workingwith

David Harper

Nokia Conversations Launches Mobile Version with Winksite

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.

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< — Click the embedded demo

 

Stay in on the conversation…
(via Nokia Conversations)
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.

David Harper

Fest Mob – A Mobile Social Experiment

Lance Weiler who has been terrifying people for years with films such as the creepy-crawly 1998 DIY cult hit “The Last Broadcast” and more recently “Head Trauma” is now looking to bring people together (rather then scare them away) with Fest Mob.

FEST MOB A NEW SOCIAL MOBILE EXPERIMENT TARGETS THE SLOPES OF PARK CITY TO CAPTURE THE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE IN REAL-TIME.

The “fest mob” is a social mobile experiment that makes use of a “mashup” of freely available websites and web 2.0 services. The goal of the experiment is to capture the festival environment from various perspectives in real time. Participants will be using mobile phones to text, photograph, and record their daily activities.

“Since I won’t be able to make the annual pilgrimage to Park City this year, I started thinking about how I might be able to experience it first hand. The fest mob is a way for people who can not make it to the festival, to interact with those who can, in a sense creating a social network around the experience.” Says founder Lance Weiler

Festival goers use mobile phones to document what they are watching, attending, eating, drinking and seeing. Those who cannot attend the festival are able to contribute questions, comments and news that they are reading about the festival online.

The results can be viewed in real-time at http://workbookproject.com/mob via a mobile site http://winksite.com/workbook/mob or on a mobile phone by texting FOLLOW FESTMOB to 40404.

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Joining the “fest mob” is a simple process for more information visit http://workbookproject.com/mob

The “fest mob” is an experiment by the Workbook Project, a “social open source project” for content creators that attempts to bridge the gap between technology and filmmaking. The Workbook Project was founded by digital pioneer Lance Weiler who is the writer / director of THE LAST BROADCAST and HEAD TRAUMA.

The “fest mob” mashup was made with the following sites and services:

Twitter
Winksite
Flickr
Ning
Musicplayer at sourceforge.net
WordPress

David Harper

Winksite & ShotCode Team Up

Previously I’ve written about the need for connections between the physical world and the mobile Internet, “Mainstream America is Ready for Bar Codes – Converging “Realspace” and “Mobilespace“‘. I’ve also expressed my opinions on various aspects of how that should work in the comments area over at Tommi’s S60 Applications Blog. Along the way Dennis the founder of ShotCode) and I got to talking (original intro courtesy of Oliver Starr) and convinced each other that we should team up and see where it would lead. As such, I’m pleased to announce that Winksite now supports ShotCode.

ShotCode is the flagship product of OP3, a Swedish / Dutch organization in the proximity marketing space and enjoys the strongest customer portfolio in the mobile barcode scanning market outside of Japan & Korea.

Details follow:

Did you know that creating a mobile webpage can be as simple as creating a webpage for ‘the regular Internet’? Did you know that instead of typing a lengthy Internet address on your mobile phone, you can access each mobile webpage in three clicks? Did you know that mobile Internet usage is on the rise as people look to access content that is important to them while away from their desktop? These are the exact areas of operation for Winksite and ShotCode which is why these highly compatible companies have decided to join forces to provide connections between the physical world and the mobile Internet.

Winksite is the world’s largest, standard’s based mobile publishing platform and community portal. Individuals, companies, and brands use Winksite to publish mobile Internet sites bundled with mobile-tuned community features like chat, forums and surveys. By providing easy-to-use tools, Winksite has successfully created a friendly platform where anyone can claim their own piece of the mobile Internet.

ShotCodes are circular sequences of black and white blocks that represent an internet address. By installing the free ShotCode software on your mobile phone you extend your camera’s functionality into that of a ShotCode reader. The ShotCode works much in the same way as the reading of barcodes in supermarkets, you point your phone’s camera at a printed ShotCode, click, and your phone’s browser is automatically connected to the corresponding internet address.

From today every Winksite has its own ShotCode, simply click the ShotCode icon for the listed Winksite and you’ll be able to scan & connect using your ShotCode Reader. For Winksite publishers ShotCodes are available in various formats for ease of printing and distribution.

Currently ShotCode and Winksite are in talks with several large international brands to offer the combined service bundled with promotional products such as personalized t-shirts, Winksite/ShotCode business cards, personalized ShotCode stamps, stickers and more.

Dennis Hettema, founder of ShotCode, “Winksite’s community proves to the world that mobile isn’t a thing of the future, with over 25 million page views per month it’s pretty clear that people use mobile web pages today.”

David Harper, founder of Winksite, “ShotCode’s unique shape makes for an attractive and recognizable symbol that is easily branded or used in more personalized outings. With customers such as Coca Cola, Heineken and Xbox, ShotCode has proven to be the frontrunner in this exciting market. We’re enthusiastic about offering these real world hyperlinks to the Winksite mobile community for free.”

David Harper

CTIA Release: More Mobile Bar Code Love

This this the first of several releases concerning WINKsite, our efforts to move mobile bar coding forward in the U.S., and the partners we’re doing it with.

NEXTCODE INTEGRATES CAMERA PHONE CODE SCANNING SERVICE FOR WINKSITE

ConnexTo™ service improves content access and merchandising for leading mobile content site.

Las Vegas, NV., April 5, 2006 – – Nextcode Corporation (www.nextcodecorp.com), a leader in optical barcode reading solutions for camera phones, today announced that Wireless Ink Corp has integrated its ConnexTo code creation and code reading capabilities into its WINKsite Mobile Community. With this partnership, WINKsite publishers will be able to create 2D codes that can be scanned with camera phones to provide one-click direct access to the mobile sites. Publishers can now easily incorporate codes into print or on-screen promotional materials to drive increased traffic to the mobile content.

The ConnexTo Code Creation tools can be integrated with mobile content systems, such as WINKSite, allowing publishers to embed web addresses into codes. Consumers can install the free ConnexTo Code Reader onto standard camera phones to easily link
to Web content and to enable a range of mobile applications. ConnexTo uses a new two-dimensional (2D) code format called mCode™ specifically designed for camera phones and mobile services. Free personal code-creation tools and information on downloading the free code reader software is available at http://www.ConnexTo.com.

WINKsite powers over 13,000 publishers including brands such as FUSE TV, O’Reilly’s MAKE: Magazine, and Warner Bros Records. Each responded to WINKsite’s benefits during the last 18 months by creating direct-to-consumer portals and communities. These spaces are generating over 20 million mobile screen impressions per month. Sites are created specifically for mobile use and include such things as blogs, journals, chat rooms and forums. Free personal site-creation tools are available at http://www.WINKsite.com.

“We are very happy to be teaming with WINKsite. They make it simple for publishers to create and publish mobile content. With ConnexTo, we are helping their publishers promote their content by make it easy to get to these sites,” said Jim Levinger, CEO of Nextcode. “Instead of requiring dozens of keystrokes, now with ConnexTo, users can simply point, click and enjoy.”

“The amount of content available on the wireless web is growing very fast. But given the constraints of the phone UI, it is often tough to navigate to it,” said Dave Harper, founder of Wireless Ink. “As such, we have been eager to integrate a code scanning solution for our publishers so that their audiences can get to the content that matters to them quickly. We are very impressed by the Nextcode solution. We have found it to be powerful, flexible and very easy to use.”

One example of how ConnexTo improves the wireless experience is in the case of street marketing. A band can distribute posters advertising an upcoming show with a mCode printed on it. Instead of having to search for a pen and paper to write the time and place, or go through the tedious process of keying it into the phone, fans simply take a picture of the mCode to store that information or link directly to it.

ABOUT NEXTCODE
Nextcode is a leader in optical barcode scanning technology and was founded in 2003 in Concord, Mass. The company’s goal is to simplify mobile services and remove usability barriers to accessing mobile content, commerce and services. For more information, visit http://www.nextcodecorp.com.

ConnexTo and mCode are trademarks of Nextcode Corporation.

ABOUT WIRELESS INK
Wireless Ink is a leading mobile content management and social networking software company whose solutions connect publishers to their audiences and audience members to each other on mobile phones. Whether you’re an individual, a brand or a community, Wireless Ink (WINKsite) provides a powerful one-stop solution for creating, managing and aggregating mobile communities. For more information visit http://www.winksite.com/.

David Harper

"Bling For Your Blog"

Something we’re thrilled to be a part of:

Six Apart Launches Open Widget Platform for TypePad Blogs; Thirty-Two Companies Among the First to Extend TypePad With Widgets That Add Power to the Award-Winning Blogging Service

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 30, 2006–Six Apart, the world leader in blogging software and services for individuals and businesses, today launched a new, open widget initiative to expand choice and functionality for TypePad subscribers and readers. Thirty-three widgets are ready today that put new interactive features into blogs, such as job searching, game playing, weather tracking, and photo sharing. Widget installation is a snap, taking no more than a few clicks. A complete widget directory is available at http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/widgets.

David Harper

Mainstream America is Ready for Bar Codes – Converging "Realspace" and "Mobilespace"

One thing that has become obvious as of late is that along with educating people about the mobile Internet, it’s necessary to also offer tools that provide easy access to it. This is especially true when it comes to helping people discover and connect with off-portal mobile content and services. Part of this requires finding solutions that are successful at making connections between the physical world and mobile Internet.

One of the tools which aim to converge “realspace” and “mobilespace” are bar codes (think of them as a form of physical hyperlink.) It works like this. Let’s say you’re walking along a sidewalk and someone hands you a flyer. Glancing down you notice a bar code placed neatly within the design. Immediately you take a photograph of the bar code with your mobile phone. Software on your phone converts the snapshot of the code into a mobile address. You are automatically offered the option to launch this address in the phone browser. Doing so launches your mobile browser and you are taken directly to the linked content — jumping you from printed content to online content.

You might be asking yourself about now, “Gee. I don’t know if people will actually do that?” Well the short answer is – people already do, lots of them in fact. In Japan, for example, QR codes have become part of everyday life, available on everything from business cards, id cards, magazines, newspapers, flyers, posters, stickers, food products,puzzles, web sites, billboards, more billboards, CDs, confectionary delights, calling a cab, vending machines, coffee cups, advertisements, and tickets –- even including the occasional booth-babe (my apologies to Darla Mack). All these little codes eagerly await — ready to link people to content that matters to them — mobile sites, profiles, videos, podcasts, products and other little pieces of content (think ringtones and wallpapers). Individuals also have joined in on the opportunity as publishers themselves — printing codes on stickers, placing them on their web sites or blogs, even walking around with cute little stampers to easily affix codes practically anywhere for any reason. As such, QR Codes have become the door to the mobile Internet for the average mobile user.

Much like other mobile technology, such as SMS, it typically takes a while for the US market to embrace new mobile technology, but once it does we quickly match the usage seen in other parts of the world. I believe that will happen with bar codes as well. Already I see the signs…

For example, Semapedia.org brought to you by the brilliant minds of Stan Wiechers and Alexis Rondeau, are connecting the virtual and physical world by bringing the best information from the Internet to the relevant place in physical space. They do this by combining the physical annotation technology of Datamatrix codes (another flavor of bar code) with high quality information from Wikipedia. (see Semapedia explained with pictures)

Others like the creative team of Kevin Slavin and Frank Lantz from area/code turn city streets into huge public game boards using bar codes and cell phones as part of the game play.

Still not convinced people find this useful, fun or both? To highlight potential, I’ve provided results from a survey originally taken by InfoPlaint in Japan that was carried out at the end of August 2005. The respondents selected the survey themselves via a link in the DoCoMo iMode menu system. 7,660 people completed the survey; 5,023 of them were women.

Q: Do you know about QR codes (2D barcodes)?

  • I’ve used them 73.3%
  • I know about them, and have a reader feature in my phone, but I haven’t used them 7.6%
  • I know about them, but don’t have a reader feature in my phone, so I haven’t used them 15.6%
    I don’t know about them 3.5%

Looking at the age breakdown, for both males and females almost 90% of the under 20’s use them, but the rate steadily drops down to end up at just about half of all the over 50s.

Q: For those who answered that they used them, in what printed materials have you used QR Codes? (Sample size=5,513)

  • Business card 5.7%
  • Newspaper 31.9%
  • Magazine 84.2%
  • Advertising flyer 51.1%
  • Poster 14.2%
  • Direct mail 25.0%
  • Mail-order catalog 24.8%
  • PC web site 20.7%
  • Other 13.1%

There was no significant differences between the sexes, except for almost two and a half times more women used mail-order catalog QR Codes.

Q: Which of the following QR Code-based services do you want to use? (Sample size=7,660)

  • Easy phone book registration from a business card, etc 36.8%
  • Read a URL and access a site 74.3%
  • Replacement for company identification badge 29.0%
  • Cashless shopping at vending machines, etc 28.3%
  • Buying goods written about in magazines 27.7%
  • Replacement for tickets (concerts, travel passes, etc) 32.5%
  • Others 5.5%
  • Don’t want to use 7.4%

Okay, so I’ve tried to do a bit of convincing but to what end? I see it this way, Winksite is the quickest way to build a mobile audience. Our RSS-driven publishing tools let you simply and easily add your information to the mobile Internet in ways that thrill mobile users. Thousands operate mobile spaces at Winksite with the added benefit of community features such chat, forums, and polls. We also want to help our publishers and their fans promote their space to mobile users. One way we do this is by aggregating our communities into a blog sidebar where mobile and desktop users find each other by interest and location.

Pulling It All Together
Another way is to help people promote their spaces in everyday situations and circumstances. Current camera phones now have good enough optics, resolution and processing power to be able to read these special bar codes on the printed materials we come across each day. As such, Winksite now provides a set of unique bar codes for each of our publishers that link directly to their mobile sites and communities. With the ability to create a universally accessible mobile site that’s connected to physically distributed bar codes, we see our publishers creating a wide range of useful applications.

These applications include:

  • linking print articles to RSS feeds and blogs
  • delivering product or tourist information
  • linking “lost pet” flyers to contact forms
  • dating – use your imagination on that one
  • “find me” maps
  • promoting an event or concert on flyers/postcards
  • connecting geocachers to mobile logbooks
  • creating museum exhibits and street tours
  • building scavenger hunts or “collect-them-all” games
  • downloading ringtones, music, wallpapers or video (think indie artists)
  • ticket sales for clubs
  • directing people to your mobile site and/or storefront
  • enabling mobile sales from catalogs or flyers
  • distributing coupons
  • conference badges connected to profiles
  • business cards connected to company sites
  • signing up to text alert services
  • running competitions
  • connecting mix tapes to podcasts or vidcasts
  • connecting posters to podcasts or vidcasts
  • enabling community interaction at public locations

As the World Wide Web showed, things really take off when users build out their own real estate. The success of the Web was partly a result of the distributed development of local content and economies driven by individual passion. It’s happening all over again on the mobile web. Be a part of it.

Please Note: “Booth-Babe” photo provided by news.3yen.com.

David Harper

Upcoming.org Understands The Value Of "Mobile-Friendly"

Feeds have evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites and are now going mainstream as more people become aware of the benefits. The use of feeds to syndicate content to mobile devices is also increasing — placing a much needed focus on the quality and usefulness of the information contained in those feeds.

Case in point are event feeds. While greatly useful from the desktop, they usually fail from the mobiles user’s perspective because 1) the feed requires you to link off to content that is not optimized for mobile devices or 2) critical information is missing from the feed — either way the mobile experience becomes a dead end.

Thanks to Andy and Gordon over at Upcoming, WINKsite is now able to go beyond the limits of basic event feed publishing to deliver a more relevant, more precise means of mobile event distribution and device independent delivery.

Let me explain, while mobilizing the Metroblogging Network’s blog and event feeds we connected with the Upcoming team. We explained to them the challenges to mobile users as we understand them to be as well as our thoughts as to how the mobile experience could be improved. They listened.

After several emails passing ideas and specs back and forth, Upcoming modified their feeds with mobile users in mind (within 24 hours mind you.) Each Upcoming feed now contains additional information such as an event’s start date/time, venue name, location, and phone number (utilizing xCal extensions.) In addition, various URL parameters are now available providing various sorting and count options. Using these extensions, Winksite was able to intelligently display various event information in our mobile UI as well as make those data (phone numbers for example) actionable. The mobile goodness doesn’t end there. These feed additions also will allow us to build other web services around these data. For example, Upcoming event feeds with Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Traffic, and direction feeds/APIs can now be mashed up to support a more useful and productive mobile experience.

