‘The Joy of Painting’ Video Game

Growing up one of the most memorable programs on PBS was Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting. I watched the show between other channels or while bored. It featured a white man with a beard and an afro painting incredible landscapes in half an hour. Sounds dry, but the effect of watching the painting come together is incredibly compelling.

Ross’ technique and TV persona was instantly recognizable. Talking to a few friends last night, we all knew The Joy of Painting and Bob Ross. We all had watched the program and remembered the ‘happy little clouds over here’ and the way Ross would ‘just pull this together across the water.’ He had little phrases for his techniques and he made it look effortless.

We got so into the conversation last night that we had to look up the show on the web. We found The Joy of Painting website and there was Bob’s smiling face, just as we remembered, with his landscapes. We browsed to the News sections and: whoa! What is this?

The Joy of Painting is becoming a video game! First thought: Odd! Second thought: Who will buy this? Third thought, after reading that the game was being developed for the new Nintendo Wii: Ohhhh. Yes. I see. With that new cool controller, painting makes sense. This could reach a whole new audience for video games. No longer just boys in different stages of emotional development that every other video game platform chases, but a new age group, gender, interest type. Very cool.

Will it work? Don’t know. What do you think?

NowPublic Raises $1.4-million from Angels

Local Vancouver start-up NowPublic have just announced receiving funding of (USD) $1.4-million from a group of leading technology and media investors and individuals.

The company will be using the financing to grow its reporter base and deliver the first On Demand ReportingTM system to content owners. Rumor is, it will also be using the proceeds to pay all of the hard working developers who have slaved to make the site what it is today. Thanks guys.

Congratulations go out to Mike Tippett and the NowPublic team! They’ve toiled for awhile now and this funding must feel like validation of their model and leadership. 

In case you’re interested, NowPublic is a global network of independent citizen journalists. To learn more about how you can interact and influence the news, check out the rundown of how to participate on the NowPublic website.

Living Rivers Trust Announced

Yesterday I attended the announcement of the Living Rivers Trust Fund, where BC Premier Gordon Campbell announced a tripling of the fund to $14-million. The story seems to have totally missed all local news outlets, with the except of the lamentable paywall at the Vancouver Sun, so here’s the story and some photos I took of the event.

The Fraser River Park played host to the event held on a day when wind gusts topped out at 80 km/h. The north arm of the Fraser River provided the backdrop to a podium and speakers. Whitecaps rolled along the river in great undulating waves. A throng of handlers, reporters and interested folks had formed when I arrived. The Premier arrived a few moments later with Dianne Ramage of the Pacific Salmon Foundation, both sporting rubber boots.

BC Environment Minister Barry Penner kicked off the speaking and said a few words before introducing the Premier. Gordon Campbell spoke well about the importance of rivers to BC, how they provide the lifeblood of our province, and how salmon are the key species for the health of both the people and land. He announced an increase in the funding of the Living Rivers Trust Fund to the tune of $14-million. (I expect a press release with the details of the funding will appear one day. When it does I’ll update this post.)

John Woodward, the Chair of Living Rivers Trust, followed the Premier. Then came George Hungerford, Chairman of Pacific Salmon Foundation and Patrick Reid, Chair of the Fraser Basin Council. All of them talked about what the announcement of more funds meant to the rivers of BC, how they had worked long and hard to achieve the recognition of the importance of rivers, and how the money would bolster conservation and rehabilitation efforts. Barry Penner wrapped up the event.

Everyone then followed the Premier and Dianne Ramage down a path along the riverbank. Bystanders stood on a raised wooden platform while a ceremonial tree was planted by the Premier, Minister Penner and Dianne Ramage. This was the photo opportunity and it felt surreal to see all the cameras focused on this singular event while so much more happened outside the focus of the event. An eagle flew overhead and landed in a tall fir tree.

The Premier did a few television interviews. People milled about and chatted. Gradually they dispersed. As I left I walked past reporters sitting in their cars, writing their stories on notepads and filling in the details they remembers. This, I thought, is how the news gets made.

