I’ve been looking through some papers recently and discovered a number of companies that are taking social networking into a physical environment. 

Cityware  use bluetooth enabled devices to bridge social networking into the physical environment. Users build a profile through an application on ‘Facebook’ and register their bluetooth identifier number. ‘Cityware’ can then display the users encounters with other ‘Cityware’ users. If a user recognizes a device then they can tag it – this links it to a ‘Facebook’ account and that of the owners account. 

Imity is a similar project, but draws its influences from Bruce Sterlings ‘Spimes’ and Julian Bleeckers ‘Blogjects’.  Sterlings idea is that of objects becoming networked – an internet of things – whilst Bleeckers ‘Blogjects’ places objects into everyday conversation via blogs. ‘Imity’ is described as 

 

Devices seen are “socially activated” through tagging and a public guest book/comment system – and the server responds to observations with data about the devices seen relevant to the observing client, e.g. shared history, previous tags and comment history. Through the shared recordings of all signed up users of Imity, the server is able to construct a shared digital historyfor the devices seen. We use this shared history to build context for our users (Practical ubiquity with mobile phones, Claus Dahl)

 

 

‘Imity’ also brings up questions such as “How deep is our social relationship with the device? Is this a device we only meet during working hours, a chance encounter we have seen only one?” (Practical ubiquity with mobile phones, Claus Dahl)

By attempting to bridge online social networking into the physical environment, we are able to change our relationships with each other and the devices we carry with us. Firstly, it moves people from their their computer screen and into real world interactions. Secondly, it’s a more memorable experience than mobile social network already being used (Facebook mobile and ‘bebo’ mobile to name a couple). Thirdly, it also sets people up for more ‘chance encounters’ with people they may not normally speak to. One ‘physical social network’ matches people together who share similar interests. When these people are within range of each other (the service works via bluetooth) the users phone vibrates shortly to alert the users of the people they don’t know, but probably should (Social Serendipity: Mobilizing Social Software, Nathan Eagle, Alex Pentland, 2005).

This is a quick and incomplete roundup of four different approaches to what I call the “social phone”. It would have been five in number but Zyb went and acquired Imity not long before being acquired itself by Vodafone. Rather than have a prolonged discussion of what I mean by social phone, let’s just take a look.

SkyDeck: At first blush this looks like a phone bill analysis tool (which indeed it is), which sounds pretty boring. However, we all know that my real social network most likely exists in my phone contacts and call history. Who do I call most often? Who do I text? Whose calls do I ignore? Who do I talk to the most (most minutes) as opposed to call most often? You can figure out quite a bit about your own social graph by analysing you call and text records, and in the way of Web 2.0, you can get significant added value if that data can be shared in a controlled way. SkyDeck adds value by crunching the call and text data for you, and that analysis can be valuable and informative. A great example of some of the value-add that can be brought to your CDRs buried in your operator.

Android: I mention Android here because one of the radical things about Android is the ability to customise everything – including the contact list and the dialler. The possibilities here are very interesting, and we’ve touched on them before, such as: branded phones that come with built-in contacts for (say) 50Cent (“Call him anytime and leave him a message – he’ll text you when he’s playing in your neighbourhood”), location-aware phonebook that can display people in your phonebook who are “nearby”, contact lists that can arrange themselves by “most called”, or “most called when I’m in this city”, and so on. Take a look at the Android Challenge first round for a great initial set of ideas around making the phone social.

Zyb: These guys had a very interesting progression, from backing up your contacts to the cloud, to letting you “connect” to other people in your address book also using Zyb, to adding more and more social aspects to the phone book (shouts, photos, twitter-like microblogging features and so on). In addition, they acquired Imity which used Bluetooth to help bring your contact list alive, and to tell you when other contacts (using Imity) are nearby. A great example of linking some real-world proximity solution with your contacts for value-add. Now part of Vodafone, it’ll be fascinating to see if the Zyb service morphs in to a prime-time offering from Vodafone. Hope so

Jaiku: Lots of people seem to have written Jaiku off, as nothing too much has happened since they were acquired by Google. I haven’t. One of the more fascinating elements of what Jaiku had done was to create a much more social phone book for (admittedly only Nokia) phones than Nokia, including Imity-style features but much, much more. I expect to see some of this functionality re-emerge with gusto and verve whenever Jaiku formally opens for business again. I suspect that when they do, it’ll be timed to coincide with other announcements from Google around Android, Handsets and so on. Just seems logical that this would be the case.

Twelve months from now, my contacts list or phone book in my phone will let me know when people are near, prioritise people I call most often, provide a way to “nudge” or “ping” people to see if they’re up for a call without having to text or barge in on them by calling, and offer options for auto-updating lifestreams online based on who I’m with and where I am (“Sean and Joe were in the pub for three hours. Hmmmm”)

Can’t wait

Finally, a wireless company makes a smart acquisition. Vodafone has acquired Danish wireless address book company Zyb, whose service I have often used to keep my growing array of mobile phones synchronized, for 31.5 million euros, or roughly $49 million. Zyb had raised around $4.7 million in VC funds, with Nordic Venture Partners the biggest investor. This deal is also another win for Morten Lund, who was an early investor not just in Zyb but in Skype.

Vodafone is making a lot of noise about using Zyb’s social networking abilities for its mobile platform, but this is utter rubbish, and distracts from what Zyb is really good for: backing up your address book — a crucial service these days, given how quickly people switch their phones.

Zyb is the smartest way to keep your contacts up-to-date; it’s even (in some cases) a decent option for syncing your calendars. This will help boost customer satisfaction, thanks to seamless switching between phones. I hope Vodafone keeps it free and doesn’t revert to the carrier philosophy of greed-before customer happiness.

While Zyb’s acquisition by Vodafone dovetails with my long-standing belief that the real social network is the address book on our mobile phones, as things currently stand, Zyb is not the answer to Vodafone’s prayers. The company has its issues: Zyb’s downtime, for example, is worse that my pre-January 2008 track record of going to a gym. The company recently bought social networking company, Imity, but how that works out remains to be seen. Sure, Zyb has some average sharing features that allow you to send messages and photos. But as I said, a great connected address book — nothing more, and nothing less.

P.S.: Does anyone else find something intriguing about two address books companies being snapped up by telcos/broadband providers, specifically Vodafone buying Zyb and Comcast snapping up Plaxo? If this is a trend, who is the next to go, and where? Let the speculation begin.