Heading towards an Age of Onlinetenment

Last week Jinal Shah, a Digital Strategist at JWT, shared an essay with her friends titled, 2012: A Year of Digital Behavioral Shifts. It’s a great piece and Jinal puts together a strong case for changing the way we operate online, with a renewed focus on thinking, rather than just sharing, liking and retweeting. She believes this new era is upon us, calling it the age of enlightenment in our digital history. This transformation will be led by:

[...] thinkers, artists and storytellers not programmers and geeks. These are people driven by a vision that’s a bit more individualistic, centers more around exploring the tapestry of human opinions, intimacy and feelings instead of connecting the world into one large immutable being.

And what will this lead to? According to Jinal: a mindful web… systems that:

1. Are designed for constructive debate and dialogue by exposing us to different points of views
2. Are designed for quality and intimacy – not quantity. Where there is less immediate gratification.

It’s a compelling vision and one I wholeheartedly support. But it’s also a big task. The simple truth is that the vast, vast majority of people aren’t interested in changing their behavior. They enjoy the relatively simple gamification elements of Foursqaure and the ability to express their opinions view a digital ‘thumbs up.’  Even when viewed at the micro level, exploring just the world of marketers that both Jinal and I are part of, it’s evident that not everyone is interested in exploring the new possibilities.

And yet, I’m literally inundated by the highly intelligent thinking of people in our industry who are committed to building something better, to thinking deeper and exploring ideas that are challenging. From Tim Stock to Justin Briggs to countless others the issue is how do we build the type of web Jinal is talking about that will not only connect all these great people and ideas, but allow them to be connected in a meaningful way?  How does an idea I write about, say, The Cultural Singularity Paradox connect or build upon an idea like Interdependence, Chomsky and the crowbar by Eaon Pritchard, a winner of Neil Perkin’s Post of the Month Hall of Fame?

I think we still need the ”programmers and tinkerers and computer scientists,” the builders of the web’s Industrial Age according to Shah. We need them to continue to build, but this time to build a web that intelligently connects and combines the work of those that will create the Age of “Onlinetenment” (my term, not Shah’s).

In her book, Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal relates the story of Halo 3 and the collaborative effort to record 10 billion kills by game players. How can the marketing industry create that sort of collaborative effort?  On the subject of games, a subject I’m passionate about, Shah says, “Gaming will have a larger role to play in the age of enlightenment, but perhaps not so overt. It’s job will and should become about elevating the meaning and importance associated with a like, number of friends and followers etc.”

And while that’s important, I think gaming can play a bigger, more important role in a different way. Games can solve bigger problems than improving the meaning of the quantitative issues Shah mentions. Games can be used to rally people (marketers?) to work for a common cause, to unite for a single purpose greater than themselves. That’s something I think we could use. Rather than everyone writing and thinking in isolation, we need to figure out how to write and think together. When that happens maybe we will enter the Age of Onlinetenment.

Early contender for 2012 Word of the Year

I ended 2012 by taking a look at the Millward Brown and Dynamic Logic (Disclosure: Both agencies are part of WPP, as is my employer, Y&R) 12 for 2012: Top 12 Digital Predictions for 2012 report and want to pick that up as there was a lot of good thinking in there. Prediction #5 takes a look at mobile marketing.

If nothing else, marketers love a catchy name.  If you don’t know SoLoMoyet, you will soon. As the report notes, “The most successful marketing messages will combine relevance and location with the right timing.” SoLoMo is a portmanteau of Social-Local-Mobile and speaks to the rapid advancements in geo-targeting and the equally rapid adoption of smart phones as the essential device of the 21st century.

Jennifer Okula, the essay’s author, also notes:

We will see increased SoLoMo marketing prevail in existing geo-social apps like Foursquare, Shopkick and Yelp. Retailers will experiment more with geo-fenced mobile marketing with companies like Placecast. Social buying companies like Groupon and Living Social will become more app-focused and provide push content and alerts on real-time local deals.

This is where I see the real value. Brands need to make themselves relevant in the existing behaviors of people. Getting discounts at places I’m already going through mobile apps I’m already using is real value.  However, Okula goes on to state:

Brands will create more of their own apps that tap into both geo-location services and social networking.

This is where I get nervous. When brands try to create their own apps they can run into several problems. First and foremost, they aren’t in the app business.  The resources, both human and financial, that go into creating an app is something most companies don’t have. Then, once you create and publish the app, you have to promote it heavily. Second, brands need to think long and hard about whether people really want an app from them. What real added value is there? Is it enough to get me to use the app in addition to the other ones I’m using?

SoLoMo will be a buzzword in 2012, but like most buzzwords, it’s likely to be misused or misunderstood. The opportunities here are great, but a thoughtful strategy is required.

Greg Burney's #DrawMyFollowers Project

If you’re an artist, and by artist I mean that in the broadest sense, how do you stand out in a world where everyone is an artist and has the ability to distribute their work easily and broadly? It’s a tough question, one that every artist grapples with and answers in a way that works best for them. For Greg Burney the answer was making drawings of his Twitter followers. For free.

I grabbed a few minutes of Greg’s time to ask him some questions about this project:

Rick Liebling: How important is personalization in something like this? Do you think you would have had the same response if you had offered just an original drawing, as opposed to an original drawing of each person?

Greg Burney: I think it’s absolutely essential that the drawings are of each person. This project is all about connecting to people in a personal way, and that would be totally lost if I offered them just an original drawing.

Rick Liebling: How important is “the story” in this? One guy trying to draw all these Twitter followers. That’s a different dynamic than artist sitting at the cafe, charging $10 for a quick sketch.

Greg Burney: I guess its a very simple premise. I’m not asking for anything, but offering something. I’m one guy, I’m not an illustrator, I’m rubbish at drawing, I’m working from home. I like to think its a nice, honest project that makes people smile and takes advantage of today’s immensely powerful social media.

Rick Liebling: I’m interested in the value exchange of this project. The followers receive a unique, personalized piece of original art. What are you getting from this project?

Greg Burney: A sore hand. No, it really is a buzz seeing people’s reactions. I like to think the little bit of happiness I give with every drawing accumulates to a massive impact. I also get many supporting messages every day and I have cool conversations with many of my new followers. It’s fun to be part of a huge project. The thought of it being finished is very exciting.

Rick Liebling: What would have been your response if a brand had approached you to be part of this in some way? Would you have been open to such a proposition?

Greg Burney: I’m not sure how I would react. I’d like to think I would say no. As soon as there are third parties involved, I no longer have 100% control of the project, and the premise stops becoming so simple. It might also lead people to be suspicious of what the real intention of the project is, fun or money. Saying that, if the right brand came along, perhaps one that supports illustrators, or large scale internet projects such as the wonderful Ze Frank, who knows.

Greg brings up several issues that perfectly illustrate why so many brands struggle with connecting with people online.  How many brands can create personalized engagements with each person? How many brands can create simple, honest engagements? How many brands looks to create engagements where the value generated goes to the consumer, not the brand? And what brand is willing to take the time to do more than just slap their logo on an idea, and really support the content creator?

I’m not saying it isn’t or can’t be done, I’m just saying that it is rare. But I think it’s a solid recipe for success.

I’ll be speaking at Social Media World Forum today as part of a panel entitled, Incorporating ‘gamification’ into your social marketing campaign and long term loyalty strategy. I’ll be joined by Omar Divina, Director of Sales,Badgeville; Nancy Friedman,  Owner, KidzVuz.com; Rebecca Levey, Owner,KidzVuz.com; and, Esteban Contreras, Social Media Manager, Samsung.

It should be a lively discussion, in this the “Year of Gamification.” I’m a believer in game mechanics, which I define as the integration of game elements into a system, whereas I’m a little leery of gamification, which to me is the act of merely layering game elements on top of an existing system.  I see a lot of social platforms, tools and services which fall into the latter category.

I’m looking forward to hearing what the other panelists have to say as they are all smart folks with some real experience in this area. I’m interested in speaking about how social networks can better use game mechanics for the benefit of community members and the network itself.  I’ll look to post an update later in the day after the event as well.

UPDATE: Great conversation with some really smart panelists. It was good to hear how much thought everyone was putting into their programs and the realization that gamification is easy to do badly. You can really see that a change is coming and future activations will be more nuanced and immersive.  I have high hopes for what gamification can become and will continue to report on what I see happening.

Changing the LBS experience.

