New Side Project: Karoke Combat

I just launched a new blog to track a game I'm currently developing. It's called Karaoke Combat and its home is here: http://karaokecombat.com. The game is a work-in-progress and I thought it would be fun to use the blog as an open notebook to document my work. If you are into Karaoke or game design, check it out.

Improv Everywhere – Ted’s Birthday

Foursquare Needs Some “Personality”

My friend Mike and I were talking about Foursquare a couple nights ago and we decided that Foursquare needs to have a "starter" friend that you can choose to follow when you sign up. This person, we'll call her Lady K., is not some token-friend to make you feel better that you don't know anyone on foursquare. Rather, she's hooked-in and always knows where the party is at. She knows what you are into and she's always on the look out for what you like.

Lady K.

Here's a few example messages:

Lady K. @ Bueno "This place just opened in your neighborhood. Might be worth checking out. I'm told the brunch is awesome!"

Lady K. @ ACE Bar "I noticed you were at ACE Bar a week a go. They are giving away free Heineken till 9 tonight. Should be fun."

Lady K. @ Drop #15 "I heard someone left something valuable around here in a blue box. Noticed you were in the neighborhood and thought you might be able to find it. Good Luck. I give up."

Lady K. just shouted "Looks like you're in LA. If you're looking for something to do, add my buddy Scotty G. He knows what's what. I already miss you."

As long as it's opt in and the messages aren't too frequent, I think a lot of people would love to have a friend like Lady K. There are lot's of directions you can take it. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Fountain’s Law

photo by Mike Arauz

Fountain's Law is the conclusion of a multi-year study whose findings will soon be published in a prestigious journal (that is unavailable in the U.S.). This work takes into account the Moldawer Ratio and all of the Slocum Principles.

Some Kind Words…

about a recent song I wrote (and performed) for the Outside Lands Festival. An article by Kyle Anderson had this to say:

...it's a fantastic little bluegrass ditty that name-checks many of the groups at the show. It's gotten stuck in my head more than once this weekend...

In case you missed it, I've embedded it below.

SF Outside Lands from Outside Lands on Vimeo.

Directed by Elliot Jokelson.

From a Recent Rehearsal

The masterful James Eason

Pantyhose and Oranges (Some Thoughts on Foursquare and User Engagement)

I've recently discovered Foursquare and have really taken a shine to it, so I decided to write down a few thoughts about why I think they have a distinct advantage in the geo-social app space. This first post focuses on user engagement, an area where foursquare packs a one-two punch.

It's Just a Game
Many people opt out of twitter and status updates because they have convinced themselves or have been told that no one cares what they are doing. Unless you have no facebook friends (I'm looking at you Mussolini), there's a pretty good chance somebody out there wants to know what you are up to. Foursquare is a beautifully designed Trojan horse for getting otherwise uninterested parties to engage their friends.

Generally speaking, it is difficult to find a group of people willing to knock down random objects using only an orange shoved down a pair of pantyhose tied around the waist. But if one were to couch this activity under the auspices of a game and add the element of competition in the mix then - whoa boy! - go get those oranges. That is the sweet seduction of Foursquare. It doesn't seem egotistical to broadcast your activities because it's simply part of the game.

The Friendly Nudge
Perhaps it's just a matter of being one of the first to bring this feature to market, but one distinct advantage that Foursquare has over other social apps is that it takes advantage of the iPhone's notification system introduced in Apple's 3.0 software. When one of your friends checks in, your phone immediately alerts you to their location and current status.

Apps like loopt suffer from these chicken/egg problems where no one uses it because no one uses it. But this is mitigated by the notification system. With foursquare if any of your friends check in, you get the alert, and it's a soft reminder that you should check in as well. This causes a ripple effect as your other friends (and their friends) start updating and before you know it Kevin Bacon is updating his status.

Also, the nudge is essential for new users who have not quite made it a habit to check-in when they arrive at a location. Implementing alerts is a feature available to all developers, of course, but foursquare is using it beautifully.

From A Recent Photoshoot

of the very talented Eliza Skinner

A Suggestion Re: Time Sensitive Tweets

One of the initial promises of twitter was that it was going to crank our social lives to eleven by keeping us über-connected to our friends and potential hook-ups. In that theoretical twitter-infused world your pals would tweet:

and you would tweet back:

And all of those previously-missed moments of friendship would finally be captured and fill in those tiny bits of emptiness in your heart.

But somehow that world hasn't seem to have materialized for me. It's not that my friends don't use twitter to let me know when they are grabbing some food in my neighborhood. Many of my friends are prolific tweeters and that's the problem. I can't forward their tweets to my phone because there are just way too many but by the time I get around to checking their updates I've already missed the window on their open invite.

So I am suggesting a new nomenclature for time-sensitive tweets: the exclamation point!

And now a demonstration:

Pretty simple.

If it is widely used and adopted by twitter or at least implemented by a few smartphone apps, these urgent updates can be automatically sent to your phone via sms or send you an alert using your smart phone's alert system. This could also be implemented by facebook as well as myspace (if any of your friends are still on myspace).

Everyone's status-stream is only going to get more cluttered as adoption rates of micro-blogging increase. The exclamation point is a simple solution to have the urgent information you want sent to you in a timely manner.

! Spread the word.

5 Ways to Avoid the Swine Flu

1.  Wash your hands often with soap or other people with soap. If they protest they probably have the swine flu.

2.  Use alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Do not used gravy-based sanitizers.

3.  Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in trash after you use it. Then throw that trashcan through a store window and take what you need. It's everyman for himself.

4.  Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way. Also avoid touching your privates. Sin is spread that way.

5.  Try to avoid close contact with sick people unless they are 'smoking hot' and you are into them. In which case, buy them a drink. Use some sort of line like, "We need to stay hydrated. Doctor's orders." But don't say it in a creepy way.