Ben Menoza

SXSW 2009 is approaching fast, and around this time, potential presenters collect their thoughts and come up with panels that would make for interesting discussion during the day. In true democratic fashion, the (registered) public votes on submitted panel ideas through the Interactive Panel Picker. Each panel idea falls under one category. The focus for this post will be Mobile/Wireless.

I’m surprised that there aren’t more panel submissions in this category, considering the rise of the iPhone and the buzz around Openmoko and Android. Perhaps it’s because the really cool technology is still yet to come, and there are many use cases waiting to be discovered. This category is interesting to me only because I have a project for work that centers around the feasibility of mobile offerings. Is there more to mobile e-commerce beyond shopping for products from your phone? How much impact will location-aware applications have on your mobile user experience (hypothesis: lots)? Which is more desirable: applications that run natively on your platform of choice, or mobile web applications that run on a platform’s web browser?

So many questions, so few panel submissions. I’m looking forward to these four:

• Location-Based Applications – Dead on Arrival? with YDreams‘ Marta Vieira
• It’s Not ALL About the iPhone – How to Mobilize Content for Mobile Devices with Mippin’s Scott Beaumont
• Developing Cross-Platform Mobile Applications with Opera’s Christen Krogh
• Sketching the Mobile User Experience with Yiibu’s Bryan Rieger