In the tech community, some folks have been talking about “augmented reality” for years. But only recently has it started to really catch the attention of a more mainstream crowd. What is this seemingly sci-fi catchphrase, and why should you be paying attention?

What IS Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality (or AR) has been referred to as a way to “layer ‘virtual story worlds’ over the real world“.

Ever listen to an audio guide while traveling? You were augmenting your experience audibly. Augmented reality can allow you to do this visually as well.

How’s THAT possible?

Chris Grayson has created this simple video to explain how a combination of features on your cell phone can make mobile-aware AR possible:

And this is for real?

Yup! Owners of the iPhone 3GS users can get their first taste of AR googness in the new Yelp application. While there has been some controversy surrounding the inclusion of such a feature in the application, this doesn’t overshadow the significance of its inclusion at all.

The Yelp iPhone app has always offered an ability for users to find services based on their location, but Augmented Reality allows for an enhanced user experience. Looking through the “monocle”, you can see the street in front of you, but with Yelp results superimposed.

So what’s the controversy?

Developers had been asking for the ability to include Augmented Reality in their applications, and Apple had told them to wait until the next iPhone Operating System (3.1) upgrade. The Yelp developers tapped into some undocumented, private APIs to build out this functionality. The concern among developers is that this may further cause Apple to slow down the approval process on new applications to ensure they’re not violating the App Store rules. (Note: I seem to recall a Google App that did the same thing, without so much uproar).

Cool, sure. But where’s the applicability to my organization?

With AR just starting to seem viable and likely to have mass appeal, we’ve only started to consider where it may be used:

• historical recreations of places (i.e. tours)
• traffic updates
• how-to instructional guides
• home renovations/decorating

The iPhone is so cutting edge to support this!

Hm.. well, not really: the Android phone has supported Layar, an Augmented Reality browser, for several weeks now. And Augmented reality isn’t just a “mobile phone thing”, it is also showing up in the Entertainment industry in full force.

Below is a product demo of a new augmented reality game coming out from PlayStation in a few months:

For more about augmented reality, you can check out the Facebook page dedicated to such, or tagged articles on ReadWriteWeb.

Related posts:

1. Why I Switched from an iPhone to the Nexus One
2. It’s Just a Phone!
3. what’s the deal with…Agile Software Development

Thinking about redesigning your Web presence? Here are a few questions to ask your potential development partner about you ability to make updates and changes down the road.

1. Will we be able to make updates to the site ourselves (is a CMS being used)?

If the goal of your website is to have people return frequently, you will want to be sure the site does not become stale. Increasingly, sites are built using a CMS or “content management system” that allows non-programmers to go in and make edits. Note that not all CMSes are created equal, and not everything is editable within a CMS. But getting a “yes” or a “no” to this question gives you some idea as to what you’re getting.

2. Will we have an RSS feed for our updates?

RSS is the single easiest way to make your content available on the Web. People can subscribe from your site itself, or you can use the feed to add content to other places (a twitter feed, a facebook page, or a widget). Make sure that if your content is getting updated frequently, you have a way to share it externally.

3. Can we add entire sections to our site later?

This question is more important the more graphically intense your site is. Often a “web design” company will build a gorgeous interface that fits on the screen exactly perfectly.. until you decide you want your navigation tab to say “Membership” instead of “Members”. You don’t want to build a site that will need to be redesigned the moment anything changes, do you?

4. What fonts are being used for headers/navigation?

Again, this is the often the difference between working with a web design and a web development firm. A designer may not consider the fact that the interface uses a work-arounds: sIFR is a technique that can allow you to use custom fonts, provided Flash is available to the visitor. Just make sure your developer is aware of the technique and willing to use it. Note that sIFR doesn’t play well with links, so it’s better used on headers than navigation.

Related posts:

1. what’s the deal with…Agile Software Development
2. Site redesigns, Section 508 Compliance and IE6, oh my!
3. More Questions than Answers (Rich Internet Application Accessibility)

I have been working as in the web development field for a decade now. I’ve worked as a solo designer/developer building sites for small businesses. I spent four years in the User Experience department at LexisNexis working on the interface for an incredibly robust data-driven internationalized web application. I’ve worked on engaging, interactive RIA experiences for some of the biggest brands in the world. As a business analyst I established system requirements, and as a developer I anticipated challenges and coded to meet the client’s (and users!) needs.

All those questions you’ve asked (or not asked!) your development partner? I’ve probably heard them all – and many more you never even considered. So before you select a partner to help you revitalize your online presence, take a moment to to look over these questions so you can make an informed decision.

