InsideFacebook announced today that Facebook is opening a data-center in our great state!

What started on a small server just a few years ago has grown to become a world wide phenomenon. We are happy to be an applications that benefits from the network that Facebook has built. We appreciate the fact that Facebook is so open to our work…

Now Prineville’s economy will benefit from the growth in this industry.

We welcome them to our state (we also moved from California 6 years ago) and hope that Facebook will continue to grow and prosper.

Amazon runs huge product warehouses. In fact, there are now 24 of these massive distribution centers world-wide, stocking everything from CDs to bicycle tires.

The online retailer moves 3-times as much product through these warehouses than it’s next closes competitor.

Over 40% of the products that move through the supply system are sold by merchants other than Amazon itself. There are over 1.3 million suppliers who provide the products that are for sale on Amazon.com and through these other merchants.

When consumers  rank the trusted technology companies for privacy, they usually put Amazon in the top 5.

In 2009 PartyWeDo was looking for an e-commerce partner for the gift party application, AlbinoPhant. The natural choice was Amazon.

Amazon works great for a gift merchandising application because of their massive selection and top-notch customer service.

The gift exchange system uses a level pricing system for each custom AlbinoPhant marketplace. Each host selects the level at which their invitees will spend for the gift and the AlbinoPhant software sorts through the Amazon Warehouse to display products in that pricing category.

PartyWeDo hired the Utah based e-commerce software firm Gyrofly, to build the special interface that would allow each party guest to pay one price and cover the cost of the gift, the shipping and the fun.

The resulting markets are filled with thousands of gifts that can be used to share in the fun of a Yankee Swap or White Elephant Gift Exchange.

When any gift is selected from one of the AlinoPhant markets, it is identified by a unique number. This number allows us to use the image of the gift during the game play period and also ship the correct item from the Amazon warehouse to the correct players doorstep.

This system allows the virtual world of the internet to marry seamlessly with the real world of gift shopping and delivery.

All of these marvelous technologies and efficient shipping systems allow family and friends to purchase gifts, share them online and then receive a present at their home.

Thank you Amazon, for joining the party!

Unlike other pioneering efforts, our project was based upon a well documented real-world party. The white elephant/yankee swap is a proven and fully tested traditional party activity, so you would think that it would be relatively easy to communicate how to build the online version of this game. But it hasn’t been as easy as we had hoped.

Writing a SOW should have been simplified due to the fact that the Christensen family had actually used and tested most of the features that would be needed to make the game work. In addition, the technical features where almost all available, they just needed to be brought together into one application.

The problem is how to communicate the SOW in a way that others would understand and be able to build the concept into something that would work as we had envisioned.

In November of 2008 the first draft of what would become the SOW was completed. We began the process of finding expert technical support that would turn this vision into reality.

Immediately we found that even the most technically savvy individuals where having trouble getting their mind around the idea that playing a virtual-based game could result in real gift being delivered to a player’s door. Explaining this to these very smart people turned out to be very helpful in preparing to write the SOW. We found that those who have played the party game with family and friends had a distinct advantage in understanding the idea.

But even with months of preparation, helpful advice and SOW documentation of more than 150 pages, our Facebook developer missed the deadline by 4-months! And worst of all, missed Christmas… The season for gift exchanges!

We could be disgruntled with the technical development process, but that would not be completely fair. We (Sarah and I) are the technical outliers, so our communication skills should take some of the blame. We also recognize that we relied heavily on a professional organization that fell short of expectations.

Nevertheless, our family is still committed to move forward and share this application with others, because we have experienced the joy that this party can bring. We know that once it is fully deployed it will bless the lives of many others.

We are not discouraged by the delays, just a bit frustrated with the SOW process that missed an important season for our introduction.

We are learning that there are great technical people who know their stuff and there are those who only look like they do… We will do better at picking in the future!

We also promise that as we learn our role in the SOW process, we will do better in communicating the details.

What have you learned by trial and error?

I was interested in a list published by David Berkowitz in the Social Media Insider. It was titled: Ten Ways Social Media Changed Our Thinking in 2009.
His list includes several trends, but I focused on two that are of particular interest to me…

Gifts and Gaming.

