Like a lot of people, I have a camera phone. And like a lot of people, I don’t use it. When I first got it, I went through the motions of playing with the camera. I took a bunch of pictures and emailed the better/funnier ones to friends. Cool. Now what? I got bored with it quickly, and I am now pretty focused on using my phone for phone calls (and text messaging) and my digital camera for taking pictures.

Having said that, I’m intrigued by the concept of moblogs. A moblog (mobile weblog) is a type of blog that focuses on content posted from mobile devices like phones and PDAs. Services like Text America and Moblog UK allow you to quickly and easily publish photos from your camera phone to the web via email or MMS. You can also post mobile video clips, assuming your camera phone has that capability. Lots of moblog communities have popped up, with anyone with a camera phone able to contribute. Moblogs are a great way for people to share/report on events in real time as well as an interesting way for marketers/PR folks to hype products and events.

Following are a couple of examples of moblogs I’ve stumbled on:

• After Hurricane Katrina, Text America set up a moblog that helped survivors gather information about missing friends and relatives.
• After the London bombings in 2005, lots of UK citizens posted camera phone pictures of the aftermath to moblogs run through Moblog UK. One of the photos that was posted made Time Magazine’s list of best photos in 2005.
• On February 14, the band The Veronicas ran a promotion in New York City where they gave new Nokia camera phones to the band and two fans, allowing them to chronicle the events of the day on a moblog in real time.
• The band, Maximo Park, created a moblog where they posted behind the scenes photos and encouraged fans to send in their own photos from concerts and other band events.

If you’ve got a little imagination, there are a million ways you could use moblogs.

One of the award-winning camera phone photos from the London bombings.