That is what Verizon Wireless and Skype have announced yesterday at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona!
It was bound to happen at one point, but I never thought that Verizon would be the operator to initiate this.
Secondly, this is a huge milestone for Skype which is trying to get access to wireless networks for several years now.

What do you think the effect of this development will be on the mobile industry and on the current relationships?

Press release from Skype:
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What if information and intelligence between websites, content and data are becoming more important than the websites, content and data itself?
What if we don’t have to search for content anymore, but throughout filters, information and intelligence comes to us?
What if the starting point is not the static objects itself, but the dynamic patterns between the objects?

Then we have the notion and new point of perspective of the Synaptic Web:

The Internet is constantly evolving. As the speed, flexibility and complexity of connections increase exponentially, the Web is increasingly beginning to resemble a biological analog; the human brain. But what exactly is it that’s makes us, or the Web, smart?

In the brain, neurologists now believe that it is the density and flexibility of the connections between neurons, not simply neurons themselves, which are at the root of intelligence. These connections are called Synapses.

Even if the total number of brain cells, or neurons, begins to diminish in early adulthood, our ability to generate new connections between neurons and between different parts of the brain – what neurologist call “plasticity” – persists throughout life. What’s more, the brain seems to be like any other muscle in that plasticity can be increased with exercise.

It is at the synapse, the “gap” between one neuron and another, where neural connections are consummated to create pathways that, when used, are reinforced with additional connections and, when unused, are “pruned” to make way for new, more useful pathways. It is these incredible chemical bridges that define the patterns of communication that, at any given time, define our cognitive capacity.

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In the previous post on our CMSP technology, I explained shortly what the system is, what it can do and why it’s time for this kind of technology which creates new cross media digital experiences.
The CMSP will bring people Entertainment 2.0 !

This post will be about the functionalities which were available in the previous platform based upon the CMSP technology.

From then, technology has evolved, one of our partners is able to transform calls into tweets or text which then will be inserted next to the avatar.
As you can see, the marketing opportunities from an advertiser/exploiter point of view are vast, think of “in-game” advertising, product placements, memberships and so on.

We are looking for early stage investors/angel to revive and redevelop this platform to the needs of current markets.
If you’re interested, have tips or potential leads, do let us know, we can provide an executive summary and business plan upon request.

Below you’ll find a screenshot with the highlights of the technology as it was deployed for that particular network. Click for full screenshot.

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Today, February 3rd, game developer Paladin Studios has launched EnerCities. It is an online game in which players are challenged to build a sustainable city. It will run online (www.enercities.eu) and on Facebook, and is available in six European languages. The game is part of an educational platform dealing with energy issues, backed by European Commission funding of €1 million. (more…)

We are looking to take Social Gaming to TV via Social TV platform – think Mafia Wars, Farm Town, and even Second Life on TV.
We have developed and successfully broadcast Social TV in Europe bypassing the remote using telephony 2.0 (mobile and landline), advanced IVR and business logic servers, realtime 3D along with web integration.

We need partners. We need financial backing to redevelop the project.

… where viewers can create a virtual character, pilot it in the TV environment, meet, compete, play and even talk to other viewers/competitors via phone.

What is the Cross Media Social Platform (CMSP)?

The TV market is ‘on the move’ – competition is growing and digital channels via ISP’s and IPTV providers are now crashing through what was once the walled fortress of broadcast television. Interactive content and social media are the buzz and broadcasters are looking for both innovation and revenue generation models that fall outside of the traditional advertising box of the past. And the need for all types of content is growing exponentially, of which one is created by users themselves.

The Cross Media Social Platform is a unique product that not only offers a business model that encompasses current and widely spread advertising revenue – it also has added value by offering broadcasters the opportunity to earn money via telephony (Premium Rate Numbers and Premium SMS) via freemium modelling, as well as web and phone subscription models – where users can augment their profiles and characters on the web for TV and the web.

We created an interactive, virtual world on both television and the Internet that envelops social networking, community, user generated content, competition, and entertainment. And we are interested in developing this further with principles who were involved in the previous project. And it works on both standard broadcast or terrestrial TV as well as IPTV, Satellite, Cable etc.

See video of work we did in the past at Youtube

Visuals of the Cross Media Social Platform (CMSP)

Below you will find a basic CMSP architecture demo and a couple of screenshots.

It evens goes further, technology developments are evolving, partners have released an API enabling developers to create unified communications (telephone, cellular text message, instant message (Jabber, AIM, Yahoo, MSN) applications using traditional document-based web development flow. This sort of technology can be implemented in the Cross Media Social Platform, adapting to the needs and ways of nowadays communication.

