"We are all, collectively, the media."
Martin Geddes, director of strategy at BT Innovate & Design reflects on social networking and mobile broadband and details his preferences.
What for you are must-read online sites/ magazines / blogs?
For telecoms and technology, I skim dozens to hundreds of blogs. Only a few are ‘must read’. I’d select Brough Turner as offering maximum insight per paragraph, along with Alan Quayle
I think it’s important to look outside your own industry to get inspiration, so I’d commend:
Evolving Excellence for ideas on lean and agile production.
The Business Model Database for ideas on business model innovation, which generates higher returns than product or process innovation.
Right Side Up looks at VRM, the complement to CRM, which is about empowering end users in the buying process, as well as returning control over personal information to the end user. Catch a trend of the future whilst it’s still in its infancy.
I only ever read paper magazines if disconnected from the Internet, which is a distressing situation I strive to avoid at all costs.
What newspaper do you read and your preferred format?
Sorry, what’s a newspaper? More seriously, I get ‘daily events’ from Google News, advice from specialist websites and search, and commentary from the blogosphere. I see no value in the traditional aggregation function of a paper newspaper. I strongly wish there was an mobile RSS reader with offline access that would sync with Bloglines, and keep me amused on the morning commute on the London Underground.
What mobile handset do you have?
My personal phone is a Nokia E71, donated to me by Nokia, and is the best handset I’ve ever had. Wish the user interface was a bit snappier, and would stop asking me endlessly whether it’s really safe to let applications access the Internet.
My work phone is a Blackberry Pearl and, well, let’s just say I feel it has a long, long way to go in terms of usability and integration with my enterprise life. The only redeeming features are its packaging and battery life.
Its most useful feature? For the Nokia, GPS and Google Maps. I just love sitting on a train and watching the real world whizz by out the window, and the virtual one in my hand, with the two dead in sync. And as someone who lives in the urban jungle, it’s good to never be lost. For the Blackberry, the best feature is the ‘off’ button.
Most treasured application you use (and why)? Google Mail. How come this simple and free consumer application is so much better than what millions of people use at work? Opera Mini deserves a mention. I’ve given up on paid-for mobile applications because of DRM and licensing. Every time I have to reflash or upgrade my phone, it’s a nightmare to reinstall things. Otherwise, JoikuSpot would get an endorsement. I guess the WiFi-3G bridge will never please the operators so won’t ever become a standard feature.
What handset feature would you most like added? The ability to use the front camera to turn the phone into a ‘virtual mirror’. The good news for your readers is that unlike swine flu, vanity is not contagious.
Do you have any tips for making the most from mobile/ social networking technology?
Yes, remember that you’re looking at, or talking to, a lump of plastic in your hand. This is not a real person. Use the technology to find real people to talk to. Invisible friends are not real people.
Do you do anything which you think makes extraordinary use of the technology?
Every phone call and text is ordinary in our modern context, yet extraordinary in the grand scheme of humanity. There was coverage on the tops of some remote Scottish mountains where I was hiking last week, and I could share pictures of the soggy scenery with friends and family far off. As Arthur C Clarke observed, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Do you need miracles as well as magic?
What in your view are the key media trending topics in the next 5 years?
Watch for the disaggregation of all existing media and rise in power of (re-)aggregators. Also we are witnessing the de-monetisation of media – too many voices (supply), not enough willingness to pay (demand). For example, the idea you could sell music, rather than just do it and experience it, is a recent phenomenon in human history. The most compelling message is ‘I love you’, and that has no price. The future is a return to the past – we are social and participative, just we won’t need to physically sit around the same fire at the edge of the same cave. We all, collectively, are the media. “Newsflash – new pictures of your grandchildren available for view” beats updates of interest rates and distant wars.
Where there is money, then media will become less of a slurry of linear pictures and audio to be ‘consumed’, and more rich structured metadata that can be ‘combined’ and attached to different business processes. For example, if huge numbers of pictures are being uploaded to social networks with the same geotag, that will indicate there’s something of interest going on at that location. Someone will be willing to pay to find out what it is.
Biography
Martin Geddes is Director of Strategy at BT Innovate & Design, a division of BT Group. He is acknowledged as one of the leading thinkers and analysts on the future of the communications industry. He has a specialist interest in the future of voice and personal communications, as well as the application of multi-sided market structures to the telecoms industry.
Following a period as an independent consultant, he was Chief Analyst at STL Partners, where he co-founded the Telco 2.0 Initiative. This is designed to catalyse business model innovation, and collaboration across the telecoms-media-technology ecosystem. He has consulted to many multi-national network operators and equipment vendors on strategic issues, as well as being a key contributor to Telco 2.0 research and conferences.
For the period 2001-2004 he was a technology specialist at Sprint in Overland Park, KS, when started a popular strategy blog, and was also named on 8 (now granted) US patents. Prior to entering telecoms he was as an IT consultant at Oracle Corporation.
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