Last week I found an article in the New York Times announcing that GOURMET is back as Gourmet Live! I loved that magazine and was heartbroken when Conde Nast pulled the plug last October. This is the first example I’ve come across of the iPad prompting a magazine relaunch. The magazine, that according to the publisher, is no longer a magazine will launch in the fall of 2010. I for one am more than curious to see whether they will have the fortitude to pull off something that uses the medium  rather than dumping existing approaches to content and layout onto a new platform. Fingers crossed.

To see what that means, let’s have a look at three online categories that utilize hyperlocal information:

Hyperlocal news

One of the first hyperlocal applications were local news websites, which filled in the gap the dying print industry left behind. Often these news site/ blog crossovers are specific to a certain neighborhood. There are quite a few of these blogs around in New York, such as the Gothamist which is now also available in many other cities, or the Brownstoner, which focuses on real estate specific news.  But lately there are more and more start-ups that offer a platform for hyperlocal information, mash-ups that gather data from different sources about a neighborhood or town. For example, Everyblock lets users create a newsfeed for a specific address or ZIP code and collects information such as news, photos, reviews and governmental information (e.g. crime rate). Outside.in and Placeblogger offer similar services while Patch puts together sites for you and adds more categories plus an editorial process to the collection.

Hyperlocal social networks

Although it seems counterintuitive to build ones social network on virtual encounters, the most successful sites in this arena, Facebook and MySpace prove the contrary. However, with the ubiquitous availability of local-based services and devices (from Google Maps mash-ups to GPS enabled phones), hyperlocal social networks are beginning to grow and become more important.

The ultimate goal for any hyperlocal network should be to get people together who share a physical location, temporarily or permanently. There are few purely web-based applications such as STACKD (a SUPERMETRIC project), which aims to connect people within and around office buildings. Most players in this game offer location-based services through mobile phone applications. The top four are FourSquare, Gowalla, BrightKite and Loopt. They all work somewhat the same: you check in at a location (e.g. a café, bar, store) and share the info with your friends (via the app, Facebook or Twitter). You can see who else is around and might get in touch. Most apps will reward check-ins with virtual gifts/ prizes which will make you climb up the ladder within your community. Some applications feel more like a game (Gowalla) where others focus on the social component (FourSquare).

Hyperlocal advertising

Online advertising has revolutionized the market and Google is the incarnation of this phenomenon. The method and reason for success lies in content sensitive information or ads in this case. Google found the matching algorithms to display the ads that are most relevant for a website or search engine visitor.

In many cases local information makes an ad even more relevant. If you think about products you use and buy on a daily basis or multiple times per week or products you consume right away (food and drinks), local-based advertising adds a lot of value. In an article for FastCompany, Michael Gluckstadt evaluates the hyperlocal advertising market at $100 Billion. There seems to be evidence that he might be right: DataSphere just raised $10.8 Million in series B funding to expand their software offerings in this area. Where (a uLocate service) just launched a new  hypelocal ad network to connect local merchants with customers (e.g. via coupons on augmented reality apps). There seems to be a lot going on right now but the market is still young and it’s not clear what will work yet. Ultimately, services must focus on the value for users. As long as ads are fun, relevant and somewhat unobtrusive there is a true potential to become the next generation AdWords.

We need your votes! We submitted STACKD to the Pepsi Refresh Project in order to apply for a grant. We’re proud to say the idea was accepted and we are in the running to win. The grant will enable us to devote real time and attention to STACKD so that we can improve what it does best: connect businesses to each other that are in the same building or neighborhood. It’s our idea of where the internet is heading – hyperlocal. Please take the time to cast your vote, there is a lot of competition and we can’t do it without you!

I’m proud to announce that STACKD is featured in an online publication called Urban Omnibus that intends to “increase understanding of the city we have and encourage ideas that can lead to a more inclusive, more sustainable, more beautiful city that could be.” We’ve worked hard in getting some of the kinks out of the system in time for the article’s publication and are keeping our fingers crossed that people will sign up and start using STACKD to build relationships with others in their building – or nearby. The article gives a bit of conceptual urban theory background to the project, how we originated the idea as a way to meet other businesses and where we think it could lead. Please let us know what you think, even the bad stuff!

Duane Bray and Ryan Jacoby of IDEO spoke last night at an IxDA New York event. The venue was Bloomberg HQ on Lexington and 59th. In case you are unfamiliar with IxDA, it’s the grassroots equivalent of a professional organization for interaction designers. The website serves as a forum to pose questions and answers. The group organizes great talks by influential people who are broadening the understanding of what interaction design is. This was the first event I attended and I’m glad I went for a few reasons.

1. I got a glimpse inside the Ceasar Pelli designed Bloomberg building – an overpowering but exciting onslaught of information design and a great example of an open plan office.
2. The food was great.
3. I bumped into at least 4 other faculty from the Design&Management Department at Parsons. It was great to see that they care about their subject and attend events like this.
4. The talk was fun and pretty inspirational in a very pragmatic way. The IDEO process of combining business people and designers on one team in order to create a market ready product just makes a lot of sense, so no surprises there.

