26.6.10
25.6.10
Want vs. Need
Often, we know what we *should do, and what we *shouldn't.
Sometimes all we need is an excuse (someone, something) to make the right choice.
The most valuable part of the decision-making process may be cutting things out, when we discriminate or "put a hit" on the 'bad' options.
Learning in progress with Get Up and Move...
Andrey's stroke of simple brilliance during a planning session = we tend to learn what we want GUAM to be by first determining what we do NOT want it to be.
1. We do not want it to be a quantification site.
2. We do not want it to be a generic pledge/promise site.
3. We do not want it to be a health site.
4. We do not want it to be a game.
5. We do not want it to be all talk, no action.
Amazingly, this helped us figure out what we do want Get Up and Move to be when it grows up (although, like a teenager, it's probably gonna change its outfit repeatedly and suffer from a few really bad haircuts):
1. We do want it to help you quantify your achievements. But we don't want to demotivate people to whom seeing achievement numbers or leaderboards feels like getting poison ivy in the private parts. Action: API planned.
2. We do not want it to be about 'just any' promise.' You can already use it for this now, if you like. Because after all, health is about so much more than what is done to you at the doctors office, what happens to you at the hospital. It's about good living, and reciprocal nurturing. Action: Analyze what actions people find most valuable, and design for those. Continue to keep 'completing' a challenge at the core of our philosophy, while continuing to make it easier to 'motivate' without completing an action by including comment, media, and other nifty stuff.
3. We want health to be the side effect of designing a really kick-ass action platform that helps you git er done by aggregating support from across your existing social graphs. Action: Continue moving folks from intent to action. Continue testing the best way to get you a surplus of support from friends and family, stat. Want a phone call? We're on that like the snowy white casing on the new iPhone 4G.
4. We want using Get Up and Move to feel like a commitment to yourself and someone else. This isn't a game. You don't have to find some rare snowy egret egg, become a drag queen or motocross racer or 6 foot blue yeti. You don't have to go on quests, grow leaves, or kill off daemonic choices. You're smarter than that anyway, and you'd probably rather be watching True Blood than become a Level 7 Blue Footed Bed Jumper. Action: We won't social-gamerize you, or try to trick you into better behavior. We will, however, try to use smart game design and behavioral economics to figure out how to make this fun without being spammy or gimmicky.
It's crazy to believe there are still only two of us, and one programmer, and we're already on V6.0, code named "Awesome." This was about building what we want, mixing it with some of what you need, and then tossing it all back to see how smooth it goes down.
Speaking of which, we left you alone too long without letting you know how we're doing - as a team, as a company, as a platform.
We won't make that mistake again. We don't want to move with you, we NEED to. Expect some very nifty news from us, and more frequent love letters, dear readers.
And in case you hadn't noticed, Version 6 of Get Up and Move Me is live and hot out of the oven.
Groups, comments, upload a video, emails, and you can 'fly solo' too. We'll have a nifty update on all the new stuff Monday, with tech deets from Andrey to boot.
Here's to a long, happy lifespan - for you and for us. Now I'm gonna go do that "put my feet up for 1 hour" challenge. Who's with me?!
24.6.10
Wiifit Gets a Competitive Cousin
So Kinect works—and better than I’d have thought.
Still, I foresee some challenges, the first being the space required to play some of Kinect's more active games.
Most of the activities I tried demanded plenty of movement—much more than any Wii game I’ve played. The key differentiator is that the player’s feet are now involved, which means we no longer stand in one spot and just move our arms; we actually move around the room.
I’d estimate that I was moving left and right at least three metres while I was steering the raft and a couple of metres forward and backward in the handball game. And that doesn’t include the two metres between my movement zone and the television—space necessary in order for the camera to get a full picture of your body and the area in which it moves—or my flailing limbs.
Want. +1.
22.6.10
21.6.10
Ten Clapping #getupandmove Pushups for @evanmacmillan
Note to guammies: do these on a springy gym mat. My nostrils kissed the floor more than a couple times. Sent from my iPhone
19.6.10
Eat Ur Own Dog Food
If you don't use your own app on a regular basis, who the heck are you building for?
Try something new today. Something small. How long has it been since you did a somersault? Touched your toes?Walked barefoot in fresh early- summer grass? Move. Today. Your body will thank you. So will I.17.6.10
Ready for the Hospital? Nope? How about "Cave Explorer?"
via pbfcomics.com
Note to self: Reconceptualize the mundane. Each microcosmic moment of life can feel like an adventure.
Now excuse me, off to figure out how to make a shower fun...
16.6.10
Team Contagion Uniforms - Want One? We're Hiring
| It was a long day, after we pulled an all-nighter. What can I say ;). |
Join Team Contagion. We're lookin...
Right now. For a front end engineer and a back end engineer.
Contagion is building an early-stage consumer action platform.
We are engineering and product driven, with an early revenue deal and passionate users.
