Where you sit defines what you know
I recently moved my desk from a plum spot near the windows with lots of natural light to the other side of the newsroom. I did this for a couple of reasons, but first, let me explain why I sit in the newsroom with the devs, designers, and editors instead of in an office. When I sit an office I feel isolated and it becomes a big ceremony for someone to chat with me. Since communication is the number one problem in any organization, obstacles to communication are serious threats to success. That's why at Silicon Valley tech companies the top brass usually sits in cubicles with the coders and not in stuffy offices. I moved my desk because I found this communication strategy was working but only with the five people I could easily talk to without standing up. The HuffPost newsroom is big and I wasn't getting to know the folks on the other side of the room. I also moved my desk because desks near the windows are coveted. I was taking up a space that looked a lot like executive privilege. Now there is nothing wrong with executive privilege but it has no place on a healthy technology team. I try to check my privilege at the door when I enter our building.
I'm glad I moved because just sitting next to people creates opportunities to really get to know them and eventually help them remove problems from their task lists (which is really all a good CTO does). It reminds me of T-Mobile's discontinued Fav 5 feature: Unlimited access to five people without friction (like having to find them in your address book or pay for the calls). This is one of the reasons why I'm really fascinated by the new Facebook Home phone. It puts your best friends up front and center in form of "chat heads" that hang around while you're busying using the the phone. This only works if all of your Fav 5 friends are on Facebook. A co-worker casually announced that he is think again about canceling his Facebook account. If he does, then he's going to miss the next step in the mobile-social-Internet revolution that has been shaking up our lives for the last 20 years.
At the start of this computer driven-communications revolution we sat in one place, with one computer, with one screen, with one connection to "the web."
That was cool but as the computer and network has evolved our thinking has not kept up with the rate of technical change and opportunities. This might be obvious but if we could see the obvious then foresight as well as hindsight would be 20/20. We need an ELI5 on this topic and this blog post is my attempt to make it all make sense.
Computers are small and cheap enough that having several is not only mainstream but required to be successful. Instead of one device, we're walking around with three or more and each has their own screen and their own Internet connection. Second screen content consumption has already mutated into third and fourth screen behaviors. Watching TV while texting on a phone, looking up backstories on an iPad, and wearing a personal fitness tracker means I've got four streams of connectivity going on (and one of the screens is just a row of LED lights). These devices are not replacing each other (in the way that a Mac replaces a PC); they are additive and simultaneous. Now imagine I'm using Facebook (or Apple or Google or Microsoft) technology on all these devices at the same time to watch video, text, browse, and record my vital signs. It's a big-data-cloud-computing-responsive-design mega party!
Illidan Stormrage, lord of World of Warcraft's Outland, was famous for saying "You are not prepared!"
With Facebook Home, Facebook is getting prepared but most of us -- consumers, content creators, and technology peddlers alike -- are stuck in the one device, one connection, one location paradigm. We techies talk a lot about mobile first and responsive design but we act like mobile phones are just tiny computers that will replace the big ones. As consumers we worry about privacy and interruptions but we passively give away more PII then restrictive social networking settings can ever control. I'm always amazed at people who will block cookies or use incognito mode without thinking about Google Chrome's warning: "Going incognito doesn't affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software." Your browser history might be clean but the sysadmin at your ISP knows where you been.
To get ready tech companies like Facebook are not building apps or websites but integrating their features and services into the operating system -- this is what Apple's iOS and Google's Android are all about. Smart content creators are creating universal content that can fit any screen and any device like a glove -- the HuffPost article is quickly becoming a living thing that adapts itself to its environment -- be that a web browser or iPad app. Kids, as usual, are way ahead of this curve using all and every device available to them without regard to privacy, FFC regulations, or a parental unit's feelings.
The little red circle with a number in it has become a synonym for "somebody loves me."
The one problem we have yet to conquer is the constant stream of interruptions. We've grown to depend on the notification like junkies depending on a fix and savvy tech dealers know this. Spotify, my favorite music service, now comes with notifications and followers (Frequently I interrupt my music listening to see who is following me or who has updated a playlist). When I write or code, I have to use Apple's full screen mode to hide the menu bar and the dock. And I keep my iPad set to Do Not Disturb. And yet that is not what I want as a user. I want the critical messages to get through without having to set-up exceptions and hide all my toys. If the house is on fire or North Korea does something naughty, I want to know about it.
As a content creator I need to not just adapt to the user's device I need to succeed in it. I need to figure out how to interrupt the user at the right time of day, in the right locations, and on the right device with the right message. Users don't want breaking news stories while they are driving but they want them when they get out of the car and can glance at the phone with out crashing. Users don't want the same notification on their phone, pad, and TV simultaneously. Right now, Google calendar reminds users of the same meeting on all their devices at the same time. Instead, users want the notification where they are most focused or where it is most appropriate. (And don't remind me of a meeting on my day off or one in NYC when I am in Dulles, Va.)
Most importantly the interruption should be in a format that makes sense for the context. If I'm driving, it should be audio and if I'm sitting in a meeting it should be silent. I want it to be optimized for a small screen on a small screen and for a large screen on a large screen. It should load fast and go away fast but not before I've digested it and decided if I need to dismiss it forever, for a little while, or I have to deal with it right now. The iPhone's ability to answer a call, decline it, reply with text, or set a reminder to call back is a model for interruption management. I just need it for every other type of communication because nobody voice calls in the 21st century!
I hope that Facebook allows us to transform ordinary Google and Apple phones into Facebook Home phones. Or, more likely, that Google and Apple start copying Facebook madly. This way I won't have to keep moving my desk around to really get to know people.