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mega.org.au

• Internships for Digital Media Students at CBS Interactive
  8th October 2008CBS Interactive in Australia has over 4 million Aussie unique users per month and we operate some of the most established and well known web brands across business, consumer and entertainment including BNET Australia, Builder AU, CNET Australia, GameSpot AU, TV.com and ZDNet Australia.Newmediaminded.com.au has been set up to give students an insight into what it is like to work within the online and digital industries as well as a taste of what CBS Interactive is about.We are looking for digital media students to join us over the summer as interns to gain extensive industry experience. Our workplace is diverse and great fun. We offer flexible working arrangements, regular staff drinks and social functions, internal competitions for staff, internal ?think tanks? and a dedicated games room where employees are able to relax with Guitar Hero, Rockband and Wii games when they want time out?(including Wii Sport, Rock Band and SingStar/Guitar Hero contests) So find out more and get involved ? you could be part of the team this summer!Visit the mega NING for more information Sign Up at http://www.newmediaminded.com.au and invite your friends!
• Mobile Advertising Mentor Offers Reality Check
  Angus Beattie was once a paper millionaire whose fortune was erased by the dot com bust. When he advises mega participants to ?keep trying and thinking but always use a dose of reality? it is with good reason. Angus is the manager of mobile advertising at 3 mobile and is responsible for the company?s mobile advertising strategy and delivery. He loves the role and the company but is wary of the hype surrounding mobile advertising. Touted by some as the holy grail of mobile, it?s not surprising that mobile advertising appears on many start ups? business plans as the revenue model of choice.Angus assures me that mobile advertising is extremely exciting but speaking from experience, he is here to give us a reality check. Think Rachel Hunter in the old Pantene commercials- it won?t happen overnight but it will happen.?Mobile advertising is a growth area for 3 and 64% of our customers are currently paying us for at least one content event on Planet 3 every month. We are not looking to banner up every single page and only release mobile advertising campaigns that are useful and meaningful to the audience.?Looking after their customer?s experience is paramount to 3 and mega participants need to give it serious consideration, even at this early stage of their businesses.?If you annoy your customer base then you ruin the reason for usage. The mobile is such a personal device and there is zero tolerance from customers being open to unnecessary and irrelevant ads.?With mobile advertising ?the quality and quantity of advertising received is more in line with the (user?s) needs as dictated by their behaviour.?It also promises greater value for advertisers. ?It?s an interesting landscape. Aggregated customer information allows greater targeting which increases the value delivered to advertisers through the greater impact of the ad on an audience who are ready to receive it.?With over nine years experience in interactive technologies and commercialising IVR, SMS, MMS and web services including working for News Digital Media, HWW and Legion Interactive under his belt, what does Angus think about the comparisons between online and mobile advertising? ?What will make a difference in mobile as opposed to online which was free ?is that in mobile it?s okay to sometimes pay. It?s okay to have some content or services that you pay for and some that are ad funded.?I asked Angus what advice he has for mega participants who are relying on advertising as their revenue model but don?t have direct experience in advertising.?Do some research! Get a feeling for how big media share is across all media in Australia per category. Do you understand the internal mechanism of the category? For example in the retail category how much money is spent on advertising? What distribution deals are already in place? You need to understand the vertical you are targeting and how the media works. What is the CPM? What is the market worth and what will it tolerate? If you think (your offer) is more valuable then why is it more valuable? Ask yourself, would I buy that??You need to know this information before you pitch so identify where the gaps in your knowledge are and set aside the necessary time and resources to conduct thorough research.Angus offers some general advice that is particularly relevant to businesses where the director of the company is also the creator of the product, service or application. ?Don?t get caught up in your own idea. Seek advice from others ? engage them to see how they feel about it. Don?t take feedback the wrong way. You are asking for it because you want feedback and not to hear what you want to hear. Don?t be precious.?Perspective in business is priceless, as is sustainability. Angus?s last pearl of wisdom for mega participants really speaks to the importance of relationships in long term success.?Do unto others as you would have done unto you. If you?re there to make a quick buck then expect others to make a quick buck out of you.?Interviewed and written by Holly OwenPosted 15/09/08
• Bris-based Orange Dot in the press
  Congratulations to Brisbane-based mega team, Orange Dot, who undertook the mega program in Sydney. Rhys Cooper, Orange Dot's Managing Director forked-out thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to attend every session in Sydney over the three month program.After taking out the NSW Pitch Panel Prize, and now getting serious attention from investors and the press, it seems Rhys' investment has paid off big time. Find out some more in the SMH here .
