Every now and then a conference happens at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way. MobileActive08, hosted and organised by SANGONeT falls into this category. A sense of excitement, new opportunities and challenges characterise all the sessions I attended, as well as corridor conversation.
People from all over the world are talking about what they are already doing, as well as what can still be done. And it is not all hype. Al Alegre from Forum for Media Alternatives talked about surveillance and censorship in the mobile space, and pointed out the lack of protection of privacy in parts of the world where mobile usage has grown most dramatically.
Russell Southwood talked about the policy and regulatory context, pointing out the challenges involved in ensuring open access and openness in three primary areas in the mobile space: access to market; access to ideas; and, ownership and control. Current trends in the mobile industry seem to be heading towards the large operators setting up their own content platforms and services, particularly in South Africa. This vertical integration could limit the kind of competition that would keep costs down, and that would pressure regulators to ensure that interoperability and interconnection costs contained. It could also limit content diversity and user generated content. But, not necessarily, said Russell, drawing an analogy with concentration of ownership and control in the music industry where there might be only a few large recording companies, but creativity fourishes, in 1000s of different ways on multiple platforms.
Still one and a half days to go… but some really interesting ideas to follow up on. One reflection made made by Steve Song from the Shuttleworth Foundation was quite striking. He pointed out that most of the people at the conference are working particularly in the mobile space…. people focused on social change and development work on the internet are present… but not in large numbers. Convergence has a long and exciting way to go.
Well done to David Barnard and the SANGONeT team and all their partners – this is a milestone event.