Today’s post was previously posted on another site I run. I’m consolidating my posts and anyways, it probably makes more sense contextually to be here. This post was the product of some of my work with the Tech Dirt Insight Community.
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Using a similar framework to O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 definition, let’s first define what Mobile 2.0 is all about. Once we define what is is, we can discuss applications for social network over mobile.
Mobile 1.0 vs. Mobile 2.0
ringtones, ringbacks <—> Vringo (video caller ID)
reading <—> publishing/participating
pull <–> push
connected to PC environment <–> connected to my web environment
411 <–> Google411
GPS <–> Google Maps
p2p <–> p2community
Dodgeball <–> facebook, android
casual gaming <–> networked gaming
Social Networking’s Dirty Secret: Socially-accepted voyeurism
As Benchmark Capital’s Michael Eisenberg, is fond of saying: the secret to successful social networks is how well they leverage voyeurism. People have an innate need to see what others (especially people they know) are doing.
Facebook’s overwhelming success points to this. From a business user’s perspective, Facebook came out of nowhere and trounced LinkedIn . I have stopped paying for a LinkedIn subscription and migrated my network over to Facebook. I attribute this to one thing and one thing only: Facebook’s News Feed. There, I can see all the activity in my network and decide daily whether to participate in what’s going on around me. This has major privacy implications as I’ve written in another insight, but these will abate with time, much like In-Text Advertising has become (almost) entirely acceptable. Google’s Open Social platform will also publish such activity streams. As Dave McClure put it succinctly, “people who are going bananas over Beacon should understand that most people on Facebook are used to the default being opt-out (ie, lifestyle transparency), not opt-in (selective sharing).” This is exactly why we’ve signed up for Facebook.
Covestor and its brethren allow me to subscribe to others’ trading portfolios, allowing me a clear view into their decision making process and their performance. This works extremely well because there are large financial incentives involved.
Spock allows people to track what friends and colleagues are doing online. It’s what we care about. Effective social networking tools are not just about providing cool javascript tools, it’s about lifestyle transparency. An effective mobile version will need a way to address this.
Virality: Doing the heavy lifting for users
Marketers focus on how viral applications are the holy grail for their job function. The truth is for a social network to be accessible to most users, it needs to make my job of recruiting/connecting with my connections easy and palatable. Facebook is a no-brainer. There is critical mass to the user base and now, users outside the network are beginning to feel left out, compelling them to join. But what about smaller, more niche-oriented networks?
Meetup is an amazing network. I recently ran an investment seminar on hedging exposure to the US dollar for American expatriates living abroad. Within minutes of setting up on Meetup, I had over 15 people sign up for my group and RSVP! Meetup has essentially created a network of affinity groups that share nothing other than certain predilections and the desire to meet in person. Once I’ve joined a group, I’m introduced gently to 1) other groups in my geographic area that 2) share my interests. I didn’t need to ’spam’ my address book (although that functionality exists). Meetup worked for me because it allowed me to connect with people with whom I share interests immediately, without having to work at it. I’m hooked now.
Collective Wisdom: Harnessing the Wisdom of the Crowds
Social networks allows a user to tap into he collective brain of his/her network. Or as Tim Oreilly puts it, “If an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It may not reflect the deep structure of the brain, which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought. And as a reflection of conscious thought and attention, the blogosphere has begun to have a powerful effect.”
Techdirt’s Insight Community is a great example of one of the ways for networks to tap into the collective experience/knowledge of its members. This is a pretty explicit example but social networks, if used and built effectively, make every node that much more intelligent and knowledgable. The collective intelligence acts as a type of filter and this overarching knowledge helps to make sense of all the noise in the world.
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So, let’s look at ways of translating/porting these salient features of a web-based social network to the hardware/usage limitations of the mobile device.
Voyeurism
The current generation of mobile devices, including Blackberry-type PDAs, are still used primarily for reading, not writing. So whatever
level of voyeurism exists on mobile networks, it’s going to focus on phone activity, not publishing activity.
Call log activity: sharing my call list, when, how long I spoke to that person would be very interesting for my connections. Also, seeing a brief profile of the person on the other end of the call could be pretty engaging. SMS/email activity can be added to a sort of Facebook-esque News Feed. And clearly, any browsing or web activity can be shared out as well.
Geotracking: Wouldn’t it be interesting to know where my friends are at a certain time. If they’re using their phones, it could be possible to design a system to provide geographic fingerprinting to be shared with the network.
Convergent device usage: If I’m listening to 50 Cent’s new album, my network wants to know and I want them to know. Rudimentary tatings systems can be implemented and if licensing issues can be addressed (good luck), you could find a way to share music with the network.
Conferencing my people in with your people: A technological challenge, but why not work to find a way to conference people in (maybe by calling in to a specific #) so that different network members all hop on a shared line to chat spontaneously or with advanced planning. So, instead of learning about what my friends are up to via a news feed, I can speak to them directly.
Virality:
Creating soft sales: Spamming my friends doesn’t work. I’ve avoided joining new networks that will require me to send out (yet another) email inviting my whole address book in. I don’t want that and it’s getting harder and harder to convince my friends to join. Instead, on every SMS I send to my friends, a simple footer would suffice with some compelling reason for them to join my network: data could lure them in or perhaps, a part of my news feed.
Spontaneous get-togethers: Meetup (as mentioned above) has a great system for connecting people with the same affinities and giving them the tools to meet up. Functionality to get my friends to meet me at the local Burger King via a quick conference call or via an SMS round would be compelling. What about other people in my locality? Would they like to join? Do I want them to know about it?
Media can make it jiggy: A song or SMS that I’ve sent someone can certainly take flight and become viral. Music could be the key element in creating a compelling mobile social network. This is rife with legal issues but if solved, music is one of the most cohesive factors in putting together affinity groups. People who like the same music generally have other shared interests, tastes, backgrounds.
Collective Knowledge:
Share stats out to the network: Making me more informed about what my friends are up to helps me filter out the noise. Call logs play
into this while so does music activity. Help me discover new things and new people.
Hierarchy settings: Help users figure out a way to define who are the connectors in my network, who are the idea generators, who are the leaders and who are the followers. Given where people fit in, their knowledge should influence friends differently. This should be accounted for in the network — it is in real life.
I haven’t focused on the concept of mobile network as extension of a web-based network. I think the device used in a mobile network is still so different from a PC that the interaction on a mobile network will require structural differences. Facebook will make a better mobile version but I think there is an opportunity to create a stand-alone mobile social network.
