The first discussion group of the day – I’m in the yellow group, and we are going to be discussing the use of mobile devices.

The first question posed is – what are people doing now? Seems to be a feeling that at the moment there is some support of ‘traditional'(!) mobile computing (i.e. laptops). Also someone reporting an experience of students using SMS instead of email.

The next question seems to be – should we be proactive, or just let it happen?

One issue just coming up is ‘power’ – it is fine to be mobile – but if you don’t have power, then you can’t use the device for long. Especially true of laptops – not so true of handheld devices – pdas and mobile phones.

Interesting issue here about handhelds – where is the line between mobiles and pdas? Mobiles are ubiquitous – and low cost. SMS is a standard – but perhaps more of a feed, rather than conversation? Has ‘realtime’ sms taken off?

Keeping records up to date is an issue – but is it new. Mobile phone numbers change regularly – but is this a new problem, or just the same as knowing their postal address? There seems to be a feeling that if their is a motivation to get the information, people will make sure they can get. Possibly what we need to do is set up methods for users to specify preferences – how do they like to be communicated with? Push vs Pull. Reusable content an important issue here?

Finding it difficult to keep up with the discussion here – time for a new post