Our favorite picture comes from last week's runner up, the prolific Nikhil Chawla:

And this week's runner up comes from the "Shewhowearsred":

Next week's theme is green/alternative transport. May 12 to May 16th is Bike Week in the S60 Ambassador home office of Boston, MA. We'd like to see our S60 Ambassadors using alternative forms of transportation: Bicycle, rollerblades, rickshaw, skateboard, scooter, unicycle, whatever you use to get to work/fun. And remember (this means you, Stefan), old Soviet gas guzzlers don't count as "alternative" transport. Unless of course you are using them to carpool. The tag is transport7.

This week's Report of the Week comes to us from Jamaalism:

Convinced the wife...

During the majority of 2006 and 2007, Nokia never really had a device
that piqued my wife's interest. Both of us jumped to Sony Ericsson in
fact as we just weren't impressed with the
N73 or the N95 which, at that time, was quite buggy and prone to
crashing.

After the N95-3 came out for the North American markets, everything
changed.

I have championed that device online on Facebook and other user
communities and my wife has always been there at my side, jealous of
the functionality. Problem was, we couldn't afford to drop another $600
on another N95 and the phone is a little big for her taste.

Thankfully, the E51 came out at a price point that honestly amazed me.
As soon as I had an opportunity, I snagged one for her and she has not
looked back since. She's now an avid S60 user and preaches it's
benefits to her friends as well. WiFi, 3G, thin, metal, multitasking,
2mp camera, dedicated shortcut keys are all features she has come to
love and enjoy.

In fact, even though I've used an iphone and let her try it, we've
still went right back to the Nokias in no time. Keep it up guys and I
look forward to getting her an N78 when it's made available for the
North American markets (NA 3G).

She's getting impatient...

Thanks for creating one more fan Jamaalism...and we're also anxiously awaiting more S60-based devices for the NA market. Your 2 month loaner N82 is on the way -- Enjoy! Until next Tuesday, happy WoMing.

1) mcpezza
2) LENNYBONS
3) NCtechfreak
4) technologicali
5) shewhowearsred
6) zadosha
7) gersbo
8) Mitko
9) Tangram
10) vaibhavsharma

You probably noticed a couple things have changed in the list...that's because you see usernames (instead of given names) from our new S60 Ambassador website. The site is currently being tested by existing S60 Ambassadors. Also, we're using the new counting system on the site...if existing S60 Ambassadors want to make sure they show up in the weekly lists, pls log onto the S60 website, register as an S60 Ambassador, and cut and paste your reports into the site! (We'll eventually find a way to give all S60 Ambassadors credit for the reports they've submitted directly to Ricky and Stefan.)
Thanks for bearing with us as we migrate onto our bigger, better, faster, stronger website specifically designed for S60 Ambassadors and S60- based device and service campaigns.

See you on Friday and until then, as always, happy WoMing!

For next week, we want to see what kind of pets our Ambassadors have, or what kind of Animals live in your part of the world. Please tag your pix "animal6".

We also had a very active week for report submissions. Our favorite (a long one!) was from Daniel Ayala. Check it out:

Hi Ricky, Happy Friday.

Not that I have not been sharing with people about OVI Share, S60 and
Nokia, I just have not had a lot of time to type them up and send them
in.... Here is a particularly poignant one that resulted in some
really good uptake for the phones, the OS and the service!

Everyone in my extended family knows I am a phone fanatic and that I
often have phones and capabilities that are not available in the US
(either due to imports, carriers, etc). So last Saturday, in a
gathering leading up to Passover, out came the usual question about
which phone I was using this week, I pulled out my trusty N95-1. I
started showing it around and demonstrating the features of it
including its Mac compatibility, Flash in the browser, lots of open
apps that can be installed by the user and not require vendor
intervention (this topic came up when my uncle asked how it compared
to his iPhone). Finally we came upon the camera. I told them that
unless I was out with my Canon DSLR, I used my N95 for a day-to-day
camera. They did not believe that the quality was that good, so I
took a few shots and used the Share function to put them on Ovi
Share. We moved over to the family computer in the house we were
visiting and I showed them the 5MP quality and everyone was stunned.
The inevitable follow on question came very quickly... "How did you
get that up on the web so quickly?" A twinkle in my eye must have
clued my cousin off that there was something neat to show so she
commented, "I bet this is going to be cool." So, I took another photo
of my cousin's son, showed it on the screen of N95, clicked Send and
clicked Web Share. When the choice to select a service came up I
offered that you could use this integrated sharing software to post to
either Flickr or Ovi Share. I demonstrated Ovi Share and with a click
and a connect to the home WiFi, the picture was on the Ovi Share
website! I actually heard one person (and I can not determine who it
was) gasp when the site had the photo on it. At this point, I had
all 15 people (not including the 4 children under 6) around my
demonstration, and I wished I had my TV cables with me to make it
really visible to all gathered.

As I mentioned in my last report, I have a 4.5 month old son who has
a website with photos and videos on it. The videos are hosted on Ovi
Share. I told the group that I had one more neat feature using the
camera and Ovi Share and then I would get off my soapbox and we could
have dinner. I asked if anyone had been to Andrew's website recently,
and of course the answer was a resounding "yes." (What family would
not either visit, or pretend they visited your kids website, right?)
So I told them that the videos on the website were not from a
traditional video camera, but rather from my N95. Again, a level of
disbelief based on the quality of the videos they had seen. My
cousin, who is 4 months pregnant, seemed skeptical and interested, so
I gave another demonstration. I shot a 30 second video of my cousin
talking about her pregnancy and what she wanted to eat first after she
gave birth (in case you are interested, it was "a tuna melt and a
beer.") With the video shot, I again showed how quickly I could get
it posted to the web via the Share application on N95. 3 minutes
later, the video was available in my Ovi Share profile. I played it
and commented that any web browser should be able to play it without
plugins or external applications. The best comment was my cousin
again on the quality of the transfer and the speed of availability on
the website. The technical folks in the crowd also really loved the
ease and options of linking to or embedding the video into a blog,
website through the omnipresent URLs in the corner.

I also did a brief demonstration of the photo syncing capabilities in
the Share Online application between Ovi Share and the N95. This was
very well received as well, but my cousin indicated a desire to be
able to launch the videos from within that application, as opposed to
just seeing a static still image that represented a video. Either
that the still, when clicked, would launch a browser that lead
directly to the video on Ovi Share website, or that the transcoded
video could be stored on the phone like the sync'ed images are.

The last part of the conversation ended in 3 very happy people. My
two cousins, the one that is pregnant and the other who has a 1.5 year
old, are both GSM customers and were both interested in this union of
phone and camera. They both asked when I was next heading to Europe
and what the cost was, including the pain of the US Dollar exchange
rate. They were both overjoyed to hear that N95 was available at the
Nokia Flagship Store in the city (Chicago) and that it was at a
reasonable price, despite the exchange rate. I explained the
difference between the N95 and N95 8Gb.

To close out the story, I got a call from my pregnant cousin on
Tuesday to ask me if *I* Needed anything whilst she was at the Nokia
store in the City as she was going to buy an N95 to use as her phone
in-purse camera for the baby and use the Ovi Share service to post
them, since "it was so easy even her husband could do it." Yesterday
(Thursday), I got an email from my other cousin - the one that has the
1.5 yr old - and she had ordered an N95 8Gb online and was so happy to
have a way to post videos that "did not involve YouTube."

Regards,
Dan Ayala

Thanks Dan, keep 'em coming! Tune in next Tuesday for the "Top 10" Ambassador list. Until then, happy WoM'ing!

And now, back to the program. Your Top 10 Ambassadors thus far: This week Antoine R.J. Wright lept into the number two spot, and is in a neck and neck race with Mr. Perry for top honors. New to the countdown at number 10 is Hernan Marsili.

1. Mike Perry
2. Antoine R.J. Wright
3. Craig Loxton
4. Bradley Larcher
5. Matt White
6. Robert Seijas
7. Lenny Bons
8. Jeb Brilliant
9. Jaako Leino
10. Hernan Marsili

Tune in Friday for the "Report of the Week" -- the nominee will get an N82 to play with for 2 months.

