In brief:

Ever since expanding the focus of the Netsize Guide, an analysis of mobile trends, to include mobility in verticals such as healthcare and education, I have sharpened my own focus on ways companies can combine mobility, creativity and compassion to help organizations reach out to people in need.

A moment of clarity came during my interview with James E. (Jim) Nalley, Co-Founder and CEO, EmFinders.

The U.S.-based technology firm has harnessed mobile to provide new support to caregivers and new freedom to a growing population of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and a range of cognitive and developmental disabilities. The aim is to facilitate the rapid location and recovery of wandering or missing adults and children. EmFinders achieves this through EmSeeQ, which combines a small, watch-like, wireless device without buttons or a screen, and a location service that uses triangulation through the cellular network – and with 911 emergency response systems – to accurately determine a person’s location.

I was struck by Jim’s dedication to his work (more like his mission), stemming no doubt from his own personal experience with his father, who – like some 5.6 million other Americans — had Alzheimer’s disease. His respect for his father’s quality of life and personal freedom inspired him to develop a solution that doesn’t track individuals like a Big Brother (potentially limiting their feeling of autonomy and self-worth). Instead, the EmFinders solution is designed to give some peace of mind to the caregivers and to the families, and ensure that – if the impaired person wanders off – then the service can recover them quickly.

As Jim put it: “It’s about personal mobility and giving these impaired people and their families the freedom they haven’t had before. We’re hearing back from our customers that we’re making it possible for them to go on vacation for the first time in years because now they don’t have to be worried that their mom or dad or child is going to run away and not be able to be found again.” (For the complete interview, download the Netsize Guide 2010 here.)

LEVERAGING MOBILE FOR GOOD

Jim’s service is just one of a new breed of personal mobility services that puts people, not technology, first.

Since then I have examined the needs of non-profits and explored how they might harness mobile to extend their reach and help people everywhere. Fortunately, I was able to connect with other entrepreneurs, academics and humanitarians who share my passion.

The result is the recognition that non-profits need (and are not yet using) mobile messaging solutions to connect people to resources and essential services, and the resolve to change that (literally) for good.

Today I am proud to join with my esteemed colleagues in announcing THE MOBILE MOVEMENT Initiative and serve on the advisory board. Our mission is to support non-profits by bringing mobile capabilities to non-profits, helping them to reach millions more people in need by leveraging mobile devices, networks and innovative applications they will create in partnership with social entrepreneurs.

Carol Glennon, a founding director of The Mobile Movement and founder & CEO of Renu Mobile put it best in this press statement (distributed today via MSG and its partner RealWire): “As we launch this effort we are very fortunate to be supported by a board of advisors with experience in education, non-profit services, finance and mobile applications, as well as the compassionate creativity we’ll need to continually innovate. Together we will build a platform and services by collaborating with our non-profit colleagues enabling them to help more people everywhere mobile devices can be found.”

Members of the advisory board include:

Avis Richards, film maker and philanthropist creating short videos and documentary films for dozens of non-profits – www.birdsnestproductions.com and www.lunchthefilm.com

Cynthia Artin, managing director of Auster Capital Partners, a private equity firm and investor in telecom, software and mobile applications companies

Kevin Patrick, serial social entrepreneur and producer, founder of a new web-based exchange that brings together musicians with the causes they care about

Laura Marriott, global thought leader in the mobile marketing industry, consultant and former global President of the Mobile Marketing Association

Dr. Mary Cronin, Boston College professor of management, consultant and author of mobile and smart product strategy analyses

Simone Schmidlkofer, expert in corporate social responsibility programs, entrepreneur and founder of a Cause2Connect, global strategy and branding agency

MOBILIZING THE MESSAGE

Thousands of non-profits are not yet using mobile messaging to serve their community because they lack the technical expertise and budget. The Mobile Movement fills that gap by connecting non-profits with sponsors and – more importantly – tools (mobile texting, mobile petitioning, mobile barcodes and mobile website creation/design) to achieve amazing results. We’re keeping it simple to scale quickly and have a positive impact on the causes that seek our innovation, support and collaboration.

Thanks to Avis Richards, founding board member, lifelong humanitarian, and Founder and President of Birds Nest Foundation, a non-profit organization that produces short videos and documentaries for a wide range of important causes, we kick-off with our first campaign.

As part of a series of Earth Day events in New York City this week, her company, Birds Nest Productions, in partnership with
Earth Day Network and Earth Day New York is screening LUNCH, a short documentary film investigates the causes and the consequences of “growing up in a junk-food culture.”

