Google Glass becomes “glamorous” to enhance communication

Admitting it's a long road to adoption, Virgin Atlantic airlines is testing Google Glass for customer service at London’s Heathrow airport.

Virgin Atlantic says the test is based on research that shows the experience of flight is not as exciting as it used to be for customers. Google Glass might turn that feeling around. In fact, Virgin Atlantic says a customer greeted by a Glass-wearing customer service representative might find flying to be a glamorous experience again.

Virgin writes in its press release:

“From the minute Upper Class passengers step out of their chauffeured limousine at Heathrow’s T3 and are greeted by name, Virgin Atlantic staff wearing the technology will start the check-in process. At the same time, staff will be able to update passengers on their latest flight information, weather and local events at their destination and translate any foreign language information. In future, the technology could also tell Virgin Atlantic staff their passengers’ dietary and refreshment preferences–anything that provides a better and more personalised service.”

Galactic-style publicity aside, the real possibilities come with the disappearance of the ticket counter with a big computer monitor that divides the staff from passengers. Virgin Atlantic representatives can step out from behind the counter to talk with the passenger and still have instant access to the check-in process and flight updates. Notice the absence of any mention of taking pictures. It's like a natural conversation. And, while keeping eye contact, the representative can translate information into another language, given the capabilities of Glass. 

This could be a breakthrough for Google to see how quickly people will become comfortable in conversation with someone who is wearing Glass—someone who is engaging and helpful, not creepy. It’s about delivering information, not sneaking a photo or video. 

The best use of your Google Glass could be to give it away

“Journalist Nilay Patel wanted to tell the story of Indiana University shooting guard Victor Oladipo in the moments leading up to the 2013 NBA draft, but he didn’t want to get in the way.” So begins the retelling in the American Journalism Review of how basketball star Oladipo became a first-person experiential journalism trendsetter.

It’s journalism, but it’s also storytelling. And that’s what we do every day at work. We tell stories to share experiences and ideas related to the work we do to reach our goals.

I can envision sharing my Google Glass with someone at work on a typical day or for a special event, to see how the day or event unfolds before his or her eyes. And then, I’d post the video (edited, as appropriate) for people throughout the company. What an extension of what we already know—that people relate to other people as we communication about work. I usually talk about the “potential” of Glass. This, I could do tomorrow. And I just might!

Be sure to watch the story of Oladipo’s experience.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ-WDW9AY8k#action=share 

Face to face may not mean side by side

Mentoring newcomers to the strategies and practices of communicating to employee communities—is that something we’re improving now that we have social media and wearable computing all around us? Not me. Not yet.

I’m the person more likely to ask a summer intern, as I’m rushing off to another meeting, to take a stab at Project A or Tactic B while I’m gone, and we’ll talk about it later. I have an acquaintance who does just the opposite. She takes her intern with her to every meeting. Listening and observing a business meeting may not directly add a sample to a student’s communication portfolio and is possibly just confusing to a newbie, but surely it adds business know-how. And I suspect it creates a master-apprentice relationship that benefits both.

Question for the day: What’s the best way to be mentored by someone far away, and can technology actually make it better than in-person coaching?

Photographers and artists have a way to enter that master-apprentice path online now that intrigues me. Take a few minutes to watch the video to see how it works—or just to enjoy the great photography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDL58aJSr28

I know some of you have been following the lengthy ongoing conversation in the IABC group on LinkedIn over the past couple of weeks. The master of employee communication asked a simple question about “intellectual laziness” in our field. Response has been passionate, disruptive, heartfelt, rowdy, embracing—all positive lessons for people pushing into the master category themselves and those just starting to explore.

Yet, as in all human communication, words sometimes fail us. One person’s deep belief didn’t seem relevant in another person’s workplace as we tried using words to describe our situations. Conversation spiraled in a confusing direction. The truth is, we come at discussions like this one from different worlds with different daily experiences even though we have similar interests and skills in business communication. In this instance, what qualified as intellectual laziness and what represented the right curiosity and research? That answer isn’t the point of this commentary. The point is to ponder whether multi-sensory exchanges of knowledge and insight might improve how we learn from masters, as in the mastery video. And also, can contextual exchanges that are part of wearable computing help make our points?

Just as the telegraph made the world smaller and television helped us share a culture, wearable computing may be a turning point in how we learn to better communicate at work by sitting side by side, so to speak, in the meeting room with a master far away. Think it could happen? If not, just watch.

