Posts Tagged ‘Social network service’

We live just south of were the Oregon Trail ends at the ocean. The trail and its historic trailblazers represent one of the pioneering achievements in American history.  It speaks to the strength and determination of our predecessors, who sacrificed so much to build the west.

Today we can cover the distance that Lewis and Clark spent a lifetime traversing, in mere hours by plane.  These and other pioneers blazed the trail with guts and brawn and laid the foundations of many of our great western cities.

The pioneering responsibility falls upon those who see something in the distance that has never been reached before. The trails aren’t prepared for pioneers, and the route is never clear.  But nevertheless, the pioneers must trudge on, or discovery fails. The investment of time and resource falls upon those who blaze trails for the future to the benefit of all followers.

There are families in the world for which distance is like a great prairie without a trail, or a forest without a clear path.  They long for a trail to closer relationships and a path that leads to better personal connection.

In many ways the pioneers of social networking have carved a passageway for connecting families, separated by distance.  They blazed a trail that has now become the super-highway of interaction over the great divide. Like all pioneers, the internet explorers used guts, determination and vision to lead the way.

In this fast-pasted world of technology, we sometimes forget to thank the modern Lewis & Clark teams that look beyond today and push forward toward the opportunities just out of normal view.

We can thank Amazon for teaching us to shop in places all over the world… eBay for building the bridge to distant sales opportunities… Google for delivering information for us without boundary…  PayPal for surmounting the many trust issues between strangers…  And, Facebook for carving the roadway between family and friends…

As the pioneers on the new path of internet gift-giving, we take heart that others have endured the tough times and have prepared much of the needed infrastructure for this journey.  We thank the internet pioneers that have made our journey easier.

We stand ready to blaze the trail for better gift-giving over any distance.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Bruce and Sarah Christensen are new Facebook developers, and they have delivered an online version of the white elephant gift exchange or Yankee Swap for families and friends this holiday season.

The white elephant party is called AlbinoPhant, and the Christensen’s have been testing this online game with their grown children for the past 3-years.

“When our youngest got married and left the nest, we started sharing our gifts through playing this game, and we loved the party atmosphere and fun conversations this allowed us” stated Sarah, the mother of five and grand mother of seven.

The AlbinoPhant party is a mimic of the traditional White Elephant gift swaps that are common among social groups during the holidays. The Facebook game provides real shopping markets from Amazon for selecting and purchasing a gift for the event. Players virtually wrap the image of the selected gift and then the party is ready to start.

“The game is just like the real party in many ways. The gifts are opened on the web page, there is gift stealing among the players and all the fun conversation that a group shares in a standard party”, explained Bruce Christensen.

Like a regular gift exchange, the AlbinoPhant party selects players at random to open gifts and then displays them on a common playing page. There is a comment box which allows players to share banter and poke fun at each other during the activity. There is the option to add YouTube videos and other images into the conversation. All of this is accessed by individuals as they play on their computers, from anywhere in the country.

Sarah continued, “Our family is scattered from New Hampshire to California, so this online party saves all of us the travel cost to attend family events, while still allowing real fun and personal connection with each other”.

The AlbinoPhant party is a Facebook application and takes full advantage of the social networking tools available. The host uses Facebook’s network to send the invitations and then the Facebook sharing system allows party conversations to spill out onto the web.

“We built the application to be as close to the traditional party as possible, so that families and friends would feel comfortable with the game. We use trusted brands, like Amazon and PayPal, and when the party is completed gifts are delivered using standard shipping companies”, added Bruce

This online party is a real gift exchange, so players use ecommerce to purchase the presents for the party. Then after the party is finished, these real gifts are sent out to each player’s doorstep. This party breaks new ground for Facebook, where virtual gifts have been the norm, and adds a new partnership between online retailers and social networks.
AlbinoPhant is now available thru the internet for family and friends to share gifts, steal gifts and banter together just like they have done for years, and McMinnville is this white elephant’s delivery room.

The Facebook application link is: http://apps.facebook.com/albinophant/

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Black Friday is behind us and we are awaiting the numbers from the retailers. One thing that is certain, the online gift purchase is the “New Cool” in many households, and I think that I know why…

Sarah and I braved the crowds in one retailer yesterday for just two items. It was an experience that I can add to my been-there-done-that list! After a 3am start with the lines at the store and in the parking lot… I want to be one of the cool-kids who shop online.

That experience is why I agree with the Marketing Charts blog survey; that online gift shopping is cool.

The survey reports that “85% of web-shoppers say that the primary reason for shopping online is still time savings.” In fact, “last year was the first year that the web surpassed the store as the preferred way for multi-channel shoppers to purchase holiday gifts.”

As the gift purchasing public continues to shift toward the convenience and variety of the ecommerce world, the social networks will play a larger roll. Combining the “Cool” of the networks, like Facebook and Twitter with the trend of online shopping, should create great retail opportunities in the future.

The marketing study found that “social networking sites will influence shopping behavior for 37% of online shoppers vs. 24% last year.” These numbers would indicate that by adding the friend to friend influence of social networks and hot-links out to retailers, the cool-crowd of online shoppers will continue to expand.

As the trend toward online gift purchasing grows, so does the list of gift-selling facilitators. Entrepreneurs are building applications that allow social networking friends to influence others into the online buying experience. A growing group of links between Amazon, Facebook and PayPal are allowing developers to facilitate these purchasing interactions between friends.

The new mimics of traditional off-line activities like gift parties are providing ways for the network of friends to make shopping online even more fun.

So in 2009 the cool kids are moving the rest of us toward the convenience of online gift shopping. Combine this pressure, with the growing number of businesses that want to assist us to make the move, and 2010 looks hot for online gift sales.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Now that the holidays are upon us, we can begin to think of the perfect gift for our family gift exchange. You know the gift swap party; the one where you open gifts and steal the gifts from one another while having a great time together.

Some call them a White Elephant Gift Exchange, or a Yankee Swap, or a Dirty Santa. No matter what it is called in your family, you can now access and play a new online version of the party game called AlbinoPhant.

AlbinoPhant is just like the traditional gift swap party, only it can be played from any Internet connection. This means that family members or friends from all across the country can join the party with no travel involved. That will be helpful for tight family budgets this year.

The online white elephant party allows families to stay connected and share gifts with each other in a lively atmosphere of fun and games.  With the enhanced sharing tools on the web, the online version allows more expressive conversation than ever before. A steady stream of AlbinoPhant comments allows party participants the opportunity to post YouTube videos and images to assist in participating in the fun. There are even opportunities to share some of the conversation outside of the party in other social networks, allowing the party atmosphere to spill over to other corners of the web.

These social events are some of the most popular gathering and gift-giving activities in the US and Canada.  Sharing gifts from these parties saves family members on the volume of gifts purchased during the holidays. The online party combines e-shopping and gift sharing in one place, thereby reducing shopping travel as well. At the end of each party, the real gift you get is delivered to each individual’s door.

The online gift exchange is a labor of love by the Christensen family. They have used the online gift swap to stay connected with their scattered family members for several years. Sarah Christensen, a mother of five and grandmother of seven shares her love of the game by commenting, “When our youngest left home three years ago, we missed our family gift exchange party so much we started doing our party online.” And Bruce Christensen added this comment, “We visited more in 19-days while we were playing than we do all year, because of this party”. Their entire family loves this game and is thrilled to share it with others at this time.

The Christensen’s hired a team of Facebook developers and other web professionals to take their simple family party and turn it into a fully operational Facebook application.

Your family may not be descendants of any famous outlaws, but they can give gift thievery and lively banter a new home on the Internet this holiday season by playing AlbinoPhant on your computer.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists