OpenGardens - The innovator's guide to mobile applications development and the impact of telecoms web services OpenGardens draws on our interaction with developers in the Mobile data industry, the 5,000 people in our networks and on our personal experience. It provides a very down to earth approach for the 'practical innovator', but has a deep running cause. The book presents ideas that we believe deeply in - within an industry we understand at the grassroots. Our cause is to help developers bring their mobile applications to market and gain a fair reward and in doing so build a functional eco-system. We believe that the third party developer ecosystem in the Mobile data industry is broken. This book is not a deep, strategic understanding of why it is broken or how to fix it - rather it is about how, even with a broken ecosystem, developers and Operators can work together to create new wealth. The key features of this book are: - A holistic view of development issues and operators - Why Open Gardens should not be confused with 'open source' - Insights based on actual feedback from Operators - An understanding of how web services will impact Mobile data applications development - How to 'sell' / position your service to the Operator - A focus on basic principles of Location, Messaging, Java, J2ME, web services etc - An analysis of why the current aggregator model is doomed - A methodology for analysing devices in the marketplace - A comparative outline of Operator developer programs - Strategies on how to engage with the Operator for the best results - An independent view of the industry based on personal experience Who should read this book: - Visionaries - Anyone who has an idea/believes in this space - Developers - To get an unbiased view of Mobile data applications - Business development/Sales - To understand the best way to position your service to Operators - Operators - To understand the pitfalls of the developers With viewpoints from both developers and Operators, OpenGardens is all about growing a new ecosystem at some point in the future - one in which each side benefits whilst at the same time - making the best of the existing ecosystem today. The authors (Ajit and Tony) are uniquely qualified to write OpenGardens. Between them, they offer a dual perspective of development and Telecoms knowledge. Through their online and offline networking forums, Ajit and Tony have worked with a wide range of entrepreneurs. Ajit brings the Telecoms/developer perspective whereas Tony brings the Investor/finance perspective. Over the last year, through our networks, we have interacted with entrepreneurs from all over the world - spanning more than 91 countries ranging from USA, UK, Europe to even places like Siberia and Seychelles. Our networks typically attract the innovators / the early adopters - who believe in mobile technology, business and innovation despite the doom-and-gloom of the dot com industry around them. Why don't a thousand flowers (entrepreneurs) bloom in the Mobile Internet? This, together with two ancillary questions i.e. How can we foster innovation within the mobile data industry? And, How can we combine multiple services, bodies of knowledge and trends to create a commercially successful mobile data application? provide the central discussion themes. Our view is optimistic. We believe that there are opportunities in the existing and proposed mobileecosystem. We used 'Air Graffiti' or splash messaging as an illustrative application. Its principles are valid - in the sense that - given a 'set of simple building blocks' there are no limits to what can be achieved through innovative combinations of these blocks. However, after reading this book, you may decide that the Mobile data industry is not for you. Even if you do so, the book would have served you well.