She’s Apples

No longer is it true that the ‘Biggest’ equals the strongest, at least for the Web 2.0 based business where it can be the ‘lean’ that rises to new strengths. Starting small, when combined with some planning on how to scale, offers many advantages for the Internet start-up business. The advantages include lower upfront costs, a faster time to market and a reduced risk of product/service failure through a greater adaptability. But what happens when a conventional ‘plain old’ physical DVD hire store offers it’s customers some Web 2.0 like software to enrich their ‘DVD hire’ experience?

Applebox.com.au is the web presence for two small DVD hire stores in Melbourne. As you would expect, you can visit the website to browse a catalog of available movie titles and if you are a customer you can make an online request to ‘hire’ a film and then drop into the store to pick it up. Ok, big deal, nothing new here, the  providing to customers an online catalog be it DVDs, furniture or computer components is old news and in the DVD game there are already some big players like bigpondmovies[6], and Quickflix[5].

However, even a smallish ‘physical store’ based business can achieve some of the benefits recognized as being available to the ‘internet based’ enterprise. In the case of Applebox the benefits of scalability and new partnerships opportunities apply.

Lets look firstly at the scalability options that open up as a result of the online initiative. In assessing a Web 2.0 based business we know that ‘self service’ scales. A customer that can find their own answers, or manage some aspect of the service for themselves is a customer that puts less strain on supporting resources. For the internet based business this can translate to millions of customers with very low supporting costs. For the local video store the self service model also translates to an efficiency gains. A customer that doesn’t have to wait in line during peak times is probably going to be happy customer, as is the customer that knows when they get to the store they are not going to be disappointed with not being able to find what they wanted. In addition the the self service model may reduce the staffing requirements of store operations.

Scalability is also for the future. This first step of adopting an online bookings systems is a step toward online delivery. Once we have online delivery the physical store may be more useful for storing real apples.

The second benefit is the new partnerships opportunities. We know for example in Internet based businesses viral marketing matters. For the on-line business it is essential that people find them out there in their tiny corner of cyber-space. Applebox also has to find and retain customers. Having a web based application has allowed them new partnership opportunities that were not possible before.   For example there is a bar / lounge in Melbourne called Softbelly.  This bar offers of all things DVD hire,  guess what application they are using to do it?  For Applebox this is traffic and good traffic - people looking to hire DVDs - perfect.

Applebox has done a few things really well to make themselves stand-out. Firstly the web application developed to browse the store’s catalog is very good looking and easy to use. These are important factors, Rich User Interfaces do matter in Web 2.0 applications.

Secondly they don’t want people to think they can get something that they can’t, the application informs the customer on what titles are available not just what they have on the shelf. [3]

Thirdly the use of the Application is encouraged in the physical store as well, it is not something separate.  See the photo below which is a picture of the applebox’s physical store.

Comment to thinkbetter

References

[1] AppleBox
http://www.applebox.com.au/
Accessed: 5^th May

[2] About Us
http://www.applebox.com.au/about/
Accessed: 5^th May

[3] FAQ
http://www.applebox.com.au/faq/
Accessed: 6^th May

[4] Apple Box
http://www.builderau.com.au/strategy/architecture/soa/Case-Study-AppleBox-takes-rentals-into-Web-2-0/0,339028264,339279487,00.htm
Accessed: 6^th May

[5] Quickflix
http://www.quickflix.com.au/
Accessed: 6^th May

[6] Big Pond Movies
http://dvd.bigpondmovies.com/
Accessed: 6^th May

There is commercial opportunity in the Niche. The term given to this is the ‘Long Tail’ or ‘Leveraging the Long Tail’.[1]. An example website which fills a niche market is http://www.brickarms.com.[2].

Brickarms as you can probably tell from the above image has something to with Lego. You are correct only so far as they manufacture weaponry options for Lego figures however they are not endorsed by the Lego the company. Why not? It is not like the Lego Company don’t make weapons because they do – they make laser guns, space guns, axes, swords etc etc….but what they don’t make is a selection of ‘replica’ guns. Or in the words of Chris Anderson

“…Lego is a family Business they don’t make AK47s”. [4]

There in lies the Niche. It turns out there are enough people ‘out there’ (in the tail) who wanted replica guns for their Lego figures and the Lego company for their own reasons was not willing to make them so someone else did. And by all accounts it looks like they did it very comprehensively, check out for example the various Weapon Packs on offer [3].

