I’m at the Polaris Centre in Pula, near Cagliari in the marvellous island of Sardinia, to speak at a research-driven event named Mash-up camp organized by the guys at CRS4. The event is based on the Mash-up and spacial web applications subject and its aim is to animate and shake the local companies on the subject of innovation and research.
I’m going to live blog each event (surprisingly I’m the only guy I see just two guys - yours truly included - with a laptop connected to the open wi-fi lan here).
Stefano Pezzi - Core Soluzioni Informatiche
Stefano comes from Bologna, his company , CORE, is partnering with CRS4 (who’s hosting the seminar) some other companies in Sardinia to work at the SIT project for the Regione Sardegna.
The SIT project aims at the creation a database to host and communicate geographical data of the Sardinia Region giving the chance to use these data in touristic and city planning applications.
Stefano’s presentation is very VERY technical (probably too much, IMHO) he describe the whole layer structure of the SIT app and the usage possibilities. The whole application is based on standards both W3C and ISO while Stefano admints that some of the services aren’t standards yet such as the tools for path retrieval and the tiled map service.
The intersting thing is that they developed a Javascript API set to interface outside applications with the SIT framework: when the project started Google Maps (and its API) weren’t on the market and they wanted to build something that would have been reusable and extendable. Nice move! (but what about porting the APIs to something more compliant with the current de facto standard?).
Stefano immediately starts with a humorous intro on himself (his a friend, and I can assure his ALWAYS a laughable guy) and then introduce the difference between Mobile Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0.
He says tha if we speak about Web 2.0 is because Web 1.0 existed, so since we speak about Mobile 2.0 it is because mobile 1.0… existed? sure? Who really used WAP? NOBODY! With wap we were entusiasts with the devices not with the applications; we were just trying mobile!
Web 2.0 is about building a platform: develop applications that can be mashed-up together; Mobile web 2.0 is uding Web 2.0 on mobile devices (eg. widsets); Mobile 2.0 means having native apps on the mobile devices that uses web 2.0 services and dedicated sensors.
What is now a barrier for a lot of applications (eg streaming on Mobile) is the cost of traffic; the mobile companies are now fully aware of this and are about to mass release flat mobile connections. So once the costs of connection won’t be a problem any more Mobile web 2.0 can really arise only if user experience and developing costs will be (at least) comparable.
The next step in mobile applications is to transform monodirectional phisical tags (such as Shotcodes) to bi-directional phisical tags users could write and modify (imagine a bi-dir tag at the supermarket were the choice of the product becomes social).
Marco Guiso - Interoperabile
Marco starts talking about openGIS, a system to create HTTP requests for geodata. This is another highly technical speech: I start doubting I’ll be able to properly blog the talk.
Marco’s aim wa to build a software that could “cannibalize” geodata available on the web from different sources. To do this he used AJAX, some OGG web services (SITR, Landsat5, 3D Marine, etc.) and Google maps.
Expert interview for the European R&D Project “Spice”
A couple of months ago I’ve been interviewed by Dario Melpignano, managing Director at Neos Research, for the aim of the SPICE project, with the aim to address the still unsolved problem of designing, developing and putting into operation efficient and innovative mobile Service creation/execution platforms for networks beyond 3G.
here below you’ll find the translated (the phone call wa in Italian) transcript of what I said. Hope you’ll find it useful.
To provide a broader background I think it’s useful to know that I work in Gabetti, the most important real estate operator in Italy which is transforming itself into a full service company, operating also as a new media company thanks to the relevant base of shops widespread all over the country. On each of these sales point or shop, Gabetti has installed interactive touch screens proposing their offer and a number of additional services to the general public. An approach that the company is willing to extend to individuals through mobile local/proximity services. “Considering your industry and market, which services you see as the most successful in a 5-10 years timeframe?”
We see emerging services mostly related to location identification and location based service. E.g. I am physically in a specified location and based on my profile I can find in a specific area the commercial proposals that fit my needs and interests. Given my preferences and economic constraints.
Additional examples can be to link photos to location, as in the case where I take a picture and find available houses that match my profile, etc.
“How do you see the value network structured, which are the players and their role in the perspective of the organization where you are working: telecom operator, device manufacturer, application/service/solution developer/provider, consumer electronics player, publisher, internet/IT leader (such as Google or MSN)?”
My value network is consistent with your view. There’s also a role for a management consulting firm, that in bigger companies like mine usually have a role.
“Are the players envisioned by SPICE a correct representation of this future or would you take into account different or new roles?”
Yes. I think I basically already answered you.
“Which are the most critical requisites that you would consider for a technology platform such as the one that will be implemented in SPICE, designed to provide a unified way to deliver services over heterogeneous execution platforms, network and mobile devices?”
