London's mobile industry now has a monthly get-together, thanks to Mobile Monday London, aka momo london. I went to the first meeting Monday evening, which I enjoyed.

A show of hands showed the turnout to be roughly half and half techie/biz-marketing, with a fair chunk of designers (maybe 10%). Speakers were encouraged not to make a product pitch, instead there was a theme ("bridging the digital and physical worlds"), and the speakers oriented their talks towards their experiences and learnings that relate to the theme. Naturally they did mostly talk about their own products and used bits of what were obviously their standard presentations, but I think they did a decent job of not just coming in and pitching us.

There was a good bit of general discussion between speakers and audience. A common concern of the group that emerged was the difficulties of getting customers "into" a mobile product, in terms of the way platform incompatibilities, awkwardness of user experience, and legal and other obstacles that make barriers for users to register with and start using a mobile product and service. Since this is something that affects and requires all three of the types of mobile animals that came to this event to work together to solve, Mobile Monday has the potential to be quite interesting.

The organizer was Dan Appelquist, a technical manager of some sort for Vodafone. Russ Beattie also came in from Silicon Valley to attend. I was chuffed to meet him, since we've corresponded by blog years ago, and both still keep up with each others' blog. He prodded me to post more to my site, so here ya go Russ! I also met some other people, but I'm shit at remembering names, which is why I'm not a sales guy.

There were three speakers at the event, so I'll give a capsule review of each.

Dennis Hettema from OP3/Shotcode

Shotcode is one of those schemes where a visual code is put on a print advertisement, which users can point their mobile phone camera at to link directly to the advertiser's site. Hettema was the best speaker at the event, he was obviously more experienced at pitching than the others and so was more polished.

I have to say I'm not convinced that this kind of scheme is really likely to succeed. Hettema positioned this as a way to get around some of the limitations of the mobile platform, in particular the awkwardness for a user having to type a URL into their phone when they see an interesting advertisement. In reality though, this isn't how mobile advertising works, at least in the UK. Ads for mobile services ask people to send a text message with a simple keyword to a shortcode, a 5 digit phone number. When they do this, the advertiser can send a WAP push message, which is essentially a text message with an automatic link to whatever they like. This is a very widely used technique, and works on TV and other media where a visual code like shotcode would be difficult to use. Plus it doesn't need special software to be installed.

It was notable that when Hettema gave his stories of shotcode campaigns, talking about how successful they were, he didn't mention the total number of people that used it, which he would have if they'd had impressive results. Instead he mentioned how many times each user who did try it used the service. The one time he did mention how many people used it was a case where they handed out phones with their software preinstalled at a convention so exhibitors could scan shotcodes on attendees' badges to get their contact details.

Also, the speaker from the BBC gave figures for a campaign they did which used a shotcode-like scheme along with other ways for users to use their service, and the shotcode-like scheme got spanked.

Richard Jelbert from mTrack/KidsOK

KidsOK is a location-based service for parents to track their kids whereabouts. One tidbit I hadn't known is that there are location service aggregators that you can use instead of going to each operator. However, each operator still has to approve of every location based product, and they have different requirements, so it still sounds very painful. Jelbert is involved in a committee which is trying to come up with a standard Code Of Practice (COP) across operators. But it sounds like even with this, the requirements put up huge barriers to converting users.

KidsOK actually sell a product in retail stores, which is a registration kit. This involves getting a form by post, and
then going through a rigamarole with SMS messages to opt in. Jelbert says of the people who buy the kit and start the registration, 42% don't activate their account, and of those who do, 48% don't complete the opt-in.

The possibility of using a J2ME application to make this process smoother was raised, but Jelbert said this would make approval by operators more difficult. Basically, the standard Code of Practice outlines opt-in procedures using SMS, so if you follow that approval is easier, but doing something unusual means a lot of work to get the operators to sign off.

Location based services sound interesting, but very difficult to do in a way that is going to bring in the user. I think it's probably not worth doing unless you have a service that is killer.

