Moblogging Thoughts
It's only day two, yet I have nothing to Moblog today. Yesterday I was bopping around the city from my main office to the Sun testing center to lunch with my wife. Today I'm at the office in front of my computer, where I will probably remain until after dark. I guess I can moblog my lunch... It probably won't be that exciting.
I think unless you're a student who's always out and about or a mover and shaker like Joi there's not a whole hell of a lot to moblogging. It's more of an instant online scrapbook than a real communications medium. With blogging there's that level of interactivity which makes it very interesting. I read blogs, I copy permalinks, I write my posts and post links, and I check my referrers for people who linked to me. With moblogging, I take a picture, send off an email and then I'm done. There's nothing else to do - no interaction. Photos don't link. And browsing the web from a 2" x 3" screen is difficult at best.
This may be similar to "audioblogging" that I tried last year in that the idea may not translate - you can't skim an audio file or link to the middle of a long audioblog post and in general people don't want to sit at their computer listening rather than reading. Adam Curry was trying out audioblogging for a while, but it looks like he's stopped now. It's just not as "addicting" as weblogging. He's now moblogging by posting to his website via email from his wireless gadgets, but he's seeing the same thing I am: "Moblogging actually makes email useful. But only as an input device." Since I don't have a device where I can type anywhere near normal speeds, I haven't really concentrated on the text aspect of moblogging, just the multimedia part, but the idea is the same. You enter info and it goes away. Truly being a mobile part of the blogosphere is right now impossible.
Now, the the insta-scrapbook aspect of moblogging is very cool, especially the video. If something exciting was happening like a march or a speech or a concert, it would be great. However, normal life isn't that exciting. In a regular weblog I can write something interesting even on the most mundane of working days. However, having an exciting LIFE is a different thing all together. If you aren't living like a rock star, it's going to be hard to have an interesting moblog because you can't take photos of your thoughts or videos of your opinions. I guess I could turn the camera on myself and start yapping away, but probably not.
However there's a kernal of an idea there. I don't think it's the equivalent of weblogging, so maybe moblogging isn't the right name for it. But that power of instant communication from your always-on connected wireless device is incredible. Truly "smart mob" stuff. There's going to be a killer app for these devices soon along these lines, we just need to find what it is. I have my doubts whether moblogging - as a mobile version of weblogging - is it.
-Russ