Here are a few recent items from my bookmarks and feed reader just so I have at least one post for the month of June (it’s been busy):

• In defense of walled gardens, by Andrew Cole, president of CSMG Adventis (a telecom consulting firm), via Techdirt. I agree with points but disagree on the conclusion. Here’s the key quote, basically saying “walled gardens are essential for usability”:

The walled part of the garden is required because a closed system ensures the seamless movement of digital content and services across networks and hardware. It optimizes ease of use and encourages digital service and content purchase and usage. At this stage of the digital services market lifecycle, mass-market users fundamentally require closed system benefits.

• An article on mobile phone usage in Japan, via textually.org
• Mountain View-based Jajah is scheduled to launch its free global calling service today (Mashable). Their API could be useful in a click-to-call advertising system, similar to VoiceStar and others.
• Tiggdo.com allows you to consolidate your favourite Internet features into a personalized home page for your phone. (via Techdirt)
• EA to bypass carriers, sell mobile games direct
• CodePlex, Microsoft’s SourceForge killer
• Topicalizer – an online tool for topic extraction, text analysis and abstract generation