Search This Blog

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Using Social Media for Global Growth: The Airbnb Story - Video Case Study

From the description:

Published on Dec 4, 2012

"Our community is core to our business. From the moment that people land or start their trip, they're going to be Tweeting and facebooking, they're basically opening up a conversation and we want to be part of it" - Venetia Pristavec, Creative Lead Airbnb.

Book a home, castle, room or even a private island anywhere in the world. Located in over 182 countries, Airbnb is a global community marketplace of unique, trustworthy spaces for rent.

In this video, discover how Airbnb uses HootSuite's social media management system to manage thousands of conversations around the globe. HootSuite's analytic tools monitor follower growth and social CRM, while tracking certain keywords over time, so that Airbnb can strategize social campaigns accordingly. From an International perspective, their voice needs to adapt for different markets and HootSuite manages those voices. ..."

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Peter Broderick Case Study on Forks Over Knives in THE DISTRIBUTION BULLETIN ISSUE #19

Excerpt from a 09/11/12 post:

"FORKS OVER KNIVES has been a remarkable success. After grossing over $700,000 in theatres, the film has sold over 180,000 DVDs, become a New York Times bestselling book, and created a brand, something very few independent documentaries have achieved. Both fiction and documentary filmmakers can learn valuable lessons from the film’s distribution strategy.

The film was the brainchild of Brian Wendel. A committed vegan, he was inspired to create the film after reading THE CHINA STUDY, which makes the case that a plant-based diet can prevent and even reverse disease. Brian recruited John Corry to produce and Lee Fulkerson to write and direct. They raised money from private investors and began working on the film in January 2009. I consulted with Brian and John in 2009 and 2010, and they recently shared with me the inside story of their success.

Test Screenings - As soon as the filmmakers had a rough cut in March 2010, they began test screening it. They showed it to groups of 20 or more and discussed it with them afterwards, made changes, and then screened it for another group. Brian explained that the 20 plus test screenings were invaluable in refining their cut...."

read the full post here:

http://www.peterbroderick.com/distributionbulletins/files/748c288e8ec708ffa44...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Screw business as usual....this is the real world: Brian Solis at TEDxPresido - YouTube

Published on Sep 11, 2012 by TEDxTalks

"Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm. Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, publishing, and culture. His new book, The End Of Business As Usual, looks at the changing consumer landscape, it's impact on business & what companies can do to adapt & lead."

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Monday, September 10, 2012

The Wonderful Anita Doron's The Lesser Blessed, w Benjamin Bratt at the Toronto International Film Festival | Sydney Levine

Excerpt from an original post by Sydney Levine - Sept. 10 2012:

"Contemporary World Cinema in Toronto International Film Festival is screening the world premiere of The Lesser Blessed, directed by Anita Doron and starring Benjamin Bratt. High school is especially harsh for Larry Sole (Joel Nathan Evans), a teenaged metal-head living in a remote community in the Northwest Territories. Shy and ruminative, he’s taunted daily by his town’s golden boy and resident bully, Darcy (Adam Butcher). This is because of Larry’s tortured past, and his aboriginal roots: he, his mother Verna (Tamara Podemski) and her sometime boyfriend Jed (Benjamin Bratt) are all members of the Tlicho First Nation.

Director Anita Doron is remarkable in her own right. She was born in Transcarpathia, in the former USSR, and later defected to Canada. Her first feature, The End of Silence (06) won the Best Feature Film award at the Canadian Filmmakers’ Festival. She was a co-director of the interactive feature Late Fragment (07), which played the Festival. Her other features include Europa, East (10), Mystico Fantástico! (11) and The Lesser Blessed (12)...."

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Fantastic Case Study on Role-Playing the Transmedia World of Continuum. On DELVERINTOVIDEOGAMES

Not sure who wrote this - fantastic detailed critical case study! thank you - bookmarking for my own archives!

"Introduction

New TV series Continuum explores dystopia of corporate hegemony, time travel and human augmentation and establishes a compact transmedia world with strong gaming elements. Even though Canadian network Showcase does not break any new ground, it ties various transmedia episodes in interesting ways and in many occasions creates unclear situations on the borders of the fictional and the meta-fictional discourse. I will try to describe how this small-scale transmedia storytelling works, what are its specifics and how collective intelligence maintains ARG role-playing among various platforms...."

"...Visions of Future

Visions of Future is a series of blog posts from active Canadian bloggers about various concepts (family, community, leadership, beauty, food...) in the future timeline of Continuum. Bloggers take different approaches to these articles - some write short stories set in the fictional world of Continuum, others try to predict the situation of 2077 in genre of essays. Vast majority of these blogs are focused on female demographic which can come as a surprise if we consider that Continuum is a sci-fi/crime investigation/conspiracy TV show. On the other hand, Showcase may broaden its audience by using opinion leaders from different areas of interest.

While syndicating content to blogs is not a new thing, Showcase achieved more than just marketing of its new TV show. Seven of 10 articles from Visions of Future are written as fictional stories set in the world of Continuum, therefore broadening and enriching the whole transmedia storytelling. The fact that the blog posts are syndicated and not fan-created, helps to establish their canonicity...."

read the full post here

http://videogamedelver.blogspot.fi/2012/08/role-playing-transmedia-world-of.html

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Any MMO Can Take You to Hell. The Secret World Takes You to an Amusement Park

Excerpt from kotaku.com:

"My first guided tour of Funcom's upcoming paranormal MMO The Secret World saw me descending into the depths of hell. Many massively multiplayer online role-playing games go there; it's a popular spot. But only The Secret World follows up hell with a visit to a demented theme park.
Funcom's Craig Morrison escorted a group of game journalists through this dark and twisted amusement park last week, and I was fortunate enough to be on that ragtag Scooby Doo crew as we saw the sights, went on rides, and killed creatures born of nightmare. You know, the usual...."

full post here:

http://kotaku.com/5919633/any-mmo-can-take-you-to-hell-the-secret-world-takes...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

G+ = Ghost Town & Here's Why. Infographic

How Twitter Has Talked About the Summer Olympics [INFOGRAPHIC]

Trapit Promises Better Browsing And Targeted Content On IPad | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce

Via FastCompany.com:

'...Why is it innovative? Because Trapit for iPad finds articles on very specific topics that you’re interested in rather than just serving up content from your own social feeds, like competitor Flipboard. As the folks at Uncorked Studios say, “born from DARPA-funded research at SRI and a sibling to Apple’s SIRI assistant tech, Trapit’s machine learning bypasses the web’s SEO-driven priority by harnessing peoples’ behavior to hone discovery of articles that match the user’s passions.”

“Trapit combs through its hand-picked sources using relevant keywords,” explains Alvarez. “At first it provides you with a huge list of content it thinks might be relevant to you. The case of ‘apple’ is a good example. There are multiple uses of apple out there and more often than not it’s going to be the tech focused Apple but it might also give you results for the food. So when it delivers the first batch of content you can specifically train it find just find articles about Apple the tech company. And then even more so, if you’re interested in apple iPad apps, you can get very granular with what you’re searching for.”...

read the full article here:

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681437/trapit-promises-better-browsing-and-targe...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Excellent Article: Dispelling The Eureka Myth: Big Ideas Take Time And Space | TechCrunch

By Peter Arvai - excerpt from Techcrunch.com:

"Editors Note: Peter Arvai, CEO of Prezi, is passionate about helping people create and communicate big ideas. Peter is a serial entrepreneur, prior to joining Prezi, he established healthcare startup omvard.se and was part of creating the first mobile news reader.

Big ideas fuel the entrepreneurial spirit. An idea passionately pursued through a labyrinth of “what-ifs” can be the launch of the next great company, the new skyrocketing startup. Apple, under the leadership of Steve Jobs offers an example of a company built on a foundation of big ideas. With a storied reputation of innovation, Jobs and Apple seemed to have captured the magic of having the right idea at the right time over and over again.

But this magic is misleading. We applaud the genius of those like Steve Jobs for big ideas that transform our perceptions about what is possible. However, we fail to recognize the work that got him there. For every ‘Steve soundbite’ we remember today, there were weeks of intense development, preparations and actual rehearsals – all that just to present the idea. It was never the right idea at the right time but an idea that was thoroughly explored and improved over a period of time....'

full post here:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/11/dispelling-the-eureka-myth-big-ideas-take-ti...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Monday, August 13, 2012

This new Assassin’s Creed III trailer sounds like a TED Talk | VentureBeat

;</

Jeremy Grubb (Excerpt):

Developer Ubisoft Montreal is taking a cue from other works of science-fiction for its open-world stealth game Assassin’s Creed III.

Publisher Ubisoft has released a new video to promote the historically set sci-fi title, which is coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 30......

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Alt-Minds and the promise of 'transmedia' | Conspiracy Thriller will play through 10 Webisodes

Technology | guardian.co.uk

The term 'transmedia' has been derided in the past, but a Parisian developer reckons it may be the future of gaming, and Alt-Minds is the first instalment.

Developed by French studio, Lexis Numérique, Alt-Minds is a conspiracy thriller about the abduction of several young scientists. When the government shows little interest in their retrieval, their agency decides to investigate itself. The main narrative will be told via ten weekly 'webisodes', but players will also be able to subscribe to a newsfeed on their PC or tablet, providing background information and updates....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/aug/10/alt-minds-transmed...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Very Cool Interactive Social Film: The Beauty Inside Official Trailer - Audition Now for the Lead!

WATCH ON FACEBOOK STARTING 8/16. The Beauty Inside is an interactive social film, presented by Intel and Toshiba, directed by Drake Doremus, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Topher Grace, and all of YOU. It's Hollywood's first film that gives the audience a chance to play the lead role.

Audition Now at http://www.facebook.com/thebeautyinsidefilm/

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Saturday, August 11, 2012

AweSummit Boston: You don’t know what you don’t know - Global Business Hub

Great summary post from The Awesome Summit:

'The Awesome Summit occurred for the very first time at the end of last month. Aside from a great name, the AweSummit is the culmination of years of work by the Awesome Foundation, which gives $1,000 micro-grants to awesome ideas once a month in each of its many chapters. Seriously awesome. Not knowing what to expect when I arrived at the MIT Media Lab, I went with some mild expectations for the talks around micro-giving, crowdsourced funding and investing, philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, collaboration, branding and more. I got significantly more than I bargained for....

...The Harry Potter Alliance: The most entertaining speaker of the day, and one of the most insightful was Andrew Slack, founder and creator of The Harry Potter Alliance. He had some great advice for organizations based on his experience founding a nonprofit that “takes an outside-of-the-box approach to civic engagement by using parallels from the Harry Potter books to educate and mobilize young people across the world toward issues of literacy, equality and human rights.” If it was obvious through the founding principle of his organization, he is a firm believer in playfulness. On the panel he stated that, “if playfulness isn’t baked into your organization then it’s time to re-bake it.” That resonated with me as someone who works with a few non-profits, particularly around engaging young members. The more fun you’re having the more people are likely to join and actually support a cause or movement....'

read the full post here:

http://www.boston.com/business/blogs/global-business-hub/2012/08/awesummit_bo...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Friday, August 10, 2012

What Hunting For A Mate Teaches You About Great Design | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

WRITTEN BY: Ayça Çakmakli

IF SOME OF THESE IDEAS SEEM FAMILIAR, YOU’RE RIGHT: WHAT YOU LOOK FOR IN A PARTNER IS ALSO WHAT YOU WANT IN A PRODUCT, ARGUES SMART DESIGN’S AYÇA ÇAKMAKLI.

...To better understand the attributes of a product or service that matter most to people, I studied the traits we look for in an ideal mate or long-term partner. I combed through scientific studies from the fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychology, bubbling up seven universal traits that most of us look for in a mate. Then, using my experience as a design researcher, I mapped these traits directly to people’s experiences with brands, products, and services:

1. SOCIAL STATUS

We are often drawn to partners that project the type of lifestyle to which we aspire. Brands understand this desire; they create elaborate worlds for us to be a part of. For instance, there is truth in the saying, You are what you drive. A Prius owner predictably has a different set of values than someone who drives a Mercedes. So if it turns out a brand doesn’t align with your core values, the relationship will inevitably fail. That’s the difference between a short-term and long-term relationship....

Read the full post here (one of a series!):

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670458/what-hunting-for-a-mate-teaches-you-about...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Super Hi-Vision Will Transform the TV Landscape (via thenextweb.com)

via thenextweb.com

No sooner are we getting to grips with 3D and HD, and we’re already being told about the “next big thing” in televisual technology. But keep your hat on, this next one is some years away yet.

Super Hi-Vision (or Ultra High Definition) has been getting a fair bit of coverage of late, largely due to the BBC’s partnership with Japanese broadcaster NHK for the 2012 Olympics.

The technology underlying Super Hi-Vision has been developed in large by NHK’s Science and Technology Research laboratories, which the BBC borrowed to showcase its potential as a broadcasting medium. While the BBC did a tentative test with the technology back in 2010, it was all really gearing up to the Olympics.

Super Hi-Vision defined...'

full post here:

http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/08/03/with-super-hi-vision-the-tv-landscape-...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Saturday, August 4, 2012

6 Tips For Writing A (Money-Making) Script From A Billion Dollar Screenwriting Duo | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce

BY: JOE BERKOWITZ (excerpt)

You may recognize Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant from “Reno 911,” which they created and starred in. What you probably don’t know is that their movies have grossed over a billion dollars at the box office. Here, their tips for writing a movie that sells.

Every day dozens of novice screenwriters are born, ideals fully intact. They carry visions of the ultimate cinematic experience, along with their laptops, into Starbucks to pour ideas onto the page. Almost all of them are doomed to fail. Not for the reasons you might think, though....

FORMULA IS YOUR FRIEND

Garant: "You have to be incredibly original in your idea for the movie, but the formula needs to be a movie formula. You have to think of a movie that the trailer will explain in 30 seconds, and movies like that all have the same structure."

Lennon: "Ben came up with a pretty simple way to express it: You take a guy and put him up in a tree, then you throw rocks at him, and then you get him down from the tree. Die Hard, The Matrix, Casablanca: all of these movies have heroes pulled into a situation against their will, who then end up winning. That’s structure. It can be liberating, though, because following structure gives you less to have to worry about."...

full article here:

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681393/6-tips-for-writing-a-money-making-script-...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Friday, August 3, 2012

Nice post from Eva Dominguez: ‘Newsgames’: playing with the news - The Fourth BitThe Fourth Bit

Eva Domínguez | 31/07/2012
Two Pulitzer Prizewinners are preparing a game in order to make the world aware of the conditions of inequality in which women and children are suffering in many parts of the world. It will be released in the autumn and it’s another example of the use of ludic strategies in journalism, a tendency known as newsgaming.

The journalistic partnership made up of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, who won the Pulitzer for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, are preparing a FarmVille-type game in which actions will also have a real effect through donations, as Kristof explains to FastCompany.com. Apart from the game, which is based on the book Half the Sky, they are working on a documentary.

Three classics, a decade later
Using a game as a narrative resource in journalism is nothing new, although it is a minority pursuit. In The Fourth Bit in January, 2003, entitled The Game is the message, I discussed three notable examples of this formula, all published in 2002: The Enron Blame Game, Can You Spot the Threats? and Find the Terrorist. Ten years on, The Enron Blame Game, created by Slate.com based on the scandal at that corporation, is the only that cannot be consulted.

The other two were published as a result of the consequences of the attacks on the Twin Towers. In the middle of the debate on airport security, MSNBC.com launched Can you Spot the Threats?, in which the user has two minutes to detect guns, knives or explosives through the use of the airport baggage control device....

full post here:

http://blogs.lavanguardia.com/thefourthbit/newsgames-playing-with-the-news/

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Wow! Versailles 3D, Created by Google, Gives You an Impressive Tour of Louis XIV’s Famous Palace | Open Culture

;</div></

Excerpt:

'With 3D scale models, music, and video, Google’s Versailles 3D brings the best of 21st century web arts to 18th century art history. The palace was built by Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” who exemplified all of the authoritarian excesses of the French monarchy. Fortunately for posterity, he was also a patron of the arts, to whom we owe much of the work of Moliere, Racine and painters such as Charles Le Brun. And then there is his architectural legacy, the palace of Versailles, which started out as a humble hunting lodge, built by his father Louis XIII in 1624. In the next several decades, father, then son, commissioned the elaborate set of buildings that constitute Europe’s largest chateau and the seat of French government from Louis XIV’s ascension until the Revolution of 1789. If you’re thinking of visiting, the official chateau de Versailles website has slideshows of grounds and galleries, a boutique, and some worthwhile interactive features. But Google, as usual, has tried to outdo its competition, this time by partnering with it. In connection with the Versailles curators, The Google Cultural Institute has created a multimedia almost-substitute for a real life excursion to the gargantuan and enduring symbol of Ancien Regime France....'

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Group Fundraising 101: SlideShow from Peter Dietz - Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

(7) What's Your Perception Strategy? (Why It's NOT All About Content) By Stephen Anderson

DOMO :: Blog :: How Much Data is Created Every Minute? (It's big...)

Nice! Transmedia jam presentation july 30 2012 from Maya Zuckerman

Comic-Con and the Transmedia Future: 'Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture' < PopMatters

By Jeremy Estes 1 August 2012 (Excerpt)

'By the time you read this, the 2012 San Diego Comic Con will be over and preparation will have begun anew for next year’s event. “The Con” now operates in a cycle comparable to the perpetual campaigning of American politics. There are badge numbers, online sales and hotel reservations to secure, not to mention getting to the actual event itself, where endless lines and throngs of assorted humans and aliens occupy San Diego every July.

Rob Salkowitz’s book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, is a fascinating look at this experience. In it he explores his own personal encounters with the Con (he and his wife have regularly attended since the late ‘90s) but also the event’s ascendance as the epicenter of entertainment business and culture. Being a comic fan, Salkowitz avoids the pitfalls of the “ZAP! POW! Comics Aren’t Just for Kids!” stories which annually announce the arrival of the Con. Despite the event’s recorded attendance of 130,000 in 2011, actual comic books—the staid monthly print magazines sometimes obnoxiously referred to as “floppies”—aren’t exactly doing a booming business. Comics-related properties generate billions of dollars in licensing revenue, covering everything from movies and games to socks and breakfast cereal. Best-selling comics however,, Salkowitz writes, rarely sell more than a few 100,000 copies....'

read more here:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/161060-comic-con-and-the-business-of-pop-...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Cool!! time to test!! Muvizu | Free 3D Animation Software

Media_httpwwwmuvizuco_icaky

From the site:

"It’s easy to use but sophisticated and powerful

Make 3D animated movies in hours, not months

It’s free for non-commercial and educational use

Muvizu means animation is for everyone.."

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Exclusive: Trion's Alex Rodberg on Defiance and Marketing a Transmedia Property

Will Bryan Singer's Upcoming Sci-fi Project 'H+' Offer a Look at the Future of Web Series? | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | Indiewire

BY VALENTINA. JULY 31, 2012

Excerpt:

'If we’re all going to our computers these days to watch content we used to only be able to access on a television, why not put the efforts (and money) there in the first place, with content that's tailored for an online experience?

The upcoming Warner Bros. web series "H+" -- a not-so-distant futuristic tale premiering on YouTube on August 8th -- aims to do just that.

The reason, according to producer Bryan Singer, is simple: the huge audience. “Through YouTube we have a potential worldwide base far greater than any other content platform,” Singer explains. “I want anyone with an internet connection to be able to experience this world.”While web series are faced with the challenge of trying to both compete with the quality of programmed, full-length television and stand unique on their own, the heavily backed "H+" team are taking a different approach.

“We set out to do something that had a large scope and a level of production value that's unusual for a web-distributed project,” says series’ director Stewart Hendler, who also happens to be the director of another large-scale action web series releasing this fall -- "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn." “We look forward to a time when the web is full of gorgeous, intelligent, complex content, and lately it finally feels like the trajectory is moving that way.”...

read more here:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/h-bryan-singer-web-series-warner-...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Why Do Supervillains Fascinate Us? A Psychological Perspective | Underwire

By Travis Langley July 27, 2012 via wired.com

'Our Motivations for Seeking Out Supervillains

Throughout history, humans have been captivated by stories of heroes facing off against superhuman foes. But what specific rewards, needs, wishes and dark dreams do supervillains satisfy?

Freedom: Superpowered characters enjoy freedoms the rest of us don’t. Nobody can arrest Superman unless he lets them (at least not without kryptonite handcuffs). Even while sitting in prison, Will Smith’s superhuman protagonist in the movie Hancock is as free as he chooses to be. As much time as supervillains spend locked up, they seem to escape as often as they please, to run unconstrained by rules and regulations. Cosplayers who dress like Wonder Woman and Captain America can’t do any crazy thing that crosses their minds without seeming to mock and insult our heroes, whereas those dressed as villains get to go wild. Supervillainy feels liberating.

Power: Maybe you envy the power these evil characters wield. While that’s also a reason to adore superheroes, good guys don’t ache to dominate. Stories like Watchmen and Kingdom Come show how heroes become menaces when they try to take over. So when dreaming of superpowers, maybe you relate to characters who dream of power as well, from the Scarecrow (who controls individuals’ fears) to Doctor Doom (who’s perpetually out to dominate the world)....'

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/07/why-do-supervillains-fascinate-us/

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Friday, July 27, 2012

Awesome:The Cost of Being Batman | Superhero Hype

Augmented Reality: Beyond Usability with Flow and Narrative Transportation

July 19, 2012 By Dr. Pamela Rutledge (Excerpt)

Augmented reality describes the process of using technology to overlay virtual information onto the real world to ‘augment,’ or add value, to our experience. Augmented reality applications are unique in that because they project virtual information into a user’s physical environment, they effectively blend real and virtual. They are also increasingly mobile and social. These features amplify the level of impact and persuasive power of the user experience — when done right....'

read the full post here:

http://athinklab.com/2012/07/19/augmented-reality-beyond-usability/

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Love...3-D Printing Goes Hollywood With Stop-Motion Animated Feature ParaNorman | Wired Design

Media_httpwwwwiredcom_zhijz

Animation supervisor Brad Schiff adjusts the puppets for the next shot.
Photo: Chris Mueller

more deets & pics here:

http://www.wired.com/design/2012/07/paranorman-3d-printing/?pid=608&viewall=true

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

THINK: A film about making the world work better - YouTube

THINK: A film about making the world work better - YouTube

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The State of Marketing 2012: IBM's Global Survey of Marketers

<div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> The state of marketing 2012 ibm's global survey of marketers final </strong> from <strong>Chris Wright</strong> </div>

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Don't Wait! REad the Book! This looks FANTASTIC! 5-Minute Trailer for "Cloud Atlas" | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce

Will Minecraft and Makerbot Usher in the Post-Scarcity Economy? | Idea Channel | PBS - YouTube

Thanks TFI! :: TFI Interactive: Caitlin Burns on Developing A Transmedia Production [VIDEO]

New model of disease contagion ranks U.S. airports in terms of their spreading influence - MIT Media Relations

New model of disease contagion ranks U.S. airports in terms of their spreading influence

Airports in New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu are judged likeliest to play a significant role in the growth of a pandemic.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Public health crises of the past decade — such as the 2003 SARS outbreak, which spread to 37 countries and caused about 1,000 deaths, and the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic that killed about 300,000 people worldwide — have heightened awareness that new viruses or bacteria could spread quickly across the globe, aided by air travel.

While epidemiologists and scientists who study complex network systems — such as contagion patterns and information spread in social networks — are working to create mathematical models that describe the worldwide spread of disease, to date these models have focused on the final stages of epidemics, examining the locations that ultimately develop the highest infection rates.

Full post from MIT here:

http://web.mit.edu/press/2012/spread-of-disease-in-airports-0723.html

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Want. Play. Write 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Books Through This Clever HTML5 App | Co.Design

Excerpt via fastcodesign.com:

THE BRANCHING NARRATIVES OF INTERACTIVE BOOKS ARE LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARES. THAT IS, UNTIL ONE COMPANY RELEASED THIS FREE WRITING TOOL.

Who hasn’t, at least for a moment, thought a Choose Your Own Adventure book would be fun to write? It’s like making a game out of words. Branching narratives are a surprisingly natural approach to make books interactive. But they’re a logistical nightmare. Multiple storylines? Converging plots? How could you keep even a simple story straight?

A company called inkle appears to have figured it out. Recently, they released the impressive Frankenstein app and interactive novel, and while we weren’t so sure that rewriting Frankenstein was a win for literature, we were impressed by their flowing, option-fueled text interface....'

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670294/write-choose-your-own-adventure-books-thr...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Transmedia L.A. » Interview with Shari Frilot, Sundance, on Transmedia, Future of Entertainment & New Frontier

<blockquote class='posterous_long_quote'><br />

Shari Frilot, Senior Programmer to Sundance Film Festival and curator of the New Frontier section, opens up about Transmedia and how the future of entertainment boils down to the convergence of storytelling and innovative technology.