David is the Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation at 360i, and he has his hand on the pulse of many growing trends in this space.  His success depends on spotting emerging business concepts, and he has selected Gift Giving and Games for his top 10 list.

David and I agree that these two trends are emerging, but real gifts and traditional games are already merging on social media platforms.  This work is in its infancy, and even David doesn’t really know all that is happening, but the foundations for gift-giving and games as a monetization strategy are being laid.

In the list under Gift-Giving, David discusses the Facebook “Real Gift” application and states; “Today, those goods (gifts) are provided through the Real Gifts application. Tomorrow, it may well be Amazon”.

I am here to say that tomorrow is here now, with the release of a demonstration party called AlbinoPhant.  Each of the real gifts offered in the AlbinoPhant markets are from Amazon.  Today,  any Facebook user can purchase a real gift through Amazon and share it with friends and family using a traditional party game.

Speaking of games:  The post goes on to discuss Games as an exploding social phenomenon and suggests that
“…there’s room for new thinking on what a successful game is”.

The most popular gift-giving game in the real world is the Swap. Gift swap games are used by families and friends to share gifts during important life events . The process to convert successful party games into online social experiences is currently in the demonstration phase. These new online party systems will facilitate the sharing of the real presents in a fun and engaging way that fits within the format of social networks.

Plans are underway to move many more traditional party games into these social networks and to allow families and friends the opportunity to share real gifts with each other, using online merchants like Amazon.

I thank David for his list, and suggest that he is not alone in spotting important trends and advancing the social web.

Thanks to the Burned out Social Worker for the image

For more than a year I have been working hard to build an online party application that will demonstrate the value of giving real gifts through social networks. We are still working on many bugs and finishing several projects so that it will perform as it should. I have many tasks that remain on the to-do list….

But this week all of my grandchildren will be in our home, and I plan to just lie on the floor and let them crawl all over me.
I will probably get drooled upon, find spit-up in my hair, and be exposed to a dirty diaper or two… Nevertheless, I have looked forward to these days since last summer, when we found that all of our five children and their families would be in Oregon for Christmas.

Even though I really want people to receive the benefits of giving real gifts online; and I know that I could move the process forward right now,  I will neglect, at least for a while, this start-up venture and fill my time with some of the true gifts in my life…

These little people are the best gifts from our great family relationships. The seven wiggling, giggling little people have become more precious to me than anything that the Amazon/AlbinoPhant market could ever display.

The happy faces and joyous sounds will push aside any frustrations that I might be experiencing with a development team who is moving slower than I want.

The happy trampling will remove from my thoughts the need to market this new niche for the internet.

These youngsters will be the focus of my time commitments for the end of week, so the business will have to wait. My gift to my 7 grandchildren will be TIME… (grandma has a tree full of regular presents for them)

Chris Brogan discussed his time commitment for this holiday period, and I respect his choice to put in some extra effort while the “iron is hot”. But for me, I will turn it all off and just lay down in the middle of the floor and enjoy some of the gifts that my life has given me.

This party application is an out-growth of our family relationships. It had its beginnings in a game that we have used to keep us closer; so in some ways my decision to spend time being trampled is demonstration of the importance of our party.

It has been five years since our last family gathering, so will take this time to bond with those I love and enjoy the trampling of 14 little feet…

Merry Christmas.

Gift exchange parties are full of hot air…

Especially parties that carry the Dirty Santa or Dirty Thieving Santa moniker.
You see, these are the gag-gift cousins of the tamer and more common White Elephant Exchange or Yankee Swap.

The “dirty” implication is associated with the “stealing” portion of these gift exchange events. Gifts are opened by random players and then subsequent players can swap or “steal” from those who have gone before.

The gifts that create the most banter are usually the weird gifts that can be associated with something funny. Gifts that can prompt a conversation will make the party more lively and will pull more guest into the fun.

Many Dirty Santa, Yankee Swap and White Elephant parties are hosted with a theme of some sort.  This way, the conversation can share a common subject line and sets the scene for creative conversation.

