The printing press built by Johannes Gutenberg in 1436 is considered a milestone in human achievement. The first book to be printed on mass was the Gutenberg Bible (the holy book of God, not a guide to Police Academy movies!) Since then the written word has taken off in various media, and in every language conceivable, or indeed fictional.

But what with the rise of the internet and new products such as the Kindle, publishers of books, magazines and newspapers have found it difficult to keep up with the relentless force of technological progress. Good-old fashioned ink on paper is a dying breed. And with the scandal involving News International people's faith in newspapers and traditional forms of media and journalism.

What is your preferred way to donate to a charity?  Well it seems that charities think that their future lies with text message donations…at least in the UK.  According to the UK regulator of premium rate telephone services that oversees charity text donation, PhonepayPlus, there has been a sharp increase  in charity text donations last year and the trend looks set to continue into 2012.

More than 200 charities are now registered with PhonepayPlus, which means that they can ask people to donate by sending a text message to the charity’s short code number.  Perhaps this isn’t too surprising given the end-of-year findings by nfpSynergy’s Charity Awareness Monitor  which found that the monthly average for people giving to charity by text donations rouse by 40% in 2011. 
As of 2011, around 1 in 4 people in the UK will donate to a charity by text.  Forecasts predict that by 2014 around £96 million will come from SMS donations, which is a lot of money by anyone’s standards.  And charities have been quick to realise that text donations chimes well with younger givers.

There is no doubt that the Christmas and the New Year period is a time when people tend to eat , drink and be merry...sometimes too much so.  Interestingly, some emergency wards in the US are trialling a new mobile campaign to collect information on patients’ drinking habits and help support their efforts to control their drinking.  The goal of the mobile campaign is to gather data and offer support to young patients that have been discharged from an emergency ward who are looking to control the amount of alcohol that they drink.

As is the case in many parts of the world, in the US it is all too common for young adults to binge drink (even when it’s not the holiday period).  Unfortunately many of these people end up in a hospital emergency ward, and around a third of them report that they are abusing alcohol and/or becoming dependent on it.  Now, all these trips to the hospital get expensive so the Emergency Medicine Foundation (a non-profit organisation dedicated to reducing driving under the influence and under-age drinking) was given a grant to research binge drinking by young adults.  It decided to use an automated text messaging program to gather information on these patients’ drinking habits and give support to those who need to reduce their drinking.

When it comes to psychological counselling, I’ve always assumed that the patient and the psychologist simply sat talking face-to-face (or perhaps with the patient lying down on the sofa so that they can relax) and together they set about trying to identify and resolve their emotional problems. However, it now seems that psychologist have added another string to their therapeutic bow…text messages.

Psychologists have realised that people are more willing to say things in an SMS messages that they ever would in person.  More importantly it is OK to be a bit more honest and/or forthright with a text than it is in person.  Psychologist believe that this is because using SMS puts a bit of a buffer between the sender and the receiver so users feel able to express thing that they simple wouldn’t be able to face-to-face, hence the increasing use of text messaging as part of a patient’s therapy.

I see that Walgreens, a large pharmacy/drug store chain in the US, is now trialling a text message alerts service for prescription renewals. With its SMS Refill Reminder service patients will receive a re-fill reminder notification by a text alerts when they start to run low on their medication. Best of all it’s a 2-way messaging service so the receiver can order more medication simply by replying with the word “REFILL”. The service will also allow mobile and smartphone users to scan the barcode on their prescription bottle to reorder their medication—giving them yet another way to refill their meds. Of course it’s an opt-in service and clients can sign up through their mobile phone or in person when they bring in their prescription. And I assume that the reminders are only relevant in cases where the original prescription from the doctor included a refill prescription.

As well as ensuring that the drugstore gets the repeat business, this 2-way messaging system for renewals helps to underpin good customer service and brand loyalty, so it is a smart move on the part of the retailer. That now withstanding, it also seems that the company has an altruistic reason for introducing the SMS alert prescription renewal service which is to help address the problem of low adherence to medication by many Americans. The drugstore chain hopes that by making it easier to get a refill on their medication, more patients will get and take their medicine.

