Wireless Federation

The Times Online reports on cameraphone footage showing a robbery taking place which led to the arrest of the culprits, after they posted it on YouTube using the keyword “robbery”. Not so clever.”… The 19 seconds of film, captured on a mobile phone and showing the robber, his friends, the theft and the escape, provided police with all the evidence they would ever need.

… In the film he is shown reaching out and snatching the bemused woman’s glasses before sprinting off down the pedestrianised street. The final shot shows one of the group still filming with a smile on his face as those around him guffaw with laughter”.

View video on YouTube

 Source: picturephoning

The goal of Video the Vote is to protect the vote by being the eyes and ears where ballots are cast and counted on Election Day. To participate, all you need is a video camera, a cell phone, and the ability to get to problematic places on Election Day, should something happen. [via Bring it on!]In their own words:

“We will document and report any irregularities that occur at polling places and boards of elections while they are happening, enabling the media and public to watch-dog the electoral process across our country.

In 2000 and 2004, problems plagued the polls in different parts of the country: long lines, eligible voters turned away, voter intimidation, misallocation and malfunctioning of voting equipment. They were underreported on Election Day. Days and weeks later, a more complete picture of voter disenfranchisement emerged—but it was too late. The elections were over and the media had moved on.

Starting this election, citizen journalists—people like you and I—will document problems as they occur. We’ll play them online, spread word through blogs and partner websites, doing our part to make sure the full story of our elections is told.

Watch promotional video on YouTube

Soure: picturephoning

Amp’d mobile and mobile user generated content

How’s this for a class project? Make a movie only using cell phones. That’s what students at Boston University are doing for credit, reports The Associated Press.

“The exercise is part of a class created through a partnership with cellular company Amp’d Mobile and taught by director Jan Egleson. During the semester, the students will produce a series of short episodes that eventually will be distributed by the company for its cellular customers.“

A COMPANY that pays customers to send in video clips taken on their mobile phones has paid out more than £100,000 to contributors.

See Me TV, run by the mobile phone company 3, was launched in October and has received more than 30,000 clips from its customers.

Contributors are paid 1p every time their clip is downloaded by three people.

Forget all those glossy images of high-powered financiers during due diligence and making stock trades on their 3G mobiles.

Hutchison-owned operator 3 UK reckons what customers really want is to be able to download video of complete strangers making complete idiots of themselves – and to upload their own pratfalls.

 See Me TV is one of a raft of new services the telco unveiled today as it said it would “form its business� around three areas. Communications, Entertainment, and Information services.

3 UK chief executive Bob Fuller said that with a couple of years experience of running a 3G phone service, it was clear that while some customers do indeed want to download stock quotes, many many more want to watch TV trailers, make video calls, and just watch people do stupid things.

Fuller pitched 3’s entertainment service as both an adjunct to traditional TV services – ie trailers for broadcast shows, clips, highlights – and as a TV channel in its own right. The firm said it is looking to sign on a media agency to help it win ad contracts from potential advertisers.

And if advertisers aren’t underwriting content, customers will be paying for it themselves. Fuller and other execs repeatedly emphasized that the firm intended to charge its audience for content.

Fuller clearly wants to harvest revenue from other telco’s customer bases, saying, “Shouldn’t other networks users be able to access our world.�

On the See Me TV service punters will pay 50p for each clip they upload, and will get 1p, every time another punter downloads the clip. Once a punters’ clip(s) generate 1,000 hits, they’ll get a tenner.

No doubt 3 UK hopes that tenner will be recycled back into its coffers, via its revamped music download service, for example. Customers paying 3’s rate of £1.50 for a track downloaded to their mobile will also get a PIN allowing them to download the track to their PC, and from there to whatever device they wish

See Me TV: “See Me TV is set to become the ultimate reality channel - providing an opportunity for 3 customers to shine in front a potential audience of millions.All the budding star has to do is submit a thirty second video clip to the service displaying their talents in front of or behind the camera. The clip will then be uploaded to the ‘See Me TV’ channel for other 3 customers to view*.Each time a clip is downloaded by a 3 customer the performer gets paid 1p. With a potential audience of 3.2 million, the most popular clips from contributors could make thousands of pounds worth of cash.”

“Interesting things about this:

1. It’s 3 making the most of one of their big differentiators: video.
2. The payments are being made by PayPal, not through the existing billing relationship 3 have with their customers.

But how are they going to stop the inevitable abuse of the service?

It is difficult to avoid the hype about citizen journalism, the process whereby bloggers and people with cameraphones can report news from the grassroots that old media cannot reach. I thought it was time I tried it myself and what better way than with 3’s new service, which enables users to take photos on their 3G cameraphones and share them with others while getting 1p every time a clip is downloaded.Since 3 launched See Me TV in October, it has had more than a million downloads a month. Now it is about to launch 24 Hours, claimed to be a “world first” service for would-be journalists that I have been testing. Its motto: “Break the news and spot celebs wherever you are and make money too.”

Armed with a sleek Nokia 6280 3G phone I stalked London’s streets at the weekend. Well, maybe it was just a slow news period. There were no muggings, bank raids or accidents, and no celebs. All I could muster were ducks squabbling in St James’s Park (hold the front page!), a peaceful Tamil demo in Trafalgar Square and some buskers in Covent Garden.

