EVOKATION

Introduction/Abstract:

Throughout the EVOKE game I've focused on a technological theme, and the EVOKE power knowledge-share. After seeing much mission evidence, and quickly noting the wealth of inspiring[1] stories, I thought
that, as a culminating stage of the game, it would be great to offer the most inspiring agents, as chosen by the EVOKE community, to give 5-10 minute talks sharing and elaborating on their experience, best missions, and/or EVOKATIONs.

[I would like to give a talk on] how playing this game changed my life>>

I sent my idea to one of the game's creators who took a liking to the idea, and several of the game runners offered to help. I will first explain my EVOKATION, EVOKED, for the next season of EVOKE, and then briefly discuss my experience this
season.

As this EVOKATION is in line with my theme of using technology to the greatest extent (see my mini-EVOKATION and my blog post on using wiki’s for the next season; so long as a dependence is not developed). As such, I would most like to be considered to attend the EVOKE summit conference. The EVOKATION that follows, and the general premise throughout my blogs, will hopefully show that I have many ideas about how to encourage the use of technology in EVOKE. Of course, I would also be honored to receive any mentorships or other prizes (especially if they deal with technology :) ) but have no preference in the mentors.

The Idea, The Place and The Challenge: Ideally - To Affect Everyone, Everywhere!

OK, admittedly, that’s a bit vague, and a fairly large target – so for now let’s say those interested on the internet. My vision is for the talks to become a part of the EVOKE summit conference by having them streamed live online by agents nominated to attend. Further, I would have recorded versions of those talks be posted online shortly thereafter, and after the conference, would allow any agent who participated in a game to post their own talk. While the exact timing would depend on how many EVOKE agents were invited to the season 2 summit and how many were nominated to give talks, I would have 1 talk be presented each night (at a time convenient to the US and Africa) for about 5-10 minutes, with a 1 hour "marathon" c**ulating on the last day.

By having the talks online, people would be able to access them at their leisure, and, if they were substantially inspired, send links to their friends. It is my hope that these talks would eventually make it to the classroom.

The project would first make a difference in the lives of those given a chance to share their story

I may only be a teenager but there are others around my age on evoke. Of all the people are age in the world we are on evoke, and of all the people evoke - I'm the only one who's me, obviously - but what makes me different, special and not in an egotistical manner, is everything I've been through. I've got a lot to offer, and my age or apparent mannerisms shouldn't be counted against me.>>

As well as to those watching live.

Having the opportunity to impact the lives of countless viewers by providing a powerful experience will forever change the lives of those who have spoken. Furthermore, giving a talk enables speakers to have a
brief video describing their vision posted online, and they can solicit assistance in their goals by referring people to this video. The speakers would also develop presentation skills in that the format would be largely up to them - should they want to use powerpoint, images or demonstrations they could, but none of that would be required.

Not only do those who watch obviously witness an inspiring talk, but the recorded talks allows them to share the source of their inspiration with others. Because of the ability to quickly spread the talks to peers who might want to contribute to the vision, people with the means to enable the projects presented will
eventually see them and be able to contribute.

The social media aspect of technology that allows the talks to be spread would not, however, be limited to simply emailing a link. In the page created by Nathaniel Fruchter for the test of my EVOKATION (see image below), viewers would be able to share their experience through facebook and twitter without leaving the page.

Two notes: 1) I cannot claim any credit for the creation of this page, and the work that Nathaniel did is simply amazing. 2) In the actual EVOKED conference the recorded and live talks would be on different pages (Watch Live and Watch Recorded)

The chart below summarizes the order of who I aim to effect.

In the spirit of the EVOKE power set, the central theme is Knowledge Share. The following chart shows both what speakers will develop, and what witnesses gain/learn.

Main focus: To continue and expand the knowledge sharing aspect of EVOKE using technology

Because I have had the unique opportunity to test aspects of my EVOKATION, I will note how I plan to succeed where others have failed when I discuss that test.

Money, Money, Money

Noting that my EVOKATION was slightly different from what actually happened, I will show what A) I would ideally use the $1000 for (if it were to take place at the conference) and B) what I would have used it for in
what happened/if it were to once again take place online.

A) My first $1000 would be used to purchase a video camera and other technology to stream and record the talks live from the EVOKE summit. I would also purchase online storage for the recorded talks and to
enable agents not participating within EVOKED to eventually post their own talks/evocation videos. Lastly, a small part would be used for advertising on Google to drive more viewers to the site.

B) Going back in time, my first $1000 would again be spent on storage and advertising, but instead of purchasing one large camera, we would purchase a number of webcams to enable all speakers to communicate via a video and as a small thank you gift to the speakers.

Advertising: Using Google AdWords I would pay for the following keywords: EVOKE, EVOKED, EVOKE talks, EVOKE video, EVOKED video, EVOKED talks. I would pay for up to $10 in clicks per day for 15 days leading up to the video talks. Thus I would budget up to $150 for advertising. Further, I currently have a coupon from Google for $100 to use for google adworks, so I would actually end up with $250
in advertising.

