Category: Internet

Useful links: Pixie Dust, profitable, MOOCs

Pixie Dust and the Mountain of Mediocrity is a guest post by Kathy Sierra at Gaping Void. Thanks to Hugh MacLeod at Gaping Void for snagging Kathy Sierra to write this post. Her voice is missed and needed. Here’s the opening paragraph:

We’re always searching for that sec­ret for­mula, that magic pixie dust to sprin­kle over our pro­ducts, ser­vi­ces, books, cau­ses, brands, blogs to bring them to life and make them Super Suc­cess­ful. Most marketing-related buzz­words gain trac­tion by pro­mi­sing pixie dust results if applied to wha­te­ver it is we make, do, sell. “Add more Social!”. “Just need a Viral Video!” “It’s about the Story­te­lling!”. “Be Authentic!”

 

Find out if your favorite web service is profitable with “How Do they Make Money?” You know you’re curious.

Why MOOCs should be in your marketing plan talks about the effect of Massive Open Online Courses on higher ed.

Making a App: One Game Maker’s Success Story

Naomi Kobuko was an experienced business woman. She and her husband were running a game development company called LavaMind. He did the games, she took care of the business side. That is, until she decided she wanted to make a game, too. She knew nothing about how to do it. This is the story of how she learned.

naomi kobuko
Image courtesy Naomi Kobuko

Naomi explains how she got started learning what she needed to know:

“I didn’t even know how APIs really worked,” said Naomi. “I used to blank out when anyone talked tech to me. I’d worked in the game business, but I was never one to code.”

“The thing that helped me the most was the community. I stumbled upon the computer language Lua and joined the Corona Labs community. As soon as I plugged into the forums, I felt connected, and I began to suck up knowledge. Whenever I got stuck, someone always posted something that helped me get over the hurdles.”

About a year later, Naomi completed her first game and is now the one helping newbie coders. Her game is called Beetle Bounce.


Image courtesy of LavaMind.

More than just a finished game that works on iOS and Android, it was a Top Game Pick on Nook and she was getting offers of marketing money backing.

I was fascinated by Naomi’s story of how she learned with the help of a supportive community and wanted to know more about her background. She answered a few questions for me.

Q: Can you explain your background?

A: I’ve actually had a varied career. I grew up in a small farming village in Japan. My father was a Christian pastor, which is quite unusual in Northern Japan.

I went to college in Tokyo at ICU (International Christian University). When I graduated, I worked as a financial analyst for
Morgan Stanley. Then I moved to the United States to be with my husband, and I worked in real estate.

Real estate wasn’t my thing, so I began translating for TV and film productions, and I wound up coordinating international film productions. That was a blast. I also worked translating manga (Japanese comic books) into English. I’ve translated some volumes from popular series, including “Naruto” and the “The Ring”.

Around the same time, I partnered with my husband to form LavaMind. My husband did all the coding on our first games, while I did the graphics, sound and helped manage the business. Our first game was Gazillionaire, and it was successful. So we did two more business simulation games: one called Zapitalism, and another called Profitania. These are very popular for teaching kids and adults entrepreneurship and money management. After this I worked for several startups doing business and finance.

After this, I wanted to work from home again, but I couldn’t justify hiring an engineer. It’s so expensive in San Francisco and games are risky business, so I began to teach myself to code. After a year of hard work, I’d completed Beetle Bounce.

Q: What age group is Beetle Bounce for and what’s it about?

A: I designed a game that I wanted to play myself, so I’d say it’s primarily for women (and men) who like casual games, like Peggle, Zuma, and Tetris. That said, it seems to appeal to everyone. It’s easy to play and action-packed, so even kids get into it. Girls love it!

Q: It sounds like you did this single-handedly with just help from the online forums at Corona Labs. That’s amazing to me. Are you planning to do your second game the same way?

A: Yes, I did it all myself. I like the freedom of working for myself and not being reliant on anyone else. It’s completely liberating. I had so many jobs where I had to be in an office and rush around to meetings, which is difficult when you have two boys. I really enjoy working for myself at my own pace. I also love the freedom to create whatever I feel like making. I plan to continue creating new, original games as long as my brain is still sharp!

