David Harper’s Different Things

Nokia Conversations just launched their corporate social media site using Winksite for their mobile version. This first version of the mobile site has several channels automatically updating via feed syndication. Over the next several days we’re looking to activate several mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls…

…and a very cool new feature at Winksite, (not yet publicly released) which will adapt select Nokia Conversations video content for display on their mobile site.

UPDATE
The video channels are now up and running on the Nokia Conversations mobile site. Please see the mobile site embed directly below.

From Nokia Conversations:

Stay in on the conversation…

There are many ways to keep up with what’s happening at Nokia Conversations.

You can use your RSS reader to subscribe to all (or just some) of the posts we put up and even the comments other users respond with - check out the full list of RSS feeds after the jump.

We also have mobile versions of our site through Winksite and Mippin. Check out our mobile cheat-sheet at http://conversations.nokia.com/m … | More

Mowser is Dead.
Russell Beattie who recently closed down his transcoding service Mowser posted in part, “I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I’m tired of wasting my time,” he wrote. The presence of a separate “mobile Web,” he said, is “limited at best, and dying at worst.” He goes on to say, “Let me say that again clearly, the mobile traffic just isn’t there. It’s not there now, and it won’t be.”

The Mobile Web is Alive.
Not quite Russell. While Mowser may have failed it’s a stretch to imply the Mobile Web is failing as well. No one wants a lame, featureless, stripped down, even “bastardized” version of anything. That is true today, was true a year ago when Mowser launched, and true 8 years ago when “WAP” was first declared dead. Yes, for mobile enthusiasts transcoding service like Mowser can be handy at times but for the masses those “times” have never come and never will. Besides what you end up is not something a brand, business, or individual serious about mobile cares to have presented to their audience — if you are the audience — consume.

On the contrary mobile traffic is building worldwide month on month. This growth is being witnessed across a variety of services — ad networks, social search/discovery services, and emerging mobile analytic services.

Dennis of Wap Review has this to say about it, “The Future of the Web on Mobile Phones.” …and then there is Carlo Longino of Mob Happy with, “The Mobile Web Is Dead. Long Live The Mobile Web.” Then finally, Mike Rowehl (Mowser Co-founder) has his own take with, “What Happened to Independent Thought?“

…And Here Are the “Mobile Analytics” to Support It.
On April 28th in New York, I’ve organized a free MobileMonday NY event that includes panelists from several companies active in mobile analytics and social search - Amethon, Bango, Mobilytics, Resolution Media, Quattro, TigTag, and taptu.

In part, we’ll be discussing insights gained from watching the very real growth of the Mobile Web and what is being learned from the aggregated mobile data and social actions of people. The event is free — learn more and RSVP.

You’re all invited.

Cheers,
David Harper
Founder, Winksite
Co-founder, MobileMonday NY

Rules for Ethical Reformatting: A Developer Manifesto by Luca Passani.

A ghost is haunting the mobile web, the ghost of content reformatting. The mobile web has never been a simple platform to develop for, given the fragmentation of the underlying technology: different devices, different browsers and different networks have made mobile web development a challenge for programmers and content authors from the beginning.

Yet, in this hard environment, one thing has stayed sacred throughout the years: the HTTP Protocol.

Until today, developers of mobile websites could count on the fact that the HTTP headers from a mobile device would reach the intended webserver with their integrity respected.

Alas, this basic assumption on which thousands of developers have built their applications is put to the test by a recent trend among Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

Tools that were originally devised as utilities to split up web pages and deliver a best-effort user-experience on a mobile device are today being marketed as solutions to bring the full web to mobile by reformatting vendors. Some MNOs are buying into this vision and are implementing reformatting proxies into their networks that will intercept and reformat all HTTP traffic to any HTTP server without safeguarding those sites which strive to deliver a mobile-optimised user-experience, or, at least, not safeguarding them sufficiently.

This situation is a threat to the neutrality of the web and one that can jeopardize the mobile web as a platform in the years to come.

To this end, mobile developers of various nationalities and background, assembled on the WMLProgramming list at Yahoo Groups create this manifesto to make their position known in the face of those who try to misrepresent the needs and the wishes of the mobile ecosystem for their own petty monetization needs.

Learn more and consider lending your support: Rules for Ethical Reformatting: A Developer Manifesto by Luca Passani.

–David Harper, Founder & CEO, Winksite