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Worlds Will Shatter - The Unfold trailer
from Nine Orders on Vimeo.
I’m proud to release the first open source film trailer created for A Swarm of Angels. World’s Will Shatter sets the scene for The Unfold, a contemporary sci-fi thriller being made in a revolutionary fashion; by a global community of members participating in its creation, and contributing their unique talents and skills.
Driven by a core collaboration between the animation skills of Mayec Rancel, and the soundtrack smarts of Santiago Abadia, the trailer is at the forefront of new creative processes empowered through the Internet of crowdsourcing, and peer production. Finished with title design by the internationally recognised graphic talents of Matt Pyke of Universal Everything collaborating with Maxim Zhestkov, it is a stunning glimpse into a world being created by a global membership fueling a pioneering people-powered film studio.
Rancel has evoked a powerful unfolding world created in 3D from 2D images created by Japanese photographer Palla. Through community feedback and discussion at the forums of aswarmofangels.com the initial ideas developed into a spiralling, shearing cityscape synchronised with an otherworldly soundtrack developed by Abadia. The online collaboration encompassed a team of participants from Spain, Belgium, the North and South of England, Japan, as well as Russia (not including members who participated in votes and posts via the forums).
The trailer and all accompanying source files are released under a Creative Commons CC-NC-SA-3.0 license, allowing full non-commercial remixing and sharing (embed codes for Youtube, blip.tv & hi-def Vimeo). Join the Swarm to help make the film and get further details for the open source package (register here, full member details here).
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, co creation, collaboration, creative commons, crowdsourcing, theunfold
It might not quite be the apocalypse, but The Ravages is a dark, low-tech, isolationist near future. We’d like members to vote on some key elements of it, including:
- What is the climatic (tipping point) event for world collapse?
- Decide the name of the isolationist Luddite spinter group?
Zeno has commenced tests for the propaganda trailer for The Ravages, and time still remains to upload your photo to be part of this trailer whether an old or a new member (thanks to those who’ve done so, so far).
Photo credit: Apocalypse II / Rogiro
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, script, theravages, vote
The Unfold teaser from Nine Orders on Vimeo
If you’ve subscribed to the twitter feed you’ll probably already seen the new teaser trailer for The Unfold, an amuse bouche for the full trailer that is in final development. We hope you like it, and if you do then please embed on your blog (embed codes for Vimeo HD, blip.tv or YouTube).
This is the first missing piece in the moving image puzzle that fills the gap between professionally produced and user-generated content. Trailer development has been shaped throughout by community feedback from the Swarm at The Nine Orders forums, which has accompanied posts on development.
Animator Mayec Rancel gives us a glimpse of the full unfolding world in the sci-fi project, with buildings breaking and shearing. Santiago Abadia adds an ethereal soundtrack, with a subtle ambience of alarms and the urban cadence. Thanks for all of their handwork collaborating.
Tags: animation, ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, motion graphics, movie production, open source, theunfold
We want to find an easy way for members to contribute to the content of the Swarm project at every stage. The easiest way we could think of for you to contribute visually was by uploading a photo of yourself (almost as easy as uploading an avatar!).
So we’re launching a gather of photographs from members today… please contribute to our open source trailer by uploading now.
Photographs will be used to illustrate ‘The Missing’ — people who have disappeared during The Ravages (the climatic events that head a global meltdown) — as part of a fake propaganda trailer for the film project.
Sign in and upload your photo at the forum in this thread. It would be very cool to get as many Angels as possible in the trailer…
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, co creation, collaboration, open source, theravages, ugc
I’m not big on self-promotion, but have been persuaded to bring attention to this as a few people have convinced me it is a great vindication for what we are doing with A Swarm of Angels, and all the members already involved.
I found out yesterday of the nomination for the Top 100 people in London’s creative industries for instigating A Swarm of Angels. Finalists are selected by public vote across 13 categories to make the Top 100. The film category is a tough one, but if we mobilise support it would be a huge coup to get a Creative-Commons-licensed, open movie in the list, and help us with further development.
Voting finishes on Monday 30 June (extended to Friday 4 July apparently!), so please vote for us (check film category: Matt Hanson).