Canadian e-Commerce Grew 80 percent in 2005

Via Traffick, Statscan has announced that year-over-year Internet sales have grown by 80 percent from 2004 to 2005.

Retailers reported online sales of $5.4 billion in 2005, up 80% from $3 billion in 2004, according to the report. Retail sales accounted for 14% of total online sales of $39.2 billion in Canada last year. That compares with 10.6% of total online sales of $28.3 billion in 2004.

The percentage of retailers with web sites rose to 42% in 2005, up 10.5% from 38% in 2004. Overall, 38% of private retailers reported having a web site last year, up from 37% in 2004, according to Statistics Canada.

Here at Work Industries, we’re tickled to hear StatsCan validate what we’ve known for years: the web works as a direct sales channel for Canadian retailers. Canadians have some of the highest adoption of the Internet anywhere in the world and they’re starting to use it in increasing numbers and increasing volume to do their shopping.

What the retail numbers don’t account for is the huge volume of purchases made where the web plays a key roles in influencing and facilitating the sale.

A friend of mine is searching for a used car right now. I’ve shown her how to use the web to notify her of cars for sale that meet her criteria, the right model, model year, geographic location, even colour. Now matches are delivered to her and she can see the tons of cars available out there for sale that meet her criteria, along with the asking price. She can check the service record of that make, model and year. What do people say about their experience owning it? Now she knows her marketplace much better. She’s more confident. She’s increased her chances of getting the right car for the right price.

I bought a pair of eco friendly shoes this week. I had been meaning to buy a new pair of shoes but hadn’t seen the right pair. I wanted to make a good, natural-world friendly purchase and would have never known about the shoes I ended up buying (on sale to boot!) without the web.

So what can your business do to capitalize on shoppers using the web in their purchase process? Here’s some starting thoughts:

• Do you have a website? Is it well-constructed, easy to use and easy to find? Does it appeal to your clients?
• Does your website have a purpose that’s clearly articulated, with specific goals and performance indicators?
• Do you track your website performance on a regular basis? Do you use the information from your performance indicators to make decisions on the tactics you use?
• Do you know your market beyond the boundaries of your own website?
• Are you engaged in the online conversation that’s going on out there on the web?
• Do you know what your clients know and don’t know about you, your products and your company?

If you answered ‘no’ to any of the questions above, we should talk. Contact us. Leave a comment and we’ll contact you. Learning is the first step to doing. If an 80 percent increase in sales is any indicator, this Internet thing isn’t going away any time soon.

This Site Will Self Destruct

At times, it will. I can promise it. In fact, I bet that right now you could click around and find something not working.

And we think that’s okay, for now.

We wanted to launch the site, and it was half-finished. So rather than having nothing we launched it. Every day we work on improving the site. If we were designing the controls on an airplane, we’d take a different approach. But we’re not. We’re taking what we think is the right approach for the situation.

That’s what you can expect from our work. Browse around the site. Read our nascent attempts to define and differentiate ourselves. Let us know what you think at james [at] iworkindustries [dot] come. Subscribe to the Work Industries RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or atom feeds to stay up to date.

Congratulations to Smallthought

Congratulations to Smallthought software’s Andrew and Avi for winning Under the Radar’s Best in Show along with a slough of other awards at South by Southwest (SXSW Interactive) last week Under the Radar, a conference unto itself.

Smallthought are a local Vancouver start up making big waves with their DabbleDB product, which I was lucky enough to see demoed at MooseCamp a few weeks ago, which suitably wowed the NorthernVoice attendees.

Check out the Smallthought blog to stay up to date with DabbleDB news. These guys are doing some really interesting things and act as very good ambassadors for Vancouver’s nascent but burgeoning web community.

Update: My friend John Grantham points to this 7-minute screencast of DabbleDB from Under the Radar (.MOV file, Quicktime required). This is the presentation that won them Best in Show.

Work Industries Business Cards

For the next 5 days the Work Industries offices will be closed for ski days in Fernie, B.C. We reopen on Wednesday, March 8th. Powder, ho!

Update: Photos from Fernie.