Google Developer Day 2008 in Sydney

Google are planning a developer day in Sydney (June 18th) for those who want to "Learn how to best use Google developer products to build social applications, mobile applications, geo/maps applications, and AJAX/JavaScript applications."

Find out more at http://code.google.com/events/developerday/2008/home.html

Playing with Mashups

OK. Many of you are getting to the point where you need to start trying out your ideas. As I mentioned in class today, using a mashup approach can be a relatively quick and easy way to sketch out ideas that are interactive. I'll be putting up more resources on the course website over the next few days, but to get you going, here are is a link to some mashups from last year:

Note that the URL is for the COMP3505 external hosting, which you will probably need to use if you are going to try out mashups. The default available for each team is an ftp account which allows you to upload your code and try it out there, along with 500MB of storage. If you will need a MySQL database for your project, this is also available. If you want an account set up for your team, please send an email to comp3505@itee.uq.edu.au and we'll sort it out.

--Stephen.

How “Social” is “Social”, Really?

An uninformed university student reflects on his personal experiences using trendy online social applications, and wonders as to what extent we can truly be social without conventional human contact and interaction. Hilarity ensues.

“Humans are inherently social: they live together, work together, learn together, play together, interact and talk with each other, and socialize. It seems only natural, therefore to develop interactive systems that support and extend these different kinds of sociality.” - Preece, Rogers & Sharp, Interaction Design, 2002.

Indeed, social web applications are all the rage now. So much so that the University of Queensland created a course with a catchy name, produced an entire syllabus and even went as far as recruiting a knowledgeable and distinguished lecturer all the way from England to teach it :-). And thus my journey began.

The mission sounded simple enough: sign up to a few social websites and applications, observe and report. I chose to focus on the “social” aspect of the tools and applications I’d be exposed to, and attempted to immerse myself in 7 of the most popular social networking applications on the Internet today. Despite the fact that I’d been using a few of these applications for some time now, being forced to actually think about them in a particular context was a whole new experience altogether. It soon began to dawn on me that my old-fashioned notions of what it meant to be social simply didn’t apply on the Internet. I discovered that the word “social” has taken on a meaning almost as broad as the Web itself, now redefined to mean “anything with the potential for user input”. In today’s age of social bookmarking, social marketing, social commerce and social shopping, you can live under a rock and still be the most sociable person in the world.

THE TOOLS

Aiding me on my journey were the following:
http://jayderagon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/socialmedia_2png.jpg

Last.fm
Last.fm touts itself as “the social music revolution”, and is a unique combination of online social music portal and ingenious software. By tracking your musical preferences and listening habits, Last.fm attempts to provide personalised recommendations, connect users who share similar tastes, provide custom radio streams and more.

Twitter
Twitter is perhaps one of the fastest growing social applications out there at the moment. It is a microblogging tool, facilitating the exchange of short textual messages between its users, all answering one simple question: “what are you doing?”

Google Calendar
Calendar is Google’s free online calendar service, allowing users to store, manage and share their schedules and contacts with other users.

Facebook
“Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you”. Wildly popular, Facebook aims to connect its users with their existing social networks, allowing them to keep up with friends and family, share photos and videos, reconnect with old classmates, discuss interests and hobbies and plan parties and other events.

del.icio.us
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking tool which allows users to store a collection of their favourite websites and URLs online. Users can also use del.icio.us to browse and search for links that other users have posted, all made easy with the website’s easy-to-use tagging system.

Blogger
Blogger is another of Google’s free tools, and one of the most popular and flexible blog creation and publishing services around. For those clueless individuals that have no idea what a blog is, it is essentially an online journal, composed of text, images and links to other web content. You are reading a blog now.

Flickr
Flickr is the web’s premium online photo management and sharing services. Flickr allows users to upload, organise and tag their digital photos, share them either privately or with the entire Flickr “community” and search for and comment on other users’ photos.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

You’ll notice right away that although all of these tools are classified as social applications, they all differ greatly in purpose, function and utilisation. As my use of these applications grew, I realised that they also varied greatly in their effectiveness to me as facilitators of “traditional” social interaction. There were those that brought me closer to my friends and companions, and those that I had trouble seeing as anything but useful tools with little real value in a social context.

