(You might look at desktop widgets also, but I’m not going to discuss them here. While they may look more like frogans, they’re even less interactive than Web widgets. Functionally they have less in common with frogans.)

Web widgets are small; frogans are small. You might get your feet wet in the Frogansphere authoring a frogans based on a Facebook widget model (for example).

Above and Beyond the Web

Widgets, like those you see on Facebook, are presented within Web pages, physically and contextually. Web widget visibility is subject to Web browsing behavior, since they are available only as long as the end-user has their page on screen.

Imagine that widgets are on pages in a magazine. Close the magazine – no more widget. Frogans are more like (browsable) pictures on a wall.

So, instead of putting a widget on my Facebook profile page, I could put in a link to a frogans, which can be browsed on the frogans layer at the same time as my profile on the Web. If the end-user goes to another page, or closes their browser altogether, they can still continue to navigate that frogans (up there on the wall).

And the same frogans can be accessed from any kind of Web page, not just a Social Web platform. So, you know that you don’t need to cater to only the 18 – 35 crowd.

More than social

Widgets not made for the Social Web are few and far between. Why is this? It’s because of the Social Web’s viral nature. Widgets are meant to be installed on a maximum number of pages, often by the grace of their fad appeal (I think of them as being pseudo-ads disguised as toys). Rather than pay for their placement like real ads, they proliferate by being fun. Where else but on the Social Web can this idea work?

While a frogans might function very well within a social context, it doesn’t necessarily have to be fun and superficial to get traffic. Frogans have that magic ingredient of persistence which means that they don’t have to play the same game that Widgets, imprisoned in Web pages, must do.

Where to go from here

Now you know that 1) isn’t doomed to being a pure phenomenon of the Social Web, and 2) is persistent beyond the confines of your Web browser. So much for models that don’t apply; what about those that do?

The key to determining a use for a frogans lies in how you tap the strength of its persistence. A successful frogans hangs out on your desktop, being all at once informative, decorative and captivating.

Maybe it’s a slideshow of the greatest National Park photos, containing links for all sorts of information on the subject like the latest news and upcoming events – all this within the same frogans.

Maybe it’s a magazine cover on its frogans home slide, with excerpts from the issue on the inside, complete with links to other frogans (or to Web pages) for supplemental information. At any rate, you think it’s a cool mag, and you like seeing it’s cover on your desktop.

Or maybe it’s your personal frogans for your friends, be they the ones you’ve met in person, or on MySpace. Maybe this is how the Social Frogansphere will operate.

The common thread here is in the end-user’s acceptance of a frogans as something with enough personal relevance and utility to merit an extended stay on their desktop. It’s kind of like that t-shirt sporting the logo of you favorite beer that you wear at barbecues. Or was that a tattoo?

A suggestion

Base your frogans on something people can identify with. It’s kind of a funny idea, but while you can express yourself through your frogans, the end-user also expresses his or herself when they decorate their desktop with it.

Advertisement is all about getting you to identify with a product. For instance, if you see Brand A enough times within a short period (watching TV, reading a magazine, trapped in a bus), it becomes a part of your natural habitat. It makes Brand A look better than Brand B the next time you get the munchies.

Advertising in an interactive environment (on the Web, in the Frogansphere) works in additional ways. People interact directly with the media, and can even buy something online without getting out of their seat. Even if they prefer hold onto their change, browsing the Web is a lot like window shopping in front of an army of very observant sales clerks. “Oh look, he tried on the hat,” “Yeah, but he didn’t buy it.” “Sure, but he did buy the gnome.”

A frogans can contain advertising as can a Web site. For that matter, a frogans can be advertising media. And a frogans can advertise in a way that’s entirely new. That’s because, up until now, no one has succeeded in giving purely online media a sustainable presence on the desktop, in harmony with your other activities. In publishing a frogans you have the potential to do that.

Although a frogans can be called from a Web page, it is not dependent on that page remaining open. Your Web browser doesn’t even have to stay running. So when a user brings your gnome frogans up on-screen (for example), and they like what they see (who wouldn’t?), they can leave it there indefinitely, pretending to raise turnips on your desktop.

This is a big change in browsing. Up until now Internet browsing has been a linear, page-by-page experience. Multiple browser windows, tabs and pop-ups haven’t fundamentally changed this reality since the page that you’re on generally covers up the rest, making them as out-of-mind as they are out-of-sight. And as long as your browser is visible enough to function, it hides everything else on your screen.

