Keeping up: Richard's sources for mobile info

[Updated May 22 with new links from Jordy. Keep 'em coming, folks...] 

Many people ask me (well, actually no one has asked me yet, but someone will, some day), "how do you keep up with the latest news in mobile technology and mobile applications?" In the interest of answering that question for future readers, let me give you a few of my sources. Some of them are obvious, others are not so obvious. I hope that others will add their favourites to the comments section of this post.

Down the road we'll use the aggregation capabilities of drupal to provide a combined feed from all of these, but for now you can subscribe via the links I will provide. Or, you can just read this site and get the 'executive summary' version. Let us do the heavy lifting for you!

There are, first of all, web sites and blogs dedicated to mobile technology and business. These include: 160characters,  textually, mobilemag, mobiletechnologyweblog, moconews,  wirelessweblog, mojordy, and wirelesswonders. These mainly represent a business point of view and there is sometimes a bit of overlap among them, as they often refer to each other or gather the same bit of news. Thankfully you can subscribe to their RSS feeds and not have to visit each site each day.

I use a news reader to keep up (netnewswire, in my case) and one of the features it provides is the ability to export the entire list of feeds or a subset. It also provides a facility for "synching" those feeds with NewsGator (the company that now owns netnewswire). So, presumably, I can collect all these feeds, export /synch them via newsgator, and others can have a great mososo/moco/mobapp set of links, too. I'll work on that.

[Update: try this <script xsrc="http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/headlines.aspx?uid=158860&mid=6"></script>

Jordy has suggested (see comments to this post):

• http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/
• http://wapreview.com/blog/
• http://www.mobhappy.com/ 

One of the unique developments in this space is the cooperative cross-linking that goes on under the name "Carnival of the mobilists." A typical post shows what they are up to: providing links to and summaries of each others' postings on mobile technology and society. The carnival has its own site now: http://mobili.st/

Another category, although not one that I pay much attention to, is the gadget and devices group. These web sites and blogs provide information on the latest handsets, PDAs and other access technologies. I find that I get enough of that stuff from the above group of sites - since they cover this information when it seems notable enough - that I don't need to read the gadget sites themselves. If you were more into the hardware you might want to start with some place like gizmondo and go from there. Other examples include: 3Gportal, mobbu, mymobilephone, mopocket, mobilementalism, and . As I say, there is a lot there and you might not be interested in it all, but have fun!

I should point out, being the ivory tower professor that I am, that there are a few blogs and web sites dedicated to a more scholarly or reflective approach. Not all of these are based in universities, and some of them are edging close to the "gee whiz" variety, but you might be interested in looking at the CeMORe blog from University of Lancaster, and things like Smart Mobs, based on a continuing interest in Howard Rheingold's book of the same name. Another site, although not exclusively dedicated to mobile isues, is http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/ - a fascinating tour through the mostly European world of artists confrontations and adaptations and imaginations of technology. The folks at networked_performance also do some interesting things in this area. Check them out.

I am also very interested in the way in which mobile technologies can be used for civic engagement and social inclusion. Our own "Get Your Vote On" deserves special mention in this category, although they aren't really a news source. For information on the topic check out http://www.mobileactive.org/. 

Have I covered the waterfront here? I suspect not. What are the obvious missing ones? There are, for example, some blogs and web sites that target business specialties like mobile marketing. Do you have a fave? A newcomer to recommend? A topic that no one covers? Let me know by leaving a comment here.

...r