innovation

what you need to know about foursqaure 3.0

by Marco on Mar 8, 2011 • View Comments

Today @dens told us about foursquare 3.0, which launches tonight. There are some big changes that make this platform even more valuable to brands:

1) Loyalty – going beyond Mayorships, and six new types of Specials

Anybody who uses foursquare know this: “it’s become harder to both hold down Mayorships and win back the ones you’ve lost.” (I show up everyday too, but the Mayor is getting all the love. WTF!?)

To solve this, the platform now gives merchants more ways to reward loyal customers:

Swarms
Groups of friends
Regulars
Newbies
Mayors
Simply to everyone

On top of that, “the Places screen in the app, you’ll now see a list of all the Specials nearby, so it’s easier to find places that reward foursquare users.”

Why is this important? More ways to reward customers, encourage discovery and drive store traffic.

2) The Explore Tab – a recommendation engine for the real world

The platform will turn all the check-ins and tips they’ve seen from us, our friends, and the larger foursquare community into personalized recommendations.

The idea is pretty simple: tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll help you find something nearby. The suggestions are based on a little bit of everything – the places you’ve been, the places your friends have visited, your loyalty to your favorite places, the categories and types of places you gravitate towards, what’s popular with other users, the day of the week, places with great tips, the time of day, and so on.

Why is this important? More and more our decisions are influenced by filtered social data. This is a no brainer online, with things like Facebook’s Open Graph, Hunch, Netflix and Amazon all helping us sift through the fire hose of data to make better decisions and discover new things. Now, this same thing is starting to happen in the real world. (Where most brands live.)

3) The Me tab – A personal expertise builder

The same data mentioned above, will be applied to individuals to help build an expertise profile.

As we started to tinker with our recommendations algorithms, we started to see “expertise” starting to emerge from the data – we’re seeing friends that have been to every karaoke place within 10 miles or tried every burger in Los Angeles. The new “Me” tab surfaces some of this, letting you seek guidance from your friends on the categories and places they explore most.

Why is this important? Again, we’re relying on our social graph to help us make decisions. The clout of a recommendation depends on the authority of the person making that recommendation. For our most personal contacts, we have a sense of this already. But for the weak-ties, we need some indication of who is credible. This is a powerful mechanism for doing that because “expertise” is tied to real-world actions.

4) An enhanced leader board, that rewards you for a variety of things, including hanging out with old friends.

Why is this important? This makes the app more engaging and rewarding, which means more people using it more often.

All of these additions contribute enormously to the power of this platform. You really have to give props to foursquare for continuing to innovate in this space, creating new ways for us to use mobile to extend the power of social into the real world.

innovation

finding opportunity in hacked solutions

by Marco on Dec 9, 2010 • View Comments

Solving for unmet needs is a great reason to innovate. And a great way to spot an unmet need is to look for situations where people are hacking a solution.

A few months ago I noticed that people were hacking a solution to make their books more social: taking pictures of specific passages or screenshots on their iPad and then using Twitter or a blog to comment on specific chunks of text. It makes sense. This is how we consume content these days, in desecrate chunks that can be curated and socialized.

Here is Russell Davies talking about how he uses Stickybits to dog-ear passages in a book — in this case, Clay Shirky’s Cognative Surplus.

My latest technique with a physical book is to scan it into stickybits and then add photos as ‘bits’ every time I want to dog-ear something. That way you end up with a page with all the marked bits on it, including a record of where and when I was reading. (Though they aren’t great pictures.) As back-up I’m also doing actual dog-earring and sticking pictures of some bits on flickr too. That’s probably going too far. Pictures here will be a mixture of the two, the best ones I’ve got.)

cognitive surplus - blog all dog-eared pages

And here is David Armano using his iPad + Twitter to do the same thing with Seth Godin’s Linchpin.

These are hacked solutions: examples of early adopters who can see the potential in new technologies and are able to do the requisite “systems integration” to create something useful.

But for most people, the value is created when somebody does the systems integration, packages it up, and markets it so that it is clear what job is getting done. Or makes it clear that there is a job they need/want to get done in the first place. (Often the most valuable products fulfill an unmet need that is such a part of “normal” routine that people don’t even realize they are “hacking” a solution. Then you wonder how you ever lived without it.)

