An Innovative Instagram Use Case

Tags:apps, innovation, instagram, Mobile, photography, Social Networking, startups.

I’m late to the Instagram party (I define late as discovering my first name has already been claimed as a username; if you’re curious I’m grabbed Tylda instead) and I’m hooked. Its simplicity makes discovering images a joy and its community is overwhelmingly positive, lacking the anonymous trolls that usually plague public comment threads.

And, while photos can be posted to multiple other social networks, those connections are not visible to other users, putting the focus squarely on photography. On Instagram, who you are is defined only by how you see the world, a refreshing departure from most social networks profiles.

Most people share photos and interact with others through comments and likes. One user, @assingm3nt, innovatively built a community around his account, posting topics for photo contests to his followers and highlighting the most interesting submissions with a followup photo:

Instagram might not have predicted this use case. That’s one of the fun surprises about building something: You never know how users will interact with your product. If you listen, you can find inspiration to improve, or just enjoy the innovation.

Journalism and the World Cup

Tags:journalism, Mobile, New York Times, news alert, world cup.

I love the World Cup. I love how nearly every bar and restaurant brags about airing all the games, and seeing which ones attract the die-hard fans. I love the fans’ passion and energy and hearing bursts of cheering from my window even when I’m not watching the game.

During a recent game, I watched the referees running alongside the players and thought about the uniqueness of their role. While most everyone playing and watching the games is rooting for one team, the referees watch both sides closely. It’s a bit like being a journalist. No human being is completely objective, but you do all you can to tell both sides of the story.

If you watched the Spain vs. Paraguay game, you know it was intense, with Spain sneaking in a goal near the very end. I got a news alert with the result from the New York Times later that evening. Why did they wait so long to send it out? Even more than online, timing is everything in mobile. When sending alerts via mobile, news orgs should aim to keep pace with, if not beat, word of mouth. The information was really outdated at 7:07pm, and the message linked to the mobile homepage instead of to the story about the game. That’s one goal the Times didn’t score.

(Im)Mobile in a Traffic Jam

Tags:context, Geolocation, Mobile, search, traffic, travel.

I was stuck in a traffic jam yesterday while heading back to New York from a wedding in Virginia. We passed a sign in Maryland announcing the last exit until the state line and regretted not taking it when we stopped moving shortly after.

Because I had an iPhone, I became the default navigator for trip, but the phone failed in finding news about what caused the delay. A Google search brought up sites with traffic cameras, interactive maps showing the same data I’d already found via Google Maps, a couple of “secured” sites requiring a password and one stating its mobile version was disabled to prevent driver distraction.

I’m all for undistracted drivers, but blocking the entire site from mobile is a terrible solution. Most drivers using their phones on the road are unlikely to break the habit due to one site’s block, and depriving passengers of information that could help drivers is a bit of a disservice as well.

A search using Google’s geolocation disappointed with listings for a speedway in
Delaware, a park in Baltimore and a Hospital in Pennsylvania, each at
least 30 miles away. The sponsored links at least seemed related
(“Traffic Conditions I 95 and I 95 Traffic Conditions) but linked to
Ask and Peeplo, which offered advice on coffee shops, SEO and
patio umbrella stands on the first page of results. One site offered
data only via zip code search. That may be a helpful way to search for
locals, but close useless for someone just passing through; zip codes
aren’t exactly labeled on maps and road signs.

I tried searching for news using Google Mobile’s geolocation feature,
but couldn’t find any relevant results. In the meantime, the radio
offered traffic updates on nearby highways that weren’t ours. I found
a twitter account offering news alerts about the interstate, but the
latest tweet was from April.

Why was it so hard to find out what happened? Based on the number of
emergency vehicles and tow trucks we later saw, it was probably a
large enough incident to be mentioned by at least one nearby news
outlet. It’s possible a broadcast network found footage from it, or
that one of those distracted drivers (or passengers) shot some video
with their cell phone. Why couldn’t I find that footage? Mobile search
has so much potential, but still such a long way to reach it.

Meet Gatsby … and all of his friends

Tags:app, iPhone, Meet Gatsby, Social Networking.

I’ve been trying out Meet Gatsby for a few weeks. Its simple sign-up process asks you to type in a few interests. The service tracks your Foursquare check-ins and sends you a text message if someone with a matching interest recently checked in near you. If you reply to the message, Gatsby will route your message to them so you don’t have to disclose your phone number. You can text for up to an  hour, after which Gatsby stops the routing service.

I liked it at first because it was cool to learn that people who shared my interests were nearby. It was a great example of how technology can make the world feel smaller and friendlier. A few days after I signed up, someone commented on my profile picture, to say it reminded him of his home in Ocean City, MD which, incidentally, exactly where it was taken. That was about the extent of our conversation.

Gatsby lost its novelty when every literally every check-in prompted an introduction. I realized I don’t always have time to talk with a stranger, regardless of how many interests we have in common. It would be handy to be able to choose whether or not to share a particular check-in with Gatsby, though I suppose that with the way it’s set up, that burden falls on Foursquare’s side of the court.

I also realized the interests I entered are pretty generic. This was illustrated by another Gatsby conversation in which some texted me “Two people on Meet Gatsby who like tech? How unexpected. Ha” My thoughts exactly. Neither of us had ever met someone in person with Gatsby’s help.

Finding people with similar interests who are also nearby is a great idea, and one I’ve been thinking about myself lately, but Gatsby has a while to go before it’s immediately useful. I’ll have to try entering more obscure interests and maybe I’ll be surprised instead of indifferent when Gatsby makes an introduction.

Simple technology, significant results

The Poynter Institute’s E-Media Tidbits interviewed New York Times columnist Nick Kristof about technology in the developing world. He observed this about mobile:

Cell phones are hugely important for fighting poverty and repression. As I suggested earlier, they raise the costs of massacres, rape, torture, because they make it much more likely that word will get out. They also make it possible for farmers to find out the best price for their goods, raising their incomes. They make it possible for someone to call an ambulance, so that a woman doesn’t die in childbirth while being taken to hospital in a wheelbarrow.

And perhaps most important of all, cell phones are being used as the basis of a banking system in poor countries. Poor villagers don’t have bank accounts and usually have no good way to save money or transfer money. But now they can save money by buying credits on their cell phone, and they can be paid in credits — or they can transfer them to someone else. Some payments are now being paid to cell phones rather than in cash, and there’s hope that the great market failure of the impoverished world — no banking system — can be remedied with cell phones.

It’s easy to take for granted how powerful the devices we carry around in our pockets can be. Kristof isn’t even referring to smartphones or gadgets that have many capabilities beyond texting and calling.

Sometimes it’s the simplest technology that can enable great social change or a significant impact on someone’s quality of life. I’ve been thinking about simplicity, especially in regards to communication. It’s easy to get caught up in shiny electronics and fancy web features, but the real power of a new technology can sometimes be buried beneath a somewhat dull exterior. We have so many ways in which to communicate. Is it more effective to call, email, text or stop by someone’s desk? It often depends on context and intent, but there’s also a deeper question of which would make the most impact. Often the simplest (or “primitive”) way of communication, like a face-to-face conversation, can be the most powerful, and sometimes technology can help facilitate that connection.