Big idea view with “Speedy Rating”

As a new filter option in the Idea Overview, you now have the opportunity to enter the fast lane for rating. Just click on the “Speedy rating” button and get carried away by this quick and easy way of rating. And that’s how it works:

• Click the “Speedy rating” button
• Click on the idea thumb to see the other attachments
• After you’ve rated the idea the next one will pop up
• By hovering over the idea, the beautiful “Summary” text is being displayed!

Summary as a mandatory

When submitting an idea, you now have to add a short summary (max. of 100 chars) to your idea. You don’t need to go for a lenghty description anymore. And short summaries make it easier to scroll through all ideas in a contest and rate them. And the short summary makes the big idea view with speedy rating possible. So really, there’s a bunch of pretty good arguments for that!

As after every contest, also in this one we proudly present the winners! Tadadadaaaaaa…..

#1 : New to the jovoto community, but already showing a lot of enthusiasm and some serious talent, perrocontodo managed to grab the top position! Visualizing the idea of actually reserving a seat, not just buying a piece of paper with a ticket, the beautiful logo together with the claim “Enjoy the show” got the highest rating! Very well done to your first win!

#2 : A very clever yet simple solution came second. “Diversity” by vsdesign offers two versions of one idea, in order to communicate accordingly to different target groups.

Intelligent solution – well deserved position!

#3 : A logo simulating a ticket, together with the funny claim “You can tick it.”,

the witty idea of voto is honored with the bronze medal. In a methaphorical sense of course

That’s the top positions. But of course there is more! Three other very professionally looking designs occupied positions 4,5 and 6.

“Vibus pinpoint” by Giu , also a first time winner (!!!)

“ticket perforation” by zap

& “Stars” by matias, hey a THIRD first time win in the same contest!

If that’s not great closing remarks

Another major milestone in jovoto’s (r)evolution: we’re now collaborating with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s leading marketplace connecting publishers, book sellers, authors, and readers – a must-go event for the entire  publishing industry.

A major theme of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2o1o is to embrace digitization. With Frankfurt SPARKS, the Book Fair has launched a series of lectures, exhibitions, and other activities dedicated to exploring smart solutions and future business options in an era which I’d like to dub “Beyond Paper”.

The Contest

jovoto, from August 25th to Ocotber 5th, will be one of the virtual venues of the SPARKS program. In an open competition, everyone is invited to tell a story and show how it can be told”BP”, crossing media borders, spilling over into online, visual and interactive or immersive manifestations, and back again. Read the task and sign up to participate here.

First submissions can already be seen here: Mainly by authors of our partners, the textmanufaktur. The authors have supplied short stories and are now in search of cooperation partners. We need people who want to grab one of the story sparks and transform the basic elements into a convincing cross media concept!

There’s a total of €5000 Prize Money to be won, and what’s best: winning concepts will be exhibited and presented live on the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, where the publishing world and the interested visitors will take notice.

Also, each contest participant will get free entry to Frankfurt Book Fair!

Examples of crossmedia storytelling

What forms can crossmedia (or transmedia, as it is also sometimes called) storytelling take? Literally, there are no clear boundaries, and crossmedia can cover as diverse a range as spinning character-based toys off of a successful movie, to enabling fan-generated extensions of a story online, in wikis, forums, blogs, etc.

Here are some examples I find particularly interesting.

Lost – TV-Series and Universe

Lost started out as a Mystery/Adventure TV series on the US TV station ABC, the first season airing in 2004. But clearly, it’s producers had more in mind than creating ‘only’ a highly successful TV series. They did such a good job in involving the series’ fans beyond the TV-Experience that they ended up creating a whole universe and a very involved community fan base around the story.

Lost Fan-Art created by bairdy4815 on fanpop.com

The producers did so by offering additional footage, more hints to solve the mystery or understand character. They initiated Alternate Reality Games (ARG) around the story (like The Lost Experience and Find 815), took the time for an official Lost Podcast, allowed and fostered fan involvement and speculation on countless fan websites and forums. And yes, in the end, there was also a Lost videogame and Lost character action figures.

