Stritar's chronolog

Queensday in Amsterdam, the greatest party in the universe

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:35:48 GMT

In my life, I've visited many parties, events and festivals. But nothing quite beats Queensday, the holiday celebrating the (previous) Queen of Netherlands' birthday. Every April 30th, festivities are taking place throughout the country, but the greatest gathering happens in Amsterdam, where around 700.000 people take over the city. Amsterdam is one of the coolest and most easy-going cities in Europe, worth visiting by itself, but if you want to see something like you haven't seen before, you should do yourself a favor and visit the Koninginnedag.

The whole Amsterdam city center, a few square kilometers in size, becomes a massive traffic-free festival, crowded with people dressed in the Dutch national color - orange. Most bars set up their own sound systems outside, and almost every bigger square gets a stage. A variety of music for every taste can be heard everywhere, even though electronic dominates (no wonder the Netherlands has so many good DJs!). But what makes Queensday completely different from other festivals, are the famous canals in Amsterdam. Boats loaded with dancing people, some with their own DJs, are slowly cruising the countless channels, making this event extremely dynamic and fun.

Queensday is happening during the day, from the morning until the evening. The Dutch seem to not care too much about their canabis "legalization", since alcohol is the key party ingredient. Heineken, Grolsch and Amstel are sold everywhere, in bars and on the streets by civilians (usually for 2 euro for a can, since it's legal to sell things on this day without tax). Concerning the fact it's a drinking holiday, the party is surprisingly peaceful. This was my third time and I haven't seen a single brawl yet! The Dutch are an awesome nation, and their energy transfers to tourists instantly.

It's fascinating Queensday in Amsterdam is not as well known as you would imagine - most people I know did hear of it, but not that many know what's happening there. The greatest party in the universe, that's what! So trust me on this one: clear your plans for the next April 30th, find your accommodation a few months in advance, fill your car with a few friends, prepare to get dressed in orange and set your stomach for Dutch beer, because Queensday is definitely one of the things you should put on your bucket list.

The Amsterdam city center becomes packed with people

One of the big stages, there are too many to mention

Check out these smart installations

Since the best party happens on the canals, they sometimes become overwhelmed with traffic

Let's do a little singalong

The traffic next to one of the bars was almost too much

Night's coming, and the party's over. Who will clean up all this mess?

Security questions are the dumbest thing the internet has ever invented

Wed, 02 May 2012 20:05:54 GMT

At one point of the evolution of the World Wide Web, somebody came up with this fantastic idea. This person must have thought that the problem of securing your online identity was just solved in a very elegant form: security questions, which only the person who owns the account is able to answer. But there's a problem. Even if security questions worked at one point in time (which I also doubt), they simply don't work anymore, so you might as well lose them. Luckily, most services already did that, and Facebook tried to innovate this feature with "recognizing friends" alternative, but I somehow still manage to find them. And fail using them.

True story

A few years ago I had to set up the security questions with my online broker because of their new online privacy policy. Since financial services are a bit delicate, they are trying to provide as much security as possible. One of the questions I had to answer was "What is the last name of your favorite athlete". Since I wouldn't take risks, I did something silly with the answer, but forgot what that silly was. I tried to remember on few occasions, but failed miserably every time. In the end, because of the recent Apple and Facebook stock exchange frenzy, I had to make a phone call to the States and reset my security questions. A waste of time and money.

Why u no work?

But why don't security questions work? Firstly, nobody's sure how they work with the specific service. Will somebody be able to reset my password by answering them right? Or will I be required to answer them after I login to the system with my username and password? Or will they be used just in case I need to prove my identity on the telephone? Who knows… (and don't bother explaining)

Than the next problem happens. When I'm asked to answer the security questions such as "Your first girlfriend's name", "Mother's maiden name", "Favorite holiday spot" or "Your pet's name", I can think of plenty of people who might know such things, and don't know what these monsters could do with the answers (see above). Sure, these are mostly people I trust, but lately, quite a few answers to questions like this can be found elsewhere, e.g. on Facebook. How can I be sure my mother has the correct privacy settings? Or that my pet won't appear tagged on someone else's picture? Is that a risk I'm willing to take?

Time to drop

Bottom line: I tend to be creative or lie when I'm answering security questions, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who does it. Lies and creativity are easily forgotten, so I end up not knowing the right answer when the time comes. Face it, you can not make a generic query that only I will be able to answer, and that's where the story ends. So please, stop using security questions, they don't work! Think of something else.

DISCLAIMER: Please note I'm not trying to persuade anybody to lower their security standards, but the fact is, people are emailing passwords to each other.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 8: Lessons learned, time to reevaluate

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:01:36 GMT

It's been about month since I've returned from Silicon Valley, so I've had plenty of time to think about what happened there. This time I went out of curiosity, hoping to get the idea of how things work in the global center of technology. The next time I will be there for real business, approaching the situation more systematically. San Francisco and Silicon Valley are a great place to visit for profiles such as myself, so there surely will be a next time, when a wiser version of me will be able to do some serious shit. And I'll be wiser also because I've learned my lessons this time.

Ideas are worthless, but execution also isn't all it takes

When I started being an entrepreneur, I thought The idea was everything. While innovation may be important, it's mostly worthless by itself. No matter how good or revolutionary your idea is, hundreds of people probably have a similar idea at the same time. As Oren Michels puts it: "Stealth mode is stupid, execution is what matters.". Ideas are worth nothing if they're not executed properly. But wait, we've done a pretty good job with Twenity, but that still wasn't enough to make it abroad. It seems execution isn't enough as well.

At this point I think the hardest thing to do is the next step, putting the product on the market, making it recognized. At least that's where we are now, that's the obstacle we are currently facing. But I can already predict that the next hardest thing would be to find the investors, and the next to scale the business. Idea > Execution > Marketing > Financing > Scaling is a complex lifecycle, and you have to control every element before you can say you've made it. That's why you should try (and fail) as many times as possible. With every new project you do, it will be easier to dominate the prior steps, allowing you to focus more energy on the next ones.

Competition is fierce, but the market is big

The (Seedcamp) startups I've met on my trip really do some seriously crazy shit. Some of the things were so awesome I've almost lost faith in being able to do something similar. But I managed to somehow get back in the game. Neolab may not be cutting edge (yet) on the emerging fields such as mobile, HTML 5 or responsive design, but that's really not that big of an issue, since we make things that do what they're supposed to. That's the Execution phase, but luckily, the Market has the capacity to absorb many things, if approached properly. Face it - there will always be companies who do a better job than you, but it's the Market who'll decide who makes it or not.

I attended a Salesforce conference for a few hours (thanks Davorin!), which attracted thousands of visitors. In case you don't know them, they are the leading provider of Software as a Service CRM solutions, offering a service and a platform for other developers. Their product is really awesome, but that doesn't mean similar products can't find their own market. Researching on this issue, I found a review of the 10 best known SaaS CRM solutions, all of them obviously able to survive, even though Salesforce dominates this segment. And I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands more that are able to coexist at the same time on the huge global markets. Which brings me to my next point:

Highlights from a massive Salesforce conference

User experience is the new competitive advantage

You need to find your Unique selling proposition and competitive advantage. Most of the above mentioned Seedcamp startups found it in superior user experience. Take something that works, and make it work even better. Today's users are quite willing to migrate to a new product / service if it turns out to be better than the current one. A great example of this philosophy is vox.io, which offers a similar service than Skype (online calls and chat), but simply does it better. And by better I mean using new innovative approaches to make something more simple and intuitive to use. The user experience segment will only become more important and challenging in the future, since new ways of interactions with software are emerging (touch, voice, thought?).

vox.io's chat with embeddable content proves chat can be reinvented

Selling and pitching is ok

When you mention Sales, many people get the impression of a door-to-door salesperson trying to sell you books. Or company phones ringing with people who make it hard to say no to. These things give sales a negative connotation. But it seems that's a cultural thing. In San Francisco, everybody is trying to sell you stuff, everybody's pitching all the time. When you ask somebody "What do you do?", the person is already showing you their product on his/her iPhone. Maybe not for the actual sell, but just to get some decent feedback. You shouldn't feel bad about trying to sell something, that how the system works. Just make sure that something is worth selling.

One of the parties at vox.io's. Everybody was pitching.

You're nothing without the contacts

I admit I was a bit naive this time. I hoped the fact me being a blogger and a representative of two startups would open a few doors, but this turned out to be wishful thinking. It's true I did manage to find a few contacts on the spot, which enabled me to do great things (such as visiting the technology bluechips and the Internet archive), but my way to the influential blogs was closed. I heard that they receive a few hundred submissions a day, so you need to make sure your pitch is awesome and you have backdoors to deploy it. Do your homework, the next time I take on a similar adventure, I'll try to schedule as many meeting as possible in advance. I've finally found a reason to pimp up my LinkedIn profile, and I was lucky enough that:

The Slovenian (startup) scene is alive and kicking

One of the most fascinating things that happened to me was the chance to meet the Slovenian diaspora in Bay Area, and the startup scene around it. Thanks to a few individuals, such as Jure, Tomaž and Andraž, a lot of things are happening around Stanford University and vox.io's San Francisco headquarters, and everybody is very welcoming to the new generation of Slovenian immigrants and other startups, trying to make it abroad. Thank you for your kindness, I feel Slovenia!

The Slovenian diaspora meeting at the Stanford University

Foursquare is the ultimate travel guide, so get a local data plan

Forget maps, Foursquare has become the ultimate travel guide if you're looking for companies, tourist attractions or happening. That's why you'll need a local data plan, which costs a few bucks a day. Pretty much everything is on Foursquare (besides, physical addresses are often very hard to find online), and trending venues can point you to the events worth visiting. I've never used Foursquare in such a way, and the critical mass of users reached around here surely provides massive value beyond the game.

What now?

That pretty much sums it up. This trip was a great experience, but it's time to get back to the drawing board. Rethink my strategies. Redesign Twenity's user experience. Reinvent Neolab's business model. Stay in touch with the people I've met. Find new contacts for the next visit. Adopt new technologies. Research new markets. Think global.

Well, at least I won't get bored.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

Volkswagen. Das Auto. Simply brilliant.

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:57:59 GMT

You know when car manufacturers try to market their products with meaningful slogans? "Today. Tomorrow. Toyota.", "Seat. Auto emoción.", "Ford. Build for the road ahead.", "Citroën. Créative technologie.", "Volvo. For life.", "Audi. Keeping ahead through technology.", "Škoda. Simply clever.", "Porsche. There is no substitute.", "Mercedes. The best or nothing.", "Hyundai. New thinking. New possibilities.", "Cadillac. Creating a higher standard." and similar? I'm sure you do.

These words try to capture the essence of each automotive company, but at the same time unwillingly determine which of them will be perceived similarly. Some try to be technology driven (Toyota, Audi, Citroën), some try to be luxurious and irreplaceable (Mercedes, Porsche, Cadillac), some try to be the rational choice (Škoda), some try to influence emotion (Seat, Citroën), some try to look ahead (Hyundai, Ford) and some try be long lasting (Toyota, Volvo). You have many choices about who you want to be when you're buying a new car.

When presented together, you can see that these slogans are no so different from each other, since it's hard to go over the top with just a few words. But there is a car brand that managed to do just that. I don't own a Volkswagen or have plans to buy one in the future, but I can't help myself - this is simply awesome:

Volkswagen. Das Auto.

"Das" works great. It sounds rough and manly, and it's unmistakably German. The German economy is relatively healthy compared to other countries in Europe, and the quality of German engineering is known worldwide. "Das Auto" or "The (German) Car" symbolizes all of that and much more.

This slogan, even though more simple than all of the above, actually delivers the same the message as all of them combined. Technology driven: checked. Looking ahead: checked. High quality and long lasting: checked. Rational choice (combined with Volkswagen or people's car): checked. And if you have a fetish for German products, like many cultures do, you can check the emotional and luxury component as well. All of it packed in two words that tell everything: Das Auto. I want one.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

The future (of software) is in platforms

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:26:11 GMT

I don't know if you've had the chance to read What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis. You should, it's a very powerful book, even though it's been written a few years ago. Things have changed a bit since then, when Google was on top of it's game, but that doesn't mean the ideas presented in the book aren't more actual than ever. One of the chapters that made the biggest impact on me was the one about platforms and distributed systems. Google managed to conquer the world of Web 1.0 by being decentralized, allowing others to embed YouTube videos, Google Maps and Ads anywhere on the Web. This orientation provided the fuel for Google's further development and growth. Today, this way of thinking is not a competitive advantage anymore, it's becoming a necessity. As you will see, current online market leaders of various industries are not those who provide the service, they're the ones who provide the platform.

Platforms rule because mashups rule

Platforms, as opposed to products and services, allow others to build on top of them. Not thinking about control and centralization, they provide the basic building blocks other can use to develop even more products and services. In the world of Web 1.0, this meant using an embedded YouTube video instead of having your own video player, but Web 2.0 has been heavily defined by ecosystems of services built around other services. With APIs these platforms provide, developing high-level mashups has never been easier from the technical point of view, and this type of architecture benefits everybody. The platform vendor gets additional developers that extend and market it's service, while the satellite mashup gets the distribution channels, users and data they need to get somewhere faster. A modern synergy packed symbiosis.

Oren Michels, CEO of Mashery, which provides API as a service, talking for Silicon Gardens in Kiberpipa

The technology platforms

Today, pretty much all of the technology market leaders are platforms. Google allows various levels of use of it's services, from embedding things to using different APIs. Facebook's games and other apps ecosystem is huge, with providers such as Zynga already gone public. Twitter and it's massive amounts of tweets generated in real-time produced the Twitterverse - an array of fascinating high-level services. Foursquare, a geo-location network allowed other interesting concepts, such as augmented reality and games, on top of its service. Amazon offers you to build your own store, and Apple's and Android's mobile app stores are hosting hundreds of thousands of apps developers can build, deploy and distribute in short amounts of time. Salesforce offers a platform for enterprise IT, WordPress for writing and blogging tools. I could go on, but you get the picture. Platforms are the future, because they evolve collaboratively, with thousands, if not millions of people co-creating them.

A massive Salesforce conference in San Francisco, which I've visited on my Silicon Valley trip (thanks Davorin!)

The real-life platforms

Not only in software and technology, platforms in real-life are also becoming more widespread. The whole Apple iPad/iPhone gadgets ecosystem is one of the most obvious cases, where various providers offer sound systems, dongles, add-ons and other accessories that upgrade and make the original item even more appealing. Nespresso and Dolce Gusto are another interesting products. Nestlé provides the platform - the small coffee pads, which they are pushing to the market, while different manufacturers make coffee machines and other complementary products. The platform becomes more useful because of its satellites, which make the platform even more successful, turning this relationship into a virtuous circle.

Coffee machines by various vendors for Nestlé Dolce Gusto

So what should I do?

Firstly, you should embrace this way of thinking and understand what's happening. Platforms have been around since the beginning of software, even though you maybe haven't thought about them in such a way. Computer architectures, Operating systems, Programming languages and Development environments are all platforms, on a more basic level - but they provide the foundation which others can build on top of. Other platforms are build atop of these and others atop of those. Platforms are everywhere, and with every new level, they are less technically, and more conceptually oriented. Think about where you fit in.

Next, find a platform that suits what you are trying to do. Personally, against many odds, I believe more in Twitter than I do in Facebook, since Facebook is trying to keep as much as possible inside its service, while Twitter acts distributed. One of our projects is Twenity, a game we've developed around Twitter influence measuring.

If you're feeling lucky, you might want to become a platform on your own. While this may be almost impossible to do, it's something I wish I will have the chance to do someday. Neolab already has its own development framework, and if we do manage to make enough surplus or find an investor that will take us down this road, I'll be the first one in line. That is, if we don't decide to join an established platform and rather build on top of that.

Things have changed. The future (of software) is in platforms. Are you already a part of the show?

The Silicon Valley tour, part 7: A few exciting new business models that actually work

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:28:22 GMT

Visiting Silicon Valley enabled me too peek into the future a bit. Finding out about new technology trends, meeting disruptive new software startups and seeing fascinating new business models that are proven to work. There are even more futuristic products / services than the ones mentioned in this post, but these are the ones that made the biggest impression on me. And they all share similar competitive advantages: using smartphones and other mobile devices, canceling middlemen and supporting cashless commerce.

Mobile payments and Square

While Square may already be mainstream in the States, something like it is far away from being used in Europe, not to mention Slovenia. Square is focused on mobile payments, and is currently offering three different services:

a credit card reader that you can plug into your mobile device
an iPad register app for merchants, supporting invoices, payments and inventory
an app for paying with your smartphone

Square is on fire, and there are tons of places in San Francisco where you can use it. Electronic payment industry leaders such as PayPal are already looking for ways to conquer the same market.

A place that accepts all major credit cards and Square

Personal chauffeur and Uber

Uber can only be described as taxi on steroids, bypassing the dispatcher. Ok, it's actually a chauffeur. Using a mobile app, you make a request, and one of the drivers answers it. After that, you can see where the driver is, when he will pick you up, how your driver looks like, and get a direct link to call them. A guy in a suit driving a Lincoln picks you up, takes you wherever you want, and after it, you just exit, without paying. You get an invoice on your email, together with the map of the route, and the fare gets deducted from your credit card. It's a bit more expensive than a cab, but still, a pretty awesome service, that will be expanding to other countries soon.

With Uber, you get picked up by a Lincoln like this

Carsharing and Zipcar

The next generation of rent-a-car is called carsharing, and it's offered by Zipcar. No agents, just your card that you use to unlock the car you've rented. Everything happens online, where you make a request for a car, get directed to a designated pick-up area, and the car is already waiting for you there. Petrol is included in the price, and if the fuel tank drops below 1/4, you just use their credit card to top it up. Results: rent-a-car has never been easier, cheaper and less stressful.

One of the Zipcar pick-up places. They are everywhere.

bonus: Co-working and NextSpace

Co-working represents shared offices that people from different startups and companies can use. Besides being cheaper than renting your own office, you also get a chance to spend time with other people, share knowledge and ideas, which is something I found out to be invaluable. NextSpace is an established co-working space in San Francisco, with more than 175 members and packages ranging from a few hundred dollars monthly for a desk to around a thousand for a complete office. Something similar is already happening in Slovenia, so if you are interested, please visit coworking.si.

Tables, offices, conference rooms. All available with NextSpace.

Conclusion

Some of these business models might not work as well outside the curious and tech-savvy culture of Silicon Valley, but they can still help as a demonstrator of things that can be done and an announcer of things to come. Let's face it, in technology, Silicon Valley is still miles ahead, so if you're looking for trends, the smartest thing to do is just to go along with it.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 6: A trip to the Internet Archive

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:28:09 GMT

Those that have read my previous post about visiting the technology giants of Silicon Valley, might have gotten the idea that organizations around here aren't that welcoming to strangers. Well, that might not be entirely true. One of my stops in San Francisco also included a visit to the Internet Archive, a foundation that is trying to preserve all the information our civilization possesses. And they were more than welcoming. Besides giving Andraz and me a full tour of their headquarters, they've also invited us to one of their staff meetings, where the Archive's members and volunteers present their activities and results from their specific fields.

The Internet Archive is located in a former church in San Francisco, so there's more than enough room for all the people and hardware. Two main projects are currently taking place; one is the Wayback Machine, which makes snapshots of websites throughout history, and the other is the Archive, which represents systematic digitalization of movies, music and books, manually done by its members. A never-ending task that can only be done by activists who genuinely want to protect the knowledge of mankind, and you can contribute to the effort as well.

During our tour, 2.5 petabytes (that's 2.5 million gigabytes!) of data was mentioned, but I'm not sure if that's just one of the projects or both. This data is well protected, with mirrors all over the world. Impressive stuff, good enough to currently make archive.org the 223rd most visited site in the world (according to Alexa), get to the front page of The New York Times, and receive various prestigious awards.

One of the most fascinating stops of my Silicon Valley trip was indeed educational and inspiring, and it got me thinking: If there's a modern Library of Alexandria in the making, this would be it. Thumbs up.

Internet Archive's Headquarters in San Franscisco. It goes well with the logo, even though they came here only a few years ago.

The staff meeting, where members from various fields presented their achievements

Everyone that is an employee for more than 3 years, gets its own figure inside the church

Brewster Kahle, the chairman, passionately presenting the Archive's servers. There is no air condition, since heat is used for building heating.

The irony: since consumer hard disks are cheaper, they buy those and get rid of the casings.

This is how scanning of videos, microfilms and books looks like

Are we there yet?

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 5: Visiting the technology giants

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 05:15:13 GMT

Visiting the global technology bluechips was one of the things I was looking forward to the most on my trip to the Valley. Seeing how things work, the giant campuses they have, the amazing work conditions they offer. But like some other things, this plan didn't turn out as expected. I have to admit I was a bit naive, but a man can have his dreams, right? These corporations have their business to run, so why should they accept visitors like me? The fact is, they do accept them, but you have to have a contact on the inside. No contact, no glory. I was actually lucky enough to have some, and the next time I'll decide on journey like this, I'll make sure I address the situation more strategically.

Apple

I know a person working for Apple, so I was able to visit the famous 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino and eat lunch there. Taking pictures inside was strictly prohibited, but the visit was very worth the while. And since I'm a big fan, this was something that had to be done.

1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino: Apple headquarters

Facebook

Facebook recently moved their headquarters from Palo Alto to Menlo Park. I took a cab there, hoping I could get at least a bit of insight and some pictures, but since the place is still "under construction", I was escorted off the property by security. Trespassing much?

Facebook's new headquarters in Menlo Park

Google

Google turned out to be one of the most welcoming companies on my trip, but this fact had a lot to do with the Seedcamp sessions happening in the Googleplex on which I've participated. Located in Mountain View, this giant campus is very impressive.

Google's Googleplex, Mountain View. For more photos, please visit my post about Google and Seedcamp.

Square

Square managed to become one of the hottest new startups around, set out to revolutionize mobile payments and already employing 200 people. Located in San Francisco, their offices are something you have to see for yourself. I wish I could, but like with others, I couldn't get it. But at least they were very nice about it.

Square headquarters reception, San Franscisco

Twitter

Twitter is one of my favorite online services, so I was really looking forward to talk to a few people there, also because of Twenity. While Nick and I did manage to talk our way past the security desk, our trip ended at the reception. We filed a request, but nothing came out of it. But like on Square, they were very nice. It seems they share a similar corporate culture, since both companies were founded by the same person, Jack Dorsey.

Twitter headquarters reception, San Franscisco

Bottom line

The bottom line is: you are not that welcome as you would like to imagine. Something similar happened to me while I tried to visit the technology blogs located in San Francisco. They also required a contact to get in, so no luck there. So, if you're planning on doing something similar, make sure you do your homework first, try to ping a few people or find a contact form on their website, perhaps you get accepted. Otherwise, you'll end up being just a curious tourist like me.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

How movies and television (almost) ruined my experience of traveling to American cities

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:08:16 GMT

In my life, I've traveled to two American cities on different occasions: New York and San Francisco. When I got there, a funny thing happened - it was nothing like I expected. Actually, it was a total buzzkill! I was filled with great expectations, but the cities displayed themselves in the plainest way possible. I can't believe how ridiculously common everything looked! When you travel to exotic places like Asia or Africa, you're in for a bit of a culture shock, and that's already fascinating enough. But cities in the United States, well, they're not that different from European cities, we're part of the same civilization anyways. Just cities like any other.

I blame Hollywood! Movies and television (even photographs on blogs and in magazines) have always been trying to present something in an idealistic, almost unreal way. Showing things that aren't there, hiding things that are, highlighting a specific point. And since a lot of films and shows are happening in New York and San Francisco, I was being fed with this idealistic image of great places with amazing detectives ever since I was a child. But these things aren't for real, for me, the experience was totally different than I imagined. What will happen if I manage to go to Miami one day? Will it feel like a tourist resort somewhere in Europe and not like a totally cool place, the way I think of it now?

Probably not. As it turns out in the case of New York and San Francisco, these cities do have something very special to offer. The churches may not be as old as in Europe, and the streets may not be as crooked, but it's the cosmopolitan vibe and fantastic atmosphere that makes them what they are. A few days after you get to know your way, you start to feel it. It's everywhere around you. You slowly go along, and you find yourself thinking: well, this actually wouldn't be such a bad place to live for a while. And you start to enjoy it, meet a few people, go to a few parties, start to love it, everything's great, but then your trip ends and you're back home. Sitting in your living room, watching a movie or a show happening there and all you can think is: man, New York and San Francisco are even more awesome than on TV.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 4: The streets of San Francisco

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:29:22 GMT

Even though San Francisco is technically not a part of Silicon Valley, it's still one of the biggest technology hubs of the area, besides being the place where I'm situated while I'm on my Silicon Valley tour. It's an interesting city that is slowly finding its way under my skin. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed at first, perhaps my expectations were too high, but that's becoming a thing of the past, I'm starting to like this place a lot. San Francisco is one of the most open, liberal and easy-going cities I've seen so far, which is something that probably had quite a bit of influence on the general development of this region.

I love visiting cities, since they are packed with people and various cultures, like enormous ant farms. While San Francisco may not be as big as you would've imagined (comparing it to New York which I've visited a few years ago), it's still very diverse and full of surprises. After a few days of getting used to it, I think I finally found just what I was looking for: a beautiful cosmopolitan metropolis that won't leave you indifferent.

Remember the TV show from the 70's, called The streets of San Francisco? I remember it existed, but can't really recall much of it. Nevertheless, it's still a very suitable title for one of the most fascinating things I've seen so far (no shit sherlock): the streets of San Francisco, ranging from wide avenues in the city center to cute little streets of Chinatown. Buzzing with shops, people, smell of marijuana, street artists and shouting preachers, it's almost weird you still feel safe pretty much everywhere. And to let you know what I'm talking about, I've prepared a special gallery focused just on the them. Enjoy the show.

A performer entertaining people on Market street, one of the main roads of San Francisco

Senior citizens playing chess. Right next to them, a game of street dice was taking place.

The peaceful South of Market, where I live. It kinda feels like the countryside.

The colorful scene of China Town

One of the few cable car lines still working. Looks familiar?

The busy downtown

Flashy nightlife in North Beach (Little Italy). You can see the Transamerica pyramid in the back.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 3: The magnificent Stanford University

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:21:33 GMT

There probably aren't many institutions associated with Silicon Valley the way Stanford University is. Its affiliates and graduates played a major role in the development of the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, which would later on become known as the Silicon Valley. The spirit of entrepreneurship, technology, science and research is felt everywhere, and Stanford University will surely be one of the most fascinating stops on my Silicon Valley trip.

Stanford University can only be described as the American educational dream. At least the way Europeans imagine it, thanks of pop culture and television shows such as Beverly Hills 90210. The perfect mixture of easiness and seriousness is manifested in the campus itself, which is filled with amazing parks and glorious squares and buildings. It's beautiful, but also tempting for a person like me, who is still playing around with the idea of being a student for a few more years.

We managed to spend some time with Jure Leskovec from Slovenia, who is an assistant professor there. His research is focused mostly on data mining and network analysis, very fascinating fields that I'm very interested in too. He gave as a tour of the campus and took us to the Institute of Design, an inspiring place where all sort of crazy things are researched and developed. Later on he proudly presented his lab, which was sponsored by Google. A great-looking place indeed, I hope he didn't notice me drooling all over it.

Stanford University - the mother of all knowledge, located right in the heart of Silicon Valley. Seeing it helps you understand why this region is miles ahead of anyone else in technology, and definitely makes you want to study there. It's simply magnificent.

The Oval: a beautiful park, located in front of the main entrance from Palo Alto

The view on the campus from the Hoover tower

One of the beautiful streets

Arches are practically everywhere

The Institute of design: some students programming robots

The Institute of design: results from a few intense brainstorming sessions

Jure Leskovec's lab, where he and his students do their magic

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 2: vox.io's San Francisco HQ aka the Slovenian hall of tech

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:19:06 GMT

There's this very cool place in San Francisco, a place where I'm staying while I'm on my Silicon Valley tour. vox.io's Bay Area headquarters, where not only people from Slovenia, but also from a few other countries currently live, work and play. This giant loft now gathers individuals from technology startups into a giant hub of solutions, people and ideas. Filled with hopes and expectations, this is definitely something I'm proud to be a part of.

There are currently 8 people living here, from vox.io, Zemanta, Oust.me, the Austrian startup blossom and me, representing Twenity and Neolab. A pretty wicked bunch of people having both productive and fun sessions.

The place is huge, with a giant living room, kitchen, dining area, working tables everywhere, and a very cool chill-out zone on what used to be a stage. There's a separate bar and a DJ area, besides a few rooms for sleeping. An awesome hackspace, probably few times better than my flat.

I can't describe how important this place is. Besides giving me and others shelter, the opportunity to hang out here and share knowledge and ideas with other people from the industry is crucial, I've learned so much in a few days, it's unbelievable.

These kinds of things should be subsidized by the government. In our case, vox.io is doing more for the Slovenian technology startup scene than most other public projects are, for a much smaller investment. By allowing people to be here in Silicon Valley, trying to find investors, exploring new ways of doing business, or just learning about the culture around here, the reach of Slovenian startups has widened by miles. All thanks to a few individuals with great ideas.

A huge living room, the center of our everyday lives

The kitchen and the dining area

The chill-out zone, where you can work or relax

The bar and DJ area

Highlight from the Slovenian party, to which we've invited everybody from Slovenia that lives around here

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 1: Seedcamp America Trip visiting the Googleplex

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 02:05:21 GMT

When I decided to travel to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I didn't expect things will be happening so fast. But thanks to Andraž from Zemanta, I managed to do two awesome things already on the first day after I've arrived - visit Google's headquarters in Mountain View and talk with the Seedcamp teams, currently on their tour of the United States. They came here to present their projects to potential investors, and Google was nice enough to accommodate one of the mentoring sessions in the Googleplex.

The Googleplex experience

Googleplex is huge, it seems that there's a whole town that exists only because of Google. When you get here, you really get the idea about the size of the corporation - it's a corporation by all of its meaning. Infinite buildings and office for various Google products, hundreds of people going back and forth.

What was said about Google is still true. You do want to work there. The place looks great and there's a feeling of extreme brain power everywhere you look. We got fed for free and even met Žiga, who is one of the few Slovenians working for Google. He's been doing it for a few years now, working on Google search, and he says he loves it. Who wouldn't?

Google's park and restaurant, located in the 1950 Mountain View building

Cafeteria and chill-out zone inside

The slide in the main lobby - sadly out of order. The screen displays Google search queries.

The Seedcamp experience

The mentoring sessions for Seedcamp teams took place in the afternoon in one of the buildings (Mountain View 1950 to be exact), where the companies currently in the Seedcamp program presented their solutions. I was honored to be one of the mentors, trying to help the projects with my experience in enterprise IT, business intelligence and Twitter integrations. Hopefully I was able to give the teams I was associated with some decent feedback. Here is the list of all 19 Seedcamp teams on the tour (including Oust.me from Slovenia), and these are the six I managed to get to know a bit more:

Zingl, a dating service that uses the social, interest and location graphs to match people
24symbols, a solution for e-books based on a subscription model
AppExtras, a plugin for mobile apps that allows publishers to promote other apps
archivme, a service for managing invoices and other business documents in the cloud
Bilbus, which works as a broker between businesses and lenders
blossom, a project management tool for lean companies

Pretty much all of these 19 companies managed to create some very impressive business models and innovative new services.

