bringing home straight A's from university, and brennan's mere months away from heading off himself, with g'town a possible horizon. peyton couldn't be a sweeter, better, brighter teenager, and dolan, well, the boy's a handful, but in all the right ways.

- and what a season from the hoyas...

- and what a campaign going on between obama and hillary...

- and...

later.