The Foldera conversation turns to mobility at jkontherun
My podcasting partner and mobile computing blogger James Kendrick picked up on my post yesterday about Foldera and raised a couple of interesting questions about working offline and with mobile devices. In typical Foldera fashion, two of the company's executives responded to James' post at great length in comments to his post and agreed that offline access and support for mobile devices like converged phone/PDA units and UMPCs are high on their development wish lists.
I was particularly intrigued by what Oliver Starr, Foldera's Chief Mobility Officer, intimated about their focus and plans. Initially, it appears that Foldera will provide the ability to generate SMS alerts to your cell phone, Treo, Windows Smartphone, or Blackberry when new content is added to your Foldera account. From Starr's description, you will have very granular control over what you are alerted about. He went on to describe some pretty audacious visions of future developments:
The next phase will be direct Foldera access via mobile devices; this of course means that you'll be able to log in, browse, enter data and extract data from your Foldera account all with your mobile device.
Ultimately, because we (as people passionate about mobility) probably agree that even the best phones still leave something to be desired in the I/O department, I intend to work towards the development of a mobile device specifically optimized to work with Foldera.
In many ways, it was the carrot of working on the development of this device that was my motivation for leaving the highly sought after Executive in Residence position I'd secured six months prior and trading the fame and glory of the VC lifestyle for the 20 hour days of start-up trench warfare that entrepreneurs like Richard (Foldera's CEO) and I seem to love so much. I consider the opportunity to be working on the physical development of a new kind of communication and information management tool to be a once in a lifetime opportunity so you can imagine how passionate I must be about this project, particularly knowing how fanatical people like you and I already tend to be where shiny toys are concerned.
Visit jkontherun and read the entire exchange. It's a classic example of a company that listens to what's being said about them and that is eager to engage with bloggers and prospective users to find out how to best deliver a compelling solution. Great stuff.