Bug Blog

The Society of illustrators goes digital

2008-02-26T16:08:20+00:00

We recently finished a program for the Society of Illustrators in New York that's worth hearing about.

For many years the good people at the society have managed annual student competitions. Schools from all over the world would gather up student works, have those works photographed and then send in their entries as slides. Thousands of slides would then be loaded into carousels and projected for the judges in New York. The slides had to be marked for each entry, and they had to be displayed to the judges in a completely random way, so that no individual school was grouped together as the slides were shown.

The end of slides

The call came to us to save the society from the continuing heartache of slides. It was time to get this business streamlined, online and digital.

It had to do a bunch of stuff!

Each school gets their own account - they create these themselves.
School admin adds students and then the images - uploaded to the server
Each school generates their own invoice - based on number of entries
Judging takes place online - The judges can be anywhere at all, logged in and viewing the entries.
The awards need to be assigned - and immediately seen by the schools.
Final art needs to be collected for the print edition - and uploaded to the art director.
The show goes online - flip a switch and let people see the results.
The results of all past shows are archived - we love data.

It's working thank goodness

Here's the site.

For the 2008 student competition, the society got over 6,000 entries through their new online manager. Lot's of flexibility was also programmed in for future use as well - the society can also use the same program to manage competitions that are from individual artists, where each participant gets their own account. Cool stuff and a great group of people to work with too.

KidsDugout - What and why

2008-02-26T14:15:01+00:00

KidsDugout provides free websites to youth baseball and softball teams. Some of the nifty extras that the program offers are a stat calculator and a trading card creator for players. The stat calculator crunches statistics for coaches and delivers real-time stats each time individual game stats are entered. The trading card feature allows players to create their own cards, with their name, their team name and a border area which comes from a selection of templates that are provided. KidsDugout also allows team photo albums, document storage, email subscription lists, sponsor logos and other useful stuff that coaches and players can update easily.

What Happened

For most of 2007, KidsDugout was sponsored by Louisville Slugger. We provided Slugger with a complete wrapper on the site to match their current branding and gave their marketing folks a variety of ways to link back to opportunities they were making available at Slugger.com.

What we know and what we don't know

Partnering with Louisville Slugger in 2007 was an education, both for Bug Logic and for the good people at Slugger. We had initially approached Slugger because the fit between the ideals of Slugger and KidsDugout were similar in many respects. We're relatively small, we run a very personal service and we both try our best to do the right things for the right reasons.

BugLogic wanted to increase brand awareness for Slugger in a demographic that the site does very well with, which is kids. The problem with this fine idea turned out to be that we ultimately had no way of knowing whether or not KidsDugout was doing the job. Louisville Slugger does not sell their equipment through their own website - so any sales resulting from their relationship with KidsDugout could never be attributed to back the site.

One would think we would have both realized such an obvious disconnect before we launched the effort. Didn't happen. Sometimes you just have to make some mistakes to get to the answers.

Riding the pine

KidsDugout is back on it's own for now. BugLogic supports the site out of it's own pockets. The server costs aren't that much and the tools that coaches and players are provided with are easy to understand, so tech support isn't much of an issue. Most of the mail we answer about the site is from people who just want to say "thanks".

The idea of a single sponsor for the site is still very appealing, but so far the right match hasn't presented itself.

ClassJump - six months old

2008-02-26T02:54:15+00:00

ClassJump provides teachers with free websites, where they can post homework and also do file exchange with students who have accounts at the site. We wanted to make something that was easy to use for everyone.

The site was launched in August of 2007. There was no advertising. There was no promotional material. There wasn't even a viral campaign idea. We had about twelve beta members, all teachers from around the US who were helping us out, giving us ideas about what they wanted, and pointing out errors as they occured. That was it.

What we thought would happen and what actually happened

What we thought would happen was that the beta members would pass the ClassJump site along to their friends at their schools and that the teachers there would use the site from time to time. We had an idea that if those teachers liked it, they might tell their friends about it and ClassJump might have a chance to slowly build, first locally, perhaps nationally.

What actually happened can't really be explained. Six months after launch, ClassJump has over 2,500 teachers in there every day and we just topped 10,000 students with active accounts.

We're So Smart... yeah right

It would be great to report on the remarkable plan that has brought such bewildering success to ClassJump. That's not going to be happening here, because quite honestly, ClassJump seems to be creating it's own success story, independent of traditional views of how things are supposed to happen.

HERE'S WHAT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE

It works and it's really easy to use - Teachers understand and adapt to the interface for creating their websites easily.
It's Free (no brainer)
Teachers adapt quickly and get students involved - Being able to exchange files and communicate one-on-one with students makes their job easier and students appreciate the interaction too.
Parents benefit - Parents can go to the site and see if homework is due, or not.

It's a good thing

We try our best to do good things for the right reasons.

The Praying Mantis

2005-10-25T21:44:26+00:00

The Praying Mantis organization is most notable for its patience. This character trait defines them more than any other. The most important thing to realize about the Praying Mantis company is that they are the ultimate survivor. There is no downturn, no change in the weather, no terrain change that can make them even blink an eye. They are excellent at anticipating change and patiently working through it. The Praying Mantis is also a master of disguise and this coupled with it's amazing patience makes it a very tough competitor. They are opportunists, and confident enough in their own abilities that they do not actively search out opportunity, but rather, wait for opportunity to come to them. The Praying Mantis is extremely successful even though it is a loner. It does not seek advise, or even welcome it. The Praying Mantis is a keen observer however. Very little is missed by this highly intelligent and insightful bug. Praying Mantis organizations are rare. They have so few natural enemies that they have only other Praying Mantis companies to worry about. As in the wild world, Praying Mantis' have no problem whatsoever with eating each other.

The Wasp

2005-10-22T13:40:39+00:00

The Wasp is the ultimate competitor. The Wasp organization always plays to win and almost always does. They have very few natural enemies and generally strike fear in the hearts of any adversary. Number one trait of the Wasp company is fearlessness. These are always large and highly organized, highly intricate organizations. Wasps are flamboyant, reckless and dangerous competitors. Unlike the neighboring Honey Bee, the Wasp can use it's stinger over and over again with no fear. Wasps suffer from only one drawback and it is a major one. The Wasp Organization does not store food, so unlike the Honey Bee they are extremely susceptible to hard times. The Wasp company runs at full tilt, flirting with disaster at all times and because of this it creates highly charged, but extremely risky environments. The most important thing to realize about the Wasp company is that the Queen - or CEO - is a completely self-centered survivor. The queen is the only member of the colony that will reap the ultimate benefits of the organization. They are the only member of the colony able to hibernate, and consequently able to successfully move on after the good times have come to an end. The Wasp creates a highly energized, very exciting organization to work for, but the pay off is not always so exciting. This is a driven workforce with little time for rest. Every member of the colony is expected to be on the job all the time.

The Bumblebee

2005-10-13T18:56:06+00:00

The Bumble Bee company is usually easy to identify. Firstly and most importantly, no one really knows how it is able to fly. If your company flourishes for no apparent reason, then it's a good bet that you're a bumble bee. Bumble Bees are slow and gentle and the Bumble Bee organization is always small. Bumble Bees differ in this regard from the more aggressive Honey Bee in that their colonies are intentionally limited in numbers. Bumble Bees do not produce much honey. Very little effort is put into the collection of pollen. From the Bumble Bee perspective, life is not all about gathering riches. Observing the Bumble Bee during the course of an ordinary business day, you'll always note that they are relaxed and more interested in enjoying the day, than the much more frantic pace of the Honey Bee. Startups for the Bumble Bee organization can vary widely. The queen (who is always an unlikely visionary) will locate a place to build the nest. There is no apparent rhyme or reason for the selection of location and location doesn't seem to make much difference to the Bumble Bee queen. The Bumble Bee queen is confident, for no apparent reason whatsoever, that the colony will flourish no matter what. Bug Logic is constantly identifying new bugs. What kind of bug are you? . . . . . .

The Butterfly

2005-10-10T22:14:42+00:00

The Butterfly company puts image first. This is an organization that focus' on style and design to define itself internally and externally. The Butterfly company is most vulnerable when in it's startup stage. As in the wild world, the butterfly company must start off as a lowly caterpillar and constantly be on the hunt for food. Without an initial supply of food ( customers ) the lowly caterpillar will simply give up. They are extremely vulnerable to all types of predators as well. The startup stage for a butterfly is such a precarious existence that very few of them ever make it to maturity. For those who are able to find enough food and avoid the predators, the payoff is handsome indeed. What the mature butterfly discovers is that it no longer needs to be constantly foraging for food. As in the wild world, a mature butterfly organization needs very little to keep it going. It simply runs on it's own momentum. Most butterfly organizations are loners. There are exceptions to this but they are rare. The lone butterfly therefore is vulnerable to insulated thinking and can become easily isolated from the newest and best ideas available. It's important for butterflies to mingle with the rest of the bug world to keep themselves vital. As in the wild world, butterfly companies are almost always specialists. There are certain butterflies that feed only on one particular type of plant, for example. This is fine as long as that plant is abundant, but it also leaves them open to sudden changes in climate and terrain. . . . . . .

The Honeybee - Beneficial Insects

2005-10-10T20:28:06+00:00

When Bug Logic takes on a new client, the first thing we do is try to figure out what kind of bug they are. For example, we visited a not for profit craft school recently and immediately identified them as a honey bee. In other words, they were a beneficial insect. Beneficial insects are very easy to identify. The Honey Bee company is one of the most efficient and beneficial organizations that there are. Extremely industrious, highly effective and completely misssion oriented, the honey bee is welcome whereever it goes. The honeybee is recognized by everyone to be a community builder, aiding the right causes, fighting the right foes. Every bee in the honeybee organization knows their job. There is little to no time wasted getting on with the business at hand. Young bees are given responsibilities right from the start. Worker bees maintain the colony. They keep the colony organized and train the young bees in their duties. The queen ( or CEO ) stays inside the colony all of her life. The queen closely oversees all of the colonies operations and she also knows exctly when it is time for her to pass along her duties to a new queen. This can be when the colony has grown too large for her to manage or simply when she grows too old to perform her duties. Communication within the bee colony is the key to success. When a worker discovers a plentiful supply of nectar, this information is immediately passed along to each and every member of the organization, who can then effectively mobilize a plan of action. One of the main reasons for the success of the honey bee organization is that they store their food. This means the honeybee organization is always frugal. The result is that they easily survive hard times, when other bugs simply can not. . . . . . .