Hampus Jakobsson presented a fantastic talk at this year’s MEX conference about the “wild west” gold rush mentality surrounding mobile app stores. Hampus warned most players in the mobile space are merely mimicking Apple’s model, leaving many user experience challenges that hinder the app store experience unaddressed. This talk inspired a host of great discussions about many of the fundamental user experience issues that plague app stores and ways to improve the process through design.

However, Hampus’ talk brought focus to a question that’s been lingering on my mind for a while now. As the once innovative app store strategy quickly becomes “hygiene” for many in mobile, I can’t help but wonder if all this fast follower behavior is an incremental step to something much bigger.

What if the real problem with app stores doesn’t stem from Apple’s ridiculous application approval process, scalability problems, or mediocre social recommendation functionality? What if the real problem with app stores is what they are selling?

What if the real problem is the notion of applications on mobile phones?

Applications as a means for both expressing and manipulating information in a mobile context is an interaction model we’ve borrowed wholesale from the PC. While application stores have solved many issues – ease in application development, downloading applications to a device, payment – it’s easy to forget the application model was originally developed for a fundamentally different context. A static context.

What if we haven’t figured out how to accurately express information in a mobile context and we are simply borrowing the wrong model?

I’ve been thinking a lot these days about the notion expression – how artists, engineers and designers have used creative models and methods to express information, points of view, and the possibilities of their time – and moments when breakthroughs around creative expression have occurred.

The web is a great example of inventing new models and methods to express information.

Back in the days of “Web 1.0″ the internet was a vast and unexplored frontier, ripe with untapped potential. While the internet provided an entirely new way for people to access, distribute, and experience information, in 1996 nobody really knew how to create “web experiences” that unlocked that potential.

Legions of print designers applied their knowledge of graphic design and print design to the Internet, giving rise to the phenomenon of brochureware. Some designers applied immersive spatial metaphors to the web, like the famed SouthWest Airlines homepage circa 1996. And who can forget those web sites where pages had the look and feel of pages from a book. Regardless of the model, the strategy was similar; borrowing. We first borrowed models we understood, found our footing and were then able to invent new and more sophisticated ways to express information in a this new context of the web.

Art movements have followed a similar arc. A favorite example was the transition between Medieval and Renaissance Art.

A defining characteristic of Medieval art was it’s lack of dimensionality. Artisans from the Middle Ages hadn’t figured out how to represent form in perspective. Subsequently the work was highly symbolic and representational. It remains valuable and interesting work. However, from an art-making perspective, Medieval art is a study in abstraction. Artisans from the Medieval period lacked the art making methods to represent form in the way humans visually perceive it.

In contrast, Renaissance art celebrated the discovery of perspective techniques such as foreshortening,chiaroscuro and the use of balance and proportion in the art-making process. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael became masters of depicting form in a way that closely mirrored how humans perceive it. Humans were always able to perceive volume and spatial relationships, but it wasn’t until artists of the Renaissance discovered and honed perspective techniques that artwork reflected these qualities.

Data is similar to physical form in that it has perspective. We think about it along lines of place, time, and social dimensions… yet mobile applications rarely allow us to truly experience the multi-dimensional aspects of information. Instead, similar to Medieval art, mobile applications flatten data. Users are forced to either burrow deeply into single application or pogo stick across a host of lightweight applications, often with no through lines for the data. As we begin to prism data through more and more devices – televisions, car dashboards, screens in public spaces – the application model becomes brittle. It locks us into a way of thinking about information that doesn’t accurately represent the multi-dimensional ways we perceive and use it.

What if the app stores and “wild west” application development we’re seeing today in the mobile space is a re-enactment of the evolution of the web? What if mobile applications we download through Apple’s app store are the “brochureware” of what we will experience five years from now? What if applications are a borrowed and broken model we’ll ride out until the “perspective techniques” of data representation and manipulation in a mobile context are discovered and celebrated.

