MASSIVE US GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV) EFFORT DEPLOYS THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN NEW AND INNOVATIVE FASHION

Technology has been embraced by many in this US presidential election, and it is being put to through rigorous on the job testing. One example is a service called Twitter Vote Report (TVR), which has been launched as a US "election protection" effort. Voters are encouraged to send reports of election conditions as they are experienced, letting others know that voting is going well or not, the length of any delays, or that a serious problem exists which requires election protection.

Reports can be submited in four ways:

1: Via Twitter: sending #votereport will call a "tweet" to the TVR's attention. TVR supports these codes:

- #[zip code] to indicate the zip code where you’re voting; ex., “#12345″
- L:[address or city] to drill down to your exact location; ex. “L:1600 Pennsylvania Avenue DC”
- #machine for machine problems; ex., “#machine broken, using prov. ballot”
- #reg for registration troubles; ex., “#reg I wasn’t on the rolls”
- #wait:[minutes] for long lines; ex., “#wait:120 and I’m coming back later”
- #early if you’re voting before November 4th
- #good or #bad to give a quick sense of your overall experience
- #EP[your state] if you have a serious problem and need help from the Election Protection coalition; ex., #EPOH

2. Via SMS, sent to 66937 (Mozes), starting the message with #votereport.

3. Via Phone: (567) 258-VOTE from a touchtone phone.

4. Via iPhone application Vote Report: the application prompts users for input, including an optional voice message.

TVR is itself an all volunteer effort supported by individuals, non-profit and for-profit organizations, including:

- Campus Progress Action;
- Common Cause;
- CREDO Mobile;
- Current;
- Demos;
- Election Protection;
- Independence Voter Foundation (iYear);
- League of Young Voters;;
- Mobilize.org;;
- Mozes;;
- NetworkRedux;
- Not an Alternative;
- NPR Community;
- Ohio Telecom Association (OTA);
- pbwiki;
- Plodt;
- Rock the Vote;
- Stop Political Phone Calls;
- Student PIRG's New Voters Project;
- TechPresident;
- Twittervission;
- Video the Vote;
- Voter Supression Wiki;
- Why Tuesday;
- Women Donors Network (WDN);
- Women's Voices Women Vote (WVWV);
- Zerion Consulting;
- Zetetic.

We tested this service, as we have tested other election-related services. Mashups such as TVR require that components provided by multiple organizations work together. TVR is a sophisticated application--or multiple applications if one considers each of the four methods by which users can submit information--and we found that some of the methods worked better than others. We tested the service by trying to send a message through each of the four methods, and found success with only one out of the four:

1. Twitter: our messages never seemed to arrive.
2. SMS: messages arrived without a problem.
3. Phone: we were immediately and automatically disconnected each time we dialed.
4. iPhone: the application hung each time we tried to send.

It is possible that the first method failed because of user error, though we don't think this is the case. We are confident that the third and fourth methods failed for reasons other than user error.

TVR reports are also supposed to be displayed on a Google map mashup, seen below. Some data appears, though it doesn't seem as though all the data is coming through or that the data is being refreshed.

Our conclusion is that this TVR service is a bit buggy and, if not for the press of time, wouldn't or shouldn't be rolled out just yet. While TVR and other election protection services are in greatest demand on election day itself, some estimate that as many as 25% of the voters have already voted and that as many as 33% will have voted before Tuesday. Fortunately, early voting means that there will be less pressure at the polls on Tuesday. However, it would be helpful to have services such as TVR available during the entire voting period, not just election day.

There is some optimism that the margins in this election will be so great that a few polling snafus here and there won't really affect the result and that there will be little need for election protection.



-Stuart Whitaker

KGB GOES HEAD TO HEAD WITH CHA CHA ON US ELECTION INFORMATION

Because of intense national and international interest in the US presidential campaign, political information services such as Huffington Post and Politico have seen their traffic skyrocket during the campaign, and we have now seen kgb begin to compete directly with Cha Cha in the delivery of US election information. As is the case with voice directory assistance (DA), this battle pits a free service, from Cha Cha against a paid service, from kgb.

kgb has extensive experience in the voice DA battles in the US as a leading DA wholesaler, and in the UK through The Number and through other entities elsewhere in Europe. Discussions with kgb make it clear that kgb is a firm believer in a user-paid model. Cha Cha was not availalble for comment.

