At Mobile World Congress 2012, we spoke to Tom Standage, Digital Editor, The Economist, about the social media phenomenon. Standage says that while many people perceive social media as being new and unprecedented, they mark a return to the way media have worked throughout most of history.
By: Ericsson
12 March, 2012
People , Society , Technology
50 billion connections,
applications,
broadband,
Connectivity,
ICT,
innovation,
MWC,
Networked Society
In this video, visitors to Mobile World Congress 2012 share their thoughts on what always being connected means to them and how it is changing their world.
The annual Mobile World Congress has just ended, and as the doors close behind me, I am wondering what exactly it is that we think we are paying for when we use the web.
Small retailers have never had it easy, but the struggle of so-called “mom and pop” businesses has been particularly painful to watch in the last 15 years. Many would blame online shopping. But the mobile Web is beginning to emerge as a tool to stimulate business for traditional brick and mortar businesses.
I saw my first real telepresence robot today. I’ve only read about them and seen videos, and then I was sitting in a session this afternoon at La Fira, where one of the presenters, Erik Kruse from Ericsson (who blogs frequently on this site), introduced the audience to the VGo model.
I just heard another person talking about the iPot (note to editor, that’s not a typo) here at La Fira. So I had to look it up.
If, to paraphrase Google’s Eric Schmidt, the internet is a collective consciousness, wouldn’t it be amazing to have 5 billion more people connected to this digital community? Why deny ourselves the benefit of bringing the majority of the planet’s people into the information age?
Next time you meet a web or app developer, give him some respect. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, wants you to know that they are doing more than just writing code.
There was a bit of buzz about near field communications (NFC) in the media leading up to Mobile World Congress. The focus this year has been on the big credit card companies, but there is also a huge NFC market in the developing world where many people have little or no banking service at all.
By: David Callahan
28 February, 2012
Applications , People , Society , Technology
50 billion connections,
Cloud Computing,
Consumers,
ICT,
mobile broadband,
MWC,
Networked Society
Doctors typically are careful about what they say over the phone to their patients – they generally like to see you face-to-face to talk about your health. So when they say something like, “You need to come in right away,” you may be well into something that started while you weren’t paying attention. One of [...]