Every year, in July-August, thousands of kids in their summer break attend ‘The Village’, a 5-day camp, organized by Coca-Cola Israel, with fun activities, pool, social games and Coca Cola drinks of course. This year, e-dologic, the interactive agency working with Coca-Cola Israel, has developed a very cool solution for connecting the offline world with the online – facebook.
The real life life button - coca-cola village
Each kid upon entering the village received an RFID bracelet, with his/her facebook profile saved, securely, in that chip. In turn, the kid was able to ‘Like’ each activity he/she performed at the village, showing up on their facebook profile as a 15sec video, outlining the activity, which was pre-recorded.
The ‘Real life facebook like button’ was a huge success (Hebrew), with tens of thousands #LIKES, for a total of under 1,000 participants! Facebook sent over Mark Cowan, VP Operationsת Europe, to visit the village and experience ‘The Like Machine‘ first-hand, after Mark Zukerberg heard about it at Cannes Lions by Enon Landenberg, e-dologic CEO.
Update on privacy: in a related post (Hebrew) by Jonathan Klinger, it was suggested that the RFID tag stores the username and password details of each participant, thus making it easy to steal the credentials using a simple RFID reader (or in the event of lost/stolen tag). I double-checked with e-dologic the info I had: The RFID tag only stores a unique id number, worthless on its own. When a participant moves his hand near the RFID reader in the village, the on-site server (protected both physically and virtually) receives the participant location and unique id number, to match against its own DB. Every cycle (Coca-Cola Village has 5-7 cycles, each one 3 days) the DB is formatted, for security reasons. On top of that, participants pay a 15US$ fee to receive the RFID tag, refundable upon return of the tag.
The Real Life LIKE Butoon – Case Study – Coca-Cola Village:
Over the past 2 months at Inkod-Hypera I learned a lot about the importance of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) in the process of making web (or mobile) products. First off, those 2 expressions are not the same, in fact, UX govern UI (in web-lingo: UX is the parent, UI is the child). Secondly, user experience (UX) is based on social and cultural trends whereas user interface (UI) is more based on technology – multi-touch, touch, mouse, command-line, speech, etc. The direct result of the latter is that user experience is both subjective in nature and dynamic, because it relates to an individual’s performance, feelings and thoughts about the system – that can change, over a period of time.
Google.com in 1999
Over at Inkod-Hypera we developed a proven methodology that puts great emphasis on UX, before Photoshop is even launched. We do product concept, benchmarking, usability testing, user interface planning (mockups/wireframes), functional specification and only then – guiding our in-house studio for the design aspect. During my time here, I’ve met with dozens of customers, 3rd party vendors, entrepreneurs, ad agencies, and more to get a feeling of how they perceive the field of UX and design. Unfortunately, especially with start-ups and 1st time entrepreneurs – the focus is still on the what, instead of the why/who/how.
Met this week a good friend, developer since the age of 12, ex-CTO, co-founder of 2 start-ups and CEO of a 3rd one, that told me ‘UX is the new semi-God‘. Not CTO, not the code, not the product (what) – but the business (why/who/how). And he said it took him 2 years to realize that, and outsource the work to an expert. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing the code in PHP, Java, .Net, or Rubi – the software will work. But if you haven’t figured out the user (who), the problem that needs solving (why), and the right way to solve it (how) – that’s not good.
I’m not saying ‘Hire us’, this is not a sales pitch (ok, ok – half sales-pitch). I do say ‘work with experts‘ – you have developers, right? Hire UX experts, or outsource the work.
Google.com in 2010
As the internet evolves, and mobile becomes a larger aspect of our lives, I hope people will pay more attention to user experience, and understand its importance from day 1, not launch + day 1.
Had an interesting discussion this week at Globes event with Ahuvah, a very wise and internet-savvy friend, about foursquare. She asked me – Why? A simple question, complicated answer. Once, not so long ago, people were asking the same WH-question about Twitter, and look were we are now.
