You may have recently started to hear a lot about SOPA and PIPA, and if you’re struggling with whether you should care or not – you should.

Companies like Google and Wikipedia have taken a strong stance around stopping SOPA with petition movements and site blackouts

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is a bill that was introduced in US House of Representatives in late October last year. The bill seeks to protect copywritten material internationally.  It seeks to do so by going after parties that support sites that distribute copywritten material illegally. In concept this sounds like a great goal: protect US intellectual property (IP)  through third-party enforcement. Said another way, it’s difficult to control sites in other countries many times, but Google and many other significant companies in the US can be controlled.

When thought through there are some problems. The internet boomed because of the freedom it created. This freedom includes everything from horrible YouTube music videos to editorials that are shared the world over instantly. This has changed the nature of news and entertainment fundamentally. Isn’t the issue really that these industries have not kept up?

New digital business models need to be created that work. I’ve worked with several companies that are pioneers in taking on the challenge. Rather than looking at digital content as too portable, they are creating distribution channels that make legal consumption so easy and readily available that a consumer doesn’t look for the PirateBays of the world. iTunes and YouTube have done this well with very different models. There will always be the grainy illegal copies of a movie with peoples heads in them that someone gets to DVD or digital download somewhere. With globalization the only way to really control illegal content distribution is through laws common with other nations and enforcement. Embracing mobile channels puts content directly into a consumers hand in a very personal way.The companies that win in that space will drive the future of the news and entertainment industries.

Depending on the outcome, SOPA could have a major impact on many of us, so it’s certainly something to watch.

2012 is the year of the Dragon on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. According to astrologists: ”the Year of the Dragon will be marked by excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration and intensity. People will respond to the spirit of the Dragon with energy, vitality and unbridled enthusiasm, often throwing all caution to the wind.”

The Chinese New Year doesn’t start until January 23rd (technically February 4th), but already in 2012 in the mobility space we are seeing quite a bit of energy and unbridled enthusiasm. Less than two weeks into 2012 we have already seen three acquisitions: one by WalmartLabs buying up Small Society, another was Deloitte scooping up Ubermind, and the third was Financial Times acquiring Assanka. These are small acquisitions by multinational companies, so it’s not exactly “throwing all caution to the wind,” but the common thread is that companies are clearly showing enthusiasm for mobility and looking for talent.

Let’s face it, mobile technology has come a long way in just a few years, but the technology itself — in terms of the mobile OSes and browsers — will probably not change all that much over the next 3-5 years (have you seen all the “new” gadgets announced at CES 2012?). Sure there will be more devices and cooler features, but the basics of mobility are set in a pretty firm place. An iPhone 10 will probably have a traceable lineage to iPhone 4S, rather than the difference between the original Moto Razr and the new Moto Droid Razr. That’s why in 2012, businesses, agencies, SI’s and ISV’s will make a big push to get the talent they need to build out their mobile strategy to both compete and differentiate.

Up until recently, mobile development required specialists with knowledge of native languages. But with web technologies (HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript) playing a more prominent role on more mobile devices, mobility is now open to a wider playing field of web developers. Plus, with companies having dabbled in their first generation of mobile apps or web, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal and accelerate their mobile presence beyond apps.

Let’s unleash the mobility Dragon!

Innovation is sometimes an 0ver-used word.

Mention innovation and most people will immediately think of high-tech companies. In today’s mobile environment I’m sure many immediately think of Apple; it’s so common its almost cliche’. I would argue that all successful companies in all industries innovate in some fashion in order to survive.

Most businesses have been innovative at some point in their existence… Most industries do not allow companies to survive in perpetuity by following status quo. I’m sure someone will point out examples which refute this point, but I would say those are few and far between.

Think of your own organization. Are you interacting with your customers and prospects in the same manner as you did 2 or 3 years ago? I would guess not, and if you are I would assume you have customers,prospective customers and employees asking why.

The funny thing about expectations is that they rarely go down. Your customers are always expecting more. They want to work with companies that are innovating, always striving to better themselves.

For example, consider Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately-held commercial real estate services firm; operating 235 offices in 60 countries with more than 14,000 employees Cushman thrives in highly competitive real estate markets such as New York City, London & Tokyo. Their customers have high expectations and little patience for dealing with poorly equipped brokers.

As a leader in their space, Cushman is always striving to better its approach, improve service and differentiate its customer experience. The company’s cross-functional team quickly identified mobility as a key component to their strategies.

Cushman engaged Antenna Software and AT&T to brainstorm a comprehensive mobility strategy for changing the way its brokers interact with customers at the most crucial points of the selling cycle, including on-site tours of commercial properties. 

The result is CWMobile, a mobile application which provides the brokers direct access to in house proprietary systems. The app enables brokers to share various data, images and video with the prospective tenant while they tour various properties. This could be on any Cushman issued or personal device that the broker may choose – iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.

The end result is a greatly improved customer experience, brokers who are more knowledgable about the properties they present and what should culminate in faster closing of sales.

Think about what Cushman has done and then ask yourself: What can my company be doing to rethink customer interactions?

To learn more about the CWMobile Project, check it out on YouTube: