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Written on April 20, 2008 – 11:00 am
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
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This is a guest post by mobile marketeer Peter Evers
After Russell Beattie’s post about the end of Mowser, a mobile transcoder, last Monday, a lot of bloggers reacted fiercely on his controversial viewpoints about the end of the mobile web. As a mobile marketing professional I feel kind of obliged to write about my view on the future of the mobile web.
Let’s start with a short recap about what happened this week. On Monday Russell Beattie, founder of Mowser, an application that transcodes normal websites to mobile websites, announced that Mowser has stopped. In this very personal article Russell came up with different reasons for the end of Mowser, such as lack of funding and personal debts but mostly Russell’s lack of confidence in the future of the mobile web. Russell states:
…I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to. In other words, I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I’m tired of wasting my time…
With this kind of powerful expressions, the commotion he caused in the blogosphere doesn’t come as a surprise. Almost every mobile blog I’m subscribed to wrote about it. Especially the articles at MobHappy, MobileMarketingWatch and mocoNews.net were worth reading, But what is Russell actually saying? If you read his text carefully you might have understood that the thing he isn’t confident about is browsing mobile-only websites on two-inch screens.
I can say that I don’t believe in mobile-only websites with no or little PC presence too. If a website is only visible on a phone and not or hardly available on a PC, people probably will not know about its presence.
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Written on April 6, 2008 – 12:45 pm
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
This article is written by Tessa Sterkenburg who has a background in scientific publishing and web technology.
On Friday afternoon The Next Web Conference hosted the world premiere of the documentary The truth according to Wikipedia from IJsbrand van Veelen. The leading questions in the documentary were: Should we let just anyone state his or her opinion or should we leave the publishing of information to the experts? Could the openness of the web be dangerous? Who has the right to establish truth?
The people being interviewed are amongst others Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia), Larry Sanger (the since-fired (Correction: Larry was not fired but laid off when Bomis needed to scale down from 12 to 4 employees.) co-founder of Wikipedia) and Andrew Keen (author of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy).
Andrew Keen is against the openness on the web, and argues that we should give the right to publish back to the experts, so that we know that what we read on the web is actually the truth.
That is an interesting statement. If we draw a parallel to the description of World War II in the Netherlands then Andrew Keen wants us to read Lou de Jong only, even though many people want to hear the opinion of the famous 14-year old ‘blogger’ of those days: Anne Frank.
(Lou de Jong was the official Dutch historian during World War II and author of “The History of the Netherlands in the Second World War”. Later, this book series received a lot of criticism, as Lou de Jong was accused of misrepresenting the truth by being too favorable towards the role of the Dutch resistance during the German occupation.)
Rita Verdonk is a Dutch politician who recently set up a new political party in the Netherlands. During the launch of her party on April 3, she had lots of one-liners, but…no program! Rita is going to set up a Wiki and let the people, collectively, determine the program. Power to The People!
When I came home from The Next Web Conference and saw her on TV, my first reaction was: “Oh my God, we should really leave this to the experts”. I want someone who knows what he or she is talking about, studied it, balanced all the pros and cons of the problem, takes informed decisions. I want experts to do this! Not a crowd of uninformed civilians!
Similarly I have many American friends who are disgusted with the politics in their own country, and seem almost embarrassed about the fact that most people vote without really understanding the issues and the consequences.
In 1995, a poll on capital punishment in the UK showed us that 76% of British respondents supported the death penalty the UK. Yet, I am very glad that the British government then decided not to re-instate capital punishment.
At the same time I am very much in favor of democracy and freedom of speech. In 1994, I spent some time in Malaysia, a country that officially embraces democracy but didn’t always seemed to practice what they preach and, at the time heavily censored the media. I concluded after 5 months that I could never live there, because of the political system and their views on freedom of speech. However, my Malaysian colleagues insisted that you could just not let everyone say what they wanted. The government knows what’s best for you and you should let the government determine the truth… Hmm, doesn’t that sound like Andrew Keen?