Requirements for billing and charging
Requirements for revenue sharing including advertising revenues
Requirements for non-core business, and semi-professional content providers producing and publishing their content on the platform
Requirements for interactivity features
Other requirements?
Billing is one of the most critical requirements to be supported in SPICE and the space where I see a relevant opportunity for innovation. Considering especially the link between network, content and service provider.
Interaction requirements are not really critical, as on a mobile device you have such a big constraint in terms of user interface that most evolutions failed so far. So I expect that the user interaction would be as low as possible.
“What is the role of personalization in the end users’ perspective? Which are the most critical requirements?”
It is crucial. In essence: give to the user the kind of services he needs, now, without him having to ask.
“Mobile devices are mainly used as mediators in social relationships, a set of specific SPICE enablers will allow users to support social networks and improve their ability to function in their social context and therefore enhance people social effectiveness. Which requirements do you see here linked, if any, to your industry needs?”
We are now interrogating about how to link social networking into our house search and acquisition business. Difficult topic, being the house maybe the most personal product one might need. So it is very difficult to infer recommendations for others. So far the function used to propose a house to a friend was only used as a personal reminder for a potential buyer. So far therefore I see a very limited impact.
“What are the most critical issues and most relevant requisites to enable rapid service creation and composition for the end users within your specific content/media perspective?”
For rapid service creation, what is needed is the possibility to personalize service creation at the API level. Provide application primitives and functions to be combined. And providing APIs is even more relevant than providing open code, as it shortens my time to market.
“How would you adopt and use, if any, tools for intellectual property protection, such as DRM (Digital Rights Management)? Which benefits and hurdles do you see in adopting DRM?”
I am against DRM, I see Creative Commons as a much more interesting approach. This approach if pushed will eventually end up in a more ethical society. Also technically speaking this approach is more consistent with the possibility of transforming content in a controlled way.
“How do you see the evolution of the content/industry with reference to the mobile industry? More specifically do you envision a converging future (fixed, mobile, triple play, etc.) or a diverging one? Why?”
I see both a converging and diverging future. It is converging at the device level in my personal experience. I do not believe at all in mobile TV, but for very short video clips and more in general in the possibility of using video in a mobile device, because of the high level of attention required. I spoke with a number of 3 people (video mobile operator in Italy) who are convinced about this being a big opportunity, but I don’t believe in it.
“Would you see meaningful complementing content with context information, such as georeferencing and tagging by allowing open categorization approaches (folksonomy)?”
Context value around a piece of content will be of bigger value than the content itself
a digital photo has a value
a digital photo uploaded online acquires a much more significant value
a digital photo online and positioned on a map acquires an even greater value
Paraphrasing Metcalfe, I would say for joke, but not so much of a joke, that the value of a piece of content equals the square of the point of its context.
“How much should the end user be active and participate to the media fruition process?”
The user should be active, and be able to select, but only if he wants to. Let the user choose whether to be active or not.
“Which is the role, if any, of long tail (e.g. personal media, such as blogs) content production and distribution models, of open delivery models within your industry? Who do you expect to pay whom and for what?”
In my industry the content producer is the client, and my role is basically as a “publisher” to mediate among users. If de-intermediates happens, I disappear.
“What are your ideas about content adaptation? Would consider appropriate that a third party dynamically adapt your content (e.g., to match the capabilities of a network or a mobile device)? Or would you prefer a system to automatically control the adaptation process and when would you prefer the end-user to manually control that process?”
Ideally content must be able to follow me not only in space, but also in its form and format. I expect to be able to play the same piece of audio or audiovisual on any device of what you depicted as distributed communication sphere.
“What are your ideas about users using different devices to receive different parts of the same multimedia transmission (e.g., a cell phone to receive the audio part and a wall-mounted display to receive the video part)? What are your ideas about receivers dynamically switching between these devices (e.g., by dynamically transferring a video stream from a cell phone to a near-by TV screen)?”
I see that this approach is relevant and will be in the future. Like in Firefox Web browser I can centralize and access my bookmarks on any computer I use. The same should happen to content. In the future I expect to be able to grab a video stream from a tv with my device and bring it with myself while moving to another place to resume playing.
Top 10 2006 life tags
Blogging
It’s now a year since I switched the blog to the English language and - even if I expected a more vertical growth in RSS subscribers - I nearly doubled my BlogLines subscribers (or, staying with Feedburner, I’m having a media of 35 subscribers: whom I’d really like to thank).
I never blog as much as I’d like, mostly for time constraints; but - counting my 2006 posts - I reach the quote of 64: which means something more then 1 per week. not good, not bad, just ok for me as I use my blog as a life diares for when I’ll grow up (now: when?
