Open Gardens

About Open Gardens

Open Gardens is published by futuretext

Rated 8/10 on Blogged.com

About The Open Gardens Blog

I (Ajit) founded the blog on May 26, 2005 based on my vision and philosophy of OpenGardens i.e. the philosophical opposite of 'walled gardens' especially as applicable to the mobile data industry.

Today, the OpenGardens blog is one of the few blogs that span both the Web and the Mobile domains.

The blog covers wireless/mobile applications, open networks and mobile web 2.0. My vision behind the OpenGardens blog has been :

The blog is about the Mobile data industry and Digital convergence('Mobile web 2.0')
Analysis is more important than story/controversy. I don't believe that bloggers are true journalists. The blog is not about the latest 'story' but it's more about independent analysis/viewpoint
The OpenGardens blog is broadly about opening up the networks, growing digital usage and digital businesses i.e. we don't advocate closed networks, broadcast media etc
It is about disruptive digital technologies

Founder & Chief Blogger Ajit Jaokar

Ajit Jaokar is the founder of the London based publishing and research company futuretext (www.futuretext.com) focussed on emerging Web and Mobile technologies -including Web 2.0 and Mobile Web 2.0.

His thinking is widely followed in the industry and his blog, the OpenGardensBlog (www.opengardensblog.futuretext.com), which was recently rated a top 20 wireless blog worldwide

In 2009-2010, Ajit was nominated as part of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Internet by the world economic forum. He hopes to use this opportunity to further extend the pragmatic viewpoint of the evolution of Telecoms networks in an open ecosystem.

(Note: The Network of Global Agenda Councils plays a significant role in shaping the global agenda by monitoring global issues and elaborating recommendations to address them. Each Council, comprised of 15-20 Members, serves as an advisory board to the Forum and other interested parties, such as governments and international organizations. The Global Agenda Councils also act as the intellectual drivers of the World Economic Forum's Global Redesign Initiative, an unprecedented international, multistakeholder and multimedia dialogue that aims to develop a 21st-century vision of global cooperation. Members of the G20, the UN and other International Organizations have pledged their support for this initiative. )

Ajit is best known for his books Mobile Web 2.0, Social Media Marketing. Two new books ('Open Mobile' and 'Implementing Mobile Web 2.0') are being released in 2009.

His consulting activities include working with companies to define value propositions across the device, network, Web and Social networking stack spanning both technology and strategy. He has worked with a range of commercial and government organizations globally including The European Union, Telecoms Operators, Device manufacturers, social networking companies and security companies in various strategic and visionary roles

His recent talks and forthcoming talks include: CEBIT 2009;MobileWorld Congress(2007, 2008, 2009); Keynote at O Reilly Web20 expo (April 2007);Keynote at Java One; European Parliament – Brussels – (Electronic Internet Foundation); Stanford University's Digital visions program;MIT Sloan;Fraunhofer FOKUS ; University of St. Gallen (Switzerland); Mobile Web Strategies (partner event of CTIA in San Francisco)

Media appearances include BBC – Newsnight – 3phone launch; CNN money; BBC digital planet

Ajit chairs Oxford University's Next generation mobile applications panel and conducts a course on Web 2.0, Social networking, Mobile Web 2.0 and LTE services at Oxford University.

Ajit lives in London, UK, but has three nationalities (British, Indian and New Zealander) and is proud of all three. He is currently doing a PhD on Privacy and Reputation systems at UCL in London. Ajit is a fan of animation especially Tom and Jerry, Tintin and Asterix and likes the music of ZZ Top and other rock bands

You can contact me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com

You can follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AjitJaokar

See a video of my talk at CEBIT in Hannover
(intro in german - presenttion in english)

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May 8, 2008

Suddenly Adobe/Flash Lite gets very interesting for mobile devices …

Adobe has made some very interesting announcements recently. My friend Simeon has a good blog on these developments Adobe’s Open Screen Project Indicates Strategy Alignment

I last met Simeon at Barcelona in 2007 at Mobile World Congress when I was speaking there, and we had a lengthy discussion about Adobe. I remember Sim was optimistic about Adobe/Flash Lite then – but I was not.

My point has always been – on the Mobile web Adobe is not doing what it did on the web(and which made Adobe successful on the web in the first place) i.e. on the Web – it gives the client for free and charges money for the tools. On mobile, it charges a lot of money for the client(at least it did so prior to this announcement). In private discussions I had with Operators and device manufacturers, this had always been a problem for them – thereby slowing uptake of FlashLite.

I know you could argue that the client was not free in the case of FOMA in Japan – but Japan already had a vibrant mobile data industry in the form of imode prior to FOMA(so the FOMA – flashlite was a lesser risk)

However that has changed

The client is now free. That fact along with other changes makes adobe / Flash Lite a much more interesting proposition to watch now on

Its also nice to see Gary Kovacs take on a key new role .. And from my brief interactions with Gary – this is a good move for Adobe with Gary heading mobile developments

Certainly one to watch

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Filed under: mobile web 2.0 — ajit @ 3:50 pm

Comments (1)

1 Comment »

I think people are overseeing one thing. Adobe is opening itself because they finally understand that, despite its power, Flash still has its weaknesses (eg. performance or SEO). Due to the architecture it will never be able to compete with Ajax in some areas and Adobe understands.
Just look for the next Dreamweaver release and what they are doing already (building Ajax UI components like blazes, ActionScript-Javascript communications libs, Webkit in Air,…)
Adobe will likely bring us the first “usable” Ajax development platform (something like Flex) and in another 2 iterations they will deliver an integrated client platform based on Flash,JavaScript and Webkit that runs everywhere exactly how it should run without compromises.
It’s not about Flash competing with Ajax or Silverlight, Adobe wants to leverage all those existing web technologies to create the next Java and .Net on the client side.

Comment by Alexander Marktl — May 11, 2008 @ 11:05 am