This Year’s SXSW Conference Shows That Mobile Is The Future

Navarrow — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:18:28 +0000

The South By Southwest festival in Austin Texas has become the Launchpad for startups over the last few years with it’s unique ability to take a company from unknown to the next hot thing over the course of a few days. With its Multitude of events spread out across the city, it provides a unique scaling exercise for any start-up focused on real time communication and location. The most notable of the companies to experience the success of this conference are Twitter and Foursquare but since then others have had similar success. If you have read any article leading up to Friday’s start then you already know that the driving theme of this year’s conference is group-messaging apps. New start-ups like Groupme, Beluga, Fast Society and Eightbit are looking to unseat big players like foursquare and Twitter as the Go to app.
While I think that space has quickly become over crowded, I also think that the key thing here that people may be missing is that this conference is also showing that the mobile web is the future. The common denominator for all of these apps is that almost all of their activity will take place on a mobile device. Their level of success will actually depend on it. Gone are the days where people keep laptops open while they sit in conference sessions. Smart phones and tablets will now replace them. (Given the Ipad 2 launch this Friday I’d be curious to know how many devices will be purchased in the Austin area this weekend)

The mobile web is taking center stage and I actually believe can truly be considered mainstream. This will continue to evolve as we do things like share private moments with products like Path and aspiring business owners continue to increasingly sell their wares anywhere with products like Square and many other products enter and change different aspects our lives. The mobile device will continue to be the epicenter of this activity as we move into the future. But based on what’s about to happen at SXSW, the future is NOW

Daily Digest 3_12_10

Navarrow — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:58:47 +0000

The Net Neutrality Title Game

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20000267-94.html

So today I came across an article on CNET News that explains how proposed Net Neutrality rules (rules that will enabled the FCC to regulate private sector Internet providers in a manner that could potentially stifle the competitive landscape, shift the costs of expansion and advancement into the hands of everyday consumers, and slow down the adoption of high-speed Internet by minorities and the under-served by ultimately raising prices for everyone) could be adapted. Now you see why everyone just uses the term Net Neutrality The article gives a good explanation of the difference between Title I and Title II Classifications that were put into place in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 . It explains how neutrality proponents want the FCC to reclassify Internet service providers to be governed under Title II. By reading this you can get an understanding of what effect that will have on the services currently available. The key word here is “explain,” and as I have mentioned in the past, my key complaint with pro-neutrality groups is that they don’t explain anything in their arguments. They give opinions and the same examples in almost everything I read. I’m a cause and effects kind of guy. Show me the cause and the actual effect based on real examples, not based on conceptual ones. Anyway give this article a read and it will help you better understand the issue.

National Broadband Plan Has Everyone Talking

If you have not heard, the FCC is releasing it’s broaband plan on March 16th and there is no shortage of coverage on it. I like this post from Rey Ramsey, CEO of One Economy, where he illustrates how the Internet changed the life of one businessman. And as you can see below there are alot of people wating to see what is announce on the 16th.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rey-ramsey/broadband-for-all—ameri_b_496751.html

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20100311/if-its-tuesday-it-must-be-the-national-broadband-plan-if-your-connection-isnt-too-slow-you-can-tune-in-online/

http://www.convergedigest.com/regulatory/regulatoryarticle.asp?ID=29879

iPad Frenzy is Starting. Go to Techcrunch and Try to Win a free One!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/12/techcrunch-friday-giveaway-an-apple-ipad-crunch/

The pre-orders have started. The iPad arrives in April but TechCrunch is giving one away! Just go to this article and follow the directions.

Navarrow Wright » ipad

This Year’s SXSW Conference Shows That Mobile Is The Future

Daily Digest 3_12_10