If applications go away, what will replace them? Compelling data visualizations? Adaptive interfaces? I’m not sure, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts…

Entering contact information into a mobile device is not a trivial task. Phones are *not* optimized for text input, making this important task an awkward and time-consuming interaction for even the most proficient user.

Our research in rural India for ourMobile Literacy project identified the task of entering and saving a contact information as the single most challenging tasks for non-literate users to perform. Yet it was a task identified as one of the most beneficial aspects of owing a mobile device. More than a means to easily contact family and friends, we identified that for rural Indians, a contact list in a mobile device was essential to skillfully overcoming infrastructure challenges.

Rural India is a region of the world with limited infrastructure. Dirt roads and limited access to transportation makes travel slow, access to electricity is limited, and the most common way to distribute information is through word of mouth. People rely on their family and social networks for more than emotional support: people are the infrastructure.

Information in rural India isn’t centralized through census information, medical and health records, or a regional phone book. Therefore, the contact lists on mobile phones become an extremely valuable mechanism for creating ad hoc networks that enable information sharing. For example, several research participants recorded the blood type of the contacts stored in their phone’s address book. These users were able to act on this information when medical emergencies occurred in their village. They could quickly identify possible donors for blood transfusions and alert their network of the need — all through a simple piece of information stored in a mobile device.

In rural India, contacts stored on a mobile phone are more than a set of people users can call, it is a primary mechanism for overcoming infrastructure challenges. Solving the “save a contact” problem for non-literate users became a primary focus for our project.

MobilGlyph: Making Data Tangible from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Making Data Tangible
Both primary and secondary information provided inspiration for solutions to the text entry problem. Our team began to gravitate to the notion of “physicalizing” data and the way that humans give abstract concepts a physical form to aid in cognition. Tokens and money are great examples. Money is an abstract concept made tangible by coins and notes. Weights used on markets scales are another way people make abstract numeric information concrete. Instead of a number, the physical representation of a weight serves proxy for communicating value and weight.

We then began to explore creative ways to make text and numeric information physical. Our question became: How might we make a physical representation of person’s name and phone number?

During our ideation sessions we tossed around a lot of ideas about tokens. When we looked across the mobile landscape, we realized QR codes and the QR code reader applications on many phones would be a viable solution for our text entry problem.

Initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context throughout the world for both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR Codes can store text, contact information, images, video clips, and even games. These codes frequently appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or and on products in stores. Instead of slowly entering information into a mobile device through the keypad, users simply take a photo of the QR code. Information embedded in the code can be seamlessly transferred to a device.

QR codes could hold an image, name and numeric information. Instead of text and numbers or abstract icons, images embedded in the QR code could serve as the primary mechanism for the UI. From a system perspective, we envisioned village mobile phone stores as a hub for this activity. With minimal investment, store owners could create cards for customers as a service and become a hub for information sharing. Most importantly, the MobilGlyph system would make data tangible — making it easier for literate and non-literate users to enter and save contact information into their mobile phone.

Over fifty percent of the world’s population resides in rural areas of developing countries. Adaptive Path’s Mobile Literacy project is a design and research project created to understand how mobile phone technology is being used by people in emerging markets. In August and September 2008, Adaptive Path sent two design researchers to the Kutch district in western India investigating the impact of mobile phones and mobile infrastructure on people in rural areas. We hope these design concepts, research findings, and design principles will inspire designers and technology manufacturers to create technology that meets the needs of these people. Below is one of the design concepts for a phone based on ourresearch findings.

Revealing Workarounds
While conducting research on mobile phone usage in India, Adaptive Path’s lead researcher and project advisor, Natasha Alani, identified that many non-literate research participants ignored the screen when using mobile phone. Instead of engaging with the UI on the screen, participants would engage with the physical interface of the phone. They would leverage their spatial memory and gestures by memorizing patterns (i.e., pressing a button three times, remembering the patterns of numbers) or ask for assistance in dialing a number from a family member. These workarounds underscore a key problem with mobile devices in emerging markets: the interface conventions used to guide people through mobile experiences are largely misunderstood by a large portion of the world’s population.

