Interview on Radio Tahrir Regarding Our #Kickstarter Project
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Museums, Technology, Work
Earlier this evening I was interviewed by Radio Tahrir, a one-hour long talk radio program hosted on Pacifica Radio, WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City. Radio Tahrir is a weekly radio magazine that focuses on documenting and presenting issues and topics that affect Arab and Muslim communities in the US. As part of tonight’s show, I was asked to explain the Museum’s current Kickstarter fundraiser campaign. Here is the interview:
Radio Tahrir Interview, 24 August 2010
This project has garnered a fair deal of attention from the media, as articles and interviews have been featured in both local and national journalism outlets. We are now on the final leg of the project. There are 17 remaining days in the campaign. Overall, we are pleased with the way the project is progressing. I will reflect on Kickstarter in greater detail at the end of the campaign.
Foursquare For Businesses
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Museums, Technology, Work
Last November I reported on the advantages of managing your business using the Google Local Business Center (now Google Places). It’s an excellent tool for updating and managing business location information, including hours of operation, pictures, videos, and coupons. Additionally, there are numerous beneficial tools to learn about your customers.
Foursquare is now offering businesses an excellent new service as well. The service, a business dashboard, is exciting in that it allows business managers the opportunity to re-imagine the concept of a customer loyalty program. Rolled out earlier this year, the new business dashboard lends itself well to rewarding loyal customers with discounts and prizes. Further, it provides business managers with excellent real-time information on customers.
Getting your business setup on Foursquare is really quite simple. When visiting a venue on the popular location-based social networking site, a button asking “Do you manage this venue? Click here” appears above the check-in statistics. If you’re an owner or employee of the business, you can click this link and begin the (relatively simple) process of claiming the business on Foursquare. After completing the verification process – which takes a total of about five minutes – business managers can begin creating rewards programs for visitors who check-in at the location.
Currently, there are four types of rewards that a business can offer:
- Mayor Specials: unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue. Who’s the Mayor? It’s your single most loyal customer! (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days)
(“Foursquare has deemed you the Mayor? Enjoy a free order of french fries!“) - Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times.
(“Foursquare says you’ve been here 10 times? That’s a free drink for you!“) - Frequency-based Specials: are unlocked every X check-ins.
(“Foursquare users get 20% off any entree every 5th check-in!“) - Wildcard Specials: always unlocked, but your staff has to verify some extra conditions before awarding the Special.
(“Show us your foursquare Swarm badge and get a free drink!“)
In addition, the business dashboard provides excellent real-time statistics. This includes information on most recent visitors, most frequent visitors, the time of day people check in, total number of unique visitors, histogram of check-ins per day, gender breakdown of customers, and portion of foursquare check-ins broadcast to Twitter and Facebook. That’s not a bad set of analytics.
The business challenge for this new program is to find interesting and exciting ways to energize customers. Further, it could prove to be a useful tool for developing and managing promotional campaigns. I’m curious to watch and see how businesses, particularly museums, embrace the dashboard. Further, I’m interested to know if businesses will work together to promote other businesses or offer reciprocating benefits for customers in a particular location. For example, a museum could partner with a local restaurant to offer discounts on meals or other rewards.
We started a business profile for our institution earlier today. Our first reward is for visitors who check-in three times. Further, we are exploring the idea of creating a small quiz or scavenger hunt in the “tips” section. If guests can complete the task correctly, we will offer additional rewards as incentives. There is much potential for Foursquare’s inherent game mechanics.
Online Fundraising With Kickstarter
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Museums, Technology, Work
A few months ago I learned of Kickstarter, a new and emerging website designed to “fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.” Sounds interesting, no? It is!
Kickstarter provides an intuitive platform for launching a fundraising campaign. As a campaign manager, you establish the parameters for your Web-based project. This includes the duration on the campaign and the amount of money you seek to raise. Once the campaign begins, you need to raise all of the funds by the deadline or the project doesn’t get funded. Yes, it’s an all or nothing funding scheme. It’s that simple.
