It's Who You Know (Or Don't)

By Marina Krakovsky


Nothing demonstrates the wildfire spread of online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook better than the experience 73 Stanford students had last fall. They were enrolled in the computer science course Creating Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook—and did they ever engage. At a public session held at the Arrillaga Alumni Center toward the end of the quarter, 500 people heard how “10 million [users] in 10 weeks” were expected to have installed the students' free applications, some of which were reportedly generating enough ad revenue to pay tuitions.

Most of the apps resemble party games or amusements—ScribbledPhotos lets users draw graffiti on Facebook photos; with KissMe, members can bestow kisses—although some focus on generating useful information. But co-instructor BJ Fogg, an experimental social psychologist whose Persuasive Technology Lab studies how computer technology changes people's beliefs and behaviors, dismisses critics like one blogger who called the applications “monumental drivel.” The point was for students to learn how to think, using psychology and metrics to make their applications more appealing. And by quarter's end, 10 million proved an underestimate: “What other class in the history of the world created student projects that reached 16 million people in 10 weeks?” asks Fogg, MA '95, PhD '97.

It's that kind of dramatic result that has a growing number of academics starting to look at how online social networks function and what they deliver compared with traditional, offline connections. Fogg can envision revolutions; others are not so sure.

Associated Link: Lengthy but riveting: It's Who You Know (Or Don't)

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Source: BBC, 12 March 2010
 
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The Net generation, Unplugged
Source: The Economist, 11 March 2010
 
Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet?

Rewriting the Human-Computer interaction Handbook
Source: CIOL, 10 March 2010
 
Indrani Medhi of Microsoft Research India has developed text-free user interfaces (UIs) to allow any illiterate or semi-literate person on first contact with a computer, to proceed with minimal or no assistance.

Lip reading Mobile promises End to noisy phone calls
Source: BBC, 9 March 2010
 
A prototype device shown off at CeBIT could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations.

Games User Researchers band together
Source: UN, 8 March 2010
 
The number of UX professionals in gaming has reached critical mass.

Quince Pro enables privately-held UX Design Libraries
Source: Infragistics, 6 March 2010
 
Infragistics has launched Quince Pro, a private, secure and organized way to collaborate, communicate and cultivate private UX design libraries to ensure consistent user experiences across teams, departments and companies.

Announcing a new issue of the Journal of Usability Studies
Source: UPA, 5 March 2010
 
UPA is happy to announce the publication of the second issue of volume 5, the Journal of Usability Studies.

Impatient versus Bored
Source: Gerry McGovern, 4 March 2010
 
Customers are much more likely to get impatient with your website than they are to be bored with it.

Futures Thinking: Writing Scenarios
Source: Fast Company, 3 March 2010
 
A valuable skill for UX folks (that's 'how to write scenarios', not 'scenarios in which one writes').

How to Conduct a Usability Review
Source: UsefulUsability, 2 March 2010
 
Never hurts to be reminded.