4 ms·

Marc Benioff: Future Software Will Look Like Facebook

18 points by vanwilder77 14y ago

Floopsy 14y ago
If that is what the future is going to look like, I am getting rid of my computers now and taking up gardening and bird watching.
- DeepDuh 14y ago
  I like your plan. Let's join forces and disrupt the gardening and bird watching space using cutting edge crowdsourced location aware mobile technology.
  - ktizo 14y ago
    cutting edge crowdsourced location aware mobile technology. Is that like one of those Swiss army knives with a built-in compass?
    - DeepDuh 14y ago
      Yes, like that. Oh did I mention that it uses GPGPU accelerated cloud computing?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- dkersten 14y ago
  For years myself and some of my friends have (semi) joked that we'll give up computers completely and take up Alpaca farming.
  - Floopsy 14y ago
    You know, that doesn't sound like an altogether bad idea actually.
    - dkersten 14y ago
      I agree - hence the "semi" part. I wouldn't do it on my own, but if somebody local were to want to partner and do it, I'd very seriously consider it. Though right now I'm too busy with a startup, but post-startup, it sounds like quite an appealing option.
gojomo 14y ago
My hunch is yes, there are successful patterns in Facebook that will propagate to many other software categories, both because they are beneficial and users have een trained to expect them... but then no, those patterns won't dominate completely, because certain countervailing needs will change/moderate/negate them. For example, the 'news feed' is super compelling and attention-grabbing, but at least partially in attention-abusive ways. By intermixing updates of wildly different importance, provenance, and topic, a heightened sense of novelty is created. By the use of reverse-chronological order, a false urgency is created -- "I must read/reply before it scrolls out of view!" -- even when the topics aren't really urgent. So this pattern is a sugar/steroid/stimulant for engagements... against which the mentally-healthy will eventually have to disengage and replace with something more respectful of their attention, with truer cues about novelty and importance. So I expect the 'feed' pattern to be copied everywhere it might offer a quick bit of 'sizzle' to interactions... but also for new ameliorative antipatterns to be developed, and modify or displace the 'feed', as well. Especially in productive contexts where entertainment/diversion/distraction is not the highest value, it will be tried but then modified or discarded.
- sigsergv 14y ago
  And I expect that simple feed will evolve into something more complex than just plain list of entries. The obvious option: feed is sorted by some other item propety, not time but importance+time.
- eyevariety 14y ago
  It is ADD for sure, but there is a measured dopamine response to this type of interaction. The easiest way to understand the history of any object is through a timeline, so when appropriate I do think you are going to see a lot more of it. From my vantage all of the modern social networks feel like the newest incarnation of the blog model, which has always had that timeline model. Nir Eyal has some nice thoughts on it: http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/08/the-webs-slot-machine.html http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/08/the-webs-slot-machine.html
  - gojomo 14y ago
jkaljundi 14y ago
Feed-based enterprise products can be a nightmare for users to follow. There must be structured filtering, categorizing, subsets etc to make sure you can find needed information quickly, not miss important stuff and not having to read through absolutely everything in the newsfeed. For many types of information, using the newsfeed paradigm would be absolutely incorrect.
- Zenst 14y ago
  Agreed any feed based system, even with filters adhears to one fixed albeit customised set of filters. When you can have a different filter set that takes into account what is important to you right there and now, which changes. Then it will be more managable, but that is still away of as predicting the weather 100% right all the time. Compters are good after all at learning from there mistakes once said mistakes have been highlighted to them, it is when they learn human mistakes which the human is unaware of that starts to become an area of conflict. But if feed based products were the way to go then USENET would of been growing in popularity above and beyond the binary feeds. We after all as humans are still pefecting ourselfs and with that we are shy of any software that dictates direction for us. For most a forum were the input feeds are moderated and sanatised by others prior to you getting it is the common form, be it via crowd sourced forums like this or teirs of managment filtering what is interesting. Though the ability to overide those filters is just as important than having them and any other way is dictating and controlling the information in a way that makes most uncomfortable in the expectation that they are missing something which to them is important. Just as if this forum had no search option and the ability to view only the deemed top news items, well you know how that would work out badly, even if most don't use search or the new options much.
edtechdev 14y ago
This has already been happening for quite a while now. Not exactly a radical prediction. Learning management systems like Blackboard and Instructure Canvas are basically imitating facebook now. Edmodo goes the other way and basically starts from facebook and then adds in some learning/teaching features like quizzes and assignments. Of course github has taken off the past few years, and it has feeds and likes (starring projects) and follows. As someone commented on slashdot, even AutoCAD added a 'design feed' feature http://www.autocadws.com/blog/introducing-the-design-feed/ http://www.autocadws.com/blog/introducing-the-design-feed/ For things that aren't enough to warrant social attention to 'like' (like posting 100 times), there seems to be more use of badges like on forums and stack exchange.
gaius 14y ago
If people can collaborate on tagging a photo, he added, they could easily do the same with a product or business problem Is this not the Google Wave Fallacy?
ArekDymalski 14y ago
It's not futuristic anymore. It's today's software. Future is still being cooked in someone's bedroom. Right now.
simon 14y ago
Whenever I see statements of this form, I find myself adding "except when it doesn't" to the end and then finding it much more acceptable. Future software will look like Facebook except when it doesn't. Much better.
ktizo 14y ago
Facebook looks like tv listings and classifieds pages from old print magazines to me. If the future of software looks like facebook, there will be a hell of a lot of disappointed people.
- harryf 14y ago
  Salesforce isn't exactly known for good taste in UI themselves. And feeds? Seriously? More ADD isn't going to make anyone more profits
taw9 14y ago
Sussman must get so pissed after reading stuff like this (after he wgets the page and opens it up in his email client, that is).
Cherian_Abraham 14y ago
Over a year ago, I wrote up an early product requirements doc for how law enforcement investigations will function if investigators could follow cases, evidence, firearms, events, suspects, persons of interest, locations similar to how we follow people on Twitter or Facebook. It would make it incredibly easier for them to be notified when something changes, instead of having to manually be alerted about something of relevance.
antihero 14y ago
Seriously what the fuck is with all these articles lately that are just links to Slashdot?

18 points by vanwilder77 14y ago

If that is what the future is going to look like, I am getting rid of my computers now and taking up gardening and bird watching.

DeepDuh 14y ago
I like your plan. Let's join forces and disrupt the gardening and bird watching space using cutting edge crowdsourced location aware mobile technology.
- ktizo 14y ago
  cutting edge crowdsourced location aware mobile technology. Is that like one of those Swiss army knives with a built-in compass?
  - DeepDuh 14y ago
    Yes, like that. Oh did I mention that it uses GPGPU accelerated cloud computing?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
dkersten 14y ago
For years myself and some of my friends have (semi) joked that we'll give up computers completely and take up Alpaca farming.
- Floopsy 14y ago
  You know, that doesn't sound like an altogether bad idea actually.
  - dkersten 14y ago
    I agree - hence the "semi" part. I wouldn't do it on my own, but if somebody local were to want to partner and do it, I'd very seriously consider it. Though right now I'm too busy with a startup, but post-startup, it sounds like quite an appealing option.

gojomo 14y ago

My hunch is yes, there are successful patterns in Facebook that will propagate to many other software categories, both because they are beneficial and users have een trained to expect them... but then no, those patterns won't dominate completely, because certain countervailing needs will change/moderate/negate them. For example, the 'news feed' is super compelling and attention-grabbing, but at least partially in attention-abusive ways. By intermixing updates of wildly different importance, provenance, and topic, a heightened sense of novelty is created. By the use of reverse-chronological order, a false urgency is created -- "I must read/reply before it scrolls out of view!" -- even when the topics aren't really urgent. So this pattern is a sugar/steroid/stimulant for engagements... against which the mentally-healthy will eventually have to disengage and replace with something more respectful of their attention, with truer cues about novelty and importance. So I expect the 'feed' pattern to be copied everywhere it might offer a quick bit of 'sizzle' to interactions... but also for new ameliorative antipatterns to be developed, and modify or displace the 'feed', as well. Especially in productive contexts where entertainment/diversion/distraction is not the highest value, it will be tried but then modified or discarded.

sigsergv 14y ago
And I expect that simple feed will evolve into something more complex than just plain list of entries. The obvious option: feed is sorted by some other item propety, not time but importance+time.
eyevariety 14y ago
It is ADD for sure, but there is a measured dopamine response to this type of interaction. The easiest way to understand the history of any object is through a timeline, so when appropriate I do think you are going to see a lot more of it. From my vantage all of the modern social networks feel like the newest incarnation of the blog model, which has always had that timeline model. Nir Eyal has some nice thoughts on it: http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/08/the-webs-slot-machine.html http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/08/the-webs-slot-machine.html
- gojomo 14y ago

jkaljundi 14y ago

Feed-based enterprise products can be a nightmare for users to follow. There must be structured filtering, categorizing, subsets etc to make sure you can find needed information quickly, not miss important stuff and not having to read through absolutely everything in the newsfeed. For many types of information, using the newsfeed paradigm would be absolutely incorrect.

Zenst 14y ago
Agreed any feed based system, even with filters adhears to one fixed albeit customised set of filters. When you can have a different filter set that takes into account what is important to you right there and now, which changes. Then it will be more managable, but that is still away of as predicting the weather 100% right all the time. Compters are good after all at learning from there mistakes once said mistakes have been highlighted to them, it is when they learn human mistakes which the human is unaware of that starts to become an area of conflict. But if feed based products were the way to go then USENET would of been growing in popularity above and beyond the binary feeds. We after all as humans are still pefecting ourselfs and with that we are shy of any software that dictates direction for us. For most a forum were the input feeds are moderated and sanatised by others prior to you getting it is the common form, be it via crowd sourced forums like this or teirs of managment filtering what is interesting. Though the ability to overide those filters is just as important than having them and any other way is dictating and controlling the information in a way that makes most uncomfortable in the expectation that they are missing something which to them is important. Just as if this forum had no search option and the ability to view only the deemed top news items, well you know how that would work out badly, even if most don't use search or the new options much.

edtechdev 14y ago

This has already been happening for quite a while now. Not exactly a radical prediction. Learning management systems like Blackboard and Instructure Canvas are basically imitating facebook now. Edmodo goes the other way and basically starts from facebook and then adds in some learning/teaching features like quizzes and assignments. Of course github has taken off the past few years, and it has feeds and likes (starring projects) and follows. As someone commented on slashdot, even AutoCAD added a 'design feed' feature http://www.autocadws.com/blog/introducing-the-design-feed/ http://www.autocadws.com/blog/introducing-the-design-feed/ For things that aren't enough to warrant social attention to 'like' (like posting 100 times), there seems to be more use of badges like on forums and stack exchange.

gaius 14y ago

If people can collaborate on tagging a photo, he added, they could easily do the same with a product or business problem Is this not the Google Wave Fallacy?

ArekDymalski 14y ago

It's not futuristic anymore. It's today's software. Future is still being cooked in someone's bedroom. Right now.

simon 14y ago

Whenever I see statements of this form, I find myself adding "except when it doesn't" to the end and then finding it much more acceptable. Future software will look like Facebook except when it doesn't. Much better.

ktizo 14y ago

Facebook looks like tv listings and classifieds pages from old print magazines to me. If the future of software looks like facebook, there will be a hell of a lot of disappointed people.

harryf 14y ago
Salesforce isn't exactly known for good taste in UI themselves. And feeds? Seriously? More ADD isn't going to make anyone more profits

taw9 14y ago

Sussman must get so pissed after reading stuff like this (after he wgets the page and opens it up in his email client, that is).

Cherian_Abraham 14y ago

Over a year ago, I wrote up an early product requirements doc for how law enforcement investigations will function if investigators could follow cases, evidence, firearms, events, suspects, persons of interest, locations similar to how we follow people on Twitter or Facebook. It would make it incredibly easier for them to be notified when something changes, instead of having to manually be alerted about something of relevance.

antihero 14y ago

Seriously what the fuck is with all these articles lately that are just links to Slashdot?