All in all, the producers of Lost set the bar of what’s possible way up there. By intentionally leaving some storylines open, dropping hints and offering spaces for speculation, they managed to draw people in and become part of the story. Ultimately, the Lost universe can be seen as a conversation between the producers and the fan community, not just a one sided relationship between someone that tells a story and someone that listens. And this is what made Lost such a huge success.

Lonleygirl15 – User Generated Fake

Lonleygirl15, back in 2006, was the name of a community member on youtube. She started out as a regular, teen-aged youtube user – filming herself talking into the camera, sharing everyday life experiences and slowly, but steadily, gathering a following. People liked her because she came across cute, authentic, funny and smart. Other youtube members interacted with her by commenting on her videos, or sending her video replies.

With more and more followers, she turned into a youtube phenomenon, and her story became more and more absurd. Finally it was revealed (by some fans who were starting to disbelieve the character), that Lonleygirl15 was a fiction, a TV-series produced and implanted into Youtube to create a buzz.

Still, after this was revealed, Lonleygirl15 remained a success and numerous spin-off series evolved. A great example of how to achieve big things with a small budget and a ridiculously smart idea. It also shows what’s possible in web-based, low-budget episodic storytelling.

Marvel Comics Iphone / Ipad Ap

Another example of clever cross-media use I’d like to mention are the relatively new and highly acclaimed Apps for iphone and the ipad by the legendary comic publishing house Marvel. They must have realized at an early stage that brilliant color screens which allow intuitive interaction like zooming and scrolling are an ideal playground to present comics in. Their comic app is a reader and store in one. As a comic fan myself, I just hope the new opportunities offered here will result in more comics being published and read as devices such as the ipdad become more and more popular!

More inspiration

There are countless more examples of intriguing and well-done crossmedia storytelling concepts. Here are some more reading suggestions:

blog about transmedia storytelling in TV

Inspiration provided by the Frankfurt Book Fair

it’s been nothing less than pure pleasure to watch you unleash your creativity for the Vapur contest! So many charming ideas (299 in total!), tons a updates, 2596 comments, 11047 ratings (!!!)… thanks a lot for that!

Of course, you’re expecting me to announce the winners at this point, but I ask you to hold on for just a few more days  - as you all know, Vapur already created a lot of buzz around this contest, so they plan to announce both the community and the licensed winners officially on September 9th at a conference and over the wire. That means: please bear with us (we’re excited, too!) – you know: joy is always in the forecast!

by whatamisearching

However, we still have a little announcement to make: it’s time for the next round of Karma goodies!

This time, oxelot and hauptbahnhof came first in commenting – pretty close run by the way! Both get that stylish Anti-Bottle and oxelot a T-Shirt on top! In the rating category we’re proud to crown two ladies to be our new Karma Queens: mariagroenlund and EvaRuschel will be receiving a Vapur bottle each, whereas mariagroenlund can also look forward to a brandnew and stylish T-Shirt! Yay, congrats!

Promise you’ll hear from me not later than next week! In the meantime, keep on spreading Karma, jovotoans – it gets you places (and presents)!

Never before in the history of jovoto have we celebrated so many winners at once. 16 winners! We’re happy to have moved Community Prize Money onto a new level with the DB.

The community has proven to be very thoughtful – and at times critical – towards the task at hand. With their questions and submissions, some of you pointed out that speaking about an eco program is not enough, and that serious, tangible action is needed.

1st Place: Partick’s Ecology Class Projec

Revolutionary and new proposals were made on how DB could improve it’s ecological footprint. The winning idea by the guy with the weird misspelling in his name, Partick, was actually quite remorseless in revealing some not so nice facts about the DB. As a solution he proposes introducing an ‘Ecology Class’ where customers, by paying more, support the DB to make the switch to green energy.

Unfortunately I could not get a hold of partick to give me permission to post his video here, but I strongly recommend looking at it on the site. Link is in the image above, and also here.

2nd Place: Dahu’s Grünpause / Greenbreak

Dahu came second place, with an early submission which was popular from the beginnig and which he later updates significantly! In Dahu’s idea, the DB offers chill-out zones with hammocks, which are attention grabbing and remind people to rest and think about the green things in life.