Now, for those familiar with fundraising, this might not seem like the most desirable approach. It takes a lot of time and energy to run a successful campaign. So, why would you want to proceed in this fashion when you run the risk of losing those hard earned dollars? And why not host the campaign on your own website?
The Advantages
Kickstarter offers several major advantages. The first is that the format creates a sense of urgency for both the campaign manager and the backers. There is X amount of time to raise Y number of dollars. Both parties want to meet the goal because both are passionate about the cause. Campaign managers need to provide updates on the project while mobilizing supporters and reaching out across the web to potential donors. Backers want to see the project succeed and they help to build momentum and spread the word about the project.
The second advantage is the rewards-based format. Kickstarter promotes the idea of offering “something of value” to all backers, big and small. In fact, the majority of donations on Kickstarter are $50 or less. According to Kickstarter, “Projects without a reward less than $20 succeed 35% of the time, while projects with a reward less than $20 succeed 54% of the time.” In short, give ALL donors something of value and make the gifts fit the donation level.
The third advantage is the Updates page. Here, campaign managers can keep the audience up-to-date on the project’s developments. Are there news articles on your project? How about some new pictures or video? Keep backers and potential donors hooked. It’s really hard to do this with appeal letters and other forms of traditional fundraising.
The fourth major advantage is the back-end for managing the campaign. Campaign managers have access to several beneficial tools and simple services listed on a “Manage Your Project” toolbar. The first is an Activity page. Here, information including donations and updates to the campaign are displayed in chronological order. Next is the Backer Report. This contains the names of the backers at each level with the corresponding reward. Additionally, there is a button that allows managers to export the data as an Excel-compatible spreadsheet. Next is a Messages page that allows managers to directly communicate with individual backers. Following that is a button to Edit your campaign. And, last but not least, is a button to post a new update to the Updates page.
The Campaign Page
Let’s take a quick look at the anatomy of a Kickstarter campaign profile. On the Project Home page, information is arranged in two columns. On the left, campaign managers can display a photo or video of the project. Below this is the location for the “About the Project” narrative. There are three additional tabs located above the project’s photo/video: Updates, Backers, and Comments.
The right column includes real-time information on the status of the project and a pledge button. Below this is the hierarchy of rewards and the number of backers at each level.
The “Updates” page is essentially a blog. This is a place to provide emerging details on the project. The updates keep backers connected with news and information while also providing prospective donors with additional details on the project.
The Backers and Comments page are quite basic. The Backers page lists the profiles of those who have supported the project in order of their pledge (i.e. first person listed is the first donor). However, the amount pledged by each donor is not visible to the public. This information is only made available to the campaign manager.
The Comments page is simply a place for people to leave feedback on the project. From what I have gathered so far, it is not possible for campaign managers to moderate comments. I think this is somewhat troubling, especially if you are running a perceived “controversial” campaign.
The Fine Print
If you’ve read this far and you think you might me interested in utilizing Kickstarter, then I think you should begin with the FAQ page. Keep in mind that Kickstarter is still in beta format, so you will need to submit a project idea through the Kickstarter website for approval (we heard back with a response in less than a week).
While there is no maximum amount a project can raise, donations can only be made in the range of $1 to $10,000. To begin a project, you will need to setup an Amazon Payments account. This will require a credit card and a bank account for depositing funds. Furthermore, if the project is funded, Kickstarter will charge the project a 5% fee. Additionally, Amazon will charge credit card processing fees (note: there is no Amazon fee for backers!). As for duration, projects can last from 1 to 90 days. However, we were advised that campaigns lasting 45 days or less have a higher rate of success.
More To Come
We launched our 45-day campaign to raise $10,000 on Tuesday, July 27. We are now 10 days into the campaign and we’ve managed to raise 31% of the funds. I’ll follow up in a few weeks at the conclusion of the fundraiser with more information on the actual project. I also look forward to posting additional thoughts on Kickstarter as a campaign platform. Until then, take a peek at these additional resources:
- Nina Simon’s article on why museums should consider Kickstarter on her Museum 2.0 blog.
- @Kickstarter on Twitter
- Google News
Tags: Fundraising, Museums, Technology, Work
Creating Surveys Using Google Docs
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
Last Friday we wrapped up a two-day cultural competency training for the staff of our parent organization. In an effort to collect feedback, we decided to conduct a quick survey of the participants. We were faced with the usual myriad questions concerning survey construction: What to ask? When to distribute? How to distribute? Blah, blah, blah…
In the end, we decided to use Google Docs to generate the survey.
A survey using Google Docs.
This was my first time using the web-based application in this manner. If your looking for a simple solution to creating online surveys, then I suggest going this route. Here’s how simple it is to create a survey:
1. Sign in to Google Docs (or create an account).
2. Select “form” from the “Create New” drop down menu.
Create a new form.
Detail.
3. Begin constructing your questionnaire. Start by naming your survey form and provide a short description of what you are asking of the interviewees. Next, begin generating questions, which can be in the form of: text, paragraph text, multiple choice, checkboxes, choose from a list, scale and/or grid.
Create the questionnaire.
4. Once you’ve proofread the questionnaire and are happy with the questions, it’s time to distribute it to your audience. You can either send a link to the survey or embed it into a Web page.
5. Sit back and let the results come in. Responses are automatically compiled in a spreadsheet for easy review.
Survey results compiled in a spreadsheet.
6. Do you like graphs and charts? I do, especially those that are colored coordinated. Here’s what the “summary” view looks like:
Summary view of the survey results.
It’s as simple as that. I’m definitely open to learning better survey construction. If you have expert knowledge on authoring surveys, then please shoot me some pointers and/or links to great resources. Information is a two-way street.
Tags: Technology, Work
Stolen! Steps To Protect Your Identity During a Crisis
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology
Today marks the two-week anniversary of having our car stolen. After years of parking in sketchy areas of Detroit, our car was stolen from a seemingly safe area within the city. However, given the current economy, it’s no surprise that grand theft auto is on the rise. It’s a sad state of affairs in our region.
We’ll spare you the details of our travails. However, considering that my wife and l both had our laptops stolen with the car, we thought we’d share with you the lessons we’ve learned on protecting yourself from identity theft when personal information is compromised.
What To Do If Your Identity Has Been Compromised
- File a police report and specify that there is the potential for identity theft.
- Immediately contact one of the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, or TranUnion) and place a fraud alert on your credit report. An initial fraud alert stays in your file for at least 90 days while an extended alert stays in your file for seven years. It is not necessary to contact all three major agencies; by filing a report with one, the others receive notification within 24 hours. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):
A fraud alert requires potential creditors to either contact you or take reasonable steps to verify your identity. This may cause some delays if you’re trying to obtain credit. To compensate for possible delays, you may wish to include a cell phone number, where you can be reached easily, in your alert.
Be sure to check your credit reports periodically, especially for the first year after you discover the identity theft, to make sure no new fraudulent activity has occurred.
- File a complaint with the FTC. This is another means to document the situation in case fraudulent activities should occur on your accounts.
- Were the keys to your home or your garage door opener lost in the theft? If so, immediately change the locks on your home. Additionally, reset the frequency on your garage door opener.
- Believe it or not, the scallywag might contact you. Therefore, we recommend immediately contacting your phone service provider to unscramble blocked numbers. This is a service that you can purchase at any time.
- Reset all passwords on online accounts.
- Contact all organizations that you have accounts with (banks, utilities, credit, etc.) and alert them of the theft. Request an additional security measure that requires you, the account holder, to provide information that would not be included in standard documentation (now they possibly have access to maiden names and all the other standard “security” questions/prompts). Additionally, make sure that you continue to receive statements on a regular basis. Thoroughly review them for any fraudulent activity.
