Karm City The personal blog of Mykel Nahorniak

Mobile device usage for US colleges

My company has a platform that serves 800,000+ students at universities across the US, or about 30% of the entire US college student population.

Here’s their mobile usage breakdown (pulled from our Analytics):

If you include the iPad, Apple blows everything out of the water:

Even if you exclude the iPad, Apple is so much higher, the others barely even register on the graph:

Interestingly, even the iPod beats out any one Android device.

Looking at just the OS level, which covers all Android and iOS devices, Android gets helped a little bit, but Apple is still clearly in the majority.

Android: the ultimate long-tail OS?

Compromise on nothing and you compromise on everything

I was thinking today about quotes I saw from Microsoft execs and the company’s Surface Pro, which (in essence) said, “No compromises! The Surface has a big screen, big keyboard, great battery life, good storage…”

Sounds great on paper, but the reviews say otherwise: it’s a device-by-committee that appeals to nobody.

Usually when two parties compromise, nobody wins. How did Microsoft, apparently doing the opposite, still fail?

Compromise on nothing and you compromise on everything. In other words, by not compromising on any individual feature, you’re compromising on the product as a whole. By trying to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to everyone.

For car UI, gestures will cause more accidents

It’s “finally” here: gesture-based inputs on car interfaces. Gestures, somehow, are a must-have on every device these days. Phones, watches, fridges, now autos.

The inherent flaw: I need to keep my eyes on the road. If I’m sliding my finger over an intangible soft-button on the screen, I immediately need to look at my dash to see if I, in fact, pressed the button I intended to press.

Not only is it a less efficient convention, it’s even more dangerous than keeping everything in a tactile form.

How would I fix this? A few ways:

• Windscreen HUD. Car manufacturers have barely scratched the surface with this. A possible distraction, but technically your eyes will still be on the road.
• More functions on multi-function steering wheels; they’re still a relatively clean slate. Make cruise control (an arguably little-used function) not need five buttons and add some more quick-use functions, with the menu tightly enclosed in the HUD area.
• Prioritize the most-used features (temp control, gear select) to be buttons, with everything else relegated to software menus.
• Make the typical area for the speedo/tachometer a big screen that can dynamically change. Lexus did this with the LFA and it could have worked very well if they had toned down the flourish. Slightly more confusing, but limits time where your eyes are off the road.

Overall, it looks like the industry is opting for more complexity (GM is now offering an API for their car software) instead of getting back to basics.

That farmer doesn’t need Angry Birds in his Silverado.

A company needs to take the Apple approach: get in, rip out everything, only add the essentials after they’ve been deemed absolutely necessary.

Politicians vs. Math. Fight!

Obama Plan

1. Keep Bush-era tax cuts in place for everyone but the top 2%
2. Reduce tax deductables for top 2%
3. Generate $850bn in additonal tax revenue over the next decade
4. Don’t fix the $10 trillion deficit; 90% still remains

Republican Plan

1. Keep Bush-era tax cuts in place for everyone
2. Keep tax deductables for everyone
3. Focus on tax reform and let the Bush-era tax cuts expire next year
4. Add $400bn to the deficit
5. Don’t fix the $10 trillion deficit; adding an additional year of debt to the bottom line

Do Nothing

1. Let Bush-era tax cuts expire for everyone, effectively returning to the Clinton era
2. Generate $1.5 trillion in additional tax revenue over the next decade
3. Don’t fix the $10 trillion deficit; 85% still remains

Ideal Scenario

1. Let Bush-era tax cuts expire for everyone, effectively returning to the Clinton era
2. Reduce tax deductables for top 2%
3. Reform the tax system, hopefully developing a long-term tax plan to reduce deficit further
4. Generate $2.2 trillion in additional tax revenue over the next decade
5. Don’t fix the $10 trillion deficit; 78% still remains

On paper, if we’re strictly talking about reducing the deficit, which both the Democrats and Republicans say they want, it’s a no-brainer. Any way you slice it, it will still be a problem for the next generation.

The only thing that is disingenuous to me is the perception that Obama is raising taxes. He’s not. He’s returning to the very same tax plan that generated massive budget surpluses in the 90s under Clinton. We could only be so lucky.

Fighting the idea echo chamber

We’ve all heard about how Baltimore is the next Silicon Valley. It’s something we all love to say to make ourselves feel justified in starting and keeping our companies here. The reality is: Baltimore isn’t Silicon Valley, and never will be.

When we can all admit that, we’ll be ready to focus on what Baltimore is, and how we can make it an environment that encourages action. A good start: let’s stop trying to recreate SV by talking about “hustle” and “startup ecosystem” and what Andreessen Horowitz is missing out on by not investing here, and focus on what Baltimore needs.

What specifically does Baltimore need? Many of you already know. Lots of great ideas have been thrown out there, but very few have ever broken ground, let alone completed. Below are a few thoughts on how to create an environment of action.

Own your idea: who will lead this effort?

You’ve probably gone to meetups, conferences and events to discuss ideas on how great Baltimore is and how to make it even better.

You’ve probably walked out of one of these events and thought, “that meeting was great, I had some solid contributions and heard some great ideas.” I know I have. Unfortunately, that’s usually where it ends. We all love the ideas, but nobody wants to jump into the pit and try one out.

Baltimore’s startup community is a friendly bunch. It’s only natural that we all get together and brainstorm on great ways to put the city on the map. Unfortunately, when there’s a room full of idea people and no clear goals defined, everyone spins in a circle. We leave the meeting with twenty ideas and no strategy. All twenty are great, but which one do we move forward with? More importantly, who’s going to own it?

Think more about what you can take ownership of, instead of just floating an idea. So before you leave that meetup, define: who will take control of that project or initiative?

Don’t ask permission: do it and they will follow

Get out there and execute without waiting for a unanimous vote, or consensus. If it fails, great, we have 19 other ideas to try out.

If an idea makes sense and it’s in your power to move, do it. When something has momentum, others will naturally want to join in and help. The folks who can participate, will.

Ask anyone in Baltimore if they’re a proponent of change/progress/success/positivity in Baltimore and 100 percent of them will say yes. But how many of them will be the first one to put a plan into motion? Start something cool, and people will follow.

We don’t need the city’s help to make the city better

Lower taxes, new incubators, and securing city grant money are all great ways to keep the momentum going, but there’s a lot more that can be done culturally. Instead of trying to get the city (or other government or institutional partners) on board before moving forward with an initiative, get out there and do it first, then invite the city to join in and help. If it’s just an idea, the city can choose to say no. If it’s happening whether the city likes it or not, they’ll have no choice but to join in.

Follow the leaders: plenty of examples exist

Look around at the great things that have emerged in Baltimore in the past couple years: the Beehive, Betamore, Betascape, TEDx, Ignite, etc. Each happened because someone jumped in without asking first. Use their strategy as a model and bring your idea to fruition, making Baltimore a place that rewards action.

Advertising idea

I’d like to preface this by saying I hate this idea on its face, as its intention is what’s wrong in a lot of web-based revenue these days: selling the user to advertisers.

Nevertheless, I haven’t seen it done. 

These days, advertisers are burning a lot of calories wrapping user-generated content with display ads. Get people to write comments, then put ads in and around them. It’s tantamount to product placement in television, and is an effective way to promote one’s product.

Need an example? Something like Promoted Tweets on Twitter. 

But what if we flip the idea around and put our focus earlier in the process: when the comment is being written?

The Idea

While the user is typing out their comment, auto-completed word suggestions appear for brands who have bought “advertising” space.

I’ve illustrated this in the graphic below using this post as an example:

The effect is certainly subtle, possibly subliminal. But, it’s not nearly as intrusive as a big, loud display ad, and it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the person typing. The user can keep typing along and eventually the suggestion will disappear.

It’s more passive than a link that can be clicked, but if it couldn’t be effective, we wouldn’t still be seeing TV ads.

A company like Disqus or Facebook could drop this feature in relatively easily and glean two new revenue streams: advertising, or in Disqus’ case, a paid license to shirk the product placement.

You could even argue Google is already doing this with their instant results; showing ads for products while the user is still typing their search query.

If nothing else, it’d be be an interesting exercise to compare this method with other advertising media.