April Arrglington's full interview with Shari here:

http://transmediala.net/2012/07/interview-with-shari-frilot/#

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Visual storytelling app Ptch wants to give mobile content a beautiful home | Digital Trends

Molly McHugh, July 19, 2012 (Excerpt)

'From the Dreamwork's powerhouse comes Ptch, a richly visual editor that turns your images and videos into rich storyboards.

Clearly, mobile isn’t only meant for consumption. The iPhone has made us reimagine digital photography — not only how we consume it, but how we create it. Clearly the trend has proven itself; if you don’t believe me, go ask that one company that recently net itself a $1 billion price tag less than two years after it launched.

So who better than some of the brains behind Dreamworks to throw their hats into the ring? A new app called Ptch (which has been in stealth mode for the last nine months) funded by the animation company launches today that lets users create, share them, and even collaborate with other users on short multimedia pieces.
Ptch may be backed by Dreamworks but it’s operating as a standalone app, something vital to its success, in CEO Ed Leonard’s opinion. “We saw the guys really winning at this were fast moving startups that had the ability to pivot, iterate, and go after their target with no constraints,” he tells me. Initially, Leonard was simply part of Dreamworks’ effort to research the space and put the necessary pieces into place. But he got caught up in it all and attached himself to the project....'

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/ptch-wants-to-unleash-all-the-visual...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

2011 Flashback!: Robert Pratten on Transmedia Storytelling & Conducttr| Mobilizedtv

By Robert Pratten. Monday, July 11th, 2011

'To fully realize the revenues of mobilized TV we need to create unique “story-experiences” that leverage the reach of TV and the personalization & interactivity of mobile.

Rather than fight or deny the audience’s split attention between TV show and simultaneous use of a second-screen – be it phone, tablet, laptop or whatever is to come next – networks would do best to commission shows that tell stories across both screens.

The key is to tell multi-platform stories: not repurposing B-roll content (that doesn’t create a compelling enough mobile value proposition) or churning out tedious encyclopedic character detail (let the fans create that) but by writing multi-layered stories with additional sub-plots and parallel plots intended specifically for mobile and to be enjoyed socially either at air time or later on demand....'

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

5 tips for making more believable open world cities. Frank Cifaldi on Gamasutra

by Frank Cifaldi, July 18, 2012 (Excerpt)

'It has often been said that the true star of Rockstar's groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto IV was not lead character Niko Bellic but, rather Liberty City itself, a fictional metropolis modeled after New York City.

Creating a breathing, living city is one of the toughest challenges facing developers of open world games today: get it wrong, and your player feels like she's walking through a lifeless television set with cheap props and false fronts for buildings. Get it right, and she'll be absorbed enough in your world to momentarily forget she's playing a game at all.

Ubisoft Montreal is among the best in the business at creating believable cities thanks to its Assassin's Creed series. We sat down with Alex Hutchinson, creative director of the upcoming Assassin's Creed III, for his tips on making a city feel alive. He tells us it's "one of the hardest things you could possibly do," but managed to offer the following.
1. Two-tiered reactions

It is a given that NPCs in open world cities will react to your actions: fire into a crowd in any Grand Theft Auto, and pedestrians will run screaming, cops will come after you, and some of the rougher types might even fire back.

What Ubisoft Montreal has been focusing on for the Assassin's Creed is in two-tiered reactions: NPCs that understand not only the action the player has committed, but how it relates to them. Hutchinson explains:

"If someone hires you to kill Character A, and you do it, and they react like, 'Good, that's what I asked you to do.' But then you go and kill some other random person and they're going to freak out, like you've lost your mind. Whereas someone who wasn't involved in that conversation would freak out at both of the instances."

It sounds simple when explained that way, but Hutchinson insists that it is "one of those things that no one in games yet has truly solved," including his own team....'

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

iPhone App Lets You Live Inside 'The Dark Knight Rises'

Media_http8mshcdncomw_wertr

via Mashable:

The creators of The Dark Knight Rises released a new iPhone app on Thursday that immerses fans into the world of Gotham City like never before.

Using a combination of audio technologies and Hans Zimmer’s amazing score, this free app lets users feel like they are living inside the world of The Dark Knight Rises

Here’s how the app — dubbed The Dark Knight Rises Z+ [iTunes link] — works. Put on your headphones (it works without them, but to get the full experience you really need headphones) and start up the app....

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Friday, July 20, 2012

Banksy. A brand voice rich in storytelling | Truly Deeply/Madly

Great Post from trulymadlydeeply.com

'Your brand voice should never be ran­dom. It should com­mu­ni­cate pow­er­fully and coher­ently a brand posi­tion that is true to your brand’s DNA. Ban­sky as most of us have seen, is the mas­ter of rich sto­ry­telling. Chang­ing the mes­sag­ing of some­thing we are used to see­ing makes Banksy’s brand voice ever so cre­ative and powerful.
Bansky’s brand voice com­mu­ni­cates by;

– Util­is­ing the grey and life­less plain urban landscape,

– All his pieces are obser­va­tional urban instal­la­tions that you under­stand straight away,

– His work is a social com­men­tary, he is not telling the news, he encour­ages thought and discussion.

