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June 30, 2007
Will you bank with your cell phone?
Although the number of people signed up for mobile banking is small at the moment, more large financial institutions are getting ready to introduce it, and the industry expects wide customer adoption of the service over the next five years. Newsday reports that mobile banking "is one of those things the whole industry is studying," because of the need for real-time information and convenience for consumers. Depending on the bank, consumers now have the option of either "Web-based" banking, downloading a software application or communicating directly with the bank via text messages. As new generations become comfortable with this method, mobile banking may become as ubiquitous as debit cards.
Posted by Enrique at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2007
Voice, text, images - the only options for mobile persuasion
In the future mobile phones will run all sorts of third-party applications, much like computers do now. However, getting third-party apps onto mobile phones is extremely challenging today.
Until the mobile industry changes, persuading people to change behavior via mobile phones offers just three modes:
1. Text messaging
2. Voice interaction
3. Photos
So suppose you work at Kaiser Permanente and want to get your members be more physically active. Yes, the mobile phone is an option for motivating people. You should not develop an application for phones. Instead, look at what's possible with texting, interactive voice, and imaging (both capturing images and viewing them). For now, that's the design space of mobile persuasion (unless you have a really geeky audience or can give people phones with your app already installed).
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2007
SMS for Public Health in Developing Countries
A timely report by the Voice of America reminds us that mobile phones are connecting the developing world with 1 million new phones added to networks in less developed countries each day. As the network grows so new uses arise. Voxiva: http://voxiva.com a company based in Washington DC has been offering technical solutions --many based on SMS technology-- for innovative use of mobile phones for public health.
Voxiva's SMS based flagship application, HealthNet (known locally as TRACnet: http://voxiva.com/news/050307.asp winner of the TIGA Prize for Health) has been implemented in Rwanda. HealthNet is an information management solution that allows governments, international organizations and NGOs, to collect data collection from field workers and health care staff in real time and supports structured two way communication to facilitate feedback and supervision. HealthNet uses SMS to support program monitoring, drug and critical supply tracking, supervision and training of staff, and lab reporting.
Other Voxiva applications are in use in Peru, Indonesia, and the provinces of Andra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in India.
The Voice of America podcast (3:30 minutes) is available on:
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/player?s=c16a13a04de7fa8f4e68b19278c080b3&e=660
VOXIVA's website is: http://voxiva.com
Posted by Adam at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2007
Mobile Dating and the Principle of Kairos
An article in the Wall Street Journal showcases MeetMoi, a new dating service that connects prospective daters on their cell phones via SMS exchanges. Leading internet dating site Match.com also plans to go mobile in the near future.
Mobile dating opens the door for companies to use tried and true persuasion strategies in interesting new ways. For example, imagine an SMS dating service employing the "Principle of Kairos" - the strategy of providing the right
information at the best time. Timely notifications and messages could encourage mobile daters to change their behavior, potentially giving dating advice, good pickup lines, and suggestions for restaurants or bars.
Keep an eye out on the mobile dating scene - the use of persuasion techniques will be interesting.
----- Dan Ackerman-Greenberg
Posted by Dan at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2007
Department of Homeland Security Wants Cell Phones to Detect Radioactive Material
http://www.careandhealth.com/pages/story.aspx?storyID=3ff8dddb-c570-43f5-b4e9-746d206f5ca0
The Department of Homeland Security is looking to cell phone users to track biological, chemical, and radioactive material. Such a program could allow all of the members of a community to take an active role in the health of that community, and I believe that this factor would be very motivating in getting users to participate in such a program.
-- Rolf Steier
Posted by Rolf at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2007
10 web crediblity guidelines now in German
Our lab's 10 guidelines for creating credible websites have been translated into German.
* http://meiert.com/de/publications/translations/stanford.edu/guidelines/
* http://nitzsche.info/de.pub-7-uebersetzung-credibility-richtlinien.php
Posted by BJ Fogg at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
Small victory: Mobile Persuasion book listed on Amazon
I know it seems like no big deal, but it is a small victory to have our lab's book listed on Amazon.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2007
Persuading people to interpret scanned words
Luis van Ahn of Carnegie Mellon is a clever creator of persuasive technology. After exchanging emails with him over the last few years, we finally met in person yesterday at O'Reilly's Foo Camp. We talked about his latest project with captchas.
You've seen captchas before. They look like this . . .
Luis is now using captchas to get humans to do boring work that computers cannot do: interpreting scanned words.
In most cases computers using OCR can recognize words on a scanned page. However, once in a while, the computer can't recognize a word with confidence. That's where Luis van Ahn's captchas come in. His system takes the puzzling word and presents it to a human, who can usually recognize the word and type it into the box. This human intervention improves the quality of book scanning projects, like those championed by Brewster Kahle of Internet Archive.
We humans don't like doing boring work, such as typing in random blurry words. But once again, Luis has linked boring, pattern-recognition tasks to another goal that motivates humans. For example, people want to register for web services like Facebook or Yahoo Mail, they must complete a captcha. In this way, boring but useful work is getting done, little by little.
You'll find a longer blog post by John Murrell, which I won't rehash. Instead, I'll point out that I've written about Luis' work before, calling him the "Mary Poppins" of the Internet (remember how she got those kids to do their chores?).
I'll be watching for the next clever solution from Luis.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 06:12 AM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2007
What is the most powerful persuasive page on your website?
Holding the attention of busy advertising executives at a breakfast meeting is a difficult task, all the more so when the audience believes it knows everything there is to know about the field. And yet Richard Sedley's March 15, 2007 breakfast talk makes clear that he succeeded admirably in informing and entertaining insiders in the field.
In fifteen brief minutes Richard walked the audience through the theories of credibility and decision-making, the history of rhetoric from classical times till the postmodern period, experimental results using computers as persuasive agents, to ethics of persuasion in changing times.
Good enough for insiders, and yet accessible to all, I found Richard's talk to be a great introduction to the field. The podcast of Richard's talk is available on:
http://www.richard-sedley.com/blog/images/Persuasive-Solutions-for-Demanding-Times.mp3
with slides accompanying the talk available on:
http://www.richard-sedley.com/blog/images/cScape_Persuasive-Solutions.pdf
It is not only the impressive breadth and masterful synthesis that made Richard Seldey's talk excellent. It is his facts and anecdotes, marshaled wonderfully to keep all interested. From this talk I learned that the decision of whether to trust a website or not takes 500 milliseconds, re-discovered time (timing is everything!) as a powerful but oft reflected variable to pay attention to, and was surprised to understand that the most potent page in terms of customer conversion is the Thank You page.
Two thumbs up on Richard Sedley's podcast.
Posted by Adam at 09:51 PM | Comments (1)
June 22, 2007
Mobile Persuasion book now at Amazon
A fresh printing of our lab's new book on Mobile Persuasion is now listed on Amazon. You can buy it there or order a copy directly from us.
For more info, see www.mobilepersuasion.com.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2007
SMS Campaigns in Asia Enable On-The-Go Social Activism
Recent protests in China, Pakistan and Thailand have involved a number of SMS-based mobile campaigns. Mobile Active points to the idea that the increased speed of SMS messaging enables a new kind of on-the-go social activism.
As the speed of mobile communication increases, an effective persuasive message has more potential to quickly reach a larger worldwide audience. Recent examples include....
CHINA
The Asia Sentinel reports that a recent backlash against a large petro-chemical plant incited a large scale mobile messaging campaign. The following message was sent to over 1 million mobile phones:
“For our children and grandchildren, act! Participate among 10,000 people, June 1 at 8am, opposite the municipal government building! Hand tie yellow ribbons! SMS all your Xiamen friends! “
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=520&Itemid=31
PAKISTAN
DNA India reports that a popular message uses irony to deride the President of Pakistan General Musharraf:
“Imagine the pleasure of living in a land where the chief justice cannot get justice for himself and the army chief, security for his life.” Satire runs through a message pretending to be a campaign letter from Musharraf himself. Part of it reads: “I have the honour of kicking out from the country two former elected prime ministers...” The letter further reads, “I am the one who had handed over hundreds of Pakistanis to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation...” The letter then goes on, to say, “I almost sold a steel mill for the price of plastic toys... Please vote for my Pakistan Muslim League (Q) stooges... or don’t vote at all, so that I can enlighten you further!”
THAILAND
The Thai military is using SMS to overtly persuade people not to join protests. According to Forbes,
"Many people in Thailand have reported receiving unexpected SMS messages urging them to be calm and peaceful. 'Thai people should adhere to the king's speech, be calm ... reasonable and respect the laws,' said one message signed by the Council for National Security (CNS), as the junta calls itself. Another message read: 'The army chief and the junta leader want to see the country remain in peace and reach reconciliation. We request every party involved to do their best job and adhere to peaceful guidelines.' "
----- Dan Ackerman-Greenberg
Posted by Dan at 10:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 19, 2007
7 Categories of Mobile Texting for Health
Last week our lab members looked at how texting on mobile phones can be used to promote health. As it turns out, we decided that all the examples we found fit into seven categories.
1. Remind you to do health behavior
2. Collect data from you
3. Offer you words of inspiration
4. Keep you on schedule/routine
5. Alert you to health issue or crisis
6. Send you lab results
7. Give you health info on demand
Our next step is exploring texting for health in other countries and languages. If you know of some examples that don't fit into the categories above, let us know.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)
Ian Bogost talks about Mobile Persuasion
Ian Bogost, one of my favorite academics and culture critics, talks about Mobile Persuasion in a recent blog post. He was an author in our new book, and his chapter is really insightful (as is all of Ian's work, except when I'm the subject of his critique!).
BJ Fogg, Ph.D.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 02:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 18, 2007
About 20 copies left of Mobile Persuasion book (first printing)
Our lab pulled together a book after the Mobile Persuasion event. We have about 20 copies left of the first printing. If you'd like to have this edition (for your collection, or perhaps to see which typos we missed in editing the first time around), you can order the book online at www.mobilepersuasion.com.
Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behavior Change
The book is a great collection of authors writing short chapters on the present and future for changing behaviors via mobile technology.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)
Whew . . . Our busiest months ever
Our blog has been mostly silent, but we've had our busiest few months ever.
After we hosted an event on Mobile Persuasion for 280 people (www.mobilepersuasion.org), we published a book on this topic with 20 authors. (www.mobilepersuasion.com)
Then we hosted an academic conference on persuasive technology for 170 people. (www.persuasivetechnology.org) This was followed by a weekend at my home in wine country for 45 people, mostly from Europe.
Along the way my lab completed two experiments on mobile persuasion and launched some new lab projects. I spoke at a few conferences and companies. And I started planning a new course for fall.
Oh, yes: We also submitted a couple papers for publication and are now running the election for Persuasive 2008 (www.persuasive2008.org)
So you can see we've been busy. And we haven't kept you informed. We'll step back and cover some of what we've done. It has been perhaps the most interesting period in our lab's 10-year history. But we've done a poor job documenting this in blog form.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)