The list is in association with The Independent newspaper, story here.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, awards, london, vote
I just got back from a family trip. My Mother lives in an aging seaside resort town in the North of England called Blackpool. It was a guilty pleasure once arrived to take my children to the Pleasure Beach, the top amusement park in the UK which has operated since 1896. I went on both the oldest ride in Europe — the Captive Flying Machines — dating from 1904, and the newest at the resort, Infusion — a suspended looping coaster of five inversions and a double twist. It got me thinking about how we’ve been building the ride and can finally accelerate onto the loops and twists this year.
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Tags: ASOA, asoa community, clayshirky, crowdsourcing, janemcgonigal, participation
…Or, Simplifying collaboration.
We’ve been having quite some discussion, and there’s some forum topics on this, about how we simplify the complex task of creativity and collaborative creation.
We need to build these into the platform for the next public stage so Angels coming later into the creative process can get up to speed, and plug into the stories, and participate easier as they like. At the moment we have a clear problem of enthusiastic members when they join having a very steep effort and learning curve to get up to speed on the process and all the materials produced.
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Tags: ASOA, asoa community, collaboration, phase 3
This is our first Arch Angel posting.
JP Drecourt writes –
With Plotbot selected as our writing tool, and a good month of experimentation with the interface, the writing team is now focussing on giving The Ravages (ex-Glitch plot) its full complexity. To do so, we have decided to freeze the writing for a while and focus on the biography of the characters and the historical events that led to the story we are telling. A great thank you to all the writers who have contributed in this first phase. Their work have highlighted strengths and weaknesses in the plot and the character biographies, and made Plotbot a better tool to write collaboratively.
To our knowledge this is the most ambitious collaborative writing ever done, so I encourage everybody to contribute and suggest new creative ways of making the story progress.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: archangels, asoa community, theravages, writing
Thanks to all members who voted and confirmed our new Arch Angels. With these new roles we should be able to effectively coordinate the increasing creative activity on the forums.
We also had a vote on whether to concentrate on web comic or teaser trailer first and foremost for The Ravages screenplay. It was a pretty dominant choice for the comic. So we’ll be moving forward on that decisively and honing down the concept — both in terms of backstory content, and visuals. Please add to the webcomic thread at the forum to help move it forward.
There’s been a terrific amount of activity on The Ravages story development - members can apply over there to join the action if they want to contribute to character backstory, and then with scene details and comments. Although it was a narrow call, Plotbot looks like the best tool currently for this script project and we’re very happy to be continuing with that, and working closely with the developers over there to make it even better.
The Unfold trailer is coming together with animatics and test movies as we refine the visual idea. Members can give more feedback to help shape the final version, and if you’re interested in 3d/modelling, then we’re building up a list of people who can contribute to helping transform the Osaka cityscape into 3D.
Now we have the arch angels activated, we can also initiate updates from them on the blog.
Tags: archangels, ASOA, asoa community, theravages, theunfold
The activity on the forums has really ramped up in the last few weeks. A lot of active discussion around The Ravages script project and new Arch-Angel roles as the Swarm community expands — so, please have your say in helping us shape the direction of the Swarm and use your member vote.
The polls will close on Friday.
- Vote: Arch-Angel nominations
These roles will help us expand production, with each Arch Angel overseeing certain areas, including: script, user-generated content, community, and outreach. 
Vote:The Ravages webcomic or animated short/trailer?
The Ravages script is coming along nicely, now its time to create the first visual material for it. What would you like to see first? Webcomic or animated short?- Vote: Writing tools for The Ravages
The Ravages script is completely outlined with a scene breakdown. We are now filling in scene detail. If you are interested in getting more involved in the script process then please tell us which approach you prefer for collaborative writing.
You must have joined up as a full member to participate in this vote at The Nine Orders forums.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, digital film, participation, theravages, vote
There’s been a burst of activity on the forums in relation to advanced scriptwriting, putting some of the development material discussion out there, and applying it to media. Conceptual drawings like the one Jeremy Ray contributed above illustrate the degree of talent and creativity we’ve got on the forum, and its great to see that being charged up.
You can see more details related to the Glitch story (now officially renamed The Ravages) in this forum thread. We’ve also been concentrating on how we can take those story ideas forward for The Ravages in a visual form for teaser media, and have been discussing webcomic and short animated trailer ideas. We’ll be having a member vote on these topics shortly to see which idea our community wants to pursue first.
While visual material exists for the other one of our two scripts, The Unfold, new member Mayec is utilising these to create motion tests for that project. Swarm members should have an opportunity to feedback on these shortly too, as results are posted.
It is great to feel momentum picking up again, and members responding to that, as we move into 2008.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, design, glitch, theravages, writing
Content is going to become even more open in 2008. But how open is open, when does traditional content masquerade as such? Clever marketing ideas like movie clip remix competitions where the remixer has no right to distribute or permission to use their own endeavours don’t really count as open content. So here’s a start at laying out a framework for what truly constitutes open content and open source media. I’m going to talk in terms of film/video, because that is the context for A Swarm of Angels, but it applies to other media like open music and open books too.
With the change in the media climate and distribution experiments such as Radiohead’s In Rainbows (in music), and Four Eyed Monsters (in film) which have open qualities (temporarily available to watch or listen/download for free, for example) but are not truly open content, it is getting harder to tell what you can and cannot officially do with your media.
These are three proposed states for open media, each building on the next:
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, bittorrent, copyleft, creative commons, digital distribution, open source
Here are some of the things the Swarm community achieved in previous phases which have laid solid foundations for our open source film project:
- Started co-creating film media
- Writing two scripts (one emergent, another ‘on rails’)
- Shaped community direction
- Contributed video/posters/images/music
- Made a trailer
Based on our project experiences and the things we need to continue advancing our activity, here’s some more detail about the changes in Phase 3 (launching in a few weeks):
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, participation, remix
You can pre-register before the Phase 3 launch now, and be one of the first to move over to the new site. If you’re already a member or know someone who might be interested then please tell a friend, so we can start Phase 3 with a bang.
Phase 3 is where A Swarm of Angels really takes flight. With over 1000 members from around the world, and after a longer than anticipated pause for breath (and script development) after Phase 2, we’re finally aiming for the official launch of the next phase in January 2008, week 3.
We’ll be making some changes to help scale up to the new level of activity in 2008 and the growth to 5000 members — including having an Archangel committee to help with intense feedback periods that happen around certain areas, with more regular reporting and project milestones (members interested in these positions see the forum). More about these changes in posts leading up to P3 launch.
Another major change is that we’ll be moving to free registration to the project (so registered users have more access to materials/ratings, etc), alongside full paid membership (only members will still have the right to vote on key decisions, etc, along with the other benefits).
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, phase 3
Since The Ravages became the winning story for the Glitch script project with 65% of your member votes, it has been developed on The Nine Orders forum.
Through member votes and forum discussion, Angels have helped create a truly emergent and crowdsourced story. Now with a full story treatment and scene breakdown it will be opened for members to make (moderated) suggestions and edits to create a full script in January. I’ve been talking to CeltX about the new collaborative features of their open source scriptwriting software, so hope to have that plugged into the next stages of this writing process.
This is the final ‘working pitch’:
When virtual reality causes the collapse of real society, interactions in artificial worlds are made illegal. An ex-virtual prostitute gone underground, an estranged politician’s wife, and a lonely software designer, are each looking for the code to find love.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, glitch, script, writing
This is our latest voting round, and the first since completing Phase 2. The images above are the shortlist entries for our first vote on the UGC poster contest. The five entries are the most popular from Swarm advisor favourites. It’s a multinational selection reflecting the great response we got from the UGC Unfold poster contest (35+ entries!). Once again, thanks to all who responded. All entries were featured in the Creators Series exhibitions in NY and LA. The shortlisted entries are: Vince at Agence TOPO (CAN), Jonathan Valiente at Fireblue Graphics (USA), Daniel Ferguson (UK), MC3 (AUS), and Jonathan Silberman at Fearless Future (USA). Click on the images above to enlarge.
This is one of three polls open for the next week. Find full info on each at the forum topics linked to below. Please participate and help shape the film and project if you have member voting rights:
- Poll: UGC teaser poster winner
Please decide the poster contest winner - Poll: Timeline
Compress it or keep it organic? - Poll: Finalize Glitch treatment
Push the storyline forward
You must have joined up as a full member to participate in this vote at The Nine Orders. Register to get an invite when the next memberships are available.
