Snd us ur info, luv 4rm Mofest
Brazil may be named ‘the heart of the free culture movement’, but in November it will also be the place to be if you’re interested in how mobile technology is changing the way we communicate and relate to each other; it’ll be hosting an event to phone home about, quite literally.
The country, which is inhabited by 185.1 million people, has a mobile density of 44.5%, which also makes it the fifth largest mobile market in the world, after China, the USA, Japan and Russia.
It is appropriate then that that the International Festival of Mobile Art and Creativity will be hosted in Sao Paulo later this year. Mobilefest, as it is better known, will see the meeting of delegates from Brazil and around the world, to discuss the sociological impact that mobile phones and mobile technologies have had on the way that culture is created and communicated.
The festival consists of an international symposium, educational workshops and a Brazilian mobile awards ceremony.
The two day symposium will deal with topics such as ‘Flashmobs and Smartmobs’, ‘SMS, Games and Behaviors’, and will discuss the future of mobile technology. The call for papers for this part of the festival has been extended to 31 August. The topic for papers should address the question: ‘how can mobile technology contribute to democracy, culture, art, ecology, peace, education, health and third-sector?’ and if you would like to know more about how to submit papers, please read this.
Another highlight of the festival is the awards ceremony, which seeks to honour Brazilians for breakthroughs in mobile technology and creativity. Prizes will be awarded to those who have excelled in the production of screen art, ringtones, SMS poetry and short stories, and interactive games, amongst others.
Paulo Hartmann and Marcelo Godoy are the visionary men behind the event. The duo answered our questions to give readers a taste of what can be anticipated from the occasion, and enlightened us on how important mobile technology must be, for them to undertake the grueling task of organising the first festival of it’s kind in Brazil
icommons.org: It is stated on the website that Mobilefest is the first festival in the world to accept submissions of text, photos and videos sent via SMS and MMS - what has the response to this process been?
Marcelo Godoy: The media response has been very impressive, we have been mentioned on important sites within the mobile and internet community, and we think the MMS/SMS inbound submission was one of the reasons for that. The festival will start in October 2006; we expect to receive a lot of subscriptions by MMS and SMS. We are still negotiating with the telephone companies (Telcos) for a large account to receive the MMSes. In Brazil there are 90 million mobile devices and 8 Telcos, and 3 standards: GSM, CDMA and TDMA. Large accounts for MMSes are not easy to acquire, we are pushing to be the first. It’s a good opportunity for the Telcos to explore user generated content, which in our opinion, will be largely responsible for data transfer in the mobile word in the future. People want to share.
icommons.org: Tell us about the submissions of papers you have received so far - what can we expect as highlights from Mobilefest?
Paulo Hartmann: So far we have received papers from lots of different countries such as Colombia, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Korea, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, United States, Brazil, France, China, India and Finland. Among them are projects that provide a good social interaction of participants in a collective presentation using audio, image and text, as well as social-educational projects in the field of public health.
icommons.org: Do you think that mobile communication allows us to break barriers within our communities by allowing us to communicate at any time, in any place, thus ultimately making us more social beings?
Paulo: Definitely more social and more selective at the same time. I think mobile devices are technological boosters that amplify personality traits present in a person. Two factors increase the success of the sociability potential of mobile devices: service price and user interface.
Marcelo: Mobile communication is a powerful tool to exchange information. The quality of information is the real element of sociability/anti-sociability. See the example of the PCC (a structured gang of thieves in Brazil that, from their prison cells used mobile phones to coordinate attacks, robbery, kidnapping and ‘flash mobs’ in Sao Paulo last month). This is an example of how mobile technology has been used to arrange anti-social, anti-government, anti-establishment acts. But in real terms, being able to communicate through a mobile device is a great contribution to positive social aspects of communities.
icommons.org: In South Africa, technology has been developed for broadcasting television directly to mobile phones, called digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H). Trials of this new technology have taken place, with testers watching the most recent Soccer World Cup matches live on their phones, for free. However, this technology has not been officially launched yet, as South Africa has no legislation or regulations specific to mobile television, and so the establishment of licensing permissions are causing set backs. Do you see governments and related regulatory bodies delaying the distribution and use of the newest types of mobile technology?
Paulo: I think it is a matter of time and usage. As mobile technologies spread and become known by general audiences, breaking barriers tend to become easier. As an example, I’d like to remind readers about the use of .gif images and the appearance of .png files. I’m pretty sure that the open software development community will end up with some alternative solutions about this issue.
Marcelo: In Brazil, Telcos and broadcasters have faced the same situation. We are going through a ‘pipe’ dilemma. We have the old owners, the broadcaster, and the new guys, the Telcos - it’s a corporate and juridical issue that must be faced and discussed. The good news is that people will not wait for permission to go ahead and use new technology.
icommons.org: As organisers of this event, you must be ‘visionaries’ of how mobile technology will be used in the future - what are your predictions on how mobile technology will be used in ten years time?
Paulo: I truly believe that mobile technology can be used to shorten the digital divide in developing countries such as mine! Other issues that will be interesting to see are the spread of augmented reality systems ‘ then we will have a real immersive educational environment.
Marcelo: We are now discovering the new possibilities on the internet with ten mega speed at broadband. In ten years time, speed will be like 100 mega on mobiles and the devices will be like a chip that works inside something else, like a hat or a pair of sun glasses.
Sounds promising! iCommons.org will report on this event in November, so keeping checking the site for updates.