Telenor has introduced a score of industry-first Value Added Services for its customers. Keeping in line with the innovative tradition, Telenor brings you yet another industry first service. In order to facilitate an ever growing population of facebook users, we have successfully integrated with Facebook !
Now upload pictures to your Facebook accounts directly from your mobile phones by simply sending them to mobile@facebook.com via MMS.
Really? See this screen from Facebook mobile. Any user of facebook can register their mobile phone and upload media by sending email to mobile@facebook.com. That email address is not unique to Telenor. I don’t get the “integration” part. Come on Telenor, you owe us some explanation!
Editor’s Note: This contribution is from Saad Khan, the community editor of SocialBridges.org, where this post appeared originally. TelecomPk.net fully supports the noteworthy efforts of SocialBridges.org.
Cellular revolution has taken Pakistan by storm. As the mobile density in Pakistan is reaching 56%, it’s high time that we discuss the prospects of cell phone-based social revolution in Pakistan. Mobile phones are increasingly being used as a social tool across the globe - as a weapon for the eradication of poverty and disease and as a sustainable option.
Pakistani cellular companies are also trying to catch on with this growing ‘cellular activism’ frenzy. It’s true that cellular companies have limited scope of action as far as brining social change is concerned still almost all the mobile companies of Pakistan are doing some kind of social uplift projects. Telenor, for instance, has launched a farmers’ uplift scheme - TeleKisan - besides the apna PCO and other schemes. Similarly, other cellular companies are also conducting some activitis in the avenues of social uplift.
The responsibility, however, lies on the nonprofit sector and not just with the telcos. Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are the engines of social change in the developing countries. Mobile phones can be used as a foot soldier for social change if their use is extended beyond communications. NPOs can team up with the cellular companies to help providing technical knowledge to the farmers (National Rural Support Program is collaborating with Telenor in this case) or they can forge alliances with the medical community to provide free medical advice to those living in far off areas with limited resources. Some African nations are already making it big in what can be termed as cellular farming. The role of mobile phones in fighting against HIV/AIDS has already been discussed in one of our earlier posts.
Asia is not lagging behind as well. The success of Grameen in mobilizing people through ‘mobiles’ is known to all of us. Other networks like LIRNEasia are also doing commendable job in changing people’s lives by the use of cellular technology. International donor agencies are also eager to work with such organizations like LIRNEasia. Infact they are financing the whole project.
Microcredit organizations, as discussed above, are rapidly adopting cellular technology to enhance their footprint. Mobile phones are yet to be used for microfinancing in Pakistan though there are endless possibilities. To narrate an interesting fact, many small entrepreneurs, including women, have themselves understood the magic of cellular technology in expanding their businesses. They do face the shortage/availability of funds due to lack of financing but the cell phones are surely helping them in getting out of the tentacles of poverty.
Corporate sector too has a major role to play. Instead of simply doling out a few millions in charity, local corporate giants, along with the multinational conglomerates, should come forward with new ideas of using cellular technology for poverty alleviation. It’s ironic to note that when the whole world is eyeing profitability at the bottom of the pyramid by using cell phones, Pakistani corporate sector is still reluctant to accept the change. Cellular technology is ruling the roost so isn’t it the time to ‘cell’ the social change.
Found this interesting result from a survey conducted by Microsoft Windows Mobile team. I think it correctly captures the data activities for most of us. Email and messaging is the most common way to connect with friends and families. Blogs are fast becoming a popular activity as well. Photos etc (multimedia messaging in general) is behind blogs and social networks.
On a related note, adoption by businesses is a major goal for Apple. See this Computerworld article on whether iPhone will be able to win over the resistance by enterprise and their IT support groups?
Companies need to obtain digital certificates for homegrown applications from Apple, then transmit the applications to Macs and PCs running iTunes. Individual iPhones have to be connected via a cable to an iTunes-equipped desktop computer in order to synchronize with the software and get access to the applications.
The direct-connect synchronization plan left IT managers such as Vivek Kundra, chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, looking for more options from Apple.
