Debacle 2012 - Santa Cruz

Early each year since 2008, Retronyms & Dokogeo have organized a company outing that has come to be known as "The Debacle". While the name has its roots in a leaky-roofed cabin outside Bolinas, the events of subsequent years have proven it to be a pretty accurate name for what happens when a group of software developers & designers get outside the comfort zone of their homes and offices, and try to spend a week working productively in a new and unfamilar environment.



Despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges of dealing with spotty internet connections and having to forage through strange new supermarkets for food & supplies, some really amazing stuff has come out of past Debacles, including our award-winning geo-games, Dokobots and Seek 'n Spell, as well as the earliest incarnation of our current iPad music app, Tabletop!

This year, The Debacle is taking place in beautiful seaside Santa Cruz, home of the UCSC Banana Slugs, and all kinds of interesting shops & attractions. Having learned a thing or two from previous years, we decided to stop off on our way into town to pick up a few essentials, namely beer and coffee!

The brew-masters at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing helped us put together an awesome sampler of IPA, Amber Ale and even a Coffee Porter from their wide selection of beers. After the first evening's meal however, supplies are already starting to dwindle, so we may have to pay them another visit before too long. Fueled by bacon-infused cheeseburgers and the caffeinated beer, we stayed up late working on Tabletop, Dokobots and several other projects which you'll hear more about in the coming months.

Once everyone finally crawled out of their beds and futons and sleeping bags this morning, we enjoyed some amazing coffee from Verve Coffee Roasters, another Santa Cruz favorite. We got to spend a little time looking at their brand new roastery yesterday afternoon when we stopped to pick up the beans and as you can see from this clip it's looking super-impressive!



So, with our basic needs met (and exceeded!) we're already hard at work on our first full day of Debacle excitement. And, as you may have guessed from this blog, as well as our posts on Facebook & Twitter, the internet situation here at Debacle House is actually pretty stable, so we'll be checking in periodically over the next seven days to share some of the exciting new stuff we'll be working on, as well as more of the cool people, places and things that we come across as we explore Santa Cruz and beyond. Anyplace in particular you think we should check out? Let us know in the comments!

New Bots Update Comes With New Contest

It's been a year since Dokobots was released, and we've just released another update.  There's been some performance upgrades and stability fixes, and one new feature - "stacked" bots in the Workshop.  Instead of having one screen for each bot, there is one screen for each model, and the number of bots is indicated by a counter above the bot's description.

We also wanted to announce that we're running a new contest!  All you have to do for this one is pick up an active bot or activate one of your own, create a journal entry, open the bot's journal and view its entries. 

Tap Share next to the entry you just created, then tap the Twitter icon. You'll be asked to sign in to your Twitter account if you haven't already, then write a relevant haiku in the text field (you can delete the default text so you have enough room) and tweet to @dokogeo.

What's a haiku again?  It's a short little poem that follows a 5-7-5 format - five syllables in the first line, seven in the next and five to wrap things up.  Here's an example:

Wandering robot
I shall travel the whole world
Carried by the wind.

What will you get for your awesome haiku?  Why, a super special prize bot.  The contest will run until 11:59PM PST, March 14, 2012, and there are two ways to win.  We'll be selecting haikus that we really like via wholly subjective criteria, but you can also get this special bot if your haiku gets five retweets.

So be checking our Twitter stream to look for haikus you like and want to retweet, and feel free to do some shameless self-promotion to get your own haikus retweeted!  (You're totally welcome to submit more than one entry).

Creativity is highly encouraged, but most importantly, have fun!  Bonus points for anyone who can pair the haiku with the journal entry and the bot's function, and double bonus points for creating haikus on bots created by other people.  We'll have a Dokobots t-shirt for the best of the best when the contest ends!

Dokobots: AIGA Cleveland Judge's Choice and Interactive Awards

On May 26, Dokogeo won two awards at the AIGA Cleveland 2011 Design Competition Awards: Judge's Choice and Interactive. Judge Kyle Meyer of Minneapolis and the blog Astheria had this to say about Dokobots:

Dokobots consistently fun branding, aesthetic, and attention to detail stood out at this year's AIGA Cleveland Design Show. From the iPhone app to the marketing materials, Dokobots creates an engaging atmosphere of playful aliens. The app blends an ingenious use of location based technology with game based fun. I am happy to call Dokobots, my judge's choice.

We really appreciate this honor and these nice words! Below are the two awards we received. See more photos from the exhibition.

Dokogeo at Where 2.0

Dokogeo was part of the Startup Showcase at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara yesterday.  Here's the video of our presentation and the Q&A with Robert Scoble that followed: