Clunky Flow

Discussions of the unique challenges and opportunities that are part of social software design are making their way into mainstream discussion. This is nice primer for Gentry Underwood.

Here’s some excerpts:

The problem:
“…for all of the press and fanfare, most social software is, well, socially awkward. ”
“…design is profoundly awkward for more nuanced social interaction. ”
“…most social software tools are clumsy and ineffective at smoothly facilitating interpersonal interaction.

The opportunity:
“…From an historical perspective, we are still in the early days of social interaction design.”
“…social software is pretty far from mature”
“…there is ample opportunity to produce something truly new.”

Success requires:

“…different skills than those employed traditionally in software design.”

“…a deep understanding of the unseen elements of relationships, power dynamics, and cultural rules in social systems.”

Here’s a link to the original article

And here’s a video of him giving a talk based on that article:

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FineTuna,
makes the back-and forth
of fine tuning designs online
an achingly simple
and pleasant task.

Another great tool from the guys that brought us Toddle “beautifully simple email newsletters.”

3 minute screen cast shows how simple this is to use.
Play in FULLSCREEN mode.

FULLSCREEN VIEW———————MOUSEOVER BOTTOM RIGHT—^

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Karatechimp

There are 3 main life stages of a trend monkey. A species commonly spotted out and about on the techpreneurial scene.
Stage 1: I’m pretty certain we’ve ALL been here.

Imagine the scene. You just met someone and they say to you

I’ve got this cool new idea. Yeah it’s a social network for X. We KNOW people like X, right? And we know people love social networking, right? So my idea is to put them together? Brilliant. Right? Yeah, I know we’ve got competition. But that just validates the market right?

You are standing wondering if this person realises they sound like they are trying to pitch cheesy peas?

Stage 2: I’ve a good feeling we’ve ALL been here too:

Six months pass. The market is getting a wee bit noisy. Ever day its getting more difficult to differentiate. And every day there are more and more ‘me too’ start ups entering the market. At first. most of the ‘me toos’ are run by the young and hopeful. A bit later they are run my old media types trying to cathc a bit of cool. Its beginning to look like this market is going to be ‘validated’ out of existence.

You bump into ’social network for x’ and ask how they are getting along. They say:

Its not really a social network as such. Its really all about X. Okay it has some social networking functionality in there too. I mean you have to have that these days, right? But is not really about that. Its about our really fresh new approach to X. It’s an approach that’s never been done before. Well. Not exactly in the way that we are doing it anyway. It could be quite revolutionary so we’re not really ready talk about it yet.

Stage 3: I’ve got a feeling we are all going to be hearing a lot of this in the next 6 months.

We’ll hear a lot of people explaining that THEIR service is NOT a social network. In ANY way. It will go something like this.

Our service has no social networking features because it is not a social network. That’s not our thing. There are others that provide those services and good luck to them. That’s not to say that we won’t serve social networks as customers. In fact we are happy for them to use the valuable data we will provide to enhance their services. But we will NOT be confined to servicing the needs of social networks alone. Our data will in fact be used by all sorts of services that make up the entire internet ecosystem. For example merchants like Amazon, Ebay, Travelocity would find our services especially useful. But we’re not just talking about Amazon and Ebay here. A whole multitude of online sellers big and small could use our services. We thinking we can actually reach out to the high steet with this. Its a massive, massive market.

Important Disclaimer: At this point, I think it highly advisable to point out that most of those you meet who have passed through these same 3 life stages are not trend monkeys. In fact it can be very difficult to come up with useful screening criteria to distinguish the trend monkeys from those who genuinely do have revolutionary new ideas. There’s little doubt that any such screening criteria would have filtered out Google as Johnny-come-lately, trend monkeys trying to hitch a lift on the search engine bandwagon. The same goes for Facebook, with their social network for the university campus.

STOP PRESS: I was just about to post this. When I came across someone tackling this subject from another angle. So, I’m tagging it right onto the end of the original post

What a nice piece of synchronicity. I just came across the video below on Mulley.net: “The Cool Curve” by Toby Moore CEO of Sleepydog talks about ideas that are in the comfort zone that exists somewhere between far out creativity and what the world ready to adopt. He puts the whole thing in much better context. He talks about those creatives that are sadly ahead of their time, those that are one hit wonders, and those are bang on consistently over time.

He describes what I call the trend monkeys at t=5:00 as:

…the flighty ones, they think they know about all kinds of things but actually know very little. They flit from thing to thing. They’ve always got this great idea. They are basically just headline people. They’ve read the headlines. But they have no depth. They are just. really. tiring. people. to. hang out with.

Spotting a trend monkey is not as easy as I thought it was when I started writing this post. In fact, I’ve decided that Toby Moore’s characterisation ‘they are just really tiring people to hang out with’ is pretty good indicator of who you are dealing with. Which you could argue exposes this post as woefully incomplete. And/or creates an open invitiation to any passing readers to drop comments describing the judging criteria that they use or that they find works for them.

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From here:

The problem that I’m seeing with most of the current social networks is that 90% of the time spent on those social networks is work that is done in order to maintain currency, keep content fresh, and continue building a sprawling network of friends and raise popularity.

So, what does that mean? What it boils down to is this: If you are working for your social network instead of your social network working for you, you my friend, are standing on top of a classic MMO-style treadmill grind.

I have bobbed in and out of various social networks and there is something that every single one of them had in common: for me to gain any value from that network, I had to go out of my way to perform repetitive, out-of-band tasks just to gain any value from the network. Having been the victim of many a MMO treadmill grind, I recognize an infinite loop of horse poo when I see it, so I bailed.
I have yet to find a measurable value in Facebook or any of a dozen other social networks I’ve played with.

At some point, someone is going to get it “right”, and there will be a social network that gives us tremendous value without us having to sacrifice for the cause, and all of the apologists using MySpace, Facebook, and the others who don’t know they’re apologists will flee to the new network in droves.

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If you’ve been talking to me at all you probably heard me say stuff like this.

Connecting ‘people 2 info’ is trumped by connecting ‘people 2 people’.
Google is great at connecting people to information. But a better way to create new knowledge is to connect people to people. When you connect to people they discover and create new knowledge. And people find this activity deeply rewarding and highly addictive. As the guys discoverio say ‘..discovery is the new cocaine’.

The company that manages this will be bigger than Google
To give people what they want. To really connect people online. We have to create the same sense of privacy, reputation, identity and trust online that we take for granted in the real world.

I came across this today. An article riffing on a comment made by a leading VC…

Search is dead…[In the near future, people will] find what they want by using their social network rather than a search algorithm. After all, the people in your online social network should know you better than a mathematical equation, right?

Social discovery pivots on identity

…this focus on online identity is what could turn search upside down… it’s conceivable that the information could attempt to find us—the old concept of push media, but in a far more refined way. As new content enters the Web, it could tumble through the various filters that you set up around your identity…

The unholy mess of privacy and security issues show us where the pivotal opportunity lies

…[currently] nobody owns this space the way Google “ownsâ€? search. And as it evolves, there will be an unholy mess of privacy and security issues to work out.

This kind of talk was the ever-constant ever-recurring theme at the Web2.0 expo this last week in San Francisco. And this has made me even more excited about RelevantM than ever. If that were even possible.

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O’REILLY CAPTURES IT IN A NUTSHELL

Conference blurbs usually drop me into a coma with their schmarketing speek. But not from O’Reilly Media for the Web2.0 conference.

Web 2.0 technologies are empowering us in ways we could only have imagined even just a few years ago.
We’re able to… connect more, have more fun,…and do it all faster.
But as the pace…accelerates, separating signal from noise, useful from annoying…becomes increasingly challenging.

How can we provide a more meaningful experience … have a positive impact on the world we live in?…deliver relevant information…increase conversation and collaboration?

Right on the money. And a word perfect context for explaining…

What MAKES RELEVANT MEDIA UNIQUE in the Web2.0 ecosystem.
In a nutshell:
Relevant Media works ‘with reality’.
Rather than working with ‘models of reality’.

All existing social tools begin by capturing something of real life into a model of some sort. Social networks, for example, try to create an online model of your real world social network. Recommendations engines create a model of what to recommend based on the expression of your tastes by you and your friends.

The problem with models:
The problems with models is that by definition they only capture aspects of the real thing

And this in turn leads to instances where the model and the reality clash. For an example you can take any problem peculiar to online social networks. And I include all those problems related to breakdowns of privacy, reputation, identity and trust. All result from incidents where there have been unanticipated breakdowns or clashes between the model and the reality.

Reality bites:
What is needed are tools and platforms that support, merge and coevolve with the dynamics of social reality

Relevant Media’s tools and platforms couple and coevolve with the emergent and dynamic characteristics of real life social interaction as opposed to trying to capture reality and shoehorn it into a model of the real thing.

This is what gives us a unique ability to better answer all those questions raised by O’Reilly for the upcoming Web2.0 expo.

If you are there, make sure to look me up here on Crowdvine and come over for a chat.

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Dan Trevino had this to say over on Jaiku on a conversational thread that spun off from something Damien Mulley said in passing here

“Twitter is for the socially inept. You cant carry on any kind of conversation there, and maybe its not designed for that. Thats fine, but to me its just too messy…Twitter love is irrational…”

I wholeheartedly dis/agree. Here’s why:

Irrational love is compelling love

I totally agree that twitter love is irrational. But irrational love is also compelling love. The most compelling kind of love. Its the kind of love you want to experience in your life. Its the kind of love you should seek to cultivate. If you are interested in getting into business, its the kind of love you should hope your offerings inspire. Ask people why they love twitter and they are likely to shrug and coyly say ‘I dunno…’ Which is charming in its own way.

Rational love is NOT compelling love…
Jaiku love on the other hand is 100% rational. And much less compelling for that. Rational love is not compelling love. Love is an irrational commitment. Rational love? There is no such thing. Rational choice is the safe choice. Its the comfort zone. Ask a jaikuist why they love jaiku and they’ll rationally assert that it has a rich set of features that make it possible to control the noise and better manage conversations.

I’m bringing the party down. Why can’t I just lighten up a bit?
Even you geekiest of geeks and nerdiest of nerds recognise that one fault they have is that their conversational instincts can sometimes tend to bring the party down. That sometimes they are inclined to be blind to the fact that considered conversation is inappropriate and should be dropped when all are gathered for the purpose of having fun.

Its a GOOD thing to LOSE the conversational thread
The socially inept are those who are considered to be blind to or choose to ignore social cues obvious to the rest. Those that shy away from messy social situations where they are required to improvise. Those that are uncomfortable in confusing social situations. Confusing social situations where it is easy and in fact socially necessary to lose the conversational thread.

Twitter’s main feature is that it runs interference against deep and meaningfuls
The socially inept might well miss the point of Twitter. Twitter is not about considered opinion and considered conversation. Its main feature is that it runs interference against the social instinct to engage in deep and meaningful conversation.

Interference is a social lubricant
This interference is a social lubricant. As I’m fond of saying, people play loud music at parties for precisely the same reason. They want to run interference against the human instinct to sit down and have considered conversation. You know. Considered conversation being the type of conversation that is not conducive to a party atmosphere.

Irrational love feels so good
Some of the people who go to parties with loud music will naturally gravitate away from the action towards the kitchen. In some ways, Jaiku is the kitchen area at the microblogging party. While twitter is the main party room. Whether we are able to join in fully or not, we are all drawn to the buzz and activity of a party. Its a hard wired instinct. Its not rational. Its instinctual. And all the more real for that. And its deeply rewarding to our psyches to engage. And if we are unable to engage. Then at least to hover nearby.

Hows that for a detailed exposition of the light and fluffy? Heavy going? Time to lighten up with a bit of music. And who better and appropriate at this time than Jona Lewie.

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From today’s New York Times

Kids played Dungeons and Dragons in basements instead of socializing. Geeks like algorithms. We like sets of rules that guide future behavior. But people, normal people, consistently act outside rule sets. People are messy and unpredictable, until you have something like the Dungeons & Dragons character sheet. Once you’ve broken down the elements of an invented personality into numbers generated from dice, paper and pencil, you can do the same for your real self.

For us, the character sheet and the rules for adventuring in an imaginary world became a manual for how people are put together. Life could be lived as a kind of vast, always-on role-playing campaign.

