Ideal Multimedia Moblogging Platform
Hutchison 3 and MSN UK recently annouced that they are are joining forces to promote a video moblogging platform called SeeMeTV to MSN UK users. In the UK, there is also this company called YoSpace that is also into this user generated content in the mobile arena buzz. I heard about them in 3GSM. In the US, Google’s Winksite and TextAmerica seem to be the stronger players in the moblogging community space. Even big traditional (web) blogging players such as News Corp’s MySpace and Google’s Blogger have gone mobile.
We have seen the traditional (web) blogging communities go mobile. With Hutchison 3’s move, we are seeing some moblogging communities go web. Each of these sites have their own interfaces and workflows for use. Some are more tighly tied to the web. Others are more tighly coupled with the mobile interface. Some require mobile subscriptions. Some simply use mobile as an enabler. Either way all these sites have their base of loyal followers who like them as they are. But, what would I like in a moblogging site?
- Easy mobile interface for managing entries. The use of cryptic keywords and the like make it less interesting to moblog. If it takes too long to add an entry it would just frustrate the writter. The ability to delete entries is also and important mobile feature. A simple interface to moderate comments would also be welcomed. Each major market will have its own ideal moblog interface. Therefore, some localization is also necessary.
- Localization. This may not be very important to me or other English speaking or culturally-compatible users. However, this is particularly important for markets whose primary user base uses a different language. It is also important for markets which are culturally different.
- Smart Save. This is a must have feature. It would be best if there is a way to save partial entries while encoding so as not to have to re-encode the entries. This is particularly true for web-interfaces where session time-outs can frequently occur.
- Easy Search. The ability to easily search a moblog community for particular entries is vital. This maybe simple for text only entries. However, this is particularly challenging and important for multimedia entries such as pictures and videos. Moblogging communities have the ability to grow quite quickly and the amount of content can also increase significantly. Looking for particular pieces of content in this haystack would definitely be difficult.
There are probably many more things moblog users can think of for “my ideal moblog”. In the end, it may not even matter that much. All we know is that this is good for camera phone makers because multimedia moblogs are clear outlets of content generated by these phones.
