TokBox Blows Up – Reaction Typical – Fail
TokBox has blown up on the technoevangelical circuit. The result has been typical and the timing is point on.
People are talking about it. It’s become popular, “real fast”, as TechCrunch pointed out (nearly a YEAR and a HALF ago…! Is the Church behind technologically…? Duh.) People are using it. People are using it so much that it crashes and then some.
Some people are really really enthused by it as to create entirely new websites with TokBox’s widget as the central point, like ChurchStaffBreakroom.com.
But this is typical.
In fact, I was just waiting for someone to make that final move. And there she is. The site, created by Todd Rhoades, more well known for his MondayMorningInsight.com blog, drop a few bucks (or not) on Dreamhost, imported a widget and voila, it was done.
“And it was good”… right?
Eh, I’m not so sure. After spending about 40 minutes either in video form of just voice and casually observing the cyber-watercooler, nothing happened. No conversations, no passionate dialogues about technology, no advances in kingdom-building work. People were working “as usual” in their own seperate environments.
The digital/virtual watercooler fails.
I even typed a few things out in the chatbox and yelled a couple times into my mic.
Nothing. Sad.
See, a watercooler in the office (or the breakroom coffee pot scenario) is effective because there’s pressure to engage. That’s the first thing. Here, there isn’t any pressure to engage.
Secondly, with the meatspace engagement, there’s a stated point, and understood motivation. I’m here because I’m either thirsty or trying to avoid work. With this, there is no pressure, no stated understood purpose. Organized chaos.
Well, I take that back. Todd has a post about it now:
“Come on your break, hang out, cyber-work or meet new peeps.”
So what gives? What would make it better? Three things (among others) come to mind:
1. Purpose. Stated and understood purpose beyond the water-cooler intent.
2. Energy and the “spark event”. Why does the Twitter button rock hard? Because there’s direction, motivation, and an spark-event that builds energy around a particular time in the digital space.
3. Organization. Please organize it or attempt to so that people can weed through and get where they want to go and not waste time. Redesign it effectively. Perhaps looking into a Tokbox competitor like YouCams.com might help…?
Can you say “groups” and specific and targeted “chat rooms”?
Finally, TokBox itself doesn’t (and hasn’t from all that I’ve researched) stated that it’s purpose was voyeuristic in nature. This is always the problem… applying technology outside of it’s original intent and stated purpose. This can be dangerous (or extremely rewarding)… so one needs to tread lightly and carefully.
We need to make sure we’re making the most of our time, using it wisely and effectively. I wonder if ChurchStaffBreakroom was a collaborative project or a solo-gig…
What are your thoughts?
Buzz it!
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34 Responses to “TokBox Blows Up – Reaction Typical – Fail”
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churchcrunch (churchcrunch)
New blog post: TokBox Blows Up – Reaction Typical – Fail http://tinyurl.com/4eclrh
human3rror (human3rror)
Love your thoughts on this guys: ::::::::::::::: : New blog post: TokBox Blows Up – Reaction Typical – Fail http://tinyurl.com/4eclrh
briandaugherty (briandaugherty)
@churchcrunch critique on churchstaffbreakroom.com http://tinyurl.com/4eclrh
grayzhouse (Jim Gray)
@human3rror read churchcrunch’s post on tokbox…http://tinyurl.com/4eclrh
jasoncurlee (Jason Curlee)
I’m finding myself totally disagreeing with ChurchCrunch about TokBox @ http://is.gd/cHkW
human3rror (human3rror)
wow. someone just ripped me and tokbox a new one: http://tinyurl.com/4eclrh
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Ask 8BIT 
Hello, I'm on TokBox as Joshua Davidson. I stumbled across your blog from this tweet: http://twitter.com/churchcrunch/statuses/10675407...
I've been following tokbox with Twitter's (sort-of) auto-refreshing Search feature here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=tokbox+filter:...- which is where I found the tweet I mentioned above.
When a new URL pops up (ex: http://twitter.com/djchuang/statuses/1067412115)saying, "Hey I'm in TokBox, come join me!" I'll join and see what's happening in there. Sometimes it's someone who just hit the Twitter button to see what would happen, and left immediately afterwards. And sometimes it's a group of up to 15 people just chatting away!
So far I haven't seen a really effective use for TokBox, as far as ministry is concerned.
However, I do have an idea! The college group at my church uses Mogulus to broadcast the Sunday night service. We could do the same thing, only IN TokBox. Now instead of just logging on and chatting in text on Mogulus, you can see (the people who have webcams) and hear (the people who have mics). So the community of people "attending" our service online can come closer.
Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and say a few things! I hope it helps in some way!
Josh,
thanks for dropping your thoughts. We had a great session yesterday exploring the use. Stay tuned… and think creatively about it! who knows… you may find some use.
At first this looked like a really cool site. Create a central hub where we can hang out for a little while. After a few minutes, I ended up finding the same results. No one responded, no one engaged. Bummer.
The reason why I think this particular break room idea will probably not take off is simple: it does not add any value to TokBox as a whole. The reason I use TweetDeck is because it enhances my use of Twitter (e.g. groups, searchability, Growl updates). Otherwise I would just stick with using Twitter's main website.
The reason IntenseDebate is successful is because it enhances my WP blogging experience. Shoot, the reason I just purchased a Nalgene water bottle versus a cheap water bottle is because it enhances my drinking experience (i.e. no "plasticy" water taste).
I look forward to seeing if any API's can enhance the TokBox experience. Until that point, I will just stick around with their default app and main web page.
definitely want to dig deeper into the API… something still to do on my list… ah… the list.
Had a very similar experience, John. Was expecting conversations in progress, but was met with almost pure silence, with everyone muted. Didn't stay long, but that did have much to do with an impending date with my wife
I think real community-building strategies always struggle unless there's a clearly defined purpose to the interaction you're inviting (even if it's just something like killing time together) …if there was a question of the day/hour or some kind of focused "debate," it could be interesting, but you would probably need to broaden the user base IMHO
yeah, definitely. time plays a big factor… and user base is essential. good points!
Hi,
Interesting thoughts! I did want to point out that Tokbox does have an API available for folks that want to integrate/have more control. I would also like to point out that we offer more than just conference calls & that might be something for people to check out on creating engagement.
Conference calls: Like any other meeting of sorts, I would personally find it best if some sort of agenda was set prior to launching one. I think you will also find the same limitations that you find in the real world in a meeting, such as one person taking up more of the conversation than others, others remaining quiet, etc. The text box will allow modifications before you send the url out, but you're probably going to have issues putting in a complex topic because of character limitations in Twitter.
Thanks for checking out the Tokbox conf.integration with Twitter:)
Thanks for the information. So far, I have only really used the conference call features along with the occasional video chat with a friend. I look forward to delving farther into what you offer.
You are right, the video conference calls do mimic the real world conversations quite closely.
You guys seem to do a good job of staying on top of what is being said. Nice! I am glad you are listening.
agenda is something definitely would make it more effective. we've got a lot of ideas for you damon, like better visual cues of who's talking, better moderation tools like an owner of the "conversation" and muting all, etc…
I agree with what you said John. I went in there and no one was doing anything, or tried to engage in any conversation. Not ever through regular text chat.
@human3rror a good post here to stir up some conversations; I think you're plain uncomfortable with silence and ambiguity
For me, I don't need to have a "purpose" to every single thing I do, but for those of you that are compelled to live a purpose-driven life, a good metaphor I think that works is a virtual meeting room. I've been in break rooms where people are eating their own lunches and not talking to others. And that's ok. If you want a conversation to engage with, invite someone into the room with you like a VIRTUAL TWEETUP. Or, you can pre-schedule a meeting with a handful of people, and call up a meeting for whatever reason:
I've already heard of a tokbox Bible study and a tokbox prayer meeting. Ministry opportunities will flourish as more people try it out, but you have to have a healthy and creative imagination
As for the technology, that's going to improve, and I hope the tokbox team doesn't burn thru the $10M funding they got this summer…
haha. with a few things i am! I love the mystery of God though, so theologically, we're talking about something different.
in regards to tech… i love "pointlessness" like anyone else…
i mentioned creative imagination above in another response, and i definitely think that's true.
thanks for dropping a line brother! always appreciate your insight.
Without purpose, energy, & organization…what we do not need is another mindless distraction from our work,family,ministry,kids,sleep(what's that?)
jim, you're right on here. there are FAR too many distractions available… ugh.
John,
I find this comical! Let's point out some facts…
1. I was in this room (I am just out of the picture on the top left) and it was a FRIDAY!!!! Before Christmas. How many church staff people do you know that work Fridays??? I find it interesting you present FAIL, based on a 40 minute visit on a Friday.
2. I was in this room Thursday (the night before) and Jason Curlee led a great discussion on how different people would attempt to use this for ministry. I connected with several people all over the country and got great ideas.
