dotMobi

Super Happenings

Toronto was the stage for out latest Happening; since it's a regional center of activity for mobile, we had received many requests to have one there.

So on an unusually warm and gorgeous weekday evening a couple of weeks ago, my colleague Chris Campbell and I were delighted to meet and network with mobile developers, marketers, bloggers, registrars and dotMobi Premium Name domainers and developers from the Toronto metro area. Everyone in attendance was able to introduce themselves and tell the entire group a little bit about what they do in the mobile space. We heard from domainers about what is going on with their sites like ringtones.mobi, price.mobi, scottsdalespas.mobi, roses.mobi; and a quite a few others, too.

We heard what Canadian companies like ooober, jambomobile, Carlson Marketing Canada and Mustard Seed eCommerce are doing with mobile right now. Beginners were networking with more advanced types. Developers were chatting with domainers. Marketers were talking with developers. And of course we spoke about our latest activities, such as what we've done with our DeviceAtlas.

As we heard at previous Happenings, several in attendance said that they are interested in attending more of what I'll call a "Super Happening" for now.

dotMobi Happenings: More happening.

Our first two Happenings -- held in Los Angeles and La Jolla, CA a couple of weeks ago -- were a hit. We enjoyed meeting domainers and others with keen interest in dotMobi and sharing information and ideas. I noticed great chemistry between various domainers and those with interest in development partnerships who were meeting each other for the first time. The energy and ideas that came from these Happenings was powerful, and we learned a few things from meeting dotMobi enthusiasts face to face in an informal setting.

One thing we learned from some is a desire to learn more about mobile development tools and resources, monetization strategies and ways to partner with others with experience in mobile who have the human and/or financial capital and desire to work with someone with a great name portfolio. To that end, we intend to structure future Happenings to address this feedback, and we will continue to refine our Happenings as we gather additional great ideas from the community. And speaking of more of them, our next two Happenings are in:

• Toronto, ON - Wed., April 9th at 7 PM
• Boca Raton, FL - Mon., April 28th at 7 PM

Seating is limited and attendance is limited to those with invitations that will specify the location and other particulars.

Request an invitation. (Please indicate your full name and desired Happening city.)

Stay tuned for details on Happenings planned for New York, Atlanta and various other spots around the world in the coming months.

dotMobi Happenings are free, casual, very conversational and always at a cool place. It’s your opportunity to meet dotMobi executives and speak freely about what’s on your mind and what’s on ours. And of course it’s a great way to network and meet others who are interested in dotMobi. We hope to see you at one of them!

Say hello to world.mobi

You may remember -- exactly one month ago -- that Caroline Greer mentioned on this blog we'd have exciting news about our portfolio of reserved "cityname.mobi" domains. Well, it's here: say hello to world.mobi, a business partnership between UK-based web-design firm Fortune Cookie and dotMobi.

This partnership lets us bring together the travel-industry expertise of Fortune Cookie and the mobility expertise of dotMobi to create more than 600 sites, utilizing dotMobi's "cityname.mobi" domains for tourists around the world. Fortune Cookie is a heavy hitter in the travel industry with huge marketing reach and impressive resources -- and we are very excited to partner with them in this venture.

world.mobi is an extension of the City Names Application Process. Government entities are still entitled to apply for their city names but, in the absence of any application, world.mobi will provide the relevant city site. This is a major content roll-out, and one that should seal the deal in showing the value of a cityname.mobi site.

The partnership was discussed during part of a World Travel Awards event happening currently in Berlin, but the formal announcement and outreach is planned for a bit later in the spring because the partnership is still finalizing some of the work around world.mobi. In the meantime, Internet Travel News just published an article that will give you a bit more information about the JV and its plans.

If you have an existing or planned cityname.mobi site and would like to discuss becoming part of the world.mobi network of cityname.mobi sites in some way, you can contact world.mobi's general manager, David Ryder, via email.

Dublin scores with .mobi ...

The planned launch of Dublin.mobi took place last week in time for the first Six Nations Rugby match hosted by the city. This has been the result of several months work with Dublin Tourism who will now be actively promoting the site both locally and abroad. The Rubgy weekends are a high point in Dublin's sporting (and social!) calendar and thousands of tourists pouring into the city will now be able to find their way around Dublin using some of the cool features on the site. Hopefully this was of some consolation to the unlucky Italians!

Check out the recently launched Frankfurt.mobi as well, and look out for some more city.mobi site launches in the coming weeks (including one next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona). And we have some exciting news regarding the City Names Process up our sleeves. Stay tuned!