Sunday, December 25, 2011

Mashable: Latest 14 News Updates - including “53 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed”

Mashable: Latest 14 News Updates - including “53 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed”

53 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 03:04 PM PST


With the holidays in full swing, that means the new year is just around the corner. Here at Mashable, we’ve been reflecting on the changes 2011 has brought for technology and social media and what those changes mean for the future.

If you’ve been busy decking the halls and getting ready for the holidays, you might have missed a couple of our digital resources. Here is our gift to you — a weekly roundup of features. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

Here are this week’s features. We hope you have a very merry holiday.

Editor’s Picks

Social Media

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Business & Marketing

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

More About: feautres, Social Media, Tech

3 New Ways to Connect With Content That Interests You

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 02:56 PM PST


The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Each weekend, Mashable selects startups we think are building interesting, unique or niche products.

This week, we chose three startups that are helping to tailor content in a digital environment that has become over-saturated with information.

BetaBait connects startups with early adopters who love trying new products and apps. Subjot is a social network in which you follow topics rather than people. Movable Ink is adding dynamic graphic elements to emails, helping your message stand out in a flat inbox.

BetaBait: Connecting Startups With Early Adopters

Quick Pitch: BetaBait connects startups with their target group of beta users, who love to test new apps and products.

Genius Idea: Connecting eager users with exciting new products.

Mashable’s Take: BetaBait’s daily email service makes it easy for startups to find consumers and professional early adopters. Both the consumers and the startups get what they want, so the service is mutually beneficial.

In each daily email blast, BetaBait profiles new apps, businesses, social networking tools and educational resources that early adopters can get their hands on.

Since BetaBait’s recent launch, it has amassed more than 500 beta users and 100 startup partners. The startups featured have reported dozens of new users after they’ve entered a partnership with BetaBait.

The startup’s main source of revenue is currently startup sponsorships for its daily emails. Each email blast offers one startup sponsor the top section of the email body, ensuring their content is the first thing the community reads.

Subjot: Follow the Topics You Care About

subjot

Quick Pitch: Subjot is a social network that lets you follow people’s topics, rather than everything they say.

Genius Idea: Fine tuning just the content you want to see.

Mashable’s Take: You know when you only care about half of the tweets sent by someone you follow on Twitter? Say they have great taste in music, but you couldn’t care less about their thoughts on sports. Subjot can help. On this new social network you only follow the subjects that interest you from the people you follow.

You use it just like Twitter — post about whatever you’d like — but your followers will only see posts about the subjects they’ve chosen to follow. You also don’t need to follow everyone who follows you. You get a bit more space to “jot your thoughts” than you do on Twitter: 250 characters to be exact.

You can share links, photos, videos and engage in conversations on the nascent social network.

Movable Ink: Brings Your Emails to Life

Quick Pitch: Movable Ink adds elements that update live to otherwise flat emails.

Genius Idea: Creating emails that stand out from a dull inbox.

Mashable’s Take: Most people today are victims of the too-many-emails bug. That’s why products, like Movable Ink, that make emails a little more interesting are so important. Movable Ink is great because it lets you add countdown timers, live tweets, maps and content from any webpage to your company’s blasts.

How it works is the company inserts tidbits of code into email bodies, which add vibrant elements that strengthen messages’ content.

According to the startup’s website, people read 75 emails a day. Movable Ink wants to make its enhanced emails the most engaging and compelling on the Web.

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, izusek

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: betabait, bizspark, startup, startup weekend roundip, subjot

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Composer’s Christmas Music Video Rocks the Dubstep [VIDEO]

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 02:27 PM PST

Take a look at this Christmas music video by songwriter Bobby Smith, starring his wife Kelley and himself in a dancetastic musicale that takes Christmas videomaking to a whole new level.

Pay special attention to the audio track, and you’ll realize that this is not just any amateur cranking out a throbbing dubstep/electronic dance music track — that’s because Bobby Smith is a composer and songwriter who’s won a Disney/Yamaha songwriting contest, and regularly creates commercials and film music for companies in the United Kingdom and the U.S. such as National Geographic and Sky Media.

Put that original music together with a copy of Final Cut Express video editing software for the Mac, and the result is a Christmas extravaganza with a compelling musical hook. It’s about time somebody wrote some brand-new Christmas music, don’t you think?

More About: Christmas, Final Cut Express, Video

How Santa Delivers All Those Gifts by Christmas Morning

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 01:39 PM PST


Santa Claus needs a tremendous amount of tech backup to effectively deliver presents to every child's house in the world before the sun rises.

Peter Baynham, screenwriter of blockbuster film Arthur Christmas, spent nearly five years calculating exactly how Santa could deliver so many presents to so many houses in such a short amount of time.

The film — in theaters now — follows the son of Santa (Arthur) as he uses his father’s high-tech operation for an urgent mission. The first few scenes of the film shows how modern-day Santa makes his way across globe with the help of advanced GPS systems, cutting-edge gadgets and multitudes of elves.

“I really believe the way we did it in the movie could actually be done by Santa,” Arthur Christmas screenwriter Peter Baynham told Mashable. “We did a lot of math and got creative.”

“We're used to seeing the North Pole with scenic sugar cottages and elves making toys out of wood, but we wanted to show how Santa could actually deliver all those gifts today,” Baynham said. “Kids are exposed to technology and mobile devices at a young age now, so we thought it would be fun to introduce a new side of Santa.”

According to Baynham — who also wrote Borat and Arthur — one million field elves would be needed for the delivery part of the mission, plus 25,000 elves back at the mission control headquarters at the North Pole. It would take 12 hours to complete.

Elves working in the field would work in teams of three: the Delivery Elf would deliver the presents under the tree, the Gadget Elf would be in charge of the high-tech gadgets needed to zap up the cookies and milk and get past the locks and alarms, and the Field Elf Sergeant would keep a lookout for unexpected hazards such as barking dogs and waking parents. There would also an elite team of Red Berets that would accompany Santa at all times to ensure his safety.

To hit every house in time, each elf team of three would only be allowed to spend 18.14 seconds at each household. Some of the key gadgets would include a device that peers under beds and around corners, a suction gun, stocking filler guns, night vision and a vacuum to clean up crumbs.

The sleigh would also be big — really big. In fact, it would be four miles wide. It would land in one town and then fly to a nearby location.

“At first, we thought the sleigh would slowly move the whole time and the elves would jump back on the sleigh after deliveries, but we realized it would never effectively get around the world that way,” Baynham said.

Santa would also have to start at the Northeast tip of New Zealand to start and zigzag West across the globe, he added: “Time zones make it tricky, but he would have to stay ahead of the rising sun.”

Baynham also noted the sleigh would run on bio-fuel so it would be eco-friendly.

“We went back and forth with different theories, but decided this was the most accurate,” Baynham said. “However, it’s clear that Santa needs to rely a lot on the help of his elves and technology.”

Do you think this method would help Santa deliver all of those presents in just 12 hours? Does incorporating technology into delivering presents take away from the magic of Santa?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this post, we spelled Peter Baynham’s name incorrectly. We apologize for the error.

More About: Christmas, Movies, Santa

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Google Rolls Out Clever New Ad Featuring the Muppets [VIDEO]

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 01:30 PM PST

Have you tried Google+ Hangouts? Apparently, the Muppets have, and Google wants you to know about it.

Here’s a new ad rolled out this week, where you can see a scenario where “famously good friends get together in a Google+ Hangout, to rock out and blow off steam,” to the tune of David Bowie’s classic hit, “Under Pressure.”

This is not the first encounter Google’s had with the Muppets. Remember that Google doodle from September, honoring Muppets creator Jim Henson on what would have been his 75th birthday?

