For anyone interested in learning about stuff like RSS Feeds, podcasts, social networks, Twitter, blogs, social bookmarking and the like, here's a bunch of videos that are amazingly simple and fun explanations by the guys over at commoncraft.
RSS in Plain English
Social Bookmarking in Plain English
Social Networks explained in Plain English
Twitter in Plain English
Blogs in Plain English
Podcasting in Plain English
Social Media in Plain English
Wikis in plain English
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Learning from garage sale signs.
We've all seen them. Homemade signs announcing this or that garage sale that sprout on telephone poles like strange spring flowers in the suburbs of any city in the USA. Everytime I see them I get mad all over again and consider starting up a consulting business for folks having garage sales—but when i run the numbers it's clear that it's not something you could retire on. What's interesting though is that it plainly shows how people generally don't think about context.
I can't count how many times I've seen a sign lettered with yellow or orange marker on brown cardboard. Proof that the signs author has not considered the fact that most people viewing their masterpiece will surely be further than three inches away. Chances are, they'll be in their cars driving by at at least 15 to 40 MPH, and if they're stopped, it's only momentarily for a stop sign. They've only got a few seconds at best to quickly scan your sign for content relevant to them and their lives before they move on down the road to stumble across a better, clearer, more relevant sign for a competitors garage sale.
Not to put to fine a point on it, but think about the home page of a website through this lens. Is your website more like the example in the image? The content is there, but in context of how real people surf the web, are you clearly stating what is it your site contains? What visitors can do? Why they should stay any longer than a few seconds before moving along down the road?
And people please...when making a sign for your next garage sale—or your next missing pet—lay off the colored markers and go with the black. Make it bold, make it as concise as can be. You've only got a few seconds to convince someone with cash in their pockets to come to your yard sale, and not the one around the corner.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Let's get social!
Wow. This is the year for the social web. A few major developments that will change the web as we know it that I'd like to share with the House Party team.
First, a bit of backstory. Social networks as we have known them have been very hungry for registered users, and have been fighting a battle on the web to get as many as they can before someone else snatches them up. So along comes Friendster back when I used to say "Why the hell would anyone want to take part in something like this?" and then Myspace who came along and gobbled up the youth of today and left Friendster mainly a non-English speaking social platform, as it's currently hugely popular in South America and Asia (Middle East Included). Then along comes Facebook, like a wave of molasses registered users stuck to it like—well, molasses.
Today Facebook doesn't have as many users as Myspace, but it's gaining and analysts predict it will catch up to Myspace in the last months of 2008. So now, in the English-speaking web, we have two major social networks each with massive amounts of users. Combined, there are 170 Million active users on the networks (holy moly). Now, here's where it gets interesting. Myspace's userbase caters to youth. And 50% of Facebooks users are post college—their fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older. What that means is that both cover a huge terrain.
It's easy enough to understand now how difficult it is to attempt to compete with the two giants with so many millions of people who have already invested time and effort nourishing their own social spheres—why would anyone want to start from scratch on a new network?
Enter the birth of the truly social web. The end of 2007 and the first few months of 2008 has been quite exciting for the future of the web. Enter the DataPortability Project and recent efforts from private companies such as Google's OpenSocial, Google's Friend Connect, Myspace's Data Availability Project, and now hot on its heels, Facebook's Facebook Connect.
Let's say I'm a member of Facebook, and I go to a site that I like, maybe a video sharing site, and I want to register. (Now keep in mind that I've already done the hard work of building my FAcebook profile and I've got tons of friends I'm connected with) The old way (January!) would have me signing up as a member of this video sharing site, and I'd then need to start from scratch, inviting friends to come join me here. You know what? Screw that! I remember the day when I was doing such a thing and stopped dead in my tracks and thought—what's the point? So from then on, I decided I wasn't going to go on like this.
With the major social networks now playing along with the guiding principles of the Data Portability Project, my friends can move with me as I travel the greater web. Now, I can sign up for that video sharing site, and if they've done their homework, they'll have already tapped into the available data from FAcebook, Myspace, Orkut et al and allow me to reach out to my existing network of web friends, pulling them along with me, or at least easily letting them know that I've found a cool site they should check out. It's a win/win/win situation for the user and for the site's who taps into the open data, and for the source network (myspace, facebook). The best part I, as a user, have only ONE profile I need to keep up to date. One profile with privacy settings. This is a major feat. I can update my profile photo, my other public-facing data, and adjust my privacy settings in one screen, and everywhere else I am connected is automatically updated.