While the free versus paid battle hasn't been settled yet in the US, The Number's experience in the UK offers some insight into the impact of price. In the UK, The Number found itself competing against lower-cost--but not free--directory enquiry (DQ) provider Conduit when the UK market was opened to competition. The finding in the UK was that Conduit's lower price didn't attract enough additional traffic to offset the fact that The Number made significantly greater margins on each call than did Conduit. DQ calls, in some respects, are relatively price inelastic. The result was that The Number won the battle and ended up acquiring Conduit. Another key factor in The Number's success was their creative and intensive advertising which dominated the landscape. We haven't seen any advertising for kgb's new service--and the US election is of almost over so we may not see any--but the coming battle between kgb and Cha Cha is likely to involve heavy advertising--though access to capital today is far more limited than it was in the past so advertising dollars may be harder to come by.

We decided to test out kgb's new service, reached by texting to kgbkgb (542542), by sending kgb the same questions we recently sent Cha Cha.

We received a response almost immediately to our first question, asking us to reply "YES" to confirm our willingness to pay US$ 0.30 plus whatever other "std / othr" charges may apply. We dutifully complied, and after 30 minutes, we have these results to report:

Question: "What are the positions on climate change?"

Answer: none received.

Question: "What are the hours of absentee voting in Virginia?"

Answer: none received.

Question: "What are the odds, the line on the presidential race?"

Answer: "Barrack Obama is leading with odds of 1-2 according to Sportsbook. thx!"

Analysis: unfortunately, this answer is wrong--our review of Sportsbook shows Obama at 1-8, which is consistent with Linesmaker at 1-8, and in the same range as 1800-Sports at -1100.

We will report answers to the other questions, when and if they arrive. -Stuart Whitaker, Smarajit Dasgupta

ACCENTURE STUDY: MAJORITY OF US CONSUMERS NEVER USE HIGHER-END MOBILE APPLICATIONS

An Accenture mobile usage study indicates that despite rapid consumption of mobile devices in the US, the usage of higher-end applications remains low. As high as 88% of 5,047 adult respondents reported they never use their mobile phones or other mobile devices to watch videos. Moreover, 84% never use mobile devices to send email and 79% said they never employ them to play games. The survey was divided into three age groups 18 to 34, 35 to 54, and 55 and older. It was found that 18-24 year olds were more than 10 times as likely as those over 55 to use social networking sites (73% versus 7%) and seven times as likely as those 55 and olders to write blogs or contribute to online sites (35% versus 5%) using the phone.

US mobile consumers:
Never watch videos on mobile phones	88%
Never send emails using mobile phones	84%
Never play games on mobile phones	79%

source: Accenture, n = 5,047

“These survey results point to important missed business opportunities in the mobile handset and social networking arenas,” said Kumu Puri, a senior executive with Accenture’s Electronics & High Tech practice. “Clearly, many consumers are not widely embracing higher end cell phone applications. And the vast majority of older Americans, in particular, are not inspired by the social networking phenomenon. To capitalize on these market realities, consumer technology companies need to customize their ease of use and design differentiation for the different age groups. This begins with envisioning a specific consumer’s experience and delivering that through hardware, software, and services that are more compelling and enjoyable.” -Smarajit Dasgupta

SURVEY INDICATES HIGH RECALL VALUE FOR MOBILE MARKETING

A mobile response survey by HipCricket indicated very high brand recall rates for mobile marketing. More than half of 517 respondents that received mobile marketing messages within the past year could recall at least one brand. As high as 96% recalled the promotion’s call-to-action and more than one-third said the promotion made them more likely to make a purchase. Moreover, 37% reported telling a friend and 6% forwarded the promotion. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed said if they received a mobile coupon they would be “likely” or “very likely” to redeem it, with 70% of those respondents expressing interest in redeeming mobile coupons both online and in-store.

However, more than half of respondents in the survey said they never access the mobile web and only 5% said they would use their phone to click on a mobile ad. Steve Siegel, VP of Brand Solutions at HipCricket said, “Mobile advertising is a great complement to many of our multi-faceted mobile marketing campaigns and we anticipate growing interest in advertising on the mobile web as consumers continue to adopt web-enabled devices with superior online experiences, such as the iPhone.” -Smarajit Dasgupta

ADMOB SECURES US$ 15.7 MILLION IN SERIES C FUNDING, LOOKING TO EXPAND GROWTH

Mobile advertising marketplace AdMob has raised a Series C investment round worth US$ 15.7 million, led by Sequoia Capital's Growth Fund along with participation from existing investor Accel Partners. AdMob said that over the past year it has more than tripled the number of ads served on a monthly basis to 4.5 billion in September 2008. AdMob’s publisher network now includes more than 6,000 partners worldwide, including MySpace and MovieTickets.com that came on board this year. The company has plans of making significant strategic investments by boosting growth of worldwide operations by hiring local staff in key markets and adding new language interfaces, with an emphasis in Western Europe, India, South Africa, and Japan. It will also look to deepen its mobile technology platform, including its targeting, optimization, and ad serving algorithm. Additionally, AdMob plans to expand the breadth of offerings for both publishers and advertisers. Omar Hamoui, founder and CEO of AdMob, said, "We chose to raise this new round of funding to continue to grow both the mobile advertising market and AdMob's clear advantage in it by investing in the technology, operations, and team that have set the bar for the mobile industry." The company has so far raised over US$ 30.7 million in various funding rounds. -Smarajit Dasgupta