I’ll begin with what the cream of the crop - Facebook. If you ignore the plethora of useless applications for a moment (a virtual zombie vampire drink, anyone?) and look at Facebook at its most fundamental level, you might find that it’s actually quite brilliant. In all my experience using online social applications, Facebook emerged as the lone purveyor of the sanctity of traditional social relationships – a welcoming shelter in an infinite landscape where ‘social’ contact is largely shrouded in anonymity, hidden behind usernames and multiple identities. A place where your ‘profile’ and online social network is a reflection of, rather than an escape from or carefully selected slice of your real-world personal and social connections. With Facebook there are, at least for the meantime, no signs of the lack of accountability that seems to have plagued many other online social networking tools in the past, which essentially allow you to take on an online persona that may or may not represent who you really are. Unlike older social networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo, where the objective for many of its users seems to be to amass large, shallow “friend” networks with little or no value, with Facebook there is a strong emphasis on maintaining and rekindling current and past friendships and sharing the life events that connect us, facilitating real world interaction. This is what (I believe) makes it instantly appealing and accessible, especially to those that have shied away from online social networking tools in that past.

It is also evident that Facebook’s founders and developers have gone to some lengths to preserve this sanctity, both with subtle inklings such as the signup form that prompts you to enter your “Full Name” and instantly rejects usernames, bogus names and aliases, and the less-subtle policy of actively cancelling and removing the profiles of users that mange to weasel their way through the automatic filters (it is in fact a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service to provide false personal details). My personal favourite though is the “How Do You Know this Person?” box that formerly appeared with each new friend request, and would not allow you to confirm a person as a friend if you selected “I don’t know this person”.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

Next up on the socialness ladder is what I like to call the ‘Tools that Have the Potential to Complement and Improve an Individual’s Day-to-day Social Interactions’ category. Google Calendar is an excellent example – an online tool that allows friends, relatives and co-workers to synchronise and organise their lives... together. As with most Google products, the concept has been executed quite well, and although the layout and navigation took me a little getting used to, its value as a social accompaniment is unquestionable.

This is in contrast to the other social application I’ve placed in this category – Twitter. Put simply, Twitter confuses me. When I first signed up for and began using the “revolutionary” microblogging app, I saw it as something cool and innovative, but with no real purpose as anything other than a timewaster. Its sheer simplicity and openness threw me off slightly (you can pretty much “follow” anyone you want), and I was genuinely freaked out when after less than a week of sporadic use, I was informed that I was now being followed by a fat white dude with a spine-chillingly intense profile picture. Was this the purpose of Twitter? To find and follow people you’ve never met just for the heck of it? I can’t for the life of me imagine why the aforementioned Twitterer decided to follow me, but from what I’ve seen so far it’s quite a common occurrence. Scott Karp, in his ‘Why I Stopped Using Twitter’ blog post, wonders “whether it will ever catch on beyond geeks who thrive on spending massive quantities of their lives on the web,” and in its current incarnation, I’d have to agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment.

During my painful research phase I stumbled upon twitterholic.com, a website that tracks Twitter usage and lists the top 100 Twitterers based on followers. Of the 6 none- news, tech or political Twitter feeds on the top 10, I found a total of 6 (that’s 100% if you can’t do the math) to be mind-numbingly banal – filled with updates ranging from the mundane (“just got off plane. Flight was OK” /“going to dinner with family at Italian restaurant”) to the scattered and disjointed white noise of incoherent half-conversations. Sorry leolaporte and JasonCalacanis; you may be huge internet celebrities with thousands of “Followers” and your own Wikipedia pages, but your dull 140-character ramblings mean nothing to me.

Call me old fashioned, but I find it extremely difficult to “socialize” with someone unless I’ve met them IN PERSON and subsequently built some kind of rapport. In fact, of all the Twitter feeds and blogs I encountered on my path of enlightenment , the only ones that captured my attention and brought about a feeling of ‘connectedness’ were those that weren’t personal in nature – the breaking news, tech and political campaign Twitter feeds and blogs. I believe that technologies like Twitter (and Blogger) derive the most value and are truly in their element when they are utilised as publicity networking rather than a social networking tools – that is, in group and team-based situations, as a means of quickly broadcasting updates to all relevant parties. Allen Stern's CentreNetworks article sums up the difference between the two rather nicely: "A social networking tool becomes a publicity tool when 'I speak, you speak, I reply, you reply' becomes 'I speak, you listen'."

THE JOURNEY NEARS ITS END

Had it not been for these dynamics, Twitter could have easily found a place in my final category – the category I’ve dubbed the ‘Sharing Does Not Automatically Make You Social’ category. Here I’ve placed sites and services like Last.fm, del.icio.us and (to a lesser extent) Flickr. Now don’t get me wrong, I found each one of these applications to be brilliant pieces of technology, useful in their own special ways, but it irks me that they all follow the philosophy that by simply sharing something you are automatically being “social”. Bloggers like Stephan Spencer see it differently, describing Flickr as “a visual conversation… countless stories intertwined… a community”. I disagree. Sure, there are certainly hundreds of thousands of people around the world that share common musical tastes, browsing habits and/or visual ideas, but without the personal bonds and individual accountability that are implicit in social applications like Facebook, it’s hard for me to imagine “meeting new people” or strengthening my current social ties through them. To me, the more time you spend in these online “communities”, the further you drift from your real-world social ties.

