BJ Fogg's Weblog

Hello email . . . goodbye best friends

People have warned me not to write this -- it's too controversial; it makes YackPack a target for those who love email. But I will say it because it's true: Email can ruin your best relationships.

Let me explain . . .

Email is great for bringing distant people closer to you. For example, email allows you to reconnect with an old friend, to catch up with a long-lost relative, or to meet a new colleague from Australia. Yes, that's all good.

However, when it comes to people closest to you -- your family and your best friends -- email is downright dangerous. The more you use email to manage close relationships, the weaker those relationships will become. I guarantee it.

My research supports this view. Talking with 112 women, I heard story after story about how email weakened their closest relationships. In most cases, I heard how reliance on email caused people to drift apart, ever so gradually. In some cases, email misunderstandings quickly turned best friends into bitter enemies.

Text on a screen typically fails to convey rich emotions. When you don't share emotions, close relationships wither. That's just how relationships work. So these days I urge people to resist the seduction of email. (Yes, email is convenient. It's widely used. And it's free. Yet, in the end, email will cost you dearly . . . )

If you immerse yourself in electronic text, you will gain many acquaintances, but you will lose your best friends.

So there. I said it.

One secret to winning a DEMOgod Award

This year YackPack won a DEMOgod award.

As I reflect on this award two months later, I have a confession to make: We didn't have the best demo at DEMO. Our presentation was good but not great. Probably a dozen other companies performed better in their 6-minute stage show. (You can judge for yourself by watching the videos online.)

So why did the DEMO judges choose YackPack?

We won because we were so happy to be there. For three days we shared our enthusiasm hour after hour--at every handshake, snack break, and party. And it seems our puppy-like attitude made the judges smile. They were pleased we made the most of the whole event.

Today, a shiny trophy sits in our office. The inscription says "DEMOgod." Perhaps it should really say "Miss Congeniality."

People are all pretty much the same

Around the world our accents differ, but in many ways we're all the same. Case in point: Yesterday, a yacker from Colombia said he might be getting the flu, and he hoped it wasn't "of the bird variety." That comment could have come from any of my friends here in California.

We look different, we talk different, but beyond those superficialities, we're pretty much the same. YackPack can help our brains acknowledge these similarities, but more important is how experiences in YackPack can help our hearts feel kinship.

Over 70 countries using YackPack

This shouldn't be a surprise, but somehow it is: People in over 70 countries are now using YackPack. The majority of YackPackers are in the U.S., but lots of people in Brazil and Europe are catching on.

One of my YackPack circles has folks from Italy, U.K., Colombia, the U.S., and Japan. Lately we've been yacking about our accents. It's fun to hear the differences.

My book -- now available in Japanese

This news doesn't relate so much to YackPack, but I want to let people know that my book, Persuasive Technology, has just shipped in Japanese.

You can get the Japanese translation now at Amazon.

My former student, Chika Ando, was one of the translators. Thanks, Chika -- and others who made this possible!

Beta Lesson #1: Start Small

Seven words haunted me as we prepared to roll out YackPack: "You only get one chance to launch."

These seven words came from a PR consultant, who hoped to land a large contract with us. She told us to launch YackPack with a big event, a press tour in New York, some big stories and partners to announce. We decided not to hire her, but her seven words stuck in the worry folds of my brain . . . you only get one chance to launch.

Instead of launching big, we chose to launch small. We rolled out quietly -- no PR, press tours, or parties. And right now that seems the best move.

Launching small has big advantages. In the first two weeks of our rollout, we were able to find and fix small problems with YackPack. These small problems stayed small. Nothing blew up. However, if we'd launched big, then these small problems would have been magnified -- and costly.

Furthermore, if we'd hired PR talent to launch YackPack in a big way, we'd still be in stealth mode right now, we'd be two months away from launching, and we'd miss out on everything we're learning each day.

So that is Beta Lesson #1: Start Small

Going from Stealth to Sandbox

Two weeks ago we started sending out invitations to use YackPack Beta, after a long period of stealth R&D. (We're oh so glad to be done with stealth.)

YackPack is now in a new phase with new challenges. I like what Peter Merholz has to say about "designing for the sandbox." He explains that being in the sandbox means  "openness, trust, and a relinquishing of control." These are qualities I admire, and they characterize an approach that will make YackPack better. We want to deeply involve others in our quest to strengthen personal relationships.

Shifting from stealth to sandbox will take more than two weeks, but YackPack is getting there. We've started a customer advisory board and are inviting YackPack users to give us feedback. We're reading and responding to blogs about what's working and not. We get a daily report (via YackPack) from our tech support manager, and this helps focus how we use our resources.

The YackPack platform will improve only as quickly as we learn to listen and respond. In other words, we're in learning mode. And in my book, learning means changing your own behavior to better fit the environment. In some ways, that's what the sandbox is all about.

Simplicity, service, and low barriers to start -- Keys to adoption, Harris reports

Buzz Bruggeman reports on a Harris poll about adopting new technology. Here's the summary quote he posts: “Those polled say ease of use (61%), customer service (58%) and no hassle installation (57%) are the most important factors they consider when purchasing a new technology product.”

Like Buzz, I wonder how my own product stacks up. How does YackPack rate on these criteria?

1. Ease of use
My rating for YackPack: Good and bad

Once you get started, using YackPack is easy. We have kids at age three using it. But here's the rub: YackPack is simple but not intuitive. You need to take 5 minutes to learn how it works, and early adopters just dive in, so they get frustrated. So instead of trying to change this behavior, we're coming up with a new way to teach three things about how to use YackPack.

2. Customer service
My rating for YackPack: Very good

We answer all tech support email within 24 hours. What's more, you can phone us for help and a real person answers -- no voice menus to navigate, just a friendly person. I'm proud of my tech support team.

3. No hassle installation
My rating for YackPack: Fair (as of today, but it will get better)

Getting started in YackPack is the biggest issue right now. To help people install microphones, months ago we created a website that's really simple: audiohelp.info. We've tested and re-tested this with computer novices in anticipation of our launch. It works.

But there's more: You need to upload a photo to get a great YackPack experience. Right now you can't upload photos for others in your pack, and that's a problem, because some people don't know how to do it. We'll have a new solution soon.

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Anyway . . . as an experimentalist, I'm skeptical of surveys, but the Harris study results sounds right. The weak areas in YackPack are no surprise to us. We're solving those problems as fast as we can.

Technology kills storytelling (but wait! . . .)

The bad news: Radio and TV killed our culture of storytelling.

That's bad. Really bad. Because for thousands of years humans have used stories to pass along the best cultural practices to their children and grandchildren. In other words, fables, folk songs, myths, and legends aren't just entertainment. These story forms capture and convey the wisdom of humanity (such as "work hard" and "forgive others"). I'm convinced that when people told stories for thousands of years, they passed along the embedded wisdom from one generation to the next. These stories helped people get along and survive.

Once broadcast technologies started telling stories to the masses (in the 1940s), we gradually stopped telling our stories to each other. Radio and TV would become our storytellers of choice. And the more we tuned into broadcast storytelling, the more we turned away from personal storytelling.

So what have we lost in 60 years?

First, we've lost wisdom. Broadcast stories do not pass along best practices of a culture; they are designed to keep you hooked until the next commercial break.

Next, we've lost abilities. I'd wager that most people could tell a good story 100 years ago. Today, most people can't tell a single story on demand.

Thanks to technology and our own human frailties, the long chain of storytelling -- from generation to generation -- has been broken. Sometimes I read through the obituaries and wonder what stories have been lost. (I'll come back to this in a moment.)

So now the good news: Our newest technologies are bringing back personal storytelling. You can feel our culture shifting -- and quickly -- with thousands of blogs and podcasts launched each week. It's happening now: We're creating a storytelling renaissance.

And that's good. Really good.

But what about the broken chain? What about the stories inside our grandparents?  Older adults are not part of the storytelling renaissance; the vast majority are not blogging or podcasting or digital storytelling. As a result, we will lose their stories -- and we will lose our link to the long end of the storytelling chain -- unless we offer them a solution.

One solution is YackPack.

Anyone in my company can tell you how passionate I am about helping older adults use YackPack. Yes, I want them to connect with their loved ones. But I also want to help our parents and grandparents tell their stories -- and preserve these stories forever.

Nothing can capture and archive these stories better than YackPack. But our parents and grandparents will need help getting started -- connecting a microphone, uploading their photos. If we help our parents and grandparents use YackPack now, before more of them pass on, we may be able to restore the broken chain of storytelling. In this way, we can connect ourselves and future generations to the wisdom of ages.

This is important, and we need your help.

--BJ Fogg

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a few things on storytelling and digital tools, in no particular order . . .

Tonsil
Connie Regan-Blake
American Storytelling Revival
JakesOnline.org
WholeNewMind -- Dan Pink
Wesley Fryer's summary
Center for Digital Storytelling

YackPack audio from my parents in Nepal

My parents are in Katmandu right now, setting up eye care facilities. I'm glad my family can finally use YackPack to stay connected. It's much better than email. To get a glimpse why, play some of our messages below.

Audio #1: My mom yacks the entire family from Nepal

(The audio from my mom is one minute long. When you click the link below, your browser will play a swf file. You'll need to click "back" to return to this page.)

Download CherylFoggEverest5.html

(Shared with the permission of Cheryl Fogg)

Audio #2: My dad tells about Everest climbers (& mom chimes in to grandkids)

(The audio is 45 seconds long. He calls me "Brian" here, because BJ = Brian Jeffrey.)

Download GaryFoggEverest5.html

(Shared with the permission of Gary Fogg)

Audio #3: My brother Mike cracks a joke about my parents' travels

(The audio is 50 seconds long. Mike is my younger brother who lives in Las Vegas.)

Download MikeinVegas.html

(Shared with the permission of Mike Fogg)

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And the yacking continues . . . connecting four generations over space and time, preserving our stories effortlessly. That's why I started this company, and that's why I'm so committed to getting YackPack into the world.