This taught me the first rule of citizen journalism. It is not something you can seek out; it is thrust upon you. Think about it. How often have you witnessed a newsworthy event as it happened? And would it still be newsy after you have taken out your cameraphone and clicked a few times to get the right settings (presuming you can see the screen in the sunlight)?

This impression is confirmed by the news clips submitted as part of the trial. One was headlined: “Woodland fire” with a fire engine attending what looked like a bonfire. There was a police chase and one tagged “Mersey Pier is sunk”. None of mine made the cut. I guess my mobile Pulitzer will have to wait.

The mechanics of using the phone were easy once I had overcome the “if only I’d known that at the start” syndrome that haunts new technology. For instance, early uploads were rejected because the settings were on maximum, so one seven-second clip took up 1.7MB, almost all the phone’s available memory without an extra card. After scaling down to a minimal resolution, the same-length clip used only 100KB, but at the cost of a much grainier image. It takes three navigational clicks to take a still photo and six for a video. After another seven or eight clicks, you are ready to type in a short code (32323) plus a headline, and the video is ready to be dispatched.

3 deserves applause for building in a revenue stream for content providers, since hardly anyone else does. But they will. However, it is not over-generous. It costs 50p to submit each clip, even if it is not used, and each time someone downloads it they pay 10p. Of that 10p, the content originator gets 1p for each download. So you need 50 downloads to break even. Small wonder most of the successful clips have been aimed at Page 3 rather than the front page.

The point is that we are only at the start of what may turn out to be a grassroots revolution. It is rare for the average person to witness a major incident, but there will be hundreds of others there with cameraphones at the ready. As phones become more powerful and easier to use - Samsung’s latest models include one with a 10-megapixel camera and another with eight megapixels and room for 2,000 music tracks - so will photo-journalism improve. Many websites including the BBC and the Guardian already accept news clips from viewers.

In the US, currenttv.com is a TV channel partly created by those who watch it. They submit videos and vote on what should be included on the channel. Last week Softbank, the Japanese company that bought an early stake in Yahoo, paid $11m for 12.95% of Korea’s pioneering OhmyNews citizens’ journal. It will use the money as a stepping stone for international expansion. Video is the hottest thing on the web at the moment. Goodness knows where it will be in 10 years’ time.

Source: The Guardian

Since 3 launched See Me TV in October, it has had more than a million downloads a month, reports The Guardian. “Now it is about to launch 24 Hours, claimed to be a “world first” service for would-be journalists that I have been testing. Its motto: “Break the news and spot celebs wherever you are and make money too.” … The point is that we are only at the start of what may turn out to be a grassroots revolution. It is rare for the average person to witness a major incident, but there will be hundreds of others there with cameraphones at the ready. As phones become more powerful and easier to use - so will photo-journalism improve.”

Jordan Telecom is planning to acquire 50 per cent stake in Bahrain-based fixed-line operator Lightspeed Communications before the end of next year.

It is part of company’s plans to spend $300 million to buy stakes in Middle East telecoms and Internet operators in a bid to diversify away from a highly competitive home market, the company’s chairman said.

“This will be our first international investment,” Shabib Ammari said on the sidelines of a telecoms conference in Dubai.

“We have the know-how and $350 million in free cash to do more of this.”

Jordan Telecom’s mobile phone operator, Mobilecom, is one of four operators serving Jordan’s 5.5m population, leaving little room for growth in the domestic market, Ammari said.

Jordan Telecom’s 2006 full-year net profits will be virtually on a par with its 2005 earnings of 86m Jordan dinars ($121.4m), Ammari said.

“Our base market must continue to be our number one revenue segment,” Ammari said.

“But we want to diversify by buying stakes in operators in the region or through partnerships with local partners in different markets.”

In Bahrain, Jordan Telecom, in which France Telecom is the biggest shareholder, and Lightspeed will roll out fixed-line telecoms services including voice, video and data beginning in spring 2007, Ammari said.

On June 28, France Telecom raised its stake in Jordan Telecom by 10pc to 50pc plus one share.

France Telecom will acquire another 1pc ahead of a rebranding campaign in 2007, in which Mobilecom will take France Telecom’s Orange brand name, Ammari said. Kuwait’s Noor Financial Investment also owns a 10pc stake in Jordan Telecom, which it bought in July for 115m dinars, he added.

The company has signed an agreement with business partners in Egypt to tap into the country’s growing Internet market by investing in Internet service providers, the chairman said.

Source- http://www.gulf-daily-news.com

A Russian arbitration court has postponed until next week a hearing to decide on the future of wireless spectrum in the Far East Federal District. Cellular operator Vimpelcom has applied for frequencies in all 13 of the District’s regions, but licensing authorities have refused to award it spectrum. The cellco took its case to court and won its battle earlier this year, with judges ordering the Federal Service for Communications Oversight to award spectrum. The regulator appealed, however, and the case is now due to go before the Moscow Arbitration Court of Appeals on 7 November, Prime Tass reports.

Source- http://www.telegeography.com