social software – Page 2

A few weeks of Jaiku fun

I’ve been playing around with Jaiku for a bit now. I first downloaded the client and gave it a spin a while back (before the site was there). When they launched the site, I reinstalled the client, and after some initial screwing around with my N70, I got it to work. I should note, however that Jaiku has become great fun even if you don’t have a S60 phone.

Thanks to the enthusiastic use of colleagues Tom and Edgar I’ve gotten a taste of what the service would be like if all my (non-techie) friends would be online. Especially Edgar’s regular updates during his vacation in Australia were… interesting. I’m still not sure if I enjoy seeing his “having a cocktail here and there” updates while I’m posting a message that I’m hard at work. Oh well.

I first encountered (the concept of) Jaiku at last year’s Reboot thanks to Jyri’s talk. The talk was cool, and mainly focussed on how IM-like status messages integrated with your phone book would result in something Jyri and friends like to call ‘rich presence’. It seems that (as is so often the case) real use by real users, combined with the introduction of the web front-end is slowly but surely transforming it into something more like a personal presence publishing channel.

I find myself regularly updating my status message, be it through the S60 client, their text messaging interface or the web site. I’ve also hooked up most of the RSS feeds that track my activity on a number of social web services. This might just be my obsessive urge to cache all my (on- and offline) activity somewhere in an effortless way, but I can imagine more people would enjoy using it once tying together the loose ends becomes more intuitive.

I would also like to thank the Jaiku guys for being very helpful, supporting me with all the N70 woes.

For those interested in more, check out the following links:

An article on Jaiku in the Herald Tribune
The Jaiku FAQ
Reboot adept Peter Rukavina’s Jaiku PHP class, Mac OS X GUI for updating your presence and Adium integration script
Mika’s Merkitys-Meaning (the cooles Flickr uploader for S60) is unofficially included in Jaiku

Finally, if you happen to be using the service and would like to hook up, my nick is ‘kaeru’. Let me know yours!

Social search (a Euro IA theme)

This could also be called ‘social findability’ (with apologies to Peter Morville). A lot of stuff has been said about both the dangers and virtues of tagging and their resulting bottom-up information architectures (aka folksonomies). IAs have been working hard to come up with practical ways of merging these with traditional taxonomies, to varying degrees of success. An Italian delegation showed off a cool demo of a facetted tagging application (FaceTag) joined with some solid academic theory (as far as I could tell). The BBC presented a poster on their way of slowly including tags into their controlled vocabulary using a combination of algorithms and old-fashioned human labour. These all point to the emergence of architectures that actually apply the concept of IA pace layering introduced by Morville in his latest book. I’m sure we’ll see more of these in future.

Besides harnessing the power of massive online amateur librarianship (MOAL), another hybrid that should be further investigated is the one resulting from combining social networks with search. There wasn’t much talk about this (Peter Morville briefly mentioned it in his keynote) but it’s definitely in the air. Social search has been experimented with in the web 2.0 arena, but I get the feeling not many IAs have been involved in the effort up till now. Most current endeavours feel like whiz-bang tech demos. Where’s the first useful and usable social search engine?

Speakers on social search during the summit: Peter Morville, Andrea Resmini, Emanuele Quintarelli, Luca Rosati and Karen Loasby (poster).

_{This is the second post on themes spotted during the Euro IA Summit 2006. The first post was on strategy. Other posts will be on process & deliverables, involving the client and accessibility. My first post-summit post can be found here.}

Rough notes from Euan Semple – There’s something going on here that is bigger than any of us

What does it all mean?

Printing press analogy. Press changed the way we saw the world. We’ll have similar shift in the future (long term). But: they used to burn heretics as well. Not everyone will want to adopt this.

7 years since Cluetrain: lots of stuff is still the same

Change will not happen thanks to tech.

Three myths

Hierarchy is the only way to organize stuff, from church through military, etc. but: hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. Once people start employing them it has a disruptive effect, breaking though hierarchies.
If we take certain steps we’ll be successful. But success got scrambled.
Cartesian anxiety: stress due to separation of individual and rest of the world (perspective). Misunderstanding of evolution, it should be about passing around what works (faster), not killing off the weak.

“It’s easier to do good than to do bad” — Jimmy Wales

LOVE: that’s what makes the internet hang together (and it’s not about the huge amounts of porn). Tolerance, the need to connect. Reboot is very much about this.

Internet creates opportunities for better understanding of shared meaning.

Everything is motivated by love or fear and fear is just absence of love.

He didn’t get where he was today… by using fear.

Collusion: people don’t want to admit to what they’re doing is wrong.

Anarchy actually means the ultimate in democracy. Is it so bad to fragment huge institutions.

Every society has people that see themselves as maintainers of order (although they don’t know what that order is).

The web cuts out the middle men (maintainers of order).

The idea that the online world is immature and dangerous is wrong. Google never forgets. Think about the stuff you say.

Don’t complain, don’t say no.

Do the right thing.

Stating the obvious, say the way you think the world should be and it’ll turn out that way.

Seeing something interesting, then judging yourself if it’s valuable enough and publishing it. Other people doing the same as an effect and on and on.

It’s not about tech. but it isn’t utopia either. You should take responsibility for what you do.

Dalai Lama quote: it’s about relationships and being social.

http://reboot.dk/wiki/There%27s_something_going_on_here_that_is_bigger_than_any_of_us

Rough notes for Chris Heathcote – A mobile Internet manifesto

It isn’t Nokia policy, he’s trying to be provocative.

1b internet 2b mobile user 5b unconnected

many networks, you’ll be connected to the internet

100% voice, 50% java, 10% native apps

these are not barriers:

display device speed text entry network speed

1000 bln. text messages in 2005

we might be the last gen. that uses querty

fixed 1000M wireless 100M fixed internet 10M wireless internet 1M

people want terabyte speed, we need to think what’s good enough now

we’re there already

barriers: data cost, battery life, 2 hour problem, smart networks

a picture used to cost 15 euros to upload

fixed price is really important in data

battery hasn’t seen innovation like the rest of mobile tech.

in the west we’re always less than 2 hours away from a “real” computer

David S. Isenberg: fat pipe, always on, get out of the way

assumption is that mobile phones can’t work in a dumb network, rich client sutuation

they are

mobile internet does not exist!

good mobile browsers, they’re here

other important stuff: smart clients – easy to develop: Flash Lite, Python

browser is like swiss army knife

E.g.: Backpack. Nice web app. He’s been trying to make a mobile version of Backpack.

Why is that different?

He can’t release it publicly yet, but he will soon.

PC + mobile: home + away

They’re far more useful together than seperate

What’s useful? 10 x easier 10 x cheaper 10 x a day

Mind like water (GTD) mobile is excellent for this, you can action them

Mobile is social

Timekilling? Competition: books, iPods, etc.

Social is more interesting, you want to take those elements from web apps to mobile

Internet is push + pull

Demo time!

Mobile web browser: access to all kinds of phone stuff.

He loves it, he wants to see people build stuff with it.

Out of sight message: because he wanted a domain he’s going through a proxy.

Not being online all the time is interesting from a presence point of view.

no need for separate mobile sites

basic accessibility and web standards still rule

lots of websites are assuming users have lots of bandwidth – that’s bad on both the web and mobile

data is very important (useful data)

APIs are great, XML is great, as long as they work

we’re not special: Google tries to be helpful by forcing you into the mobile version

Don’t repurpose content for mobile.

People are people… they’re the same. They have the same needs. Make sure they have access.

Create mobile sites. Aim at the 2b, not the 1b.

Mobile is going to be the main way to access the internet in the future.

Voice is interesting as well.

Q One thing you mentioned is flat rates. We can’t solve it as devs. Any ideas to force carriers to do it? A Carriers aren’t as uncanny as you think. They realize that money can be made from flat rate.

Sites can be built for mobile using web standards easily. That’s key.

Q What do you need for the mobile Backpack? A The series 60 phones running Python. We want to open source it so people can port it.

http://reboot.dk/wiki/A_mobile_Internet_manifesto

Rough notes for Jyri Engeström – Blind Men’s Baseball

Part 2 of three-part track. Last one’s Chris Heathcote’s one.

Why baseball?

Not beer, hotdogs, hat etc.

It takes a long time… Lot of it is pretending to pitch etc. Pitchers are glancing all the time. That’s the aspect that’s interesting to him.

Important social consequences.

1 Spatial

Seeing surrounding space in the present. Focussing, seeing the whole at once while you’re in it yourself. (Reminds me of Japanese martial concept op zanshin.) Concept of thee whole: when you lack it – example of the three blind men and elephant. What if they decided to go play baseball? They’ll only be able to communicate about their position by shouting.

No peripheral vision = navigating in the dark

Link with tech:

Phone: assumption is that you know who you’ll call.

Except: before dialing you make a lot of other choices about timing etc: where are they, what are they doing?

Phones don’t tell you much currently…

“Oy! Where u at?”

IM: state indicators, place indicators, etc. (Plazes plugin).

Cross pollinate mobile with IM interfaces.

Analogy to driving in traffic, constantly paying attention to what other drivers are doing and adjusting.

When info is out there, people will start being more polite.

This is all about spatial aspect, which is about present tense.

Other aspect: time.

Hockey: great players play where the puck will be. Anticipation.

Seeing each other as vectors, spatial and temporal at the same time.

Spaceballs clip.

Organizing life: calendar designed with assumption that only your won calendar matters…

Mobile 2.0 isn’t about multimedia. It’s about social interactions. Better social peripheral vision.

Where will this lead?

Looking to WoW for examples of ways to enhance peripheral vision.

Question: what will this look like in mobile device?

His social science background isn’t always helpful, but it allows him to look at the other side of the coin – those that are left behind.

People who are left out will seem more and more out of it socially.

Example from Abbott and Costello.

Questions Q Why don’t operators innovate more? A He thinks it’ll come from 3rd party devs that get the web. He doesn’t have much confidence in operators. Technically more and more is becoming possible (Python, Flash, WiFi).

Q Other people’s calendars: Intimacy, are we using tools to replace our innate abilities to track things. A Outsourcing mental activity to devices. You forget how to do it yourself. Phone numbers, you can’t remember them anymore. Technological innovations are built as bleeding edge as long tech chains. If stuff breaks they become useless. E.g. Katrina, boxing day tsunami. Electricity goes out, the rest is useless.

Q Examples shown are only for closely tied people. What are applications for larger groups, filtering, etc.? A Absolutely, third aspect missing is past: recommendations, comments on places visited. Flickr is about the past. Web is good at organizing that stuff. That’s why multimedia won’t take off on mobile.

Q On technological replacement: scale of things is increasing. How do you manage that? Reminds him of Wildfire. Programming devices on reach-ability. A Privacy settings will limit our range. It’ll keep increasing (possible range) become more and more ad-hoc. Instead of networking, notworking.

http://reboot.dk/wiki/Blind_Men%27s_Baseball

Rough notes for Tom Armitage – What social software can learn from Homer, Dickens, and Marvel Comics

Dickens, cliffhanger on every page

Putting data on display = publishing

Blogs are fragmentary

Every single thing you do needs to be dated for context

In hindsight it’ll show you patterns

Example: Infovore and previous blog actually join

Collect data across boundaries (chronological, digital, physical)

Nostalgia, be fuzzy, looking back at old stories etc.

Analogy of reviews of books with comments on blog – making it livelier.

If something counts (comments, statistics) make them accessible and public.

Fin. serial narrative.

Next: epic

Homer

How can someone remember these huge stories?

Because they use known structures and formulas, conventions.

You can leave out stuff. Two tellings are never the same.

He doesn’t believe in single sign-up. Stuff will be different between sites.

Profiles of people should be different between sites.

Retroactive continuity (retcon)

“deliberately changing previously established facts in fiction”

Crisis on Infinite Earths (Marvel) starting anew

Social software: revising earlier versions.