Meanwhile the "Food5" theme is generating plenty of not-so-appetizing entries, check out the train wreck here.

Lots of basketball shoes (thanks Jobber99 and Go Celts ;-P ) but my favorite shot was of a well worn bike shoe:

Thanks to mcpezza for this one. With national bike week coming up in the US and the UK this is apropos for our US and UK-based S60 Ambassadors. Next week's theme? Food! We want to see what you are eating. We've got Ambassadors from Brazil, South Africa, SE Asia...we want to see what people eat in *your* part of the world. Tag your pics "Food5" and we'll showcase the best pix in next week's blog.

As far as an Ambassador Program update: The reports continue to flow in and we have a group of regulars with whom Ricky and Stefan have been conversing on a daily basis. There are some S60 Ambassadors who have signed up but have yet to send in your first report. Remember, all you have to do is send an e-mail telling us about the conversations you're having. If you’re in the USA its ricky.cadden[at]nokia.com and if you’re anywhere else in the world then it’s ambassadors-at-s60.com, don’t be shy, send us mail!

This week's "Report of the Week" comes from California where Alex Huf and his N95 stand out as a true testament to converged device. Check it out:

The reason it's so easy for me to evangelize my N95 is because every time someone brings up a gripe with their phone i show them how it was solved in some way. Granted i've mastered the S60 interface and it makes navigation seem very easy, there is nothing any other phone can functionally do that i haven't been able to do, and so much more.

Just last weekend we had a heat spell in Los Angeles. My friend had the genius idea of coming over and swimming / tanning. The weather was beautiful, the lighting was gorgeous, and whole scene was fantastic. Unfortunately i would never in my right mind bring my DSLR out next to the pool to hang out.

Low and behold the whole day amazing photographic opportunities kept popping up. Initially i felt bummed that i didn't have a great camera to capture the moment, and then i remembered my N95 tucked up my tshirt. My friend was able to take shots with it in 10 seconds, exclaiming "wait, is this a camera or a phone?!".

At the end of the day, i downloaded all the pics into lifeblog, the sharpness and color saturation were simply stunning. Her friends have commented on some of the photos as being "works of art".

Lesson: pair a powerful camera with the powerful S60 OS and you get all the manual control and reliability you need to execute amazing shots. As a photographer, nothing is more precious than to know you always have that opportunity to capture a moment, because that precious tool is ALWAYS with you, in the guise of your phone.

Great report Alex! As a thank you we'll be sending out your loaner N82. And good news to you and past + future RoTW selections, you can keep your device for *2 months* instead of the 2 weeks we originally specified. This, because we finally got our shipment of devices in and we want to spread the love, as it were.

See you all next week, until then, happy WoMing!

This sunset taken in Saint Lucia with a Nokia N73 is absolutely gorgeous, thanks coopere:

And I’m curious to know where dsh works since this stairway from Denmark captured on a Nokia N82 looks very modern, abstract and frankly a little dangerous:

Check out what everyone else uploaded here:

This week the S60 consumer engagement team wants to see your favorite shoes. Saara from the See into S60 blog is a huge sneaker freak and Stefan, the guy to whom European S60 Ambassadors have been sending reports, hasn’t worn anything other than Pumas for close to a decade. Please upload your pictures to Share on Ovi and tag them: sneaker4. We’re looking forward to checking out what kind of footwear you’re into.

The reports are flowing in and there seems to be an obvious trend, people are blown away that you can upload pictures straight to the internet from your mobile phone. It might seem weird to you since you’ve probably been doing that for a year or more, but there are many among us who have no idea that there are mobile phones out there that can upload directly to the internet. Let your friends, family, and co-workers know that this is possible by giving them a demo, and let us know what they think!

And now, here it is, your Report of the Week:

spoke to a stranger about s60 and n95 today in the chip shop as i waited for my food lol. i received a sms and the guy who was also waiting for his food noticed my n95 and came over and started talking about Nokia phones, i took it as perfect opportunity to talk to him about s60 and share on ovi, so i did ;) he has a really old monochrome Nokia device still lol, i think it looked like a 3210 or something simeler, and he was thinking about upgrading to a newer phone, so i told him the Nokia n95 is most defiantly one of the top devices on the market today, and that can be got on a contract for free.. i also told him that i was part of a Nokia s60 ambassador program and explained what it meant, and i also explained to him the Nokia share on ovi benefits too, but he didn't seem too interested in it to be honest :( he wanted to know more about video calls, as he has a son that lives up north some where, and he talks to him on the phone, and he must have a device with video call support already, as he keeps on to his dad about getting one, so i recommended the n95 as perfect device for the job.. then the food was cooked and he left lol.. was a nice chap though, i have seen around my local shops before a few times, and im sure i will see him again in the near future.. maybe he will be holding a n95 next time :D marty

Excellent report Marty! And btw Stefan wanted me to be sure to mention that you are a "prominent member of the Symbian-Freak community". Good on you, again. As a thank you we'll be sending a spanking-new N82 for two weeks. Try it out, lend it to a friend, whatever. Til next time: Happy WoM'ing!

1) Mike Perry
2) Robert Seijas
3) Craig Loxton
4) Jaakko Leino
5) Matt White
6) Hernan Marsili
7) Lenny Bons
8) Martyn Britton
9) Avinash Rathod
10) Conor O'Neill

Great to see a mix of new and old names in the list! The prize for the Top S60 Ambassadors at the end of the campaign (June 30) will be BT headsets and speakers. Keep those reports coming! And tune in tomorrow for our "Report of the Week".

Hello Stefan,
Not 100% sure about the format of these report, but I will learn by doing.
Just a little bit of background:
I have been uploading photos to flickr.com since early 2005 and one of my main reasons for buying a Nokia N80 IE in 2006 was the promise of "Share Online". I have been waiting for an adequate online video sharing service for some time - one supported by "Share Online". I have been using VOX, but do not like it for various reasons.
Since signing up with flickr.com I have been pushing online media sharing to my immediate family (I have 3 siblings, one of which lives in the US). So far, I have been unsuccessful in this respect - my mother and two siblings have signed up with flickr.com, but not one of them have ever posted there.
The following conversation is part of my "on-going technology push" ;)
This conversation took place at my parent's house in Odense, Denmark, during a family Easter luncheon on March 23rd. I had signed up with Share on Ovi a couple of weeks earlier and had decided I would show it to my family as soon as the opportunity presented itself. I had two reasons for wanting doing so:
1) I had been looking for at suitable online video sharing service for some time
2) I want to encourage my parents and siblings to start sharing (one sibling lives abroad)
I was going to play my newest card: A channel featuring videos of my two-year old daughter, chronologically organized and containing every video recorded since the day she was born.
Opportunity knocked when my mother took out her laptop during a "break" in the luncheon (we are pretty big on luncheons in Denmark), and placed it on the dining table. People were going to and from, clearing the table; watching a soccer match on TV etc. I told my mother I wanted to show her something, opened my daughter's Ovi channel and started browsing some of the videos on the channel. We were quickly joined by my grandmother, my sister in law and one of my brothers. Some of the things I told them:
1) Watching videos on Ovi requires no extra software (I used to put the .mp4 videos up on my own server, but that did not work since watching those requires "extra" software like Apple QuickTime)
2) I explained the concept of channels on Share on Ovi
3) I can upload videos directly from both my phones using "Share Online"
4) Share on Ovi can be used by anyone - you do not need to own a Nokia phone.
Everyone of course liked the videos and they also seemed to like the interface on Share on Ovi, and how the videos were organized.
When I got back home from the luncheon, I emailed everyone the link to my daughter's Ovi channel (http://www.twango.com/channel/gersbo.anna) and explained how every channel has a RSS feed enabling them to get updates when I post new videos.
Best regards
/christopher

PS: Call to S60 Ambassadors everywhere – please tag your pictures "Place3". We are toying with the idea of featuring some pics from Ambassadors on the “Consumed” blog next week. Maybe we’ll make it into a weekly “Picture of the Week” type-thing, with a different theme each week. If you want us to consider your picture, or if you want to just share your pics with other Ambassadors, tag your pics "Place3". For this week we are looking for something unique about your part of the world, kind of a play on the global nature of the “Share on Ovi” S60 Ambassador campaign.

PPS: Come visit us at Web 2.0 for drinks, fun and the latest on S60.
If you are attending Web 2.0 in San Francisco on April 23-25, please visit the S60 stand #729. Kristina and Dan will be there and would love to meet you. S60 is also partaking in the Web 2.0 Crawl on April 24th. The Web 2.0 Crawl will feature free food, free drink and a look as some S60 demos. During the expo hours from 4:30 – 6:00PM.

Bob talks about posting direct to the internet. That's usually a crowd pleaser for me too, tho I have run into friends of friends who have been concerned about privacy issues. They don't want their picture posted to Flickr, Ovi, YouTube, etc. Anyone else running into that? Or is that only a problem among us old (over 35) folks...

Here's the report (we'll be sending Bob a loaner N81 8GB as a "Thank You" for his efforts):

Our local lake club board meeting has been a fruitful source of leads for spreading the word about s60 and Ovi. Another board member, Steve, asked me what Robin and I were talking about the other night. Steve's a bit of a techie himself, though nowhere near the geek I am. And I say "geek" with pride. :) He saw me showing off my N95 and wondered what new piece of kit I had. I have become the local "go to" guy for gadget advice (and Macintosh help). I told Steve about the Ambassador campaign and how I enjoy evengelizing the s60 platform because it's something I believe in. I showed him my Nokia N95 and his first thought was that it was a bit of a brick. "Look how much smaller and lighter my phone is!" he said. His is a basic AT&T/SonyEricsson flip phone, and he though it was "good enough". Then I showed him the device's capabilities. GPS always impresses guys. But what really gets almost any father of young kids is a quality built-in camera. His SonyEricsson has a simple VGA camera and really isn't good for much of anything, but the 5 MP camera of the N95 really wowed him. I almost blinded him with the flash! He loved the idea of taking great pics with a phone camera, but really jumped when I showed him how easy it was to take his picture and post it to my Ovi account, ready to be shared with anyone I choose. With T-Mobile service I only get EDGE speed, but his picture was still posted in less than 2 minutes. When he went into his house he looked up the link I gave him and saw my pictures, plus one of him taken minutes earlier, and he emailed me right away. He's very interested in the ability to share pictures and movies online, as soon as they're shot, and all through a cell phone. I'm going to loan him my older Nokia N73 (an idea I got from the letter included in the swag package!) and he can pop his SIM card in and go. The N73 is unlocked, already has Handy Calendar, PhoneNetInfo, and a few other aftermarket apps loaded and registered, plus a bunch of themes and ringtones on the memory card. When I loan it to him on Sunday I'll explain about how the open nature of s60 means he can pick and choose from hundreds of applications and load them on as he sees fit. Whatever makes the phone work better for him. I'm just wondering if I'll ever see the N73 again. :)

Thanks Bob and keep the reports coming!

The reports are pouring in. We will be posting an "Ambassador Report of the Week" each week. The Ambassador who submits the selected report will get a loaner device (most likely an N82, but we have some other stragglers in there as well) for 2 weeks. This week's selection is from Daniel Silvers. Check out his post -- Daniel does a great job of relating the 4 elements of a great report:

1) Where did the conversation take place
2) When did the conversation take place
3) What was said
4) What was the reaction to what was said

He also is not afraid to mix it up with a few random thoughts and questions that help to make Ricky's life more interesting. Keep up the good work, Daniel, and enjoy your loaner device -- we hope it will generate lots more conversations, and lots more reports...

Here it is, your Report of the Week:

I was out last night, at my friend Mark's house for a low key evening. It was Mark, his girlfiend Kathleen and his drummer Jon, all three are about 23 years old and current Verizon customers. I usually meet up with them at least once a week for food and drinks. While I participate in discussions and events, I am known to also be playing with my phone.

