A few weeks ago, Dave Winer replaced his age-old Nokia phone with a Blackberry, and discovered the mobile internet. What followed was a mild uproar only the likes of Winer, his followers and his detractors could generate, as he unleashed his “rivers of news” concept on mobile devices as the perfect/best/first way to read news on a mobile device. Basically, he’s taken RSS feeds from the BBC and the New York Times, and dumped them on a web page — nothing too earth-shattering, and a concept that’s got some pretty big flaws. Winer himself, no stranger to hyperbole, described it like this: “I’ve not been so excited or so sure about a new direction for mobile technology since podcasting in June 2004. I’m sure we’ll look back on this as a turning point for mobile news.”
As the idea got more and more attention, I resisted posting anything on it, mostly because I really didn’t have anything nice to say. I was a little irked that Winer’s idea was being lauded as such an epiphany when there have been so many people doing so much good work on the mobile web for a long time — then Dave comes along, gets a phone that actually surf the web, and acts like he’s broken such significant new ground, and people eat it up. So, rather than posting something to that effect (oops, guess I just did), I kept schtum.
Then, Tuesday, Gustaf points to a post that gives about the best summation of the Mobile Winerama, saying that the utility or value of his news rivers concept is really inconsequential; what is important is that Winer’s made a bunch more people pay attention to mobile. As Rawsocket puts it, “For anyone who’s been working with mobility for some time it sounds kind of silly, but actually it isn’t - it means that good minds are joining the fray and something good might come out of it. Stay tuned.”
So perhaps all those people and companies we’ve complained about not getting mobile will start taking a closer look. Things aren’t going to change overnight, and there are going to be plenty more stuttering efforts. But maybe Winer’s overstated moment of clarity will pay off for us all in the end.
[tags]mobile, winer[/tags]
RSS is definately going to be a key component of mobile 2.0 / the next generation of services
Let’s be honest, a lot of people in the existing mobile services community (aggregators) etc haven’t got a clue - so something this simple can seem revolutionary
Carlo, I’m right there with you on my annoyance about this whole “river of news” hubub. In my opinion, although you’re probably right about the benefit of the additional attention to mobile, it’s supremely arrogant to reinvent something that has not only been out for quite some time, but have the “invention” be far inferior to other better adapted solutions yet act is if (or worse be so unaware of the space to actually believe) that you’ve done something revolutionary.
When my associate from TechCrunch, Michael Arrington asked me what I thought of Winer’s “river” I replied that it was nothing that Skweezer or IYHY.com of even Google’s mobile version don’t already do on the fly for any website that you enter in to their address bar while using your mobile device.
Moreover, unlike Dave’s solution not all of these other mobile content “re-purposing applications” completely strips out the revenue producing advertising content denying the content producer of the benefit of their labors.
Personally I have a real problem with this aspect of developing - that is claiming that stripping images and advertising from a website, having it display in one long thin vertical column and stamping your name on the process as if you’ve revolutionized the space “development”.
The fact that so many people apparently think this is “so cool” says less, really about the developer of this solution than it does about the absolute lack of public knowledge about the mobile web.
To me, Dave’s “river” isn’t revolutionary or evolutionary or - with all due Respect to Dave - who has absolutely been a prolific and significant contributor to the global computing knowledge base - even particularly exciting - it’s more of a shining example, not of the potential of the space but of how little most of the world really knows about mobile data.
Everybody, I’ve invented the letter “A” for mobile! Check it out!! You will see that it is uniquely formatted for the mobile environment, in all its A’ness.
Please chatter about my greatness…thank you.
Actually, I guess Oliver Starr captured my thoughts a little bit better.
Back in Sept. 2002 I did a quick hack that converted RSS feeds into handheld-friendly web pages that I then sync’d with my Palm III via AvantGo. (I didn’t have a mobile phone at the time.) The concept is nothing new, as was stated, Dave just manages to get people interested in things. That’s his real value. People listen to his “ideas” even if they were already thought up and implemented by someone else years earlier.
The problem w/ Winer’s approach is the same problem Russell brought right here at MobHappy some months ago when Google translated websites into mobile while dropping ads and other types of information. Yes, it is good to have high-profile bloggers such as Winer looking into mobility, and help create awareness, but the solution itself is not good for content/site owners in my opinion, but as a prototype it is good (as it helps create mindshare).
ceo