This week we talk to Tim Parsons and David Opitz who were recently involved with the recent Metro:Mobility Masterclasses in Sydney (http://www.metroscreen.com.au/metromobility.html).

Tim Parsons has had a long involvement in online creative strategy and digital execution. During the wild days of the dot-com era both in agencies and as an independent saw Tim working with Fortune 500 corporations in Sydney, Tokyo, New York, and Hong Kong. Currently he has a senior role as Strategic Director of international digital agency Profero. Tim continues to teach courses and organise events around online and wireless media, and he was the Event Director of the recent Metro:Mobility.

David is Metro Screen’s Projects and Production Manager, in this role he develops and manages initiatives which provide mentored vocational training opportunities to both emerging and established digital media practitioners. Metro:mobility is one such example. David has a background in theatrical audiovisual design, is a practiced cinematographer, with work screened internationally.

mo:life
Recently you were involved with Metro:mobility - a masterclass on mobile content creation. Can you give us a brief rundown on some of the content ideas and projects students developed during the class?

TIM:
We actually picked both content and service ideas, seeing that the ultimately the two approaches will most probably be working hand-in-hand.

They were:

- MMS-based episodic comic series
- MMS-based poetry series
- Location-based travel, history, and urban stories guide
- Interactive Comedy about Australian culture for travellers
- SMS- and MMS-based horror
- Dramatic confessional mobisodes to entice direct viewer response via mobile
- Alternate reality game
- Bargain hunting smart-mob social networking service
- Multiplayer java games and chat applications
- Sporting and betting interactive video-on-handset service

All of the participants prepared detailed presentations for the final ShowParty event, nine of them either produced video pieces to explain their concept or created an interactive pilot/proof-of-concept piece. One participant arrived with working prototypes of a Java-based multiplayer game application. All brought an open mind, collaborative spirit, and a desire to uncover pathways onto the mobile device and into a career in the
industry.

mo:life
Was there a common trend, theme or concern expressed by the participants of Metro:mobility?

TIM
I guess the most obvious common concern was to gain an understanding of the pathways onto the device and the different formats possible with the existing networks. We found that loading content via bluetooth and flash-cards was probably adequate for this first class, but in future we’d want to have proper desktop MMS authoring tools and an MMS gateway with a number of applications to play around with - as well as more handsets!

I’d have to say three common themes or trends emerged:

- moving and enhancing content that may only have worked on paper before onto the handset, and enhancing it in some way, eg. comics, rally-race instructions, daily poetry pieces;

- exploring ways that the mobile phone can solve problems or create a potentially more convenient way of experiencing or doing something, eg. tour-guiding, horse-racing and bargain hunting;

- trying to uncover completely new forms of interaction between the viewer/user, narrative storylines, and/or physical surroundings, eg. horror genre SMS/MMS, viewer-response-enticing confessional mobisodes, alternate reality game.

DAVID
It is important to add that an oft reiterated concern was that there was a perceptual disjunct between concept and technological achievability, and this could be addressed a thorough techno/feasibility check at the outset in concert with some practical demonstration of the current limits of the hardware/software sets.

mo:life
Mobile media is still in its early days. From a training and education point of view, what activities and tasks should ‘wanna be’ mobile content developers go through?

DAVID

1. Non-linear narrative tuition with emphasis on graphic narrative structure.

2. Hands-on practical technical tuition focusing on common industry terminology, file types and suitability (including file size issues), codec types and relative suitability, hardware and signal carriage limitations, transmission protocols (limitations and developments)

3. Content creation and authoring tools (on a project relevant basis)

4. Presentation and pitching skills

5. Negotiation and sales skills

6. Research techniques and skills

mo:life
You have both been dabbling in the area of new/digital media for a long time. What are your personal thoughts on what needs to happen to establish a vibrant mobile content development industry?

TIM
Short answer, we believe there are exciting new and sustainable creative and business opportunities in 3G mobile contents and services, that there’s a wave that people should begin to try and catch now. The question is - what’s the best way to grow the pie so that the most number of people get to participate? We say its industry wide collaboration, yes competition on specific deals or competition for viewer interest, but it should also be working together to build the overall market capacity so that the end-customer has a seamless, appliance-like experience on their mobile handset.

