See what's on the Someday screen

[cos]

Wiffiti got a new feature last week: Screen shots you can see on the web. If you go to wiffiti.com you can see all the currently active screens at the top. Here's the one at Someday:


(click on the thumbnail for a larger image where you can actually read all the text)

Right now these screen shots update about once a minute, so it's almost real time, though I expect as more screens go up the time between screen shot refreshes will go up. Anyway, now you can see what the people at Someday can see. Since you can send messages to the screen from your phone wherever you happen to be, I'm curious if this will lead to "conversation" of sorts between people at Someday and their friends (or strangers?) elsewhere.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I've noticed that the Wiffiti board is now much smaller than it used to be, and is now mounted high up on the wall instead of sitting on that table.

[julyana.livejournal.com]

This is such a bizarre concept.
*shakes head*

[cos]

So's LiveJournal :)
(and really, most of the rest of the Internet, too)

[julyana.livejournal.com]

true that.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

'I'm curious if this will lead to "conversation" of sorts between people at Someday and their friends (or strangers?) elsewhere.'

Oh good, I can see the headline now.

"Those too inept or awkward to strike up a conversation may have a 2-d solution"

[julyana.livejournal.com]

Exactly. This thing is awful. But that's just me.
I highly doubt in encourages verbal conversation.
Weird, because I know someone that worked on this product.

[cos]

I don't understand. I mean, here we are on LJ, having conversations with friends and strangers - does that mean we're too inept or awkward to strike up conversation face to face? I certainly am not. But I can't easily strike up a face to face conversation with someone at the Someday right now, because I'm 2 miles away.

What confuses me is that the sentence of mine that you're responding to, is the one where I specifically raised the possibility of this as a possible medium for conversation between people at the Someday and people elsewhere, rather than the possibility of it being used for conversation between people who are all at the Someday (that potential was already there, adding screen shots on the web doesn't create it).

[komos.livejournal.com]

. (http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb06/egos.html)

[komos.livejournal.com]

That aside, I'm not sure how it's more useful than texting someone who happens to be at the Someday directly. You're going to need the exact same equipment, and there's no need for the intermediary that, by web, refreshes infrequently.

I'm not sure either

[cos]

I'm not sure either, but the differences should be plainly obvious:

Texting someone who happens to be at Someday: You know exactly who you want to send a message to, they have a cell phone, you know its number, they may or may not be at Someday (you don't have to know), and the message is private.

Texting the Wiffiti screen: You don't necessarily know who you want to communicate with, you may want to communicate with more than one person, they may or may not have a cell phone, if they do then you may not know they number, they have to be at Someday, and the message is visible to everyone at Someday.

As for "more useful", that depends on what you're trying to do. Maybe, maybe not. I haven't thought of all the ways people might use this. I mean, is LiveJournal "more useful" or "less useful" than sending an email? Again, it depends on what you're trying to do. And when LiveJournal was new, I doubt anyone had thought of a lot of the ways people use it now.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

The last thing I want to see in a coffee shop, one of the last acceptable places for conversations between strangers, is a computer screen, is all.

[komos.livejournal.com]

Not near as obvious as you think...

I can already text to more than one person. It's as simple as putting more than one recipient on the to: list.

If I'm attempting to reach someone who does not have a cell phone, then the Wiffiti screen isn't going to provide a means for "coversation" so much as a one way announcement to the person in question. That is, unless they have some other way of texting back to the screen, in which case the two of you could be texting or otherwise communicating directly, again without the clunky intermediary.

Texting someone who's number you don't have might have uses, assuming that you happen to know that they are at the Someday, will be reading the screen, and have the means to respond in some fashion... except that if they have some means to respond, then the same thing could have been accomplished through that other channel without relying on the variables and the clunky interface.

And this leaves not knowing who you want to communicate with. This itself suggests one of two possible uses: a) you post to the board saying "Hi, it's Cos. Whoever is around, text me," which either requires the receiver to know your number already or requires you to put your number there, or b) you use it as a very slow chat.

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Great article. Not news to me, anyways, but good to remind people of the great amount of miscommunication inherent in electronic messages of various sorts

[julyana.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree.

[julyana.livejournal.com]

There's always the old school way of conversation. Getting up off of our asses, taking a few steps, sitting down next to someone and opening our mouths from which words come out.

Or even better, offering to buy someone a cup of coffee and striking up a conversation. Remember when we used to look into each other's eyes and gauge reactions and inflections?
But here we are, on LJ. And this is why there can be so much drama on here. We can't inflect or express things except through little smileys and shortened phrases.

Hey, I 'll meet you for a coffee and verbal conversation anyday, my friend.
:)
In case that was misinterpreted, the sideways smiley face represented a jovial expression.

[cos]

I find it interesting that you seem to have some very clear and specific ideas about what exactly people might want to use this screen for, and those ideas happen to be the very ones where you can explain why the screen isn't the right choice. My comment about LJ, above, wasn't just random - this conversation really is echoing a lot of what I remember people saying about LJ around 2000-2002.

[cos]

I actually hardly ever have drama on LJ, though I do see it happen to other people sometimes. Perhaps because I use LJ different. I don think it's interesting that people still seem to react to online discussion/communication/connection/social media as a) instead of in-person equivalents, and b) inferior to them.

I'd be quite happy to meet you for Coffee (capitalized because I won't actually drink coffee, but the concept of Coffee includes drinking non-coffee things :) I don't think I know you, but my email is in my userinfo.

[komos.livejournal.com]

You suggested that this could be used for a conversation between people at the Someday and others elsewhere. Since you've not offered any specific ideas as to how this would be accomplished, I explored several possibilities... which each appear to have better alternatives unless you're planning on having a slow public conversation or are just trolling the Someday for someone to talk to.

The LJ comparison may be valid insofar initial objections. Sill, LJ is fundamentally different in posts are mostly permanent and are grouped at a minimum by person, whereas the board is an ever changing environment with no particular grouping according to author/interest/whatever.

Seriously, though, if you have a clearer idea of how this might be useful as a conversation tool, please share. Based only on the vague conjecture that it could be used for conversation and then the lack of any real exploration of what that might look like or how the board might be a preferable medium to others already available to people who have the technology to post to it has left me less than convinced. If the differences in the mediums are "plainly obvious," then the board should have distinct advantages that will stand up to examination.