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)

► MORE

February 3, 2010

Nokia sets the agenda as an industry leader and becomes a platform using NAVTEQ/location and that’s great news! ..

ovi maps racing.JPG

I have been a fan of Nokia .. But recently, I have been critical of Nokia for mixing three distinct elements which are not easy to mix in my view i.e. telecoms, content(music) and applications.

Trying to emulate apple and grab mindshare in the music industry was never going to work and that’s why I said: Nokia’s mass market iPhone strategy is unlikely to work and Dave Stewart can never be the missionary man ..

As early as 2005, Nokia had(rightly) recognised that they needed to get the customers on their side and also build their own brand to overcome the commoditization of handsets (which I discussed in Long Tail Devices ) and an inevitable move to services to survive

So, it is nice to see that Nokia has come back to its grassroots and stopped trying to be an iPhone but provided their customers with something that they really want ..

That magic ingredient is ‘Location’. It is obvious that Location is the key differentiator for mobile devices .. But Location was not a platform. Nokia has made location into a platform by firstly acquiring navteq and then more importantly giving out location for free ..

Very few companies can spend 8.1 billion dollars and then make the product free .. (Nokia acquires Navteq for 8.1 billion dollars)

But that’s exactly what’s needed since location now becomes a platform for others(developers) to build their applications on .. And these applications are unique and useful to the customers. Both Apple and Google do locations through Cell id databases (and hence it’s only an approximation) but Nokia has accuracy ..

And now we see proof that this strategy works ..

In the first week of launch, of the latest version of Ovi Maps bundled with free walk and drive navigation over 1.4 million people have downloaded it already.

More interestingly, from my perspective of viewing as a platform. Ovi Maps Racing is a location-based game which uses actual data from the NAVTEQ maps, where you create your racing track and then choose your car and start playing. (source GSM arena)

Its high time Nokia started to behave as a industry leader and stop emulating the iPhone and also become a unique platform in its own right

Once again, Nokia is setting the agenda

This is all great news ..

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Filed under: Uncategorized — ajit @ 3:09 pm

Comments (5)

5 Comments »

I was quite fond of Nokia, but after the N97, I may say that Im very disappointed. Despite my personal feelings triggered by that phone model, I dont see much to praise Nokia on the maps move.
Don’t you think that Nokia started giving location for free because of Google’s move into that, as presented on the Android 2.0 GPS navigation?
Concerning the number of downloads of the new version of the maps, if the number includes the cases where the download is triggered by the mobile as a software update, does that numbers represent much. Is like if Microsoft published the number of windows machines that have installed a specific recommended security patch.
I personally would say that first Nokia should either improve their touchscreen to at least the same level as the Iphone or completely give-up on touch screen devices. For location, I think they will have a tough job to compete with google.
But at least the ovi maps racing game seem a great concept, and Im looking forward to try it =)

Comment by Thomas — February 3, 2010 @ 5:03 pm

“Both Apple and Google do locations through Cell id databases (and hence it’s only an approximation) but Nokia has accuracy ..”
That’s not a fair statement. Apple’s and Google’s location is based on the hardware, same as with Nokia. Phones with a GPS receiver have the exact same accuracy.
You may argue that the location coordinates don’t constitute as a “location-platform”, but for this Apple depends on their developers, which have started to deliver the location-based promises over the past year.
Now, Google is a whole different story – Google maps has been the base (ie platform) for most of the location based services and mash-ups (both mobile and internet). Following the Google “streetview” surveying, Google now owns all of it’s US map data, same as Nokia owns its map-data through the acquisition of Navteq.
The free publishing of a Navigation app doesn’t necessarily mean the establishment of a platform (Google has done the same a couple of months ago). To achieve that, Nokia needs to enable much better support in the symbian OS for location acquisition and sharing (between programs).
Saar