Last weekend was our first BarcampLA and I am glad to say that it was extreamly fun and we met many interesting people. We also presented our beta for MeLoveMovies. Heres some images and media from our weekend:

I shall post some youtube videos soon because most of the content I took was in moving picture format.

Wired recently had a top story of “Reader’s Best Geek Tattoos,” and the staff was reminded of my own Geek Tattoo. Before you say anything, it was done on a dare, and I really (and I mean really) love Transformers.

This past weekend I went to do a MtG draft (for those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s Magic: The Gathering, a card game that is a lot of fun). I was the only girl (as always) but I had a lot of fun and picked up another Bitterblossom ($20 card, score!) for my Faerie Deck. Anyway, being the only girl there, a lot of the guys started picking up on me. One of them even used this line on me: “If you were in my game, I’d give you eighteen charisma.” The funny part of this, it semi worked. One, I laughed at him and then started talking about DnD (Dungeons & Dragons) with him. I did give him my number, but to partake in a game with him, not to date him. So again, it semi-worked. Anyway, this has brought me to look up other nerdy pick up lines that either have been used on me, or any of my friends.

• I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves.
• If I was an enzyme, I’d be helicase so I could unzip your genes.
• Baby, you overclock my processor. (this one has been used on me before)
• Baby, you make my floppy disk turn into a hard drive
• Do you think we can make it a step more serious and disable network sharing?
• I think my heart just lagged. (this one too)
• What’s your sine? It must be pi/2 because you’re the 1
• I less than three you (everyday….on Vent while playing WoW)
• Love loveObj = new Love(meObj, youObj) (I actually fell for this once…)
• Baby, life without you would be like a broken pencil. Pointless.

Have you been guilty and used one of these before? Did it work? Did you try something else?

I am quite possibly the biggest dork there ever will be. I am one of those people who loses their eyeglasses, but soon realizes they are on her face. I am also one of those people who get so consumed with something that I hyperfocus on it (regardless of how real it is).

Now, here’s the deal, I have been trying to find an online email manager for the past few months. Two weeks ago or so, I had IMed Kenny a link to some software which did exactly what we wanted. The next day, I asked him for his opinion and he stated he never looked at it. This caused me to be really sad as I was uber-ecstatic for finding the application. I spent the next two days trying to find it again. I searched for the words “email” “online manager” “pop” and other words through all our logs and emails (on multiple computers mind you). Nada. I couldn’t find it.

During an interview we were conducting with one of our candidates we discussed this and he had mentioned maybe I was dreaming. Kenny and I laughed at it because, knowing me, it was highly possible and that would mean I have reached a new level of nerdy-ness to be dreaming about software that does not exist. On top of that, believing it’s real and going on a search for it.

Well, today, I cleared my name; I found it, it does exist! So HA! I don’t know how, but I did. I’m ecstatic because a] its my day off, and b] I am not such a dork anymore. I found the software, Sproutit, and we are now discussing which plan to use. All I know is it will organize our emails a lot better and make the whole team’s life a lot easier.

By the way, I found the log file from when I originally sent him the link:

(8:10:24 AM) amylynn: http://home.sproutit.com/choose_plan
(8:10:28 AM) amylynn: just let me know what you think abou tit
(8:10:33 AM) amylynn: i just like that its free
(8:19:20 AM) amylynn: Jason and I are going to do a live Q&A session today at 3pm CST: http://tinyurl.com/66ece6
(8:20:00 AM) kenny: realy
(8:20:08 AM) amylynn: Isn’t that awesome?
(8:20:21 AM) amylynn: That’s 1 o’clock here.
(8:20:27 AM) kenny: wow nice
(8:20:39 AM) kenny: how is it doen, via what midea
(8:20:41 AM) kenny: *media

I guess we just need to not jump topics so quickly and probably use Campfire more often so logs are all on one centralized location.

Last night Michael and I had the privelage of attending the Mahalo Meetup. They had two presentations for us everyone to listen to. One was a discussion of what GNIP is and how it is the bridge between platforms. We also were able to listen to Chris and Kevin talk about OpenSocial.

We talked with some of the people there, exchanged a few cards, and also met another local designer/musician, Bryan Landers from The Polygon Factory (I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this name). He was really nice and very interesting - made it easy to talk with him.

Anyway, we’re excited. Really really excited. One, we feel very inspired. Two, we are just wicked happy to have gone and listened. Three, we got to actually speak and discuss Google, Apple, living in Mountain View, and a few other things with Kevin Marks. Now really, that is one awesome way to spend a Wednesday night!

Something that will sit with me forever and ever came from Kevin’s portion of the OpenSocial presentation.

Social Internet is a Cloud for his generation. Its oxygen for the younger generation (those of us here at Border7) and its a poisonous gas for the older generation.

By the way, we’ll be at WordCamp ‘08 this weekend

Our first trip to Comic Con was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we did not have 4 day passes, but we took in the rest of San Diego on the days we were not at the Con - I’m terribly sunburned due to it as well. The weekend was an adventure and we had loads of fun. During the week we:

• Figured out several reasons why someone would end up dead and naked in the Shamu tank;
• Found 19 different state license plates (Ken is sorely bruised from this as well);
• Began work on a new project - Survive the Darkness
• Discussed a possible Cosplay for next year’s Con which we’ve already began planning for.