-1 if you call yourself ninja, 10x, or some other nomenclature on your resume. Of course you're 10x ;).We'll be very picky about the right fit. Personal recommendations are the best way in.
Company perks:
- Join us for the summer in a pre-eminent incubator.
- Be part of the journey as we get an office, meet with VCs, and grow our core product, pushing further into the mobile and social spaces.
- You want to work on location? Sure. Game mechanics? Yep. Mobile/iPad development? Come on over.
- We encourage you to own and open-source any libraries or software you develop on which our core product doesn't depend directly, under your own name.
- We highly encourage side projects and don't retain ownership. The stuff you like to do is your stuff.
- "Inspiration" oriented work schedule and 4 day work week (Fridays the founders keep working - hang with us if you like). Our office is open 24/7 or work from the beach, coffee shops, the CalTrain.
- Gym memberships and work-out meetings.
- Don't get us wrong - we work hard, and we work long hours. The answer to anyone on the team asking: "Is X ready to roll?" should always be "yeah, yesterday" not "almost.
- Speaking of which, we'll move you out to Silicon Valley for the summer.
- Meet our Board of Awesome (Garry Tan of Posterous, Joe Gebbia of Airbnb, Stephen Cohen of Posterous Technologies).
- Interact like peers, not subordinates. Every engineer is a founder of the product. We treat you like one. Whatever part of the company dynamics interest you (funding, legal, UX, speaking/demoing) we want you to do that and learn from our mistakes.
- Hang at brunches and dinners where we learn from the best: Matt Galligan of SimpleGeo, the crew from GreenPatch, and more.
- Teaching Thursdays: Want to learn chess? Frisbee golf? How to interview? For an hour or so 1x a week Team Contagion members teach each other cool stuff.
- Champagne delivered to new employees, dinner with your significant others, hosted by the founders, Adobe-style.
- Salary important? Need a visa? Want equity? We'll work with you to figure out the right individual compensation package.
Interested? Get in touch:
@shazow (CTO): andrey@contagionhealth.com
@jensmccabe (CEO): jen@contagionhealth.com
Email resume and what you'd change about http://getupandmove.me to icanhaz@contagionhealth.com.
14.6.10
Feast!
Thanks to the DotCloud and Padmapper boyz for joining Team Contagion, plus the founder of Subtle Influence and Limedaring.com, for this awesome summer repast. 
Good food, good fun, good friends and founder talk. So grateful to be exactly where I am, doing exactly what I'm doing. I'll feed you guys anytime ;).
Good food, good fun, good friends and founder talk. So grateful to be exactly where I am, doing exactly what I'm doing. I'll feed you guys anytime ;).13.6.10
Must Read: How Information Spreads in Online Social Networks (Social Contagion)
The online users are connected to each other via links of trust and utilize the features of the OSN to interact and communicate in an easy socio-technical way. Hence these virtual networks of social relationships have a high potential for influential decision-making and the word of mouth spread of information, but also for spreading fads, rumors, and erroneous information. The power of these new forms of social networks is also recognized by service providers, marketers and vendors of consumer goods. They would all like to (mis)use these existing communication channels to spread product placements, advertising and promotions directly to the connected users. However, just like the old economy businesses, not all attempted marketing initiatives are successful. Most of them fail or do not reach the desired audience.
via papers.ssrn.com
SSRN-Spontaneous Diffusion of Information in Online Social Networks by Chris Russ.
Read it here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1620808
11.6.10
How Get Up and Move Works...
via 20x200.com
Perfect summary of how Get Up and Move works.
Art at www.20x200.com. This print by Austin Kleon.
9.6.10
You might be a startup founder if...
You and your cofounder show up at Stanford, buy a bike from a Craigslist post, stuff it in the trunk, realize you have no string, and "borrow" tape from a kid who is moving out to-literally-tape the trunk shut like a giant present. 
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
5.6.10
Dance with a Heifer, for Ben Rubin
She was *not* happy with being my partner at the Strolling of the Heifers. Maybe it was the ears...4.6.10
Contagion Health and Cabot Creamery: Partners in Healthy Moooves at Strolling of the Heifers Setup
Setting up for live #getupandmoves onsite, Brattleboro, VT.3.6.10
Where Magic Happens
The spot from which many good things will originate this summer.... 
New team Contagion live/work space. Desk is a stainless steel impenetrable fortress of happiness and motivation. Gift to myself, courtesy of Craigslist and a great couple with excellent taste who are moving back to Sweden. They carried the desk up two flights of stairs and wished us well with Get Up and Move. Thanks Eugenie-we'll make you proud ;)
New team Contagion live/work space. Desk is a stainless steel impenetrable fortress of happiness and motivation. Gift to myself, courtesy of Craigslist and a great couple with excellent taste who are moving back to Sweden. They carried the desk up two flights of stairs and wished us well with Get Up and Move. Thanks Eugenie-we'll make you proud ;)
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