April 14th, 2009
My Talk on SMS as a Social Networking Platform at NewComm Forum
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As part of my 2009 Society for New Communications Research Fellowship, I’ll be doing a talk titled ‘SMS as a Social Networking Platform’ at the 2009 NewComm Forum in San Francisco on April 29 –
Even as location-aware smart phones drive the next wave of innovation in the developed world, $50 mobile phones will continue to be the only computing device for millions of people in Asia and Africa, for at least a decade. Mobile users in Asia and Africa will continue to rely on SMS and voice, and ubiquitous mobile web access will continue to be elusive. Therefore, we need to look at SMS as the default social networking platform for emerging Asia and Africa and imagine a social network where all transactions, including registration, discovery and friending, happen exclusively on SMS.
In some ways, this is already beginning to happen. Mainstream social networking websites like Facebook, mobile social networking services like Twitter, and specialized services like Ushahidi are increasingly relying on SMS to extend their reach in emerging countries. Several SMS only services are also trying to replicate various aspects of web browsing and social networking on SMS.
In the session, I’ll explore the possibilities and limitations of SMS as a social networking platform and what it means for emerging Asia and Africa.
The idea of SMS as a social networking platform is something I have been thinking about throughout the last year. This idea is a recurring theme in my research on social media in emerging countries and forms the core of MobiChange, a muse project I’m hopeful of reviving sometime soon. This is the first time that I’ll be presenting the idea in a public forum and I’m really excited about the talk.
I’ll also be participating in some of the roundtable discussions and the closing strategy session workshop at the conference.
The three day conference (April 27 to April 29) has a number of great speakers, including Geoff Livingston, Brian Solis, Katie Pain, Chris Brogan, Shel Israel, Laura Fitton, Charlene Li, JD Lasica, Jeremiah Owyang, Shel Holtz and Albert Maruggi.
The NewComm Forum, therefore, is great value, especially with the $100 discount code SNCRFRIEND that I can offer you as a speaker. By registering for the NewComm Forum, you also get free access to the co-located Inbound Marketing Summit Expo, all for $695 only.
So, do register for the NewComm Forum. I’ll be looking forward to meet you at the conference.
