Mobile Messaging and Swarming

The description that Robin Good has of mobile messaging and swarming (hat tip to SmartMobs) really struck a chord with me. Particularly the points outlined as challenges (routing, interop, open APIs, multiple communications styles). I remember when I first picked up Howard’s book SmartMobs that I felt like we were right at the cusp of a tipping point toward massive decentralization. Blogging was just becomming popular as well, lending to this feeling of peer to peer interaction taking over.

However here it is, years later, and we’re still talking about swarming. But very few people are actually doing it. There’s a seemingly endless number of applications that could be built on top of a generic messaging infrastructure that spans both the wired internet and mobile networks, but that system is still a while in coming. I like C. Enrique Ortiz’s comments on a unified messaging infrastructure, and agree with a lot of what’s in there. Unfortunately that includes the timeline for IM to overtake SMS, which he references John Delaney saying would take 5 years.

One of the things I’m hoping to at least touch on at the July SV Mobile Monday is how we can pull that in somewhat. How can we build these swarming style applications today? With the infrastructure available and without having them cost enough to outweight any but the most niche of benefits? I’m personally not sure it’s possible yet. The ideas are fantastic sometimes, but the existing infrastructure doesn’t support proper development of an efficient solution. The existing usages tend to be interesting because they work in spite of the huge inconvenience their participants have to endure (instead of working because of the support of a complimentary application or service).

I know I’ve pounded my head against issues in mobile messaging a number of times before, and always come away frusterated and disheartened. I’ve heard stories from others that they have as well. Is now the time to build a mobile messaging app? Or would you end up just lining carrier pockets while showing them a potential market they may have overlooked? Would it be best to wait till time and market forces drag down the wall on their own and messaging can be handled like IM? Or can a well constructed play capitalize on the current situation while dragging into a new shape? I’m personally tending toward point solutions built on top of existing IM infrastructure when playing around with side projects. One of the most interesting aspects? Google tying Talk in with GMail means that an XMPP based messaging tool has a tremendous potential audience that can use the service right from an interface they’re already using with an account they already have set up.