mobilisms.com

What would Christopher Latham Sholes say about this? Indian mobile phone maker–Lava International Ltd–has created two phones sans QWERTY since  “a large segment of mobile users who are not familiar or comfortable with QWERTY or Multi-tap keypads.”

They are talking about folks who have grown up without a computer and rely on their mobile devices for everything. While I find this hard to believe that people would choose ALPHA over QWERTY, it does bring up an interesting point. Does QWERTY still have relevance in our abbreviated lexicon?

Mr. Sholes orgininally developed QWERTY to increase productivity (but not too much) for those on a typewriter. But I wonder if that productivity (or an even stream of productivity) can still be accomplished when folks type things like, “OMG,” “Thx,” and “FML.”

Regardless–this is an interesting move that could (but probably won’t) change how consumers use their mobile keypad.

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During SXSW, Jodi whipped us all into content creating shape to the point I imagined myself a TMZ reporter (much to Brad’s delight). While famous people didn’t assault me, I did learn that a few tricks go a long way to avoid dirty looks (from both your Content Task Master or the mobile content subject).

Snap a Picture of:

• Famous People—go right ahead and paparazzi your little heart out. They’re famous and used to being hounded by the press. And, you my friend, are the press.
• Normal People—ask first before going in for the kill. You’ll often find this diminishes blurry photos from people ducking out of the way or giving you the stink eye. And 9 times out of 10, they agree to have their photo taken.
• Things that don’t talk/animals/buildings—no need to ask. They don’t talk back.

Smile. You’d be surprised how showing a little Southern Hospitality goes a long way when you are raising your iPhone to snap a photo.

Get The Name of:

• Famous People—you should already know their name (or have someone tell you). Just avoid the awkwardness of saying how uncouth you are for not knowing who they are.
• Normal People—you will need to ask their name (first and last). Could be done during the whole, “Can I take your picture?” conversation.
• Things that don’t talk/animals/buildings—you might need to ask someone around for this. It will come in handy when your Task Master asks you why you took a picture of it.

Don’t forget the Twitter Name of:

• Famous People—you should already know their Twitter handle. See above for reasons why not to ask.
• Normal People—they’ll be flattered that you are social media savvy and will give it up. Plus you can go back, stalk them, and make sure you got their real name right the first time. And you’ll be able to Tweet them properly and share their photos with them.
• Things that don’t talk/animals/buildings—because they might be famous enough to have a Twitter name. Just look around. It might be posted somewhere.

After you get back to command central, your content manager (and your subjects) will be very grateful that you followed these simple rules.

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