2007 Mashup: Totally Mobile

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You can't talk about youth and technology without talking about cell phones and mobile technology — it is often how teens (and tweens) wake up (the new alarm clock) and check the time (the new watch) as well as stay connected to their friends 24/7. It's also how they check in with mom and dad.

Compared to other countries in Europe and Asia, the U.S. still lags behind when it comes to using our phones for much more than basic communications. Yes, young people personalize with ringtones and wallpaper, but will they use their phones as social networking tools or mobile entertainment centers? What are teens looking for in a phone? How do you create mobile marketing opportunities for advertisers that actually offer something of value to young people? These are just some of the questions we'll explore in the Totally Mobile panel at the 2007 Mashup.

I chose the speakers on this panel for a couple of different reasons. I saw a presentation by Loopt at the Community Next conference and was incredibly impressed that the company was started by a college student with the goal of using mobile technology to address a basic human need: Meeting friends face-to-face. Zannel actually approached me to launch a Ypulse channel on their service (maybe someday when there are more of me!). I think they represent the possibility of using mobile as a way to consume entertainment content — and more importantly, create it. What can I say about Facebook — they are expanding like crazy, and whatever they do with mobile has a built-in enormous audience. While Twitter may be attracting lots of buzz, but will it attract Facebook users if they already have the same capability? We will be adding a fourth panelist soon as well as announcing a moderator for this panel, but I wanted to give you a sense of what the discussion will be.

Here's a little bit more about the Totally Mobile panelists so far:

Jed Stremel, Director of Business Development, Facebook
Jed oversees Facebook's mobile strategy transforming how individuals find and express information relevant to their life. Prior to Facebook, Jed played key partnership, business operations, and strategic roles at high-growth businesses. He spearheaded mobile initiatives for Yahoo! building the company's efforts to empower seamless communications across SMS, WAP, Java, BREW, and other mobile technologies. At Tellme Jed managed distribution, promotion, and licensing relationships with leading online and telecommunications partners. Jed holds a law degree from Santa Clara University and a bachelor's degree in economics and public policy from Duke University.

Sam Altman, CEO, Loopt
Sam, 21, is the co-founder of loopt, a startup that has built a revolutionary "social mapping" service to change the way people use mobile phones to keep in touch with their friends. Sam founded loopt while he was still a student at Stanford University to find his friends on campus and to improve the way friends communicate. Sam currently is on leave from the computer science program, where he focused on computer security and machine learning. He also helped develop a patented system for navigation for one of the world's first autonomous helicopter navigation systems, a task for which his experience as a pilot of small aircraft was good training.

Adam Zbar, CEO, Zannel
Adam recently served as a mobile media strategist to Infospace Mobile, Disney MVNO, Moviso, and Flame Ventures. At Infospace and Disney, Adam led strategic planning for their next generation mobile media applications. He was vice president of North American distribution at WorldRes, where his team managed more than a thousand affiliate and strategic online travel partners including Travelocity, Yahoo, AOL, Lodging.com, Verizon, Rand McNally, and Sidestep. Adam was VP, Business Development & Strategy at a company that now is part of Agency.com, securing Mandalay Bay, Warner Home Video, Six Flags, Princess Cruises, and Fox FX as clients. He started his career as a McKinsey consultant.

P.S. Someone wrote and asked if there will be podcasts of the event. Our sponsor Gorilla Soapbox will indeed be on site recording and we plan to post video podcasts once they're edited.

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