Month: September 2005

David Harper

asap, AP's Service For A Younger Audience, Set To Launch Sept. 19th

In preparing for my Mobile Monday presentation at AP I was reminded that asap was launching the same day.

Appealing to the under-35-year-old audience will require more then attitude and delivery to iPods. It will also require a mash-up of news content with audience generated content.

(mash-up: Thinking about this Web 2.0 thing, Web Services Mash-Up, Mix, Match, And Mutate, and The mash-up revolution)

I'll be watching to see if and how AP does this. Hmmm…. that gives me an idea for tomorrow.

“asap is AP’s new multimedia service featuring original content designed to appeal to an under-35-year-old audience, a coveted but elusive demographic group, and to connect with them – on their terms.

asap builds on what makes AP great: the highest standards of journalism, global reach, creativity and staff dedication. Grounded in these values, this new product is provocative, smart, relevant and immediate.”

58mb (approx. 3-5 minute download depending on your connection speed)

To play the asap video you must have Quicktime installed your computer.

Download Quicktime for Windows –
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html

Download Quicktime for Macs –
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/mac.html/

David Harper

Those Re-building After Katrina Need Your Help, Personally

A few days ago I was at an event where I met a young lady who had witnessed first hand the destruction and chaos caused by Katrina. She spoke passonately about how the lives of her friends and neighbors will be affected long after the media leaves town. I asked her to send me her story. She did.

…and this is what Diana had to say.

My family lost almost all of our belongings and memories when the Hurricane Katrina blew through with a force even stronger than the spirit of the southern community in which I grew up. Yet, our family considers itself blessed and lucky. My family is safe and healthy, but many are not. Some survivors of Katrina are injured from the storm, or are sick from the viruses and toxic germs that were washed ashore. We lost our house and many of our material possessions, but many lost much more. My dad lost his office, but so many more now have no job at all. We are blessed because we know where all of our family members are and they are all alive. Other families have been torn apart.

I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and until I moved to New York City a year ago, I had lived in Mississippi my whole life. As fate would have it, I was in Biloxi visiting my family when Katrina swept away everything on the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama. But, I believe that was part of the plan, so that I could help by finding donors, volunteers and assistance of any kind.

Mississippi and Louisiana are synonymous with spirit, tradition and pride. I ask you on a personal level to realize that this area now has nothing except those traits to rebuild upon. While those characteristics are immeasurable, they are not material. I was there, I lived through it, and I saw for myself the piles of debris, lumber, and personal possessions that now lay lifeless where antebellum homes and quaint downtown areas once stood.

These people, the people who are important to me and to so many others, now have nothing: no electricity, no water, no plumbing. They aren't victims or refugees or displaced by the storm. No, they are people with names and families and careers and goals who happen to need to re-build their lives and their community. By remembering their history and with your help…they will do just that.

In a place where simple tasks are now monumental, where everyday life is a fight for survival, where safety and health are no longer certainties upon which these communities can rest, they need your help. And when starting from scratch, even the smallest things mean the world.

Please send donations or help in anyway you can. I ask not just because it's personal to me or to my family, but because it’s personal to every single person who was affected by Katrina's wrath. Thank you from deep in the hearts of the Deep South.

David Harper

Mobile Monday New York – Sept. 19th at the Associated Press

The next MoMo New York meeting will be held on September 19th (due to CTIA-SF conflicts). It will be our first officially hosted meeting, so we are looking forward to not having to shout over the din of bar crowds. 🙂

The idea behind Mobile Mondays NY is to bring together NYC-area people and companies interested in mobile: to meet and chat with each other, see what others are doing, share ideas, and possibly even work together.

We've been seeing great turnout at our first few meetings this summer and hope even more of you can make it out to this meeting, hosted at the Associated Press world headquarters.

Anyone with an interest in wireless/mobile is welcome, so please pass the word and bring along others! If you have any ideas or suggestions on future Mobile Mondays, please come and share them with us! Your participation is key in making this all worthwhile. Be sure to come over and introduce yourself.

Details

  • Date: September 19th , 7 PM – 9ish PM
  • Cost: Free
  • Theme/Topics: Mobile Communities/Social Networking
  • Planned Agenda:
    • Quick welcome/intro
    • Four 15-minute presentations
      • Socialight
      • WINKsite
      • NextBlast
      • Dodgeball (Google)
    • Open discussion/networking with refreshments and snacks
  • Address:
    Associated Press
    450 W. 33rd Street (bet. 9th and 10th ave)
    New York, NY 10001
  • Map: 450 W. 33rd St., New York, NY
David Harper

O’Reilly’s Nokia Smartphone Hacks Acknowledges Winksite

Winksite received a few pages of mention in the recently published “Nokia Smartphone Hacks” written by Michael Yuan. As part of O’Reilly’s famed Hacks book series, the book provides power tips to users who want to make the most out their mobile phones.

Winksite was singled out for providing mobile phone users with the ability to create their own personalized mobile portals – helping them to tame their growing collections of off-portal, user-generated content – friends, feeds and favorites.

Get it here at Amazon.

David Harper

Politics to Go: How Mobile Technology Empowers Just-in-Time Politics

Today the first book that I ever contributed to came out. Its full title is “The Politics to Go Handbook: A Guide to Using Mobile Technology in Politics”. It officially launched at the Politics to Go Conference held at George Washington University.

This handbook introduces some of the latest mobile technologies, examines their current uses and political successes, considers future possibilities and challenges and offers simple how-to guides for implementing these new technologies into campaigns. The publication features ten diverse chapters of forward-thinking articles and practical guides written by 50 expert authors, totaling 131 pages of informative reading that will help you take your next campaign to the next level. The Politics to Go Handbook is available as an Adobe PDF document, and as a podcast (.MP3 format, runs 30:54, 10 MB).

Although I was not able to attend the event I had the pleasure of many conversations over the phone with Julie Barko, Editor, Politics to Go and Deputy Director, Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet.

Here’s the official media release:

For Immediate Release, August 8, 2005
For more information: Kathie Legg
Phone: 202-994-1003

DAVID HARPER TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE POLITICS TO GO HANDBOOK, NEW PUBLICATION ON MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND POLITICS AT GW’S INSTITUTE FOR POLITICS, DEMOCRACY & THE INTERNET

Washington, Aug. 10, 2005 – David Harper, founder of Winksite.com, will author a section in Politics to Go, a handbook on the political uses of mobile technology that anthologizes over 50 of today’s top names in technology and politics. The Politics to Go Handbook is published by the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI) at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

“The Politics to Go Handbook will serve as a manual for using mobile technology in the political realm,” said Carol Darr, Director of the Institute, “not only for candidates, but for issue advocacy groups, nonprofits, civic groups, political consultants, lobbyists, local governments and citizen activists.”

It also draws on the experience and expertise of experts from around the globe to describe the mobile political audience, predict how mobile tech will be used in future elections and discuss any roadblocks that may occur.

The publication will be released at an event hosted by IPDI and sponsored by Wired magazine on September 13, titled Politics to Go: How Mobile Technology Empowers Just-in-Time Politics. The event will introduce some of the latest mobile technology techniques, examine the current uses and political successes of mobile technology and discuss future possibilities and challenges. It will feature a gadget lab and sponsor display area. Two panels of visionaries, analysts and practical implementers will discuss these issues and facilitate an open question-and-answer dialogue with the audience.

The Politics to Go report release, panel discussion and hands-on event will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, September 13, 2005. Breakfast will be served. The event is free and open to the public.