The wide customer base made possible by the internet helps drive and support this type of niche innovation and the innovation provides more diverse options for customers. What is also important is that Brickarms was started by an individual who with a some consumer based tools was able to first produce a prototype of the idea and then was able to scale production as the demand the grew.[4] The fact that a person in their basement was able to produced high quality plastic toys is testament to the change regarding the ‘tools of production’, or the so called democratisation of the tools of production.[4] People can now do things that they couldn’t do before. It is this enablement, that ‘lengthens’ the tail, as more people can innovate more easily into targeted niche markets.

So what’s the future - an animal with a very long tail may emerge? - strange and exciting times.

comment to thinkbetter

References

[1] Long Tail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail
Accessed: 27th April

[2] Brickarms
http://www.brickarms.com/Default.aspx
Accessed: 27th April

[3] Brickarms Weapon Packs
http://www.brickarms.com/Toys/Weapons_Packs.aspx
Accessed: 28th April

[4] An Evening with WIRED Magazine’s Chris Anderson
iTunesU: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/itunes.stanford.edu.1292520457.01292520460.3599778247?i=1934399902
Accessed: April 24th

It has been observed that Web 2.0 applications can remain in ‘Beta’ mode for literally years. One of the big name examples is Google’s GMail, Docs, and Calendar applications which remained in Beta for five years.[1] Another example of a web 2.0 application staying in beta is the site Zamzar [2], which first launched in October of 2006 [3] and as of April 2010 still displays a in ‘Beta’ badge as part of it’s logo.

The longevity of the Beta time-frames has given rise to a newer term – the ‘Perpetual Beta’. Wikipedia explains Perpetual Beta in a literal sense, describing it as as being characterised by the combination of two elements - that of time and a ‘stage’ within the traditional software development life cycle. Wikipedia describes it thus:

Perpetual beta is a term used to describe software or a system which remains at the beta development stage for an extended or even indefinite period of time. [4]

However this definition is missing a dimension, a dimension which is less literal. Perpetual Beta is not simply the slowness to evolve on to the next ‘stage’ of software maturity but is also a statement that the software is in a constant state of modification. It is this other dimension to Perpetual Beta which is most relevant to Web 2.0 applications. This idea is captured more fully by O’Reilly in a paper called Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices[5] where in a discussion on ‘Perpetual Beta’ and it’s meaning it is linked to a fundamental change in the ‘nature’ of how software is delivered. A quote from the article reads:

When devices and programs are connected to the Internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services. This has significant impact on the entire software development and delivery process. Therefore,don’t package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add features on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience

An exponent of this constant feature updating is flickr. A practical example of the constant flux of it’s site is describe in article as follows: [6]

The “deployment” was the 36th new release in a week where 627 changes were made by 21 developers.

No information was available related to Zamzar’s release patterns but whatever they are the BETA badge sets the expectation to it’s users that this service will continue to evolve it’s features over time.

Comment to thinkbetter

References

[1] Google Finally Peels The Beta Label Off Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and GTalk

http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/google-finally-peels-the-beta-label-off-gmail-docs-calendar-and-gtalk/
Accessed: 22^nd April 2010

[2] Zamzar
http://www.zamzar.com/
Accessed: 22^nd April 2010

[3] Welcome to Zamzar
http://blog.zamzar.com/2006/10/30/zamzar-beta-launched/
Accessed: 22^nd April 2010

[4] Perpetual beta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_beta
Accessed: 22^nd April 2010

[5] Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices
http://oreilly.com/catalog/web2report/chapter/web20_report_excerpt.pdf
Accessed: 20^nd April 2010

[6] Five Web 2.0 app dev lessons for enterprise IT
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9110219/Five_Web_2.0_app_dev_lessons_for_enterprise_IT
Accessed: 19^nd April 2010

Introduction

Anyone thinking about Web 2.0 is congnizant that data has for the most part escaped from the confines of the PC and is now moving about freely on ‘the device’. That is, internet resources are increasingly been accessed through devices such as mobile phones and other hand-held tools. This is a notion captured by Tim O’reilly in his article Software Above the Level of a Single Device [1]. Companies are now looking for ways in which they can engage customers through their mobile devices. We are starting to see both new and existing services being tailored for access by mobile devices. A recent example of this is the Australian Airline company Qantas [2] who have recently announced the iphone check in service [3].

