Communities on the Go: How Businesses Can Add a Mobile Context to the Social Web

I went to a great panel at SXSW yesterday afternoon called “Getting Unstuck.” The conversation was all about designing and developing applications for the mobile Web.

I walked away with a better understanding of the fundamental tensions at play in this increasingly mobile world. One of the most profound is the desire to create frictionless experiences while developing for the widest possible audience. With so many different handsets, browsers and interfaces, it’s impossible to create a mobile tool that will serve everyone on every handset.

Since developing for everyone is impossible, developers are going to work with the platforms that allow them to distribute their applications to the most users. We are entering an era where standards for both social and mobile platforms are up for grabs.

Another salient point that came from the panel is that the mobile phone is an inherently different space from the desktop computer, and American consumers use the two tools differently. Mobile phones are very personal devices where information is accessed on the fly. Zumobi’s John SanGiovanni mentioned that as a Web developer, you want your site to be “sticky” — that is, you want tons of eyeballs for long periods of time. As a mobile developer, you want your site to be “bouncy” — users can get in, get out, and get on with their lives in the real world.

Online community geeks who want to build and evangelize their tools for users on the go have a lot of hurdles to overcome. But just as when you’re developing for the social Web, you’ll need to be iterative. All the panelists agreed that throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks is the best strategy for developing powerful mobile tools.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same wisdom being applied to social application development. Iterative, repetitive attempts at building good apps appears to be the best way to deal with these new platforms, especially when the dust has not yet settled on universal standards.

Welcome to our community! If you like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed!