Navarrow Wright » Mobile

Don’t Slow Down the Mobile Broadband Rush

Navarrow — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:55:52 +0000

I came across this article today from the St. Petersburg Times and wanted to share it.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/dont-block-mobile-path-onto-internet/1113659

There have been some studies that have shown the rapid adoption of mobile broadband by minorities. While the hope is that they adopt wire-line broadband as well it is encouraging to see that mobile technology has allowed them to get exposure to the benefits of broadband access. The article questions whether the FCC recognizes this growth and how their current proposed net nuetrality rules could stifle this growth. The article drives home the point that i have been making for while , that the FCC should focus on fostering growth and adoption instead of bogging things down with regulations. Take a read and let me know your thoughts

The Right Direction? Let’s Be Sure

Navarrow — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:14:14 +0000

This post was originally posted on Blackweb20.com

There have been reports recently touting the growth in the use of the mobile web by African Americans and English–speaking Latinos. Research by Pew Internet & American Life Project found African-Americans and English-speaking Latinos continue to be among the most active users of the mobile web.

About 64 percent of African-Americans access the Internet from a laptop or mobile phone, a seven-point increase in just one year. Cell phone ownership is higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among whites (87 percent vs. 80 percent) and minority cell phone owners take advantage of a much greater range of features compared with white users.

You can read the report here. Many have eluded that this show the digital divide is closing. I’m not so sure I can start celebrating yet. Don’t get me wrong I am always happy to see increased usage of technologies by minorities but at the same time I always push to make sure that any group understands the real ways that access to Internet can benefit them. Are they checking for vital health care info they otherwise had no access to or are they checking the latest celebrity gossip. Did they gain access to all the free education information available or download some music?

Yes, the Internet is a great new medium for entertainment but in order it to truly empower us and for the digital divide to truly close, it has to be a means of improving and equalizing access to education, health, and career advancement. Don’t let reports like this give you a false sense of satisfaction. We must continue to educate and push for adoption. And once we reach those goals we then must push for people to use this access to really improve their lives and the lives of the people around them. So as we LOL, ROFL, OMG and BRB to our friends. Let’s also push people for the right level of awareness of what’s available to them so they can GTD in the right areas.

Commented on “Black Web 2.0″

Navarrow — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:00:29 +0000

That’s funny! Glad to see your reading my posts. I’m sorry if my comments intimidate you because that is not my intent. My comments are direct because I believe these issues to be important but they are not malicious and there is a difference. My point is to simply point out the things that the facts support. The mobile industry is a proven one that is still growing and all media companies are looking at how they can exploit that growth to create new revenue streams and obtain new audience segments. To suggest that Black media should take a slower approach to entering this industry is bad on two fronts. It continues to put them in last place in terms of media innovation and also hurts adoption of these platforms by African Americans desperately looking for relevant content. Blog sites are all about debate and opinions. But when opinions are passed along as facts they can be misleading and I know there are many people who come to this site to gain knowledge and understanding of this industry and encouragement to follow their entrepreneurial dreams the right way. Any point I make I can back up with real data and we owe it to everyone in the dialog to do so or make sure they know that it’s just your opinion on the subject. Black owned media is lagging and essentially out of the game. If they have a social media strategy it is most likely a generation behind what is being used by sites to scale currently, hence this post and the earlier post on the Ipad. What’s most important is that :
a) The dialog is happening.
b) Someone of there is getting an idea on how they can create something that can fill the need.
That’s what I care about. And lastly to speak to you point in your last post. I can work on my current projects and have time to let you know when you giving misleading commentary. It’s called Multitasking and it’s even going to be available on the iphone soon! Here’s to hoping we have enough culturally relevant apps there to flip through. Have a blessed weekend.

Originally posted as a comment
by navarrowwright
on Black Web 2.0 using DISQUS.

Creating a new generation of technology entrepreneurs Part 2: Consumption vs. Creation

Navarrow — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:25:24 +0000

It’s Global Entrepreneurship Week across the globe this week. You can read all about it here. But I’m sure you all knew that already because you’ve seen the bus loads of inner city kids being taken to events to help them understand what entrepreneurship is all about or you have had to sign permission slips for them to participate in workshops to show them how easily they can create tech start-ups. (I really wish that were the case)
A few months ago I was at a conference and someone was talking about how African Americans are the biggest consumers of mobile technology and content. They talked about how Diddy was a presenter at the last wireless conference and how minorities are buying and utilizing mobile services at a rapid pace. I started to think about how even though this may be great for the mobile industry and may even provide value for us as consumers, it sends the wrong message. We all like to have the newest, hottest gadgets, but not enough of us look at these new items as business opportunities. We play video games and never think about what it takes to create them. We use facebook and twitter and never think about how we can create businesses with them–satisfying the creators of these products but missing out on the opportunities that are right in front of us. I’m not sure if I’m more frustrated with that or with the fact that the rest of the world assumes that is how it’s supposed to be. I believe the mobile space has some of the best examples of this, and here is one in regards to the Iphone: when apple announced that they had achieved the 1 billionth download of an app from the app store. Since that number was reached at such a rapid pace it was worth taking a look at this market. I decided to explore what the barrier of entry was for creating an Iphone app.

1. First I would need to learn how to build one. I went to the library and found 3 books on Iphone development that I could take out (for free). Next I went to the Internet and found out that there is class that Stanford offers on Iphone development that you can watch on Itunes (for free.) You can get it here . You can actually see all the schools that have classes on Itunes for that matter here .

2. Once I had all this information, I then found that the tool which apple offers to create the apps (called Xcode) is offered (for free) here.

3. Once I go through and create an app I can get it uploaded to the app store by joining the developer program here for about $99 .

Now this is a high level walk through of what it would take to get going, but compare it to what it would take to open a restaurant, or a Laundromat or any physical business. I mentioned for free a lot in those points to highlight that money is not a barrier here. Also take into account that there are many businesses on the iphone app store that started out with just one person and now are making 6 figures in sales or their apps. The larger point I wanted to send home is that many of the people we know would not even think about this as a possibility let alone go through the steps. That is what has to change. If you have children of your own or know that you can affect, encourage them to wonder how things work, who builds them and can they make a living doing it. Help to develop the problem solving mindset that is in all of them. The holidays are coming so I know young people are asking for the Wii, Xbox, playstations and phones like the iphone. Take a few minutes to get them to take a look on the Internet or go to the library to see what it takes to create the content they are consuming. The bottom line is that adoption and consumption of these technology mediums is great, but if we as minorities don’t get involved in the creation process then how can we ever have any level of control?