BONUS: Here’s Google’s video accompanying that Google doodle, one of the most elaborate of the company’s history:

More About: ads, Google, muppets

Santa is Heading Out, Right After This [COMIC]

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 01:09 PM PST



Santa is about to start making his rounds, but what’s this? He’s busy doing something else? What is it? It certainly couldn’t be as important as distributing toys and gadgetry to children of all ages, could it?

It looks like our Editor-In-Chief, Lance Ulanoff, has discovered a secret interest Santa has been cultivating over the past year. What’s that, Angry Birds? Nope, but take a look.

More About: angry birds, Christmas, Santa

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Top 10 Tech This Week [PICS]

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 12:36 PM PST


1. Batmobile Replica




If you remember the original Batman series, this 1966 Batmobile will look familiar to you. This roadworthy replica is as close as you can get to the real thing, with a Batphone inside, a "Detect-a-Scope" radar screen, and there's even a working rocket exhaust flamethrower.

There's a burly BatEngine under the hood, cranking out 280 horses that'll take you from 0 to 60 in 5 BatSeconds. You can actually buy the thing at a price of somewhere north of $150,000.

[via Technabob]

Click here to view this gallery.

Imagine yourself propelled 20 years into the future (or in one case, 45 years into the past), and that gives you a preview of what you’re about to experience with the latest addition of Top 10 Tech This Week.

As the year draws to a close, the world of technology kicked itself into hyperdrive. So prepare to be blown away with the fastest, coolest, shiniest and most advanced technology we could find across the globe and beyond.

Here are previous editions of Top 10 Tech This Week.

More About: Batmobile, LG, Robot, Super Bowl, Top 10 Tech, trending

Air Jordans Did Not Cause Death, Despite Twitter Rumors

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 11:44 AM PST

air jordan

Air Jordan XI shoes were released Friday to mobs of eager shoppers, hoping to snag a pair of the retro Nike sneaks. Amid reported arrests and robberies, social networks buzzed that an 18-year-old had been trampled to death in suburban Washington, D.C. while shopping for the popular shoes.

Reports began circulating on Twitter Friday morning, saying that Tyreek Amir Jacobs was killed at Bethesda, Md.’s Westfield Montgomery Mall, DCist reports.

A Facebook Page, “RIP Tyreek AMIR Jacobs Got Killed For Jordan Concords” started Friday now has more than 29,000 Likes.

However, according to multiple reports, even though the death rumor was a hoax, there were numerous serious injuries across the country due to pushing, shoving and fighting at stores in cities such as Indianapolis, Atlanta, Seattle and Richmond, Calif.


While fortunately the Jacobs death story was not real, the Air Jordans in question have undoubtedly stirred up online and offline brouhaha. The $180 shoes are already being resold on eBay for $300 to $500.

Are you a Nike fanatic? Are these kicks worth the hype?

More About: air jordans, Nike, shopping, sports, trending

5 Ways to Boost Your Digital Media Career in 2012

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 11:18 AM PST


Hanson Hosein is the Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington. He's written Storyteller Uprising: Trust & Persuasion in the Digital Age, and the host of Four Peaks on UWTV and has advised Microsoft, CVS Caremark and MasterCard on digital media storytelling strategies.

As 2011 comes to a close, the economic situation remains bleak. Usually, graduate school applications rise during a depressed job market, but the ongoing uncertainty has discouraged some potential students from pursuing a graduate degree — MBA applications are down 10%, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Yet with the rise of social media and the rapid advance of technology — particularly mobile — there's increased interest in more specialized graduate programs that give priority to certain skills and strategies. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2018, more than 1.2 million new science, technology, engineering and math-related jobs will open up. This will have far reaching effects on the digital media industry. Professionals must keep up with the latest developments to stay relevant. So as you reevaluate your career path, here are five key predictions for how you should focus your career strategy in 2012.

