Archive for November, 2011

Well known search guru Steve Arnold moderated this interesting panel on mobile searching.

Gregory Grefenstette, Chief Science Officer, Exalead, began with a description of search-based applications for mobile platforms.  Mobility is no longer a choice. It is “everyware” (analogous to hardware and software).  Mobile is the primary platform of engagement of information for consumers and users. According to a Forester report, enterprise mobile workers will represent 73% of the US workforce by 2012, and by 2013, there will be 1.2 billion mobile workers in the world, accounting for 35% of the global workforce.  By next year, you should no longer be asking what your mobile strategy is. Mobile working is not like playing; workers want to have everything available in a single application.

We carry a computer all day long, along with our wallet and keys. In 59 countries, there are more active mobile subscriptions than people. Last year, 6 trillion texts were sent! 32% of adults prefer text. Mobile is now a dominant force. The average teen sends or receives 3,339 text messages every month! That equates to 14 hours of attention to texting per month! The average user gives attention to text messaging is 150 times a day, which equates to once every 6.5 minutes. Any device that people are looking at every 6.5 minutes is very important!

The most popular mobile application is Google Maps, followed by weather, and Facebook.  In the shopping area, the average time for consumers to decide to make an online purchase is 1 month; for mobile platforms, the average decision time is 1 day. And when a mobile is lost, it takes only 1 hour on average to report it.

Because of the rise of mobiles, the balance of power has moved from TelCo operators to app developers, and handset manufacturers have lost control over the information experience.

 The mobile platform has become completely open. Most phones now being sold are smartphones. By 2013, we can expect that most people will be able to consume information and use apps.  Here is a view of the mobile services ecosystem.

“Experience platforms” are where people spend their time online, the most popular of which by far is Facebook.  We are now in a “doing” environment; mobile has moved from talking and texting to other things using apps.

The top criteria for selection of a phone are its operating system and the selection of apps available.

The computer we carry now is more than just a computer. It has senses–sight, touch, motion, direction, sound, and touch. This enables us to make sense of the world. (Google Googles can detect faces, for example, and Facebook has integrated this technology.)

The Internet will become the Internet of Things, where there an API for everything. Intel has predicted that everything that can benefit from being connected will be connected by 2020. We can now gather vast amounts of data and process it in a real-time stream processing of unthinkable amounts of data. The web will be no longer static where we used to pull down documents but will become one where will consume information in real-time. It has become the “right-time web”. Our thinking is being aided by the devices we carry.

Information is shifting from document-centered to distributed to linked and streaming real-time data. There is a huge shift in the way that IT is being thought about. New types of data are emerging and replacing the old transaction-based data. Information can now be tailored and made contextual.

See Golding’s slideshare site for more resources.

John Barnes, Incisive Media UK, told us what we know to design for mobile platforms.  He noted that by 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide. Mobile is part of a ‘multiscreen’ life, in which we have a growing number of screens in our lives.  Anyone building a digital service will need to provide for an effective experience across many devices, which Barnes called “polymorphic” publishing.  There are 3 types of polymorphic publishing:

Digital publishing is all about the audience and content, not the technology. For many years developers looked at average screen sizes and aimed at that in their work. Size has increased and has splintered into many sizes, so one can no longer design to a single average size.

m.editions of websites provide full integration with a content management system. Specially optimized templates can be served to the user depending on the mobile platform they use.  This has the advantages of being able to use the same domain name for different platforms and integration with a variety of systems. There is no clear leader in operating systems for browser-based apps, but the iPhone and iPad are extremely popular.

Many people want to have an app; here are some development criteria for developing one. Note that commercial requirements are major drivers of the choice of apps.

Key findings:

• There is a high propensity for sharing, so subscription and search services do well.
• User behavior is changing.  They are always “on”, so it is critical that apps are easy to use.
• Much web content is not ready for the shift to mobile yet because much of it was developed to be used on desktops with big screens.