Alex presenting Oust.me, a location-based conquering game

Mentoring sessions happened in various rooms

A bit of food and drinks after an exhausting day

What now?

So far, so good. The Seedcamp experience in the Googleplex was amazing, and I learned more in one day than I did before in months. I truly hope these teams will be able to get what they came looking for, and I hope I will too. I just need to find out what that is, because I'm not even sure anymore.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

Apple should offer the opportunity to merge two iPads (with mockups)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:14:42 GMT

The iPad 3 is coming out in March, and like its predecessors, it will surely be a huge success. But every time a new generation of an Apple gadget comes out, the previous ones flood the secondary markets, usually followed by massive price drops. Like iPads 1 today, iPads 2 will probably be quite inexpensive in the following weeks, when we'll have a new item on our with list. This may not be a really a big problem for Apple, since their business model of ultra-fast product cycles obviously works, but still, the idea of being able to sell more than one product of the same line to a single person could hold quite a few benefits. Let's take a look.

Why bother

I remember a really cool anecdote about an intern, who was bragging to the management of a pharmaceutical corporation he would be able to double the sales of their shampoo without any costs. Of course, no one believed him (or her), but the idea was very simple and effective. He said the company should simply put a "Wash twice" instruction to the back of the bottle, making people consume twice as much of it. The sales probably didn't double, but it's still a brilliant idea.

What about Apple? It's obvious that the low priced iPads 2 will be eating into the sales of the new iPad 3, since a lot of people will go for a second hand, cheaper version of the still capable-enough iPad 2. But by offering the possibility to merge two iPads into a single unit, Apple could prevent some of that effect, lowering the supply of the old iPads. Not only that, they could identify a totally new group of potential consumers who would buy the new iPad 3:

current: the people who don't own a tablet
current: the people who already own an iPad or a different tablet and will switch because of the iPad 3
new: people who already own an iPad, but don't feel the need to update to iPad 3 (like me)

This third group of people is who we are after, by offering them another added value to buy the new iPad without making them sell the old one. Owning two iPads at once? Why not.

Benefits: real multitasking

While the iPad and most other mobile devices support software multitasking, having more applications opened and one on the screen isn't real multitasking for the user. Split screen apps could solve this issue, but the screen size isn't that big. What would be better than having two apps on two iPads, with copy-paste and other cross-functional support? Like combining books and notes?

Real multitasking on two integrated iPads, using the iBooks and Notes.

Benefits: the book mode

We've already seen quite a few promising prototypes of book-shaped tablets, but I'm not sure if any of them made it to production. As shown on the second mockup, which displays different mailboxes in a TweetDeck type-of form on the first, and the emails on the second screen, this kind of use could prove itself very much useful.

Mailing like a pro: mailboxes on one screen, emails on the other.

Benefits: the laptop mode

At this point, the iPad is still not a full replacement for a personal computer, because of its hardware and software limitations. But it does support remote desktop connections to a computer, behaving as a terminal. Very cool, but not that useful, since it's hard to control a computer using a touch screen. By integrating two iPads into a laptop, we suddenly receive a keyboard and a trackpad, making such tasks much easier. Add a few more features to the iOS, and you could have a full replacement for a laptop. Something similar to the Asus Eee Pad Transformer or the Acer Iconia laptop concept?

Combining two iPads into a fully working laptop.

Requirements

Hardware: Easy. Something similar to the current magnetic sleeve which would hold the two iPads together. A cable wouldn't be needed, since connectivity could be done by wifi or bluetooth.

Software: Hard. Enabling one iPad to become a server and another one to become a client, being able to access and control the apps of the other.

Conclusion

Merging two iPads wouldn't be easy and probably not as useful as imagined in the mockups, since the user experience and controlling would have to be completely reinvented to support dual screen mode. Besides, if you would combine the iPad 1 (around 700 grams) and the iPad 2 (around 600 grams), you would get a 1,3 kg beast. Not very promising, but still not perfectly useless (the current 13' MacBook Air weighs 1,35 kg).

But the idea surely does hold potential. There could be even more interesting uses of such an installation, I've only outlined a few of them. So ~~Steve~~ Tim, if you like the idea, feel free to make it work. I would be more than happy to test out the MacBook Pad concept with the complementary iPad 4.

Special thanks to betmenka for lending me her iPad 2 despite being in a real hurry.

Zakaj blogam v angleščini [In Slovene]

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:14:26 GMT

Dragi prijatelj, znanec, bralec, naj se ti najprej opravičim. Pred leti, ko sem se loteval tega projekta, sem se soočil z eno izmed težjih odločitev v svoji spletni karieri: ali naj svoj spletni dnevnik pišem v slovenščini ali v angleščni.

Takrat sem se odločil za slednje, kljub temu da sem vedel, da bo na ta način težje začeti. Podobno, kot na Twitterju, se mi zdi, da je na kratek rok v materinem jeziku lažje dobiti tisto osnovno občinstvo, vprašanje pa je, kaj je bolj učinkovito na dolgi rok. Z angleščino je enostavneje doseči več ljudi, kar sem tudi pričakoval, da se bo enkrat zgodilo. Danes, skoraj tri leta kasneje, lahko rečem, da mi je kar uspelo.

Čeprav imam zelo rad Slovenijo, se ne čutim dolžan delovati v smeri ohranjanja materinega jezika - za to obstajajo drugi profili ljudi. Morda se sliši ignorantsko, vendar ni. Svojo misijo vidim drugje.

Glede na trenutno gospodarsko situacijo je zame bistveno, da skušam v tujini predstavljati lastne projekte, kot sta Neolab in Twenity, ter zagotoviti zaposlitev čim večjemu številu ljudi. To ni edini razlog za angleščino, veliko delujem tudi v smeri splošne promocije Slovenije, njenih dosežkov, uspešnih podjetij in ljudi ter kulturnih posebnosti. Nekdo mora povedati svetu, da obstajamo. Tako imajo tudi drugi nekaj od mojih naprezanj. In morda je takšen pristop celo bolj učinkovit za ohranjanje naše kulture kot uporaba slovenskega jezika.

Eden izmed večjih problemov Slovenije je, da so država in njeni sateliti pogosto edine stranke, ki si sploh lahko privoščijo projekte večjega obsega. Delati za državo pa ni ravno najbolj spodbudno. Zasebna podjetja imajo jasen cilj, ko kupujejo programsko opremo: racionalizirati poslovanje, zniževati stroške in/ali povečati prihodke. V državnih ustanovah pa se rado zgodi, da so vpleteni še drugi interesi, kar ne vodi v najbolj optimalno izvedbo posla. Zaradi tega je še toliko bolj bistveno, da se mala podjetja usmerjajo navzven. Ob tem lahko ponosno povem, da je Neolab v svoji zgodovini uspel izvoziti storitve v več "zahodnih" držav: Nizozemsko, Veliko Britanijo in Južnoafriško republiko.

Ne skušam trditi, da je mednarodno profiliranje našega podjetja posledica mojega pisanja. Morda ne povsem, je pa pisanje verjetno pripomoglo v določeni meri. Ko smo že pri pisanju - to je moj stoti zapis, zato sem si tudi privoščil tale jezikovni preobrat.

Dalje pa spet naprej po starem. Razglabljanja o tehnologiji na vse možne načine. Nekoč bo že nekdo prisluhnil mojim razmišljanjem in me potegnil s seboj, jaz pa bom s seboj potegnil ostale. In takrat bo v Silicijevi dolini še več ljudi govorilo slovensko, pisatelji in novinarji pa bodo skrbeli, da ne bomo pozabili na slovenščino. Mar ni to super plan?

Upam, da sedaj razumeš, zakaj blogam v angleščini.

Cool Slovenian brands, part 1: Technology startups making it big

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:23:10 GMT

Slovenia has a surprisingly high level of technology companies that made a global impact. These startups are an inspiration to everybody, and we hope more of us will be joining them soon. Some made it with the support of different incubators, such as Seedcamp or Y Combinator, others made it on their own. They all share an innovative and outstanding product or service, proving that Slovenia is a place of very talented and ambitious people. While there are probably even more successful startups I haven't heard of or mentioned, I think these eight Slovenian technology organizations created the most hype in the recent few years.

Celtra

With the recent domination of smartphones and tablets, mobile advertising is sky-rocketing. And we are not talking only about ads inside apps, we are talking about multi-platform mobile rich-media ads. These ads go beyond the direct effect of clicking, they enable mobile branding, attracting top-level multinational companies. Celtra has developed a platform for publishing and tracking such ads, and it is so hot they've received 5 millions in investor funding.
http://celtra.com

DoubleRecall

DoubleRecall is a company that might as well save the printing industry. The internet made information more accessible, and people are willing to pay less and less for it. Banner ads don't generate enough revenue for online editions, so newspapers are trying other options, specially content paywalls and tablet editions. In the mean time, DoubleRecall "invented" a new type of ad, where you have to type-in in a few words to access the article. High recollection of something you read and type make this type of ad very effective, and advertisers are willing to pay a lot for it. DoubleRecall got picked by YCombinator.
http://doublerecall.com

Flowr

Even though Enterprise 2.0 has been around for a while, we haven't seen it penetrating business on a large scale. Flowr addresses this issue, offering a simple and effective service for online collaboration between coworkers and teams. Call it Facebook for the enterprise if you like, these types of applications surely are the future of work. The Flowr managed to become a finalist in the Enterprise 2.0 conference.
http://theflowr.com

Oust.me

The latest Slovenian Seedcamp winner, Oust.me, combines two fascinating and trendy technologies: location based networking and gamification. The game supports Foursquare and other geo platforms, and its main objective is to conquer as much territory as possible by checking-in to places, becoming an ouster. Recently, they've also introduced a risk-type game that you play in teams. Your life should be a game? Can't agree more.
http://oust.me

Outfit7

Thanks to a series of talking friends available on most smartphone platforms, Outfit7 has become one of the most successful mobile development companies, and its founder one of the wealthiest Slovenians. At this point, more than 200 million downloads of Talking Tom, Talking Santa and other characters have been made. One of the most fascinating facts about Outfit 7 is that they have identified a totally new target group - children on (parents') smartphones and tablets, which is shown by their vision: we compete against Mattel and Disney. Ingenious.
http://outfit7.com

Toshl

Toshl is a fun app that helps you track expenses on your smartphone. With more than $250.000.000 expenses tracked on different mobile platforms, Toshl managed to became a finalist on SeedCamp New York in 2011. The competition there was fierce, so they didn't receive any funding, but that didn't stop them from moving to Silicon Valley, where the real magic happens. We are standing by to hear about the results.
http://toshl.com

Vox.io

Vox.io is one of the hottest Slovenian startups at this point. After winning Seedcamp London in 2011, this company is on it's way up, being covered by influential magazines / blogs Wired and TechCrunch in the past weeks. What is it about? It's VoIP (Skype) in your browser, without installation. Besides being cool, Vox.io also introduced a few interesting new concepts, such as using an URL instead of a phone number.
http://vox.io

Zemanta

Zemanta is the original Slovenian startup success story, the winner of Seedcamp in 2007. It offers a service that allows bloggers to enrich their writing by adding pictures, links and related content to their posts. Zemanta is very important because it showed other companies they can think big, and since then, they have been paving the way for other Slovenian and East European startups. A few days ago they've announced a strategic partnership with Federated Media Publishing.
http://www.zemanta.com

The impact

These companies are not only successful, they are also very important for other Slovenian startups trying to make a difference. They've become the foundation and mentors of a new mentality that's coming to this part of Europe, and they deserve all the respect. We are trying too, with Neolab and Twenity, and hopefully someday we will become members of similar lists. Until then, it's only fair we support them, by using their services, helping them, or just spreading the word about their awesomeness. We should be proud some of us have actually made it this far.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. Martin Strel image courtesy of Martin Strel Swimming Adventure.

I got another scent of going viral on social media. And I'm loving every bit of it.

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:58:42 GMT

I can't believe how much has happened since I first wrote about going viral on social media. I also can't believe what I wrote then, talking mostly about how virality has the most to do with luck. Well, it does, but any proper RPG character can fully understand luck can be influenced one way or another. As you evolve as a blogger, you learn a lot about writing good headlines, best times to publish, using various platforms to promote content and other general best practices, all adding a bit to the chance of going big. Of course, you're still competing in your own league, but a few hundred posts more, and you might do something extraordinary like swizec did. Get noticed and amplified by a heavy influencer.

The situation

Here's my situation - the full overview of traffic on this blog since it's beginning, according to Google Analytics. Spikes, which happen when something goes viral, all over the place. At this point, I'm almost at 100 posts, and around 10 are worth mentioning, making it on a single or more platforms. The list almost fully corresponds with my internal top list, and you can click on any of them if you would like to what they're about. Quite various, actually.

Traffic overview and the most visited contents on stritar.net

The winners

While the above chart may show those posts that got the most traffic, only a few of them are the real winners. Interaction and impact is what counts. Feedback from the people. My first real viral post about Facebook vs. Twitter got 100+ retweets, while newer ones managed to unlock a few other interesting achievements. The one about Apple and Slovenia ended by people tweeting about how Apple will buy Slovenia since there was a mysterious announcement on their homepage (which turned out to be The Beatles in the iTunes store). The post about Beer in Brussels produced more than 80 funny comments on reddit. Discussing about Pop TV and events on Twitter established an arrangement between the Slovenian soccer association, the established sports journalist Igor E. Bergant and the leading Slovenian soccer portal Nogomania to cover the next national soccer match on Twitter together (we'll see on February 29th). Fantastic turns of events.

The platforms

There is no viral without the platform. While Facebook may have been the biggest referrer of traffic in this blog's history, it's a stable referrer, which can hardly make something viral. Twitter is better, since the whole concept behind retweeting can amplify you outside your social circle, even though it's much harder to master. But the platforms really worth mentioning are the community based curation / recommendation engines: Reddit, StumbleUpon and Hacker News. They are much more complex to use, since you have to be a part of the community one way or another, but that's how it works - there is no taking without giving.

Top referrers for stritar.net. Twitter referrals are included in Twitter and t.co.

The downside: publishing to all these channels and the aftercare (commenting, animating) can take quite some time, but you're nothing without it.

Conclusion

If you have good content, going viral can be managed and influenced, and it happens when the parameters align. Since you have to have as many chances for that to happen, you need to blog as much as you can. That's the real recipe, if there is any. For permanent readers, for real supporters that can help you tip the scale, for additional lottery tickets.

But why go through all this trouble? Well, imagine getting 100 likes and comments on a Facebook post. Or 20 retweets of a really witty tweet you're so proud of. Multiply that by 10, and you'll get the picture of how it feels when you go viral. That's why you blog in the first place, you only don't know it.

Can social content curation without negative actions (dislikes, downvotes) even exist?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:04:56 GMT

There are people who create content. Millions of them, producing enormous amounts of data and information every day. On the opposite side, you have the consumers, people who absorb most of this content for various reasons. And there are those in-between, an emerging layer of people who filter this content and pass the one worth consuming forward to others. These people are called content curators, a breed that's becoming more and more important these days, perhaps even more important than the original creators themselves. After all, they're the ones categorizing and cleaning up the chaotic Web.

Together with the dawn of the interest graph and information overload, it's becoming obvious content curation is a major trend in social. Mathematical aggregators and algorithms can only do so much, but they are no match against the collective effort of millions of people. This fact helped services supporting social curation to emerge everywhere, in different shapes. Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Pinterest, even Facebook and Google search are offering you a filtered experience of the Web, an experience that is determined more or less by other people who share your interests. Social curation at its best.

I love these services, but as I've become a heavy user, I also started wondering, if they can work on the long run using only positive actions. Likes, upvotes, diggs, +1s, retweets, reblogs. All used to amplify, not suppress. But what if I want to prevent something from spreading, wouldn't that be curation too? Wouldn't that be a statement that would suggest the creator / curator to try harder? Another problem: how can you prevent an organized group of people (or people with multiple accounts) who are all trying to push something forward, from ruining the experience for others, without the ability to quiet them down?

I remember when Digg and Reddit were in the same league. They both used upvotes and downvotes and had similar traffic and the number of upvotes on the front page. A few years later, Digg was experimenting with becoming more Twitter-like, canceling the downvotes and introducing following. They failed miserably, but also because Digg front page was supposedly controlled by the power users. The ugly side-effect of content curation without proper goals and (crowdsourced) control. But things like that happen, and there's a good reason we probably won't see the Facebook Dislike button anytime soon.

Curation services, constructed around recommendation (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon), recognized the need for negative action and allow (anonymous) dislikes. On the other hand, those services, that are built more around social (Facebook, Twitter, Google+), can't afford to have them without causing a social problem, creating Enemies from Friends.

But there's always an option. An option that is sadly way more drastic than a dislike could ever be. Unfollow. Unfriend. Unsubscribe. Report. Remove yourself from something. An action that not only discontinues the information flow, but also discredits the creator / curator in a way. And it may as well be the ultimate dislike. Like it or unlike it, content curation without the negative action can't exist.

I feel sLOVEnia. I really do.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:25:27 GMT

Not that it's the best slogan ever. I always preferred "Slovenia, on the sunny side of the Alps", which was somehow forgotten / lost / stolen in the mean time, but "I feel" it's still much better than the previous "Slovenia invigorates" we've been seeing. Each slogan tells a story, but together they tell another, wider story, a story of a nation looking for its identity in these confusing times of globalization and recession. But we may not be as confused as it seems, these past weeks have shown there is much determination around. Much love, displayed in the huge amount of support and sincere wishes I received after we've launched Twenity. I felt sLOVEnia, finally!

Even in the making of Twenity, people were helping us, commenting, blogging about it and lending us their Twitter accounts for testing. The launch went great, the whole wwwh community and others took Twenity for its own. We've made contact with successful Slovenian startups (more on them some other time) and exceptional individuals, all prepared to help and support us in any way they can. Everybody's curious about what's happening and where we are going. And quite a few think Twenity could be it.

But why the surprise? Well, even though Slovenians are very capable, they are traditionally also a bit protective and envious, not really wishing their neighbor would succeed with something or have a bigger car. We often lack the ability to find unity (as displayed by the current political crisis in the worst time possible), but at the same time wish we could stand united the way some other cultures can. But it seems new values have finally come around, backed up by ideas that Slovenia could truly be the next Silicon Valley. Ideas brought by a new generation of technology entrepreneurs, experiencing them on their own skin in San Francisco.

Tomaž Štolfa from vox.io said that the entire IT sector in Slovenia couldn't form a corporation as big as Apple or Google, and he is more than right. We shouldn't compete between ourselves, 5 mobile operators are more than enough for 2 million people. We should think big, and technology is where I FEEL we can make it, it's where i recognized LOVE and wider thoughts. I see capable people everywhere, and it's overwhelming. Together, we could do something special, bypassing the current political and economical fuckup. And I know you feel it to. Thank you for that.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Twitfluence is dead, long live Twenity! Launching December 21st 2011.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:41:51 GMT

In three days, a new type of online influence measuring service will be launched, an exciting new version of Twitfluence on steroids. Unlike Klout or PeerIndex, Twenity won't try to set a new standard for calculating social authority, it will rather behave as a game on top of your social activity, which will allow players to go through quests, unlock levels, badges, compare themselves and compete with each other. A project made by Neolab and IlovarStritar that will try to combine the elements of gamification and social authority measuring. Who's hot and who's not, the game.

The algorithm we'll use is the v0.60 of Twitfluence, but on an improved engine, and that's pretty much everything that will stay the same as the prototype. Twitter is the original source for data, but if there is enough interest, new quests based on Facebook, Foursquare and other platforms will be designed and developed.

On Wednesday, December 21st, at 7 PM CET, Twenity will be presented and officially launched as part of the last wwwh of this year. We will stay in beta at this point, since there will surely be problems with some (influential) users and further patches will be done in the next few weeks. But after that, the sky is the limit. You're very welcome to join us in Kiberpipa, or you can watch the live stream online. Here are a few resources:

the official Twenity page
the v0.60 of the Twitfluence calculation
the event invitation (in Slovene)
the live stream where the presentation will be broadcast on Wednesday
the event on Facebook
our Twitter profile and Facebook page
more info about the Twitfluence calculation

"Twenity is an interesting new game that helps you discover your social capital while competing with your friends. This real-live RPG enables you to play without the need to actually do anything."

That's right: Vanity is the spice of life.

Impressions from my first guest blogging experience

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:47:43 GMT

Nick Taylor is probably the person who has the most to do with me starting blogging in the first place. That's why it makes even more sense my first guest blog post was on his blog, thetwohalves.com. Luckily, he was interested in guest blogging too, since these types of exchange can bring additional exposure and new readers. But we wanted to make something special, something a bit more interesting, so we've agreed on writing a mutual post on the same topic, both publishing on each other's blog. After looking for a proper theme for months, we've finally decided on Occupy Wall Street, something that's very actual these days.

The eye of the beholder

We both approached the situation from our point of view and style. Nick's direction went more into politics. He has just returned to the States after a few years and saw how big the movement was and how differently people perceive it. He justified the importance of Occupy and criticized the problems of the current system. Here's his post: Occupy Wall Street – why it won’t go away and why it matters.

I, on the other hand, discussed the technological implications and the role of social media in the Movement, fascinated by the fact we can watch and support today's "revolutions" in real-time, using multiple channels. Here is my blog post: Occupy Wall Street and Other “Revolutions” as the Ultimate Reality Shows.

The publishing

It wasn't easy. The logistics of publishing two cross-referenced posts with the same form were quite complex, also because Nick and I are 8 hours apart. It took us hours to make coordinated support and marketing activities on different social media channels, tweeting, retweeting, sharing, liking, plusing, upvoting, stumbling, mentioning, commenting and everything. We also wanted to post the two articles simultaneously, which perhaps wasn't such I good idea, since not all times are appropriate for sharing, and one of us (or both) would perform worse than the other. But it was our first time doing such a thing, and we did have a lot of fun with it.

The results

Actually, the results were nothing out of the ordinary, so I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. We did get a very good amount of interactions on Facebook, since our co-branded post was surely interesting for people who know us both. But nothing special on other platforms. Perhaps this topic is already saturated or the mentioned timing wasn't appropriate, resulting in the visits on both our blogs being quite average. But you have to learn somehow, and we'll just have to try a bit harder the next time.

But who cares about the results. Guest blogging is fun. Even if it takes twice the amount to do it in such a way that we did, I would and will do it again. Perhaps also with other bloggers interested in such a project, or a similar one (if this made you think for a bit, give me a shout). As for Nick - I'm really happy we've finally agreed on something. This world could be a better place, and I hope our effort did help to move it a bit into that direction.

Did Google just admit Apple's Siri is the future of search?

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:21:19 GMT

I don't know if you saw The evolution of Google search video, which they've published a few days ago. You should, it's a cool movie, portraying the history of search and Google's vision of its future. But something went wrong. One of the punchlines of the video was a story from one of the engineers, who said that next-generation search engines will be able to answer complex questions such as the following:

"Hey, what is the best time for me to sow seeds in India given that monsoon was early this year?’"

A very legitimate question.

I don't know if you've tried out iPhone's new personal assistant, Siri. It's awesome in every bit. Not only does it have a state-of-the-art voice recognition, it's also packed with super smart artificial intelligence that supposedly allows you to ask crazy things things such as:

"Can you remind me to call my wife when I leave the office?"

Another very legitimate question.

And there's a strong resemblance there. Both requests are really abstract and probably require quite a bit of computational power to be understood by a program. They have nothing to do with mathematical or social ranking currently used by Google (search), they are all about Artificial Intelligence and semantic interpretation. And while Google currently doesn't provide (or at least market) services that would be able to understand such sentences, Apple does.

I've noticed quite a few articles saying concepts such as Siri are the future of search. It's obvious artificial intelligence will play a big role in this segment. Apple's already in. Even if their technology is not superior to Google's, who is also working on embedding AI into search, it's fully available today, and everybody knows it. Google should really be careful with such statements concerning their core business, Web search. Specially if they are competing against the marketing wizards of Apple, who know how to sell things even if they don't fully work.

Promoting a technology you don't have and your competition does? Stupid consumers such as myself might do something stupid.

UPDATE (5.12.2011): You can join the discussion on HackerNews.

Television and Social media? How did my recommendation engine miss this connection?

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:58:20 GMT

November has been a great month for this blog. For the first time in history, I managed to get more than 1.000 unique users on two different blog posts in a single month. Which is awesome, thanks! The first post was about the TV show Dexter and its Facebook game Slice of life. The other was about Slovenian TV show Soočenje and its buzz on Twitter. Just two posts, nothing special, right? Wrong. It's really obvious, but I missed it somehow. Both posts are talking about combining television and social media, silly me! I can't believe I failed to see it, but I did, and so did my blog. Not that it really matters anymore. You know those fantastic coincidences that happen sometimes and put everything into place? This story is full of them.

Function

Some of you may know this blog has an internal recommendation engine that calculates the correlation between different posts based on shared tags and their frequency, offering related reading in the bottom. It missed the connection. Others may know I'm a bit obsessed with cross-referencing my posts, which I do manually. I missed it too. Perhaps Facebook and Twitter aren't as similar as I would like to believe, but I'm putting my bet mostly on the different concepts of combining television and social media. The Dexter case was about entertainment, gaming and story-telling. Pop TV's case was about politics, news and ordinary people co-creating content. Different problem, different tags, but still, the strong relation between the two is very much there.

Try

The first funny coincidence was a blog post by @anejmehadzic written a few days after mine, discussing the general possibilities of a symbiosis between television and social media (in Slovene). The post provided enough insight to make me see what I missed. TV shows using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to provide additional content to viewers was really something in between the two cases of mine. Revelation. At this point I knew I missed the connection myself, but how did my very smart algorithm also miss it?

Catch

The next lucky coincidence was a lecture on wwwh happening yet a few days later. @zbrchka was talking about transmedia, a term I haven't heard about before. I thought multi-platform or cross-platform could be concept that connected these two blog posts, but transmedia feels so much better. Transmedia is a technique for creating integrated content for different mediums, just the thing what I was looking for. Something that's becoming so important it deserves exposure on this blog too.

Finally

With the new gathered knowledge, I made a new tag Transmedia, putting it on both posts, besides the one about Šport TV tweeting about the basketball championship. It worked like a charm. Since this tag is used so rarely, it dominated the recommendation engine, and to my great relief, all three posts gained the correlation they require to be listed as related content one to another.

The blogosphere kicks ass, since bloggers are mutually inspiring each other and moving things forward. Wwwh is a great place to hang out and share knowledge and experience. My recommendation algorithm is awesome, fully working as expected. And those lucky coincidences are a thing that make this existence an interesting place to be visiting. Everything is just the way it should be.

* try-catch-finally is a an exception handling syntax used in some programming languages.

Occupy Wall Street – why it won’t go away and why it matters [guest blogger Nick Taylor]

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:27:26 GMT

This is part of a special two part series transatlantic blog post about Occupy Wall Street. Come check out my cross-branded blog post on Nick Taylor’s thetwohalves.com.

The Occupy movement has gone global ever since it’s fiery start on September 17, 2011, in New York City's Zuccotti Park. Strangely enough, the phenomenon was initiated by Canadians, the founders of Adbusters magazine, not Americans, lending further credibility to South Park’s famous "Blame Canada" motto. But I digress.

Why should you care? It’s just a bunch of stupid hippies and jobless freaks expressing their angst because they can’t get a job with their smelly dreadlocks, right? Well, maybe not. This movement is tapping into the very core of the reasons underpinning the Great Recession, tapping into ancient history and even potentially changing the course of the political debate in the United States and around the world through its grass roots and social media approach. Click here for a global map of protest locations around the world. More interesting than the countries on the map IMHO are the glaring exceptions: quasi-communist China, formerly communist Russia and most of Africa. Freedom of expression is a wonderful thing.

The drivers of the movement are many, however one of the more powerful statistics (click here for a primer) is that the top 1 percent of Americans possess a greater net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent. What’s making people angrier still is the drop in lower and middle class income against this top 1 percent. While no one is really talking about the reasons, it’s pretty simple. While the middle class in America grew wealthy primarily due to rising home values tied to mortgages, the wealthiest decile was predominantly invested in their own businesses and didn’t rely on loans for their wealth, so when the bottom fell out of the housing market worldwide, they were immune.

But enough about money. What this post is about is recognizing the political impetus for change evident in OWS. Some have called it the left leaning version of the Tea Party movement. And it is. In fact, I have great respect for both movements, as impossible as that may sound to Europeans. And I am not one to shy away from controversial positions, as evidenced by my post on WikiLeaks. Both organic movements were born out of a frustration with the current self-serving political structure that is willing to change absolutely nothing. So much for Obama! But what the OWS is sorely lacking is a well-defined set of goals and more importantly, a charismatic spokesperson. From my strategic marketing perspective, what they need to ultimately succeed is a leftist version of Sarah Palin. And much like the billionaire Koch brothers (whom the only viable Republican candidate for President of the US, Mitt Romney has been courting) were soon outed as the financial engine of the Tea Party, it’s only a matter of time before the people financing the Occupy movement are exposed.

The grassroots model which OWS champions, based loosely on the Egyptian protests which made effective use of social media to spread discontent with an unpopular and autocratic government worldwide is the closest the modern world has seen to a direct democracy since ancient Greece. Could this be the way forward? Say what you will, but the Occupy movement is absolutely right about one thing. Money should not equal political influence. The will of the people should. If it weren’t for the crack rock habit corporate money represents to US politicians, Congress would have changed legislation to outlaw the dubious financial instruments which nearly sunk the global economy years ago. Shame on you, elected representatives.

Sadly, while most Americans still want to believe in the Dream and many will tell you that hard work is the key to success, the stats offer a much starker reality. Income inequality in the US now ranks in the bottom third of the world, is greater than in most of the developed world (including Europe) and is in fact very close to Russia’s. Not exactly the comparison Americans aspire to. Slovenians reading this post can take comfort in knowing their country is best in the world when it comes to income equality, even if it could be doing a much better job in attracting FDI, reforming its 3rd world judicial system and job creation.

Way forward? You tell me, but change is in the making, and if history has taught us anything, it’s that revolutions can be sudden, unpredictable and harsh. France’s Marie Antoinette learned that the hard way. America was forged through a revolution. Will it be re-born through one? Or will the OWS movement simply fade into oblivion? Only time will tell, but the clock of political change is ticking, many people are fed up and the younger generations are the ones with a future to lose… Not to mention the whole world is watching.

Nick Taylor is a social media, PR and marketing consultant, blogger, politico and wannabe geek based in Scottsdale, Arizona (US). He shares his thoughts on thetwohalves.com.

Supporting events on Twitter: how Pop TV and Soočenje owned the Slovenian Twitterverse

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:13:58 GMT

Supporting events on Twitter is becoming very popular, and it's a perfect case study of what Twitter can do. After all, this channel allows an additional layer for following things that are going on in real-life, in real-time. Coverage sometimes happens accidentally, if there are enough Twitterers around, but more and more often, it happens as a result of a carefully planned tactic of those behind the event. Only then it can fully work, enabling organizers, participants and observers a totally new type of involvement. Crowdsourcing event support can produce a better overview of what's happening than any well-trained team of journalists can provide, offering an experience that is broad, objective and subjective, interactive. And like using Twitter itself, some know how to do it, and some don't.

