what was missing from the sports illustrated tablet concept

So on a second watch of the Sports Illustrated tablet concept reel, I was struck by something fundamental: while the content looked great and a magazine interlaced with full-motion content is definitely fun to look at and page through, they completely missed on what could make a device like a tablet so great: a connection. Specifically, a connection to other sports fans.

To be fair, there were two small nods towards community: the ability to share stories you read with your Facebook friends (yawn), and the ability to guess what happens in a sporting event you're watching on TV before it happens. But they struck out* on any real integration of social into what's otherwise a compelling media experience.

• Look at all those photos and videos of last week's sporting events. How about aggregating fan photos/videos from Flickr or YouTube or Vimeo alongide the professionally produced content?
• Look at those quickstats on players. How about pulling in a live stream of tweets about that player, and a buzz index of who is being talked about (a la TweetZone)?
• How about a presence indicator of who else is reading this article right now, with an opportunity to connect with / chat with / connect to those sports fans?
• Or, shoot, how about just some comments on the article pages?

I know it's completely unfair to bash a promotional concept video for missing features. But as I watched this video the phrase that popped into my head was "multimedia CD-ROM," because for the most part that's what's demo'd here -- in a new format, with a new delivery mechanism.

The tablet form factor could be a revolutionary medium for delivering compelling media experiences. But if publishers like Sports Illustrated view this as just another channel for delivering one-way content, they're going to get knocked out* by the folks who figure out how to combine the best of both worlds -- high-quality editorial content and a compelling social experience.

* Obligatory sports metaphors.

Comments

[Mike Monteiro]

I can't remember the last time I watched a game without either my laptop open with Twitter and a few chat windows open. Sporting events are inherently social, even when you're sitting at home by yourself.

[Michael Sippey]

Exactly. They did a great job of bringing the print magazine (a bundle of last week's sports news (to abuse the Daily Show joke) to the screen, but missed the mark on the fundamental thing that would make a screen-based experience of their (otherwise beautiful) content *better*.

[Anil Dash]

The reason they omitted social connections is because "Tablet" puts people in an Apple mindset, which entails highly designed experiences unsullied by the presence of your actual friends & family sharing it with you.

[Mike Monteiro]

Well, when *I* think tablet I think CrunchPad; which makes me want to immediately ping ALL my friends.

[Masayoshi Sekimura]

Someday you will need to record those tweets or chats in case of you have to watch a recorded game on your DVR. It would be great that you can see those recorded game and tweets at the same time in the right timing.