.open reflections
Last year we started something we called .open which is an initiative to open up the discussion and bring forward the topics that we deal with regarding contact management and communication, to innovate better together.
Per Linde, professor from MEDEA, Malmö University and involved in the project did some reflections from our first session back in October. Here’s a translation of the text, which we think is useful, for a continuation of the project, and for others interested in the topics.
The form (of the .open discussion)
The form was pretty open, even though we’d prepared a more detailed session with specific questions and discussion topics, but a general discussion it turned out very well. It was a small group, all together nine people, where everyone knew about ambadoo beforehand and also knew each other. That created a common ground for an open discussion where the questions were listed but just kept flowing and this I see as an ideal situation. A conclusion is that 10 people or less is well suited for this kind of session.
Sending the questions to the group before the session I believe was a good idea. Often workshops like this tend to focus just on the very session and we miss incubation times and mental post reflections. Even before the meeting there was feedback entered to the EtherPad document that was set up.
Using EtherPad gives the possibility to engage bother before and after the session, moreover to take part of the discussion from a distance. Having one person acting as a moderator works very well and makes it possible for everyone to keep track on the discussion.
The character of the attendees, of both knowing each other, social media and mobile application, does of course matter, but was very constructive in this phase of a wider, more conceptual communication. We must however widen the character of the attendee.
The discussion ended up being more focused on communication as a phenomena, the usage of different platforms and social media than about user experience and functionality of an address book. Even that is well motivated and I believe that while the application is develop the sessions will be focusing differently, both of very concrete questions as well as on more abstract and general ones. It was good not to mix the two kinds of discussions.
To discuss more abstractly is also a way to address the more transformative aspects of the service, i.e. not just to do “something a little better” but to discuss in a wider perspective in relation to other services. One could also to focus on more specific questions like integrity and privacy (something which seems very important even though it wasn’t raised in this session)
The content
The discussion went forth and back between the different questions, but here they are categorized:
What contact management system are you using today?
As expected there was a wide variety of address books on the phones and e-mail clients that are synced to different social media like Facebook, linkedin, twitter and yammer and other platforms such as google contacts and hitta.se. Also as expected was how different people focused differently in this flora of systems but common for everyone was the fragmentation, which often is experienced as an issue.
To be able to sync different contact management systems appears to be a very heavy argument for the development of an address book. An implication of that people use different systems is that it’s impossible to know which are relevant, and that it should be possible for one self to configure it.
In the diversity of systems it still seemed that the mobile device is central for everyone. It has a special closeness, since it is the device that you bring with you everywhere. Similarly most attendees expressed that the phone number was the ‘grain of gold’ of the contact information.
In this context, the discussion of the relaxation between private and professional was brought to the table, which is also the characteristics of social media in general. It is definitely a question that are in change and many people don’t have a problem with it, but both views does exist.
A somewhat more special perspective is the one of developing multiple identities beyond private/professional since some people are sitting on many chairs. An implication of this could be the possibility of working with different layers in the address book to bring an enhanced experience.
Some feedback was also regarding how the address book and the calendar does relate and to know what people are up to. So there seems to be a relation between contact management systems and the planning of activities, but also more generally in relation to social media.
As a parenthesis, that wasn’t discussed, I think it’s interesting with situations that connect identity with location (who is where at a given moment) and how that could be implemented without being breaking the privacy.
What’s the worst thing with your current contact management system?
As a consequence of the situation, fragmentation was an issue and most attendees expressed a wish that “everything should be in one place”. The time for input, for example when registering is experienced as substantial. Someone mentioned clouds and the usage of tags but even that does require constant updates to keep accurate.
Another, and a given, regarding updates is how address books after a while lose relevance, in that the information within changes. That is the core idea of ambadoo, and for that idea there seems to be a major support.
But the address book does also lose relevance in another way. As they grow, the contacts that are peripheral and are rarely used, more anonymous. You can’t connect a post in the address book with a real face and person. This points to the possibility with rich media, primarily with photos, in combination of the address book. It’s not a new function, but relatively sparsely used.
An interesting discussion was how the address book is insensitive for context, time and situations. There is for example few possibilities to adjust how you want to be reach in different situations. As in a meeting when you most certainly don’t want to be reached, with an exception of a few. Some expressed also that it was expected to start a conversation with ‘am I interrupting or do you have time to talk?’
A common problem that arose was how the address book also was incomplete. What can be seen as complete is obviously an open question, and it seemed even more important to be able to decide what information was relevant about you. The was everything from ‘I give out all my details’ to decide what to share.
In this context and that of social media one problem is that your forget where you’ve signed up and are active or not. Someone noted that “it’d be interesting to signal on which channel one is most active and responsive”.
How does a dream contact management look like?
As the notes point out above the self-updating (of others contact details), the configurable (of your own contact details) and the synchronization of all the different communication channels are among the most crucial. This is the core of ambadoo and as it seems, there is a wide support for those ideas.
Something relevant to the discussion was the idea of “association”, to be able to check out contacts contacts. Being able to do relationship searches, i.e. searches within your network that you not yet have, seems interesting but is of course a subject of privacy. There was also testimonies of the power to control ones searchable profile.
In addition to that, is also the wish for contextualization and the use of other media. We discussed the thrive to engage in the curation of contact details, and motifs were; being able to be reached, and to have relevant info at hand.
It seems obvious and was also mention that ‘the more you can personalize, the more fun it is’ and ‘being able to build up loyalty towards the system’. Very interesting aspects that we could deep further into.
It seems that discussing nightmare situations also feed the dream scenarios. Therefore I end the notes with these interesting comments from the session.
“I hate the answering machine, but there’s no good alternative”
“Temporary numbers (so one could always reach me, but not own my contact details)”
“Never use Eniro (yellow pages) since it lacks relevance (companies buying themselves a good position)”
“I’m getting nervous when I think about that I only have one number”
“Yammer puts the responsibility in the reader (to decide when you’re a receiver)”
“Being able to call ‘family johnson’ is good since you ‘almost reach the one you’re looking for”
“to curate your different identities is a part of human activity”
At ambadoo we think this is a really good beginning of this form of collaboration and discussion forum. The question is how to continue it and make the discussion even more vivid, irl as well as online. Please come with comments and thoughts, we’re open for all ideas.