- Cancel all extraneous accounts that are not often used.
Tags: Technology
A Short History of Social Media at the AANM
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
I was recently asked by the fine folks at Museum Identity to write a short (300 word) piece on how the Arab American National Museum uses social media. My write-up will be included in a forthcoming article on the ways that social media is being used by museums. Here is what I submitted for inclusion. I’ll provide an update later when the article is published. I’m looking forward to learning more about social media usage from other museums around the world.
Similar to other institutions, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) began using social media in a rather piecemeal fashion. The community-based museum opened to the public in May 2005 and, with a relatively young staff, immediately began finding ways to incorporate social media into its outreach strategies. The nature of social media lends itself well to an institution so rooted in its community. Usually, a staff member would propose using a particular social media platform, present to staff on how it could benefit the institution, and adopt the day-to-day management and oversight of it.
In September 2009, the AANM hired its first Social Media Marketing Coordinator. Shortly thereafter, the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM) launched its inaugural Challenge—Arts and Culture, which sought to help raise much needed funds for the 75 cultural arts organizations that make up the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan. Recognizing the importance of individual giving via the Internet, the CFSEM online Challenge required institutions to use social media as a primary tool for raising funds. The Challenge lasted approximately 12 hours, and the AANM placed fourth among all institutions, raising over $300,000 in unrestricted funds (see our Challenge video here).
Currently, the Social Media Marketing Coordinator manages the oversight of all social media tools at the AANM. At this time, the Coordinator is developing a social media strategy for the Museum. In addition, the Coordinator works within the Marketing and Communication Department to produce online messages while also monitoring conversations relevant to the AANM.
The AANM is currently utilizing several social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, blogs and iTunes U. Further, the AANM is developing other social media tools for collecting community history and building community (e.g Wikis). Lastly, social media tools are now being used within exhibits to enhance visitor participation.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
Five Great iPhone Apps for Photography and Design
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Art & Design, Technology
Whether you’re an artist, designer, photographer or creative hobbyist, there are many excellent iPhone apps for you to use when inspiration strikes. Here are my top five recommended applications for creativity.
Color Expert
By Code Line, $9.99
This is a great tool for building color palettes when you have those moments of inspiration throughout your day. Did you see the foliage on a tree during peak Fall colors? Or was it the peeling paint on a building that got your creative ideas percolating? With Color Expert you can take a snapshot with your iPhone camera and get a color reading from the photograph. It’s easy to create a custom color palette when you’re on-the-go and inspired by what’s around you. The price tag on this app is a bit hefty, but having used the application for the past year I am confident it was a good purchase.
Features:
- Color Expert’s exclusive “snap & tap” technology. Just snap a photo and let your finger select that perfect color. From your eyes to the screen.
- Powerful, interactive color wheel with multiple color schemes including Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, Split Complementary and Triadic.
- Quickly search through PANTONE® solid coated, PANTONE® solid uncoated, PANTONE® Goe™ coated, PANTONE® Goe™ uncoated, Web Safe Colors, HTML Colors.
- Email your palette ideas to friends, colleagues and clients. Color Expert provides a rich, HTML based email you can send from your iPhone or iPod touch.
Brushes
By Steve Sprang, $4.99
Did you catch the cover art on the June 1, 2009 issue of the New Yorker? If so, you were looking at Jorge Colombo’s artwork, which was created using the Brushes application. This is another great app for creating artwork when you’re out and about. You can start with a photograph or you can begin creating finger sketches from scratch. Either way, this application let’s you create a digital canvas whenever you want. Be forewarned, this application is highly addictive. I should note that I liked Colombo’s cover piece so much that I purchased another print from him shortly after I saw the cover of the New Yorker!
