POST DIGITAL

ON: Google's Holodeck

Have you seen this one?   Thanks to a report from Peter Corbett here is a demo of Google's “Holodeck” system that uses Google Earth + seven flat screens + an awesome omni-directional joystick to let you fly around the Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Here’s a quick video of Peter exploring a virtual NYC.

Google Holodeck at FooCamp from Peter Corbett on Vimeo.

ON: Facebook's lost youth

Just as Facebook launches its latest iPhone app (3.0), the NY Times is reporting a Facebook exodus.  When you see the recent jumps in the site’s overall numbers, an exodus is not immediately evident. According to comScore, Facebook attracted 87.7 million unique visitors in the United States in July.  

In Mobile apps, we are finding that users have a core set of utilities and other apps including social networking sites are more disposable.  The average length varies based on entertainment and connectivity factors.  Mobile app user behavior seems to apply to the web based social apps as well.  Once the novelty runs its course, users will move on to something else.

When I first established my Facebook account, it was the place I could connect the brands I worked for to college students and other bloggers.  Today, it resembles the MySpace of 2007.  A personal repository for images, video, text and superfluous applications. In last year's Facebook hype tour, Mark Zuckerberg claimed it was the one stop shop platform for all social interaction.  In January, the numbers were impressive. The 35-54 year old demo was the fastest growing segment, with a 276.4% growth rate over an approximate 6 months. The 55+ demo was not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate.  With those rates of growth, it is hard to see the exodus.

The numbers above only reflect people joining, and nothing more.  The exodus seems to be happening amongst the Facebook early adopters and its core user base, college students.  Many in this demographic have fled to new social software platforms that are less intrusive, more mobile and that have an auto connect to Facebook. (i.e. four square, loopt, friend feed, flickr, friendster, buddy cloud etc.)

Heffernan article outlined seven people who have left the site. She hardly highlights or proves a mass exodus.  After a bit of research, the numbers reflect a significant drop in Facebook's college and youth demographic. In Jan of 09 its largest demographic concentration was amongst the 18-24 year olds, 40.8% which was a significant drop from 53.8% six months prior. (Download 2009 Facebook Demographics and Statistics as an Excel spreadsheet)

By no means do I see this trend as the demise of Facebook. If it can sustain the older demographic it could be a rich place to target, reach and engage with a demo that has been slow to adopt the social net in the past.  The demographics are changing rapidly and seem to reflect a mass market media tool.

If you are looking for the youth population, Facebook is not the one stop social shop.  It is merely a small fragment of the media consumed by youth today.  The combination of mobile and television seem to be the best bet as their world revolves around entertaining content, location based connectivity, the search for fame and personal expression.

ON: The words we love to hate

Watch this animation and listen in as CNN iReporters (every day citizens reporting the news) share the words they think are tired and overused.

ON: A Fresh Approach To Social Design

Social design ain't your daddy's web design.  It differs in many ways from the old school study of pure omnibus interactions.  Social Design begins with sociological trends of tribes (your audience), then takes into account their behavior and more importantly their passions.  Most successful social brands are finding direct responses when they facilitate a tribal passion through pretty basic functionality. 

Think you can do it without their passion?  Think again. 
If you are not ready to be passionate about what a tribe is passionate about, this is a waste of time and money for your brand.  How do you expect to have a meaningful conversation within a tribe if you have nothing in common with them? When you listen to your audience and unlock their passions then and only then can you have a place in their conversations. (This is where I typically do the message is the medium dance.  I promise you it's a whole dance.)

As I was working on a conversation starter for one of our clients, I stumbled upon this fantastic presentation.  This is one of the most tribal-centric presentations I have seen on developing social software.  Each part focuses on a specific problem in developing social media platforms.  This sociological and behavioral approach takes on the major hurdles in a usage life cycle, which are the stages people go through as they use and adopt software over time.

Designing For Social Traction

View more documents from Joshua Porter.

This methodology can be used in many aspects of the things we create as digital agencies. The tribal insights dispel many digital design myths. Designing For Social Traction  makes the design challenge clear for anyone creating in the social space.