I hope everyone in the States got out and voted today. We should be aware of the people effecting the policy of our country.
Similarly, we should be aware of the people effecting out web and mobile experiences. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been working on my new business, Score.ly. We do hope to be helping you collect and share your online and offline achievements and discover your community. As part of this, we are trying to get a little more awareness through the Mashable Awards now running through November 29th. Everyone is welcome to vote once per day, per category. And we are hoping that that will inspire you to help support Score.ly by voting once a day for Score.ly as the “Best Use of an API” and “Most Promising New Company.”
Best Use of an API
Score.ly actually uses many APIs: 12 now and more to come. With them, you can sign in, collect preexisting achievements from different services in one place, earn new awards for your social milestones through Score.ly, and share them with your larger community through notifications to your social networks. That means we aggregate, augment, and distribute. A one stop shop for your proudest moments…and looking to get even better.
Most Promising New Company
We want to bring you more value than just noting how many friends you have and how often you frequent a restaurant. While it is awesome fun to be mayor on Foursquare or gratifying to help a stranger to become successful and independent through Kiva, we want to be able to recognize the full mosaic of experience, skills, and activities that compose you, collecting all your proudest events throughout life so that we can become your own graphic resume as well as a fun brag board—changing the way you represent yourself online. Think that’s promising? Then tell everyone…please:
But Wait…there could be more
We have an awesome new Leaderboard that you really should check out…and then vote for under “Best Website ...
There are many reasons that I have fallen off the face of the earth.
I graduated
It was summerBut now that it is no longer summer, it is only fair to discuss the third reason:
I started a business
Yes, back in June I participated in the now quarterly event Startup Weekend where the entrepreneurial inclined come together for a weekend to develop and pitch a business. The teams really did cover the gamut of businesses, from sample sales to porn. One of those groups was Score.ly.
Score.ly allows users to collect, manage, and share their online and offline achievements in one fun environment. Users can hook into their preexisting awards services like Foursquare and Gowalla to use Score.ly as a wallet for their achievements. They can also earn Score.ly specific badges for their other activities on services such as Facebook, Netflix, and Kiva. But, best of all, we partner with businesses, schools, and organizations to recognize the achievements of their employees, customers, students, and participatns in a valid way.
After Startup Weekend concluded, we didn’t. Thus, a flurry of activity commenced. We won prize money from AOL, partnered in Microsoft’s BizSpark program, and were just chosen to participate in NYU and Columbia’s InSite program. Through it all, we have been deveotedly working away to develop the service for our users and partner organizations.
Check it out yourselves at www.score.ly. Make your own account and share your own achievements with Score.ly. Then please, let us know what you think.
A friend of mine equated looking for an apartment to dating: you don’t want to go with the first one you see. Aside from the metaphor being played out by Sex in the City’s first season, I agree. Just not in the way he meant.
Apartment hunting is like dating: Life would be so much easier if we just settled with the first one we loved but it’s fundamentally flawed. And so we keep looking, ridden with regret and indecision as we see how one apartment has that flashy hardwood floor and big windows but lacks the expansive space of the loft in the dodgy part of town. And then there is the safe flat, already so settled in that you would almost be a visitor in your own space. It is the paradox of perspective. And, in the end, it can almost be like a game of musical chairs. We keep looking, flirting, stroking mantlepieces for dust, possibly even desperately throwing yourself into a fling with a sublet until you are finally so worn out that you settle with whatever you have in front of you (and quite likely just as flawed as the first that came your way).
Only rarely, and how fortunate you are if you came across it, you find THE ONE. Clean. High cealings. Open. Comfortable. With a sense of style. …or maybe that’s just my tastes.
For those out of the loop, this last week was New York Internet Week. To finish it off, Startup Weekend had another three day incubator in which individuals pitched ideas, groups formed and developed business plans, sites, and pitches that were presented Sunday night. I helped in the background as an organizer and photographer. My pictures of the event can be found on my Flickr account.
Startup Weekend: 48-hour labor for business births
By SAMANTHA GROSS
The Associated Press
Monday, June 14, 2010; 4:38 PM
NEW YORK — With just minutes to go until deadline, the coders sit furiously typing, putting the finishing touches on their website. Brett Martin turns to his computer – the PowerPoint slides are almost done.
On the couch, a tiny dog buries his head into a blanket and shuts its eyes.
“Spanky’s the only one who got to sleep,” Martin says.
This group of nine entrepreneur hopefuls started less than two days ago with just an idea: an online planning and finance tool for small businesses called ProphetMargin. Now they have the website design, a business plan and a working database. And by the end of the evening, they’ll have a formal mentor and a meeting planned with investors.
Such is the pace of Startup Weekend, one of the final events of New York’s Internet Week, which is ending Monday. Participants in the 48-hour marathon came in alone with an idea and left with like-minded partners and a fledgling business.
“It’s a testament to how much people can get done when they’re working on something they’re really excited about,” Martin said Monday, reflecting on his ...
Yes, one of the other things I love about visiting my parents’ home is the garden. When I was in high school, I had to spend my summer mornings weeding the extensive expanse of landscaping. Now that I am just an occasional guest, I can sit back and enjoy the flowers in a less intimate and grueling way.
Truly, there isn’t much else to be said of these pictures. These are the flowers and trees that I had romantic delusions of nurturing every evening when we were moving in—and quickly realized that my calling was not to be some fairy tail princess in hicksville but some book worm instead. Despite how easy it would have been, I rarely stopped to smell the flowers. It’s gotten me where I am today…back home…smelling flowers.
Roses surrounding a swing set. This spot strikes me as particularly Secret Garden-esque—further proof that we do not live in movies. If this was a movie, I would wander through my youthful angst and swing alone, staring longingly at the empty second swing and the someone who wasn’t sitting in it.
Many of the flowers are brilliant in their coloring. As far as brilliance goes, these far excede any equivalent brilliance residing in my head.
I must admit that this spider is fascinatingly offset against the flower.