But your gnome frogans might find a happy virtual home on the desktops of millions of gnome buyers and enthusiasts. A frogans won’t fill up any more than a 320×240 pixel region on your screen, and the end-user can instantly scale it down to whatever size suits them. So even though your gnome frogans stays at the front level of the screen, it won’t get in the way of other activities.

But what really makes the difference is that your gnome frogans can end up spending a lot of time hanging out on end-users’ screens. Load it up with a gnome gallery, gnome trends newsletter, favorite gnome recipes and, of course, gnome sales and auctions. But don’t limit yourself to gnomes. You could branch-off into hats also.

Since there’s only so much space available on your screen at any given moment, you have to prioritize. It’s at this point that you might start thinking that not only are you what you eat, but what you frogans also, because what you choose put in front of you will be of the subjects in the frogansphere you find to be the most important.

For activists of all flavors this could alter the landscape. It’s one thing to have people on your emailing list and visitors to your site, but having your frogans full-time on someone’s desktop is a different matter. It’s more like having your cause adopted. More than just some desktop icon, it can be navigated within itself, or to the Web. You give it depth with news, images, invitations, and links to everything pertinent on the net.

Imagine a frogans that looks like an AIDS awareness pin. Real-world AIDS awareness pins are worn by people to express to others their support for people inflicted with AIDS, and for the efforts to conquer it. It’s reasonable to suggest also that they serve as a way for these people to remind themselves of what’s most important for them. Having an AIDS awareness frogans on your display might be something like looking in a mirror. You choose to have it there because it’s a priority – it’s a priority because you choose to have it there. What’s more, it’s not just a pin, it’s a navigable site, a gateway to the latest news and resources, a way of keeping up with the community.

This George Monbiot piece on renewable energy that appeared in the Guardian touches upon the need to rally around a cause before any significant action will be taken. For some folks, maybe adopting a frogans will be their first step towards adopting a cause.

Take another look at Reach Out and * Somebody for some more ideas on how a frogans like this can work with its visitors.

A particular challenge for Frogans technology is in getting end-users to establish one or several frogans as permanent or semi-permanent elements on their desktops. That’s my challenge as a frogans blogger/evangelist. But it’s also a new challenge for anybody who uses the Internet to reinforce their contact with their public.

Eight-stringed example

Let’s say I’m organizing events for my mandolin orchestra… Don’t laugh! I used to play in one. Anyway, between the rehearsals, recording and constant touring, I’m having a heck of a time keeping the mandolinists, mandolists, mandocellists and bass mandolinists informed about what’s going on. So I publish a frogans at my new frogans address “frogans*bigbadmandolin.schedule” and make it really cool-looking, like a Gibson F-9. I throw in a little PHP so that it requires a password. That way only my orchestra members have access to it.

It looks like their favorite instrument, so they’re more than happy to shrink it to button-size and make it a permanent part of their desktop environment. (It has no access to their system resources, so there’s no paranoia factor.) And I’ve set it up so that if I’ve made a change in the schedule, or if I have an important announcement, an exclamation point will show up on it. That way, the members of my orchestra know to zoom-up my frogans and see what I have to say. Maybe that will mean browsing for more information on the frogans, or hopping on to the orchestra’s website, or even getting back to me by email.

Going global

Now let’s say that the mandolin orchestra starts arousing an international fan base. I publish a freely accessible frogans and make it look like of the logo of everybody’s favorite mandolin orchestra. The fans will be more than happy to have it permanently hang out on their desktops. I chock this frogans full of breaking news, as well as the latest gossip from the mandolin orchestra circuit. I even throw in useful links, and some of which are paid, helping to finance the project. I’m now reaching a select worldwide audience in the blink of an eye, and I’ve only just started thinking about getting a fan-club database going.

The key element here is that the frogans has become a permanent element on the end-users’ desktops. I’m not saying that for a frogans to be effective it has to always be open, but it is its potential to be active and visible and wired, without interfering with all the other activities that computers were built to do, that allows a frogans to be an open window rather than an enclosed corridor to the Internet.

Now let’s say that I want to share my thoughts, photos, favorite links with a select set of friends.

Now let’s say I want to valorise my Web site. A frogans can be an awesome nav-bar.

Now let’s say that my product has cult status potential and a really cool logo.

Now let’s say that someone else continue this list…