I wish we didn't need to have pollution alerts in London, but sending them straight to your mobile via text message seems like a very sensible solution. And what's more, this isn't a premium rate service, it's just a service, and it's free.
The website is pretty thorough too - worth a look.
Oh dear. T-Mobile seems to think that charging lots of money for SMS is a good thing. I must admit, I'm a T-Mobile customer, and have been for years, and generally they represent good value for money for UK-based services. But as soon as you step of this small island I call home, then the charges soon rack up. I particularly baulk at the thought of paying 40p per SMS yet it's only 20p to send a MMS. The trouble is, the carrier you roam on doesn't necessarily support MMS and you'd never know one way or the other if they did so you have absolutely no idea if your MMS would get through.
And then I pick up on this snippet from Martin Geddes. Not only do T-Mobile want to charge over the odds for SMS when you're roaming. They also want to charge you for all the failed messages you send too. And not just a little bit of a charge, a whopping 30p a go.
Sheesh. And this is a good idea because???
I do hope Ofcom and\or Otelo have something to say about this and not let this one slip through the net. OUTRAGEOUS!!
[Great choice of Carnival pictures too, Igor!]
Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Judy Breck's Golden Swamp. For more information on the Carnival of the Mobilists, then check out the FAQs on the website. It's easy to submit your blog post and the more voices we have to choose from, the better.
Carnival of the Mobilists #139 | mobscure :: obscure trends of mobile
And if so, what can we, the mobile industry, do about it?
I've recently written about the lack of female speakers at Informa's upcoming Mobile Web conference. I've also been alerted that the Mobile Marketing Association's forthcoming conference in Budapest (also run by Informa) lacks female visibility. And then I discovered that the Mobile Web Megatrends conference is also suffering the same problem.
Why so few women speakers, panellists or moderators?
And don't tell me this is representative of the industry because I know it isn't - we have good female representation at Mobile Mondays, more women come to Swedish Beers now (and growing) and the women in the Women in Mobile Data Association are plentiful! I even hear along the grapevine that the MMA has a strong female contingent.
And yes, this is a particular bugbear of mine. But with good reason. So bear with me.
I'm fed up to the back teeth of conference organisers and their sponsors ignoring women in the mobile industry (Informa being a recent obvious culprit, but they are certainly not alone) and coming up with lame excuses as to why women aren't involved. And many of these events are actually organised by women which makes it even worse. Do women still defer to men? Do women need a license to speak up?
I'm not a bra-burning feminist by any stretch of the imagination. But come on, this is the 21st Century and we've had the vote a while now. Women make 80% of buying decisions, women are more prolific on the internet than men, women are driving social networking - why aren't they (we) visible at potentially game-changing events where real decisions are made about all our digital futures, when potentially, it will probably impact most on women's day to day lives than men's.
I don't expect to get to 50/50 but to get to 25% visibility would be a start and not unreasonable I'd have thought. Or am I deluded here?
And don't give me the comment 'well if it's a choice between a man and a woman speaker and the man's the better qualified speaker then we choose the man' because in *most* cases in my 8 year experience of attending mobile conferences and events, there are few 'brilliant' speakers on the circuit at all - male or female - so there isn't usually an issue of having to choose between them. And with different formats, different styles of speakers get a chance to shine and therefore it encourages diversity.
It still feels like women are pretty much invisible and that the mobile industry is still very much a boy's club. [And yes, I know it's not just the mobile industry - I can only tackle one sector at a time!]
So..
1. Do we need to rethink event formats to make them more accessible to women? And if so, what are those formats?
2. How do we boost the confidence of female participants so that they say yes more times than they say no when asked to contribute as a speaker, panellist, moderator, whatever?
3. How do we encourage women to take networking and conferencing at this level seriously and make it a core part of their jobs rather than something they do once in a blue moon?
4. How do we encourage companies to put women forward as speakers as often as, or sometimes instead of the men in their companies?
5. How do women network differently (particularly married women) and how do we incorporate male and female styles of networking at events without resorting to separatism or golf days for the boys and spa days for the girls? (Much as I enjoy a spa, I don't really fancy networking with other women whilst in a dressing gown. Where would I put my business cards, phone and notebook anyway? And it does just confirm existing stereotypes and ridicules them. Why don't we just have a shoe-shopping expedition?!)
As a woman, you might think I qualify to answer these questions. Unfortunately, I don't suffer from a fear or reticence of speaking at events. I don't work for a big company so I don't have a glass ceiling to break through (I've experienced it in the past though), so I don't necessarily understand some of what's going on here and why these problems persist or what to do about them. In many cases, women themselves, are ensuring these problems persist so I'm not laying the blame solely on men here. It's deeply culturally embedded so I know it's not a simple issue. Therefore, I'm particularly interested to hear others views and perceptions - and that's from men *and* women please!
I do believe this is a problem. And I do think we can change it for the better if we want to and hope that if I keep piping up about it, something positive will happen.
Some further links here too (and it's worth looking at the comments and links to other posts to get the full picture):
http://technokitten.blogspot.com/2008/08/ilovemobileweb-awards-should-be-renamed.html
http://technokitten.blogspot.com/2008/08/ever-wanted-to-know-gender-and-age.html
I also spotted this upcoming group 'Needs Women Speakers' who are naming and shaming conferences who need more female speakers, and there's an accompanying blog post.
And I've started the discussion on the Oxford Forum too in the hope we may make some progress and find a way forward from this.
And Jason Kottke has been talking about diversity at web industry conferences and some of them are suffering the same problem - although many have healthy female coverage, showing that it is possible.
Every company seems to want your data these days - gender, date of birth, postcode, what you buy, what you like, who you hang with, how often you do all this. Yet what do they do with it?
Seemingly, very little.
Tell me, why did Sainsbury's think it was a good idea to send me a personalised email promoting nappies and baby goods?
I've shopped at Sainsbury's, offline, for over 20 years. And online, I've shopped with them a handful of times in the last 2 or 3 years I reckon.
So tell me, why would I want to stock up on baby food, accessories, wipes or toiletries?
I have never bought nappies in my life - not even for my nieces when they were born.
I am single.
I have no children. [Well not if you don't count my involvement with my local brownie pack in Tooting Bec. And they're not babies anyway.]
My shopping habits haven't changed. I still don't buy meat or cigarettes. I still don't buy baked beans or marmite. And I still don't buy Johnson's baby lotion or Pamper's.
Have they made an assumption because I've bought baby wipes a few times that I have a baby - even though I've bought them for use at a festival and I've never bought any other baby products? It's a tenuous link at best and anyway, I usually buy my baby wipes at Superdrug or Somerfield.
Or are they being super-clever... and they've worked out that a couple of my facebook pals have had babies recently?? I somehow doubt they're following me to that degree, and they certainly shouldn't be if I haven't given them permission.
If it's not going to be useful or used, why bother collecting the data at all?
It's a glitch with blogger it seems if you use Windows Live Writer to write your posts (which I'm doing right now, because it's way easier to use than anything solely web-based).
Comments are here though and will stay here, it's just they're using the old blogger system rather than (my preferred) Disqus system. I guess when they've found a work around, I'll be able to do something about it. It looks like I'm not the only with the problem having done a bit of a Google-around.
Rest assured, I *do* get round to reading all the comments (eventually), however they come in and I appreciate that you take the time to both read and comment on my blog. And I hope you continue to do so.
