Mobile Diner® where wireless and washington meet….

It’s not often I trek across town for the unveiling of a policy report. Last week, I did, heading over to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) for an event that was worth the walk. On Tuesday, the ITIF released a new report, “Explaining International Mobile Payments Leadership,” that examines why the U.S. lags behind other nations in establishing a mobile payments system and offers recommendations for how the federal government can speed the arrival and adoption of mobile commerce.

The report, authored by ITIF Senior Analyst Stephen Ezell, explores the global state of mobile payment systems and identifies Japan, South Korea, and Singapore as the world’s leaders.  In these countries, mobile phones are used in conjunction with near field communications (NFC) technology to pay for public transit, to check in at airline gates, to make purchases from retails, and, in some cases, to supplement banking and financial institutions.  As a result, the mobile phone has evolved into an “electronic wallet,” which the report defines as “a multi-functional device possessing cash, information storage and transaction, identification and authentication, and communication functions.”

After presenting the report, Ezell participated in a panel discussion alongside David Jeppsen, Vice President, NTT DOCOMO USA, and Mark MacCarthy, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University and Former Senior Vice President for Global Public Policy at Visa Inc. The discussion was moderated by ITIF President Robert Atkinson.

The panelists argued that using cell phones as an electronic wallets will result in increased economic productivity and personal convenience.  However, as the reports notes, “widespread deployment and adoption of mobile payments systems requires action from a complex ecosystem of organizations.” This ecosystem include mobile carriers, banks, credit card companies, and others.  Because of the complexities involved, only a few nations have succeeded in coordinating the ecosystem required to develop a widely used mobile payments system. For America to realize the convenience and cost savings opportunities provided my mobile payments, Ezell stated, it “needs to develop and adopt a national strategy with government participation.”

The report’s key recommendations suggest that government should:

1. Create an inter-government mobile payments working group and private-sector advisory council that would collaborate to introduce, by min-2010, a strategy for spurring the deployment of an open, interoperable mobile wallet;
2. Assume a leadership role in promoting and adopting mobile payments (i.e require that mass transit systems receiving federal funding deploy mobile payment systems, and provide funding for pilot programs); and
3. Establish clear consumer protections and address consumer privacy concerns.

Though the report states that electronic wallets are “now ready for full-scale implementation and use,” Mark MacCarthy noted that first, “we need incentives for merchants to upgrade and for carriers to embrace their role as payment intermediaries.”

No clear timetable was offered on when Americans can expect a mobile payment system. Stephen Ezell predicted, “two or three years,” while David Jeppsen said, “this technology is being developed for my twelve-year-old…who will be using it when he gets to college.”

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Are you a leader or a poser?  There’s a big difference.

Free Press is a leader in the interactive universe.  They cultivate and organically grow their communities.  By utilizing digital tools early and often, the Free Press team has built a machine that can deliver results.  Last year, they took on Comcast, leading an effort to urge the FCC to rebuke Comcast for its network management practices.  They won.

Early this year, Free Press began beating the drum for the FCC to stay the course and open a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on open internet regulations in the wireline and wireless spaces.  This effort mobilized thousands of letters, blogs and tweets on the topic.  Once again, they won.

Free Press has become a juggernaut in the District of Communications.  Although, I don’t always agree with all of their public policy positions – I love the strategies they use to raise public awareness and influence policymaking. Continue Reading »

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As always, apologize for the stale food in the diner.  As I have mentioned, things have been busy at Tin Can and Amplify but wanted to cook-up a quick dish on Twitter lists…  In digital circles, you can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about them.  It is all the buzz right now in social media.

What are Twitter lists?  Briefly, Twitter now has the functionality to allow its users the ability to segment people they follow on Twitter.  For instance, I follow around 400 people and, with the addition of twitter lists, I can now group people according to “policy”, “mobile”, “digital”; you name it, there is a Twitter list for it.  You can also see other Twitter users’ lists (if they’re public) by looking at their profiles and you can get a sense of how you are seen in the Twitterverse.

This is either another stroke of genius by Ev, Jack, and Biz or just another thing for the social media elite to point to as a way to measure “influence.”  Thus far, it seems to be the latter and I don’t think that’s good for Twitter in the long haul.

We’ve already seen reports that Twitter’s growth is slowing.  The strategy to get to 100 million users seems to be promoting the celebs and hoping all of us will just want to sign up so we can see what Alyssa Milano and Ashton Kutcher are doing.  Contrary to being an awesome two-way communication tool – it becomes a fire-hose of noise.

I’m working on my list now (it is private) to see if it adds additional value.  I enjoy Twitter and the community I have engaged with there for over 2 years.  However, I’m not optimistic about this move and believe it is a step in the wrong direction…

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