Corporate reputations and blog relations

An interesting article from the Guardian titled 'Firms in the dark over blog threat'

"Nearly two-thirds of businesses have not woken up to the threat posed to their brands and reputations by disgruntled bloggers, a survey of PR professionals revealed today.
While more than 60% of PR executives interviewed believed that web blogs by unhappy employees or exasperated customers can damage corporate reputations, but 58% said businesses were insufficiently aware of the threat.

Based on interviews with US, UK and European and Asian PR companies, the Blog Relations PR Survey shows that more than one in four respondents believed that there were a number of influential blogs that could affect a company's standing.

With many blogs finding their way into mainstream media - such as Adrian Melrose's Land Rover rant, and high-profile blogs targeting the likes of Ryanair, Dell, BT and NTL, just over two-thirds admitted negative blogs could spark a "full-blown" PR crisis.

"Companies find it very difficult to get to terms with blogs and to get to grips with which ones are influential and what is the right way to proceed," said Hugh Fraser, the co-author of the report and a former journalist for the BBC World Service."

Blogging is becoming ever more a pervasive mobile info-sphere. I would certainly welcome any more links/articles/comments.

Full text access to article in Theory, Culture & Society

Theory, Culture & Society Volume 22, Number 5, October 2005

We are pleased to offer free online access until November 30th 2005 to one of the articles in this issue of Theory, Culture & Society: (click on the article below to view the free PDF)

Microstructures: The New Terrorist Societies by Karin Knorr Cetina

For a complete list of articles in this issue (and free abstracts) please click here

It is a great pleasure to introduce you to the third Carnival of the Mobilists. The more I get Carnival of the Mobilists 03

M-trends introduces the third Carnival of the Mobilists:

"The more I get into the concept the more I believe it's really great for everybody involved. Not only for the bloggers writing about mobile but especially for the readers who, not only get a compact weekly overview of the most important mobile blogging news, but above all, it's an overview of qualitative, original and diverse opinions about what's hot in mobile. And that's what it's all about!

Students to receive lecture notes on their mobiles

Students at a Scottish university are to have their lecture notes sent to their mobile phones in a pioneering bid to replace paper handouts in classes, reports Scotsman News.

"Dr Ayse Goker, from the school of computing at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, is planning to run a trial of the system in her lectures next year.

The system, called AmbieSense, uses hi-tech chips in lecture rooms that are capable of beaming information to mobile phones nearby.

If successful, the project could spell the end of the traditional image of students moving between lectures weighed down with piles of paper notes. Instead students will be able to download handouts, timetables and other work on to their phones.

AmbieSense was developed in a Europe-wide project to provide intelligent interactive tools in different environments.

The system has already been piloted in Seville and Oslo Airport to give useful information to tourists. The AmbieSense chips were able to beam pages from the Lonely Planet guide to people as they visited key tourist spots."

Is this the beginning of the end for lecture photocopies? Well, at least it's saving paper...

SMS in search of criminal information: 'digital door-to-door'

This article in the International Herald Tribune looks at how police used text messaging in their pursuit of soccer fans who rioted in Rotterdam last April:

"After the initial phase of the investigation left many of more than 200 suspects on the loose,the Dutch authorities turned to a kind of cellular door-to-door search,mass text messaging in search of criminal information.The cellular-era tactic has appeared in a growing number of cities since early last year,as the police seek to turn cellphones into direct lines to potential witnesses."

So "prosecutors decided to try using SMS for the first time in search of more witnesses.Investigators sent the SMS to 17,000 cellular subscribers,telling recipients that their phones were known to have been near the riot and to call the police with any information.The numbers were obtained from regional mobile carriers,whose records showed which phones were present in the riot area.Since the message was sent out in July,Degraaff said,arrests in the case have surpassed 130,with 100 suspects having begun court proceedings.Degraaff said her office believed the SMS effort played a role in leading to the additional arrests.The agency has dubbed the tactic "digital door-to-door," a reference to the door-to-door search for witness information police officers typically conduct in the area of a crime".