Sheila Fahy, an attorney at Allen & Overy LLP, described her experiences in bringing one of the first legal apps (The Little Red App) to market.

Why are we all downloading apps? We like them because we are comfortable with them. The Little Red App was to bring employment legal facts into a single place. It took 2 months to bring it to market and cost £19,000. It is free to download; from its launch inJune 2011, it has been downloaded 837 times, 760 of which came from the UK.

Lessons learned:

• Keep it simple. Everybody wants to do an app. Recycle something you already have. Don’t try something complex because it will be expensive to produce.
• Don’t give away your “crown jewels”.
• Have a business plan.
• Keep the development team small, flexible, and diverse. Deconstruct the information and work out all the links and actions needed. Draw out every screen.
• If you have a lot of words, an app is not for you, so you should think of something different.
• Brand is hugely important.
• Do as much preparation as possible before you involve the developers.
• Build in lots of testing time.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Imogen Levy, Online Editor, Westminster Abbey, gave us a fascinating look at the preparations for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011.  The Abbey staff had one hour’s advance notice ahead of the public of the selection of the Abbey as the venue for the wedding and dropped all other projects to redesign the Abbey’s website and build an app for the wedding.

The Abbey is a “royal peculiar” meaning that it comes directly under the administration of the Queen.  It is both a living church and a tourist attraction and is known as the church of the monarchy.  It has hosted 16 royal weddings and all Coronations since 1066.  Over 3,000 people are buried or memorialized in the Abbey.

The Royal Wedding was the biggest event of the year. There were many unanswered questions, lots of pressure, and nothing previous for comparison.  Flexibility and confidence were crucial.  Since the lead time was only 6 months, decisions had to be made quickly.  Levy worked with the Buckingham Palace web team and hosts of website to redesign the Abbey website.  The questions to be answered included how many people would access the site, what devices would they use, should the Abbey website capture these new audiences, how should social media be exploited, and what will be the impact on the hosting organization.

New media played a huge and significant role in the success of the event; this was the wedding of the Internet generation.  The Royal Wedding has been confirmed as a record breaker, with over 72 million views and the most live streams of a single event.

The website was developed using an open source content management system. Levy recoded the website herself to accommodate mobile devices.  The design is responsive and automatically adjusts to user’s device, allowing a single template to be used for all devices. On wedding day, mobile access was 20% of entire hits (normally it is about 5%).  Mobile access to the Abbey site has increased 900% over the last 12 months.

The hosting was changed cloud hosting so as to be scalable and elastic and to cope with a sudden spike in traffic.  This had the advantages of:

• Ability to scale without needing to pre-plan usage.
• Ability to scale costs–pay as you go with no upfront costs.
• Ability to set up the solution in a few hours.

Cloud hosting was very successful. On the wedding day, the site received 5,000 hits/second and went down for only about 3 minutes during the day. There were over a million page views during the service.  Users were able to access the site quickly and efficiently.

 

Levy also launched an app allowing a 3D view of the Abbey. She took photos of behind the scenes preparations and used a laser scanner to produce a 3D model of the Abbey accessible on a phone (Abbey 3D) and is now working on v.2 to incorporate audio guide and website.

Levy did live tweets on the wedding day which gave people unusual content and received lots of media coverage. She followed the principle that if you are going to have a Twitter account, make it fun and give it personality. She responded live to people during the service. The Twitter feed went from 2,000 to 13,000 followers in 5 minutes.

Here are the lessons learned from this effort.

 

 Future work includes:

 

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Paul Golding, CEO of Wireless Wanders, led off this panel on the mobile challenge with a presentation entitled Tour of the Mobile Ecosystem.  He noted that mobile is “everyware” (analogous to hardware and software).  It is now the primary platform of engagement of information for consumers and users, and by next year, you should no longer be asking what your mobile strategy is.

