Jun

All the World’s Got Gamification

by Janine Boylan on June 10, 2013

Checking points and rewards is easy with a smart phone.
© Thinkstock

An Observation About Life

It was a Saturday like any other.

I started my day with a walk. I turned on my fitness app to record how far and how fast my journey was. My walk earned me fifteen fitness points.
I opened my food app to scan my cereal bar code and enter my breakfast food data. Not a bad calorie count to begin the day. The app shared that I had 1900 calories left to spend.
I loaded my grocery store app with all the exclusive “Just for You” specials and headed to the store. At checkout, my receipt showed that I earned a 15% savings because of my special coupons.
Plus, through my reward card, my food purchases earned me forty-five gas reward points. Added to the fifty-five points I had already earned, I now qualified for a discount at the gas station.
At the gas station, I punched in my grocery store reward card number and redeemed the points I had earned, saving twenty cents a gallon.
As I drove to the mall, I watched my gas consumption on the car dashboard display. I strategically stepped off the gas pedal several times and coasted to try to beat my previous record.

And then, I had an Oh, I see observation about life. My day so far had been full of points, rewards, and earnings. I am living a video game!

gas station rewards, showing gamification, an observation about life

Yes! I earned a reward!
© Janine Boylan

The Name of the Game

Many companies use game-like programs to motivate employees or customers, such as group incentives to lose weight or energy consumption reports that encourage us to compare and compete with friends and neighbors over energy savings.

The concept of using game strategies to engage an audience has been around for a while. Recently this marketing strategy has earned a name: gamification.

Author and entrepreneur Gabe Zichermann clarifies that gamification “is taking the best ideas from games, loyalty programs, and behavioral economics and putting them together and using them to create engagement over the long haul.” You can see Zichermann speak in greater depth on gamification during this TED talk.

The Facts Behind These Games

Is it OK that our lives are becoming one big video game?

Game designer Jane McGonigal argues that it is. In a Wall Street Journal article, McGonigal says video games give us four things that we need for a happy life:

satisfying work
real hope for success
strong social connections
the chance to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Playing a handheld game, illustrating gamification, an observation about life

Games connect us, even when we’re alone.
© Thinkstock

More and more reports are showing the positive effects of video games.

Fredric Wolinsky and his Iowa colleagues published a report showing that playing video games improved a group of seniors’ cognitive processing skills over their counterparts who did not play the game.
Linda Jackson and team discovered that the more middle-school kids played video games, the more creative they were.
Paul J. C. Adachi and Teena Willoughby’s study shows that video games build “(1) intrinsic motivation, (2) concentration and cognitive effort, and (3) cumulative effort over time to achieve a goal.”

I’m Game

The fact is that gamification works. It makes the mundane more fun. Going to the grocery store, filling my tank with gas, or driving from errand to errand were never high on my list of fun things to do, but making a game of these activities has made them more appealing and, yes, rewarding.

So, my observation about life (with apologies to Shakespeare):

All the world’s a game,

And all the men and women merely players;

We have our points and our reward cards,

And one man in his time has many user names. . .

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 4 Comments

Innovations/Secrets to Life

Jun

Finding Common Ground in Ocean Waters

by Janine Boylan on June 3, 2013

summer crowd on the beach, an inspiration for finding common ground on World Oceans Day

A summer crowd gathers at the beach.
© Janine Boylan

The World Comes Together to Celebrate World Oceans Day

Long before the Internet connected our world, the oceans did, flowing from the shore of one country to another. From the beginning of time, the oceans have fascinated us and served us, yet only in modern times have we come to understand the oceans as a shared responsibility.

In 2008, the United Nations officially designated June 8th as World Oceans Day, an international day to celebrate the water that unites us.

On this day, people are finding common ground in events across the globe. Documentary film festivals, underwater clean-up dives, educational aquarium and zoo events, and music concerts to raise funds for ocean conservation are but a few.

