Village Gamer

Retailers who focus on getting their product and services messages out on Facebook and Twitter are probably spending time and effort in the wrong area, according to data sourced from KubasPrimedia’s Major Market Retail Report (MMRR) study – a survey of over 1,500 consumers on their retail shopping habits and store preferences.

“Social media, like Twitter and Facebook, has been heavily hyped in advertising and promotion circles,” said Ed Strapagiel, Executive Vice President of KubasPrimedia. “MMRR shows that retailers and product manufacturers who are relying on social media to sway consumer purchase decisions may be misguided.”

“When consumers are researching a purchase online, over 70% visit retailer and product manufacturer websites. Only about 25% turn to social media sites or blogs for product or shopping information,” said Strapagiel.

KubasPrimedia has been conducting retail analysis for over 15 years. MMRR, based on surveys of Canadians in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, examined shopping behaviour in 33 product categories at 147 retailers to determine competitive retail metrics, such as market coverage, shopping levels, drawing power, loyalty, and retailer performance scores.

MMRR found that that 77% of Canadian consumers “often” or “sometimes” visit retailer websites and 71% visit manufacturer websites to get information about upcoming purchases. Only 27% use social media and just 23% use blogs. Comparison-shopping, such as pricing a specific item, is the most popular online retail-related activity, with 76% of consumers doing so “often” or “sometimes”. Comparison shopping activity is high across all demographic groups.

“Given consumer behaviour, a company’s website is still by far the top online priority for retailers,” said Strapagiel. “Retailers that pursue other digital marketing avenues risk taking resources away from where they’re most needed”.

While services like Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress are free, they are not cheap, says Strapagiel, “Utilizing social media properly and effectively requires time, money, and talent. Retailers have to focus on what will provide the best return on investment considering where their customers are turning to for information.” Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver Airport Authority is on the lookout for an awesome storyteller who’s got what it takes to come live at YVR for 80 days and 80 nights and tell the unique, interesting and little-known stories of Canada’s second largest airport. The only catch: the special correspondent can’t leave YVR and its Sea Island home for the entire duration of the gig, which begins on the heels of YVR’s 80th anniversary on July 22, 2011.

That’s right, the Live@YVR assignment focuses on covering the unique people, places and stories that make the airport so unusual – from the midnight cargo flight full of blueberries to the mid-afternoon cleaning of an aquarium that’s home to a pair of breeding wolf eels.

“We know that nearly 90 per cent of Metro Vancouver residents come to YVR at least once a year, but most of those people only get a very superficial view of what happens here,” said Rebecca Catley, Director of Communications for Vancouver Airport Authority. “We’re looking forward to welcoming a special kind of storyteller who will become immersed in fascinating airport stories and share them with the world. YVR is a small city: with 23,600 people working here — from emergency responders to environmental specialists — the stories are endless and we hope people will tune in to find out more about their airport.”

The contest launches today and is open to residents of B.C. Prospective correspondents will submit a video online that highlights their storytelling savvy. After a shortlist of finalists is chosen, the public will have the opportunity to vote its favourite applicant onto Sea Island, where he or she will begin an 80-day assignment on August 17, 2011. The correspondent will sleep at The Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel, live in the YVR community and experience its shops, services and restaurants. He or she will receive a living allowance during the80 days at YVR and an honorarium upon completion.

The Live@YVR correspondent will be equipped with a camera and editing equipment and will act as an all-in-one producer, director, reporter, editor and post-production supervisor. He or she will uncover stories and share the triumphs – and trials – of living at an airport full time on liveatYVR.ca, Facebook and Twitter.

“When we heard about this idea we wanted to be a part of it,” said Craig Reaume, General Manager of The Fairmont Vancouver Airport. “The Fairmont Vancouver Airport is one of the many special features atYVR for locals and visitors alike to experience, and we’re excited to highlight our unique and unexpected stories as part of Live@YVR.”

Here’s how the program works:

• From June 23- July 18, 2011, video applications from potential candidates will be accepted at liveatYVR.ca, with entries available for public viewing.
• Once the application process closes, a panel of judges will identify a short list, and the public will vote on the winner in early July.
• The winner will be announced — and start his or her 80-day adventure — on August 17, 2011.
• The winner will live at the airport for 80 days and 80 nights to share the stories of YVR with the world on liveatYVR.ca.

OpenText™ has announced the availability of the next major release of OpenText Social Workplace, a fully integrated social collaboration environment designed to help purpose-driven teams assemble, stay connected, and achieve breakthrough results.

The announcement was made at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. During a keynote presentation, Tyler Knowlton, of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade for Canada (DFAIT), showcased how Social Workplace is helping the G-20 improve collaboration among delegates from member countries around the world. Also at the conference, OpenText announced the Prize for Purpose-Driven Business, a contest to recognize organizations that are effectively dedicated to a purpose.

The Prize for Purpose-Driven Business is an initiative to showcase those teams and individuals who embody what it means to be a purpose driven organization and have in-turn used social collaboration tools to help achieve their missions. The Prize for Purpose-Driven Business is open to all organizations, whether they are current OpenText customers or not.

OpenText Social Workplace is a new kind of people-centric enterprise application that works through either SaaS or on-premise deployment. It helps cross-functional teams form quickly and collaborate effectively with minimal training or technical support. The latest release has a number of new features including optional integration with OpenText ECM Suite 2010 for comprehensive records management and governance, chat, and important additions to the wiki editor, among other enhancements.

“In a purpose-driven organization, teams are not limited by geography, function, hierarchies or management structure.  They form by bringing the right people together for the right reason at the right time. These teams need new ways of collaborating and getting work done,” said James Latham, OpenText’s Chief Marketing Officer. “With this new release, OpenText Social Workplace is even more adept at supporting a fluid model of collaboration that allows teams to organize quickly and tap each person’s expertise to fulfill the team’s purpose.” Latham discusses how Social Workplace supports purpose-driven organizations in a new OpenText News Podcast posted today.

The Social Workplace experience is designed from the ground up to work the way people want to work, starting with a personal dashboard to drive personal productivity and provide easy access to everyone’s profile, status and blog. From there, community spaces unite distributed teams with the appropriate level of access. New microblogging capabilities provide an ambient level of awareness of activity throughout an organization. It now also incorporates chat to facilitate quick, real-time touches among one or more team members.

Compared to social media offerings from start-ups or smaller vendors, Social Workplace is backed by OpenText’s deep experience in delivering enterprise-class content management solutions. One way organizations can tap into that experience is to connect Social Workplace communities to OpenText ECM Suite 2010. This new option makes it possible for content created during a project to be automatically archived in compliance with an organization’s regulations and policies with full records management control to an enterprise content repository with minimal intervention from technical staff.

Inside the community, Social Workplace offers a number of tools for creating content using wikis, information feeds and document management, images and video repositories. With the latest release, wikis have been enhanced with support for tables and version comparison capabilities.  Document handling is more robust with advanced commenting, versioning and comparison functionality.

Modern workforces require flexible access to content. Social Workplace can be accessed from any Web browser and mobile devices. Pre-built apps for iPhone and BlackBerry devices are available with support for the new release and allow people to log-in from any location, check tasks, review project details, update status and search for information.

Beginning in June 2011, teams will be invited to submit their most compelling stories about how having a clear sense of purpose impacted their team’s success. Entries will be accepted through September 30th, 2011. The entries will then be screened and finalists judged by a panel that includes the speakers from the OpenText Purpose-Driven Speaker Series including Simon Sinek, Andrew McAfee and John Seely Brown.

The new release of OpenText Social Workplace, version 2.0, is available now either for download or as a cloud-based solution.  The Fast Start program offers a low risk way to get started and includes a 60-day full-version Social Workplace license for up to 950 users. OpenText also offers the public Social Workplace Sandbox community that allows people to experience the product at any time.

Merging Media Productions has added three new 2011 Advisory Committee Members who will be assisting with advice and support for the upcoming October 2011 Conference+ Masterclass:

• Katie Jeffs Director Membership Development and Outreach, CMPA (National)
• Jonathan Carringan, President & Co-Founder, MOBCOM Consulting Inc.
• Lynda Brown, CEO/Founder of ZuluMe

Merging Media also extends its gratitude to its 2010 Advisors Betsy Chaly, Ravi Singh, Fiona McAuley and Ted Nugent for their generous support during their 2010 event.

