Posts Tagged ‘Website’

We are coming to the end of the development stage of the AlbinoPhant online party. We have learned a lot about preparing and deploying a internet based application. We have discovered that communication is still the key to getting things done right and finished in a timely fashion.

In the world of web site development the Scope of Work (SOW) is the guidebook for preparing the design and writing the code to make it all work.

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?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

We have been suggesting that sharing REAL gifts through social networks is a viable solution for dispersed family and friends. We have even built a demonstration application called AlbinoPhant to prove our point.

Sometimes we feel like our story if falling on deaf-ears; because the idea is so new and unproven…

But we know it can be done and are just waiting for others to agree.

We would like to thank the Reddit users for their absolute proof that a gift exchange can be organized and completed using internet connections.

Antonio Cangiano’s Blog shares the story:  Antonio writes; “Dan McComas (kickme444 on Reddit) came up with a website to collect sign-ups, and put forward a few ground rules for participants. For instance, to cut down on the number of ill-intentioned users (the so called trolls), only users who were already registered with Reddit before November 10, 2009 were allowed to sign-up for the gift exchange.”

Further TechCrunch reported that this Secret Santa style exchange has demonstrated that almost 4500 internet users can exchange personal details (including shipping information) and share over 5000 gifts with other online users.

Now,  these were not virtual gifts…
The Reddit group shared $160,000 in REAL gifts!
They even earned a Guinness World Record for thier efforts.

OK, people…. WE TOLD YOU THIS COULD BE DONE…!!!

We also  suggested that sharing real gifts and using the images to represent the real thing, would work as well… Again the proof of this vision is in the redditgifts.com photo gallery.

We now have proof that an online gift exchange can be hosted, organized, facilitated, and indeed work in social spaces.

PartyWeDo will continue to promote this opportunity for family and friends to share real gifts online, using a fun and engaging traditional party game.  We are confident that the rest of the world will eventually catch up…

Thank you Dan and your Reddit community for proving our point…

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

OK, put down the spiked punch and rejoin the white elephant gift exchange ideas for a minute…

What would happen if you hosted a Pink Elephant party this year?

Wouldn’t it be fun to send out the white elephant gift exchange invitations with a pink elephant as the artwork? You could call it the Pink Elephant white elephant party. Or the “Whink” Elephant party…

Seriously, this could be a great “girls’ night out party” Everything in pink… Decorations, the punch (less alcohol = less pink elephants), and all the gifts in pink.

I came across this website where all the gifts are pink. There are pink blenders, pink dog houses and even pink pepper spray (for warding off the charging pink elephants!)

If you are doing some sort of re-gifting, you could do a re-paint of the item in Fairytale pink.

You could use pink wrapping paper, pink ribbons and even a requirement that everyone wears something pink to the party.

If you want to include a charitable component, then have everyone bring a couple of dollars to donate to a breast cancer cause and give out pink ribbons to your guest.

Go ahead, there are no laws that say white elephant parties must be all white…

If you now have visions of pink elephants dancing in your head, then go with it and host a pink gift exchange this year.

Thanks to nod to nothing for the image

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Princess Phant
Daughter of the King of Burma
Caretaker of the AlbinoPhant Parties