My Name is Kate

Today, let's talk about early Twentieth Century Flower Delivering Robots from Wrylon Robotical

Today I thought we could talk about robots. Robots were certainly a theme at TED. We saw the famous Baxter who has been designed to work with humans in physical labour locations (aka factories). And the cool new personal robot, the Romotive, was also demoed (I so want one of these!).

But I wanted to talk about some old-fashioned robots. Old-fashioned robots who used to deliver flowers. Botanical Delivery Bots from Wrylon Robotical - a company started by Rhoderick R. Wrylon, that created and dominated the flower delivering robot market. He opened the doors of the first Wrylon Robotical delivery storefront in 1906 and the company thrived until 1913, when it mysteriously shuttered its doors.

I recently acquired the Illustrated Catalog of these robots and it is incredible. Barry McWilliams (Twitter) is the talented illustrator behind the Wrylon Catalog. The little book is truly a marvel. Aside from the actual catalog full of illustrations and ads, McWilliams also included some delightful ephemera .. delivery orders, a letter that mentions rumours of robots gone missing, a newspaper article about the closing of the factory. I really hope this all points to a larger project that McWilliams has in mind, because what a fun adventure that would be!!

Now, the Illustrated Catalog was available through a Kickstarter project. (Side note .. I'm a little obsessed with Kickstarter. But more on that in a later post.) And is not currently available. Sad face. BUT! McWilliams has started a second Wrylon-related project on Kickstarter and there are still 7 days (ends March 13) to get in on that project. It's a collection of Wrylon Robotical Field Guides … designed for engineers and "Bot Spotters". Three of them will be filled with sketches, tips for spotting, etc. The fourth (a stretch goal) is a blank grid-ruled notebook for our own sketches, but still in the Wrylon Field Guide style.

I've signed up for this Kickstarter too (don't tell Rosemary). And if you are as charmed by these robots as I am, I'd encourage you to sign up as well. You get a 3-pack (plus the blank notebook) for only $15 (that includes shipping outside the US; in the US it's only $12). This project has already been funded, so it will go ahead. But I really want McWilliams to receive as much support as possible because I love these little bots and I want to know more about their adventures and why the heck the factory shut down. This is the kind of storytelling and creativity that we need more of (not Cougar Town and Fifty Shades of Grey (IMNSHO)). So, check out the video below and then hop on over to the Kickstarter and pledge your $15 to the project. I know you won't regret it!

Photo Credits:
Robot images from Barry McWilliams' site
Photos of catalog from my Flickr

QR Codes in Central Park

I've been working with a client who is considering using QR codes for an upcoming campaign they have planned. So my eyes light up anytime I see an engaging use of them. I was delighted to find this program Central Park in NYC conducted last year. Last year on Arbour Day weekend, "Parkodes" (signs that looked like digital trees) took over the park where visitors could snap a pic of the QR codes to get historic pictures, replays of famous movie scenes or just more info about key areas in the park.

  

There is information available about the whole campain, The World Park, put together by Agency Magma. While I don't necessarily get engaged by the animals on Facebook, I appreciate the effort to do a fully integrated social media campaign.

h/t to Drew's Marketing Minute

Win $5,000 to Make Your Dream of a Better Organic World Come True

The good folks at Soyaworld, manufacturers of Canada's largest organic soy beverage brand So Nice, are holding a contest - asking you to submit your idea about how you would spend $5,000 towards a better organic world.  I really do love it when an organization wants to encourage and support the creativity of their customers, especially when it comes to organic living.

Now, I'd be keen on this contest for the idea alone, but I've also been asked to be a judge. So I'm doubly keen. That, of course, means that neither I nor Rosemary can enter.  But I hope you will!  Here are the deets …

Contest Information
The So Nice “A Better Organic World” Contest runs from August 16 to December 31, 2010.Entrants are invited to answer in 300 words or less how they would spend $5,000 toward a better organic world. Throughout the Contest, members of the general public will be able to visit the Facebook Contest app and vote for their favourite sustainability ideas
http://www.facebook.com/SoNiceOrganic

Who is Eligible?
All legal residents of Canada and the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana in the United States of America are eligible to win, providing they are over the age of majority on August 16, 2010 in the province or state in which they live and providing that they are not employees of Soyaworld Inc., their advertising or promotional agencies, the independent judging organization, any independent judge or family members with whom these employees are domiciled.
http://www.sonice.ca/rules-regs

How to Win
On January 18, 2011, the 10 entries with the most votes, along with 10 entries selected by the Contest Sponsor (Soyaworld, manufacturer of So Nice) will be reviewed by the 6-person judging panel, who will award the Grand Prize of $5,000 to the selected entrant.