Merging Media Productions Inc. in partnership with the Canadian Media Production Association BC is proud to be a part of SIGGRAPH 2011 this August 7-11 in Vancouver. Merging Media and CMPA will be facilitating the International B2B Matchmaking Program that is being organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and the Government of British Columbia. If you’d like to meet visiting International Media professionals during the event, here are the full details:

• B2B Matchmaking Program – August 8 – 11

The Business to Business Matchmaking Program will help facilitate meetings between Canadian domestic companies and international/ US companies attending SIGGRAPH. The B2B online platform will allow you to profile your company, view the profiles of other companies and request meetings with international/ US companies of interest. Meeting requests will be coordinated through the Canadian Media Production Association and booked into meeting rooms reserved onsite (unless otherwise specified).

• SIGGRAPH Welcome Reception – Sunday, August 7

Supported by BC Film, DFAIT will be hosting an International Delegate Welcome Reception from 6-8pm on Sunday, August 7th. The welcome reception will offer an opportunity to meet some of the US & International business delegates at SIGGRAPH 2011 as well as local industry and support organizations. This event is invite only with limited capacity, so please indicate your interest to Marc Coderre if you would like to be added to the invite list.

• Transmedia Vancouver Meetup – June 29

The Transmedia Vancouver Meetup Group will be having its first Guest Speaker event featuring Merging Media’s Advisory Board Member Matt Toner of Zeroes to Heroes on Wednesday June 29th, 5pm at CMPA-BC. This is a not to be missed event for those keen on meeting like-minded folk involved in Transmedia.

Rypple© has launched Loops, a disruptive new social performance summary application available as part of Rypple’s Phenomenal Plan for just $9-per-user-per month. It includes hundreds of feature enhancements of Rypple’s social performance platform, and plugs securely and seamlessly into existing work systems.. Loops makes it quick and easy for managers to pull together all the relevant information about employee performance already captured in Rypple’s existing applications—continuous feedback, social goals, one-on-one coaching, and meaningful recognition—into helpful, actionable performance summaries.

Everything is already in one place and easy to find so there’s no need to dig through old emails, notes, or spreadsheets and managers can run Loops whenever they choose—at the end of a goal, a project, or a quarter. They can invite anyone to contribute feedback, whether inside or outside their teams. And they can draft a series of customized questions to get the answers they need to accelerate performance. Greater visibility means no surprises when it comes to discussing promotions or compensation.

“The workplace has changed,” said Daniel Debow, co-CEO of Rypple. “But performance management hasn’t changed with it. Traditional reviews have become disconnected from real performance, and they’re slowing us down. With the help of our customers—creative, innovative companies devoted to nurturing and developing their people—we’ve built a social performance management platform for the way we work today: in real-time.”

Hundreds of innovative companies already use Rypple to set key priorities, recognize meaningful accomplishments, and get ongoing feedback and coaching. Rypple worked closely with a select group of customers to build and refine Loops, including Facebook, Gilt Groupe, RichRelevance, PhotoBucket, Bazaarvoice, EventBright, Kobo, Nexj Systems, Pivotal Labs, and Insomniac Games. Now, with Rypple Loops, managers and their teams can collect everything in one place—in real time—finally making performance management both effective and painless.

“Rypple built a performance platform that supports Facebook’s social, collaborative, and fast-moving culture,” said Bob Trahan, the company’s Director of Engineering and Head of Culture & Engagement. “Working with Rypple means our performance summaries are more real-time and our people get the feedback they want and need.”

Rypple’s easy to use privacy controls allow managers and their teams choose how much to share—and how much to keep private: employees can recognize one another publicly for their accomplishments on a company-wide feed everyone can see; hold private one-on-ones with their manager in a private, shared space; or request anonymous feedback from anyone at the company.

AOL Canada introduces Canadian teens to Cambio, an online entertainment destination that allows fans to connect with their favorite celebrities and combines original programming with interactivity to offer “entertainment 2.0” for teens. The website, launched last July in the United States, is the result of a partnership between AOL, The Jonas Group and MGX Lab.

Cambio features up to the minute news on today’s brightest stars and original online specials and series including Live Chats with fan favorites Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas; live streaming of Red Carpet Events such as Disney’s Prom Premiere; and an inside look at the childhood homes of top celebrities, like Matthew Morrison, in Cambio Goes Home.

The goal of Cambio is to offer a next-generation online network that fuses exclusive video, information, social interaction, and compelling entertainment taking teens from Fans to Friends.