Well, lo and behold we are seeing innovation in the “social books” space.

What CEO Ilian is showing is an iPad app, but this app could work on other devices, including e-readers. You see the familiar bookshelf with your books, but you can also connect with your friends on Twitter and Facebook and within the Social Books app itself to see what books are on their bookshelves. As you read a book, you can highlight and create notes, as well as see the highlights and notes of your friends (in different colors). Excerpts could be shared via Twitter or Facebook with a link back to an excerpt page, along with a link to buy the book. There is an activity stream view, where you can see all the comments and recent reading activities of the people you follow.

Cool.

But where else are people “hacking” solutions? Where else is there opportunity for innovation?

How about… when we use our mobile phones to do product research in-store and on-the-go? Here’s an example of a what might be considered a broken process:

Whenever I hand her a phone in the car to look for directions or a local resource she still looks as if I ‘d just handed her a rabid ferret. But she knows very well that I can get just about any product information we need on a smartphone. “Google it!” she commands from the steam-cleaner aisle at Best Buy.

While it might be challenging at times, eMarketer gives us some proof that we are indeed using our mobile devices to make purchase decisions:

A global retail study, conducted by Microsoft Advertising and Carat, which found that 38% of US shoppers said they used their mobile devices to help make a final decision to make a store purchase. And 31% of those polled purchased a new item after using their phone in-store.

Is that right? 82% of people who used their phone to help make a purchase decision ended up buying something?! With numbers like that, you would think retailers would be packaging (or at least promoting) a dead-simple mobile solution? Not so much:

According to Brandanywhere’s Mobile Indexer, only 4.83% of retailers have websites designed for the mobile web…. Let alone a packaged solution designed to help customers make a final purchase decision.

Opportunity? I think so.

Amazon’s New iPhone App Offers In-Store Price Comparisons One Click Purchases So does Amazon.

…you can simply scan the barcode or say the product’s name and the app will match an item and provide pricing from Amazon.com and other online merchants. If the product is listed on Amazon, customers can then purchase the item with one click.

They get it. By packaging a dead-simple solution to this problem, they effectively turn every other brick-and-mortar retailer into their own storefront.

Bravo, Amazon.

So what do you think? I am wrong? Any other hacked solutions out there that represent an opportunity?

innovation / trend hunting

the future of employment and wealth

by Marco on Nov 9, 2010 • View Comments

Here is an interesting article from The New York Times: Jobs Data Highlights the Challenges for Washington.

The good news: The United States economy added 151,000 jobs in October.

The bad: It’s not nearly strong enough to make a dent in unemployment. Nearly 15 million people are still out of work, and the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at 9.6 percent.

To put it into perspective, even if the economy suddenly expands and starts adding 208,000 jobs a month — as it did in its best year this decade — it would still take 12 years to close the gap between the growing number of American workers and the total available jobs, according to the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project.

Obviously something has to change. We need a paradigm shift in our definition of employment. It’s not about getting a “job” anymore. And, besides, why would you want it to be?

Eric Ries talks about a revolution in entrepreneurship, and how there are more entrepreneurs all over the world than ever before. I quite like how he defines a startup:

A human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under extreme uncertainty.

At the same time, Clay Shirky talks about cognative surplus, explaining how the Internet has lowered costs to participating in the creation and sharing of ideas, products and services. And how technology is enabling us to be creative and generous in ways that we never anticipated and haven’t yet fully taken account of.

I like how the opening for the film, The Future of Money (posted below) puts it:

We can go online in the space of 10 seconds we have 20 tabs filled with amazing initiatives and amazing people from all over the world. It naturally raises my standards and expectations in terms of what can I achieve. When I see all this stuff it’s sort of this feeling of overwhelming, what the hell do I do with this? On the other hand, when I’m clear, it’s just this complete bliss and ecstasy that there is just so much richness. And if you talk about wealth, I feel like I have the world’s collective consciousness at my finger tips and I just feel so RICH!

Some more good news: People aren’t just talking about this; it’s already happening all over the place.

