CASE STUDY
WH OO TALK
March 16 - July 13 2010
INTRODUCTION
SCRATCHING THE SURFACE... I started out on this journey by asking a few questions. These questions were personal at first but then I noticed that the questions pervaded through to my outside world. Some of these questions were: why are a majority of people apathetic about politics? Why is the voter turnout so low in my country? These questions had easy answers when I asked other people’s opinions although they didn’t get to the root of the apathy. This project made me fine tune my questions in order to discover a reliable solution. WHOOTALK is the solution I was looking for and this case study documents how I got there.
- Mark Smith
Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School © 2010 All Rights Reserved
“The public’s business should be done in public.” Informing Communities - Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age
A WHOOT is an... -Opinion -Question -Statement or -idea
...that people from around the world reply with...
AGREEor DISAGREE...
OO
...when the replies hit the whoots number of target responses...
...the people of the world collaborate and organize a next step of action.
WH OO T
many pe
WH OO T
TALK
eople.
Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School Š 2010 All Rights Reserved
Worldwide Human Operation for Organization and Transformation
RESEARCH
WH
BAHH...DON’T EVEN BOTHER. IT’S POLITICS!
I spent over a month getting to the cause of people’s apathy towards politics. Then it occurred to me that politics is COLLECTIVE DECISION MAKING.
H OO TA
TALK
RESEA
ARCH
Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School Š 2010 All Rights Reserved
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
THERE MUST BE OTHERS OUT THERE
Through my research I came to some conclusions revolving around people and politics.They tend to shun their attention away from the conversation when the word is spoken.Each of the individuals interviewed mention that they keep seeing mistakes repeated. Politicians are not listening to the public and are making decisions behind closed doors. I found this is a common opinion and obvious to many people.
When I asked what could be done to improve politics most people mentioned transparency and accountability. There was also a request that trended an improved way of voting that could be real-time. The important thing people cared about most is what is in their immediate surroundings and not what doesn’t impact themselves,family and friends directly. From reading a variety of materials I discovered that many people suffer from a self-induced form of attention deficit disorder. The amount of information people take in on a daily basis allows only for so much focus on details. This shallow depth many of us participate in becomes routine and a habit for the content we come across on the web. In order for new things to catch these peoples attention the system must take shape in a non-linear, short-lived experience so that they are PERSONA DEVELOPMENT hooked and engaged enough to come back for more.
LET ME REMEMBER YOU
“We have started questioning our collective values.” -The Age of Stupid
BR A
TH INK IN S
Jumping
TO RM IN G
.JU
ST
into the deep end I allowed myself to think up as many ideas as possible, giving each perspective a chance. Once all of the weak ideas fell away I focused my questions again. How do we as a culture unify around a common idea and take action when we are immersed in an endless stream of information that divides our attention on a daily basis?
DO
IT!
All we need to do is agree or disagree.
OO
Informing Communities - Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age
We need “...a vision for ‘informed communities.’ Paramount in this vision are the critical democratic values of openness, inclusion, participation, empowerment, and the common pursuit of truth and the public interest.”
OO OO
“Let’s focus to create something great, for all that sees them. They innocent, they know not what they face. While politicians save face genius minds lay to waste.” -Guru[RIP]. Gangstarr. Robbin Hood Theory
Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School Š 2010 All Rights Reserved
OO How do people coordinate around an idea like this? WHOOTALK provides a way similar to the “like� button. All you need to do is Agree or Disagree.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
TIME TO OPEN UP SHOP!
I needed to visualize my solution. Some of the steps along the way were: Context Scenarios, Userflows, Functional Specifications, Feature Matrix, Site Structure, Storyboarding and Wireframing.
Informing Communities - Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age
“Unless people, armed with information, engage with their communities to produce a positive effect, information by itself is powerless.�
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the [public] is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” -Edward Bernays Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School © 2010 All Rights Reserved
“Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation.� -Richard M. Nixon
FINAL MOCKUPS
ALRIGHT I’M READY, BRING IT ON!
After crystallizing the concept with the interaction design process, I developed pixel-perfect mockups that are ready for development. The result is a website that integrates geolocation and social media together. It directly informs the persona with real-time information relevant to the context of the person with the ability to receive and transmit information easily with others. This is a delibertate tool for activism and change.
SEEK THEM OUT
The goal is to find out which ideas, questions, and opinions are the most talked about. When everybody is aware that this is an issue of importance, the goal is to find out how to tend to the issue. The initiator calls for a next step of action to collectively solve the problem with the people involved.
Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School Š 2010 All Rights Reserved
Transparency Transparency
Accountability Accountability
BRILLIANT IDEAS
People rally around things with others that have common interests. The place where this happens the most is social media. Within this medium there is unlimited amounts of information at their fingertips, so there needs to be a system that allows them to quickly find things that they care about and allow them to leave the website right away. When they do come back, others are coming back and triggering “group think�. This gradual multi-step process doesn’t ask for too much from the users and gives them time to think.
A website that speaks in flow with users’ divided attention spans asks for attention only now and then. Collective involvement around ideas and questions that matter the most to the people within their immediate environments that are followed through with action.
COMMON CONSENSUS
Once a majority of people they have agreed or disa act on, the communi contributed sugg survey, simila initiate a co actions c event Th
have all agreed that the issue agreed on is important enough to ity then initiates a next step. From all gestions the initiator can conduct a ar to voting and referendums, or they can ollective physical or virtual action. These can be artistic, environmental, or a community t. hese steps of next action ask for the people involved to be accountable for their involvement. Points are gained on WHOOTALK by agreeing and disagreeing to whoots, and following through on actions. These points are rewarded by uploading a picture or video that shows that you did it. Points are also rewarded for verification.
“We no longer have to be alone with opinions and ideas.� Mark Smith
Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School Š 2010 All Rights Reserved
WHOOTALK finds out who WALKS THEIR TALK.
Thank you to my mentor Brad Ando for helping me through the whole design process. Special thanks to Brett Forsyth, Dana Boyd, Mashable, Ghassan Naji, Drew Hutchinson, Matthew Lawless, Nick Lenko, Victoria Hall, Elizabeth Cooper<3, Randy Smith, Lori Smith and Kelsie Smith.
GOODBYE AND THANKS FOR LISTENING Nearing the end of creating the interface for this project I watched “Coalition of the Willing” This film described a Catalyst System [“To coordinate these sites we need a Catalyst System – a social-networking site designed to crystallize the global movement for change. You’re familiar with MySpace and Facebook. Now imagine a social-networking site designed to put you in touch with real-world projects, locally, nationally and all over the planet. There is GPS technology giving you a graphic representation of where projects are located in your region. You can zero-in to find out more about the people involved. Impressed by an idea you got from the Open Innovation Centre and want to try putting it to work? Use the classified feature to find grants and sponsors, then link up with like minded people and not-forprofits campaigning for change.”] I was shocked at how similar this catalyst system was to WHOOTALK. It almost seemed as if the creators of the short film thought up this same idea at around same time I had. I believe that WHOOTALK is one of these catalyst systems and I hope you do too. Check out the video at http://vimeo.com/12772935.
OO The owl is associated with wisdom and foresight. This is largely due to the fact that the owl is the foreteller of weather conditions. It has the ability to see in the darkest of situations. Other traits the owl is associated with are transition, intelligence and protection.
interconnectedmediums@gmail.com www.smithsynapse.com
Mark Smith
WH OO TALK