Cambio resonated as a premium advertising opportunity for Toronto agency, J3 and they turned to Neutrogena^® to be a partner in this endeavour. As a result, this summer, Cambio is partnering with Neutrogena for their Canadian campaign “One Less Stress” and will feature video interviews with celebrities on topics that matter to them and on how they cope with stress in their busy lives. Read the rest of this entry »

Frima Studios and Bolt Interactive have announced today that the Pygmies of Pocket God on Facebook have to worry not only about the gods smiting them, but now their fellow tribe members as well in Episode VIII: Hi-islanders. The latest expansion for the Pocket God world features a brand new item, a LARP rack, which enables Pygmies to duel one another using one of five fantastical weapons, introduces a new god challenge from new rival god Kali, and also expands the amount of in-game content by adding five new solo quests and a plethora of clothing options based on characters from the Pocket God comic book.

Since its debut in December 2010, the Facebook version of Pocket God has grown exponentially and is attracting more players every month. To date, there are more than 700,000 deities who have tortured Pygmies and more than 55 million loyal, unquestioning Pygmies have met their demise—that’s approximately the record-setting number for most votes cast in a single show on American Idol (okay, one more vote: Simon or Steven). Another two million sacrifices can be attributed to friends on Facebook sacrificing other friends in a host of brutal and irreverent ways, including electrocution, shark attack, venus fly traps, tornados, tar pits, and more!

The new updates for Hi-islanders include:

• There Can Only Be One Hi-islander: A mysterious LARP rack has appeared on the island and there’s only one thing to do now that it’s here: kill everyone. The new LARP item dons five video game-inspired weapons and swords, and when two Pygmies each get a hold of a weapon you’ll be witness to a fight to the death until only one Pygmy is left standing. Alternatively, if you dangle one of your hapless devotees in front of an armed Pygmy, your floating follower will be pummeled like a piñata (candy sold separately).

• Challenge Kali and Her Rack: New rival god Kali has showed up on the island, and she thinks that her rack is better than yours. Of course, you agree, and if you try to touch her rack then you best prepare for trouble as she won’t take your advances lightly. Successfully defeating Kali will earn you a weapon rack idol of your own, proving that your rack rules them all.

• Dress Up in Those Snazzy Comic Duds: Pocket God on Facebook is taking some fashion advice from its comic book counterpart and now offers fans the ability to customize their Pygmies with articles of clothing found in Pocket God Comics, as well as control the actual characters from the comic themselves! What’s that? You’ve always wanted to feed Ooga to a shark because he goes against everything the tribe says? Well then, your wish is our command.

• New Quests and UI Improvements Added: As always, we’re making sure to deliver new content for newbies and veterans alike with the latest update including five new solo quests for those deities who like to go it solo, as well as a slew of UI improvements in the Power and Clothing stores, along with some gameplay balances here and there.

Toronto’s Phantom Compass, contributors to the Skatoony Home Game for marblemedia’s Skatoony TV show, among others, has launched their latest project to the masses. Points 4 People is currently in public beta and uses a unique tag to add (or subtract) points for Twitter users.

The premise for the game (as explained on the P4P site), is to provide a global points exchange and leaderboard system for Twitter users like you. Reward your friends, penalize your enemies, or vice versa. Exchanged points are broadcast via Twitter, tracked by Points 4 People and automagically popped into our leaderboards, activity feeds, and profile pages. No additional signup or permission is required. Simply reference someone in your Twitter post, add the hashtag #p4p and a positive (eg. #p4p+56) or negative number (eg. #p4p-42) of your choice.

Phantom Compass Founding Partner & Producer/Director Tony Walsh is currently down in San Francisco, so I conducted a quick email interview with him to find out more about Points 4 People:

VG: How (and why) did you come up with the concept for Points4People?

TW: Our technical director Jos Yule had come up with the idea of Points 4 People as a secret side project. He mentioned the concept to me a few weeks ago while we were on our way to a meeting, and by the time we arrived we decided it had to get made.

As a game company we’ve been following developments in so-called “gamification” for years, and we’re fascinated by how invested people become in reward structures. Points 4 People is an experiment in this area, and we think it’s got a lot of potential for consumer and business use.

VG: How long has Points 4 People been in development?

TW: We’ve spent several weeks on the project but the development time was probably under 40 person-hours. We’re in an ongoing development phase now as we iron out bugs, test new ideas, and implement user feedback.

VG: What was the biggest challenge the studio faced in bringing Points 4 People to life?

