The Funware Blog @ rmbr

Today’s Advertising Age covers the topic of Funware and has some interesting quotes from yours truly (Gabe). Natalie Zmuda (the author) and I first met last week after she played the Old Navy “circular” and thought it was pretty fun. Sounds like some additional digging led her to Funware theories and we really dug in on the theory and practice.It’s been a while since we’ve had such insightful mainstream coverage of the theories, and for reasons I can’t yet espouse on in great detail, it’s especially interesting to see it framed by Advertising Age. Feel free to DIGG the article and pass it around!Marketers Bet on Games to Win Consumers - AdAge.com

Since so many of you were wondering, there are a few upcoming opportunities to hear me speak about Funware and to see rmbrME in action.

10/17 - Moderating a Great Panel at Web3 in San Jose
10/24 - Keynoting GameHotel in Zurich - discussing the future of games and Funware
11/18-19 - Presenting rmbrME at the VentureWire Technology Showcase Event

And some more, yet-to-be-announced events.

Come join us for the discussion! It promises to be a lot of fun.

For those of you that have been following, we recently released beta version 1.1 of our social lead management and contact exchange application, rmbrME. Its arrival last week was met by a flurry of press attention, including a fantastic article from VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi about the imperiled future of the business card.  Yesterday also saw the publishing of a well-commented, slightly provocative write up from the master of button pushing at TechCrunch, Jason Kincaid, this time advocating for the death of those 2×3 paper dinosaurs. Both articles were prompted by us, and ably executed by their respective writers (with some minor ‘nitpicks’ about Jason’s).

The most interesting thing for us - other than the sharp rise in usage over the past week - has been the plethora of ideas that have emerged from our users and the commenters. People are polarized on the idea of an electronic business card (less so its implementation), though that sort of polarization has yielded some interesting gems of insight for us already.

There was a Jon Stewart-quality “Moment of Zen” in the TC article’s comments that really brought home the need for rmbrME and who its targeted at. This is a photo that Michael Arrington (TC EIC) uploaded of his desk drawer. Check it out and read his caption:

Although I don’t presume to have the same social obligations and interactions as Mike, his experience of cards, and the poignant comment he made were the exact reason we launched the rmbrME service in the first place. For those of us in the high-volume social/business meeting context, the process of dealing with new contacts after meeting them has stopped being fun.  You may notice a pattern here…funware to the rescue, anyone?

And while making real life experiences fun is the province of this blog, the sheer volume of activity at rmbrME has necessitated the creation of a separate blog focused just on that product. If you want to follow what we’re up to at rmbrME, go to http://blog.rmbrme.com/ and you can keep tabs on our progress/leave your feedback.

Thanks again, and we’re very much looking forward to keeping the Funware momentum going!

Made an appearance on Donny Deutsch’s The Big Idea on CNBC 6/16/08 to talk about Generation G, Funware and games. Though a short visit, it was a good one. Take a look:

There’s also an interesting blog post that I wrote for the CNBC folks on the future of winning that you can read here if you’re so inclined.

All in all, it was a great experience, and a big shout out goes to the CNBC production team for their foresight, the makeup crew for not making me orange, and my fellow panelists for being hilarious and genuine.

We’ll be shooting a segment for Monday’s (6/16/08) “Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” on CNBC that should air the same day. The show’s title is Getting the Winning DNA, and Gabe will specifically talk about The Future of Winning. Set your Tivos to stun and record the show!

I wrote a special editorial for Gamezebo on the topic of how Facebook  is the Napster of the games industry. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy - but just hear me out. Social Networks are super-extra-mega-major transformative technology platform that really do threaten traditional (online and offline) games. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting, so hop over to Gamezebo and check it out.

Mary Jane Irwin, reigning doyenne of the game business press takes a deep dive into the Funware space with this breathtaking article about the future of games. It’s a very interesting article and I think you’ll especially appreciate the slideshow. W00T, MJ!

Dean Takahashi, well-respected and insightful reporter at Venture Beat just wrote a fascinating article on Funware, its threat to traditional videogames, and the opportunities for the industry. It also talks a little bit about rmbr and a number of other game industry luminaries who have strong opinons on the subject.

Please to enjoy!

Well, response to our launch of rmbrME has been fantastic! Lots of awesome bloggers have covered it, and most people think the concept is cool. Check out a quick smattering of our media coverage:

http://mashable.com/2008/05/06/rmbrme/
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9938491-2.html
http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/05/frankie_do_you_rmbrme.html
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/07/rmbrme-share-social-network-info-via-sms/
http://www.killerstartups.com/Social-Networking/rmbrMEcom—Social-Networking-from-Your-Cell-Phone/

I’ll update this post periodically to keep it updated.

Well, the Web2.0 conference was super interesting, even though I couldn’t stay past Wednesday evening. Our session, ably moderated by Justin Hall with Rajat Paharia and Chris Chapman, was fairly well attended and became a bit of a sensation after this article in Computerworld (posted just minutes after we finished). And after the session I was the recipient of nearly a dozen (!!) amazing Funware ideas from the audience. It was really extraordinary and very heartening to see all the creative energy flowing through the attendees. To whit, some of those ideas are really good - I hope we get to work on them at some point.

If you want to read the musings of another blogger - LaSandra Brill - she has an interesting perspective on the session as well.