Here are my notes (and like I said, no big surprises just a lot of things that clearly make sense)
- Go where people are rather than expect them to come to you
- Consumers expect a conversation with brands not just a monologue.
- The big question on clients’ minds today is “How do we grow without alienating the existing client base?”
- Incorporating the human perspective opens the room to a new approach
- In the current climate companies want to know how to leverage existing assets
- Map the business impact
- Follow the money (value chain and user experience)
- Map the competitive set from a user experience standpoint and from a business standpoint
- Draw the income statement (variable costs, fixed cost, income)

]]> http://supermetricity.com/2009/07/17/business-design-meets-interaction-design/feed/ 0 http://supermetricity.com/2009/05/28/stackd-gets-started/ http://supermetricity.com/2009/05/28/stackd-gets-started/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 20:42:07 +0000 sidney http://supermetricity.com/?p=529

Have you ever had an idea for something and just never got it done because “work” was always in the way? Well we finally made one of those projects happen. It’s called STACKD and it’s meant to put people together for business, collaboration or anything else that comes to mind.

When we moved our office to a 20 story building last fall the elevators became pretty important. Sometimes they’re broken and a crowd gathers. Sometimes people post items that they have for sale. Most days you just squeeze in with a bunch of half-familiar faces and wait it out. It’s not a talkative environment but there are stolen glimpses. I’ve always been curious to know where people go and who they work for and so we built a website to facilitate that. It’s simple really. You sign up, list your company info and find others that work in your building. Once we get going we’ll add a way to sort by industry, post messages and receive notifications.

We’re planning to go knocking on a lot of doors in the next few days to say hello and let our neighbors know what we’ve been up to.

UPDATE: We’re gotten the first dozen signups and a little bit of coverage. Rob Levin of New York Enterprise Report posted earlier this week titling his write up “Know Thy Neighbor” which focused on the social aspect of the project.

My copy of DBR arrived via UPS yesterday and I read it cover to cover on the subway between meetings and at home before dozing off. It’s easy to inhale. I’m pretty upbeat about it for two reasons. One, it’s a great example of getting ideas to market quickly without upfront printing costs (the book is printed on demand via Lulu). Two, I think it’s the right format to spark a conversation.

The content of the first issues left me wanting more. More detail certainly. DBR doesn’t offer the depth of classics like Talent is Not Enough: Business Secrets for Designers by Shell Perkins. Some of the chapters ramble and don’t go beyond the platitudes that come up in lunchtime conversation. But that’s about all the complaining I’m going to do. The format is perfect. Publisher Chris Papasadero calls it a ‘public beta’. The phrase, borrowed from software development, is an indication how much our offline world is being influenced by the digital. Public beta also sets the right expectations.

DBR was put together with a focus on getting it done and out there with the explicit call for interaction and feedback. We can expect the publication to evolve from issue to issue and improve both in form and content as it gains traction.  The choice to print it rather than create a blog is great. It can be carried around, shared and complained about. It will certainly get widely distributed and talked about online, closing the feedback loop of how the discourse can take place today.

Being tired of all the gloom and energized by a weather forecast that suggests 4 days of sun (including a weekend, mind you) I decided that I would start collecting good news. So that’s what you can expect from me over the next few days. 

1) We’re lean
2) We care
3) We do really good work

Today, I was excited to find Peter Bregman’s post at Harvard Business Publishing. He expounds on exactly those attributes and goes one step further to say that what big companies really lack is trustworthiness.

Small companies with low overhead, reliable owners, a small number of committed employees, personal client relationships, and sustainable business models that drive a reasonable profit are the great opportunity of our time. We simply don’t trust companies anymore. We trust people. And in big companies, it’s hard to even find a person to trust as we scream “operator” into our telephones only to get transferred to another menu whose options have changed. That gives small companies a huge advantage.

I know he’s right. So now all we need to do is keep on keeping on and get our name out there. So if you’re reading this spread the word and get in touch.

The plan is to get together again for the first time in 2009, catch up and discuss how we can help each other as small business owners. The last meeting we had in ‘08 was in the Manifold office in DUMBO. They’ve been busy, check out the HIRSCHKRON/CAMACHO APARTMENT on their new site. It’s gorgeous.

This time, Noah Landow of Macktez has kindly offered to host at his office. The two of us have been meeting for breakfast once every two months for the past 6 years. We thought his office  would give a larger group a quieter spot than a restaurant, a central location and the chance to see his place.

There are some new names on the list but you all know me so give a shout if you need more input on what this is about. Also, I’d appreciated it if you could let me know who will be coming so I can start a list and add to it depending on cancellations.

Hope to see you there.

Date:
March 19th at 7:30

Location:
137 Grand Street
4th Floor
New York NY 10013