3. You bet the church is behind in technology… dumb question.
4. Later Friday afternoon CatalystAtlanta twittered to head to their tokbox. What an amazing conversation took place. We left that conversation with some great direction. Have a moderator, Mute if you are not talking, raise hands to speak, etc. It was like art!! (the guy who moderated recorded it as well)
5. "I even typed a few things out in the chatbox and yelled a couple times into my mic."
(I wouldnt call yelling into the mic a legitimate attempt to start a conversation)
If you mouse over a box you can see their name and then you could say… hey Dave where are you from and what do you do?… or… what brings you in here today?
I just wanted everyone to hear from someone else in that room at that time!! John is right… there wasn't much going on… on a Friday… before Christmas…
hey bro. good points. in fact, i WAS that guy that moderated that conversation. so, i love the technology, but challenge it's use and where "appropriate".
Well…
John, just put together that YOU moderated the convo.. at CatalystAtlanta room yesterday. So you DO see the benifits!!
BUT that room was dead yesterday… and I'm not sure it was Todd's intent fro there to be a pin pointed purpose.
BTW… The young man in the military outfit is one of our old students he is in Iraq and coming home today…. my wife was talking to him on Facebook and told him I was in that room so he stopped by… It was random, but great to talk with him none the less!!
ah yes. i see you have discovered the missing link.
as i mentioned on our call today, i have made it a point not to sit on the fence. the church is behind technologically. that was rhetorical. neither a dumb question nor one that should be ignored. comic effect works too.
i would take into consideration though, independent of the calendar year, that this launch day +1. typical engagement in new products is big the first few days. again, independent of that, the usage was poor.
but, you're right, i took a random sampling. i should have included that i asked a few others personally their experience and when they attempted. this rounded out my somewhat serious calculation.
i attempt due-diligence in all things. i sometimes leverage too much my extensive background in product development (years in the enterprise, corp america with fortune 50's)… i've seen and heard almost everything.
i will say that i a weak in mobile.
but, i can't do everything.
Hi,
Agree that moderator tools are needed for conference admins.
One thing about conferences is that you might want to make them interactive. For example, you could share a YouTube Video or SlideShare presentation & then have folks talk about it. As I know some folks probably post to a YouTube channel or something, it could be an easy way to spur conversation (see more info here: http://blog.tokbox.com/2008/11/tokbox-share-youtu...
I would also strongly recommend adding contacts so you can also have control over which parties you want to participate in a conversation. If you don't want to tweet out a conference url, you can still initiate a private conversation by conferencing in only people you want to talk to.
Believe me, we're always interested in feedback as to what can be done better for any of our products. Video mails to damon@tokbox.com are welcome, or you can also ping our product manager (chris@tokbox.com).
damon,
you rock. really appreciate this level of engagement from the business that runs the product. hard to come by, for sure!
feedback coming. we want it to be awesome.
John,
This was great. I love a good debate, hearing both sides of the point. I actually agree with everything you said in the article! Challenging the "Church Culture" in what is and is not effective is always a good direction for a conversation!! Well done.
hehe. the conversation is a pleasure! much love brother. thanks for a good talk today. keeps me grounded and on point.
the weekends just begun1
I just think it's funny that a blog that ripped its name off from techcrunch is mocking Todd Rhoades for ripping off an idea. I mean… REALLY? Todd is cash money in this biz.
And for the record, I think TokBox is a bust. Sure, it's cool to be able to see a bunch of people and chat with them. But I don't have any desire to have open video chat with just anyone.
Adam,
Not sure if I'm claiming that Todd is "ripping" off an idea here. In fact, he's original… the first to use TokBox in this manner. So Todd is an original gangsta in my book.
In addition, perhaps you haven't given TokBox the necessary time nor attention to bear fruit from it? Todd's implementation is, in part, an example of what you call a "bust": video chat with anyone. So, you are, in effect, bringing the smack on Todd yourself.
But, I appreciate your point. A number of others have already had raging success in using it for online ministry. They can probably speak up better than myself.
Thanks Adam! Love it. Even the criticism. I'll take both any day.
It's all good. I'm just having some eggnog induced fun with you. Glad you took it as such.
Certainly, that's not the worst church idea I've ever seen.
Like you, I found it ironic that church folk just discovered TokBox. I mean, it's been out FOREVER! But Todd mentions it and the next thing I know I have 25 invites. I couldn't even remember creating an account!
Adam,not the worst and not that bad either. i enjoy ingenuity and embrace pushing the boundaries of a product outside the normal and intended use and purpose. I just question, at times, the value and whether or not it was thought through.