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October 09, 2007
In my dream, iPhone saves the day (sort of)
(This is a strange post, and I'll probably delete it. But for now, indulge me.)
When I got my iPhone, I told myself --no, I promised myself--I would not evangelize this device to anyone. No. I would keep my delights to myself. And I have.
So what follows is not evangelizing; I'm just sharing a dream I had last night . . . .
--My Dream--
I was in the countryside somewhere in Asia. I didn't have any friends with me. I was intrigued by the people, food, and the village. But I didn't know where I was or the language I was hearing.
So I had an idea: Use the map feature on my iPhone!
Somehow I figured the phone could triangulate cell towers and bring up the right map, and voila! . . . I would know my location. So that's what I did. I got out my iPhone and pressed the map button.
The iPhone whirred and flashed a few things on the screen, and eventually an image came up: it wasn't a map. It was a flag -- apparently the flag of that Asian country.
"Oh, rats," I thought. I didn't recognize the flag. I wished I'd learned world flags better as a kid, because the image was no help to me. I was still lost.
Then I had another idea: Use my iPhone's browser and search for flags online. Then I'd know my location.
So I fired up iPhone's browser . . .
and that's all I remember about the dream.
So my dream is not so unusual for me: a jumble of shifting experiences. What's notable for me, however, is that even though I was alone, my mobile phone was with me. It was my inseparable companion. And I turned to my phone naturally to solve problems.
Mobile phones are changing how we think -- our psychology. These devices are becoming part of us, part of how we cope with challenges in our world. This will become even more true each passing year, I believe.
Of course, my dream is not proof of anything. It's just one more personal anecdote about how much we depend on these little pocket miracles.
I don't know anyone more optimistic than I am about how mobile phones will change us and our world for the better. My Stanford lab has started a project to understand how we can use mobile phones (or whatever we call our mobile technology of the future) to bring about world peace in 30 years-- or sooner.
Yes, the Internet has opened new doors for relationships and sharing and understanding. But the real potential of connectivity emerges only when we use it in the context of our everyday lives--our everyday *mobile* lives.
Okay . . . you had enough of this rambling?
Me too.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 06:48 PM | Comments (1)
Stanford Facebook student: "I have stopped using apps"
One student in our Stanford Facebook class, "Persuasive Apps & Metrics," started this week's paper with a confession:
"My favorite app is, well, none. I have totally stopped using apps."
This student is not alone. If you've been swamped in apps lately, you may feel the same way. He continues,
"Apps are like shiny new toys to try out, but I have yet to find one that keeps me coming back. "
He wraps his paper:
"So, I am sitting here waiting for the next gen of FB apps. I suspect that these apps will only come when there is a) a built-in ad network on FB and b) a built-in billing system for micropayments and other transactions. Until then, I am looking forward to seeing more shiny toys."
Well, I hope this student isn't completely serious. I hope he's not just "sitting there waiting" (Hey! . . . you gotta ship FB App #1 for this course 9 days from now!). We want our students to learn how to create engaging apps. They know that. This student knows that.
Learning a process for making compelling apps is the big challenge for our course (note that this is a thinking process, not a coding process). We hope that the process we develop will apply beyond Facebook, transforming "shiny new toys" on any platform into "favorite toys" we can all enjoy for years.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
Quick update on Stanford Facebook course
The Facebook course I've been teaching with Dave McClure has been in session for two weeks. We are setting up a blog exclusively about the course. In anticipation, we've been holding back our posts. But there's so much to talk about, I want to summarize a few things:
More than expected, the media has covered the course. The reporters usually spin our course to intrigue their readers, even if the story is not totally accurate. (For example, many say that we're hosting an expo in December for investors. Not true. And we keep telling reporters the investor angle is not true, but they keep writing this into their stories. More on media in future posts.)
The students have been superb: smart, flexible, dynamic . . . This is the best part: working with students.
The course has gotten richer as we've expanded our Tuesday 3-hour labs to bring in experts from Slide, Rock You, and more. We're also able to give students more hands-on technical help than we expected.
We've settled on short name for the course: "Persuasive apps & metrics." Coming up with a short name that captured the course well wasn't simple. But we're mostly happy with the result.
Biggest surprise: How many people and companies have offered to help us (thank you!). Of course, each person has a motive, often the ability to later recruit talent. Not all offers are useful to us, but we've welcomed talent and services that improve the course.
That's the quick update. More soon.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2007
Deciphering Trends in Mobile Search
Google researchers published an article in the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Magazine showing that cell-phone subscribers are typing longer queries in less time and clicking on more results.
--The average mobile query was 2.56 words and 16.8 characters. Smartphone query strings were 2.64 words. (By contrast, PC search strings are roughly 2.5 words.)
--In 2005, users followed less than 10 percent of queries with at least one click on a search result. In 2007, that percentage rose to well over 50 percent. Additionally, the percentage of queries followed by a request for “more search results” increased from 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent.
--The number of queries per session has increased more than 25 percent from 2005.
Posted by Enrique at 01:57 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2007
Musings on Facebook from an 8th-grader
Brian Kong is 13 and in 8th grade at a school in Palo Alto. He's been participating in our lab for the past month and helping us understand the psychology of Facebook across different age groups. Here is a summary he's written of his findings, and some of his ideas for how to improve Facebook.
- Dan AG
As a 13 year old, I'm pretty sure I'm not part of Facebook's target population. However, more and more, I think that I'm beginning to understand why some of my friends started using Facebook, and what persuades more to join. Most of my friends use Facebook for one primary one reason: to tell about their lives and look at the ones that their friends or classmates live. Facebook is picking up success right now among my peers, because during the long summer break when my friends couldn't hang out or verbally update each other on what we did, we needed to find a newer, quicker outlet to keep in touch. This summer for me, the new outlet was Facebook. The word spread through emails and the urge to be part of this new "trend" caused many of us to join. After joining, we realized that it was a great site, and we stuck to it. The applications are also key to Facebook's success in capturing my attention. They provide a little more fun, such as super poke or zombie. So far, my friends are all zombies, and repeatedly try to bite me, as they probably do to other unbitten friends as well.
Facebook is great, but there are a few ways that it could be improved—maybe through new apps that others build. I would think that they should have some form of live video messaging so that the chatters could see other through a web cam. And then, maybe on the side of the video chat window, there would be a small summary of the other person's recent adventures, allowing people easy access to personalized conversation topics. They can even have an area on the screen that links or displays what chatters are currently discussing, such as a picture, an URL, a word document, a video, etc. This would be even cooler than a face to face conversation, and help increase communication and collaboration.
A few new features might also help Facebook expand. There should be some feature where based on your interests, a matchmaking game is set up. It brings you together with another random person with the same hobbies, and makes this little game to help you understand each other better and work as a team. This would also cause more friendships to be made over Facebook, increasing the time that a person would want to spend on Facebook. Of course, this idea is just one out of many, but features like this are generally what would make Facebook more popular and used over longer periods of time.
--- Brian Kong
Posted by Dan at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2007
"Support the Monks' Protests" - Persuasive Technology for Peace on Facebook
I just stumbled across the 337,000-person strong "Support the Monks' Protests in Burma" Facebook group. From the Persuasive Technology Lab perspective, this Facebook group is a timely confluence of our lab's academic interests:
(1) We are teaching a class on building engaging and persuasive Facebook applications
(2) We are studying the psychology of Facebook
(3) We are beginning to dive deep into a project related to "Peace Technology," and we aim to provide insight into how to build persuasive and effective technologies that can help bring about peace on a local level and on a global scale.
The Support the Monks Facebook Group currently has 337,000 members and 6,000 wall posts from members and appears to be extremely successful in raising awareness on Facebook using Groups and Events. According to the group, this Saturday is the "International Day of Action for a Free Burma." From the Facebook group: "We are marching in solidarity with the monks and ordinary people of Burma who are risking their lives for freedom and democracy."
According to an article in Wired, Group leaders anticipate tens of thousands of people taking to the streets around the world Saturday in Facebook-fueled marches, mass protests against Myanmar's recent crackdown on monks' pro-democracy demonstrations. The marches, organized by volunteers using Facebook, show the increasing power and reach of Facebook, and a user's unique ability to leverage his/her individual social graph to spread a message.
Events are scheduled in major cities worldwide, including at Stanford University, this Friday at noon. Scheduled to speak are Mark Gonnerman, a Stanford professor of Religious Studies and founding director of the Aurora Forum, and Nick Harmony, a Board Member of the Burmese American Democratic Alliance.
A question to our readers: What other interesting examples have you found of community organizations using Facebook to promote peace, and what methods have been most effective?
Posted by Dan at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)
Ad-Supported Calling Plan
Pudding Media is building a platform that opens new advertising real estate, allowing consumers to immediately receive and respond to offers related to topics they are discussing. At the same time, Pudding Media's technology allows any communications provider from mobile carriers to Web publishers to offer new ad-supported calling plans. How users respond will prove where the value resides.
Posted by Enrique at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)