FCC Plans Dec. 21 "Net Neutrality" Vote

If you didn't have the context, it would be hard to glean from this formal statement just what the new rules will contain. Even if you have the context, the really-important issues are not the principles, but the implementation.

And then there is the nagging, sure to be tested in the courts issue of where the Federal Communications Commission has the legal authority to issue such rules.

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QR Codes: Another Example of New Technology Adoptiion Process

New technologies nearly always are envisioned in the framework of some older technology. "Horseless carriage" is one example. People commonly used to refer to a refrigerator as an "ice box." The telephone once was seen as a way to send music to people.

The point is that truly-significant innovations rarely are fully understood at first. There is a period of trial-and-error where people try to figure out what to do with the new tools. Then there is a period where people just swap the new tools for the old tools.

Finally there is a transformation when wholly-new systems are built around the new technologies. But that easily can take a decade or more, though we seem used to the idea that some technologies can propagate faster than that.

Some of you might remember that there was an explosion of business investment in information technology throughout the 1980s that seemed not to move the needle on productivity measures. The measurable gains didn't seem to appear widely until the 1990s.

Some argue it took that long for entire information-manipulating processes to be redesigned for digital appliances and networks before the gains could be reaped.

Quick response codes (QR codes), two-dimensional barcodes, provide a recent example. Basically, when a user takes a picture of such a code, a smartphone or other suitably-equipped device can translate the code into a web address, and take the user to that site.

Some see this as a way to make non-connected printed materials (magazine pages, posters, billboards, t-shirts, hats) "digital." But it will probably take some time before we all figure out what QR codes really are good for.

One example: when it comes to exchanging contact details, business cards are still the method of choice for most business people.

Some think barcoded objects will replace business cards. But one can think of all sorts of good reasons why human interactions in settings where business cards are used are not conducive to use of QR codes as a substitute.

People trading cards don't know each other. They also are face to face in settings where holding up a camera and taking a picture is physically or socially undesirable.

Cocktail parties, inside meeting rooms, offices or exhibit stands are places where somebody might be asked for, contact information.

You might say the code could simply be printed on a hat, shirt or placard, but you quickly will understand that this is a non-viable channel. Few people probably want to broadcast contact details and fewer want to wear geeky clothing implying they are a "product" or "object," which is the inescapable notion.

One can make an argument that a QR code, printed on a card, will save a bit of keystroking when a recipient later can take a photo of the code, pull up a website and then cut and paste the information into a contact manager.

But if you have to carry and distribute the cards anyway, that isn't going to "replace" anything.

QR codes as a replacement for business cards might provide some value to some people. It hardly seems to provide obvious and immediate value for most people, though.

It does nicely illustrate the process of technology adoption, though. It is something people have to do, and not every conceivable application case will prove to be long lasting.

QR codes make business card information digital

Top 2011 Trends as Seen by JWTIntelligence

An entertaining, two-minute look at JWTIntelligence's pick for the top trends that could have a broad bearing on marketing and sales in 2011. It's entertaining.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

Marketing to Digital Natives | Mobile Marketing and Technology

“Digital Natives” or “Millennials” (basically, the generation now largely in their twenties) don’t trust authority, don’t want anyone telling them what to think and don’t like to pay full retail prices, some studies have found, and most of you might agree is at least partly true of every generation in their respective twenties.

Some have argued those attitudes have something to do with new patterns of content consumption, and that the preferences might be permanent. Lots of you might agree that generally has the ring of authenticity as well.

A study of modern media consumers by BVA, a French market research firm, illustrates some of the attitudinal trends that have implications for marketing products and services to digital natives.

They see life as a game; they enjoy nothing more than outsmarting the system; they don’t trust politicians, media or brands. Sound familiar?

Read more at Marketing to Digital Natives | Mobile Marketing and Technology

Netflix Trying to Get into TV Distribution

Up to this point, it has been pretty easy to describe Netflix as a distributor of rental movies, irrespective of delivery system. But now Netflix appears to be making an aggressive play for rights to distribute "in-season" episodes of hit TV shows. That would make it more directly competitive with services such as Hulu, which primarily distributes TV shows.

Netflix reportedly is in talks with studios about gaining access to current episodes of primetime shows and is willing to pay between $70,000 and $100,000 per episode, according to a New York Post report.

If you wonder why studios now are getting more nervous about Netflix, TV distribution, especially of "in season" fare, is part of the reason. Studios know what happened to music owners when Apple's iTunes became a dominant distribution outlet for music, and are not anxious to see Netflix or anybody else get that powerful.

Nor is it just the studios that rightly have to be worried. The TV networks that air the programs traditionally have had rights some of the downstream revenue as well, but if Netflix gets into the distribution chain, that could change. Aside from those genuine issues, which have the studios and networks arguing about who controls digital distribution rights, the traditional bundlers of networks--cable, satellite, telco--also have to worry that no matter how those issues get worked out, Netflix is becoming a bigger threat to the value of multichannel video services as well.

Netflix offering $100K for TV episodes - NYPOST.com

Groupon Has Won its Category, Real Competition is Media Companies

Many analysts are looking at LivingSocial and the other 200 daily deal startups in the space as the competition to Groupon. Actually, the real threat to Groupon is coming laterally, from established players (newspapers, magazines, vertical sites, TV shows, etc.) who already have audiences in the millions, established brands and in-house sales staff.

As for Groupon’s couponing technology, there really isn’t any. To the extent that an estimated 200 "daily deal" startups have quickly launched in the last 18 months, there is no barrier to entry, except critical mass, which Groupon seems now to have.

Real Reason Groupon is Selling: They’re Another AOL?

Best Buy Mobile: "Free Smartphone" is Hard to Ignore

Best Buy Mobile is giving away new phones (on contract) every day this month. Every day throughout December, Best Buy Mobile will feature a minimum of four free smartphones (one from each carrier) in all Best Buy Stores, in all 157 Best Buy Mobile specialty stores, and on their website.

Among the devices to be features are the:

Droid Incredible (Verizon)
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (AT&T)
LG Optimus S (Sprint)
LG Optimus T (T-Mobile)

Hard to dismiss an offer of a free Droid, huh?

Best Buy Mobile launches major holiday sale | Android Central

Location as a Security Feature

A new venture from location provider Location Labs and fraud detection service Finsphere hopes to use a user's mobile location to enhance security and prevent identity theft and fraud.

The two companies have launched Finsphere's "PinPoint" identity validation product, which helps to fight identity theft and validate a user's identity with the use of Location Labs' "Universal Location Service."

The concept behind the service is simple: PinPoint tracks the location of a credit card transaction and matches it to the location of the end user's cell phone. If the two are far apart, it raises an alert.

The end user will then be sent a text message or email to verify whether or not the transaction was legitimate. Think of it as sort of a 'first responder' to the possibility of a stolen wallet, stolen credit card or any other financially-bound identity theft.

Beyond the Check-in: How Location Services Can Now Fight Identity Theft

StarHub Pilots Mobile Payments Using Near Field Communications

StarHub Pilots Mobile Payments Using Near Field Communications

One thing is clear as ecosystem participants begin to maneuver for a secure position in the "near field communications" part of the mobile payments business. Each type of participant is looking for ways to secure a position that is less reliant on the approval or cooperation of some of the other participants.

For example, StarHub is working witha bank and a transport company to create its own mobile payments capability, without directly requiring handset manufacturers to approve.

StarHub will be running a trial of NFC payments in Singapore with DBS Bank, featuring ticketing from EZ-Link. But the most interesting aspect of the trial is the way it cuts out the handset manufacturers, using Gemalto's N-Flex technology to slide between the SIM and the phone and provide an NFC antenna.

NFC mobe-touchpay trial does end run round handset makers • The Register

The Future of Media

Agree or disagree, interesting statistics in here.

Social Networking: Where We Came From

Social Networks: Past, Present & Future - Social networking seems to have exploded, but as with most other applications involving the Internet, there is an experimental, elemental past. And there is a long ways yet to go.

Mobile Device Use in Pictures

Click on the image for a larger view.

Xmarks acquired by LastPass, Goes Freemium

The Xmarks cross-browser bookmark synchronization service nearly had to shut down earlier this year because the company was running out of funding and still hadn't found a sustainable business model.

LastPass, a software company that offers a cross-platform password synchronization tool, has acquired Xmarks and is moving the product to a freemium model.

Xmarks users who are willing to pay $12 a year for the new premium version of the service will get extra features, including access to the new Android and iPhone mobile applications.

Xmarks has more than 4.5 million users syncing more than 1 billion bookmarks across five million computers. LastPass thinks the new "freemium" model will work because it did for LastPass.

Hands-on: Xmarks acquired by LastPass, launches mobile apps

Mobile Video Advertising Will Have its Challenges, But it is Coming

One issue is translating video authored for a bigger and wider PC screen, automatically, even when it might be necessary to remove some of the information.

Google Research Blog: "Pan and Scan" for Mobile Video

"Pan and scan" is a technique long used to fit wider movie images onto an analog NTSC TV screen. Engineers at Google say they now can do the same thing for video to be displayed on a mobile screen, rather than a larger PC screen.

Videos come in different sizes, resolutions and aspect ratios, but the device used for playback, may it be your TV, mobile phone, or laptop, only has a fixed resolution and form factor, Google engineers say.

As a result, you cannot watch your favorite old show that came in 4:3 on your new 16:9 HDTV without having black bars on the side, referred to as letterboxing.

Likewise, widescreen movies and user-videos uploaded on YouTube are shot using various cameras with wide-ranging formats, so they do not fit completely on the screen. As an alternative to letterboxing, several devices try to upscale the content uniformly, which either changes the aspect ratio, making everything look stretched out, or simply crop the frame, thereby discarding any content that cannot fit the screen after scaling.

Google Research, together with collaborators from Georgia Tech, says it has developed an algorithm that resizes (or retargets) videos to fit the form factor of a given device without cropping, stretching or letterboxing.

At some point, this is going to be important for providers of videos that will be viewed on mobile devices, and the business ecosystem (advertising, marketing, transactions) that will grow up around mobile video.

Official Google Research Blog: Discontinuous Seam Carving for Video Retargeting