It’s rare to find an app where even the free version is also free of advertisement. So what’s the catch? Surely it profits from user data in some way, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in tech…

In a nutshell, Camo is an app that turns your smartphone into a webcam
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Yet according to Camo’s Founder Aidan Fitzpatrick, the app’s strict no-tracking policy is a point of principle, and there is, in fact, no need for such intrusion into user privacy. Enough of their users are happy to pay the very reasonable $4.99 a month for the “Pro version” to fund the free app as well.

In a nutshell, Camo is an app that turns your smartphone into a webcam. Like all great tech ideas, it’s a simple concept, well-executed.

Even cameras in older phones are much better than any webcam on the market, so by using that old phone sitting in your drawer doing nothing as a webcam, you can get next-level video quality.

A big part of the harm consumers face with advertising is their data, demographics, and tracking running across the web
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The app has been used by the likes of Seth Godin, Wall St Journal’s Joanna Stern plus employees from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford Universities, who praise it for its ability to create a professional-quality webcam experience from the user’s phone and browser.

“I’ve spent years building products to help people get better access to their own data,” says Fitzpatrick, who founded his company Reincubate in 2008 after building the world’s first tool for iOS data recovery, which enabled users to securely manage their data.

Camo’s Founder Aidan Fitzpatrick is a software engineer, angel investor, entrepreneur, and author who started his first company at 14

There's a huge amount of competition by unworthy publishers, trying to rank low-quality services or information
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Working in that space for so long gave him many opportunities to see the more distasteful ways to use data, and the wide range of bad actors out there looking to get access to it, he explains as he unpacks how important the issue is to him.

“The internet has played a big role in my life and my career, and it’s in almost everyone’s interests to push it along the responsible, sustainable path of public good rather than narrow, private interests.”

Fighting Fakery

Fitzpatrick talks about the idea that consumers on the web these days are surrounded by “fakery.”

Yet while some forms of fakery — fake news, fakery in public discourse, and the use of trolls to attack viewpoints on social media – have been widely discussed, there is a lot more to it than that, he explains.

“Fakery pays off for the unethical. Amazon and other platforms have received coverage for fake product reviews on their platforms. Instagram is busy with promoted products, many of which use fake reviews and undisclosed influencer endorsements. Sometimes even the products themselves are fake.”

Even cameras in older phones are much better than any webcam on the market
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“More broadly, consumers have experience with this fakery on Google. There are some Google searches that are just hard to do. Have you ever tried searching for a plumber or medical advice on Google?  There’s a huge amount of competition by unworthy publishers, trying to rank low-quality services or information.”

Even services like Grubhub and Postmates have been criticized for allegedly faking profiles for restaurants that they don’t partner with, in an attempt to capture and redirect their leads. “A big part of the harm consumers face with advertising is their data, demographics, and tracking running across the web,” says Fitzpatrick

Making it Pay

While Fitzpatrick believes that consumer privacy and choice have been jeopardized by large web corporations and social media giants, he recognizes that they must make money.

His argument, however, is that there is no need for such companies to be so data-hungry in capturing and monetizing information about their users. It is, in fact, still possible for them to build effective first-party advertising networks with a smaller set of data.

“Paid services along the lines that Apple focuses on, or which Google have explored with YouTube Music may prove increasingly worthwhile.”

And of course, his own product manages to make money without storing and tracking consumer data:

“Our model is very simple: we offer a free version of our products, and a paid version. We’ve no need to track data for trials, or to try and monetize with ads baked into our products, so we don’t.”

Algorithm Anarchy

He breaks down this disruptive rationale into three key areas that those designing tech products must think about to enable consumers to have more authentic experiences online:

1. Product: We don’t track user data in the products. We have no need to, and no interest in doing so. People’s data belongs to them. If the app fails, we do record information on what went wrong, but that’s clearly metadata, and about the functioning of the product in order that we can improve it, rather than anything about the customer. Where we record limited metadata on how the app is used, we only do for the purpose of better understanding and developing our own product — not for marketing — and we don’t share that information with any third parties.
2. Customer Records: If you buy something from a company, what data do they collect? We ask for the UK’s statutory minimum. We need their email and country of residence in order to send them the license and to apply the correct taxes. We use a third-party for card-processing, and don’t have any card details. In the UK we have to keep financial records for at least 6 years, but where users have lifetime licenses we need to keep that data for at least that time. Fortunately, it’s a very narrow set of data.
3. Marketing: This is hard because overreach in data capture feels like the norm. Most systems that permit advertising ask customers to embed tracking tools in their mobile or desktop apps or on their sites, and this is something we push back on. We don’t embed any advertising analytics tools in our products for this reason. Then there’s visitor tracking. We do use an analytics product to count the number of visitors to our site, and we’ve more work to do as the industry evolves to get ourselves happier with how these systems work. We’ve made good progress.

“The tech industry often assumes that using particular channels to market a product requires tracking. We reject that. Reincubate will continue to safeguard consumer privacy and choice with our commitment to respect privacy, refuse data monetization and intrusive tracking.”