ORANGE FRANCE LAUNCHES 118 712 BY TEXT

Orange has launched an SMS directory enquiries service called “118 712 by text” in France. It allows mobile users, with any operator in Metropolitan France, to look up professionals or individuals or perform reverse searches. The user needs to enter an activity or name along with the city or postcode and send it to 118 712. For reverse search one can simply enter a 10-digit telephone number and SMS it to 118 712. Pricing for the service is € 0.50 per request, in addition to cost of the SMS depending on one’s mobile plan. If there are multiple results, 118 712 by text offers a list of up to five choices. Users can then send a text requesting further information at no additional cost for three of the results. There is no charge levied if the service is unable to respond to any user request. In France, Orange also operates 118 712 landline and mobile voice service and the 118712.fr online directory site. -Smarajit Dasgupta

LOCATION SERVICES SPACE HEATS UP WITH POINTABOUT LAUNCH

The location services space has seen the sudden arrival of PointAbout, a Washington, DC-based firm that launched earlier this year to enhance mobile service applications by making websites "location aware." Launched by veterans from Microsoft, GE, and others, one of PointAbout's strengths is the fact that it is able to leverage its understanding of handsets and carriers to develop solutions more easily than firms without such understanding. PointAbout's first customer is real estate firm Long & Foster, for which PointAbout will location-enable their listings. PointAbout is now setting about replicating their Long & Foster agreement everywhere possible.

PointAbout has also submitted the first entry to the Apps for Democracy contest being sponsored by the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), digital agency iStrategyLabs, and Mashable. The objective of the contest is to spur innovation from the private sector to utilize data publicly available from the city's data catalog, which provides real-time data from multiple agencies. The city believes access to this information will be a catalyst ensuring agencies operate as more responsive, better performing organizations. Data available runs the gamut from juvenile arrests to vacant property. The contest will divide US$ 20,000 between 60 winners, the highest award value being US$ 2,000 and the lowest being US$ 100. The application deadline is November 12th, and the awards ceremony will take place on the 13th.

After installing the PointAbout application on an iPhone, the application presents the user with a number of "location aware" applications, such as Wi-Fi Hotspots from Zone, Zagat, Events from Yahoo! Upcoming, Movies from Fandango, news, Weather, local gas prices, Yelp, and Washington Metro (some of the applications are not yet enabled). Selecting Washington Metro as an example--this seems to be one of first applications PointAbout introduced--PointAbout displays the closest metro stations, sorted by distance from our location. Selecting a station then allows us to see the next train, get directions to the station, or get more info.

This is a Beta application, so there is no surprise about the fact that we encountered a number of problems, though it's not always possible to determine whether the problem is with PointAbout or with the network. One problem we encountered involved screen navigation--the left arrow buttons don't reliably take you back to the prior screen so it seems faster to get out of the application and get back in rather than to wait to see if the arrow button will work. PointAbout does a great job showing information about the next train. PointAbout pulls up Google Maps to provide directions and pulls in the Metro's home page for more info--both selections are valuable--but the presentations suffer from the fact that neither the map nor the Metro home page have been configured for the smaller phone screen. Another question we had is that while one can install an application in PointAbout--which is of course itself another application--it's not entirely clear that there will always be an advantage to doing this. In the case of Yelp, for instance, the Yelp iPhone app is already location aware. PointAbout will have to differentiate itself somehow in order to justify using Yelp within PointAbout rather than simply within the home screen.

PointAbout CEO Scott Suhy explained recently that their immediate objective is to gain revenue from enterprise agreements, though they anticipate moving towards a 50/50 mix of enterprise revenue and mobile advertising revenue in the future. They expect to be profitable this year and are looking for funding to expand. -Stuart Whitaker