My experience

When I tried it out it myself, it was fun and rewarding, In May, Trkaj, Jacuzzy and our neighborhood Savska held a festival Blok Party, which attracted a lot of people. We were there, live-tweeting about it. We've also asked other Twitterers (thanks @loudandwicked!), who attended the festival, to use and amplify the same hashtag #savska, and in the end, more than 10 people tweeted about the event, producing over 50 tweets, most of them with pictures. Which isn't that bad on the Slovenian scale. My friend @jakasibicekaka did something similar, asking Trbovlje town councillors to tweet about a meeting with the #sejaOStrb hashtag, which attracted other people to participate as well (here's his blog post about it, in Slovene). Great results enabled by collaboration of many users.

It can work on a small scale. What about the major league, it should be even better? Let's analyze two nation-wide events that happened this week in Slovenia.

How to do it wrong

The first case mentioned was the Slovenia vs. USA friendly soccer match. At the stadium, the National soccer association (@nzs_si) promoted their Twitter account which does live coverage of matches. Which they did. But that doesn't mean they did the whole Twitter thing right. They forgot about the extremely witty journalist @IEBergant also tweeting about the match. They forgot about me, and they forgot about you and 8 other thousand people watching the game live, probably quite a few geeks included. While NZS used the hashtag #fuzbal (slang for soccer), some used the hashtag #nogomet (soccer), #slovenia, #slovenija, and the mentioned Igor Evgen Bergant used #soccerSI-US. The results: a scattered pool of tweets which didn't really offer users the complete picture. The event went mostly unnoticed on Twitter.

The Slovenian soccer association promoting their Twitter account on the match

How to do it right

On the other hand, Pop TV (@24ur), the biggest commercial television network in Slovenia, did it more than right. Their show "Predvolilna soočenja", which does political confrontations before the upcoming elections, won big time. And while using Twitter to support television has been done for ages abroad, this actually happened for the first time in Slovenia (at least so I think). And they did at least three smart things:

they've promoted the hashtag #soocenje, not minding about their Twitter profile
they've invited five influential Twitterers (@alivea, @had, @Lacn, @madpixel, @tamejhna) to the studio audience to generate the initial buzz on Twitter, besides live-tweeting from the studio. Here they are, appearing with @miharejc, who tweets for @24ur
they've broadcasted a selection of tweets with this hashtag live on television, and encouraged people to participate and ask questions on Twitter

The results were amazing. Hundreds, if not thousands of tweets all over place. Local trending topic. They owned the Slovenian Twitterverse like no one else before them. It worked like a charm. You can check out the partial report (which only displays 100 of #soocenje tweets, happening in 5 minutes!) on the following link or use the #soocenje Twitter search, if tweets are still available. Epic stuff, moving the Slovenian media sphere a few years forward.

Pop TV displaying and promoting #soocenje tweets live on television

#soocenje (besides various politicians and the show host) became a local trending topic in Slovenia according to sitweet.com

Conclusion

I'm only a level 26 27 social media ninja, but I know a few things. If you're organizing an event, the most important thing is: promote Twitter hashtags, not profiles. Even if they are nothing more than just clickable search queries, they simply work. Search Twitter in real-time and look for people who are talking about the event. Ask them and other people attending to amplify and use the same hashtag. Thank them if they do. Most of them will join you, since it'll make it more interesting for them too. Offer something more if you can (like displaying tweets on a website). Use multiple accounts (official, personal) with different wibes. Upload pictures. Retweet. Interact. Have fun.

Twitter, a funny service proving that a collective effort of many people will always provide a way more interesting picture than a single person can. More objective, more diversified, more everything. Perhaps even better than the original event itself. Real players are fully aware of that. Don't worry, even if you don't have the same power, publicity and followers, you can compensate with additional energy, time and mobile bandwidth. The results can be surprising. And if it does work, I promise you'll enjoy every little bit of it.

UPDATE (22.11.2011): I got contacted by @24ur, who told me this was already their second Soočenje show (I missed the first one - the irony - playing soccer), and the first one generated over 1800 #soocenje tweets. I also got feedback from @nzs_si and @IEBergant, they've agreed we should make a joint effort the next time Slovenia plays soccer, also involving the biggest Slovenian soccer portal Nogomania. Awesome stuff.

UPDATE (25.11.2011): Pop TV is on fire. Today, they've added another medium to support Soočenje on Twitter, their news portal 24ur.com, which is the most visited site in Slovenia.

The great technology wars and the transition of software from B2B to B2C

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:25:14 GMT

The epic article by Fast Company about the technology wars of 2012 provides great insight into what's happening in Silicon Valley and software in general these days. Four players, or the Fabulous Four, are mentioned to be the real market and innovation leaders: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google. Each of these companies found its place where it dominates and invents new business models, and each one is a role model for new generations of technology startups and leaders. And if you didn't notice, all of them sell software to consumers, not other companies (in case of Google and Facebook, you are the real customer, but advertisers pay for it). Software is becoming more and more consumer-oriented, and the clash of these titans will determine the outcome, the software of the future.

The Fab Four

Who are these fantastic companies? Amazon is the leader in e-commerce. Apple reinvented mobile devices and content distribution. Facebook is the largest social network in the world, a big brother in the making. Google is the biggest web and search company.

I almost won't argue with the choice of the Fab Four. To me, these are truly the technology companies that are moving things forward. To be honest, the list is bit of an understatement for Microsoft, even though that doesn't change the fact I'm trying to put out here. These four corporations (their software at least) are more B2C (Business To Consumer) than B2B (Business To Business) oriented. Even Microsoft, with its XBox, Bing, Windows (Phone and Tablet) programs is shifting focus to consumer markets.

The stock market comparison

The B2B software market is still huge, but electronic commerce, online advertising and the economy of scale of billions of users spending a few dollars is slowly outperforming more expensive business solutions sold fewer times, even if they are deployed millions of times as operating systems, products or services. If you check out the following charts, you can see information about market capitalization, revenue and historical price change of these companies (Facebook is not public yet, but it's IPO could be around $100 billion) compared to traditional technology companies such as Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. The numbers are pretty interesting (source: ycharts).

Market capitalization of Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle in the last 10 years (as available)

Change in market capitalization of Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle in the last 7 years (as available)

Revenue of Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle in the last 10 years (as available)

Change in revenue of Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle in the last 8 years (as available)

Change in stock price of Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle in the last 7 years (as available)

Why does it matter

As a software architect, I see major shifts in user-centered software compared to business-oriented software. Even if you check Gartner's strategic technologies of 2012, it becomes more and more obvious what's happening:

software is made for and "sold" to users, not management anymore
product cycles and new releases are reaching Warp Speed
the focus is shifting from features to benefits
user experience is becoming more and more important
technology used is getting less and less important
system and data integration is becoming trivial with web services and APIs
there's a new generation of devices that run software (smartphones and tablets, the internet of things)
scaling and performance is not measured in Whateverbytes, but in number of users
new distribution channels (marketplaces) are going beyond the Web
platforms and mashups have emerged, where ecosystems of software are being build around the core service
online software is more disruptive and innovative, business software follows (from Web 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0, adoption of gamification in the enterprise, etc.)

Adaptation

Some business software companies, such as Salesforce.com have managed to adapt to this situation, offering a platform others can upgrade and develop on. We're adapting too, on a smaller scale. Neolab is still mostly focused on B2B software, since that's where we've built our market. Sure, we did a few web portals and are working on deploying our own user-targeted service Twitfluence, but it's business-oriented software that we generally work on. But that doesn't change the fact we are fully aware that the concept of software is changing, and we are on top of it, trying to embrace these trends and include new paradigms in corporate infromation systems. Social, user-oriented, user-friendly. Knowing that people are behind every company.

Software is maturing; consumers are getting more and more demanding, brands behind the software are getting more and more important. And as the Web expands even further, this fact will become yet more obvious. It's you and me who are the ones who are "buying" software. Which is great, since in the end the ordinary people, not corporations, will be those who will decide how software and technology of the future will look like. Interactive, useful and fun. Here we are now, entertain us.

Is Dexter and its social game Slice of Life the future of TV shows (but no one noticed)?

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:46:35 GMT

I don't know if you've noticed, but a few months ago the hit television show Dexter got it's own social game you can play on Facebook, named Slice of Life. Similar kinds of branded social games have been done before, but it's something else that's interesting this time. This game changes according to the plot of the television series each week. That's right, the show and the game are coexisting and evolving together to bring users a totally new type of experience. And while most technology blogs, obsessed with social, said Slice of Life is a revolutionary new type of a social game, I asked myself: is it rather a new revolutionary type of consuming television?

Television is static - not interactive the way the Web is. You can't do much. More or less, liking and commenting shows, besides tele voting, are the most interactive things you can do. But Slice of Life changes everything. A television show that you can watch, consume and play on multiple mediums, multiple channels, multiple platforms, online and offline. You're actually playing a game inside the show. Or watching a show inside the game. Pretty awesome stuff that didn't get as nearly much attention as it should, attention for bringing a new type of interactivity to television shows.

If the future of television as a medium will be defined by new types of business models (Netflix), physical architecture (Google?) and user experience (Apple?), the future of television content will definitely be defined by the level of interactivity it offers, imitating the Web. And until now, interactivity hasn't been solved in such a smart way than our favorite serial killer's social game. You must watch, you must play, you must do everything to be the biggest of the 10 million+ fans Dexter has on Facebook.

It looks like television is becoming more than just a medium. It's rather evolving into a cross-platform interactive content serving entertainment system. Some have already managed to successfully understand that fact, more will follow soon. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see more.

The great aquarium cleaning dilemma: should you be removing or replacing water?

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:44:18 GMT

Everybody that owns an aquarium probably came across this decision at one point. The water is filthy and needs to be replaced. All you have is a jar. And you ask yourself: should you be emptying the aquarium first, adding new water later on, or should you be replacing filthy water with clean water? The first choice seems more rational, but sometimes you can't fully empty the aquarium (e.g. you have fish), and you need to do more runs since you're not taking water both ways. The other option seems interesting since you're efficient both ways, but at the same time you're taking back fresh water mixed in the aquarium. So, what should you do?

The situation

In reality, you do have other options. A water pump, a larger intermediate basin or other things that can make this task easier. But believe me, sometimes you don't have the time to do it properly and you just want to clean the water a bit. And that's when you'll wonder what to do. It happened to me, and that's why I've made myself a model that would answer this question, a model that would determine the breaking point (where both options are equally effective) between the two techniques.

The model described contains the following parameters:

the aquarium volume (V - volume)
the jar volume (d - change)
number of two-way runs (x)

And it looks something like this:

The aquarium cleaning situation

The initial model

The original view I made in Excel is based on simple mathematics, where each one-way run is represented by one line in the table. Adding and removing water both-ways constantly reduces filthiness, but makes each additional run less effective. On the other hand, removing water first and adding fresh water later takes more runs (since your jar is empty in one direction, you require four one-way runs to replace an additional unit), but you're not removing clean water. Here's a preview of how this looks:

The basic calculation

The advanced model

The basic model is more understandable, but not appropriate to make a full mathematical equation. That's why I made a second model, which is based on two-way runs and exponential functions. Here's what I got:

The advanced calculation

The results

The results show that if you don't have much time, it's better if you're replacing water, taking it both ways. This accounts for faster cleaning, which is slowing down in the long run. But the point is that no matter what the parameters are (aquarium and jar size), the breaking point happens more to the end of the cleaning. So, if you're not prepared to fully empty the aquarium, it's generally better if you use the the first option, removing and adding water at the same time.

The graphical results displaying water filthiness based on number of two-way runs for different jar and aquarium sizes

The breaking point equation

The results are there, and I managed to make the following equation which would calculate where both ways are the equally effective:

This makes calculating the number of runs so complex it can't be calculated in basic Excel (because of the Lambert W or product log function).

But luckily, you can use Wolfram Alpha to calculate the breaking point of two-way runs by entering the aquarium and jar size in the boxes below. If you're prepared to make less two-way runs than the result, take water both-ways, otherwise, one-way.

Aquarium: Jar:

If you want to play around a bit, you can even download the complete model in Excel format.

Conclusion

Perhaps there's an easier way to calculate the great aquarium cleaning dilemma, which speaks in favor of water replacement (taking water both ways). There's also a chance I've made an error somewhere (please let me know!). But the results seem correct, and I hope you find all of this amusing and / or helpful when you need to update your water. Aquarium cleaning will never be the same again.

Update (26.11.2011): While this may have been a fun experiment, I've just read it's not that smart to fully remove water in the aquarium, since it disrupts the balance of bacteria.

Project 5000: Assembling a 5.000 piece jigsaw puzzle of an ancient map

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:24:17 GMT

Sometimes you need something to set your mind at ease. That's why @TejaSmeja in I decided to build a 5.000 piece jigsaw puzzle, an ancient map of the world from 1630 by Ravensburger. It took us about two months or an estimated 500 hours of effective work, but it was fun and definitely worth the time. Looking at thousand of similar pieces for hours is a great way to relax after stressful work, the progress is very challenging and the results mentally very rewarding.

We've been evolving the technique as we went along, approaching the jigsaw puzzle in the following order:

the puzzle edges
the equator and world edges
the poles and the tropic
at this point, we've split apart. Mateja started working on the pictures around the world, I started working on the map.
we almost managed to put all the pieces out of the box. About one room of space.
I worked on the world from the inside out (since meridians and parallels are the most vertical and horizontal in the center)
Mateja worked on the pictures surrounding the world one by one, since each had specific colors
we've been adding significant elements as we went along (coastlines, signs, faces, etc.)
we used regular A4 sheets of paper for categorization and transporting
the sea came last since the pieces were very similar to each other. But It became easier with every step, since there were fewer left.

Here are a few pictures representing our assembly of Nova totius Terrarum Orbis geographica ac hydrographica tabula. It was fun, so if you're searching for a new hobby for the next few months, jigsaw puzzles could be something worth looking at. We will probably do another one one day, when we find a big one we like.

Opening the box and noticing there are too many pieces to fit in the room

Assembling the edges

Working on the equator and the edges of the world

Connecting the equator and the edges of the world to puzzle edges

Doing the poles and the tropic

Assembling the outer pictures and the world from the inside out

The bottom pictures are done, the world is coming together

The jigsaw puzzle is almost complete, all that's missing is the sea

The final masterpiece

Bonus: finding a piece with your name on it

Facebook vs. Twitter, Part 3: The phase of unification

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:22:32 GMT

I started writing about Facebook and Twitter because I saw these two services as the most impressive players of the social age. I received a lot of comments about the two of them not being comparable, which I disagree. They are the biggest global Web 2.0 platforms (LinkedIn successfully went public and has a lot of users, but it's hardly a platform) and two of the ten most visited websites in the world. They are social trend-setters, both super advanced on technical and conceptual levels. They are a lot, but with the latest sets of patches, they are also becoming a lot alike.

Originally, Facebook wanted to be a social network. On the other hand, Twitter wanted to be a news network. But seeing what's happening these days, we can ask ourselves: is it rather the other way around? Indeed, Facebook and Twitter are finally entering the phase of unification. Let's begin.

Two way integration

Twitter now officially supports posting to Facebook, while Facebook now officially supports posting to Twitter (for now, Pages only). Until recently, you had to use other services or install apps to fully connect both accounts, but these days, direct integration it's pretty much trivial. The wall between the two giants is obviously coming down. And they both noticed the need to recognize each other to proceed.

Facebook adds following

The symmetric relationships (friends) on Facebook made it what it is - a social network for keeping in touch with the people you know. The same goes for Twitter, the asymmetric relationships (followers) made it what it is - a news network where you can follow people you are interested in. This fact was one of the biggest differentiator between the two social services.

Facebook soon noticed they will have to somehow go beyond that, for the sake of enabling more accessible information to the masses and enabling unprotected, crawlable real-time data without privacy. They've started with Pages, intended for brands, which users can like and follow. But recently, like I predicted more than a year ago, Facebook introduced subscriptions for personal profiles, where you can follow people without the need for them to confirm you back, and they can post public updates. What an interesting turn of events.

