latoga labs

Social networking sites are still all the rage. The challenge lately seems to be coming up with something that is not only new and original but adds value. Of all the sites where I have created an account LinkedIn is still the only one that I will use multiple times a week due to the value I receive from their service. As a business person, it is extremely valuable to stay on top of changes in my network and being able to leverage my network in my business dealings.

Today for example I came across Dopplr for the first time and have to ask…why bother. If I don’t see the value, either personally or for some greater good, in investing my time creating yet another profile and entering in yet another set of data I won’t do it. While the idea behind it is interesting, the value isn’t there for me. Especially if I have to hand enter the information that makes the social network work.

On the flip side of this coin, I have come across a few that I find really interesting.

One is a stealth social network site that I was granted early access to which not only is a new twist on an old idea but has the potential to add value in an area that is still lacking. The trick is always figuring out how to monetize the community without upsetting the community or destroying the value of the information that draws the community to the network in the first place. This, usability, and my knowledge of the target user community, were the areas that I was talking to this company about. Unfortunately, I was granted access under the agreement that I wouldn’t talk about it yet…so I have to honor my NDA for now, but stay tuned for more as soon as it launches.

Another is a site that my wife came across this morning, Carbonrally. This is such a simple, yet wonderful idea; one of those that surprises you that no one has done something like it before. From their mission statement:

“Carbonrally is a web-based activism platform offering individuals and groups a fun, simple and social way to have a measurable impact on climate change. “

It’s not only a social network of people wanting to fight global warming, but also a platform to enable this through simple challenges that help you reduce your carbon footprint. Yet, by making these challenges competitive and by tracking how you and others do in these challenges, they tap into the human competitive spirit to drive people to have an impact. Combine this with some basic statistics to help you gauge your impact on regional basis (and extend that competitive nature by comparing your region’s impact to others) and you have a very compelling social network that creates real social change.

Unfortunately, I failed today on the latest challenge. I forgot my commuter mug when I got my morning coffee…but after the gentle reminder and concrete information on the impact that my forgetfulness had, I won’t tomorrow.

The future challenge that I see Carbonrally facing is how to keep the site engaging for users so that when the initial competitive thrill wears off there is a reason for the users to keep coming back.  There will always be the die hard planet saving types who will create the core of the community, but they need to expand beyond that core to really have global impact.  The fact that the topic of the community is something altruistic in nature might help them.  Time will tell.

One of the great things about Open Source software development is, well, it’s open-ness. Sort through your list of Open Source packages that you are running in your organization. You can go in and look at the source code for each one of them, right? But what’s behind that source code? Or Who?

I recently found a very interesting open source directory called Ohloh. Ohloh (oh, what a name!) takes a very interesting ‘bot’ approach to open source. They employ a legion of software bots to crawl through the major open source repositories and collect information about open source projects that you may never have known.

For example, did you know that the Firefox project has over 3 million lines of code? More importantly, how fast has the code base been growing? (or is it shrinking?). All you have to do is check out Firefox’s Code Statistics on Ohloh. You can see a breakdown of how many files within the Firefox code base are licensed under which licensing scheme. A trended history of code lines. And a breakdown of what percentage of Firefox is written in what programming language. When deciding on an which smaller scale open source projects to use, you can use this information to make a better decision. Do you have programmers with experience in the languages used within a project?

You can also look at an open source project’s list of contributors and how long they have been with the project as well as how often they submit code. The system even gives a heuristic on each contributors experiences level with various languages based on how many submissions have been found in each language and over a given period. There is even a social network aspect to the site where programmers can rate their peers (which needs to be taken in context of any social network site…). About the only thing that is missing is the one click ability to see if there are other projects that a contributor is also involved with (you can do this by doing a search for a contributor on the main page of the site, but this is so obvious I’m surprised the site’s developers didn’t include that on each developer’s project page).

Of course, what would a website with social features be if you couldn’t have an account and provide your own feedback on projects. Ohloh has that, as well as the ability for members to define the stack of open source software that they use. Which gives viewers the ability to see how many people are using a projects.

Ohloh provides a new twist on evaluating opens source software projects. However, there were a number of projects that I use which were not on the site, some of those missing projects surprised me as Ohloh has been around since 2004. Guess no one is perfect…

It’s not too often that I find a really useful and free service that I can see myself using almost daily. Today I found one. Even with the wide spread use of mobile email, at times it still not practical, safe, or possible to take down a quick note on your smart phone and email it out. Wouldn’t it be great if we all had a personal secretary that we could call to transcribe our note and then email it out? But who could afford that…right? Now we all can!

Jott is a essentially a note taking service that allows you to call a toll free phone number, record up to a 30 second note, reminder, idea, or whatever and then have it emailed to your inbox…fully transcribed! Even better, set up other people in your account and have the note emailed to them instead (or sent as a text message to their phone). Group people together and send a note to the entire group. And if you can’t wait the few minutes for the message to be transcribed, send it as an audio attachment! Jott even makes it easy to pull in your contacts from other services.

Jott is so simple, it’s brilliant!

I also love how the “Jott in Action” section on the website simply explains how the system works. If you know how to use a phone, email, and web browser…you can use this service.