Our research uncovered even bare bone phones like the revered Nokia 1200 is often a dismal experience for non-literate users. The text driven interface provides little meaningful information to help guide users through the experience, leaving most lost in a labyrinth of menu options. Iconography should prove helpful, but effective iconography is an abstraction of a concept which holds shared meaning. What does an address book mean if your home doesn’t have an address and you are unable to recognize alpha-numeric organization? What does an icon of an envelope mean if you’ve never received a piece of mail? Many mobile phone features are built on models and concepts that people in rural India have never experienced; an abstract icon used to represent these concepts often compounds the problem instead of providing a solution.

Most mobile devices sold in rural India contain interfaces that have been optimized for Western users. Every interface is a little world full characteristics and conventions. Mastering that world can make people feel successful and create the opportunity to reap the benefits technology can offer. The research findings inspired me to reflect deeply on the world we’ve created inside mobile phones to try and understand why that world does not make sense for users in rural India.

Physical Interfaces Speak their Power
Our research uncovered a technology landscape dominated by trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, scales in the marketplace, calculators, televisions, DVDs, radios, and cameras. Physical interface elements like dials, exaggerated buttons and information gauges — elements that “speak their power” — were common to all these objects. Unlike mobile devices that have a subtle physical interfaces, strong physical interfaces often provide an intuitive sense of mechanical processes. Knobs and scroll wheels on a radio feel intuitive because there’s a clear correlation between the input mechanism and the mechanics of tuning a radio. The gesture of turning a radio dial as well as the visual and audio feedback reinforce the interaction. Interfaces such as these that draw analogies from the mechanical world while orchestrating physical interfaces with gesture, sound and sight give literate and non-literate users an intuitive sense of how an object works.

Additionally, most technology used in rural India separate controls from information. Users view the content of a DVD through a television screen, but control key aspects of the experience like volume, forward, and reverse through physical buttons on the television or DVD player. Gas and temperature gauges in a truck are separate from the ignition or steering wheel. Software on computers and mobile devices often conflate controls and information; single buttons and input mechanisms can invoke multiple features. This practice increases functionality, but can be the cause of profound usability problems for non-literate users.

Make phones look “hack-able”
There is a strong culture of reselling, re-purposing, cobbling, and repair throughout India and this is especially true in rural villages. It is common to see trucks and motorcycles in this region of the world filled beyond capacity. While vehicles are amongst the most prized possessions, people in rural India are willing to test the capacity because they know vehicles can be repaired. Trucks and motorcycles have built in affordances like a hood that easily opens or parts that are visible and easy to manipulate that reinforce the expectation and practice of repair.

An object’s rules of engagement are strongly influenced by aesthetics. Unlike the the visible working parts of a motorcycle or the visible bolts on the dashboard of a jeep used in rural India, the physical design of most mobile devices do not reflect the notion of repair or “hack-ability.” Mechanisms for “popping the hood” on mobile phones are subtle and most devices express a sleek and streamlined aesthetic that make them “feel” precious, discouraging experimentation and play. These seemingly subtle design choices have a powerful effect on usage. Creating phones that have a “hackable” aesthetic will build on and reinforce the existing mobile repair culture that is prevalent throughout India.

Reducing Feature Sets and Amplifying What’s Important
Our research uncovered the vast majority of the phone’s features are untouched by non-literate users. There is little obvious prioritization given to the phone’s bloated feature set, creating complexity and confusion. Sound is an important part of Indian culture, yet volume settings are hidden, and the speaker and microphone are minimized. Our research participants cited the following features and functionality as the most important for their phone:
- Calling
- Texting (using voice to text or with assistance)
- Music
- Camera*
- Microphone
- Speaker
- Airtime
- Battery Level

*While most research participants did not have mobile phones with cameras, this was cited as a desired feature.

Steampunk
Steampunk became the conceptual wrapper for the mobile device we envisioned. Steampunk enthusiasts create work that reflects the design and craftsmanship of the Victorian era. Similar to the exaggerated physical interface elements found on objects modded by Steampunk enthusiasts and artists, we designed a mobile device that celebrated physical interface elements like knobs that turn, scroll wheels, and exaggerated buttons.

Removing the aesthetic of “preciousness” was a key design goal for this phone. Most modern pieces of technology like computers, phones, and televisions convey a sleek aesthetic that does not invite tinkering and exploration. Steampunk aesthetics applied to modern objects like computers and electric guitars triggers a different emotional response. Similar to the exposed inner workings of a motorcycle, works of art created to reflect the Steampunk genre possess a look of craftsmanship and cobbling. It’s an aesthetic that invites the touch of the human hand and it encourages engagement and foster curiosity and play.

Taking cues from Steampunk’s “hack-able” aesthetic, we made the phone look like an object that can be opened and tinkered with by exaggerating seams and making the mechanisms to open the device obvious. Our research uncovered that vibrant sound is an important part of Indian culture and most phones designed for western markets minimize the microphone and speakers. We chose to emphasize these elements by giving them a larger portion of the phone’s physical real estate and borrowed aesthetics from stereo speakers to reinforce their importance. Gauges are commonly used to convey quantitative information on cars and motorcycles in rural India. We echoed these familiar interface elements to communicate battery level and airtime minutes.

Finally, we drastically reduced the feature set of the phone, allowing us to assign each function a single button. We borrowed “stop” and “start” buttons from stereos and placed them on the side of the device. Taking cues from a radio dial, our Steampunk phone contains a scroll wheel — creating a strong and intuitive relationship between the physical interface element, the gesture, and the UI inside the screen.

Mobile devices are one of the most accessible pieces of technology in the world today and the benefits of communication technology for people throughout the world is limitless. Empathic design is not about forcing conventions and models on users that feel foreign, it’s about empowering users with technology that feels appropriate and familiar. Designers and user experience professionals have a responsibility to avoid viewing illiteracy as a deficiency, but as an important design consideration for a large portion of the world. Will this device concept meet the needs of non-literate users in rural India? The devil is in the details of iteration and implementation and the inherent nature of R&D projects makes it nearly impossible to predict success. However, we hope this concept opens up an opportunity for conversation and dialogue about this important issue.

Photo Credits:
Calculator photo courtesy of pocketmonsterd
Truck dashboard photo courtesy of Coveman
Steampunk goggles courtesy of catlaine

Will we look back on the desktop experience of today in much the same way we reflect on computer punch cards of yore? If so, when will the desktop and mouse become irrelevant? How do people who want to explore the world of technology experiences that are free from the tethers of the keyboard and mouse begin?

These along with a host of other thought-provoking questions were among the topics of discussion, debate, and jest at last week’sBeyond the Desktop panel discussion. I was honored to be in the company of six brave and talented designers who are exploring the frontier beyond the desktop and thrilled to see such active interest in this topic by the San Francisco UX community.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes of the evening:

We’re still skeptics and I think that is an important perspective to have. I wouldn’t say the technology that we work with is better than anything out there right now, it’s just different. A lot of this is still a hammer looking for a nail. People come to us and say, “we want a multi-touch application.” and we say, “Why?” The challenge for us is developing an understanding for what this technology is well suited for. ~ Daren David

We use play in a lot of our design process. We find as we design stuff, we end up opening a box of things and emulate experiences on the table that way. That is one of the big things that has changed for us – our deliverables have gotten more physical and less visual. ~ Nathan Moody

The truth with all these emergent interactions and interfaces is that the conventions haven’t been established, so you don’t actually know how to work and you end up experimenting a lot more. ~ Noah Richardson

Prototyping used to be a luxury, but these types of emergent interactions, it is an important part of the design process. ~ Daren David

Often times the technology we’re designing for is still being developed. So there’s a lot of give and take and trying to understand what is possible… so we often have to attack from both ends. ~ Jennifer Bove

How do we go from bling to kaching? This is new and shiny right now, but five years from now when this become ubiquitous, what will be the meaningful experiences? And what will be the proper uses of these kinds of technology? ~ Daren David

It really comes down to experimentation. The recognition about a lot of this stuff and the reason I think a lot of people are here is that everybody recognizes and has this feeling that there is potential in this stuff, but we don’t really know what it is.
~ Jeevan Kalanithi

The common element all these interactions share is that they’re all more sociable. ~ Brett Fitzgerald

I have two Roombas in my house and they engage in gladiatorial combat. It’s awesome. I don’t feel like they’re gonna get hurt because they look like frisbees. ~ Nathan Moody

When your Roomba saves your life you won’t feel so cavalier about them. ~ Daren David

… there was a project that reminded us how different emergent interactions can actually open up different affordances and provide accessibility to people who haven’t had it. I have a two-year-old daughter and she instinctively knows how to use my iPhone. It’s frightening. And to see her walk up to the television and try to swipe it… you realize that some of the things being created by natural user interfaces really open things up…. I tend to be fairly optimistic with respect to technology and I think there is this notion of accessibility in a lot of the work that we are doing that we can take a fair amount of pride in. ~ Noah Richardson

I would advise people who want to start exploring interactions beyond the desktop to start by looking at the applications or experiences on the desktop they are currently designing and understanding that it is an instantiation of something that is probably broader. Start thinking about what happens when a user walks away from the computer. What are other the other opportunities? ~ Jennifer Bove

For those of you unable to attend the event, here’s a video of the 90 minute discussion:

Beyond the Desktop Panel Discussion from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Yesterday Google announced a test launch of SMS search in Nigeria and Ghana. According to a post via White African, Nigeria and Ghana are the first two African countries Google’s released this service. In places like Africa where the prevalence of mobile phones far outstrips access to the Internet via a PC, services like Google’s SMS search makes a lot of sense. It’s a great example of tailoring a service to user needs. Looking forward to hearing more about this as it gets released throughout the African continent…

I found this recent paper published by the Nokia Research Center (via Putting People First) an extremely interesting read. It echoes and builds on some thoughts I’ve been having recently about mobile user experience and interaction design. What has long excited and inspired me about mobile user experience is how it presents the opportunity to explore new ways for people to interact with information. The Nokia paper depicts a future where people and their mobile devices will be part of a self-organizing ecosystem of data. It’s exciting stuff, but the question remains for me… How do we begin to design for that future?

One mobile user experience trend I’ve been tracking is the slow erosion of a task-based interaction model. Most software, web sites and web-based products we use today have evolved around the task-based model, and it has served us well. PCs are great tools for efficiency and “getting stuff done”. Designers are well armed with a vast set of tools and processes that support this approach – use cases, task flows, task analysis – just to name a few.

The thing is… mobile isn’t a great platform for accomplishing tasks. The small screen and variability of the mobile context leaves most users feeling lost in a labyrinth of menus.

If PCs are great for getting stuff done, mobiles are good at exposing possibilities. More and more, I’ve been thinking that to create great mobile experiences, designers need to say goodbye to tasks, say goodbye to done… and explore new or different interaction models that leverage the things that mobile is good at. Exposing possibilities.

Here are three emergent interaction models that I think support the idea of exposing possibilities in the mobile context:
1. Accrue value over time
2. Facilitate exploration
3. Sense intent

Interactions that accrue value over time
This interaction model shifts the focus from task completion to surfacing information and making it easy for people to participate. A great example is Twitter. I’ve long heard folks who’ve never used Twitter ask, “What’s the point?” Compared to a similar experience that uses a more task-centric model like email, Twitter’s value is only revealed as users engage with the service over time. The value of the interaction is not around completing a task – typing a response to “what are you doing?” – but rather the conversation that can happen as a result.

