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Market Thoughts #14

Open crito opened 11 years ago

crito commented 11 years ago

This post is now maintained by @balupton

Resources:

Original pitch:

A high-bandwidth virtual office for open teams. Public rooms are free. Private rooms cost. FOSS.

Think of it as IRC for infrastructure, Sqwiggle for Interface, Google Hangouts on Air for recording, and GitHub for profiles.

Why?

The Problem

Benjamin actually suggested it to them months before creating InterConnect, Sqwiggle simply do not care for or understand the requirements of open teams and communities.

Ultimately, Sqwiggle is merely a closed tool for closed teams and that won't change, they'll never be a completely OSS tool optimised for open teams.

Plus, such a question misses the opportunity present to create the next-generation de-facto standard communicational tool, as an open-source initiative that everyone has the power and control over!

The requirements for faciliating open teams and the UX surrounding that will be much different than what Sqwiggle already offers and can offer with their target market. Different markets, different requirements.

Example Workflow

  1. @balupton joins the #docpad IRC Channel via InterConnect
    1. The InterConnect IRC Bot posts on the #docpad IRC Channel: @balupton just joined via http://interconnect.net/docpad
  2. @crito joins the #docpad IRC Channel via InterConnect
    1. The InterConnect IRC Bot posts on the #docpad IRC Channel: @crito just joined via http://interconnect.net/docpad
  3. @balupton unmutes @crito to start a call
    1. The InterConnect IRC Bot posts on the #docpad IRC Channel: @balupton and @crito are now video calling on http://interconnect.net/docpad/balupton+crito
  4. @ninabreznik was on IRC and notices the video call link, she clicks it and joins
    1. The InterConnect IRC Bot posts on the #docpad IRC Channel: @balupton, @crito, @ninabreznik are now video calling on http://interconnect.net/docpad/balupton+crito+ninabreznik
  5. @balupton posts a link to an image in the InterConnect chat
    1. The InterConnect chat enhances it on the InterConnect website to embed the actual image
    2. The InterConnect IRC Bot posts on the #docpad IRC Channel: @balupton just posted: http://the.url/to-the.image
  6. The video call finishes, and is uploaded to Vimeo for archival
    1. The InterConnect IRC Bot posts on the #docpad IRC Channel: @balupton, @crito, @ninabreznik video call just finished, watch it here: http://interconnect.net/docpad/call-id
ninabreznik commented 11 years ago

Maybe it would be also interesting to think about how to add new feature to enable "casual socialization" - some sort of video chillaxing game thing where people can "drink coffee together, brainstorm, exchange information etc" as they would in a normal office (water cooler conversations - http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2010/12/07/the-digitalization-of-the-water-cooler-conversation/)

balupton commented 11 years ago

Ohhh, that is a good idea.

Like video chat rooms?

ninabreznik commented 11 years ago

Don't know exactly but in the article you linked, I read this part about what they missed while working remotely:

NO CASUAL SOCIALIZATION

Everyone on the team missed socialization like getting lunch together, grabbing a quick game of ping pong, going on a coffee run, and the off the cuff conversations where you end up talking about product ideas.

And then I thought how awesome it would be if this was possible to be replaced with something. Because I know what I missed when I was working from home... some casual socialization, small talk, something like the normal office...

balupton commented 10 years ago

For me, remote teams is the key problem here that we are solving. But the optimisation here is to actually build a connected community of people collaborating together, breaking down the walls of collaboration, so open-collaboration is accessible to all.

Ideally, I'd like to treat market research as an optimisation we can make to stuff as we go, rather than a roadblock that must be addressed before we do stuff. As otherwise, we could get stuck in a blackhole of not building anything as we were too busy defining a market for a non-existent product, versus building the product then seeing who comes and calibrating around them.

balupton commented 10 years ago

Some notes I took in the last few days:

Interconnect

Surround yourself with people that inspire you, without borders or limits.

Build your ideal social circle. No borders or limits here.

Build your ideal social circles and hangout with them, without constraints.

When there is so much wrong in the world, it's hard to find the right. For let us not talk to the stranger on the train, for they may fulfil our expectation of dull, boring, and evil, leaving us instead to subvert our disappointment by playing games on our mobile phone instead, or by merely constraining ourselves to our existing geographically limited social circles.

Interconnect is a way to break free from this trend of self induced social starvation, by allowing you to connect with whomever you'd like to, without constraints and geographical borders.

balupton commented 10 years ago

Some notes I took on the 8th of March:

Interconnect thoughts

Gravatar is a live stream gif Streamatars - #32 - when hovered have profile, with info about the person, their conversation archive, and a call button When called, it will connect you to the person instantly (they will need to accept), or they can deny in which case you can leave a video mail which they can reply to Videomails - #34 - will also be an used if the person is offline or busy or private

This is way better than text and voice messaging as they take forever, and why arrange a time for a synchronous face to face when you can have an asynchronous video conversation in a fraction of the time

Video also causes more draft sending, it's more raw, it's fast, it's human, it's real. It maintains the connection to people.

For storage of the recording we can use a distributed torrent network, I believe BitTorrent.com just released sync which could be what we're after.

Not yet sure how to accomplish the gravatar streams, streamatars, that may require partnership with gravatar or github. Likely github will be able to offer options for both. Gravatar or streamatar

balupton commented 10 years ago

An excerpt of a private twitter conversation with @kaspertidemann from earlier on the 8th:

I feel that there is an underlying vibe of misanthropy in this world, and there should be, there is a lot wrong with this world, and all human induced. But the way people solve this isn't a fix, it's a subversion, it's social starvation. Playing phone games or becoming a recluse. Neither of which provides the fulfillment of our social needs. Starving us. When in reality. They just need to find, and connect deeply and richly, and surround themselves with the 1% of people they do relate with but right now geographical and nation borders, intellectual property and time and money constraints don't make it possible for this. Twitter is the closest thing there is, but it's not rich, or vibrant, or heart connecting. Especially with all the hate it exposes you too. So for me, interconnect is the solution to this. A place where people can build their ideal social networks, There's a lot more to this, but I think it's definitely a sharper compass than I had a week ago. For instance, such a thing would also bring the value of free culture into the world, removing ignorance, and furthering open systems So there won't be a news feed in interconnect, as that would induce the same experience of anxiety that the twitter stream does. It's about people. An people and their conversations only. Maybe there will be a news streams though, still beta on that idea ;-) But it definitely has something to do with bringing the holstee manifesto to the next level, one without constraints or borders. The "life is about the people you meet and what you create with them"

mikeumus commented 10 years ago

@BetaBulls has plans for an app using interconnect for people to share feedback on recorded elevator pitches similar to usabilityhub.com's model (http://usabilityhub.com/).‏

A 10-15 second elevator pitch and people give feedback which is shared in a loop.‏ It's pretty neat, already getting good feedback back on the BetaBulls.com homepage from using UsabilityHub.

balupton commented 10 years ago

Somes notes today:

Is there anyone else, that would like a meetup about dealing with life as an entrepreneur, startup folk, and open-source person?

Maybe meetups are fundamentally flawed. Getting strangers together over a shared interest instead a hunch, is bound to uninspire.

Social circles are actually about hunches, not shared interests.

Meetups are about shared interests. They are just about what shoes we like, and our opinions about our likes. Never about our mental processes or hunches. They give us tools, not processes we can use to create tools, or live happier lives.

Social circles are about hunches. They are what we use when we have a hunch about something, we figure out which friend would share that hunch or be able to add value to that hunch and arrange a meeting with them. We don’t arrange meetings with those we know have similar interests, but don’t share the same hunches!

balupton commented 10 years ago

camaraderie < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDIZS4IQlQk

balupton commented 10 years ago

Vulnerability

balupton commented 10 years ago

The value, virtue, of Vulnerability is what makes us okay with being exposed to others as who we are.

If I open interconnect up late at night, sick, on the couch, with my eye mask on. Yes it is not the smart strife confident persona, but it is me, being authentically me.

We need this value of authenticity, of vulnerability, taken to the next level. Chat meatspaces is all about this. They've mastered that.

So to me, "I'm uncomfortable with being filmed when I have the app open, what is people see me picking my nose" is an objection against vulnerability, authenticity, for the sake of protecting an "image".

Chatting with @jedwatson recently, we covered this. Jed was mentioning how he was not used to his talks being recorded as it is a new thing for him, he is so use to a profiled, curated, controlled online persona, image. Whereas open-source and live recordings are so raw. But this new concept excited him.

So I think this is less about who our market is, and rather, how so we create our ideal market by communicating our values, mission, and why well.

I see interconnect as something that can fill a social void.

balupton commented 10 years ago

We need to think about who is our ideal citizen of our ideal world, and create a tool for that world, for those people.

balupton commented 10 years ago

After watching more of Simon Seneks stuff, this is based off the current works issues.

Our phones give us dopamine instead of accomplishing real tangible goals like building a school.

Social news also gives us cortisone, instead of real life threats like a tiger about to eat us.

And these drugs consume us, like an experiment where we can't stop pressing the button and eventually die of starvation.

These devices and news take over our lives. And rob us of the human interaction we so desperately crave for serotonin and oxytocin.

We need a new system, a new shift. Something that gets rid of impersonal connection. No more emails. No more tweets. Just raw authentic vulnerable people.

Equal leadership, everyone on the frontline. Equal serotonin. No ego to protect, no need for saving face or retaliation.

Deep personal raw authentic everyday connections. Oxytocin for everyone. No restrictions by borders, time, money, or connections or network. Just raw humans making the world a better place.

balupton commented 10 years ago

Chatting with @hele earlier today, I've realised that text-chat has for our entire existance, been the most inaccessible form of communication, video is the oldest form of communication, and if you're blind, then voice is the next oldest. Text chat is a very modern thing that only came into existance through scalability issues — if the world had high-bandwidth internet from day 1, why would we ever need literacy? perhaps we never would have even invented it — as it has always been, a mere technical constraint that we don't need.

balupton commented 10 years ago

Getting back to my original need for interconnect is this quote:

"It seem trivial, but part of any form of burnout is feeling that what you're doing is trivial and not appreciated. I think that the Internet is good at sending the feedback that what you're doing isn't appreciated. Apparently, bad people enjoy sending flames more than nice people enjoy sending thank-yous, and the removal of human faces and voice tones mean that misunderstandings are common." — http://www.datamation.com/open-source/linus-torvalds-and-others-on-community-burnout-3.html

patcon commented 10 years ago

Relevant IRC convo on #gittip where @ericmeltzer independently emphasized the need for interconnect: https://botbot.me/freenode/gittip/msg/12516766/

balupton commented 10 years ago

Another one for the why: http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-A-Misanthrope/1794304

mikeumus commented 10 years ago

For hack-a-thons!

I was at Hack Princeton and HackPSU and if developers from some of these companies could help out via interconnect over the weekends, the hackers could really pump out some even more impressive creations.

balupton commented 10 years ago

Another one for the why: https://twitter.com/kentaitin/status/453492327340703744

balupton commented 10 years ago

Another one for the why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o&t=9m24s and the key reason why streaming everyone is so key to the culture shift

balupton commented 10 years ago

More why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY