Some devices consume presence. For example, here's "a DIY instant messenger online contact signalizer picture frame thingy" made by David Bue Pedersen. As you can see from the photo, snapshots of David's friends light up when they are online. 

In this case, Skype aggregates presence data from multiple contacts. David wrote a Skype plug-in to get the data and route the signals to the circuit board. The microcontroller lights up or turns off the appropriate light. David lost the source code for the Skype plug-in, but is sharing the design files for the electronics. 

It reminds me of the i-Buddy angels that light up when your true love is happy or sad or angry.

Other services produce presence data. Wakoopa uses a small desktop client to stream a list of the programs you use and how much you use it. Tacit presence, no manual or overt signaling required!

This data is updated at least daily. These are the Top 10 lists produced from my data.

Wakoopa breaks down my usage over time. You can see apps rise and fall in popularity (well, at least in my favor). On the left you can see I leave Firefox, Skype and Windows Live Writer open most of the time. Newcomers show software I haven't used in a while.

The hourly-use data is skewed a bit. Like the Top 10 ratings, the pie chart emphasizes active windows. Apps which do a lot of work in the background With time, I expect the data quality to improve.

Who benefits from my shared stream?

First, Wakoopa helps users understand themselves. Wakoopa makes introspection easy. 

Second, the community benefits from seeing each others' use. I can learn which software comprise a gamer's suite, or a software developer's, or a marketing exec. I can kind and scathing comments. I can see trends, new software updates and alternative products. I am smarter about my software as part of a team than I am on my own.

Third, software publishers learn more about their users' desktops than ever before. "Did you know people browse 7 times longer with Firefox than Internet Explorer? We do. Wakoopa knows software."  Wakoopa provides a rich context for understanding how much and when your software is used. You can see which other products are competing. I'm pretty sure the sale of analytics and data mining to software companies will be a bigger revenue source for Wakoopa than Google ads. 

For example, here's Skype's profile page.

On this page you see:

• User created tags for the product
• The number of people in the community using it
• How much time they've used it
• Rank among all software used in the last 30 days
• Reach score trend chart
• List of the top users (Hi, Robert! kakkoii)
• Similar software
• People who use it also use...
• Comments (with real discussions)

Wakoopa now runs a platform for syndication of software presence data. The team recently  launched an API with a JSON-format.

See also:

• Wakoopa screenshots on flickr

• Skype Journal: Mechanical presence indicator: I'm in the mood for love

• Skype Journal: CES: All I want from hardware are mold breakers and presence makers

• Skype Journal: Presence by Example: Lessons from CES

• Cool Hunting: Availabot

• Randomfoo: Speck

• Nokia Sensor

Thanks to Jan Geirnaert for the DIY tip.