Bruce's Comments

Mendelson's Musings : Why Do I Need Facebook When I Have Twitter?

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:40:32 +0000

I think the distinction is really one of use and the savviness of the different pools of users. Facebook is still, at its heart, a *web* destination. Twitter is predominantly a *digital* destination. Sure, twitter has a website, but I'd argue that a high percentage of the interaction via twitter doesn't take place through the website (except for novice users) but through specialized apps and other potentially other devices. I'd even further bet that most of your twitter colleagues are more technologically advanced than the general population and are comfortable existing in a bunch of different mediums -- their sense of self is stronger in different environments and they seem themselves as a constant. I think this is an evolved attitude and reflects a comfort level. The *vast* majority of the world isn't there and the web is still a thing you get to in a browser, on a computer. Facebook's model of engagement is heavily invested in that approach even though they have mobile apps. But, because facebook is a destination, it also ends up being a touch point for heavier interactions -- see zynga, et all, for use as a platform. It tries to do *many* things pretty well. Twitter's a data channel. It doesn't try to do much more than that and any add-on is a small incremental bit (hash tags or lists) rather than being a big slab of meat on the experience. I don't think it's an OR proposition. While you have a fairly divided population in tech savviness and comfort, both will exist. You'll use them for different things and that makes sense. If I'm hauling lumber from Home Depot, taking the Aston doesn't make a lot of sense. ;)

Feld Thoughts : Learn How Filtrbox Got A Yellow TechStars Shirt

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 19:52:25 +0000

Gold is so last year. You're not doing titanium or platinum shirts yet? Or is that for a whole different level of acquisition?

Feld Thoughts : Speech Recognition Is Only Part of the Future

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:57:08 +0000

I think what you're looking at in twenty years is a re-imagining of how we interact with technology in the first place. We're currently constraining ourselves to figuring out how to better interact with today's technology rather than stepping back and asking how we'd really like to interact with our experiences and data. I'll coin the phrase here, "naturalized interfaces", in which technology simply augments the more natural way of looking at data. Companies like Oblong and the new interfaces that you're seeing this year and last at CES are still exploring the potential of what those different technologies can deliver, but in twenty years we should be moving past that. Your ultimate interface is a *blend* of all these different technologies in a way that feels incredibly seamless and natural. So, maybe instead of doing spreadsheet analysis on a screen, I have a virtual display in front of me (it doesn't matter if it's projected or augmented reality onto my eyeballs - the question is whether it's for a shared or personal experience) and I can physically raise and lower inputs into my analysis either through a tangible object or haptic feedback - the point is that I *feel* the physical manipulation of the input. If I need more granular control, maybe I use the pinch or inverse-pinch popular on early multitouch devices like the iPhone. If I'm reviewing a couple of companies, I toss another business card onto my table which begins to pull the financial data from the cloud to add into my scenario... you get the idea. I want an interface world where I'm thinking about my interactions in the most natural ways, not conforming to another technology out there. I want my interaction verbs to be the ones I learned in kindergarten -- I want more of this product by adding to a pile of 'stuff' not product++ or sum(a13:a47). My virtual world and physical world shouldn't be separate worlds to my perception.

Feld Thoughts : My 2009 By The Numbers

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 17:37:36 +0000

I've been using Runkeeper on my iphone as a tracking tool. It's pretty straightforward, and I like the online integration and results. The only drawback is that it's great when I'm walking outside, not so much for the treadmill at the gym. ;)

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : The Bitter Bar: where Mindfulness + Alcohol come together.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:52:29 +0000

I was at bitter bar last week and left with one of the best evening of drinks I've ever had. They make a brilliant sazerac and even better was the passion Mark Stoddard (our mixologist for the eve) showed for his trade and craft. Lengthy discussions about the merits of absinthe, different kinds of gin, and molecular mixology made it fun, interesting and deeply engaging. I can't recommend the place enough.

Feld Thoughts : Board Meeting Lessons From The Supreme Court

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:26:51 +0000

Hm, your last paragraph is timely -- I'm in a conference session right now and paying attention to your blog rather than listening.

