id8 Blog

I want my typing and voice too!

I got a chance to attend the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last month to see the latest and greatest in Web 2.0 software, social media sites, 'gadgets', and data visualizations of complicated 'stuff'.

One of the main things I noticed is that people were very open to each other and sharing information, ideas and thoughts.  There was no cageyness...no hard sell...no "look at us, we're uber"...ok...maybe a little by the big guys.  But mostly, there was alot of.."look at the cool we're doing! What do you think about that?"

I sat in on brown bag lunch event where we were supposed to talked about media...such as photo sharing sites or tv viewing sites.

As a user experience practitioner, I focused on the holistic user experience and not just the singular characteristic of that experience.  I met two software engineers that are working on a TV peer-to-peer software program for watching tv on your computer with proper TV channels such as MTV and BBC.  Basically they just re-broadcast tv shows over the internet.  This means I can watch TV with someone else on the net at the same time.  And they wanted to know if I would want to use a text chatting format to talk to the other person. I said I wanted voice instead of chatting or at least the option to do both.  If I'm watching tv with another person, I'd like to have it match closely to the Real Life (RL) experience.

Social sites, especially those with synchronized media capabilities, should include a voice component - we have the bandwidth, let's have the shared experience! Why type when I can talk? My family is from Hawai'i and every year, there is a big hula event called the Merrie Monarch in Hilo.  I would love to watch that event on TV.  For now, I have to fly to Hawai'i to watch this event (or watch it on youtube).  Why can't I enjoy this once-a-year event with my favorite Aunt over the internet where we watch it together and chat to each other during commercial breaks, like one would do in a normal in-the-same- room experience?  Why not?

Now I know it's not the same as being in Hawai'i, but it gives me another shared experience to stay in contact with my 76 year old Aunt other than email or a telephone call.  That is important to me because I have family and friends spread all over the map.

I think this is missing in some social media sites.  I'm not saying that having a myspace or facebook page that your friends and family can actively enjoy or having that passive notification of changes in their information isn't valid.  But to have that shared in-the-moment experience, adds more value to my user experience. I don't see that often, but I certainly would use it with family and friends across the coconut wireless.

Now this company has this social TV experience working well in Europe, where sport shows are very much a favorite among traveling business people.  But the shows are on local time and not on-demand. I applaud that they allow people to view such an experience, but I think on-demand would be better for synchronization of the user experience between 2 or more people.  I know this idea might be a bit tricky for TV networks and their revenue stream. Maybe these are issues that they have thought about, but maybe not.  Maybe our conversation and sharing of opinion might make this experience better.  I don't know. 

But it was a great conversation. :)

The Nomenclature of the Web 2.0 Ethos

One thing I liked about last month's San Francisco Web 2.0 Expo, is the exposure to new nomenclatures or catch-phrases to discuss the pulse of the industry.  How do people explain nebulous concepts or new ideas? The keynote speeches did not disappoint me in this exercise. However, they also invited me to understand the tangible application of the Web 2.0 ethos.

I watched Tim O'Reilly's opening remarks and thoroughly enjoyed the passion that he has for this industry as he describe the evolution of Web 2.0 concepts.  He encouraged us to use this paradigm to go after "the big hard problems".  And when he says big hard problems, he cites examples of  issues with global warming, politics and many social ills.

He pointed out that the internet is the open global computer, the cloud computer, to harness our collective intelligence via different peripheral devices.  In this case, the more we interact with a site or device, the more it gathers our data to create opportunities of innovation. Basically, 'It' gets better, the more we use 'It'.  It's not about the killer app or a specific platform or artifact, it's about active participation that lends a clear voice within the cloud.

He talked about how the use of mobile phones and ubiquitous sensors creates ambient computing.  Where your form factor of choice interacts with its surroundings to share  information that could be useful by something else.  He cited as an example the use of laptops with sensors as an earthquake detection service.

Clay Shirky, in his thought-provoking and humorous keynote address - Gin, Television and Social Surplus, tells us of a conversation he had with a TV producer to describe the cognitive surplus we enjoy at present. Given the 5 day work week, what do we do with the extra thoughts on our hands (or minds)?  He blames sitcoms as the timesink of the billions of TV hours in which we passively spend our surplus.

He put forth a unit of cognitive measurement that we can grok - the creation of the Wikipedia project took about 100 million hours of thought. If were were to extend this measurement to TV watching, the two hundred billion annual hours of US TV equals 2,000 Wikipedia project collaborations! So imagine what we could do if we used a fraction of TV time to transform our thoughts via participation with those things that engage us.

He believes we are at the early stages of deploying our cognitive surplus. That as we move through this cognitive transformation by interacting with the social media trifecta - engaging, creating and sharing, we can transform society.

The gist of what these two gentlemen are saying to me is, "Hey! Let's use our spare cog-time to address the really hard problems that face us in the 21st century.  To participate, consume, produce and share a possible collective intelligence to solve really important things.  Because if we do nothing, things can be catastrophic, but if we do something - even if we are wrong about the outcome - we have the possibility of creating something really cool, and that's not necessarily a bad thing."

By the way, no worries Clay...I stopped watching TV when I started my gnome mage on World of Warcraft :P.

View Tim O'Reilly's keynote via blip.tv
View Clay Shirky's keynote via blip.tv

Exposed at Web 2.0 SF

‘Web 2.0 is people!’ has to be the most resounding message that I took away from the Web 2.0 Expo in SF last week.

Author Clay Shirky delivered a memorable keynote, “Here Comes Everybody”, in which he suggested that since Web 2.0 people are doing more constructive things with their free time than watching sitcoms – and that just 1% of the time we spend watching TV in a year is enough to create the equivalent of 20 Wikipedias!

Sure, there was plenty of talk about the latest widgets, gadgets and technologies, but the common denominator was people; Social networking, user-generated content, social media, and of course, blogging.

 

Which brings me to another resounding message that I could not ignore, try as I may: ‘If you’re not blogging, you’re NOBODY.’ Apparently, this blogging thing isn't going to go away anytime soon. So here I am, writing my first post, a bit embarrassed that it has taken me so long to jump into the fray.

This blog will be authored by myself and my fellow id8ers, and will be about what we do, what we’re passionate about, and what makes us crazy. We’ll share tips and tricks for using iRise (the tool that we specialize in), thoughts about usability, methodologies, best practices; and lessons we’ve learned along the way. So there it is… we have a blog (finally!).