Democracy is what everyone wants, but that doesn’t mean that every single decision should be made by the majority. A democracy means that we vote for someone who makes those balanced and informed decisions for us based on expert analysis. So when actual decisions are made we don’t want the people to be directly involved, but when it comes to information we do. What does this mean for our valuation of information? Do we take our information seriously enough?
Where do we draw the line? Obviously we value democracy highly. Wikipedia is a great resource as an instant and reasonably reliable reference. But do we want The People to determine our economic policies? Do we re-inforce the death penalty when the majority of people want this? Is the majority always right? And who are the Experts? The Malaysian government or the 14-year old blogger?
Considering that even scientific authors have to continuously revise what has been written: What is The Truth?
You can meet Andrew Keen personally during his European book promotion tour in April. Email him (ak@ajkeen.com) if you want to meet him in either Brussels, Amsterdam or Helsinki.
Written on March 27, 2008 – 3:27 pm
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
This is a guest post by Dagan Cohen, he’s the curator of PRE
Lets face it: we live in a fast economy, where the hunger for the ‘next big thing’ is so strong web entrepreneurs tend to minimize risk by copying and mashing up proved concepts. Although we wouldn’t like to admit it, the pressure of the marketplace narrows our vision and makes it hard for the industry to come with truly new ideas.
So, where to look for fresh ideas? Arguably the best place to start is where creative people can develop their ideas away from pressure of the market. Places like universities, art schools, small-scale research labs and small companies committed to creative experiment.
PRE shows a selection of projects by Dutch students and young artists who are driven by the new possibilities of the web and the digital realm. PRE celebrates the phase before an idea becomes a business concept. In this ‘green phase’ ideas are rough and vulnerable. They can be easily killed when the rules of the market are applied too rigidly.
Though some ideas immediately show a market potential – they just need a little push, others are more ambivalent and need to be looked at by different people from different angles to reveal their true purpose. That purpose is not necessarily a marketable product or service. It can be an autonomous art piece which purpose it is to make us think and reflect. It can be a conversation starter, or a stepping-stone for another idea.
The great thing about rough, ambivalent ideas is that they trigger us to finish or alter them. To add or change something so they’ll become better. At least in our minds. That’s why it’s important to get those ideas out of ‘the greenery’ into the open. And what place is more suitable for that purpose than the Next Web Conference?
Attendees of the conference can be inspired by the ‘premonitions’ of artist and students; the young creatives can profit from the knowledge and wisdom of industry professionals. After all: there’s no ‘Next’ without ‘Pre’. PRE is hosted by Draftfcb. (more…)
Written on March 16, 2008 – 12:43 pm
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
This is a guest post by Stefan Fountain from Dutch start-up Soocial.
By now most will have read about the Zuckerberg revolt (video here, and more), the release of Clickpass, and all the other big news. Yet I noticed something equally remarkable at the SXSW conference in Texas last week.
Building Portable Social Networks Panel - with Jeremy Keith, Chris Messina, Leslie Chicoine, Joseph Smarr, David Recordon
My impression of SXSW has been generally very good, the quality of the panels outstanding, yet the most important part of visiting this conference was - surprise! - meeting people. Walking around and having conversations with the likes of JavaScript heroes John Resig (jQuery), Thomas Fuchs (script.aculo.us), Sam Stephenson (Prototype), Chris Messina (OAuth evangelist), Simon Willison (OpenID evangelist). At parties I met people from Google, Microsoft or Yahoo! in various stages of intoxication. I even got some quick peeks at Billy Bob Thornton and Moby.
