Hearing about Moblogs a fair way back, I just assumed they were another small-time fad where super-techno-geeks sent text messages as blog posts to their blogs online. Moblogs or mobile blogs (some call them ‘mob blogs’) when I think it about it further and after reading about their newfound popularity, seem like a pretty cool adaptation of modern technologies.
Picture yourself: You’re walking down the street and you happen across a street performer playing some amazing music. Ok, now pull out your mobile phone/PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)/Palm Computer/Smart Phone. Within seconds you’re taking photos and sending them to be posted on your blog. Hmmm, why not take a short video ala ‘Vlog’? You can also record the sound and call it in as a podcasting file. Then you could record your own voice afterwards describing in spontaneous detail how the music affected you. Or, you could be ‘old-fashioned’ (like I would be) and write about the experience…on the phone’s mini-keyboard or handwriting detector (using those little plastic pens on the touch-screen.
Wow, I’m starting to sound like a super-techno-nerd. Still, I think moblogging will come in really handy, especially when it comes to travel on public transport. Instead of thinking and writing notes in your diary about what you want to blog about when you get back to your computer (or carry your heavy laptop everywhere), you can write it and post it on the move. We’re talking about maximising efficiency, as time is often limited in our busy lifestyles. Why read a low-grade newspaper on the train home when you can stay productive?
At the moment however, the main use for this technology is based around the photo-sharing capability of Moblogs. ‘Buzznet‘ is an example of a new site dedicated to phone photography. As soon as anything happens, photos are streamed onto the site by passers-by standing at the ready with their camera phones.
In this LA Times article entitled ‘Phoning it in‘ there was some concern about freedom of privacy, as essentially anyone can now become a sneaky little paparazzi. However, they also emphasise the fact that this is just another way in which people are coming together to form small communities via social software. What do you think about it?
Check out Wikipedia’s page for Moblogs and its links at the end if you want to know more about the Moblog phenomenon.
One day soon I hope to be hi-tech enough to write my blog and post to the Internet while on the move. This train seems to fit the futuristic picture, but it’s not science fiction. This is modern reality.
Jesse S. Somer is slowly becoming ‘nerdier’, and admiring ‘geeky’ types with all those innovative ideas. Just keep your phone out of my bedroom.
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