Real time conference blogs

I dug this up from an older issue of the Economist (7 August 2004, "The new networking: How to network between coffee breaks"). Imagine that you are speaking at a conference and the live blog projected right next to your presentation slides suddenly reads "what a load of nonsense... you'd better step down before it's too late", the message having been posted by a member of the audience you are overlooking!. It's actually happening. And I think it's a good thing and will probably catch on.

At last, services we might actually use

It is widely reported today (and here) that mobile operators and other mobile technology companies have agreed with ICANN the launch of a .mobi top level internet domain. Web sites published under .mobi will have to conform to certain design standards as to make the site usable from the limited interface of the mobile phone. This move may actually spur the development of independent third party services that people may actually want to use on their mobiles (as opposed to the limited, clumsy, and unimaginative operator-driven services available in Europe today). The remaining barrier will be the cost of 3G and GPRS access which are still quite expensive.