Facebook adds a real-time stream

Facebook put a lot of effort into developing the EdgeRank, which recognizes the level of connection between two people. The previous version of Facebook had Hot and Fresh streams, the first one being based on the amount of activity and EdgeRank vicinity, and the other one on recent activity. Today, the main stream is a mixture of both, while a new feature was introduced. The so-called Ticker in the right sidebar, showing real-time activity from all your friends. Your own little Twitter inside Facebook, which they plan to evolve even further, adding automatic updates.

Twitter starts to close, adds multimedia

Traditionally, the Twitter app ecosystem was built around (outside) Twitter, while Facebook's app ecosystem was built inside Facebook. But Twitter's policy is changing. They've already acquired one of the biggest Twitter clients TweetDeck, and said they will prevent new Twitter clients from being developed. They've also added a multimedia library to each profile (feeding also from external services) and enabled an internal service for sharing photos. Bad news and a stab in the back for Twitpics, Yfrogs and such. Smells like Facebook.

Twitter adds activity streams

Social networks are all about profiles, streams and interaction. Twitter used to be plain, providing only simple profiles, basic tweets stream, replies and retweets. But the newest addition also includes real-time activity streams, where all retweets, replies and favorites are gathered in one place. I haven't gotten it yet, but people are saying Favorites are the new (Facebook) likes. Twitter is becoming very much a social network, trying to boost up it's social graph.

Conclusion

There are even more cases like this, but these are the most significant. I hope this trend won't continue much further. It was the differences between Facebook and Twitter made each one interesting and useful in it's own way, but I guess things like this are inevitable. Like operating systems or browsers, competitors are constantly copying each other's features and solutions, which actually proves mutual recognition. Why would social services be any different? It seems Twitter and Facebook are finally mature enough to enter the phase of unification.

Check out the complete Facebook vs. Twitter series.

Twitfluence received some media attention. And almost went to Seedcamp.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:05:04 GMT

Lately, a lot has been happening with Twitfluence. We've finally decided it's time to go out of prototype mode and make Twitfluence a fully working solution, a joint venture between Neolab and IlovarStritar. A fine combination of great technical expertise and amazing visual experience. We've even applied for Seedcamp Ljubljana, but only made it as runners-up (which is actually not that bad for the first try). But that won't stop us – we are more certain than ever to make Twitfluence a complete product, and we'll try even harder the next time.

There are quite a few challenges on our way, the biggest one being the technical difficulties the calculation is having when analyzing large accounts. We had to rewrite it pretty much from scratch. Besides other small upgrades and patches, we will also be doing another major thing: rebranding it. Twitfluence sounds too generic, and most service built on top of Twitter are Twit-something. You will see what we have in mind, and we're sure you'll like it.

This will probably be the last post about Twitfluence on stritar.net, since we'll be moving to the official blog. It was fun while it lasted, but Twitfluence will be retired soon, to make way for something even greater. Hopefully you will be able to see the results in about a month.

What made us pursue the idea further, to think beyond the current ugly mode? A lot has had to do with bloggers that were covering us, which gave us amazing moral support (and a kick in the ass). This coverage went way beyond Slovenia and we are proud to have made it so far. It has also shown us we are on the right track – if we were able to get noticed with the current version, the broad potential of such a service must be great. See for yourselves, here are a few great articles that we've seen floating on the internets:

My Community Manager: Different authority measurement applications review (in French)
had blog: Twitfluence review (in Slovene), by @had
SocialEast: About Slovene Twitter tracking software solutions
Toronto Star Blog: Politicians on Twitter, and how to determine their influence and social capital

Thank you for your support and patience, we'll be seeing you around. Bigger, better, prettier and of course, more playable. Stay tuned.

Solid-state drives (SSD) are the biggest win in hardware ever

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:01:42 GMT

Guess what? My new computer has a Solid-state drive. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, that's the new super fancy high-tech computer storage unit. And I must say it's so amazing it's almost silly. Extra fast boot times, complex applications opening up in seconds, less power consumption and no humming from the hard disk. What else could you wish for in your new sexy computer? I love it, and I love it so much I had to tell the world.

In my laptop career, I went from from Centrino to Core 2 Duo to i5. Never noticed much difference in performance. Well, with the last one, I also got the mentioned SSD and it blew my mind. And I was wondering, besides the famous Samsung SSD in RAID movie, I haven't heard much about it, nor seen impressed geeks writing poems about its awesomeness. Sure, people are testing how faster it is and arguing about the fact if it consumes less battery or more. But who cares, what you really want to know is if it makes a significant difference or not.

So trust me on this one: nothing will make more difference in personal computer performance than a Solid-state drive. By miles. Lightyears even. And while I know they are expensive as gold, I still think you should consider getting one with your new computer. They are worth every penny. If you're not a hardcore gamer, make movies or process calculations with thousand of parameters, you really don't need an extremely capable processor and a state-of-the-art graphic card. Memory, you need that, but it's cheap. What you need the most is a Solid-state drive. Casual user or one of the mentioned.

There's always a downside. After some time, Solid-state drives supposedly start to behave a bit slower and are still not as reliable as hard disks. Luckily, most of these problems have been taken care of with the current generations, so we'll see what happens. At this point, all I can say is that I'm very very impressed and think that SSDs deserve much more than just this post. They're pure win. And another item for your wish list.

Forget Facebook. Šport TV and their billboards found Twitter, with style.

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:59:14 GMT

About two months ago I was super fascinated about the fact that a variety of Slovene marketers started to promote their Facebook presence on billboards. Guess what: that's so two months ago. Šport TV, one of the biggest sports television networks in Slovenia went a step further, designing their billboard(s) specifically for promoting their coverage of The European basketball championships on Twitter. Which is a bit surprising, since there are supposedly only around 10k people on Twitter in Slovenia (compared to 650k on Facebook), but still, Twitter is much more suited for media coverage than Facebook for various reasons.

The massive billboard I spotted is located on one of the biggest intersections in Ljubljana, and it's made out of three pieces. The main piece contains three celebrity basketball commentators, each one represented with his own Twitter account and a "Follow me" call to action. Until now, these profiles managed to attract around 150 followers each, which isn't bad at all. Their Twitter backgrounds are well designed and their streams almost updated, which will hopefully continue even after the championship:

Sašo Filipovski: SportTV_Saso
Zoran Martič: SportTV_Zoran
Zmago Sagadin: SportTV_Zmago

Šport TV continued the campaign on their website, where they presented the same three commentators, besides promoting the hashtag #Litva2011, which is quite popular these days for Slovene standards. Pretty advanced and coherent marketing indeed. Great job.

The championship will be over today, Slovenia did well and managed to finish 7th, but we also went a step further in digital. Yes, Twitter is finally becoming a player and some people obviously know how to use it. Exposing the actual faces behind the corporations is effective (specially if you are in showbiz), and something that is nearly impossible to do well on Facebook. So this campaign is actually a double win. Just don't forget to update.

Šport TV's Eurobasket billboard

Šport TV billboard: Follow us

Šport TV billboard: Facebook and Twitter

Šport TV website highlight

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Optimizing computer input performance: learning to use the trackpad with both hands

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:20:05 GMT

I'm left-handed. Which is not that optimal for general use of computers, since they are designed for right-handed people. You use the external mouse with your stronger right hand, which means your weaker left hand stays on the left side of the keyboard, where most of the function keys are. I managed to adopt that. But now a much greater challenge awaits: learning to do the same with the trackpad.

When I bought my first Mac, I also went for the Mighty mouse, which more or less sucked. After some time I abandoned it and started using the trackpad, which is really cool since it also supports multi-touch gestures. The new Macs and their trackpads are a lot bigger, and their multi-touch even more capable, so I'm not even thinking about getting an external mouse. Besides, I think having your hands near the keyboard by using a trackpad makes your inputting (navigating and typing) a bit faster and more optimal, since you don't have to move that much. And of course, it's better if you use the trackpad with your right hand because of the keybeard function keys.

When Apple introduced the first iPhone, people were laughing at its underperforming capabilities. But the iPhone had something significant that made it the success as it is today. The outstanding capacitative display and amazing user experience, which set new standards for mobile industry. I'm not sure if the same capacitative technology is used in Mac trackpads, but the fact is they simply work.

Looking at modern tablets and smartphones, it's pretty obvious that the future lies in devices with touch capabilities. Why should computers be any different? Besides, we will probably be using both hands sometime soon. So this mission of mine may have multiple benefits. Be better today (ok, tomorrow, since adoption will take some time), and be prepared for the super high-tech virtual touch future by having two touch-adopted hands. And when I actually manage to make it work, I already have an idea for the next, even more optimal inputting method: Using the trackpad with my right thumb, so both my hands can stay on the keyboard. Wish me luck.

The art of internal hyperlinking

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:00:02 GMT

Everybody wants traffic on their blog or website. Direct traffic. Referring traffic. Search traffic. All good in their own way. Direct traffic means having a strong brand. Referring traffic means having a strong network. Search traffic means having a strong team. The first two are hard to influence, but search - that's the one you can influence the most. And even if search technology has changed a lot in the past few years, with mathematical algorithms slowly getting replaced by social ones, old school search engine optimization can still make a difference.

Let's say you already have good content. And you have it technically optimized and search engine friendly. Like, Tweet and +1 buttons implemented where applicable, since they are more and more important for search result rankings. All good, but you might have missed something. Since it's very hard to persuade other people to link to your site giving you a higher PageRank, you just have to do it yourself. I'm talking about internal hyperlinking, where you cross-reference the content you already have. Google loves it so much that their official blog, besides influential blogs such as Mashable and ReadWriteWeb, have main headings referencing itself.

I approached this issue from two different angles. Sometime in October 2010 I took the time to systematically cross reference all my blog posts. It took me a lot of time, but I think it was worth it. Besides, I developed a "similar content" module, which additionally does it for me. The results on the diagram below, which display search-based traffic on my blog, are not real proof of that fact, since the experiment was not fully scientific; there are many other SEO factors, additional content and optimizations that were put into the equation. But still, most energy was put into content cross referencing and the trend looks pretty good.

Traffic to http://stritar.net via search engines

Since internal hyperlinking is an ongoing process, you have to have a good overview about the content you own, something that provides you with the complete picture. I used a plain Excel file, grouping my posts into general categories and started drawing arrows representing hyperlinks. At this point, it's already become a bit of a mess, so I'm thinking about moving to a stronger diagram-oriented software, but I think you get the picture.

http://stritar.net internal hyperlink structure

Internal hyperlinking can help, and it's something you can do even if you don't have a lot of technical skills. Just a lot of time, but we're in a recession anyways. Now go for it and let me know about the results.

Please help me upgrade my Twitter bot

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:33:12 GMT

Half a year ago I decided to make something out of my Delicious bookmarks. The magazine-style display inspired by Flipboard wasn't enough, I wanted to publish these links somewhere outside my chronolog, somewhere on Twitter. So I made a bot. It's doing quite well, posting like mad, but it's really not where I want it to be. Until now, it made about 3.000 tweets (around 500 per month), but has only 67 followers. I know my taste in content is a bit obscure, but still, only 67 followers?

This calls for an upgrade. And since I won't change my interests and bookmarking habits, something else needs to be done. That's where I need your advice. Crowdsourcing the concept and stuff.

The brand

This is probably one of the greatest fails of the project. At first, I thought of it as an extension of my blog. Hence the account @stritar_net, the name Stritar's chronolog, together with the description it has. Should I rename it and try to make it a standalone "brand"? Should I openly say it's a bot (Stritar's bot or something)?

The selection

The bot currently posts ALL my bookmarks to Twitter (as mentioned, around 15 per day or 500 per month) without any selection. But it could be done. Since my bookmarks are originally tagged, it could leave out those with too few tags (since I use the same method of counting tags to determine the initial weight of content for the magazine). Or specialize in specific segments according to tags. There could even be more of them bots. What do you think?

The frequency

Currently, the bookmarks I make go into a queue. I hate those Twitter accounts that post 10 tweets in 5 minutes and go silent for a day. I wanted to make it more smooth. So the queue always knows how many items it holds and adapts the frequency of posting according to it (less bookmarks in queue mean less frequent tweets). But that produces the situation where most of them are already a few hours or days out of date when they are published. A higher publishing frequency would solve some of it, but it opens a great dilemma: what's the lesser evil, over-spamming or being out of date?

The order

The order of bookmarks posted on Twitter is determined by two factors. The number of tags and the date they were published. More tags equals more importance. Older bookmarks get published sooner, otherwise they would get even more out of date. Should I do it the other way around and post more recent links sooner? This would make some of them more interesting and up-to-date, but other worse. Breaking content or consolidated content?

So many decisions… In this case, the best way probably doesn't exists, but trade-offs can always be decided for the better. Please let me know what you think, your help would be more than appreciated. I could help back if I can.

Crazy about beer? Visit Brussels.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:04:17 GMT

Brussels is really not your typical tourist destination. Sure, it has Atomium, amazing squares, tiny streets packed with restaurants, great palaces and gothic cathedrals, but sadly lacks some of the personality and the wibe cities like London, Paris or Amsterdam have. Neverheless, the capital of the European Union still has a lot to offer. The twice fried potato chips are simply awesome, but there are two more important things that could make your visit worthwhile: beer and chocolate.

The Belgians have more than 100 breweries producing 800 different kinds of beer. Most of them make strong beer (6-8%), but that's actually not that bad when you get used to it. Another cool thing about it is that they always serve beer with the appropriate branded glass. So, if you're into drinking different beers each day or each round, look no further. Here a few highlights from my beer discovery run in Brussels.

A nice beer menu

A pub with more than 40 beers on tap

Each beer gets its own glass

Kwak beer - the fanciest glass of them all

A beer shop

Crazy about chocolate? Visit Brussels.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:03:31 GMT

Belgium is famous for its chocolate, and they produce 22kg of it per person a year. There are more chocolate shops in the old center than you can count. The chocolate is expensive, but it tastes at least as good as it looks. So, if you’re into specialized pralines and extra dark chocolate, look no further. Here are a few highlights from my chocolate discovery run in Brussels.

A typical chocolate shop

Making chocolate to entertain the customers

A variety of pralines and truffles

A chocolate elephant

Determining if an element is in the last row of a table

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:57:52 GMT

Once upon a time I stumbled upon a problem, where I needed to calculate if an element is in the last row of a table. Here's the scenario: you have a number of items, which are put in a table from left to right. When the row is full, the items continue in the next row. Imagine an airplane or a theater where people start sitting front-left and continue to the right until they run out of space, then going to the next row and so on. Now we want to know which people are sitting in the last of the populated rows.

A weird problem, but hopefully I will be able to show you some cool results produced by this algorithm someday (yes, it's usable).

The equation has 2 parameters: the total number of elements and the number of columns in a single row. There are a few ways to do it, using division with remainders (the modulo operation). The simple way would be comparing the total number of rows with the element's current row. Another one would be to calculate the number of elements in the last row and see if our element is in those last few. While both seem logically easy, they actually suck, because they contain exceptions (some states need to be handled specifically - if the last row is full or not).

That's why I went for the ultimate way, using abstract mathematics which requires real magic, and since it would be too boring to explain it, just take it if you need it and don't try to understand - to be honest, even I'm not perfectly sure how I did it.

The number of rows way:

lastRow = ((Math.DivRem(currentElementIndex + 1, numberOfColumns, out remainder1) + Convert.ToInt16(remainder1 > 0)) >= Math.DivRem(totalElements, numberOfColumns, out remainder2) + Convert.ToInt16(remainder2 > 0))
* Math.DivRem returns the division result and the remainder, since both are required for the calculation

The number of items in the last row way:

lastRow = (totalElements - (totalElements % numberOfColumns) - (numberOfColumns * Convert.ToInt16((totalElements % numberOfColumns) == 0)) < currentElementIndex + 1)
* % is the modulo - remainder from dividing

The ultimate way:

lastRow = totalElements < ((numberOfColumns + currentElementIndex) - (currentElementIndex % numberOfColumns) + 1)
* % is the modulo - remainder from dividing

Mathematics is awesome.

