mashup contest

Circus Mashimus - a mashup contest, quite interresting

http://www.circusmashimus.com/

"The Contest

Developers may submit applications for either of the two categories:

Best Overall Mashup: Must contain two or more of the participating API Lounge APIs

Best in Show: Application using at least one sponsor API

* Best Buy Remix
* Billboard
* New York Times
* Ribbit

* We encourage you to use other APIs along with the contest APis to create something cool"

virtual currencies

Facebook is looking at adding virtual currency to its social networking service..

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/03/facebook-gdc-vi.html

http://mashable.com/2009/03/28/facebook-virtual-currency/

I have been interrested in virtual goods and services for quite some time now. Some really interresting links with regards to social networking and mobile services.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/20/virtual-goods-the-next-big-business-model/

http://blog.zong.com/2008/10/25/virtual-goods-currency-and-mobile-payments-the-business-model-for-social-apps/

http://vgsummit2008.com/video/

http://www.vgsummit.com/

Virtual goods provide an alternative to advertising revenue stream. Most social networking services introduce some sorts of virtual goods - these usually go by micropayments via premium sms through the mobile. Now.. the good thing about virtual currency is that it brings element of fun into the game, the user does not think twice about paying as he would with real money :)

So we have, social networking services and virtual goods, mobile servies, services with virtual currencies - what be interresting to see a single services blending all these together!

telephony in the cloud

One of the first services to offer hosted telecommunication services by exposing an API for developers to create telephony services was Ribbit - developer.ribbit.com. Ribbit offers a Flex SDK to develop telephony services.

It is interresting to see a lot of startups recently offering cloud based approach to telephony services with even simpler API's that give even the most telco-unexperienced developers the tools to create cool telephony services.

Examples of telco in the cloud services:

ringful.com
www.twilio.com
www.tropo.com
tringme.com

Create ivr servies in minutes without even any hardware.

The T-Mobile Dance

Not much more to say - this is just an excellent marketing action ! I don't know how effective it was in the sense of how it spread across the internet or as word of mouth but since I - a guy here in Poland - am writing about it in my blog I would guess it made some proper fuss. I wonder how I would react if I was there in the middle of the crowd - I'd be really surprised at what the hell is going on.

Sunday links

links to some services worth putting up

calliflower

web scheduled conference calls, documents sharing, local dial in numbers, flat rate pricing

Contails

synchronize mobile phone contacts, exchange contacts, import contacts
..poland startup

free ad based telephony

callingamerica.com

Calling America is a free telephony service. It is web based and you can call any landline or mobile number in the US free of charge. The user has to watch an advertisement on the web site before the call is connected. The web site uses a flash phone to deliver the media. For unregisterd users the calls are limited to two minutes whereas registered users can place unlimited number of 15 minute max telephone calls.

I like this idea, it is close to what I have done in Gadu-Gadu (Gadu naGłos). Users can place free ad sponsored calls to landline numbers in Poland. Calls are limited to 10 mintes in duration - the caller hears up to 10 seconds advertisement before the call is connected and every 2 minutes once the call is connected both the caller and calle hear up to 3 seconds advertisement interruption. Internet telephony is becoming (is) a commodity - business models based on per minute charges just don't work anymore! Fixed lines are nearly as cheap as VoIP now, for a fixed monthly fee you just dont worry about the costs and dont have to sit by the PC to call. Furthermore mobile calls are cheaper and cheaper, you always have the mobile nearby and is just much damn easier to place the call from your fave mobile. As far as I care the only way to go with your VoIP offering is to boundle it with something that generates dough and give the VoIP for free...

mobile industry of 4 billion users

I really enjoy reading this blog. This post gives a 360 overview of the mobile industry worldwide and shows you how huge of an industry mobile actually is.

'Lets start with comparisons. Newspapers? the total circulation of all daily newspapers worldwide is about 480 milllion. Cars? There are about 800 million cars on the planet. Cable and satellite TV subscriptions? About 850 million. Personal computers including desktops, laptops and netbooks, about 1 billion. Fixed landline telephone connections, about 1.2 billion. eMail users about 1.3 billion. Internet users about 1.4 billion. Television sets about 1.5 billion. And credit cards? About 1.7 billion people carry at least one credit card in their wallet.

But there are 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions now in January 2009. More than twice the number of credit card owners, 2.5 times the number of TV sets or internet uses, approx 3 times the number of email users of total landline phones and yes, four times the number of personal computers. This is a monster sized industry, totally towering over all others.'

I really recommend reading this post.

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2009/02/bigger-than-tv-bigger-than-the-internet-understand-mobile-of-4-billion-users.html