Features include:
- Three different brushes ranging in style from smooth to bristly. Choose any brush size from 1 to 64 pixels in diameter. Erase with adjustable transparency.
- Each painting can have up to four layers. Layers can be rearranged, deleted, merged, and copied between paintings. You can also adjust their opacity.
- Select virtually any color (with transparency) using the familiar hue/saturation color wheel. Quickly choose black or white via the preset swatches. Fill the entire painting with any color (use a semi-transparent color to tint your painting).
Photoshop.com Mobile
By Adobe, Free
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for! Now you can edit and tone those iPhone photos. While this is a very stripped down app for those familiar with Photoshop, there are still several important features that make PS Mobile useful. Don’t despair photographers, you need to get this app if you haven’t already done so! Your iPhone photos will look that much better.
Features:
- Edit exposure, saturation, tint or convert to black and white
- Includes sketch and soft focus filters
- Ability to crop photos
- Includes several effects, such as vibrant, pop, border, vignette blur, warm vintage, and rainbow
QuadCamera
By Art&Mobile, Free
I was a huge fan of the Nickelodeon Photo Blaster. Do you remember it? This fun toy camera would break-up a 35mm negative into four frames so that you could compose funny, segmented photographs (144 images on a 36 exposure role). It was a fun way to tell a story.
QuadCamera is a digital version of this fun camera. This app allows you to adjust both the exposure speed and the number of exposures. For $2, this application is a steal. It’s a lot easier and much cheaper than searching for a Photo Blaster (but, it shouldn’t stop you from it either!)
Features:
- Custom layouts (2×2, 4×1, 4×2, and 8×1)
- Color (vivid, bright, dull, hi-con) or black and white mode
- Adjustable timer
CameraBag
By Nevercenter Ltd. Co., $1.99
Another great $2 camera application. Similar to QuadCamera, CameraBag is a digital version on many popular toy cameras. Take a picture and choose which effect you want to use! “Cameras” include: Helga, Lolo, Instant, 1962, Cinema, Fisheye, Colorcross, Magazine, Mono, 1974, Infrared and Original. With so many choices there’s bound to be a “camera” for each image you compose.
I should mention that I have been using all of the applications in this review for a least a few months. I know there are many other great photo and design applications in the App Store. Speaking to this, I plan on exploring several of these newer applications in the near future. However, the ones listed above are tried and true, and I recommend them all without reservation. Have fun! Create something!
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Art & Design, Technology
Handheld Guide Survey and the AANM #handheldsurvey
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
Learning Times recently published the findings of its Handheld Guide Survey for museums. The goal of the survey was to gain “a better collective understanding of the museum community’s use and ambitions with handheld guides and mobile interpretation.” Our museum was among the many institutions that took part in the survey. For the sake of clarity, the term “handheld” refers to the following in this survey: all types of digital, mobile interpretation tools including audio tours, PDA/multimedia tours, MP3 download tours, iPod Touch tours/applications, interactive tours, and cell phone tours.
Not surprisingly, the three main reasons museums utilize handheld devices are to provide supplementary information to visitors, to create a more interactive experience and to provide multiple voices into the visitor experience. I would say that these all hold true for our institution. Additionally, the fifth-ranked objective – to provide a foreign language provision – definitely ranks in the top two for us. On the other hand, the majority of challenges facing other institutions haven’t been much of a problem for our museum. Updating content is definitely a requirement, but we don’t necessarily perceive it as a challenge.
Currently, our museum is hosting a cell phone-based audio tour for our guests. We launched this service in the Fall 2008. At the time there was only one other local museum utilizing a similar tour, and they had employed the service for a temporary exhibit. I have recently noticed several other large museums in our area are now using similar platforms. I’m curious to learn more about their success and failures (sounds like a good session for next year’s Michigan Museums Association conference!).