Chris Yanda, BBC

Chris was a very non-marketing guy, but obviously into what he does. His story was about a project called "Coast", where they put up a series of signs at several hiking trails on the coast. These signs offered users several different ways to get information about their location via mobile, e.g. directions to other locations, trivia about the location, etc.

The signs were quite busy, crammed with various ways to access the service. The ways to access the information, and what I could gather about their level of useage, were:

• 4,000 Data code (a barcode type scheme like shotcode)
• 3,700 Audio calls (call up for a recorded message)
• 4,800 Web download (the same recorded messages, but d/l from web page, theoretically to load onto your phone and listen to on the hike)
• 137,000 WAP
• ? Text shortcode was the most popular, but no numbers given.

Interesting stuff!

Last night we revisited a restaurant some friends had introduced us to a while back, this time with my Mom and Lucas. If you live in the west part of London and are into Turkish food, I highly recommend this place. Most of the good Turkish places are to the north and east, in the Turkish neighborhoods, so we're always a bit deprived. This place is called Best Mangal, and doesn't look like much from the outside. The front is basically a kebap shop, with rotating doner meat and people getting their takeaway kebaps, but if you look you'll see a few tables crammed in the back. The mangal - a barbecue in the middle of the shop with skewers of meat and veggies roasting over coals is the first sign that this place is the real deal. Go in, sit down, and check out the menu, and you'll see this is something different, and the food and service confirm it. The guys working there are friendly and fun, and the food is great.

Our friends took us there in a car, so we didn't know how to get there - we took a bus to Fulham Broadway, and walked for half an hour through a dodgy neighborhood. When we left the place, we realized you can see West Kensington tube station from the doorway of the restaurant, so next time it will be easier. From the tube station, just cross North End Road and go left a short way.

It sounds like someone has tried to follow up on the attacks of two weeks ago, with least 3 attempted bombings. Apparently they've bungled it, the bombs didn't go off properly (all three?? how could they f*ck it up so badly?). Most of the details are rumor at this point; one bomber's backpack had a minor explosion, enough to blow it open, leaving the would-be suicide bomber with an "extremely dismayed expression" on his face. Another one dropped his bag on the train and ran off - people tried to grab him but he got away. Something has happened on at least one bus, a small pop upstairs that blew out windows. One of the incidents was at Oval station, so this may be intended to coincide with the opening of the Ashes cricket tournament.

All in all, a weak effort compared to last time. Piss on you, terrorists. The mood here is much closer to annoyance than terror - one weblog commentor says "The tube better be up and running at home time - I haven't got my walking shoes on!"

These people don't deserve to be called terrorists, I hereby dub them annoyists.

(Assuming it turns out nobody was killed, of course)

So in the past few days some more bits have emerged. A notable fact is that the bombs are now reckoned to have actually gone off at very close to the same time, 9:50, which suggests timed bombs rather than suicide. It's interesting to note the distances the bombs travelled from King's Cross (I'm still convinced they were all put on there), the Circle line bombs both got a pretty good distance from the station, whereas the Picadilly line bomb went off before reaching the next station. Walking between the platforms for the Circle line in each direction would not take too long, but walking to the Picadilly line takes a while. So when I heard they went off at the same time, I wondered whether a single person could have done it, and then got on the bus. The Wikipedia article now has a similar speculation, with timings. I still wonder how someone could (if they did) put a bag onto a train and then immediately get off without anyone saying something. (Update: And I also wonder how someone carrying 4 bags could drop 3 of them onto different trains. A lone bomber seems pretty unlikely at second thought, but the timing is still interesting. Maybe they moved as a group?)

I also thought more about my own timing that morning. It's boring and self-absorbed to go on about this, considering how many people came much closer, and in many cases too close, but it's obviously interesting to me. Anyway, it's now clear that I was between the explosions, the Edgeware Road bomb passed by me in the opposite direction, it probably passed within 10 feet of me on the opposite track as I sat reading a biography of Ataturk.

So have these attacks changed anything? I don't think so. Most commentary seems to be people proclaiming that this proves whatever view they held before the attacks, i.e. that the war on terror is right/wrong, and Britain must stay the course/withdraw its troops, Islam is an evil religion, anti-globalization protestors are assholes.

But the fact is, this wasn't really a surprise. Londoners have been expecting this for a while, although it's still a shock when it finally happens. As for me, I still think the Iraq war was a stupid and irresponsible decision, but although there are many reasons to oppose it, saying troops should be withdrawn now so terrorists won't attack us again is one of the worst reasons I can think of. I support making things right in Iraq. We (Americans and British) have destroyed thousands of lives in that country, we have an obligation to at least try to fix things up. I don't know how we can do it, and I have no confidence that the Bush administration is remotely capable of doing it, but to throw in the towel now would be the depth of irresponsibility.

Maybe I lied, there is one change in Londoners since last week, judging from blogs, comments, etc., English self-deprecation has been suspended, at least for a while, and it's OK to say: London rocks.

I decided to walk through central London yesterday to get a bus from somewhere south of the chaos, rather than trying to get a bus here at Camden Town. This turned out to be a good idea - a workmate left the office 15 minutes ahead of me and got a bus here, I walked 30-45 minutes to Trafalgar Square and boarded the same bus she was on. This morning I could have used the underground to get in without any problem, but decided to take the Silverlink train from Richmond, which skirts around the center of town and doesn't go underground or through any major stations.

What the hell happened yesterday? I'm curious what we will learn about the terrorists who actually carried out the attacks. Looking at the timeline, all 3 of the trains that had bombs were coming from King's Cross. It seems likely to me, although I haven't yet seen any real discussion of this, that the terrorists must have all boarded trains at King's Cross.

I apparently passed right between the bomb attacks yesterday morning. I took the Circle line through Edgeware road, certainly before the bomb there went off. I don't usually go that way, but ended up on a wrong District Line branch and so switched to the Circle Line to King's Cross. When I got off the train at King's Cross and headed for the Northern Line, they evacuated the station, so the first bomb, on a Circle Line train ahead of the one I had gotten off, had already gone off.

I wonder whether the third bomb, 5 minutes after the first, had already gone off on the Picadilly Line between King's Cross and Russell Square? Certainly there was no indication, other than the evacuation, that it had. There was no smoke, injured people, or anybody at all panicky. But it probably took me at least 5 minutes to get away from the station, including the time I wandered around the street in front trying to figure out the best way to get to work. I'm guessing the bomb went off far enough from the station that the reaction didn't reach street level for a while.

I walked by King's Cross again on the way home, the area I had wandered around in front of the station was cordoned off, and a firetruck and other emergency vehicles were in front. The police were allowing people in at the rear of the station, they had at least a few platforms of overground trains running. There was quite a stream of foot traffic throughout the areas I walked. I also walked by Tavistock Place, it was heavily cordoned off as well. Police were on the streets everywhere, especially at train stations. Went I got on the bus at Trafalgar Square it was packed, people were crammed shoulder to shoulder even at the front door, where you're normally not supposed to stand, and the bus driver was letting people on at the side door which is normally just for exiting. He didn't seem bothered about whether people paid.

Were these guys suicide bombers, or did they use timed bombs? They couldn't have used bombs detonated remotely by mobile phones, like they did in Madrid, because there is no signal on the underground, at least not where the Picadilly Line bomb went off. I read one report in the Guardian which mentioned a timer bomb, but eyewitnesses claim to have seen a suspiciously behaving character on the Tavistock Place bus rumaging through his backpack before that explosion.

I'm not so sure how they could have gotten a timed bomb onto the Picadilly train. The others I can see - they could board the train at King's Cross with a suitcase, putting it by the door and then sitting down. A few stops later they could get off, and have a reasonable chance that nobody who noticed them carry the suitcase on before will notice them get off without it and raise the alarm. An unattended suitcase by the door may cause some nervousness, but it's not unusual since someone going to the airport or to another mainline train station may not want to have to stand up for the whole trip. I'm sure people will be more alert to these in the future, of course.

So this could have worked for the first and third bombs, although the terrorists would be running a couple of risks; one, that someone who happened to notice and remember them bringing the suitcase on also notices them get off without it, which would certainly cause alarm. The second risk is that the train would stop and wait between stations (a common occurance) long enough that the timer would trigger the bomb with them still on the train.

But it's very unlikely they could have done this with the Picadilly line bomb, since it went off before the train even got to the first stop from King's Cross. So assuming this was the planned location for the explosion, and that they did indeed put it on at King's Cross, they would have had to put a bag on the train and immediately get off, and even in the relative complacence of the pre-attack time, it would have been very difficult to get away with this without someone raising the alarm.

If it was a timed bomb, then chances are the bomber was still on the train - maybe the scenario I described above where the train stopped and the bomb went off before the terrorist could get off is what happened there.

The bus bomb is more puzzling, I've seen two different reports of what bus route it was, and I'm not sure whether it would have come from King's Cross. Was it planned, or was it a cockup?

In any case, it's a sure bet people will be highly sensitive to unattended bags for a while, so any future bombers will probably be suicide attacks.

Update: I've read in some places that unexploded devices with timers were found by police. I'm not sure about this though, there were a number of reports of controlled explosions of suspicious objects, but the most reliable reports I've read of that say they've all turned out to be harmless. I've also read that although the Madrid bombers used mobile phones to trigger the bombs, they used the alarm clock function rather than using them as remote triggers, although apparently some IED's in Iraq are triggered remotely using phones. Flit, my favorite military blogger, has some informative points in this area.

The currently under-informed consensus seems to favor timers rather than suicide bombers.

My guess is still that the Picadilly Line bomb went off before it was planned, probably taking the bomber with it (burn in hell, asshole). My theory of King's Cross as the starting point holds up with the bus bomb as well - I've looked up the bus maps, and the number 30 bus stops at King's Cross.

There is wide suspicion that the bus bombing wasn't planned, but that he was on his way to another station to hit. If so, it had to have been an improvised plan, because it was so much later than the other attacks that they had to know the tubes would all be closed. Plus, the 30 bus doesn't go by any tube stations that would make good targets, it goes by Warren Street, Great Portland Street, Regent's Park, and Baker Street, then on to Oxford Street (well down from Oxford Circus, which would have made a good target). Most of those stations are on the Circle Line, and his buddy's bomb had already passed through them on the way to Edgeware Road. The best he could have done was taken out some shoppers or tourists on the street.

So if hitting the bus itself wasn't the original plan, then the fact that the guy was on the bus at all meant something went wrong. Maybe he just jumped on the first bus he could get when things went wrong for him. I would bet he was meant to have planted his bomb on the Victoria or Northern line, both of which pass through King's Cross, and both of which are busy and key, i.e. good targets for disrupting the transportation in central London.

Blowing up the bus, whether intended or not, was more effective than anything else he could have done if he missed his chance to get on a train at King's Cross, since it raised paranoia about the bus system. Until yesterday most Londoners thought taking the bus was the safe way to go if they were worried about a terrorist attack, and it was certainly the best alternative for most people when the tubes were closed, so getting those shut down increased the difficulty of getting around yesterday.

I hate, hate, hate commuting in London. But even so, Underground maps are still cool.

The tube map is a classic icon, although it's well known to have no relationship to the aboveground geography of London. As Bill Bryson said,

An out-of-town visitor using Mr.Beck's map to get from, say, Bank Station to Mansion House would quite understandably board a Central Line train to Liverpool Street, transfer to the Circle Line and continue for another five stops to Mansion House and emerge 200 yards down the street from where he started.

Owen Massey has put together a thorough listing of Tube maps. I like this geographically accurate one, which morphs the existing map to position the stations and trains in the right places, but even coolor is this one which overlays that same geographically accurate map onto a satellite photo.

Also cool is this interactive, 3-D map that morphs between the standard, current tube map, a geographically accurate version, and the original 1933 map.

I was turned on to these by an article in Londonist.

You are the 1926 Stingemore Map! This small and compact map is fairly geographically accurate, but unfortunately there are no places of interest, although the river makes its first appearence. Fishing anyone?

Which London Underground Map Are You?

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