Camo key features include:

• Film-quality video
• Easy customizing:  lighting, crop, zoom, focus, at your fingertips
• Plug and play
• Plays well with others:  use with Zoom, Meet, Teams, Skype, Slack, Google Chrome, Cisco Webex Meetings  +.
• Previews before going live
• The newly released 1.3 version offers even better functionality, including support for an additional 11 languages supported, power conservation, and screen aesthetic features.

Camo’s free edition is great for straightforward, high-quality calls, but lacks adjustments. It gives you resolutions up to and including 720p video, along with a choice of the device’s selfie lens, or it’s main back lens (the wide one). The free version of Camo also lets you access your device’s audio, and keep the screen of your device dimmed while using Camo. With free version, you can also connect multiple iOS devices and switch between them.

If you upgrade to Camo Pro, you get the following:

• Access to every lens on your phone (such as selfie, telephoto, ultra-wide & wide)
• “Portrait mode” on iPhone’s that support it, with bokeh effect and shallow depth-of-field
• Control of the device’s flash for use as a light ( turn it on and off, control the brightness)
• Access to any resolution the device provides (opening up 1080p and 1440 x 1080)
• Video mirroring
• Rotation of the feed in 90° increments (in case your phone is orientation locked)
• Zoom controls, with pan and tilt to keep you front and centre
• Focus adjustments (autofocus, focus on a particular area, manual focus control)
• Shutter speed and ISO adjustments
• Image adjustments including brightness, temperature, tint, hue, saturation, contrast, gamma, sharpness

Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post How Algorithm Anarchy Can Set You Free appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Brian Thomas at Enlightened Digital

The gaming market has been on the rise for a long time now. The industry as a whole is projected to hit over 90 billion dollars by 2020. That will be 12 billion dollars in growth since 2017.

Strategy and war games, which have historically been more popular in Europe, have been gaining serious ground in the US
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It would seem that this rising tide is lifting all ships, including the TableTop industry. Strategy and war games specifically, which have historically been more popular in Europe, have been gaining serious ground in the US. Simultaneously, AR has been coming on strong since the launch of PokemonGo. Visual technology has advanced so much since then, that it was only a matter of time before designers from both worlds started coming together to try and create the most epic gaming experiences possible.

At some point in time, needing to be in the same space to play games may be a thing of the past
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Easier scheduling

One of the biggest struggles most gaming groups have is scheduling. For those groups (like mine) that consist of players in their 30s and 40s this little thing called “life” can get in the way of regular gaming sessions. Babysitters can cancel. Spouses can “correct” your understanding of the schedule for that week. There are many things that keep gaming groups apart for weeks or months at a time, which is a shame.

With some of the capabilities AR literally “brings to the table”, groups can play together online, and see the same game “board”. Check out this video from TiltFive, which, at the time of writing, has raised over $1Million on Kickstarter with over 21 days left on its campaign that had an original target of $450,000. The pad that players connect on can sync up so everyone can still see and interact with the same board wherever they are playing from. At some point in time, needing to be in the same space to play games may be a thing of the past.

With the capabilities AR literally brings to the table, groups can play together online and see the same game board
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@tiltfive has so far raised over $1Million on Kickstarter
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Increased Design Space

Along with an increase in connectivity, game developers will see a massive increase in design capabilities with the implementation of AR. Since the advent of board games, they have for the most part been stuck in two dimensions. The pieces and “meeples” are of course 3 dimensional but the board itself is typically flat. With AR, the design space goes from a sheet to a cube in front of the players, so even if the physical components of the game stay flat, UI elements like points and progress trackers can now be displayed in a 3rd dimension. We’ve all played games that end up needing way too much space on the table. With AR, UI and gameplay elements can start going up rather than out, saving lots of space and providing developers with new spaces to explore when building their games.

Along with an increase in connectivity, game developers will see a massive increase in design capabilities with the implementation of AR
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Cross-Functionality

New games will have a field day with these new designs, but don’t be surprised if some of your current favorites also get re-released with AR functionality. One of the major areas of focus is wargaming, and Dungeons and Dragons in particular. Any game that utilizes some sort of grid-based environment with combat mechanics would work beautifully with AR. DMs can conjure up their nightmare environments that are hard to replicate without incredibly expensive add-ons. They can even control fog of war for their players!

With AR, UI and gameplay elements can start going up rather than out, saving lots of space and providing developers with new spaces to explore when building their games
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Potential Problems?

Even with all the great things AR can bring to the table, there still could be some downsides to it. We talked about how awesome it would be to not have to miss sessions due to scheduling conflicts. But being connected online should never replace those face-to-face moments with friends and family. If your group finds itself getting together in the same room less and less for “convenience”, you may need to pump the breaks and realize one of the things you loved most about gaming in the first place was being together. So watch out for that.

Another thing we could lose is the tactile feel of manipulating pieces. There is a tangible difference between video and board games and that is the physical manipulation of pieces around a board. You pick things up and put them down, it feels good. With AR, those pieces can be represented digitally and moved through wands, joysticks, or hand motions.

Jeri Ellsworth, CEO of TiltFive told Engaget.com that “The things that people like about board games are connecting with people, storytelling, and working with physical objects. The thing that people love about video games is that you can jump in really quick, you can save your games, and you can play with people over a long distance. We’re kind of somewhere in between.”

So admittedly some of that tactile feeling will go away, and if we start to lose the “togetherness” of being at the same table, tabletop gaming may start feeling a lot more like just, well, video gaming.

I think that overall, AR will be amazing for tabletop gaming, the pros will far outweigh the cons. I for one can’t wait to try to DM for my D&D group and really show them the horrors I have planned! Mwahahaha!

Brian Thomas is a contributor to Enlightened Digital, long-distance cyclist, and lifelong advocate for women in business from Philadelphia.

The post Playing With XR appeared first on Tech Trends.

AltspaceVR brings out new tools to make it easy for anybody to make and share their own personalized virtual environments.

Recently unveiled updates to Microsoft’s social VR platform will allow anyone to build customizable VR spaces. The two new world-building kits are based on Altspace’s most popular environments: Campfire and Alien World /Origin but Microsoft says they’re aiming to release more kits soon, as well as allowing for more customization options.

“This is step one of a greater plan to make sure our community can help build AltspaceVR with us,” says Katie Kelly, Head of Engagement for AltspaceVR. “The experience is fun and easy no matter what level you’re at. We’re so excited to see the new worlds our users build in reality.”

After you choose one of the kits you can add assets from the curated library of shapes, structures and flora to build custom worlds and virtual hangouts. Once you’re done, simply save your version of that world and it’s then ready to share with whomever you like via a link.

These updates to Microsoft’s social VR platform will allow anyone to build customizable VR spaces
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Updates also include the ability to create labels and text to guide your guests through your creations, host multiplayer social games in VR, plus import and showcase in-world photography snaps. Most interesting from a social VR perspective, however, is the functionality to link these custom spaces by adding teleporters that take you straight to common spaces or your friends’ worlds. Creating your own virtual network of connected spaces certainly opens up some interesting possibilities.

My favorite picture from the @AltspaceVR after party today… what do you think? pic.twitter.com/0kCRU8PmG5

— Alex Kipman (@akipman) August 10, 2018

Also, considering what a big part Spatial Sound plays in Microsoft’s Mixed Reality hardware, it’s not surprising to see them baking the ability to experiment with custom sound as well as 3D design in these toolkits.

To start building, login or create an AltspaceVR account, then:

• Select << Worlds >> on your menu.
• Select << Create >> to start on a new World. Or continue to edit a World you built.
• Give your World a name, a profile picture, and choose a starting environment. Templates include: Base Worlds and SDK Playground Worlds. Virtual spaces for both newbies and creative developers to build custom Worlds.
• Once in-world, click on << Spawner >> to activate your dashboard

Creating your own virtual network of connected spaces certainly opens up interesting possibilities
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Kelly promises to keep an eye on user’s creations and to feature the best ones on @AltspaceVR Twitter and Facebook, emphasizing their focus on building a tight-knit community rather than monetizing the platform at this stage. She adds that they’re particularly keen to have users create spaces with “structure, design, and purpose.”

Kelly promises to keep an eye on user’s creations and to feature the best ones on @AltspaceVR Twitter
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As part of its efforts to make Mixed Reality content cross-platform Microsoft has kept all AltspaceVR places and experiences accessible not only in Virtual Reality (AltspaceVR is compatible with most headsets including Daydream, HTC VIVE, Oculus and Samsung Gear VR, as well as all the Windows Mixed Reality HMDs) but also via Desktop or Mobile app.

This feels in step with Microsoft’s broader Mixed Reality strategy, keeping its eye on the long-term prize and building the infrastructure that will allow for scaling and adaptation
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Overall, it feels like an announcement firmly in step with the company’s broader Mixed Reality strategy, keeping its eye firmly on the long-term prize and building the infrastructure that will allow for scaling and adaptation, depending on how the technology develops and what consumers demand. It will be interesting to see not only how engaged the existing community gets with these new tools, but if they manage to entice some new users to the platform as more people buy their first HMDs and look for content and experiences. Watch this space.

This article originally appeared on VRScout

AltspaceVR Releases New World-Building Kits via @alicebonasio https://t.co/SOuFANjeY5 pic.twitter.com/q9Ei5ewLoT

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 10, 2018

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Building New Worlds in Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

How this sweet book about a gay bunny became a social media sensation and feel-good story of the year.

Last night I frantically reached for my Amazon app and pre-ordered a children’s book. I have no children but I’m gutted that – since I live in the UK – I have to wait until May to get my hands on A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.

The #BetterBundoBook book sold out on Amazon.com an hour after the latest episode of John Oliver’s @LastWeekTonight aired
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At the same time, though, I know that a lot of Americans are in the same boat, as the book sold out on Amazon.com an hour after the latest episode of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight was aired. Still, all the proceeds go to worthy charities The Trevor Project and AIDS United so I still get the feel-good factor in the meantime.

I’m gutted that – since I live in the UK – I have to wait until May to get my hands on A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo #BetterBundoBook
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And that fuzzy feeling – which feels much like hugging a big, fluffy rabbit – is magnified a thousand-fold by the fact that buying the #BetterBundoBook you are sticking it to US Vice President Mike Pence and all the bigotry and homophobia he stands for.

