The Federal Trade Commission will host a Town Hall meeting on May 6-7, 2008, to explore the evolving mobile commerce (M-commerce) marketplace and its implications for consumer protection policy. This Town Hall, titled “Beyond Voice: Mapping the Mobile Marketplace,” follows up on the FTC’s November 2006 forum, “Tech-Ade,” which examined key technological and business developments that will shape consumers’ experiences over the next decade.

The Town Hall meeting will explore consumer protection issues in the rapidly expanding world of M-commerce, which connects consumers with advertisers, marketers, and a variety of providers of services and products, including ringtones, games, chat services, mobile coupons and other customer promotions, and location-based services.

Participants will examine many topics, including: the use of mobile messaging services as instruments of M-commerce; consumers’ ability to control mobile applications; the challenges presented by small screen disclosures; M-commerce practices targeting children and teens; industry best practices in preventing fraud; evolving security threats and solutions; and next-generation products and services.

The Commission invites interested parties to submit requests to be panelists and to recommend other related topics for discussion. The requests should be submitted electronically to beyondvoice@ftc.gov [1] by February 27, 2008, and should include information about the parties’ expertise on the issues they propose to address, and complete contact information. The Commission will select panelists based on expertise and the need to represent a range of views about the issues. Panelists selected to participate will be notified by March 26, 2008. For questions, contact Ruth Yodaiken at 202-326-2127.