Author Archive for dkv
This guest post is written by Andreas Constantinou, Research Director at VisionMobile, an analyst firm focusing on mobile software strategy and open source. Andreas has followed the mobile business from the dark ages of 2000 to the openness renaissance of today. He will be part of the panel on Openness next Friday at Mobile 2.0 Europe in Barcelona.
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On June 19th we ‘ll be discussing ‘openness’ at Mobile 2.0. As part of the Openness panel I ‘ll be joined by Matthaus Krzykowski (VentureBeat), Pat Phelan (MAXroam), Christian Sejersen (Mozilla), David Wood (Symbian Foundation) and Jacob Lehrbaum (Sun). Clearly a discussion to look forward to.
Openess is a much-misunderstood word; a kind of good-will moniker to which people attach an impressive variety of definitions; open source, open standards, open handsets, openness as in transparency, shared roadmaps, open APIs, open route to market.. It’s a very forgiving term as far as definitions go.
One of the industry’s favourite facets of openness is of course open source. We ‘ve been giving open source a lot of thought at VisionMobile, especially as people expect us analysts to be wearing a critical and not a tinted pair of spectacles when it comes cutting through vendor hype.
Lots of software vendors and consortia have embraced open source in some form or other; Symbian Foundation, LiMo Foundation, OHA/Android, Nokia Qt, WebKit, Funambol and Sun’s Java are the ones that have hit the limelight.
Open source licensed software carries four basic freedoms; the right to access (source code), modify, distribute and contribute to the software. These freedoms have been embodied in the key licenses – GPL, LGPL, APL, EPL, MPL, BSD and MIT – which are used in the vast majority of open source projects. The licenses in turn determine the rights and obligations that use of the source code carries. Unsurprisingly, strong copyleft licenses (read: GPL) are rarely used in mobile products, due to the OEM concerns for downstream liabilities.
But what’s often missed in open source discussions is how open source licenses tell only half the story.
Licenses typically govern control of the source code. But in mobile industry, source code and products are two very different things. For example; while you can play with Android source code to your heart’s content, are the latest code check-ins publically visible ? You can peak at Symbian Foundations’ EPL-licensed source code, but who arbitrates what changes go into the UI layers of S60? You can buy a LiMo-compliant handset, but as a LiMo member can you expect LiMo handsets to ship with your source code contributions ? You can create your own WebKit-based browser, but what are the requirements for contributing source code mods to the WebKit root ?
It turns out there’s often no official answer to these questions, and when there is, the answer is a resounding No. Indeed, there are 10s of questions you could be asking to these ‘open’ projects or products, and none of these is within the bounds of the open source software license; they are in the small print or what’s known as the governance model.
The picture that emerges is one where :
- open source licenses (the large print that covers source control) are widely used, converged and well understood, while
- governance models (the small print that governs product control) are proprietary, diverging and poorly understood
Indeed, this is one of the most understated topics in the ‘open’ mobile industry today, yet one of the most fundamental in the direction where the industry will be taking. Openness is the new closed.
Clearly an interesting debate to be held at the forthcoming openness panel on June 19th as part of the Mobile 2.0.
Would very much welcome audience feedback and questions through this blog; we can then raise and address this during the Openness panel.
Andreas
Research Director, VisionMobile
Ten days to go and Mobile 2.0 Europe is shaping up, once again, to become another ‘must be’ event for innovative entrepreneurs and influencers in the mobile ecosystem! If you want to know more about what’s going to happen, check our final program and our extensive speaker profiles with the latest additions.
If you hadn’t noticed yet, the line-up is really impressive. Recently added speakers include:
Michael Breidenbruecker – Founder Reality Jockey Ltd. / Co-Founder Last.fm Ltd.
Carlos Domingo – EVP, Internet & Digital R&D, Telefonica.
Ian Ginn – Programme Director TransmediaLab Amsterdam / Founder Hubbub Media.
José Luis de Vicente – Medialab Prado, Madrid.
Ted Morgan, CEO & Founder, Skyhook Wireless.
Felix Petersen – Founder at Plazes.com, now Head of Product Strategy Social Location at Nokia.
David Wood, Catalyst & Futurist, Leadership Team, Symbian Foundation.
Honestly, do you know about any other event were you can find this kind of quality speakers in such a mix together? So, we are really proud and happy that we’re able to bring together, once again, some of the most important entrepreneurs and innovators from the mobile ecosystem in Europe and beyond.
What else? The Developer Day on Thursday 18/6 is now sold out! There are only tickets left to attend the Mobile 2.0 Europe conference on Friday, June 19.
Mobile 2.0 Europe Startup Demo Launch Pad
The startups that will present on Friday include Distimo (Utrecht), Layar (Amsterdam, Pikkoo (Oulu), theChanner (Barcelona) and vulevu (Berlin). Check the announcement here including some more info on their pitch. There is still a wildcard being given to a European startup that gets most traction on twitter the coming 48 hrs. Follow @mobile20 to know what it’s all about.
Bloggers Corner
We’re also setting up a bloggers corner at the Mobile 2.0 Europe Conference on Friday to facilitate interviews with speakers and participants. Bloggers from the following technology media & blogs attending the conference include Mike Butcher (London) and Robin Wauters (Brussels) from TechCrunch, Dusan Belic (Belgrado) from IntoMobile, Matthaus Krzykowski (Berlin-San Francisco) from VentureBeat, Bena Roberts (Munich) from GoMoNews, Peggy Anne Salz (Cologne) from MSearchGroove, Marek Pawlowski (London) from PMN – Mobile Industry Intelligence and Andrew Grill (London) from London Calling.
Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Barcelona Camp
And more in partnership with MobileActive.org we’ll be hosting a Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Barcelona Open Air MEET-UP on Saturday, June 20, 2009 – 5 pm/17:00 cet at La Caseta! It’s an informal gathering for those passionate about mobile tech for social change to have a drink and watch the sunset!
La Caseta is an amazing place on Montjuic. Situated on the south corner of the Montjuic Castell, you have a great view over the harbour on one side and over the city to the other. It is open air, they serve fine food and good drinks and DJs spin chilly rare grooves while you contemplate the Mediterranean.
Please register here for this gathering in a unique setting! – http://mobiletech4socialchangebarcelona.eventbrite.com/
Tickets
As mentioned above, there are only tickets left to attend the Mobile 2.0 Europe conference on Friday, June 19. You can purchase your tickets here at Amiando http://www.amiando.com/mobile2europe2009.html. Tickets are really going fast now. Act soon before being left out!
Our Partners
Our thanks to our partners ESADE, Barcelona Activa, Sun Microsystems, Vodafone Betavine, Forum Nokia, Yahoo!, Smaato, Getjar, The Finnish Mobile Association, O2 Litmus and Amiando for their invaluable support.
We hope to see you next week in Barcelona!
Three weeks to go and Mobile 2.0 Europe is shaping up to become another great event! Here’s an update.
Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Day
The Developer Day is nearly fully shaped up now. Next to the previously announced sessions, we have more sessions confirmed by Skyhook Wireless on enabling location-based mobile apps, Uxebu (on dojo-based apps & widgets), and sessions on W3C standards and on building Android apps.
Mobile 2.0 Europe Startup Demo Launch Pad
More than 50 mobile startups are currently registered to be selected to present at the Mobile 2.0 Europe Demo Launch Pad. Last hours to fill-in the registration form. Startup registration to the Launch Pad closes on May 28, 2009 at midnight PST. The Mobile 2.0 Organizing Committee will evaluate and select the startups to present to be announced on June 1, 2009.
Start-ups who previously presented at Mobile 2.0 events include: aka-aki (Germany), Dial2Do (Ireland), Nimbuzz (Netherlands), Rummble (UK), Seesmic (USA), Zipipop (Finland), Mippin (UK), Heysan (USA), Skout (USA), Webwag (France), Palringo (UK), Taptu (UK) and Kyte (USA).
Mobile 2.0 Europe Conference
The speakers’ profiles have been added to our website and the agenda has been updated. This week we added:
Ted Morgan (Boston) – CEO & Founder at Skyhook Wireless.
Fee Beyer (Berlin) – Product & Innovation Team at T-Mobile International.
Jacob Lehrbaum (San Francisco) – Senior Product Manager at Sun Microsystems.
Michael Breidenbruecker – Founder Reality Jockey Ltd. / Co-Founder Last.fm Ltd.
More C-Level speakers are still confirmed every day now.
Tickets
There are a limited number of standard price tickets left for 99 euros for the Developer Day. If you would like to attend both events, Developer Day and Mobile 2.0 Europe, there are combo-tickets available for 399 € euros. You can purchase your tickets here at Amiando http://www.amiando.com/mobile2europe2009.html. Act soon the tickets are nearly sold out!
TechCrunch Mobile 2.0 Party
Our partner TechCrunch announced it will be hosting the official TechCrunch Mobile 2.0 Party after the event on Friday and after the speaker’s dinner. Check here to book your attendance.
Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Barcelona Camp
Also in partnership with MobileActive.org we’ll be hosting a Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Barcelona Camp at Barcelona Activa on Saturday, June 20, 2009 — registration coming up! Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camps are local events for people passionate about using mobile technology for social impact and to make the world a better place.
Each event includes interactive discussions, hands-on-demos, collaborative scheming about ways to use, develop, and deploy mobile technologies in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, citizen media, to name a few areas. Check here for updates and more info.
That’s it for this week, more news to come soon!
While we’re still adding interesting speakers to the program and finalising the agenda, the Early Bird registration for the Mobile 2.0 Europe event is closing today at midnight PST.
Mobile 2.0 Europe is bringing together the mobile influencers during 2 days in Barcelona on June 18 and 19. Unlike most conferences, the event is very reasonably priced.
Early Bird tickets only cost 249 € to attend the Mobile 2.0 Europe event on Friday June 19. Early Bird combi-tickets for the ones who want to attend the Developer Day on Thursday, June18 can attend both events for the price of 259 €.
Both days have breakfast, lunch, coffee and networking cocktail included. All prices are excl. VAT.
Don’t wait any longer to order your tickets, we’re heading for a full house for both events once again this year!
The Mobile 2.0 Europe Startup Registration is now open!
Mobile 2.0 Europe is a platform for innovative start-ups focusing on mobile applications & services seeking exposure to investors, industry leaders and potential partners, the trade press, tech bloggers and early-adopters.
This year’s Mobile 2.0 Europe Launch Pad will have 6 startups presenting, one for each of the 6 themes of the event: Beyond Free, Openness, Play, Sense, Cloud and Context.
If you are interested in presenting in the Launch Pad please fill-in the registration form and choose the theme which best fits your value proposition. Startup registration to the Launch Pad closes on May 28, 2009 at midnight PST.
The Mobile 2.0 Organizing Committee will evaluate and the selected startups to present at Mobile 2.0 Europe event will be announced on June 1, 2009.
Entering the start-up competition is free and the winners will get a free ticket to the conference. However, remember that presenters need to be able to travel to Barcelona at their own cost.
Enter the Mobile 2.0 Europe Startup Registration at http://startups.mobile20.eu/
Good luck!












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