It wasn’t until the last day at the closing party when I was talking to a hard-to-understand German that I realized something. This was the first European I had spoken to. We met the great guys from Brighton-based Clearleft and quite a few other British guys, but where were the main-land Europeans? Perhaps I missed them, yet I’m judging from the panels, parties we went to and after speaking to over a hundred people. The statistics support my theory. My contact at SXSW confirms that 3 percent of the attendees came from the European mainland. Although the statistics on traffics to sxsw.com probably don’t say much, cumulative European visits is around 16 percent.
For what is arguably the most important tech event of the year, is the lack of European involvement a sign of something greater? Is it the current political climate, lack of European startups, overkill of our collective chauvinism or <enter any far-fetched reason here>? I don’t know, but what I do think it’s important to be present either to influence someone’s views, or to be influenced and inspired yourself.
So I would encourage European startups and established companies to head over to SXSW next year as it is well worth the money, jet lag, the occasional loud Americans, fat food and other pre-conceptions largely encountered on this trip. I think it’s time we head over the pond to learn, meet and share our own wealth of knowledge.
Written on February 11, 2008 – 6:08 pm
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
This is guest post by Reinout H.M. te Brake, Group Strategist for the Spill Group Holding
Google has acquired online address book, Plaxo in a “sub-$200m offer”, according to a blog on tech news site Wired. The site claims that Plaxo has accepted an offer and that the “purchasing company is most likely search engine Google.” The report has sparked various other online rumors, and follows a month of speculation about a major takeover bid. This followed a New York Times report at the beginning of January, which said Plaxo had hired investment bank, Revolution Partners, to handle a forthcoming deal.
Plaxo’s Chief Platform Architect Joseph Smarr
Silicon Valley gossip site, Valleywag, posted a report responding to the Google acquisition rumors claiming that the deal was completed due to good relations between Google’s social-network strategist Brad Fitzpatrick and Plaxo’s Chief Platform Architect Joseph Smarr. However a separate Valleywag report claims that cable operator, Comcast, may be bidding for Plaxo. Meanwhile CNet dismisses the Google rumor as “unlikely.”
In January it was strongly rumored that Facebook were seeking to buy Plaxo, also for $200m, yet this never materialized. A week earlier, the New York Times claimed Plaxo was due to auction itself for some $100m, with investment bankers recruited to handle the deal. Meanwhile, tech site, Techcrunch, this week cited a Silicon Valley insider as saying “Plaxo has been desperately, desperately, desperately trying to sell.”
Mountain View-based Plaxo started in 2002 as an online address book service, but recently shifted its focus to social networking with the launch of Plaxo Pulse. This tool acts as a social network aggregator, providing Facebook-style news feeds when users’ friends update their profiles on sites such as Twitter, Digg, and MySpace. In January Plaxo joined Facebook and Google as part of the Dataportability Group, a body which is working on projects designed to let users of social networks to transfer data from one network to another.
So, who is up to speed here and can give me details!?
Written on February 10, 2008 – 9:36 pm
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
This is a guest post by mobile marketeer Peter Evers
Last week I decided to explore ZYB.com. The guys from this service say it brings mobile data to life. Sounds pretty exciting to me. So I started to bring my own mobile data to life. And before I knew it, my data was leading a life on its own. I’ll tell you what happened.
I’ve uploaded all my phone numbers to ZYB in order to store my phone numbers online and enrich them with all kinds of information about people I have in my phone book. But when I checked if there were any other ZYB users in my phone book, I discovered that I was the only one. At this point ZYB had lost all it’s relevance to me. But quitting ZYB without really knowing what it is didn’t seem right, so I decided to invite a few friends by sending them an automatically generated ZYB-invite text message. This is where it all went wrong. Somehow I hit the ‘invite all’-button which was positioned one millimeter from the ‘invite’-button. At that point many phones around me in the office started ringing. Yes, this meant that I had sent a text message to all the 500 people in my phone book. I’ve spent the rest of the day on answering calls and text messages from disheartened old friends, business partners and colleagues who asked what the hell ZYB was. I couldn’t tell them, I just apologized.
So my first experience with ZYB was pretty bad. But a closer look on ZYB doesn’t quite change my opinion. ZYB has very few users, no one in my phone book uses it and after inviting all of them, still none of them are using it. Many users seem to be Danish, which gives me the impression that most users are friends of the Danish developers of ZYB. The ZYB community looks pretty boring too, probably because of the lack of users.
The biggest advantage of ZYB would be the possibility to store your phone numbers online, safely and secured (but don’t hit the wrong button). The funny thing is that a couple of days later I updated my Nokia N95 8GB and accidentally lost all my phone numbers. All my numbers were still in ZYB, so I could just download them back to my phone. But because of the automatic synchronization with both my office PC and my Mac at home I got all my numbers back before I could even think of ZYB. So what does ZYB really add?
Written on February 4, 2008 – 12:03 am
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
Article written by on-line media planner and tech blogger Jerry Houtman
Napster started it, and it has been going on ever since: the fight over online music sharing. Copyright issues are the core of this battle between the music industry and consumers, which recently took a turn for the unexpected. Ars Technica reported on the latest news on this matter, which came from Italy. What’s the story? The Italian government has unintentionally proved a considerable service to everyone who shares music through the Internet. The parliament has, as it happens, adopted a new law on the copyright, which permits Italians to spread and share music on-line, under the condition that they do this is for non-commercial aims and that it concerns music of lower quality. That might not sound as revolutionary as the headline suggests, but it most definitely is, for that second criterion is exactly where the Italian policy makers haven’t done their research all too well on.
According to Andrea Monti, a lawyer specialized in copyright, ‘lower quality’ is a term that can be interpreted very widely. The conversion necessary for sharing makes every music file circulating on the web one of lower quality than the original recording. That permit Italians to distribute music on the Internet without any restrictions. Although the law limits such sharing for scientific or educational aims, Monti believes it will make prosecuting a lot harder. Because let’s be honest: how many of us truly follow these particular rules?
Whereas the French policy makers tried to tackle illegal file sharing with a ban on Internet access, their Italian colleagues have made themselves the laughing stock of Europe by committing an enormous legal blunder. The law cannot be withdrawn or reconsidered, since it has already been approved of and only publication in the Official Journal keeps it from being official. The Italian government thus has to come up with a new law and make it pass through both Houses of Parliament again. It is almost too good to be true, and a small victory for consumers. If only I’d live in Italy.
Written on January 29, 2008 – 9:02 am
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
This article is written by Tessa Sterkenburg who has a background in publishing and web technology.
Since online user generated content is picking up, newspapers get continuously slashed for their inability to adjust to modern times and the demise of the old media was predicted. Now it turns out that the old-fashioned publishers are still going strong.
Newspapers were late to the game because, for years, they had near monopolies and fat profit margins, and therefore weren’t pressured to innovate. In 2005, all newspapers were still earning most of their profits from the print versions, and young people turned away from papers, leaving newspapers with a declining reader base, and declining revenue potential.
Last week The Newspaper Association of America announced that a record number of readers visited U.S. online newspaper sites last year. The number of unique visitors to newspaper websites rose more than 6 percent to a monthly average of 60 million. Monthly visits climbed 9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago.
So, all is going well then and newspapers are finally becoming innovative news sources online. Indeed newspapers are making steps in the right direction. They are embracing RSS feeds and video, ask their best journalists for their online versions, make more content available for free and there is even some collaboration. I can’t help noticing however, that this news comes together with reports that the biggest growth group online today are the baby boomers… coincidence?
Maybe not. The Wall Street Journal recently announced that they will not go along with the trend and hold on to their subscription model. The reason: it pays them good money. Not only in subscription fees but particularly in advertising revenues. Their well-defined paying user group of affluent 50-year old male decision makers turns out to be an attractive group for advertisers. Great model.
Unfortunately, as a new generation of decision makers is approaching, it might not last.
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