There are many aspects to a Web presence, and not all of them are relevant for everyone. I am going to present these questions as a series, and you can pick and choose which are of interest for your particular project.

Good luck!

Related posts:

1. what’s the deal with…Agile Software Development
2. Develop an Effective Online Marketing Campaign by Asking ‘Why’ Not ‘What’
3. More Questions than Answers (Rich Internet Application Accessibility)

So far this year I’ve spoken at two conferences with my co-worker Tonya Peters, and we conduct a “social media terms quiz” to assess the level of knowledge of the audience. The one term that consistently throws people off is “crowdsourcing”.

Crowdsourcing is basically what it sounds like: outsourcing to a group. Or according to John Howe, author of Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business:

Crowdsourcing is when a company takes a job that was once performed by employees and outsources it in the form of an open call to a large, undefined group of people, generally using the Internet.

For those who have read or heard of Jonathan Surowiecki’s Wisdom of Crowds, the premise is that the overall knowledge of a large group is greater than that of any individual member of that same group.

Crowdsourcing is interesting for an organization from the perspective that it makes it possible to tap into the true desires of the consumer. Dell opened themselves up using when they launched IdeaStorm “to gauge which ideas are most important and most relevant to” the public. The same platform was used by Starbucks when they launched My StarbucksIdea. (which, I’m always surprised to learn, is not as well-known as I would have expected).

My Starbucks Idea allows passionate caffeine-quaffers to share their ideas for Starbucks. Similiar to the model on digg.com, ideas are suggested and then the community make vote them up or down. This gives Starbucks an idea of what the community sees as important. Those little green stir-sticks with the stoppers on top? That idea didn’t come from someone inside the company; that was a suggestion from the site. In the first six months, over 75,000 suggestions were made. In their annual Groundswell awards, Forrester Research gave MyStarbucksIdea a big thumbs up in the Embracing category.

I find this an incredibly intriguing model, and more and more companies are turning to this community model of soliciting feedback. Both Dell’s IdeaStorm and MyStarbucksIdea are powered by salesforce.com, but there are a few other providers in the mix. Organizations can sign up with Get Satisfaction for a fee, and there is even a free version available from UserVoice.

According Forrester social technographics research from October 2008, 37% of U.S. adults fall in the online behavior segment known as ‘critics.’ These folks may not blog or upload videos, but they will comment and rate/review content from others. Crowdsourcing is a great way to engage these folks who have opinions and simply are looking for that outlet to share them.

Related posts:

1. What’s the deal with Twittad – does it work? who knows?
2. Learning about Learning to Listen
3. what’s the deal with… personalization

1. I’ve been enjoying several of the latest posts over at the Online Community Strategist blog by Angela Connor. Her posts Your Tombstone in 140 Characters or Less and Are we taking the 140 character limit to the extreme have caused me to really think about the impact of microblogging on how we communicate. Rather than focusing on the specific tool (twitter), Angela’s posts are looking at what they represent to society.
2. Over at Mobile Marketing Profits, Kim Dushinski posted an informative piece as to what there is No Such Thing as Free SMS Text Messaging. She explains why sending via SMTP ( sending to xxxxxxxxxx@txt.att.net) is not a smart approach for your business.
3. Late Friday David Griner over at The Social Path posted a wonderful wrap-up post on 10 Ways That Social Media Improved Lives in 2008. As social media is increasingly seen as a smart strategy for business, it’s wonderful to recognize how it has also been used for good. I’m also really excited about this post as many of my (non-profit) clients are not yet completely sold on social media, and this post is a great resource for them to recognize its potential.
4. And of course the biggest news in social media this weekend was the phishing scam I wrote about earlier. Like everyone else, I’m tired of this subject now, so I’ll say no more.

Related posts:

1. What’d I Miss? Top findings from 12-01 to 12-07
2. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12/15 – 12/21
3. What’d I Miss? Top findings from 11-24 to 11-30

1. On Dec 27th, Loic Le Meur wrote a blog post stating that We need twitter search by authority. Many twits were up in arms about this, as it seemed to infer that number of followers was directly related to the authority or influence of an individual. By 28th, however, his request came true, as a new service called Twitority sprang up. Just goes to show you that with his 15,484 followers, Le Meur may have some significant impact after all…
2. Yet another example of how mobile advancements are happening everywhere but in North America, it appears a free mobile network for 16-24 year old Britons has sprung up. Blyk sends targeted messages to the youth, with a remarkable response rate of 25%!
3. Near.ly is a service that sends you tweets of news stories and blog posts within 1000 feet of an address you provide. I love the idea of the proximity, although it is keyed not off your current location, but one you submit when you sign up.
4. It appears that the requests for the iPhone to support cut and paste natively may never be satisfied. A new possible work-around is coming up: now iPhone users will be able to run Windows using a remote screen software, which will support cut and paste. Geez, I wonder if Loic Le Meur had asked for C&P, if we’d have it by now??
5. And lastly, a totally gratuitous link. In my efforts to learn more about Facebook pages, I’ve set one up in association with my running blog, Go the Distance. I welcome visitors and fans!

