Esteem to Email Nodes

[Radivis (Michael Hrenka)]

Today I’ve been thinking hard about the problem of adoption of innovative projects, especially Quantified Prestige, while I was jogging and walking. Selling innovative products and services to people is hard, so there needs to be a really good strategy that makes people want to join.

Adoption of technology usually works along social connections. People tell their friends, relatives, and coworkers about some new tool or platform (or cat video for that matter ) that they totally must use, because it’s awesome (and so much better than anything that they have used so far).

Anyway, for social platforms we obviously have a bootstrapping problem, because the true value of social platforms only becomes apparent when there are many people who are using them. A social network that is only used by one or two people is effectively useless. So, there needs to be a way to encourage people to join a social platform even when it’s not that useful, yet. And I think I have found a promising strategy that could work for Quantified Prestige: Allocating Esteem Points to people who haven’t signed in to Quantified Prestige, yet.

It would work like this: An already existing member of a QP network allocated Esteem Points to a person whose email address is known. The EPs would actually be allocated to that email address. Those EPs remain dormant and useless, unless an account with the corresponding email is created. So, when someone allocated EPs to an email address that is not a real node of the system, yet, the recipient will get an email like this:

[Sender] allocated [$n$] Esteem Points to you in the Quantified Prestige Network, for the following reason:
[EP allocation reason]
That means that [Sender] holds you in high esteem. You can feel rightfully honoured about that! You can claim those Esteem Points by creating an account in the Quantified Prestige Network. [Sender] would sure be very glad about that.

What is the Quantified Prestige Network? … next generation reputation based economy and gratification system … it’s awesome, because [Sender] is already using it …

The details of the email are of course incomplete and work in progress.

This new mechanism obviously requires that besides nodes that are regular accounts, the system needs email nodes, which remain passive and “virtual”, unless the owner of the email address claims that node. Yet, the system shouldn’t be designed so that the email is the primary identifier for a node. It should be a simple id number. Users should be able to change their email address.

[Elriel]

That looks very much like the spam I’ve occasionally received from other social networks. Frankly, even if I received such a message and it miraculously avoided the spam filter, I’d most likely mark it as spam if I didn’t already know what QPN is. Email is the worst possible way of introducing things to people.

I think the most effective strategy would be to draw up use cases on how the system would work, cases that almost everyone understands. Then make them into short videos that are interesting enough to go viral. Yes, I know this isn’t easy or cheap (unless people with the skills necessary donate their time). A full movie would be even better if you could make one that’s understandable and interesting enough.

[Radivis (Michael Hrenka)]

That looks very much like the spam I’ve occasionally received from other social networks.

That might be a problem. I think the best way to avoid being flagged as spam is letting QP users personalize invitation emails to those they allocate Esteem Points to. It would be seen as personal invitation in that case, in addition to actually demonstrating a positive evaluation of the email recipient.

Email is the worst possible way of introducing things to people.

What? Why? Email is a relatively serious communication medium that is used by serious people. Ok, perhaps it might also be a good idea to extend the mechanism to allow for allocating Esteem Points to user accounts of social networks like Facebook or Twitter. But that would only work out if the sender has connected their QP account with their Facebook / Twitter account. Email is more universal.

I think the most effective strategy would be to draw up use cases on how the system would work, cases that almost everyone understands.

Well, that needs to be done anyway, but it’s far from sufficient for actually creating any kind of real engagement. Most people would simply think “too complicated” or “good idea” and move on to something with more cat videos, or something that is used by people they actually know. And that’s if they actually find the page / document / video in the first place.

Then make them into short videos that are interesting enough to go viral.

When was the last time that you have seen a video about a technical subject go viral? I’m not saying that this is impossible to pull off, but it’s so unlikely that it’s almost certainly not worth even trying. But then, at times I thought it would be almost certainly impossible to develop a system like QP and the Fluido currency. I’m just pessimistic about the ability to actually get many people watching videos about innovative systems. Hmm, perhaps it might be possible by collaborating with really popular YouTube channels. The video would probably not go viral, but it would simply reach a lot of people by being published on a popular YouTube channel.

A full movie would be even better if you could make one that’s understandable and interesting enough.

Who has the time to watch a full movie nowadays? Especially for a full movie about a system that popped up out of nowhere? On the other hand, the Zeitgeist movies kickstarted the Zeitgeist Movement, which isn’t actually very small. So, perhaps that’s a route that might be worth going. But it would require quite serious funding. It might be an idea that could be sold to billionaires who want to buy into the system.

[Elriel]

Email works, when the email is requested by the user. When you get an email from someone or something unknown, especially if it seems to be trying to sell something, it’ll make you think of spam. Email works for providing information once you get someone interested. However, it’s not very effective in getting people interested. Might even have the opposite effect. It doesn’t really matter that the email has the name of someone you know, that might make it even more suspicious.

In other words, once the system starts to be widely known, you can do that. However, before that it’s likely counterproductive.

When you want to convince people into learning about your system you need to be able to get them interested (email fails at this) and then keep them interested (email could work for this). A well made movie will get people talking about it, so it kind of solves both points at once.

If the purpose of the movie is to introduce the potential of this system, then it’d probably be a good idea to write so that in the beginning, the protagonist(s) have just barely heard of the system. Then the wave of adoption that’s happening suddenly brings the system all around them in what seems like no time at all. Perhaps make it so that initially, the new system brings a challenge to the protagonist. For example, the protagonist’s business starts faltering because he’s not on board. Then he learns about the system, starts using it and it’s kind of a story of how he explores the system and it’s benefits as well as it’s troubles.

[Radivis (Michael Hrenka)]

Email works, when the email is requested by the user. When you get an email from someone or something unknown, especially if it seems to be trying to sell something, it’ll make you think of spam.

Not necessarily. Spam filters are pretty intelligent nowadays. The mail that comes though those filters is usually worth checking out. Recently I got asked to write for a German computer science association. No thinking about “spam” was involved for me there.

Email works for providing information once you get someone interested. However, it’s not very effective in getting people interested. Might even have the opposite effect. It doesn’t really matter that the email has the name of someone you know, that might make it even more suspicious.

I don’t share you rather negative opinion on emails. I mean, what’s the alternative to it? Social media? There’s even more noise there. Phone texts perhaps? Old school snail mail? Face to face communication?

When you want to convince people into learning about your system you need to be able to get them interested (email fails at this) and then keep them interested (email could work for this). A well made movie will get people talking about it, so it kind of solves both points at once.

So, what about making a short movie that is linked in an email? I guess that increase the spam score, but it might also help people to get the point of QP. Perhaps the best would be to embed the video on a site or blog post.

If the purpose of the movie is to introduce the potential of this system, then it’d probably be a good idea to write so that in the beginning, the protagonist(s) have just barely heard of the system. Then the wave of adoption that’s happening suddenly brings the system all around them in what seems like no time at all. Perhaps make it so that initially, the new system brings a challenge to the protagonist. For example, the protagonist’s business starts faltering because he’s not on board. Then he learns about the system, starts using it and it’s kind of a story of how he explores the system and it’s benefits as well as it’s troubles.

I like that idea. It may actually need to be settled in the near future to work best. Just when there’s a huge spike in adoption of the system. But there’s also the long term perspective which I have been exploring a bit in my Netec 2045 scenario.

[Elriel]

I don’t share you rather negative opinion on emails. I mean, what’s the alternative to it? Social media? There’s even more noise there. Phone texts perhaps? Old school snail mail? Face to face communication?

It’s more about the motive for using the system than the system itself. I can’t talk for others, of course, but for me email is mostly for work or serious things. Social media is for when I actually want the noise, that’s the crucial difference. In other words, I use social media when I want to bump into things I might not be aware of. When I’m checking email, I don’t want distractions.

I’ve never heard of anyone complain about receiving spam on social media. With email, that’s commonplace. That should say a lot since a lot of marketing happens on social media.

So, what about making a short movie that is linked in an email? I guess that increase the spam score, but it might also help people to get the point of QP. Perhaps the best would be to embed the video on a site or blog post.

A blog post would be good. The link can spread virally through whatever channels people like to use.[quote=“Radivis, post:5, topic:741”]
I like that idea. It may actually need to be settled in the near future to work best. Just when there’s a huge spike in adoption of the system. But there’s also the long term perspective which I have been exploring a bit in my Netec 2045 scenario.
[/quote]

To actually make a movie that works, short one works best because it’s less involving to watch. That’s why they make trailers of full length movies. To have it go viral, it needs to speak to at least one person in 10 in a language that they understand. Something unexpected and surprising that they can still understand and want.

[Radivis (Michael Hrenka)]

In other words, I use social media when I want to bump into things I might not be aware of. When I’m checking email, I don’t want distractions.

That sounds reasonable, but then you have the issue with filter bubbles on social media. On the other hand, if QP became viral, it would actually spread along social connections, so it should be able to completely ignore filter bubbles, so long as they are not inherently social in nature (meaning, it would be cultural bubbles that prevent further propagation, not technology-induced bubbles).

I’ve never heard of anyone complain about receiving spam on social media.

Perhaps that’s because social media consists of mostly spam almost by definition?

A blog post would be good. The link can spread virally through whatever channels people like to use.

Yeah, I guess it would work best, if that was a blog post on a really popular blog. Those get a lot of attention anyway, so the chance the become viral increases.

To actually make a movie that works, short one works best because it’s less involving to watch.

Yeah, I guess you are right. Though it’s hard to compress the most important information about an innovative system like QP into 10 minutes or less.

To have it go viral, it needs to speak to at least one person in 10 in a language that they understand. Something unexpected and surprising that they can still understand and want.

That sounds very challenging, because new ideas aren’t easily understood by most people.

Anyway, if there’s anything that could spread virally about QP it’s that if it was adopted successfully and widely then you would get all kinds of open source digital goods for free (see Digital Abundance)! Consumers are the largest target audience, and they are the ones that can make QP viral. If we could emulate the early success of the Pirate Parties, that would be huge! There are of course other angles and advantages to QP, but I guess they are harder to explain and to sell, and have smaller target audiences.

[Elriel]

That sounds very challenging, because new ideas aren’t easily understood by most people.

Yes, most truly revolutionary things will sound just flat out impossible if you start from the conclusion because the conclusion is too many levels of understanding away from where people are. So, the crucial thing is to manage to show enough things that people will think it could be possible the conclusion is true and are then willing to spend more time learning about it.