Picnic: The emerging real-time social web

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?

Picnic: The emerging real-time social web

by Matt Jones on Sep 24, 2008

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Picnic: The emerging real-time social web — Document Transcript