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Want Google Glass? Give someone or yourself the adventure of testing Google Glass. I have a couple of invites to become a Google Glass Explorer. Let me know by Dec. 20, 2014, why you want to be part of the beta testing and, in particular, how you would explore using Glass at work. The rules are set by Google, not me, and they include your having to purchase Glass at $1,500 plus tax and shipping. (I don’t work for Google or get any remuneration at any time.) Also, you must be a US resident, at least 18 years old, and provide a US shipping address or pick up Glass at a Google location in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Using Google Glass to measure internal communications in the age of context

By guest blogger Katie Delahaye Paine. Katie, a highly regarded communication measurement expert, blogs regularly at http://www.painepublishing.com/measurement-in-the-age-of-context/. She recently had an opportunity to try Google Glass and said “it took about 30 seconds using Google Glass to really grok what they were talking about—in short, a world where companies, the government, your computing device and the objects around you will ‘know’ you better than you know yourself.”

With luck and Glass, scenarios like the following will never happen again: Years ago, when corporate video was all the rage, a well-known research laboratory approached me to measure the success of its internal communications. My contact was the person who was running the corporate video program at the time and the real reason for the research was to justify its cost. We proposed an employee survey to understand where they got information, what they found most useful, and what communications mechanism they preferred. We also asked the usual employee engagement questions like, how committed you are to the organization? do you feel this is an organization you can trust? And do you trust the information you are receiving?

Just as we were fielding the survey, the company announced that it was being restructured and put up for sale, so naturally we were worried about our findings. The client decided to forge ahead and when the results were in, they were surprisingly positive. They felt that, under the circumstances, the company was doing as good a job as they could in keeping them informed. However, when we got into the specifics of which types of communications were most effective, it turns out that they HATED the video program. Naturally the client was upset, so we dug into the data together.

As it turns out the most negative responses came from one department, which was comprised primarily of very highly advanced programmers. The fact that they were not happy was obviously a big deal. I reported my results to the client who responded: “Oh them. Those guys are such nerds. They are so focused on their work and their computer screens that they actually hooked up a ‘coffee cam,’ because god forbid they should ever get up from their desks for a cup of coffee and find that the pot was empty. Instead they checked the coffee cam and only left their desks when they saw there was coffee there. “

I pointed out that it was hardly surprising, if they were that reluctant to leave their desk, that they would enjoy being forced to walk all the way to the conference room to watch a video, even if it was just a 3 minute walk.

I see Google Glass as the ultimate answer to that problem.

Essentially with Glass, those programmers would carry their computers with them wherever they go so they will get information wherever they are, and whenever they want it. And, when employees can chose the time and form of message delivery, employee communications teams will know immediately which messages of all the myriad ones they receive, they actually pay attention to, and which they ignore. With metrics like that, all decisions will be based on data not on the internal political clout of the requestor.

Imagine a world without “how useful do you find the newsletter” surveys. No more relying on employees reluctantly filling out questionnaires about what they recall or feel. That world will be populated with communications teams who will be able to measure what is most effective at engaging employees and tailor delivery and content accordingly.

But that’s just the first step. Ultimately, however, it’s not about whether employees got your message. It’s about whether that message yielded any benefit. The beauty of measurement in the age of context is that you’ll be able to analyze how employees work, rank them from most to least efficient or effective at any particular task, and then correlate that data to their message consumption and engagement level.

Augmented reality in my dreams

Google Glass wormed its way into my dreams last night. Or, at least something like Glass—a number counter in my field of vision. In my dream, I was preparing to go out to dinner with my family, even as I was thinking about all the things I had left undone. As one of my thoughts about a particular To-Do task entered my conscious, the counter would visually count up from 0 to 8 then back down to 4. That told me that I didn’t have to do that task for up to eight more days, so I really didn’t need to start thinking about it for four more days. Forget about it for now; go have a good dinner it seemed to be telling me.

Now if only I could stop dreaming about all the things I need to be doing. Let my “spare brain” on a computer chip keep thoughts about my tasks prioritized. In the light of day, it isn’t really such a far stretch to imagine that kind of mind-to-machine power working with wearables listening to us talk about things we're doing.

Pinpoint necessary data to appear right in front of your eyes

Your pocket isn’t convenient enough and data is too monstrous to scan. Those are two reasons why Google Glass is “inevitable” in the workplace, according to analytics author Chris Taylor, who blogs at Successful Workplace.

“It’s only a matter of time before ‘line of sight’ becomes the primary place for everything we care most about,” he writes. “It’s only logical that we’d put what matters most in the place where we can digest and use it immediately…continually in front of our eyes.”

