The next Northern StartUp 2.0 event is almost upon us. This time bringing the North’s premier telecommunications community together for one evening. Held one week after 3GSM Barcelona, the event aims to update the progress made within the last year and debate on the forthcoming technologies. Without further ado, here is the introduction from Imran Ali, ex-Deputy to Strategy Director of Orange:
Introduction
The umbrella term Web 2.0 provided a helpful framework for understanding various intersecting and overlapping trends, business models and design patterns across the internet industry. Despite the exponential growth of mobile communication and computing, Mobile 2.0 doesn’t describe an similarly epochal shift in mobility. The mobile industry remains mired in structural issues ranging from 3G debt to closed business and technology models…and yet carries a promise of reshaping culture, technology and business much more so than the web alone.
Openmoko, Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone, Nokia’s Trolltech acquisition, new ethnographic research and ‘the next billion’ customers in emerging markets all point to a increasing entanglement of the Web and mobility.
- Are mobiles simply windows into Kevin Kelly’s One Machine and the wider web?
- Should we consider the web and mobile web as distinct?
- Do we design for mobiles or mobility?
- What do people really desire from mobile technology and services?
- Are mobiles really what computers have become?
Understanding the future of mobility is about asking the right questions, postulating scenarios and deeply understanding the motivations of users – something the industry has singularly failed to do.
Mobile 2.0 seeks to explore these scenarios and questions with a range of speakers drawn from the communications industry; including thought leaders, investors and senior management. We hope you’ll join us in sharing their thoughts.
Moderator
Robert Wakeling, CEO – Robert is the founder of Wadaro Limited and has been principle in early business development, in securing support from partners & advisors and prospective investors. Prior to Wadaro, Robert held executive management positions at Openwave Inc. (NASDAQ:OPWV) and Magic4 Limited (acquired by OPWV). In his time at these two companies, Robert conceived a number of products now shipping in over a quarter of a billion mobile phones world-wide and is putting his industry knowledge and contacts to good use at Wadaro.
Speakers
Speaker 1 – Dr. Norman Lewis Wireless Grids Corporation – Chief Strategy Officer
Prior to joining WGC, Norman Lewis was the Director of Technology Research, Orange UK plc, (formerly the Home Division, France Telecom). In this role and prior to that as the founder and Director of Globalisation and Power in the Twenty First Century (1997) he has been a strategic pioneer in crafting innovation frameworks for the future application of information and communication technologies in society. Norman has a global reputation as an excellent communicator and inspirational presenter, with the ability to explain complex questions to a wide range of audiences. He has a robust track record of being able to focus, develop and mobilise a team around a set of objectives. His research team while at Orange were recognised as Internet thought-leaders across the world. Throughout his career, he has combined a passion for technology and people with a professionalism that has included extensive commitments in the private and public sphere, in voluntary as well as commercial environments. He is currently the Chairman of the ITU’s TELECOM Programme Committee and has acted as a consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organisation. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Sussex (UK) and has lectured at several Universities in the UK including Sussex, the University of Kent, Canterbury and Oxford.
Speaker 2 – Ed French Rising Stars – Enterprise Ventures – Investment Directot
Edward joined EV in 2002, initially to help set up the RisingStars Growth Fund and later to assess and complete technology investments. Edward has assessed several hundred business propositions and has completed investments to date mainly in software and medical technology. Prior to joining EV, Edward ran a technology transfer business based at the University of Bradford where he completed numerous licence deals and patents, and founded, and funded seven new spin-out companies, mainly in Telecoms, Medical Technology and Software. Edward served as Chairman of Unico, the University Companies Association, which deals with issues associated with creating spin-out companies from University technology. During this time Edward gained useful exposure to building technology business teams, IP strategy work and financing, building upon the experience before Bradford of managing product development, sales and manufacturing in a number of engineering businesses. Edward won a sponsorship from the National Engineering Laboratory to study Engineering Science at Cambridge, and has an MBA from the Bradford School of Management.