• Congratulations mega 2008!
  After many months of hard work and seriously innovative thinking, mega teams in Sydney and Melbourne and Adelaide pitch their ideas at three separate Pitch Day events through July and August. Teams pitched to fantastic pitch panels including representatives from Google, Telstra and the investment community. Congratulations to the winners: in Melbourne the pitch day winners were Planitme, with the peer assessed prize went to Artabase. The Sydney peer assessed prize went to Emergence, with the pitch day prize being taken out by Orange Dot. The Adelaide Team Chronicle Mobile won the SA prizes, also pitched in Sydney and won the overall national pitch prize. On completing the program, mega participants reported: ?For us mega has delivered exactly what we wanted it to do, we had this platform in development and we wanted mega to be the catalyst to get it to an almost commercial stage. ? and?  ?I think the whole mega project was a real success, not only working with a great group of people who were passionate and interested but also overall ? hearing people who really knew what they were talking about and who honestly want to see the industry grow.? Congratulations, thank you and good luck to all those who participated, helped, supported or worked on the program. Applications to the mega 2009 program are now open, closing November 15th 2008. Click the apply now tab to download a form and get involved!
• Rocketboom.com In Conversation
  Rocketboom.com, the online technology and culture videoblog, was accused by the New York Times of "writing the obituary of TV" and is now one of the fastest growing start-ups on the net, generating over $1 million annually in ad revenue alone.Listen to the founder and producer of Rocketboom.com, Andrew Baron, talk about the future of the internet, branded content and online video advertising.Andrew Baron is appearing in Sydney (11th August), Adelaide (13th August) and Melbourne (14th August) as part of the Portable Film Festival.For info and bookings, go to www.portablefilmfestival.com and click on 'events'.mega in Victoria is proud to be co-presented by AIMIA Victoria, the President of which (Simon 'is-that-a-Blackberry-in-your-pocket' Goodrich) also runs the Portable Film Festival - and is on the mega National Steering Committee - and is reputed to be a very nice bloke (but this is, of course, subjective).mega in Victoria is proud to be co-presented by AIMIA Vic - the President of which (Simon Goodrich) also runs the Portable Film Festival and is also on mega's National Steering Committee. He is also reputed to be a very nice bloke, but this is of course, subjective.
• mega06 Company Makes First Sale
  Monday 21st JulyAnne- Marie Polomka took part in mega SA in 2006, a high achiever; she was part of two teams, Telsweet and Mobilize Your Community (mYc). I caught up with Anne-Marie, 2 years after mega?s conclusion, on the eve of mYc?s first sale. The mYc product utilizes a number of communication technologies (including SMS and e-mail) to create a communications interface between an organization and its clients which delivers personalised communications to large numbers of users simultaneously. Users receive regular messages which are tailored specifically to their needs in terms of content, timing and frequency. mYc?s product is also interactive so that users can communicate with a `mobile buddy? 24/7 to receive information, support and encouragement. The interactivity of the product is unique allowing mYc to continuously refine message content and delivery to better meet the needs of individual users. The application of AI methodology to user profiles enables the development of increasingly sophisticated interactions between the mYc product and individual users.I asked Anne Marie about her journey post mega, she explained that her mYc team continued to meet after mega finished, with continued support from their mentor who is now a shareholder in the company. Anne Marie describes the major milestones in mYc?s growth included the feedback on mega pitch day; ?some of it was very positive and we felt that we had a good idea. Not long afterwards we pitched the idea to a software development company who offered us a significant investment, which was hard to resist! But we eventually turned it down as they wanted a very high stake in the business and a lot of control. We wanted to develop it independently?. The next major milestone was interest from a psychologist, who is now a director and shareholder. mYc pitched their product to RDNS who liked the idea but were not in a position to take it on. mYc finally got their first customer, 2 years after mega finished, with YouthLink who plan to use the product in a trial in the near future. When asked about her expectation of the mega program Anne-Marie stated that ?going into the mega program I expected to learn about Mobile technology and capabilities, to learn to act on the good ideas that I occasionally have and to meet like minded people. Each and every one of those expectations was met by the mega program ? then some!....I have recommended mega to a number of people, It is a well run program, presents a broad approach, delivers a lot of information clearly in a short period of time while putting it?s participants in the heart of the mobile industry in South Australia. It is also easy to access, not expensive - I do recommend that those who take part need to be quite driven, self motivated and mature to make the most of the opportunity.? . Interview compiled by Sasha Grbich
• Chronicle Scoops the Pool in SA
  30 June 2008At the SA Pitch Day held on the 27th 2008, 11 teams pitched their concepts/products to a panel of judges including John Burkett (Business Development Advisor, Creative Industries Precinct), Mark Neely (Infolution PTY LTD), Gianni Mariani (Google), Cyrus Allen (Telstra) and Carl Poplett (News Digital Media).Congratulations to Chronicle, a mobile medical application for documenting chronic pain, who won all three prizes - Peer Assessed prize $3,000, Best Written Business Proposal Prize $1,000 (donated by Graeme Kennely) and Best Pitch $1,000 voucher (donated by the ICT Council of South Australia).The team members of Chronicle, Gianna Grbich and Chris Drabsch, were also awarded flights and accommodation to Pitch at the NSW Pitch Day to be held on the 8th August.The runner up Pitch prize, flights and accommodation to Pitch in Melbourne, was awarded to RadCom5 for their mobile gaming company pitch. Congratulations to RadCom5.Congratulations go to all the other Pitch Teams for their performances on Pitch Day and their hard work in the program leading up to it.
• SA mega Pitch day
  17th June 2008Over the past four months, 10 teams of South Australian entrepreneurs have been taking a long hard look at their mobile phone. Bright ideas have been scrutinised, markets researched, feasibility tested and business plans honed. Now graduates of the mega program will pitch their new mobile content and applications businesses on Friday June 27th, at the Allan Scott Auditorium, Hawke Centre, Uni SA to a national panel including Cyrus Allen (Telstra Sydney), Gianni Marianni (Google), John Burkett (Business Development Advisor, Creative Industries Precinct), Mark Neely (Infolution Pty Ltd) and Carl Poplett (News Digital Media). mega Pitch Day is the culmination of four months of market analysis, developing entrepreneurial skills and business proposals, and practising the pitch skills needed for their new application or content.
• Silicon Valley Maven Offers Hot Pitch Tips to mega Participants
  10th June 2008 at 2:12pmViki Forrest is CEO of ANZA Technology Network, the leading independent organisation connecting the Australian, New Zealand and American innovative technology sectors. Since 2001, ANZA has worked with hundreds of Australian and New Zealand companies to explore, build and strengthen business roots in the US. With firsthand knowledge of the technology industry?both as part of a global giant and a small startup with big ambitions?and several years of hands-on network building, Viki has seen more pitches than I care to imagine and term sheets with larger numbers than I can correctly pronounce. It?s no surprise then that when Viki offers advice, people listen. I had the pleasure of catching up with Viki recently to see what advice she had to offer mega participants on the eve of their first public pitches.For mega participants who are new to the concept of pitching and in particular may not be aware of just how important your pitch is to venture capitalists and angel investors, Viki makes it perfectly clear, ?Your pitch is probably the first face-to-face meeting you?ll have with the VC ? make sure it?s not the last. First impressions are critical to VCs because there are way more opportunities around the corner so they will only progress with CEOs who really strike them as high-potential on the first meeting.?When preparing pitches we often place a lot of emphasis on adhering to time limits, flashy power point slides and memorising lines but what are VCs/angel Investors really looking for in a pitch? What should mega participants be focusing on? Whilst all of these factors are important, Viki explains that when pitching, ?Your objective is to get the next meeting. This will happen if the VC believes you have something that is valuable to her/him. Given that a VCs objective in life is to return 10x (or better) to her/his limited partners your focus must be on this need ? return on investment. Start your pitch by grabbing the VCs attention with a solid claim about the ROI ? the rest of the pitch lays out how you intend to achieve this ? e.g. you are solving a very big and real problem; with a solution that has significant unfair advantage over the competition (who you identify and have deep knowledge of); with an outstanding team and it?s ok to acknowledge the team needs extra members in certain areas if your venture is very early stage.?Once you have invested serious time (and often money) into perfecting your pitch it is really important that you don?t just save the document, commit it to memory and cross it off your to-do list. Every time you pitch to a new audience your pitch will need to be tailored to that audience. "There is no such thing as a ?general pitch? ? every single meeting you have *must* be tailored to the person(s) you?re meeting with. It is entirely about ?what?s in it for *them* and should be tailored accordingly,? advises Viki.Seize any opportunity you have to research your audience and adapt your pitch to meet their needs. I know it is completely Captain Obvious of me to say that the internet is a great way of researching people, companies and venture funds but it?s amazing how many people make the mistake of not using the internet and any information source available to them to research their audience and in turn adapt their pitch accordingly.According to Viki other common mistakes to avoid when pitching include what she refers to as the ?data dump?. ?You?re not there to demonstrate that you can recite everything there is to know about your product and company ? you?re there to hook the VC into wanting to learn more about you, i.e. to get the next meeting. I do not subscribe to the method ??tell them what you?re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them?. The objective is not to make sure the VC hears and remembers everything you say. You don?t care what she/he remembers ? you care that she/he wants to have another meeting with you.?mega participants don?t want to deliver an average pitch or even a good one, they want to deliver a great one. So what makes a great pitch? Without hesitation Viki responds ?YOU- VCs invest in people!?Aside from specific pitching events like the mega pitch day or ANZA Technology Network?s Gateway to the US in Silicon Valley, how else can mega participants create opportunities for themselves to pitch to potential investors? Viki emphasizes that, ?Every single business encounter is an opportunity to promote your company. Always have your 3sec, 30sec, 3min pitches ready ? you never know who may be able to connect you to the investor who is just right for you.?This brings us to another really important element of pitching: networking. Networking events are excellent opportunities to connect to potential partners and investors. Having been to networking events here and in particular Silicon Valley, I have experienced first hand the difference between networking in Silicon Valley and Australia. Networking in Silicon Valley truly is power networking. There is none of the hanging around the canape trays chatting with mates and enjoying free wine that often goes on here. As Viki explains further, in Silicon Valley, ?Every networking event is an opportunity to make sure everyone in the room knows who you are and what you do. A room of 50 people in Silicon Valley probably represents no more than 2 degrees of separation from every SV investor. If you want to meet 50 people in 90 minutes ? you do the math ? now *that?s* power networking.?We can apply that same logic here. Don?t expect to walk into a room full of investors, let alone investors currently looking to invest in your space. Do expect to walk into a room full of people who can, through varying degrees of separation, connect you with someone who can connect you with someone who can connect you with someone who knows someone who is investing in your space now and is on the look out for a great investment opportunity. Make sure you find out about their business and they leave knowing all about you and your business. Never underestimate a person or their networks and never underestimate the power of a good introduction.Jump in the time traveling DeLorean again and we?ll drive to a pleasant place in the hopefully not too distant future. Your pitch was a great success and you have got yourself your first sit down meeting with a potential investor. What do you do now? (Someone else has taken the DeLorean for a spin, so fast forwarding to retiring on a private island is not an option). ?You must be deeply prepared *before* the first meeting. I?ve seen good meetings fall apart because the VC was so excited they started asking deep financial questions in the first meeting and the CEO was not prepared. The idea is to be prepared on *every* level because you never know which area a VCs interest may be spiked in,? advises Viki. Make sure to spend time with your mentor prior to pitch day to go over what questions a potential investor may ask and what responses you will need to have ready.Having been engaged in becoming a start up for a relatively short time, mega participants may think it?s premature to start thinking about going global. Given the massive opportunity for ICT start ups in the US as well as other overseas markets, I asked Viki, at what stage should mega participants start planning to enter the US market? ?Truly successful ventures are global from birth ? deciding exactly when to enter what market is very company specific. ANZA Technology Network?s programs are designed to help CEOs answer this question ? it?s a critical one.? As someone who has seen first hand countless start ups succeed and fail what advice would Viki offer the mega participants who are only just embarking on their start up journey? ?Focus, focus, focus and time to cash ? where?s the revenue coming from? There?s nothing like a paying customer.?Interview and article by Holly OwenFor expert tips on power networking courtesy of ANZA Technology Network visit my blog on the mega ning here.ANZA runs programs like the FocUS Marketing Workshop and Gateway to the US which help participants improve their pitching skills and tailor them to target the highly competitive US market. Participation in ANZA's more advanced Gateway and Fast Track programs quickly puts you on the path to US funding, partnerships and sales. For more excellent advice, industry updates and business opportunities subscribe to ANZA Technology Network at www.anzatechnet.com
• Business Planning with Adam Basheer: Focus Leads to Success
