The mobile world bands together on advertising
In a bit of a shocker, the U.K.'s five biggest mobile operators have formed a working group to collaborate on a common mobile advertising system. This endeavor could, of course, go absolutely nowhere, but the fact that it's even being considered is an exceptional move for an industry not known for collaboration.
Of course, the operators aren't holding hands for the sake of friendship. It's all about the money. From the Guardian:
Now the international operations of Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 have formed a working group to define a common mobile advertising audience measurement system, similar to what already exists for other mediums such as TV and press.
"This initiative represents a great opportunity to reach out to the media buying world in order to secure more mobile budget from big brand spenders," said Neil Andrews, head of portal at 3.
Funny, that. Sometimes cooperation is necessary to individually make more money. That's the story of open source. Nice to see the mobile world using its collective brain in a similar fashion.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
