1: Innovative Design

My explanation will be entirely verbal, personally I don’t feel images would do much justice unless they were of site mockups. In any case, my product idea is an alternative social media platform based on community ideals. This product would provide the ability to create social spaces for small groups, such that individuals will meaningfully connect with those inside the group rather than appealing for the support of a larger user base. Individuals would be strictly pushed away from gathering likes. Furthermore, the product would seek to remove the component of anonymous activity protected by typical Twitter or Reddit text conversations. Note that anonymity, in this situation, is being viewed as a double edged sword of privacy versus social connectivity. The goal is to remove anonymous activity, but protect personal information.

2: Upgraded Criteria

Due to overlap this product would pertain to two separate categories, Social Reasoning and Group Dynamics. Social Reasoning relates to safety and connections with others. How does that happen outside of the online space? Face to face interactions, as well as the building of trust among close individuals. Being able to interact face to face allows for a better carrying of conversation, as both sides gain a unique form of context: facial expressions. This ability to see how someone physically reacts, or doesn’t interact, to different ideas provides a way to construct further comments. Furthermore voice based communication provides tone of voice, a powerful tool for figuring out the meaning behind someone’s words. The English language is such that it needs auditory hints to discern exact meaning, otherwise you work within a realm of possible angry, sarcastic, sad, indifferent, excited, etc comments… at which point every look into the meaning of someone’s words is pure guesswork.

Note that previously related elements of Social Reasoning provide a sense of connection. Following the conversation, and its myriad of contextual reactions, are important components to continuing a healthy conversation. When it comes to safety, we are provided the tools needed to catch social mistakes, or to know of signs of disinterest. Reading someone’s mind is pure fantasy, judging thoughts based on physical evidence is meanwhile science.

Now to discuss the other category, Group Dynamics. What does it mean, how do we handle this in the real world? Well, it’s the method for which we navigate large groups, and our status within them. As for how we navigate groups, we create a multitude of different close knit groups that we easily understand. Workplaces, old school friends, family, local neighbors, etc. We place associations that allow us to think in reference to that particular group. As for status, I won’t claim every individual to view matters with the same common thought or idea. However, the difference between physical and online is distinctly visual. As we’ve discussed in readings, and in class, online status equates to arbitrary values- ex. Likes. The Twitter validation check mark, for popular accounts, is another example of this. This focus on arbitrary values and mass interaction causes an unhealthy obsession, which can be associated with a bundled sense of dread. That bundled dread, commonly, associates with the time it takes for a social media action to gain a reaction. Meanwhile in the physical world, that same idea of status comes across differently. Contribution, respect, knowledge, kindness- tangible ideas rather than the arbitrary value of some anonymous group “liking” your post.

3: Supportive Context

Personally view a few select groups as those who would lead the use of this product idea, at least in its early days. Small development teams, families, and tight knit groups of friends. From here there’s room to expand into creating groups based on anonymous users joining to form unique, specialized, communities. From here further expansion can occur into community podcasting settings, perhaps in reflection of radio talk shows.

To further elaborate on the initial groups, I have a personal belief that there’s a large number of individuals looking for better systems for supporting online communication. More to the point, I believe there to be a significant number of groups looking for safer spaces to host their communities. Whenever I participate in an online community there’s always this clear sense of dread for the community itself. Saying that, it’s weird to think about how a community can dread its own existence. How could a community truly fear interacting with itself? However you choose to answer that question, the issue has spread not much unlike a plague. Reddit communities, Discord communities, and Twitter communities all suffer from varying degrees of dread. The user base, for my product, exists in potential. To realize this user base, only a healthy product is required. 

4: Weigh Costs

Admittedly the weight costs are best split into multiple sections. However, due to the prominence of the issue I’ve spent most of my time dwelling on issues of privacy and security. Privacy and security concerns are worryingly immense for this product concept. Anonymous users, having face to face conversations, is a massive hole for user privacy. Issues like bots and malicious user recordings are very real threats. If you need the proof just look at Zoom, with a negative mix of “Zoom Bombing” and user privacy leaks caused by individuals recording class sessions. As it turns out, the academic insistence on using real names, and face cams, was an unsafe request. To that end, some method for face censoring must be developed and utilized. Problematically, these are cutting edge fields spurred by issues that surfaced over COVID’s forced online classes. With current knowledge, there are two solution paths. First off, some form of face feed sanitation. This means removing identifying details from your face so bots cannot appropriately recognize you. Second option is to use modern 3D virtual avatar software, which is becoming more and more advanced with the passing month due to new entertainment crazes. Regardless of the choice, there’s either a high research cost or high cost for users to join the platform… latter of which reduces product income no matter what.

Now aside from the obvious privacy and security concerns, of which I raise for just about everything I work on for each class I take, there’s an income concern. Unlike a lot of modern corporations I’m self conscious about the idea of commercial data use. To me, the practice should be completely illegal. With my morals causing a funding problem I’m forced to look to more… ethical means of monetary gain. Problematically I have no data on what works, so before a product could ever be made I’d have to research and test in great detail. This means looking towards the successes and failures of other platforms, and always asking “why”. Regardless of anything though, there’s still a lot to think about with this project concept, and some design documents are in order if I want a clearer picture.