Long answer, let’s put the pieces together:

The Telcos: Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are all investing billions in launching 3G networks and subsidising new handset rollouts in Australia recognising that Hutchison 3G’s ARPU (average revenue per user) is about double that of any of their existing 2.5G network customers. Currently, all the growth in a more advanced 3G markets like Korea and Japan is from wireless data (ie. consumption of content, services, and rich peer-to-peer communication). Call and SMS revenues continue to fall under intense competition and handset prices continue to fall as Moore’s law of an annual doubling of microprocessor speed & halving of price per instruction cycle works its magic for consumers.

Intermediaries & Third-Party Providers: Many people still think that the only way to get their content or service onto a mobile phone means getting the nod from a Telco. Telcos have realised that they are not experts in content and services, that other specialist marketers, content programmers and service providers are much more savvy at identifying what the audience might want, and are right this moment busy getting out of the way. Yes there are still walled gardens, but ‘3′ recently made it possible to access the internet via their phone and I believe Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus’ all are doing the same. To earn revenue from your content across multiple networks and handsets, you can now partner with a whole host of third parties, like HWW, TigerSpike, SoundBuzz, Legion Interactive, Fifth Finger, Kukan Studio, Moble365, Beehive, and many, many others, many of whom will work hard to make sure you get enough of a revenue split to make it worth your while to hire them to execute.

Consumers: Why is Hutchison 3G’s ARPU approximately double? Because its customers believe they’re getting a better value service and so use it more. Content subscriptions and pay-per-views are still currently a small fraction of the revenues they earn, but they increase our perception of the value of the phone and make us more loyal.

Payments & Value Transfer: Unlike the internet, the mobile phone has a micro-payments culture. Hitting a ’subscribe’ button is very different to taking out your credit card and filling out a long form on a website. Content can also add great lustre to a technical product (just look at how Apple and Microsoft use games, movies and music on their products). Phones are exactly the same and every age-group is looking to find something that it will find ‘cool’ to deepen their personal connection with their phone.

Export Potential : The US and China are at least 18 months from getting their first 3G networks up, but Europe, HK, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and even India have had theirs for some time now. Forecasts are that by
2009, China may have as many as 200 million 3G handsets in regular use, competition will be fierce, and you may be able to earn money just by making a particular handset manufacturer or telco look cool.

So what’s missing? Well I think Malcolm Long (Director of AFTRS) expressed it most eloquently when he said that we have to tear down the walls between the different ’strands’ of screen media to get the overall industry up on its feet. As an emerging strand of both screen-media and information technology, we say that that goes double for mobile. We’ll have approximately 4 million 3G handsets in Australia by mid-2006, with a more experienced audience by early 2007 hungry for smart content and services which can expose them to new ways of living and being entertained. Will this be Australian content? Or will it be more international (UK & US) brands elbowing us out? What do they have that we don’t have - well more capital and a larger tolerance for risk. How can we counter that - I say by increasing the flow of capital and tolerance for risk (ie. inward investment) AND by working to make as many connections as possible so talented people and ideas don’t fall through the cracks.

mo:life
Crystal ball gazing time. Can you tell us your version of the mobile future, two to three years from now?

TIM
The mobile phone is truly an interactive TV and video-on-demand device. The technology might not quite be there yet, but its coming very fast and the market place wants it. Audiences will be rating, ranking, and connecting content using the internet and mobile phones, and the distribution channels will be much more direct. Yes all the existing content and services brands will be there, google, fox, rsvp, westpac, etc., as they are signs of trust, but increasingly there will be services like liveplasma (audience-selected and linked) which will link directly to downloadable music, video and game content. We’ll be seeing a lot more smart social networking tools which can help us locate and coordinate our social lives with friends and family. We’ll be seeing a lot of fun services like tours, treasure hunts and alternative reality games, and a lot of training and accreditation will be taking place via mobile. You’ll be making sure your insurance details are up to date with your camera-cam, we’ll be taking and sharing our information at all times and expect to be always on. You’ll also have viruses, virtual stalking, more people watching their security cameras via mobile phone, and probably more car accidents because people are trying to use tiny dialog boxes while driving!

Ultimately, I see the mobile handset as replacing the ipod and laptop computer as our main personal digital device. You’ll take it home and plug it into your home docking cradle to watch TV or surf the web. You’ll attach keyboards to it to type or talk to it to write your book. Its screen will be able to project onto any surface so you don’t have to deal with that tiny screen! You’ll be using it for all your digital photographs, recording of sound, shooting video, AND editing of the above - the whole life-caching thing.

DAVID: ditto

TIM: The question really is, what do the Mo:life audience think it will be ?!