Commenting on Info discovery

A bit about myself... I have been working in the 3rd party mobile software business for over 7 years and software for close to 9 years. Prior to that, I started and ran a technology development business. My interest right now is what is going to be the next big thing in Mobile. We have seen and heard alot of the hoopla, and I have consumed and dispensed my share of kool aid in my role managing a 30+ team of engineers. The question is... what is going to pop? We have seen YouTube, MySpace, JamDat, Glu Mobile... but where is the money? I am currently working on mobile TV and interested in mobile video in particular.

I found this quote from Wireless World Forum pretty interesting (and graphic... apologies in advance to the puritans):
"It’s called the money shot because it is the quality and subsequent production and marketing of this ‘special’ moment that creates the most commercial value for the final product." - Julia Dimambro, Cherry Sauce

Julia is in the Mobile Erotica business, but this quote struck me for several reasons... this statement in a nutshell summarizes the process of grooming an organization to be able to deliver the desired goods, at the right volume, to the right place, to maximize the realized potential for the organization. This "event" can be an IPO, acquisition, etc. , but the point is that the potential of the company is best leveraged for the benefit of the shareholders. The promise of this event attracts (and retains) talent, and confidence that management is able to guide the organization to this point is critical to maintaining momentum through multiple... uhh... events.

In my pursuit of information, I am tracking several sources. I thought it would be interesting to jot these down, as I am finding that I forget things more frequently these days. I feel like I am pretty regularly looking back at the day and wondering why I pissed away so much time on this or that. In reality, the info gathering is a critical component to relevance. Some technologies step up and slap you in the face demanding attention (take a look at ATSC and you will see why I believe MediaFLO and DVB-H may be still born). In any case, this is a snapshot of my headspace and hope it provides some jumping off points for others wandering through the space.

Online Resources
mediapost.com OnlineMediaDaily : these are interesting since it is clear that advertising is part of the way to the promised land of ubiquitous mobile.

abiresearch.com : sometimes this goes a bit deep into some technologies of specious interest to a software-oriented mind, but definitely provides breadth

FierceIPTV : Interesting insight into the more STB-centric sector of the TV world... the IP is just a medium in this case. See my prior blog to distinguish this from Internet enabled TV.

Wireless World Forum : interesting discussions on some very ground level issues facing monetization of mobile.

Linked In : I was pretty skeptical of these, but find it useful to have some link to my prior lives. If you take your profession seriously, you will find the respect and support of current and past associates is critical to your ongoing success.

http://www.tvover.net/default.aspx : This was the first place is saw the "Internet TV" differentiated from IPTV. Good info site.

Periodicals
EETimes : its free and its good... there is quite a bit of ancillary (for my purposes) discussion on masks, semi developments, and the latest nanoscale burn a wicked small channel and fill it with conductor whosamawhatsit, but that stuff is cool too. They also regularly rip apart the latest gear and analyze the components. Can't get much cooler than that.

Portable Technology : Interesting insight into the latest power management techniques, upcoming portable developments, latest chipsets... this gives you an idea of what to expect in about a1 year in terms of hardware capabilities.

Must See Sites
facebook - check out their development toolkit... these guys are thinking third party software.
myspace - ignore at your peril... 60E6 18-25 year olds are wallowing in this
youtube - this is remarkable... I had given up on finding vintage Stone Roses footage and Thundarr episodes.

That's about it. I am going to attach my video at this point because its cool.