Free Rice

I'm in love with the concept site FREE RICE that uses game mechanics to promote both eduction and charity. The idea is simple: users answer multiple choice questions and earn 10 grains of rice for every correct answer. The rice is donated by advertisers, who also get some banner ad space. While 10 grains is hardly anything, the "bowls" add up quickly. I've personally been using the site to brush up on my Italian (it needs a lot of brushing).

The game mechanics really start to hook you after a while - For most subjects you advance to a new level after 4 correct answers, and drop back a level after one mistake. When you drop two levels in a "simple" subject like vocab (as seen above), you are suddenly motivated to get back to the top. Eventually they start counting your rice donation by bundles of 1,000 - then you know you're hooked. But for once, it's a good thing.

So check it out, and do something positive while you waste time. Now if somebody could just figure out how to make browsing Reddit charitable I would be up for canonization.

Ideas for the Final

Our final presentation is tomorrow evening, and I'm still trying to pick an idea for a business proposal. Here are some favorites that didn't make the final cut...

1) Mobile Math Blaster. Remember Math Blaster? If you went to middle school in the 90's you should. I've been thinking about games that might translate into the mobile era, and I'm wondering if math and other simple problems like puzzles and so forth could be of use. The basic concept runs something like this: You sign up to play The Game (insert your own title here) and are automatically placed on one of 4 teams. Lets call them Red, Blue, Green, Yellow. To play, you turn the application on in your phone and go about your day. Around your city there will be embedded challenges that you can participate in if you want to. There would be longer "quests" and short, simple puzzles that are unique to certain locations. Complete quests and solve puzzles to gain experience points (xp) towards higher levels.



So far, pretty basic. But what if we add an RPG element? Now when you are completing a quest, or just walking around (while the game is turned on) you can be attacked by team members of another color. Instead of attacking you with imaginary swords, rival plays could "attack" you with timed math problems commensurate with their experience level. That is, as players gain more experience and higher levels, they get the ability to send you more difficult problems. How do you defend? Simple, solve the problem with enough time to spare to fend of the attack. Lose the battle? then you lose hit points, just like in a traditional game like WarCraft. Lose all your HP? can't play for 10 minutes (or whatever).

So players would have 3 ways to play: "practice" and gain xp by solving problems/ puzzles; complete "quests" or challenges; or try to attack other players.

a few notes - So it isn't creepy, players can attack each other from distances of 100 yards (to be shortened if it becomes popular) so that it is difficult to notice who is attacking you. The idea is that 2 people could be battling in the same starbucks and not be able to tell who their "real life" adversary is.
Also, I believe any smart location based game will provide enough to do when there are no other players in sight, and will have fun ways to play form the comfort of your home.

2)

I believe bar code scanning Apps are about to explode on the mobile scene. Looking 5 years ahead, it seems almost spooky: you will be able to scan any bar code and then order the item delivered to your house. This will change the concept of "window shopping" in a big way. I originally wanted to do a "food scanning" app to help people make nutritional and eco-friendly purchases, but then I stumbled upon this: http://dailyburn.com/foodscanner Oh well.

NYtimes also had an interesting article about this non-mobile version, the Ikan Scan




there are also several apps out there like CompareEverywhere that compare prices and allow you to tag items with metadata
(and lets not forget StickyBits!)

My app? A consumer advocacy app that lets you scan an item and it ranks the company that produces it in terms of human rights, environmentalism, and general corporate responsibility. It would alert you to any red-flags like current boycotts against a company or major lawsuits against them. I would charge for the app.

either way, this field is about to get weird.

3) Holiday Shopping Portal
- Combines web shopping with wiki like collaboration tools designed to encourage conversation. Aimed at siblings. Why? Young people today are the most mobile in america's history, and many nuclear families are spread across the country. This app makes holiday shopping easy to coordinate remotely.
I would go on but this one is best left up to diagrams.

Geocaching

I found this NY Times article via Reddit, and was pleased to see that the concept of digital games being overlaid onto physical space is moving along at a steady clip.

It seems that the Boy Scouts have added a new badge called "Geocaching", which is a service that allows scouts (and the rest of us) to participate in "high tech treasure hunts"

The basic concept is that scouts are given a set of geographical coordinates and a GPS device (like a smart phone), and asked to locate the treasure. The fun part, besides encouraging the youngsters to get out in the wilderness, is that the coordinates are intentionally imprecise (to the degree of a few feet). This means that the Scouts must use their eyes to find the hidden Geocache. The "treasure" is apparently usually just a log book. Why don't you just watch the video...


I'm glad to see this as it gives credence to my theory/ obsession that there is great potential for overlaying digital games onto the real world. How cool would an adult version of geocaching be? Some mystery game like the old Myst series that would require some real thinking... Imagine playing a video game and feeling good about yourself for walking around all day...

Yes, you've heard it from me before. But now there is some evidence to back me up...

Stroome Promo

Here is a rough cut of a promotional video I recently did for Stroome. Very, very frustrating to do without Final Cut. Apple's imovie is a joke - opting out of the "Ken Burns" effect for photos is rather confusing (you must turn it off before any pictures are added), which is pretty bizarre. The Ken Burns Effect, commonly seen in documentaries, occurs when one incorporates still imagery into video by "slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another". If you had the privilege of watching the History Channel when it actually ran documentaries about history, then you will be familiar with the technique. While the effect certainly has its place in Civil War documentaries and the like, I cannot believe that opting out of this function takes more than a click, and that imovie's help page doesn't even cover the phenomenon. Honestly, imovie : final cut :: microsoft paint : photoshop. Thank God the era of externally hosted video editing is upon us!


Kudos to whoever uploaded this video to the "Ken Burns Effect" Wikipedia page, which shows the Ken Burns Effect applied to a photo of Ken Burns. Outstanding.

Additionally, I should credit Ben Petty with writing and performing the background music in the Stroome Video.

I finally get it: The Movie (an xtranormal production)

So I says to myself, I says, "If @shitmydadsays is going to become a TV show, then I can damn well adapt blog posts into minute long movies"

Here is the original post I stole from Claire: I finally Get It

and without further ado, here is "Twitter. A Revelation" (working title):



How was this made, you ask?

Like a cat, I was curious tonight at the little movie our guest showed in class. It seemed a little too good to be true. In fact it seemed like it was tailored specifically to a presentation about the life and times of an internet Ad man. It was Mad Men for nerds, set in the abstract future of japan when everyone looks like a video game character (2012?). I submit to you, dear reader, that our guest actually made this tiny film himself, and tried to pass it off as the work of another. What cunning! And here I thought Tech class could be dry...

In any event, whoever made the video used a website called Xtranormal . This site lets you construct an animated movie with simple drag and drop functionality. As you may have noticed, this site supports the trend of websites hosting functionality in "the cloud". Indeed, the online editing is not unlike that of Stroome (where I happily intern).

Go try it out for yourself. Just remember to save your work...

Sunday Satire

Do I love the Internet? I'm not sure. I haven't actually used those words yet. I mean I don't want to be clingy or anything like that. I suppose we've been seeing each other off and on for years. We knew each other in high school, but things never really got serious until college. Sure, I had a fling with Playstation 3, and that was a lot of fun. We were young, and back then we would play for hours. I'll confess I still think about PS3 occasionally, and the thought of other guys playing with Playstation does get me a little jealous. Not that I would mention that to the Internet, of course, but it does feel good to get that off my chest.

The Internet knows I had a thing with PS3 back then, and I hope there isn't any jealousy. PS3 was fun, sure, but you cant really get serious with a playstation, right? The Internet just has so much more depth. I actually learn things when I hang out with The Internet, and that makes me feel more fulfilled as a person. I'm not just some graphics obsessed kid that hangs around GameStop - I have other needs.

Not that sometimes it doesn't cross my mind that Online gaming isn't the same as playing with PS3. Of course, every system is different, and maybe it isn't fair to compare different platforms. But between you and me, PS3 was just a little more viscerally exciting . It had a real "fight or flight" thing about it, for sure.

That said, I'm happy with The Internet. We have fun, and it isn't all about games. I can share all my interests openly, and The Internet always finds a way to make me feel, well, connected. I used to just hang with The Internet around the house, but now we go everywhere together - dinner, shopping, whatever. At this point I've probably shared everything with the Internet: photo albums, home movies, my favorite books, even private medical issues. We talk a lot about cooking, too. Whenever I'm in the kitchen thinking about what to make, my first thought is always "The Internet would have a great recipe for this." No matter how mundane or trivial any tidbit of my life is, the internet always makes me feel like it matters a bit more. I'll admit that sometimes I feel a bit exposed when I share everything with the Internet, a bit vulnerable. Maybe that's why I'm afraid to commit totally... I know that if things went poorly The Internet could make my life miserable. It was a bit frightening to realize that I might depend on the internet. Depending on anything is dangerous. But if the cannon of romance movies tells us anything, its that love makes us vulnerable.

TL/DR: So yes. I think I do love the internet.

God help me if the Internet finds out I still watch TV when I'm out of town.

2 Videos Pertaining to 'Exodus to the Virtual World'

Tired of listening to me yet? If you're an APOC'er you will be soon as I'm presenting on both Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week.

That said, lets let some others do the speaking for me...

First, a TED talk on gaming:



and finally, a very simple experiment that demonstrates how easy it can be to change behavior with "fun". Kudos to VW.



While Ms McGonigal is a tad optimistic for my tastes, I think her basic concept is spot on. Games and competition are powerful tools for unlocking human potential.

See you all next week for a short recent history of social media and health-care (hopefully).