Thank You, Mr. Scoble!
11.10.07Filed Under: Apps, Judge-O-Rama, Perspective
So, like we said a couple days ago, Robert Scoble was going to blog about our win at the Graphing Social Patterns AppNite. Today he did, and you can find the post on the very popular Scobleizer. He doesn’t have much to say about us, other than call our app “great” and provide a link. And at least he didn’t include us in the “stupider apps” category.
Robert also brings up a good point in reference to Kara Swisher’s recent blog post, The Children’s Hour: Facebook Apps Are for Toddlers (There, We Said It). This point was brought up in one of the business and marketing workshops the first day of the GSP conference, as well. A gentleman asked Lee Lorenzen and Rodney Rumford if there were any “useful” apps available, citing his opinion that all the ones we discussed to that point were ”silly.” As silly as most apps may seem (even our Judge-O-Rama app is a little silly, to be frank), what many of them do well is address the highest levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As Wikipedia explains:
Though the deficiency needs may be seen as “basic”, and can be met and neutralized (i.e. they stop being motivators in one’s life), self-actualization and transcendence are “being” or “growth needs”… i.e. they are enduring motivations or drivers of behavior.
So, as “silly” as most apps are (and we agree, they are), there exist many apps that do an excellent job at fulfilling these “being needs” of people, such as creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, and acceptance of others. Additionally, I would say that most apps are very good at also meeting “Esteem” needs, including helping people feel more confident, respected, and increasing their levels of self-esteem. So, yes, apps have a long way to go and there will surely be an evolution, even a maturing of the apps that are soon made available. But for now, apps are just another way for you to express yourself online, and they’re doing that quite well.
Oh, and don’t worry. This isn’t the only app you’ll see from us.
One Response to “Thank You, Mr. Scoble!”
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Nice website!!
June 16th, 2008 at 12:09 pm