Latest MobileBeat2008 additions: Facebook’s Jed Stremel, MySpace’s Brandon Lucas, Skydeck’s Jason Devitt

I’m delighted to announce three more panelists for MobileBeat2008, our mobile conference scheduled for July 24.

They are Jed Stremel, director of mobile at Facebook (pictured top left), Brandon Lucas, senior director of mobile business development (pictured middle) at MySpace, and Jason Devitt, chief executive of a new mobile start-up called Skydeck (bottom). They’ll be speaking on our panel about mobile vs. web moderated by Om Malik. We’ll be announcing one more person on this panel shortly, from Nokia. Notes on the panel below.

Social networks are driving more action on the mobile web right now than any other applications, and their efforts to customize for the mobile experience are a great example of the web vs. mobile issues this panel will discuss. MySpace and Facebook are leading the show with mobile apps that are really catching on fire. MySpace announced some mind-numbing figures today: Its mobile version more than doubled traffic in three months, apparently blowing through 3 billion page views. Don’t be surprised if Facebook announces its own big numbers shortly. In the meantime, Facebook today just came out with its own mobile version for the iPhone, featuring mobile instant messaging.

In his role at Facebook, Stremel oversees the company’s mobile strategy and operations, including an emphasis on an open platform. Stremel joined Facebook in 2005 from Yahoo, where he was active on Yahoo’s mobile access technologies. Prior to Yahoo, he worked at Tellme.

At MySpace, Lucas oversees mobile business development. His previous experience in mobile includes business development positions with Vodafone, U.S. Cellular and Walt Disney.

Aside from MySpace and Facebook, another social networking company that made our Top 30 list of best mobile companies is MocoSpace.

Devitt, meanwhile, developed Skydeck (which lets you track your calling data) while an entrepreneur-in-residence at iHatch, a venture capital firm focused on the mobile industry. Previously Devitt co-founded Vindigo, one of the first companies to publish content and applications for mobile phones in the U.S. Products included Mapquest Mobile, MovieGoer, and the Vindigo City Guide. We picked Devitt because he’s refreshingly outspoken on issues such as open networks, open devices, and open development platforms, and represents the start-up community well. He holds a U.S. patent related to location-based services (see his recent column for VentureBeat). He blogs at Brash.com.

Here’s more about the panel:

It will address one of MobileBeat’s big questions: How is mobile different from the Web, and how can developers exploit this difference?

Here are some of sub-themes the panel will grapple with:

• Developing application for Mobile is different from developing applications for the web. What are those differences and what does it mean for developers today, and long-term, as they write applications for mobile, and for companies managing their mobile/web strategies?
• The phone you carry is by your side wherever you go. It’s closer to the place you live. This leads to different forms of behavior and interaction. Given that, how do companies manage their web/mobile strategies? How do developers and consumer-focused applications deal with this?
• Example: America’s Next Top Model tamagotchi/avatar-based mobile game is “truly mobile.” Here’s how the game works: Users need to take care of the contestant they like, poke the one they don’t, and when a girl gets evicted on the TV show, she instantaneously disappears from the cell phones as well. Lesson: The game is not just an adaptation of the TV show for mobile, e.g. by short video clips. The cell phone is the ideal device for a tamagotchi – it needs to be with you all the time.
• The way you consume your information is different. Sportstap lets you consume mobile sports information much more efficiently than going to ESPN homepage.
• The phone knows where you are, what you’re during these times of day. A profile that it builds on you, plus demographic information from carrier — all this can be useful for mobile applications. Also, location technologies are all the rage right now.
• The classic example — almost cliche — is how you might be standing in line at a night club and a mobile alert from Coke would invite you to the front of the line if you respond.
• Mobile is a “lean-forward” experience. On a computer, you’re a surfer, looking for detail, it’s a lean forward experience compared to TV. When you’re on the phone, you’re probably on the go and you may in even more of a “lean-forward” experience.
• Also: You don’t share your phone with anyone. It will be more personalized.

Book your ticket for the MobileBeat2008 event here.

Finally, thanks to our sponsors, Blackberry Partners Fund, Forum Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Norwest Venture Partners, amiando, and Mippin for making this possible. If you’re interested in sponsoring the event, please contact Jacob Mullins.