When we first began exploring cell phone-based audio tours in 2005, there were only two providers offering this service and very few museums nationwide hosting such tours. We initially planned on hosting a more traditional handheld experience, but we weren’t too keen on the costs of developing and hosting the tour. Further, we found that with some providers there were gray areas on who owned the copyright/intellectual property rights of the tour. Not good. In the end we chose to host our service through Guide By Cell, which is based in San Francisco. We met early on with founder Dave Asheim and really enjoyed his laid back approach to the service. He offered to let us try the service out and, if we liked it, we could sign up at a very affordable rate. If you’re interested in learning more on some of our early thinking on the project, see the second presentation below.
Our audio tour is delivered in two languages, English and Arabic (each has its own phone number), and it is made available through both cellular service and museum issued iPods. We piloted the first phase of the tour last year and it focused on the first “permanent” exhibition space, as well as a temporary exhibit in one of the rotating galleries. At this time we are finalizing the second phase of the tour’s development, which will feature ten stops in the Coming To America gallery. While usage of the tour has been decent, we get limited feedback through the integrated feedback system on the phone service. This has been a bit of a bummer. We are certainly looking for other avenues to break down the walls between the museum and its guests.
Unlike some of our peer institutions, our tour rarely features museum staff on the audio tour recordings. Because we are a community-based museum, we incorporate community members into the tour. Some recordings are scripted by the staff, others are spoken from the heart by those featured on the recording. We feel this adds to the user experience, considering most of our exhibits utilize the personal narrative as a means of convening information. I presume we will begin the third phase of the tour in early 2010 (we have the tour planned out over four major phases, with minor ones throughout the process).
In addition, we are always exploring new ways of delivering and exchanging information with our guests. Some projects that are currently in the incubator include iPhone apps, online mash-ups that include audio and potentially video (say yeah to the API!), and hopefully a mobile website for the museum. Further, we are tossing around ideas for GPS and location-aware applications for the phone. Most recently we launched a museum site on Apple’s iTunes U, which has gotten off to a great start. In addition to providing museum content 24/7, visitors can download audio tours, interviews, etc. straight to their mobile phone. We will continue to develop this promising tool as well.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
Xtra-Normal Makes For Xtra-Fun Times With Text-to-Movies
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
My friend @JRKnecht shared a hilarious video last night called Hipsters Discussing Cyclocross. This short clip was made on the Xtra-Normal website utilizing its text-to-movie interface. Xtra-Normal is a real time movie making site featuring drag and drop animations, automatic lip syncing and international voices. You can make movies in minutes by simply typing in your scripts. Here’s a pretty good overview of the site and its capabilities:
So, I had to take a stab at making a short movie. I decided to make something for work; a short advertisement. I’ll have to cook up something a little more fun in the future, but for now (just click on the shoulder below):
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
More Google Goodness – Google Local Business Center
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
Google manages to create new products at a lightning pace. Yeah, some of these stay in beta forever and others don’t seem to be the most useful. However, overall, Google does have a pretty impressive collection of web tools.
Recently I was informed of one such tool, the Google Local Business Center, which let’s you create a free listing for your business to help customers find your location on Google Maps. Think about how often a customer/client Googles your company for information on your business and its location. The Google Local Business Center let’s you claim your business’ location on Google Maps. Further, it provides an opportunity to add rich content to your listing, including photos and videos, and information on parking, payment options, and other relevant information for guests.
Like all things Google, there is a terrific dashboard for registered users that captures vital analytics. This includes:
- Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.
- Actions: The number of times people interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to the business’ website or requested driving directions to the business.
- Top search queries: Which queries led customers to the business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for “tea” or “coffee”?
- Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location.
Another great features is the ability to create web-based coupons for your listing. We just piloted this and looking forward to seeing how frequently the coupons are used.
We’re really excited about this simple, yet important web tool. The analytics and coupon features are great, and we look forward to monitoring the details to help better inform our marketing.
If your business is not yet listed on the Google Local Business, you are missing out!
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
