Le MobiCarnet chroniqué par Alain Reiter :

Cellular operators take note:  Software for cellular phones + cameras + Weblogs

Dave Winer's Scripting News today points me to an article in The Register about an Irish company, NewBay Software, that's developing software that enables cellular phones with digital camera capabilities to post photos to Weblogs.  Yea!  For many people who read this Weblog, the "moblogging" phenomenon isn't news.  But for just about everyone else, the concept is new.  (Well, actually, it's pretty new to just about everyone!)

I've been wanting to write something about wireless and Weblogs + photography for a while, to complement what I've been saying about the value of wireless + photography in general. 

Mobile weblogs

Don't know what moblogging is all about?  Take a look at the Hiptop Nation weblog, based upon photos transmitted via Danger Research's cellular phone/PDA + camera attachment over the T-Mobile network.  Danger calls the device the hiptop and T-Mobile has branded it the Sidekick.  (I previously wrote about the Sidekick and other keyboard cellular devices.)

Also, click over to Joi Ito's Moblog.  Ito is a very well known Japanese entrepreneur and I've been reading his main Weblog for some time.

One of the problems with camera's used for mobile weblogging -- either integrated with the cellular phone or attached to it -- is the resolution is poor, as you can see by viewing the above-mentioned Weblogs.  You're lucky to get 640 x 480.  There are good reasons for the low resolution: the higher the resolution the bigger the file, and the bigger the file the longer it takes to send and, possibly, the more it will cost you. 

NewBay Software

NewBay's product, FoneBlog, is sold to cellular operators.  Text can be posted via SMS, MMS (MultiMedia Messaging), e-mail and via a Web interface.

The Register article quotes Paddy Holahan, NewBay's chief executive, saying the company is targeting 200 cellular operators around the world, beginning in Europe and the U.S.

NewBay's Web site looks pretty good, especially since the company, headquartered in Dublin, just announced its product today (January 8).

What about personal control?

NewBay's solution could be great for many users, especially those who want a simple solution and who don't have a Weblog.  But what if you already have a Weblog?  What if you want to add mobile blogging capability?  Will Weblogger.com, which hosts my Weblog, offer this capability?  I wouldn't bet on it.

Dave Winer has some comments about this, "The right way to do this, imho, is to connect the phone-to-weblog software through the MetaWeblog API, that way existing weblog users could participate, and new users would have choice of backend software.  Any cellphone service provider that buys into this proposal will have to scrap it in a few months when the general solutions come out.  Maybe less than a few months. Mobile blogging, or moblogging is very hot. So is choice for users."

Joi Ito, who also saw Dave's entry, discusses the concept in his posting, "...I think many carriers will go try to build the whole shooting match on their own. They don't understand the value of the community or the tools.  At least in Japan, carriers are very cocky and relatively well funded so I bet they will go it on their own, generally.  (Not that I won't try to get them to use open standards.) 

"I think another more interesting target are people who don't have a network of their own.  People like digital camera companies, hiptop device companies (Danger and Good), and cell phone companies like Nokia and Sony Ericsson.  Anyway, doing a simple moblog is easy.  (Posting pictures from a phone.)

"Making it REALLY interesting is going to be very exciting involving hardware, firmware, embedded software, DSP's, wireless technology, camera technology, identity, voice, privacy, security, GPS, IM and LOTS of other stuff."

I need a briefing from NewBay

I need to get a briefing from this company, especially since in two months I'm going to be discussing the integration of cellular phones with cameras as my Wireless Data University Wireless Entertainment panel which is the day before the largest wireless show in the U.S. 

I will continue to closely follow the wireless + weblog + cellular phone + camera business around the world.  It's just the beginning.

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