UPDATE (27.7.2011): Silly me. Overwhelmed by "The ultimate way", I missed the opportunity to simplify "The number of rows way". I guess this is one of the cases which explain why counting starts with 0 instead of 1 in programming.

The improved number of rows way:

lastRow = Math.DivRem(currentElementIndex, numberOfColumns, out result1) >= Math.DivRem(totalElements - 1, numberOfColumns, out result2))
* Math.DivRem returns the division result and the remainder, since we need the number rounded down.

Looks like Slovene marketers and their billboards finally found Facebook

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:58:44 GMT

Lately I've been noticing an interesting trend in local advertising. Billboards all across Slovenia started to display Facebook icons or even links to Facebook pages. Since Slovenia is a few years behind in adopting new marketing approaches, this came as a bit of a surprise, it may have even produced a bit of patriotic pride. Look at that, advertisers have finally started to see the potential in digital and social, looks like we are not that out after all.

This proves Facebook is very much in the game in Slovenia. Out of 1.3 million people online, 650 thousand are on Facebook, which is around half of the wired population. Comparing the figures local statistics, Facebook is among the top sites, which is a potential goldmine for marketers. And they are not sleeping – quite a few local brands already have more than 100k followers (top global brands have tens of millions). And since spamming people's timelines is free after they become fans, no further explaination is needed.

Supporters on social networks are getting more and more important, so thumbs up for this one. But don't forget two important things. A Facebook page is not a replacement, but rather an addition to your regular web page (some of you don't even provide URLs to your sites any more). Secondly, Facebook fans are worth nothing if you don't know what to do with them. So don't stop here, set your social goals, publish and interact.

The billboard photos are available in the gallery below. At this point, only Facebook is used by advertisers, but other social services will surely follow soon. What do you think will be next major online marketing frontier in Slovenia? YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn or even FourSquare?

Zavarovalnica Maribor, Glej na cesto

UPDATE (4.9.2011): Looks like Ford went over the top with the offline Facebook Like button included on their summer edition billboards.

Ford Fiesta

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

You know what Google should include in Google+? A social Gmail client.

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:05:05 GMT

Social is a funny thing. Some get it, some don't, it's been around since ever (remember forums?) and it keeps evolving with a maddening pace. While there used to be a giant barrier between social and not social, this barrier is slowly disappearing, and the last of the old boys finally admitted it's competing against Facebook and not Microsoft. Google has had problems with providing a social service. But wasn't social potential always there to conquer, only not really noticed? Not inside their failed social projects like Buzz and Wave (and Google Me?), but there, in the core of their services?

Social?

What's "social"? In my opinion, it's not really a thing, it's more of a something that you put on top of things. Facebook put social on top of photos and education. Twitter did it on publishing. Foursquare on moving, Groupon on buying. Can you see where I'm headed? It's hard to make social out of nothing, you have to have something, and then you can make that something (even more) social. And Google will have to do the same thing (and Neolab too). Don't make social, make things social instead.

Introducing Google+

Since Larry Page became CEO of Google, things have been moving ahead. The +1 button is one thing. Showing activity of your social vicinity inside Google search is another. Both upgrading Google's core service with social. It's also smart they've (finally) made a Google "dashboard", the social Google+, where you can socialize with your Google account. It looks promising, even though it resembles Facebook. But it's the services that count.

Circles (grouping people) seem cool, since Facebook's relationship model is flat and they will have problems to persuade people to make groups / lists. I would arrange my Gmail contacts and put them into groups in needed, since I would be doing it as I go along, and it's easy to do. Sparks seem nice, providing content based on your preferences. Again, (probably) powered by search and complex mathematical algorithms, where Google dominates. I won't comment on photos and chat for now, but this time, Google's social attempt went from improvisation to consolidation of their existing services (search and accounts). Use what you got, especially if that works.

What about email?

I said I would consider arranging my contacts. Yes, we finally come to Gmail. Once I was writing about how I would love a "social" smartphone, since smartphone is a social device in its essence. But isn't email also social in its essence? The first online social service to be exact? Forgotten somewhere, forever not classified as social?

It is very much social, and it might as well be what Google's desperately looking for. I would love to have a social inbox. Not by including profile pictures from Facebook, but really social, in a new innovative way. Grouping emails by Circles, reading email correspondence on someone's profile, suggesting Circles on email recipients. Commenting, liking emails. Not having separate email contacts and social friends, but just people. Enterprise 2.0 shit included even. (And fully integrated with Android, of course.)

A mobile social inbox

That would really be neat. Google, you obviously understand that future lies in platforms, and you should stop trying to put useless things like Buzz and business cards inside Gmail. Gmail is fine. Now it's time you use it somewhere else, use it as a platform. With all your Gmail users, they just might provide the critical mass you need to pull this off, while differentiating yourself from Facebook at the same time. That's it. Search and Mail. Make that fully social inside Google+, these are the segments you're a market leader in! And mobile! And you'll win the next round. But you probably already know that?

Adding share buttons to your blog or website - a comprehensive guide

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:05:14 GMT

A lot has happened in the field of share buttons in the past year: Google +1 button for web pages was introduced, Facebook started to migrate the Share and Like buttons, TweetMeme button is slowly getting replaced by the offical Tweet button, etc. Enough to make maintenance of these buttons a pain in the ass. But since social activity is getting more and more important for SEO, this needs to be done, one way or another. To make it easier, I've put together a comprehensive list of different share widgets, together with some explanation, sample code and direct links to full documentation.

Keep it simple: Use basic links

Most social services support direct linking to share forms, which can be populated using a proper request. This means the URL of the target content (and sometimes title) must be passed in the query string (e.g. "?url=http://stritar.net"). In case you require a simple solution that doesn't require a lot of space, or you would like to style your share buttons on your own, this could be what you're looking for.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=<%=contentUrl%>
Twitter: http://twitter.com/?status=<%=contentTitle%> <%=contentUrl%>
Reddit: http://reddit.com/submit?url=<%=contentUrl%>&title=<%=contentTitle%>
Digg: http://digg.com/submit?url=<%=contentUrl%>
Delicious: http://delicious.com/post?url=<%=contentUrl%>&title=<%=contentTitle%>
StumbleUpon: http://stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<%=contentUrl%>&title=<%=contentTitle%>

Keep it simpler: Use AddThis

If you're not a demanding users and you're OK with a plain solution, the service AddThis may be just what you need. Set the parameters and you're good to go, and the number of supported services is really huge (and you also get the Print button).

Result:

Possible modifications: too many to mention

More info: http://www.addthis.com/

Facebook

So, you'll rather go for the real thing? Let's begin with Facebook. If you're trying to get the code for the Like button and it says you have to be a registered developer, don't worry, just logout and everything will be great. After that you will be offered with two sets of code, both of them work. I used the second one, which also support "Send to".

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script>
<fb:like href="<%=contentUrl%>" send="false" layout="button_count" width="130" show_faces="false" action="like" font=""></fb:like>

Result:

Possible modifications: layout (standard, button_count, box_count), colorscheme (light, dark), action (like, recommend), show_faces, font, width, send (add send button), etc.

More info: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/

Twitter

Since Twitter introduced the new Tweet button, the original TweetMeme button started to behave strangely (sometimes it doesn't count tweets correctly). On the other hand, the official Tweet button doesn't count the tweets for older posts, so all your viral posts from the past will show 0 tweets (and I was so proud one of my posts got more than 100 retweets!). Your choice, I've decided to go for the new one.

<a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="<%=contentUrl%>" data-count="horizontal">Tweet</a>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Result:

TweetMeme:

Possible modifications: data-count (vertical, horizontal, none), which modifies the layout. You can also set the default text and specify @via, etc.

More info: http://twitter.com/goodies/tweetbutton

Reddit is a great community that can get you quite a bit of traffic if your topic is more on the geeky side.

Result:

Possible modifications: tens of different layouts

More info: http://www.reddit.com/buttons/

Digg

Since Digg's last upgrade, I haven't been seeing any traffic from it, but it's nice to dream about the old times. Not working properly on FF2.

Result:

Possible modifications: class (DiggWide, DiggMedium, DiggCompact, DiggIcon), which modifies the layout.

More info: http://about.digg.com/downloads/button/smart

Delicious

We'll probably be seing a new version of Delicious button soon, but for now, you can either put a simple link without the count to your blog or some hacking is required. You practically have to make your own button that retrieves the data from Delicious and puts it into correct HTML tags. For advanced users only.

<span id="deliciouscount" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold;"></span>
<a id="deliciouslink" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="View details"></a>
<script type='text/javascript'>
function displayURL(data) {
var urlinfo = data[0];
if (urlinfo == null) {
document.getElementById('deliciouscount').innerHTML = "Bookmarks: 0";
return;
}
else {
document.getElementById('deliciouslink').innerHTML = "Bookmarks: " + urlinfo.total_posts;
document.getElementById('deliciouslink').href = 'http://delicious.com/url/' + urlinfo.hash;
}
}
</script>
<script src="http://badges.del.icio.us/feeds/json/url/data?url=<%=contentUrl%>&callback=displayURL" ></script>

Result:

Possible modifications: the world is not enough

More info: contact me

StumbleUpon

I'm not sure if I'm using StumbleUpon properly, but I haven't managed to get a single stumble since I started blogging, so I temporarily removed it from my blog (due to lack of space).

Result:

Possible modifications: many different layouts

More info: http://www.stumbleupon.com/badges/

Google +1

It's too soon to say if +1 button will be a game changer, or it's just too lame, too late, like other Google's social services. We'll see. Not working properly on FF2, FF3.5 and IE7.

Result:

Possible modifications: size (small, standard, medium, tall)

More info: http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html

LinkedIn (Update 28.11.2011)

LinkedIn may not be your dynamic social platform, but perhaps you may still find use for it.

Result:

Possible modifications: layour (vertical, horizontal, nocount)

More info: https://developer.linkedin.com/plugins/share-button

Special: Like Facebook page and follow on Twitter

If you have a Facebook page, all you need to do is point the Like button to the URL of the page, and people will automatically become "fans". Similarly, you can implement the new Twitter Follow button and hopefully get new followers.

<a href="http://twitter.com/gstritar" class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="false" >Follow @gstritar</a>
<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Follow @gstritar

Other platforms

All of these buttons can be modified to some extent, and most of them will work without the specified URL. But you'll probably need to set it anyways so they will also work on your homepage with many posts.

The cases presented were made for asp.net, but they can be modified for other platforms such as WordPress or Blogger by replacing the <%=contentUrl%> with something like <?php the_permalink() ?> or data:post.url (sorry, no experience). But if you managed to get the Facebook Like button to work, you will surely be able to modify others too.

There you go, time to share.

Is Delicious aiming to become the next Twitter?

Thu, 26 May 2011 17:03:41 GMT

The bookmarking service Delicious has had an interesting life. It was one of the first social services available, later bought by Yahoo and almost canceled, then being sold to Avos about a month ago. Avos was founded by the same people who've created YouTube (Chad Hurley and Steve Chen), and these guys obviously know what they're doing. A few days after acquiring Delicious, Avos also bought a social media analytics startup Tap11, and here's what they had to say about it:

"Our vision is to create the world's best platform for users to save, share, and discover new content. With the acquisition of Tap11, we will be able to provide consumer and enterprise users with powerful tools to publish and analyze their links’ impact in real-time."

While some bloggers think Avos will start competing against Google and Salesforce.com by analyzing social data, I can imagine a different strategy may be plotting. Let me explain.

Delicious was always ahead of its time, but did not really make it to broad mainstream. It allows online bookmarks, which you can tag, bundle and keep in a library for later use. It knows asymmetric relationships, so you can check out bookmarks by the people you follow. The bookmarking engine is really powerful, but something was missing. Delicious' biggest problem is its social layer - too weak and of secondary importance. In the mean time, other services such as Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon took their place on the web and added communities and different types of recommendation to link sharing. And of course, there's Twitter, the current ruler of content and real-time.

Actually, Twitter is slowly becoming a content sharing platform rather than a microblogging platform (I guess microblogging should involve content creation, not sharing). But while your links may bring you audience, they are not categorized and useful to you. Still, most people use Twitter that way, and even authority-measuring services such as PeerIndex and Klout encourage you to share links, because that's what Twitter is all about and that's what will make you influential.

I'm not saying Twitter is not useful, it is very much useful. But imagine having a solid bookmarking platform, very useful for the person who uses it (save). Add a generic social layer of friends and followers, a few comments, perhaps something similar to what YouTube has (share). Now add a hard core mathematical layer which is able to calculate what you'll like based on what you already liked (discover). What you get is something that could be very special, something that could compete even with Twitter. And it could be happening right now in Avos' laboratories.

One guy said that the age social sharing is coming to an end. I think not, there's loads of information thirsty people surfing the web. What's really missing is a new innovative and powerful platform, something useful in many different ways, for keeping, dispatching and receiving new, personalized content. Delicious 2.0?

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A few thoughts on content categorization. No surprises there, less is more.

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:26:00 GMT

Since I've started collecting bookmarks using Delicious, I've put a lot of effort into their categorization, organizing them in such a way their browsing would be as simple as possible. The service supports two level categorization (tag – bundle) which helps to control massive amounts of links people have gathered. But it's the experimentation with different structures that gives real insight into content categorization, and because this topic was already mentioned and discussed a few times on this blog, it deserves a special mention. Let's begin.

Categories vs. Tags

Observing other blogs, I've noticed a lot of them use both Categories and Tags. While I can understand the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefit in having as many different entry points (landing pages) as possible, I don't see any other added value in using both. From the logical point of view, they do the same (categorize content), but on a different level. Here's where tag bundles come handy. With my bookmarks, I use tag bundles such as Wibe, Science, Brands, Work, etc., to combine different tags into groups according to their qualities. And aren't Categories and Tags just another form of the same thing, just two different tag bundles? Perhaps not, but that doesn't change the fact one is probably redundant.

I still see cases when Categories are used as single items (one post is filed under one category), while Tags are always used as multiple items (one post can have many tags). This corresponds with the technical 1:N and M:N database relationship, and even though the second is a bit more complex to create and maintain, it provides much more flexibility. Hierarchy vs. matrix.

Less is more, and intersections rock

Another thing I've noticed is that people use a lot of different tags. Too many to handle. I try to keep the number of tags as low as possible, working rather with intersections of tags (e.g. marketing + twitter) than looking for specific tags, used only a few times. I made a quick calculation on how this works, estimating a model with 10.000 contents and 200 tags, which corresponds with my situation on Delicious:

10.000 contents, 200 unique tags, average 5 tags per content
10.000 contents * 5 tags = 50.000 total tags
50.000 total tags / 200 unique tags = 250 occurrences of each tag (contents per tag)
5/200 probability of first tag * 4/199 probability of second tag = 1/1.990 (0,0005) probability of two specific tags on a single content
or (200! / (2!*(200-2)!) = 19.900 unique combinations of two tags; one bookmark with 5 tags allows 10 pairs of bookmarks, making a combination's probability 1/1.990
1/1.990 * 3/198 = 1/131.340 (0,0000076) probability of three specific tags on a content
Result: on average, 5 contents out of 10.000 will contain two desired tags and 0,07 three tags

The model is built on the assumption that all tags are spread evenly, which is far from reality, but you get the picture, the number of contents with multiple tags is pretty low. But if you lower the number of unique tags (e.g. 150 tags instead of 200 would raise the number of contents with a pair of tags from 5 to 8,9) or use the same tags more often (e.g. 6 instead of 5 tags per content would raise the number from 5 to 7,5), the results get even better. Basic mathematics is a powerful tool, and intersections with two, three or more tags are definitely the way to go.