This has been a hectic year in social media. It seemed every week a new app, service, tool, platform or metric was being introduced. Perhaps as a result of this, I’ve been feeling some social media fatigue. One of the places I’ve most acutely felt this fatigue is with Foursquare. Sure, finding discounts for free chips and salsa at Chili’s is nice, but the vast majority of the time I’m just checking-in to check-in. Becoming a mayor or earning a badge has lost its appeal.

Part of the problem is the loss of the novelty, but another part is the lack of emotional engagement. There’s something missing for me with Foursquare because it’s not touching me on a deeper level. Perhaps it’s a lack of narrative or story. There’s really no connective tissue between my check-ins, or between my check-ins and those of my friends. This lack of emotional pull leaves me feeling that if Foursquare were to go away tomorrow, I really wouldn’t miss it.

But this post isn’t about Foursquare, it’s about Gowalla, another Location Based Service that is usually compared to Foursquare.  A month or so ago Gowalla announced several changes to the service. These changes were necessary for Gowalla to move forward and evolve – a smart move to help it move away from Foursquare, yes, but also to change the nature of the user experience. I reached out to Andy Ellwood, Gowalla’s Director of Business Development to find out more about these moves and here’s what he told me:

“The basic idea that the newest release of Gowalla centers around is the idea that has always been at the core of what we are doing here with Gowalla: your phone as your passport. How do we help discover the world’s most loved spots and share the stories that people create when they are exploring the world around them? How do we incentivize people to tell better stories, not just check-in for some gamified electronic reward? What is the underlying action that we want to bring to the forefront of the conversation and that works for EVERYONE not just the early adopters… These are some of the questions that we asked and that influenced this latest version. The goal is to encourage discovery, exploration, and sharing the best that you see with those that you care about and inspiring them to GO as well.”

Andy perfectly articulates the very issues I’ve been talking about. Stories, taking action, exploration. Those are powerful things to leverage. I hit Andy up with some follow up questions:

Rick Liebling: I’m starting to develop check-in fatigue. Gowalla, GetGlue, Foursquare… There has to be more to it than that, doesn’t there? Is that where the new Gowalla is headed?

Andy Ellwood: Gowalla is, and has always been, about discovering the world around you, sharing it with your friends, and having a record of the places that you go. The narratives that Gowalla documents are much more than a check-in, it is a story that has the potential to inspire others.

Rick Liebling: Gowalla is always compared to Foursquare, but do you guys see the landscape differently?

Andy Ellwood: The visions for Gowalla and Foursquare have always been different, but the technology through which we’ve each used had enough similarities for comparison that in the nascent industry, we were often in the same sentence. Gowalla is about going, doing, and sharing the new places your go. Foursquare is about unlocking your city and loyalty to the places you go most.

Rick Liebling: I’m believe that not enough sites/apps/platforms are infusing emotion into their offerings. How is Gowalla trying to leverage the emotion and passion of travel?

Andy Ellwood: We recently added the Love button (because love is more awesome than like) and have Highlights to subjectively describe why a certain place is awesome. People are emotionally attached to the places they go and, if given the right platform, inspire others to go there too.

Rick Liebling: How can brands engage consumers in new ways via the updated Gowalla?

Andy Ellwood: We ask two questions of every brand that we begin working with: 1) What is the experience that you want to create? 2) Where are the places that you want that experience to happen? Once we understand that, we are able to use the multitude of features from Gowalla to craft an organic experience for those going out with Gowalla that allows the brand to be a part of the story in a natural way at places that are important to their brand.

Rick Liebling: Complete this: Gowall: Come for the ________, stay for the _________.

Andy Ellwood: Come for the exploration, stay for the story.

If you haven’t yet, give Gowalla a shot. If you have tried it, tell me what you think of the changes.

The thing I love about the CEO Interview series is getting inside the heads of people like voyurl founder Adam Leibsohn. Reading his responses really highlights the passion and dedication he has, and clearly demonstrates the crazy smarts the dude is bringing to the table. Voyurl, in a very short time, has found itself a leader in the data / information privacy issues debate, being featured in publications such as The New York Times, Wired and Germany’s Spiegel. If you care about this stuff, and if you spend anytime online you should, then read on to find out more about voyurl.

voyurl's Adam Leibsohn

Rick Liebling: Tell me about Voyurl. What was the inspiration, how did you get it off the ground?