We geeks might not be able to intuit the subtext of a facial expression or a casual phrase, but give us a behavioral algorithm and human interactions become a data stream. We can process what’s going on in the heads of the people around us. Through careful observation of body language and awkward silences, we can even learn to detect when we are bringing the party down with our analysis of how loop quantum gravity helps explain the time travel in that new “Terminator� TV show. I mean, so I hear.

Facebook and other social networks ask people to create a character — one based on the user, sure, but still a distinct entity. Your character then builds relationships by connecting to other characters. Like Dungeons & Dragons, this is not a competitive game. There’s no way to win. You just play.

This diverse evolution from [Dungeons and Dragons] goes much further. Every Gmail login, every instant-messaging screen name, every public photo collection on Flickr, every blog-commenting alias is a newly manifested identity, a character playing the real world.

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via Valleywag:

After he left Facebook, Nipon Das wanted the social network to erase his personal information from its servers. Eventually that happened. But only after two months, a lengthy email exchange and — ultimately — threats from a lawyer. “It’s like the Hotel California,” Das told the New York Times. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Facebook PR flack Amy Sezak claims the company is doing users a favor by making it easy to come back to the site after they quit. 6,000 members of the Facebook group “How to permanently delete your facebook account” don’t seem grateful.

Jean Burgess is deleting her account partly because of all these facets of her identity are collided together in an unnatural and unmanageable way on facebook. Which illustrates the point that faceted identity does not scale well and on facebook many people have discovered that it has been stretched uncomfortably out of shape.

Too many worlds colliding, too many invites to vampire garden pirate fishtank zombie kissing applications, and yes, I ended up with kind of too many friends from too many different spheres of my existence (not that I don’t love them all, really) for it to be non-complicated and fun.

And check out what your facing if you want to really remove yourself from Facebook…

Oh, and by the way, in order to delete your Facebook account, apparently, you have to not only deactivate it, but also delete every single item you have contributed to the site (messages, wall posts, posts other people have written on your wall, photos, links to contacts, profile information) and then email customer service and request they delete your account completely. Oh, and also, in order to delete absolutely everything, I’d also have to re-add every single one of the applications I’ve ever had installed, and then go through and remove the content, and then delete the applications again. Because when you delete an application, guess what? Your data is still stored there somewhere.

That’s not just meanness, but I’m pretty sure it’s also not just to be helpful in case you’re quitting in a fit of pique like this one and might decide later that you want to come back. It’s also because of the way the business model works: Facebook and all the marketeers who sail in her pretty much just want you to visit as many ad-bearing pages per visit as possible (that’s what all those applications and invites are for), and having lost your eyeballs, they’d quite like to keep the data that can be mined from those activities. So they’re going to make it as difficult as possible to scrub that data out of the system. Can you guess how much that softens my heart toward the company?

Mark Evan’s compares his relationship with facebook as a kind of ‘amour fou’ that has run its course.

At first, the romance was hot and heavy…It was a lusty, unhealthy affair that made me crazy but you know how lust consumes you…You know that awkward feeling when you’re dating someone, and the romance starts to fade? …I feel that way about Facebook these days…Truth be told, I’ve found someone else - younger, sexier, more streamlined: Twitter. Yet, I’m not as enraptured with Twitter as I once was with Facebook, which is a good sign.

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via Ina

Social network is a terrrible metaphor
If you’ve ever talked to me, I have probably taken you by the pin of your collar and blasted something like this in your direction: ‘Social networks!? Don’t talk to me about social networks! I despise the term. Not only is a terrrible metaphor for reality. Its dangerrous and damaging as well”

We must start using the social cloud
If you didn’t manage to escape at this point, I’d have continued “We need a new metaphor, such as a social cloud, that recognizes the esssential fluidity and dynanism of social relationships. Only then can we hope to build platforms that don’t direct people into autistic-style interactions that plague these so-called social networks”

At which point, I’d generally point up to the sky and get a far away look in my eye. Which was also your cue to slip away unnoticed.

Its not just me…
Well, I think its only fair to warn you that there’s more of the same coming. You’ll no longer be able to escape by simply avoiding me. Other people are starting to say the same thing. Normal people. Respectable people. Using almost exactly the same words. But unaccompanied by the wild-eyed look.

Skip the first 14 minutes and watch to the end.

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