TW: Time. We burned a lot of midnight oil immediately prior to launch.

VG: Will there be a monetization aspect to this gamification of Twitter?

TW: Absolutely. We’ve got consumer and B2B options cooking. We’re going to be very careful with how we handle the commercialization.

VG: I know you’ve only just launched – but has anyone taken the game too seriously yet? (I was meaning from an over-praising/vindictive perspective, but Tony’s answer is good news, too!)

TW:Yes, there’s already been unofficial interest from one of the world’s largest technology companies.

VG: Where do you see Points 4 People going – what is your hope for the game?

TW: We are paying close attention to what our users want and how they are using Points 4 People. As we plan for a Facebook implementation we’re also getting great feedback on the Twitter-based system and making changes on a daily basis.

VG: Thank you for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?

TW: #p4p+1000 @villagegamer

🙂

The actors starring in the July 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival production of The Mistress’ Boyfriend – an original play written by DeeJay Dayton – are putting their improv training to work – rather than using the stage to improvise they are using the online world to further develop their characters on Facebook.

The play is the story of a Southern Preacher who has re-written the Bible, his mischievous wife, an anarchist prostitute and her ex-con boyfriend.  Told in reverse order the play is filled with mystery and murder. Each of the actors have created a facebook page and all are interacting on their event page;  posting photos and videos and developing their relationships online. The idea for this character development was the brainchild of Artsy Fartsy PR who are doing publicity for the event.

Alexis Fakouri from Artsy Fartsy PR says: “We created this concept based on the idea that every one of us has an online and a real life persona. Increasingly, people interact more with each other online than they do in person – why should these characters be any different?”

The play is showing at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace between July 7th and 15th, 2011.  The cast: Mandy May Cheetham, DeeJay Dayton, Amanda Petryschuk, and Oliver Georgiou and directed by Alan Bee – a comedic improviser, director and producer.

The Mistress’ Boyfriend – written by Deejay Dayton and presented by Quondam Dreams of Toronto

An imperious bible publisher, an aspiring anarchist, an ex-con and a woman who will do anything for a thrill get caught up in a whirlwind of deceptions, betrayals, sex games and murder in this darkly comic melodrama. how did it all come to this?

Director: Natasha Booner
Genre: Play, Comedy
Warning: Smoking, Gunshots, Nudity, Sexual Content, Graphic Violence, Mature Language
Show Runtime: 50 minutes

Show Times:

Thursday, July – 7 7:45 PM
Friday, July 8 – 8:15 PM
Sunday, July 10 – 1:00 PM
Monday, July 11 – 2:15 PM
Tuesday, July 12 – 6:45 PM
Wednesday, July 13 – 4:45 PM
Friday, July 15 – 1:45 PM
Saturday, July 16 – 9:45 PM

OpenText™ has joined forces with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) to launch a new and exciting service for the public sector around the world called Public Service Without Borders (PSWB).

The secure, cloud-enabled collaboration and social media site, based on OpenText’s Social Workplace software, will connect all levels of public service employees to one another in order to network, share ideas, impart valuable lessons learned in such areas as governance, healthcare, technology and the environment, and engage.

Whether via the Internet or through mobile devices, participants will be able to connect, network, plan and deliver exciting new partnerships and initiatives at anytime, from anywhere in the world. Whether you are Canadian, American, South African, Brazilian, British, Chinese or Indian public-sector employee, you can now connect to PSWB and engage with colleagues in a safe and secure fashion; whether to exchange policies, compare programs, or simply network.

“IPAC recognizes the need to facilitate the flow of ideas and best practices across all orders of government and areas of public services,” said Denise Amyot, IPAC’s President, adding, “PSWB will create links between knowledgeable individuals, as much as between institutions and jurisdictions in an objective and non-partisan environment, to ensure that expertise, research, and best practices are shared widely.”

“Public administration touches the lives of citizens around the world through the daily actions of their governments,” said Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of OpenText. “Improving public policies and processes is a constant challenge in our increasingly interconnected world. Public Service Without Borders offers leading social, cloud and mobile technologies to connect the public sector around the world in a way that wasn’t possible before to open an exchange of program ideas and solutions.”

Jenkins added that PSWB represents one of the world’s first truly global, cloud-based government program, one in which OpenText is proud to support, and a program for which IPAC has established truly visionary goals. Read the rest of this entry »