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Mobile 2.0

By Lasa Information Systems Team

This article looks at the new developments in mobile technology, mobile 2.0, and how organisations can make use of these developments.

Mobile phones are everywhere - literally.

Their increasing use, and the availability of new services for them, means they are becoming an effective tool for doing everything from organising your mobile life to campaigning for social change.

What is mobile 2.0?

Mobile phone services and web services are also being increasingly integrated. This convergance has been summed up by the use if the term Mobile 2.0. The promise of Mobile 2.0 is to add portability, connectivity and location-based services to enhance information and services found on the web. The days of small mobile phone screens and expensive mobile web tariffs are also fast disappearing. Most experts in the field are expecting mobile devices to quickly overtake computers as the most popular way of connecting to the internet.

Mobiles – the numbers

The latest studies estimate there are 3 billion mobile phones in operation around the world – this compares to an estimated 1.2 billion personal computers. With these sorts of numbers, mobile technology is beginning to have a significant impact the way we live and work. Using our mobile phones we can now surf the internet to search for nearby services, send and receive email, text friends and colleagues, take and send pictures, record audio and video – and even make phone calls. Mobile phones have also emerged as the likeliest means of bridging the “digital divide”.

In 2000, the United Nations set a goal of 50% of the world’s population having access to a phone by 2015 – this has already been achieved, with nearly 80% of the world’s population living within range of a mobile network. Mobile infrastructure is cheaper to deploy than fixed landlines, mobiles are cheaper than PCs, and surprisingly have turned out to suffer few of the weaknesses of PCs.

Mobile usage

Before we can exploit mobile technology we need to know what people are doing with their mobile phones. In the UK, there are some 44.5 million subscribers to mobile phone networks from a population of 60.5 million (ONS, 2006). Text messaging is by the far most popular service, with email and web browsing some way behind, mainly because mobile tariffs in the UK have made them expensive. However, this could change with the introduction of faster 3G (third generation networks), larger touch-screen devices like the iPhone and the surging popularity of mobile social-networking sites like Facebook.

Mobile applications

New mobile tools and services are appearing all the time. Some of the applications that can help organisations work more efficiently and flexibly are:

Mobile Office

Mobile office applications offer a low cost way to engage without the complexity or cost of investing in computer hardware. If you have staff who work remotely or spend long periods out of the office, chances are that they will want to keep in touch by using their mobile phone to check emails, calendar and contacts.

Push Email systems

Most mobile operating systems will work with Microsoft Exchange Server – the software most commonly used by businesses for setting up staff with email, calendar and contacts. If you want email delivered instantly to your mobile wherever you are in the world – then you need Push e-mail.

This provides an “always-on” capability, in which new email is instantly transferred (pushed) to the mobile phone as it arrives.
However, if you do decide to grant mobile phone access to Exchange Server you should also be aware of the security risks and take appropriate precautions. For example, what will you do if the Chief Executive leaves their mobile phone in the pub with all their emails and contacts easily accessible?

Microsoft Active Sync

A second option is use Microsoft Active Sync to synchronise Outlook email, calendar, contacts and tasks with your mobile phone. Synchronisation will only work when your phone or PDA is physically connected to your office computer.

Google Mobile

As an alternative to BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Active Sync, Google has made many of its free services, such as Search, Maps, Mail, Calendar, News Reader, Picassa photo albums and Youtube videos, accessible via web pages specially designed for mobile phones. All you need to get started is a mobile phone with a web browser. To get started you will need to sign up for a free Google account. Once you’ve done that, go to Google Mobile and enter your mobile number.

Google will then send you a text message with a verification code for you to enter in the Google Mobile web page. You can now access Google services from your mobile phone, but be sure to check your mobile’s tariff for web browsing before starting.

Calendar Sync

Outlook is not designed for viewing on mobile phones not running Windows Mobile or Blackberry. However, Google Calendar Sync provides two-way syncing between your Outlook calendar and your Google Calendar, so you can now view your Outlook calendar via Google Calendar on your mobile phone.

Calendar reminders

Many people keep reminders of dates in many different places – on a work computer, on our home computer, on our mobile phone, in a paper diary and on post-it notes stuck on the fridge door.
Using Google Calendar can take the hard work out of this by sending free text message reminders of calendar events to your mobile phone. All you need to do is create an event on Google Calendar and schedule a reminder.

Outlook email and Google Email

If you don’t have a Windows Mobile or Blackberry device, the easiest way of viewing your Outlook email on your mobile phone is to set up an account in Google Mail. Microsofr give tips on using Google with Microsoft Outlook. However, do bear in mind the security implications of making company emails accessible to a mobile phone.

VOIP

Voluntary sector organisations make use of VoIP to make free or cheap calls over the internet to colleagues and partners all over the world. However, mobile VoIP is still in infancy and is mostly limited to mobile phones with WiFi capability as many mobile networks do not have the capacity to handle VoIP calls.

One of the best known VoIP providers is Skype, which has mobile versions of its software for around 50 different handsets and Windows Mobile devices. Skype also has its own 3 Skyphone handset which offers free calls to other Skype mobiles or Skype subscribers with a computer.

In the UK, Tesco has begun a pilot extension to its VoIP service – Tesco Internet Phone – onto mobiles, offering WiFi capable handsets the chance to make free calls to other Tesco customers.

Two new services, GrandCentral and TalkPlus, provide subscribers with one number that rings their mobile, home and office phones. This could have great potential for small organisations and home-workers who need to take work calls but don’t want to advertise their personal number.

Both services also offer voicemail services, which could offer a lifeline for homeless communities without access to a mobile or traditional voicemail. MobileActive reports on the Community Voice Mail (CVM) program which has helped 40,000 people a year across the USA access voicemail services.

Mobile conference calls

Mobile conferencing calling is in its infancy, but a new service called RokTalk offers interesting possibilities for rural communities or organisations needing to co-ordinate a large mobile workforce. RokTalk is currently a free beta service (by application only) and allows calls to up to 30 people simultaneously.

Mobile imaging

With ScanR you can turn your camera phone into a scanner, copier, and fax. All you need to do is take clean photos of documents and business cards and ScanR will extract any text and contact information.

Conclusion

Many commentators believe that mobile phones have the power to overcome the “digital divide” – they are cheaper, easier to maintain and more ubiquitous than personal computers. In the UK we are poised on the verge of third generation (3G) faster mobile networks and in recognition of this services are increasingly being designed and delivered to mobile phones. All we need is for tariffs to be sensibly priced and we could see mobile web browsing over-take browsing from personal computers.

The future is here and it has a ringtone!