Soldier Ant

Interns

2008-08-28T20:43:20Z

Having myself been a (mostly mediocre) intern on at least two different occasions… and, having had at least one intern who scrupulously followed most of this advice. (And a couple who didn't at all) THIS is an excellent set of guidelines for 'How to be a good intern.' (Found via Eh, somewhere.)

Erin Malone on KQED

2008-07-23T15:24:27Z

My friend and colleague Erin Malone has been featured on KQED's "Your Photos on QUEST" series. Great interview, Erin! Congratulations.

Meh. That dinky embedded video doesn't do it justice. Run over here and view it in much grander style.

Two Happy Guys

2008-06-30T03:20:47Z

Two Happy Guys, originally uploaded by brian glass.

My brother Brian and my son Edison. Up to no good, the both of 'em.

The Bokardo Interview: The Hidden Track

2008-06-27T04:11:49Z

Just for fun, here's one question that Josh asked and didn't use (I'm assuming, in the interests of brevity but also quite possibly because I veer dangerously close to pomposity.) Anyhoo…

10) What do designing video games and designing online reputation have in common? How do they differ?

Well, I'll say right up front that I've never worked on an incentive or reputation system for a game, so my answer will draw from a limited frame of reference. But I think it's evident that software has a lot to learn from the gaming world, and there are plenty of people excited about the prospect of that and talking about potential applications of game-like incentive systems. Amy Jo Kim has a wonderful presentation that she did at Etech a couple years back on that.

What's maybe talked about a little bit less, but is just as evident, is that there's an influence running in the opposite direction as well: the video gaming world is becoming much more social, and learning quite a bit from the Web 2.0 crowd in the process. I've had conversations with my friend Colm about this. (Colm Nelson was the lead UI Designer for Halo 3, and worked on expanding the system's social, party— and matchmaking elements.) It sounds ironic to say that "GAMES are learning social from the 'Net" (I mean, what could be more social than play?) but if you think about the historical arc of video gaming, it's only… oh, within the past 5 years, and the success of Xbox Live, and now online networks from Sony & Nintendo, that gaming is starting to become a much more social and less isolated experience.

I'm wildly generalizing here—computer-based games, MMORPGS, etc have had persistent community elements from the beginning. (In fact, a chief contributor to the Yahoo! patterns was Randy Farmer, who made his early reputation in online communities with Lucasfilm's Habitat and has worked on dozens of games, easily.) But, in general, with games of all stripes, we're kind of expecting now to use the game as a social meeting place. A means to bring our friends together, share a common experience over shared artifacts. Even in first-person shooters like Halo.

It's a very different experience than 10 years ago… you might've had that same experience in a LAN party, but that would require people to actually meet face-to-face. So now, in online gaming, reputation and social elements have become very important. As your circle of potential play-mates grows wider, so too does your need to evaluate those folks, remember them, find them again and communicate with them. You could do all of this in Friendster or MySpace years ago, and the video game services are catching up nicely.

So that's how both sides are similar. How do they differ? One significant difference, I think, is that… in gaming, it's probably easier to assume some common frame of reference between all participants. So, regardless of our specific individual motivations for coming to a game—perhaps you're there mostly to hang out, have fun and learn the game, while I've come to hone my techniques and stomp some N00bs. But, at some level, we're both there to compete or at least we acknowledge that what we're engaged in is a contest. So we're not at all astonished to see indicators to that effect. We're okay with seeing points assigned to our performance after a round: in fact we expect it.

This is not at all the case with reputation systems for online communities. I don't think we can fully anticipate all of the motivators that might bring someone to a… recipe site, for instance. Why would someone become an active recipe contributor? How would they want to be acknowledged for that contribution? Would earning a status indicator or a badge actually help motivate them? Or would it be seen as an insult—something that demeans and devalues their contribution? We've actually heard this in our research—some folks have a gut-level, instinctual aversion to 'earning points' or badges. It makes otherwise-fun online activities feel like school, or like they're being graded. I don't think you have this problem so much in games: the norms are more established, the expectations are set and all comers realize that being judged, graded and compared is… just part of the game.

Welcome, Bokardo Readers!

2008-06-25T17:54:16Z

Hi! It's entirely possible that you've followed a link over here from my recent interview with Josh Porter on bokardo.com (Pt 1 and Pt 2 of the interview.) If so—welcome aboard!

This blog is sort of a grab-bag of irrelevancy, thought-wanders and juvenalia (oh, and horribly organized—did I mention that?) But you might find some satisfaction with the following links:

Enjoy, please comment freely, and thanks for visiting.

Update, June 26: I've also posted a question and answer that didn't make the cut for the original interview.

More Bone

2008-06-19T17:29:03Z

A couple weeks back, I blogged about the Jeff Smith exhibit here in Columbus at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Well, I just got a notice from Amazon that the exhibition catalog, Bone and Beyond, is now available for purchase! (Well, pre-order at this writing.) I picked up a copy when I went over there and it is a georgeous, lovingly-produced hardbound volume. If you're a Jeff Smith fan, I'd say it's a must-have.

Update, later that day: my friend, and Wexarts webmaster, Rob Duffy reminds me that the book and a buncha other really cool Bone merch! is also available direct from them. (Someone buy me that adorable Fone Bone plush!)

Open, to Some

2008-06-18T19:07:50Z

Over on the YDN blog, our (brand spankin' new!) Open Standards Evangelist Eran has announced something cool. It's the First OAuth Summit and it's coming up quick.

This is a great event, tho' I'm a bit frustrated at the super-short lead time. Posted on June 13, announced on June 16 & held on June 26 = 10 day window. Hardly enough time for folks outside the Bay Area to: learn about the event; make plans/get permission to attend; and (forget about even tryin' to) get a decent advance rate on airfare. I'm just sayin' … this is how initiatives like OAuth get a bum rap as insular, Valley-only standards.

Hell, I work for Yahoo! (and it's no big secret that we're investing in Oauth.) We're hosting the event and I still won't be able to attend. 10 days' notice is fine when all you have to do is re-arrange a few meetings and hop down 101 from the Sunnyvale campus. But when you telecommute from Columbus? Um... what's that word I'm thinking of... 4 letters, starts with F— ... oh yeah: FAIL!

And… to make this somewhat less of a boo-hoo-Bryce session: a couple weeks back, I asked a local (Columbus) developer's list "Is anyone aware of OAuth? Any plans to implement it soon?" I'd specifically directed the question at devs in the finance sector, who I knew populated this particular list. (For those who aren't aware of it, Columbus is a big banking and insurance market. JPMorganChase, Nationwide Insurance and many others all do product development out of Columbus.) The scant response I got could generally be summarized as "heard of it… aware of it… no intentions to move to it." (My question was prompted by a tweet from Chris Messina that I thought was spot-on.)

Now, wouldn't a truly open OAuth Summit, with a decent amount of lead time (say… a month? 6 weeks? Could we do it in the Fall?) and… (gasp!) a travel-friendly location (I'm thinking Chicago, hell I'd take Denver) do a real service to the movement at this point? It could just be my perception, but I think that folks in the Valley are kinda, sorta hip to this whole OAuth thing. At least aware of it, if not actively working to jump onboard.

As Mr. Messina points out, OAuth will become truly helpful only when providers at both endpoints play along. And there a whole, whole lotta progressive, cool Bay Area Companies that will still need to rely on a lot of staid, conservative (but very smart and eager) service providers in places like Columbus to really make OAuth worth our collective while.

So, Eran and Yahoo! … Good on ya. 'A' for effort… 'B' for openness. And 'F' for advance notice.

Patterns of Reputation Representation

2008-06-05T22:53:52Z

It is with a certain sense of pride that I watch as fellow Yahoo Christian Crumlish announces the arrival of a number of Reputation Patterns to the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library. If you've seen me speak in recent months (or followed the ol' blog) then these should be familiar territory: they represent a year or so of my work on an (internal to Yahoo!) Reputation Platform.

On the surface, they are fairly simple (by intent.) Game-like elements and incentive systems are much on-the-mind of social software designers these days. These patterns should provide some guidance to the IA, Designer, or Product Manager who's just now considering how best to wield these implements.

My own personal feeling, however, is that we're rapidly passing the point where the newness and novelty of these patterns is what's noteworthy. ("Hey look! Points!!") Soon, (now?) the care and respect with which we employ these patterns is what will be worth noting. A careful consideration of the context that we deploy them in; an honest and earnest attempt to build communities worth inhabiting (and not just ratcheting up peoples' competitive desires to dominate the leaderboard.) These are the challenges we face when considering how best to reward users' participation in the communities we build.

I would love it if these published patterns were a simple starting point for that conversation. (Though—to be fair—it's already taking place.)

I especially want to honor the contributions of a couple of folks to these patterns: Randy Farmer was Yahoo's Community Strategy Analyst during the months that we collaborated on User Experience best practices for reputation, and his imprint on these patterns is indelible. There's a certain approach to social software design embodied in these patterns that is entirely Randy's influence.

