whootalk casestudy

WH TALKOOCASE STUDY

March 16 - July 13 2010

SCRATCHING THESURFACE...INTRODUCTION

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

SCRATCHING THESURFACE...

OO

A WHOOT is an...-Opinion-Question-Statement or-idea

AGREEor DISAGREE...

...that people from around the world reply with...

...when the replies hit the whoots number of target responses...

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...the people of the world collaborate and organize a next

step of action.

many people.

WH TALKOOWorldwide

Human

Operation for

Organization and

Transformation

WH TALKOO many people.

Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School © 2010 All Rights Reserved

WH TALKOOBAHH...DON’T EVENBOTHER. IT’SPOLITICS!

RESEARCH

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.

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WH TALKOO

BAHH...DON’T EVENBOTHER. IT’SPOLITICS!

RESEARCH

RESEARCH

Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School © 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.

PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

LET MEREMEMBER YOU

When I asked whatcould be done toimprove politicsmost 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 surroundingsand not what doesn’t impact themselves,familyand friends directly.

From reading a variety ofmaterials I discovered thatmany people suffer froma self-induced form of attentiondeficit disorder. The amount ofinformation people take in on a dailybasis allows only for so much focuson details. This shallow depth many of usparticipate in becomes routine anda habit for the content we comeacross on the web. In order fornew things to catch these peoplesattention the system must takeshape in a non-linear, short-livedexperience so that they arehooked and engaged enoughto come back for more.

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.

“We have started questioning our collective values.” -The Age of Stupid

THINK.JUST DO IT!

BRAINSTORMINGJumping into the deep end Iallowed myself to thinkup 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 takeaction when we are immersed in an endless streamof information that divides our attention on a daily basis?

OOAll we need to do isagree or disagree.

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.”

Informing Communities - Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age

OO

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“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 © 2010 All Rights Reserved

OOOOHow 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 OPENUP 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.

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.

SEEK THEM OUT

Mark Smith created this document at Vancouver Film School © 2010 All Rights Reserved

Transparency

Accountability

Transparency

Accountability

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.

BRILLIANT IDEAS

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 themost to the people within their immediate environments thatare followed through with action.

Once a majority of people have all agreed that the issue they have agreed or disagreed on is important enough to act on, the community then initiates a next step. From all contributed suggestions the initiator can conduct a survey, similar to voting and referendums, or they can initiate a collective physical or virtual action. These actions can be artistic, environmental, or a community event.

COMMON CONSENSUS

These 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.

Once a majority of people have all agreed that the issue they have agreed or disagreed on is important enough to act on, the community then initiates a next step. From all contributed suggestions the initiator can conduct a survey, similar to voting and referendums, or they can initiate a collective physical or virtual action. These actions can be artistic, environmental, or a community event.

COMMON CONSENSUS

These 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 © 2010 All Rights Reserved

WHOOTALK finds out who WALKS THEIR TALK.

Thank you to my mentor Brad Ando for helping methrough 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.

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-for-profits 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.

GOODBYE AND THANKS FOR LISTENING

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.

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WH TALKOO

Mark Smith

interconnectedmediums@gmail.comwww.smithsynapse.com

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