This Halloween writer Neil Gaiman would like to start a whole new spooky tradition — he wants all of us to give and receive scary books. Called All Hallow’s Read, the new ritual Gaiman is championing is extremely simple. Each year, participants give a friend, or a neighborhood kid, or a stranger a scary book to read. It’s so simple (and easy) it might just work, especially if the small army of Gaiman fans picks it up and runs with the new tradition.
One of the hidden gems of Tuesday’s Google+ update is the Hangouts API, which allows third-party developers to build apps for the group video chat platform.
Developers will, for instance, be able to integrate videos from sites like Vimeo into Hangouts and allow users to watch them simultaneously. This could not only be a big boost for Hangouts and Google+, but also take social video watching online to the next level.
The API was announced on the Google+ platform blog:
“Today we’re launching the Developer Preview of the Hangouts API, another small piece of the Google+ platform. It enables you to add your own experiences to Hangouts and instantly build real-time applications, just like our first application, the built-in YouTube player.”
The current developer preview limits access to apps to a pre-defined group of users, and a few first examples include simple apps like a voting gadget. However, one only has to take a closer look at the built-in YouTube player to get a sense of how powerful this API can be. The player synchronizes YouTube videos, making it possible to watch clips with friends while also video chatting with them. If a user skips to the next video, that action is automatically relayed to the other participants.
Of course, the same functionality could also be utilized by other video platforms, or even by third-party developers who could make use of publicly available APIs to show videos from sites like Vimeo within Hangouts. Asked about this in a Google+ comment thread today, Hangouts API Product Lead Amit Fulay said: “Yes, you can write an app for Vimeo videos.” He added that apps have to comply with the Google+ developers terms of service, which forbid the use of some types of content.
The implications of this are pretty profound. I’ve long argued that Hangouts could take social interaction around online video to the next level by allowing users to talk to each other in real time, just as you would with family and friends in your living room. The Hangouts API now makes this possible for a wide range of video services, which could bring live sports streams hosted on Ustream or similar sites, or even TV content from sites like Hulu to Hangouts.
Of course, services would have to agree to work within the Google+ framework, but that shouldn’t be a show-stopper for many. Facebook is expected to launch social video integration with Hulu and other partners on Thursday, and it would only make sense for video platforms to embrace Google+ as well.
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Gamification is growing up. First it’s got its own conference, a new certification program and now consolidation. BigDoor, a gamified loyalty platform, is announcing that it’s buying up web check-in rewards provider OneTrueFan.
The purchase price was not disclosed but BigDoor CEO and co-founder Keith Smith believes it’s the first big acquisition in the gamification space and shows that there’s growing momentum behind companies looking to add game mechanics. Or it could mean that the opportunity is not just big enough yet to support a host of players. Time will tell.
Seattle-based BigDoor got started in 2009 and has been one of the leaders in the gamification space along with Badgeville and Bunchball. It has several hundred clients who are using a free product to add badges, levels, leaderboards and loyalty programs to promote engagement. By scooping up San Francisco-based OneTrueFan, it can reach thousands of more websites that have installed OneTrueFan’s web check-in tools. It also gets a big social component from OneTrueFan, which rewards visitors with points and badges for sharing content on social networks.
Smith said BigDoor is poised to release a new product called Engagement Economy next month that will incorporate technology from OneTrueFan, which will also continue on its current form for now. Engagement Economy will reward visitors for participation with virtual currency from publishers, which can be redeemed, and BigDoor will take a cut of that. The company will also implement quests sponsored by advertisers, who will pay to have consumers complete certain tasks on a site.
Smith said while some detractors still roll their eyes at the term “gamification,” it is actually paying off for companies that employ it. He said publishers who participated in a private beta of Engagement Economy found that participants are 300 percent more likely to return to the site than those who don’t use a loyalty program, and their overall engagement increases on site by 30 percent. And he said there’s a 200 percent increase in sharing by users of BigDoor’s reward programs.
“There’s an incredible need by publishers and the web community for increased engagement on site and to give people reasons to come back,” Smith said. “We’ve been shocked at how positive the response has been from the marketpace for our product offering. It’s a sign that gamification and our program is in massive demand.”
BigDoor not only picks up a potential competitor but also acquires a solid team of entrepreneurs. OneTrueFan is founded by Eric Marcoullier and Todd Sampson, who co-founded social network MyBlogLog before selling it to Yahoo. Marcoullier also co-founded gaming site IGN.com in 1996 and social data provider Gnip in 2008. Sampson also co-founded Cloudspace in 1996. OneTrueFan has previously raised .2 million from Dave McClure, Jeff Clavier, First Round Capital, David Cohen and Bob Pasker. BigDoor last year raised million from Foundry Group, bringing its total to .7 million.
I’ve pointed out some of the pitfalls of gamification when implemented haphazardly, but I think it’s more than just hype. These days it’s all about engagement, whether on websites or in apps, and the fact is a certain amount of people respond to game mechanics. It might be manipulative or shallow at times, but when done well, with hopefully tangible rewards, it can really motivate people. We’ll have to see if BigDoor can take its acquisition of OneTrueFan and make good on this opportunity.
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Consider this: managers spend between 30 to 80 percent of their time in meetings and more than 50 percent of them consider many meetings to be a “waste of time.” Ninety percent of managers attribute the failure of most meetings to a “lack of planning and organization,” and most managers have never been trained on how to host a productive meeting. When you add in the complexity of leveraging the Internet for hosting distributed meetings online, it is even more difficult to ensure a successful result. Without some amount of preparation and planning, remote team members can feel disconnected, disregarded and even unwelcome in meetings.
At oDesk, our in-house full-time employees work from home at least one day a week, and we’re regularly collaborating with a team of about 250 remote contractors who act as a crucial extension of our internal team. This has forced us to study how to make meetings work for all involved.
We’ve found there are three steps to a successful online meeting:
We started by defining the roles involved in making a remote meeting work: the organizer, coordinator, presenter(s) and attendees. Each role has its responsibilities to the team, and by defining those roles, we’re able to ensure accountability for each meeting’s success and seek out ways to continually improve the remote meeting experience. Adopting these roles has allowed us to make sure members of a distributed team are as active, included, and productive during a meeting as those who are on-site.
Someone needs to make sure the meeting will accommodate all participants. The format of the meeting will largely depend on the needs of the group and the goals of the meeting. The meeting organizer works with the presenter to ensure that the right format is chosen and prepared ahead of time.
Presenters must remember to take into account the remote participants. When you’re explaining concepts or an initiative to a distributed team, will there be visual aids? Do you intend to show something on a computer screen? Does it need to be seen live, as you manipulate it, or can you send a copy of the material, such as a PowerPoint presentation, to remote participants so they can follow along? Prior to the meeting, the presenter should work with the meeting organizer to make sure they—and the facility—are prepared technically to present via local projection and remote platforms.
During the meeting, presenters should:
Identify a coordinator before the meeting. This person makes sure that the technical side runs smoothly and is prepared to respond to challenges as they arise. The meeting coordinator can also be the organizer, but should not be a presenter. If presentations are being made from more than one location, there should ideally be a coordinator in each place. Also, the coordinators should be members of the department presenting the meeting, to ensure that they’ll understand the material being presented, even if they’re distracted by the on-the-fly back-end management.
During the meeting, the coordinator:
Attendees have a role to play in keeping the meeting running smoothly, as well. They’re responsible for:
Often a simple phone call and speakerphone is sufficient, but make sure any printed material, such as an agenda, is also shared with remote participants before the meeting. Depending on your presentation needs, more involved platform options include:
Whatever platform you choose, adapt your presentation to the platform’s strengths (don’t try to present a PowerPoint over a direct-dial phone call), and make sure that everyone is prepared. Check in with remote attendees afterward to make sure they had a positive experience, and work on ironing out wrinkles as they’re identified.
At oDesk, we’ve been refining our techniques for years, and we’re progressing toward meetings that are every bit as easy as having everyone under the same roof — sometimes even easier. More importantly, we’ve made sure that our remote workers are able to fully contribute to our success at least as well as if they were in our office. Which is the whole point of what we do, after all.
Gary Swart is CEO of oDesk. He has more than 17 years’ experience leading remote and local teams as an executive at Intellibank, IBM and Pure Software.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik
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YouTube is closely integrating Google’s Hangouts group video chat platform with its live streaming in an effort to make video watching more social. The site has already quietly begun to make live video feeds available to Hangouts users, and will eventually add tools to improve discovery of live streams both within Hangouts and on YouTube.com, I was told by YouTube Live Product Manager Brandon Badger this week.
Hangouts has been joined at the hip with YouTube ever since the chat platform launched as part of Google+ at the end of June. Hangouts users can launch YouTube videos right from within the group video chat, and up to ten participants can watch the same video simultaneously.
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So far, only recorded videos have been featured within Hangouts, but Badger is going to officially reveal at Vidcon in Los Angeles Saturday afternoon that users can easily watch live streams together as well (check out a step-by-step guide in the box on the right if you want to try this yourself).
The current method of manually searching for live video feeds is somewhat cumbersome, but YouTube is actively working on a much closer integration. Soon, it will feature ongoing live streams within the YouTube tab of Hangouts. The next step after that will be to directly integrate Hangouts into YouTube pages for live streams. “We would show you some of the available public Hangouts,” Badger told me during a phone conversation, adding that these Hangouts would be featured right next to a live stream.
A final component will be personalization: Imagine you’re going to watch a soccer game live on YouTube.com, and you can immediately see which of your friends have joined up in a Hangout to watch the same game. Badger couldn’t give me any time line for the integration of these features, but he assured me: “It’s something we’ve been working on.”
Live streaming providers have long experimented with audience participation, and a number of platforms now offer integration of Facebook and Twitter live feeds during events that are broadcasted live online. YouTube has in the past experimented with this as well, and Badger said live streams regularly provoke more commenting than prerecorded YouTube videos.
The face-to-face interaction of Hangouts takes this type of interaction one step further. Users are able to talk to each other in real time while watching a sports game, a concert or a newscast, much as if they were sitting on the couch together. The limited nature of Hangouts — only ten users can chat with each other at a given time — also adds a sense of intimacy that’s lacking from a Twitter or Facebook feed.
However, the ten-person-limit has also been a point of contention, especially around popular Hangouts. Some users have already taken matters into their own hands to circumvent the limit. When musician Daria Musk had her first Hangouts concert two weeks ago, users simply daisy-chained multiple Hangouts to offer more than ten people to join in on the fun.
Musk’s second concert was streamed live on Hangoutparty.com, a site that has since been offering live screencasts of other Hangouts as well. Badger didn’t have any specifics to share about similar options offered by YouTube itself, but he said his team is certainly aware of the phenomenon: “We have definitely seen lot of demand to live stream Hangouts.”
Image courtesy of Flickr user kevindooley.
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The Wired.com video team braves the crowds at Comic-Con International to find out who’s sporting the most interesting and relevant tattoos. From videogames and comics to film and art, this year’s participants tell the stories behind their proudly inked appendages.