Dial Plus: new media enhances old media

Dial Plus is the first new (within the last year) technology product I’m actually excited to use.  And they are a great example of how new media can enhance our already established and standardized ways of communicating, like the phone call.

Here’s an explanation from their website for how they work:

DialPlus enriches the standard phone call experience by automatically and simultaneously providing dynamic, contextually relevant visual information about the called or calling party before the call is answered, during the call and after the call is over. DialPlus makes it easy for users to engage in mobile social networking or to get information about a business they’re speaking with, such as directions, menus and reviews.

Apparently they are in “alpha” and will be rolling out to more users early next year.

I love the simplicity and passivity of this idea.  It uses all the information that already exists about people, restaurants, businesses, etc. and displays it (in the background, with no work from the user) for easy access.  The epitome of Passive Intelligence.

If you can see beyond the cheesy ad on their homepage, and get over the fact that you need to look at your screen while talking, I think there is real potential for this type of application, although I wonder if our mobile Internet connections (and phones) are powerful enough to support this type of use.

Regardless, the use of passive information to enhance our everyday behavior is likely to be a trend that will continue for a while now.

Kairos is everything

I took a debate class in undergrad where my professor lectured on the basic elements of a good debate.  The one that stuck with me is Kairos.  From Wikipedia:

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.^[1]

What is the “special something” in the media world today?  For what innovation is this (2009) the opportune moment?

TV on-demand, delivered over the Internet?

Magazines and books delivered on a wireless device?

Hyper-local, hyper-social media?

The frienemy?

Actual Consumer control?

Micro-blogging?

Passive Intelligence?

Or, most likely, something else…

Internet Like Jazz

I was watching the Ken Burn’s documentary entitled Jazz the other night while trying to get my daughter to fall asleep and I was struck by how similar the Internet is to Jazz music. 

Wynton Marsalis is interviewed in the film and he lists out quite a few characteristics of Jazz music:

• improvised
• expressive
• collaborative
• entertaining
• creative
• unrestricted
• inventive
• experiential

Those characteristics sounds uniquely like the Internet (and no other medium).  The Internet is like Jazz music, and as bloggers, we are creating (and enjoying) the music of the Internet.

wish list: online trend aggregator

I wish there were a way to visit one website and see:

• what’s being blogged about
• twittered
• posted to flickr and youtube
• listened to on imeem and last.fm
• read on Google Reader and Digg
• and finally searched for on Google and Yahoo

It would be great to just see what’s going on today, this week, and the past month, while also having the ability to track a specific person or brand.  This would increase our general understanding of how we are collectively using the web (and how the web is using us) as well as help us discover interesting people, stories, blogs, etc.

If you know of something, or want to build something, let me know.

How to do research: start with yourself

We’ve all heard the phrase “so and so conducted a focus-group-of-one”, which means the person in question is projecting his or her feelings toward a product, service or situation onto the rest of us.  This is not a good practice for obvious reasons, but I do think studying oneself can increase our understanding of why we do the things we do.

Instead of conducting a focus group of one, I suggest we observe ourselves as if we were a different person.  Watch yourself, listen to yourself.  Attempt to understand why you react the way you do to various ads, products, and service experiences.  Don’ judge your reaction, just observe.  Why did you have a negative experience to that new GM ad?  Why do you feverishly desire the latest Apple product?  Why did that hotel employee make you happy and content?

Understanding the answers to these questions will help you understand the reasons why other people have similar or dissimilar reactions to the same experience.  As a bonus, try thinking about how some people actually like the GM ad or presidential candidate that you despise.  Understanding the other argument will only strengthen your own, and increase your general understanding of the entire situation.

So go ahead, observe yourself.  Listen to yourself.  Understand yourself.  I’m an advocate of this type of “focus-group-of-one”.