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March 30, 2007
Where can you get a fair mobile data plan in UK?
Well, it appears my dream phone is finally here, the Nokia N95 appears to be at least orderable on the t-mobile website. I checked the data plans for it and while yes, the Web and Walk unlimited internet for 7.50/month is great, it excludes using the phone for video and audio streaming, with Skype, or as a modem with laptop or PDA. They have 'max' plans but those are only for the data cards.
UPDATE - I just called the T-mobile shop and they say you can pay an extra 5 quid (12.50/month) to use as a modem, etc, and more if you want to use Skype and possibly streaming so I take it back! I'm happy to pay (a bit) more to use every capability of the phone. They say they are getting some in maybe next week...
I checked '3', online who enable all services except using the phone as a modem, but I will never use their service again, even if it were free. You just try to deal with their customer service. Good luck! They STILL owe me 150 quid. Vodafone UK and Orange still seem to rob by the megabyte, and interesting news on O2 - they will move you to an unlimited plan if you threaten to leave them. Story here from the Open Gardens blog by Ajit Jaokar.
So what's a guy to do? I don't want to wait for the inevitable, unlimited data plans from most carriers with open, unrestricted access to the Internet. I guess a 12 month plan will be a better bet than an 18 month lockin... especially since I'll be on a converged Win Mobile device near the end of the year.
Here's a cool application for the Nokia in the meantime, Techno Jogging! I found this on the I2 Fly blog when checking out a Flash Lite learning game. My new phone with GPS will track where I've been and how fast (slow) it took, etc, and let me download the file to view on Google Earth. I'd rather have it done right on the device but will have to wait for that. Hopefully it will integrate with Virtual Earth. I'm not sure why I need this... but it's cool!
Posted by Ron Edwards at 02:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 29, 2007
Moving Learning Conference...in good company!
The lineup is looking great for the Moving Learning conference in London 13 June. I'm excited to be on a panel with Elliott Masie, Nick Van Dam and Claire Line in addition to my presentation on Serious Virtual Worlds (exciting press release here).
Elliott has recorded a compelling video discussing trends and opportunities for new approaches with technology you can view on the Moving Learning website here. The press release about his participation and the event is here.
Elliott said '
I'll be talking about learning in the age of Google with fingertip knowledge, the end of memorisation, rapid development and informal learning, global models for content and knowledge sharing, learning as a tribal and social process, and from e-learning to smart content.
Hope to see you there! I've negotiated a discount for my readers and clients as part of our sponsorship, please contact me if interested.
Posted by Ron Edwards at 07:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Expanding the Mobile Learning Conversation to Include Collaboration
Mark Oehlert recently posted a bunch of resources worth taking a look at that really got me thinking (as usual!). I read the article by Ellen Wagner on mobile learning in CLO Magazine he referred to and while I agree that it helps move the conversation beyond devices to start to talk about experiences , it is a very learning content centric view and misses what I think is an important component - mobile enabled collaboration.
Mark also highlighted this study 'According to recent Ambient Insight market research, the 2006 U.S. market for real-time collaboration-based learning products and services is now over $2.6 billion and growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.5 percent.' This study suggests that the tools are getting easier to use and implement and this is leading to adoption beyond just large corporations.
The value of collaborative learning has been talked about for some time but I don't hear it mentioned much when people are discussing how to better support mobile workers. I think the 'learning' bit in the topic of 'mobile learning' should be expanded to 'performance' anyway. Learning is valuable, and there is certainly a role for it on mobiles but what people often really need is to be able to easily interact with colleagues to support decision making in real time, ask for input to solve problems and address opportunities, and to share intelligence on developments. Peer to peer networking products using Instant Messaging, SMS, and RSS seem to be growing and generating buzz. The financial industry is increasingly using Parlano's MindAlign which requires integration with enterrpise messaging and SwarmTeams which works without having to add software or integration.. Robin Good has a good overview of 'swarming' applications here.
Twitter is really hot right now 'its microblogging at lighting speed via SMS, IM and the web' for a variety of reasons including the ability to use the new API to get instant content in addition to being connected live to colleagues using SMS, IM and the web.
Connecting people is what mobiles are for besides the rich location and multimedia goodness they now offer. I will add mobile social networking and collaboration as a key topic at our Seriously Mobile Summit on 20 April. This week I've asked thought leaders Ajit Jaokar, Euan Semple, Ewan McIntosh and Robin Good to join us to share what they know and predict but they aren't able to make it ;-(
I think between Jay Cross and myself we'll be able to articulate why and how but it would be great to have more voices in the chorus.
Posted by Ron Edwards at 08:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 28, 2007
2 Good Blogging Books
I just finished two good books on corporate blogging. I found Robert Scoble and Shel Israels book Naked Conversations a fun read that helped fill in the history of blogging for me with examples and really made the case for why employees at all levels should blog rather than have it be managd by PR/Communications departments. It also offered some insight on where blogging seems to work better/worse in different cultures. I found Debbie Weils The Corporate Blogging book more thorough on how different departments could/should blog to support business goals and perhaps better for people completely new to the idea and wanting to get started. Many of the stories are the same in the two books so you probably don't need both unless you are looking at both angles - departmental vs. any employee blogging. I think there is room for both approaches as long as there is authenticity and something of interest for readers.
Both books have online follow up resources that are helpful including blogging policies and lots of links to good examples.
Posted by Ron Edwards at 11:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 27, 2007
Growing Your Own Business Presentation
I had fun speaking and exhibiting at the Growing Your Own Business conference in London last week. I really enjoyed talking with people that were considering starting businesses and looking for low cost ways to run them. My presentation focussed on web 2.0 trends and tools including You Tube, Podcasting, Blogging, Virtual Worlds with Real Businesses, Location Based Services & Mapping applications using Microsoft Virtual Earth and a variety of low cost tools including collaborative Wikis and Google Documents as well as Skype and BT Wifi Access - which you can now pay one fee to use Wifi at any of their partners including T-Mobile and The Cloud - so it is finally cheaper to use WiFi in the UK.
I shared my booth with colleagues at CellClear on Friday who specialise on mobile phones and contracts for small businesses. We are excited to find ways to help get people use the mobile internet together.
Posted by Ron Edwards at 10:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 26, 2007
Free WiFi on a Bus and other Mobile Goodness
Last week I was pleasantly surprised to find WiFi freely available on the shuttle bus I took to a business park near Reading. I just had to try it so I whipped out my trusty PSP and voila! I was on the Internet in a just a few minutes. I was able to read a few blogs on the way to the Partners Meeting for Virtual Earth at Microsoft. I checked my email via browser as well but had to give up replying to an email as the bumpy ride and tedious text entry were too much to contend with. I opted to call instead to solve the missing presentation caper (spam blocker got my presentation I sent to a conference organiser from YouSendIt which I use for sending large files). I should remember that a call can be faster!
You may be saying, why bother with the web on the PSP, why not use a mobile phone? I am waiting for my dream phone - the Nokia N95 due next month in UK shops sporting WiFi, 3.5G, GPS, a great camera and advanced browser among other goodies. While this is going to be one bad phone, it will be smoked by the prototype one our partners is going to have on hand at our Summit. We showed it to the Microsoft Virtual Earth crew and Dr. Neil who founded the Via Virtual Earth Community with our mobile 3D demos which sparked some enthusiastic ideas for mobile 3D visualisation.
The next release of Virtual Earth due April 2 will be impressive! Stay tuned!
Posted by Ron Edwards at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 12, 2007
PSP Good News, Bad News
First a piece of good news for PSP users, a recent firmware upgrade lets you schedule RSS video feeds to be downloaded automatically over WiFi. This is great because even short videos take several minutes to download so now you do not have to wait - it will wake itself up and do it in the middle of the night so no more waiting. Thanks to the Learning in Hand blog for the news.
And now the bad news, the updates are still not fixing a fundamental problem of using the PSP for web based applications - the browser cache is so small that many sites with graphics won't even load, my web based email will not load unless rebooting to clear the cache, and of course, running Flash is problematic if the file sizes are anything but small or in a higher version.
So, an open letter to Sony... FIX IT! How hard can it be?
While you are at it, please enable streaming video and reading content in the browser from the memory card.
Posted by Ron Edwards at 03:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 07, 2007
Seriously Mobile Summit Case Studies Added
Seriously Mobile Series Update:
Case Studies Added
Paul Landers is a Strategic Product Manager responsible for Ericsson’s Learning Consultancy Services based in Stockholm and will be presenting 'Taking Learning Mobile' at the Seriously Mobile Summit to be held 20 April in London.
Hanif Sazin, CEO of Saffron Interactive will also be presenting a case study on mobile learning. You may have noticed the examples of BlackBerry, PDA and iPod based mobile learning examples he was sporting at Learning Technologies. We'll pick the best example for the Summit.
We have two more case studies planned and will announce soon so stay tuned!
Keynote Update
Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO of Giunti Labs will be delivering a keynote 'Towards Personalised Ambient Learning' which I'm really looking foward to as he will discuss trends, EU R&D and share new examples of mobile approaches.
Fabrizio was recently interviewed by Elliott Masie on European trends and the value of personalisation and contextualisation of learning (learning based on your interests, needs and mobile location). You can listen to it here.
Posted by Ron Edwards at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Podcasting & Blogging Workshop Update
I've posted the full agenda for the upcoming Podcasting and Blogging in the Enterprise Workshop to be held 20 March In London here: Download file .
I'm looking forward to facilitating this workshop as it will be the first time to teach these interrelated topics together. There will be a lot of moving parts from hands on creating and subscribing to discussing implementation but I love the challenge!
Posted by Ron Edwards at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 02, 2007
Jay Cross in London April 20 for Seriously Mobile Summit
reat news! Jay Cross will be at our Seriously Mobile Summit April 20, hosted by Reuters in Canary Wharf.
He will be delivering a keynote speech and discussion on Informal Learning and web 2.0 and mobile 2.0 approaches to support it. Jay joins Charles Jennings, Nigel Paine, Fabrizio Cardinali and myself for the morning presentations focused on key trends across business, society and technology domains to be followed by case studies and an expert panel on implementation. Send an email to seriouslymobile (at) ambientperformance.com for booking information. The agenda, topics and speaker bios will be posted shortly here.
Jay has recently produced a video explaining Informal Learning in 10 Minutes on You Tube - it already has 1000 views!!
You can check it out yourself below.
Posted by Ron Edwards at 06:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack