Like everyone else who is heading to San Diego next week for BlogHer 2011, our heads are spinning. We are getting our schedule ready and planning meetings, printing collateral, arranging child care…there is just so much to do. With just a week until we are gathered on the west coast for the biggest female blogger’s event of the year, we gathered with our friends on Twitter to discuss what’s on our minds. We talked about wardrobe a bit (who doesn’t), but mainly discussed our goals and plans and how we’re preparing for the few short days we have until it all begins.
Some of our tweeps provided some interesting tips on making the most out of the conference. Here’s what they said:
sdenise: Tip – check weather before UGO – it 73 in SD right now, big diff from my current 94 degrees, & conf rooms R cold
TheTwinCoach I read that having preprinted address labels is helpful – so you don’t wast time filling out a million forms
desertdealsdiva I have a crazy schedule right now… I think I need to pair mine down, but there are so many great opportunities!
TheTwinCoach I heard it’s good to post some of your best posts for a few days after since ppl will be checking your site
MyBaybah I have my flip flops ready for to keep in my purse
sdenise You’ll get LOTS of bags there! RT @ostmega: @MyBaybah I’m thinking about bringing my grocery bags that roll up in my purse!
TheTwinCoach You are so right! I’m doing what Holly suggested – trade it in or say no if I don’t really want it.
You can get the full script by going to Twitter and look at hashtag #RuckusBlogHer. If you are planning to be there, please let us know in the comment section below so we can get in touch and meet IRL.
Thanks to everyone who came. See you at our next Twitter Party next month about an EXCITING Hasbro-branded app, My Little Pony. Details coming soon.
Our new co-branded with Hasbro Chuck and Friends: Friends for the Long Haul has been available in the iTunes store for a few weeks now, and we’ve been loving all the buzz filling our Twitter and Facebook streams. We thought we’d share some of the great comments we’ve been getting and we’d love for you to put any new ones in the comment section below.
From Twitter, here are a few:
And over on Facebook, where there’s never a dull moment, supporters have been submitting the cutest photos of their children playing the app. Check this one out:
We’re just over one week to BlogHer 2011 and we are all thinking about it! Join our fabulous moderators as we talk about what to expect at the conference, what we hope to get out of the conference, the agenda, the parties and so much more. Feel free to bring all your questions and comments to the party.
As usual, we’ll have prizes galore. Stay tuned for further information, but you can always count on multiple app giveaways from our growing library.
No RSVP is required, just come, but if you are know that you’re coming, please RSVP in the comment section below.
This is a guest post by Mark Sigal, Co-Founder, Unicorn Labs. Mark is a supporter of Ruckus and was integral in the creation of Spot the Dot.
One of my favorite axioms is, “If you want to see how it ends, look at how it begins.”
I think of this truth in trying to assess ‘Spot the Dot,’ a visually mesmerizing, play-based children’s eBook that we produced in tandem with New York Times best-selling children’s author David A. Carter for Ruckus Media, and which recently garnered a coveted Kirkus Star.
For those who don’t know, Carter is a recognized master of the pop-up book, with over 6.5 million print books sold to date (fans of his ‘One Red Dot’ and ‘Bugs in a Box’ series are legion).
But, this was the first time he’d be adapting his creative wizardry to the iPad, so there was always risk that in transitioning from a paper-based medium to a digital one something would get lost in translation.
Plus, ultimately this was a project being produced FOR someone else – Ruckus Media, in this case – so there was always the risk of conflicting agendas, miscommunication and a less than a sum of the parts end-product.
So how did it go? I am obviously biased, but I am super-happy with the results, which The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) frames as:
“Spot the Dot is a fun mix of memory, visual discrimination and puzzles that will keep toddlers engaged. Most importantly, the game encourages adults to sit with the young player(s) and offer another level of engagement.”
You can decide for yourself by downloading the FREE ‘lite’ version of the app (the PAID ‘full’ version is rated 4.5 stars by users), but my goal with the rest of this article is to share some “pattern recognition” of the five things that we did right in making Spot the Dot.
I see these items as cornerstones in helping us to successfully translate David A. Carter’s complex paper sculptures into interactive experiences for the touch screen – including ten discrete playspace experiences, such as “spotlight,” “popcorn,” “fractions” and “asteroids.”
The Five Keys to a Successful eBook Production
Clearly Articulated Storyboard: I give a lot of credit to Executive Producer Marc Cheshire for creating a storyboard structure that was both visual and specific, down to the level of desired voice-over sequences. The benefit of having a tangible document when decision paths were unclear, or we were at loggerheads about implementation details, was key to getting everyone synced up.
Documenting of Process and Progress via Basecamp: When you have three companies working across five different geographic locations, there are endless opportunities for key details to disappear into the ether. Similarly, there is the perpetual risk of losing hours or days chasing down a resource, such as an image or audio file, that was previously provided. Like any project management methodology, Basecamp is not perfect, but it was the junction point and corporate memory mechanism for a whole lot of composition that would likely have otherwise not been synergized.
