Inspire

On Chatbots, AI, Cyber Doubles, MyCyberTwin, Semantic Web and Authenticity versus Productivity

Below some quotes from Jeremy Wagstaff from Wall Street Journal. More in here. This is an interesting dillemma: productivity (and info discernment; see Linda Stone) versus authenticity.

Using cyber doubles we can interact and scan more efficiently while at the same time we are losing control and our own authenticity, albeit marginally due to the almost perfect online copies of our real personalities. What does it to ones' reputation (both individually as well as corporate) when people or users find out that their conversation with you was fake (and this was not announced by the chatbot before the conversation started) ? In my view the reaction depends on the specific context. On a personal level this might be less acceptable compared to the corporate setting. In my view using chatbots to save time for your personal live is a lack of (emotional) commitment to others while corporate bots can be justified by being (rationally) relevant and efficient.

However, I do believe in Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web enabling personal advisors or agents acting on our behalf, but in my view that is different from the statements below. Those 3.0 agents focus on the individual and not on the conversations with other people. 

To me MyCyberTwin is particularly interesting due to the fact that it is a transformative tool (see Joseph Pine II and this link on different other examples of Transformation) to gain self awareness. What is your own communication style ? Which patterns do you use unconsciously ? This tool makes the invisble visible, thereby allowing for personal growth.

"Expect a future where we don't interact with other people. Instead, we'll send our "cyber double" out to interact with other people's "cyber doubles" until things get interesting. Then, and only then, will real people take over. This is the vision of Liesl Capper, whose Sydney-based RelevanceNow! last week launched an early version of MyCyberTwin (mycybertwin.com), a service that allows you to create and hone an online version of yourself. Your cyber twin will then chat on your behalf on instant messaging, your blog or your MySpace page. Eventually much of what you do online will be left to your cyber double, indistinguishable from the real thing (you). As Ms. Capper puts it: "You can be you, even when you're not you."

Ms. Capper, armed with a degree in psychology, has with her business partner John Zakos taken what she says is a different tack: looking at the human side by measuring personality traits with psychometric testing, in order to generate a person's likely responses to questions, so that person's cyber twin can mimic that person better. This, Ms. Capper says, not only makes the replies more lifelike, it allows people to quickly generate and personalize their own cyber twins. Which is pretty much where MyCyberTwin stands now. Answer 80 questions and the software does a pretty good job of describing your character. Once that's done, you can tweak your cyber twin's responses further by feeding it content from your own emails, records of instant-message chats or blog posts, and it will, Ms. Capper says, sound like you. Some of these features aren't available yet, but Ms. Capper says that in initial tests "we're finding that a fairly large population don't know if they're talking to a real person or a cyber twin." My own tests suggest she's onto something, but still has some way to go."

On Free Digital Content, DRM, Bundling, Business/Revenue Models and Piracy

Chris Anderson and his readers with very insightful comments discuss DRM, piracy, (viral) marketing, digital content, cross media packaging, economics and more in this post on the Long Tail blog. I really digg the last quote below with the innovative audiobook bundle.

"As Tim O'Reilly puts it, obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.

In principle, I'm in favor of free. Free digital products can be great marketing for a superior (or at least complimentary) analog version. In music, free digital songs can create demand for concerts. In my case, a free ebook can created demand for the actual print book or my speeches. Cory Doctorow gives away his books and says that it's a clear net positive, and even business authors such as Seth Godin have tried it for the promotional phase of a book release with success.

But an audiobook is not as clear a case for free as an ebook. Perhaps the best compromise would to be to have a code printed in each hard-copy version of the book that would allow the buyers to download a free audiobook, so they could choose whether to read the book in print or just listen to it in the car, saving the hard copy for reference. This would cost practically nothing and presumably there'd be very little overlap with the dedicated audiobook buyer, who usually don't buy the hard-copy version."

Reinier Evers on Status Skills as a 'new' Trend

Reinier Evers from Trendwatching.com - one of my favorite trend newsletters and the physical seminars are insightful and leading edge as well - shows us a good overview on the rise of Creativity and Transformation within our cultures and economies. I invite you to read more in this post. It reminds me that we really are in a new world right now. In my view this is not about specific audiences, cultures, products, sectors....it will be pervasive, driven by youth culture and quickly assimilated by others. A world of globalisation of individuals - besides nations and companies - with a focus on creating, remixing, organizing and sharing, with a renewed interest in transformative capabilities, workshops, do-it-yourself sessions with self development and soul searching as the driving forces. Maslows famous hierarchy of need fully realized. See emerging video websites like JumpCut (YouTube with Remixing and Video Editing !), Bix (Idols on steriods on the Web with karaoke on the go) and Dabble (organize all your videos) on top of YouTube. Personally, I really love the Status Skills trend as it shows the diverse creative insights of amateurs besides professionals. It just reinforces my opinion that all content will be on demand due to the richness available these days. It just all adds to the juice of life, diversity that is. The latest eTech event highlighted remixing of content (audio, video, graphics, text etc.) as the leading trend as well. During the dot.com craze at the end of last decade we saw interesting initiatives like HowTo, Learn2 and HowStuffWorks. Now it all ads up to something much bigger. It's very similar to the evolution and adoption of a lot of other new Internet concepts from 1997 and 1998. Too early back then, now in prime time. Witness Group Buying (LetsBuyIt), Push-technology (PointCast and Marimba, now RSS), Social Software (SixDegrees, now MySpace). Timing is everything.....indeed ! So it is time to say to you this post is highly recommended....and I look forward to hear your comments on this one. Thanks.

"In economies that increasingly depend on (and thus value) creative thinking and acting, well-known status symbols tied to owning and consuming goods and services will find worthy competition from 'STATUS SKILLS': those skills that consumers are mastering to make the most of those same goods and services, bringing them status by being good at something, and the story telling that comes with it."for now, let’s focus on how entrepreneurs and brands around the world are already incorporating STATUS SKILLS into their customer interactions. For this briefing, we'll concentrate on:

1. Entities that are exclusively dedicated to helping consumers to acquire skills
2. How brands are assisting consumers in acquiring skills as a way to make the most of their purchases from that brand (so-called ‘corporate classes’)
3. Ventures that enable consumers to show off their skills

As always, there’s the inevitable anti-trend, and in the case of STATUS SKILLS the anti-trend doesn’t differ much from most other trends involving any kind of creation and participation: it's LACK OF TIME. Where on earth will consumers find the time to actively acquire these new skills? First of all: STATUS SKILLS will not matter to all consumers, so first figure out who this appeals to most. The above examples, from a multitude of industries and brands, should be a good starting point. Secondly, if a shift towards greater appreciation of skills does continue, then some consumers will trade in ‘consumption time’ for ‘skill time’. An obvious example is young consumers mastering new gaming skills in lieu of watching TV, or people trading in fun shopping for more targeted purchases and accompanying corporate classes. Some simple advice: as a brand, to make the most of your new STATUS SKILLS offerings, first help customers make/find the time they thought they didn’t have."

Yahoo Internet Vision: 2006 - 2011

Terry Semel, CEO of Yahoo, presents the Yahoo Future until 2011 in this great PDF document of 12,2 MB in size during Yahoos' Analyst Day. I guess the glory days of the Internet are here to stay.

Self Service, Human Service, CRM and Loyalty

In this post on Clickz we witness a new insight: self service technologies enable more effective human services or interactions in the in-between time of entering and leaving to add real value and to strengthen customer loyalty. A new example comes to my mind: imagine automated self service check-ins at clubs or dance events/festivals (including wardrobes?) and the service people involved focus on entertainment, security, fun and quick serving of drinks and food.

"Can customer loyalty based on human interaction coexist with the growing trend of self-service technologies that remove humans from the mix? Yes. The point is to decouple the idea of customer interaction from existing only during the established bottlenecks in each industry. Traditionally, hotels only interact with their guests during check-in and -out. Stores only interact with shoppers during checkout (and when the customer can't find something). Airlines focus interactions on check-in. Automating these processes certainly removes human interaction during those events.

But they aren't the only times loyalty is established... or broken. Removing the bottlenecks in these processes gives companies more time to interact with customers during other inflection points. These other inflection points include events that aren't as time sensitive. When I stay on the concierge level of my favorite hotel chain, the concierge makes a concerted effort to greet me during the floor's happy hour, thank me for staying with the hotel again, and offers any personal assistance I may need. That interaction happens on my own time, when I'm relaxed, and means much more than a similar conversation during a "rushed" time (such as check-in)."