8 Questions to… Mark Curtis

Mark Curtis (@FlirtoMark) is CEO at Flirtomatic. Flirtomatic is Europe’s leading flirting social network for people connected to the Internet either via mobile phone or PC.

Curtis set up Fjord in 2001, a cross platform innovation company which simplifies the design of complex digital services. Flirtomatic started as a project within Fjord, is now a separate company.

In 2005 Curtis also had a book published by Futuretext – Distraction Culture: Being Human in the Digital Age.

1. What is your preferred gadget at the moment?

Given recent temperatures, my Howies 100% recycled material quilted jacket. But I suspect you meant technology..so it’s the brilliant combination of iPad plus Spotify plus Sonos to deliver all the music I can eat all over the house.

2. Your currently most loved app, mobile site, mobile service?

I’m finding Twitter on my Android phone increasingly relevant and useful. Though I still tend to tweet largely from the desktop. I think that will change. I loved Angry Birds non stop for 4 weeks just like everyone else.

3. What are you reading and how (paper, ereader, smartphone, tablet…)?

I’m still a big believer in paper. So I’m reading a paperback copy of The Red Queen (Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature) by Matt Ridley. At home I’m trying to read a History of Philosophy and am getting stuck on Plato which is not a good start Hyperlinks might help. Winnie The Pooh on the iPad is a big hit with my children. No linking could improve this.

4. What’s from your perspective the biggest trend in mobile- The Next Big Thing?

It’s linkage to a) the physical environment around us and b) other media in a fluid delivery of content.

5. Which hype annoys you? What is overrated today?

I truly hate CEOs being called Rockstars. Even worse one mobile company where the CEO says it about himself. Wa*ker.

I’m not convinced yet by FourSquare though they are clearly on to something and I’d not bet against it.

Location based offers.

6. Who (individual, organisation, company…) will change the mobile world?

I think it needs a creative enfant terrible like say Diaghilev, Picasso or Malcolm McLaren (the Svengali behind the Sex Pistols) to subvert the (rapidly establishing) order of Apple and Google and Facebook. I’ve not seen one yet. Design conformity to patterns established in Nothern California is becoming boring.

7. Mobile experts one should read, one should follow?

Christian Lindholm (@CLindholm) at Fjord. Tom Hume (@twhume) at Future Platforms. Tim Chang (@timechange) of Norwest Ventures.

8. Who would you recommend to answer these questions next?

Any of the above.