His jux­ta­po­si­tion of image and lan­guage has the abil­ity to con­vey whole new mean­ing and stir real emo­tion. He has the capac­ity to make some­thing very spe­cial out of what was before very ordinary....'

more deets & pics here:

http://www.trulydeeply.com.au/madly/2010/10/27/banksy-a-brand-voice-rich-in-s...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

3 Storytelling Tips From "Breaking Bad" Creator Vince Gilligan | Co.Create

BY: DAVID D. BURSTEIN [Excerpt]

During our recent chat with Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan on subject of the fifth and final season of the show, he illuminated several storytelling principles that have helped make the series such a success. Here are a few of them.

KEEP GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS
While strong characters are essential to any good story, rigidity when it comes to character development can be dangerous. Instead, Gilligan suggests writers allow themselves to get to know their characters over time. “My knowledge of Walter White now is much richer than it was when I was working on the pilot,” he says, “I didn’t realize just how prideful and broken he was the way that I do now. The writers and I are in the process of discovering the characters just as the audience is.” Instead of constructing carefully mapped out arcs, the characters can develop in an organic and nuanced way.....'

read more here:

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681158/3-storytelling-tips-from-breaking-bad-cre...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Slay Zombies Beautifully With Dead Trigger, Madfinger's Cool Mobile Game Built in Unity - Hump Day App Review

'White Collar' Cranks Up the Heat With Interactive Social TV Game

Media_http4mshcdncomw_cndgg

Excerpt via Mashable - July 10, 2012 by Christina Warren

"When White Collar returns to the airwaves later tonight, fans will be invited to go along for the ride in a new interactive social TV game.

The game and experience, dubbed Neal’s Stash, is the final stage of a multi-faceted social TV and transmedia campaign that Ford sponsored for the USA Network show.

White Collar is about the partnership between slick con man Neal Caffrey and FBI agent Peter Burke, as the two work together to solve crimes. Although Neal has seemingly put his life of cons behind him (for now), he has various’s stashes from past cons still out in the wild.

The campaign kicked off back in January with Mozzie’s Mission, a game that tasked fans with locating a hidden stash alongside Mozzie, Neal’s best friend and partner in con.

After Mozzie’s Mission, fans moved on to a new code-cracking game that into a vote for the duo to lead the final phase of the game, Neal’s Stash.

In Neal’s Stash, fans are tasked with tracking down a rare gem that was stolen from Mozzie and Neal by rival con men. Acting as proxies for the audience are a pair of Stash Hunters who travel around the United Staes searching for the missing loot...."

Read more here:

http://mashable.com/2012/07/10/white-collar-neals-stash/

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Monday, July 9, 2012

Smart. The Hunger Games: tracking Social Media (CultureIntelligence Brief)

Excellent Presentation from Tim Stock: The Intimacy of Data (preview)

Indiegogo Insight: Campaigns That Take These Six Actions Raise 8 Times More Money Than Campaigns That Don’t | Indiegogo Blog

</ Campaigns that take those six actions raise 8 times more money than campaigns that don’t.</

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

The Karen Klein Bus Monitor Campaign: By the Numbers | Indiegogo Blog

Canadians are connected (Facts about TV and digital media in Canada) - YouTube

Five key lessons for every young game developer | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Talented young games studio Angry Mango is releasing its award-winning platformer, Mush, on Windows Phone today. Here are the five key things they've learned about game development...

"Embrace university... and then your parents

Excerpted from an excellent Guardian UK article:

Posted by
Keith Stuart
Wednesday 4 July 2012 09.51

'The Angry Mango team were all studying at the University of Wales, Newport, when they started work on Mush. Not only did this provide an environment of creativity and dedication, it also released them from the financial imperatives of the 'real world'.

"Staying afloat has been tough," says Hoffman. "Using our time at University for the first half of development was really essential, and when that came to an end, the noose tightened. We tried to continue full-time for a while, but in the end we had to get 'normal' jobs to support working on Mush in our spare time. I was generally working nine to five for my day job, then six to twelve in the evenings for Angry Mango.

"My biggest piece of advice for newcomers is to maximise time at university, where you're comparatively free from financial restraints. It's only with reflection that I see how valuable that really was. Alternatively, setting aside time to focus on a project between stints of work will allow for a healthier balance. Getting funding is a great way to do this, and some of my close friends have been really successful in this area"....'

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Cool. Warner Bros. Releases 13-Minute 'Dark Knight Rises' Featurette

Infographic: How To Determine Facebook and Twitter ROI | Social Media Explorer

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Indiegogo Raises $15mm to Become Funding Platform for All | Indiegogo Blog

Excerpt from Indiegogo site:

"Since we launched Indiegogo in 2008, we’ve been focused on democratizing fundraising, and creating a platform that allows anybody to raise money for anything, from anywhere.

We’ve come a long way since then.
Indiegogo now distributes millions of dollars to campaigners in nearly 200 countries, has partnered with the White House, and provides everyone the opportunity to fund their creative, entrepreneurial, or cause campaigns – from Funkmaster George Clinton archiving his music collection to the Haley family crowdfunding the world’s first baby.
Today, we’re excited to announce a new round of funding with two of the most respected venture firms in the world – Insight Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures - sharing our vision of changing the way the world gets funded...."

read more here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/blog/2012/06/indiegogo-raises-15mm-to-become-funding...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Friday, July 6, 2012

Which Indie Films are Winning (and Losing) in 2012? Indiewire's Mid-Year Box Office Report | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | Indiewire

JULY 5, 2012 12:03 PM | BY PETER KNEGT

"At this point last year, the top five specialty releases - "Midnight in Paris," "The Conspirator," "Jane Eyre," "Win Win," and "Cedar Rapids" - had taken in $68.1 million. That was up from $45.2 million in 2010, and just $26.5 million in 2009.

This year, the top five -- "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Salmon Fishing In The Yemen," "Bernie" and "Friends With Kids" -- have taken in $83.2 million. That's in large part thanks to "Marigold" and "Moonrise," which are turning into two of the biggest indie summer breakouts of the past decade...."

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Modders Want Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter To Bring His Vengeance to Skyrim

THE ELDER SCROLLS
JUN 30, 2012 3:00 PM 4,325 14

Modders Want Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter To Bring His Vengeance to Skyrim
Dave Oshry

Unless you've been living under a mammoth you're no doubt aware that there's a new expansion out for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It's called Dawnguard and it centers around our inexplicable love of vampires. It's already a hit on the Xbox 360 but before it makes it's way to PC , our 16th President wants in on the action.

If you're into supernatural takes on American history you may be a fan of the novel turned recently released major motion picture known as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Well, PC gamers have been all too quick to capitalize upon the resurgence in honest Abe's popularity and have made this idea one of the most requested mods in the Nexus forums, Steam community and r/skyrim. Luckily, modders got right to work in bringing forth the bearded one to kick some vampire ass.

Behold!..."

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

MUST Watch. Riveting. Gorgeous... SHIA LABEOUF IN THE BUFF FOR SIGUR RÓS’S EXPERIMENTAL NEW VIDEO

Excerpt from FastCodesign.com

 

'...Sigur Ros’ Valtari Mystery Film Experiment involves giving a dozen filmmakers a modest budget of $10,000 and the laissez faire guidelines to do whatever they want to do on film with songs from the band’s new album, Valtari. (The 'mystery’ part is because the band has no idea what they’re going to get until they get it.) The latest entry in the experiment, "Fjögur Píanó," arrived yesterday. Directed by Alma Har’el , whose Bombay Beach won the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival documentary award, it is a hauntingly beautiful short film that seemed to catch the Internet off guard.

To make the entry even more of a ringer, "Fjögur" stars bearded, shaggy-haired Transformer jockey Shia LaBeouf and the dancer Denna Thomsen as a couple engaged in what is clearly a passionate love affair, replete with drug abuse, morning dancing, and occasional cross-dressing...'

 

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Ping Pong: watch the table tennis documentary on demand via #Distrify

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/interactive/2012/jul/06/watch-ping-pong

 

Ping Pong – the inspiring documentary about eight veteran table-tennis champions – will be available to watch here from 6–26 July 2012.

The HD stream of the movie is available to watch on a pay-per-view basis for £4.99 or download to own for £8.99. The film will be available to watch immediately. The streaming version can be viewed five times within 30 days of purchase. Distrify, an online film distributor, are managing the payment of this product.

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Moving Storyboards And Drumming: Wes Anderson Maps Out The Peculiar Genius Of "Moonrise Kingdom" | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce

Media_httpwwwfastcocr_ecmwg

Excerpt from FastCoCreate.com:

'MAKING THE SCRIPT "SOMETHING TO READ"

"When you write a script it’s about making this other thing -- you know, you’re trying to make a movie," Anderson says, seemingly stating the obvious. "But for me, when I make a script, I’m also kind of obsessively working on a script that’s a thing for somebody to read. There are certain aspects of the movie that are only in the script -- mainly, the writing of the descriptions, which I’ve spent all this time on." He even inserts photographs into his scripts, ideas for visual reference. "But mostly it’s who is saying what and how do we make this something to read," he explains. "[In writing the script], I want to make more than something you visualize, I want to make something you can sit there and read; you can experience the story."...'

read more & more pics here:

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681005/moving-storyboards-and-drumming-wes-ander...

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

Thursday, July 5, 2012

MUST Watch. Riveting. Gorgeous... SHIA LABEOUF IN THE BUFF FOR SIGUR RÓS’S EXPERIMENTAL NEW VIDEO

Excerpt from FastCodesign.com

'...Sigur Ros’ Valtari Mystery Film Experiment involves giving a dozen filmmakers a modest budget of $10,000 and the laissez faire guidelines to do whatever they want to do on film with songs from the band’s new album, Valtari. (The 'mystery’ part is because the band has no idea what they’re going to get until they get it.) The latest entry in the experiment, "Fjögur Píanó," arrived yesterday. Directed by Alma Har’el , whose Bombay Beach won the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival documentary award, it is a hauntingly beautiful short film that seemed to catch the Internet off guard.

To make the entry even more of a ringer, "Fjögur" stars bearded, shaggy-haired Transformer jockey Shia LaBeouf and the dancer Denna Thomsen as a couple engaged in what is clearly a passionate love affair, replete with drug abuse, morning dancing, and occasional cross-dressing...'

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales