Mobile Monday London is going great guns. We have three events lined up in the next few weeks – yes three! On 6 June we’ve organised a debate to get to the bottom of the HTML vs. Apps argument sponsored by the lovely folks at BlackBerry. On 20 June, we’re talking about geolocation in association with UCL and their upcoming iphone dev training programme and on 4 July we’ll be talking about the developer ecosystem and sharing new insights from Vision Mobile and BlueVia. Keep up to date with Mobile Monday London on email (we have a useful discussion group), facebook, linkedin and twitter and keep an eye on our event site http://momolo.org for registration details.
And there’s more…
Keep your eyes peeled as well for the upcoming EMMAs (which I’m judging again) and the MEF upcoming conference and Meffys Awards ceremony (I was a judge for that too for the third time I think). More on both of those as I get details.
Hotmail has teamed up with Ladygeek TV’s Belinda Parmar and Lisa Rogers from scrapheap challenge to try and help busy people save time in their lives. New research from Windows Live Hotmail – the email service for busy people from the folks at Microsoft – reveals that us Brits want to squeeze more into our daily lives but are leaving only one hour a day to dedicate to ourselves. On average, Brits say they have eight and a half hours less free time than they did five years ago. Surprisingly, it’s not Londoners who are the most time poor. It’s the people of Norwich who only dedicate a measly 45 minutes a day on what they want to do. Who’d have thought?!
Hotmail independently researched 3,000 people in the UK to find out how they manage their time. Over 50% of Brits are in the office for a full five-day working week, yet almost half of the nation still brings work home, so employment is the biggest time guzzler. Following work, Brits spend the most time focusing on personal relationships, family and kids, exercise, organising holidays and leisure activities, only leaving one hour to spend on the all-important ‘me’ time.
With that in mind, Hotmail has kicked off a nationwide search to find the nation’s best timesaving invention.
About the competition:
Hotmail is searching the nation to find out what Brits dream about to help them save time – the time-saving device of the future. The lucky winner will be selected by a team of esteemed judges and will receive £10,000 to spend on some all-important ‘me time’. Hotmail has also enlisted a team of experts to develop a prototype of the invention. Find out more, be inspired and enter the competition at www.hotmailtimesaver.co.uk
It seems to me that this competition is crying out for a mobile solution. So if anyone out there in mobile land has the time to devote to this, then I think you’d be making a lot of people happy and maybe winning some cash and getting your invention made in the process. Or maybe you have an idea already that just needs a bit of dusting off to make it competition-fit? Either way, why not give it a go? I would love to see something innovative in this area that connects with your phone somehow. There’s already been an idea about having a Hotmail app for your phone and a fashion matcher so your wardrobe decides for you what to wear each day (now that’s potentially a mobile app) but I’m sure there are many more good ideas out there.
The competition is open to UK entrants aged over 18 only and closes at 4pm on Monday 8th November. More terms and conditions at www.hotmailtimesaver.co.uk – and don’t worry, Microsoft won’t be claiming any IP on any of the entries and they’re not looking to invest in a new business.
One thing I need is something to make my email life faster and easier to manage. Maybe I’ll have to give the new look Hotmail a go…
STOP PRESS: The competition is now open to entrants from Spain as well as the UK, The Netherlands and Portugal. The closing date remains the same - 22 August 2010.
And it’s bigger and better than last year and Mobile Monday London is very pleased to be supporting this year’s Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 competition. And as part of that, I’m helping to organise again this year and will be part of the UK jury to find the best mobile internet start-up to put forward to the final in Amsterdam in September.
You can read some bits and pieces about last year’s event here.
The aim of the competition is to find the best mobile internet start-up across the UK, Portugal and The Netherlands and reward the winner with Euro 100,000 and the runner-up with Euro 50,000. A pretty decent prize-fund I’d say. And in accepting the prize, you don’t have to give away IP or equity to Vodafone.