  We have all heard great stories about companies who receive multimillion dollar investment based on business plans written on the back of napkins but more often than not businesses get bogged down in the planning process. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Adam Basheer of Fit4Market, a marketing wizard and business planning guru, to demystify the often daunting business planning process. So why have a business plan? (Especially before you even have a business as is the case for mega participants). Because everyone else does? Because it will make you feel legit? Because someone told you you should? According to Adam, ?business planning by definition is to form or decide upon future actions, methods or programs for your business. Developing a business plan helps you to take an objective look at your business. It helps you understand implications of present decisions and the implications of future events and it highlights potential pitfalls and opportunities.?Adam identifies ?focus? as the greatest benefit of business planning. This is particularly relevant for mega participants, many of whom are developing mobile products that have multiple applications and are extremely scalable. You?ve identified that the killer app you?re working on could be used by literally everyone and world domination is surely on the horizon but where do you start when the only resources you have are your team?s know how and their (often limited) spare time? ?Especially in small business you often have many opportunities or directions in which you can head. When you are in a big business this is fine, you have the resources (time, people and money) to follow through with all of these opportunities. But in a small business you lack resources. Thus, to get where you want to go you need to ?focus? on the activities that are going to get you there the fastest. This makes planning in small business even more important that in a large one. Focus is the key benefit from planning! ?When I ask Adam what the most important features of a business plan are he emphasizes that business plans don?t need to be too complex and that it?s really the process that is important. He points out that the three things you really need are:- Time to do the thinking. Step outside your business and take an objective look at what you are doing and how you are operating.- A means to record this thinking ? so that in effect you are putting a post in the ground to say ?this is what we are thinking at this time?.- A means to communicate the ideas and work with those ideas. What you are really after is an active working document that enables to you direct and control your activities on a day to day basis.Adam says your business plan should be filled with:Key Objectives: What is the issue we want to solve and the direction we are taking to solve it?Targets: What are we aiming for?Initiatives: Exactly what is it that we will be doing to achieve the Objective and its associated Target?Measures: These are the hardest to do but probably the most important ? How do we know we are achieving what we set out to do?So now we know what we need to do and why we need to do it, Adam highlights that ?it is very important to consult/ form the plan with other key members of the business. A big part of planning is to secure some commitment to the activities within it.? Adam explains that ?Knowing what questions to ask yourself about your business is often as important as finding out the answers? It is very difficult to do this without outside expertise and experience.? Whether that outside expertise and experience comes from companies like Fit4Market, government agencies like Enterprise Adelaide that run courses like the 1 Page Plan, your mentors or even your peers, it can be crucial to assisting you to take an objective look at your business. According to Adam,  ?It is always OK to keep getting advice. Particularly in small business, planning is a constant process and getting help to review your planning from people ?less close? to the business is very helpful.? Now cast your minds to the future or get your hands on a time traveling DeLorean and picture the sunny day when you have completed your business plan. What now? Chuck it in the filing cabinet and head out for a celebratory brew? Hell no! Adam suggests that business planning is something you need to do regularly. Your business plan ?should be an active working document for your business. Take it to your weekly/ monthly meetings. Review it and its measures on a monthly basis at least. Use it as the agenda for meetings so that you are continually focusing on what will get you to where you want to go the fastest.?And don?t hide it away like a bad driver?s license photo - get your business plan out there! ?Much of the plan should be shown to anyone working in the business who will have to perform parts of the plan. It will help give them the perspective of why they are doing what you ask them to do. Also key suppliers may be worth showing the plan too. Once they know where you want to go they may be able to help you get there. Certainly if you have any investors it can become the key document to demonstrate progress to them.?As an expert in business planning, how often does Adam re-write his business plan? ? I like to write the plan every 6 months. Not a complete re-write every time but certainly review what I have achieved and work out why I have not achieved things that haven?t been done.? It sounds like excellent advice.So remember, your business plan does not need to be the length of a holy book, bound in leather and written in language that no one can understand but it should guide all activities of your business and it should be referred to regularly and reviewed every 6 months or whenever your strategic direction changes. Interview and Article by Holly Owen
• We want you to E.M.U!!
