Jean Hébert's blog

... or, Streethacking with Ubiquitous Media, if you prefer? Mobile MUSE has a new applied research program underway in connection with a research cluster called the Greenest City Conversations Project, a collaborative effort of a number of researchers at UBC and SFU, based at UBC's Centre for Sustainability. Our research into mobile channel effects involves a participatory design exercise, in which a team of local smartphone/tablet users will be performing a needs assessment for what the mobile/ubicomp sphere can do to improve or better facilitate public awareness, dialogue and participation in urban sustainability issues. Then, we'll turn to designing an application (or a 'connective tissue' piece between existing platforms and/or applications) in conjunction with student interns.

This project will unfold over the next 6-8 months, culminating in a launch of an application. Please stay tuned.

Mobile MUSE is proud to showcase its innovation once again in the form of an interactive audio tour. In partnership with the City of Vancouver, we have developed informative audio content, accessible via mobile phones, to enhance fourteen public art installations as part of the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program. Simply visit one of the sites listed in the City's brochure (PDF), call the phone number on your mobile, and follow the interactive menus for information about the various works and artists.

I will be speaking briefly and offering a demonstration of the current Mobile Muse platform at MoMoVan this evening, at Workspace (400-21 Water Street in Gastown).

During the demo you'll have a chance to interact with our platform via SMS/MMS VoiceXML, and even streaming video (if you and your smartphone are so inclined!. I'm a bit of a n00b still at our VJ application, but I'll do my best to remix the content and give a glimpse of what is possible with our screen-and-mobile-audience-participation toolkit.

Register at the event's Eventbrite page if you haven't already.

Last week Nokia announced its Calling All Innovators global mobile development contest, which should be of interest to people and companies in our community. They're specifically seeking mobile client applications that focus on social enterprise, health, environment, and other areas. Entrants need to submit their code directly to the contest and provide a video tutorial, among other requirements. See here for more details and how to submit an application.

Sunday's Open Mobile event was a resounding success, one I hope we can repeat soon. We saw presentations about the hows and whys of open technologies in efforts to bridge the digital divide. We were given insight into the future of a mobile-accessible web, and the centrality of context awareness in designing for the mobile. We caught a glimpse of how to plan and excute event documentation using mobile videography, with hints on how to build a business model out of this. We were shown an intriguing experiment in sound design using the moods of multiple users in a shared location. We were offered a rare view into Latin American approaches to mobile phone art.