Lets assume that you have a fun group of friends and it is time to share gifts among them; It could be Christmas, Valentines Day or St. Patty’s day… Just pick an unusual theme and then let them shop creatively for gifts that would releate.

For example:  Choose the theme   “HOT AIR” and send out the party invitations…

We entered the AlbinoPhant Markets and found a few items that could be associated with HOT AIR…

As you can see, the shopping could be as fun as the actual game, with players planning their explanations as to how the gift  relates to HOT AIR.  Then, these explanations, during the game, will build the banter and the fun conversation into the party.  
It is the conversation, that is built around creative shopping, that makes the Dirty Santa and the White Elephant exchange social explosions.

Now, be creative and bold… Host a gift exchange party with a unique theme and watch what Hot Air blows your way!

Painted toe-nail camo...

HOW DO YOU HIDE AN ELEPHANT?

We can thank the artist who are members of Worth1000 for this great piece of creativity…

Our online white elephant gift party is grateful to pochiex2 for allowing us to include this great image!

No sign of this elephant anywhere!

There is a really cool website called Worth1000… They run contests for artist who use special programs to enhance photography.

Recently they completed a project titled:

“How do you hide an elephant?”

The management of worth1000.com has  allowed AlbinoPhant the opportunity to display some of their fun work here in our Save an Elephant Joke section…

This image was created by Karrak.

Before you shop for your own party, take a look at some of the great gifts that we have put in the AlbinoPhant markets.  There are several hundred Amazon gifts to choose from,  for your own party adventure.

When you join a party you should select a gift that brings out the fun conversation in the online white elephant exchange…  So we  pulled out 17 gift ideas that we believe you could make some great conversation around.

What story could you start with a Hide-A-Squirrel?  Could you find a way to talk about a Backseat Organizer? What about posting a video about Pinocchio and telling lies…  Or, put someone in “Time-out” with a new Pad!

At one time, I wanted our online party application to be considered a social game, but now I am rethinking the association.

From now on, AlbinoPhant is not a social game, but is a Gift Sales Facilitator.

This title is not nearly as catchy as social game, yet it does describes what we do… Maybe we should have an acronym in the title, like GSF party game…

The fact is that we have a great deal of social features in our party game. So we could be considered a social game. There are multiple players joining in a game, and there is a comment stream with shared videos and images on the game play page….   But, we are NOT a game using offer-scams. We are a party game, with REAL gifts to offer. Yes, real gifts that are purchased in eCommerce and shipped directly to each players door.

The stories of these social game scam bother me, and I want no part of the association…

My first introduction to this issue was in an Andrew Chen blog post titled: Are social gaming offers scamming users? A detailed analysis of Techcrunch’s Scamville article.
Andrew’s discussion led me to a link back to the originator of this apparent firestorm, Michael Arrington of Techcrunch. I read Michael’s post and concluded that for sure, don’t want to be called a social game.

This “offers” business seems like a grab for money in an industry that has challenges finding monetizing solutions. Frankly, I am sad to hear that gaming customers are being treated badly and that legitimate advertisers are being drug through the dirt by these negative associations.

So here is how a Gift Sales Facilitator/GSF party game works:

* First, you recognize that people are sharing gifts (real gifts not virtual mumbo jumbo) with each other during the holidays and at events all year long.

* Next, you find the most common party activity that groups use to socialize and share these gifts with each other.

* Finally, you build an application that facilitates the sale of the gifts, and provides a fun way to pass the gifts around in an online party game.

Mix those 3 components into a social network platform and you get a gift sales facilitator on Facebook…

I wish that I could have used the descriptive title of a Social Game. It might be easier to market than breaking new ground. But I choose to distance our White Elephant Party and future products from the mud-slinging, and just pioneer a new category:

I also realize that there is a bunch of money flowing through the Offers model.  But when I look at how many birthday, wedding, graduation and holiday gifts are purchase every year, I say…. Let me facilitate some of that honest and profitable action.

For now just call us a Gift Sales Facilitator or maybe a GSF party game.