Have you heard about the latest version of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland? This new re-working of this classic of children’s literature has the new Alice based in New York City and she is a descendent of the original Lewis Carroll character. And yes, she falls down a rabbit hole in Central Park. However, there is a very modern day twist to this version…it’s written by text messages.

The author of the latest version of this story, Susan Crimp, said that her motivation for creating ("Alice's Adventures in NYC Wonderland - The Text Generation") was to expose young people to the classics. With this thought in mind, she decided to re-create a literary classic that would engage with younger readers, hence her decision to write it in a series of text messages. I guess the assumption was that today’s younger readers would prefer to read literature in small doses of just 140 characters. In any case the book is available to download and follow-up versions of Through the Looking Glass have already been penned.

If, like me, you are a bit worried about that extra weight you put on while on vacation this summer, then you may be interested to read about a new SMS service launched by “Self” magazine offering a low-cost health and wellness program. To help support users of its healthy eating program, the Self Diet Tapper service sends several text messages each day to opted -in users offering dieting advice. These messages are timed to coincide with the times of day when a user may need extra support, such as reminding them to eat a healthy low calorie lunch. As well as providing dieting advice the program also encourages the recipient to exercise, and gives them receipts and a monthly newsletter. Users can also interact online with other dieters by tweeting their ideas and advice via the magazine’s account. As you’d expect, there is more healthy living and dieting advice on the magazine’s website.

I think that for organisations offering a dieting advice and support service it makes great sense to use SMS, as it reaches people even when they are away from their desk. Text messages are also much more instant and personal than email.  More importantly, there seems to be good evidence that dieters that receive their weight loss plans via texts throughout the day are much more likely to succeed when compared to those that don’t get this added support. According to Self magazine, research shows that dieters receiving dieting advice several times over the course of the day may loose fives the amount of weight when compared to those without this support. I guess just as texts can be used to remind people to take their medicine, it seems that are also good at helping people stick to their diets and fitness routines.

“Warning, your house is on fire.” How would you respond if you got a text like this while you were at work? Well this may not be as odd as it sounds. It seems that someone has had the bright idea to create a mobile solution for fire safety, and has merged smoke alarms and SMS alerts to provide a whole new type of fire alarm – the FireText Smoke Alarm.

The system is a GSM-based smoke alarm which you can put a SIM card in. If a fire is detected the SMS enabled fire alarm can send a text message to up to four different numbers to tell them about the fire. So even if you are unavailable, another family member or a friend should be able to call the emergency services for you.

Yet again the US government has chosen a mobile platform for its disasters and emergency program.  This time it’s the HHS (the US Department of Health and Human Services) that is using SMS to provide information on how people can protect their health in the aftermath of an emergency.  The HHS has pre-prepared a “toolkit” of several public health text messages, which are designed to provide advice following a hurricane, flood or earthquake.  The system will also provide updates and will be expanded to offer text messages that provide advice following other types of disasters or emergencies.  Local emergency agencies can also tailor the messages to fit specific local requirements.

The government decided to use a mobile platform for this information because of the wide spread usage of this communication method.  Also, many communities in the States have already set up a text message alert system for emergency notifications, so it made sense for the public health advice following an emergency or disaster to adopt a mHealth approach as well.

In an attempt to keep prices down, yet still provide a quality service, the low cost Australian airlines Jetstar, has expanded its mobile messaging system. The airline has introduced SMS boarding passes as well as installing new self-service check-in desks at airports, and together these offer passengers a new streamlined and faster check-in service.

Under Jetstar’s new system, when a customer books their flight they will be asked whether they want their boarding pass sent to them via a text message or an email. Once the airline knows their preferred method of communication it will issue the boarding pass automatically. If the passenger doesn’t need to check-in bags, they can go straight to the gate and board their flight using just the boarding pass sent to them via SMS. However, if they want to check-in some bags, they need to first go to the self-service check-in kiosks in the airports, where they can scan their boarding code. This will allow them to collect their boarding passes and the tags for their bags. They then attach the tags and drop the bags in the designated baggage hold, before heading off to the boarding gate. Passengers can also use the check-in desks to select seats. The whole process takes around 12 seconds per passenger, as opposed to half a minute with the old self-service system or over a minute at the full-service check-in desk.

There is a lot of hype around mobile apps at the moment and everyone seems to be jumping on the app bandwagon.  For some industries mobile apps makes great sense, but they do have their problems – mainly that there are so many platforms in the marketplace.  So, it’s also good to see that some service providers are happy to adopt a more straightforward and ubiquitous approach and go with an SMS-based mobile solution. 

When the Australian-wide pre-booking taxi service, Taxi 131 008, decided to launch a mobile campaign for its service, it made a conscious decision to use SMS technology rather than develop multi-platforms mobile apps.  Instead they decided to buck the trend towards apps and developed a mobile campaign that used SMS.  This approach also has the advantage that its taxi service providers did not need to invest in expensive hardware or software.  This was an important consideration for Taxi 131 008 as it acts as a booking service for numerous taxi services (both big and small) all over Australia. 

These days, mobile apps seem to have taken the mobile marketing industry by storm and many businesses of whatever size want to cater to this on-the-go audience.  The only problem is where should they start?  With numerous different platforms, developing an app for your business can be daunting--especially if you aren’t technically savvy or able to spend big bucks?  Given that the whole process can be intimidating, I thought I’d mention a few tips that you can use to make your app development go smoothly.

1. Use the right development team
The success of any project – be it winning the World Cup or launching a mobile app – will be down to the skills and efforts of the team behind it.  Whether you have an in-house development team or buy-in the resource, you will need to work well together as a team to achieve a good result.  You’ll need to bear in mind that mobile platforms are not static and will be updated, which means your apps will need to be update.  When considering your team, think about who will be responsible for the maintenance and upgrades, as well as the initial development.

Regardless of which cell phone you have, if you regularly send text messages then you will have at some point fallen foul to unintended mistakes in your texts thanks to autocorrect.  I know that with my cell phone certain words (or at least the first few letters of them) sometimes get changed into the oddest words when I’m texting making for a bizarre message…to say the very least.  Weirder still is when I correct the mistaken word change back to the one I originally meant and the handset changes it back again.  I usually notice this just as I’ve hit send, resulting in a short lived, but definitely marked increase in my blood pressure followed by an " aaaargh " sound.  Of course it is my own fault for not taking greater care when texting, which just adds to my frustration, but that’s little comfort when I have just sent a very confusing text message to someone and now need to send a correction SMS quickly.

Given that autocorrect and autocomplete can sometimes create the oddest " typhos " in your SMS messages, you knew it was just a matter of time before one bright spark decided to publish an anthology of hilarious, disastrous, and even downright rude or vulgar text messages.  The new book entitled " < em > Damn you Autocorrect " by Jillian Madison is filled with an entertaining collection of bizarre typhos taken from the website of the same name. 

I know that some people are highly competitive whatever they are playing, and I guess chess players are no different. But to use SMS to cheat during a match...that is outrageous! It seems that three French players at the Chess Olympiad last autumn have been found guilty by their own governing body, the Fédération Française des Echecs, of using text messages to help cheat during matches.

The three men (including two grand masters) were accused of creating a complicated scheme using a mixture of encoded text messages and set movements around the competition hall to provide tactical advice from a specialist computer program. And get this... it all happened while the matches were in progress. While one person was playing, the other should send and receive encoded texts using the standard notation for chess moves. He would then pass on the computer's advice for the next move by moving to a particular part of the competition hall, which the trio had separated into different sections to represent the grid of a chessboard. The whole fiasco only came to light because one of the three didn't have a mobile phone so had borrowed one (from the vice president of the French Chess federation, no less) who found the incriminating texts on her phone.

Of course the three men denied any wrong doing. Nevertheless the French Federation's disciplinary committee has found them guilty and suspended two of them from competing for two years, while a third (the team captain) has been relieved of his duties. Unbelievably, the three may go to court to help clear their names, and weirder still, they have the backing of many of their team-mates.

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According to a French official, there have previously been suspicions of chess players and team- mates cheating during matches, but this is the first time that there has been such clear evidence of wrong doing with SMS.

Of course the stakes are high at any international competition, but to use texts to cheat is beyond the pale. I image that in future all mobile phones will need to remain out of the competition halls during matches or be handed in to the authorities first (and only used once the competitions are finished). And this will all be down to some overly zealous chess players deciding to use text messages to give them a helping hand during the competitions.

Despite the rise of social networks as a communication tool, the lowly text messages continue to be a favourite with smartphones users in the US.  New research By Deloitte found that more than half of the smartphone users surveyed there send a text every few hours, and the vast majority (84%) send at least one text message every day.  For most mobile phone users the SMS was the first choice communication tool, and it doesn’t look as though it will be losing this position anytime soon.

The report concluded that it was unlikely that in the future social networks would replace SMS as a communication too.  Instead it thought that texts should be viewed in terms of complimenting social networks, for example businesses could use texts as a short fast introduction to longer communication online.  It also concluded that enthusiastic users of SMS are just as likely to be avid users of mobile email and social networks.  Keeping in touch seems to be what is important – anyway and everyway.

Once again the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has prompted government authorities to suspend internet and mobile telecommunications services, including text messages.  As was the case with Egypt a few weeks ago, Libya too is trying to control communications between demonstrators calling for political change in the country, by closing down the internet and curtailing the services of mobile network operators in the country.   In Libya of these are controlled by the government, so switching them off was straightforward enough. 

Of course what the Libyan government is trying to do is stop the protestors from communicating through social networking sites or uploading their images of the protestors and the government's violent response.  One can also assume that they are cracking down on SMS services so that the protestors can't orchestrate their demonstrations by  send text messages to each other or send messages out of the country about the unrest, turmoil and killings.

It looks like even the big boys can make the occasional mistake.  It would seem that Google has encountered some problems with its mobile operating system -- Android.  In the past few months some Android users have reported that their text messages were being delivered to the wrong person or to a random person who is not in their address book.   Unfortunately this could sometime lead to disastrous  consequences, such as a reply to a text message about a new job contract going to the employee’s current boss – certainly not his intended receiver.

As I understand, it around six months ago a few Android users started to complain that some SMS messages had been delivered to the wrong person.  In December of last year the software giant up graded the SMS problem to “critical”, following mounting complaints on its forum.

Hurrah!! My doctor has finally entered the 21^st century and is now offering appointment reminders by SMS. Last week I stopped by the doctor's office on my way home from work to make an appointment. I was surprised to see that I can now sign up to receive text message reminders for appointment through its new online messaging system. What is more, it is a two-way messaging service so that I can reply to the text message if I can no longer make the appointment.

Thankfully, I tend to be fairly fit and healthy, so I don't often have to visit the doctor. Of course this can make it difficult to remember my appointment when it comes time to have a check-up or travel vaccinations. You may not be surprised to learn that I immediately signed up for my SMS reminders. I was amazed to learn from the receptionist just how often people forget about their appointments (.... which made me feel very guilty, as I have done this in the past).

In the States and Europe new mobile solutions for banking customers tend to be aimed at the smartphone market, offering apps for iPhones and androids alike. So I was pleased to see that in India some of the larger banks are still coming up with innovative mobile solutions that will work with the lower end of mobile handsets through SMS. 

India's central bank has been pushing the banks there to offer mobile banking solutions for a few years now, and a system is already in place in India which allows m-banking transactions between accountholders at the same bank through ordinary mobile phones and SMS. However, following the recent release of the Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) this mobile solution has now been expanded to allow transactions between accountholders at some other banks. Once again the m-banking solution will support transactions from low-end phones by making use of SMS messaging. As the vast majority of mobile users in India have bog standard handsets it seems likely that the new m-banking service will be a hit with many Indian consumers.

