Our lives: Social, Mobile and Location Aware

January 28th, 2010 • View Comments Business

How many of us have an iPhone, Blackberry or other smartphone?

How many of us Tweet, Facebook, YouTube?

The answer is pretty much all of us do. And if you don’t already, you will soon.

This is amazing. Why? It has allowed a huge shift in the way we interact with the people around us, and in the way they interact with us. It’s not only a shift in the way we think, but in the way we behave. Here’s how:
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10 things I learned from working at Lululemon

January 22nd, 2010 • View Comments Business, Consumerism, Design, Earned Media, Experience Design, Human Behaviour

I recently ended my contract as an Educator at Lululemon. It was a job I never thought I would have. Not in a million years. But, in fact, I did learn a lot from what is actually a pretty cool company.

I always say this, but it’s because I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and you can take something valuable out of every single experience, good or bad. With that said, here are my take-aways:
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My Favourite Exclusive Product Offerings

January 19th, 2010 • View Comments Business, Consumerism, Human Behaviour, Travel

This is a continuation of the “Conversation Capital” post.

1 of 1 billion. 1 of 1 million. 1 of 1000. Who wants to feel like that? I think most people want to feel unique — 1 of 1. How else will they contribute to their unique personal narrative? For example, I have a leather messenger bag that I got in Florence. It’s handmade in Italy, and I’m pretty much guaranteed that no one I know will have it. It’s all me and I effing love it.

“Consumers demand customization and differentiation…experiences that stand out by reminding us we are individuals.” - from the book Conversation Capital: How to Create Stuff People Talk About

Hence we have Exclusive Product Offerings — EPOs. And I’m not just talking about physical products (like a one of a kind iPod or something) I’m talking about *experiences* that are personalized, exclusive to you. Here are some of my favourites, in no particular order:
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Using Twitter to Tap into the Global Consciousness

January 11th, 2010 • View Comments Business, Design, Human Behaviour, Social Media

We, the people, are creating a real-time data stream representing the global consciousness. It’s called Twitter.

I didn’t always get it (Twitter) nor was I always a fan. But here’s why I am now:

• I get my news from smart people who scan and evaluate content for me. I’m essentially crowd sourcing; much better than surfing the web, stumbling upon things. I still do that of course. But now it’s more directed, more focused, and more efficient.

• It puts me in touch with industry people, lets me learn their lingo, and get a sense of who they are — as people.

• It’s personal. There must be a personal element. And there will be if you follow the right people. I’m not looking for another RSS reader. That’s why I generally don’t follow news outlets or corporations.

• It’s a snapshot of what everyone is thinking, saying, or doing. And by everyone, I mean those people I deem important or relevant.

• It’s better than spending time on Facebook. Most of what you get on Facebook is frivolous, more akin to reading the tabloids. On Twitter, I get to hear from my own handpicked group of intelligent and interesting people. I learn. I network. I engage. That’s what Twitter is for. At least for me.

So that’s just it. On a personal level, it’s what you make it. Just another tool that, like any other, works for you depending on how you use it.

On a broader, holistic level — when we look at the trends and extrapolate – that’s when it gets really interesting.

The electronic hive mind.

Twitter is just another step forward in creating what Kevin Kelly at Wired Magazine described as the electronic hive mind. Yes. Hive as in beehive. What do bees have to do with humans using Twitter? Read the blurbs below, which were taken out of this Haper’s magazine article, written in May 1994.

The hive is irredeemably social, unabashedly of many minds, but it decides as a whole when to swarm and where to move. A hive possesses intelligence that none of its parts does. A single honeybee brain operates with a memory of six days; the hive as a whole operates with a memory of three months, twice as long as the average bee lives.

Just as a beehive functions as if it were a single sentient organism, so does an electronic hive… Out of networked parts — whether of insects, neurons or chips — come learning, evolution and life.

As we wire ourselves up into a hivish network, many things will emerge that we, as mere neurons in the network don’t expect, don’t understand, can’t control or don’t even perceive. That’s the price for any emergent hive mind.

I take three things from Kelly’s article:

1. We, as a global society,  are getting smarter and more resilient as the barriers to communication are lowered and networks are formed.
2. People and machines will be having conversations with each other. It will be to our benefit.
3. Big, exciting and perhaps scary things are coming. Of course, the ramifications of all this change is unpredictable.

Here are some future possibilities of a hyper-networked world that I think are really cool. And maybe a little scary…

Things, Tweeting.

It’s not only people that have useful and intelligent things to say. So do our things. A networked umbrella can let you know it’s going to be raining later in the day, lost keys can tweet their location, and a flowerpot can let you know that your plants need to be watered. Or what about tweeting mirrors? You’re shopping alone and you want the opinion of your followers. Well, the mirror can tweet a photo of you.

The point is, when our stuff knows about us, knows what to tell us and when, the possibilities for innovation are endless.

Predicting the future.

As the data we create become more robust, and we get better at understanding it, we might be able to predict the future (or at least anticipate future events). If we can tap into the intelligence of the “hive mind,” we can learn from an intelligence that is much greater than our own. This is already happening to some degree. For example, Google’s metrics sensed that the financial crisis was going to happen based on a shift in consumer behaviour. See article here.

You don’t look for what you want. What you want finds you.

Similar to predicting the future, but on an individual basis. A marketer’s dream: they know you better than you know yourself. It seems creepy now, but it’s definitely coming — slowly and incrementally. Would it be creepy if an ad at the bus stop told you you were almost out of toothpaste and your favourite brand was on sale at the drug store down the street? Hell yes! But I don’t see it as a bad thing. Think of the convenience, the efficiency, and the ultra-personalized products.