Related posts:

1. What’d I Miss? Top findings from 12-01 to 12-07
2. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12/15 – 12/21
3. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12-29 – 01-04

1. You Don’t Need Facebook Connect or Google Friend Connect to Socialize – Gigya has offered a similar service (allowing site owners to tap into users’ social relationships from several online communities) for a few months. I first heard of Gigya last year, when I was investigating different widget distribution platforms. I considered them a third player, after Clearspring and Widgetbox. I’m saddened to see that once again, they’re being overshadowed by two big names.
2. Ian at Conversation Marketing has boldly published his take on 11 Internet Marketing Trends To Ignore in 2009. I don’t know that I agree with all of his predictions, but it caused me to reflect on my beliefs: am I too buying into the hype?
3. Twitter increasingly gains legitimacy for business activities – Burger King served a cease and desist letter via Twitter, and Twitpay is a new service that allows you to make payments via twitter. Twitpay takes a 5 cent commission, and payment is in Amazon Gift Rewards.
4. This week saw a few more patents being filed with regards to social media (I wrote about Razorfish’s patent last week); this time by Google. I’m surprised more folks are not concerned with the privacy implications of the patents-Open Profile Content Identification, Custodian Based Content Identification, and Related Entity Content Identification seem to be geared towards allowing Google to “find patterns in users’ profiles, pages, and friend lists in order to better target ads to them.”

These findings and more are available on my stumbleupon account (afhill). Feel free to friend me there!

Related posts:

1. What’d I Miss? Top findings from 11-24 to 11-30
2. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12-22 – 12-28
3. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12-29 – 01-04

1. During the Great Thesis Black Friday Sale of 2008, I purchased a developer’s licence for the thesis blog theme. I transitioned “Go the Distance” (my running blog) to thesis, and am working on some other projects as well. It’s been been interesting to learn the ‘best practices’ for customizing this powerful theme, and one of my first finds was a tutorial by Sugarrea, entitled “Thesis Tutorial – Hooks For Dummies. The tips she gives are quite basic, but they helped to lay the foundation I can use to make further mods.
2. In doing some research for an upcoming presentation on social media and emergency preparation, I came across an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education about using Facebook and MySpace to engage with college students during emergencies. Many colleges already have one-way systems to reach students at critical times, but this idea opens up the lines of communication so that students can contribute, AND it uses a platform the youth already use. Brillant!
3. Does the image to the right look familiar? A little like tweetdeck, perhaps? Surprise, it’s browser-based PeopleBrowsr, currently in alpha. PeopleBrowsr pulls in your contacts from numerous services (twitter, linkedIn, friendfeed, youtube, flickr, seesmic and more) and allows you to monitor all their goings-on. I’ll admit, I liked the ability to view contacts through larger versions of their avatars; it was actually enjoyable to look at my followers and check in on their activities.
4. Fellow Canadian Joel Kelly reminds us all that Social Media is NOT its Networks. Yes, it’s great that people are starting to realize the potential of social media. Yet for many folks, social media refers to specific sites or services (focusing on tactics rather than strategy). Joel states it clearly:
   

   In the phrase Social Media, “social” is the keyword. The media is interchangeable.

5. Avinash Kaushik posts some great career advice for folks in the web analytics field: Analytics Career Advice:”I am an Analytics God, I want more $$. How?”. Although analytics aren’t my strong suit, the article calls out some significant considerations for anyone working in a technical role: is your future more technical or business-oriented? Do you want to be an individual contributor or team leader? He then calls out the advancement opportunities based on those criteria.

Related posts:

1. What’d I Miss? Top findings from 11-24 to 11-30
2. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12/15 – 12/21
3. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12-29 – 01-04

No unifying theme for this week’s findings-

1. I found Faris Yakob’s post on Spreadable Media via Noah Brier’s blog. Spreadable Media argues that the use of the term “viral” for content we wish to have spread via social media is “a complete inversion of the viral model.” Or as Faris puts it,

   This metaphor is very seductive and very hard to get rid of… It implies all you need to do is create something that is ‘viral’ enough and it spreads through populations like, well, a virus – it self-propagates.

