Monday
11Aug

Playing the Park

On July 18th, 2008 I embarked on a social media experiment: The Embodiment and Anthropomorphication of a Public Space. This three week experiment had some ups and downs, garnered a bit of attention, and prompted a new type of tweeting. Here's a bit of backstory... 

Photo by Michael C. W. Murphy

Snuggled tight in the center of Philadelphia is Rittenhouse Square. It's a public park, one city block in size and is easily the most visited of the city's green spaces.

On a recent visit, I started paying attention to the large percentage of people by themselves. While some of these park dwellers were just passing through, a large percentage were reading, eating, or playing music solo. Thinking about this made the park seem less of a hub for community... Instead it started to feel transient; filled yet empty.

As usual, I was about to Twitter [?] my location... I wanted to write that I was @rittenhouse, but realized this profile didn't exist. Quickly the pieces seemed to fall into place. 

After a few brief discussions with some close friends over the parameters of this project, I set up the Rittenhouse Twitter. And sent out my first few messages:

Photo Credit: Philebrity.comAfter following a few locals, my numbers started to grow. Within the first week nearly 300 people started following and interacting with "Ritt." 

Concerned with the limited scope Twitter might be able to attract considering how new it is, I set up a Facebook page for the park. This too took off very quickly, and attracted many users not on twitter. Thanks to the social graph, the page continues to grow, with nearly 20 new members each day. Analytics of New Fans to the Rittenhouse Facebook Page

Setting Goals

One primary goal was to fight that adage shared by grandmothers all over... the internet (and technology) isolates and separates. So, step one was to see how this sort of technology, combined with the brand recognition of Rittenhouse Square could help to bring people together. First, I asked people to fill "me" with photos. Even with the limited number of people at that time, I found that there were roughly 25 photos uploaded to the Facebook page, a fairly high participation rate I think given the infancy of this project.

Next, and perhaps more difficult: I wanted to actually bring people together. I figured one of the most efficient ways to do this was through a gathering in the park. A potluck seemed to be a great way to do so. So, I set the date and started to tweet. It was time to push hard to try and garner more attention.

The Media

Shortly after my first tweet, Philadelphia's satirical news blog Philebrity picked up the story. Soon after I was contacted by the Philadelphia Inquirer who too wrote about this experiment, publishing a story in the Sunday Inquirer. Major boosts in participation was seen around the release of these articles.

The Potluck

Photo Credit: J Tannenwald from Flickr
After tweeting about the event for a while, the day finally came for the potluck. When it was all said and done, there were around 15 people that showed up for the event, which was described in a follow up article by Philebrity.  

The number of people that attended translates to approximately 1 in every 30 followers / fans. And while I would have loved 100% participation, I'm quite happy with the outcome given the project was only two weeks old and creepily anonymous.

In Conclusion / What's Next

Overall I think that the Rittenhouse Facebook / Twitter experiment went well. Given the scope, time, and money ($0) it attracted a good amount of attention, and hopefully made some feel more connected. 

To me, this just goes to show that when when you converse rather than just broadcast, and when your service is interesting or valuable to your audience, they will participate. Sure, we only tapped into a TINY percentage of those in the park, but there's still room for growth, and as we've discussed... participation is on the rise! So, who knows where this will be next year. 

What's next for @rittenhouse? Well, being anonymous was always a concern with this project. I'm all for transparency on the net, but no one wants to know there's a short guy in the Mickey Mouse suit. So, I worked to keep my involvement fairly hush hush, accordingly I'll be passing the account over to a new anonymous author in the next few days as I desperately want to go back to just being @danieldelaney. Interested? Let me know. 

Variations on a Theme

It's been great to see how the community embraced the Rittenhouse twitter. But what's even more exciting is to see how others are using this service to embody and draw attention to new places. Since twittering I saw a @southphilly, @clarkpark, and @philachinatown spring up, plus a number of local businesses have used (or were using) it such as @natmechanics and @pumpkinmarket

So, what do you think? How could you make this project better? What should the future hold for @rittenhouse and what do you think about this new type of anthropomorphic micro-blogging? Also, have a public space that you love? Why not try and give it an online persona! If you're successful, tell us how and why!

-Ritt

Monday
11Aug

Spreeder

Just discovered Spreeder, an online speed reading application that I'm in love with! 

Daily I read tons of lengthy blogs, totaling nearly two hours of my internet activity. With this, I'm able to get that all down to around 45 minutes, without feeling as if I skimped or misunderstood content. Awesome app!

Make sure to Digg them!


Monday
04Aug

Hello World.

I would like to take a moment to thank you for visiting my website and share my goals for this blog. 

I spend most of my time pondering the the effects the internet, social media, innovation and design have on our culture and society. I love technology, but have some reservations about how we use (abuse?) it. I often feel a sort of rat race on the net; one in which people fight to garner attention, promote their "brand,"  and sell you things you might not need. That is not my goal for this site.

Instead, I hope to spark curiosity, debate, and conversation. I want to share what insight I can, and hope you'll engage by expressing your opinions and ideas. 

I appreciate your time – Thanks.

Dan