The competition opens today and closes on 22nd August at midnight. But please don’t leave your entry until the last minute. All entries need to be completed in English and you do need to adhere to the Terms and Conditions. The actual competition Ts & Cs are only about 6 pages – the rest of the document relates to the Ts & Cs for Vodafone’s Widget platform which you must also agree to. Yes, it’s a long document, but please give it the once over to make sure you’re happy with it. I’ve read it and I can’t see anything particularly nasty in there, but I’m not an expert on these things, nor am I a lawyer so don’t just take my word for it.
The application form is pretty straight forward but I highly recommend that you take some thought before you fill it in. There is limited space, and limited time for the judges to read and take in what you’re writing, so it means you need to to think through clearly what your proposition is, describe the features but make sure you also state the benefits as these are what make you attractive to customers.
You can only enter once and once you’ve entered, you may not amend your entry.
Entry is now open at http://www.vodafonemobileclicks.com/ and you can follow progress of the competition on the VMC2010 official twitter account. And if twitter’s your thing, you can also follow Mobile Monday London there too.
The 5 judging criteria are:
If you have specific questions or concerns, please get in touch with me and I’ll do my best to answer your questions or put you in touch with someone who can.
Entry Criteria:
There are three stages to the contest:
Last year we were able to put three companies through to the final at Picnic. They were Audioboo, Rummble and Woobius. Woobius came third and walked away with a Euro 25,000 prize. And Audioboo and Rummble have both done very well since last year’s contest, both recently raising funds and growing their respective businesses.
We asked all our UK finalists from VMC2009 what they thought of the competition last year and whether or not it was worth entering.
Mark Rock from Audioboo tells us: "Vodafone Mobile Clicks was one of the freshest competitions of 2009. To have a mobile network operator embrace the start-up community in this way was fantastic. The quality of the judging through 3 rounds was excellent, if a little gruelling, And the support & help given all the way through to being taken to Amsterdam to compete in the finals (we didn't win, by the way) was above and beyond the normal competition process. Vodafone Mobile Clicks is worth the effort"
And Andrew Scott from Rummble said: "Vodafone put considerable energy behind the Mobile Clicks competition which definitely contributed to our profile .. it was also a lot of fun!"
And here’s a couple of pictures of the Woobius team with their prize cheque. Well done Woobius!
So, get the thinking caps on and get entering. The Mobile Monday London team wishes you the best of luck!
The official press release is below.
VODAFONE MOBILE CLICKS 2010 COMPETITION ANNOUNCED
Search to find best mobile internet start-up across three European markets is on
27th July, 2010. Vodafone today announced the launch of Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010, a competition to identify and develop the best, most innovative mobile internet start-ups. Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 will run across three European markets - Netherlands, Portugal and UK.
The contest is open to any start-up with a great idea for a mobile site, service or application and entrants can compete for the €150,000 prize fund by submitting entries to www.vodafonemobileclicks.com. The competition is open now, and the closing date for entries is midnight, August 22nd, 2010.
Each entry will be judged on five criteria: originality, creativity and innovation; technical and operational feasibility; economic and financial viability; value to end-users; and finally, on the quality of the management team.
The judging will take place over three rounds. Each competing market will draw up a shortlist of their five best local submissions, a winner will be selected from each shortlist and finally all local winners will be invited to represent their country in a live final at the PICNIC Festival in Holland on September 24th, 2010, where the overall winner will be chosen by a panel of mobile industry experts, including Om Malik, founder of the GigaOM Network, Russell Buckley, VP Global Alliances at Admob, and Rudy de Waele, Founder of dotopen, the Mobile Premier Awards and co-founder of the Mobile 2.0 Conferences in San Francisco and Barcelona.
Launched in 2008, Vodafone Mobile Clicks is a Vodafone initiative designed to accelerate innovation in the mobile internet sector across Europe. It is now the biggest mobile start-up competition of its kind.
“Through initiatives like Vodafone Mobile Clicks and our wider developer outreach programme, we’re finding ways to help stimulate, grow and commercialise the innovation that is at the heart of the mobile ecosystem,” said Lee Epting, Director of Content Services at Vodafone Group. “Vodafone Mobile Clicks is really about empowering ambitious, young start-ups to develop their ideas and accelerate them into market. I’m excited to be judging another year of inspiring entries from entrants across Europe.”
