In an earlier post I suggested that distinctly new social behaviors resulting from mobile-device technology awaits applications based upon users' physical location, i.e., finding the location of assenting users' devices.

Without effort I can think of a half-dozen new and compelling applications that devolve from location-aware devices. One of which could pay for the reduced cost of the attendant devices' broad market penetration and requisite infrastructure. Obviously, a free community-wide, wireless system's infrastructure has to be subsidized either by taxes (the community pays) or by commercial applications out of which are derived beneficial public applications (such as, but not limited to, community mesh networks).

Objectively, it is fascinating to me that Nokia, with all its technical prowess, masterly design sensitivities and market presence, apparently can't see the forest for the (individual) trees. (Clearly, this viewpoint derives from the industry's historical predisposition to view the comms device as a personal [individual's] fashion gadget.)

An alternative view -- -- is that individuals tend to spontaneously form dynamical communities through their (often fleeting) interactions. By adding a new multimedic mode to human interactions, we increase the dimensionality of possible social phenomena. That is, we add an entirely new space to social interaction and, magically, the resulting unexploited space (a pre-ecosystem) fosters an explosion of innovation.

Anyone interested in further information, refs., biblio, etc., need only message me.