Interactions that facilitate exploration
This is an interaction model that calls to mind two of my favorite iPhone apps – Koi Pond andBloom. These are open-ended interaction models that are easy to enter and exit. The interfaces usually have built-in affordances that inspire curiosity and play. They usually have some type of clear and immediate feedback, are visually rich and engaging, rely on animation to aid in cognition, and often orchestrate touch, gesture and sound into the experience. Pointless? Perhaps. However, there is something so completely intriguing and fun about these interfaces that is far more emotionally satisfying than clicking a send or buy button on a web site.

Interactions that sense intent
This interaction model is one I’ve been tracking for the last 18 months and is perhaps the most exciting of the three. This model uses information from sensors, use patterns, GPS data and algorithms to anticipate needs and deliver intuitive options that make sense in a particular context. Devices are already doing this today. Sensors and accelerometer data on the iPhone can sense the orientation of the device and adjust the interface and screen orientation accordingly. The mobile Google Maps application anticipates that users will want to use their current location and automatically integrates it into the interaction. This model seems to be less about enabling users to complete discreet tasks and more about sensing what users want and delivering intuitive options.

I doubt tasks will ever be banished from our mindset completely and they shouldn’t be. The task-based model has been a good friend that’s served us well. However, it feels like the only way we can realize the opportunities that mobile interaction design presents is to say adios to our old friend, “the task” for a while and focus on making some new friends.

2008 was truly a milestone year for mobile. In an industry that has long felt downtrodden by a multitude of technical and business constraints, wild and exciting inflection points burst like fireworks across the mobile landscape, bringing visibility to our industry and renewing our hopes.

One of the most notable shifts in 2008 was a new found enthusiasm around the topic of mobile user experience. What are the trends to watch in 2009? Here are three edges I think are worth tracking:

Sexy User Interfaces for All!
Most of us will agree that mobile user interfaces of the past were featured-laden, complex and off-putting for most users. They were lifeless, dull and failed to capture the hearts and imagination of users because they possessed no intuitive qualities. Design decisions were largely based on product design; user interface was an afterthought.

In 2008, we were introduced to glimpses of inspired mobile user interfaces on high-end devices that stood in stark contrast to their predecessors. Whether the cleverness ofparallax sliding on of the Android G1 UI, the whimsical transitions of the HTC Diamond, or the “gosh that’s cool” response to applications like Koi Pond and Urban Spoon, these interfaces introduced UI design that was clever, creative and intuitive.

2009 will be the year inspired mobile UI design goes mainstream. Customers at every price point will refuse to suffer the foolishness of the rational, lifeless mobile UIs from the past. They’ll see user interface design as important as the product design. Customers will demand to see live demos of phones in stores so they can interact with the devices. Creativity and invention in UI design will triumph over the logic and consistency of the past.

As a result, we will continue to see innovation in mobile UI design. We’ll be wowed by designers who push boundaries, question assumptions, and take creative risks. They will create evocative information visualizations, push the capabilities of touch screens and gestural UI in exciting and creative ways. 2009 will be remembered as the year mobile UI became intuitive, creative… and inspired.

The emergence of interfaces that anticipate intent
As much as folks in the mobile user experience field proselytize mobile devices are fundamentally different than PCs, we admittedly borrow metaphors, organizational models and design principles from the PC to create mobile experiences. Applications as an organizing principle, task-based design, search, browsers, web pages, GUI and WYSIWYG… all models, principles and metaphors borrowed from the PC legacy and applied to the mobile user experience with limited success. These pillars of design in the PC realm become brittle and broken in the mobile context because screens are too small, the mobile context too variable, and the cognitive load too great for people to fuss about with their phones. We inherently know mobile devices are different than PCs, but figuring out how to design for those differences proves a challenge. Too often we borrow from the PC instead of invent for mobile.

Mobile designers have long emphasized the importance of context in mobile user experience, and rightly so. It’s the easiest way to communicate the fundamental difference between designing for a PC and designing for a mobile device. However, as more folks from the user experience community engage with mobile, the less the utility this term serves because it’s simply overwhelming and difficult to grok. Mobile phones are used everywhere – in bedrooms, on the bus, while walking down the street – in the bathroom, even. The mobile context is vast and highly variable so advising people to design for it not terribly helpful. However, what context can help us understand is. Context can sometimes serve as a proxy to understand user intent. If we know where someone is, we can better understand what they might be trying to achieve. Context speaks to our desire to decrypt complexity in order to better understand user intent.

The brittleness of PC metaphors on mobile devices coupled with the concept of context speaks to an emergent and important trend on the horizon – smart and intuitive interfaces that predict user intent through an understanding of relationships.

Throughout 2008 I heard thought leaders within the user experience community hint at a future where interfaces possessed these qualities. Dennis Wixon, the user research manager for Microsoft’s Surface Table, spoke at UX Week about the rise of NUI (natural user interfaces) that leverage sensors, gesture and touch found on the iPhone and Surface Table. He predicted the next wave of UIs will be organic in nature, possessing fluid, extensive and anticipatory qualities. Dennis’ prediction was echoed by Leland Rechis, of Google, at the Informatics User Experience Conference in November. Leland spoke of Google’s work on relational mobile interfaces that break the world of data down into verbs and nouns. These mobile interfaces will use an understanding of relationships and context to predict information delivery and compile intuitive options based on that data.

In 2009, we’ll see begin to see glimpses of these types of predictive mobile systems. They’ll leverage sensors, algorithms, gesture and use patterns to decrypt context in order to predict our information needs – and hopefully not in a creepy, artificial intelligence kinda way. These mobile interfaces will be less about enabling users to complete discreet tasks and more about sensing what users want and delivering intuitive options. Content will not become the interface, predictive systems that understand our relationship to the world and can predict what we want will.

The Internet will begin to shape-shift
Finally, much of my work over the last four years has focused on improving the Internet experience on mobile devices. I’ve been pleased as punch to see mobile web usage skyrocket into the stratosphere in the last 18 months. Gone are the days when users were forced to endure crippled WAP sites and carrier decks. Devices released in 2008 made way for vast improvements in Internet access through both browsers and applications that utilize micro-formatted data from the web.

At a recent talk in Adelaide, Australia, Intel ethnographer Genevieve Bell proclaimed the Internet has gone feral. It’s certainly changing but I would actually describe what is going on with the Internet these days as shape-shifting. People throughout the world are accessing the Internet through devices other than a PC, and the web is shifting and re-forming in ways that accommodate those needs.

It’s difficult to predict the shape-shifting form the Internet will take, but one thing is certain; mobile will greatly influence the evolution of the Internet. The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released their third “future of the Internet” and predicts that mobile devices will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.

This evolution of the Internet will not be lead by handset manufacturers or carriers, despite declaring their intentions to focus on software and services. I doubt it will be lead by big Internet companies, either. Instead the people who will lead the shape-shifting of the Internet will be of the same type of people who built and grew the original Internet. In 2009, we’ll see a groundswell of ordinary people with a great idea open up SDKs and create modest little mobile web apps that revolutionize the world. Watch closely, ladies and gentlemen. Things are about to change in a very big way.

Neatoramma’s posted a fantastic family tree visualization that traces the lineage of most telecommunication companies.

Despite its size, this family tree chart is woefully incomplete and grossly oversimplified. Not shown are the various minor subsidiaries, independent local phone companies today and the hundreds of early phone companies that had gone out of business trying to compete with “Ma Bell.”

Since the very first telephone companies were founded, it seems that telecommunication companies never do business as just one entity when ten would do. Whatever the reason – be it compliance with local regulations, taking advantages of tax loopholes, obfuscation or simply fondness of complexity – subsidiaries and complex corporate structures are the raison d’être for these companies.

Scarcity and Abundance was the theme of this year’s PopTech! conference in Camden, Maine. The fall leaves were aglow and the weather made it difficult to stay inside, but the content was stellar and the speakers were truly inspiring. Here are some of the highlights from day one.

The day started off with a presentation by Saul Griffith, an Australian engineer, environmentalist and inventor based in San Francisco. I found Saul’s talk particularly interesting because like many folks, I am aware of the global problem of climate change, but often feel powerless in truly understanding how my personal behaviors impact the environment. Saul shared how he conducted a micro-level study of the power he uses to maintain his life in a given year. The result? “I started off thinking I was good – now I find out I’m a planet fucker,” he says.

So he created Wattzon, an online tool that allows users to track their energy consumption, compare it to others’ and understand its consequences in order to discover how to reduce their role in climate change. Saul said that what is exciting about the discussion around climate change right now is that people are willing to listen.

I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s work and in his presentation on the capitalization of human potential, Malcolm outlined his theories on what limits people in successfully achieving their potential.

Malcolm’s theory is that there are three conditions that suppress Cap rates (the rate that people within a society are able to realize what they are capable of).
They are:
1. Poverty Constraint
2. Stupidity Constraints
3. Cultural Constraints

Humans like to believe that there are innate reasons why some people achieve while others do not. Malcolm argues that is simply not true – achievement and people’s ability to capitalize on their own potential is dependent on how well they can overcome these constraints.

“We have a scarcity of achievement in the US because we’re squandering it. But it’s not bad news, it’s good news – because it’s not scarcity we have to live with: we can do something about it.”

I’m looking forward to reading more about this topic in three weeks when his latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success is released.

I was truly inspired by the last three speakers of the day: Marian Bantjes, Chandler Burr, and Ben Zander.

Marian Bantjes shared how early in her career as a graphic designer, she became depressed when she came face-to-face with her own mediocrity. “It’s depressing to live your life making landfill,” she said, and at that point, resolved to create work that would transcend garbage.

She started to create work that was meaningful to her, and interestingly enough… it was meaningful to others. Marian’s work is a rare and beautiful mix of art, graphic design with amazing embellishment and detail. A common question admirers of Marian’s work ask is, “How long did that take you?” Marian described how she realized that detail is a form of honor because it is a manifestation of time – and people equate value with time. When you create something from a place of love, it shows — and it will intrinsically have value to others. “When we spend time on something, we dedicate a part of ourselves to it…. it takes a lot of energy and love to do what I do, but when I create something beautiful, I know it has value to the world.”

Chandler Burr is a man unabashedly passionate about scent and his interactive presentation on searching for the perfect scent was truly a treat. I had no idea scent could be so interesting – but when you are in the presence of somebody who clearly loves a topic so deeply, it’s infectious. Chandler explained how a chance meeting with perfumer on a train in Japan ignited his interest in scent. Perfume sticks were passed out to the 600 attendees throughout his talk, as Chandler asked people to identify eight distinct scents. He took us through an olfactory journey, sharing tales of each of the eight scents and describing why each was either scarce or abundant. “There is a story – a world of climate change, bad economic policy, smuggling, and greed – in every bottle of perfume.” I’m buying my bottle of Coco Mademoiselle and Estee Lauder Pleasurestoday.

The day ended with a truly electrifying talk by Ben Zander on the power of possibility. Ben is a celebrated author and the music director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He started his talk by asking the audience to sing happy birthday to a fellow audience member. He then guided us through improving our delivery by infusing it with emotion and nuance. He then reinforced this lesson by coaching a young, local cello student through a cello lesson. Ben shared that in any adverse situation in life, we have three choices: to be resigned, to be angry, or to see possibility.

Anger and resignation are choices of scarcity. They are choices that are downward spirals where one will always see the glass as half empty. Ben shared that the choice to see possibility is a choices of abundance – it allows for an expressive life and conversation. Great leaders recognize the downward spiral and lead people to conversations of possibility.

Zander closed by saying, “I have a bigger dream – that every one of you in this room will be leaders in seeing abundance. That you will live the rest of your life in possibility. That is my dream.”

Videos of the entire day’s programming will be up shortly on the PopTech! web site and more summaries of all the speakers from day one are available on the PopTech! blog.