The Social Connectivity of More Than 3 Billion Cell Phones

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in We Media Miami, an annual conference sponsored by iFocos. In the next few blog post I plan to share some of the interesting things happening or about to happen on the social web.

First a little about iFocos. iFocos is a media think tank and futures lab committed to harnessing the power of media, communication and human ingenuity for the common good. iFocos helps individuals and and organizations worldwide understand and use expanding media and communication technologies both to innovate in business and to make the world better through media.

One third of the world's population now has connectivity through cell phones. That's a staggering number. As phones become smarter the nature of connectivity will go up dramatically.

Korea and Europe are both a head of the USA in the bandwidth serving cellular phones so they can give us a glimpse of what's to come.

Imagine sitting in a coffee house thinking about going to a movie. In Korea you could easily login to see a trailer of movies, make a decision and buy your tickets online. Simple and convenience and in the moment.

OneVoice is a group dedicated to resolving the Israel/Palestine issues. They are trying to mobilize a ground swell of everyday people in both countries so they can pressure the governments to find a resolution. Over a decade they were able to get about 300,000 people involved. In the past year or so, connecting via a rich cellular network, they have increased participation to 670,000.

Here's an example of enhanced connectivity coming closer to home. Qualcom, the chipmaker for cellular phones, says that soon diabetics will get timely text messages to their cellular phone reminding them to take their medicine. And, if they need to test their blood sugar level they will be able to do so with a device built into their cellular phone.

Start thinking about the business potential these developments enable.