But back to me. I check-in at places of interest, usually business-oriented – meaning if I’m at a the Finance District of Tel Aviv, or the Hi-Tech district – where I’m more likely to meet people. But so far, as Ahuvah was clever to ask, those check-ins resulted in fewer random meetings than I expected. So again, Why? I guess convenience has something to do with it, meaning a proper application – Gravity. I’ve previewed Gravity before, saying it’s the main reason for my increased use of foursquare – a flick of the navbar, and I’m Here! Nevertheless, I believe foursquare is much more than just a contest for who’s got more Mayorships. It’s a valuable database of knowledge about people habitts – and knowledge is power. Much like twitter that crossed the chasm, foursquare too needs the same things: celebrity, business, media coverage.
Club Seat - 1st Israeli foursquare-based campaign
Celebrity we have (not many though), media coverage still lagging, but now we have a business. Seat become the 1st business in Israel (Hebrew) to use foursquare in a digital campaign (Hebrew, again), Club Seat, along with 3 known clubs in Tel Aviv – Gazoz, Galina, and Sublet. People are encouraged to create an account in foursqaure, download the app of their choice and visit the clubs. The campaign is three-fold:
The club that receives the most entries by August 30th (end of summer break) is crowned ‘Best Club in Town’;
Top 20 people with the highest number of check-ins at any of the 3 clubs will receive concert tickets;
The mayor of each club will receive a plane ticket (round trip I hope)
Personally I was hoping the 1st business will originate from the restaurant/cafe/bar industry, much like Starbucks is doing in the US, or FT.com’s deal to attract youngsters in London. Seat, along with Grey Interactive, have taken a leap into un-charted waters in Israeli advertising, as foursquare is still in early-early adopter stage here. Facebook has transformed the digital space in Israel – more than 3 million people connected (about 60% of internet-connected homes), #2 fastest growing country in the Middle East (7%, monthly), top 10 countries in terms of average time spent (globally!), and more. No campaign is complete here without a facebook presence. Twitter and foursquare are still considered ‘geek-only territory‘, although twitter is gaining momentum in celebrities and media.
Club Seat was only launched this week, so the stats are obviously low (Gazoz 9 check-ins, Galina 3 check-ins, and Sublet 4 check-ins), but it will be interesting to see how this pilot evolves and what impact will it have on the advertising industry. Stay tuned.
Soluto’s PC Genome is a knowledgebase of PC frustration data built automatically through the usage of Soluto software. Its objective and statistical information, gathered and analyzed by Soluto, is also editable by the community.
Although Techonomy is only in its 2nd year, it’s shaping up to be THE technology/entrepreneur event in Israel, giving 6 (7 this year) start-ups a prominent stage to present their product/service, before a panel of distinguished judges and a loving crowd. Techonomy is organized and produced by Orli Yakuel and Eddie Resnick.
Interlude.fm took 1st place, after a brilliant demo by founder, Israeli musician Yoni Bloch. Interlude developed an interactive platform for video, that allows users to interact with the video, choosing various paths, thus altering the original timeline of the clip. Each selection impacts both audio and video, but Yoni explained that you can put restrictions, such as pre-defined opening and closing scenes, director’s cut, and more. According to Robert Scoble, interlude could save MySpace and is a really cool tech for musicians. In a recent project featuring a 3min video, interlude technology tripled the average time on site, to 9min (!) with 1m unique visitors. Yoni’s demo (video below) at Techonomy was shot at his house in Tel Aviv and offers 256 options, complied of 38 different scenes shot on-location.
Fiddme
In 2nd place, very close to interlude.fm, came Fiddme, a social network for foodies, from founders Yosi Taguri, Eran Kampf, Naor Suki, and Udi Milo. Fiddme allows foodies to share their food, by taking a picture and uploading it to fiddme community, using iPhone app or the web. I’ve known Yosi and Eran for some time now, and their passion for the product (started capturing food roughly 2 years ago), along with a beautiful user experience, and the location-based buzz (@foursquare integration coming very-very soon), will make Fiddme one of the best viral apps out there.
Thank you all for commenting and participating. The winners have been notified by email an hour ago. Hope to see you all Sunday.
—–
TheMarker Com.Vention is the prominent internet event in Israel, with known figures from the SU, VC, Marketing, Content and TV, Advertising and Internet industries (local and global) – and I have 10 complimentary tickets (worth ~$100 each) to share with you!