1. Get To Know Your Devices To Know the Trends

It's all about the consumerization of tech. We're moving "beyond the PC" as The Economist recently put it, and this will have a far-reaching impact. The enterprise (Blackberry, Windows) once drove tech usage and innovation. Now, how we use our mobile devices begins outside the office. This puts pressure on business to catch up by implementing social platforms for interpersonal communication, along with modified tablets and app stores for the workplace. So you've got to get digitally literate quickly. Ask yourself: What device does your family use? How are you communicating with your friends? This is especially crucial in 2012, as we'll see digital connectivity penetrate into the deepest reaches of our personal lives, from our workout routines to our cars. As you see how these devices hit critical mass, you can think strategically and begin to predict which platforms and technologies will dominate. Picking the winner will allow you to jump ahead of your competition.

2. Go Deep Into Content

The digital age is a great democratizing opportunity: Anyone can broadcast his or her creations to the world. But this has also led to great chaos as professionals struggle to cut through the amateur din. So you will need to use the emotive link of storytelling to grab attention and build a trusted relationship. Learn to tell a powerful story — emphasizing narrative tension through a beginning, middle and end — and translate it into a digital asset through multimedia skills in video, photography, audio and animation. It's a popular belief that every organization is a now a media organization, meaning that every employee — or potential new hire — needs to master the creation of these media, cheaply and often in-house. In 2012, it'll be all about immersion — a way to capture the imagination of distracted individuals who need to be convinced that your ideas are worthwhile. The "Any Screen" era is upon us. Consider apps, games, 3D, and transmedia (a cohesive storyline that is segmented and distributed on a multiplicity of platforms) as you try to transport your audiences into a deeper media experience.

3. Recognize that Social Networks Transcend Facebook and Twitter

Airlines, health organizations, museums and entertainment companies are hiring many people in the digital media space — Social Media Marketer, Digital Media Manager, Mobile Manager, Learning Technologies Specialist and Social Games Strategist are a few sample job titles. The names of these positions acknowledge that the people who hold them need expertise in creating, curating and mastering media as way to engage customers, patients and users.

Those who hold these positions possess a literacy in social media platforms and strategies. Rather than getting caught up in the arms race of the latest attention-grabbing technique on Facebook, you need to instead develop a deeper understanding of how these social networks are formed, and how they work. Technology is just the enabler. Fundamentally, social media is all about human interaction. So in 2012, even as you keep experimenting with those online platforms, you'll develop skills in network analysis (how do you determine the true influencers in a group?), and maybe even revisit Psychology 101 (what motivates human beings?). Ultimately, successful engagement is less about the "what" people are doing on social networks, and more about why they're there, and how they're interacting with each other.

4. Go Deep into Data and Learn How to Ask the Right Questions

If there's one truth about the pervasiveness of digital media in our lives, it's that our online behavior is producing increasingly massive amounts of data. But few of us know how to glean the right insights from it. The New York Times recently lamented this "digital talent gap" and concluded that "new hires are needed for a variety of tasks, including writing code, creating digital advertisements, website development and statistical analysis."

In that case, you'll have to get comfortable with numbers and critical analysis. The smart use of massive date is massively important. Sure, there are tons of plug-and-play analytics tools out there, but you've got to get comfortable with research yourself. Learn to ask the right questions and draw informed conclusions from the data at hand. In the comical science fiction book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the supercomputer Deep Thought spent 7.5 million years pondering "The Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything?" It responded with a nonsensical "42." In short, you won't get the right answer if you don't know how to ask the right question.

5. Behave Like a Media Entrepreneur, Innovator, Connector and Creator

Digital and social media are turning the professional world upside down. Fortune 100 companies, such as Ford, have merged their advertising and public relations divisions into a single entity. Professionals need to wear multiple hats to remain relevant and employable. So as you survey the media landscape, appreciate how to manage risk like an entrepreneur as you continue to experiment with innovative technologies and platforms. Your primary objective will be to take advantage of these emerging channels smartly with influencers and users, through the creation and syndication of compelling stories. By doing so, you'll give these individuals all the motivation they need to engage with you.

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, enot-poloskun

More About: digital, job search series

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The 10 Most Popular Photos on Twitter This Week [PICS]

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 10:57 AM PST


There are millions of photos linked in tweets each week, but we’ve looked for the ones that resonated the most with Twitter users. We’ve narrowed them down for you, sifting through 26 million tweets, and found the 10 most popular photos on Twitter, posted between Dec. 16 and 22.

How on earth did we choose these? First of all, we left out spam advertisements for events, and we’ve also eliminated photos from non-English-speaking countries. The pics were all compiled for Mashablevby real-time photo search engine Skylines. Keep in mind that if you click through to the pics’ originating pages, the number counts might be different because Skyline made its determination a couple days ago.

This week, Justin Bieber heads up the top of the list as is his wont, filling the top two slots and appearing twice more. Further down the celebrity-spangled list, you’ll see Taylor Swift again, occupying the same position she did last week. Keep clicking through our gallery, and you’ll even see a couple of surprises.

Peruse and enjoy the 10 most popular photos on Twitter this week:


1. Bieber's Celebrity Friends




It seems like Justin Bieber's popularity hasn't decreased much in the last couple of weeks. In fact, Justin's pictures have a bigger share in this week's top 10 than they did last week. This picture shows Bieber surrounded by several other celebrities. From left to right (according to this source) : Jay-Z, Rashida Jones and Kanye West, Aziz Ansari, Justin Bieber, Kid Cudi and sitting in front of them is Tyler, the Creator. It is unclear where this picture was taken. A rumor says they may be preparing a show for New Year's Eve. It was posted by Bieber on December 20 and the tweet only reads: "#SWAG."

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: justin bieber, Photos, trending, twitpic, Twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

Is Gamification Right for Your Business? 7 Things to Consider

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 10:39 AM PST


This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

This year has lent itself to a slew of new buzzwords, and gamification is easily one of the most buzzed about in the marketing industry.

Businesses clamored this year to understand the concept of gamification and apply it to their digital and mobile products, offering badges and points galore … but how many of them actually understand the point of gamifying or if it’s even useful for their business goals?

Dustin DiTommaso, the experience design director at design studio Mad*Pow, recently spoke about designing meaningful interactions through game design thinking during his presentation at Geekend 2011, a techie conference presented by BFG Communications.

DiTommaso explained his framework for gamification and dished out seven essentials steps for approaching the subject. Read on for a thorough encounter of DiTommaso’s model for architecting more meaningful interactions and successful business goals, and let us know your thoughts on his method in the comments below.

1. Consider Why You Want to Gamify

Yes, gamification is a sexy word. No, it isn’t right for every business.

DiTommaso recommends that businesses looking to gamify their products or services ask themselves three critical questions before moving on:

  • What is the reason for gamifying your product or service?
  • How does it benefit the user?
  • Will they enjoy it?

If you can answer these questions with confidence, if gamification seems like a good fit for your business’ product or service and if the users enjoy it, then move on to exploring your business goals. DiTommaso recommends exploring the following three questions:

  • What are your business goals?
  • How do get the users to fulfill those business goals?
  • What actions do you want users to take?

If this exploratory phase yields positive feedback, your business is ready to move into user research.

2. Identify Your Users

It isn’t enough to understand your business goals when considering gamification — you also need to understand your users and what motivates them. Research your users before you begin designing your gamified product, focusing on how they use your software, what they want and what motivates them.

DiTommaso laid out a number of questions to help businesses achieve research-inspired design:

  • Who are your users?
  • What are their needs and goals? Why are they playing?
  • What’s holding them back from achieving their potential? Is it lack of volition (belief that completing the task at hand is valuable) or lack of faculty (ability to complete the task)?
  • What is their primary playing style (solo, competitive, cooperative)?
  • Who are they playing with?
  • What social actions do they find enjoyable, and why?
  • What metrics do they care about?

Game designers must also understand what motivates users to play their games. There are a number of motivational drivers, but DiTommaso recommends simplifying to four key factors. Decide if your users are motivated by:

  • Achievement of goals or enjoyment of experience
  • Structure and guidance or freedom to explore
  • Control of others or connecting with others
  • Self-interest in actions or social interest in actions

Knowing these details about users and their motivations will assist game designers in determining how the game should be laid out, how much autonomy to allow, what the users’ goals should be and so on. Let’s explore exactly what comes next in the designing process.

3. Frame Goals and Objectives

The user’s path to mastery should entail “a journey up, with a quick little dip for relaxation — where you have either a break or a new challenge to master, like crossing a log — and then one, final, arduous climb to the top,” says DiTommaso.

Once you understand your business goals and your users, you can begin to design goals and objectives while thinking about long-term and short-term user goals.

DiTommaso advises, “Figure out a way to make long-term and short-term goals as exciting and aspirational as possible.” Users want to be heroes — design their gaming experience so that they can achieve that.

The long-term goal must be compelling and fairly difficult to achieve, says DiTommaso. This can be framed as the mastery of a new skill or habit, or the acquisition of an achievement or title. In the end, though, it is important that the long-term goal signify a “pinnacle of personal growth,” says DiTommaso.

Once you figure out a long-term mission for users, break it up into small milestones that take users along a path to success. These “discrete and satisfying challenges” should motivate users to continue on and help them improve along the way.

4. Identify Necessary Skills and Actions

Make a list of all of the abilities that are necessary to win your game. DiTommaso breaks these skills into three categories for easy brainstorming:

  • Physical Skills: walking typing, using a chef’s knife
  • Mental Skills: pattern recognition, memory, spatial logic
  • Social Skills: presentation, conversation, meeting new people

DiTommaso advises that game designers choose skills that take time to master, can be developed over time and can be broken into smaller “skill-chains.”

It is important to determine if and how the skills you are considering can be measured, so that you can track a user’s advancement. Determine whether there is existing technology that can help you monitor and track progress of certain essential skills.

5. Consider Various Lenses of Interest

In “The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses,” Jesse Schell outlines the psychological lenses that are key to making top-notch games. Lenses help game designers view their games from many different perspectives, or lenses.

While Schell’s book identifies 100 lenses, DiTommaso pointed out 10 particular lenses to focus on for starters:

  • 1. Competition Type: Player vs. player, player vs. system, self-directed
  • 2. Time Pressure: Relaxed, exploratory play or brash-tactics-get-things-done play
  • 3. Scarcity: Scarcity can add a level of challenge and strategic gameplay
  • 4. Puzzles: Puzzles are problems that promise the existence of a solution
  • 5. Novelty: Change presents a new set of challenges and patterns to master
  • 6. Levels: Graph progress, ability and access and provide a roadmap of progress
  • 7. Social Pressure / Proof: Show users how others are excelling in the system — via a leaderboard, for example
  • 8. Teamwork: Teamwork can also act as resistance when users need to work with others
  • 9. Currency: Anything that can be exchanged for something of value will be sought
  • 10. Renewals and Power-Ups: Renewals and power-ups help “unstick” players and redirect them from dead-ends

Framing problems, core objectives and actions in your games using these tenets will often yield a better gaming experience for users.

6. Outline Desired Outcomes

Think about the types of rewards and punishments that will result from a user’s actions — this should create a feedback loop that motivates users to improve.

Positive feedback could include rewards, such as moving up a level, unlocking a badge or earning points — and negative feedback might entail starting a challenge over, for example.

“Outcomes can be contingent or schedules,” says DiTommaso. “Players can trigger an outcome based on specific actions they take or based on a time frame within the game.”

No matter the time frame, though, players should always see their progress towards the “ultimate objective,” which DiTommaso also calls the “Epic Win!” Incremental success and failure will guide them along.

7. Play and Polish

“Platforms are never done,” says DiTommaso. Once you have the game build, test and polish it. Here is a framework DiTommaso suggests for analyzing the game:

  • What’s working and what isn’t?
  • What have you not considered?
  • Is the game personal enough for your users?
  • Do they feel that it’s tailored to their own unique personality and desires?
  • Are you tapping into the player experience needs of competence, autonomy and mastery?
  • What’s going to keep it interesting in 10 weeks? In 8 months?
  • When player reaches the Epic Win!, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

DiTommaso recommends that game developers not spend too much time testing games, though. “Get it out there and let your users be the testers,” he says. Users expect iterations and software updates, so don’t be afraid to release and iterate, he says.

This seven-step framework for approaching gamification is a very thorough resource from Dustin DiTommaso. If you still have questions, though, view DiTommaso’s entire Geekend presentation slideshow embedded below and ask further questions in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Flickr, andyburnfield & andercismo

More About: features, gamification, Marketing, mashable, outreach

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YouTube’s Best Christmas Videos

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 09:54 AM PST


Dancing With An iPod In Public - Christmas Edition


Click here to view this gallery.

YouTube‘s full of fresh videos this year, spreading some heart-warming, albeit comical, Christmas cheer.

We’ve rounded up some favorites, featuring emoticons, Charlie Brown, auto-captioning and, of course, a flash mob (or two).

Which video is your favorite? Did we miss any other uploaded viral gems?

BONUS: YouTube’s Most-Viewed Videos of 2011


1. "Friday" by Rebecca Black


Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Christmas, trending, Winter Holiday Season, YouTube

Top Comments on Mashable This Week

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 09:39 AM PST


We’re back again for a weekly roundup of the top Mashable comments of the week.

In this post, we showcase the week’s best comments on our site. We always look for thoughtful comments that engage the community and drive more conversation as well as those that make us laugh. This week’s comments were well-supported, drove great conversation, and had many opinions.

Take a look at this week’s top comments on Mashable:


Marketing in Politics Pt. 1




Brian Rich shares his experience on the Choose or Lose '08 campaign and his opinion on MTV's Power of 12 campaign, designed to get 18- to 29-year-olds fired up about the 2012 U.S. elections.

Comment originally posted on: MTV's 'Power of 12′ Campaign Creates Fantasy Political Election Game

Click here to view this gallery.

If you haven’t commented on a Mashable article before, check out Mashable Follow, our content curation and social tool, as well as our comment guidelines to learn more. We’d love for you to join the conversation.

Be sure to comment and see if you make next week’s top comments roundup!

More About: comments, community, mashable follow, top comments

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Trololo Man Returns for a Rousing Encore, 35 Years Later [VIRAL VIDEO]

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 09:10 AM PST

And now for a Christmas gift we know you’ll enjoy: Trololo Man is BACK! Russian singer Eduard Khil still has that special magic, even 35 years after the sensationally corny premiere of his odd, yodeling croon on Russian TV.

That old video from 1976 (see the original upload embedded below) became a viral video phenomenon on YouTube in early 2010, and as you can see, he can still remember all the lyrics to his signature tune.

Even at the ripe age of 77, Eduard Khil even looks the same. We love this guy — he seems so upbeat, cheerful and positive — the perfect way to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.


More About: eduard khil, trending, Trololo Man, viral video, YouTube

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Global Hotels, Broken Down By Social Media Rewards [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 08:09 AM PST

A new year is just around the corner, which means one thing — a new batch of vacation days! But where will you go? And, more importantly, where will you stay? Lucky for you, savvy traveler, the infographic below can help you figure that out. There are deals to be had, upgrades to be enjoyed and virtual tours to be taken, should you capitalize on the resources available on social media sites.

See what the biggest names in hospitality are doing on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and YouTube — and who’s dominating on each platform. Based on their activity on social channels, it looks like Wyndham, Marriott, Hyatt and Starwood have come out on top, but they have some competition, which we expect to increase as social travel really takes off. Have a gander, take your pick and then hop on over to our list of top travel tools to help plan your entire vacation.

Where do you stay when you travel? Do you follow your favorite hotel brands on social media, and have you saved money by doing so? Let us know in the comments below.


More About: features, Hyatt, infographics, starwood hotels, travel
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