Usually my phone of choice is the Nokia N73, but on this evening I took out my new branded N75 that I had just gotten from AT&T as a replacement for my beloved 6682 which went swimming in the rains we had in NY a few weeks ago...
While Mark and Kathleen went off to watch mind numbing television, Jon asked me about my "new" toy. I had already installed opera mini, google maps, and my gmail on the phone, so i proceded to show him the ease that I am able to switch between applications, while playing the music in the background. I visited the S60 site to show the available downloads, and stressed that s60 is open for change... based on your wants and needs.

Since I really haven't been using it as much as I should (the n75). I did not have Ovi Share set up on this phone, (and a further search shows that there is not an available download for this phone...) but did go to my ovi share site to show what I had uploaded previously. One thing that he thought was neat was that I had uploaded a video of a friend performing at a local open mic. I uploaded it from the show, and would have been able to shoot more, had they let the artists' play more then one song.

One of the things that Jon (Since Mark and his girlfriend Kathleen were busy watching TV in the other room) liked about this phone, or rather, the way it operated, was that I was able to multi task, and not slow the phone down, he actually compared it to a computer with multiple applications running at the same time! He said his phone "lags" and he just thought that was normal, based on the size and tasks that such a small thing was required to do.

Jon has seen my N73 before, but I never really took the time to give him a demo. But since I am more familiar with that phone, he said next time I have it out, he'd like to see how easily I flow through the applications, and specificly, how I use Share, how easy it is to upload pictures and video...

This was my first real post, since the pilot, I hope it was ok...

My review of the AT&T branded N75 is not good, I've been having problems with it, and cannot wait to upgrade...

I've been also talking up a storm about the E70 to a friend who has a sidekick on T-Mobile, and think that she would benefit from switching to that device... is there any "loaners" for such an old phone, or do you, Ricky, know where I can get one second (third, or even fourth) hand?

She likes my phone (the N73), but needs a full sized keypad...

any thoughts?

Thank you, Daniel Silvers, S60 Ambassador.

Couple notes:
Next "Report of the Week" selection will be made *this* Friday.
Stefan is finally up and running so if you are not in the Americas, send your reports to him here: Ambassadors@S60.com

I'm curious to know what some of the S60 Ambassadors who took part in our pilot programs think. Maybe I'm just rationalizing, but the big difference between the characters in this story and S60 Ambassadors are twofold:

1) S60 Ambassadors promise to be upfront about the fact that they are in the S60 Ambassador program, and
2) We don't actively recruit hipsters (tho I'm sure some of you are) to be S60 Ambassadors, anyone who reads the blogs and forums can join. Our preference, rather than hipsters, is for techies. But again, the application process is open and transparent.

Check out the story here if you're curious to see the author's take on what "Permission Marketing" may or may not have become.

In the end, I split the position into two part time positions, one for Ricky Cadden and one for Stefan Constantinescu. Most of you know Ricky from Symbian Guru, and most of you know Stefan from RingNokia and IntoMobile. (In fact, it seems from my email that most of you already know that both have been hired. I try to get onto this blogging thing but blogging already seems old-fashioned, news traveled via jaiku and various other forums eons ago.)

I hope that all who applied will continue to stay engaged-- who knows what the future will bring. Ricky and Stefan had a leg up, in a way: I had previously had the good fortune of meeting Ricky at the "Evening with S60" in Chicago and Stefan at the "Evening with S60" in New York. Going forward, bureaucratic gods willing (sometimes getting even small things done in a big company can take weeks or months), Ricky and Stefan will be working directly with S60 Ambassadors through the "Share on Ovi" campaign. They've already been a tremendous help behind the scenes, bringing their sense of what consumers like/want as well as broader strategic sense of what the competitive situation is for S60.

Here's Stefan, after hearing he made the team: (Thanks to Carol from the S60 Multimedia blog for capturing the moment).

Here's Ricky, on any given Friday:

The S60 Ambassador program is open for applicants again. No geographical limitations this time around. If you own an S60-based phone, you are in. Sign up here!

This is the 3rd and hopefully final pilot before we get the new S60 Ambassador website launched.

And revenues at the Big 6 ad agencies were up in 07 vs. 06, but market caps were down, as shown here:

S&P 500: -3%
Omnicom Group -12
WPP Group -17
Havas -18
Publicis Group -18
Interpublic Group -32