The Invisible Web + Ubiquitous Computing: Anywhere, Anytime, Anything

Surrounded by a ubiquitous network that senses your every move might make you think about Minority Report or one of the other handful of of sci-fi dystopias where sensors allow someone else to know more about your presence than you (see here for prior post). 

In fact, Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon was an early look a the power of a ubiquitous sensor to control the mindset of those being monitored. In this session, Moorhead and Polinchock of Razorfish + Brand Experience Lab present a view on the implications of the network extending beyond the devices connected to it...the inevitable future of Ubicomp (Ubiquitous Computing).

Begin with two videos:

Microsoft concept video on the world of ubiquitous computing (here). [What strikes me is the direct manipulation interfaces...hand gestures used to move objects on transparent panels...as much as the ubqituity of computing embedded in everyday tasks]

TED Video of embedded computing devices demonstration from MIT Media Lab. The devices are worn on clothes and appendages.  [In some ways, reminds me of the heads up display from Terminator...Again, natural gestures used for intereaction are the idea that stands out, using any surface to interact with the data].

Key Takeaways:

The screen disappears....device become dumb in the sense that it takes on the functionality that the network imposes on it...is it a phone? A computer? A watch? Yes.

Factors driving the ubicomp future:

• Falling cost of tech
  
• Speed of wireless networks
  
• Availabiltiy of services
  
• Compartmentalization of data
  

What is the ubicomp future?

• An internet of things
  
• Digital infused in everything
  
• Its persistent, intuitive, intelligent
  
• Cloud powered (the info resides somewhere else)
  
• Network knows you and learns you
  
• Opposite of virtual reality
  

The Future is Now, its just unevenly distributed...Examples:

• Refrigerator that monitors the age of goods and alerts to spoilage. [this has been around since accenture's concept video 'Claire' back in 1994]
  
• Store One prototype from Radio Shack highlighting technology in it's native home context.
  
• Newsongdo Korea...(here) a city designed to embed computing throughout the citizens lives
• TiVo...intuitive and intelligent about learning your preferences and enabling use
• OnStar...a cloud-powered system that can save your life--or recommend a restaurant based on your location.
• Pandora music service or Genius on iTunesLearn about your preferences and identify you. Green buildings that identify you and adjust lighting to your preferences (Bill Gate's house).

Implications

Federated identity...the need to have AN identity (versus being required to have a new identity entered each time). Able to setup a global set of preferences, better security, no more passwords. The downside is that when you have an identity that is ubiquitous, then you may lose your identity...if your identity gets hacked, it can destroy you across a whole host of contexts...system errors ripple to a larger degree.

Never get lost...services like loopt and dodgeball, wi-fitti inmpose a digital layer on the real world.  New ways to explore, completely contextual information and safety and security could be improved. The downside is that someone can always know where you are.

Personal/Impersonal...Highly personal expereinces requiring low effort. Removes didigtal life management issues (multiple logins, personalities, preferences managed homogenously). DOwnside sis who owns the personal preference data? Is it always on or can you change the networks status by toggling off the network (which leaves a trail itself).

Digital Nomadism...one object that performs many functions ( a puck...you pay for what functions you want it to provide). Everything is connected easily. The downside is that if the network fails, everything fails. In addition, it creates another opportunity for expanding the digital haves from the digital havenots (aka The Digital Divide).

The Big Challenge...

Work now to ensure that ubicomp challenges to privacy, ethics, and constitutional rights are protected. [The law of unintended consequences]. These choices have to be made now. Participating in the design is required or someone else will do it and we'll all ahve to live with it.

More SXSW on Technorati at link below...

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Interface lessons from game design: Play on

Gaming represents one of the purer forms of interface design. It must adhere to usability principles: afterall, if the interface doesn't work in a game, then it's no fun. But it also has to have utility and desirability built in or it's...well, no fun.

Somewhat counterintuitively, gaming interfaces are often inconsistent in the presentation layer of the interface from one to the other. This panel discussion covers lessons learned in gaming interface design that may be applicable to design of non-game interfaces.

Panel discussion....ready, set, go [my comments in brackets]: Robbins, Cressman, Josling, Franklin and Lazarro.

Emotion in design

Lazarro-Play creates emotions. More than 30 different emotions are documented in the choices that one makes while playing games (curiosity, joy, accomplishment, relaxation, etc.). The best selling games include at least three of the following four types of fun: hard fun, easy fun, serious fun and people fun. Independent of gaming, tapping into these emotions is relevant to the experience online [we've posted on the trinity of Useful, Usable and Desirable where desirable is the emotional component of the expereince]. 

Tools in design

Frank-Feedback is critical to the experience when users employ tools (like the Jump Tool in Super Mario) as part of the game. But also in tools like Google Docs. For example, rather than having a ribbon of icons for formatting text (right align, left, bold), why not allow users to drag and move text the way the want it [in the vernacualr this would be called direct manipulation?]. Interfaces built around touchscreen technology can change this, but even the very idea of simplified tools is still further along in games than other online interfaces. 

Controllers in design

Robbins-Hardware interfaces are changing the games...online though, the interfaces are not so customized...keyboards and mice are relatively standard of course. The Wii controller [as a devices that moves in real space] has no real corollary [though a mouse does move thru real space, right?]. 

The fun is where the real world mapping of controls to the digital world has a gap...it's also an opportunity for fun and frustration. If the game controller mapped to the real world exactly, it wouldn't be as fun. [Imagine objects in a game operating under exactly the same gravity conditions as the real world...what fun would that be if you couldn;t fly!]. Touchscreens have a modicum of imprecision that can make them fun and frustrating. 

Devices like the iPhone create issues such as being able to see the screen when the device is put in motion (as in a bowling app). With Wii you can see the feedback of the controllers on the screen. With an iPhone you wouldn;t be able to see the screen while the device is in motion.

Every screen is going to be a touchscreen in the near term...this changes the nature of interface design when the controller device becomes the human hand directly manipulating the screen objects. [Imagine typing a word document the way you type email on an iPhone or Instinct...or pinching and pulling images, using swipes to move images/folders from a desktop to the trash]

Progress + Goals in Design

Cressman-Rewards + Reputation Systems. Game mechanics around ideas like earning points and reputation ratings are important. [Ref Amy Jo Kim's Google talk on this here]. Game ratings also get translated in web sites like eBay with ratings systems, stars and such. Use of badges that can be earned [similar to experience points on Xbox] is consistent with offline ideas like boy scout badges. Enabling these elements to exist in online tools--ways to build points and reputation--is an opportunity. 

Examples include ratings on ePinions. Social media points/reputation numbers like number of Diggs or Reddit. Designing the interface to reflect the different levelling associated with experience--a tripadvisor contributor or seller rating on eBay--should be embedded in the design of the status display...even if it is something as simple as color changes [like karate belt colors].

Another principle is the interface complexity ramping up with experience. The idea of getting an experience flow that varies with the users experience. Startup tutorials trend isn;t going to get the job done.

Social Aspects in design

Josling-Enabling people to feel part of something bigger than themselves is the basis of successful MMOGs like World of Warcraft, Runescape and others. The flow of community in online support forums for products (like software products) seems more laborious. Going to a support board, trying to follow the flow of support inquiries and responses. Being able to seek support in the application context for instance rather than having to 'go somewhere else' online is something that game designers do well and non-game interfaces might embed more consistently. 

BONUS POINTS for naming the game that the characters above inhabit.

More Technorati SXSW at the link:

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The Future of Social Networks: Like air

First, the title of Charlene Li's talk seems right. Social media misses the point...it's really about social networking. People use media for a purpose...networking for instance.

But I'd expect Charlene Li to understand that. Formerly of Forrester, her title now is Thought Leader at Altimeter Group, her very own company.

So where is Social Networking headed? Well, ladies and gentlemen, Charlene Li's take [with my comments in [brackets]:

Overview

Tim Berners Lee designed the web as a social tool, not a technical one. (From his book Weaving the Web).

What's a social site? Bebo, Orkut, LinkedIn? Habbo? Twitter? Here's a prediction [wait for it...]:

Social networks will be like air [so, she's selling the network's importance, not the tools (i.e, the sites)...true, but not an investment tip!].