Using the platform to promote the documentary, Avis says her organization can “share our stories and services with millions more people.” Moving forward, Avis will take her initiative national (in the U.S.) with the help of the Mobile Movement team.

MORE INFORMATION

The Mobile Movement was created as an organizing force around a force of nature called collective compassion. Now that we have done the hard work of building global connectivity, and are placing communications devices into the hands of billions, we commence the work of finding usefulness and meaning through applications that can help improve, extend and even save lives.

If you manage a non-profit or would like to find out more about how to get involved, then please email me directly (peggy@msearchgroove.com). And please check out our new website. (Thanks again to the phenomenal Lauren Towle!)

Disclaimer: MSG is aligned with the mission and goals of The Mobile Movement and Peggy Anne Salz sits on the Advisory Board. Netsize is an MSG supporter and Peggy Anne Salz is author of the Netsize Guide 2010.

RealWire supports MSG with a global news release distribution service (specializing in the online media and mobile) that consistently delivers reach, audience and exceptional analytics.

Who is making the money (and how) with barcodes? No easy answers there.

But the raft of recent announcements makes it clear that barcodes, like online/mobile search, cover the bases to become the interface to information everywhere. They allow us to access information (about products, places, people – the works!). Like search, barcodes also trigger the delivery of advertising in tune with the information we request.

With so much in common between these platforms (barcodes and search) it’s not surprising that search/OS giants Apple, Google and Microsoft have all unveiled ambitious barcode strategies. (Even Facebook has joined the party.) But even these giants will need to develop the IP and business ecosystems to make this work.

Will they “make” or “buy” the pieces they need (perhaps snapping up a provider of end-to-end barcode services that include the handset app and the overarching platform)? It’s a tough one to call. But one thing for certain: barcodes are in the bowling alley and making a solution from scratch (down to the clearing house or other barcode management scheme to help advertisers and brands achieve reach and interoperability among operators, agencies and enablers) may cost time even these giants don’t have.

MORE THAN MARKETING

While we wait to see how this could play out over the next months, barcode providers are signing deals that lay the groundwork for a myriad of applications beyond mobile marketing and couponing, bring the day closer when barcode scanning could well replace search as a means to access information about everything everywhere. (And without making us scroll through reams of results on our mobile devices, I might add.)

This exciting scenario is at the core of the recent tie-up between Renu Mobile – a company that provides marketing and advertising services including mobile Web (WAP), SMS, social media and now barcodes – and NeoMedia, a provider of barcode scanning, management and publishing solutions whose platform includes barcode reading software (NeoReader) and a barcode management system (NeoSphere).

Earlier this week the companies announced an agreement to include NeoMedia’s products as part of Renu Mobile’s end-to-end mobile campaign management services. This paves the way for Renu Mobile to build out its cross-media mobile marketing mix and deliver barcode capabilities to agencies and brands. I caught up with Carol Glennon, Renu Mobile CEO, to ask her about the tie-up with NeoMedia and her strategy to target a wide range of industry sectors including pharmaceuticals, enterprise and homeland security.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

First, what does the tie-up mean?

According to Carol, it’s the only fit that allows her company to get reach without allying itself with a potential competitor. Put simply, NeoMedia NeoReader barcode reader software comes pre-installed on key devices and platforms. (NeoMedia recently announced its reader software was released for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Its reader software also comes pre-installed on Sony Ericsson devices – and more handset deals are imminent, I’m told.)

More importantly, NeoMedia doesn’t compete with Renu in managing/executing mobile marketing campaigns. If anything, NeoMedia, through its involvement with Neustar, a company spearheading the creation of a barcode clearing house to drive adoption and enable interoperability, is doing its part to ensure mobile marketing delivers. To date barcode companies NeoMedia, 3GVision, Mobile Data Systems and Mobile Discovery are using the Neustar clearing house (more in this press release from Mobile World congress).

Connect the dots, and it’s about delivering barcode campaigns that are open, interoperable and global.

However, it’s also about powering enterprise apps everywhere.

Carol aims to be on top of the game with a slew of clients and services that focus sharply on public sector, security and pharmaceuticals. It’s easy to imagine how scanning a barcode on a bottle of medicine could allow people to access valuable information such as the proper dose, potential side-effects and/or a mobile website with advice or the location of nearby pharmacies and physicians.