There was a lot more mini adventures as well, but overall the weekend was a huge success and lots of fun. Its back to work now.

It started on March 18, 2007 with the discovery of casting sides on a popular casting website. The sides were listed under the then working title for The Dark Knight, Rory’s First Kiss are presumed leaked sections of the script (as this was done with Batman Begins) Over the next year and four months the viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight would create a fire storm of excitement for the movie.  Not hype, which when started so early usually leads to a disappointing film. But genuine pure excitement for the movie beyond anything I’ve ever seen for a cinematic release. From the bat symbol being shot into the night sky from lights in New York City and Chicago to the puzzle that led those following closely enough to a free screening of the Dark Knight three days before its release. The viral marketing campaign behind the Dark Knight was like a large knit blanket thrown over the internet. Multiple websites, forums, wiki’s, posts on digg, myspace, the list of how wide spread this campaign is goes on. What is impressive (the entire campaign is impressive) is the way the characters from the film interacted with the viral marketing campaign. There was a second set of casting slides released on April first that were suspect of being fake, but actually included a hidden message saying “See you in December”, cell phones with instructions for more puzzles, rewards for ordering pizza through certain sites. Getting people involved on a entirely new level, the puzzle aspect of this campaign made being a part of it as exciting (if not more so) than the actual movie.

Participants (who were quick enough or followed closely enough) received a variety of merchandise varying from free tickets to a special trailer at the release of I am Legend in December, Masks, Cakes, Cell Phones, T Shirts, Free tickets to the actual screening (held on July 15th) The thing to point out is that it wasn’t just free pizza and some amazing still shots that were released to the participants, but items of value that encouraged people to get involved. Cell phones hidden in cakes that received texts from the Joker? Personally I’d have been happy with the cake, but blown away by a cell phone.

The company behind the campaign, Pasadena based 42 Entertainment has a rich history with viral marketing campaigns. Originating with the campaign behind Microsoft’s Windows Vista, a new type of marketing campaign was born. The Vanishing Point was a global cross-media puzzle game and the first of its kind. Spanning four weeks, players from around the world worked together to decipher embedded clues in real world events and eventually solve puzzles online to potentially win a trip to outer space.The results of this campaign? Over a million people visited the website, and nearly 100,000 people registered and actively played. In the coming months it will be interesting to see what the totals are for the campaign behind the Dark Knight. I think the only way anyone can truly appreciate the campaign is to review the time line listed at http://batman.wikibruce.com and to visit the list of actual websites created for the campaign (spanning over 40 websites)

Not all Viral Marketing campaigns are as successful. Sometimes, a viral marketing campaign gets more exposure than intended, especially when its tools are misidentified. The campaign behind the Aqua Teen Hunger Force film ended up getting more attention over the police being called in on a bomb scare in Boston than the actual campaign would have gathered on its own.

Truthfully, after researching viral marketing history and campaigns of the past…I have come to the conclusion that 42 Entertainment has truly broken the viral marketing mold in creating such an innovative campaign that sets the bar exceptionally high for future viral marketing campaigns. Of course, not all campaigns have to be as elaborate or as large…unless of course they want to draw as large a crowd as The Dark Knight surely will.

I have been trying to stop being a workaholic. Somewhat successful. And I will admit I use to gloat about the amount of sleep I’ve missed. But lately I’ve been scheduling in some sleep time. Now, I will have to admit, when I don’t catch up on my z’s, I get a lot of work done. But then when the crash comes I’m out for the count. I have to decommission myself from everything for a few days where I just over sleep because my body is just lashing out on me. A few other reasons why not sleeping are bad are:

Stubbornness - I just keep treking. I don’t care what it is I am doing, or how I am doing it. I just want it done. Not the best mentality on a lot of business projects.

Creativity is Null - When posed with a problem, I am less likely to have as many ways to resolve it effectively and efficiently. When I’m tired, I’m happy if I get ONE idea, and I just go with that (see stubbornness).

Lack of Morale - So sleepy….I have to do something, but I don’t want to put in effort. I will write about 4 easy, no research required, blog posts in the course of the hour. I’ll mess with the online apps that Border7 uses. I’ll do mind numbing research; always avoiding the actual work that is needed.

Meanie - I am mean, irritable, and just a terrible bitch when its been a few days of little to no sleep. My already short fuses are cut even shorter and its easier to set me off.

So, with that, I’m going to go to sleep.

We’re all geeks. And we all read Wired. In the process of reading this article we decided to name what everyone is. I am actually a mixture of all.

What are you?

I am a developing fan of Twitter. I have signed up for a personal account, set it to go to my cell phone (one aspect that I find really useful), and will slowly start Tweeting (follow me at @kamylynn). I signed up for an account with Border7 (@border7) and am still trying to figure out what to do with it. However, I see the potential for this tool and am really excited to get started on it.

1. Network Building
2. Exposure for your links
3. Find Breaking News
4. Keep in Touch
5. Great Q&A
6. Efficient Communication
7. Exposure for yourself
8. Microblogging
9. Fast!
10. Fun!