A Mobile Social Network could be India's 911
By Rajagopalan   |   Friday, 09 January 2009, 17:53 IST   |    13 Comments
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Bangalore: A virtually uncontested judgment was delivered at a panel discussion on "Mobile Social Networking: Opportunities and Challenges" at COMSNETS '09, that seemed to resonate with the audience as well. The verdict was Mobile Social Networking, although unviable at present, is a trend that can materialize in the near future. Panelists for the discussion included Pravin Bhagwat, Airtight Networks, India, Sanjoy Paul, Infosys, India, Prof. Mohan Kumar, University of Texas, Arlington and Viswanath Poosala, Alcatel-Lucent Labs, India, with Rajesh Koodli, Starent Networks, being the moderator. "Traffic stickiness and density notwithstanding, service providers are finding it difficult to resist Social Networking," said Koodli who initiated the interaction. "Mobile Social Networking isn't merely about accessing networking websites using one's cellphone or PDA. Current Social Networking coupled with the features enabled by the mobile form Mobile Social Networking" clarified Paul. Stressing that one needs to own a PC or go to a cyber café to send messages via networking communities, Paul assessed that this phenomenon would go a long way in improving communication. "Privacy of users is an issue that needs to be taken care of, as the location of a cellphone user is easier to determine," added Paul. "A Mobile Social Network could very well be India's 911," averred Bhagwat. Elaborating on how such a network could be used as a public protection system, Bhagwat stated the recent attacks on Mumbai as a case in point where the authorities had a difficult time tracing out its perpetrators. Bhagwat said that it wasn't that the authorities did not have ample information, but just did not know where to search for it. "The key challenges in the mass implementation of a Mobile Social Network lie in scaling the present networks to required levels, tackling flash floods of information access, filtering of false alarms and prevent misuse of the system," elucidated Bhagwat. "Money generation out of networking websites is a problem. It needs to be viewed seriously if we are implementing it onto our cellphones," explained Poosala.Taking note of the display panels in cellphones, Poosala cautioned developers not to overload too many applications onto their services. "Transmission and reception of such messages are a drain on cellphone batteries," he added urging companies to find a solution in this regard. Prof. Kumar elaborated on the finer aspects of social behavior in humans, which serves as the base for such communication concepts. Since the cell-phone is attached to its owner, giving it a distinct identity, he mentioned that gregarious tendencies of humans in social activities or get-togethers, exhibit closely influenced patterns in the way they talk or send messages. Prof. Kumar concurred that location, voice and group messaging and multimedia were factors that need to be integrated along with Mobile Social Networking for it to become a success.

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