The most immediate example he uses in his blog is in the health care arena, also the topic of a previous Gaze Further blog post.

Besides being visual and hands-free, wearable computing, Taylor points out, meets our expectations of getting information we need or want anywhere, anytime. He says that especially at work, a phone in your pocket isn’t convenient. Powerful analytics provide the capability to deliver what matters most, rather than manually scanning large amounts of information to glean important data.

Those views are through the eyes of a data cruncher: Don’t give me too much information; give me what I need. And, don’t make it so hard for me to get to. That sounds an awful lot like the feedback employee communicators hear: There’s too much information for me to pay attention to. And please deliver it by the channels that appeal to me.

How does it look through the eyes of a digital creative agency? Purple, Rock, Scissors put together a demo about Glass in daily life, including shopping, exercise, entertainment, instructions, and home security—even how to find where you parked your car. This short video answers the question: What can Glass do for you?

What would you want Glass to do for you as you go through your day?

• You could ask how many employees so far have viewed your morning post on the intranet and receive the count every minute, five minutes, 30 minutes, or whatever you chose.

• You would get a notification that you’ve just typed “that” instead of “than”—something spell check didn’t catch but Glass can see.

• You’re on a conference call with half a dozen people from your company’s regional offices. You don’t know them that well, so sometimes it’s hard to distinguish their voices and know who is speaking when. Glass can flash the photo with the name and job role for each individual each time he or she speaks.

• You could get a notice when someone shares your Yammer or Facebook post on a particular topic, even as you are walking back to the office with coffee in one hand and a donut in the other.

• Get the camera out of the way. As you interview someone as part of your content creation, go ahead and get photos at the same time while the individual is relaxed and conversational. For that matter, leave the tape recorder behind if you are still using one.

• Wondering if your favorite user experience analyst is in one of the pods on the collaboration floor? If so, please provide visual instructions through the maze of modules to find her.

• As you’re making a presentation to your professional association peers and you mention a book title, the author’s name appears in your line of sight just to make sure you remember it.

• While you’re driving home and wondering if you really need to stop by the dry cleaners, too tired to remember what’s on your calendar for tomorrow, you can ask out loud and get an answer as to whether you need to wear a suit tomorrow because of any high-level meeting.

I’ll be thinking about it over the next few days. You think, too, and share your ideas. What would be totally awesome for Glass to do for you? Glass is in development stage, and Google wants input on ways people would really use it as part of their workday. 

(Reminder: I do not work for Google or receive anything from the company, not even a free T-shirt.)

“Active shooter”: Communicating more than a breaking news statement

“Active shooter.” That’s what an email sent to people on Capitol Hill said, or so the mass media first announced about reported gunfire yesterday. “Active shooting” might have been a better term we know now. “Active shooter” has quickly entered the vernacular as a crazed gunman in a place of business, a school, or a shopping mall. This time, though, shots came from police who, it seems now, may have been appropriately responding to a 2-ton bullet on gasoline-powered wheels—an automobile.

Again as a news consumer, I have read that the second message, “All clear,” flashed on video screens in federal government buildings about an hour later.

Active shooter. All clear. In this instance, those two phrases may have been sufficient communication, because the tragedy didn’t escalate to involve bystanders. But for corporate communicators who practice crisis exercises, perhaps this is a timely opportunity to ask, What if?

What if an active shooter in the workplace threatens the lives of employees? And what if that shooter is going office to office or floor to floor, outside the scope of surveillance cameras? If Google Glass were prevalent in that workplace, in even its current beta format, wearers could capture and feed a visual report to help responding officers assess the situation and secure employees from harm.

In addition, crisis teams could deliver instructions through Glass to people who most need to know what to do next. Notifications, updates, information cards—those are the kinds of terms we use to define succinct messages delivered by Glass. What general, quick messages can we script in advance so they are ready to adapt to a specific situation if needed? What if communication to a Glass wearer could unobtrusively provide instructions in how to respond to an active shooter?

What if we help shape the development of wearable computing to take advantage of built-in sensors to better handle crisis incidents. In the case of a shopping mall shooting, for example, sensors in wearable computers could pinpoint where innocent shoppers are hiding, and whether they are imminently threatened. Officials could give specific directions for taking cover. If the situation allowed escape, a map could appear in peoples' line of sight with arrows pointing the route to safety.

Much Google Glass hype seems to revolve around extreme sports videos and unposed baby smiles. Glass for crisis situations may be gloomy by comparison, but it’s worth thinking about to be well prepared.