UPDATE: Jonathan Valiente at Fireblue Graphics who won the vote. Thanks to all who participated and made this such a successful contest.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, membership, palla, ugc, vote
We’re about to become thousands not hundreds.
It’s exhilarating doing something new, proving naysayers wrong, and being part of something out of the ordinary.
We could have got here earlier, but there’s something to be said for slow cooking. Sometimes you want to hang on to stuff as part of a select group before sharing it out to a wider audience. But with the remixable trailer complete, our user-generated documentary and teaser posters underway, and shortly being part of The Creators Series exhibition in NY and LA, there was no putting it off any longer.
We’re on a countdown to freeze membership for this phase of the project on Wednesday, 6 June, 9pm GMT Midnight GMT. Members of the First 1000 (all qualify who’ve joined before this deadline) will then be able to introduce members by limited invite-only until we open to the public later in Phase 3.
Join before the deadline here.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, mark hough, motion graphics, timo hummel
There’s a variety of concepts wrapped up in A Swarm of Angels that we know are revolutionary. But it’s always nice to be labelled like that yourself. Especially when we get included in a special report by Forbes as such.
Here’s a quick intro to the special report on The Revolutionaries:
Given the serendipity behind so much innovation, it may seem like folly to predict who is going to change the world–but we’re doing it anyway, if for no other reason than to spark creative discussion.
We’ve looked far and wide to come up with our 10 revolutionaries. They’re young thinkers and scientists who you’ve probably never heard of, doing work that is radically new and potentially world changing.
It’s all part of our modern cult of personality that I’m singled out by heading up the project, but I believe everyone who signs up is a revolutionary.
As I said in the recent a recent interview for Assignment Zero: “If you’ve got tens of people following you, you’re a crackpot. If you’ve got a hundred, you’re considered quirky. But if you’ve got thousands, you’re actually a movement.”
Together we are stronger. A movement. And everyone who is a member of this process is a revolutionary.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, publicity
Steve O’Hear conducted an interview with me for the post ‘A Swarm of Angels crowdsourcing film production‘ on his Social Web ZDNet blog. Steve has one of the few blogs that looks at the cultural implications of the Social Web revolution currently taking place rather than simply the tech side, so it was a pleasure to do.
The story got dugg late yesterday, with some positive comments and the usual misinformed flames. A couple of Swarm members suggested I post a link to the interview as it gave them a great overview, and a condensed insight into the implications and motivations behind the project.
One of our latest Angels inspired by the project, Adam Creighton blogged some interesting thoughts based on the interview:
“I am hugely encouraged that there are groups pushing new business models in the film making world … while there are these ridiculous baby step battles being fought on the fair use and DRM put-down side of the house, and tepid Web site offerings for film and media distribution (YouTube? Please. That’s Sooo 2005), it looks like ‘A Swarm of Angels’ is doing the appropriate techno / marketing / distribution / fair use leapfrog.”
Some people get it, others don’t. Thanks to those who do we’re already proving the naysayers wrong by producing scripts and trailers, with more video material just around the corner.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, interview, media, publicity
We’ve had some great input from Swarm members on the genesis of the Glitch script. Jean-Philippe Drecourt’s comments have added a momentum and critical edge to the process. I wanted to continue that, so I’m very happy he agreed to be task leader on this script, and shepherd this process through (he also does justice to our global production team credentials by being a Frenchman - I’m glad to say the Anglo-French scenario writing went very well 
).
From my initial pitch he has synthesised and built on many of the thoughts from Angels in the initial script thread. We had a vote which clearly diverged The Unfold and Glitch scriptwriting processes, with The Unfold writing based on an ‘on rails’ initial draft by myself, and Glitch on a moderated but ‘emergent’ crowdsourced project.
Based on the Swarm’s preference to open up the Glitch scenario JP and I have brainstormed scenarios based on member feedback so far. Please vote on your favourite, and we’ll take the winner forward to further development.
Vote: Which Glitch story should go forward?
The scenario choices:
- Abused Idoru (inverted tragedy)
- Fine Art Love Slave (revamped thriller)
- Freedom from within (conspiracy)
- Pure artificial / Impure natural love (dark love story)
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, feature film, glitch, vote, writing
The last vote was our first to test out, and demonstrate, how members of the Swarm help to shape both the narrative and visual development of actual film material. Because we are all part of the development process, utilizing the wisdom of our own select crowd, we should make a film that appeals most to our tastes rather than that of the amorphous multiplex cinemagoer.