The Legendary Ocean

When did the fascination with oceans begin? Long before World Oceans Day and even before written history, legends and folk tales show that the ocean is a heritage shared by many different cultures:

Multiple cultures have sea gods. The Greeks tell stories of Poseidon, the Hawaiians of Kanaloa, and the Polynesians of Tangaroa. These gods often played a part in the creation of the world and reside in the oceans where they rule over the creatures there.
Mermaid stories also appear in many cultures, including British, Chinese, Cambodian, Thai, and ancient Greek. These half-fish, half-human ocean beauties are sometimes evil, luring sailers to their deaths. Other times, they are helpful, rescuing people who fall in the sea.

seagull and mermaid's purse, an inspiration for finding common ground on World Oceans Day

A seagull captures a mermaid’s purse. While these little pouches are really shark egg cases,
stories connect the glistening pouches to mythical mermaids.
© Janine Boylan

Legends told in Norway, Denmark, and Germany all explain why the sea is salty. In one version, a man gets a magical grinder that produces anything asked. When he takes his treasure to sea and asks the grinder for salt, it produces so much that the salt fills and sinks the boat. The grinder tumbles to the ocean floor and, as the story goes, is still there today producing salt.

sea salt, an inspiration for finding common ground on World Oceans Day

Flakes of sea salt collect on the shore.
© Janine Boylan

Today’s Real Ocean

In our world today, the oceans are not full of fantasy. In fact, in many places, they are full of trash.

trash on the beach, an inspiration for finding common ground on World Oceans Day

Paul, your drink is ready for pick up.
© Janine Boylan

Until very recently, it was common practice to dump things in the oceans: household garbage, cars and tires, human waste, industrial waste, radioactive waste. Out of site, out of mind.

But, of course, the waste isn’t out of our lives:

The toxins in the oceans kill ocean life.
They also reappear in the fish we eat.
Waste thrown in the water strangles ocean critters and even gets caught in boats or nets.
Regularly, beaches are closed due to the potential harm that the infected water can have on swimmers.

And these are just a few examples of the effect of this waste. Ocean pollution is not one community’s problem. Tainted sewage runoff in one part of the world will reach another part of the world through our shared water connection.

And that brings us back to World Oceans Day—a day to come together as a planet and protect what has been a cross-cultural connection for ages: our oceans.

The oceans, which according to NOAA, cover 71% of the Earth and contain 97% of the Earth’s water, are a vital part of our world:

They are a source of food, ranging from fish to seaweed to crab to salt.
They help us breathe. Half of the world’s oxygen comes from phytoplankton, tiny one-celled plants in the ocean.
Between 50-80% of Earth’s diverse life lives in the ocean—and more species are being discovered constantly. Some discoveries lead to beneficial ingredients for pharmaceuticals.
The tides and waves, as well as heat collected in the ocean from the sun, can be used world-wide as a source of renewable energy.
Ocean activities such as surfing, swimming, diving, sailing, and fishing relax or thrill us.

powerful waves, an inspiration for finding common ground on World Oceans Day

Oh, I see! Our oceans are critical—they surround us, feed us, and empower us. And next Saturday, June 8, on World Oceans Day, you can be part of the effort that is finding common ground in the protection of our oceans. In the words of poet Ryunosuke Satoro:

Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.

How will you help save our seas?

For starters, you can download our free tips for reducing your use of plastics:

Learn more about the ocean and see promises you can make for its protection on the World Oceans Day Facebook page.

Comment on this post below.

Janine Boylan Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Making a Difference/Worldwide Sites

May

Seven Important Life Lessons in a Bee Garden

by Janine Boylan on May 27, 2013

A bumblebee whose behavior shows life lessons in a bee garden

The other day I met some neighbors I didn’t know too well: bees. Walking through a bee garden planted especially for bees, I learned a lot about these little creatures. They had some Oh, I see important life lessons for me, too.

1. Diversity is the spice of life.

When you think of bees, it’s likely that you picture a honeybee. But the honeybee is only one of many, many different kinds of bees.

A green leafcutter bee, whose behavior shows life lessons in a bee garden

There are about 4,000 species of bees in North America: round fuzzy striped bumblebees, small bright green sweat bees, thin yellow and black leaf-cutter bees, big black carpenter bees, and more.