   This is simply untrue.

   What we mean when something goes ‘viral’ is that LOTS OF PEOPLE CHOOSE TO PROPAGATE IT. It requires people to do something. Voluntarily. For their own reasons.

   I have struggled with this notion in discussing “making something viral”: putting something on youtube or allowing it to be easily shared will not guarantee it will be spread. If something is worthy of sharing, people will make the effort to do so: the challenge is not in facilitating sharing, it’s in making something worthy to share.

2. WebUser, the UK’s best selling internet magazine, shares a story we’ve heard again and again – that social media is increasingly more effective in covering breaking news. The article “Mumbai attacks lead to web frenzy” outlines the speed with which information regarding the attacks was spread via twitter and blogs. I’ll admit twitter is how I heard of the attacks myself. Mibazaar pulled together this poignant mash-up of information from youtube, twitter ad google maps.
   Technology also comes into play on the other side of this tragedy: it’s been stated that the terrorists used Google Earth to familiarize themselves with their target.
3. On November 11th, I heard of Google Flu Trends, a system that used aggregated search queries to estimate flu activity. Two weeks later, Google was urged to disclose how the service worked, out of privacy concerns. Pssst, Google has been storing information related to our search queries for awhile now, this is just a instance where it was being applied for the good of the general public.
4. I found my twitter type thanks to Chris Heilmann of wait-till-i.com. Chris pulled together some magic with PHP and google charts to make it perfectly clear:
   
5. Another great find was the Liberated Accessibility presentation that Chris gave recently. My favorite slide is one that calls out the typical accessibility presentation at a conference, and why they’re rarely well attended: “the consultant, explaining that accessibility is the law and that you will get sued if you don’t follow the guidelines”. Although I’m no longer actively involved in pushing forward web accessibility initiatives at my work I still feel very strongly about it. I hope we can get beyond the misconceptions to a happy world where an accessible site is not considered a degraded experience.
   Liberated Accessibility

Related posts:

1. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12/15 – 12/21
2. What’d I Miss? Top findings from 12-01 to 12-07
3. What’d I Miss? Top Findings from 12-29 – 01-04

Ok, so generally weekly wrap-ups happen on Friday.. but what are you going to do with new information on Friday, when your brain is already shutting down? Here’s a “things to talk about Monday morning at the water cooler” post—things I learned last week. Interestingly enough, all mobile-related..

1. The google search application for the iPhone now has speech recognition. This is one of those features that makes SO MUCH SENSE for an application on a phone. I’ll admit, my first trial with the service was less than perfect: “directions to Mr. Biggs” was interpreted as “directions to students”, but the concept is great.
   Of course, it’s even more noteworthy because there is some controversy around the app. Earlier in the week I’d read that the google app uses undocumented APIs to sense when the phone is lifted to your ear. At the time, I wasn’t even aware of the voice search feature. Now it all makes sense. Currently, other applications operate only when the screen is away from the user’s face; they are essentially like standard computer applications. The ability to leverage the fact that the user is on a phone with voice capabilities is pretty significant and may signal a whole new wave of applications… provided, of course, that Apple allows others to use these undocumented APIs too.
2. In John Batelle’s 2005 book the Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, he mentions a time when we will be able to go into a store, find a product and do comparison shopping using a moble device. I think the creators of the SnapTell app read that book. Snap a picture of a product, and it will identify it and find ratings and prices online.
3. Get your own SMS business card at contxts.com. Last Wednesday I was at the Mile High Social Media Club where I met Danny Newman. Rather than both of us pulling out our phones to exchange contact info, he told me to text “daniel” to 50500. I received back a text message with his details, and a link to contxts.com. It appears Danny (CEO of ID345) has set up this system, likely to show off some of the capabilities of his Radius MS offering.
4. I admit it, I’m wooed by integration. When LinkedIn announced they were letting a few applications into their mix, I checked them out. I hadn’t heard of Tripit before, but decided to check them out since they were basically endorsed by LinkedIn.
   Tripit can help individuals manage their own travel plans, and share that information with others (trusted others via the Tripit network, or everyone via a public badge). One of the most useful features of tripit is its ability to cull your travel details from a forwarded email – you can then access your travel details via your phone. I’m very excited about this, as I have a tendency NOT to print out my travel arrangements before heading to the airport. Tripit manages to achieve two things: increases personal productivity and facilitates in-person connection.

Related posts:

1. Why I Switched from an iPhone to the Nexus One
2. What’d I Miss? Top findings from 11-24 to 11-30
3. Have iPhone, Will Travel