Ice Mission

What a great idea from Auckland City Mission, and big Ups to all the companies and organisations that donated resource to make the Ice Mission happen. Also big ups to aucklanders for donating!

Here are some pics i snapped from the big finale....

Youth are the Solution, not the problem (via @vodafoneNZ)

Media Release 
May 2010

Youth the solution – not the problem

Newsflash! Focusing on youth as a problem marginalises them while working with their strengths and talents has a positive impact. 
This might seem obvious, but new research into three grassroots programmes has demonstrated a 'truism' that's frequently ignored by those focusing on so-called 'youth issues'. 
"Confidence changes everything," according to a young member of the Naenae Boxing Academy, one of the three projects evaluated. The others are Streets Ahead 237 which provides alternatives to joining gangs, and the Dziah Dance Academy using Hip Hop to develop young people in South Auckland. 
Massey University's Whariki Research Group has evaluated these programmes which work within the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (YSDA) framework for supporting positive youth development. Each has been supported in their work by the Vodafone Foundation. 
Social acceptance, capability building and health and wellbeing are key parts of their approach and the research has shown the programmes share some common traits:
- Providing safe and supportive environments
- Providing safe and supportive people and relationships
- Providing positive activities and opportunities 
Against a back-drop of negative publicity about so-called 'youth-issues' the research shows young people are essential to finding solutions and opportunities for their own future. 
According to Whariki researcher, Hector Kaiwai, the work has provided some great case studies to provide evidence for what many youth-sector workers already know.
"Our young people are the ones who are best placed to create and improve their own destinies."
Vodafone Foundation Chairperson, Michael Stanley says the evaluation has been groundbreaking for the Foundation and will hopefully help the whole sector.

"The successful focus point this research has shown is our partners' ability to hook young people into learning and development," he says. 
Ends
A full copy of the Whariki Evaluation can be downloaded from www.vodafoneNZFoundation.org.nz 

Putting the BP Oil spill in perspective

Putting the BP Oil spill in perspective (via nate.geek.nz)

general discussion, posted: 31-MAY-2010 06:00

It's been all over the news.  A blown out oil well is causing the largest oil spill in U.S. history, in the Gulf of Mexico.  The map below shows the size of the oil spill:

 
On Saturday I saw a tweet for a website that allows you to overlay the oil spill with something more local.  It certainly helps you put this massive ecological disaster into perspective, when shown in front of Godzone:

Quite amazing.

Hiring the Right Fit (via Read Write Web)

Hiring the Right Fit For Your Startup Culture (Via Read Write Web)

Written by Audrey Watters / July 19, 2010 4:00 PM / 2 Comments

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When we asked earlier this month "Is a job at a startup right for you?," we alluded to the importance in having not just the right skills for the job, but the right personality as well. Of course, being a good fit as an employee is important regardless of the company's age or establishment. But it seems particularly key for startups, where it's expected everyone share some of the same drive, ferocity and confidence that the founders do - that so-called "startup culture."

There can be strong pressures to simply hire someone - anyone - particularly if your startup is experiencing a rapid growth spurt and desperately needs to bring on more staff. And this pressure can make you feel like the cultural fit isn't as much a concern as just filling the seat. According to Jonathan Kay, Grasshopper's "Ambassador of Buzz," the founders of the small-business support company say that ignoring the importance of culture while hiring was one of the early mistakes they made. "When we hit our big boom," says Kay, "we were hiring people left and right and were worried primarily with bringing in the best technical fit for the job."

To help address this, Grasshopper spells out key elements of its company culture and makes sure these values are stressed during the hiring process. Noting that this means much of an interview is devoted to assessing this cultural fit, Kay says that employees need to demonstrate they have these core values, not just the requisite skill set, in order to move forward in the interview process.

Arguably, that cultural fit can be seen in a variety of ways. You can ask questions during the interview process. You can, as Mark Suster suggests, schedule one meeting with job candidates take place over food. You can probably hazard a few guesses based on the absence of creativity in a resume (or, I suppose, the presence of Comic Sans). You can look at your potential hires' past experience with startups, their side projects, and their social media presence in order to gauge whether or not they fit with your culture.

Of course, all this assumes you know what your company culture is - not merely the grandiose wording of a mission statement, but the ways in which your team actually works together.

HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business (Via Mashable)

HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business (Via Mashable)

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Shane Snow is a regular contributor to Mashable and tweets at@shanesnow. This post was co-authored by Phin Barnes, a principal at First Round Capital, SneakerheadVC and creator of the Xbox game, Yourself!Fitness. He has also served as a consultant to MTV games.

Before Foursquare managed to storm social media, GPS friend finders and city guides did in fact exist. But, Foursquare quickly became a star, engaging hundreds of thousands of users in just a few months and turning them into evangelists for its product. It did this by taking the existing geo-social concept and turning it into a game. Video game-esque elements like "badges" and "mayorships" hook you long enough so that you discover the true utility of the app, and stick with it long-term.

Common game elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and levels are proven (and increasingly popular) ways to engage customers and encourage profit-driving consumer behavior. Foursquare is a great example of why these work. However, many proponents of this type of "funware" in product development and marketing miss the larger point: "How" you incorporate game mechanics is just as important as "Why" you should. A leaderboard alone does not make for a worthwhile or engaging game.

