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Blog - A Mobile, Geo Social Networking Experience at Nokia OpenLab
Written by Glenn Letham
Tuesday, 07 October 2008
I'm back from a whirl-wind journey to Finland where myself, along with
about 3 dozen other bloggers, new media technologists, early adopters
of mobile technology and social media technology gurus, had a chance to
discuss the what, where, when and why of the future of mobile,
particularly with respect to our social networks - This was Nokia OpenLab 08.
I have to admit, like many others in attendance, I'm still trying to process fully what transpired! Made up of several "workshops", one on Geo which I moderated, we shared our tales and thoughts on the likely direction that social networking will take, and in particular, the role that the mobile web will play as things evolve. Myself and some of the others seem to indicate that we felt rather like lab rats participating in a clever social experiment where our social interactions and use of technology [mobile] was monitored and scrutinized.
There were no correct answers, there were no stupid comments, there were no misfits or outcasts, there was simply a group of cool, clever people sharing their stories and offering up insights from their own special corner of the social web. I was there providing insight into my thoughts on the geo-social web and other location-aware solutions that enables users take advantage of to expand their networks and share their experiences. If I left with anything, it was the reinforcement that geo-social networking is hot and it's going to be HUGE! Opportunities are a plenty and users are soaring... the sky is the limit in this space.
If anything, the event not only enabled us to brainstorm, but we also had a chance to take part in a very interesting social networking test where a group of 35 people were introduced to each other, provided with a mobile device (Nokia E71 in this case) and told to go to it... setting us free in Helsinki to collaborate, socialize and communicate via whatever means we could. At the end of the day, the group Wiki, Twitter, Jaiku, Flickr, Qik, and Ovi proved invaluable in bringing us closer together and enabled us to have a much different experience had these mobile technologies not existed.
I also couldn't help but ponder how crucial the latest social networking tools and mobile devices were to us all to help us enjoy the event and communicate with each other... indeed if we could build on the geo-social web experience we could have benefited even more - there's opportunity a plenty in that space in my mind and this has been validated just this week via research finding that reveal that the really exciting (and profitable) future of mobile lies in social networking, presence and location aware technology, user generated content, and gaming... oh, and the main revenue stream to look at, what else, mobile advertising. To get a glimpse of some of the ways that mobile technologies are eveolving and being used in clever ways, check out this cool promotion billed as Nokia Legends...
Thanks again to Nokia and their PR teams for the opportunity to take part. (Glenn Letham @glenn95 /Jaiku; @gletham / Twitter)
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