Last night I had a great time listening to Marc Davis, Chief Scientist of Yahoo!, talking about the new developments that they have been cooking at Yahoo! However, the night was first started with two presentations from Idean, who also paid for the pints – thanks guys! So, where is all this free beer and good talks? At MobileMonday, which returned to the roots of where it all started – Molly Malone’s Irish bar in Helsinki.
Marc Davis at MobileMonday in Helsinki
Marc started his presentation of by outlining Yahoo!’s visions of how to combine social networking and mobile into something that is ubiquitous and easy to use and develop for. I’ve always viewed the mobile phone as very good tool for social networking. Of course, you can call your friends, but I’ve also been texting to them for over 10 years now by both SMS and email, nowadays I can do video calls from the mobile too. So how is that changing? Well, I guess it isn’t. We’re just adding more ways to communicate to the same device. Which, let’s face it, is not a mobile phone anymore, but the most personal computer you have.
Marc also told us about Australian Aboriginal tribe, the Achilpa. They carry a sacred pole with them all the time as they wander around the desert to find food and water. To them, the pole marks the center of the universe – Which is very convenient as they never get lost (unless the pole breaks). “Where ever you go, is the center of the universe. And your people are always with you.”
The mobile has definitely become our sacred pole. (What three things do you take with you always when you go outside your home?) If our modern pole breaks, or runs out of battery, we would be lost and without any contact to our people.
However, is it too easy to think that you are in contact with our friends and loved ones if you just check their Pulse? I sometimes think that we are becoming more and more like the people in Solaria, a world envisioned by Isaac Asimov. Solaria is a world that is extremely sparsely inhabited and the people never meet each other in person, only through holographic viewing systems. They even have strong phobia about meeting in person. Isn’t this the direction we are going? Soon all that is required is to broadcast yourself and read the Pulse of your friends? And, in the best or worst case – depending how you look at it, that Pulse is already filtered by some ingenious system that tells me what is important.
I hope not. However, even though it was very nice to go home and give my wife an old fashioned analog hug, I have to admit that I’ve been away from home so many times that to be able to send at least digital hugs is very welcome.
What about the bag of ideas? Well Marc gave a good presentation of new Yahoo! technologies, like BluePrint and Fire Eagle. Take a look, and I’m sure you will get some great ideas. I did.