And so the journey ends. A journey of reflection and enlightenment. To what extent we can truly be social without conventional human contact and interaction? My personal experiences using online social applications gave me mixed results. I found that there were those that bring (or have the potential to bring) us closer to the people we meet, and those that move us further away. The bottom line: on the World Wide Web, “social” isn’t always social.

Sources

Deragon, J; Which Community Do You Live In? – Social Media Today (http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/29702)

Facebook; Statistics (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics)

Goodin, Dan; MySpace users snowed in by new blizzard of spam (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/14/myspace_spam_blizzard/)

Karp, Scott; Why I Stopped Using Twitter – Publishing 2.0 (http://publishing2.com/2007/12/11/why-i-stopped-using-twitter/)

Odden, Lee; Twitter Marketing Guide – Tips on using Twitter (http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/11/twitter-guide/)

Preece, Rogers & Sharp 2002; Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction; John Wiley & Sons; ISBN 0 471 49278 7

Scoble, Robert; Scobleizer – The you-don’t-need-more-friends lobby (http://scobleizer.com/2007/10/14/the-you-dont-need-more-friends-lobby/)

Spencer, Stephan – What is Flickr and why should I care? (http://www.stephanspencer.com/content/flickr)

Stern, Allen; CentreNetworks – When Does a Social Network Become a "Publicity Network"? (http://www.centernetworks.com/social-network-to-publicity-network)

Twitterholics (http://www.twitterholics.com)

User Created Content with Social and Mobile Computing Tools

Introduction:

The emergence of social networking applications has allowed groups and individuals to interact socially to new and unprecedented levels, and all while online ^[1]. The increasing popularity of such applications and the revenue they generate has necessitated the need to determine at least in part the driving forces behind social applications^[1]. While investigating several applications, one aspect intrigued me greatly, that of user created content (UCC).

Background:

This article will focus on investigating three social networking applications: Facebook, LiveJournal and LastFm to establish how they incorporate UCC to enhance social networking. The synergy between UCC and its commercial applications will also be discussed, in addition to both the positive and negative aspects of using each application. To begin with, the focus of this reflective article will be presented, followed by a reflection which will lead into the conclusion of the report.

Focus:

One common tenant of these social applications is that they allow a user to personalize and customize to some degree various aspects of the medium in question in such a way that it reflects upon the author. This in part is why these programs are so successful, as by human nature people are curious about not only about their fellow peers but also by complete strangers at times. While investigating several profiles of my friends on FaceBook I noticed that the situations in which the individual had created unique content proved to be far more interesting. By the nature of their existence live journal and LastFM revolve around user created content, and this is perhaps why I found these to be far more fascinating than FaceBook.

One of the core purposes of social networking sites is to promote social interaction, and this of course is helped if human interest is generated; it helps strengthen or continues existing relationships and makes forming new ones considerably easier at times. Therefore for this reason it is important to discuss how UCC can be integrated well with social and mobile computing tools and why it works. Additionally, upon searching several live journal blogs it became apparent that generating unique content can be very profitable; this second question of why this is so is of much importance. This is because being able to generate revenue while using such tools adds a certain notion of sustainability that promotes and potentially evolves the market.

Reflection:

Facebook:

Facebook more so than the other two tools discussed later tends to promote customization and personalization as opposed to the creation and distribution of user created content. While not necessarily a bad thing, it does show where its focus lies and where it can be improved; it’s nice to know that another user appreciates the same taste in television shows as you do, but once you realize that the most popular shows are liked by everyone it soon becomes far less unique. After the tenth or so profile to praise the television show ‘Lost’ ^[2] which also had the same beer drinking application (and coincidentally almost all the same applications) it dawned upon me that personalization alone is not enough. Despite the fact that no two people in the world are identical, the nature of popular media and culture suggests that many people are going to end up having many similar preferences and opinions.

That’s not to say that customization is a bad thing; it’s just that it’s not enough on its own and pales in comparison to the rarer occurrences where Facebook profiles offer unique user create content. Take for example the Graffiti and Video applications. The former allows you to create, receive and send images that the user personally creates ^[3] to and from other Facebook profiles. Not only can it be vastly entertaining (and hence why it’s one of the most popular Facebook applications) it makes it my opinion a lot more entertaining. Likewise, the video application allows users to create and share videos and music that they have created themselves, even if it can be used to virally send existing videos.

