I have followed the progress of smart.fm since it was originally called "iKnow.jp".
Even if smart.fm appears and is mentioned by some members of the japanese IT community as one of the hottest web start-ups in Japan,
I would like to argue here, from a logical and bunkersofist standpoint, that there is nothing exciting in the current version of smart.fm and that it will predictably fail to be a standard for its lack of usefulness, simplicity and coolness.
My only purpose here is to evaluate the meme constituted by "smart.fm" from a personal perspective. It is not at all to bump off the diligent team behind it.
Ultimately if this post can contribute to the improvement of smart.fm, that would be great☆
After a quick review, I managed to extract several patterns underlying the product's features and functions. These are the following:
1) On the notion of Sharing:
One of the greatest properties of the Internet is that, once something is on the web, it is potentially for everybody.
With smart.fm, this "something" is supposed to be a list of items (chunks of knowledge?).
But, is a list of items (made for learning purposes) something you want to spontaneously share?
Is it shareable?
→ I do not think that sharing a list of items is a powerful meme because, when you have bothered building a learning list of items just for your own learning and training purposes, you want to hold it only for yourself.
2) On the notion of Learning:
Can Learning be reduced to memorizing a list of items?
→ I do not think so.
If smart.fm can do something, it is only that it might help you memorize a list of items.
So instead of the current catch phrase, I find that "smart.fm, the place - you go to memorize?" would be more appropriate, if any.
3) On the principle that smart.fm is supposed to be based on.
Apparently, smart.fm needs a 4:45min-long video presentation to explain what it does, which suggests that there is nothing simple in smart.fm
Below are some key-words as well as key-phrases that I extracted from this video (http://smart.fm/tour/) and that are used to describe the service:
"proven learning principles combined with web technology to improve the way we learn"
→ But exactly which principles?
"neuroscience", "cognitive science"
→ Sounds like narrative fallacy...
"you can learn more quickly and remember longer", "spaced rehearsal over increased period of time, "optimal moment of review exists"
→ Is Learning only about remembering,repeating and reviewing?
"Ebbinghaus curve"
→ What's that?
"optimal moment before you are likely to forget it"
→ Is that the core principle?
"evaluating what we know and what we don't know is notoriously difficult"
→ What does this sentence mean?
"people don't spent the right amount of time on the things they need most to review"
→ I agree on that.
"where you learn something, you want to really know it"
→ The meaning is not clear.
"smart.fm, your adaptive learning platform"
→ Is that why it is called "smart"?
I believe that Reality is by essence complex.
From that standpoint, something is useful if and only if it has managed to extract simple underlying patterns from that complexity;
My question is: what is the simple underlying (but powerful) principle that smart.fm discovered and is based on?
→ I think that in fact, there is none.
4) About the culture brought by smart.fm
- Why using a ".fm" domain name?
This has nothing to do with a radio.
I hypothesize that smart.fm has wanted to be naively associated with the success of "last.fm"
- Equally, I think that smart.fm is imitating a little twitter in his design and wants to take advantage of the successful memeplex constituted by twitter:
* current layout of smart.fm's homepage looks like twitter's one with a large rectangle
* use of a bird as a mascot
* use of blue as main color
* use of the first letter of the product's name as favicon.
- There are too many "tools" and functions
What to choose between Iknow, brainspeed, dictation, items, sentences, journals, goodies, partner series, search lists, showcase lists, SNS functions etc...?
I am confused and lost because smart.fm seems to mix many features of other services without having its own identity.
Again, what is smart.fm?
→ I don't know. That is too complex for my understanding.
Remember: Less is More and More is Less.
5) About "money"
I heard that in total, the project has got way more than $10M in funding...!
That seems to me relatively enormous, huge and way way way too disproportionate...
Also, I heard that the business model would be on "Ads" because smart.fm is "free" for its users...
From a logical standpoint, I do not think that rough and noisy "ads" is the proper way to monetize for this category of learning websites.
→ When you learn, you may not well want to click on ads when you are studying seriously.
As a conclusion, I am very doubtful about the viability of the meme "smart.fm".
As a matter of fact, in order to be successful, a product does not have to be better, but just a powerful meme.
From the memetics point of view, smart.fm has the following scores:
- heredity: LOW
What smart.fm does is unclear; thus, the human brain is confused.
It does not know what to copy and as a result, retains nothing substantial from smart.fm
- fecundity: VERY LOW
The service has no simple and powerful principle; thus the service cannot be a fertile substrate on which you can build something richer and from which technology can evolve.
- longevity: LOW
I predict the service will be made obsolete within 1 year to 2 years.
For example, just adding a function of subtitling (with text selectable) on YouTube would allow viewers to learn foreign languages with TV shows they like or personalities they love.
I believe that this alone blows away already the current platform of smart.fm .
As a matter of fact, (and that is a simple statement but very powerful) LEARNING is all about IMITATION. Imitating from other people. And this process is all the more efficient that you imitate people you like, e.g. singers.
To convince yourself, consider how many american girls learn Japanese imitating idols like "ARASHI" :)
So currently, smart.fm is arguably a very weak meme because:
*it has too many flaws.
*it is based on a wrong assumption, namely "LEARNING is MEMORIZING chunks of knowledge"
As a result, I really doubt that I can get smarter at smart.fm.
In fact, I might go a little more numb than I might possibly already be^^