Frequent (Weekly) Builds to keep things Tactile: There is no substitute for See-Touch-Feel. You can discuss implementation details, workflows and user experience until you are blue in the face, but when every sees it and experiences it firsthand on their own device, it’s a lot easier to separate the wheat (and the heat) from the chaff. Similarly, we timed weekly builds to a weekly thirty-minute “alignment” call, and the combination was very purposeful.
Sound is Core to the eBook Experience: A revelation fairly early in the project is the power that really good sound can bring to an eBook. Think voice-over, ambient sounds and audio effects. Just as Spielberg and Lucas harness great sound in breathing an extra dimension into their productions (think: ‘Jaws,’ ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’), so did we, and so should you.
Leverage of a Proven App Foundation: Everyone has their favorite programming methodologies and toolsets for development, so let me acknowledge fully that I am biased and that your mileage may vary. That stated, we leveraged Ansca’s Corona framework and our own eBook engine, Unicorn Engine for eBooks, for rapid application development. What did that gain us? Number one, it allowed us to build ten mini-applications (i.e., the playspaces) into one master eBook app in about 90 days, probably half the time it would have taken us if we had to hand code. Two, it enabled the client (Ruckus) to spend their “custom currency” on differentiating features instead of table stakes. Three, it gave us a straight path to come out with iPhone and Android versions of Spot the Dot, owing to the multi-device, multi-OS nature of these technologies.
You may be thinking that very little of this is earth-shattering, and that’s the point.
Through a combination of good process, clear communication, systems-based leverage and keeping things hands-on, the path to building a compelling eBook experience is defined by what you establish at the start of the project as much as what you do throughout the project’s lifecycle.
Check out this short video, which is David A. Carter’s assessment of the make process:
by Allyson Kane, Ruckus Media Staff Marketing Specialist
July 13, 2011
I grew up in a small town. There weren’t any traffic lights or sidewalks. Houses were typically situated on a couple of acres that were scattered with families of deer from dusk till dawn. In the summer, we were left to create our own fun as we weren’t able to take a walk into town or to the local park.
Our property bordered a 13-acre farm and the farm owners worked hard well into their 70’s growing strawberries, blackberries, and fresh veggies to sell at the roadside stand in the summer. I was friends with their granddaughter Stephanie whose family lived in a house at the back of the farm’s property. Her grandfather cut a path through the brush so that we could freely roam between my family’s property and theirs. We spent summer after summer stealing strawberries off the vine, swimming in the pool, climbing apple trees, and catching lightening bugs in the field.
As we got older, the apple trees became the shade that we’d lay under to read a book after a dip in the pool. We’d often talk about the characters in our books as if they were with us on those hot, sticky summer days. A year ahead of me in school, Stephanie had already read the books that were typically on my summer reading list so she always had clever insight to add or could help me understand a heavy plot line (and ironically, she grew up to be a teacher!).
Along the property’s edge, there was a small metal tool-shed. Since the farm had long stopped running, the tool shed was empty save for a couple of pool floats and foam survival rings. We spent one day cleaning it out and realized that two small benches fit perfectly at each end. We decided it was our clubhouse. We’d meet there every day, rain or shine, and read for a while before embarking on whatever adventure we would invent for that particular day.
The inside of the shed had built-in shelves which we lined with books. Books we loved, books we read, books we hadn’t yet read. They were all categorized and we each had our own shelves. We papered the metal walls with Teen Beat pull-out posters of whatever embarrassing late 80’s and 90’s boy band or teen actor was popular that summer. We’d spend hours in there. Talking. Laughing. Reading. It was our spot. Our little Zen sanctuary. And for a couple of 11-year olds, it was somewhere we could go to change up the scenery of our bedrooms and escape our siblings.
To remember the character of that shed some 23-years later speaks to its importance in my childhood – in my life. It was something I can vividly recall when thinking about those summer days and how they weren’t only tied to playing, but to reading and learning.
What are you doing to keep your kids reading this summer? Does your child’s school have a summer reading list? What’s on it?
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Here are some ideas to keep your kids’ love for books active between trips to the beach, pool, or lake:
Like everyone else who is heading to San Diego next week for BlogHer 2011, our heads are spinning. We are getting our schedule ready and planning meetings, printing collateral, arranging child care…there is just so much to do. With just a week until we are gathered on the west coast for the biggest female blogger’s event of the year, we gathered with our friends on Twitter to discuss what’s on our minds. We talked about wardrobe a bit (who doesn’t), but mainly discussed our goals and plans and how we’re preparing for the few short days we have until it all begins.
I grew up in a small town. There weren’t any traffic lights or sidewalks. Houses were typically situated on a couple of acres that were scattered with families of deer from dusk till dawn. In the summer, we were left to create our own fun as we weren’t able to take a walk into town or to the local park.
To remember the character of that shed some 23-years later speaks to its importance in my childhood – in my life. It was something I can vividly recall when thinking about those summer days and how they weren’t only tied to playing, but to reading and learning.