MOBILE COMMERCE’S “NEARME” ON SONY ERICSSON PHONES

Sony Ericsson’s 8.1 megapixel Cyber-shot C905 phone will come preloaded with Mobile Commerce’s “NearMe” application. The tool will also be available for download on the GPS-enabled C702 Cyber-shot and W760 Walkman handsets. UK-based Mobile Commerce describes “NearMe” as a local search service that provides users with detailed address and phone number information on local businesses, amenities, venues, and events, all based on current location using the GPS capabilities of the user’s handset. The application, being offered for free by Sony Ericsson, includes UK wide content such as cinema, club, and gig listings; over 11,000 recommended venues for eating and drinking in; as well as over 1.9 million business search listings, and optimized Multimap maps. Users can also select locations from pre-stored favorites and find, where relevant, additional information such as film reviews, costs, and show times. David Hilton, Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson UK & Ireland, said, “Creating a Java application with best of breed content was a key objective to showcase our GPS handsets to our prime target market. Following an extensive market search we selected Mobile Commerce as our application partner and we are delighted with the “NearMe” application and have already defined a roadmap of enhancements to bring even more functionality and choice to our customers.” -Smarajit Dasgupta

ZI CORP CONSOLIDATING FOOTHOLD IN ASIAN MOBILE SPACE

Mobile search, text input, and advertising solutions provider Zi Corporation said it has entered into several new licensing agreements within the Asian mobile space. Zi has extended its eZiText licensing agreements with Guohong Communication and Digital Technology Company, an OEM focused primarily on the Chinese domestic market, and with UTStarcom for its mobile device division in addition to the previously announced deal with UTStarcom's IPTV set-top-box division. Zi has also formed an agreement with Longcheer Telecommunication Limited of China, which has licensed eZiText in several languages for use in its mobile handsets. CK Telecom, a Shenzhen manufacturer, has licensed Zi's handwriting recognition product Decuma. Under these agreements, Zi will receive both licensing fees and royalties. Earlier this year with China’s ZTE and Lenovo Mobile, UTStarcom, Kyocera Corp., and Trolltech, all licensed Zi products. Zi Corporation’s president and CEO Milos Djokovic said, "The mobile market in Asia is one of the fastest growing in the world. It is at the forefront of technological design and development, making it a highly competitive and desirable market in which to be a leader. This makes the fact that we have won these major deals in the region over the past few months, all the more satisfying for Zi and proves that our products are recognised as some of the most innovative and forward looking in a market where users are continually looking to maximise the capabilities of their device." Zi has subsidiaries in China and supports the entire region from its Beijing offices. -Smarajit Dasgupta

CHACHA / ROCK THE VOTE BEGINS TO DELIVER

Despite a few delays, Chacha has begun to deliver answers to questions about the US presidential election sent in the US to RTVOTE (788683), a political information program being operated in partnership with Rock the Vote. We sent three queries on October 15th and again on October 20th. We never received answers to the queries on the 15th, but received the responses as indicated to our queries on the 20th:

Query: "What are the positions on climate change?"

Answer: "Both candidates are for controlling emissions to stop climate change and reverse the greenhouse effect. ChaCha for now!"

Analysis: while climate change is considered by many to be the most important issue we are facing, it doesn't rank nearly as high as the economy or the war on terror in American voters' minds. While Chacha's answer doesn't reflect any of the differences in the candidates' positions and isn't likely to excite anyone to go to the polls, the answer seems reasonable given the complexity of the subject, the similarity of the candidates' positions, and the limitations of the SMS media.

Question: "What are the hours of absentee voting in Virginia?"

Answer: "The polls are open (6:00 AM to 7:00 PM). Telephone: 804 864-8901, Toll Free: 800 552-9745. Ask ChaCha 24/7! *Reply VOTE2008 for Election info."

Analysis: This is clearly non-responsive--the right answer to the wrong question. The polls are open on election day, November 4th, from 6 AM to 7 PM. However, many people are interested in voting early by absentee ballot either because they will be unable to vote on the 4th or because of the difficulties Americans have experienced recently with election mechanics. Absentee ballots may only be cast before November 4th at limited locations and may be cast in person during much more limited hours than this answer suggests. Rock The Vote's objective is to increase turnout, so incorrect answers such as this are counter productive. The 2000 election was decided by the US Supreme Court and if this turns out to be a close election, it is likely that there will be extended litigation on voter fraud and voter suppression--including incorrect or misleading voting information such as this.

Question: "What are the odds, the line on the presidential race?"

Answer: "Barack Obama: -600 John McCain: +350 if you were thinking about betting McCain, now is the time as his odds dropped considerably $Rply VOTE2008 for more info."

Analysis: this seems like a reasonable response, consistent with the results we found on www.1800-sports.com/presidential-betting-odds.shtml, which explains that a US$ 100 wager on McCain will pay US$ 600, and a US$ 600 wager on Obama will pay US$ 100. (Linesmaker.com offers a different yet similar response: McCain at 4-1, Obama at 1-7).

Services such as ChaCha are terrific for casual questions and social networking, but they may not be as well suited for questions that people take seriously, involving matters such as heated elections. ChaCha was not available for comment on these results. -Stuart Whitaker