Business folk reading this will most likely have seen something similar watching LinkedIn evolve, and Plaxo into Plaxo Pulse (and now it's been acquired by Comcast, which is a bit scary).
We've just gone through one of the most significant developmental stages of the internet since the internet itself was born.
What does it mean for us here at House Party? It means we need to keep a sharp eye on all of this, and not get left in the dust because weren't holding on tight enough. We need to process all of this to see how best to adjust to benefit from these developments. Otherwise we run the risk of becoming dinosaurs like so many of the web sites from the 90s! (Go ahead, take a look at what the web used to be like, you'll laugh your ass off. Check the Internet Archive and go back, wayyy back!)
First, a bit of backstory. Social networks as we have known them have been very hungry for registered users, and have been fighting a battle on the web to get as many as they can before someone else snatches them up. So along comes Friendster back when I used to say "Why the hell would anyone want to take part in something like this?" and then Myspace who came along and gobbled up the youth of today and left Friendster mainly a non-English speaking social platform, as it's currently hugely popular in South America and Asia (Middle East Included). Then along comes Facebook, like a wave of molasses registered users stuck to it like—well, molasses.
Today Facebook doesn't have as many users as Myspace, but it's gaining and analysts predict it will catch up to Myspace in the last months of 2008. So now, in the English-speaking web, we have two major social networks each with massive amounts of users. Combined, there are 170 Million active users on the networks (holy moly). Now, here's where it gets interesting. Myspace's userbase caters to youth. And 50% of Facebooks users are post college—their fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older. What that means is that both cover a huge terrain.
It's easy enough to understand now how difficult it is to attempt to compete with the two giants with so many millions of people who have already invested time and effort nourishing their own social spheres—why would anyone want to start from scratch on a new network?
Enter the birth of the truly social web. The end of 2007 and the first few months of 2008 has been quite exciting for the future of the web. Enter the DataPortability Project and recent efforts from private companies such as Google's OpenSocial, Google's Friend Connect, Myspace's Data Availability Project, and now hot on its heels, Facebook's Facebook Connect.
Let's say I'm a member of Facebook, and I go to a site that I like, maybe a video sharing site, and I want to register. (Now keep in mind that I've already done the hard work of building my FAcebook profile and I've got tons of friends I'm connected with) The old way (January!) would have me signing up as a member of this video sharing site, and I'd then need to start from scratch, inviting friends to come join me here. You know what? Screw that! I remember the day when I was doing such a thing and stopped dead in my tracks and thought—what's the point? So from then on, I decided I wasn't going to go on like this.
With the major social networks now playing along with the guiding principles of the Data Portability Project, my friends can move with me as I travel the greater web. Now, I can sign up for that video sharing site, and if they've done their homework, they'll have already tapped into the available data from FAcebook, Myspace, Orkut et al and allow me to reach out to my existing network of web friends, pulling them along with me, or at least easily letting them know that I've found a cool site they should check out. It's a win/win/win situation for the user and for the site's who taps into the open data, and for the source network (myspace, facebook). The best part I, as a user, have only ONE profile I need to keep up to date. One profile with privacy settings. This is a major feat. I can update my profile photo, my other public-facing data, and adjust my privacy settings in one screen, and everywhere else I am connected is automatically updated.
Business folk reading this will most likely have seen something similar watching LinkedIn evolve, and Plaxo into Plaxo Pulse (and now it's been acquired by Comcast, which is a bit scary).
We've just gone through one of the most significant developmental stages of the internet since the internet itself was born.
What does it mean for us here at House Party? It means we need to keep a sharp eye on all of this, and not get left in the dust because weren't holding on tight enough. We need to process all of this to see how best to adjust to benefit from these developments. Otherwise we run the risk of becoming dinosaurs like so many of the web sites from the 90s! (Go ahead, take a look at what the web used to be like, you'll laugh your ass off. Check the Internet Archive and go back, wayyy back!)
Monday, June 2, 2008
Web Karma
There's relatively new Twitter-esque—microblogging/web/instant message—called Plurk. Similar to Twitter, users can publish their whereabouts and activities, but in a visual timeline form. Very cool. Additionally, users accrue "karma" based on their activity, which unlocks certain features in a video game-like way. Folks who use Reddit, the user moderated/managed news aggregation service (you've seen the little icons everywhere next to the bookmark links), will be quite familiar with it, as they use the Karma system as well. In both cases, the more you use the service, the more karma (points) you get.
As we're working out our own version of user points, it's worthwhile to check in on these two sites to see how it works. Set up a free account on both to try them out.
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