Breaking Down Context
After checking out “User Generated Context,” the first research note by Havas Media Lab, I’ve been thinking about context and how it relates to perceived value. Here’s what I’ve come up with thus far:
Elements of Context:
1. Creator
- Time
- Place
- Format
- References (sources, external links, etc)
2. Recipient (intended and unintended)
- Time
- Place
- Format
- Neighboring Data
3. Relationship Between Creator and Recipient
- Friends or Strangers, Long-time Friends or New Friends…
- Dynamics Relating to Knowledge of Other Participants
It’s very interesting, for example, how much the relationship between the time information is created and the time at which a recipient receives it effects the value of the information. These elements of context, which can be different for the creator and recipient, can render information useless or valuable (imagine the message, “Let’s go to the movie playing at 5pm,” received at 4pm vs. 8pm!).
So where does value come in?
People are excited by iPhone apps because they add value to information by decreasing the gap between creation time and the time it is received as well as automating the creator’s and recipient’s places via GPS. When you are in a specific place at a specific time, relevant information can be powerful (“I’m in Santa Monica - what’s happening tonight?”…”There’s a great party here, come on over!”).
FriendFeed is powerful because of the amount of information with accompanying contextual metadata it can aggregate in a fun and easy way. #3 above is a non-static element that FriendFeed excels at shaping, adding value to the vast amounts of information pouring in on the platform.
This post is getting long and I’m more interested in hearing your ideas! Thoughts? Am I missing any elements of context? Any interesting examples of adding value to information in relation to this framework?
