So parakey is on the application side of the fence when compared to those like YouOS... an interesting idea.
"When people need to call their "computer friend" in 2007 to install a program, scan a document, burn a CD or show a picture to a friend, there is a problem." So is the main aim of parakey to give applications the ability to interface seamlessly with the web? Or is it more about the simplicity of web 2.0 design?
Imagine you are 50 years old and have never before used a computer. It is impossible to use without extensive training; someone of that age can't figure it out on their own. Making it intuitive is a design problem but it's not as impossible as you'd think. And while they're at it, Parakey is uniting the web and the desktop.
Interesting. I have much respect for Blake and Joe's efforts with Parakey, so my question revolves around the sustainability of building a business around making computers easier to use -- there's GOT to be more to this!
In other words, how critical is the problem of computer usability amongst 50 year olds when children today are being "organically" raised in basic computer literacy?
Making computers easier to use is not our business model, so I'm not sure what it has to do with sustainability. And there's unique technology underpinning our efforts, of course. But I can't imagine what could be more central to a company than trying to create user satisfaction; why do we need more than that?
Second, I was raised on computers. Just because I know how to use them doesn't mean I like using them. In fact, I generally find computers to be a pain in the ass.
Finally, I suspect the problem of usability amongst 50 year olds is a very critical problem amongst 50 year olds :)
Hey, Blake! My previous post was more in response to rms. When I said "There's GOT to be more to this!", what I was really meaning to say is that I'm sure you and Joe have a very good plan for carrying your mission out. Something the general public isn't quite privy to at the moment. :)
I would agree that the problem of usability amongst 50 year olds is very critical to 50 years olds. However, I'm interested in how Parakey plans to deliver their product message (and distribution!) to a mostly uneducated web demographic -- especially a group with a more narrow use case when browsing the web.
I imagine they'll get the message out in the traditional ways: advertising and PR. As far as distribution, I assume long term plans involve customized hardware that would provide for an optimal Parakey experience.
Advertising and PR will not be enough (and just saying these will solve your problem doesn't work either) -- Apple's "Switch" campaign is largely based around the fun, out-of-the-box experience and ease of use. All of that work and they still have a way to go in converting people (especially non-college aged folk).
As far as distribution, a customized hardware solution that will deliver Parakey's software experience doesn't really address the distribution problem. How do you get the mythical machines distribution themselves? Besides, hardware is a very different business with different metrics than the software game...attacking both at the same time would be extremely difficult.
So my question still stands at how would you get the software out to the mainstream, especially those who aren't very web-literate to begin with? I'm thinking about people like my parents who only use their browser to check Hotmail, read reviews, and maybe do some basic shopping. They would certainly adopt a new computing platform that was more intuitive, but how do you get them to do this? The same folks who would greatly benefit from Parakey's work is the same demographic that still uses Internet Explorer.
I'm not sure what Parakey's doing, but my idea is to use financial incentives to encourage viral distribution. Install Granmos for your parents, your grandparents, the local senior center, and nursing homes. Then, you get a percentage of advertising revenue from all the new users of Granmos that you're helping.
While the elderly would certainly love an easier computing experience, I think my questions above address the overall mainstream population that have a pretty narrow use case when it comes to internet browsing.
Your approach to viral distribution sounds very complicated.
How do you go about placing ads on something that's supposed to ease the computing experience? On top of that, would you need to login using your account at a specific IP address to gain the "credit" for installing the app? How would the system know who to "credit?"
It seems like you're looking for a perfect answer as to how Granmos or Parakey could become one of the top three operating systems. I don't have the exact solution, but I know there is an enormous market and I wouldn't need ten million users to have a company worth acquiring. If I knew how to market Granmos to the point of becoming a monopoly crushing success I would probably already be getting paid millions as a consultant. I know Granmos can be successful, even if it doesn't reach the ten million user mark.
PR is a very important way of marketing for Granmos. You can do a local newspaper press release. Write an article about how a college student is making it easy for his grandparents to use computers. Send it to every local newspaper in America. Get new users. This is the kind of thing you can do for free, but professional PR people do it better.
Maybe I could do something really crazy, like giving stock options to anyone who acts as an evangelist or developer.
As for advertising, it would mainly be cost-per-action style ads. Affiliate links for online shops and such. You can do things like pitch a free magazine subscription offer at users. Those affiliate programs can pay $5 per action. Also there's the money you get when someone searches Google through your site. The important thing is to stick to advertisements that have some kind of benefit for the user.
Tracking the referrals isn't a hard problem. You could distribute Granmos live CDs with your new users automatically tracked to you. Otherwise, when a new account is created, fill in the referral box on the signup page.
I'm not looking for the perfect answer, just the answer to how you would get your first 10 (ten) users.
This would mean reviewing the actual use case and realizing that PR saying your software is easy to use isn't too compelling. Distributing CDs seems very 90s AOL, costs quite a bit of money, and doesn't have a great conversion rate.
Sorry, rms, if I've come across as too critical -- I'm just trying to ask the questions that need to be asked. It's a mental workout of sorts.
I'm still very excited to hear more about Parakey -- it's about time computers became useful!
Even if the initial market goes away once the older generations start disappearing, there is still an enormous market _today_. For their product to catch on, they'll have to design an all around better interface than the current desktop metaphor. For Parakey to succeed in the long run, they need to appeal to power/traditional computer users as well.
I applied to Y Combinator with a very similar idea to Parakey, only entirely web-based. I got an interview last funding round, but PG and company weren't convinced we had solved the design problem.
You can see a quick design demo at www.granmos.com/420 (best viewed in full screen in Firefox). If nothing else, I think it shows how easy it can be to provide a compelling, intuitive experience to an older computer novice. I'm very excited to see what Parakey actually looks like, I see the design as much more important to their success than their cross-platorm development technology.
Blake, one thing that is necessary for you to succeed with people older than 70 is to provide alternatives to the mouse. People over a certain age just don't get it; it's too hard cognitively to translate movement on the horizontal plane to motion on a vertical screen. Touch screens are ideal but expensive. Track balls are better, because they more concretely separate the action of clicking and moving.
Blake and Joe are nice guys; I would recommend this job to anyone. And if you do end up employee #3 of Parakey, you'll be in a pretty enviable position.
By "others in this space" you're talking about Adobe Apollo and Microsoft WPF, right? Do you guys have an edge other than just having more apps at launch?
We're not referring to those platforms, actually. Neither has much to do with the core problems we're tackling, such as that people currently have to shuffle data between desktop and Web apps. Apollo sounds very similar, but it mostly solves the developer problem of "I have Web skills but want to create a desktop app." The additional UI affordances aside, it's still unclear to me how Apollo apps are worlds better than regular web apps from a user's perspective.
We were actually referring to some smaller companies that have announced or launched recently, such as Slingshot.
To be clear, I don't think the issue is having more apps, but having great apps. In our experience, luring users who can then lure developers is the best way to break the chicken-and-egg problem that any new platform faces. We also believe that building the apps and the platform concurrently yields a better platform.
"When people need to call their "computer friend" in 2007 to install a program, scan a document, burn a CD or show a picture to a friend, there is a problem." So is the main aim of parakey to give applications the ability to interface seamlessly with the web? Or is it more about the simplicity of web 2.0 design?