Swapping and swishing...

Swapping stuff is ages old. We swap things all the time. There used to be a great kids breakfast show on Saturdays in the UK called Swapshop (The host was Noel Edmonds, who now writes books about self-improvement: definitely not on my swap list, but My Blobby videos are a must have for kids (Blobby himself last seen in myspaces). The nostlagic could always use the theme tune as a ringtone.)

Swapping mobile content needs to be made easier. The obvious one is contacts, but I suspect that many youths will want to swap photos - "here's my gig last night!" or "me with Mr Cool" - and let's hope not trophies from happy slapping. We need NFC! No. Not Nirvana Fan Club, but Near-field Communication: chips in our mobiles that can speak to each other when placed within mutual proximity (about 4 cm). A quick swish and we could swap stuff in a jiffy. No doubt, swishing will become mishing or mashing or moshing, or some other slang word - let's hope I coin them all and claim the credit. (I still say I invented the term mobilist, not that it's important - it didn't make me any money!)

Mishing (I hope that's not a rude word) would be a great way to do the social network tagging I mentioned in a recent post. A quick mish and I have your Linkedin or myspaces links safely tucked away in my mobile, automatically sychronised of course to a list of faves in Firefox (or Flock probably).

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Tags: social networking, mobilist, nfc, nearfield, mobile, swapping, flock