The most common ways to make money on Facebook revolves around advertising and sponsorship given to Facebook application designer ^[4]. While designing falls out of the reach of many Facebook users, it once again highlights how facilitating the creation of unique content is the way to go. By rewarding those with the initiative or creative drive to create their own applications, you lay to foundation building blocks for a prosperous and interesting community.

LiveJournal:

Live journal by its nature fosters creative content from its users. While it’s true that it can be used privately or for completely uncreative reasons, it is commonly used as a blogging service to share thoughts and opinions. Blogs whether or not they are non-fictional or fictional (one can always blog about stories they have written) tend to be written with the aim to entertain or interest. Live journal provides this opportunity to people, allowing them to share their thoughts or a snapshot of their daily lives with their friends, a loyal reader base or complete strangers.

Naturally as a result, it can be quite entertaining and interesting to read the various blogs on offer; this in turns help fosters desire within potential bloggers to begin their own, continuing the cycle. Many bloggers have a loyal reader base ^[5] which helps support once again the notion that user created content will and does play an integral role within these social networking tools. This is reflected in some of the core features of LiveJournal, that allow users to ‘friend’ other blogs they are interested in. People are also encouraged and allowed to leave messages on other blogs, once again promoting the social aspect of the site ^[6].

LiveJournal is different from several other tools in that it allows you to sell merchandise much in the same manner of an online retailer ^[7]. In this example, a live journal blogger has built up a loyal fan base through user created content, and has used this as an opportunity to sell clothing that they design. By creating an interesting blog they are able to influence readers into potentially buying their products, and hence have generated a source of income through a social networking tool.

Negative experiences from attempting to generate a LiveJournal of my own however stemmed from a lack of applications and ease of design. While not overly difficult, some beginners or users not familiar with the internet could have difficulty in getting started. Some elements also require knowledge of html which once again may deter potential bloggers and or users.

LastFM:

Positive: LastFM is a social networking tool aimed at music listeners. It works on the principle of collecting data from its users to not only improve the experience for them, but other users both potential and current ^[8]. Data collected from users is used to match songs with personal preferences based on genre, artist and a wide variety of other qualities. This information is then often used to recommend music to new listeners with similar tastes in addition to creating radio stations based on the listeners preference. Interesting statistics such as the most played artist of the week are also provided on the site to curious listeners.

LastFM is different from the prior mentioned social networking tools in the sense that it does not require any registration or sign-up. Listeners can simply listen to songs free of charge without putting in any effort. The value of the site however really comes from participating by submitting song preferences, and interacting with the rest of the community. By creating a profile you not only allow others to see your musical taste, you can choose to see what your friends or others are listening to. In this sense it helps foster a strong social networking community using user generated content. The difference in this scenario however as compared to LiveJournal is that the user content is automatically generated (radio stations, playlists) with little interaction from them.

This is also unique in the sense that the content is not only valuable to the listener, but to LastFM commercially as well. Furthermore, the site encourages unsigned artists and bans to create and share their music in the promise of promoting their music, and secondly giving users a fresh selection of new songs. Given these conditions, it’s of no surprise that LastFM is enjoying a loyal and growing customer base in addition to great success ^[8]. In addition, the ability to automatically generate unique user content provides an interesting insight into the potential of social and mobile networking tools.

Conclusion:

As mentioned earlier, the social and mobile networking scene is becoming increasingly important for commercial businesses and users of social software. In the likelihood of more providers entering the scene, it’s integral to develop and foster the notion of user created content with regards to two key ideas; that user created content is far more interesting and thus helps promote and develop the tool and community, but also for its commercial application.

Thank you for reading my reflective blog,

Adrian Phillipps, 40563695

References:

[1] OECD, 2007, Participative Web and User-Created Content: Web 2.0, Wikis and Social Networking,

http://www.oecd.org/document/40/0,3343,fr_2649_201185_39428648_1_1_1_1,00.html

[2] Lost, ABC, http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index

[3] Best Facebook applications, http://www.bestfacebookapplications.com/2007/06/19/graffiti-facebook-application/

[4] How to make money with facebook, http://www.virtualmarketingblog.com/index.php/20071003/make-money-with-facebook/

[5] Blogmaestro.net, Professional tips for how to increase blog subscribers, http://www.blogmaestro.net/blog/professional-tips-for-how-to-increase-blog-subscribers/

[6] LiveJournal, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livejournal

[7] Belluspera's Livejournal blog and online retail store, http://users.livejournal.com/_belluspuera/

[8] LastFM, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lastfm

The world just keeps getting smaller, eh?

