PJBFCP | great ideas | great experiences

February 14, 2011
by Pete Barry
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What is Artificial Intelligence?

Today I witnessed something I could only imagine as being of the distant future. The future which is in movies, not the future which is atainable and a reality of my lifetime. Today I watched what may be considered an historic event in the not so distant future. Today I watched a computer play Jeopardy. Not just play Jeopardy but play against two champions of Jeopardy and perform quite well. While a few times the computer was beat to the answer by the champions it did have an answer first most of the time, and it almost always had a correct answer. Quite impressive for a machine. A machine that can process massive amounts of information at incredible speeds and understand the complexities of natural human language. Before today the answer would be, “What is the human brain”? However, there is now an alternate answer an its’s called Watson. I look forward to seeing the continuation of the match over the next couple of days.
You can read about Watson here.

January 18, 2011
by Pete Barry
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Welcome to 2011

You’re driving. Using the GPS app on your smartphone to get you home from a meeting. It’s providing you with live traffic updates so that you won’t get stuck waiting in line. It’s pretty cool. You’re not even one of those techie people. This isn’t some cutting edge technology that you are lucky to have. It’s now common for people to have GPS in their car or on their phone. Satellites and cell phone towers which have been standing for years are just giving you the information you need. Information that’s readily available. You pass a billboard. One of those newer ones that seem like more of a big television. It’s displaying an ad for some really awesome looking Nikes. You’ve been looking for a new pair of running shoes for a couple weeks on a variety of websites. You swing by a nearby mall on your way home. The GPS app automatically modifies its directions based on your shopping detour.

You find your way to the behemoth of a shoe store where you seem to spend a lot of time and money. Shoes aren’t just a necessity they’re a passion. A couple of minutes after browsing some sale items you make your way to the running shoes. A young lady approaches you wearing the atrocious uniform the employees are forced to wear. She greets you by name and asks if she can get anything for you to try on. The Nikes feel great. You pull your smart phone out and after a few taps you’re ready to head home. The clerk thanks you for your purchase and hands you a bag containing your new kicks.

Does this seem normal, far fetched or futuristic?

The advertisements presented to you on a news site are displaying shoes because you’ve recently been browsing shoe sites. The company that created the free GPS app you use on your phone makes its money by displaying ads within the app. But that’s 2010 technology. This is 2011. Now because you want that free GPS app you agree to the terms which include sharing your location to advertisers. That way a billboard can display just the right ad as you drive by.

In 2010 you might have checked in to a store enough that clerks know you by name. In 2011 the shoe store loyalty card embedded into your smartphone is identified by sensors just inside the stores doors. The phone checks in for you. The store clerk receives a message, accompanied by your name and photo, on her smartphone informing her of your arrival.

In 2010 you no longer need to hand the clerk your form of payment. You could swipe your own credit card and rarely had to sign anything. In 2011 you will pay for things with your phone. Not just apps or in app purchases but real things in the real world.

Welcome to 2011.

September 30, 2010
by Pete Barry
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A Better Future for Content

Content Presentation

The web is currently made up of several types of content. The web/browser model assumes that the presentation of content is the responsibility of the content presenter not the audience. This means that the presenter is not only responsible for producing or sharing great content but also wrapping that content in a valuable experience. In order for the experience to be valuable to the audience, the presenter researches or assumes the audience’s experiential preferences. While this research or assumption may increase the value of the experience for one or more members of the audience it my hinder the experience for other audience members who differ in their experiential preferences. We need an application that removes the responsibility of the experience from the content presenter and places it on the audience.

Content Classification

The vast content throughout the web can be categorized in multiple ways. The growth of the semantic web is necessary to improve the ability for content to be properly classified and for the audience to gain control of the experience. A standard method of classification is needed. Various classification methods are being introduced and implemented throughout the web. I believe that if web publishers utilized a combination of the existing semantic languages, including Activity Streams, the opportunity for a better content consumption experience would arise. Published content must be accompanied by secure data which will identify the type of content, or object, as well as information about its origin. Additional information about the source, vehicle, context and actions can be added to the data set once the object is published. Applications which can take advantage of these classifications are needed to improve the overall experience of content consumption. The first and most important step is to standardize content classification.

September 14, 2010
by Pete Barry
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Success Story : The Business of Winning

It’s rare to play a role in the creation of something which leads to something better which then leads to something great. To experience this type of success is nothing short of amazing. I feel extremely lucky to have experienced the domino effect of a positive discovery or creation multiple times in my life. In the last year I’ve told the story of one such adventure to several people. A common response that I’ve heard is that it’s a great story and that I should tell it to more people. Last week I was reminded of the experience again and so I figured it’s time to write it down.