And Yvonne French was the Product Manager for the Reputation Platform. Yvonne worked closely with a number of Yahoo! properties and stakeholders to ensure that thoughtful, considered approach I mention above. She is a walking canon (and a loaded cannon!) of reputation best practices.

I'm really excited to get these out there, and we (Christian and I) hope to add a couple more to the mix in coming months. So… please do enjoy!

My boy is growing up

2008-05-27T04:53:30Z

Picnic-ing With the Picnic King, originally uploaded by soldierant.

Sniff. I just posted up some photos and a horribly grainy phone-video on Flickr. Go enjoy.

Reputation Conference

2008-05-13T19:06:50Z

Friend and fellow Yahoo Yvonne French forwarded this along to me recently. It's the first annual International Conference On Reputation scheduled for March of next year, and the topic list looks quite good. Hm... Tuscany in March, anyone?

Jeff Smith at the Wex

2008-05-06T11:48:59Z

I'm making tentative plans with friends to go see the Jeff Smith exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts on Saturday (timed to both take in the exhibit and also catch Jeff's conversation with Scott McCloud.) Smith is, of course, a Columbus native. His studio's right in my neighborhood, in fact. Though I'm not sure if he lives down here as well.

I'm playing a bit of catch-up before Saturday, because—I have to admit it—I've only recently caught the Bone bug. Of course, I've been aware of the title: its presence looms large in any indy-friendly comics shop you might walk into. Especially any good comics shop in central Ohio. But something, until now, has just always kept me from reaching for it and diving in. I'm not sure what.

I think it's the design of the Bone family themselves—that kind-of "schmoo-ish" look has always subconsciously said 'for kids!' to me. Of course, now I see the world through Edison's eyes and that's no longer a label that scares me off. And I don't know what the hell I was thinking, anyway!

I picked up trades #1 & 2 the other night at The Book Loft (on one of our weeknight neighborhood jaunts with the Boy) and they're wonderful so far. Gorgeous artwork, and obviously an appeal that extends far beyond 'just kids.' My friend Rob tells me that they're selling the One Volume Edition at the exhibition (which, at $40, is a steal.) So I'm gonna plow through the first couple of trades, then gift them to someone, and hopefully pass the bug along.

Update 5/13: I did indeed attend the talk on Saturday—it was fantastic—and, even better, my go-to comics-blogger-of-choice, J. Caleb Mozzocco, was there as well. Check out Caleb's take on the discussion and his impressions of the related exhibits as well. (Oh—and, the exhibits run until August, so you really do owe it to yourself to check 'em out in person, as well.)

Silence

2008-05-01T18:28:44Z

He doesn't post as often as I'd like (I know, I know—pot kettle black) but when he does, boy does John Tolva have a way with a phrase:

Living in a house with three small children, I ponder silence as an abstraction, without empirical evidence. If nature abhors a vacuum, children abhor noiselessness. It’s instinctual, the reptile cortex responding to a threat of nothingness. Clear a space of quiet in my home and some child will yelp for no good reason. Like dangling meat in front of an animal that’s just eaten. It’ll still lunge.

Read more Enjoy the silence and, well... enjoy!

Ben Fry Redesign

2008-04-22T05:54:21Z

Geez what rock have I been hiding out under for the last month or so... my ol' chum Ben has a spiffy new site design (courtesy Eugene Kuo.) I like it.

And Ben is finally blogging! (And has, therefore, retroactively—4 years after the fact!—made a non-liar out of Andrei Herasimchuk.)

Facebook Pulls Their Thumbs

2008-04-18T21:36:12Z

Coming out of the IA Summit this year, and following thought-trails down twitter-paths, new friends' blogs etc. It's obvious that design patterns were a huge topic at the Summit. Social design patterns, possibly even more so. Also heard (and stated myself) a couple different times: sharing anti-patterns may be even more critical right now than collecting and cataloguing all the possibilities.

My own talk featured a handful of reputation patterns (coming soon to the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library—I promise!) But, if you were listening closely, you probably picked up on a theme. The patterns themselves (Points, Levels, Trophies, Badges, etc) have incredible potential to do harm to your community dynamic. So, taken another way, these patterns can also stand as effective cautionary anti-patterns.

Anyhoo… all of this made me vow (to myself, and now to you) to try and share more after-the-fact analysis, dissection and anti-pattern identification of social media trends. Have you ever noticed how good our industry is at noticing (and praising, and downright trumpeting) “the new” in social media? New product launches get extensive TechCrunch coverage. New Facebook features put the analysts in overdrive. But what about the quiet re-jiggerings? Or outright feature failures?

