Thank you for voting, Green Valley, AZ, January 2009

An interesting way to toot one’s own horn. This sign in Papa Murphy’s prominently yet graciously thanks us for voting for them as BEST PIZZA CHAIN in America. To paraphrase Monty Python, I didn’t vote for them. Did you? In fact, a little investigation reveals that this was a customer satisfaction and preference survey by Restaurants & Institutions Magazine. A survey is not an election. No one voted for anything.

R&I’s Consumers’ Choice in Chains survey respondents are a representative sample of U.S. consumers weighted to match the population by age, gender, household income, ethnicity and region. In all, 3,132 adults provided data about their awareness and patronage of more than 200 of the largest U.S. chains. These brands were selected for inclusion based on rankings in R&I’s 2007 Top 400 Chains list. The margin of error for this data is +/- 2%.
To gauge customer loyalty, respondents who patronized a chain in the past year are asked whether they intend to return. In addition, guest satisfaction on eight attributes is measured through customers’ ratings of each chain they patronized. To derive overall scores, performance on the attributes is weighted according to the category. This is done using separate ratings that consumers provide to indicate the importance of each attribute in selecting a restaurant in a given category. The weighted overall score can be used to compare chain performance across segments.

I applaud Papa Murphy for trying to induce a sense of participation in their patrons, reframing an external assessment as something that we can feel some involvement in, thereby sharing in their success. But the fact that the claim doesn’t stand up to just a little bit of scrutiny reveals them to be a little bit dishonest. Almost, but not quite.

See previously: Local Starbucks exhibits passion for their customers

• LeapFrog Text & Learn taps into that natural desire toddlers have to emulate Mommy and Daddy – Preschoolers can enjoy texting (virtual character) while browsing the "web." Intended to teach spelling, basic computer skills, and the layout of a QWERTY keypad. Funny how this seems more horrifying than a kiddie vacuum cleaner or rolling pin, though. (Thanks, Wannie)

• 1981 news story about online newspapers (YouTube) – Long before anyone had heard of the Internet, early home computer users could read their morning newspapers online … sort of. Steve Newman's 1981 story was broadcast on KRON San Francisco.

I’ve long been a fan of Bruce Sterling’s 1998 story Maneki Nekoi

Next morning, Tsuyoshi slept late. He was self-employed, so he kept his own hours. Tsuyoshi was a video format upgrader by trade. He transferred old videos from obsolete formats into the new high-grade storage media. Doing this properly took a craftsman’s eye. Word of Tsuyosh’s skills had gotten out on the network, so he had as much work as he could handle.
At ten A.M., the mailman arrived. Tsuyoshi abandoned his breakfast of raw egg and miso soup, and signed for a shipment of flaking, twentieth-century analog television tapes. The mail also brought a fresh overnight shipment of strawberries, and a homemade jar of pickles.
“Pickles!” his wife enthused. “People are so nice to you when you’re pregnant.”
“Any idea who sent us that?”
“Just someone on the network.”
“Great.”

So I was intrigued to learn about FriendlyFavor.

People seeking a babysitter, job referral or help moving a couch, to name just a few examples, can all use FriendlyFavor for free to ask for help online-sending their request only to the contacts they trust-as can people with favours to offer, such as extra tickets or leftover moving supplies. The platform was designed to eliminate the hassle, wasted time and confusion that can accompany traditional favour requests, providing instead a one-stop site for managing everything from the initial request to the thank-you once a favour has been granted.

Sure, it’s not yet mediated by an AI, but it is certain a predecessor to Sterling’s vision.

And see What Science Fiction Writers Have Learned About Predicting The Future of Technology (via Pasta and Vinegar)

A curb creates an impromptu parking system for shopping carts at this mall in Daly City, CA.

Related posts:
Affordance Control
More on shopping carts

• The school called this a “restriction,” not a “suspension,” so as not to have to report it on college applications. – Was this use of language ethical? Randy Cohen's "The Ethicist" in the NYT mag explores some of the themes from my recent interactions column Poets, Priests, and Politicians

From Louis Menand’s review of two books on texting is an interesting example of how non-English speakers (and texters) are using abbreviations in a localized and relevant way:

Different cultures have had to solve the problem of squeezing commonly delivered messages onto the cell-phone screen according to their own particular national needs. In the Czech Republic, for example, “hosipa” is used for “Hovno si pamatuju“: “I can’t remember anything.” One can imagine a wide range of contexts in which Czech texters might have recourse to that sentiment. French texters have devised “ght2v1,” which means “J’ai acheté du vin.” In Germany, “nok” is an efficient solution to the problem of how to explain “Nicht ohne Kondom“-“not without condom.” If you receive a text reading “aun” from the fine Finnish lady you met in the airport lounge, she is telling you “?Ñlä unta nää“-in English, “Dream on.”

and a (not-novel) theory about the appeal of texting that I think is partly true but not sufficient to explain the tremendous global usage.

A less obvious attraction of texting is that it uses a telephone to avoid what many people dread about face-to-face exchanges, and even about telephones-having to have a real, unscripted conversation. People don’t like to have to perform the amount of self-presentation that is required in a personal encounter. They don’t want to deal with the facial expressions, the body language, the obligation to be witty or interesting. They just want to say “flt is lte.” Texting is so formulaic that it is nearly anonymous. There is no penalty for using catchphrases, because that is the accepted glossary of texting.

• 401(k) syndrome mentioned in NYT – I hadn't heard the term before but this is definitely something we saw in our recent study of people's financial attitudes and beahviors
  —
  “I think we are seeing a little of the ‘401(k) syndrome,’ ” Mr. Steele said, referring to people who are ignoring recent financial statements because they know they will present bad news.

• Some brands remain untouched by discounts – Yet another (rambling anecdotal) story about changes in purchase behavior. We just did an ethnographic study in this area and didn't see (or probe for) the brand-motivating power described.
  "The reasons fall mostly into three categories: old habits die hard, brand loyalty runs deep and the Economics 101 law of supply and demand means the most sought-after brands can command the best prices. Beyond that, there are some items consumers stubbornly just won't forgo — sale or not — no matter how hard they're trying to stretch their budget.
  …
  "There are certain categories … where there are no substitutes accepted. It's infusing your brand with those things that people then say 'I have to have the real thing.'"
  …
  Heather Fox scours stores for sales and clips coupons for food and clothing discounts. But she won't cut corners when it comes to her Marlboro Lights.
  …
  Corlett puts it differently. "You may drink less Coke, but you're not giving up Coke," she said."

Wired describes a supersized server farm (a network/IT facility) in Las Vegas. This caught my eye:

Consider the comic book he penned about his staff, Switchblades: The Dark Ethereals have hacked into Earth’s ionosphere with a plan to destroy the Net! Luckily, Roy, er, Core and his band of super-employees are here to save the day-and keep the world safe for truth, knowledge, and the entrepreneurial way.

Early in my career we did an ethnographic study of senior IT professionals. During a visit to the converted-warehouse offices of a San Francisco clothing manufacturer, the CIO took us on a tour, and as we arrived at an appendage-like access-way, with a small wooden ladder cum staircase going through a heavy curtain. Before we entered what turned out to be the IT department and server room, our host said “…and this is the Batcave.”

That one word led to a significant insight about the identity of the IT professional: talented and heroic science-y types who labor unrecognized far behind the scenes, ready to emerge and save the city when they receive the signal. This informed a new segmentation of their market and some better understanding of how to position their evolving product line.

Although the company is gone from that space (it’s now loft-condo-something), it’s interesting to see that our finding still holds true today.