Success Story Flow

Successes Start in the Strangest Places

In early 2009 I was working for Wolfmotell when I began a great adventure. It started with the Superbowl. GE ran an ad about the smart grid. I looked online to learn more about what the smart grid was. What I found began a great adventure. On the GE smart grid website, I experienced something new; Augmented Reality. The next day I shared the experience with my coworkers. I brought it to the developers and exclaimed that they had to learn how to make this type of amazing experience. I knew it was going to be hot and that we would use it somewhere.

Winning is Just the Beginning

A month or so later, Keith Wolf and I were in Austin, TX for SXSW. While there we visited the Circus Mashimus lounge, which was hosted by Mashery and a few of their clients including Best Buy. Mashery helps companies share their data through an application programing interface or API. Wolfmotell had been doing work with Best Buy for years and I had spent a couple of years working there as a contractor before joining Wolfmotell. Recently, Wolfmotell had been developing product finder tools for Bestbuy.com using Best Buy’s new API, Remix. While working on one of those projects I did what I could to learn about APIs, especially Best Buy’s Remix. During this education I had an idea for a fun way to use the Best Buy data. I partnered with a lead developer at the agency and we used some Lab Time, or what some companies call twenty percent time, to turn my idea into reality. The idea was simple. Best Buy sells games. Some of the passionate people who buy games will order a game before it is even released. Best Buy calls this pre-order. Products which are available for pre-order are noted so in the Remix data. My idea was to inform those passionate gamers as soon as a new game became available for pre-order using Twitter. The way we did it was to pull a list of all games available for pre-order and then pull the list again the next day. The lists were then compared and any differences were products which were newly available for pre-order. These products were then sorted based on the gaming system and pushed out using the Twitter API. I had created a separate Twitter account for Sony Playstation 3, PSP, Nintendo Wii, DS and Microsoft Xbox 360. This way gamers could subscribe and choose to be notified about pre-order games for their preferred system. I brought this little side project to the attention of the Mashery and Best Buy representatives in the Circus Mashimus lounge. They suggested that I enter it into a contest which they were holding related to the Circus Mashimus lounge. They were asking developers to do something cool with their clients APIs. They had a prize for each of the select clients APIs as well as a grand prize for whoever could mash any two of the client APIs together to create a cool mash-up app. On our flight back from SXSW Keith and I decided that we should enter the pre-order/Twitter app into the contest but also come up with killer second entry in hopes that we could win the grand prize. Back in the office, the brainstorming began and I knew it was time for augmented reality. Once the ideas were pruned the designers and developers whipped together something amazing in a very short period of time. The result was a fun little web app, called Popscopic, which pulled data from the Billboard charts API as well as Best Buy Remix. The top ten music, movies and games were pulled from Billboard and those titles were then used to pull product details from Best Buy. Popscopic used augmented reality to display the product images, titles, price and customer rating. As an additional bonus Popscopic utilized gestural navigation as a method of toggling between titles and selecting one for purchase. Wolfmotell entered both Popscopic and the pre-order/twitter app into the Circus Mashimus contest; one under my name and one under Keith’s name. Needless to say, both of them won. Popscopic won the grand prize and the other won for Best Buy.

Winning Leads to Business

A few months later there was a knock at the Wolfmotell door. Some people from Best Buy wanted to talk to us about augmented reality. They wanted to engage their tech-savvy customers who weren’t likely purchasing newspapers and thus not seeing the Best Buy weekly newspaper insert. They thought that augmented reality might be a way to get these customers to revisit the insert. We presented a few ideas and quickly began work on the client’s choice. On Sunday, August 8th 2009 an insert featuring an A.R. marker on the cover was sent out to Best Buy’s circulation of 43 million. That day about 6500 tried the experience and approximately 12% of those who tried it clicked through to the promoted Best Buy products or services. The experience received a lot of press and was considered a success and a month later we created a second experience in partnership with Best Buy and Sony. That experience, which included a coupon, also resulted in a worthwhile conversion. The agency went on to produce additional work for Best Buy as well as additional augmented reality experiences.

Popscopic

Best Buy

August 25, 2010
by Pete Barry
5 Comments

The Best Candidate for the Job

Look Mom, I’m Handy!

