User generated content is the new new thing at the moment - both online and in mobile - and unless you’ve been living under a stone, you can’t fail to have noticed the buzz.
I’ve been looking at Tocmag recently, which allows you to create your own Java magazine for friends, family and colleagues to download to their mobile and browse offline.
We’ve already seen big name publishers with Java versions in partnership with Refresh Mobile’s Mobizines. But this is the first time that I’ve seen this offered to the ordinary punter.
To show exactly how easy this is, I created a magazine you can download onto your mobile from here www.tocmag.com/russ. Simply go there on your mobile, download it and you’ll see what I came up with in a few minutes. I am, it must be said, a little bit of a technical and design klutz. But my effort illustrates how incredibly easy it must be to use and hints at the potential of what could be done with someone with a little more skill and time.
If you can’t be bothered to check out my effort, I put together a 2 page mag, consisting text and images - my mug shot (sorry about that) uploaded from my phone and a post from MobHappy which I wrote on Monday.
So how much does this little lot cost then? It’s actually free to both create one (or a dozen) and free to download, with the normal caveat that your operator will probably charge you for the data unless you’re on a plan.
I think that this idea has the potential to be very big indeed - at least as big as “professionally” produced content. Like the Blogosphere, many of the magazines will probably be read by only one or two people - indeed, you can opt to make it private. So sending your partner a little love note or a post-match report from your sports team might be good examples of how it’ll be used. You can even include video, though the download cost might then start getting a little pricey.
A couple of final thoughts.
This is a real alternative to MMS, with the added advantage that it’s free. I’m pretty sure that the cost of download will be considerably cheaper than the cost of sending an MMS. But since the recipient is actually paying, it is economically possible to put together and promote a little micropublishing operation.
Finally, I do wonder where all this Java stuff will end up as faster connection speeds make the idea of off-line browsing redundant and presentation on the mobile web more sophisticated. Having said that, there’s a lot of potential in the short to medium term and perhaps the long term can look after itself for the meantime.
If you have a mobile phone product or service that you’d like us to have a look at, drop us an email, using the links on the right.
On first glance I thought, “What a worthless gimmicky piece of crap” (it was early so I was a bit moody). The more that I look at this thing, the more I began to think that there may be some merit here. In fact, this may be an emerging platform that can take off like podcasting did (although I seriously doubt it).
Adam - pleased to see you’re a bit happier now
Russell
Nice idea. If only it worked on my 6600. All I get is ‘Install russ-Ed1-1?’ - which I do, only to be asked the same question over and over again, and russ-Ed1-1 is a weird name for a (presumably) general purpose mag reader…. ahh! OK, now I get it, russ-Ed1-1 IS an application - I have to quit my browser and start that, and it tells me a bit about the reader and finally, there’s a ‘next’ button and wa-hey, a picture of you!
I think they need to work on the download process - this would put off many people. But I like it enough to have a go.
This sort of thing would be great as a channel for delivering premium content. But then, so would MMS if the price came down to SMS levels. MMS content has a number of advantages - easier to create, simple billing using premium SMS and, most importantly, people already understand it and have the software on their phones.
hmm, there *is* a case for offline content until we have universal online access. As a Londoner, I spend a lot of time on the underground, which ironically, is the place I play around with my mobile phone most - playing sudoku (yes, I admit it!) and solitaire, reading mobizines, updating contacts, clearing out old SMS etc. So until there’s good data access on the move (underground or overground for that matter as signal strength varies dramatically as you travel), there will always be a need for an element of offline content to maintain the user experience. How that is delivered is up for grabs I suspect.
I’ve been looking at tocmags too and think it’s a very interesting proposition. Haven’t had time to get in and do it yet though.
Two remarks:
- realisation is quite average…hard to navigate (who has really read first page up to the end the first time), unsexy user interface, lack of viral feature….
- why go into this direction: user generated content problem on the web has been solved using blog, which is now the most simple and easy way for everybody to publish content.
- they are missing all the interesting features linked to mobile, especially for this kind of app: recommendation, sms, etc….
From the end user point of view, it would make much more sense to have a good personalized off line rss reader, linked to my friend content, and have a way to subscribe to this content?
So I am far from being convinced by the approach…
Russ, thanks for the tip to Tocmag.
I like the idea and I like the simple-ness of the idea. I upload content to a website and others can download it to their phone. I dont get whats not to like. It was easy and free and it worked. I created a private on and now use it as a business card.
I am not sure why Thomas thinks its not viral - I have sent on a Tocmag (top-movies) to friends here and I know they have sent it on to guys in their office.
I think this is blogging for mobile phones isn’t it.
It is a bit feature light but perhaps that will get better over time. I guess the value in this site comes from the quality of content they can attract either fom single end users or from companies looking to spread content over mobiles for free.
Thomas - I think you’re being a bit harsh here. Is it early for you too?
Certainly, I agree with Ronni - it’s very viral potentially. I have the opportunity to create something and tell people about it for them to download. What can be more viral than that?
Plus the very fact that my humble effort has already had 48 downloads suggests that it’s pretty viral!
I do agree that it could be made more sexy with additional features, but every journey starts with a step. Plus, in my experience, it’s better to launch a product in a simple a state as you possibly can. Then people get to know it and then you add features. A feature-rich product is in danger of being too complicated for people to use.
Russell
I really liked it, simple user friendly… and I can create my own content for my phone and not pay for someone elses poor effort. Most of the mobile companies and operators are pushing content, but you have no choices, they build it you buy it..where is the fun in that!
I built a mag and sms’d to my friends, tres cool..gona try and see how far the next ones gets.
I would like to see more features, like embedded links from the mag, but I am sure that will come in time…hope so hint hint.
Why oh why have this not been done before, the technology is out there… my suspicion is that the content is controlled by the bigger players who are only interested in downloading content at cost, fair enough, but why not offer a service to jo public, thats when tools really find there true form.Hope they make some improments to the funtionality, but otherswise I think they have succedded in embarresing some of the larger players in the content world…and for a free service, top marks.
Anneli
If you can do the same blogging thing with XHTML-MP, why go extra step and make users install J2ME app?
Serge - I sometimes think of Java as an off-line browser. It offers instant click-through and access when you’re in an area of poor connection.
Plus in this case, it’s something people can “give” and “keep” which I think is important.
Russell
Don’t WAP 2.0 offers storage facility for off-line browsing?