BYOD Behavior - Size Does Matter

Not the device's but your behavior.  Harvard Business School researchers wanted to determine if the type of device people use changes how they act around other people.  Does device size affect assertiveness?  Does interacting with a device of a certain size, affect how you behave afterword?  Or, Is Your iPhone turning you into a Wimp?

If you just can't stand the suspense, in a word, Yes.

Many of us are aware that body language can communicate so much more than words.  If you watch (and can understand) people's body language, you can learn much more than just what they are saying.  Are they uncomfortable or are they hiding something.  Are they imagining something or recalling from memory.  You might have even heard of micro-expressions - those little head scrunches, slight eye squint or a tight jaw that sends a message. In addition, by adopting certain postures, body chemistry and behavior can be affected.  For example, standing over someone's desk with arms wide, generally brings more assertiveness than sitting across with arms and legs crossed.  So how about our posture while using a mobile device since we spend an average of 58 minutes per day our smartphones?  Would it then make sense that a larger (arms wide) screen person would be more assertive than someone using a smaller (arms crossed) screen?

Apparently so.

The study, 'iPosture: The Size of Electronic Consumer Devices Affects Our Behavior,' looked at how the body posture inherent in operating everyday gadgets affects not only your body, but also your demeanor.  It showed that working on a relatively large machine (like a desktop computer) causes users to act more assertively than working on a small one (like an iPod).

The researchers asked participants to perform randomly assigned tasks on one of four different sized devices: iPod Touch, iPad, MacBook Pro Laptop or iMac Desktop.  They answered a survey, played a gambling game and a few other tasks and when they were done, the researcher told them, 'I will get some forms ready for you to sign so I can pay you and you can leave. If I am not here in five minutes, please come get me at the front desk.'  Instead of retuning on time, the researches waited at least 10 minutes and noted if/when a participant came to the front desk.

The participant's device size greatly affected who made the move to the front.  Of the participants using a desktop computer, 94% took the initiative to fetch the researcher but those using the iPod Touch, only 50% left the room.  And among those who did leave the room, the device size seemed to affect the amount of time they waited to take action. The bigger the device, the shorter the wait time.  On average, desktop users waited 341 seconds before fetching the experimenter, while iPod Touch users waited an average of 493 seconds.

According to the researchers, the results indicate that expansive body postures lead to power-related behaviors, even in cases where the posture is incidentally induced by the size of the gadget or computer.

So what does all this 'human behavior' stuff mean for BYOD?  Not really sure but fun to think about it.  Will those seeking advancement in the workplace, gravitate toward tablets?  Does offering a larger device to a normally shy worker bring out their assertiveness?  Do you have the annoying know-it-all use the smallest screen possible?  Might be interesting to look around the office and what devices employees use to see if the study results match your work environment.

ps

Related:

• Device size affects your assertiveness, study says
• Is Your iPhone Turning You Into a Wimp
• iPosture: The Size of Electronic Consumer Devices Affects Our Behavior
• Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance
• Americans spend 58 minutes a day on their smartphones
• The Prosecution Calls Your Smartphone to the Stand
• Q. The Safest Mobile Device? A. Depends
• 50/50 Odds for BYOD
• BYOD–The Hottest Trend or Just the Hottest Term
• Will BYOL Cripple BYOD?
• BYOD 2.0 – Moving Beyond MDM with F5 Mobile App Manager
• Is BYO Already D?

Technorati Tags: f5,mobile device,human behavior,malware,security,byod,smartphone,silva,research,survey,posture

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Bait Phone

You may be familiar with the truTV program Bait Car, where the police place a vehicle equipped with hidden cameras and radio trackers in various areas to catch a would be car thief in the act.  It’s kinda fun to watch people ‘check out’ the car, check out the surroundings and decide to jump in and drive off.  You get to see their excitement as they think that they’ve just won the jackpot along with the utter despair as officers remotely kill the car and the thief is surrounded.  Even the excuses as to why they are driving it are hilarious.  ‘I was just moving it for my friend, so they wouldn’t get a ticket, whose name I forgot and I also can’t remember where they live.’

In the UK, they got something similar except with mobile phones called ‘Operation Mobli.’  Plain clothes police purposely left "bait" phones embedded with tracking devices in nine pubs and bars across the towns of Hastings and St Leonards in Sussex.  I’m not sure what makes and models of phones were left for the taking but none of the baited devices were stolen.  In every case, an honest patron noticed the ‘forgotten’ phone and turned in to the bar staff.  Some might describe this sting as a failure but according to the Sussex Police’s press release Sgt Ché Donald said, ‘This was an excellent result and my faith has been restored as the phones were honestly handed in.’

I often write about the potential perils of losing a smartphone crammed with private data and all the unfortunate circumstances that follow.  If it gets into the wrong hands then that is the case yet we must also remember that there are plenty of good, honest folks out there who will do the right thing when they find something that doesn’t belong to them.  Maybe they’ve seen police sting shows, maybe they’ve lost something themselves, maybe their parents raised them right or maybe it’s simply kindness and honesty that’s built into every one of us.  Human’s are capable of the greatest good and the nastiest of evil, it’s all how we decide to play it.

ps

References:

• Operation Mobli deters mobile phone thieves in Hastings
• Police mobile phone sting fails when.. err.. no handsets stolen
• Mobile-phone 'sting' reveals honesty of Sussex pubgoers
• Police Sting Operation Yields No Mobile Phone Thefts
• It's legal: cops seize cell phone, impersonate owner
• What’s in Your Smartphone?
• Freedom vs. Control
• BYOD–The Hottest Trend or Just the Hottest Term
• Will BYOL Cripple BYOD?

Technorati Tags: F5, smartphone, integration, byod, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery,ipad,mobile device, context-aware,android, iPhone, web, internet, security

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Infographic: Protect Yourself Against Cybercrime

Maybe I’ll start doing an ‘Infographic Friday’ to go along with Lori’s F5 Friday.  This one comes to us from  Rasmussen College's School of Technology and Design Cyber Security Program and shows the online risks and offers some good tips on how to better protect your computer and avoid being a victim of cybercrime.

 

ps

Related:

• The Changing Security Threat Landscape Infographic
• The Cloud Impact and Adoption Infographic
• Invasion of Privacy - Mobile App Infographic Style
• What’s in Your Smartphone?
• Infographic: How to Escape Being a Cybercrime Victim

Technorati Tags: F5, smartphone, integration, byod, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery,ipad,mobile device, context-aware,android, iPhone, web, internet, security

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Kids and their Dot Coms

My daughter likes to glue pictures in a composition notebook – Disney Princesses, giraffes, fairies, Barbie scenes, herself and many other things a kindergartener gravitates towards.  Usually she asks for certain characters or a particular animal and I go find and print.  This weekend, however, as she was asking for some Barbie pictures and a basketball player, she specifically said, ‘you need to go to barbie.com and basketballplayer.com to get the pictures.’  Oh really?   She’s known about ‘dot com’ for a while, especially buyslushymagic.com but this was one of the first times she’s requested, rather instructed me to visit specific sites for her crafts.  She is good at a keyboard and knows how to search for youtube videos, which is becoming the norm for 5 year olds. 

I totally understand that each generation, due to whatever technological advancements, grow up in different era's with different ways of doing things and many conversations start with, ‘When I was growing up…’ or ‘When I was a kid…’   We didn’t have TV; we only had black & white TV; we had to get up to change the channel on our TV; we didn’t have cable TV; we had square TVs; we didn’t have HDTV; our TV wasn’t hooked up to the internet; we didn’t have streaming movies to the TV and soon it’ll be, ‘we didn’t have TVs that watched us when I was a kid.’  It’s fun to live during a time of so much technology innovation and growth and to work for a company, F5, that is an integral part of how it all works. 

And as is usually the case when I’m contemplating some nostalgia related topic, I came across this infographic:

Isn’t it fun to look back and remember what we were doing last century?

ps

Technorati Tags: Pete Silva, F5, security, history, nostalgia, 1980, education, technology

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Evolving (or not) with Our Devices

When I talk on the phone, I’ve always used my left ear to listen.  Listening in the right ear just doesn’t sound right.  This might be due to being right handed, doing the shoulder hold to take notes when needed.  As corded turned to cordless and mobile along with the hands-free ear-plugs, that plug went into the left ear whenever I was on the phone.  Recently, I’ve been listening to some music while walking the dog and have run into an issue.  The stereo ear plugs do not fit, sit or stay in my right ear.  I have no problem with the nub in my left ear but need to keep re-inserting, adjusting and holding the plug in my right ear.  I’m sure I was born with the same size opening for both ears years ago and my only explanation is that my left ear has evolved over the years to accommodate an ear plug.  Even measuring each indicates that the left is opened more ever so slightly.  I seem to be fine, or at least better, with the isolation earphone style but it’s the ear-bud type that won’t fit in my right ear.  I realize there are tons of earplug types for various needs and I could just get one that works for me but it got me thinking.  If my ears or specifically my left ear has morphed due to technology, what other human physical characteristics might evolve over time.

As computers became commonplace and more people started using keyboards, we started to see a huge increase of carpal tunnel syndrome.  Sure, other repetitive tasks of the hand and wrist can cause carpal tunnel but typing on a computer keyboard is probably the most common cause.  Posture related injuries like back, neck, shoulder and arm pain along with headaches are common computer related injuries.  Focusing your eyes at the same distance over extended periods of time can cause fatigue and eye strain.  It might not do permanent damage to your eyesight but you could experience blurred vision, headaches and a temporary inability to focus on faraway objects.  Things like proper design of your workstation and taking breaks that encourage blood flow can help reduce computer related injuries.  Of course, every profession has their specific repetitive tasks which can lead to some sort of injury and, depending on your work, the body adjusts and has it’s own physical memory to accomplish the task.  Riding a bike.  Often smokers who are trying to quit can tolerate the nicotine deduction but it’s the repetitive physical act of bringing the dart up that causes grief.  That’s why many turn to straws or toothpicks or some other item to break the habit. 

We’ve gotten use to seeing people walking around with little blue-tooth ear apparatus attached to their heads and think nothing of it.  They’ll leave it in all day even if they are not talking on the phone.  Many probably feel ‘naked’ if they forgot it one day, almost like a watch or ring that we wear daily.  I mentioned a couple years ago in IPv6 and the End of the World that with IPv6, each one of us, worldwide, would be able to have our own personal IP address that would follow us anywhere.  Hold on, I’m getting a call through my earring but first must authenticate with the chip in my earlobe. That same chip, after checking my print and pulse, would open the garage, unlock the doors, disable the home alarm, turn on the heat and start the microwave for a nice hot meal as soon as I enter.  Who would have thought that Carol Burnett's ear tug would come back.

Now that many of us have mobile devices with touch-screens, we’re tapping away with index fingers and thumbs.  I know my thumb joints can get sore when tapping too much.  Will our thumbs grow larger or stronger over time to accommodate the new repetitive movement or go smaller and pointy to make sure we’re able to click the the correct virtual keypad on the device.  We got video eyewear so it’s only a matter of time that our email and mobile screens could simply appear while wearing shades or as heads up on the car windshield.  With special gloves or an implant under our hand, we can control the device through movement or tapping the steering wheel.

Ahhh, anyway, I’m sure things will change again in the next decade and we’ll have some other things happening within our evolutionary process but it’ll be interesting to see if we can maintain control over technology or will technology change us.  In the meantime, I’ll be ordering some new earphones.

ps

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