I've been reading through some of the entries that have been posted.  There are a lot of great ideas and passionate people out there.  I've made a few observations about what I think makes a good entry (remember, you only have 300 words):

• Upload a picture. It makes a big difference if the picture for your entry isn't the default So Nice graphic.  If you're at a loss for a picture, browse Flickr's Creative Commons - lots of eye-catching images there to illustrate your idea.
• Be realistic. While $5,000 is a generous sum, it is a finite sum. You probably can't put a community garden on every street corner in your home town, though you may be able to put one in your neighbourhood. Or, create an education kit that you distribute that will tell everyone how to start a community garden.  
• Be specific. The better entries are well thought out, sometimes even including some offline research.  For example, back on the topic of community gardens, one entrant described where she would put the community garden in her neighbourhood, that she had canvassed the neighbourhood and had a team of volunteers, requested the permit from her city to start the community garden and now just needed to win.  That kind of detail gives me a lot of confidence that this person would follow through and be successful.
• Be altruistic. While I appreciate that you would like to win $5,000 to redo your kitchen to cook better meals, I'm likely more inclined to be supportive of an entry that includes your community or your child's school or your co-op or even your bookclub.   Of course, if you're going to redo your kitchen so that once a month you can hold a monthly neighbourhood potluck and heirloom seed exchange, well .. that's different :)

Now these are just a few of my observations about the strongest entires. My fellow judges (Lindsay, Élise, Valerie, Celine and Raul) and Soyaworld may have other ideas about qualities of stand-out entries.

But in any case: put your thinking cap on and enter your best idea for making a better organic world!

The Art of Marketing is Coming to Calgary - You Could Win a Ticket!

The Art of Marketing is heading West! Hot off the heels of their great conference in Toronto, they are taking the show to Calgary on Monday, June 14, 2010. [Updated to correct date - June 14!]

The line-up has changed a little.  They've added Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It who will be excellent, I'm sure. Also slated are Mitch Joel (hi, Mitch!), Sally Hogshead, Chip Heath and Max Lenderman - all of whom I've seen speak and enjoy very much.

But the new speaker I am most excited about, in that annoying fangirl kind of way, Sir Ken Robinson. 

Sir Ken! 

In Calgary!

Go and get your ticket now!

Need proof?

I first saw Sir Ken at TED back in 2006. Dreamy. And hilarious. He spoke again this year at TED. Still dreamy. Still hilarious.  Oh, and smart too.  This is the video from 2006.

Did you watch it? Now, go get your ticket. And if you use the code SK23, you'll get $50 off the regular price of $399!

OK - if you're not ready to commit just yet, maybe you should leave a comment. I'll do a draw of everyone who has left a comment by 5PM Pacific time on Friday, May 7.  The topic for your comment ... hmmm ... well, Sir Ken is all about inspiration and passion (I MUST get his new book - The Element). So, tell me ... what inspires you. And if you can, include a link  (links format automatically if you put in the http:// part) so we can all be inspired.  I'll draw for two ticket winners and announce the winners the following week.

Housekeeping notes ... this is only for a ticket to the Art of Marketing conference in Calgary, not for any travel or anything. I'll contact you by email if I draw your comment, so make sure you leave a good email address. My decision is final. If you enter and don't win, you agree not to cry or post nasty things about me on your blog or sue me.

UPDATE May 20: Winners are Gisela H. and Jade G.  Congrats!  Have fun and say hi to Mitch and Ken for me!!

Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day ... Three Talks by Amazing Women

It's Ada Lovelace Day!  Time to celebrate women in technology.  Last year I wrote about some local women in tech as well as a personal hero of mine.   This year, I've selected three of my favourite talks by science and tech-y women at TED.

Jill Tarter

Perspective is a very powerful thing. Perspectives can change. Perspectives can be altered. From my perspective, we live on a fragile island of life, in a universe of possibilities. For many millenia, humans have been on a journey to find answers, answers to questions about naturalism and transcendence, about who we are and why we are, and of course, who else might be out there. Is it really just us? Are we alone in this vast universe of energy and matter and chemistry and physics? Well, if we are, it's an awful waste of space. But, what if we're not?

• Jill at Seti

Jane McGonigal

In fact, I believe that if we want to survive the next century on this planet, we need to increase that total dramatically. I've calculated the total we need at 21 billion hours of game play every week. So, that's probably a bit of a counterintuitive idea, so, I'll say it again, let it sink in. If we want to solve problems like hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, obesity, I believe that we need to aspire to play games online for at least 21 billion hours a week, by the end of the next decade.

• Institute for the Future
• Jane on Twitter - @AvantGame
• Jane's Homepage - AvantGame

Nalini Nadkarni

Canopy-dwellers are not just insignificant bits of green up high in the canopy that Tarzan and Jane were interested in but rather that they foster biodiversity contribute to ecosystem nutrient cycles, and they also help to keep our global climate stable. Up in the canopy, if you were sitting next to me, if you turned around from those primary forest ecosystems, you would also see scenes like this. Scenes of forest destruction, forest harvesting and forest fragmentation, thereby making that intact tapestry of the canopy unable to function in the marvelous ways that it has when it is not disturbed by humans.

• http://www.nalininadkarni.com/

Show you my WHAT?!!? AdHack wants you to finish the ad.

I have a confession - I didn't watch the SuperBowl this year.  And I haven't seen the commercials.  I haven't even sought them out online.  I'm kind of over the whole SuperBowl ad thing.  A stupid amount of money for generally lacklustre creative.  Meh.

But then, a silver lining to my SuperBowl ad cloud.  I got an email from AdHack that they partnered with Giant Ant Media to create an ad for a yet-to-be-determined product.  They released part 1 during the SuperBowl on Sunday and they want you to write the script for the second half.

(If you're not familiar with AdHack - it's a cool startup by James Sherret here in Vancouver that connects ad buyers directly to ad creators.  Like an ebay for ads.)

This latest program from AdHack is called "Show Us Your Balls".  They've written and filmed the first half of the commercial.  And they want the second half of the script to come from one of us (One of Us. One of Us.)

The ad itself is pretty cute.  Giant Ant does a great job with video!  (Check out their other awesome work).

One way that AdHack is promoting the commercial is through themed avatars.  They've created a template for a tennis avatar and written a great tutorial on how to make your own using Pixlr (essentially, an online PhotoShop). You can see Emmy Lou, our junkyard sharpei, here as a tennis star. 

Custom avatars is a pretty hot trend right now.  I've seen these balls ones all over Twitter.  Plus Twitter collectively went through a manga my avatar phase a few months ago.  Want to get your message out? Make something that people want to avatarize.  Another case in point - Simpsonize Me.

So, check out the whole "Show Us Your Balls" program.  They've got the soundtrack up for remixing as well.  And if you're feeling inspired, write a script for the second half.  Ad Hack and Giant Ant Media will film the best one.

Thinking about the economy, black swans and becoming a belletrist

One of my must-read blogs these days is Boing Boing.  It's this perfect mix of quirk, geek and thought-provocation.  A recent post about an interview with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, is a case in point.  Cory Doctorow points us to an interview between Taleb and Bryan Appleyard that appeared in June 2008 in the Times Online.

Taleb is nothing if not provocative.  I saw him at TED last year.  His talk wasn't one of my favourite because I felt he didn't quite focus what he was trying to say.  He's definitely gotten better at making his point, especially for a lay audience (or maybe I've just gotten to a point where I can hear what he is trying to say).

TED hasn't posted his talk yet, but there is a great video of him on FORA.tv - giving an overview, at the Long Now Foundation, of the concept of the black swan and then being interviewed by Stewart Brand.  It's comprehensive and understandable and informative.  And now, almost a year later, provides an interesting lens onto our current economic climate. (Side note - that FORA.tv has it going on.  They provide a transcript that runs alongside the video - plus you can download it on its own.  And lots of great socializing tools.  Well done, FORA!)

Taleb's talk on FORA.tv is 90 minutes, so here is a 4 minute snippet which includes the definition of a black swan.

In the interview with Appleyard, Taleb gives his top 10 tips for living a life of dignity. As most good "top 10 lists" are, Taleb's is controversial - the comments are BoingBoing are definitely worth a scan.

More Inspiration - Be a Kiva Lender

I first heard of Kiva a couple of years ago. But at the time, when I went to sign up, they didn't need any lenders (they were pretty small at the time).  I hadn't really thought about them for a while until Rose gave me a Kiva gift certificate this year.  So I made my first loan!

I'm lending to the Zakia bibi Hakim Shah Group.  They are a group of women in Pakistan who have come together, each with an individual enterprise, to support each other's entrepreneurial efforts and to, in effect, guarantee each others loans.  I thought that was pretty cool - community is good, right?!

In addition to being inspired by these women (and humbled - these women only need $875 to make a go of four businesses), I am also inspired by the power of community.  Below is a picture of everyone who has invested in this group.  All different kinds of people from all over the world.  So awesome!

If you're not familiar with Kiva or you need some convincing to become a lender, check out the video below.  Amazing stuff!

Start Video:
A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

Looking for Inspiration? Try a Red Rubber Ball (Book Review)

Let's face it: some days start off as uninspiring. Whether it's because a looming deadline has paralyzed your creativity or the mid-winter blues have gotten the better of you or you simply can't find the spark that will light your fire.

For days like these, I have a couple of resources that help jump-start my creativity/productivity/brain.  One of my favourites is the Creative Whack Pack by Roger von Oech.  It's  a deck of 64 cards with different strategies to help you break out of your regular thought processes and look at your project/challenge in a fresh way.  There's an example on the right.  Just a small thought to help reframe your perspective.

IDEO's Method Cards are another tool I use.  Originally conceived as a tool that would help a designer choose the most empathic research method for her design project.  These cards are now used in a variety of brainstorming and problem-solving situations where a way to challenge thinking is required. 

But sometimes, I need more than a quick reframing of perspective.  Often, a story of leadership or innovation will inspire.  This is why I was delighted to discover Kevin Carroll's Red Rubber Ball at Work, a charming book I received through the MiniBookExpo: Business Edition hosted at One Degree last year.

Building on the success of his Rules of the Red Rubber Ball, Carroll's The Red Rubber Ball at Work is a collection of biographic vignettes.  Subjects include people like Seth Godin, Irene Au of Google, Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes, Majora Carter (oh, talk about inspiration - watch Majora at TED in 2006.  Amazing!!) and Vicki Phillips of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Each vignette describes both a childhood moment at play that crystallized a key idea or philosophy and then the subject's current vocation and how they bring this playful attitude to the work environment. 

The book is organized around five key themes: Innovation, Results, Teamwork, Leadership and Curiosity.  Carroll intros each section with his own observations about the topic, includes 6 or so vignettes and then tops each section off with a "Purposeful Play" list - further reading, watching and listening about the topic.  If you visit the book's site, a number of these resources are included and hyperlinked there.

For me, The Red Rubber Ball at Work is a fun book to dip into when I have a few moments and need a little pick-me-up.  It's full of great "Play is ..." mantras (a phrase completed by each interviewee).  The childhood stories are inspiring as are the "application to work" scenarios - even if the writing is a little saccharine at times.

I like the design of the book very much.  Reminiscent of a journal, it's inviting and tactile.  If you're the kind of person who likes to make notes in your books, RRBAW is a good fit - lot of room in the margins as well as an actual "Notes" section at the back.  Above is a pic of a 2-page layout, taken from the sample vignette (Peter Ruppe of Nike) that Carroll has on his site for download (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

The Red Rubber Ball at Work is around $15 - depending on where you purchase it.  A nice gift for yourself or for someone who needs a little inspiration.  Many thanks to McGraw-Hill for the review copy!

Ready for Christmas 2010? The iBangle - Concept Mp3 Player

I can't even deal with how tasty this is.  Great design of Gopinath Prasana; found over at Shiny Shiny; full deets and specs at Yanko Design.  I want one, please, Mr. Jobs.