Jott has been around for about a year now, and have a great service up and running in that time. The current restriction is that it’s available only in the United States. But I assume that this restriction won’t be there for too much longer.

I will definitely be using this service almost daily!

(Disclaimer: I originally wrote this posting on January 12th after the launch of the iPhone and while I was traveling. I posted it a few days later (posting date) once I had the bandwidth to find the links and post)

It’s been a few days since the Apple’s announcement of their latest foray into the consumer electronics realm..the Apple iPhone (not to be confused with the Cisco iPhone). Those that know me well (especially any Product Manager that has ever worked with me…) know that I’m a stickler for design and usability. That being said, I fought the urge to be like every other technologist out there and write about the new iPhone. But, as I sat here tonight on a cross country flight, my mind kept creeping back to the iPhone. So I caved…

Sidebar: one of the most interesting things I found online about the iPhone was the iPhone Concept Blog. This blog has numerous postings from people who envisioned and mocked up the iPhone. There are both some truly uninspired entries as well as some that will beconsidered by other cell phone manufacturers for the inevitable slew of iPhone knock-offs.

First, some background info about me: At an average of 1500 minutes a month, I am a power cell phone user (don’t tell my wife, but I’ve estimated that some extreme months I’ve probably talked to my cell phone more than to her…hmm, can you say New Year’s resolution?). I have been a Palm user for almost 10 years now…and I have information in my palm that I can date back to 1997. I have also been a Palm Treo user for almost two years (and have gone through three of them). I also was an early Apple devotee; obviously dating myself I have owned in my past an Apple IIgs, Mac IIsi, and a Powerbook 540. (I’m itching to ditch my Windows XP laptop for a MacBook Pro, but that’s a whole different post)

As a review of an unreleased phone, I will break my thoughts on the iPhone into two categories: Design & Usability and Market Strategy.

Design & Usability

As no surprise to Apple fans, the iPhone looks to be a work of design art. And with over 200 patents filed for the phone, it is definitely setting some new usability records. Here are some of the aspects of the phone that jumped out at me the most:

Touch Screen: The sexiest thing about the iPhone is the touch screen. The new interface must be where the majority of Apple’s patents on the iPhone live. I can also see this being the biggest usability issue for people…especially power users. First, the lack of any tactile feedback could be a deal killer for a lot of people. Image trying to dial you phone while driving (and ideally keeping your eyes on the road…I know, call me crazy!). This was one of things that annoyed me the most with my Treo, luckily the Treo address book interface solved that problem by allowing me to jump to within a few entries of a person by typing in 2-3 character of their name. I don’t see that as being possible on the iPhone, you have to scroll around the phone to get to a name in the address book. The most obvious way for Apple to get around this would voice recognition capabilities; just say the persons name and phone finds the address book entry and/or dials the number. Honestly, I’m surprised this feature isn’t available on more cell phones (especially “smart” phones). If this feature doesn’t appear in the next iPhone (or as a software upgrade within a year) I will be shocked.

The touch screen also is shocking with regards to the text communication aspect of the phone. Have you ever tried typing on a soft keyboard (one that has no physical keys to it)? Not the easiest thing. Luckily it should be easier when “thumb typing” on a cell phone. Again, Apple is not the first to have this on a smart phone; there has been a project going on for a while on the Palm platform called thumbboard. I at least hope that the button sizes are large (or even better, configurable in size) on the iPhone. One of my biggest complains about smart phones, specifically my Treo, is the small buttons. Yes, I admit it…I have fat fingers. The number of mistakes I make on my Treo when typing a message is frustrating. If the iPhone misses this mark I will be shocked and saddened.

Expandability: The fact that the iPhone only comes in 4GB or 8GB capacity surprised me at first. I thought that a device designed to be an iPod/cell phone hybrid would need more storage than that for the music along. Then I looked at my 30GB iPod Video. I am only using a little over 5GB on it for 1140 songs and 51 videos (most of the videos are video podcasts that I find difficult to keep up on watching). Still, for a iPod fanatic even 8GB is going to be small. I’m surprised that they didn’t put in some sort of expansion capability into the iPhone. Every smart phone I can think of accepts expansion cards (typically for memory). It’s smart that Apple stuck with only flash memory (moving parts draw more power and fail faster …especially when you drop your phone…time and time again.). But to limit the phone to the built in memory is painful. Memory cards are now coming in 8GB and 16 GB (with only larger ones on the way). Why restrict your customer?

Durability: Speaking of dropping your cell phone–why do you think the average lifespan of my Treos are less than a year–I am concerned about the durability of the device. It didn’t take long before my iPod Video had numerous scratches across the screen with very light usage. Eventually I got smart and bought a protective case for it, but the feel of the device just wasn’t the same (nor was the cool factor). I am assuming the iPhone will be designed in a similar fashion. The metal band around the edge of the phone should help protect it, but for adequate protection most people will want to get some sort of cover for it. While this helps to spur the accessory market for the iPhone, it does hurt the cool factor. I wonder what type of protective case will come with the iPhone? I think it was the protective sleeve that came with my iPod Video that caused most of my original scratches.

