The Carsonified gang suggested a slightly different spin on a "Lessons from Last.fm" talk, focused around the desktop. Here are the slides that came out of it, along with an unveiling of the Last.fm Boffin tech demo. Presented at FOWA Dublin, 6 March 2009

1. How to build desktop apps that
help your web app succeed
Matthew Ogle (matt@last.fm)
FOWA Dublin, 6 March 2009

2. Wait, desktop?

3. Wait, desktop?
Web 2.0 has (arguably) eroded the
importance of desktop apps

4. Wait, desktop?
Web 2.0 has (arguably) eroded the
importance of desktop apps
How many of you use Gmail as a primary
email client?

5. Desktop, really?

6. Desktop, really?
It’s a good, familiar pitch. Web apps…

7. Desktop, really?
It’s a good, familiar pitch. Web apps…
are cross-platform

8. Desktop, really?
It’s a good, familiar pitch. Web apps…
are cross-platform
no install process

9. Desktop, really?
It’s a good, familiar pitch. Web apps…
are cross-platform
no install process
available anywhere

10. Desktop, really?
It’s a good, familiar pitch. Web apps…
are cross-platform
no install process
available anywhere
taste like cloud

11. Yes, desktop.

12. Yes, desktop.
It’s 2009, no desktop is an island

13. Yes, desktop.
It’s 2009, no desktop is an island
At Last.fm, our desktop strategy was key
to our crazy growth

14. Yes, desktop.
It’s 2009, no desktop is an island
At Last.fm, our desktop strategy was key
to our crazy growth
Along the way, discovered some useful
models for desktop-web interaction

15. Yes, desktop.
It’s 2009, no desktop is an island
At Last.fm, our desktop strategy was key
to our crazy growth
Along the way, discovered some useful
models for desktop-web interaction
Hints that desktop might be even more
important in future

16. In the beginning…

17. In the beginning…
Last.fm began in 2002 as two separate projects

18. In the beginning…
Last.fm began in 2002 as two separate projects
: personal online radio that learns
what you like and gets better over time

19. In the beginning…
Last.fm began in 2002 as two separate projects
: personal online radio that learns
what you like and gets better over time
Fig. 1-a

20. In the beginning…
Last.fm began in 2002 as two separate projects
: personal online radio that learns
what you like and gets better over time
Fig. 1-a

21. In the beginning…
Last.fm began in 2002 as two separate projects
: personal online radio that learns
what you like and gets better over time
ඃ
Fig. 1-a

22. In the beginning…
Last.fm began in 2002 as two separate projects
: personal online radio that learns
what you like and gets better over time
ඃ
Fig. 1-a

23. In the beginning…
Last.fm began in 2002 as two separate projects
: personal online radio that learns
what you like and gets better over time
ඃ
Fig. 1-a

24. In the beginning…

25. In the beginning…
: desktop media player plugins
that track (“scrobble”) what you listen to, build up
detailed personal music profile

26. In the beginning…
: desktop media player plugins
that track (“scrobble”) what you listen to, build up
detailed personal music profile
Fig. 1-b

27. In the beginning…
: desktop media player plugins
that track (“scrobble”) what you listen to, build up
detailed personal music profile
Fig. 1-b

28. In the beginning…
: desktop media player plugins
that track (“scrobble”) what you listen to, build up
detailed personal music profile
Fig. 1-b

29. In the beginning…
: desktop media player plugins
that track (“scrobble”) what you listen to, build up
detailed personal music profile
om nom nom
Fig. 1-b

30. Last.fm in 2003

31. Audioscrobbler in 2003

32. Last.fm

33. Last.fm
Combining the two = ideal feedback loop for
crowdsourced music recommendation

34. Last.fm
Combining the two = ideal feedback loop for
crowdsourced music recommendation
Last.fm and Audioscrobbler gradually merged
over 2004–2006

35. Last.fm
Combining the two = ideal feedback loop for
crowdsourced music recommendation
Last.fm and Audioscrobbler gradually merged
over 2004–2006
Online radio and music recommendation have
become primary user-facing services of Last.fm

36. Last.fm
Combining the two = ideal feedback loop for
crowdsourced music recommendation
Last.fm and Audioscrobbler gradually merged
over 2004–2006
Online radio and music recommendation have
become primary user-facing services of Last.fm
But the fuel comes from the desktop –
via scrobbling

37. Last.fm

38. Last.fm
What’s in a scrobble?

39. Last.fm
What’s in a scrobble?
Made from very basic metadata:
user name
track name
artist name
timestamp

41. Last.fm

42. Last.fm
The API for sending this data to our servers has
been public since our inception

43. Last.fm
The API for sending this data to our servers has
been public since our inception
Last.fm only added an official scrobbling app in
mid-2006

44. Last.fm
The API for sending this data to our servers has
been public since our inception
Last.fm only added an official scrobbling app in
mid-2006
More than 100 media players, devices, and
platforms can scrobble, and we currently handle
up to 800 / second at peak

45. World o’ scrobbles

46. World o’ scrobbles

47. World o’ scrobbles

48. World o’ scrobbles

49. World o’ scrobbles

50. World o’ scrobbles

51. World o’ scrobbles

52. World o’ scrobbles
Emacs

53. World o’ scrobbles

54. World o’ scrobbles
“My name’s Matt and I’ve just listened to
‘Edmonton’ by the Rural Alberta
Advantage”…times 30 billion

55. World o’ scrobbles
“My name’s Matt and I’ve just listened to
‘Edmonton’ by the Rural Alberta
Advantage”…times 30 billion
(That’s a lot of music taste data)

56. World o’ scrobbles
“My name’s Matt and I’ve just listened to
‘Edmonton’ by the Rural Alberta
Advantage”…times 30 billion
(That’s a lot of music taste data)
But why all this scrobbling, especially
with desktop barriers-to-entry?
And how did it drive growth?

57. Scrobbling and growth

58. Scrobbling and growth
Scrobbling helps the scrobbler first: their
profile pages show off their awesome
music taste in real-time

59. Scrobbling and growth
Scrobbling helps the scrobbler first: their
profile pages show off their awesome
music taste in real-time
Scrobbling helps the network next: every
time we don’t recognize an artist or track,
we add it to our database

60. Desktop growth fuel
(among other things, this creates a page for it)

61. Desktop growth fuel
(among other things, this creates a page for it)

62. Desktop growth fuel

63. Desktop growth fuel
Ambient page creation via desktop app

64. Desktop growth fuel
Ambient page creation via desktop app
Tons of incoming links to personal music
profiles + long tail of pages built by
scrobbles = great free Google juice

65. Desktop growth fuel
Ambient page creation via desktop app
Tons of incoming links to personal music
profiles + long tail of pages built by
scrobbles = great free Google juice
12 million artist pages
43 million track pages
25+ million unique active users per month

66. Desktop growth fuel

67. Desktop growth fuel
Kept desktop app unobtrusive and simple
during successive website updates

68. Desktop growth fuel
Kept desktop app unobtrusive and simple
during successive website updates
Only a few major additions since 2006

69. Desktop growth fuel
Kept desktop app unobtrusive and simple
during successive website updates
Only a few major additions since 2006
iTunes bootstrapping

70. Desktop growth fuel
Kept desktop app unobtrusive and simple
during successive website updates
Only a few major additions since 2006
iTunes bootstrapping
Audio fingerprinting

71. Enough about music

72. Enough about music
We’re pretty lucky to be running a music service

73. Enough about music
We’re pretty lucky to be running a music service
Are the concepts behind scrobbling useful for
anything else?

74. Scrobbles = attention data

75. Scrobbles = attention data
Attention data is a digital record that
describes the time spent interacting with
someone or something.
- Jim Meyer, http://www.usingattention.com/2006/08/19/
what-is-attention-data/

76. Scrobbles = attention data
Attention data is a digital record that
describes the time spent interacting with
someone or something.
- Jim Meyer, http://www.usingattention.com/2006/08/19/
what-is-attention-data/
Scrobbling doesn’t ask a user to change or
develop new behaviours; it asks
permission to record existing ones

77. Attention data

78. Attention data
Tons of these interactions are happening every
minute on the desktop

79. Attention data
Tons of these interactions are happening every
minute on the desktop
downloading / browsing photos from a camera

80. Attention data
Tons of these interactions are happening every
minute on the desktop
downloading / browsing photos from a camera
chatting to friends on IM

81. Attention data
Tons of these interactions are happening every
minute on the desktop
downloading / browsing photos from a camera
chatting to friends on IM
annotating a research paper

82. Attention data
Tons of these interactions are happening every
minute on the desktop
downloading / browsing photos from a camera
chatting to friends on IM
annotating a research paper
watching videos

83. Attention data
Tons of these interactions are happening every
minute on the desktop
downloading / browsing photos from a camera
chatting to friends on IM
annotating a research paper
watching videos
(your desktop interaction here)

84. Working with attention

85. Working with attention
Your service should seek to amplify + add value to
attention data

86. Working with attention
Your service should seek to amplify + add value to
attention data
In doing so, you ideally give it...

87. Working with attention
Your service should seek to amplify + add value to
attention data
In doing so, you ideally give it...
more personal value
(this comes first, don’t neglect it)

88. Working with attention
Your service should seek to amplify + add value to
attention data
In doing so, you ideally give it...
more personal value
(this comes first, don’t neglect it)
network value
(this is where your service can really shine)

89. More desktop principles

90. More desktop principles
Expose a good API from the start
(good != elaborate)

91. More desktop principles
Expose a good API from the start
(good != elaborate)
Don’t force users to change habits; use desktop to
give them an on-ramp

92. More desktop principles
Expose a good API from the start
(good != elaborate)
Don’t force users to change habits; use desktop to
give them an on-ramp
Works for more than just music or attention data
(Tripit/Dopplr itinerary parsing, photo uploaders)

93. More desktop principles
Expose a good API from the start
(good != elaborate)
Don’t force users to change habits; use desktop to
give them an on-ramp
Works for more than just music or attention data
(Tripit/Dopplr itinerary parsing, photo uploaders)
Desktop + privacy balance = hard but essential
(being open source and offering data export
helps)

94. So what about...

95. The Future?

96. The Future?
Bernal Sphere, 1970s (Apologies to Matt Jones, Dopplr)

97. The Future?
Bernal Sphere, 1970s (Apologies to Matt Jones, Dopplr)
The thinking here seems to be:
“People like planned garden communities, and space is the future,
so let’s just put one in space! Yeah! That’s much better!”

98. Utopian desktop futures

99. Utopian desktop futures
AIR

100. Utopian desktop futures
AIR
Prism

101. Utopian desktop futures
AIR
Prism
Google Gears

102. Utopian desktop futures
AIR
Prism
Google Gears
Songbird

103. Utopian desktop futures
AIR
Prism
Google Gears
Songbird
These let us web developers build
desktop apps, potentially for the first
time, ZOMG

104. Utopian desktop futures

105. Utopian desktop futures
All these projects are interesting and
exciting and you should look them up

106. Utopian desktop futures
All these projects are interesting and
exciting and you should look them up
…cause I’m not going to talk about them.

107. Utopian desktop futures
All these projects are interesting and
exciting and you should look them up
…cause I’m not going to talk about them.
(I’m not yet convinced they significantly
change the web OR the desktop. They just
move it around a bit.)

108. An alternate vision
from the Last.fm labs

109. Turn it inside out

110. Turn it inside out
Instead of sending local content TO the
web (the on-ramp) or putting the web
inside a desktop experience (Songbird,
AIR)...

111. Turn it inside out
Instead of sending local content TO the
web (the on-ramp) or putting the web
inside a desktop experience (Songbird,
AIR)...
...why can’t the web make local content
better? And leave it there?

112. Turn it inside out
Instead of sending local content TO the
web (the on-ramp) or putting the web
inside a desktop experience (Songbird,
AIR)...
...why can’t the web make local content
better? And leave it there?
…using proven desktop conventions and
programming languages?

113. Introducing Boffin

114. Introducing Boffin
Last.fm’s crowdsourced music
intelligence meets your local music
collection

115. Introducing Boffin
Last.fm’s crowdsourced music
intelligence meets your local music
collection
[Demo]

116. Introducing Boffin
Last.fm’s crowdsourced music
intelligence meets your local music
collection
[Demo]
Download Mac, Windows, or source:
http://is.gd/lDLG

117. Parting tips

118. Parting tips
Make it selfish

119. Parting tips
Make it selfish
Make it open

120. Parting tips
Make it selfish
Make it open
Amplify user attention

121. Parting tips
Make it selfish
Make it open
Amplify user attention
Create on-ramps to your web experience

122. Parting tips
Make it selfish
Make it open
Amplify user attention
Create on-ramps to your web experience
Be wary of uptopian futures that involve platform
lock-in

123. Parting tips
Make it selfish
Make it open
Amplify user attention
Create on-ramps to your web experience
Be wary of uptopian futures that involve platform
lock-in
Befriend local desktop developers, trade notes,
learn from each other

124. Parting tips
Make it selfish
Make it open
Amplify user attention
Create on-ramps to your web experience
Be wary of uptopian futures that involve platform
lock-in
Befriend local desktop developers, trade notes,
learn from each other
Use your web smarts to make the desktop
exciting again

125. Any questions?
See you online:
www.last.fm/user/flaneur
www.twitter.com/flaneur
irc.audioscrobbler.com
matt@last.fm