Classic TV experience powered by your iPad: Yahoo IntoNow App

Usually when I watch a Formula 1 races on TV, I open an internet browser to check live stats and extra information F1.com provide as the race progresses. The experience of having inside and interactive information about what is happening now on TV is great. In this case, the connecttion was made manually by me, I turned the proper TV channel and launched the proper web page in a computer.   Internet connected TVs linked to tablet apps can go well beyond this. However, based on Gartner research connected TV has only has a 1% to 5% market penetration so far. Enabling this interactive experience on the existing massive TV market with the growing tablets penetration it is a great idea. Yahoo came up with this by making the link between the old fashioned current TV and the iPad trough a simple mechanism: audio. They just upgraded their app to include not only social media features after the TV program has been detected (similar to what Shazam does with music) but aggregates content, news and social media turning the iPad into a second screen with contextual interactive source of companion information for the live TV. I tried it and it quickly recognize TV series, new shows and for ads it shows a kind of funny message with no content related, it merges program information with social media and useful information. This article describes the idea:   http://www.fastcompany.com/1792364/how-yahoo-s-intonow-will-revolutionize-the-way-we-watch-tv and this is the itunes app page http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/intonow/id406436404?mt=8

So, will you be switching between the TV remote control and your iPad while watching TV?

Africans in need receiving cash aid trough SMS

When talking about emerging technologies, I looked them from the point of view of how their application impacts the developing world. Statistics show that even in the developing countries and poor region the mobile phones penetration keeps growing and is way broader than internet access and computer access penetration. International development organizations have the challenge to reach this population and provide them assistance when they need and make the best usage of their funds; usually the population is located in towns very difficult to access and very dispersed. Here is when emerging technologies can help as the following article explains. The United Nations World Food Program is providing cash aid by sending SMS messages that the beneficiaries can redeem for cash, as described in this news article:

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/wfp-launches-phone-cash-transfers-to-reach-ivorians

Add to it local shop and producers accepting SMS transfers and the need for cash, banks ATMs, agencies or internet transactions is reduced in part of the world when they are not easily available. What do you think?

Game mechanics in business applications

Few days ago I had the opportunity to attend the 2011 Social Matchbox, which is an annual presentation of top 10 tech startups preselected trough a competitive process. Each one has 5 minutes to present their project to potential investors, media and tech experts. The winners were OMGiLuv.it, which enables users to share their fashion preferences and Watch party that enables people to engage with other users that are watching the same program. The full list of winners and details is located in their page: http://socialmatchbox.com/wp/ I really suggest to the class to keep an eye in these startups and event like this, one of them might became the new facebook or living social!. 

One of the topics that captured my attention is that a good portion of the presenters talked about incorporating game mechanics into their mobile solutions, so I did some quick research about it. Gartner research “Gamification Primer: Life Becomes a Game” defines gamification as “… is the application of game mechanics to nongame environments to motivate people and change behavior. Business managers must understand this trend — how it may be leveraged in their organizations and how it may affect their industries.”

The concept is simple, what better strategy to engage your users than rewarding them for following a sequence of steps of tasks within you application. Successful games are addictive and users are engaged to earn more and more rewards or get to the next level. Add it a social media component and you have users addicted to your application and sharing their experience to their network and beyond. 

A Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2011 notes that the market penetration is still very low (1 to 5%), moderate benefit and still 5 to 10 years for mainstream adoption, so even if we already have some applications taking advantage of these features, there is still a long path and opportunity in this field.  Google trends data on gamification: http://www.google.com/trends?q=gamification shows a quick growing too since this year. 

So the question is, are we evaluating the potential of incorporating game mechanics in our capstone projects?

Challenges of social media software for internal use

I am supporter the emerging technologies like social media software for internal communication tool, knowledge sharing and internal networking. There are a couple articles I totally support and found very useful like the ones below, so in this post would focus in few challenges related to engaging users with these tools.

http://mashable.com/2010/09/03/world-without-email/

http://www.brandpilgrim.com/2010/09/the-case-for-enterprise-microblogging.html

One social media tool I really like is Yammer, which is a micro blogging tool that creates a closed network based in your corporate email. In the organization I work for, it started just as an informal experiment of few users and then it grew up organically and there is a great potential there. The challenge I see with these tools is the integration and information access policies, as users might thing is an official corporate tool as they have to use their corporate email and they will found their colleagues there. In the other hand, the corporate tools as SharePoint 2010 has some noteboard and status updates features not quite powerful as Yammer (there is no SharePoint out of the box rich mobile client for the status updates and note board in a Twitter or Yammer style) but as it runs inside the company environment, it can be deeply integrated into the corporate search and you can have a single space for collaborate using business data and corporate document management. Yammer offers some integration too but even with the paid plan it is a basic integration and as information resides outside the company environment, information access policies needs to taken into consideration. So the challenge is to either embrace tools like Yammer or block them and force the use of corporate tools but limit functionality that users are already used to.

What do you think?