3rd Place JaLe’s The Green Signal

… and now, the third place! This was JaLe, with her simple yet effecitve green signal! It can be hung at doorknobs, on cars, can be taken away to get some information on the fly. A clever add-on were the over-sized applications in the environment: on cranes, windmills, etc…

Now, there are still so many more ideas who came to the top and whom I would like to give some special props, but I can’t name all remaining 13, it would take too long! Please have a look at all the ideas. Thanks for participating, we will keep you posted about further steps.

we’re back with great news from PayPal!

Aside from the already pretty-damn-high prize money, they’re about to offer you even more goodies: after 4 weeks of the submission period, they’ll give away $50 in the form of account balance to the Karma winner in rating as well as in commenting! And it gets even better: no need to resign if you didn’t make it at half-time – we’ll repeat this kind of gift giving at the end of the contest!

by stevendepolo

So let’s roll up our sleeves and get started: it’s been already one week since the PayPal contest started and we’re still sitting on three ideas (give a round of applause to vectorspecies, thulsar and bsilvia for breaking the ice!). Beyond doubt, the task is a complex one and needs time to evolve, moreover we have heaps of contests running at the moment… however, let’s try not to miss out on this one! It’s an exciting task from an interesting client, plenty of time to develop and tweak it, Peter already provided us with plenty of inspiration, and – yeah I said that already but it IS a lot – a very appealing prize money!

So in case you’re still brooding on your ideas, or you’re in need of more explanation and inspiration, just let us know! Share your thoughts to spark our creativity and get ignited yourself – let’s discuss, let’s help each other getting started.

We’re thrilled to see your ideas!

p.s.: thumbnail by oskay

There are still two weeks to submit ideas, so listen up and get ready to think about fashion – bare fashion!

This is the background: Each year since 2008, Triumph has held an international design competition called the Triumph Inspiration Awards (TIA). They ask fashion youngsters to work on one lingerie showpiece under a specific theme. (This year it’s “Shape Sensation”) A Jury selects finalists, there’s an award show and the showpieces get presented etc.

Now, on jovoto, we’re not looking for underwear designs – what we want from you are cool ideas how to revolutionize and freshen up the concept of the TIA itself.

A whole new program and procedure. More public involvement and press. Of course, also a new theme. The Triumph Inspiration Award Show needs to rock and it needs to make every fashionista’s heart jump with excitement! A great task, right?

Fashion turned upside down and inside out

Just think – how fashion manages to turn heads, define trends, create this aura of infinite glamor and cool. How Paris and New York and Berlin go crazy during the respective city’s Fashion Weeks, which is mostly a huge show-off for all those well known brands most of will never be able to afford.

On the other hand, with new technologies, through ubiquitous networking opportunities on blogs, specialized communities, and existing social networks, fashion is being changed from bottom up inside out. In no other industry are there so many stunning young, independent designers getting their own work and opinions out and defining the trends all the big players are watching for. Just to name the Wunderkind Tavi Gevinson, a teenage blogger who has a couple of million readers on her blog, stylerookie and is clearly mesmerizing the world of high fashion and high culture. (For example, she was voted into the Top 100 most creative people by the fastcompany)

One of Tavi's many styles, borrowed from her blog thestylerookie.com

The handicraft renaissance of a couple of years ago has led to a thriving DIY-Community that likes to share sewing patterns, up-cycle vintage clothes, use old-time techniques to create unique pieces. Stores like Etsy show how professional and effective even ‘hobby’ designers can be these days.

Handmade Patchwork Hippy Boheme California Girl Skirt borrowed from urbanprairiegilr on etsy.com

There are even communities dedicated to social production in fashion – people rate design and the favorites get produced. Brilliant!

At the same time, the past years have also seen an increasing awareness of the fashion-consuming people about their moral responsibilities when buying clothing – often still produced very cheaply and under horrible work circumstances. Brands such as American Apparel have shown even big players can be successful with a more sustainable strategy. And luckily, there are now more ways for consumers to pressure producers into providing better and more sustainable products. (But we need to be on the lookout and use these tools!)

Another important fashion trend has been the experimenting with wearable technology, inserting smart chips which monitor your movements, exploring options to integrate speakers, headsets and other useful gadgets into your daily outfit.