Via Smartmobs

Phone Vending Kiosks In The UK

Vodafone Deploys Phone Vending Kiosks In The UK


Vodafone got a taste of Japan today when mobile phone vending kiosks were unveiled in Manchester in the UK. Vodafone's Quickfone kiosks were installed in all company stores, so don't go looking around your local market for these just yet. as it's just a pilot to see how consumers react. If the response is good however, you could see them in the underground, and at terminals and malls around the country. The kiosks dispense a variety of prepaid mobile phones and SIM cards to customers and when stock runs low, the kiosk will alert Vodafone so it can be restocked immediately.

Via textually.org

Go Digital - 24th October

The latest podcast: 'Car sensors that can help us drive more safely, virtual reality used in rehab and a new take on music lessons.'

Download and listen here

Gamepod

Mobility whilst still in the driving seat? Well, virtually anyway.

Recently I came across this new home-driving seat that's designed for car/racing games in order to enhance the 'real feel' of being on the road whilst being a seated gamer.

It's called 'Gamepod' and even has vibrating or 'dual-shock' steering. It's supposed to be as good as it gets for bringing the 'on the road' experience into the front living room. Thought it worth a mention.

Vehicles with a Sixth Sense

General Motors Develops Vehicles with a Sixth Sense: here's the latest auto-mobility news -

New Technology Helps Drivers "Watch Out" for the Other Guy


"What if your car had a sixth sense that could “see” the traffic you couldn’t or didn’t notice, and, if need be, stopped your vehicle to prevent a collision?

Today, General Motors Corp. demonstrated a fleet of cars that do in fact have a sixth sense. Using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, a vehicle can detect the position and movement of other vehicles up to a quarter of a mile away. In a world where vehicles are equipped with a simple antenna, a computer chip and GPS (Global Positioning System) technology your car will know where the other vehicles are, additionally other vehicles will know where you are too -- whether it is in blind spots, stopped ahead on the highway but hidden from view, around a blind corner or blocked by other vehicles.

The vehicles can anticipate and react to changing driving situations and then instantly warn the drivers with chimes, visual icons and seat vibrations. If the driver doesn’t respond to the alerts, the car can bring itself to a safe stop, avoiding a collision."

Read full post here

Futurists Pick Top Tech Trends

In a Wired article, the following trends were seen as crucial for the future:

- Simplicity
- Mobile socialisation
- Death of combustion engine
- Going green
- IT revolution of 2006

Read more at the Wired site, above.

Mobile Interpreters and portable doctors

Samsung Electronics, the world’s third-largest cell phone vendor, looks to transform fourth generation (4G) phones into interpreters and portable doctors:

A Korea Herald article says - "Samsung president Lee Ki-tae, who is in charge of the company’s telecom division, disclosed the plan in an article he contributed to The Korea Times. The entire article will be printed in the Times’ anniversary special on Nov. 1."A 4G device would act as a simultaneous interpreter.The 4G device should break down communication barriers by providing translation and interpretation functions,’’ the 57-year-old wrote. He added that a function for recognizing various sign languages and converting them into spoken language will also be introduced. Further"Lee also predicted the handsets would develop into a go-anywhere health monitor by 2009."A mobile phone three years from now will become a portable doctor and omnipotent medical device enabling the user to check his or her health condition from home, work or anywhere around the world,’’ Lee said.He gave the example of health checkup devices that are incorporated into cell phones, which can gauge the handset owner’s blood pressure or diabetes count and transmit the data to their physicians wirelessly."Upon receiving the data, the physicians will be able to make a diagnosis and send back the results to the device,’’ Lee predicted".

Travel mobility --> health diagnostic and interpretation ability...? This sounds like a very holistic move for mobile devices to cover all ground...is this the future direction?

Go Digital: Your digital world from the BBC

Go Digital is a new weekly BBC World Service programme that looks at the how technology is changing our lives.

From the site:

"Each week we explore the world of digital technology in all its forms.Each week we will be speaking to leading figures in the computer industry.

We tap into the BBC's network of reporters around the world to bring us the technology stories making the news where you are, changing the world around you.

Go Digital will be available to as a podcast every Monday shortly after the programme is recorded at 1500 GMT / 1600 BST.

It is also broadcast on the BBC World Service radio on Tuesday throughout the day."

Live broadcasts and programmable podcasts downloads available! The BBC seems to be spearheading the media-technology mobile service.

The 'mobile' young being tracked

According to the Register:

"two Dutch telcos, KPN and Scarlet, have introduced mobile phones specially made for young children.On Wednesday,national carrier KPN will unveil a kid phone - iKids - with a built in GPS receiver,which remains working even when the phone isn't activated. Parents can select three 'safety zones', areas where their children are allowed to play.If they wonder off to another area, parents receive an SMS message.They can also look up the child's whereabouts on a virtual map. If one pre-defined number isn't answered, the phone will try the next one.Scarlet,which launched its Buddy Bear on October 15, targets 4 to 9 year olds.Kids can receive calls from all over the world, but they can only phone and SMS to four pre-defined numbers".

iKids! Tracked by GPS at all times? An inevitable trend? Comments?

Passports with chips

The original declaration was that: "All U.S. passports will be implanted with remotely readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced",CNET News reports."Sweeping new State Department regulations issued Tuesday say that passports issued after that time will have tiny radio frequency ID (RFID) chips that can transmit personal information including the name,nationality,sex,date of birth,place of birth and digitized photograph of the passport holder.Eventually,the government contemplates adding additional digitized data such as "fingerprints or iris scans."

Now...after quite an uproar, the State Department agreed to rethink that plan -- and have now come out with a renewed plan that seems much more reasonable, though not perfect.

They're going to include some shielding technology on the outside of the passport so that it will be nearly impossible to read the data from the passport while it's closed, along with "Basic Access Control" that gives the passport holder the ability to decide when and how to let the data out.

Read full at News.com which also includes a great visual network displaying passport RFID connections.

The internet and the computer illiterate

This IEEE Spectrum online article by Intel ethnographers Tony Salvador and John Sherry says "at Internet outposts in India,Peru,and Hungary,even the computer illiterate reap the advantages of the Web.In the Morena District in the state of Madhya Pradesh,India,an illiterate woman approaches the local soochak,the manager of an Internet kiosk.She complains about a water well that is not operating, and the soochak,for a small fee,uses a PC to enter her complaint on an electronic form,uploading it to a local hub,where it is registered with the authorities.In Cuzco,Peru, a woman needs to contact her emigrant son in New York City for money to pay a doctor's bill.An international phone call would be prohibitively expensive. Instead, she goes to the local cabina pública, a small public computer center,where voice-over-Internet capability allows her to make a short call to her son for a sol or less,about 30 US cents.She has been communicating with him in this way for the past seven years.In Eastern Hungary, a man named Laszló,who hunts rabbits to sell to restaurants, talks about his business with János, the local operator of a teleház, a small public facility with PCs. János surfs the Web to locate a government grant for the growing of special seed corn. Laszló can use this corn to feed the rabbits through the winter, so they'll be fatter for spring hunting".Via smartmobs

[Computer illiterate and the web]

The Finnish Mobile Cluster

Today some 30% of the ICT companies in Finland focus on mobile technologies or services. The size and volume of the Finnish mobile cluster has a significant impact on the whole Finnish economy. Before global mobile phone sales took off The Finnish mobile cluster was born to meet needs in the local marketplace.

Read the following report - published 8/9/05 - for a good overview: 'The Finnish Mobile cluster - evolution that led to a revolution' gives an overview concerning the Finnish mobile cluster. It covers both the factors that lie behind the mobile revolution that took place in Finland and the current situation.

