Nokia’s Beta Culture Breeds Mobile Virtual Worlds, Mobile Journalism and Much More

"The world of mobile communications is changing at an ever increasing pace,"


"To continue to stay ahead in this environment and to develop innovative new products and services that excite consumers, companies need to embrace openness on many levels. At Nokia, we work with experts in the academic, scientific and developer communities, and increasingly importantly, directly in interaction with our customers. Innovation can come from anywhere, and we need to have the tools and flexibility to respond to that challenge."


--Tero Ojanpera, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia


Whether or not Nokia will succeed in their overly ambitious goal to be everywhere, I am very impressed by the attitude and strategy that a company with such a long history has adopted (more on Nokia and their history).


I got to the office today extra early (6.15, yes I am a bit crazy) and sat down to three Nokia press releases (1, 2, 3). Rather than force you to weed through them, I am going to make it easy for you (we love you here at A MediaCirc.Us).


Innovations Galore




  • MOSH




o    a one-to-many distribution platform - a targeted channel for developers and technology leaders to publish applications and other content, for mobile devices, to a global audience.




  • Widsets




o    a mobile Internet service with more than 3 million registered users and over 2000 widgets, which allows people to enjoy and share their favorite Internet content and to create and publish their own widgets in the spirit of Web 2.0.




  • Point & Find




o    an exciting new way to discover more about your surroundings, using the camera on your mobile device. The mobile device then displays relevant information about what you are looking at, fetching real-time information from the Internet.




  • Shoot to Translate




o    a demonstration using software that translates written characters into another language; the original text is captured with the camera on the Nokia multimedia computer and translation happens in real time.




  • Virtual worlds




o    in addition to previewing the first ever photographic exhibition taking place simultaneously in Second Life and the real world, Nokia showed how 3D virtual environments could be implemented on mobile devices to create an immersive user experience.



o    A strong online community has developed around Beta Labs, attracting especially technology savvy, early adopter mobile enthusiasts.




  • Nokia Web Server




o    a beta lab application running on S60 smartphones. It allows the mobile device to function as an Internet server, making it possible for people to access content on their mobile remotely from a web browser on another device, or to allow other people to do so. Mobile Web Server takes the development of Web 2.0 communities to another level as, rather than centralizing content from many people on a single site, it emphasizes decentralization as a way of creating another kind of community.




  • SEEK




o     SEEK allows MOSH users to make requests for content they crave and the community can then respond with suggestions or custom created content answering the 'SEEK'. SEEK allows the rapidly growing, and global, MOSH community to connect with one another and to obtain content not yet available.




  • Mobile Journalism




o    Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Research Center (NRC) and Reuters are working together on a mobile journalism project that could transform     the way journalists file news reports when on the move. The new mobile application is the first project to be showcased from a long term research collaboration that has been established between NRC and Reuters. It centers around a lightweighttoolkit that provides everything journalists need to file and publish stories from even the most remote regions of the world.


I have been paying a lot of attention to Nokia and the convergence of the web and mobile industries lately and it is becoming clearer where this is all heading. Stay tuned to a AMediaCirc.Us for all of your convergence needs :)


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