DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Where next?
DOPPLR
Where next?
DOPPLR
Where next?
I’m assuming that many of you will have played with Dopplr, or
Where next?
hopefully are happy users! At least I’m hoping you’re familiar with
it, as I’m not going to pitch you... but I would like to set the
scene a next?
Where little...
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
This diagram shows the ‘lightcone’ of the future and the past of
an individual ‘observer’ - future, which happens if you
is about the Dopplr is about what you can’t
Where- next?social. The ability to remodel and
DOPPLR
haveautomate take it
this view and (yet)
DOPPLR
Where your next?
Where
optimisenext?travel plans based on those of others. That’s why
we’re called Dopplr - alluding to the Doppler effect as things
Where next?
Where next?
approach and recede from you.
Where next?

http://www.dopplr.com/group/picnic-08
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Where next?
Where next?
Where next?

“For the world
to be interesting,
you have to be
manipulating it
all the time.”
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Everything begins with an E(no) - Heʼs probably our patron
Where next?
saint!
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
As a service, our goal is to add our valuable information to the
Where next?
coral reef of the real-time social web that people already inhabit.
Where next?
But... how’s the reef doing lately?
Where next?

<rant>
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
I can’t help thinking that collectively we’ve taken our eyes of the
Where next?
prize in the last year or two.
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
I’d been thinking this for a while, but some stuff lately really made
Where next?
me think hard about what we’re all designing and building. BTW
- this is not to pick on FriendFeed. They are very clever people,
but... next?
Where
Where next?

You’re kidding, right?
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Where next?
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
More Merlin... I love his pronouncement on the ‘fake follow’
Where next?
feature: “this is a major breakthrough in the makebelieve
friendship space”
Where next?
Although - his call for a ‘pause’ button is something I think a lot
Where next?
of us could relate to. We have “mute” on Dopplr, which we think
is more about your relationship to a flow of information, not a
person.

<rant>
Friending
considered
DOPPLR
harmful.
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
What does that terrible neologism ‘friending’ mean
Where next?
anyway? Do you even need to tell computers who
your friends are to get the benefits of the social web?
Where next? you believe there was a Friends
BTW - can
Where next?
videogame?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
For Dopplr, we have been careful to use language and
Where next?
controls that are explicitly about sharing information, rather
than ‘making friends’.
Where next?
Where next?

Asymmetry
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
We made sure that weren’t obligated to share information,
Where next?
just because someone else had shared with you. By avoiding
the language of ‘friendship’, something like this doesn’t feel
as awkward.
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Where next?
Where next?
Where next?

Friend is not
the only social
DOPPLR we play
role
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
But as I say - “friend” is not the only social role we
Where next?
play, and it’s not the only thing that social tools
should focus on IMHO.
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
For example: this is part of Intel Research Berkeley’s “Familiar Strangers” work, looking at the
Where next?
patterns forming from regular, casual contact in the urban environment.
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
And it’s this casual, social interaction with objects which
Where next?
there’s still so much mileage in. For instance, whether it’s
dog-eared pages of books...
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Our tools... (this is bruce sterling’s keyboard)
Where next?
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
or our environments
Where next?
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
“Wear and tear” is often how mental models get out into the world. Incidentally, the movie is
Where next?
of a machine my friend Jack Schulze built to record the way that people draw maps to explain
directions to other people. [Will Hill and other talked about “edit read” and “wear read” back
in 1992. ]
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
This is a map from the collection of the National Maritime Museum,
Where next?
where successive explorers annotated new opportunities, theories
and obstacles on the same map over several expeditions over the
course of several years.
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Under glass, no wear-and-tear... no collective intelligence worn in...
Where next?
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
Bungie let players see ‘Heatmaps’ online of where thousands and thousands of
Where next?
players of HALO3 died on different levels - allowing them to visualise
strategies for the game. E.g. “Kills with the Gravity Hammer in Rat’s Nest”...
Where next?
Where next?

DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
This is Citysense, which takes these heatmaps of the city onto a mobile screen - I’m guessing
Where next?
that Adam Greenfield will be talking a lot more about this sort of thing in his talk at Picnic.
Where next?
Where next?

</rant>
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
DOPPLR
This complex spectrum of social roles is essential in our
Where next?
physical social environments, the original real-time social
web. The health of cities depends on it, as Jane Jacobs and
other point out to us. And the health of the social web
Where next?
depends on it.
Where next?
We need to widen our exploration of social software again
from ‘software for making friends’ to “software that’s better
because there’s people there”.

DOPPLR
Thanks! DOPPLR
DOPPLR
mj@dopplr.com
http://www.dopplr.com
Where next?
Where next?
Where next?