Speaker 3 – Paul Sandham Sanoodi
Convergent & participative technologies strategist & Technical Programme Manager. I have been involved in some of the murkier and less glamorous facets of the internet since 1994. From Application formulation, design, implementation and delivery through to setting up and running global 24/7 support operations. I have proposed and managed successful and viable organisational data quality/business intelligence projects in conjunction with KTP, and have been instrumental in setting up, testing and managing the accreditation of new on-line and real world card based payment systems and methods. I have as a result of the above set up and directed a number of development teams over the last decade. I have in addition successfully project managed a number of large building & organisational move projects. I have prepared and delivered presentations in the US and the UK on designing and developing Internet based applications, Participative technologies, Data quality & Information, & Business Continuity.
Speaker 4 – Tim Panton – Westhawk
Tim Panton has been a software developer for more than 25 years, working on a diverse range of projects, from chemical plant simulation to tourism web sites. He is also a contributor to open source projects, in particular GJTAPI a framework for implementing JTAPI (The Java Telephony API) and Westhawk’s Java SNMP stack. In recent years Tim has been predominantly involved in Asterisk development and implementation, working closely with key industry players he has been championing innovative integration of voice technologies in the social networking market for PhoneFromHere.com.
Programme
18:00 to 18:30 Registration
18:30 to 19:00 Networking
19:00 to 20:00 Speeches
20:00 to 20:15 Break
20:15 to 21:00 Panel Discussion
Cost
Cost to attend this event is £25 (£10 for students with valid student union card). Payment options are:
+ Pay at door
+ Bank transfer – Account Details: Account No. 01250841 Sort code 40-17-06 reference “NS20-08Feb”
Speeches:
+ Norman Lewis –
+ Eric Hobson – How consumers use mobiles and trends; a window on the future – Korea and Japan; the distribution landscape, Operators, Handset Manufacturers, D2C; technical constraints to Mobile 2.0 and how the are breaking down; the migration of Web 2.0 services to mobile
+ Paul Sandham – Dichotomy 2.0 – The participative web and advertising. Sanoodi, based in Snowdonia, North Wales is already an established Google maps mashup site that supports the recording of A to B outdoor activities such as; running, cycling, walking and mountain biking. Its growing community of over 12000 unique users have in its first year created 50,000 routes on six continents, routes that already cover over a million miles! Since version 1 moved from Beta in May last year, little has changed on the current site. Progress behind the scenes, however has been considerable. The Summer of 2007 has seen an entirely new application being developed in Bangor in consultation with a number of global players in the Mobile Internet and GIS sectors. The new site, API and mobile device applications (SMDA) are currently in private beta testing and will be made available as a public beta in March. The strategic aims of Sanoodi have remained consistent throughout this phase of its development: “Build the community, don’t clutter the site with ads, and be operationally efficient.” We will briefly describe how this strategy is being delivered and developed across convergent technologies whilst ensuring that Sanoodi has the ability a to sustain a growing, easily manageable revenue stream.
by focusing specifically the following aspects: The evolution of the Sanoodi community, application and web-site. Dealing effectively with the dichotomy of web 2.0 and advertising Mobile Sanoodi. Paul Sandham is the senior snood at Sanoodi
+ Tim Panton – Tim will be discussing some technological changes, which may shape the future of Mobile 2.0. These jigsaw pieces include: Web 2.0 changes in expectations, the imminent launch of the .tel Top level domain, the increasing programmability of iPhone and Android, and improvements in loudspeaker technology. Tim will try to indicate how these parts might come together and form a whole.
+ Ed French – Investor’s view point of 3GSM Barcelona – The Mobile Congress
Summary
A cracking line of speakers, a cracking venue and a cracking date! We love to see you there. Registration is through here. You need to open a free account first. Any problems, let me know your details and I will register you to the event personally.