Nearly 700 square miles of Wi-Fi: it's increasing use in the public sector

Govtech.net says the largest Wi-Fi/WiMAX network up and running in the U.S isn't found in a major city,but "the distinction goes to a number of small towns and cities in Umatilla and Morrow Counties in eastern Oregon as well as part of Benton County in the State of Washington, which all have access to a Wi-Fi/WiMAX cloud that extends across nearly 700 square miles.These aren't the sort of places where one would naturally expect to find cutting-edge broadband Internet access. In fact, Morrow County doesn't have a single traffic light.!!!

Yet for the last year now, police, fire and emergency medical personnel in Hermiston, Boardman, Lexington, Heppner and other cities in the area have been using the Wi-Fi network to communicate complex information between offices and the field."

Is this leading to more mobile connections between public services? Is this a good move, and will this project be taken up in European countries? Has it already been taken up to some extent? Comments?

Read more at govtech.net

Spinners and bloggers: political communications in the digital age

The M.I.T communications forum held on Oct 20 "Spinners and bloggers: political communications in the digital age.This is the blurb from the site:

"For decades, perhaps for as long as independent newspapers have existed, political operatives have used "spin" to shape the way the news media respond to candidates and their policies. Spin can be understood as a kind of top-down power that depends on the social network linking political leaders and the news media. Some have argued that weblogs or blogs have emerged in recent years to disrupt this culture of spin. They see blogging as a grassroots movement that also tries to shape or control public perceptions of important events and issues. Others have claimed that the blogosphere has merely enhanced the influence of traditional interest groups, giving ideologues of the left and the right even more power to “spin” the world as they wish to see it. How can we understand the interplay between spin and blogs? How do each shape, some would say manipulate public opinion? How are each subject to abuse? Is the culture of spin and blogging contributing to the polarization of American political discourse?"

An audio recording of Spinners and Bloggers is now available - a podcast on weblogs! A truly mobile communication here...

Read more at the MIT page

Creating the Global Hot Spot

Wired News has an interesting report on satellite-beaming broadband - indeed, this carries some answers about the long-awaited 'broadband from the sky' in terms of updated satellite ventures - opinions?:

"Telecom giant Inmarsat is weeks away from launching the second in a series of two super-satellites -- designed to be among the most powerful commercial communications spacecraft in orbit -- that will beam broadband data and voice services to almost any location on the planet.

The I-4 satellites will serve as switchboards in the sky for Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network, or BGAN, service, scheduled for rollout in 2006. Instead of cruising for a Starbucks, BGAN subscribers can hit the road with a portable terminal as small as their laptop computer and surf the web -- or connect with the office LAN -- at broadband speeds of up to 492 Kbps."

Full article at Wired

Web-based neighborhood sites

In the recent past, the site 'i-neighbors' emerged as a neighbourhood website. Now, the trend has been followed by others.

In this post,the state of neighbourhood-based websites is discussed:

"I-neighbors.org is still larger than any other U.S. / Canadian neighborhood based web service that I know of, but the number of sites similar to i-neighbors.org continues to grow. Backfence.com is focused on the Washington D.C. area, they currently support only three neighborhoods but intend to expand across the U.S. Their website mentions that they recently received 3 million dollars in start-up funds. Nice website, surprisingly consistent with the features offered at i-neighbors.org, although it appears to focus on a bulletin board type system rather than email lists. eBlock is a similar for-profit initiative. While not yet available for wide spread public use, they are currently running trials on a few "blocks." Blocks are their unit of organizing, limiting each neighborhood group in size to rather small predefined geographic areas. They are still looking for funding before they expand. I'm still not convinced that there is a for-profit model for this type of site, but I am really interested to see how these sites progress. I am also surprisingly conflicted, i-neighbors.org is a non-profit research project designed both to build neighborhood interactions and to encourage the development of other local social capital Internet initiatives, but I feel a surprising need to compete. If the site is to continue to grow I think it needs to evolve. It will become increasingly difficult to remain competitive with other sites based on my shoe string academic funding, especially when other sites can attract venture capital, but stay tuned for i-neighbors.org v.2.0 some time early next year."

Any comments on neighbourhood websites, and their effectiveness?