By buying the #BetterBundoBook you are sticking it to US Vice President Mike Pence and all the bigotry and homophobia he stands for
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In a nutshell, this book is a case of classic trolling: Marlon Bundo is the real-life pet rabbit of the Pence family and  a book “authored” by the fluffy creature has just been released. Oliver, to highlight and counter the fact that Pence constantly undermines LGBT rights and supports radical organizations which treat homosexuality as a disease and advocate conversion therapy to cure it, released his own version a day before, and it became a sensation with its alternative message of accepting difference and prevailing love:

HBO’s Emmy-winning Last Week Tonight with John Oliver presents a children’s picture book about a Very Special boy bunny who falls in love with another boy bunny.

 

Meet Marlon Bundo, a lonely bunny who lives with his Grampa, Mike Pence – the Vice President of the United States. But on this Very Special Day, Marlon’s life is about to change forever…

 

With its message of tolerance and advocacy, this charming children’s book explores issues of same sex marriage and democracy. Sweet, funny, and beautifully illustrated, this book is dedicated to every bunny who has ever felt different.

It’s strange how the oddest things can sometimes restore your hope in humanity. I’ve pretty much given up on watching the news as the insanity quickly builds up to the point where I’m shouting and throwing things at the screen. When your “real” world starts to feel more dystopian than Black Mirror and scarier than The Walking Dead you know you’re in trouble, so I digest the week’s news through satire. SNL, The Daily Show, and Last Week Tonight have become the saviours of my sanity over the past year or so.

Stink bugs are temporary. Love is Forever #MarlonBundo
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And just as we’re all going through the latest round of disillusionment around how our social media data was sold and used to manipulate us – yes Facebook, I’m looking at you – this comes along and reminds us of the universal truth that these platforms, like all technology, can equally be a force for good or evil. The choice, as always, is down to us. But there is light at the end of even the darkest tunnel, for as Marlon tells us, “Stink bugs are temporary. Love is Forever.”

The #MarlonBundo story reminds us of the universal truth that technology can equally be a force for good or evil. The choice is down to us
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasioon Twitter.

The post Trolling For Good With #MarlonBundo appeared first on Tech Trends.

If you don’t do politics, politics will do you. And unlike with the Internet, Neutrality is not an option.  

Britain has never been more divided. Politics of the previous years has driven deep schisms between the industrial North and affluent South. Economic and demographic differences between rural and urban populations are amplified by a stark dividing line between young and old. This intergenerational conflict was brought to the surface in the 2017 general election, when young voters flocked to the polls in support of Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.

Young people are notorious for their voting abstinence
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Politicians write manifestos for those who vote, so they are not designed to speak to the next generation
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Young people are notorious for their voting abstinence, and most of them can’t even vote yet. It’s no secret that in an economy where votes are the strongest currency, politics is usually conducted above their heads. Politicians write manifestos for those who vote, so they are inherently not designed to speak to the next generation. The highest youth voter turnout in 25 years left many scratching their heads and wondering what had triggered this change. Was this the result of Labour’s platform? Did Labour simply have a better social media strategy? What was it that made this election so different?

The last UK election had the highest youth voter turnout in 25 years
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Politics affects every aspect of our life. Are young people involved enough?
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Shout Out UK, a London start-up dedicated to increasing political literacy, has a mission to “provide young people with the tools necessary to engage in politics and a platform to shout out and be heard.” On November 14, they brought both young and old together to to open a channel of communication between generations, and to figure out how politics can be made more inclusive for young people. As in all other aspects of modern life, technology will surely be part of the solution. Will we really still be using paper ballots in 2022?

Our man @MatteoBergamini with @ARoachBridgeman with David Blunkett at the Houses of Parliament pic.twitter.com/9BJUrzobIR

— Shout Out UK (@Shoutout_UK) November 14, 2017

Cat Smith, MP, who herself got elected in her 20s, says that when she looks around in Parliament, she sees that it doesn’t look and feel like the country she lives in. With this assessment, she hit a nerve. The consensus of the young people in the room was that politics needs to change to include them. We have suffered, one said, under tuition fees. We feel disenfranchised, said another. They didn’t merely paint a picture of victimhood, however, but also criticised their own lethargy.

Cat Smith MP says she didn't feel that Parliament reflected the country she lived in
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Several teens raised the issue of lowering the voting age
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Politics affects every aspect of our lives. Are young people involved enough? “We are not,” said one talented young speechmaker. They weren’t just bringing a list of grievances to the table, these young bright minds were also armed with solutions.

Outside Parliament with @ARoachBridgeman doing our intro before interviewing @CatSmithMP before our #parliamentweek event tonight! pic.twitter.com/Sgvcpwg32D

— Shout Out UK (@Shoutout_UK) November 14, 2017

Several teens raised the issue of lowering the voting age to foster inclusion and ultimately force politicians to create policies for them. Others believed simply opening the current political arena to them was not enough, but that a more systemic change is needed. The two-party system wasn’t giving them much choice in the first place, they argued. One way of coping with the politicians we have at hand might be to speak through them. This platform lets you do exactly that.