[What about media like TV? How does that get 'social'? ]

It's all about seeing your friends...or people in your neighbohood. A company called Integra5 inserts chats via set top boxes around tv programs 

[any shared activity can be a social media acitvity though, yes? A multiplayer game online, thru the TV using XBox Live for instance?]

Three things that matter in a social network:

1. Identity-who are you? [you get to manage the definition of you...not marketers]
   
2. Contacts-who do you know? [but what is the depth of friendship? Is friending a brand on Facebook really about intimacy?]
   
3. Activities-What do you do? [marketers  have access to much of thie behavioral data online]
   

Two sets of standards emerging in social networking toolset:

Facebook + Open Stack.

Open stack, consortium of companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Plaxo and others. Includes: 

• OpenID
  
• XRDS Simple
  
• Oauth
  
• Portable Contacts
  
• Open Social
  

Not a war between these standards. 

Some key components of any social networking system include:

• Identity Management:Identities, likewise, reflect the myriad identities of the individual. OpenID enables your vairous identities to be managed, but which do you select?
• Friend Management: expanding level of intimacy is embedded in how much access you give...and which tools you use to manage the relationship. [Not everyone gets your mobile number, but you might allow thousands of followers on Twitter.]
• Privacy + Permission Management: Easier to manage: always a tradeoff though. An example of automated tools that determine who you email most often to autofill the "to' field...is that a violation of privacy for the email system to do this for you without your permission?
  

Why social ads don't work

Leveraging realtionships to target ads and offers: Most social ads require an explicit action...whether its gifting or vibing, you're asking a user to spend time doing something. That's a challenge [we all have a limited amoung of time each day...its the same 24 hours no matter who you are].

A better way? Using network neighbor concept. A company called Media6 maps who is closest to you...using non-personally identifiable information in a cookie. [The you get remarketed based on the idea that wherever you neighbor goes, you're likely to go...isn;t this just birds of a feather? How to account for the human to desire to be different in some circumstances vs fitting in?]

The rise of the Personal CPM: 

Augmenting the CPM with social influence, behavior [I think this would be the CPP...cost per person, not thousands of persons...and isn't this Google's entire premise in search, without all the assumptions about influence and friends?]

Success factors for business:

1. Where does Social [The noun!] make sense?
   
2. Get your backend in order [backend data, that is.
   
3. Integrate social networks into your organization...an org chart with the customer at the top [it would be even 'cooler' if the cusotmer was at the center of the organization].

Why so hard for organizations to embrace? Because it changes the power dynamic in the organizational relationships to the customer...customer contact is the most important role int he organization.

Twitter: @charleneli

Slides at slideshare.net/chaleneli

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Call of duty 5: Gaming crashes

A dozen game playing people blast virtual Nazi Zombies...or each other...in Call of Duty 5 competition at Screenburn Arcade at SXSW.

Gaming is alive and well in the down economy...gaming from the pc (vs consoles like xbox, ps3 or Wii) is making a less robust showing at this year's screenburn show at SXSW.

The image in this post shows individuals playing against each other...lacks the social aspects that have been selling the console version and were the highlight of last years team competitions at screenburn. 

However, tomorrow's game development competition may be where the gaming action is.

Get your SXSW on

I'm heading to the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival this weekend and will be posting from the sessions as live as I can.

What's SXSW you ask? 

Well, you can check out the promotional info here. Or you can read the next sentence. The SXSW interactive festival is one of the best attended combinations of creative new technology going. It's not just a geek fest though, it's a celebration of using technology creatively...sometimes to solve problems, sometimes to inspire our better selves, and sometimes just to have fun. 

Last year, we used the festival to kick off the RKDNA blog. We covered events big and small, including an attention getting  interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, sessions on the future of consumer electronics, gaming, social media and more (see here for March 08 posts from SXSW).

This year's festival looks to break last year's attendance records..in spite of the economy...which says something about the value attendees find.

You can see the full set of panel topics here. And if there's something you'd like to know more about, feel free to post a comment and I'll try to check it out on your behalf. 

You can also see what others think by checking out the SXSW feed at Technorati below

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