MobiTop - MyTop experiences its Martini Moment

Tonight is the Prince’s Trust Technology Leadership Group’s Winter Reception at the magnificent Wallace Collection. Bob Gogel and Peter Rowell from sponsors Liberata and Regent Associates are also presenting. Bob on how Liberata works with the Prince’s Trust and Peter on his “Ten things you will do tomorrow that you are not doing today”. I look forward to them both. Indeed I look forward to meeting many HotViews readers there. It is certainly an excellent representation of the UK tech scene today with a sprinkling of knights and Ladies too!

My (brief) talk basically brings together two of the themes I introduced back in my first Prince’s Trust speeches in 2002/2003.

The first was Holway’s Martini Moment – the ability to access the internet “Any time, Any where and from Any device”. The term has been much copied since – but I was the first to use it! I used the ability to listen to The Archers as my “Martini Moment Test” and rather enjoyed the groans this always get from audiences! But remember, in 2002 when I first introduced it, there wasn’t even a Listen Again feature on the BBC website.

The second was the progression from Desktop to Webtop as in my “I used to drive a Microsoft, now I fly a Google” speech.

In my last speech, I progressed still further from Desktop to Webtop to MyTop. I used Facebook as an example of the kind of portal which some people might prefer to use as their access to the web. MyTop would gather your contacts, your applications, your work documents, your music, your entertainment into one portal which was personal to you. You can read my MyTop thoughts here.

MobiTop brings these two themes together. Now freed from your fixed place of access, MobiTop is your personalised portal on your home PC, your work PC, on your laptop, on your iPhone, at an internet café etc. No more synchronising of data, contacts and preferences. No more applications on just one PC.

Unfortunately this is still a “Tomorrow”-type dream. You need really fast, reliable and secure internet access from (practically) every place on earth to make this work effectively. But given the progress we have already made in achieving Holway’s Martini Moment, I would expect that to be achieved within the next five years.

See you tonight!