Crumbs, I wasn’t expecting this. I mentioned in my last post about my misgivings regarding the practical design and usability issues around Google Wave beta. But the last thing I was expecting – at least so soon after birth – was ‘calling it a day’. This points to the fact that Google’s team has probably known for sometime that the basic framework was relatively unusable – and perhaps misconceived from the beginning

Anyway, you wont find me knocking them for trying out innovations like this in public – then also calling it a day in public. That’s how such a powerful global corporate presence should do it in the 21^st century. Think of ‘concept cars’ – they never made it to the road but many innovations therein found their way into mass production vehicles that did.

So well done Google for thinking of it, trying it out, and stopping it. Onto the next WOW idea please!

For months and months colleagues in the new media industry have been banging on about the latest BIG NEW THING just round the corner waiting to pounce and take over our collective consciousness (Twitter was the last one remember). This time it is Google Wave. This was previewed last year in a presentation now famous in Geekdom by the incredibly gifted development team also responsible for no less than Google Maps!

Google call it a ‘personal communication and collaboration tool’. A sort of mix of Facebook, Twitter, Email and Google docs, but with most of the action happening in real-time. Imagine seeing people’s tweets, emails and updates as they write and then being able to join in. (This takes time to explain so if you are interested here is one of the better talk-throughs).

Well its not quite here yet, the beta is not due until later this year. Yet there is already considerable polorisation of opinions about its value, ranging from a ‘this is the future’ Twitter-Killer ready to replace your email through to an ‘expression of the very worst that the social web has to offer’.

At present only a select few are testing Wave and most of these are computer technicians. I know quite a few of these and their comments tend to be quite similar, “I am finding it all very complex to use - but when I get my head around it I think it will be awesome. However the flow of information can be overwhelming”.

Now that quote is from a very talented technical director for a media company. I see him most days immersed in a wall of green code - you know, one of those guys in Hollywood movies that switch off power-stations from their laptops. This is the crux of the problem I have with the Wave - if HE of all people finds it complicated and overwhelming, then heaven help the rest of us!

A core foundation stone of Web 2.0 is that the tools are comparatively easy for ordinary digital consumers to learn and manage information - RSS , easy to use widgets, simple task flows. This platform shows a great deal of promise - and Google do say that it is definitely a work in progress - but if they don’t hugely simplify the user experience to fit closer to how human consciousness works with information and people, it will end up as just a highly innovative concept that got half-way towards a really game changing meta-application.

Remember, Google took over the web partly though the hyper-minimalist simplicity of the likes of the Google home page and more recently Google maps which are a dream to use, so I have some confidence that they have the insight and skills to get this right.

]]> http://www.thebrainstorm.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=849 http://www.thebrainstorm.co.uk/?p=813 http://www.thebrainstorm.co.uk/?p=813#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:35:51 +0000 James Brain http://www.thebrainstorm.co.uk/?p=813 Today Orange announced that it had broken O2’s exclusive deal to sell the iPhone in the UK. While O2 have known this was coming for a long time, and have built a very solid association with the Apple brand over the 2 years of its preferential contract, this could not have come at a worse time. Why…?

Over the last few months - and more intensely over the last few weeks - O2’s data network has come in for some serious criticism on the blogosphere, especially from iPhone users. The moaning can be summed up as “We have the world’s greatest mobile data device; on the UK’s worst 3G data network!”. My own anecdotal evidence and Ofcom’s data coverage maps [667Kb PDF] back this up. Have a look, Orange’s coverage is much better.

When this gets out into the mainstream press, together with some of the reports of system ‘meltdowns’,  it could drive much of O2’s more informed business to Orange.

What have O2 got up their sleeve to fight back? Well, being a long term user of O2 and having worked as a consultant with them for a while (and therefore seen ‘inside the machine’) I can vouch for their truly exceptional levels of award winning customer service and genuine care. I know it’s not perfect but compared to the competition it is still way ahead. This is partly due to the decision early on to keep call centres based in the UK and not follow the outsource/offshore lemmings over the cliff to the frustrating service and language difficulties many experience using these facilities.

So what will hold the most value for the next tranche of iPhone buyers - not necessarily the early adopters this time? Exceptional customer service or superior coverage and network stability? I would like both, but being a geek would chose the better network every time. What about you?

Update 29/09/09: Now Vodafone are in emergency talks with Apple and have just announced that it too will sell iPhones - but not till next year after the crucial Christmas period.

With much of the focus on Twitter recently I think it is important not to lose sight of some of the less instant but hugely valuable thinking behind ‘communities of practice’. If Twitter is the ‘fast running and shallow’ these communities are at the other end of the spectrum - they develop slow… but deep.

Communities of Practice (CoP) are typically described as “a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and… deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” This stuff is vital for anyone who is interested in working out the puzzle of how we can harness the latent knowledge and creativity of our organisations. ‘Cultivating Communities of Practice’ is a manager’s version of the academic predecessor from Etienne Wenger. Probably the best read available for those keen to know the deep magic and success factors of social communities of practice. I consider it a must for those involved in digital engagement.

Strangely, even though written at the turn of the millennium with the Internet revolution in full swing - albeit pre-Web 2.0 - it does not include nor case study online social networks or virtual communities. Luckily Wenger’s attention has since turned to online social systems and together with Nancy White (who really does get the difference between the new 2.0 communities and the old ‘gated’ style) is about to launch ‘Digital Habitats‘.

In January it produced the interim, which while helpful seemed mainly concerned with technical infrastructure and broadband speeds. Yes, there was talk of Britain’s world-class game designers, content providers and new media innovators — but in comparison to all the ‘pipe talk’ it was all quite woolly and vague  — almost as if they didn’t quite understand what they were talking about. Quite scary!

To concentrate on infrastructure is about as much use as a trying to generate a housing boom by focussing on the productivity of brick manufacturers. Yes we can alway use more bandwidth, but that battle is almost won with UK connectivity having been transformed over the last five years. And with clever technology we are increasingly able to do more with less.

This report, especially in these difficult times, should be honing in on how to further support British innovation to build world class competitive digital business in new media, TV, music, and advertising - the creative industries.

Anthony Lilley who as Chair of the UK digital content forum puts it bluntly: “Should we be the most innovative nation, should we be creating the most saleable content and services, or do we just want nice pipes?”

This issue is vital for the public sector also. With the huge cuts in spending expected over the next few years, digital innovation is one obvious route to driving costs down and creating spectacular gains in reach, productivity, engagement and democratic participation.

More hopefully, the Communications, Technology and Broadcast Minister Lord Stephen Carter who authored the interim says that the full report will contain much more balance. Let us hope so, this is a vital publication that should not be allowed to become a damp squib.