Feld Thoughts : Why Did Microsoft License Exchange ActiveSync to Apple?

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 01:06:15 +0000

As much as I'm willing to be annoyed by MS's products, they're aiming for a fairly unified environment that's getting more platform agnostic. The next rev of SharePoint should be more standards based and integrates well with their other products. The iPhone's doing incredibly well in the marketplace and Apple's hardware has a pretty dedicated following. If my long-term play is not only the Office suite but also powering the *entire* backend of the next-gen office, I'm sure as hell going to get rid of the excuses anyone might have to look elsewhere for office collaboration. On the flip side, it doesn't hurt them in any appreciable way. Sure, I'm not going to get a windows mobile device now since my iPhone plays nice, but I was never going to anyway. And, I can even think about dropping my Blackberry Enterprise Server (and separate licensing costs in these tight times) -- at this point, for a huge chunk of my org, Exchange just works. I'm *much* more likely to go through at least the next rev since it's all working pretty well.

Feld Thoughts : Calling All PPC Marketing Studs

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:28:17 +0000

Man, I kept looking at the title in my rss reader and wondering why the hell you wanted anyone that still knew stuff about PowerPC's.

Feld Thoughts : The More Things Change â¦

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:26:11 +0000

It amazes me to realize that most of the mountains along the front range were stripped bare of trees to support the mining operations 100-150 years ago. Almost everything that you see now is new growth since then.

Feld Thoughts : Make Me Happy â Thereâs An App for That

Sat, 4 Jul 2009 01:33:18 +0000

Radarscope - you've got to be a real weather geek for this to be worth the $10 download, but it's real-time doppler radar from all over the US. With the thunderstorms we've been getting in CO this spring / summer, it's been awesome. Shazam - best music recognizer I've used on the iphone. I use it to remind me of music that I want to buy later. FlightControl / HarborMaster - similar games that are quick and easy to play. Kiwi - hands down the nicest wikipedia browser. Formatting of the info for the iphone is top-notch. Amazon.com - because it has ready access to my wishlist so if I'm at a bookstore and want to put my hands on something I can. I also use it in the way intended. Geocaching - because it's an irregular hobby. Zen Bound - a surprisingly innovative game that shows off the graphics capability of the phone.

Feld Thoughts : Kaguya Spacecraft Crashes into the Moon

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:22:18 +0000

given your recent interest in apod, you might be interested in the lightcone rss feed. essentially, if a cone of light starting spreading outward from the earth on your date of birth, it delivers a real time feed of what your cone is encountering on its travels. http://interconnected.org/home/more/lightcone/ it'll help make you feel small if nothing else.

Feld Thoughts : Deep Calm

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:50:54 +0000

Funny that as you post this, Jason Kottke would post something similar - http://www.kottke.org/09/06/the-50th-law

Feld Thoughts : Email â The Original Social Graph

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:56:12 +0000

What I've found interesting lately is the increasing evidence that with teens and young adults that email is a secondary form of communication. (I'm like you, email is my hub (since 1986).) Facebook and MySpace and their internal messaging and wall postings along with phone txting appear to be pretty strong. Increasingly twitter appears to be moving up the generation chain -- as parents discover and start using the same tools, kids move away. I suspect that people change over time, especially as they enter into the workplace, but I've yet to really see anything that confirms this.

Feld Thoughts : The Magic of Data Visualization

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:13:45 +0000

Minor nitpick: when you click on an individual data point, the detail information shouldn't obscure the data point in the chart. It's evident in the top bar graphs where the height of the bar is covered by the detail. On the flip side, cool to see your heart rate lowering over time.

Feld Thoughts : The Public Restroom as HCI Laboratory

Fri, 22 May 2009 21:19:06 +0000

Really? When I've been chopping onions or peppers, it seems to make a *big* difference if I wash my hands before rubbing my eyes.

