Are cellphones the thin client of the World Wide Web or a part of the World Wide Web?
November 11th, 2006 | Written by erik | Topic: Internet, Press, Technology, cell phoneI yesterday submitted a position paper to the W3c Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries even though the discussion is valid for the whole mobile web discussion. The main conclusion is that we should of policy and technology constraints discuss whether a mobile web really exist:
When these issues – both on the handset, but most of all on the network side – are resolved then we might start to think of “one web”, until then I think it is better to think of it as ‘different webs yet interacting’. Regardless, cellphones will play an essential part in the future, and especially the exploding use of cellphones in the developing world will force this to happen.
As for applications and generally speaking we will see a lot of social media cellphone applications emerge and cellphones will be used as interaction devices with the web, as well as, when the platform is ready, part of the World Wide Web.
You will find the full document here.
Comment by http://inthefieldonline.net/blog » Is all technology socially disruptive in a bad way? on the May 15th, 2007 at 5:21 am
[...] I am always extremely chocked when I hear people talk about the mobile web in the developing world. Of many reasons of course but two main ones can be identified: first there is no mobile web (yet), and secondly people discussing the mobile web don’t talk nor invite people from those regions to seminars and conferences on the same. I have written about the first aspect before. [...]