WHERE ARE GOING?

@jw * Josh Wiiams

We

The Preface

In the BEGINNING...

Where did we come "om?

What follows is a brief history of our bizarre journey from a web + UI boutique

to a social networking service.

Iconfactory circa 1999

Firewh#l Design

Inspired by Iconfactory’s Pixelpalooza,I got into pixel art, drew hundreds of icons,

and met my first two co-workers.

Blinksale

• Frustrated with our billing solution, we wrote our own and decided to make it fun. And useful.

• Thank You Notes were an unusual selling point that resonated with those who used the service.

Blinksale

IconBuffet

• 50,000 people came to collect icons and trade them with friends.

• Fewer than 15 percent of those people actually used the icons for a design project.

IconBuffet

IconBuffet

Causes

• Originally known as Project Agape, Causes was envisioned as a standalone site to encourage social giving.

• Ultimately Causes was re-imaginedas a Facebook application.

• Over $25 million has been raised.

PIVOT PRESENTto the

Where are we now?

PackRat

• PackRat was created at a scale that assumed most people would playone hour a day.

• We quickly learned our core audience was playing 6-10 hours a day.

PackRat

Then Farmvie Ha$ened

What now?

Viva la iPhone

The iPhone changed everything.

The Epiphany

The Totem

How do we inspire people to connect with the real world?

Can we use real world connections to inspire people

to discover and shareamazing places?

Landmarks

F"tba Stadiums

Baseba Stadiums

Airports

Add Go to a Wallabyand you get a Gowalla. Really.

In many ways Gowalla was in the right place at the right time. We’ve grown

our community from 2,000 to 500,000in the last 12 months.

The hype machine is great,but living in reality is better.

Hype Machine

Beware of placing your trustin the future web proclaimed by blogs,

investors and so-called “social media gurus.”

A Word of Caution

“We are the music makers,And we are the

dreamers of dreams.”

Wiiam Wonka

FADS THE FUTUREvs.

Where are we going?

The Fads

• Checking In

• Game Mechanics

• Badges

• Geo-blah-blah-blah...

Checking out...

• Checking In is the status update for the places we go. It has succeeded where other concepts have failed.

• Now we’re checking into television, books, video games, states of consciousness, and more.

• Overload is upon us.

Checking in isn’t cool.You know what’s cool?Winning an iPadafter you check in.

Game Mechanics

• A new wave of services are repurposing ideas from Farmville and World of Warcraft for practical means.

• They provide simple incentives for completing ordinary tasks.

• However, they are subservient to the usefulness of the service.

“Badges? We don’t needno stinking badges.”

Badges

• Nothing new under the sun.

• As a reward system, they’ve become the poster child for the success of location-based services.

• Badges and achievements are driving activity around the web,but are they really?

Social validationis the primary driver

for activity on today’s web.

Social Validation

• We share on Facebook in order to receive comments and likes.

• We post to Twitter with the hope of being re-tweeted, which in turn boosts our follower count.

• We upload to Flickr and look forward to being favorited.

Quora

Gratuitous Hugh Jackman

Geo-blah

• Every week a new location-based service is born seeking to cash in on some perceived gold rush.

• Location in and of itself is boring.People don’t care about the technology.Nor should they.

• Context and value matter.

Conclusion

• Checking in is a temporary solution to a more complex problem.

• Badges and game mechanicsare not a special saucethat magically makes everything tasty.

• “Geolocation” is not people friendly.

“The Future isn't what it used to be.I'm not surprised, I'm not surprised.Most of us live on boats of luxury.

We're so confined. We’re so confined.”

G%d Morning by Rogue Wave

The Future

• Mobile: Get off your ass!

• Background Services andPassive Applications

• Community

• Activism & The Social Good

Get off your a$!

• People have visited places in over170 countries with Gowalla.

• Location is central to the mobile experience.

• Mobile devices give us the ability to connect with people and the world around us in new and remarkable ways.

TrS-80

TrS-80 of the Future

Rise of the A%s!

• While the future is most certainly mobile, the App culture is wrinkle in the fabric of the Mobile Web.

• Device makers and carriers around the world are fragmenting our engineering efforts. We have taken a step backward.

• Make no mistake, this is about money.

“I think many of our problems as a country would be solved if people had thick passports.

There's just no substitute for actually going and seeing things.”

Ma& Damon

For mobile services to become truly useful,they must not interrupt our daily

lives or social interactions.

Pa$ive A%lications

Co&uni'

• Flickr and Wikipedia set the example.

• 1.9 millions places crowdsourced on Gowalla (we were naive).

• 700,000 photos taken on the spot.

Sydney Opera House

Gratuitous Hugh Jackman

Activism + Causes

• Obama’s Presidential Campaign

• Iran Election on Twitter

• Text Ten Dollars toHaitian Earthquake Relief

What about social good on the web?

The Case Against Corporate Responsibility

“The idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed...

Governments are a far more effective protector of the public good than any

campaign for corporate social responsibility.”

An#l Karnani, WSJ

And to that we say...

With every pair you purchase,TOMS will give a new pair of shoes

to a child in need.ONE for ONE.

TOMS Shoes

Will your system be alrightWhen you dream of home tonight?There is no message we're receiving

Let me know, is your heart still beating?

Are we human or are we dancers?

The Kiers

What does this meanfor services like Gowalla?

OOO"""(h!!!

Double Rainbow

• Find the extraordinary in the everyday.

• Provide a magical experience when people check in, share photos, write stories and leave recommendations.

• Inspire people to discover and share the world with their friends.

What does this meanfor you and the projects

you’re creating for tomorrow?

B"m!

• Are you creating products that provide real value to real people?(startups for startups = Google Wave)

• Build a community... then delight it!

• Connect people with the real world.

• Inspire people to do the remarkable.

Find me on Twitter @jwKeynote Illustration by Will Bryant