Applications

I've made a few applications using the techniques mentioned. For general Categories of this blog, I used a combination both, having Categories behave like Tags, using a few of them as possible (but attaching many on a single post), displaying them as a tag cloud (bottom of the page). I used a similar approach on my iTunes library, abusing song Comments to act as Tags for advanced smart playlists. And some time ago, I developed a simple engine for related content, based on occurences of different Categories / Tags on my blog posts, acting both as an additional feature for readers, as a tool for internal hyperlinking, used for SEO.

These are a few cases which display the power of simplicity, using as little data as possible to create a lot of information. And while I know this is hard to do, I must continue to pursue this philosophy, may it be in software development or blogging (I ironically failed with this one). Things that are similar on an abstract, logical level, should be the same on the technical level. Try it, you'll be amazed by the results which will present themselves.

Reinventing SEO: The social media effect

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:00:38 GMT

Looks like the time for classic search and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is slowly running out, waiting to be replaced by more advanced and efficient algorithms than mathematical - human powered. The Facebook Like button, the Twitter retweet button and other social share widgets are on the uprise, and Google is fighting back with all its might. For now, their business model relies heavily on search (other project like Android and Chrome too), but their future social success was named the number one priority by the new old CEO Larry Page.

Google still has a problem with providing a solid social alternative to the newly crowned social players, and for now (we'll have to see what happens with the new +1 button), all they can do is to somehow play along. In the mean time, a lot of people have been noticing the impact of Facebook likes and Tweets on their Google results ranking, and guess what – I've noticed the same thing. Welcome to the age of social curation, where rating content is slowly getting as important as generating content. I guess there's about a billion times too much of it online, and who else knows it better than Google and Bing.

While we knew Google is very good at adapting its services to new trends, we are quite happy they actually went this far, embracing social virality into their search results. But what happened to the world's most powerful mathematic algorithm, Google's PageRank? Is it becoming obsolete to the Facebook Like's search algorithm, which will surely come around soon in its full glory? Actually, it's getting clear it became obsolete together with the static Web 1.0, but only to get reborn for the social world of Web 2.0. Slowly, almost underground, while we were being fed with news about how loading speeds make a significant difference on Google ranking.

I've written a few blog posts that have been generating some social buzz. A few Tweets, Likes and Reddit upvotes, and you have a winner (thank you!). "Jeopardy Slovenia" may not be a power search, but it became the first result on Google the same day I've published the post. With PageRank 0! And "Apple Slovenia", a keyword much more interesting, is also displaying my post on the first page. Not bad. And that's something we will probably be seeing even more of in the future, and that's why blogging is still (if not more than ever) very important.

It's time to start monetizing your social capital. And of course, upgrade SEO marketing strategies with more efficient SMO (Social Media Optimization) strategies. Before you'll get your page on top of Google the old school way, you'll grow old. So be cool and remember, sharing is caring. Yes, that means you should click the button.

What's hot on the web - Part 6: The most amazing unique music acts

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:32:17 GMT

Welcome to the next episode of the fantastic What's hot on the web series. It's been a while since we did this, and since one of the previous posts was focused on fails, I think it's only fair to give memes with a positive attitude a chance too. This part of What's hot on the web cover various unique music acts, each amazing in it's own way. I've been gathering these videos for years and these are the greatest I've noticed so far. You've probably already seen a few, but hopefully missed a few too, so enjoy the show.

11-year-old boy covering Lady Gaga's Paparazzi

When I heard this boy play his interpretation of the hit song from Lady Gaga, I was simply speechless. Greyson Chance become the hottest stuff in an instant, his performance taking him to as far as the Ellen Show. See for yourself, and while you're at it, observe the girls' faces in the background. It's obvious that something magical just happened.

Dude plays trance on an acoustic guitar

It's safe to say that Ewan Dobson is a guitar god, and his song Time 2 fit for any local dance party. This video clearly proves his fingers have a life of their own, making this act one of the most awesome things ever. Prepare to be amazed.

Blue Man Group and Drumbone

Blue Man Group are well known for their amazing (and interactive) out of this world acts, ranging from music to theater (if you have the chance, go see them!). One of their famous performances features their cover of The Who's Baba O'Riley, but at this point, we will rather focus on an act of their own, the Drumbone.

Pale kid raps fast

Busta Rhymes probably felt a bit awkward if he ever saw this video. One dorky kid. White and pale. Kicking everybody's ass in speed rapping. Priceless.

Bobby McFerrin doing his thing

Meet the original beatboxer. Yup, this is the guy that sings all the vocals in Don't worry be happy, and this is one of his solo acts.

Axis of Awesome - The ultimate four chord song

This one was quite a hit some time ago. An awesome band with and awesome name proving that all the hits songs in pop history are actually the same. Four chords is all you need for being a rock star. Or an internet star.

Hang drum solo

You may not find this video as fascinating as I do, but take a closer look. This guy is actually producing magical sounds on a barrel of some sort. Ok, two barrels to be exact. Which is pretty cool if you think about it.

Obadiah Parker putting emotions into Outkast's Hey Ya

I've always though that Hey Ya from Outkast was this funny song (the video probably had me fooled). But then I saw this guy. And it made me feel happy and sad at the same time. Beautiful.

The iPhone band

When the band Atomic Tom got their instruments stolen, they got this amazing idea. They performed one of their songs called Take Me Out live on a NYC subway, using only iPhones. The performance is not technically perfect, but we can still wonder if this the start of a new trend.

local: Perpetuum Jazzile - Avsenik Medley

Perpetuum Jazzile's Africa should've been here, but I've already included that one in one of my previous posts. But this other one is pretty cool too, and very Slovenian. Polka kicks ass.

This is it for now. Did you find anything you like in my selection? Do you have any other favorites I may have missed?

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

Can you believe Watson got the question about Slovenia wrong on Jeopardy?

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:33:12 GMT

Slovenia made it to the spotlight again, for the first time after the soccer world cup (when Slovenia was trending topic on Twitter and top search on Google). This time, it happened because IBM's supercomputer Watson competed against human champions in the famous TV show Jeopardy. IBM's computers are known to destroy people in various challenges, Deep Blue beat the world champion Garry Kasparov in a chess tournament in 1997. But chess is simple for computers to play, because it is pure logic and mathematics – the capability of a player is determined by the number of operations and actions it can calculate in advance. But a quiz is a totally different story, where the biggest challenge is semantics – understanding the meaning of words.

In 1950, Alan Turing, one of the greatest pioneers of computing introduced the Turing test, a methodology that could separate humans from computers using a set of questions, some of them formed in such a way computer wouldn't be able to understand and answer them. There are many questions which can't be answered with pure logic, the one I remember from high school goes something like this:

"Jack attended Sally's party, bring a doll. What was the present?"

The catch is in the connection between party – (birthday) – present – doll, which can't be noticed without abstract thinking humans are capable of. And today's computers still face the same problem - even though Watson dominated Jeopardy, it failed miserably on the following question about Slovenia:

"As of 2010, Croatia & Macedonia are candidates but this is the only former Yugoslav republic in the EU"

Watson's computing capabilities and knowledge banks are huge, but a question and an answer so obvious to humans presented a huge problem. Watson surely knows which countries are EU members, but it obviously didn't understand the question, thinking it was asked about which country would be next to start negotiating for EU membership, answering Serbia. The right answer was, of course, Slovenia.

The video is also fascinating from the cultural point of view – and extremely creepy. Those who have watched (or read) "2001: A Space Odyssey" may have experienced a slight shiver and carefully waited if Watson would say it: "Hello Dave". Others might have enjoyed this science fiction presentation, but besides Watson's obvious advantage in being the fastest to answer the question, it's clear that computers are still far away from being intelligent. And hopefully they will stay that way.

I've developed a magazine based on my Delicious bookmarks. And a Twitter bot.

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:34:38 GMT

Last week was marked a great social achievement of mine – I managed to bookmark my 10.000th bookmark on Delicious. A lot of people have 10.000 tweets, but not many own 10.000 bookmarks, fully tagged and classified. I've been collecting these since December 2006 (probably one od my first 2.0 addictions), and they are becoming one of my greatest possessions – knowledge is the ultimate collection. Hopefully Delicious won't get shut down or left behind, so I will be able to continue with this obsession.

I've made a few interesting mashups with them already; as my most frequent actions online, my bookmarks represent the core of the chronolog. But things are changing fast and the desire for presenting information is moving into a new dimension. In case you didn't notice, tablets are mainstream, and the media industry already hopes they are the solution they've been waiting for. The Daily, which was released a few weeks ago, is the first no-print, tablet only magazine available (for iPad, Android version is coming), and other applications, based on social curation, such as Flipboard (which is amazing and inspired all of this) and OnSwipe are revolutionizing the way we (create and) consume content.

I find this evolution of displaying information fascinating and a bit ironic - going from newspaper form to blog form and back - but I've decided to play along, developing a magazine based on my bookmarks. Using the Html Agility Pack library for asp.net I managed to extract an image and a few paragraphs from each URL I bookmarked, using them to form a magazine. The number of tags I put on each link determines the initial weight, which is additionally modified with your views and likes, allowing it to constantly adapt its shape. Those links which are stronger, are displayed higher, have a bigger picture and more text which makes them more visible.

While contemplating about the potential of different APIs and all the pages I bookmarked these years, it occurred to me I could also make a Twitter bot. All the bookmarks I save are now getting automatically shortened with bit.ly and posted to Twitter, with a bit of artificial intelligence. The speed of posting is determined by the number of items waiting in the queue, adjusting to the frequency of my actions. It still has a few problems, but they are only appropriate for a prototype, whose posting algorithm still needs to be technically and mathematically improved.

The life cycle of my links I like has become quite a ride, as you can see in the diagram below, similar as the evolution of the Web, transformed by social, mobile and the upcoming domination of the tablets. And while the major players are able to spend millions on the development of new and creative solutions, small players such as myself can only play along. Luckily, I like to play.

The path each one of my bookmarks makes in its lifetime.

Why an actual Facebook phone could kick ass (with mockups)

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:28:34 GMT

The question if Facebook will start producing it's own mobile OS on top of Android made a huge buzz a few months ago. Technology authorities such as TechCrunch and Mashable gave us diametrical coverage about it, the first claiming the rumor is true, and the second denying it. Needless to say the mobile market is one of the fastest evolving. Since 2007, when Apple supposedly revolutionized the mobile telephone by introducing the first popular tablet smartphone without a keyboard with an app market, things didn't change much, but in 2011, Facebook has a great chance to reinvent the phone again.

Today, the world is "going social". The transition to 2.0 has touched most aspects of our lives and heavily influenced software development, some companies are introducing social browsers, and others such as Neolab are trying to put social into enterprise IT. But the most social device of them all, the mobile telephone, despite high competition and increasing hardware and software capabilities, was left behind. Sure, the social potential in mobile contacts was noticed, but we haven't seen it happen yet. So, if Facebook actually gives this thing a try, could we finally see a real social phone?

One of the biggest problems with today's mobile operating systems and their user experience is that they are still built around services rather than around people (contacts). You have your app for calling, your app for messages, your app for mails, apps for different social networks. Different channels with enclosed streams rather than one giant stream that would display all the communication and interactions with a specific person. Android and Windows 7 Phone did enable Facebook contacts syncing with direct links to profiles and some integration, and there are third-party apps that are trying to achieve this (SocialPhone, Phonebook 2.0). Nevertheless, I still made some mockups of my own about how I envision the social phone OS of the future (since I'm more aquainted with the iOS, I worked on that), something that is destined to happen one way or another.

User stream

The most important feature I miss about the current generation of smartphone operating systems is the complete stream of activity and interactions from a single person. All classic mobile services (call, message, mail, calendar, ...), combined with social services (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, ...) in a single feed. Here's a mockup of how this could look, the icon represents the service, the arrow represents the direction (in case of public posts, which are not between two people, there is no arrow, since it's an action without target instead of a reaction). All services are intended for communication, so why are they kept separated and treated differently?

Single user stream, displaying information from different sources and services. Similar features already exist in some apps.

The contacts

Now that we have an integrated repository of all our social interactions with a single user, we could reinvent the address book. Each action could have it's weight (e.g. a Call would be much stronger than a Twitter reply), and the occurrence of social interactions with a user in recent time period could determine the probability of needing that specific contact (an upgrade to "recently contacted", available today). To make things even more useful, users could set the preferred time period using a slider. Those who have seen how sexy iPhone icons behave while being rearranged, can probably imagine the fancy shuffle of profile pictures upon this activity.

Contact grid, where people are recommended based on the number of social interactions in a specific time period.

The activity log

To top it off, I've made a mockup of the complete activity log, which could combine all owner's social activities together with the interactions on a mobile device and other services. Again, the icons represent the public actions (shown with a service logo) and the interactions (shown with a profile picture), together with the direction of the reaction. This blog does something similar, combining different social activities into an unified stream, but it's still mostly one way - my posts on different social services. But combining one way posts with two way actions/reactions/interactions could provide the component that could actually make the phone capable of portraying the most perfect social stream of its owner. Specially since regular phone activities, such as calls and messages are as social as you can go, but they exists only on the device and the carrier.

Log of all user's activities on the phone and on different Web 2.0 networks.

These are just a few ideas, I've been thinking about trying to pack them in an app, but I really don't have the time to go for it, and similar ones are already available. I also think that this concept of a social phone should be built into the core of the OS, because the phone would need to be completely integrated with and authenticated into different Web 2.0 services (not only single apps). This would make these features available inside other apps, and setup and synchronization would require less hassle.

Facebook, the king of social, is currently the most perfect candidate (and perhaps the only one capable) to make something like this work, so I would really love to see it come alive. It's questionable if they would allow competition like Twitter or Foursquare inside it, but other software giants would surely need to follow the concept and in the end, make it right. I want a social phone!

Trends of 2010, according to Facebook, Google and Twitter

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:42:29 GMT

The year is coming to an end, and our favorite big brothers all published reports about trends inside their ecosystems (Facebook, Google, Twitter). Even though the services are not perfectly comparable (information gets pulled and pushed: while you search, you pull data; on social networks the data gets pushed to you), I think they can provide a clear picture about the general state of the Web in 2010. Three obvious winners emerged, coming strong in all the charts. Apple made the iPad the most wanted gadget around, FIFA World Cup mania took over the whole planet, and Justin Bieber topped the celebrity world. I was curious about the comparison, so I've joined all three lists, gave all topics a score, and put the results into pictures. Sadly, I'm not a designer to make a really cool infographic about it, so this will have to do.

#	Google (points)	Facebook (points)	Twitter (points)	Total (points)
1	HMU (10)	Chatroulette (10)	Gulf Oil Spill (10)	iPad (21)
2	World Cup (9)	iPad (9)	FIFA World Cup (9)	World Cup (18)
3	Movies (8)	Justin Bieber (8)	Inception (8)	Justin Bieber (16)
4	iPad and iPhone 4 (7)	Nicki Minaj (7)	Haiti Earthquake (7)	Haiti (13)
5	Haiti (6)	Friv (6)	Vuvuzela (6)	Oil Spill (10)
6	Justin Bieber (5)	Myxer (5)	Apple iPad (5)	Chatroulette (10)
7	Games on Facebook (4)	Katy Perry (4)	Google Android (4)	Inception (8)
8	Mineros / Miners (3)	Twitter (3)	Justin Bieber (3)	Nicki Minaj (7)
9	Airplanes (2)	GameZer (2)	Harry Potter (2)	Friv (6)
10	2011 (1)	Facebook (1)	Pulpo Paul (1)	Vuvuzela (6)

I've only left out "HMU" (Hit me up) and "Movies", because the first is an expression, and the second is a generic term. Hope you like it, see you around in 2011.