Adam Leibsohn: So the the inspiration for voyurl came from working in digital strategy at a boutique agency in New York. After a few years spent helping build out strategic capabilities on the digital side of things, I was fortunate enough to get exposed to some interesting technologies. But a lot of what I saw were companies and platforms taking liberties with behavioral data, data that people weren’t aware was being collected about them. Nonetheless, these different vendors and tech platforms were exploiting this data to create services and products that generated a lot of revenue for themselves and their clients… but never created any benefit–let alone revenue–for the people who were responsible for generating all of this information.

Around the time that this epiphany was hitting me, Mark Zuckerberg kindly poured kerosene all over the embers of this situation by revamping the privacy policies/practices for all Facebook members. Then everyone sorta “lost it.” Lots of privacy advocates bubbled up, user-advocates started speaking up, users themselves were beginning to get more vocal about their rights and their data… and then The Wall Street Journal literally made personal data practices an entire, dedicated editorial section of their website. Not so quietly and not so slowly, everyone had something to say about data, what it meant, what should be done with it, and what people should do with themselves.

And while I respected the responses I witnessed, I had a slightly different view about things. I wasn’t really shocked about privacy violations because I didn’t see what was happening as a privacy violation but rather I considered it an absence of control. I’ve always viewed online privacy as the subsequent outcome of the presence or lack of two things: control and agency. Danah Boyd is significantly better spoken on this than me. And insanely smarter. So rather than break this whole dynamic down, I recommend reading up on her thoughts here. The short of it is that if users don’t have any agency and control within the platforms they use, then the subsequent outcome is a loss of privacy.

So that’s when I decided to start synthesizing my thoughts around what I continue to believe to be the solution: creating a space for a transparent, honest relationship around data… driven by a user’s perspective rather than a business’ or a platform’s. I believe that there is room for a platform that brings data out into the open in a way that doesn’t threaten a user’s agency or control. In fact, the intention is for this platform to actually empower users with agency and control specifically in relation to their data. Finally, when I thought I had the basics sorted out about how all the pieces would hang together, I started to beat the pavement–both physical and virtual. I did the basic rounds that probably every first-time entrepreneur has to do: I emailed anyone I knew who was even distantly connected to some kind of development. I visited everyone I knew within commuting distance to discuss the idea and explore their capabilities to help make it happen. It literally took years of this kind of effort–talking, meeting, emailing, calling, wishing–to find the right folks who were committed to the idea–not just the job–and who had the chops to get it done. There were many mini-failures along the way… lots of “not so perfect” folks I met who began work and never finished it, or just effed it all up. But… shit happens. You keep going.

When I had our current, completely awesomesauce team assembled, I tried some things to get attention within investment circles to begin introductions. I wasn’t attempting to fund raise, but I didn’t know anyone in the NYC tech scene; I thought this would be a good way to get my foot in the door and say, “Hello.” So, I took out Google search ads for prominent angel and seed fund decision makers so that when they Googled themselves, they got an ad from voyurl. It worked wonderfully. I got a few good meetings and a few weird ones. One thing became ridiculously clear: without a tech pedigree, someone who could vouch for me, or a prototype I wasn’t going to get anywhere with these folks. Fair enough.

That’s when I decided to go homeless. I gave my apartment up for 1 year and couch-surfed (among other things) in order to put my rent money in a savings account. That’s how I built the initial “go-to-market” fund for voyurl. And that’s all the money we’ve used to get voyurl to the point it is today. If it’s one thing you must have to do something like this, it is passion. If you’re not willing

Take a better look

to do anything and everything it takes to bring your vision to life, it’s the wrong vision.

Rick Liebling: So, what exactly does voyurl do?

Adam Leibsohn: voyurl recycles your data exhaust and browsing history to help you quantify your browsing behavior; and, we use that same data to start helping you discover cool, new content online about the stuff you love. So, you basically get your own analytics dashboard that’s made just for you and is only about you. It’s 100% private and secure and helps you understand what you’re doing online. Then we also use those same analytics to help you find new stuff online. In that sense we’re sort of like the mint.com for your digital data because we gather it up for you, trend it with analytics, and make recommendations to you.

