The series is a great multiplatform story with podcasts, email subscription, a few books, an iPhone app, a Twitter account – and they travel across the U.S. to help people record their stories.

Recently, some of the most popular stories have been turned into original animated shorts. I really enjoyed watching the Danny & Annie animation unfold because it captured raw emotion. Then again, this was the first time I heard the story – and it’s fantastically told.

Earlier this year when I tried to watch The Ricky Gervais Show, which is animated episodes of his hilarious podcast, I found my eyes wandering away from the screen. I had listened to the audio beforehand and created an image that didn’t necessarily correspond with the animators vision.

Repurposed content doesn’t have to match a vision perfectly in order for something to grab my attention, but I felt disappointed – like when you go see a movie based on your favourite book. The animation didn’t add anything to the story.

So, I did an experiment – I listened to StoryCorps next animated short – Q & A – without watching the video… only audio. Afterwards, I watched the animation to see how it affected my enjoyment of the story.

Do me a favour. Do the same. And if you want, tell me what experience you had. Is it like listening to your favourite song and then watching a disappointing video? Or did the animation make you listen to certain elements you may have missed in your original listen?

Why do I like Foursquare? It’s a social game that takes the conversation offline. I was a doubter at first, but then I became a mayor of a location, which is given to a user who “checks in” the most (plus a bunch of other secret algorithms only Foursquare understands). When I became mayor for the first time, I thought “cool,” but I wasn’t addicted to checking into everywhere I went.  And then someone took the mayoralship away from me. It struck a competitive chord in me. Soon I was challenging coworkers who could become mayor of the workplace, inadvertently stealing the mayorship from my bf at our fave restaurants… so much fun. I later learned it’s also a blast to earn hard-to-get badges.

On vacation, particularly in the States, Foursquare is an amazing recommendation engine. I check into a restaurant and then review the tips written usually by locals who suggest what to order from the menu, where to sit, and what to avoid. Thanks to Foursquare, I ate some amazing sushi, avoided another restaurant and felt like I was in “the know” in a strange land.

Data roaming charges, however, could affect my use of this service in cities outside of my own because of the high roaming fees. I suspect those without a 3G plan are in the same boat – even those who love services such as Facebook or Twitter. Say you’re in a new city on Twitter, your followers will give you advice on where to go – even if you ask for tips or not.

Starbucks’ free Wifi in all of its locations helped people like me get onto their social media where ever we end up. It’s also a fabulous marketing tool for the coffee chain as most people will tell their friends on Twitter or check in to Foursquare that they’re at Starbucks.

But what’s the solution to help location-based services blossom into this potential of tourism check-ins and become the recommendation engines they’re turning into? Should Twitter sponsor more wifi locations? Should locations that want to exploit the Foursquare marketing tool offer wifi? Thoughts?

Here’s the New York Times (it includes dancing baby animated GIFs to make the news POP!):

I’m going to try and break the internet by GeoCitiesizer’ing a site that already looks like a GeoCities built site.

- my new book library. I installed Kobo and thanks to some regularly appearing coupons in my email, it’s my new book store. Books were getting annoying to move all the time, anyway. While it doesn’t have everything I’d like to read, I can only assume it will one day.

- my fitness guide. I use the Nike+ system with my shoes to know how far I’ve run and the speed, and it automatically updates my running progress on my Twitter acct (ask to follow for now!). I use RunKeeper Free to help calibrate my Nike+ system with its GPS tracking of my runs. I also use the Nike Training app when it’s a kajillion degrees below zero outside. And finally, I track my chocolate  consumption with Livestrong’s Daily Plate app.

- my notetaker and to do list. I have too many projects on the go, always, with more being added on a regular basis. I was a pen and paper gal when I needed to create to do lists (for the rewarded check mark upon completion) but so far the very popular Things app is helping keep me paperless and less encumbered during meetings. I’m not sure if it qualifies for my day to day work (where I often need to keep 48 things on the top of my head at any given moment) but it’s good to keep me focussed on one project at a time.

- my guitar tuner thanks to Guitar Toolkit and a fun music maker with Groove Maker and of course, autotunetastic I am T-Pain. I can also see song lyrics and locate who’s listening to the same tunes as me on TuneWiki

- my game console. Tons of games – what’s your fave?

- my weather guide

- my news guide

- etc etc etc

How do you use your iPhone outside of dialing up?

On first visit, I’m left wondering what to do after I input my dream: to find more time to update this website (lame dream, yeah). I’m taken to an overview page (called a dreampage – very Oprah-esque) that looks similar to what I would find if I typed “I want to find time to update my website” into a Google search: I see online articles, videos pulled from You Tube and Vimeo, photos and links to blogs that I think have the “update website” phrase within their copy. Since it seems to work by automatically pulling keywords (even though the site says “We’ve abandoned key words and moves beyond traditional semantics to develop an implicit understanding of what you’re interested in,”) I wonder if this blog entry you’re reading now will eventually show up in this Dorthy feed about updating websites? Vouldn’t that be Veird?

When I click on the community tab, it takes me to other members who have entered similar goals and I can subscribe to their dreams so my own page is updated with their updates. From what I can see, there’s no way to contact the person, which the introvert in me likes but may have helped create a virtual “cheerleader” squadron to the user’s goal achievements. The site uses Facebook Connect, which could translate that community support from Dorthy onto a Facebook page, I suppose.

Snooping around, I see someone entered a dream to run a marathon in Maui. This opens a dreampage that’s a little more focussed than my vague goal but again, I don’t see anything I wouldn’t have seen without entering the same dream into a search engine.

This isn’t to say the site doesn’t have potential… As more people subscribe and enter data, perhaps the algorithms will improve and my Dreampage will be more relevant and less vague.

Maybe I’ll set a goal on this site to review Dorthy in 6 months to see what’s changed on the site.

Let me know what you think and what sites you use to keep on track of your goals.

The intro video explains it all.. and tells a tale of how TV execs are changing their ways of thinking about free videos online – watch it, and then if you like it, buy it.

Watch this amazing video to give you a sense of the world we’re working in today and tomorrow. Five minutes well spent. And you can bop along to Fatboy Slim while you ponder. It’s a win-win.

And a large number of people want to see companies on social networking sites… or so it may seem. Social networking is a very broad term. Personally, I’d be happy to stop receiving ads for celebrity dieting techniques while I’m on Facebook. 

I have tried to cancel these ads (you can click a thumbs down on each thumbnail advertisement and let Facebook know why you don’t want to see it) but so far, their technique isn’t working too well. I regularly see a Rachael Ray diet beside my profile, despite regularly telling Facebook it’s irrelevant. I don’t want a Rachael Ray diet! I don’t want to start calling everything yummo.

Turns out YouTube is shutting down all copies of this pageant. Seems suspicious. Anyone know why?

This argument  makes a lot of sense. It says there’s this great divide between educational games and ‘fun’ games and this can be solved easily through more thoughtful development. It totally makes sense to me. People want to learn things they’re interested in – not things that are rammed down their throat. Video games can act as a conduit to that information. 

I’d like to think I’m trying this angle with the games I help write with my coworkers. For example, whenever I use a phrase such as Firewall or Verbosity, it’s sometimes suggested to me that “kids don’t know that term.” I’ve always believed that those kids who want to learn what that means will ask an adult or look it up themselves. Those who aren’t interested won’t absorb the content anyway.

Are there any educational games out there that are more about the fun? Let me know!