We carry a computer all day long, along with our wallet and keys. In 59 countries, there are now more active mobile subscriptions than people. Last year, 6 trillion texts were sent at a rate of 200,000 per second! 32% of adults prefer text. The average teen sends or receives 3,339 text messages every month, which equates to 14 hours of attention to texting/month! The average user interaction rate is 150 times/day; once every 6.5 minutes. Any device that people are looking at every 6.5 minutes is very important!

The most popular mobile application is Google Maps, followed by weather, and Facebook.  Mobile applications are widely used in shopping; 52% of smartphone users change their minds in a store. The average time to decide on a purchase online is 1 month; on a mobile platform, it is 1 day. And when a mobile is lost, it takes only 1 hour on the average for its loss to be reported.

In the mobile environment, the balance of power has shifted from TelCo operators to app developers. Handset manufacturers have lost control over the information experience.

The mobile platform has become completely open. Most phones now being sold are smartphones, and by 2013, we can expect that most people will be able to consume information and use apps.

Golding’s model of the mobile services ecosystem appears above. “Experience platforms” are where people spend their time online. The most popular one by far is Facebook. Mobile has moved from talking and texting to other things using apps. We are now in a “doing” environment.  The top criteria for selection of a phone are its operating system and app selection.

The computer we carry now is more than just a computer. It has senses–sight, touch, motion, direction, sound, and touch. This enables us to make sense of the world. (Google Goggles can detect faces, for example and Facebook has integrated this technology.) We can now interact with the world in real time using handsets.

The Internet will become the Internet of Things. There an API for everything. Intel has predicted that everything that can benefit from being connected will be connected by 2020. We can now gather vast amounts of data and process it in a real-time stream of unthinkable amounts of data. The web will be no longer static where we used to pull down documents but will become one where will consume information in real-time. It has become the “right-time web”.

Information is shifting from document-centered to distributed to linked and streaming real-time data. There is a huge shift in the way that IT is being thought about. New types of data are emerging and replacing the old transaction-based data. Information can now be tailored and made contextual.

See Golding’s Slideshare site for more resources.

John Barnes, Managing Director of Digital Strategy and Development at Incisive Media, discussed designing for mobile devices.  By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide. Mobile is part of a ‘multiscreen’ life.  The multiscreen revolution represents the growing number and diversity of screens in our lives.  Anyone building digital experiences will need to deliver effective experience across many devices–”polymorphic” publishing.

For many years developers looked at average screen sizes and aimed at that in their work. Size has increased and has splintered into many sizes, so one can no longer design to a single average size. The challenge facing publishers is the huge explosion in competing devices, operating systems, and digital publishing channels.  Digital publishing is all about the audience and content, not the technology.

Types of polymorphic screen life include multi-tasking, synchronous, and linear. Publishers are more interested in synchronous and linear than multitasking.

Here are some general criteria for developing an app. Commercial requirements drive the choice of apps.

Key findings: There is a high propensity for sharing, so subscription and search services do well. User behavior is changing–their devices are always on, so it is critical that apps are easy to use. Much web content is not ready for the shift to mobile yet because much of it was developed to be used on desktops with big screens.

Sheila Fahy, an attorney at Allen & Overy, LLP, described how she developed one of the first legal apps, The Little Red App, and brought it to market.

What is so special about apps? Why are we all downloading them?  We like apps because we are comfortable with them. The Little Red App was to bring employment legal facts into a single place. It took 2 months to bring it to market and cost £19,000. It is free to download. Launched in June 2011, the app has been downloaded 837 times, 760 of which are from the UK.

Lessons learned included:

• Keep it simple. Everybody wants to do an app. Recycle something you already have. Don’t try something complex because it will be expensive to produce.
• Don’t give away your “crown jewels”.
• Have a business plan.
• Keep the development team small, flexible, and diverse.
• Deconstruct the information and work out all the links and actions needed. Draw out every screen. If you have a lot of words, an app is not for you, so you should think of something different. Nobody will read the small print–think of layering it.
• Brand is hugely important.
• Do as much preparation as possible before you involve the developers.
• Build in lots of testing time.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

 

The Online Information conference opened this morning to an enthusiastic crowd of attendees.  Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and CraigConnects, gave the opening keynote address.