This, for example, was passed around at work recently. Inside Facebook has noted that FB recently pulled the thumbs-up/thumbs-down voting mechanisms from the News Feed interface. IF notes:

While Facebook has always allowed more general Facebook preferences (like More About These Friends/Less About These Friends), this feedback was much more granular and potentially powerful.

And also:

It's too bad Facebook wasn’t able to get more value out of the explicit preference data users were generating. For now, Facebook will need to rely on more implicit data.

I think potentially powerful is the key phrase here. What follows is a somewhat-cleaned-up version of my take on the removal.

(It's worth noting, too, that I spent a certain amount of time last year trying to document and rationalize a series of 'Best Practices' for Voting & Rating mechanisms at Yahoo! Thumb-ratings as inputs to recommender systems is a design problem that I've thought a lot about, and that thinking informs this response.)

I hadn't noticed the removal of the thumbs from FB News Feed until the Inside Facebook article appeared. I strongly suspect that they were removed for one specific reason: underwhelming performance. They were using thumbs up/down in the manner closest to what we prescribe (as explicit input into a recommender system) but even then the value proposition has to be clear for users, and it's got to be apparent that the value you'll get out will, at some point, justify the work you're putting in. I bet no-one was using them.

Or at least not in the manner that FB expected. As evidence, I offer up the comments on the Inside Facebook article: the only people bemoaning the loss of the feature seem to be doing so on the grounds that it was useful as a place-keeping feature—delineating read from unread entries. (Beware ambiguous inputs!)

Users probably didn't entirely know that the thumbs were feeding personalized recommendations. It could also be related to this (from those afore-mentioned Ratings Best Practices):

What type of items are rateable?
Items that should be rateable by the community share some common traits. Here are some of them:
Rateable items should have some intrinsic value.
We should never ask users to provide meta-data (basically 'add value') to an item who's own apparent value is low. Or, more specifically, we should be careful to only ask for user participation in a way that acknowledges an item's intrinsic value: it might be okay to ask someone to give a Thumbs-up rating to someone else's blog-comment (because the 'cost' in doing so is low—basically, a click) but it would be inappropriate to ask for a full-blown review of the comment. There would be more effort and thought involved in writing the review than there was in the initial comment!
Rateable items should persist for some length of time.
Rateable items must remain in the 'community pool' long enough for all members of the community to cast their vote. There's also little use in asking for a bunch of meta-data for an item if others cannot come along afterward and enjoy the benefit of that meta-data.

Highly ephemeral items, such as News articles that disappear after 48 or 72 hours, probably aren't good candidates for rating. Items with a great deal of persistence (on the extreme end are real-world establishments such as restaurants or businesses) make excellent candidates for ratability—furthermore, the type of ratings we can ask may be more involved. Because these establishments will persist, we can be reasonably sure that others will always come along afterward and benefit from the work that the community has put into the item.

Unless FB users understand the longer-term benefits to rating News Feed events (ie. that they're training the system) then they may just look at those thumbs as a long, undifferentiated (and endless!) stream of tiny rateable 'things.' Unfortunately, any one of those things probably doesn't have either of the qualities I describe above: most of them have very low perceived value (“Tom left a comment on Jody's wall!” practically has no enduring value beyond the time it takes to read and digest the information.); and—almost by definition—the items don't persist for any appreciable amount of time. They're highly ephemeral.

Juxtapose this with Tivo (which is kind of the canonical example) where thumbs are used to rate TV shows for recommendation purposes. The programs being rated have high value (ie, they cost money to produce; we get entertainment value out of them) and they're highly persistent. (They'll recur at the same time next week, and in reruns, and in syndication, etc etc. For all intents and purposes, tv episodes are immortal.) And Tivo's whole user experience (including user-education movies that ship w/the unit, their printed manual, heck the dang remote has 'em hard-coded on there) are oriented around the Thumbs up and down-voting. I'd venture that thumb-voting, and the recommender system are a huge part of why many people buy Tivo in the first place. (Okay, that plus 'pause live TV.')

When it comes to explicitly-input recommender-systems we should acknowledge the limitations of folks' interest in 'feeding the machine.' If they understand the benefit… and they think that the work they'll put in will at some point be worth something to them, then folks will play along. Unfortunately, there's a much easier strategy for 'tuning out' facebook updates that I don't like: I just start to ignore the facebook feed altogether.

Skull Job

2008-04-18T17:49:44Z

Prepare yourself for the new Indiana Jones movie, and read up a bit on the Legend of the Crystal Skulls. (Found via The Daily Grail.)