Likewise barcodes could ensure that authorities (such as police and fire) resolve an emergency situation with fewer casualties. Among the scenarios high on Carol’s radar: barcodes built into the firefighter’s badge that allow doctors access to details about the individual (profile, health record, allergies etc) when that person is unconscious or injured. “It’s about enabling services – and rapid deployment – without authorities having to invest in new equipment or learn a new skillset.” Little wonder the next stop for Carol is MILCOM 2010, a military trade conference focused on the “Next Decade of Military Communications.”

Keeping with the security scenario, barcodes could also allow authorities to define and oversee a security area. Barcodes on vehicles, equipment, even people would potentially streamline security checks and wring more value out of limited manpower and resources.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Carol tells me Renu will expand its mobile marketing activities through the partnership with NeoMedia. But Renu will also move full-steam ahead on its first test of a pharmaceutical application later in the summer.

After I interviewed Carol I saw a tweet from my esteemed colleague and Forrester anaylst Thomas Husson about his latest blog post, a must-read treatise aptly titled Liberty, equality and mobility. Having studied barcode reports and white papers in preparation for the posts I was writing, I struck by some interesting possibilities and parallels.

Thomas’ post is an excellent examination of the societal impact of mobile phones and the pivotal role of governments in moving effective communications and media tools a giant step forward. He argued that governments should balance investments and “make the most of mature mobile ecosystems” such as NFC (near-field communications). Thomas provides some examples and reminds us that “innovative research and development clusters that focus on mobile innovation, optimized transport systems, and a tech-savvy image are key to appearing innovative and attractive to firms looking for new locations. This is why the French government and the city of Nice are heavily backing the large-scale live Near Field Communication (NFC) trials that will take place in Q2 2010 in the South of France.”

While NFC is quite different from barcodes – there is some exciting overlap because they are both interfaces to the digital world of information, content and utilities.

In fact, Neustar joined with Visa at Mobile World Congress to showcase the potential of barcodes. In this pilot it was about scanning the barcode on the back of the Visa card to check your balance. But it’s easy to imagine more applications involving financial institutions.

Likewise, it would also be possible to scan a barcode (as it is to swipe an NFC-enabled device over an NFC tag) to manage workflow. (I am reminded here of a white paper I wrote for Nokia years back that argued workers – in this case technicians – could swipe their phones over an NFC tag on a particular piece of equipment to access repair records and streamline trouble-shooting.)

Hmm – sounds like an application that would fit with barcodes – particularly since these technicians could do this now with ordinary mobile phones. (NFC success is somewhat stalled until we have a critical mass of NFC-enabled devices.)

And, if we need any help figuring out additional scenarios, I’m sure Carol could think of a few…

The takeaway: Barcode business models and use cases are falling into place – and companies that miss this wave (and the opportunity to add a barcode component to their service offer) risk falling behind.

UPDATE: Carol just informed me via Skype that Renu Mobile has signed its first hospital customer. Looks like barcodes with be everywhere this year. Look for more analysis of this exciting space on MSG.

The webinar dovetails well with my mobile advertising projects, including Mobile Advertising Research U.K., a research project MSG has undertaken to expertly document the state of the mobile advertising industry in the U.K., identify growth opportunities in the emerging mobile advertising marketplace, and benefit stakeholders, shareholders, and consumers worldwide.  It draws upon primary research, including in-depth interviews with 15+ mobile executives, agencies, and mobile networks, including an interview this week with Freddy Friedman, Mobixell Head of Advertising. With my MSG hat on I will also request a later briefing with Mobixell (for MSG) to discuss recent news, new customers, and the role of mobile in a multi-channel advertising strategy.

I’ve also wrapped up my contribution to a series on audio-visual presentations on mobile advertising produced by Henry Stewart Talks (HST), which will likely go live in early June. HST, a company with a 35-year tradition, provides access to world class seminars by leading thinkers and authorities from around the globe in one online resource.

The company commissioned me to summarize the findings of both volumes of my extremely popular mobile advertising white paper series (sponsored by Bango): Mobile Advertising for Newbies, which provides a how-to guide to mobile advertising and analytics; and Mobile Advertising For The Masses, which examines the market opportunity for running campaigns in a mobile social networks.

I am pleased to have the opportunity (as part of HST’s Marketing & Management series) to educate the marketplace about mobile advertising and the pivotal role of mobile analytics.

I’m also honored to join the impressive roster of mobile advertising executives and thinkers including: Harald Neidhardt, CMO, Smaato Inc.; Michael Becker, EVP of Business Development, iLoop Mobile; Gerry Christensen, CTO, Zoove; Diane Strahan, Vice President of Mobile Services, NeuStar; Chris Torbit, Vice President of Mobile Services, SmartReply; James Darcey, Senior Vice President, Single Touch Interactive; G.D. Ramkumar, Co-founder and CTO, SnapTell; Ramin Vatanparast, Senior Strategy & Business Development Manager, Nokia; Saul Kato, Founder, Qwikker; and Phyllis Reuther, CTO, Archipelago Network.