E.g.: Flickr replace button.

Fiction – telling lies, no let’s tell untruths

“Truth: something with no deliberate dishonesty” — Andrew Losowsky, http://tinyurl.com/lug7c

The Doorbells of Florence (on Fiickr)

Identity

Give people the chance to use something else than their real name. Personas are important. Handle based culture has existed for a long time online.

Expect people to tell untruths.

Kaycee Nicole Swenson hoax Dying of leukemia, PayPal, blogging, died, but not really, she was an old woman.

No default for truth.

Fictional characters on Friendster.

Vincent Gallo on site – deleted too but it was really him…

Wikipedia should mix both fiction and truth

Telling the story (final section)

The language you use is important

(Jarhead is a great book.)

You should tell a tale and talk as little as possible in your own voice.

Breedster, art project, insect, eating, shitting and having sex. Sexual disease – everyone became infertile.

User experience is important.

Good storytelling can’t save a terrible story.

Conclusion

When you create social software, look to storytelling for inspiration.

Questions

Q We should have a debate about truth and fiction. A Internet doesn’t have a laughter track and it never will. We expect comm. media to be truthful but publishing media to be used for fiction. Internet is both… Friend that was evicted from WoW because of roleplaying a racist character. There is a risk that the net will get really po-faced.

Q How can we go about determining who’s really who? A Example of phishing (Paypal), lots of people will believe you when you just get the style right. With text it’s really easy to pretend to be someone else. Real names shouldn’t be forced to publish their real names.

http://reboot.dk/wiki/What_social_software_can_learn_from_Homer%2C_Dickens%2C_and_Marvel_Comics

Rough notes for Stowe Boyd – The Revolution Will Be Socialized

Start with a joke that you need to apologize for (America and Japan).

Supposed to be rebooted, but hasn’t managed to do it just yet.

JJG’s presentation is a good “foil” for his talk.

He’s working a lot with web 2.0 companies. He’s very busy, seen a lot of business models. Trying to help them determine wether it’ll work or change it so it does.

“The revolution will not be televised” — Gil Scott heron

Stuff like Amazon’s is the future of online commerce.

“Revolution will be socialized”: opposed to that, it will be about social networks.

Old quote: from accidental change of social structures through software to social change through software by design.

Symposium on Social Architecture

From somewhere they find something else, then read it or gesture (tag, comment, link, etc)
User generated content (ugh), is like a gestural space
People vs. machines

Engines of meaning

We’ll need machines to manage the huge amount of data being created (Bruce Sterling quote).
Means of sorting won’t be known
“We’ll be trawling with engines with meaning…”

Revolution among the revolutionaries

What does web 2.0 mean? Lot’s of battles going on.
Core question: what’s worth building?
Simple three step process to find social dimension in product
Enterprise software lacks soul.
An app is a collection of functions – this is wrong.

Example: wine sites

Creating site based on functions: feels like a db
Turn it sideways, introduce social dimension, functionality is secondary
Things we do are largely not done as individuals
2nd step: looking at networks
Last dimension: markets
Most companies fail to create a large enough market

Online markets

E.g. Amazon
Last.fm – changed his life, counter to Amazon example, discovered he had the musical taste of a 23 years old British woman… Viable competition to Amazon and iTunes because of better experience due to human dimension
What’s at thee market’s core? Case study: x:posted – brings bloggers into contact with people looking for blog content. You can take model to apply to business plan and find viable business.

Problem with Basecamp: no federated identity. They did it wrong, because they didn’t go through the three steps.

Social software (architecture) have soul
Actual e-commerce will move away from algorithmic architectures to socialized interactions
Successful apps will create a market

Questions:

Q Apps need bigger markets: the reason they’re keeping it small is because they built it for themselves. Social stuff inherently needs a small group… Social software doesn’t scale. A You can have a tight product and still take in the social dimension. You need karma etc.

http://reboot.dk/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Be_Socialized:_Social_Architecture_and_The_Future_of_Online_Markets