Feld Thoughts : The Public Restroom as HCI Laboratory

Fri, 22 May 2009 17:05:57 +0000

It's not just bathrooms, it's people interacting with real life all the time. I don't think you can be a really innovative interface person unless you're able to simply sit and watch people and how the use the rest of the world. Kids are exceptionally awesome because they don't have nearly as many learned behaviors as the rest of us. A good example of thinking along these lines is IDEO's book, "Thoughtless Acts?: Observations on Intuitive Design", available from Amazon (although not yet for the Kindle) at http://is.gd/CpkB. It's mostly images, but all of everyday objects being used in slightly unexpected but obvious ways. What's even better in all of this is when you find the right balance, the user doesn't even realize that technology is in play any more -- you've been able to remove a layer of abstraction and they more directly get into the experience. Why have extra fussy controls if they make the experience more complex? To use a personal example, if a museum wants to know what people are interested in, don't make them click something on a handheld or do some deliberate action. Instead, notice that they spent a certain amount of time in proximity to something as the point where you notice their attention and then when the visitor leans in to read the label, a very deliberate action, then note their actual interest. Invisible to the user, but their actions tell you an awful lot. (Hm, now that I think about it, I'm sure I've seen a media lab project along these lines, but I can't find it online.) Heh, and then the fun begins ... how to tease out the accidental actions or the minimal actions as unintended observations vs. deliberate actions. At what point did your bathroom soap dispenser realize that you were being deliberate vs accidentally brushing against it (if it did at all). Time? Variability of motion (waving)? etc. More often that not, it's the *subtle* things you do in the experience that make the biggest difference, not the deliberate things. Yeah. I *love* this stuff.

Feld Thoughts : Browser Innovations â The Blink Tag

Mon, 4 May 2009 20:52:19 +0000

Ah, which brings me to one of my favorite Jakob Nielsen comments: "Of course, <BLINK> is simply evil. Enough said."

Feld Thoughts : My Airplane Super Power

Sun, 3 May 2009 17:31:01 +0000

On the flip side, I have had this conversation more than once: "Is that sarcasm? I can't tell any more..." "Um, I'm not sure."

Feld Thoughts : My Airplane Super Power

Sun, 3 May 2009 17:07:39 +0000

me? sarcasm. I sometimes forget to only use my superpower for good.

Feld Thoughts : High School Prom Is Just Around The Corner

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:35:18 +0000

Your hair. It's so luxurious. One can easily imagine you cruising with your date in a Trans Am, the wind acting as a bernoulli comb leaving you with this finely sculpted masterpiece. Clearly, you were unstoppable.

Bruce's Comments

Mendelson's Musings : Why Do I Need Facebook When I Have Twitter?

Feld Thoughts : Learn How Filtrbox Got A Yellow TechStars Shirt

Feld Thoughts : Speech Recognition Is Only Part of the Future

Feld Thoughts : My 2009 By The Numbers

elephant journal: Yoga, Sustainability, Politics, Spirituality. : The Bitter Bar: where Mindfulness + Alcohol come together.

Feld Thoughts : Board Meeting Lessons From The Supreme Court

Feld Thoughts : Why Did Microsoft License Exchange ActiveSync to Apple?

Feld Thoughts : Calling All PPC Marketing Studs

Feld Thoughts : The More Things Change â¦

Feld Thoughts : Make Me Happy â Thereâs An App for That

Feld Thoughts : Kaguya Spacecraft Crashes into the Moon

Feld Thoughts : Deep Calm

Feld Thoughts : Email â The Original Social Graph

Feld Thoughts : The Magic of Data Visualization

Feld Thoughts : The Public Restroom as HCI Laboratory

Feld Thoughts : The Public Restroom as HCI Laboratory

Feld Thoughts : Browser Innovations â The Blink Tag

Feld Thoughts : My Airplane Super Power

Feld Thoughts : My Airplane Super Power

Feld Thoughts : High School Prom Is Just Around The Corner

Feld Thoughts : The More Things Change â¦

Feld Thoughts : Make Me Happy â Thereâs An App for That

Feld Thoughts : Email â The Original Social Graph

Feld Thoughts : Browser Innovations â The Blink Tag