I’m especially excited to learn more about Phyllis’ new endeavor, and will keep you posted on MSG. (By way of background, Phyllis was previously CTO at Mobile Content Networks (MCN)-a company that began by providing a platform for federated mobile search and has since extended its reach to provide a combination PPC content promotion and vertical paid search program.) I also encourage you to download her talk for an expert overview of mobile search and advertising.

The individual HST presentations cover a wide variety of topics, ranging from an overview of the burgeoning mobile content market, and the barriers to success and challenges faced by content developers and owners to establish long-term customer relationships and revenue streams, to an in-depth look at the emerging practice of consumer-centric marketing, detailing the opportunities and challenges arising from its adoption.

A particularly interesting talk reviews the use of current opt-in methods – like the Common Short Code – with new mobile enabling technologies, such as Bluetooth alerts, “StarStar” (**) dialing, interactive voice response, 2-D (or QR code) image recognition, content-embedded techniques, and location-based services.

I still have the opportunity to take your views and perspectives into account, and I would welcome your input to this defining work.

If you have an interest in being considered for an interview for MobiAD World Focus, please contact me directly or send an email to my assistant Andrea Henninge (andrea@msearchgroove.com).

Disclaimer: Bango is an MSG supporter.

Another surprise, numerous requests during the launch party for me to autograph copies. We captured it all on film, conducting interviews with a who’s who of attendees including Blinck, Irdeto, T-Mobile Hungary, Universal McCann, Velti, YouTube, and Zed. A special treat for me:  Connecting with Thomas Husson, Forrester Senior Analyst, and a colleague whom I highly respect.

Thanks again to Stan Chesnais, Netsize CEO, and Alexander Vlasblom, Netsize Group Marketing Communications Director, and the Netsize team for making the evening possible and teaming up with MSG to plan the next step.

The aim is to make the Netsize Guide a completely interactive experience, and so encourage a lively discussion about the book, and with the 34 C-Level executives that kindly granted me interviews. I’ll have more details soon, so please check back regularly – and download your guide for free here.

Many of you have asked me why I am convinced this year’s Netsize Guide sets the bar. The reason is simple. In line with last year’s Netsize Guide (which I also wrote), this new edition draws from news, reports, and exclusive interviews to document the on-going impact of mobile on industry sectors ranging from content to commerce. But this year I had the green light to take it a bold step further.

Rather than try to identify the next big thing, I went for a big picture view of where mobile is now and where it is going.

In line with this  focus I emphasize the people-side of the equation, and examine the pivotal importance of relevancy and targeting in everything from mobile advertising to mobile gaming. I also explored how the rise of the mobile Web is blurring the boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds, allowing us to live work and play in a state of hyper-connectedness. From contactless payment services, to interactive mobile advertising campaigns that hyperlink real-world items and experiences using cameraphones, coupons or 2D barcodes, I have recounted the examples and collected the interviews that give a glimpse of the future.

Enjoy!

When Peggy recounted the main points of her recent – and extremely pragmatic –mobile advertising white paper and hinted that the next step might be to mobilize MSG, we decided the timing was right to provide publishers with a how-to guide to mobilizing their content using MSG as a real-life example.

And what better time that the week of Mobile World Congress (MWC), an event that showcases the best in the mobile space and celebrates an astounding 4 billion connections. According to Wireless Intelligence, the GSMA’s market intelligence unit, this milestone underscores the continued strong growth of the mobile industry and puts the global market on the path to reach a staggering 6 billion connections by 2013.

In addition to this impressive subscriber growth, we’re also seeing a similar upswing in mobile Internet usage. In July 2008 a comScore report counted nearly 13 million mobile internet users in the U.K. alone - translating to approximately 25 percent of the U.K. population. Though this number is less than the 70 percent of the U.K. population using the PC internet, it represents a seismic shift in the absolute number of mobile Internet users compared with 2007.

This increase in interest, coupled with the impact of the iPhone and the introduction of cheaper data tariffs and new off-portal mobile services, positions the mobile Internet for phenomemal growth.

What is the impact on publishers?