Wireless Access: Providing Wi-Fi support is a great step forward. With the large screen, the phone is targeting internet access. If your within reach of a Wi-Fi hotspot, why not allow the user to use the faster connection? However, the lack of any forward looking capability like VOIP from the iPhone over the Wi-Fi is a bit surprising. VOIP cell phones are already appearing. So the lack of this capability makes the iPhone seem a bit behind the times on this capability. However, I expect you will hear about some VOIP (Skype?) capability for the iPhone within about 9-12 month of availability.

Support for data download over the cell network is a must; this is where the EDGE support comes in. What is surprising is that the choice of EDGE. According to Cingular themselves, EDGE is more than 5 times slower than the HSPDA technology. Additionally, HSPDA allows for both voice and data transfer at the same time (ever try talking to someone while looking something up on a web page or accessing an new email?). In Apple’s defense, EDGE is supported over a wider portion of Cingular’s network.

OS X Support: In some respects, what else would you expect the iPhone to run as an operating system but OS X. The cell phone market has been talking and working on Linux based cell phones for literally years and there are a number of them currently available. Since OS X is a derivative of Unix, this in it’s own right is not that impressive (just don’t say that to a Mac Fanatic). Seeing OS X be converted to run as an embedded OS is very interesting. This opens up the potential for OS X to be used in other places…I can image some Apple engineers working weekends to hack their Toyota Prius’ to run OS X!

The downside of OS X support is the lack of applications available for it. There will undoubtedly be a slew of OS X mini applications to run on the iPhone in the near future (assuming Apple provides a way to install them). This is one of the areas that Apple has succeed with OS X, embracing the Open Source community and the weekend coder. But it will be a while before any decent amount of business related applications appear for the OS X on the iPhone.

Sensors: The ability for the iPhone to sense its environment and adapt is hands down cool! With the wide display automatically switching perspectives based upon how you are holding is such an Apple design. Especially when you combine this feature with web browsing or email, it (should) increase the usability of the iPhone for both of those tasks considerably. The auto adjusting brightness also has potential. The key here is to see how it works in the real world. Laptops still aren’t able to be used in really bright light…and trying to just eats up the battery.

Battery: Speaking of battery, I find it shocking how the discussion of batter life or access has been completely ignored. We all remember the battery fiasco with the iPods batteries. Can you image if you couldn’t replace your cell phone battery yourself? Or even more important buy an extended battery? Personally, I can’t believe Apple would make this mistake again (and pass up on all the extra revenue from replacement batteries) but I have been wrong before…but only twice.

Camera: Of course every cell phone has to have a camera in it today. A fact that I only partly understand (as a avid photographer, there have been very few times that I have ever really needed to use the camera on my cell phone…). Apple places the new standard in cell phone cameras in the iPhone: 2.0 megapixel. Again, there are cell phone cameras on their way to market (and might arrive before the iPhone) that are pushing 3.2 megapixels.

Now, what would have been up to the Apple design standards is if the camera on the iPhone was facing the same direction as the screen (or rotatable). Next add the right software and you have video conferencing on your cell phone. (I remember a sci-fi television series by Gene Rodenberry where video cell phone with cool roll-up screens were a normal item in this future world…we could have had that in the iPhone, except without the roll-up screen.) Maybe some Apple engineer will stumble across this posting and make it happen.

Market Strategy

Apple’s Market Strategy with the iPhone is both expected as well as confusing. It’s expected in the fact that the Apple has made it clear that their focus is on the consumer electronics’ marketplace (the old Apple devotee did enjoy the way Steve Jobs stole the show from Bill Gates down at CES). What is surprising in that Apple is still ignoring the business market.

With regards to the consumer market, there are a number of aspects of the iPhone that I feel will hurt it’s acceptance. Lack of expandability might have some small impact, but not much. Initial support for only Cingular could hurt some initial buyers, but again I think marginally. Mostly, it’s the issue about the battery uncertainness, durability, tactile feedback, software support and high cost ($500-$600) that will limit the acceptance. Of course there will be the rash of buyers with high disposable incomes who have to follow the trends with the latest and greatest whatever along with the Apple devotees. The interesting thing to watch will be if and how quickly the spike of initial buyers will taper off (assuming it does).

I’m predicting that the iPhone will not make any noticeable impact into the business smart phone market. The fact that there is no business software (yet) for the iPhone is the key hold back. Most companies live off of the Blackberry or GoodLink services for email (some have generic VPN mail access directly from the phone). None of that is available for the phone yet. The fact that most business’ mail servers are not located outside of the firewall limits the usability of the phone for business email, still the key driver for business smart phones. Thought I’m sure there will be some interest from companies that have moved to web based apps, the iPhone could be best platform for mobile access to them…especially if the browser “zoom” feature works as shown on the Apple website. The browser zoom feature smartly solves the problem of surfing the web on a small screen.

In the end, while the old time Apple devotee in me would love to have an iPhone, the more pragmatic business technologist needs more out of it than what’s there right now to justify the time and energy to move to a new platform. But I will be keeping my eye on it.