Eyetracking
i’ve done a lot of eyetracking in the last 3+ years. most of my activities were centred on RnD (I’ve filed a couple of patents on it) but I’m mostly known for my eyetracking analysises published by UXmatters. I’m really honoured of the results, the last one - published back in June - got more than 40 comments to the article. Further more then any other article published by UXmatters.
The future? Well I’m still in the eyetracking business working with the University of Rome (ciao Francesco) but I don’t feel eyetracking is going to be a 2007 life tag. Making the wheel turning.
Family
I realy enjoyed family life this year. A lot of readings, vacations and time to spend with family. Things are going to change in 2007: during week days I’m able to see my wife and baby just a couple of hours a day. Coming home too late from work: things need to be done.
Flickr
Still enhancing my love for Flickr after 3 more years: got a pro account since 2005 and part of our Christmas present to my sister was a PRO Flickr account. It’s definbitely the killer application for digital photography (and I’m still waiting for GPS wi-fi/UMTS enabled digital cameras)
Francesca
She’s our life. Growing up at the fastest pace. If you’re a friend of mine you can take a look at the Flickr photoset (just the best shots, I’m counting approximately 500 of them). Drop me a line if you’re a friend of mine but have no access to the set.
Gabetti
I’m really honoured to work for this company. A lot of innovation is going on but it’s too early to talk about it. Let’s say we have an appointment late in January 07 and another one late in February 07. But the most groundbreaking one is coming up more or less near April 07. Stay tuned.
Mobup
If you regularly read this blog you couldn’t have missed it. It’s open source, it’s free, it uploads your cameraphones shots to Flickr. Originally born in July 2005 in Consultechnology it’s now available to every developer or cameraphone lover. We now have a top of the notch CTO (Thomas Landspurg) and a dedicated team of developers. We’re improving but we still need your support and suggestions.
Public speaking
I think 2006 has been the most crowded with speaking opportunities year in my life: I featured international conferencies, nation wide ones, universities, and small but innovative ones. I wa sborn for standing on a stage since I enjoied myself being an MC back in early 90s.
2007 coming up with other great seminars!
Second life
I discovered it at the Interaction Frontiers 2006 thanks to Andrea Benassi *see his presentation here). I now say that Second Life is today what the web was in 1995 a great opportunity for trend setters and first movers. I count myself in. more on this coming really soon.
Writing articles
I count more than 50+ articles in the last 4 years published on the web (Idearium, UXmatters and Flashability mainly). I prefere writing in english due to the broader audience I can reach.
A book is oin the air for 2007 but I’m really not sure whether it’s going to see the light or not. At the moment I’m really to busy with Gabetti (see proper life tag) to think about writing.
Have a great 2007!
Mobup: it’s new release time!
We recently released a new version of Mobup (download it here) which marks the entrance in a new subversion, the 6th in a year or so.
We haven’t added any hypening functionality but concentraed ourselves in listening to our users: bugs fixing, device compatibility and usability related functions that Mobup users suggested by email or on our development site.
The whole 0.5 series will be dedicated to this kind of stuff, but interesting things are coming up for the next major release.
I’m very happy to announce that the NEW version of Mobup (v.0.4) is now freely available with a function to automatically geotag your photos using an external bluetooth GPS device.
There’s a massive question I’m asking myself quite often lately; and after a mail chat with my friend Alberto d’Ottavi (who’s – by the way – a technical journalist form magazines such as Computer Bild) finally convinced me to place my thoughts here on Yellow Line.
Now back to the question. Digital camera market is nowadays massive: it’s reaching cell phones both for dimensions and collateral status-symbol effects on consumers all over the world. The more common (and economic) way to look at digital photos is to place them on a PC; the more used way to share them with friends and relatives is to place them online (on your blog or using services such as Flickr or 23, or both). You NEVER EVER keep them on your camera memory card.
So why are we using memory cards if we use them just as transitional spaces to hold the images?
Well, because since you usually use your camera on the move it’s more comfortable to store them on a 2 square centimeters piece of tech instead that in a 2Kg computer.
True? Well, partly.
Broadband wireless technologies such as UMTS or WI-FI open networks let us bypass the camera physical memory and place the photos DIRECTLY online. You don’t need any (limited) memory when you have literally infinite capacity on the internet.
If you read this blog from more time then just today you probably know that I invented a small piece of software called Mobup which takes care of shooting the photo from your camera phone and uploading it (with tags, bells and whistles) on Flickr.
Well since I installed Mobup on my cameraphone my 1GB of memory is used just for Tom-Tom maps. I could have placed there more then 1000 photos but (let me check) I just have 15 images there (mostly old); why should I use a limited memory space that could be differently used when I have infinite gigabytes of space waiting for me online?