While they could continue to focus on the PC Internet rather than tackle the task of creating a mobile site (reasoning that the emerging nature of the mobile market, a set of different technologies and standards, unknown potential set-up costs and lack of certifiable return on investment make this a smart business move), we strongly advise against this inertia.

Waiting is a mistake for two reasons. First, mobile users are already exploring the so-called PC Internet, turning up the pressure on publishers to deliver a good experience. Second, they would be foolish not to take advantage of the opportunity to increase incremental revenue by targeting new users with a mobile-optimized site.

Of course, websites designed for viewing on PCs don’t always render particularly well on tiny mobile phone screens. For this reason, many publishers are pursuing a strategy that requires them to develop a second site, specifically optimized for mobile screens, thus providing the mobile traffic that arrives on their PC websites with a mobile-optimized destination.

It’s too early to tell whether users with smartphones or touchscreen devices (iPhone, G1 and BlackBerry, for example), who can view full PC websites, actually prefer the full PC experience to accessing a mobile-optimized website. But even if they are, these users still do not represent the mass market. As AdMob shows in its monthly metrics report, the vast majority of mobile phone users own low-end and mid-range devices, a large sector that can indeed benefit from being able to view mobile-optimized versions of the websites they know and love from the PC.

To be clear, not all websites require a mobile version to reach their audience. Sites such as Twitter, some text based blogs, and some listings websites for example make the jump from PC to mobile quite easily. However, at the end of the day, there is no easy way to tell whether a specific PC site will make for great viewing (as is) on a mobile phone. This depends on a variety of factors including the choice of mobile browser, the nature of the website content, the actual handset capabilities and latency (amount of data transferred and bandwidth available), each playing a role in determining how well a PC website converts to mobile viewing.

This is where Mippin and other similar services come in. Mippin Mobilizer enables publishers and content owners to build a mobile site for free and customize it in line with the PC equivalent website design. Mippin Mobilizer also provides the ability to promote the site for free, by either creating a custom mobile URL so that traffic can be redirected to the mobile version of the site, or by taking readers through to a PC-based mobile site emulator (more on this in the Mobilizer “how to” section further down in this column).

Finally, Mippin enables publishers to monetize their mobile-optimized destinations through mobile advertising, returning 100 percent of the revenue generated around publishers content in many instances.

Granted Mippin is not the only company offering this sort of service – FeedMate, Wapple, mobiSiteGalore, Mofuse and Wordpress plugins also go a long way toward helping publishers optimize their content for mobile. However, Mippin goes one decisive step further, incorporating sites mobilized with Mippin into the Mippin mobile portal, a top destination that generates significant traffic. This way the burden isn’t entirely on the publisher to boost visibility or discoverability through investing in SEO or paid search schemes; they benefit from being part of a portal – and an ecosystem — that generates traffic for all its members.

Other providers – such as Mofuse – also allow publishers a place on their mobile portal. With Mippin, however, the added emphasis is on discovery (through the use of tools and technologies) to further match publisher content to the right user.

To this end Mippin has purposely drawn from a  range of web 2.0 principles and added new features including portal auto-personalization, content recommendation and social likeness features (in the form of a “similarity meter” identifying common interests, or lack of) to connect users to relevant publisher content based on preferences and passions. It’s a virtuous cycle: Publishers can connect with new readers and users get the content they want most.

Whether a publisher chooses to use Mippin Mobilizer depends on their business case and objectives. But it’s important to know what is involved if you want to mobilize your content.

At Peggy’s invitation we have mobilized MSearchGroove and documented the steps in this process in a simple how-to guide.

There are four quick steps to launching PC content as a live mobile site: Mobilize, Customize, Publicize and Monetize.

The first step was to re-render content from the msearchgroove.com website. This needs to be in the form of a feed, in an RSS or Atom based format.

The msearchgroove.com feed here is mobilized in a few seconds, where it appears in the emulator on the same page. This takes us through to the second step, customizing the new mobile version with branding that reflects the website. As you can see, the process is pretty straightforward.

It’s easy to spend time trying out design combinations with the adjacent emulator; you might want an individual look for your mobile site, or a design that resembles your website. Either way the colour palette provides a good selection of colours, and can additionally handle any hex or colour value that is currently available. The msearchgroove.com site was completed in a few minutes, with the logo uploaded and colours reflecting the website easy to find and replicate.

Once the msearchgroove.com site was branded, the next step was to get the word out to existing and potential readers. To assist publishers Mippin Mobilizer offers a vriety of tools and feaures such as reader auto-redirection (directing readers to the new mobile-optimzed destination). Mippin Mobilzer also helps publishers promote the new site from their PC website by providing a “Make It Mobile” button (which publishers can add to their site or blog) and the option to create their own mobile URL.

