Brainmesh is HiDef’s weekly get-together in which our team discusses technological innovations and trends, relating them to how they impact great causes such as nonprofits and social enterprises.
In this installment of Brainmesh: Social Skiing, Upcoming Tablets, Social Music Listening, and Game Thinking!
Social Skiing
Brad showed off Epic Mix as “that product we found after talking about how cool it would be to tag your ski experiences with geolocation.” Providing highly contextual ways for skiers to share their experience is a huge value proposition, since, as Adam has previously pointed out, skiers are quick to adopt new technologies, and things like Epic Mix are almost sure to succeed. Plus, Epic Mix is one more testament to the fact that if you are not “socializing” your experiences online, you are falling behind in terms of being able to engage your audience and help them to take action for your cause.
Upcoming Tablets… and Great Causes
Kemper brought up movement in the tablet sector with the announcement of products like the Samsung Galaxy. Since tablets came on the seen, we strongly feel they will revolutionize the way great causes engage donors, work on the ground, and collaborate together every day. It’s a “billion in one uses,” and nonprofits will benefit from probably, oh, at least half a million of those billion uses. Our team’s currently working on solutions that make these tablets into tools, not toys, and this type of work gets us all excited. Bottom line is that we feel the larger mobile format will enrich experiences currently on the smaller screens, while rendering obsolete many applications that chain us to a laptop or desktop.
Social Network for Music – iTunes Ping
T.J. talked first impressions of iTunes Ping, and that led to conversations about Apple TV as well. We feel Ping gives great causes that have a musical/multi-media component another great way to engage their communities. If you are a great cause, it’s time to think about podcasting again as a way to establish community for the multimedia generation. With Ping, you’d be able to distribute the podcast via iTunes and then “like,” “follow,” and do all the other social goodies that come with a nice network.
Game Thinking in Application Design
Zach points out that the upcoming Game Center, built right into iOS, is a tie-in that many nonprofits and social enterprises who have applications should consider.
We talk a lot at HiDef about how building game thinking into applications is becoming essential for ensuring good user experiences. We don’t feel every important task needs to become a game, but we do recognize that “game thinking” will generally bring important ideas to the surface for how great causes can engage people more deeply.