Details

The iphone check-in service offers customers the ability to check-in for a flight using their iPhone. This involves the receiving of an electronic boarding pass sent directly to the phone which is then scanned at the departure gate during boarding. A comment on the Frequent Flyer Forum describes a customer’s recent experience with the new service as follows:

This worked well at boarding. I was officially the gate chicks first iphone boarding pass. You get a seat slip at the gate to evidence your seat. [4]

The feature which is novel here is of course the scanning of the electronic boarding card as it is displayed on the iphone as it has been possible for sometime to check-in via the Qantas website and to print out your own boarding pass. This initiative is in-line with the company’s a wider mobile phone strategy. The URL for the company’s tailored mobile content is http://quantas.com.au/mobile/. [6]

Issues:

The mobile check-in service is a cut-down version of the web-site features with some of the features not yet available to the mobile implementation. Perhaps the most notable of these is the inability of the mobile check-in service to change the seat allocation. To ‘soften’ this limitation a user is able to make use of the airport Kiosks to alter the prescribed seating or to use the regular Qantas web-site based methods. The kiosks are able to recognised the electronic boarding passes as well allowing customers to identify themselves at kiosk by scanning / swiping the displayed boarding pass on their mobile device.

Other restrictions of the mobile based service include the inability to ‘change’ flight details. Any updates or flight cancellations will require a customer to access their flight details via an airport kiosk or via the Qantas web-site.

Some scenarios that result in the mobile service directing customers to the ‘service desk’ instead of allowing them to proceeded with an electronic boarding pass include if they are traveling with an infant, or they have selected ‘yes’ indicating that they are traveling with dangerous goods, or the seat allocation has resulted in the assignment of an exit row seat. [5]

The role out of this new mobile check-in service has been limited to ‘selected’ Domestic flights. This limitation seems to be related to the availability of the gate scanners capable of reading the electronic boarding pass displayed on the phone. In the frequently asked questions it explains:

Domestic Mobile Check-in will be available for selected Qantas operated domestic and QantasLink flights traveling from the following airports. These airports will be equipped with gate scanners that can read and identify the boarding pass direct from a mobile device and new boarding receipt printers.[5]

One question that must be asked is what happens when a customer mistakenly deletes the SMS message containing the boarding pass? Or worst leaves the phone in the taxi! Currently the mobile service will not resend the message, therefore the customer has to either consult with staff or log themselves into the airport kiosk allowing the printing of a new boarding pass.

The ability to essential use an iPhone as a boarding pass is an example of this Company’s innovation and how they have leveraged the wide spread adoption of mobile device to provide customers a new convenience. It appears that Qantas’ is a leader in the mobile innovation with one site giving the company the accolade of been the first in Australia.

Qantas is also the first airline in Australia whose details are accessible using Apple Inc.’s mobile device – the iPhone [6]

Comment to thinkbetter

References

[1] Software Above the Level of a Single Device
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/11/software-above-the-level-of-a.html
Accessed: 14 April 2010

[2] Qantas
http://www.qantas.com.au
Accessed: 22 April 2010

[3] Mobile Check-In
http://www.qantas.com.au/agents/dyn/qf/info/201004/0414
Accessed: 22 April 2010

[4] Frequent Flyer Forum
http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/qantas-frequent-flyer-program/qantas-iphone-check-in-22828.html
Accessed: 23 April 2010

[5] Domestic Mobile Check-in External Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.qantas.com.au/agents/dyn/qf/policies/FAQsMobileCheckIn220410.pdf
Accessed: 23 April 2010

[6] Qantas launches iPhone friendly website
http://www.iphonestalk.com/015-qantas-launches-iphone-friendly-website/
Accessed: 15 April 2010

Overview

Tim Oreilly [1] lists ‘Rich User Experiences’ as one of the features that mark a website as being potentially a Web 2.0 website rather than a Web 1.0 website. The term ‘rich’ is used to encapsulate the functionality of an interface with equal or greater sophistication than that of desktop based software but delivered via the web. That is a web-based interface with responsiveness, and continuous feedback, and able to support for a wide variety of media formats beyond simple text and static images. These types of interface features are in contrast to the ‘poorer experiences’ of the ‘click and wait’ based interfaces of the early web 1.0 era which were initially confined to the HTTP request/response model.