Because transaction costs are approaching zero and because it’s becoming easier to find and connect with people, things like this are happening:

Skyara is a marketplace for exciting things to do.

The site provides people who can offer new experiences like a culinary tour, personalized yoga or a beer tasting with a platform to do so, hooking them up AirBnB-style with people who seek new experiences like foodies or yoga fanatics.

There’s also Fiverr, “The place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5;” landshare, a service that connects growers with people with land to share; kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects; freecycle, a community where people give and get things for free; and zoopa, the world’s first social finance company that lets people lend and borrow directly with each other online.

These are examples of collaborative consumption, where people see themselves as producers that create the value AND as consumers who can benefit from that value.

In this new world, what is value? What is wealth? If value exchange is built on trust, how is the Internet, and how we behave on it, redefining our definition of trust?

These are some interesting questions, discussed in the film below. Check it out. Think about it. Discuss.

innovation

diaspora: one step closer

by Marco on Sep 15, 2010 • View Comments

diaspora now

Back in July, I asked the question “what ever happened to diaspora?” As I found out, they were doing just fine, working away coding their first release. Well, today they’ve hit the milestone of a developers release; people all over can work on the open source code. Kind of like the Linux of social networks…I guess?

Some interesting takeaways from their blog post:

First of all, privacy on the web is an illusion, no matter how robust your technology is.

We began the summer a list of technologies, and a few bold claims and the goal to make an intrinsically more private social network. The overwhelming response that we elicited made us realize that technology woudn’t be enough. Even the most powerful, granular set of dropdowns and checkboxes will never give people control over where their content is going, let alone give them ownership of their digital self.

Second, when it comes to the social networks of today, there are still things that can (and should) be fixed. What I’m referring to here is this:

This image, from “The Real Life Social Network” by Paul Adams, Google UX, makes the point that offline, people have multiple, independent groups of friends, while online they’re all thrown into one big bucket. According to Adams’ research, this causes several problems:

1) Status updates are often directed to specific groups, which means the larger group is seeing meaningless or odd-sounding updates.

2) Similarly, when sharing pictures from one group, other groups can see them, even when you might not want them to. (Yes, you can change settings so this doesn’t happen, but this isn’t fundamentally part of the experience — it’s a work around that many people don’t get around to)

3) And finally, because we have to talk to everyone at once, we often choose to say nothing, which defeats the purpose of social networking.

How is diaspora going to fix this? Well, I’m hoping the answer lies with a core feature, called “aspects.” Here’s what they say about it:

We live our real lives in context, speaking from whatever aspect of ourselves that those around us know. Social tools should work the same way. Getting the source into the hands of developers is our first experiment in making a simple and functional tool for contextual sharing.

At this point, who really knows what will become of diaspora. In any case, it looks good. And I just can’t imagine Facebook lasting forever.

As always, I’m happy to hear what you think about it.

digital marketing / innovation

the implications of new twitter?

by Marco on Sep 14, 2010 • View Comments

Today Twitter launched New Twitter. The changes let you view content without leaving the Twitter home page. Mashable calls it the “Facebookification of Twitter.” (here are the screenshots)

Beyond the great, new interface, what does this mean going forward? Some points to consider:

1) Twitter is an information network first; a social network second.
If you’re like me, one of main reasons to use Twitter is to get filtered information from smart people who are involved in things that interest you. You follow and unfollow based on the quality of what people are sharing and saying. This is not the case on Facebook.

2) Twitter is growing exponentially.
According to TechCrunch, Twitter is adding 370,000 users per day, and getting 90 million tweets per day. This is part of a broader trend that sees us spending more of our time on the web on social sites, getting “news” from our networks. Or as author Nick Bilton explains it, the world of “Me! Now!” So, it seems obvious that more and more content is not being consumed at the point source, and instead on networks like Twitter and Facebook.

3)The content being tweeted is coming from traditional sources.
Almost contradictory to the previous point, according to a study by Journalism.com, “50% of stories linked to from Twitter were to legacy outlets (30% to American legacy media), while 40% went to web-only sites such as Mashable and CNET.” (GOOD magazine turned the study into an infographic, called “What the Tweet?”)

