I’m looking forward to my fourth CTIA next week. I’ve made great friends and contacts there in years past. Hopefully there will also be some interesting launches and things to learn. Last year it was great to hear Steve Ballmer’s keynote and the launch of Facebook’s Blackberry app from the front rows.
I’m even more excited about GigaOM’s upcoming Mobilize conference two weeks from today (Sept 18). Well focused, with a concentration of fantastic speakers and topics distilled into a day of single-track panels, a format I really enjoy.
They all look interesting enough to keep me glued to my seat for the day, but perhaps this is the one I’m most looking forward to:
Money and Friends: The Promise of Social Networks on MobilesSocial networks work on the pc web. The 100 Million users that Facebook are about to reach is testament to that. Many in Silicon Valley are rubbing their hands at the prospects of riches being mined from mobility meeting the social graph. But the real question is will it work? Will people want it? Many transitions from the web to mobile have landed with a wet thud. We ask the people at the frontline of making social networking work on mobile what obstacles and oases they see on the road ahead |
Sebastian Rupley, PCMagCast | John Faith, MySpace Mobile |
| Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook | ||
| Noelia Amoedo, Hi 5 | ||
| Evan Tana, Loopt |
I’ve been asked to talk to several startups in the mobile social space. Despite being a mobile advocate, I often walk away scratching my head about why I’d use them at all, much less how they’d integrate with my existing networks and the experience on my laptop, or how they really take advantage of anything mobile. John Faith and the rest of this panel are absolute tops in the field who will have fascinating thoughts to share. Can’t wait to hear them.
Dale Larson 