By Viget Labs
in General
Dec. 30, 2008 | 0 comments
By Viget Labs, ,
in General
Dec. 30, 2008 | 0 comments
Thanks to Andy, you can see just how long it'll take to grow your VigeTurf.
VigeTurf from Viget Labs on Vimeo
Want your own? Just tell us where you'll grow it and we just might send you a batch.
By Viget Labs
in General
Dec. 27, 2008 | 10 comments
By Brian Wynne Williams, CEO & Co-Founder,
in General
Dec. 27, 2008 | 10 comments
It's the holidays. For our holiday party, we always like to give gifts to the Viget staff. This year part of that gift was my new favorite bit of clothing: my Viget Hoodie.
Most people probably don't know why I like this particular piece of garb so much, though, so I thought I'd share.
By Viget Labs
in General
Dec. 10, 2008 | 3 comments
By Viget Labs, ,
in General
Dec. 10, 2008 | 3 comments
Each December, we come together as a company to thank our clients and friends -- Viget style -- who have helped us to succeed over the past decade. This tradition started many years ago with a little creation we called VigorBalm and has continued through fun projects like Vigoroma, Vigelicious, VigeTags, and VigetRocks.
This year, we created a cool product (if we do say so ourselves) that we're sending nationwide to family and fans alike -- BEHOLD! VigeTurf will be dashing through the snow (and U.S. Postal system) soon in hopes of inspiring growth around the world just in time for the new year!
But we didn't stop there! No, instead we upped the ante and did a *bit* more than just a basic website. On it, you can tell us what you're growing in 2009 with our Twitter-style updater, or grow some virtual turf of your own to add to the gallery and share with pals. (But please keep it clean, folks; VigeTurf, after all, is all about GROWTH!)
Also, recipients of the real life VigeTurf boxes will be sending photos of where they've been growing; if you want to receive one of your own (while supplies last), email us at iwantone@vigeturf.com. Or, if you just want to tell us what you think of Vigeturf, drop us an email at hi@vigeturf.com.
So, check out VigeTurf.com, read more about the story and see the people who helped make it happen, tell us if you want one, and share a little green with your loved ones this holiday season!
By Viget Labs
in General
Oct. 29, 2008 | 0 comments
By Brian Wynne Williams, CEO & Co-Founder,
in General
Oct. 29, 2008 | 0 comments
I've been a Twitter fan boy for some time, but we just recently got around to using our Viget account on Twitter. We're using the TwitterFeed service to pump the "master" Viget RSS feed into the account, so a tweet is automatically generated each time a new post goes up on any of our company blogs. That includes this one, which cover company announcements, as well as Inspire (design), Extend (development), Engage (marketing), and Advance (strategy).
We'll also start to use our Twitter account to get messages out that don't warrant a full blog post. We're not out to make noise, though -- expect the tweets to be kept to a minimum.
So, if you want to keep up with what we're thinking, doing, and writing about at Viget, feel free to follow us on Twitter. Thanks!
By Viget Labs
in General
Sep. 05, 2008 | 0 comments
By Viget Labs, ,
in General
Sep. 05, 2008 | 0 comments
Jackson will be hitting the Big Apple next week to present "Design and UX in an Agile Process" at Web 2.0 Expo. He'll focus on how designers and user experience folks can integrate within Agile, which primarily has been a development-focused process.
He's aiming to help shops facing similar challenges to learn from our experimentation and solutions here at Viget that help to create an environment in which designers can do their best work.
Of course, he's looking forward to learning a bit for himself, too:
Speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo is going to be fun and exciting. I'll be sharing the design/ux stage with some other great speakers I've read about and heard speak before -- like Dan Saffer, Joshua Porter, and Jeffrey Zeldman, just to name a few -- as well as others I'm looking forward to hearing for the first time. Conferences are always a great place to drum up conversations, and I'm looking forward to it.
By Viget Labs
in General
Aug. 25, 2008 | 1 comment
By Brian Wynne Williams, CEO & Co-Founder,
in General
Aug. 25, 2008 | 1 comments
A couple of months ago, Washington Post reporter Sarah Halzack talked with Samantha and me about a blogging story she was working on. We were happy to discuss how we blog at Viget, and they were even nice enough to have a photographer come in to take some photos. Samantha and I were a bit perplexed in terms of what exactly they should take photos of (people blogging?), so we just sat around and talked over coffee.
Sarah’s article, Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere - Business Model Shifts to Engage Customers Online, was published this morning.
By Viget Labs
in General
Aug. 08, 2008 | 0 comments
By Brian Wynne Williams, CEO & Co-Founder,
in General
Aug. 08, 2008 | 0 comments
The 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival is slated for March 13-17. Several of us went this past year. We had a blast, learned a lot, and even reconnected with Tom -- all good things.
As you've probably noticed with all of the not-so-subtle self-promoting happening on Twitter right now, the 2009 panel picker went up today. I feel okay about shamelessly promoting all the sessions submited by Viget folks below, especially because I'd really like to see each one. Check 'em out:
By Viget Labs
in General
Aug. 06, 2008 | 2 comments
By Kevin Vigneault, Project Manager,
in General
Aug. 06, 2008 | 2 comments
LaunchBox Digital is a local DC program that gives a small batch of start-ups some capital and, more importantly, guidance through the earliest phase of the product-building process. This is the first year of the program; but, other similar programs like Y Combinator and TechStars have proven the model to be effective. We were lucky enough to be able to work a little bit with the teams over the past couple of months. We had a great time jumping in and giving our recommendations (mostly UX and design). Today, the teams will be pitching their ideas in Reston, VA to a group of potential investors and tomorrow they’ll all be on the West Coast (Palo Alto to be exact) pitching their ideas again to another group. I got to meet most of the people in the program and I learned about each of their projects. I was thoroughly impressed with how good the ideas were and how far along they were in such a short period of time. Here are the teams we had the opportunity to meet with along with a brief blurb about what they’re up to.
JamLegend - Guitar Hero and Rock Band are pretty big these days. In fact, we have both in our office and while they’re great games, they have some limitations. Mainly, they’re expensive and have a relatively small catalog of songs - a lot less than people keep on their iPods for example. JamLegend is looking to open up the genre by taking the experience online. Users can play songs at three different skill levels, duel their friends or set up tournaments to take on anyone. What is most exciting to me is that content will be user-generated, so non-major label bands can get in on the action and upload their own songs for their fans to play either on the site or through a widget posted on other sites.
MyGameMug - It can be hard to find other people to game with. Especially if you’re not just looking for some random online players, but rather people who actually mesh with your personality and style of play. MyGameMug has created a site that makes finding people to game with easier and better. Think eHarmony for video gamers, except you’re just looking to play Gears of War, not date the person. The MyGameMug team has created a quick and easy quiz that allows users to find out which one of 16 gaming personas best matches them. Once users have their persona and log in, they can find other people that own and play the same PC and console games.
BuzzHubb - One of Twitter’s greatest strengths is its simplicity. You follow people, they follow you. When you post something, everyone sees it. This simplicity is also one of its biggest weaknesses. What if you don’t want to post something so everyone can see? What if you just want to view posts from a particular group?There’s simply no way to have that level of control on Twitter and that’s where BuzzHubb shines. They’re all about segmenting you and your friends into “Hubbs”. In fact, the only way to join is to use a university email address where you’re automatically dropped into your school’s Hubb when you sign up. You can then create or join more Hubbs.
Koofers - At Virginia Tech, they invented the word “koofers”. It refers to the old quizzes and exams that students (mostly those in fraternities and sororities) would keep and pass down to younger students. Koofers the web site is looking to take that concept and spread it democratically to the web. But, there’s more to it than that. They’re tapping into vast amounts of university data that will help students choose the right courses and professors, as well as generate the optimal class schedule.
Razume - Creating your resume is hard. Making it really good is even harder. It’s easier to look at someone else’s and see what they did well and what they did poorly than it is to critique yourself. That’s why Razume’s simple, but ingenious, idea of a resume review site is so good. Users can upload their resumes or create them online. Then, the community marks up the submitted resumes with feedback. Razume will be a must-stop for young job seekers especially who need some guidance getting past the first step of the hiring process (i.e., not having their resume thrown away).
Heekya - Content and information on the web is fragmented. Sometimes it’s separated by medium - videos on YouTube, photos on Flickr, etc. Almost always, content lives by itself with no connection to a greater story. Heekya is looking to connect content and provide context around stories. For example, they make it really easy to write up some text, drop in a picture or video and then link all that to a map so the reader knows where the story took place. Even better, they make content generation social. If someone else attended the same event that I did, I can clone their story and branch it off into my own narrative.
ShareMeme - Your contacts exist across many different communication platforms - Gmail, AIM, Twitter, SMS, Facebook, etc. Let’s say you wanted to send out an invite to all of your contacts. How would you do that now? I’d probably dig through my email contacts and send those out first. Then I’d post it on Twitter. Then I might IM some people. Lastly, I might call or text some friends. With ShareMeme, I would have been able to do all of this from one place. They make it really easy to pull in your contacts from all over the place and send out messages to everyone’s preferred method. And it’s not just invites. You can send links and polls as well.
For more info about LaunchBox Digital, here’s a nice write-up on TechCrunch from last night that includes a screencast demo for each of the teams.
By Viget Labs
in General
Aug. 01, 2008 | 2 comments
By Emily Bloom, Regional Director,
in General
Aug. 01, 2008 | 2 comments
I went down to check on progress at our new Durham office today. It’s looking promising!
We’ve had to think a lot about which "historic" elements to keep and which to cover up. I hope we’ve settled on a good balance.
I also hope they finish soon! We are eager to move. Right now we have 9 people in a 860 sq ft space. BUT we will definitely be sad to say goodbye to our backyard.
We’ll miss you, beautiful yard (except for the poison oak and mosquitos!), but we’ll soon be located directly over a French bakery!
By Viget Labs
in General and Staff
Jul. 30, 2008 | 2 comments
By Emily Bloom, Regional Director,
in General and Staff
Jul. 30, 2008 | 2 comments
Last Thursday, I found myself standing about forty feet in the air, balanced on a wire, grappling Doug Avery‘s shoulder with my left hand and leaning heavily on Josh Chambers to my right. It’s not often that I get to give the death grip to my co-workers, especially those who work from HQ, as I work from our Durham office. We were bonding on the first "challenge" of a high ropes course in Richmond, VA for Viget’s quarterly out-of-the-office event.
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After lots of trust-fall jokes, we had ascended the structure to see what we were made of. The event went well (everyone completed all the challenges!) and we all had much to discuss on the van ride home. The observation that seems relevant to share here is my renewed appreciation for the perfect blend of "trust" and "communication" - the two most often cited strategies mentioned during our prep for the course. The combination seems to be a super-potent recipe for success.