Webcams: We planned on streaming up to 17 talks, and I would first check with Logitech and Microsoft to see if they would sponsor EVOKED by giving free webcams or any discount. If they agreed, I would hopefully be able to send high quality webcams (ideally the Microsoft LifeCam Cinema at 8 Megapixels for $48.77 on Amazon, the Logitech 2 MP C600 for $80). If they offered to donate the webcams in full price, I would only pay shipping, while if they offered a discount I would pay up to $25 of the price plus shipping.
Otherwise, I would provide the Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000, which includes a 1.3 megapixel camera and microphone, works with windows 7, vista and XP and is USB based. On Amazon.com it costs $24.21,
and assuming a flat shipping rate of $7,I would budget $550 (the total actually comes out to $530, but I would leave $20 for any extra shipping) for webcams. Any money saved by a corporate sponsorship would be put into advertising.

Professional Cameras: Again I would seek corporate sponsorship from a company, in this case hopefully Canon or JVC, in exchange for their logo to be in the lower right corner. As I would either be purchasing
this setup or the webcams, I would budget the same $550 to either purchase a camera or go towards the purchase of a camera discounted by a company sponsorship. If no sponsorship was provided, I would purchase the Cannon VIXIA HF R100 camera ($500 on Amazon). In a perfect situation, I’d also have a 2nd Camera for a 2nd angle, for which I would use my own camera. Again, any money saved would be routed back to advertising.

Web Hosting: With the $300 I have left in either case, I’d purchase the Unlimited plan (that way other agents could post their own videos after the summit) available at GoDaddy for two years, at $11.24 a month for a total of $270.

With the Remaining $30…I would either direct this towards extraneous shipping or advertising costs, or for the summit, providing basic refreshments (bottled water and a cookies a fruit tray) for the speakers.

What’s left out…If given at the conference, I’m assuming the center would provide a projector and projector screen for any speaker who wanted to include PowerPoint slides or images. If that was not available, Id
use any money left over or saved by corporate sponsorships to rent a projector.

Any corporate sponsors would be recognized on the EVOKED site. If more funds were necessary to sustain the conference, I could also sell advertising on the side pane of live videos (to corporate sponsors or using Google), but ideally advertisements would be minimized

Because I had to chance to pilot my idea, my ideal EVOKATION is slightly different from what actually happened. In both cases, the idea was vaguely modeled off of TED talks. Unfortunately, due to my personal time constraints (EVOKED was scheduled to happen right when I had to make my college choice and I spent a substantial amount of time travelling and spending overnights) and several challenges EVOKED did not succeed as hoped. I have, however, learned much from these challenges, and strongly feel that this test has made my EVOKATION stronger.

The challenges I faced are the reasons similar projects have failed. Here are the obstacles I faced, and how my EVOKATION plans to deal with them:

A) How to select talks

B) What to do about speakers who lived in different time zones/lacked technology (no webcam, poor internet connection, etc; this was largely an issue as all talks were online, and is more relevant to my
EVOKATION in the form "what about agents who want to give a talk but cannot attend the conference?"

C) How to attract viewers

A: My goal is to select who the EVOKE community considers to be the best possible agents. The solution we came up with for EVOKED worked to some extent: to examine the evidence and agents considered to be the most inspiring by the EVOKE community (those on the leaderboard who are the most active and have the most power points). Moreover, we created an application so that those not on the leaderboard had the potential to be selected to give talks. The main problem with this solution was in publicizing the application - as this was a third-party project we were not able to send a blast message to
all agents - and getting in contact with the leading agents. While we asked several of the leading agents
to help spread word of the talks, we ultimately received only 7 responses (from the application and those personally invited).

B: As not everyone was in the same time zone, we looked at the areas where EVOKE agents were most concentrated – namely the US, Europe and Africa – and tried to find a time that allowed people of those areas to “attend” the live stream. While this would not be much of a problem if all of the talks were streamed on a consistent basis from the conference, it would be for agents who were applied or were invited to speak, but could not attend or were not invited to the conference. A mutual time zone would still thus be important for those speakers not at the conference as well as for maximizing the live viewers. Still, if a speaker was not able to talk in his or her allotted time slot, he or she would be able to prerecord the talk and then have us play it online during the live slot. In regards to technological limitations of
speakers in different areas we would provide multiple methods of submitting talks, including:

· Live streamed via a webcam

· Prerecorded talks sent to us to be posted

· Calling in (audio only) via Skype

In case B) of my budget - if the talks were once again to be done over the internet - a mutual time zone and options for talks would be even more necessary. However, because webcams would be provided, the options would be live streamed or prerecorded (for weak connections).

C: The biggest challenge, and the main reason my test was not as successful as I hoped, was the difficulty in attracting viewers. Ideally, countless viewers would flock to the live streams. Practically, we hoped the initial “attendees” would tell peers and through social networking, the majority of views would watch the recorded versions of live talks at their leisure. If EVOKED was part of EVOKE, and we were able
to send out blast emails to all agents, we would have a much easier time in finding those initial "attendees." We would also post on the EVOKE blog and ask the speakers to message their friends or post blogs regarding their talks. By combining the social media aspect EVOKE with the offering of both live and recorded talks my EVOKATION can succeed.