Report on Mobile Media

This report on mobile media from the New Politics Institute was just emailed to me and although I haven't read it just yet, I thought I'd pass it on for those of you interested in the cell phone discussion. Fun Facts:

· 80 percent of voting age Americans have mobile phones and an increasing number are becoming savvy at using them to create and consume media.

· Mobile video services already reach more users than the 8th largest cable operator in the country.

· By 2008 as many as 30 percent of wireless phone users will not own a land line. (What will political pollsters do?)

· Last year U2’s Bono got 800,000 people to sign up for the One Campaign to eradicate poverty by sending a text message through their mobile phones at his concerts.

All of a sudden, after years of being in the background, text messaging as a political tool is all over the web. What this usually means is that everyone is about to pile on and its usefullness will be over by the time Labor realizes it's even there as a potential organizing tool.