A true user-generated film shouldn’t vaguely pick and choose ‘advice’ from it’s audience, but engage them integrally and directly in the process.
We’ve done this with the round’s poll on key visuals for developing The Unfold’s integral ‘dimensional’ effect. Fold won with 50% of the vote, runner-up in Shear lagging at 20%. The popularity of this image suggests a direction that is more non-naturalistic/otherworldly, and less photorealistic than we are used to seeing in Hollywood movies. That’s fine by me. As the winner was one of Palla’s older photos and earlier photographic experiments, he’s already working on applying the winning image and topic comments to his newer direction.
More voting results…
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, media, membership, vote
Our next major polling is here to help finalize some media production, and initiate others. Unlike previous votes, the duration for voting will be extending over a week, to give everyone who wishes enough time to vote, and (I hope) some great feedback to develop.
We’ve just given out some limited edition prints, but we’ll also be giving a reward for the Swarm member who gives the most valuable feedback to these votes (so if you’re part of the Swarm I hope this is a small additional incentive to post on the forum). Even if you’re a non-member we appreciate your comments and you can leave (moderated) feedback at the bottom of this post.
I’ve also updated the status badge so we’re officially at the 900+ Angels mark.
Five polls in this round. Please feedback and vote:
- Vote: Decide the direction of key visuals for The Unfold
Influence feature film visual development (post containing visuals) - Vote: Help us choose music for the project trailer
Help tune sound to visuals - Vote: How extreme should we make the film?
Voting on style, tone and appeal - Vote: Will you contribute video to this media production?
On phonecam, webcam, etc., not just mini-DV, for teasers for The Unfold - Vote: Decide Glitch script writing process
Preparing for next stage: collaborative writing on Glitch
* You must join up as a full member or already have subscribed to participate in this vote at The Nine Orders
If you comment on this process or any of the votes on your site or blog, then please trackback or make a note below so we can monitor the conversation.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, media, membership, vote
We’re having a more extensive voting round for Swarm members next week (with more notice and time to vote), but we’re close to finalizing the trailer, and wanted to hand over final say on which version to polish to Angels in the forum.
It’s a simple choice between Geometry and Vortex versions. You can view the versions on the blip.tv A Swarm of Angels showpage.
If you’ve already joined the Swarm please cast your vote at The Nine Orders forums. If you’re a non-member then you don’t get a vote, but we always appreciate comments and you can do so via this blog.
UPDATE: Geometry won by 8% and a total of 54% of the vote
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, graphics, mark hough, media, membership, motion graphics, movie production, trailer, vote
Riffing off the design of the top-voted poster chosen by the Swarm in our previous voting day the site’s undergone a dramatic change from red to blue (with added gradient) in the new theme. Display graphics feature more of the ’swooning angels’ designed by poster illustrator Emily Forgot and the layout is generally clearer and more open to graphic flourishes.
The changes aren’t just cosmetic though. The site structure take into account the expansion of project activity, and revolves around the main navigation headings of Fund (joining and process), Film (production team and tasks), and Flow (feedback and distribution). Interact (network and participation) and Consume (downloads and merchandise) will be developed as these activities ramp up in Phase 3 (where we start producing ‘assets’).
The new theme offers more information from the member forum, The Nine Orders, with new topics now featuring in the sidebar, and also includes website commentary (tagged articles through a del.icio.us feed). We’ve got a link to our flickr group photos and a clearer project status box at the top of the sidebar (although this is not auto-updating yet).
The overhaul is a way to bed down our structure in anticipation of the next phase of the project (1000+ Angels), and a way to iron out any content kinks before implementing the integrated member site.
Thanks for everyone’s patience with this Chorus 4 theme (due in part to being sidelined with the aborted Chorus 3). Particular thanks to those in the Swarm who contributed to this design, inputting through the forum and wiki, including cheeshpro, stepinrazor, Paul Freeman, Emily Forgot, leo. For Chorus 5 let’s do an open submission via the forum…
Special thanks to Mosso, who’ve stepped up as our hosting sponsor as our site demands have grown. Great also to have torrentfreak on board as a media partner, particularly as they are one of the lone beacons of enlightened commentary on the new frontiers of distribution and content.