It all started with a simple desire to let the world know your views and thoughts, and gradually grew into a socially-connected network of family, long lost friends and acquaintances.

I got introduced into the simplest form of social applications during my teens, by creating an online diary where all my rants and ravings will go on, and those who've stumbled onto that little blog of mine will leave comments. Interesting to say, having some anonymous interaction does encourage more entries, and thus I entered the world of social networking.

Time passed, and as the Internet grew, interesting applications started appearing which "enhanced communication and bridged gaps" between. When IRC was first introduced to us, it opened up a whole new world of instant messaging, file sharing and conversation opportunities. Many of us were hooked (Who could forget the constant nagging from our parents to get off the internet chat rooms?) Suddenly, the little shy boy could muster up his courage and actually hold a conversation with the school belle, albeit behind the monitor. Many relationships were formed, many were broken. IRC introduced a whole new playing field to us hormonal teenagers, where everyone is fair game behind the monitor screen.

Fast forward a couple of years ahead, and this little nifty application, Friendster appeared. Text-based networking was forced into the backseat. Friends, friends and more friends! From long-lost primary school friends to mere acquaintances, or even that cute chick you saw in school but never knew her name; now you can add her into your private network and actually see what's she's all about. Uploading of photos, testimonials from friends, and your life seems more interesting more of a sudden. Friendster took social networking and threw it a step further. You have friends bugging you for testimonials to show how much of a friend you are to them. You have friends posting photos and adding comments to show how much they enjoyed a particular activity. Everyday conversations in class had people gossiping about the new relationship the school belle is in. Surprisingly, those gifted in the looks department even had "friends" they don't even know of. The world definitely seemed so much smaller.

Instant messaging didn't make such an impact on me till 2005, when Windows Live Messenger started gaining ground. The early years of IRC and Friendster were enough for me to handle (or so i thought) and I did not see a need to install Live Messenger just to create another contact list with friends I'm already chatting with on IRC. Slowly, all my friends abandoned IRC and jumped onto the Messenger bandwagon, and so I went along. The impact did not hit me till my first overseas trip, where I grabbed every opportunity to log on and converse with my family and friends. Live Messenger was present in many internet terminals due to its ease of use and added functionality. Till today, I can't see a day passing by without logging on to drop a quick hello to my loved ones back home.

When Facebook came into the picture, many of us were reluctant to switch over too. Having to start creating your own personal network all over again suddenly seemed such a daunting task, with the carefully-managed network of probably a few hundred friends in Friendster, how was one to port over such a massive number of contacts? But still....

"Hey, I've just sent you a SuperPoke!" my buddy screamed over the phone. Huh? What's a SuperPoke? And I definitely didn't feel poking of any kind, much less the "Super" ones. Yup, I'd created a Facebook account just for curiosity's sake, and sad to say curiosity did kill the cat. Friendster was chucked aside, and Facebook was the "in" thing once again. Having the ability to add applications, increased interaction with your contacts just makes boredom so much easier to cope with. Irritating your friends during lunch breaks? Just poke them! Wanting to know how your friend is doing back home? Take a look at the pictures they posted up. Leave comments, tag them. The possibilities seemed endless. Everyday conversations and interaction can now be done in the comfort of your own room, coupled with the chance to check out cute chicks ala Friendster, what's there to miss about actually going out for once?

Music plays a big part in my life (who doesn't?). Checking out new bands, songs, hunting down that elusive soundtrack you heard during the movie advertisements, sharing songs with your friends, trying to impress that gal with your collection of indie material... When I just got started on the Internet, music sharing just seems like an individualistic activity. Downloading and uploading songs, that's it. No interaction or whatsoever with peers who share the same interests in the genres you are into. No discussions, no collective appreciation of music. Come LastFM. Sharing songs that you're currently listening to, having new songs which are similar, new bands to be discovered, and being able to find peers interested in the same genres, now that's networking! You are able to discover alot more music, bands through others, and others through you too. With music being the social glue that holds people together (in my opinion), you're no longer tied to aimless surfing to search for new (free) music.

Being in Australia only for less than a month, surprisingly I did not feel the familiar pangs of homesickness that usually accompanies me when I'm overseas. Constant interaction with my family through Live Messenger, being able to post up my whereabouts and doings on Facebook and being able to get connected with all my mates back home does help to stave off being homesick.

Yup, the world's definitely getting smaller.

ONG Chin Zhun
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