Innovating in Mobile Experiences

Last evening, I was at the annual meeting for Canada's Mobile Experience Innovation Centre. MEIC is an organization headed by Sara Diamond devoted to mobile device research and sector strategy, and to incubating and nourishing mobile companies. I've been involved with MEIC since early in its inception and I'm a member of their Research Strategy working group.

The highlight of yesterday's meeting was a presentation by Rami Lama and Howard Goldkrand, directors from SapientNitro agency. Their talks provided a vision for new ways of interacting with mobile technology and physical and embodied reality, as the intro to their talk notes:

Our future is not simply about the evolution of new devices as much the interface ecologies around interacting with our data flows. The space of this innovation is happening in what might be called "X Reality" (cross reality), where the virtual and physical intersect. This "X-Reality" allows us to think less about the mobile device and more about mobility.\ The idea that the experience itself is mobile for those to interact anytime, any place and in the context in which they choose.

Their talks were quite short and my note-taking isn't what it used to be. Considering the brevity of their presentations and my notes, I only have highlights of their points. But it is so interesting, I thought I'd share it here.

Rami presented three key points for understanding and innovating in the mobile sector:

1) Proximity is powerful 
We have the ability to recognize a user's location and deliver content that speaks to the physical situation people are in.

2) Connect with context
Mobile media allows us to understand people and their physical and online circumstances. When we connect with user's context and deliver relevant experiences it can make for very powerful experiences.

3) Patterns are everywhere
People are creatures of habit, but we need to better understand the patterns of people, for instance how people move through spaces, to deliver meaningful and optimized experiences.

Rami also spoke on the concept of cross reality. Opposed to augmented reality, Rami notes that
"cross reality is not a virtual layer on top of the physical layer but rather a combining the two together in a relevant way".

It was the first time I heard this term, so I googled it. It seems to be gaining popularity (although some people are using it for exclusively physical and digital animations). I find it is similar to the concept of hybrid space, but I like the concept's focus on a harmonious blending of equally important spaces.

Howard presented on a bunch of different ways mobiles are already intersecting with physical reality and our bodies.  Howard presented a call-to-arms for mobile developers and companies to avoid getting trapped in existing paradigms of what mobiles can - or should be. He urged us to "stop thinking of devices but rather the interaction with the data they facilitate".

Citing the work of the artists collective Graffiti Group, Howard believes mobiles enable the city to act as an interface. He added that developers should "embrace non-usefullness" as way to create innovative and pleasing mobile content.

Sadly, this is a high-level report on the many interesting concepts and projects Howard and Rami spoke about. I'd love to hear more from them as I'm excited to hear of people here in Toronto pursuing similar approaches to what I'm investigating in my research.

Mobile Experience Innovation Centre

The Mobile Experience Innovation Centre (MEIC) held their inaugural annual general meeting this week in Toronto.

MEIC began as a research project in 2007 at OCAD University and has grown now to be an independent, non-profit organization that fosters research and industry development of mobile technology and media in Ontario.

The meeting was precided by the incomparable and apparently never-exhausting Sara Diamond, OCADU's president. She clearly takes a particular interest in the area based on her ongoing championing of MEIC and her regular presence at mobile events.

Over the years, MEIC has lead research projects, sponsored events, and supported start-ups. But it now appears poised to grow into a major force in the Canadian and international mobile sector. Other than a vision to support the sector in Ontario, MEIC has the required level of partnerships (and funding) from a variety of government, education, major corporations and start-ups to actually achieve their goals.

Personally, I'm glad to see MEIC's continued presence. I've been attending MEIC events for over a year as they have consistently offered great speakers and timely topics. There are other tech groups that meet in Toronto, but I've found that they are usually an excuse for non-stop schmoozing with no original discussion and often not even a speaker. So I have found MEIC refreshingly relevant and focused.

Socially and economically, I believe MEIC is direly need to foster Ontario and Canada's tech sector. With the lure of the larger markets and buckets of VC down south and successive indifferent governments, Canada's tech sector has not been all it could be. Mobiles really are the next BIG thing, so it is important we create an enviousness that allows academic research to see fruition and for innovation to develop and remain local.

MEIC has already had some success through their mentorship and incubator programs. The AGM offered presentations by two success stories: Guardly and Normative Labs.

Guardly has launched its mobile, security application on iPhone's App store this week (as covered by a good article in TechCrunch, Guardly Watches Your Back, From The Mean Streets Of Toronto). Guardly, in a nutshell, facilitates coordination of officials and friends in the event the mobile user has an emergency. As a parent with a daughter that will no doubt have a mobile device before even reaching highschool, I think there is tremendous value for such an application. I can also see it being popular with caregivers of seniors, the seriously ill, or cognitively disabled people.

Normative Labs also presented on their findings based on their mobile applications the game Red Rover and an app for public-monitoring of surveillance. They found some interesting observation about how people document their world and the role of game-playing in facilitating location-based app usage.

In addition to supporting start-ups, MEIC also has efforts to support the larger mobile sector. One such effort is a report on the status of Ontario's mobile sector for Canada's trade commissioners - which will be of interest more locally as well. More individually, they have events planned for skills training, such as workshops and bootcamps (not cheap, however), and conferences that examine contemporary industry trends and research.

Several working groups were set up at the AGM to cover mobile-related policy, national and international outreach, trends, programs, and start-ups. I signed up for a working group to foster and promote academic and industry research. My research clearly fits well with the goals of MEIC and it's great to have a venue for academic insight to reach beyond the fabled ivory towers, as well as to provide ties to industry that can make use of such research.

I'm hopeful that MEIC will be prove beneficial personally and provincially!