Please help yourself to the new buttons (!), and tell us how you like the new design so we can tweak it and make it better.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, design
Got a few requests regarding the geographic make-up of our membership. We may not quite yet be the United Nations of Open Source Cinema but we are definitely a multi-national film force.
Current support by country based on a rough count of the Top Ten:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Germany
- Australia
- Spain
- France
- Japan
- Ireland
- Italy
Other nations deserving honorary mentions include: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Singapore, China, Denmark, Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Belgium, Portugal. This isn’t a complete list but we’ll include all these in the next geo-update sometime in Phase 3.
You can help us monitor the global diversity of our membership by adding yourself to the Frappr map if you have joined the Swarm.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing
The further we get into the evolution of A Swarm of Angels, the more I think we’ve found a third way between ‘old media’ and ‘user generated content’. Think of it as participative media: a model where filmmaker and fan get closer together as part of a member-only entertainment community.
Unlike user-generated content the director drives the process and vision of the project, and members get to guide and input into the creative process along the way (eg. a collaborative script doesn’t mean everyone edits it with equal weight, but everyone has the option to submit material to it which then gets filtered and either rejected or accepted). Members of the Swarm already know this but since we’ve just been slashdotted, I thought it worth reiterating.
A case in point is the recent voting day. With over 50% of the vote, a deep blue version of the Film project poster won the day - and I’m getting some samples printed right now for the limited edition run for members (winning image below). The more marketing and spin-offs we can get chosen and endorsed by Angels the better. Expect more in the limited edition poster series as we progress.
We also had a vote on the project tagline: Remixing cinema won (37%) with People-powered cinema coming second (23%). The vote was more spread out on this one, I think mainly due to the number of project innovations suggesting lots of hooks. But the original tagline has enough support to stay for the current time.
Because A Swarm of Angels is based on Creative-Commons and open source principles it was really important to get a strong result in terms of how to direct any excess profits from the project: 43% of members wanted this rolled into the next bigger film project, with 22% liking the idea of an open movie foundation.
The most surprising and interesting result in many respects was the vote on how members should be rewarded for tasks completed as part of the project which aren’t directly crew-related. Overwhelmingly 76% voted that the more mysterious option of ‘rewards’ be the winner, sidelining the idea of the dry straight-up money options of bounty and bonus. This endorses the idea of an ‘entertainment model’ focussed on giving participants surprising rewards and entertaining spin-offs rather than shares of profits and financial incentives. This has fascinating implications for crowdsource models: Not everything is about the money.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, membership, vote
It is voting day and you don’t even have to leave your seat. Exercising your democratic right as an Angel is only a click away…
A Swarm of Angels is all about member participation helping evolve and shape the project. As we are now 700+ I believe it is the right time to have our first voting day. Your vote will help us make some decisions on creative direction and community involvement. If you’ve already joined the Swarm please make yourself heard by voting and posting at The Nine Orders forums.
We’ve got four polls for you today (only members may vote):
- Poll: Bounty, bonus, or reward
- Poll: Sloganeering
- Poll: Profiting from the Swarm
- Poll: Decide the first Swarm poster version
(If you have trouble with the links make sure nyud.net:8080 — the Coral Cache mirrored version of the page — hasn’t been appended to your links)
It would be great to track any commentary on this first voting process for A Swarm of Angels. I’m excited to see how the voting turns out, and to read people’s thoughts on the process so if you post to your blog or livejournal please trackback to this post so we can monitor the conversation. Otherwise leave a comment (moderated) directly. Thanks.
UPDATE 24 SEP: Thanks to all who voted so far. We’re allowing some time for Angels who might be delayed in reading email or checking the site, so they can still vote. Polls close end of play on Wednesday (UK time).
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, media, membership
We’ve had an influx of members due to a Springwise article picking up on our Angelic crowdsourcing (You can digg that article here - and welcome to those new Angels!). So I thought it would be a great time to offer a post on the subject…
There is definitely an increasing level of online and offline conversation about collaborative online innovation networks (COINs), accelerated by the crowdsourcing meme.