In this case, we chose www.mippin.com/msearchgroove. (If you wish to go one further and automatically redirect PC traffic to a mobile site you must change the DNS settings for the website. Mippin provides step-by-step Information explaining this procedure here.

As I noted, publishes have the option of embedding the “Make It Mobile” button by selecting the relevant blogger platform (Mippin Mobilizer is currently integrated with Blogger & Typepad), or using the html code generated. Embedding this also links the msearchgroove.com website to a PC emulator demonstration of the mobile site. We recommend this highly as it also provides publishers access to QR codes (or 2D-barcodes), which can help users navigate quickly and simply to the new site by just capturing the QR code with their cameraphone.

Another way to get the word out and generate interest in the mobile-optimized website is through tags. With Mippin Mobilizer it’s possible to assign a selection of predefined tags to the mobile site, thus improving the number of times the site is returned within Mippin mobile portal site search results.

It’s possible to create an infinite amount of tags, but it’s important to note that Mippin’s portal search algorithms also rank search results on that basis of other factors such as relevancy (determined by tracking the sites a user has visited previous) and user recommendations (similar sites and content recommended by like-minded peers).

Almost there! The last step is all about monetizing the traffic you get, whether that traffic is direct to consumer (users found you on their own) or acquired through a presence on the Mippin mobile portal. To enable monetization, Mippin authorizes the site feed and provides the publisher with a  validation key. In this example, the process requires the publishers to submit a recent blog post to verify that the real owner of the site authorizes the destination to deliver mobile ads.

Once authorized, advertising from AdMob will be inserted in to the site at the top or bottom of the pages, though not within stories. (Note: Mippin doesn’t take a revenue share if the publisher uses their own AdMob ID. Click here for more details.)

And that’s it – the msearchgroove.com mobile site is live! It’s now optimized for any mobile traffic arriving on the site and can be viewed at www.mippin.com/msearchgroove!

Peggy adds: Hope you enjoy the MSG mobile-optimized site. MSG will also be a test case for a cool new product Mippin is slated to launch a little later on this year, so please check back. MSG will also  road test a variety of solutions for a new how-to white paper on mobile publishing, so watch this space.

Behind the scenes, sparks continue to fly, prompted by the MSG exclusive interview with Jonathan Bulkeley, Scanbuy CEO. His only formal response to a recent and controversial CTIA white paper — work-in-progress that outlines the ecosystem and infrastructure needed to make 2D barcodes a viable business–counts 8 11  in-depth comments from industry insiders and executives. It will take a few design tweaks before comments feature on the MSG home page, but the debate is too good to miss. Check out the discussion here and the post that started it all here. BTW: I’m collecting questions for my upcoming podcast with Jonathan, so feel free to submit your topics in a comment or send them to me directly – peggy@msearchgroove.com .

But today I can say the response to my post (and the observation that key stakeholders such as advertisers should be consulted at this stage) is finally complete. Scanbuy CEO, Jonathan Bulkeley – who has so far respectfully declined opportunities to formally respond to the CTIA white paper – has reached out to MSG to set the record straight and provide his side of the story.

My personal thanks to Jonathan for pro-actively contacting me and granting me two interviews.  One is a detailed Q&A (below) addressing talk that the white paper – because it mandates that a code reader application (the application that scans the 2D barcode and actually decodes the alphanumeric data string that is encoded into a 2D barcode) includes support for EZcode – has effectively called Scanbuy’s solution a winner before the race is run. The second is a podcast interview to discuss Scanbuy’s strategy, roadmap, and larger view of market trends. (Jonathan agreed to an exclusive podcast interview a few weeks back, but important developments, including the news that Scanbuy now offers a Google Android version of its ScanLife multi-barcode reader, require us to update the material.)

Q: Let’s begin with the controversial white paper. What’s the real issue here?

A: I think the whole issue revolves around whether Scanbuy is a proprietary solution, and what proprietary means in the barcode industry. We’re labeled – or rather positioned – as a proprietary solution and that’s not entirely accurate. Let me turn the question around: Are short codes an open or closed system?

Q: They are a mechanism that allows everyone to get involved in selling and collecting payment for mobile content…

A: Right, but not anybody can create a short code. You have to register it and pay for it. So, it’s in many ways a closed system. In barcodes it gets more complicated. The codes are split and some codes are called open source, like Data Matrix, and some are seen as proprietary, like our EZcode.  But both of those codes are just a series of numbers that are indexed.  I think the barcode market will evolve so that all the systems and the geographies will be closed proprietary systems, like common short codes, and which code is used is therefore somewhat irrelevant. I’m glossing over one key issue, which is the direct versus indirect discussion.

Q: We’ll get to that. But let’s get back to open and closed. What is the white paper proposing in your view?

A: The CTIA white paper proposes a closed system. It has different components to it, but you begin by having to register a code. Let’s say you’re Coke. You’ve got to register a code, which means you have to buy it from somebody. You can’t create a code and put it out there. It has to work within the proposed CTIA infrastructure and system – and that’s a closed architecture.  There may be various vendors and competitors that work within that system over time, but it’s controlled by the U.S. carriers, so there’s nothing open about that.

So, we then have the whole question about direct versus indirect codes. Direct codes as they exist in Asia today are open, because anyone can create one and it’s free. You don’t have to register it anywhere because the content is typically a URL embedded inside the code. The model in Japan worked because carriers were generating data revenue from consumers who were being charged for data rates to scan codes. That was the business model: Codes are free, but we’re charging consumers to scan.

Q: But that’s not the model going forward, right?

A: The whole world is going flat rate, so consumers aren’t going to pay to scan. So, the model going forward is about charging advertisers to be scanned, and to do that you need a system that, like a short code system, allows you to register and bill for that transaction.

Q: And a new model requires a new approach – even a proprietary approach to work?

A: Closed may not be the right word, and proprietary may not be the right word – but there is a need for controlled and managed infrastructures that will allow this to happen in a coordinated way that works across carriers and across handset manufacturers. It’s not free and I don’t think it should be free.

Q: So you are saying it’s about ubiquity and results. Open may not be the best route to achieving these objectives…

A: We provide infrastructure to our carriers and handset manufacturers to build this business to a specific geography. Our handset software allows you to read codes and it reads our codes. It reads [open source] Data Matrix and QR, and it also reads our EZcodes. We don’t really care what the code is – the software reads all major formats. It’s up to the carrier in that market as to which codes they want to support, but we’re not choosing or forcing anybody to pick any specific code symbologies.

Q: It sounds a little like semantics. But let’s get past that. Let’s accept that we need a managed infrastructure that gives carriers more of a say, and let’s accept that Scanbuy is therefore not proprietary. Now let’s get to the concerns of companies worried there’s not really a clear path on how to interact with you, because you are more closed than open.

A: I understand the question, but there are a number of vendors selling codes in the U.S. and none of them is open. These companies – whether it’s a NeoMedia or someone else – are part of a closed system because of the model here. The carriers are deciding on what the structure is going to be, and they’ll pick vendors which will fit into that structure. Effectively, all of those vendors will be working within that closed system.

Q: What about the brands and advertisers? In my post, companies voiced a concern that their customers would be doing campaigns on your system allowing your company too much visibility into their client base and their results.

A: Coke comes to us and creates a code, the code exists in our database, and whenever a scan happens, it comes and hits our database and we will forward that information to Coke.

The way the CTIA white paper is set out, you can see that they expect to have multiple campaign managers at some point in time, maybe within the next year.  So Coke, or their agency or whoever is running the campaign for them, has to go to one of those campaign managers. It might be us, it might be somebody else. The point is, that campaign manager will provide the data to the agency or to Coke, so I don’t see how Scanbuy is any different from other campaign managers.

Q: But you are effectively mandated by the white paper, so that does make a difference.

A: Right now, we’re the only one that’s authorized to be out there. But there will be more. Maybe not 50, but there will likely be another two or three companies, and we’re not going to have an advantage over them. Each will collect data and provide it to whoever created the barcode.

Q: Let’s get back to the direct versus indirect discussion.

A: Most of the markets that are developing around the world right now are going to be indirect.  Direct codes don’t provide the ecosystem with a revenue model that justifies bundling software and pushing this in a major way.  It did in Japan, because they were charging consumers to scan, but that is not what’s going to be the model going forward. Now it’s ‘advertisers pay’, and they will pay because they want to pay to reach consumers.

Q: What about the hybrid model that I suggested in my post?

A: Well, it’s quite close to the model the CTIA white paper outlines. In it there’s a registry and there’s a clearing house function. Both the registry and the clearing house are separate entities, and there are campaign managers.  So, there is no one company or one entity that controls everything.  It just so happens we’re the first one picked.

Q: To be clear: You are saying there is room for more and you just happen to be first. You disagree with charges that the paper calls the outcome of the race before it has been won. In other words, we have to start somewhere and you just happen to be among the first.

A: Exactly. How did this happen? We drove the market in the U.S. We had all the carriers together for a pilot, we implemented the pilot, we got lots of advertisers to use codes, and we gave them a system that supported that pilot. We were the first ones to act, but there will be four, five or six companies that work actively in the space and support this ecosystem. We won’t be the only one and that’s OK. You don’t really want 20 companies trampling all over each other doing the same thing. It’s early days so you want to keep it fairly simple to start and make sure it all works – figure out pricing and get that right with advertisers and marketers and media, and then build it over time.

Q: Where’s the market and where’s the money?

A: I think it will be slow over the next couple of years but it will be huge long-term. A recent [Pew] study tells us the mobile device will be the primary way we access the Internet by 2020. So, the question arises: How do you get to content quickly, particularly if that content is hyperlinked to what’s around you? You’re not going to want to either type in a URL or navigate to it from the Web. You will want to point, click, and go.  That’s a huge market and opportunity for barcodes.

Q: What about fragmentation. You talk about the U.S. carriers calling the shots, but their objectives may not line up with how operators elsewhere are approaching this.

A: Actually, we’re seeing markets deploying a system that is consistent geographically. Take our commercial launches in Spain and Mexico. Carriers in those markets are deploying an infrastructure that’s going to work – one code symbology typically embedded handset software that will work with the registry and clearing house function within the market, and also work for advertisers. These geographies are deploying their own solutions and they will – at some point – interoperate. But right now that’s not the focus, so each market is developing its own structure. As it happens, most of the structures look fairly similar and will allow those to interoperate with other geographies as they grow.

NOTE: I have provided both sides of the argument, and now it’s your turn. I welcome your comments, and I invite you to submit questions for my upcoming podcast interview Jonathan. I can’t guarantee that I can cover them all-  but I will do my best!

As Stan Chesnais, Netsize CEO, points out in the chapter (aptly titled The Best Of Both Worlds): “It’s not just about linking the physical and virtual worlds; it’s about hyperlinking images and items to pave the way for a new breed of promotion services and shopping experiences, enabling consumers to make purchases or browse the Web by simply snapping a picture using their cameraphones.”

Indeed, the signs of this new convergence are everywhere. From visual search provided by companies including SnapNow, to 2D barcode schemes provided by companies including Scanbuy (the topic of the next in the MSG podcast series), to a new breed of extremely imaginative and interactive mobile advertising campaigns that harness augmented reality to encourage brand engagement, we can see how mobile is becoming the remote control for our daily lives, allowing us to connect, communicate, share knowledge and information, and interface with world(s) around us.

Take it a step further, and this new convergence will likely transform daily activities such as commerce (mobile, online, and the in-store experience), as well as marketing, promotion, advertising, and mobile CRM. Mizuko Ito, a cultural anthropologist at Keio University and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication, saw this coming some five years ago when she observed: “The connected state is the default, and the disconnected state is noted.” (Put another way, we alert others when we are not online – not when we are.)

Mobile changes all the rules, allowing us to live, work and play in a new collective state of hyper-connectedness. Add the ability of the mobile to blur the boundaries of the virtual and physical worlds – and we witness a shift that will affect every industry that relies on the Web for communications, business growth, and interactive marketing.

The connected state has become our collective default.

It’s a topic I explore in my interview with Tomi Ahonen, esteemed colleague, independent consultant and six-time author. We deep-dive into his new book, Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media: Cellphone, Cameraphone, iPhone, Smartphone (a must-read book that documents the pivotal importance of mobile as the 7th of the mass media, following print from the 1500s, recording from the 1900s, cinema from the 1910s, radio from the 1920s, TV from the 1950s, and Internet from the 1990s). We also discuss the many ways in which all forms of content are converging around the mobile phone. (On a personal note, Tomi and I are discussing columns, podcasts and other ways to showcase his ideas and projects on MSG, so please check back regularly.)

I should also note that the Netsize Guide will also be available for download via MSG after it launches. This year it will be accompanied by a new site, allowing readers to access and explore interviews around the book, including an in-depth interview with (authorized) mobile advertising activist Jonathan MacDonald. A lot has happened since our interview last October (referring here to the launch of Every Single One Of Us), so I’ll have him back (both on Netsize and here on MSG) for a deep-dive discussion into the roadmap following the big kick-off get together and Powwow in London on January 15^th. I’ll be there until the weekend, so please contact me directly if you want to meet up or catch up.

A lot is happening – and all of it’s good!