For the vast majority of us, forgetting to take our medication isn’t a big deal. We simply take it as soon as we remember, and get on with getting well. But for some people not taking their medicine can be a matter of life or death. For these individuals remembering to take their medication is vitally important. So I was pleased to read recently about the success of a trial SMS-based medication reminder for HIV patients in Kenya.

The study used more that 500 HIV patients. Some participants were given just the standard care and medication, while others received the standard care and medication, plus a weekly text message sent to their cell phone. The SMS messages were discreet and usually just asked how they were and instructed them to reply to the text message indicating that they were "fine" or had a "problem". Participants that failed to reply to the text message within a couple of days or said they had a problem received a visit from a nurse.

Hands up everyone that has walked into something or someone while walking and texting. I know I have created my fair share of pedestrian "crashes" (not to mention a few close shaves with cars) all because I was trying to fire off a quick text message and walk at the same time. Well for those of us that can’t walk and type concurrently there is a new iPhone app that should help put a stop to these texting mishaps - Type While Walking. This app will let you compose an email, text message or other document on your iPhone while being able to see the ground through the handset's camera. The idea is that it would do away with the need to look up from your phone periodically while walking ...that's the theory anyway. Given that it costs less than a dollar, I decided to give the app a go. Certainly typing a text message is easy with Type While Walking, as the white text is generally easy to read. Things get a bit trickier when it comes time to move the text message or email out of the app and into the appropriate feature in your handset for them to be sent.

Christmas is the season of giving, so it should be no surprise that charities are trying to make the most of it the holidays this year. Along with traditional fund raising initiatives, several well-known charities are running mobile campaigns to attract donations. And using SMS to donation to good causes is a great way to give this Christmas - it's simple, fast and secure. Certainly for those of us that have just about all that we need (or want), helping those less fortunate than ourselves with a charity gift donation through an SMS campaign makes great sense. I would definitely prefer to have a gift that's a donation to a charity I support, rather get yet another unwanted gift. Of course for those of us that dread Christmas shopping, what could be easier than donating a gift in the name of friends and family through a charity's SMS campaign? Simply decide on your charity and text the shortcode to the number provided. All that is left for you to do is let your family and friends know that you have made a gift donation for their present this year.

You may think that everyone uses their mobile phone in a similar manner - to send a text message or chat...with the clever ones being used to browse the internet. However, a new comparative study by comScore on mobile phone usage in Japan, Western Europe (including the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy) and the United States has found stark contrasts in between certain regions. The study looked at how people used their mobile phone in particular geographic markets. Given that a handset does pretty much the same in these three geographic areas it is surprising that mobile phone usage varies so much between these markets. Mobile users in Japan were the most likely to have a smart phone at 75%, compared to 44% in the US and 38% in Western Europe. Nearly 60% of the Japanese use their mobile for browsing, much more than either the Americans (34%) or the Europeans (26%). What is more they are also downloading more applications - no doubt this is because more of them have smart handsets. However, taking photographs is something that both normal and smart phones can do, but again the Japanese are way out in front of the US or Europe on this score, with around 60% of Japanese users saying they take photos with their mobile phone. Instead Europeans were more likely to listen to music or play games (24%).

As someone who has been guilty of missing the odd dental appointment or parcel delivery with disastrous consequences, I was heartened to hear that I am not alone in wanting to receive an appointment reminder by text message. A recent survey looking at the role of SMS in business communications in both the UK and US by a leading analyst has found that nearly 60% of those questioned in the UK would prefer to get an appointment reminder by SMS. However, in the States the number of consumers preferring to get an SMS reminder fell to around 20%. I would assume that the difference attitudes between consumers in these two countries can be explained by the penetration of mobile phone usage in the respective country. Still it is interesting to note that although so many of us would prefer a text message reminder, many businesses do not seem to be offering this service.

