• chat widget
• revenue share

UserPlane Boards—a realtime forum

• API

Widgets and Monetization

• Build – create right widget for you and your users
• Distribute – get your widget out there
• Analyze – can’t see
• Monetize – can’t see

Build

• Define your goals
  • (What do you want the widget to do for you?)
• Understand customer appeal and value
• What will the widget do (functionality)
• Personalization
• Performance

Distribute

• Your site
• Galleries
• Snag / Grab / Copy
• Social
• Scale

Analyze

• Understand how your widget is being used and improve…
• Once your widget is out there, what tools will you use to understand how users are engaging with your widget? You should be asking questions like:
  • How many people are using your widget day-to-day?
  • Where are users coming from?
  • What environment are they using?

Monetize

• Widgets as Ads

• Ads Within Widget

• Transactional Widgets (widgets that facilitate money transfer?)

hehe.

The FOWA people provided bag lunches with:

• a sandwich
• potato chips
• a cookie

They also provided soft drinks.

After lunch, we found a table to sit at and worked on MetaNotes.

intro

Cognitive Seduction 3.5

• Legacy Brain (not your friend)
  • How do we get through to users?
• Chemistry
  • The short path is to get people to feel something.
• What makes people feel?
  • Scary
  • Novelty
  • Surprises
  • Cuteness
  • Joy
  • Mystery (things that are not fully resolved)
  • Thrill
    • Diane Ackerman—Deep Play
• Key Point: LEGACY BRAIN (cater to it)
• haha
• Where there is passion, ...there is a user “kicking ass”.
• (Sideways—wine snob movie?)
• Being better is better. (Nobody is passionate about something you suck at.)
  • Suck Threshold vs. Passion Threshold
  • Get your users past the passion threshold as soon as possible. (That’s our job.)
• But it’s not about the tools we build.
• It’s not about being a “tool” expert.
• It’s about what our tools let them DO.
• Usability is merely a prerequisite.
• What do you help your users kick ass at?

Why are you here?

• In the beginning, there was the waterfall…. (requirements don’t change)
• then the spiral (requirements do change)
• then rapid? (requirements? lol)
• TELEPATHY DRIVEN DESIGN
• Design by Mind Reading
• Facial expressions are important.
• Movement is important.
• Mirror neurons allow us to run simulations of another person’s brain.
• Key: It’s not about reasoning.
• In order to understand your users, you have to (physically) see them.
• We need:
  • Prior Experience
  • Careful Observation
• Bad news: You must observe “live” users.
• Good news: It’s very powerful.
• Give your app a way to know they are confused.
• Add a “WTF?” button. ;-)
• remember, even if your tool is easy, what about the thing they do with the tool? (people can still be confused.)
• The point is to let users express their confusion.
• Touch matters.

The Architecture Behind WordPress.com

• Scaling
  • Platform
  • Business
  • Community
  • People

• Don’t underestimate spam

Scaling Platform

• Matt’s Magic Mini-Cluster
• 7 Boxes = $1500/month
• 2 Load Balancers
  • Any CPU
  • 2 GB memory
  • Any disk
  • Pound + Wackamole + Spread
• 2 Databases
  • Any CPU
  • 4 GB memory
  • Fast disks, RAID
  • Master + Slave MySQL setup
• 3 Webs
  • Fast CPU
  • 2 GB memory
  • Any disks
  • Well-configured $Web_Server

• HyperDB – wordpress’ db layer – only thing that’s fancy
• put everything in subversion (or some source control system)
• Be stateless
• memcached

Scaling Community

• (bootstrap your community by being your own most passionate user)
• institutionalize serendipity
• let people personalize
• http://ma.tt/about

Scaling Business

• Upgrades
• He advocates against flat rates.
• He likes a-la-carte style (...like a good buffet).
  • But it didn’t quite work.
• Ads
  • Only show ads to certain users.
• VIP

Scaling People

• Great People = Rich Environment + Worthwhile Problems
• Passion for (the) Space
• Personality Fit
• Ability to Learn / Curiosity
• Familiarity with Technology (don’t over-emphasize)
• Taste (you can’t really teach this)
• Say No (if you get any red flags)
• Firing is hard, but don’t put it off.

Scaling Brand

• P&G White == Ivory (proctor and gamble)
• Words are Important

The past, present and future of the UI for Distributed Applications

this was a sun commercial

The Future of Social Networks

Brian

• The Problem with Social Networks
• Make them work together! (like the web)
• Work like the web—Small pieces loosely joined.
  • Simplicity
  • Modularity
  • Decentralization
• Why don’t social networks work like this today?
• Identity Management is a big issue.
  • Your identity
  • The identity of your friends

• How can we make social networks work together?
  • microformats
  • rss
  • oauth
  • openid
  • creative commons licensing

Tantek

• XFN
• hCard
• The Social Graph API is an API for the whole web.
• The next big step is to import and subscribe your relationship information.

Joseph

• Being open has been very good for Plaxo.
• impressive aggregation of identity.
• We are on the cusp of the Social Web.
  • The pie is about to get a lot bigger.
• (Plaxo has been around for 6 years, even before social networking took off.)
• Innovation happens when you don’t have to ask permission.
• You don’t have to be more public, but you CAN.
  • (this was a concen of mine)

The Evolution of Web Applications: They’re Not Just for the Web Anymore

Building The Real-Time Web

The Future of Web Services

Launch a Web App in 40 Minutes

Upcoming web-apps from Microsoft…

• 3D mapping app
  • “Use Google Maps!”—heckler from the crowd
• photosynth
  • This was actually kinda cool.

How to Grow a Community in The Future

with complimentary wine for the crowd.

What Makes the Next Great Startup?

1. x
2. x
3. x
4. x
5. x
6. x
7. x
8. x
9. x
10. x
11. x
12. x

(The guy needs to work on his delivery.)

From the web, to the iPhone and beyond!

The Future of APIs

Lots of talk about OpenSocial and its implications.

During the Q&A session at the end, people expressed their concerns about privacy.

The Application of New Features to an Established Application

...

There was no way we could wake up in time for this.

It was good to see her back in action after her long hiatus.

It was great talking to you guys at the FOWA after party. Best of luck with MetaNotes! – luke from awesomehighlighter