Q: Do you blog somewhere?

A: Yes, I actually run a blog called Founders Space. It’s quite popular with startups and small businesses. That’s my main blog. LavaMind is on Twitter, too, @lavamind.

More Resources for Making a Game Yourself

Other moms who have a great idea for a game but need help with learning how to make it a reality may want to check out the community forums at Corona Labs that helped Naomi so much.

The community at Moms with Apps is also very helpful. Recently Moms with Apps published Resources for Beginning Programmers. They asked,

If you want to build an app from the ground up, and you aren’t a computer programmer, where do you start?

The resources suggested by that community are listed in the article, with Corona among other helpful sites named by mom app developers.

For someone with an idea and an interest, making a popular game that can be sold in the mobile marketplace is definitely possible. Naomi Kobuko did it, and you can, too.

[Note: Cross-posted at BlogHer.]

Useful Links: Screen Reader Videos, Trolls, The Web

Zoe Gillenwater has collected almost every video of screen readers using various ARIA attributes. Videos of Screen Readers Using ARIA – Updated.  Really a valuable resource.

Nicole Sullivan gave the keynote at Fluent 2012. Her topic was Don’t Feed the Trolls. It’s worth a listen and not very long for a keynote.

Interesting wisdom from John Allsopp reminds us that “the web” is not necessarily a visual experience.

Thoughts On Being Iconic: Is Facebook an American Icon?

Think about cultural icons. You know, things like The Statue of Liberty or movie lines like “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.” Think about Apple products. Think about Facebook.

That’s right. I said Facebook.

How can I think Facebook is iconic? Because it’s now become a symbol. I don’t mean a symbol on the stock exchange. I’m talking about a symbol of a way of life, of a generation, of a movement. And here’s proof in the form of Katy Perry’s latest video.

Facebook is no longer just a social media site. It’s now a way of communicating something about life and art that transcends social media. In other words, a cultural icon. If Andy Warhol were here, he would paint Facebook.

So what does it take to become iconic? Here are Virginia’s rules on becoming iconic.

1. Everybody has to Know about Whatever IT Is

Everybody knows about Facebook. Even if they don’t use it. In the U.S.A. about 59% of the online population uses it. The rest of the people just listen to endless news reports about it.

What is something everyone know about that you consider iconic?

2. Everybody has to Value Whatever IT Stands For

Everybody knows about The Statue of Liberty, too. But it’s more that just knowing about it. It stands for something important.

The Statue of Liberty = freedom. The Land of the Free. That’s what we are and we have Lady Liberty to remind you. You love freedom, right? Me, too. I scream, you scream, we all scream for freedom. We all feel a thrill when we see Lady Liberty standing in New York Harbor. We all recognize her image as she lifts her light. Why? Because we all value freedom.

Freedom is so important we are willing to die for it. The things that symbolize freedom – be they statues, flags, slogans or images – stand for those things we cherish and value. They are iconic.

What iconic symbol stands for something you value?

3. You Have to Love IT Every Single Time

Every time you watch “Casablanca” you love it, right? You can throw out lines like, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” in appropriate spots and everybody knows what you are referring to because they all loved “Casablanca” too.

It bears rewatching. You never get tired of it. You’ll go out at midnight to see it on the big screen. It’s a cultural touchstone. It’s iconic.

I could have picked something more modern than “Casablanca.” Perhaps “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” When a story like Joss Whedon’s favorite ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ episodes to marathon on LOGO makes national news, you’re dealing with the iconic.

What iconic bit of culture do you love every single time?

4. IT Can Excite and Thrill

Just looking at it, touching it, using it, has to be exciting. Has to thrill you and make you feel cool and powerful and fabulous. I’m thinking of Apple’s product line here: everything from the first aqua iMac to the minimalist interface of the iPod to the sleek and brilliant iPad. This rule applies to anything extraordinarily beautiful as well as to anything that works effortlessly and beautifully.

It’s so cool to carry or wear or be around that you are cool too. We all agree on this. We bestow coolness on you because you are smart enough to have this iconic thing beside you.

What beautifully designed and thrilling thing do you consider iconic?

5. Stories Are the Road to Iconic

We love stories. We tell stories to each other, we read stories, we follow stories on TV, we watch stories in the theater. We get personally attached and involved with the stories we love. We’re passionate about our stories, our characters. I think having a great story helps make the ordinary iconic. So many of our icons came from stories. The emotional connection comes from the story, from the idea, not from the thing.

If you set out to create something that everyone would know about and love and enjoy time and again, how would you do it? How would you create something iconic that would endure through generations and across cultures? Would you start with a good story?

I think you’d have to have a good story. That’s my step one.

What do you think is the next step?

[Note: Cross-posted at BlogHer.]

Where are we heading?

One of my grandchildren is learning to drive. I keep telling her you have to look where you’re going. Think about where you’re headed. The same thing applies to technology and education.

Technology changes rapidly. That’s why it’s so hard to keep up in education, in site building, in technique, in execution, in delivery.

One way to attempt to keep an eye on where we are heading is by studying trends and research results. Today’s post is a summary of a few recent headlines about trends, research, and what’s happening on the ground even as we use and teach yesterday’s technology.

For your consideration:

Those are but a few of the current trends. What do you think is the most significant change coming our way?

Tips for Success on Kickstarter

You have a killer idea for a product or project, but you have no money to make it a reality. Could Kickstarter be an option for you?

a kickstarter project
example project from kickstarter.com

Kickstarter won’t help you start a business or collect money for charity. But it will help you with a “project.” Here’s how Kickstarter defines a project.

A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it. A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify as a project.

If those qualifications fit your idea, here are a few tips to help you create a successful Kickstarter project.

It’s All or Nothing

On Kickstarter you set a goal. If you reach the goal you get the money. If you don’t reach the goal, you get nothing. It becomes really important to plan your budget carefully. Consider every expense that will be involved in making your project a reality and include that amount in the goal. You don’t want to get funded and then not have enough money to make your idea real because your goal was not high enough to complete the project.

Give Your Supporters a Reward

The people who believe in your project and give you funding need some token in return. Maybe it’s a copy of the thing your project makes. Maybe it’s an invitation to your opening night. Maybe it’s some form of recognition within the project itself. Maybe it something you create especially for your donors. But give something in return for the cash and the faith they extend to you. Don’t forget to figure the cost of sending people their rewards into your goal amount if the reward is something that needs to be mailed.

The Video is Your Sales Tool

Every Kickstarter project page has a video in which the person seeking funding shows the potential donors what the project is, why it’s awesome, and why they should help fund it. Kickstarter has some tips for making the video, including:

No matter how creative or bare-bones your video, you’ll want to:

  • Tell us who you are.
  • Tell us the story behind your project. Where’d you get the idea? What stage is it at now? How are you feeling about it?
  • Come out and ask for people’s support, explaining why you need it and what you’ll do with their money.
  • Talk about how awesome your rewards are, using any images you can.
  • Explain that if you don’t reach your goal, you’ll get nothing, and everyone will be sad.
  • Thank everyone!

Be sincere and show how much you love the idea – you must believe in yourself and let it show. You’re really selling yourself in the video. If you have a product your can demo in the video, do it.

You’re asking people for money. Give them all the information they would want to know before pledging their dollars. If you leave unanswered questions in their minds, they may hesitate to participate.

Keep People Updated and Promote, Promote, Promote

Your Kickstarter page will track donations, but use Facebook and Twitter and email to keep the updates going to to celebrate success as it builds. Social media tools will also help you maintain awareness among those who might help but haven’t yet.

Promote the project in every way that you can. Reach out to bloggers who might be interested in your type of project and see if they will write about it. Send press releases to newspapers. Pass out flyers. Do whatever you can think of to build awareness. (Without spamming everyone you know, of course.)

If you reach your goal and your project gets funded, all the awareness you’ve raised with your outreach on Kickstarter will help you market the project later on.

Be Quick to Reward

If you reach your goal, be quick to get those rewards out. And use the rewards contact with your supporters to tell them more about the completed project and where they can see or buy the item they helped fund.

Share the Celebration

If you get funded, share the celebration. Not just with the reward, but with outreach in the same way you promoted your project. Put photos on Facebook, or share success with your supporters in any way you can.

Cross-posted at BlogHer.