PhoneTalk

Keeping voting real

By Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter    |   Thursday, May 31, 2007 (permalink)
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I can't tell you how many times I hear about "cell phone envy" of our friends across the pond. There are many, many reasons why we don't have all the cell phones here that are available in Europe. That said, there are many things you can look at involving cell phones that are often a harbinger of things to come State-side. Case in point, text messaging.

For years now, we've been picking up what cell phone users on the other side of the Atlantic and Pacific have been putting down. Text messaging was big abroad before it caught on here (again, there are many, many reasons for that as well). In particular, interactive messaging (aka voting for a contestant on a favorite TV show from a handset) was big there first and as such the pitfalls of such an activity were initially revealed there. I'm talking about fraudulent SMS voting. To avoid that here the Mobile Entertainment Forum is developing a set of guidelines to help avoid that here. Though it still needs to be voted on by the committee, it's a proactive step in the right direction. This just goes to show, sometimes being first isn't always best.

Topics: Observed