Waiting around for something can be a real chore - especially when you are in discomfort. So given my recent encounter with the chemist, I was impressed to hear about a few pharmacies in the US that offer to send SMS messages to customers to let them know their prescription is ready. I just wish that my local chemist offer this type of mobile campaign. Let me explain... I recently hurt my knee in a so-called friendly game of football (the last time I'll play in defence). I ended up seeing my doctor about it. He recommended that I rest it and prescribed some anti-inflammatories. The problems started when I tried to get the prescription filled. The place was packed and short of staff. After waiting for what seemed like an age I finally handed in my prescription and was told it would be ready in 15 minutes. So I left, and returned later after 15 minutes. Needless to say it still wasn't ready. I ended up going to and from the pharmacy three times - not easy with a painful knee. This would have been so much easier if the chemist had been able to send me a text message when my prescription was ready.

Although they are still nearly two years away, the hype around the 2012 Summer Olympics just seems to grow bigger and bigger - especially here in London. And one of the gripes that many Londoners have is that most of the tickets for the Olympic events will be bought up by big corporate organisations, leaving ordinary sports fans out in the cold. To make matters worse, many of the corporate ticket holders can't be bothered to even attend the events - as witness by the rows of empty seats at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the World Cup in South Africa this summer. Thankfully, those organising the London Olympics are considering a way to get round the problem of empty seats. They may introduce a mobile messaging system which would see tickets passed on to ordinary sports fans via a text message. The proposal would pass on tickets to people in and around the Olympic Park via a text message if the ticket holder is more than 45 minutes late to an event. To participate in the ticket recycling SMS campaign sports fans would need to sign up to receive notices of spare tickets from no shows and early leavers. Olympic organisers would make use of location-based mobile messaging to send a text to the fans in or around the Olympic venues offering them these tickets.

I am always on the look out for novel uses for SMS technology and a recent story from India caught my eye. It seems that HP Labs in India have developed a great way for cell phone users to access to the internet via SMS. The SiteOnMobile program allows users of bog standard cell phones to utilize the internet by using SMS and voice commands. What is great about this SMS - based approach is that it will open up the internet to millions of cell phone users in India who would otherwise not have access to the web. The market for cell phones in India is massive and SMS usage is amongst the highest in the world, so it makes great sense for HP to develop a system that will give less well off Indians the chance to make use of the internet by using their existing hardware and skills set (that is to say a cell phone and SMS). Through the SiteOnMobile program cell phone users can send an SMS message to issue a command to perform a particular task (aka "tasklet") such as asking for a quote, checking a price, requesting information or booking an appointment. While the SMS-based internet access won't lead to hours of web browsing it will give many Indians affordable access to some aspects of the internet.

it's not everyday that you hear about SMS being used for a rescue, but that is what happen when a British sailor found himself drifting in the Caribbean off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Paul Mountjoy from England was sailing his yacht around the Caribbean when his steering gear bit the dust leaving him stranded in the dark. He was just off about 50 miles from land, so near enough to get a signal on his cell phone. However, it also meant that he was near enough to run into trouble on the treacherous coastline. After several attempts to raise the alarm via a marine VHF radio, Paul finally sent a text message to his dad saying the he was in trouble (to put it mildly) and asked him to contact the British coastguard to see if they could organise some help. The SOS text message from Paul woke his dad, and he quickly sprung into action. A call to the local emergencies services referred him to the Falmouth Coastguards in Cornwall. The coastguard then rang Paul back to check his coordinates before contacting the authorities in the Dominican Republic. Soon the Dominican Republic's Navy was towing the stranded sailor back to harbour. Paul and his crew were safe and sound thanks to his SMS message to his dad in England.

It has to be said that I am not the best cook in the world. Sure I try, but more often that not I opt for a take out or something I can quickly re-heat. Unfortunately, this approach to mealtimes can get expensive. So, I was overjoyed to hear about a new SMS service for restaurants called Dinertext which lets customers sign up to receive text messages about special offers and events at their favourite places to eat or drink. The SMS messaging service enables restaurants, bars and cafés to contact their clientele to let them know about special deals and menus. The service can be used to tell customers about daily or weekly specials or perhaps their lunchtime offers. As a customers you’ll learn about discounted meals, two for one offering - even a free glass of bubbly - just by signing up to receive SMS alerts at your favourite restaurants or bar.

Every now and then you stumble across a bit of news that make you sit up and take notice. Certainly this was the case when I read about a mobile messaging campaign being used to control Aussie-rules footballers in post-match bevies in Melbourne, Australia. It seems that the celebrating has gotten a bit out of hand, so the Victoria police and the State Government have started a 'look after your mates' campaign - Championship Moves. One aspect of the Championship Moves campaign is sending text messages to more than 50,000 footballers to remind them to behave, drink sensibly and look after their friends. The point behind Championship Moves' mobile messaging campaign is to help reduce alcohol-fuelled violence, by reminding people to drink sensibly and look after one another. The Government's research found that 85% of the target market (young males) said that the SMS campaign would make them think twice before getting into drink-induced trouble. Certainly it makes sense to use a communication that this age group is familiar with, such as sending text messages, to remind footballers to stay out of trouble.

There used to be a great stand-up comic on TV that encouraged the audience to send SMS messages to him as part of his routine - ideally poor jokes and rude comments. His would read out these text messages and his quick wit would turn them into laughs. Unfortunately all good things come to an end sometime, as is the case with this show. What the late-night comedy show did highlight, however, was that SMS messaging is a great way to interact with a speaker or a presenter - be it a comedy act, a lecture or a presentation. Getting the audience to use SMS when they want to ask a question or raise an issue can help to encourage audience participation, without having to resort to the time honoured school days tradition of raising a hand. Most speakers and lecturers will agree that an audience has a tendency to not get involved if they themselves have to speak – especially if it is in front of a large crowd. People are reluctant to step out of their comfort zone. This means that questions are left unasked and speakers are left wondering if anyone was listening.

If it's true that where the US goes the world will follow, then it looks like we could be in for an even bigger increase in the use of digital and mobile advertising for local advertising in the next five years. According to the forecasts by BIA/Kelsey, more than half of the advertising spend in the States will be local advertisers. This means that most of the business that are spending on advertising are either local small-to-medium-sized businesses or national advertisers concentrating their efforts on local marketing campaigns. But what is really interesting is that the real growth area for this spend is going to be digital and mobile marketing. The forecast suggest that the interactive share of local advertising spend will more than double by 2013.

The Olympics are an odd phenomenon. Every few years the world focuses on one little corner of the globe and the sporting events that are taking place there. While the winter Olympics may not appeal to every nation they are nonetheless important for those 80 nations taking part in the events in Vancouver and Whistler at the moment. With so much going on in and around Vancouver it is no surprise that SMS is being used to help keep visitors informed. Vancouver Tourism, in collaboration with Satsport, has created an interactive guide for visitors to the 20th winter Olympic Games - the Tourism Vancouver 2010. Through SMS messaging the mobile city guide application keeps users informed about events, the weather – even news flashes. Users can also get information about restaurants (and make reservations via SMS) and transportation in and around Vancouver and Whistler. The smartphone application also gives the user integrated street navigation for Vancouver and Whistler – helping lost tourists to find their way around town.

It’s a well worn stereotype that SMS messaging is the soul preserve of teenagers. But as is the case with most stereotypes, this one doesn’t always ring true. While a comedy sketch may paint a picture of a texter as a spotty-faced teenager tapping away bizarre acronyms into a cell phone, in reality a typical texter may well be the parent of a teenager - or even their Gran. It would seem that more mature mobile phones users are just as comfortable with sending a text message as a making a call. According to a recent survey of 500 participants in North America and Europe, 60% of those over 45 were just as likely to send a SMS as to make a voice call from a mobile phone. The survey for the American firm Tekelec, also found that around a third of the participants expected to increase their use of SMS in 2010.