  Come with us on a tour of some of the new trends in learning ? come along and be introduced to e-learning, m-learning and u-learning?.As a nation, Australia has a critical skills shortage. We don?t have enough trained people to do all the jobs that need doing. In response to this need, TAFE SA aims to increase the diversity and flexibility of learning opportunities offered to the community. Part of this flexibility involves utilising the mobile phone as a learning tool to build upon the emergence of e-learning as a teaching strategy. TAFE now aim to increase the rollout of e-learning by 100% over the next four years.So why the mobile phone? There are several reasons?.We are an increasingly mobile society. We all travel more, we all get out more, and interestingly, 50% of the work force now spends 50% of their time away from the desk. The second reason is that mobile devices are everywhere. They are ubiquitous. They are always to hand. But before we go any further, some definitions ?..E-learning stands for electronic learning. Learning that takes place when the student and teacher are separated by time and space and the gap is bridged by online technology. This type of learning involves collaboration and sharing by students and teachers alike and is not simply the one way delivery of information.M-learning stands for mobile learning ? learning on the go ? which is facilitated by a digital, wireless device such as a smart phone, laptop or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). This type of learning works best with the interactivity and connectivity made possible via Bluetooth, WiFi or telephone.U-learning stands for ubiquitous learning, and it is the convergence of e-learning and m-learning. U-learning encourages immersive situated learning ? or learning in the right place at the right time. In other words, learning whilst you are actually at the coal face, cutting, smelling and touching coal, so to speak.At the moment however, we have some challenges to address in order to make this all work. We have the technology, but not the integrated systems to make it work with ease. In other words ? all the different parts are not talking nicely to each other. In addition, we want to be able to use Web 2.0 content by just dragging and dropping. We want to be able to click and go ? we want to be able use our existing content, images and rich media with ease and speed!But it is not all doom and gloom ? we are moving ahead ?and we now have u-learning trials underway at several cultural and learning institutions around Adelaide to see if we can crack this nut! But it would be nice to get some help.For further information email Jim Plummer:Lecturer - Conservation, Environment and HorticultureUrrbrae TAFEjim.plummer@tafesa.edu.au
• Mobile and Moving Fast: industry led training keeping students ahead
  How do you teach a fast evolving technology? Keeping abreast of changes and innovation in a developing technology industry is a constant challenge for teachers and educators. mega is a cutting edge example of an industry-led training structure and provides a case study for teaching innovation in the fast moving technology sector. The following article is adapted from a paper being developed by the mega team. Watch this space for results as we evaluate our programs and investigate education trends. Despite a large supply of skilled graduates from over 320 university and vocational education training courses, The Digital Content Industry Action Agenda 2006 report suggested that the expected 20,000 graduates are not industry ready. mega provides a case where the needs of the mobile phone content and applications industry is driving educational objectives with course outcomes defined by industry stakeholders and content delivered by practitioners. mega is also unique in its emphasis on networking and community building through web2 technologies: setting up and maintaining ongoing structures for online networking, collaboration and information sharing between industry, tertiary and government sectors. As mega, industry led training and web 2 learning gain momentum - Is mega successfully bridging the gap between students and new technology industries? And what is the future for industry led training? Without an overall framework for accreditation or support that sufficiently recognises industry-based training how can we be sure the needs of students are met? These are just some of the questions that mega hopes to answer over the next six months as it runs programs across three states and continues to work hand in hand with education providers and industry?.. Stay tuned!
• Mobile Is the Biggest Bonanza ? Get Excited With Tomi T. Ahonen
  At some point every entrepreneur has a day where they wonder if they have taken the right path, whether they are in the right industry or whether they would have been better off collecting cans and using the profits to try their luck at winning the lottery. When I experience one of these days and need to be reminded of just how exciting it is to be part of the mobile industry I turn to Tomi T. Ahonen. Tomi is a four-time best-selling 3G Author, Strategy Consultant and Motivational Speaker in the converging areas of mobile telecoms, internet, media, advertising, credit and banking, and virtual reality. He is the world's leading authority on making money with advanced wireless services, and the undisputed global evangelist for successful mobile applications and to top it off Tomi lectures on all of these topics at the prestigious Oxford University.  ?This is the most exciting time to be an inventor and innovator. Mobile is the biggest bonanza in the digital space. The opportunity is far, far greater than "web 2.0" is currently in the internet, or what the internet itself was a decade ago, or what the PC was two decades ago. This is the right business to be in.? See what I mean about exciting? So when did Tomi?s infatuation with mobile begin? It was 1990 when Tomi first aspired to one day be employed by someone who would provide him with the ultimate luxury, a mobile phone. Fresh out of an MBA and enjoying his first job as the controller of a small investment bank in Manhattan, Tomi explains that at the time mobiles were ?outrageously expensive and the calls viciously costly,? only the top bankers were provided with them. Tomi thought "maybe one day I could be in a position where my employer would give me a cell phone too.? The thought of actually purchasing one?s own was not even considered. Five years later Tomi?s wish was fulfilled. Employed by Finnish encumbent Helsinki Telephone/Elisa Group, he not only got a free mobile, along with all of the company?s middle managers, he also got unlimited calls. It was here that Tomi?s love of mobiles really developed and he credits one woman with starting his ?addiction?.  ?Taina Kalliokoski, was the one who taught me and my peers how powerful, fast and secretive SMS text messaging is and this soon turned into the "killer application" for me and my colleagues. I think my addiction to the mobile phone started when I began to use SMS text messages in 1995, and Taina was the lady I can forever thank for this passion.? It was this passion that led Tomi to develop the concept of mobile as the 7th mass media. Tomi?s concept lists the seven mass media in order as print, recordings, cinema, radio, TV, the internet and mobile and explains that ??with each introduction of a new mass media channel the legacy media have adjusted. No media killed totally a previous media, but the inter-relationships have altered, often drastically. Also often the effect of the new media has been surprising.? When discussing mobile, it?s not unusual to hear people make comparisons to other mass media like TV or the internet. ?Many tend to dismiss mobile as the dumb little brother of the internet, or the tiny screen simple cousin of TV, and so forth.? Tomi sees that the screen size of mobile is a ?red herring? and often results in ?superficial analysis?.  ?Every movie ever created has survived the transition to the much smaller home TV set environment. Just because the screen is smaller, does not eliminate the opportunity. It is important to note, furthermore, that all major movie hits have had more viewers on TV than in the cinema. Just because it is not as good as an experience, does not eliminate the smaller screen as an option.? It?s this idea of opportunity that really helps make sense of the power of mobile as the 7th mass media. Tomi makes the valuable point that ??whenever we do have the option, we will attempt to use the largest screen we have available,? but when we don?t mobile provides a great opportunity to watch or otherwise engage with screen media.  ?If screen size was the absolute factor, we would not have any business in people downloading movies and TV shows onto laptops via the internet?No electronics makers would offer us the even smaller portable DVD players that all airport electronics stores are overflowed with and Apple's video iPod? [It] would be a total market disaster?in reality, we adjust rapidly to smaller screens. ? It would be nonsensical not to ask the world?s foremost evangelist what he sees as mobile?s biggest advantages. Tomi identifies the first as being interactivity.  ?One inherent benefit is that the mobile experience is interactive (like the internet, but unlike all five older media). So built into any mobile content proposition we may have, including any video onto the phone - we can build interactive elements, such as SMS voting for example, like we vote for reality TV shows like Big Brother and American Idol etc. In Japan already a third of all TV viewers have their mobile phone in hand, and actively interact with the broadcast TV experience, while they watch TV.? The second advantage is the in built camera. ?Now we don't have to write, we can send a picture. A picture says the same as a thousand words. And beyond that, we can even build interactivity around the camera phone. There are new interactive digital codes, called QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) or 2D Barcodes. These are little square scribbles of digital print, they look a bit like a square fingerprint, and are about the same size? they contain web information. Now we can do any web access without any text entry at all. Rather than type www.cocacola.com/campaign.special.html we just point our camera phone at the "thumbprint" and about one second later the phone displays the exact web address without any tiresome "thumbing" of triple-tapping on our keypads?Yes, the phone screen is smaller, but as an interactive media, the phone is actually far superior to the laptop or iPod or Playstation Portable or digital satellite radio or digital TV or DVD etc.? One of the greatest difficulties facing independent mobile content and applications producers is identifying a successful business model. I asked Tomi if he could shed some light on this situation as it is particularly pertinent to mega participants and alumni.  ?This is a baby industry, the very first downloadable paid content to a mobile phone ever was sold less than ten years ago, in the Autumn of 1998 in Finland (the first downloadable ring tones). Since then we've discovered opportunities and new businesses sometimes by design, but mostly by trial and error, and totally by accident.? A good example is Habbo Hotel - the children?s virtual playground (imagine Second Life but for under 16 year olds, the little Habbo creatures look like Lego people). Habbo is the world's largest virtual society, far larger than 2nd Life or World of Warcraft or Lineage or Cyworld. Habbo has over 70 million created characters and over 10 million active users around the world. The innovation by Sulake, the Finnish company that created Habbo, was that they were the first internet company ever to collect payments for internet content, paid via the mobile phone (through premium SMS text messages). So teenagers who don't have credit cards, can now pay using their mobile phones. This is how Habbo makes its money.? Then we have the copy-cats. When one idea works in one country on one service - say creating virtual properties and paying for it inside Habbo Hotel - another service can copy that idea and adapt it for itself. In Cyworld in Korea, you can buy similar clothes and furniture for your Cyworld "mini-me" characters (which are amazingly similar to Habbo and Lego people) like in Habbo [but] Cyworld innovated with gifts.? Tomi, an expert on digital Korea, explains that gift giving is common in Korean culture so Cyworld?s innovation was logical. Flirtomatic in the UK copied the gift concept ?where gifts, such as the virtual red rose - form the very basis of their revenues. Flirtomatic earned so much in their virtual properties last year, that they abandoned their monthly subscription charge, as unnecessary. And in the process, just with flowers, they sold 3.5 million red roses to their user base of 80,000 flirting young adults in the UK., and become one of Britain's biggest florists, earning 800,000 UK Pounds.? Tomi?s point isn?t that Sulake had a brilliant idea that made them lots of money and Cyworld and Flirtomatic had the brilliant idea of copying Sulake and adding innovations. His point is ?that Sulake, Habbo Hotel?s Finnish parent, attempted to launch a social networking site and service before Habbo. In fact they launched several to utter financial failure. Habbo Hotel was their sixth attempt at getting the business model and user experience just right?So my point, the business models are new, rapidly evolving.? It would seem a willingness to try and fail and adapt are key to success over and above any mythical single successful business model. What else is every one in the mobile industry looking out for? The next killer app of course, so I ask Tomi if he has any hot tips.  ?I wish I knew. I've written five books where I've outlined over 500 service ideas. Some I've loved that never took off big, others I've laughed at which became global hits. I honestly cannot say. I do think currently, that mobile advertising is the hottest story right now - keep your eyes on Blyk in the UK, they are re-inventing advertising. They are doing what "web 2.0" did to the internet, or what YouTube did to TV - they are now innovating with "user-co-created advertising". So keep your eyes on Blyk. But beyond that? Gaming, virtual, 3D, enhanced reality, I don't know. SMS text messaging is addictive, it will still grow to be FAR greater than it is today. The world leaders are the Philippines where 15 SMS are sent per person per day on average. In Singapore 12 and Korea 10. The world average is 2.6. The Americans are at 1 per day. SMS will more than double in the next five years and shows like Pop Idol and Big Brother will soon earn billions out of SMS interactivity.? Despite not being able to pin point exactly what the next big thing in mobile would be, he is a mere mortal after all despite having a bio that reads more like that of some kind of mobile demi-god, Tomi leaves us with some inspiring facts that will no doubt make you even more excited about being part of mega and the wider mobile community.  ?This is the newest mass media, also the most powerful mass media?Mobile is the only personal mass media?It is the most widely spread technology - with over 3.4 Billion mobile phone subscriptions around the world, there is quite literally already a phone for more than half the planet. More than twice as many mobile phones as fixed landline phones, more than twice as many phones as people having a credit card, and more than twice as many mobile phones as TV sets. Nearly three times as many people have a mobile phone than have access to the internet and four times as many mobile phones as personal computers, laptops and desktops combined? Every economically viable person on the planet has a phone - upon them. It is the only permanently carried device? and 72% of us use the phone as our alarm clock. We do take the phone to the bathroom with us.? By Holly Owen Read more about Tomi at http://www.tomiahonen.com/
• Shock Horror: Not All Mobile Phones Owned By White Men
  mocoNews.net recently published an article by Dianne See Morrison that revealed mobile device makers need to expand beyond western adult males. Hallelujah! But really, when you consider that there are over 3 billion operational mobile handsets in use across the globe and compare that to statistics about the number of people in the world who are not western adult males, this seems pretty logical. I have to be transparent here and say that my business, Champagne for the Ladies, has focused solely on creating content and applications for female audiences for the last three years but this is not the reason I am writing this post. Thinking about your audience?s diversity of needs and interests is valuable to the businesses you are creating. Read the full article here
• Free Information & Networking in Melb & Syd - TONIGHT & TOMORROW!
  Come and hear from a number of industry experts how they've succeeded in the mobile industry so far, what their opinions are of the industry's future and how mega can help you be a part of it Monday April 21st in Melbourne - Tonight!Tuesday April 22nd in Sydney - Tomorrow night!Specific information will be provided about the mega program, how it will be delivered, who's involved and how you can apply.Content Producers, Artists, Programmers, Business People, Enrtrepreneurs - ALL WELCOME. Whether you're an existing business professional or student, the mega program can help your professional development. See you between 6pm & 8pm (pls be punctual) at:Melbourne - Monday April 21st Innovation@257 Collins St, MelbourneSydney - Tuesday April 22ndPrivilege Bar (Blacket), 70 King Street, Sydney