Carnival of the Mobilists

The Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards is taking place at 3GSM, where a distinguished jury (if such a description can be applied to something Carlo and I are involved in) is getting together to vote for the best mobile innovation in the last year. Each MoMo chapter nominates a local company and we get to choose the best. A hard job, but someone has to do it.

At the event, we’ll also be announcing the Carnival of the Mobilists’ Host of the Year, the winner of which will get a sponsored trip (airfare and accommodation) to the Mobile Monday Summit in Helsinki latter in the year and everlasting fame, respect and awe among the Mobilist community. And this is on top of any prize money they may have won from the nice folks at Khosla Ventures for Host of the Month.

Only previous hosts are eligible to vote. Vote by dropping me an email (russell AT mobhappy DOT com) with “Host of the Year” in the title. A list of hosts can be seen here, so you have to be on this list to vote and be eligible to be voted for.

As an organiser, I’m withdrawing myself from the running, so don’t vote for me. However, in the event of a tie, I’ll cast the deciding vote, so be extra nice to me please, you hosts out there.

Anyway, a great prize, so thanks to Mobile Monday. Cast your votes now before you forget.

Sorry if you came here thinking you were actually going to read the Best Posts of the Year!

There’s been a lot of confusion about this final issue of the Carnival, so I decided to delay it until the New Year and kick things off with a bang. That’ll enable me to clarify what it’s all about and allow everyone to get their ducks in a row.

So, here goes….

The Best of the Year is exactly that. It’s your favourite post of the year chosen from your own blog written and written about mobile. You don’t have to be a regular contributor. The original post also doesn’t have to have been in a previous Carnival.

You enter by sending an email to mobilists@gmail.com, with “Best Post of the Year” in the subject line. Only one post will be accepted per entry and if you think I’m going to go through dozens of your favourites, let me disabuse you of that now – you’ll be disqualified.

The entry should include a link to the story and (if you feel like it) 25 words or so, explaining your choice.

I will then choose and post my favourite 10 entries – or maybe a few more if the haul is exceptionally juicy. Please don’t be offended if you don’t make the cut as competition will be hotly contested, as much as anything as there’s money at stake!

Khosla Ventures have generously agreed to give the winner $500 cash. And the winner will be voted on from my short list by the beloved readers of the Carnival themselves. The money is certainly nice, but think of the prestige!

If you’re a blogger, and you’re going to enter or not, please link to this post to pass the word. Let’s make the New Year start with a bang and create a truly memorable competition.

Entries must be in by 1st January and I’ll post the results on MobHappy by 11th January 2007. Don’t forget to enter!

At MobHappy, we teamed with with the the guys behind Free News a while back to offer a mobile phone RSS reader. This allows you to follow our favourite blogs from your mobile.

So we thought we’d extend this popular service to include all our Mobilist friends too and offer a Mobilist Mobile RSS reader, consisting of the 14 most popular and active Mobilist contributors, who are (in strict alphabetical order):

C Enrique Ortiz
Darla Mack
Golden Swamp
M-Trends
MobHappy
Mobile Enterprise Blog
Mobile Marketing & Spam
MoPocket
Open Gardens
Smart Mobs
Textually
The Pondering Primate
WAP Review
Xellular Identity

Plus this blog as a bonus, so you can keep up to date with all the latest Mobilist news.

Many thanks to Carlo for co-ordinating this and working up the rather arcane scoring system he developed to determine who was included. This basically works by giving points for hosting a Carnival and also for writing for it, with hosting scoring more points. So if you’d like to be included when we next update this, volunteer for hosting duty or contribute more – pretty simple really. I would add that’s it’s hard to make the cut just from writing alone.

To host, write to Russell AT mobhappy DOT com, and say if there’s any weeks you aren’t available – check the schedule above for available dates.

Finally, before telling you how to download this marvel of modern technology….thank you again to the guys at Free News for making their very nifty product available to everyone.

How to Download Your Free Mobilist Browser

It’s pretty simple actually.

Just point your phone’s browser to http://cv.mwap.at and download the application. Or if you’re a download-and-sych-to-your-phone kind of person, point your computer’s browser here, and if you need the Palm version, get it here.

Most phones are supported, but it doesn’t work on Verizon and if you have a Treo, you’ll need to download Java . For a more complete guide to compatibility, click here.

That’s it. We hope you enjoy your RSS Reader. Tell your friends!

[tags] free rss reader [/tags]