Trip Hawkins, founder of game companies Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate, says that compelling games need to be "simple, hot, and deep." They should be easy to pick up, instantly engaging, and offer you somewhere to go once you are engaged. Creating these kinds of games takes work.

Legions of online businesses are following this trend right now as they attempt to integrate game mechanics into their products. Investors used to hear customer acquisition plans that included, "and we're going to make it social" or "and we're going to make it viral." But lately, these pitches have changed to include, "and we're going to use game mechanics" to address customer acquisition and engagement.

Many of the "games" being built in this flurry, however, are certainly not going to be fun. Many will distract the user from the core value proposition of the application or service. At worst, copycat "game mechanics" will quickly become annoying and trite — destroying value for users and creators alike.

"One of the greatest risks is being unoriginal," says Gabe Zichermann, author of the 2010 book Game-Based Marketing. In the short term, he says, adding soon-to-be-cliche elements like badges is OK, because any amount of additional enjoyment is good for a product. "But a good design takes into consideration the long-term scalability. If you think you can end with badges, that's where you're [expletive]."

Poor or late planning gives rise to boring (too easy) or frustrating (too hard) games. Since the goal of game mechanics is to keep customers coming back and doing what you want them to do, you want to stay far away from those two zones.

So how can you use game mechanics the right way and supercharge your business? We've distilled the process down to four steps.

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1. Start With Your Vision and Work Backwards

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Effective games cannot be bolted onto a service after the fact. They must be integrated into the product from the start. To work, they need to be designed with your vision in mind, or they'll be largely meaningless.

The first thing you need to do is define your end goal. What is it you want to accomplish? What's the big vision?

Here's a cheesy example:

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2. Make a List of Required User Actions

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Now that you have defined the vision, you need to figure out what specific user actions will be required to realize it. What behavior patterns would they need to adopt in order to sustain your business model?

Think in verbs, not nouns. What do you need people to do?

Once you have this list, rank the items from most critical to least and also score them from most plausible/natural to least. Now you know where to focus your game-based psychology experiment.

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3. Motivate the Most Important Behaviors

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Games can be used to drive almost any user behavior. As Marc Metis, President of Digital Chocolate puts it, "Games have the potential to tap into the full range of human emotions and motivate a wide range of behaviors." That's the beauty and value proposition of game mechanics. Take the specific behaviors you've defined and plan some games that will make people do what you want. No matter what type of game you are designing, a few key principles will help:

• Sid Meier, developer of the Civilization game franchise, defines a game as "a series of meaningful choices." Consumers will naturally explore the choices you give them (if they believe it is worth it). Motivate them with rewards and then teach them to do what you want.
  
  A great example of this is Foursquare's Newbie badge, which gives users a taste for rewards the moment they start using the service.

• Mechanisms should be layered. Users should constantly be starting one task as a beginner and enjoying a sense of discovery, be in the middle and deeply engaged by another task, and mastering (i.e. getting bored with) a third. The online multiplayer game World of Warcraft is an excellent example of this. Players are constantly working on short-term quests and heat of the moment battles while long-term upgrades keep them logging back in day after day.
  
  These layers can exist in both tasks and in time. If you can create a sense of shared past, present, and future, your user experience will be more "sticky," with customers/players investing time and coming back for more to deepen their history with your product.
• Pull the consumer toward the most critical behaviors with rewards. Additionally, adjust the rewards so that the most enticing prizes are offered in exchange for the behaviors that are hardest to motivate. Zichermann says, "There's no question that today's tweens are going to have to be rewarded to do anything." Make sure you're offering rewards for the essentials.
• Mechanisms should be designed for flexibility and growth.

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4. Evaluate and Adapt

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As with any lean startup process, you'll only succeed if you're willing to evaluate and adapt both the game mechanic layer and the behaviors that are critical to motivate. Both will change as you learn about your consumer, and as they learn how to play your game.

"Running a social game is a bit like being a head of a country's Central Bank, so you are always adjusting," says Metis. "You really have to pay attention to the finest details of user experience and merchandising."

Re-rank and reevaluate often. Take honest looks at what users do and why. Remember, make it fun for them, not for you. Zichermann reminds us most entrepreneurs think their users' primary motivation is to achieve. But, he says, most people — especially on the web — just want to socialize. "They're not in it to win it, they just want to make friends."

Make sure you understand your audience, and design your mechanics accordingly.

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The Promise of Game Mechanics

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Ultimately, game mechanics are not about simply having fun. They're about helping users discover the utility in your product. Like Wile E. Coyote from the old cartoons, you want to get your users to run through the air without noticing the ground's not there, until they reach the other side. Games can help get them to cross that ugly gap of "Why should I learn about and adopt this product?" And once they've crossed, you'll have them, because they'll feel the utility of your service and understand why your product is great.

To finish with our initial example, Foursquare's game mechanics alone aren't that fun. But they're fun enough to get you to stick with the service while you figure out how useful it can really be. That's how Foursquare nailed it.

Right now, too many companies are building a bridge to nowhere with their games simply because games are trendy. Design an experience that will delight your users and use game mechanics to show them something useful that will add value and make their lives better.

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More Social Business Resources from Mashable:

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- Top 5 Ways to Make Your Site More Fun
- 5 Social Media Trends to Watch Right Now
- Beyond the Checkin: Where Location-Based Social Networks Should Go Next
- What the Future Holds for the Checkin
- Are Location-Based Services All Hype?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Lobsterclaws