Kundra is beta-testing about 15 first-generation iPhones along with the iPhone 2.0 software that Apple announced earlier this year. The $199 price tag for the entry-level iPhone 3G will make the device “a lot more palatable for the enterprise,” he said.
On the way to work today I heard a report from NPR about email overload. I wanted to share the story with all and ask you:
do you consider your email volume to be excessive?
do you use any special tools (other than filters) to manage email?
In my case I have multiple email accounts (work, web-based, ISP, blog, others). With hundreds of emails coming each day it is a challenge to sift out the useful and relevant messages from trivia, promotions and spam. At work, I find the back and forth short messages to be most annoying, esp when there is a large distribution list in CC. For personal emails, the forwarded chain letters, powerpoint slide shows and hoaxes are a nuisance - and many times they come from your family and friends. On the other hand its a pain when a useful mail ends up in spam.
IM and presence indicators (such as those in outlook or yahoo) are useful to cut down on some email load. SMS is another option but its cost could be a factor in some places. Blackberry comes to the rescue but it is not a common tool. A co-worker uses outlook client with yahoo filters as a catch-all. Main reason — yahoo spam filters works so well. Here’s a new development from Yahoo:
Yahoo, one of the biggest providers of Web-based mail, is trying to rethink its e-mail as a social network, according to John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail. The idea is that since most of us e-mail only a handful of people regularly, e-mail systems should display those messages at the top of the inbox.
Most recently the so-called social networks are adding to the junk mail because people who you have never even heard want to be your friend. One person I know refuses to sign up for LinkedIn because he is afraid that people will get offended if he refuses their connection request!
The NPR story has an interesting anecdote about how “auto-fill” created a multi-million dollar problem for a fortune 100 company. I have myself been in the situation where outlook auto-filled the wrong email (yahoo instead of work) and I got in trouble later.
I believe that the good old phone call is still a great way to get things done. May be as a follow-up to that email you just sent or as a heads up that an important message is on its way soon!
The first 50 (46 to be exact, 4 chose to remain under-cover) have been announced at the official site. Here’s another post with links. I’ve reproduced the partial list below. If you are looking for descriptions of all winner apps, best way is to get the 5MB slide deck in pdf here which gives a good summary for each application. Social networking and location based apps are certainly in the spotlight. I also liked the AndroidScan as it is likely to spawn more apps.
AndroidScan- Barcode scan from phone to get pricing and other data - Jeffrey Sharkey Beetaun - Social network around geographical content - Sergey Gritsyuk and Dmitri Shipilov BioWallet- biometric authentication system for cell phones - Jose Luis Huertas Fernandez Commandro - Location-bases networking - Alex Pisarev, Andrey Tapekha Read more »
MobileActive.Org, a grass root organization which focusses on the role of mobile technology for social change and awareness, has released a new report, Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use. A key point which struck me was the importance of affordability. Survey shows that Financial discounts by telecom companies and vendors is the most significant factor … I see this as a great opportunity to make a huge difference to these organizations and to create goodwill!
Here’s a brief intro.
Mobile technology is transforming the way advocacy, development and relief organizations accomplish their institutional missions. The report Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use, released by the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation, brings this point home.
Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use was written by Sheila Kinkade (ShareIdea.org) and Katrin Verclas, and commissioned by the United NationsFoundation-Vodafone Group Foundation Technology Partnership. The report examines emerging trends in “mobile activism” by looking at 11 case studies of groups active in the areas of public health, humanitarian assistance and environmental conservation.
SocialBridges.Org - Seeking corporate social leadership in Pakistan.
This is a sign that citizen journalism and blogging is taking off in Pakistan. The topics and content of the SocialBridges will appeal to the growing consumer and commercial segment which needs a strong voice. There are some great insights there with a high-profile set of authors. I look forward to some thought-provoking stories there. See this announcement from Green & White.
Of course Telecom sector in Pakistan has been a major force behind corporate involvement in society. Consider the recent presentation by Zouhair Khaliq, CEO of Mobilink at TeleCON 2008 event in Karachi. The title of his presentation was Mobilizing Social Change and he talked about the recent launch of Mobilink Foundation. Get the full presentation in pdf: Mobilink presentation: Mobilizing Social Change.
Industry revenues are based on these mainstream factors and eliminating poverty is the heartbeat of all the problem whether it comes to you in the form of purchasing power or uplifitng the life trends from one consumer sect to another (higher). These things grow to be a central part of your company plans especially in our GDP environment and rotating them around different conferences provides with the direction to other participants to target the source issue of the market because at the end of the day if I sell dialup connection I would not want to sell at 2Rs if I’m selling at 5 today and you can only do that by increasing the consumer power at various levels and keeping it stable.
Hear what Big Blue has to say about the future of mobile phones. This discussion of a IBM mobile learning executive and a Motorola director touches upon some interesting directions such as text to speech and location based technologies. Technology companies realize that this is the time to define their territory and are eager to share their visionary thinking. One of the point worth mentioning from this conversation: phones have to fit well with people’s lives and not the other way around.
Over the coming years, mobile phones are expected to get “smarter”, adjusting to our usage patterns. Innovations such as larger projectable screens and other e-commerce and social networking features will enable the phone to provide much more value to our lives.
I have previously discussed the explosive growth of media captured on mobiles and the need for sharing it, to make it work without putting too much burden on the users. A few interesting trends have emerged in the last few months. PixSense has picked up momentum and their solution was implemented by Telenor - great news for this Pakistani startup. At the same time, Nokia has been on a roll, acquiring soical networking and mobile ad startups such as Enpocket. Nokia has also introduced Ovi, a set of services for mobiles, which needs a post of its own. Twango, a media sharing application, is one of the companies Nokia bought for around $100 million. Naturally that caused headlines and prompted many (including myself) to take a look at Twango’s services.
With so many photo and video sharing sites (photobucket, snapfish, mobango etc) it can be hard to compare and select one. What is it that makes one media sharing site better than others? I believe its a combination of a few factors. Usability and presentation. Features such as online editing, tagging, time lines, subscriptions etc. Ease of sharing with people (without forcing them to register) and at blogs and networking sites. There’s the reliability and trust element as well; many don’t want their personal stuff uploaded to a random startup with sketchy privacy policies.
TM has posted a detailed analysis of Telenor’s Picshare launch and gave it a 6/10 rating. I recommend read the full review and the related commentary at TGP. In this post I’ll review Twango, its features and how it works. My usage scenario is simple and typical. I want to be able to share my media easily with friends and family anywhere in the world.
Green & White, a blog about technology, start-ups and hiring in Pakistan is stepping up its efforts to support entrepreneurs in Pakistan. This is a blog on which I contribute as well. The timing for G&W 2.0 is great because we see a number of interesting changes in the technical landscape, both globally and in Pakistan. Essentially the Pakistani society is moving away from the traditional modes and professionals are willing to take more chances.
Blogs and online discussions have a unique place for the various stakeholders (entrepreneurs, investors, media, students, businesses). There are only a handful of folks who are active in this area and Green & White has taken a lead at providing interesting analysis and information for many technology and growth areas. My advice: It takes a lot of time to cause change so build and expand networks, provide information and insights which helps others and … keep going.
In case you are wondering about the coffee cup up there, it represents “coffee sessions” with Osama Hashmi, the managing editor of G&W!
Here’s a sampling of some recent interesting stories from G&W:
Here’s an application demo on a topic about which you will hear a lot in the coming days: Group and Integrated Messaging. Found out about SwarmTeams at InBabble where there’s an interview with the founder. This looks promising and is something which I could really use. What is your take?
A bit of background which may be interesting to you: Swarmteams has been developed in response to research into biological teams and groups (aka “bioteams”) such as micro-organisms, ants, bees and dolphins. The principles include:
Stop Controlling - Communicate information not orders
Team Intelligence - Mobilise everyone to look for group threats and opportunities
Permission Granted - Achieve accountability through transparency not permission
Always-On - Provide 24×7 instant “in-situ” message hotlines for all team members
Symbiosis - Treat external partners as fully trusted team members
Cluster - Nurture the team’s internal and external networks and connections
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