Why Agora Media?

We have the experience and know-how, without having to invent the wheel and exploit this competitive advantage, we can respond very fast and accurate to the concretizing needs of the Social TV/Social Media/converging Media community and industry! We have a vast network of 2.0, cross media and technology pioneers, working closely with them to stay on top of trends and developments which will enhance the Cross Media Social Platform.

Why now?

The interest in Social TV is rising, the television landscape is changing, permanently. Media consumption is converging and increasingly socializing. More and more experiments, products and services are initiated and developed to meet these changes. Being on top of these trends and offering new digital cross media experiences to your target audiences and putting you permanently on the map!

Feel free to contact us if interested or wish to receive more information.

As stated on the Deloitte’s Fast50 webpage:

Deloitte yearly forecasts the major trends expected to impact the Technology Media & Telecom (TMT) business in the year ahead. In 2010 the Deloitte TMT Predictions will be launched on March 2 during the Predictions event (Almere).
Deloitte Fast50 challenges TMT entrepreneurs to launch an own Prediction. What will be the major trend expected to impact your business in the year ahead and how many persons agree with you?

Agora Media has entered the contest with two predictions:

By Richard Kastelein:

Media Convergence and Social TV

If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until social TV hits your screens. And it is not as far away as you think – not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. Social media fused with TV is …the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.
As Facebook revolutionized the way advertisers can niche-target their online demographics, social TV will profoundly change the ad agencies and marketing departments will offer their wares in the television realm. It’s called tCommerce and watch out – TV widgets and recommendation engines are not far away.
Neilsen ratings seem vague, less targetable and will likely become obsolete in TV 2.0. See http://agoramedia.co.uk/blog/?s=kastelein&x=0&y=0 for articles I have written on Convergent Media and Social TV.
Contest link

By Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Synaptic Web, Ubiquity and Augmented Reality
The Synaptic Web, where relationships between nodes are more meaningful than the nodes (alone), is a new way of looking at the evolution of the Web (in comparison to the Semantic Web). Augmented Reality perfectly fits within the Synaptic Web, enabling users to create meaningful relations between all sorts of content/data (nodes) and enhance their reality. Mobility and media/content consumption are two important subjects which will transform by the Synaptic Web and Augmented Reality.
The hyperconnective society wants to consume whatever content, wherever they are, when they want. Ubiquity as an aspect will move further up to the core of marketing strategies by means of mobile devices.
A key word within ubiquity is of course real-time. Mobile devices suffice this need and (will) challenge businesses in the near future to be omnipresent with the brand at all touch points of their target groups.
Contest link

Both the predictions approach the same future outlook: a convergent socializing digital world which is available anywhere at any time on any screen with more meaningful and relevant content.
Do add your comments on our predictions’ pages if you think these are the outlooks we can expect in the near future?!

Proximity Marketing as described by Wikipedia is “the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place.”
The commercialization of location will get a boost by the power and opportunities offered by Mobile Augmented Reality applications.

Have a look at the first real-time Augmented Reality proximity marketing platform by Insqribe:

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by Richard Kastelein (originally published at Atlantic Free Press)

Whilst the mainstream media players are quietly pushing their technology and innovation teams to the maximum across the world in a race to marry Social Media and TV, most of the public remains oblivious and left out of the loop, mainly due to offerings being in Proof of Concept (POC) stage or not even… and still on the chalkboard.
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(Originally published at Atlantic Free Press)

by Richard G. Kastelein

If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until Social TV hits your screens.

And it’s not as far away as you think — not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. I recently attended the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, which bills itself as ’The content creation management delivery experience’. IBC2008 attracted 49,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries. This year is expected to be bigger. Last year, I was part of a team exhibiting at MIPTV in Cannes, and was expecting something a bit similar… but this was almost all about hardware and software and less about the actual formats and programs. However, this was not a disappointment. For embedded in the show there were some jewels… which have profoundly altered my view of Social Media, the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.
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This is great news for the industry, a technology and platform that services online media content to a large amount of devices from any manufacturer.
Another step towards media and device convergence!

Press release taken from the DivX website:

DivX Launches New Internet TV Platform to Redefine the Future of Entertainment
DivX TV(TM) Receives Widespread Support from Consumer Electronics Companies and Content Providers

LAS VEGAS, Jan 06, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIVX), a leading digital media company, today announced the launch of DivX TV(TM), a comprehensive embedded Internet TV platform that provides access to a diverse line-up of online media content streamed directly to any connected device from any manufacturer.

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