This gorgeous, gorgeous piece of work from the smart chaps at Intel is one of the most perfect uses of the Facebook social graph API that I have ever seen.
Click through to the site, give up virtually all of your Facebook access privileges (we’ll come back to that one later) and just sit back and watch as Intel’s application accesses all of your photos, videos, friends, likes and links and displays them all in a glorious installation that even Getty would be proud of.
If you haven’t done this yet, click through and do it now. Once you’re done, come back again – we need to talk.
Right, welcome back. Done it yet? You have?
Perfect.
So exactly why is this beautiful application so damn good? Let’s explore further.
First, the sticking point: all those access points that the app demands.
I must admit that even I wavered there for a second.
Granting ‘access’ I have no problem with, it’s the ‘Post to my Wall’ part that niggles at me. But, forward you go – why? Because Intel aren’t some start-up off the street, nor are they a second rate newspaper looking for a quick way to proliferate their words and stories and, to be completely fair, if Intel do end up breaking my trust after I hit the ‘Allow’ button, so be it! I can still go back in afterwards and disable their access, right?
And of course, let’s be totally clear here: the combination of all of the above along with the fact that perhaps, just maybe, after the clicking of agreement above I might have my very own ‘Museum of Me’, is more than enough to tempt even the most doubtful of Facebook users – the ol’ ego stroke; gets us every time.
Moving on, what makes the The Museum of Me so special in its delivery is that – through the API access you’ve granted above – it delicately creates a uniquely personalised and deeply personal journey through your social graph in a way that one might perhaps hope their life might be celebrated after they’re gone. Through pictures, screens, connections – they whole exhibition is dedicated to you and it could only really be totally appreciated for what it is by you.
Just enough virtual praise to be flattering, just enough branding to be quietly understood and, to top it all, just enough subtlety in the sharing functionality to entice you to push it out to your friends.
You pushed the like button – didn’t you?.
Speaking of which, at the time of writing the app has been liked just shy of 7800 times. 12hrs from now? When it’s gone viral, who knows what number it’ll hit.
For me, the great thing about this work is that the idea is simple, but the execution is flawless. I can’t show you how great it is, because my version wouldn’t work for you. You have to experience it for yourself. And that – in today’s world of mass information and constant personalisation – is definitely worth three minutes of your day.
Go to it.
Interesting…
Just had a look and a thought occurs: since I don’t share a huge amount of info on FB I wonder how badly the experience is impaired…
Having just been through the experience it was at best loosely personalised, at worst completely random! Though I’ll say now, obviously a stunning piece of work. Since I don’t have any videos I was shown a ‘video’ of surfing (something I have no interest in, nor shown any interest in!) and despite having a clutch of photos (and plenty tagged) only one was pulled out (old profile pic). Location, nil and Links, I saw a brief wikipedia icon but that was all. Wikipedia isn’t on my profile as far as I can see. Would be interested to see someone who has shared a lot of data and the difference…
Having worked briefly in an Emotions Experiences Factory (aka The Walt Disney Corporation), I am thoroughly appreciative of the the technology and how it is used in the service of a specific narrative (aka the build-up and structure of the emotional manipulation).
It is one of the best ‘experiences’ I’ve had using social data, but nitpicking a little I’ve now watched a couple of videos and the ‘words’ section was very similar for several people (ending on ‘for’?) and the location section didn’t pick up anything.
I’m sure this won’t detract from individuals picking this up and trying. Will be interesting to track and see how this goes viral. Currently at 76k fans.
I tried this 7 different times in less than an hour. In that time I watched as more than 2,000 new “Likes” were added. I repeated it so many times because each time it failed to show any of my videos, likes or links. Not once! Still not sure if I will go back and do another to post to my wall – or even like it. Kute (little creepy) idea, but disappointed about the videos not showing up – or any of the actual digital artwork I have in albums…now that I think about it, kinda sucks!
James Whatley Reply:
June 6th, 2011 at 08:19
You’re not the only one to end up with that kind of result Romeo. Perhaps Intel will reveal their workings at some point so that we can see how it works behind the scenes…
Maybe then we might understand why some likes and videos do show up, and some don’t…