Mobile Devices and Social Computing

Posted on April 23, 2008 
Filed Under Tony Chang

I think mobile devices should be seen as the most important social computing device for the future. The phone probably should be considered the new digital “You”, which is how digital business and personal socialization is accomplished in the future. Phones are typically not shared which means someone’s phone is really a true personal extension of oneself.

Currently, most of the focus with social software applications has been on internet sites, such Facebook and Twitter, which require users to enter in information about himself or herself on a regular basis thru a keyboard or mouse. This is usually done during social site registration and/or updating information about themselves whether that is presence, location or profile info. This is fine but its probably one of the pain points with social software in general which is the required explicit action usually in the form of typing. This means that when push comes to shove folks don’t have time to twitter.

So what makes the mobile device so special is its ability to know about you all the time and can transmit this information in a wireless fashion. The phone is able to bring to socialization a new context related to location awareness. In most cases you already have lots of personally stored information on your phone, which you just entered once. Coupled with location awareness and wireless capabilities, the phone can now update, receive and send profile and presence information implicitly without having you do a thing.

If you are waiting for a plane at an airport your real time presence information can be advertised to a feed that your friends subscribe to so they know where you are. The airport might know when you have arrived and can transmit flight and departure information to your phone vs having to find and look it up on digital board. Your phone might also detect fellow colleagues who are also at the airport so that you can meet up with them while waiting for your flight. All this data being passed and without specific action taken from the individual.

Sure the scenarios here might scare a bunch of folks, including me, but if we work thru the issues like we have done with all other new ideas in the past then I think the possibilities of what you and your phone can achieve for the future is very much wide open.
So lets figure out ways to capitalize on these capabilities sooner rather than later.

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