Lets look at one area of the internet that offers a rich user experience - sites dedicated to ‘sexy’ bodies. That is … ‘sexy’ from the inside, for example the delightful offerings of the BBC’s Interactive Body[2] website.

The Interactive Body[2] web content is a sub-section within a wider covering of the Human Body [3] which appears within the Science and Nature [4] section of the BBC. [5]

Assessment

The Interactive Body [2] website allows the user to examine the human body from various points of view, including: senses, organs, skeletal, muscles and the nervous system.

The ‘interactiveness’ of the site is offered in three main ways - Brain Maps, Challenges and Games. For example the Brain Map[6] allows for different brain structures (eg Cerebellum, Limbic, Stem etc) or brain Functions (eg Taste, Hearing, Speech etc) to be investigated by clicking on a graphic interface and each click tailoring the information presented.

The Sense Challenge [7] presents the user with a timed quiz of 20 questions. The quiz allows the user to select either a quiz with sound or a quiz without sound.

An interactive game example is the Skeleton Game [8] which tests the user to position ten bones into their correct location within the body. Clues and hints are available and the ‘order’ in which the bones are placed is not prescribed allowing user to ‘scroll’ through the list of bones in the hope to find one they recognise. (..just in case you are looking for the answers – @See Skeleton Anatomy)

A ‘rich user experience’ can be had at this site. The experience of the interactive content is certainly comparable with that of desktop based software. Once the initial ‘loading’ of the content is completed feedback of user interactions is continuous and responsive. This includes all navigation actions and the loading of different content which is instantaneous. Within the Skeleton game for example, when a bone is correctly place upon the body instant feedback is provided to the user acknowledging its correct placement and the updating of the related game statistics occurs in the same instant.

There is also the ability to rotate the three dimensional bone graphics 360 degrees. The interface also supports ‘drag and drop’ capabilities. These feature combine to make the site more appealing to users and improve upon the click and wait experience of previous web 1.0 technologies

The technology behind the site’s interactions is Adobe’s Flash. The use of Flash does reduce some of the complexity around browser compatibility issues via it’s plug-in architecture and is a well supported browser plug-in. [10] Flash itself is increasingly under the spot-light with the release html 5 (See Slashdot discussion) [9]

Comparisons

Sites promoting body science can of course be found all over the web, and examples of both Web 1.0 interfaces along with other Web 2.0 type interfaces abound. For example one interface in a more Web 1.0 style in the area of body science is the Neuroscience For Kids [11] website.

The Neuroscience for Kids main interface design is a series of long single web pages of content populated with images and illustrations. The site does have a small use of flash technology in a section called Brain Fly Through.[12] However the Flash implementation is reduced to interactions allowing the starting and stopping of the animation.

An alternative example to highlighting a ‘richer’ interface design can be seen at Visiblebody [13]. The focus here is on 3D body images. The site is a ‘user pays’ model however the quality of the site’s interface design can be gleamed from the public facing pages. The site has built its interface with a combination of Flash technology and a 3D content viewer plug-in called Unity [16][17]

Some fairly stunning videos can also can be found on YouTube such as this one [15]

Future Directions

An extension to the interactivity of the BBC site is the initiative to combine user’s interactivity with a Memory Game and the capturing of medical research data.[18] The ‘Brain Test Britain’ experiment is describe as:

‘The Brain Test Britain experiment is a scientifically valid study, and we hope that thousands of members of the public – including you! – will help us to answer, for the first time, the question: does brain training work?’ [19]

So there you have it - smart interfaces and sexy bodies provide a ‘wealth’ of information.

comment to thinkbetter

Resources

[1] What is Web 2.0
http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=5
Accessed 26th March 2010

[2] Human Body and Mind
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/index_interactivebody.shtml
Accessed 26th March 2010

[3] Human Body and Mind
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[4] Science and Nature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[5]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[6] BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/organs/brainmap/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[7] Senses Challenge
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/senseschallenge/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[8] Interactive Body - Skeleton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/3djigsaw_02/index.shtml?skeleton
Accessed 26th March 2010

