More thoughts on Moblogging
Tom Hume had some thoughts on Moblogging which all make imminent sense:
... One of the things which disturbs me about moblogging are the relentless assumptions that:
(a) moblogging is like weblogging (b) we need LESS jargon for this stuff, not MORE.
Moblogging is different to weblogging. It's liable to be used by more people. It's terser thanks to input mechanisms. It's more impulse-driven. Technology permitting it'll be more, not less, photographic than weblogging. The tools, and the way it's presented to consumers, need to reflect this.
On the second point: lots of technically minded people I know go "huh?" when I mention the word "moblogging". If it's to go mass-market, it needs to be sold on its simplicity: it's not "personal publishing from mobile devices", it's "my diary on my phone". Sure, it can *do* more than that... but the experts or interested will learn that in time without us harping on about it.
Just as no-one gets excited or interested about "WAP services" (whilst Vodafone Live!, much of which is based on WAP, is a huge success), the public at large won't give a shit about moblogging: they'll go for simple services which let them do something new (preferably something they never even knew they wanted).
The other thing I've noticed missing from moblogging talk is a reading interface - everyone assumes moblogs will be written from phones and read on the web. Well, duh! If lots of people are writing diaries on their phones, won't they want to read their friends diaries on their phones? Why tie things into a kludgy 2-platform solution?
ramble ramble ramble...
Keep rambling Tom! This post is brilliant.
I love this line the best: "Moblogging is different to weblogging. It's liable to be used by more people." That's an awesome thought. I'm not sure how many people realize this.
From what I've read, part of the success of iMode in Japan were the user-created web pages. They didn't just rely on the pages that came from companies, but also made iMode "home pages" for themselves as well as used online forums, etc. We're just entering this world of mobile-based info here in the West, but it's a good example to go by. And now since we have the addictive power of weblogging, the success of this could be huge.
I think Tom's right about all of his points. Moblogging needs to be wrapped up into an easy to use service (again, like Vodafone Live!) and it also needs to have a full cycle of information. I should be able to add content, edit content and view content from my mobile phone as well as my computer. And I should be easily be able to share all this with my friends via their mobile phone. You can't enable SmartMob-type interactions if you're only using your phone as a fancy-connected camera with some text input.
Now we're getting somewhere.
-Russ