strutta

All is quiet at Strutta HQ these days; it is reminiscent of a few months back when were all pushing to release our initial beta.

Long periods of focussed quiet are contrasted periodically by high-energy whiteboard sessions, as the talented development team and the dilligent (and handsome!) marketing staff work together in blissful harmony toward a common end goal. It's enough to bring a tear to your eye really, or maybe I just love what I do too much. 

The research that Mark has conducted on Strutta's behalf has turned up some interesting patterns and similarities between the new product we're building, reality tv shows and even the current US Presidential race. 

Actually, the differences are more telling. The finale of American Idol on one night draws more votes than any one presidential candidate on election day. Meanwhile, our research around online contests has highlighted the importance of prizes for both participants and voters, with the former seeming easier to attract than the latter. There is very little at stake for a voter that calls or texts their support for a reality show candidate, so why the huge numbers there? 

We're willing to conclude that technology is a major factor. Proving that mobile technology is the way of the "future," text messages are almost certainly tipping the scales considerably. In actual fact, the ability to vote from one's home, regardless of the technology, makes it a low threshold to participation. So the comparison isn't fair, but it's still fun to make it.

The participants of the current election aren't foolish enough to ignore this fact, either. As I write, I'm waiting for word of Barack Obama's running mate; an announcement he has vowed to make via text message. Not on TV, or on the front page of a printed newspaper, but on your cell phone. Even that crusty old John McCain is riding this new wave of technology and has started reading emails; I've heard he entertains a digest of them in printed form from his advisors each morning. Careful there, future boy!

So what does this mean for the new version of Strutta? It means that we recognize that companies, their fans, contest enterers, agencies, marketers and everyday web surfers have a slieu of different needs and interests when it comes to online contests and competitions, and we have to be prepared to accomodate them all. Additionally, we've had to prepare ourselves to advise as to what formula is most likely to work best with any one market, based on the trends we've noticed in the habits of participants.

As part of our Fall launch of what we're unofficially calling "Version 2," we'll be announcing a list of "Launch Partners," a number of companies whose online contests and promotions will be released along with our new software. Each will have its own unique approach to prizing and participation, and should help to exhibit the flexibility of what we're building. We've already made arrangments with a number of partners, but there's still time to be a part of this program (in which we are waving the cost of development for participants). Just fill out the form at the end of the post where we announced it, and we'll follow up with you.

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to leave them here in the comments. 

Image source: Noise to Signal by Rob Cottingham. 

The newest version of Strutta, with an entirely brand new feature-set, is set to launch early this Fall.

While we ramp up to that release, I though it would be fitting if I shared a few of the details about how we arrived at this point, and share some of the user feedback that drove these changes.

While we were tracking the feedback that we received from the beta contact form (link only available in logged-in view), and the actions of users on the site, we also began to notice trends in the "in-person" feedback that we received from our friends and the local tech community.

Players, Voters and Viewers, "Oh My!" 

Most people's first question was "What do you win?" People wanted to know whether there was more at stake than just the bragging rights that come with staking one's claim as the best in the world at (insert category that previosuly had no forum for competition here). We are delighted to find that with just exposure and a little online rivalry as motivation, people were quite willing to put their talents on diplay, and let the community decide a favorite.

But that momentum was hindered some, and after a while we discovered a few trends in our stats that helped explain why that is. Some of the more popular games and videos on the site got plenty of views, but voting was proportionately low. Bragging rights were up for grabs for the folks that came out on top in any given game, but voters weren't flocking to those games en masse in support of these players.

We had always known that Strutta had to have an incentive plan for voters as well, and we embarked on building a points system that bring voters as much into the competition as the players themselves. The initial launch tracked voter scores, but we were well aware that the voting currency needed to have more emphasis, and had always planned to build it out; it was only a matter of how. 

While we pondered this challenge, we started to notice another trend in the feedback we received about the site. Companies started enquiring about how they might be able to access our technology to decide the winners of their own competitions. From day one, we had a plan about how to incorporate sponsorship of games while remaining true to the community we were building, but these questions really got us to thinking about the needs of those companies, and how we could help them. 

And thus we began work on this new concept, which as you've probably already heard, will combine all of the elements that people enjoy about Strutta, and enable companies to offer prizing in their own competitions. Our goal os to provide the tools that allow personal users, companies, ad agencies and marketers the ability to structure their own user-generated content contests, with their own rules.

Over the next few weeks leading up to our launch, we'll share a few contest case studies like the one Mark has already blogged. By exploring the current online contest space, we're helping ourselves better understand what works and what doesn't- and why not share our findings with you, the reader? Stay tuned...

Strutta's headquarters, a famously chic space that overlooks Burrard Inlet and shares space with Bootup Labs, has been invaded by youth.

Five students from the SHAD Valley Program, interning for Impact Entrepreneurship Group, joined us here in the office today. Their first task? Get to work building their new desks:

The Bootup Labs blog has more detail on this influx of bright young minds to our Gastown headquarters.

The first installments of our 2008 HSBC Celebration of Light videos are now live, featuring Team Canada and Team USA. Check out a 5 min chunk of highlights from their performances below, then feel free to mosey on over to our game and vote for your fave.

Team Canada - August 23 2008 from Jordan Behan on Vimeo.

Team USA - August 26, 2008 from Jordan Behan on Vimeo.

It's a long story how this came to be, so I'll boil it down to the >140 character version: We asked, they agreed, and the rest is history.

And so it was that last night, yours truly ventured into the masses of people crowding the beaches of the West End, trusty light-weight HD video camera and tripod in tow (with thanks to Warren Frey for the loan of the hi-def equipment), to shoot what will be the official video production of all four nights of the HSBC Celebration of Light. Which, if you're keeping score at home, is the "World's Largest" off-shore fireworks competition.

My contact, Zirka, was extremely accomodating and secured me a prime spot on the roof of the English Bay public bathhouse. I'm happy with the footage I shot on the first night featuring Team Canada; their "Attack" theme was very original and certainly kept people's attention. Apologies for not making some of that footage available already, but it is currently trapped in the post production workflow, and will emerge in all of its fully-edited glory soon. 

Now, to the question you have all been waiting for: Yes, the performances of all three competing countries (this year featuring Canada, the US and China) will be made available on Strutta.com, and you may cast your votes on which show you enjoyed the most. For good measure, we'll go ahead and include the Grand Finale as well, which features all three countries and an additional 8 minutes of artistic explosivity brought to you by BC150. This year, the voting on Strutta will be purely for sport, but I don't mind saying publicly that I hope our software will drive the "People's Choice" award next year, with text and web voting, Facebook widgets and the works (We'll be sure and get the performances uploaded as close to live as possible if this is the case). 

No sense waiting to see my footage (which is hardly a substitute for seeing it live anyway) when you can still get yer booty to any of the great vantage points in the city for any of the remaining performances. 

*image of 2007 COL fireworks above by my good mate Rob Masefield, who has photographed fireworks on three continents, and offers an excellent tutorial on shooting fireworks with a Digital SLR camera here.