Still Hungry, Still Foolish

Sample of Nicolas Jaar’s freestyle collaborative set at...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:25:45 -0500

Sample of Nicolas Jaar’s freestyle collaborative set at MoMA PS1

Lost & found doesn’t have to suck.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:14:00 -0500

Lost & found doesn’t have to suck.

On Social Experiments

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:37:34 -0500

“Have an idea for a startup? Don’t launch a company, launch an experiment.” - @vacanti

Vin, from Yipit, wrote a great post suggesting entrepreneurs launch an experiment to prove their assumptions, before spending the cash and time building a product, a la the lean startup movement.

He had an idea, spent one day coding it (instead of six months), to realize consumers maybe weren’t so interested in that idea, so he could move on to the next. Eventually, his Yipit experiment tested well, and the rest is history.

At Phoundit, we have a similar mentality. It’s tricky to redesign lost & found.

Experiment - fail or validate - build. That’s the cycle. We’re always experimenting. Most importantly— we’re always moving. Because that’s the only way to solve big problems, after all.

So we were curious,

Are finders really keepers?

We dropped 100 stamped envelopes across New York City, with my name and address - at coffee shops, bars, street corners, all over the place! All a finder had to do was drop the found envelope in the closest mailbox. Nothing more, nothing less.

I was pleasantly surprised when 57 of them were returned to me. While this wasn’t the most scientific of experiments, I learned:

If made easy and actionable, quite a few people return what they find.

So that was an interesting insight. It was time run another social experiment. Like I said, we’re always experimenting - we’re just that curious.

Vin makes a great point - starting a company is scary. But when it’s an experiment, what do you have to lose?

*Thanks to my boy Alex Green for his help on this project

Oh, The Places You’ll Go (at Burning Man)

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:49:26 -0500

Oh, The Places You’ll Go (at Burning Man)

Our Take: Building Products From Improvised User Behavior

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:10:09 -0500

Sometimes, you just have to pay attention.

Chris Dixon wrote an interesting blog post, regarding products build from improvised user behavior. We highly recommend you read it for yourself, but to summarize, some of today’s most popular technology startups were born from current behavior already present in niche culture. A good example mentioned by Chris:

“For a long time, there were niche communities of “lo-fi” camera enthusiasts: people who shared photos taken on old cameras that had interesting ways of filtering shots. The iPhone app Hipstamatic popularized lo-fi filters, selling over 1M copies. Because Hipstamatic lacked sharing features, many users took pictures with Hipstamatic and then shared them using other apps. Then came Instagram, which combined lo-fi filters and easy sharing. Instagram has been downloaded 15M times and has apparently crossed over to mainstream users.”

Other product ideas like Twitter and foursquare were also born from similar insights grounded in user behavior.

Phoundit fits this mold as well. People are human and lose things all the time. They post flyers on lamp posts. Post ads on Craigslist. And even a few post pictures of what they lose Twitter. Hmm, that’s interesting. So it got us thinking,

“What if we could centralize this behavior with actionable steps to mobilize the community to help us find what’s missing?”

A little food for thought as we enter the new year. We can’t wait to show what’s in store. Request an invite here. Stay tuned :).

An Open Response to Time's 2011 Person of The Year: The Protester

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:08:22 -0500

We are living amidst a global revolution.

We have access. We are being heard. We are making a difference.

And it’s sparking new behaviors.

It’s not only inspiring – it’s empowering.

As I read Time’s piece, it reminded me of a common misconception around social media – that it in of itself is the revolution.

Technology is a facilitator of human behavior, not a creator.

Time’s Kurt Anderson put it perfectly:

“In the Middle East and North Africa, in Spain and Greece and New York, social media and smart phones did not replace face-to-face social bonds and confrontation but helped enable and turbocharge them, allowing protesters to mobilize more nimbly and communicate with one another and the wider world more effectively than ever before.”

So as we wrap up 2011, I can’t help but fixate on technology’s role on facilitating motivation and what that means for 2012.

A study by the Guardian and The London School of Economics concluded that these protesters are motivated by anger about poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as overaggressive policing.

In 2012, I hope we can redesign the relationship between cities and people.

By that, I mean re-build systems to motivate and inspire action from a place of community, collaboration and innovation, rather than anger and displeasure.

And maybe, just maybe, Time’s 2012 Person of the Year will be “The Citizen.”

Inspiration Is For Amateurs

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:42:00 -0500

Inspiration Is For Amateurs

Learnings: Social Storytelling Experiment

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:58:25 -0500

Learnings: Social Storytelling Experiment:

phoundit:

At Phoundit, we love to experiment. So last month, we dropped several yellow notebooks throughout Manhattan asking people, “What makes you happy?”

Our purpose was two-fold:

1. How can we better understand the behavior of sharing online what we find offline? (We asked finders to…

Redesigning Lost & Found

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:22:00 -0500

Back in March, I was fortunate to experience the epitome of human kindness. My journey began as I was heading to the bank to cash a check, where upon I panicked after realizing I’d lost it (womp womp). About a week later, I was blown away to find a check in my mailbox, returned by a good samaritan who found it along the way.

It moved me. Someone took time out of their day to do the right thing, with no expectation of a reward. It felt contagious. I wanted to do something nice for someone else. And I wondered, “What if we could enable more of this human kindness through technology?”

Later that day I came across Todd Bieber’s viral quest to return lost photos found in Prospect Park. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Todd found a canister of undeveloped film back in December while skiing in the park. He developed the photos, told a beautiful story over YouTube and asked the community to help him find the owners of the lost photos. More than 800 people offered their help to Todd!

And his story spread like wildfire. Over 1.7 million hits later, Todd and his girlfriend traveled to Paris to return the lost photos to a French women, who was studying in Brooklyn.

Wow. Blown away. What an amazing experience.

So it got me thinking - we’re human and we lose things all the time. But what are we supposed to do with what we find? What if we had a platform to mobilize our community to help us find what’s missing? “Lost flyers” are ideas that stand - how can we make ideas that spread?

So I’m very excited to introduce my latest project, Phoundit, lost & found redesigned for the networked city. Both an iPhone app and a website, we integrate social, mobile and location technology to cut out the middleman for a simple and meaningful shared experience. And we exist to make it easy for the community to act on their inherent goodwill and inspire others to do the same.

At its core, I really believe technology doesn’t change human behavior, it simply empowers an existing motivation.

More details to come, but sign up for invite if you’re so inclined. Our amazing team is building something pretty special.

Rethinking Airplane Mode

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:25:03 -0500

New York Times columnist Nick Bilton wrote an interesting piece questioning why passengers need to power down their electronic devices during takeoff and landing.

Bilton writes:

New technologies are often greeted with fear and that is certainly true of a disruptive technology like cellphones. Yet rules that are decades old persist without evidence to support the idea that someone reading an e-book or playing a video game during takeoff or landing is jeopardizing safety.

In his argument, Bilton cites several studies that confirm there is no interference caused by these devices.

Even Alec Baldwin was booted off his flight for playing Words With Friends before takeoff!

So before your next flight, consider signing this White House petition to use our devices in airplane mode while we take off.

Huge congratulations to Jamie Jones for taking the top spot...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:07:00 -0500

Huge congratulations to Jamie Jones for taking the top spot in RA’s Top 100 DJ’s of 2011. The co-creator of up-and-coming label Hot Creations had an incredible year. Stoked to check him out at Good Units with partner-in-crime Lee Foss, January 14th.

Defining My Purpose

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:19:34 -0500

Moved by Simon Sinek’s TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, I decided it was time to take an introspective look to articulate my “Why”.

In my experience as an entrepreneur, it’s imperative to remember why you’re in the game - why you risk over ounce of stability to make your idea happen. Especially in this climate, it’s easy to be distracted by what’s not important.

So here’s my golden circle. Let me know what you think.

—

Why: To inspire the world around me // To be inspired by the world around me

How: Start meaningful projects to change the world

What: Redesign failing systems for the networked city [ie Lost & Found]

—

I challenge you to give it a shot. And remember, start from the inside-out when you take that look in the mirror.

Nicholas Jaar & Co (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:02:00 -0500

Nicholas Jaar & Co (Taken with instagram)

The Wire Monopoly Board

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:48:08 -0500

The Wire Monopoly Board

Message In a Bottle: Offline Social Networking

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:31:51 -0500

Message In a Bottle: Offline Social Networking

dubfire // district 36

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:26:56 -0500

dubfire // district 36

Carousel - Urban Hacking

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:57:00 -0500

Carousel - Urban Hacking

Music Monday: Mix of the day

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:46:00 -0500

Music Monday: Mix of the day

Design Tension: Skinny Jeans v. iPhone

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:38:11 -0400

(Photo credit: Joe Bertino @jjbert)

Whether walking down Bedford or Bleecker, I’ve been observing an extreme number of people with their iPhones in-hand versus hidden inside their jean pockets.

Originally, Steve Jobs and the Apple team designed the iPod (both the Mini and Nano) to rest within the inside pocket. Smart, I agree. But lately, I can’t help but to think the iPhone is deliberately being designed to sit in the palm versus the pocket. And I don’t feel like this is by accident.

Let’s be honest guys, it’s extremely uncomfortable to walk the streets with a bulging iPhone in your pants. Not only is it not comfortable, but also totally awkward. It even stains your jeans (see above). More and more people carry their phones in-hand, even if they aren’t engaging with them. While this is great for Apple, I see an interesting innovation challenge.

Which fashion brand will to step up to the plate and design for change?

There’s an interesting opportunity for a brand targeting hip technology nerds to design a better pair of jeans, made for the iPhone.

If your brand is truly innovating from the inside-out, why isn’t your R&D team all over this cultural white space?

Jobs designed the shuffle for your jeans. Now it’s your turn to design the jeans for the iPhone.

Dudes Factory: A unique laboratory that allows visitors to...

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:20:15 -0400

Dudes Factory: A unique laboratory that allows visitors to consume, deconstruct and experiment with art and design – a space for design junkies, illustration appreciators, graphic art obsessives and experimentalists alike.