More soon on additional ways Winksite is working with partners to make feeds “Mobile-Friendly.”

David Harper

Warner Launches Mobile Portal For The Veronicas – Mash-Up Of Branded Content With Social Media

Warner understands the future of reaching the youth audience. They get it. You see, the definition of Mass Media is changing from Media Made FOR an Audience – to – Media Made BY the Audience. This media is social in nature and the under 24 crowd are hungry for it. Take a look at The Veronicas’ Web Site and see for yourself. The site is divided between branded content pushed down by the label and social media created by the artists and their fans. Embracing social media is an opportunity to build deeper relationships with an audience with the additional benefit of engaging customers through lifestyle marketing efforts they respond to.

 

The Veronicas are a set of twins from Brisbane, Australia whose first song, 4Ever, will be forever drilled into your forever grateful brain by the eternal (gotcha!) generosity of every radio and television show in the modern world. In addition to the label’s standard issue tour date info, music video, and downloads the girls are utilizing a dazzling variety of social media tools and services to reach their audience. Street teams. Open-source forums. MySpace page. A TextAmerica photoblog. A Diary. There’s more. The world has changed in other ways. The overwhelming feeling of a fan’s enthusiasm was once commonly experienced only at in-person venues such as concert, record store and mall appearances. The emergence of music videos and online interaction expanded the scope to include the home and PC. Now, the time has come for entertainment brands and artists to deliver the connection every fan is striving for to virtually anywhere & anytime – via Direct-To-Consumer mobile services. These personalized, off-portal mobile applications fuel a fresh, increased connection to the fan base, driving loyalty and interest. The audience is moving from their TV screens – to their computer screens – to their mobile phone screen. So to distribute your message you need to move to where the audience is moving.

People from Japan to Korea to Europe to the United States are engaging content on mobile devices in record numbers – 70 million 18-to-34-year-olds in the US have cell phones. Mobile subscribers are demanding the content and connections they care about to be available everywhere, all the time, and without a lot of work. Research from mobile media firm Enpocket finds that 30% of respondents age 18-24 prefer their mobile phones over TV, newspapers, the Internet, radio and magazines.

A few weeks ago Warner called in Wireless Ink to help glue together branded content, ringtone partners, and audience generated social media into a single portal and make it available to fans on their mobile phone. “Any device”, they said. “Any carrier. No multiple versions of apps to distribute, download and install.” They simply wanted to push fans to a single address – as cleanly and neatly as possible. Wireless Ink provided Warner with a platform to publish content, a layer that connects a variety of social media, and a persistent mobile space to point live-venue and SMS marketing promotions. The whole process took approximately 15 minutes. Did I mention they needed it quick?

The Official Veronicas’ Mobile Site is now in soft launch. The girls start touring this month and as the fan base grows the mobile site will grow along with them. Wireless Ink is excited to be a part of it all…

…besides I can’t get 4Ever out of my head.

Peek into the secret life of the Veronicas at the Official Veronicas Mobile Site. Simply fire up your phone mobile browser and point it to: http://winksite.com/wbr1/veronicas

David Harper

Creative Commons Licensed Library Launches – Delivering Mobile Editions Of Books To Phones

The Creative Commons Library is the first in a series of works to be published on the Winksite Mobile Publishing & Community Platform. Winksite extends the power of publishing and distributing mobile books to the masses. The tools used are offered FREE of charge to individuals and non-profit organizations for non-commercial use.

Over the coming months the number of collections will grow to include thousands of titles available under Creative Commons license, in the public domain, and from leading publishers.

Accessing The Creative Commons Library
The works published within the The Creative Commons Library are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any web-enabled mobile phone or PDA (no downloading or installation required). We welcome your comments.

Note: Point your phone’s mobile browser to the URLs above to access the mobile book you are interested in reading.Each chapter within the book is 2 clicks away from a site’s “Main Menu.” The chapters are automatically broken up into multiple screens so memory starved mobile browsers don’t gag on lengthy content. There are smart links generated from chapter to chapter and a mobile email form is included for forwarding chapters to yourself or a friend. Each book’s Creative Commons license information is included in the email.

Winkbooks Explained – The Power of the Distributed Word
Mobile books, or “Winkbooks” are texts designed to be read on a web-enabled mobile phone.

Mobile publishing is a concept still in its relative infancy – partly due to the technology barrier that needs to be overcome by many prospective users. The idea that paper and ink should be forsaken for mobile phones is enough to make readers give an almost Luddite shudder. How can any mobile device approach the ergonomics and durability of a good quality book or reading the text on a PC or notebook? Who will read a book on a phone? Replacement however, is not the point. It’s all about distribution.

You see, there is a revolution going on all over the world. People from Japan to India to Europe to the United States and South America are engaging content on mobile devices in record numbers – in fact mobile access to the Internet has already surpassed desktop access. For tens of millions their mobile phone is their one and only pipeline onto the Internet, to knowledge it contains, and to each other. Their entire “connected” world is what they can publish and consume directly on their phone. Let’s connect everyone to all the great content and thoughts bouncing around the Internet. Don’t leave anyone out or behind or without a voice.

By providing a greater number of people with knowledge, you provide an even greater number with the potential to become involved. As I see, it is more than just publishing content. It is about the individuals it engages, the people it connects, the dialogue that develops, the community that forms and the collective action that can result.

The Future Of Mobile Books On Phones
Technology will continue to impact the way the world accesses and uses content on phones. At the moment we are at the same stage as early television, where the first TV programs were picture radio shows. The question that remains to be answered is – What shape will future works and content take? Our thought is to provide a new generation of authors and artists with the tools they need to self-publish, step out of the way, watch, listen then respond with innovations.

How To Get Started
A Tutorial will be published over the next few weeks showing you step-by-step:

  1. How to publish and distribute your own CC-licensed book to mobile devices utilizing Winksite’s Mobile Publishing & Community Platform.
  2. How to add your work to a “shelf” in the Creative Commons Mobile Library.

Meanwhile, please contact us if you have a CC-licensed book and would like us to help you publish it . We would be happy to lend a hand.

Development Roadmap

  • Ability to bookmark your location within a text and be “dropped” right back where you left off when you return.
  • Ability to search the Winksite mobile catalog and select titles to personalize your own unique collection.
  • Generate custom RSS feeds (e.g. Subscribe to a book feed where a chapter a day is sent to your feed reader).
  • Ability to import photo, audio & video content.
  • Integration with Our Media to mobilize personal media.
  • Standards support will include but not be limited to WML v1.x, XML, XHTML, xHTML Mobile Profile(WML v2.0), i-mode compatible HTML (cHTML), CSS2 and CSS3, OEBPS 1.2, and related specifications.

The Audience

  • According to the EMC subscriber numbers passed the 1.5 billion mark in the first week of June 2004. That’s roughly equivalent to one-fourth of the entire world population.
  • Globally, more people access the Internet via a mobile device than a tethered PC.
  • Mobile phones are the largest-selling consumer device in the world with annual sales exceeding the sales of PCs, TVs and DVD players combined.
  • NTT DoCoMo reports in September 2004 that about two-thirds of the Japanese population experiences the Internet solely through their mobile phones.
  • A report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in May 2004, showed that Africa was the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market, with use of handsets increasing at an annual rate of 65%.
  • According to Ministry of Information and Industry statistics, mobile phone subscribers in China increased by 40.3 million to 310 million as of the end of July 2004 out numbering land line users.
  • Indian mobile phone users grew to 44.9 million last month outnumbering fixed-line customers for the first time, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
  • There are 171.2 mln wireless subscribers in the United States, according to an industry trade group, CTIA-The Wireless Association.

Goals

  • Revolutionize the way individuals and organizations publish and consume content over mobile networks.
  • Provide a new channel for distribution of texts that have been made available to the public for free.
  • Support the educational and recreational needs of a variety of mobile readers.
  • Contribute to the public library mission(s) of informational needs, literacy, lifelong learning, and recreational reading of the general public.
  • Create a richer, more productive learning environment for those without consistent access to a PC and wired Internet access.
  • Help get content onto subscriber’s phones and so grow the author’s audience.

Criteria for Inclusion in Winkbooks

  • Works must be in the public domain, published under Creative Commons License, or must be provided by publishers for free distribution to the public.
  • In determining accuracy and authority, electronic texts converted under the auspices of an educational institution are most highly considered.
  • When considering electronic texts, the existing format and organization must not present any significant obstacles for conversion.

Mobile Browser Support
Winkbooks can be viewed on any web-enabled mobile phone or PDA running a WML v1.x, xHTML Mobile Profile(WML v2.0) or i-mode compatible HTML (cHTML) browser. Browsers currently supported include:

  • Openwave Mobile Browser (v4.0 and up)
  • Nokia WAP Browser
  • Blazer (v2.x and up for Palm OS)
  • BlackBerry Browser
  • NetFront (v3.x)
  • Compact NetFront Plus
  • Opera (Symbian OS)
  • Wapaka (Pocket PC, Palm OS, Symbian OS, hiptop/Sidekick, QNX)
  • Pocket Internet Explorer (Microsoft PocketPC Phone Edition, Microsoft Smartphone 2002)
  • AvantGo (Limited support – Pocket PC, Palm OS, Symbian OS)
  • J-PHONE/3.0

About Creative Commons
A nonprofit corporation, Creative Commons offers a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. They have built upon the “all rights reserved” of traditional copyright to create a voluntary “some rights reserved” copyright. Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual works, whether owned or public domain. It is sustained by the generous support of The Center for the Public Domain and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation.Creative Commons is based at Stanford Law School, where it shares staff, space, and inspiration with the school’s Center for Internet and Society. For information, visit: http://creativecommons.org/

About Wireless Ink
Cold Spring Harbor, NY – based Wireless Ink, founded in 2001, provides mobile publishing solutions. Wireless Ink’s award-winning, community, Winksite has been created to change the face of the mobile Internet — making it easier for, and more accessible to, the masses. For information, visit: http://winksite.com

Found This Post Interesting?
Read more about Winksite and mobile access to content at the following links:

Thanks to the A.S.Kline Network for some of the concepts used in the second paragraph of “Winkbooks Explained”.

David Harper

Mobile Contact Centre: Code & Partners Extends Its Online Presence In Partnership With Wireless Ink

This just released by C&P:

Code & Partners is proud to launch its mobile internet presence in partnership with Wireless Ink, USA.

This new communication channel is the first step towards the full integration of mobile internet capabilities in the Mobile Contact Centre, enabling end-users to interact with our platform through wap requests while receiving wap pushes as replies to help tickets. This new feed back channel will also be offered to all consumers interacting with us through MMS & (P)SMS.

Note: Additional details will be released over the next few weeks.

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About Code & Partners
Code & Partners, designing innovative mobile applications.
C&P presents the very first MOBILE CONTACT CENTRE, consisting of a blend of self-learning intelligent agents & human operators interacting live through a carrier-grade web based proprietary software platform with mobile services end-users (TV watchers, radio listeners, advertisers target groups, premium mobile services customers).

The MOBILE CONTACT CENTRE operators process thousands of messages per day, generated by the following services :

  • Track&Solve download errors (spelling and/or syntax errors in sms orders)
  • Ringtone On Demand (just send the title of a ringtone to order it)
  • Chat Boosting (chat 24/7 with live operators)
  • Mobile Helpdesk (advanced mobile customer care, using SMS/MMS/WAP)

Current clients include Moustik, K-Mobile, Utel, MSN, NRJ, AB Group, McDonalds, Belgacom, Nuon, Xbox, Nestlé, First Division soccer teams. C&P operates in Germany, France, Belgium, Mexico, The UK and Spain. C&P has recently entered into a pan-European strategic alliance with European leader Netsize to become its overall Premium SMS end-user support partner.

About Wireless Ink, LLC
Wireless Ink, Mobilizing The Masses
US-based Wireless Ink provides mobile publishing and community solutions for network operators, content providers, mobile device manufacturers, enterprise, and brands. Wireless Ink's award-winning, platform, WINKsite has been created to change the face of the mobile Internet — making it easier for, and more accessible to, the masses. For more information, please contact: solutions@wirelessink.com

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