The difference between what we’re doing and every other recommendation engine out there is twofold: 1) We literally require zero feedback. Just browse the web. voyurl will do the rest. We don’t ask you to like, thumbs up, plus, star, vote for anything because we use an awesome combination of bioinformatics and cluster analysis to make your data work really hard and work for you… without requiring any work from you. 2) We don’t need or want access to you social graph. That’s because we think people are getting sick of handing over the keys to their entire personal lives for a digital perk. And, to be honest, your social graph is more of a red herring than not when it comes to content recommendation. Are you so close with every person you’re connected to on Facebook that you want to get content recommendations from them? Do you all have that much in common? The answer to these questions and others like them is almost always, “Nope.”

Rick Liebling: Online privacy and online identity are especially hot topics right now. What do you think of the current debate regarding Google+ (and other sites) demanding ‘real names’ for accounts?

Adam Leibsohn: Frankly I think it’s a really weird debate because I don’t think it’s the right one. The way it’s framed makes it an inherently pro-platform debate not a pro-user one. And I think that immediately grounds the context of the debate in favor of the wrong side regardless of the outcome. Think about it: the only entity that really benefits from *forcing* people to accurately identify themselves are the platforms that demand it. That’s because, if they can guarantee you are who you say you are, suddenly the data you’re generating under that identity becomes a lot more valuable; it is undoubtedly coming from a real, live human who lives in city X and does job Y. It’s the same reason a lot of social platforms force you to claim your age and gender before allowing you to sign up. They engineer roadblocks to get more accurate (re: more valuable) data about you. Any time a platform asks for stuff like that on sign up, it sends up a giant rend flag in my head. In most cases, I bail at that point.

So, I think this entire debate misses the point. In my opinion, the debate ought to focus on why platforms aren’t giving *users* the choice (shameless plug). And that’s exactly what voyurl does. Sure, pick a username… it can be whatever you want. If you *choose* to put your real info in there (first name, last name, etc) you’re more than welcome to do it. But that’s your choice, not ours. All of the sudden, there’s something really interesting and potentially extremely beneficial for the end user in a dynamic like the one I just proposed. For confidential and business reasons, I can’t divulge what or why… but I know some serious smarties read your blog (and another one writes it: you!). I bet you’ll all be able to get a vague idea of where the value could be and why it’s there. At any rate, I personally think that if you’re engaging in a deep debate about anonymity vs identity you’re one level too deep in the discussion because that particular debate is one that eliminates choice… not one that empowers it. So, next time someone tries to get clever with you on a debate like this, ask them what the advantage is for the user when the platform eliminates the ability to choose who you are.

It's ok to look.

Rick Liebling: This is a really terrific infographic based on voyurl data, what did you find most interesting?

Adam Leibsohn: I’m personally in love with the height comparison. I think it’s just incredible to understand and see that in one month, a private beta group can tear through enough pages to tower over the Burj Dubai (now the Burj Khalifa). That’s bigger than the tallest building in the world! And we did it in a month just by clicking. Think about the potential energy in a structure that big: how much it weighs, how much volume it consumes, how much it sways when it’s windy. That’s how much power is sitting in that information, that data exhaust. That’s what voyurl is working to harness. The best part is that we’re not trying to harness it for the platform; we’re working to harness that power for you. Makes me smile because there’s so much we can do for you with something so powerful. We can empower you through your own data. I think that’s the best form of ‘digital environmentalism’ out there. We’re recycling your data… and giving you all the potential energy locked up in it.

Rick Liebling: What’s next for Voyurl?

Adam Leibsohn: I’m usually long-winded, if you couldn’t tell, but I’ll have to apologize because I’m not able to disclose everything that we’re working on right now. Some things are going to be obvious from a front end stand point. We’ve been getting hammered with volume and traffic. So we’re dealing with some growing pains when it comes to keeping pace with all that. I’m sure people have noticed that we’ve had some downtime and speed issues. And we’re working furiously to sort all of that out. It’s a gift and a curse really; one of those ‘fun’ startup issues where we’re doing our job so well and people are really pushing our tech that things are moving a little faster than just the three of us can manage. I would just ask that if you’re a voyurl member please know that we’re doing everything we can to get voyurl crazy fast and awesome smooth for you. We’re working nonstop to do it. Just bear with us for a little while longer. Now on the more secretive stuff… we’re about to unleash some great new stuff that delivers on some things our members have been asking for… and then some other great things that will start us on our path to disrupt current behavioral data markets and that will start to put our members in control of their own data. It’s going to be exciting and a lot of fun. Can’t wait to let this stuff loose!