By Burt Lum

If you believe the tech pundits, the next big thing will be camera phones.

Perhaps this phenomenon already has crept up on us. Hawai'i has one of the highest adoption rates per capita for cell phones in the nation.

It won't surprise me if Hawai'i cell-phone users are quick to take to phones with cameras. Many new models have them, and the picture resolution is getting better as we speak.

One of the features built into the new cell phones is the ability to e-mail photos. This has contributed to the growth of "mob-logs" — short for "mobile logs" — on the Net (which I discussed in my Jan. 17 column). Many can be found at a site called Buzznet.com.

This trend shows no sign of slowing, as more and more sites are dedicated to receiving photos, whether from cam phones or digital cameras, and posting them immediately to the Web.

Initial uses were personal as many people started photo albums with the service. Lately, more serious uses are taking shape in the form of moblogging journalism.

Many of these moblogging trends are reported on weblogs dedicated to cam phones. A quick sampling of informative blogs: picturephoning.com, www.wirelessmoment.com and Howard Rheingold's smartmobs.com.

What started with video and digital cameras is becoming pervasive with cam phones. Now anyone with a cam phone can be at the right place and the right time.

As novel and intriguing as this technology is, it also begs the question about privacy and regulations. With everyone snapping away, what rights do the subjects have?

Professional photographers will often ask their subjects to sign release forms, but amateurs will tend to shoot and send. Will there be a backlash that results in the banning of cell phones in certain situations? Will you have to check your cell phone at the restaurant door?

Some of these topics, along with trends and new technology, will be discussed at a conference called Cameraphones 2004, April 27-30 on Maui (www.c-summit.com).

It's not surprising to see such a groundbreaking conference launched in Hawai'i. What better place to talk tech, play some golf and snap off the best pictures in the world to send back to your moblog?

Reach Burt Lum via www.roughtake.com.