This morning I finished installing a ceiling fan in my kitchen. If you’re not clapping or bug-eyed with your mouth agape, let me explain something… I don’t do that sort of thing. When my car needs oil I take it to the mechanic. When my lawn mower or snow blower needs a new spark plug I take it to the hardware store. When it comes to the kinds of things around the house which my parent’s generation would call, “a man’s job”, I am completely inept. I envy my friends who are gifted at being handy and also enjoy getting their hands dirty. I’m just not any good at handy work. It’s something I don’t enjoy or know anything about. So, why did I install a ceiling fan, you ask? Because of two things which I do know about; Customer service and marketing.

Customer Service

In the last few months or so I’ve had a few things on the home improvement to do list. In the early summer my neighbor had some trees trimmed and others removed. I asked the people doing the work if they would take a look at my trees and give me an estimate for trimming. They seemed very knowledgeable and thrilled to have an interested customer. They took my information and promised a written estimate by the end of the week. It never came.
A priority item on the list was to get my driveway seal-coated. I contacted several service providers in the area and received a variety of quotes. Most bids i received were in the same price range. One guy who came out to look at my driveway was very polite, decently priced and he didn’t make me feel stupid about his knowledge of asphalt seal-coating and my lack thereof. I called him the next day to let him know that I’d like to hire his company. He didn’t answer so I left a message. A couple days went by and I received no return call. I called him again and left another message. A few days later, when my wife had suggested that I give up and go with someone else, I gave him another call. Still no answer. Later that day he finally called me back and we were able to schedule for the work to be done the following Tuesday morning at 9am. When Tuesday morning came along he didn’t arrive at 9am. He didn’t arrive at 9:30, 10 or 10:30. I gave him a call shortly after 10:30 to see if he had died. I expected that in a struggling economy where every penny counts that if he wasn’t showing up for the work, he must be dead. He answered the phone this time. I was amazed. He told me that he had been up until 2am the night before and was struggling to get going in the morning. He told me that he would be out to do the driveway, “Very Soon.” I told him to forget it.
Another item on my list was to replace a broken ceiling fan in the kitchen. Due to my lack of handiness and the likelihood of electrocuting myself I contacted an electrician and asked if I could get an estimate. When a man came out the next day, I showed him the broken ceiling fan as well as a few other electrical items which I would be interested in getting bids for. He told me that I could expect a written estimate in the mail within a day or two. It never came.

I believe the phrase I’m looking for is WTF? I just don’t know any other way to put it. How can companies, like the ones I encountered, afford not to provide excellent customer service in an age of abundant influence and poor economy?

Marketing

After my visit with the electrician I decided to do a little research on ceiling fans. I found that Home Depot had a large selection of products and some excellent information on how to install them. When I visited the store I found fans with packaging advertising a five minute install. Between Home Depot and the fan manufacturers it was evident that even I could do this. I showed a few fans to my wife, we selected one we like and I installed it myself. The website and the packaging were the push I needed to make the purchase and do the work myself. Of course it didn’t take five minutes and I had to make several trips back and forth to the store. I learned the hard way that It’s a good idea to measure a room before putting a fan in it. My wife and I are both vertically challenged and we would have hit our heads on the first fan I brought home.

The Best Candidate

So, who’s the best candidate for the job? I learned that it’s not necessarily the guy who is the most likable, most knowledgeable or the guy who shows up. The fan works but the driveway and trees are still untouched. I know that I’m not the best candidate for either of those jobs and I’m quite sure that I wasn’t the best candidate for the ceiling fan either. The best candidate may have been out there and I just never found them. The lesson I learned from this is that to be the best candidate for a job, you have to be findable, likable and you have to show up. But that’s just the beginning. That just gets you the job. Once you’re there you have to do great work. A couple of weeks ago I checked an item off of the list. I had central air added to my home. This summers heat was the motivation I needed to get that job done. I had a couple of people provide estimates but one company, Pronto Heating and Air Conditioning, was the best candidate for the job. When Greg from Pronto came out to look at the house and provide an estimate I was never treated like the handy-capped person that I am. He took the extra time to make sure that all of my questions were answered and that his recommendation was the best one for my situation. Greg’s level of customer service was what made me choose Pronto and the guys who came out to install the system only added to the positive image I already had of their brand. They did great work and I feel like no one could have done a better job.

I expect that people will ask for the names of the companies which left me hanging. I don’t believe that they deserve to have their names mentioned in my blog. Pronto does deserve it because they were the best candidate for the job. What are you going to do to be the best?