Some of you may have noticed a “call to arms” amongst the SMS community to share your experience with Texperts on film. Guess what? The crew arrived at Texperts Towers in Cambridge today!

We’ve been busy being interviewed - I may yet pass as borderline respectable (Rhod clearly wasn’t so lucky, as you can see below) - but the real challenge is to get the word out to the legions of Texperts users out there.

To give you a bit of background: one of our Texperts, Ian Maull, is a film student at Brunel, and has been challenged to put together a film comprised of different video media. Rather ingeniously (if I do say so myself!), he chose to do a doco about Texperts.

So - The Brief: if you’re a Texperts user, Ian wants to know all about your experiences with the service. AND he wants you to record them on a wide range of media: web-cam, mobile video (how on-brand!), camcorder, super 8 (if you’re into that retro thing), whatever…any quality, open format. Just email Ian Maull on ianmaull [at] gmail.com . That’s also the address you should email any video clips to.

Maybe you want to put Texperts to the test? You’re in the pub with mates and really need to know the total running time of all 6 Star Wars films, or are stuck for a late-night curry option - give it a go. Do Texperts sort you out, or fail miserably? Maybe you have prepared a soliloquy about Texperts’ presence in the mobile space. Maybe you have a recollection about an instance where we saved your bacon. Perhaps you don’t think you’d ever use Texperts, or wonder how other people use Texperts? Perhaps you have an idea for a short film involving Texperts? Stranger things have happened…

Whatever it may be, if you’ve got something to say about Texperts and want to video it, let Ian know! He and his intrepid crew have been interviewing away and poking around the palatial Texperts Towers learning all about what makes us tick, and we can only hope that we look every part the Mobile/Wireless sector glamour-mavens our Marketing Team says we are…

Never ones to miss out on a trend, Texperts Towers has been abuzz with the launch of the new iPhone. Key members of the tech team are eager to lay their hands on one. Why?

Well, for starters, it’s an Apple product, which means:

• Sleek design elements
• Form/function balance to die for
• Tightly integrated software and hardware
• Quality and reliability

There has been extensive coverage of the new product in both mainstream and techie sites, as one would expect. The techies tend to be positive, and the social networkers love it - Trusted Places has already launched a version of its site optimised for use with the iPhone. But it has its detractors too. Techies in particular are quick to point out that if you look beyond its sleek, saucy touch interface, there’s not a hell of a lot of cutting edge technology there. As El Reg says,

Should the iPhone have had 3G? Yes, and it would have lifted the handset even further above the heads of the competition. I would say that it’s worth waiting for the 3G model if you’re someone who expects to be loading up a lot of data when you’re out and about. Me, I’m happy to check websites, email, the weather forecast when I’m at home or the office, both of which have Wi-Fi networks available. Edge is slow, but it’s useable, especially for the apps that just grab a quick bite of data and are done, like Weather or Stocks.

And you know what? So are most people. Which is why Apple continue to have mass market appeal. People genuinely love using and interacting with this device. It may not be bleeding edge, but it uses what it has exceptionally well, all packaged up in a fantastic interface, and people dig it. Simple.

There have been a few gripes about the SMS interface and functionality - a little perplexing given Apple’s resources - but most people will cope. And at 6:02pm today, iPhans across the UK will get their hands on one, including several from our offices in Cambridge. Which, by the way, is looking increasingly likely, as there’s only 2 iPhans camped out in front of the 02 shop in Cambridge…and three O2 crowd control workers (with countless bottles of H2O cached in-store - presumably to slake the thirst of the drooling consumer hordes). No one at all over at the Carphone Warehouse…

The blogosphere has had enough time to mount a backlash against Google’s OpenSocial, and it’s been fierce. How do you rate Kylie’s chances in the Social Network space?

In yesterday’s Guardian, Jack Schofield asserted that Google’s OpenSocial looks more like hype than substance. He argues,

Over the long term, there are good reasons for thinking — and for hoping — that a good open system will beat a good closed system, like Facebook. So far, however, OpenSocial has yet to show that it’s either good or open. The idea that it signals the death of Facebook in the foreseeable future is just stupid.

Kylie Minogue, on the other hand, appears to have launched a disruptive Social Networking proposition poised to deliver explosive growth margins and killer ARPU. The new website, KylieKonnect, is touted as the next generation of Minogue-based technology, which will radically transform the user experience of social networkers who are…erm…Kylie fans. Facebook, be warned!

Well, ok, KylieKonnect offers unreleased tracks and saucy pictures of the Australian pop icon in exchange for user data. But much as the blogosphere and the techies therein will (quite rightly!) take the mickey, they are driving new users to the service and playing right into the hands of Kylie’s marketing team, who clearly grok the kitch & camp appeal of her brand. Let’s look at the plusses:

• The site offers something its users will want
• The users cluster around an overtly commercial interest
• Users will exchange personal information to get it
• Users will thus receive targeted marketing
• The viral effect has already been significant

So there is legitimate commercial potential here. Kylie? Probably laughing all the way to the bank! And while Google is busy preparing for the launch of its G-phone, the blogosphere can only wonder what Minogue-based mobile solutions Kylie has in the pipeline…

So Microsoft have entered the social networking space with their recent purchase of a share in Facebook. Google was expected to win the bidding, which also involved Yahoo!, so Microsoft can now gloat over a (rare) triumph over the internet search giant. The coverage makes much of the fact that the bidding war has inflated the value of Facebook to dizzy heights. Here are the numbers according to the BBC:

“Microsoft has invested $240m (£117m) in social networking site Facebook in exchange for a 1.6% share of the company. That puts a value of $15bn (£7.3bn) on a firm that has only been in existence three and a half years.

Facebook is worth $15bn only because Microsoft says so. [...] Microsoft and Google were in a bidding war for a slice of the firm and both companies have large pockets. This was not just business, this was personal, according to some analysts. “

Part of this valuation is said to include Facebook’s potential in the relatively new field of “social advertising”. As Facebook users we hand over significant, valuable personal data that advertisers are very keen on, and want to use in order to sell us things. As well as covering the launch, the New York Times ran an editorial that makes an incisive comment about the commercial appeal of Facebook:

“On Facebook, we love to pretend that we are more than consumers, that we are as diverse and individual and idealistic as we say we are. And that is the curious thing. The more sincere and honest we are about ourselves, the easier it is for advertisers to pin us down. You may find yourself looking at the cloud of friends that surrounds most Facebook users, but what’s even more interesting is the cloud of advertisers that surround them.”

Newspapers and commentators have been, and will continue to be, keen to play up the Orwellian dimensions of social networking (in general) and Facebook (in particular) whenever the commercial side of the phenomenon surfaces. But are we really so “idealistic” about consumer patterns in Facebook? Do we really seek to step outside of our consumer behaviour on Facebook?

It’s much more a case of “both/and,” rather than “either/or.” As the New York Times says, to advertisers, Facebook is “a universe of self-created focus groups that link more or less virally to other groups.” Social networkers are by and large self-aware consumers, but are increasingly selective and reactive to commercial presences in their online spaces. So tread lightly — because, as the oft-quoted Yeats (who would be rolling in his grave at being quoted in this context) once wrote, “you tread upon my dreams.”

A big part of social networking are the “likes”/”dislikes” lists that populate every media sector that one cares to name. The fact is that our taste in music necessarily equates, at some level, with consumer behaviour, some form of commercial exchange. Ditto films, shows, literature, food, travel…we could get really controversial and add education to the list! But you get the picture. I think that the reality is most people recognise that one’s consumer behaviour is an inevitable part of one’s identity - the extent to which that’s the case is probably the real issue for people. The crucial thing is that in the social networking sphere (and perhaps even moreso in the mobile space) is that it’s a special kind of consumer behaviour, and one that people are very protective of.

I’ve discussed this idea as it relates to the relationship between online communities and mobile search and marketing in the mobile space. Advertisers are beginning to realise that although these spheres are highly desirable, they run the risk of alienating potential customers by targeting the wrong group, or getting their message wrong. Microsoft has stepped into the fray as both a middle-man and a marketer, client, and potential development partner. But Microsoft’s massive investment has put the social networking sphere in the spotlight. The microscope is sure to follow as the industry investigates the actual value attached to the investment…

Here at Texpert Towers, we love our service, our logo, our brand. We are proud, very proud!

So we had some very fetching attire put together for us to strut around in like peacocks.

Check out this sexy number here, for example:

There I sit, surrounded by Sarah’s PR and bicycle, fully weaponised for Texperts action.

I’ll post more Texperts-in-action shots later. For now, if you want one of these sexy little black numbers, drop me a mail or contact me through the Contact Form on the site, above, and I’ll trade you one of these little beaut’s for your iPod Touch (or cash of an equivalent value ;-).

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On another note, people have been comparing Bryan Habana to a cheetah of late. Not surprising, as he is one fast, fast running machine. However, as our Fact O’ The Day recently pointed out, he isn’t even as fast as a Welshman. Nigel Walker, former Olympic sprinter and Welsh Winger, has clocked 10.38 for the 100m. I tried to find his try against France to win the game for Wales on YouTube, to no avail. I did find this, though: more evidence of Habana’s vulnerability for the Fastest Rugby Dude In the World … Ever crown. I must admit that I didn’t tune in to USA v S Africa, one of the few games I missed during the fantastic rugby world cup. Ngwenya is clearly one to watch out for. This effort is up there with the try by Kosuke Endo for Japan v Wales (from the ITV site; click here and then select Wales v Japan highlights). Amazing skills!