A self-confessed nerd, Newmark began by noting that as such you get a feeling of separation or being disenfranchised, so he resolved that any of the work he did would be about inclusion, or bringing a voice to people who did not have one.  In 1994, he was at Charles Schwab & Co. showing people about the Internet and noticed that people would help each other. In early 1995, he wanted to do something similar and started a simple mailing list in San Francisco telling people what was going on. People started sending events to put on his mailing list, and it grew by word of mouth. Friends told him that he had inadvertently created a brand, but as a nerd, he did not know what a brand was! He called it craigslist to keep it personal and quirky.

Craigslist is not altruistic, and very little of the site is monetized. The main areas incurring charges are job posters and apartment brokers in New York City (who asked to be charged as an enforcement measure). The Craigslist business model is to do well by doing good.  And it works:  the site receives over 60 million unique visitors and has 40 billion page views per month. Because it is a privately developed site, there are no CPM issues, and there is no requirement to report to advertisers.

As the site grew, Newmark hired a CEO and concentrated on customer service as a profession. This is important because it keeps you in touch daily with your constituency. People want a voice and want to be listened to. Newmark found that people running socially good organizations and nonprofits started asking him for help, particularly with social media. When people are connected to the internet, it gives them a voice and a power they did not have before.

Newmark listed the nonprofits he was involved with and found there were about 100. So he started CraigConnects to stand up for the causes he believes in. He wants to help everyone to be connected for areas of common interest.

Here are some of the causes that CraigConnects works on:

• Military veterans and their families who need medical treatment or educational benefits. Many organizations want to help but do not communicate with each other. CraigConnects helps veterans collaborate, find support groups, and get jobs.
• Public diplomacy: micro finance and internet connectivity in the West Bank of Palestine to provide small loans to people who need them. The loans are used to help people get into business and provide jobs. The repayment rate is much better than at US banks.
• Some nonprofits spend their resources on themselves. CraigConnects works with Guidestar, a service which rates financial effectiveness of the nonprofits using such criteria as accountability, transparency, how much of the funding gets to the clients, and how well the organization meets the needs of its client population. It also lists which nonprofits get the job done — or do not get it done, even to the point of running outright scams. Measuring nonprofits will help restore trust in the nonprofit world.
• Creating trust in the press:  The press should be the immune system of democracy. The US press had a history in which they created trust by fact checking, employing ethical practices etc. But recently, fact checking has been discarded as being too expensive and time consuming. People want news they can trust. Organizations such as Politicfact or Factcheckhave professional networks of fact checkers. CraigConnect is also working with the Center for Public Integrity which has citizen journalist contributors. Newmark envisions that we will have networks of networks of citizen fact checkers adding facts to databases so that reporters can check facts quickly, almost in real time. He sees his role as annoying everyone in the news industry by bringing back fact checking.

When you use social media, you are relying on someone else to distribute your message, so there is no unified message. Social media is not new; it is just about people talking to each other. New technologies allow you to address a larger audience. For example, Luther used Gutenberg’s technology to spread his message, and St. Paul used a network of churches (“epistle-mail”). Today, people in the Middle East and North Africa are using these technologies very powerfully in the Arab awakening. Social media works to help people create revolutions and accelerate the trend.

Nonprofits should have Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and Google+ circles. Links to their posts should go directly to readers.  We are living in a decade of much social change that formerly took centuries but is now compressed into a decade, which causes disruption. We can all play a part of this.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Online Information 2011 was a beehive of activity this afternoon as the exhibit hall was being set up and prepared for tomorrow’s opening.  Keep checking here for developments as this important event unfolds.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor