Perils of Popularity

Slide 1: The perils of popularity (or how to create hits) Rashmi Sinha www.slideshare.net

Slide 2: 5 observations about today’s web 3 models of popularity 10 principles for design 05/25/07 2

Slide 3: 5 observations 05/25/07 3

Slide 4: Second generation 1. social networks Sharing in large networks, versus own site Human crawlers Urban sociality 05/25/07 4

Slide 5: First generation Social Networks (Friendster, LinkedIn…) 1) I am linked to -> -> to you --->You are linked to her -> -> to her… How it works •People connect to each other •Six degrees of separation •“Are you my friend” awkwardness 05/25/07 5

Slide 6: X Hi I found you while I was searching my network at LinkedIn. Let's connect directly, so we can help each other with referrals. If we connect, both of our networks will grow… 05/25/07 6

Slide 7: Object mediated social networks Tomatoes “… sociality along lines that include objects in the concept of social relations.” Katrin-Knorr Cetina Coffee 05/25/07 7

Slide 8: Model a: Watercooler conversations (around objects e.g., Flickr, Yahoo answers) 1) I share my pics -> -> with you ---> -->You share your pics -> ---> with him How it works •People share objects | watch others •Connections through objects •Social info streams: emergence of popular, interesting items

Slide 9: Model b: Viral sharing (passing on interesting stuff, e.g., YouTube videos) 1) I send video I like -> -> to you. You pass on --> --> to her, who sends on to her, who passes on… How it works •Individual to individual to individual •Popularity based navigation track “viral” items 05/25/07 9

Slide 10: Model c: Tag-based social sharing (linked by concepts. e.g., del.icio.us) 1) I tag my bookmarks Global -> you see my tags lebanon voices politics -->You share your tags -> Global technology voices politics science How it works •Saving & tagging your stuff (creating bookmarks). brain •Tags mediate social connections •Formation of social/conceptual information streams. Emergence of popular, interesting items JAVA science web CNN networks blogs 05/25/07 10 science

Slide 11: Model d: Social news creation (rating news stories, e.g., digg, Newsvine) 1) I find interesting story -> you rate story 5 -->Others rate stories 4 How it works •Finding and rating stories •Popular stories rise to top 05/25/07 11

Slide 12: Urban sociality Crowds in MMORPGS Alone together Passive presence of others Playing for the audience, but not interacting (Ducheneaut et al. CHI 2006) Social facilitation passive presence can influence Observed in cockroaches! (Zajonc, 1960) 05/25/07 12

Slide 13: relevant to 2. Sharing is search Conversations around objects: community meets catalog 05/25/07 13

Slide 14: Popularity is popular on sharing sites No multi-level menus! Navigation = Top100 lists, tag clouds 05/25/07 14

Slide 15: Did Paul Ford speak too soon? 05/25/07 15

Slide 16: The sharing imperative 05/25/07 16

Slide 17: is starting to influence search 05/25/07 17

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Slide 19: Sharing compared to search shared by creator smaller reach higher quality centralized repositories relatively homogenous social activity inside indicates relevancy, popularity 05/25/07 19

Slide 20: conformity effects 3. in social decisions sequential decisions even 3 is enough 05/25/07 20

Slide 21: How Influence Works Information Normative Influence Influence Interpersonal Influence Compliance Social Influence Conversion (private acceptance) The individual Independence Counterconformity 05/25/07 21

Slide 22: Social influence in web- based systems Cognitive Diversity Independence Decentralization Easy Aggregation 05/25/07 22

Slide 23: rich get richer effects at 3. network level 05/25/07 23

Slide 24: Duncan Watts experiments Two worlds Individual Social Influence – 8 separate worlds Theory of cumulative advantage 05/25/07 24

Slide 25: Era of hits is not over 4. 05/25/07 25

Slide 26: Long tail hypothesis democratized production > more inventory democratized distribution > more consumption lowered search costs > reach niches 05/25/07 26

Slide 27: N Sync vs. lonely girl 05/25/07 27

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Slide 29: System designer as studio boss People want a shared reality Mechanisms emerge to create trends 05/25/07 29

Slide 30: Creating trends Everything starts as equal People can connect locally Highlight alternative viewpoints System should be flexible 05/25/07 30

Slide 31: 3 models of sociality Google Digg YouTube 05/25/07 31

Slide 32: Blind sociality Google - less social engagement sequential conformity reduced 05/25/07 32

Slide 33: No way to navigate social network 05/25/07 33

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Slide 37: Digg as a laser beam Focused in time on tech topics young male users 05/25/07 37

Slide 38: mobs encourages Quick, engaging, transparent metric Sequential decisions 05/25/07 38

Slide 39: promiscuous Youtube - popularity Many metrics Different strokes for different folks 05/25/07 39

Slide 40: SlideShare Popularity on Metric Goal Remember stuff, tell someone you Favorite & tag like their stuff Interact with others Comment Watch it View Share on your blog Embed Keep it on your desktop Download Share with your friends Email 05/25/07 40

Slide 41: Most viewed shown on front page content it surfaces 05/25/07 41

Slide 42: favorited & tagged Most balance individual and social reflect back tags in social stream main social gesture 05/25/07 42

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Slide 44: 10 principles to design for sharing 05/25/07 44

Slide 45: Forget the ipod! 05/25/07 45

Slide 46: Give up control This is messy! 05/25/07 46

Slide 47: personally 1. Make system useful memorable personal snippets (e.g., Del.icio.us & Flickr) Self-expression (e.g., Newsvine) Social status: Digg Don’t count on altruism thrive on people’s selfishness 05/25/07 47

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Slide 49: 2. Symbiotic relationship between personal & social Small individual contributions can be collected and mashed-up Simple, guessable URLs for everything Personal snippets > Social stream Pictures > by Events Music > by Playlists 05/25/07 49

Slide 50: 3. Porous boundary between public & private Personal desktop software vs. social websites People will share for the right returns defaults to public, can change to private user has control individual pieces & sets Privacy settings on Flickr 05/25/07 50

Slide 51: levels of participation 4. Everyone does not need to create! Implicit creation (creating by consuming) Remixing—adding value to others’ content 05/25/07 51 Source: Bradley Horowitz’s weblog, Elatable, Feb. 17, 2006, “Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers”

Slide 52: presence 5. Let people feel of others Sense that others are out there what paths are worn real time updating 05/25/07 52

Slide 53: moments of 6. and yet, Independence… Choreography: when alone, when part of group prevent mobs not too easy to mimic others incentives for originality allow for alternative viewpoints 05/25/07 53

Slide 54: serendipity 7. Add in navigation not just about popularity access to some popular stuff (keep this fast moving) make “long tail” accessible popularity as a jump off point to other ways of exploring personalization & recommendations ad-hoc groups? 05/25/07 54

Slide 55: circle of 8. Complete sharing You use it ? I share 05/25/07 55

Slide 56: dash of 9. Add in a experts contest on SlideShare: both judges & popular votes 05/25/07 56

Slide 57: allow for 10. Most of all, play 05/25/07 57

Slide 58: Finally your slides at http://www.slideshare.net/tag/yrb find me at http://www.slideshare.net/rashmi 05/25/07 58