Mobile Devices, Libraries and Policy Panel, Shifted Librarian, Jun 12, 2009

Random statistics and quotes that I found interesting/telling are below. This is from a panel at ALA's annual conference in Chicago, July 2009:

• "over 60% of the people on earth have a mobile phone subscription service" --according to what source?!
• twice as many people use text messages than use email --again, source?
• texting is the "single most popular way in which the world accesses data" --source?
• "the early vision for a device is rarely the way it actually transforms the world. Henry Ford: “if I’d asked them what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse. ”someone has to flip the switch and change things, and we’re very close to that for mobile devices. Clay Shirky - “the tools don’t get socially interesting until the tools get technically boring” we’re right at that cusp"
• For libraries, it isn't about collecting content that is out there, "but bringing your community to the world and making it accessible...you’re (the library) the only one that cares about that content being out there"