[9] What to Expect from HTML 5
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1575150
Accessed 26th March 2010

[10] Adobe Flash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash
Accessed 26th March 2010

[11] Neuroscience For Kids
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
Accessed 26th March 2010

[12] Human Brain Fly Through
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/flash/brainfly.html
Accessed 26th March 2010

[13] Visible Body
http://www.visiblebody.com/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[14] Human Anatomy - Skeleton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/skeleton_anatomy.shtml
Accessed 26th March 2010

[15] You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fHuJMnDUPI&feature=player_embedded
Accessed 26th March 2010

[16] Unity 3D
http://unity3d.com/webplayer/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[17] System Requirements
http://www.visiblebody.com/Support#01
Accessed 26th March 2010

[18] Brain Test Britain
https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/braintestbritain/
Accessed 26th March 2010

[19] Brain Test Britain
https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/braintestbritain/articles/faq
Accessed 26th March 2010

Overview

Google Maps is perhaps the most well known ingredient in web based mash-up recipes. The combining of data-sets with map information has given rise to many new applications and has improved the comprehension and analysis of the data-sets themselves.  (See section ‘Some Examples of Other Google Map Mash-ups’ below). One area where this is evident is the combining of crime data with Google Map mapdata. One website in this space is EveryBlockChicago [1] or as it was formally known ‘Chicagocrime.org’.

EveryBlockChicago is a freely accessible public website which displays the crime data of Chicago overlaid on to Google Maps. The site is certainly a Grand-Daddy in the area of Mash-Ups as it was first released in Mid 2005 [4]. The EveryBlockChicago site in-fact reports itself as being one of the very first Google Map based mash-ups [6]. (As an aside - the very first Google Map based mash-up is said to be housingmaps.com) [7]. In the early days of the site’s development the lead developer, Adrian Holovay was much praised and pursued for his innovation, reference [4] describes this as follows:

Adrian Holovaty, gained so much notoriety from his efforts that the Washington Post not only hired him but they created a new position just to accommodate him [4]

The site was originally funded from grant money but is today 100% owned by the news network MSNBC[6].

For an introduction into the general history of Chicago’s crime patterns you can read Wikipedia [5], but note - it isn’t very flatting. However our current concern here is ‘investigating’ how this crime data is dealt with on EveryBlockChicago.

Assessment

As said, the site exists for the public. Any person can get customisable reports of crimes that occurred within any area of the city in which they are interested. The level of detail available to a user includes getting down to a number range within a single street. For example, I can tell you that there was a domestic issue on the 14th of March in 2010 in a street called State St at10.40 am reported under the case umber HS207090. See image:

This data is also addressable. That is to say, you can find my quoted example above for yourself using the following URL:

http://chicago.everyblock.com/crime/by-date/2010/3/14/2897986/

The addressability of data is important in Web 2.0 as Web 2.0 content is no longer simply addressable as a single web-page and users expect to be able to book-mark and revisit points within a site.

Mash-ups are of course aided by the existence of APIs. EveryBlockChiacgo is a successful consumer of other peoples APIs, however the site itself does not offer any. Instead the site focuses on RSS feeds as a means of allowing others to ‘draw-down’ content from the site.

“We don’t have a formal API at this point, but we do offer customizable RSS feeds for every block, ZIP code and neighborhood in each EveryBlock city”[6]

From a technology perspective the site is built on open standards and tools.  Under the covers the key technologies are PostgreSQL database , PostGIS [9] for the supporting of geographic objects within the PostgreSQL database, and the Python programming language which is used in combination with Django [8] which is a framework for web-apps built on Python.

Comparisons

Other sites combining available crime data with Google Maps include the Australian site SuburbanTrends [2]. SuburbanTrends combines data from various sources such as, The Australia Bureau of Statistics, The Australian Institute of Criminology, and The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research along with Google Maps. The site was born out of competition[3] and includes some nice features. For example the visual display of various gauges provide a quick indication of the selected suburb’s rating in key areas such as Education and Economic levels.

SuburbanTrends also includes the innovative ‘Safety-O-Meter’ – A indicator gauge that rates the selected suburb on ones ability to Walk or catch Pulbic Transport safely. 

Issues

EveryBlockChicago does place restrictions on how it’s own data is used.  The RSS feeds are limited to non-commercial and personal use only. [6]  For those people that are creating their own Mash-Ups and wish to draw some content from EveryBlockChicago’s RSS feeds they can only embed the title of the RSS feed and not the RSS feed content into their site [6] . The site also denies the use of screen-scraping to access data for re-displaying on other websites.[6]


Future directions

Beyond the obvious desire to expand it’s geographic coverage by incorporating new data sources for other cities[6] and increasing the support for mobile devices, the site sees itself as actually breaking new ground in the area of Online Journalism. They describe this as follows:

“EveryBlock is a new experiment in online journalism, offering a news feed for every city block in 15 cities.”[6]

It is evident that EveryBlockChicago is extending itself into a locale specific on-line news source way beyond its beginnings in crime data, and into any data that is definable as news.

In their own words again, they state:

“EveryBlock is a local news Web site with a twist: it offers news down to the block level. Enter any address in one of the supported cities, and you’ll see news articles, blog coverage, crime reports and a wide variety of other local information, all updated throughout the day.”

The stated intentions of site are well under way and perhaps best captured in the latest blog (dated Feb 8th 2010)  heading …. it reads:

New on EveryBlock: commercial real estate listings
Posted February 8, 2010 by Adrian Holovaty
We’ve added a new type of information to the EveryBlock cities: commercial real estate listings.
[10]

Resources

[1] Chicago Everyblock
http://chicago.everyblock.com    
Accessed March 19th 2010

[2] Suburban Trends
http://www.suburbantrends.com.au/
Accessed March 19th 2010

[3] Mashup Australia
http://mashupaustralia.org/mashups/suburban-trends/
Accessed March 19th 2010

[4] ChicagoCrime - An Inovative use of Google Map API
http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/6585/
Accessed March 19th 2010

[5]Crime In Chicago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Chicago
Accessed March 19th 2010

[6] FAQ
http://www.everyblock.com/about/faq/
Accessed March 19th 2010

[7] In memory of chicagocrime.org
http://www.holovaty.com/writing/chicagocrime.org-tribute/
Accessed March 19th 2010

[8] Django
http://www.djangoproject.com/
Accessed March 19th 2010

[9] Postgis
http://postgis.refractions.net/
Accessed March 19th 2010

[10] Everyblock Blog
http://blog.everyblock.com/
Accessed March 19th 2010

Comment to thinkbetter !

Some Examples of Other Google Map Mash-ups

BBC News Map
http://dev.benedictoneill.com/bbc/

Bid Near By
http://www.bidnearby.com/

Weather  Bonk
http://www.weatherbonk.com/weather/index.jsp

Introduction

If a Web 1.0 attitude can be captured with the phrase ‘Content is King’ then perhaps the phrase ‘Data provides Dictatorship’ captures the Web 2.0 landscape. Tim O’reilly drew attention to the important role data will play in an internet company’s’ ability to stay competitive back in 2005 Resources [1] and again in 2007 with the words

“…data will be valuable in new ways, and the company with the most data wins.” [2].

How do they win? Is it because their access to propriety and hard to create data sources make it impossible for other smaller operators to create competing applications of equal sophistication? Can the internet really be reduced to a few big players dictating the services available to us? Will ‘alternative’ and competitive sites and services always be available?

Lets look at a small niche service offering from the a site called storyjumper.com [3]. Will the data it creates and collects make it a Dictator?

Overview

What is storyjumber.com about? Storyjumper.com in essence produces kids stories through collaboration. The site promotes collaboration between anyone and is not just targeting professional authorship. Instead the site seeks to provide an opportunity for kids to “….experience the joy of creative process” [4] rather than being focused on the production of professional publications. As an extension to it’s on-line collaboration of story creation, the site offers the production of ‘real’ products – that is Storyjumper.com offers the ability to get your story printed and sent to you as a hard copy.

So how does it work? The site creators have developed the ‘StoryCreator’ tool which is the web-based application allowing users to actually collaborate and write their stories. The tool offers the ability to link in images with the site providing an image library along with the facility for users to upload their own images. The site is free to join but you pay if you would like to get a hard-copy of your story. At present getting a hard copy is limited to users within the US and Canada.[4]

Comparisons

Who else is in this space? Another site in this space is tikatok.com [5] Tikatok offers a few more offerings in the ‘real’ product area such as the online stories can by printed in hard or soft copy and for a lower price you can download your creations as an ebook (pdf), and there is also a gift-card service available. This site is actually owned by the Barnes & Noble book company.

The two sites in essence have adopted a similar pattern - free to join and use, you must use the ‘tools’ of the site to create your work and both sites have targeted ‘teachers / educational facilities’ in there service offering. The Tikatok site leverages the book-store ownership aspect of Barnes & Noble and offers ‘publishing parties’ where the teachers can bring their classes to a store to collect their published work [8]. Both sites have use Facebook fan pages and Twitter updates to market themselves.

Issues

What ‘terms of service’ would a user of storyjumper.com be subject to. Storyjumper.com state that the user retains the copyright but they keep the right to continually use the material, that is they have the so called ‘perpetual license’[6].

In big font they shout out their position on copyright:

YOU RETAIN OWNERSHIP OF ANY COPYRIGHTS OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS APPLICABLE TO YOUR STORY CONTENT THAT YOU SUBMIT TO STORYJUMPER AND/OR ON THE SITE OR THROUGH THE SERVICES [9]

Then in smaller font they spell out that Storyjumber.com retains the licence to use/modify/reproduce etc any of the material a user posts. For example in the terms-of-service the following statement is made:

You hereby grant to StoryJumper and its affiliates a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, fully-paid and royalty-free license, sublicensable (with the right to sublicense through multiple tiers of licensees) (in any media, whether known or not currently known and invented) (“License”) to: (i) use, re-format, modify (as necessary to prepare Your Story Content for printing), reproduce and distribute any and all of Your Story Content for the purpose of printing and distributing… [9]

There are also implications on ownership if a user elects to ‘share’ their work. That is a user of the site has the option to ‘share’ their story with other users of the site. That sounds normal, and good, and in-the-spirit of things’ and is the default. The distinction of shared/private matters in regards to the terms-of service stated as follows:

“Except for any of Your Story Content that you specify as being usable only for Restricted Purpose(s) during the submission process, and subject to any restrictions set forth in this Agreement, you also hereby grant all other Members of the Site and Services the a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable license to link to, use, copy, publicly display, publicly perform, create derivative works from and otherwise communicate and distribute Your Story Content for any purpose on or through the Site” [9]

So not only does storyjumper maintain a perpetual license the other members of the site do as well.  Would that be a surprise to some users?

What about deleting personal data. What can a user expect in regards to choosing to opt out of Storyjumper.com and to leave the site. The terms of service make is pretty clear no material backed-up will be deleted and the user must first make a request to the site to have their personal ‘account’ details deleted. However any data related to that account data may not be deleted. The terms of service statement regarding personal information reads:

“Upon your request we will delete your account and your user profile as soon as reasonably possible; provided, however, you should understand that any content, feedback, comments, information and/or any other materials, including, without limitation, Your Story Content, and any Personal Information incorporated into any of the foregoing, that you have posted to the Site that is posted in areas other than your user profile and/or that you have designated as being “public” or “shared” and that StoryJumper and/or other users of the Site have made available in areas on the Site other than your user profile may not be deleted and/or removed and may remain on the Site. Any content, feedback, comments, information and/or any other materials, including, without limitation, Your Story Content, and any Personal Information incorporated into any of the foregoing, that you have posted to the Site that remains in our back-up systems will not be deleted.” [9]

One strategic aspect of Storyjumper.com is that it has catered to a user want by it’s adoption of a ‘no advertising’ policy [4]. This I think does make the site more appealing for parents and is also very practical in the sense of limiting the distractions for it’s younger users who would be distracted by flashing banners.

Future directions

What is the future directions for a site like Storyjumper.com. Storyjumper keeps users satisfied by a ‘uncomplicated’ site with a well focused purpose. The site designers and lawyers know that data is the site’s most valuable asset and the site has protected it’s interests within it’s terms of service.  The terms of service ensure that the site maintains access to all content generated from the site. Is this a dictatorship on a miniature scale? The site dictates the rules and maintains rights over any data users provide. This seems to be the rule and not the exception in web 2.0 applications.

Does this matter? Is this ok? Does anyone know of any-other site where there are no rights claimed over user content?

Comment to thinkbetter


Resources

[1] What is Web 2.0
http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
Accessed March 12th 2010

[2] Google Admits “Data is the Intel Inside”
http://radar.oreilly.com/2007/12/google-admits-data-is-the-inte.html
Accessed March 12th 2010

[3] Story Jumper
http://www.storyjumper.com
Accessed March 12th 2010

[4] Story Jumper FAQ
http://www.storyjumper.com/main/faqs
Accessed March 12th 2010

[5] Tikatok.com
http://www.tikatok.com/
Accessed March 12th 2010

[6] Tikatok FAQ
http://www.tikatok.com/help/faq
Accessed March 12th 2010

[7] Tikatok User Agreement
http://www.tikatok.com/help/userAgreement
Accessed March 12th 2010

[8] Classroom Publishing
http://www.tikatok.com/classroom/learnMore
Accessed March 12th 2010

[9] Terms of Service
http://www.storyjumper.com/main/tos
Accessed March 12th 2010

Heard of Speed dating?  Heard of Skype? … I think  you know where this going…A new website has been launched in Australia which is a collaboration between Skype and an Internet Speed dating service.  The site is SkyCandy.

Now before I give you the brief on how this site works and what makes this site so interesting let me first confess that I’ve not used the site (…therefore if you want a chance to date me then leaving a comment will increase your chances…)   Here is the gist of how it works… using a customised Skype a speed dating session is started, within this session you are ‘matched’ with another user for a 5 minute video date. This is an anonymous meeting you don’t exchange any Skype usernames etc. At the end of the 5 minutes each person votes YES or NO and if both votes are YES then it’s a match and the Skype user-names are shared allowing further contact.

Now, hang on Joanne, so what? people have been meeting and exposing themselves over web-cams for years. What make this so interesting?

The interesting aspect of this site and it’s collaboration with Skype is that some of the features of the site align themselves with the principles of Web 2.0.  That is to say, here we have a proprietary piece of software that is installed on to the desktop with features akin to what are typically regarded as Web 2.0 application features.

Is this new?  Not at all, have you heard of itunes?

Anyway lets take this a littler further… A web 2.0 characteristic is the idea of ‘Harnessing Collective Intelligence’  (perhaps in this case we could say Harnessing the Collective Surveillance?? ). The idea that it is the users taking part which add the real value, that the site’s role is more of an enabler for the activity taking place between the users…think Ebay’s buyers and sellers, Amazon’s user based book reviews, Flickr’s user contributions etc…This same principle is evident in the Skype and Skycandy collaboration.  It is the participation of the site’s users that make this site work.

But what is more interesting is the way that this has been encouraged by the site’s designers beyond the obvious. The obvious being that users participate because they want to meet other users, but  shine the light on some of the other features of the site and other more implicit ways of user participation are being encouraged.  For example, there is ‘Star Rating’ feature where each user is encouraged to ‘rate the friendliness’ of their dates.  This ‘friendliness rating’ is visible to other users much like Ebay’s feeback system.  There is also a concept of ‘Note taking’ where you can record notes about your dates and another feature called ‘Checky Notes’ which are like instant messages that can be sent between users, and if things are going well there is an anonymous SMS service allowing SMS messages to be sent without revealing user identity.

Other elements often linked with successful Web 2.0 applications are present in the Skype / Skycandy collaboration, these include 1. a very low barrier to entry, (it’s free),  2. addressing user concerns for privacy with upfront assurances for anonymous, safe and friendly dating, 3. that a user first desire is meet without any impedance and 4. the site has taken and existing data set and  enriched and extended it, that is, it has leveraged the massive Skype user base to provide new and deliberate opportunities for existing and new users to  ‘cross-paths’ romantically.

So there you go, a piece of propriety desktop software with Web 2.0 characteristics.

Comment to thinkbetter!

Resources

1) Skyecandy Brings Speed Dating To Skype
http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2009/04/24/skyecandy-brings-speed-dating-to-skype/
Accessed: March 5th 2010

2) SkyeCandy.com - Speed Dating Through Skype
http://www.killerstartups.com/Comm/skyecandy-com-speed-dating-trough-skype
Accessed: March 5th 2010