So what does this mean for Twitter? What about promoted tweets? Beyond that what does this mean for media — the content itself? (As @saneel at BBH points out, the content is inevitably impacted by the channel.)

Or does this mean nothing much? What do you think?

innovation

What ever happened to diaspora?

by Marco on Jul 13, 2010 • View Comments

Remember diaspora* (pronounced die-as-poe-ra)? It was all the rage back in May. A move to decentralize the web; a seemingly moral obligation provide the world with a ”privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network.” Sounds grand, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s four dudes from NYU. They put their idea on kickstarter with the hopes of raising $10k so they could eat ramen noodles over the summer while they wrote their code.

Turns out they hit on something.

Not only did they reach their goal (they reached $10k in 12 days) they smashed it, raising over $200k in 39 days! And this is all before a single line of code was written. Why? This was right around the time when Facebook released its Open Graph and people were pissed about privacy concerns (yet again).

All the makings of a disruptive technology that can knock Facebook on its ass?

Ok, so I feel like we all know that there are a whole bunch of things wrong with Facebook. A poor user interface, and privacy concerns (perceived or otherwise) are the two most obvious.

But remember when Facebook came out? Myspace was king, and social networking was cluttered and messy.

Facebook came along and changed things. It clean things up and introduced us to the walled garden. Oh ya, and it was only for college students — you actually needed a valid university email address to sign up.

Things felt safe. And it was relitvely safe. Everyone was in the same boat. And — here’s the kicker — there was a pretty good chance all the people in your “friends” list were actually your friends!

Fast forward and social networking now dominates our Internet usage, and Facebook has dominated social networking. But now, this once pristine, walled garden isn’t so anymore. Things are getting cluttered and messy all over again. And they certainly don’t feel safe.

The real question is, what will we be doing in 5 years social media wise?

What about 1 year? 6 months? It’s hard to imagine that 500M people will abandon ship and move to a new network. But hey, I bet Myspace was thinking the same thing back in 2006.

Facebook won over Myspace becuase it found a beachhead — college students — and becuase it cleaned up its act, and because it created a walled garden (which has its advantages). But what if the pendulum is ready to swing back the other way? Something open – no walls, yet private as can be.

David and Goliath: David always wins.

Just when it seems that a company is too big to fail, it does. It has happened over and over again — it’s called disruptive innovation and the innovators dilemma. The disruptor is usually a quick and nimble nobody with a fraction of the functionality of the disruptee; initially taking root at the bottom of a market, relentlessly moving up market, and eventually displacing established competitor. The established competitor (i.e. Facebook) tries to innovate quickly, but can’t because its large, stable customer base can’t handle too much change too quickly. Hmm…does this sound familiar?

What did ever happen to diaspora?

Four, 20 year-old, self-proclaimed nerds with $200k in cash, and no real obligations. I know what you might be thinking…and some were predicting immentent doom. But actually, one month on, it looks like they’re doing ok.

So will these be the guys to take down Facebook? Will someone else do it? Or will Facebook live on forever?

digital marketing / innovation

the internet is taking over the real world

by Marco on Jul 6, 2010 • View Comments

You tagged me in your photo? No, I tagged you with my photo.

It’s official: the Internet has moved on. Unlike Prince, however, I don’t think “the Internet is over.” In fact, I’m saying it’s taking over; the real world, that is. If the last decade was about filling the Internet up with things that existed in the real world, the next one is all about filling the real world with things that only exist online.

It’s not like we wouldnt have done it sooner, but only now with ever improving, increasingly adopted smartphones, and ubiquitous internet connectiviy, has it really been possible. That being said, it’s obvious that our mobile phones are the key link between our physical worlds and online worlds. And indeed, the more we use the mobile web, the more the lines between the two worlds continue blur.

IMO this is where all the interesting things are happening, and where all the opportunity lies.

Need more convincing? Here are some examples:
(more…)

digital marketing / innovation

Using Twitter to Tap into the Global Consciousness

by Marco on Jan 11, 2010 • View Comments

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:

We, as a global society, are getting smarter and more resilient as the barriers to communication are lowered and networks are formed.
People and machines will be having conversations with each other. It will be to our benefit.
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.