My prediction is that in a few years digital cameras are going to get rid of the physical memory to make space to UMTS cards or similar technologies that can connect them directly to the internet thus bypassing all the unuseful steps of downloading the images on the computer and reuploading them on the web.
My hope is that these cameras will come equipped with Java technology (which is a great environment to develop application where space, computing capabilities and memory are very limited) for the implementation of 3rd part applications.
I hope one day I’ll see this forecasted technology I call the “Flickr camera” that uses Mobup. Nice times are coming.
Interviewed by IDEO on Mobile scenarios
A few weeks ago I received a mail from Jennifer Leonard asking me for a brief interview for a paper whe was writing. The interesting thins is Jennifer’s employer: the uberfamous design firm IDEO: they’re preparing a deep research on mobile future scenarios and wanted to hear the thoughts of this humble Italian guy.
So, here below all the questions and my answers; in their full form.
IDEO: When you think about the future of mobile multimedia, what comes to mind?
Matteo: I have this dream in mind. That - as Bill Gates correctly pointed out (and
this is probably the only time I’m completely agree with him) - mobile devices,
cellphones in particular, could be the main ingredient in the solution of the
digital divide. They’re cheaper, more reliable, with long lasting batteries
and with already existing wireless networks.
Thus, when I think about the future of this type of devices I see vertical multimedia application and devices capable of very few tasks at the same time, but absolutely perfect in these task accomplishment.
Even if at a very seminal stage Mobup is a perfect example of what I’m saying. Just install this less-then-40KB app on your cameraphone and you’ll transofrm it in a full featured moblogging platform. Dare I say Ubicomp?
I: What are you most excited about?
M: I’m 30, and just a few years after I was born the first personal computers
appeared. I saw their raise and the computational power becoming greater anbd
greater. Now the same thing is happening with cell phones: just 7 years ago we
had narrow-band monochromatic devices useful just for talking and sending SMS.
Now we have broadband multifunctional devices where - if you like this kind of
things - you can also receive TV programs and films, you can use them as
photocameras (I’ve choosen a Megapixel device to be used as a slim camera
always in my pocket), you can read your favourites weblogs… just as you were
in front of your computer.
If this is happened in this short time-frame, the next 7 years are going to be even more exciting!
I: Where in the world are the most interesting things happening?
M: Tough question. US have a GREAT wi-fi diffusion, but is in EU that mobile
networks are becoming mature. Thus it’s here in Europe that we’re seeing great
innovation in mobile services; but Japan (and the wider Asian area) is a
challenging competitor.
I: Any unmet needs you can think of when it comes to mobile phones?
M: Usability. Let me spell it: U-S-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y; Nokia is probably the
cellphones manufacturer who’s trying its best in following usability and ergonomy
principles when projecting its devices. But we’re light-years faraway the accomplishment of this objective; I still haven’t found the perfect device where everything is easy and quickly accessible.
I: What would be your dream mobile phone application and/or service?
M: Me and my wife had a baby last year (Francesca is in her 10th month while I’m
writing) and - since I’m often far from home I’d like a mobile who can be “awaken” when she performs or discovers something new (a new movement, a new expression, a new word learned, etc.), record it and send it to me to be viewed. That would be really lovely…
Java Conference
Next Wednesday, June 27 I’ve been invited to join the Java professional community at the Java Conference, main national event on Java related technologies that will be held at the Milanofiori congress hall in Milan. This is a great honour for me and a kinda strange feelings started pervading me in the last hours: I haven’t used Java - till last Semptember - since when I was at the University; but then I started the Mobup project that finally brought me to such an important stage, speaking to the cream of the crop of Java professionals in Italy.
Life is strange and always surprising.
I’ll quite oviously talk about Mobup BUT since the event is so important, I’ll provide my audience with the very last nightly build of Mobup which has
Bluetooth capabilities
Intelligent geotagging
This great step has been reached thanks to the technical effort by Thomas Landspurg, who’s the In-Fusio CTO. Tom provided the great expertise he got in Geotagging for mobile devices (he’s the mind behind J2MEMAP) to the Mobile project; we’re still in private testing but let the software become public in the very next weeks (for the moment you might want to take a look to a couple of pictures and - if you like - try to mash-upping them using apps such as GeotagIt!).
At the moment Mobup (note: not available to the public yet ) automatically geotags the photos using an external bluetooth connected GPS device but my plans are to overcome this “limit” (making it just an option) using GSM cell geodata (one of the solutions in the countries where this kind of data aren’t provided by the operator is connecting to freely available databases such as GSMcells).
I’m really excited of these last enhancements and - even though a lot of tuning is necessary before going live with the next Mobup version - this capabilities adds IMO great value to the application.