V2 Test_Lab: Intimate Interfaces. Intelligent foil that changes transparency. Published by centralasian on flickr.com under the CC/Attribution license

The overall message is: consumers to not want to buy off-the-rack, ready made fashion only. They want to remix and share, customize and influence the production of “their” clothing. And this trend is huge and already very much mainstream, as the successful Nike ID mass-customization project proves.

Back to the Triumph Ispiration Award

I digress – what has all this got to do with underwear and the TIA? Nothing, really, but it shows you the scope of what has been recently happening in the world of fashion visible to the outside – and I’m sure this counts also for the fashion you wear closest to your skin!

The TIA needs more attention and relevance, and to achieve that it needs to understand the current trends an translate them into an even more inspiring Award program. Got any ideas on how to achieve that?

To participate, sign up on jovoto and apply to the contest with a portfolio. Mention Triumph in your application and we’ll review it fast.

and yet another contest drew to a close! Greenpeace had turned to you to come up with a key visual and tagline expressing that Germany can (and indeed must!) produce a 100 percent of its future power requirements from renewable energy -and our engagement in the last 4 weeks was more than mind-blowing! 315 ideas, nearly 900 idea attachments, over 1.500 comments on ideas and overwhelming 7.780 votes count proved that this topic did not only strike the community’s chord but also got your creative juices flowing.

So after these exciting weeks bubbling over with dozens of new ideas every day, we are now proud to announce the winners!

1) Rag with Pinwheel

With a very smart, easy and fast to grasp visual translation of the message – the need to switch from nuclear power to renewable energy – our “newbie” RAG made it to the first place on the podium – with an amazing rating average of 8.18! Great work, hope to see more from you!

2) mariagroenlund with Green energy

Second comes another new member – welcome mariagroenlund and congrats on this successful start! Using lightning as symbol for renewable energy she obviously hit the nail on the head. We like!

3) legalcrash with ThinkGreen!

A warm welcome to the third in row that just joined us for the Greenpeace contest! legalcrash presented his version of a masterbrain: EQ – as in Environmental Intelligence! Great idea, great translation, very nice!

And let’s hear another round of  applause for the last three winners: 4) lazardimitrijevic with firefly, 5) ThiK with 100% Steckerblume and 6) countdown with Clevere Energie

As always: congrats to our winners, you did an awesome job!

Last, but not least, let’s not forget about the lucky ones that get to ride the original Greenpeace rubber boat: apart from our first winner Rag we also felicitate Karma King & Queen mariagroenlund for commenting and bonibom for rating!

Enjoy the ride guys!

So, we thought i’d be nice to take some more time to speak to people in the community and find out about their work outside of jovoto and their experience on the platform.

Without further ado, this is Hari, architect and product designer from Singapore, known on jovoto as trihariyanto.

jovotoans worldwide – trihariyanto from jovoto on Vimeo.

You can also find him on twitter as @trihariyanto and on coroflot

On jovoto he participated in several contest to keep his skills in graphic design and communication in shape. He created, amongst other things, a winning campaign idea for Zocdoc.

image: trihariyanto

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Ready for the numbers?

ideas: 70

idea attachments: 490

comments on ideas: 884

rating: 2407

… and that’s pretty overwhelming figures if you keep in mind that we’re talking about a private contest here!

So to cut a long story short, it’s time to announce the WINNERRRRRS!

1) luzienele with growing beauty

luzienele made us dream with a pure and very classy, yet so playful design. Together with a beautiful combination of colors she reached a rating average of 8.55 – and she well deserved it. Great job, luzienele!

2) HD_One with Puraleza – Inspired by Nature

HD_One tinted an extremely elegant logo in some very dramatic Latin colors – so marvel at this outstanding result! Chapeau, HD_One!

3)  clari with Goza…

clari enchanted us with a beautiful font that seems to be dancing in front of our eyes, an excellent combination of earth tones, combined each with a slightly stronger color and a tagline that’s just too wonderful to not say it out loudly all the time. Thumbs up, clari!

And the last round of applause goes to 4) Jean with temperamental, 5) Peregrino96 with Peacock flower and 6) hauptbahnhof with Live Well II

Thanks again, guys, you left us inspired, happy and we’re looking forward to the next contests!