For further information about the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 competition, or to enter your company, go to: http://www.vodafonemobileclicks.com
Some of you may know that I’ve been working with Vodafone UK & NL on the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition. I helped to organise it and was also one of the judges for the first heats.
The jury for the final is Richard Titus, Lee Epting, Rudy de Waele, Vincent Everts & Heike Scholz.
I've opened up the poll over at Yahoo Groups (I couldn't find a better way to run it so that it was one vote per person). If you're not already signed up to our Mobile Monday London Yahoo Group, then please sign up and make sure you fill in the bit that says why you want to join the group so we know you're genuine.
Our friends at Mobile Monday Amsterdam are going through a similar process and have already been busy voting.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/momolondon/polls
There is just one vote so use it wisely, but please DO vote! The poll will be open for a week only and will close on 22nd September in advance of the finalists heading off to Amsterdam.
And in case you're wondering who the companies are and would like a bit more info, then here you go...
Woobius http://www.woobius.com/ (UK)
A service for the construction industry allowing them to collaborate by gathering all info & data in one place with access for the team. With the help of Woobius Eye for mobile, it is possible to solve problems & reduce build costs & the number of mistakes made.
Rummble http://www.rummble.com/ (UK)
A service that recommends content to the user, based on people with the same interests and hobbies. By sharing information and creating a trust network, the customer will get more interesting & relevant content.
Mobypicture http://www.mobypicture.com/ (NL)
Share photos, videos & audio with friends at social network sites like hyves, facebook and twitter with one press of a button.
Audioboo http://audioboo.fm/ (UK)
Directly record audio (eg interviews or quotes) & share it with social network sites like twitter and facebook. The last recorded, most popular and featured "boos" from the community can be played as well.
Layar http://layar.com/ (NL)
A browser that uses 'augmented reality' so a user can see what is in their surroundings by looking through the camera of their handset.
MyNameIsE http://www.mynameise.com/ (NL)
Connecting people on & offline by gathering their profiles on various social networks in one place. These can be shared in real life via mobile or bespoke device, The Connector.
Thanks everyone and please get voting!
Today sees the launch of a national search for designers to develop new ways of securing mobile phones against thieves and fraudsters, as research shows that 80% of phones contain data which can be used by criminals to access bank accounts, steal identity, or sell on personal data.
The Mobile Phone Security Challenge is offering a total of £400,000 to designers and technology experts to come up with new ways of securing handsets, the data they contain, and their future use as electronic ‘wallets’ when m-commerce technology is introduced in the UK.
The Challenge is part of Design out Crime, an initiative from the Home Office Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime and the Design Council. The Mobile Phone Security Challenge is supported by the Technology Strategy Board.
Applicants will submit a tender outlining how they will approach the challenge and identifying any relevant experience they may have. Once selected by a panel of experts, the teams will be allocated money for research and development from the £400,000 fund, and spend six months developing designs and working prototypes in one or more of three key areas:
· Making mobile phone handsets harder or less desirable to steal
· Making the data stored on mobile phones harder or less desirable to steal
· Making future m-commerce transactions secure and fraud proof
They will produce market-ready applications which may include hardware and software for handsets, new services and other innovations, which will be showcased and promoted by early 2010, with a view to their widespread and rapid take-up by the market.
A recent survey found that 80% of people carry information on their mobile phone handsets that could be used by criminals to commit fraud - and 16% keep their bank details saved on their phone, yet only 4 in 10 people currently lock their mobiles using a PIN. Such data includes website passwords, bookmarks, emails, personal security data and locations/addresses on map applications.
The deadline for applications is Friday 22nd May. Short-listed applicants will present to the expert panel on Friday 27th June, and the four finalists will be announced on Monday 29th June. The teams will develop prototypes over six months involving a process of review and advice from the expert panel. Four prototypes will be showcased in early 2010. More details of the Challenge can be found at www.designcouncil.org.uk/crime.