Technology needs to be part of the solution in increasing political literacy of young people
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One of the credos echoed in the room several times from all sides was that change can never occur top-down. Corbyn ignited something that is simmering on in these representatives of Gen Z. This next generation, having the internet and social media in their arsenal, are ready to utilise these powerful tools that they have at their fingertips and stand up for themselves and what they believe in.

Special thank you to @CatSmithMP for sponsoring our event tonight on #PoliticalLiteracy and giving us a space to be heard! #ParliamentWeek pic.twitter.com/mpk9xGtmqM

— Shout Out UK (@Shoutout_UK) November 14, 2017

While the politicians in the room agreed that technology needed to be part of the solution in increasing political literacy of young people, to me it seemed that they were chasing answers that could already be outdated by the time they were implemented. While the passionate young activist next to me was swiping through his Snapchat stories, the consensus on the panel was that social media (esp. Facebook) should be used to engage with young voters. Had they not read the studies that Gen Z are abandoning Facebook in favour of Snapchat and Instagram, I wondered?

If politicians are to engage young people in politics, they need to do so through the platforms that they use
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Events like these are a great start in opening up a conversation about the future of democracy
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Events like these are a great start, but if politicians are really going to engage young people in politics, they need to do so through the platforms that they actually use, and to convince them that their voice will be heard, and that they can make a difference.

Jana Hanson is Education and FinTech correspondent at Tech Trends. Follow her on Twitter @Dschanai

The post How Tech Can Improve #PoliticalLiteracy appeared first on Tech Trends.

From fake news to bonkers Twitter wars, 2016 has certainly been an eventful time for social media, and 2017 is shaping up to be even more so.

From fake news to Twitter wars, social media is the new current affairs battleground
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So what were the headlines that had everyone talking? Is social media likely to change much throughout the remainder of 2017? And are there any identifiable patterns that can be capitalised on to help with your own social media campaigns?

This infographic by the Website Group presents some of the most noteworthy highlights that have come our way in the past 12 months. If you care to share your own favourites do leave a comment below or reach out on Twitter @alicebonasio
’Social Media in the News 2016 – 2017’ – an infographic by the team at The Website Group

The post Infographic: Social Media in the News appeared first on Tech Trends.

After the US government attempted to gag scientists who dissented from its official position, many of them went “rogue” on Twitter. 

What does Twitter’s blue tick of approval mean in a post-truth age? The coveted check signals a verified, official Twitter account, but in a media environment where the left is distrusting of “official” government decrees, the right is distrusting of “official” legacy media, and the most revealing information comes from clandestine sources and high-level leaks, verification no longer holds the same weight it once did.

What does Twitter’s blue tick of approval mean in a post-truth age
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We can no longer rely on third-party appraisal—whether it’s the government, news publications, or social media—to authenticate information for us. Instead, we must seed our own skepticism and verify our suspicions independent of a single source.

The rulebook that governs the relationship between the press and government was tossed out by Trump
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This is no more true than on Twitter. The rulebook that governs the relationship between the press and the US government has been casually tossed out, and for better or worse, the US president himself favors using Twitter to bypass the “unkind” press and speak directly to the public. So there was a poetic irony when Donald Trump’s administration issued blanket gag orders on US government agencies, and many of them turned to Twitter to keep their voices from being silenced. From NASA to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there’s an ever-growing list of so-called “rogue” handles run by agency insiders. These accounts are gathering millions of followers and are helping to galvanize a growing resistance movement.

Read the full article on Quartz

Want Twitter’s blue tick of approval? In a post-truth age, verification doesn’t mean trust https://t.co/q2CoKZ2unx

— Quartz (@qz) February 17, 2017

The post In the Age of Rogue Accounts, Does Twitter Verification Still Mean Anything? appeared first on Tech Trends.

January 28^th was national data privacy day, and with Valentines’s day fast approaching we take the opportunity to match up – see what I did there – the two themes in this handy infographic, which looks at Data Privacy (or the lack thereof) in the thorny world of online dating.

Online Dating and Data Privacy don't seem to be happy bedfellows
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Date privacy in online dating, courtesy of Saucydates.com

The post Infographic: Data Privacy and Online Dating appeared first on Tech Trends.

Since its IPO, we’ve seen Twitter struggle with stagnant user growth numbers and monetization challenges. There was hope that Jack Dorsey’s return would help steer the ship back in the right direction, but no sign of that so far.

Now we’re seeing some industry commentators going out on a limb to say that if things don’t turn around pretty sharpish we could be looking at one heck of a dead dodo.

Since its IPO Twitter struggled with stagnant user growth numbers and monetization challenges
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“Large scale social businesses grow or die.  Flat growth means almost certain death,” says Victor Basta from Magister Advisors, a tech M&A advisory firm. “Yahoo and MySpace are two examples of social businesses that flat-lined and then rapidly become irrelevant.  In both cases, valuations didn’t just get cut 5-10%, they lost 80-90% of their value over a short period of time.  Twitter’s near zero growth in users and revenue, if not reversed very soon, is likely to lead to this kind of catastrophic valuation reduction. “

If things don't turn around sharpish for Twitter, we could be looking at one dead Dodo
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As a huge Twitter fan, it drives me mad how they refuse to work on things such as better search, but for all its flaws, I believe that it would be nothing short of a disaster if that came to pass. As Basta suggests, the company should look at ways of innovating rather than insisting on trying to make outdated models – such as monetizing adverts – try to fit

“When user growth has slowed, Facebook has innovated with new products (Facebook Live), new platforms (Oculus) and intensive machine learning/AI capabilities to continue to grow its presence. Snapchat is another more recent example of positive product and user momentum. We have already seen a sharp drop in Twitter’s value, but there is a lot more downside than upside now in the company’s valuation.  Crucially momentum has to reverse very quickly. We reckon the company has maybe a year or two to turn things around and re-establish momentum.  Unfortunately this kind of revival is a slow, and very painful process.  There is no ‘quick tweet’ solution to arresting Twitter’s decline.”

Twitter's importance goes well beyond its balance sheet, and it should be protected
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Another option, which I explored in more depth for this Quartz article and discussed in a panel hosted by CBC Radio is that Twitter’s importance actually transcends its balance sheet. It is, I’d argue, more akin to a public service than a commercial platform, and the public should not allow it to go under.

There is no quick tweet solution to arresting Twitter’s decline.
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Specially given the current political climate and the socio-economic impact that a tweet can have, Twitter is a powerful catalyst for democratic movements and a channel that must be kept open to facilitate freedom of speech. How we go about safeguarding it is a debate worthy of a trending hashtag. #SaveTwitter anyone?

The post Is Twitter Headed for Certain Death? appeared first on Tech Trends.

What are the major platforms preparing the ground to let us socialise in Virtual Reality? We talk to the major players already emerging in this space.

Several VR platforms are lining up to stake their claim in the social space
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Virtual Reality is quickly moving beyond novelty experiences and showing its potential for enabling new types of social interaction. But which platform(s) will be the one to make that happen? What sort of experiences will they enable, and will those turn out to be the kind of experiences we actually want?

It’s unlikely that VR will replace social media as such. In some ways social VR has more in common with offline experiences than it does with traditional social media. In VR, people come together and have natural conversations much as they would face-to-face, rather than communicating about the experience or sharing snippets of it. But as VR experiences become more commonplace, they will provide content that we will want to share through social media, much like our real-world experiences do. What we will need to figure out is how this interplay between existing social platforms and VR will play out.

Virtual Reality is quickly moving beyond novelty experiences and showing its potential for enabling new types of social interaction
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The key question therefore is who will be “the Facebook of VR,” mainly because Facebook itself is keen to be just that, recently announcing a host of new Social VR features at Oculus Connect 3 (such as the ability to create “parties” and “rooms” where friends can gather together in VR), appointing Rachel Rubin – who previously worked on The Sims – as their Head of Social VR, and earmarking a $250 million budget to further VR development.

There’s still a huge opportunity for incumbents in that space though, and several platforms with big ambitions are gearing up to launch products that promise to enable user-generated content and social interaction in VR. We caught up with some of them to get a glimpse of what the virtual-social future might look like.

VR as a Communication Tool

AltspaceVR

Altspace VR is betting that the future of VR experiences will center around communication
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Altspace VR is betting that the future of VR experiences will center around communication, and its CEO and Founder Eric Romo believes that Google’s Daydream will be the catalyst for that to happen on a large scale.

“As people get connected and have a network of VR friends, communicating with social VR could become commonplace. Most of our communication is with friends, colleagues, and family, and for specific purposes. With no indication that this will change, AltspaceVR developed a new UI (which launched in August) that makes it easier to start activities in VR with friends. Fundamentally, we are focused on people connecting with people they know to do things they would ordinarily do in real life. Have a game of chess. See a comedy show, watch some videos.”

They see VR fitting in between other forms of electronic communication on one side, and in-person meetings on the other. Romo says that when you want to connect with someone you will choose the most appropriate method – which could be text, videochat, phone or VR – and there will be more interplay between them as VR becomes pervasive.

When you want to connect with someone you will choose the most appropriate method – which could be text, videochat, phone or VR – and there will be more interplay between them as VR becomes pervasive.
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Live events are a huge potential market for VR expansion
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But while one side of Altspace VR is very much about those ordinary experiences, there is also a huge market in virtualizing extraordinary ones. Live events are a huge potential market for VR expansion; in the US alone, live music grossed nearly $10 Billion in revenue last year, which shows that fans are certainly willing to pay a premium for the experience of being in the presence of their favourite artists.

“The advantage of VR is that users can actually do things together. With our FrontRow technology we’re able to accommodate any number of participants simultaneously, and this has led to record-setting events.  We are seeing the entertainment industry moving to adopt social VR. For example, NBC Universal developed Halcyon, a hybrid TV/VR series to bring fans from different countries together to view the premiere and interact live in VR with cast and crew members.”

VR can make such previously exclusive experiences easily available to a global audience, unrestricted by geographical location and venue capacity. This combination of unlimited reach with the sense of immediacy and personal connection – both with the artists and between fans – is what makes such social experiences so appealing.

VR can make such previously exclusive experiences easily available to a global audience, unrestricted by geographical location and venue capacity
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VRChat

Although still in alpha, VRChat already has hundreds of fully fleshed user-created worlds. The next step is to make that creation process much more social and accessible, giving users clear and easy ways to share that content.

“We see enabling social creation and user-generated content as one of the bedrocks upon which Social VR will be built on, and want to give our users the power to completely mold their environments and avatars,” says their Chief Creative Officer Ron Millar.

The focus of their roadmap – which includes a major update planned for the end of this year – is on providing highly customizable avatars and environments.

“This style of democratized creation and massive social community has been proven to be incredibly powerful in games like Minecraft.  There’s nothing quite like creating in real time with other people, Social Sculpting is a ton of fun!” says Millar.

VRChat sees their product integrating into social media platforms rather than competing directly with them
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VRChat sees their product integrating into social media platforms rather than competing directly with them, and is looking into ways of plugging into features such as Oculus Avatars, Touch and Audio SDK.

“We’re observing a trend that points toward an increasing number of users sharing on social media from within VR and linking back into VR from those same social platforms. Fully connecting with social networks such as Oculus, Steam and Facebook will help further open Social VR up to a broader audience,” predicts Millar, explaining that PlayStation VR and mobile integration are also a big part of their strategy: “The release of PlayStation VR will expose a player base of over 50 million people to VR, so we expect that will also push a lot more users into Social VR.”

Hardware developments such as self-contained, untethered headsets and powerful, more responsive hand controllers will accelerate the mass adoption of social VR, yet the real tipping point will only come when we’re able to feel truly present with friends in a virtual environment.

“When users have the ability to convey emotion without thinking about it the magic really happens,” Millar concludes. “Imagine being able to emote with your voice, face, hands and whole body! Add to that the ability to do wild and cool things that you can only do in VR and we’re going to see a revolution of communication.”

Endless Worlds

Improbable

Improbable’s unique feature, according to its CEO and Founder Herman Narula, is collaborative persistence. Just like in the real world, you’re all sharing the same environment, and your actions within that environment have enduring consequences. The difference, however, is that there will be a lot more environments and possibilities, a multitude of different worlds – which  users will be able to develop continuously – together. Naturally, this has significant implications for social interaction in VR. “Facebook is the social network of this reality. We want to enable thousands of new realities,” says Narula.

It’s about multiple worlds rather than parallel universes, however, as was keen to stress. “If we’re all in parallel universes we can have fun experiences, but we’re not truly connected. Not with the world and not with each other.”

What they’re doing is, in his words, is “Building the actual Matrix.” The infrastructure under the hood to enable the building and maintaining of persistence in those types of environments. This is done through a distributed operating system called SpatialOS which harnesses the power of thousands of cloud servers in a single interwoven fabric, allowing for real-time, high fidelity simulations. “We’re talking thousands of people and millions of persistent objects, interacting in the same world, at the same time.”

One of the developers they partnered with on the social space is HelloVR, which is creating a 10,000 square-mile MetaWorld described as the first-ever massive, physics-based virtual social space of its kind. It exists in a shared space, populated by all its members, with each member having their own private “volume” where they can decorate and create whatever and however they want. The computer-generated world is always on and will feature cognitive wildlife with cognitive behaviors controlled by IBM Watson.

The real tipping point will only come when we’re able to feel truly present with friends in a virtual environment
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“Creating a social VR experience poses new challenges like head-tracking on a massive scale, and networked physics so people can realistically interact in a persistent shared space,” says Dedric Reid, founder and CEO of HelloVR.

They’re currently in closed alpha, but later in the year they will release their Pioneer Edition, aiming to get early adopters to start populating and shaping that vast environment. Visitors will be able to participate in outdoor physics simulations including: camping, fishing, farming, archery, hot air balloon flights, road trips, meditation retreats and more. An extended suite of creative tools for building and making in the MetaWorld will follow next year.

High Fidelity is an open-source platform where people can deploy their own servers, and collaboratively live-edit it simultaneously
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High Fidelity

High Fidelity is an open-source platform where people can deploy their own servers, and collaboratively live-edit it simultaneously. It looks and feels much like a Virtual Reality version of Second Life, but that “VRSL” vibe is no coincidence, as High Fidelity the brainchild of its founder Philip Rosedale.

“We focus 100 percent on tech that enables the VR spaces to be completely under the creative control of their users,” confirms Rosedale. His vision essentially amounts to building a Virtual Reality version of the Web, and this is how he plans on eventually monetizing.

“We believe that VR servers will scale to the volume of Web servers. We’re building the open source server (and client) software to enable that, and we plan to offer useful global services like marketplaces, identity systems, currency systems, and DNS/placenames. Not everyone will need or use these services, but enough people will to make it a great business for us.”

VR works differently from social media because instead of constructing and sending data over a network of connections between people, it creates 3D spaces that people can occupy together
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According to Rosedale, VR works differently from social media because instead of constructing and sending data over a network of connections between people, it creates 3D spaces that people can occupy together, which makes it a lot more addictive. But for Social VR to take off, we’ll need to figure out a way to visualize social network data in 3D, and also for a high percentage of your friends and connections to be using it, which won’t be for a while yet.

“It will happen in 3-4 years, when majority adoption occurs – the point where everyone feels they have to have a VR device, and use it daily,” predicts Rosedale. “This was the same thing that happened on the smart phone – apps like Facebook that required majority adoption had to wait until the latter half of the cycle. We believe that VR will ramp in similar manner because if offers great and immediate utility, both as a change in computing paradigm and in human communication. So this would suggest that, like the smart phone, we will see growth to Internet/mainstream scale (billions of users) in 7-10 years.”

Creating Your Own Experience

Social VR will impact nearly everything, because just about everything that humans do boils down to creating a space and socializing with others
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Sansar

“Social VR will impact nearly everything, because just about everything that humans do boils down to creating a space and socializing with others in that context, and social VR allows us to do that without the limitations of the physical world,” says Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg.

With Sansar, he want to open up VR to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate as creators and make it easy for those new creators to reach their audiences for their experiences. Social media is one obvious way for them to do that: For example, I might spot a tweet from someone I follow that points me to a YouTube video showing off a Sansar experience; I’d follow a link to go experience it in VR, and then might share a snapshot to Facebook with an invitation to friends to join me there.

Sansar allows you to replicate each experience in your own image
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Instead of creating massive persistent worlds for users to share like High Fidelity and Improbable, Sansar focuses on allowing people to make and share their own experiences, whether from scratch or copying and personalizing templates. When I had a hands-on demo of the platform last month, Linden Lab’s VP of Product Bjorn Laurin took me through the UI for the creation tool, which was extremely intuitive, even for a non-technical person. Within minutes I was able to personalize a landscape – which looked rather like the Scottish Highlands  – making rocks larger, trees smaller, adding various objects and sound effects, making the fog thicker, and changing the color and direction of the light.

Sansar allows you to basically replicate each experience in your own image, customize it like you want, and share it – or not – as you please. Of all the Social VR platforms I looked at, they come closest to Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One Oasis vision. You can have your own universe all to yourself, share it with friends, or with everyone.

They’re currently in creator preview, working with a small group of developer partners selected from over 10,000 applications of interest received since they announced Sansar earlier this year. They’ll be inviting further creators to join on a running basis up until the public release scheduled for early 2017.

“Great content and experiences will drive adoption; ultimately VR needs to cut cords and be mobile, but right now mobile VR is not ready for immersive social VR. The start will feel a bit slow, but over several years, and within a couple of generations of new hardware, software, and content, VR is going to be huge.”

Sansar already has some impressive social features, such as voice-recognition that analyzes sound to translate it into facial expression and lip-sync movements very accurately
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Even in its current pilot stage, however, Sansar already has some impressive social features, such as voice-recognition that analyzes sound to translate it into facial expression and lip-sync movements very accurately (regardless of what language you’re speaking). This is similar to what Facebook is said to be deploying for Oculus Avatars.

There is also an emphasis on user’s ability to monetize content.  “Sansar creators will sell virtual items to other users, sell or rent entire experiences they create, charge for entry to events, and more. In Second Life, where creators can only sell virtual items (vs. entire experiences), we’ve sustained a thriving user-to-user economy for many years.”

Indeed, where it comes to monetization, Altberg speaks with a certain authority. Last year alone, creators redeemed about $60 million (USD) from the Second Life economy.

Another area that Linden Lab has a lot of experience in bringing people together in an unfamiliar medium. At a time when the Internet was still a novelty, Second Life attracted a huge number of dedicated users. 13 years on, it still boasts a die-hard base of about a million people. Having spoken to many of them, it is clear that they have a real, emotional and enduring attachment not only to the platform, but to other users within it. And it is this sense of bonding and community that people will have to feel before Social VR becomes a reality.

“Socializing in VR is an amazing experience, but if the people I want to connect with aren’t equipped to join me in VR, we’ll connect in a different way,” says Altberg. Our interview in VR was a much better experience (and certainly a lot more fun!) than just a phone call, but if you didn’t have an HMD, we would have settled for the phone. As hardware becomes more accessible and the sense that you’re missing out on something essential if you’re not participating in VR grows, we’ll hit that tipping point.”

Mixing it Up

One final thing worth noting when speculating about the future direction of travel for this virtual-social landscape is that Augmented/Mixed reality will likely play a bigger part. At the moment we have neither an emerging platform nor a commercially available headset that makes this a viable proposition, but my recent Microsoft HoloLens demo uncovered some tantalizing possibilities. Even at this early stage where social features are not a priority in their development roadmap, it is clear how you can connect headsets so that different people (either in the same room or in different parts of the world) can look at the same holographic content at the same time. You can continue to see and hear both the people and environment around you even as you interact with the virtual elements.

The proof will be in the proverbial pudding though. The nature of such products is that you often don’t know how they’re going to be used until they go live. Since none of those platforms have actually been released to the public yet, it’s anybody’s guess which will manage to hit that Social Chemistry sweet spot.

This article was originally published on UploadVR

When it comes to social VR, there’s only one question: Who is going to “get it right”?
via @alicebonasio #VR https://t.co/M15ySX1oG7 pic.twitter.com/lj3xeCADkc

— Upload (@UploadVR) November 22, 2016

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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post When Will VR Go Social? appeared first on Tech Trends.