Loose the iPad! Get me an iProxy

By Harry van Vliet on 28 January 2010

Daily life is becoming more and more complex despite the increasing use of ‘intelligent’ applications and services. The latest being the iPad. Of course ‘intelligent’ is a term whose meaning is quite relative, as Negroponte has already subtly pointed out: “A dog can recognize you from your gait more than one hundred yards away, whereas a computer does not even know you are there. Almost any pet can tell when you are angry, but a computer does not have a clue. Even puppies know when they have done wrong; computers don’t.”

Still we expect, and rightly so, that services will help us achieve our goals and perform intelligently along the way. Intelligent behaviours we expect from these services include:
1. Taking the pain out of ‘stupid’ repeated behaviours, such as the identification of myself to services and the configuring and the adaptation of systems and services.
2. Having some expectations of what I want and will do and anticipating this.
3. Being in some way aware of the different roles I fulfil in different contexts.
4. Giving some feedback on the relevance of information for me.
5. Supporting me in appraising the trustworthiness of information/services.
6. Giving me (just enough) control possibilities to feel that I am in control.
7. Not bothering me with all kinds of interoperability issues.

All of these intelligent behaviours go back to some sort of identification of ‘me’ and what ‘I’ am, do, prefer, etcetera. They go back to the utility of a personal proxy: the iProxy. One way to optimize the benefits of technology for individuals is to adapt products and services to the user’s characteristics, behaviour and preferences. In other words: a profile of the user, representing his or her characteristics, behaviour, preferences, etcetera, should be part of the equation.

Fact is that current recommender systems that build on some kind of user model are fairly limited: some preferences and some behaviour stats (clicking) and that is supposed to be ‘me’. Therefore we have to go beyond the simple principle of user profiles ‘only’ containing preferences; there is more to ‘me’ than this. What about what I am (personality, religion, astrology, medical), what I have (children, a job, a car, mobile devices…), what I want (education, career, social life…), what I do (sports, work, music…) what I know (quantum physics, flowers, silent movies…), what I like (painting, WWI, Zelda…), et cetera
What this also makes clear is that the information differs in its persistence: personality traits are by definition more persistent, and likely more so than preferences. Many of the elements can also be perceived in the passive voice: the work I did and the money I had are crucial in for instance a social insurance context.

A personal proxy opens up new potentials for business gains, such as the opportunity to further optimize services, offer personal privileges and provide a means to deal with information overload. A reusable profile could also mean lower costs for the integration of services. All in all, one might expect that a personal proxy would in some way result in better use of services, because from a user’s perspective the service gets the job done faster, more easily and in a more reliable way. Now get me an IPad…

tagged with: personalisation, ipad, user profile