In the spirit of networking and sharing, I’ve decided to do a ‘Pay It Forward‘ kind of thing, and give each ‘winner’ 2 tickets: one for you and the other for someone from your network, whom you met via a social network (facebook/twitter/LinkedIn/Foursquare/etc), that haven’t attended Com.Vention before. So basically, you get to pick a ticket winner.
Here’s what you need to do in order to win a ticket to TheMarker Com.Vention:
Explore your wall/stream and find someone that hasn’t attended Com.Vention yet.
Post a comment to this post (name, email – not public, website), with your name, your friend-from-the-web name and the social match-maker name.
That’s it!
Then, I will cross-reference the names with TheMarker (to verify your friend-from-the-web didn’t attend previously) and research the social network in question (to assess the relationship). First 5 ‘couples’ that will get it right – met via a social network and friend-from-the-web hasn’t attended before, will receive the tickets. Last date to submit entries is Thursday, April 29th at 18:00 Israel time (GMT+3). Winners will be announced here and contacted via email for the logistics, so please watch your typing.
This year there are very interesting panels and sessions: ‘Mobile Internet – Who’s going to benefit most from the boom?’, ‘Life on demand – how consumers are changing the life of E-commerce’, ‘Who will control the content’ and more. Full agenda is available here, speakers list here, twitter tag is #com2010, and facebook page.
TED requires no introduction. Technology, Entertainment, Design has been synonymous with THE EVENT, to which everyone wants to attend. At $2,000 per ticket it’s out of reach for most, and the waiting list is long. Very long.
TEDx Tel Aviv
TEDx Tel Aviv is an independently organized TED event, and tomorrow (Monday, April 26th) it’s coming to Tel Aviv, Israel, for the very first time. Over 1,200 people (including myself) submitted the registration form to the event, 300 (excluding myself) will attend TEDx Tel Aviv in person tomorrow.
For the thousands who want to watch the lectures there will be several Simulcast locations across the country, most of them in universities and businesses. Full list is available here. All lectures will be available at TEDx website following the event. You can also follow Lior Zoref and Yosi Taguri of Shidurey (Hebrew), who’ll be filming a clip at the event, as well as TEDxTelAviv themselves.
Last month I attended Globes Conference at Tel Aviv, and saw Nokia E72 for the first time in Israel, at the Nokia Israel booth. It took just 2.5 weeks (Kudos to Eurocom Nokia) for the E72 to arrive at my door step earlier today, for a review. As I stated before, although it’s easy to get hyped by a phone, one must review it under day-to-day activities, meaning at least 2 weeks, even 3. I will have the Nokia E72 for a month – just hope I won’t fall in love with it during the process..
It’s predecessor, the E71, is a huge success in Israel, receiving high scores in any review, and the E72 is entering the local market at an interesting time: iPhone was launched last month, Bold is holding its ground, and the E71 is the best selling Smartphone in Israel, second only to the N95 (150,000 units).
Will E71 users rush for an upgrade?
Will it take the crown of ‘Best Smartphone in Israel’ from its younger brother, the E71?
Will N-Series users looking for a business device opt for the E72 over the iPhone or BB Bold?
A full review will be posted early February, both here and over at newsgeek.co.il (Hebrew), but I will post short updates, like this one, as the month progresses.
If you have any questions about the Nokia E72 that you’d like to ask or suggest, drop me a line here or on twitter and I’ll do my best to accommodate.
First off, it’s a sexy phone, in dark blue, with an executive look and feel. The central nav-button got an upgrade, with an optical navigation, similar to the Blackberry – an interesting addition that takes some getting used to. But I like it. The E72 has some large shoes to fill – its predecessor, the E71, is considered a huge success, and was crowned The Best Smartphone in Israel, twice. The E72 boosts roughly the same features as the E71, with 2 important upgrades: a decent camera (5MP, Auto-focus, Flash) and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Another major improvement, which I noticed later, is under the hood – a powerful ARM 11 Processor, running at 600MHz – impressive. Finally someone is paying attention to what I say…
Hopefully the guys over at Nokia Israel will do me a solid and let me have it for an official review. Been waiting for it since June, think I deserve it.. You know what, on second thought – just let me win it in the lottery, for Hanukah/Christmas – whatever works for you..