Sebastian Conran, chair of the Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime said: “This challenge is the result of work undertaken last year when we engaged young victims of crime, police, mobile industry experts and designers to understand current and future issues regarding mobile phone crime. The Alliance has prioritised five areas and is working hard to deliver insights that the UK’s design and technology sector can use to deliver innovative solutions to reduce the instances of crime and antisocial behaviour. This is one of the early results of our work – there’s more to come.”
Previous advances in technology have led to unexpected new forms of crime; email heralded the phenomenon of ‘phishing’, ATMs precipitated the new crime of ‘card catching’ and online banking gave rise to ‘key logging’, used by fraudsters to track the input of secret passwords and account numbers. However, there are also many examples of technology being applied successfully to reduce crime – for example, British Crime Survey figures show theft of vehicles has reduced by 51% since 1997 as a result of improved security being designed into the vehicle, and an evaluation of houses built to the ACPO Secured By Design (SBD) standards showed that these experience 26% less crime than non SBD houses, and residents fear of crime is lower.
The Mobile Phone Security Challenge will be steered by a group of leading specialists:
· CHAIR: Simon Waterfall, Co-founder, POKE
· Steve Babbage, Security Technologies Manager & Group Chief Cryptographer, Vodafone Group R&D
· Mark Delaney, Director, Connect Design, Nokia
· Josh Dhaliwal, Co-founder, Mobile Youth
· Richard Martin, Business Security Consultant, APACS
· Joe McGeehan, Managing Director, Toshiba Research Lab and Professor of Communications and Engineering at the University of Bristol
· Dr Walter Tuttlebee, Executive Director, Mobile VCE
So that’s not bad then, a prize fund of £400k and will be supported to get to prototype and production stage. If this is your area of expertise, then I’d say it could be worth a shot.
I would like to see a woman in the steering group though. My hunch is that women have a very different response to security concerns than men do. I also believe that women and men respond differently to technology and that should be accounted for in the design process, but that’s one for another day.
With Astia’s ‘Doing it Right’ initiative.
I’ve just been tipped off that Astia, the Silicon Valley leader in programmes that accelerate the funding and growth of women-led start-ups, has just launched its programme in the UK for high-potential, high-growth, women led startups across Europe. The programme is called ‘Doing it Right’ and the closing date for entries is 22nd April 2009. So you’ve got just over a month ladies to pull it all together.
Since 2003, Astia’s US programme has had over a 60% fundraising success, raised more than $495M for presenting companies and had 11 exits including two IPOs. With high expectations to match this success in Europe, there has never been a better time to be a woman entrepreneur and tap into Astia’s community of over 450 experts, serial entrepreneurs and CEOs in the Valley and UK. And this certainly sounds very good to me – especially in these tough credit crunch times.
Geared around finding funding, Astia’s innovative programmes ensure companies gain access to capital, achieve and sustain high-growth, and build highly successful global businesses. Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia, commented: “The Astia programme has managed to make a true difference to women in innovative businesses in the US. We are all about results and measure our success by the success of the companies in our programme. The UK programme is launching at a challenging but exciting time for high-growth businesses and we see a real opportunity to make a difference.”
The London programme is open for applications at www.astia.org for women (at C level) in innovative technology, seeking financing.
Key dates:
22 April: Application deadline
11-14 May: Doing it Right London programme
15 May: London company screening day
18 June: London investor forum
Anyone wanting to apply should visit www.astia.org
I wonder if Sharon Vosmek will be profiled as part of the Finding Ada initiative on 24th March…? I’m still deciding who I’m going to cover.
Then best get yourself over to Qipit before 21st February. They're running a Valentine's competition where you have to download a template from their website, customise with your Valentine message in hand-writing and then take a picture of it with your cameraphone and upload it back up to Qipit. And in doing this, you'll also see exactly how Qipit works. Pretty neat.
What will your message be?