Many of these crowdsourcing entities are about getting an open membership to pool wisdom to generate solutions for disparate and ongoing projects within certain areas. It’s a scattershot approach which means it is not right for creative projects where it is just as important to create a balanced community, and informed level of debate, as it is to draw on masses of people for their expertise.
This is why I think an evolving swarming angels model for creative production needs and benefits from gated communities. Here are some additional thoughts relating to this following from initial commentary on the model.
- Increase the barriers to entry
Phased and paid membership positively affects the community by weeding out spammers, and ambivalent participants. Subscribing to a gated community adds a psychological barrier which is a protection to participants (once they have moved through the barrier and joined), and a guarantee of serious engagement. Members hold more weight and power than open online social networks. - Elevate the level of debate
Community discussion is transparent, but due to members (and not guests) having editorial input and posting capabilities, messages and topics appear more considered. They should be received with thoughtful engagement rather than offhand comments. Community health is not judged by quantity of postings but quality of topic response when needed on the project. - Gather diverse people for a balanced Swarm
It is worth taking time especially in the early stages of the community to grow it slowly, and monitor the balance in terms of engagement and expertise of new Angels. A swarming angels community relies on quality of membership, and their trusted voices, rather than any viral aspects, to propagate and be successful. - Target existing online communities and interests
Engage in an online conversation early to take on board and address comments on the project. Use existing open communities with interests and expertise complementary to the creative project to get your message across. Speak to people who will get the project, be interested in joining, and become engaged with it. - Don’t overpromote or overbuild
Gated community members can evangelise a project, but this needs to coincide with appropriate project phases. If you are in a ‘development’ phase rather than a recruitment phase there’s no reason for larger scale promotion: you are overpromoting a project that isn’t tangible enough for larger audiences. Targeted promotion to those who already share common values with the project is more effective and appropriate. By having an ‘incomplete’ project from the beginning, one that is not comprehensively packaged, the opportunity for the Swarm to feedback, suggest and improve on the initial concept and ideas becomes available.
Some of these thoughts above are a direct result of the Swarm affecting my thinking on building the project: A Swarm of Angels doesn’t rely on ’sneezers’ to propagate the project virally, but on an escalating echo of trusted voices, predominantly from Angels within the gated community. The ecology of the community is paramount to it’s vibrancy, and pace of growth has to be regulated to safeguard that.
This is all a way of saying it is quite a high wire act. But, particularly from recent Angels drawn to the project because of it’s crowdsourcing credentials, there is an exhortation not to rush sign ups and promotion, but to get the balance right.
The thoughts above still need some refining and editing, as the process progresses that will get easier, but I’d be interested to hear responses to the points so far.
Tags: ASOA, asoa community, crowdsourcing, membership, movie production, writing
Having been out of action recuperating from a head injury for nearly a month I thought it would be a good time now that I can actively reengage with the project to look at the actions needed to regroup. I’ve been thinking about how we can improve the ’swarming angels’ process, drawing some lessons and moving forward.
We need to build some momentum again. Now we have the solid base and a community to make sure all the resources are in place to help that, which didn’t exist before. That means the short term focus will be on readying the user guides, and marketing materials for the second web promotional push (yes, we’ve only really had one so far). That activity is going to take place at The Nine Orders forum, and on the wiki.
I’ve deliberately held off of other promotion, to grow the community manageably and elicit some organic discussion and ideas generation. It is also important to draw in the 1 Percenters - experts, idea generators and enthusiasts rather than the experiencers - at this stage. That’s one of the reasons A Swarm of Angels is not a traditional viral process. It’s of the upmost importance to seed the community right, and the implications of that didn’t come through for me until the forums were underway.
We’ve got some hugely enthusiastic and talented people signed up as Angels already, so I’m positive the mix in the development community is getting there. But it’s worth taking a bit more time over at this stage to get that right. I’m particularly keen to get more visual artists involved at this stage for graphic design, storyboard, illustration and renders, etc, so we have the right recruits to use for the project and film trailers. If you are reading this and fit the bill, it would be a great time to sign up!
Thanks for all the messages of support while I’ve been recuperating, and enthusiasm in the project from already signed-up Angels. Time to get the first inputs from the Swarm ready for output to the world.
Tags: asoa community
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