The Mobile Internet

Here is an interesting posting by Joi Ito. The open, innovative and competitive nature of the internet is compared with the closed ecosystem of the mobile phone industry (an industry that is operated by comparatively few players). Joi essentially questions the ‘fit’ of the internet with the mobile sector.

In a world that has over 3 billion mobile phones as against 1.3 billion internet users, there is no question that the mobile phone and the internet are highly valued respectively. While the open nature of the internet has generated so much growth in the communications and media industry, people love the convenience and usefulness of their mobile phones. It will be very interesting to see how these two stand-out forms of connectivity will evolve over the next few years, and what  will come from the influence of one on the other.

Top Six Trends Communications and Media Technology, Applications and Services

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has identified six major technology trends it believes will have a significant impact on regulation of the media and communications sector over the next five to ten years.

The top six trends are:

• an accelerating pace of change, driven by overlapping developments in technology and the resulting increase in connections between people, databases and objects;
• diversity in the development of physical infrastructure, including broadband, digital broadcasting, smart radio systems, sensor networks, mesh-networks, efficiency techniques in multi-media transmission, location sensing and context aware technologies, intelligent transport systems and satellite services;
• the continuing spread of distributed connectivity, through the integration of information processing beyond the desk-top into everyday objects and activities;
• enhanced content and network management capabilities driven by developments in deep packet inspection and content filtering technologies, coupled with the need to improve e-security, identity management, intellectual property protection and energy efficiency;
• the emerging Social Web, acting both as a platform and database, enabling innovation and creativity by users and service providers; and
• continuing scientific and technological innovation that are, in combination, driving advances in computing power, display technologies, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.

ACMA’s report, Top Six Trends in Communications and Media Technologies, Applications and Services – Possible Implications provides a concise overview of the trends in technology, applications and services over the next five to ten years and identifies the potential impact these trends may have on ACMA’s functions and responsibilities.

‘Regulatory pressure created by developing technologies is starting to bite into core legislative concepts and definitions, creating strained or ‘broken concepts’. Ultimately, their ‘elasticity’ will expire at which time they will no longer function efficiently or effectively in a converged environment.’ said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman.

Consuming, producing, sharing through the cognitive surplus

Thanks to Tony at ABC Digital Futures, I’ve seen Clay Shirky’s talk at Web2.0 Explore. You can view the presentation at Calacanis.com.

Using his words, Clay’s insight was to understand that “when people are offered the opportunity to produce and share, they will do it”. The ‘Participative Web’ is that opportunity. Clay describes the migration of people from the TV set to the Web as being of comparable social and economic significance as the industrial revolution.

Some fascinating statistics come out in Clay’s presentation, such as Americans spending 200 billion hours each year watching TV. Imagine the social and economic possibilities if even one half of that time was spent producing and sharing via the Web – using the ‘cognitive surplus’ that has been untapped for many years.

Clay’s view about the inherent attraction to producing and sharing squares with my research on the participative web: that social needs (status, self-esteem, self expression, affiliation, and reciprocity) are increasing being met online.

Finally, Clay’s observation that “media targeted at you but that does not include you” – i.e traditional broadcasting – is on the outer.

Telecommunications and the mobile internet

Susan Crawford has posted a useful perspective on the ‘open’ conditions placed on C Block spectrum (in reference to the recent FCC auction, USA) and what is possibly a strategy to get around them. Bear in mind that the intent of the open conditions rules is to decouple applications and devices from the underlying network, thereby promoting innovation and choice.

There are fundamental issues at stake here in the migration of voice and multimedia to wireless IP networks. Verizon’s strategy appears to be a reassertion of the telecommunications model of vertically integrated, fully managed and billed services. As Ms Crawford observed, that’s not the internet.

The strategy underpinning Verizon’s business model hinges on the successful deployment of IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS). Developed by the mobile industry standards group 3GPP, IMS was developed as an evolutionary replacement to GSM (an ecosystem for cellular networks inclusive of billing systems). IMS allows for traffic discrimination, billed according to network operator requirements. As an industry standard – as with GSM – IMS is a standardised set of specifications for devices to connect to broadband wireless networks.

Susan’s posting also provides a view on government’s role in this context:

- In cooperation with industry, develop a standard set of specifications
for all devices to connect to broadband wireless networks
- Ensure the specifications do not unfairly discriminate
- Police the industry to ensure that industry effective comply with the
policy intent of de-coupling networks from applications and devices

Verizon’s mobile sector strategy in the United States is a test between vertically-integrated, fully managed networks vs. the open nature of the internet. What’s more, my understanding is that IMS could be deployed in wired networks as well. Will openness win over closed systems in the long-run?

Australian Institute for Public Policy

A new public policy think tank is being set up by the Australian Federal and Victorian State Governments in partnership with the University of Melbourne. The institute is to be modelled on the Brookings Institute in the United States. Dealing with domestic and international issues, topics are to include energy policy, climate change and Australia’s role in the region.

Andrew Leigh suggests that, in an increasingly crowded think tank space, the institute would be best placed to “…carve out a domestic policy niche, looking at urban policy, crime policy, health policy, schools policy, innovation policy, IT policy, etc.” While not decrying from the view that domestic policy debate on these issues are worthwhile, I note that the Brookings Institute research covers internet policy. As a ‘global network of networks’, and given the rapid rise in social and economic importance of the internet internationally as well as in Australia, I would suggest the AIPP may well have a role there too. The issues transcend domestic, regional and international public policy debate.

A recent policy brief from the Brookings Institure is of interest – Using the Media to Promote Adolescent Well-Being (Donahue, Haskings, and Nightingale). The authors advocate using the media to “…provide positive messages that counteract the negative and potentially damaging messages to which they are so frequently exposed”.