design : Innovation + Job News

Zaahah is a new collaborative search and online desktop that combines beauty and brains. James Sisneros, who created the recently launched site under the aegis of his company startUP Productions LLC, has just raised seed funding from a group of independent angel investors from South Jersey. The undisclosed sum will carry the startup for the next six months, according to Sisneros, who begins seeking a Series A round this week. 

 

Sisneros came up with the idea for Zaahah while taking an executive course at Wharton. The platform takes social search one step further. First, Zaahah allows users to separate work, personal and academic profiles, rather than lump them all into one massive favorites bin.

 

But the real genius of Zaahah is in the networking. When search results are returned, Zaahah lets users know who else is searching on the same topic. Users can communicate in a completely firewalled manner. Each user has an anonymous Zaahah email address. This functionality will be particularly helpful for researchers at different academic institutions or companies. 

 

"It will eliminate redundant effort," explains Sisneros. "If we are in different offices searching on the same problem, we will see that." Students across the country will be able to connect on shared topics. Zaahah also allows users to chat in real time as well as store search criteria, annotated results and related documents in the cloud.

 

Sisneros has teamed up with Edventure Partners to launch Zaahah through colleges and universities nationwide. "There are classes at 12 universities who will market Zaahah for the semester. They're responsible for market research and public campaigns. A team of 300 people is doing the marketing for me." Sisneros has a four year exclusive agreement with Edventures, which will be marketing his search engine at 66 universities over the next two years. Zaahah now employs three developers and two marketing specialists, all on a full time contract basis.

 

Zaahah, which can also be accessed via browser plug-in, does not look like any other search engine out there. As opposed to a blank slate, the landing page is filled with attractive images that correspond to popular search terms. Ads run down the right side of the page. Sisneros also plans to create a hybrid advertising and discount program for Zaahah users, who will receive eight email offers a month for deals on products and services based on search topics.

Source: James Sisneros, Zaahah
Writer: Sue Spolan

If you see your name on a game leaderboard, it's natural to want to make it to the No. 1 spot. Hoopla Software, based in West Chester, provides game dynamics to sales teams. Hoopla recently raised $2.3 million in Series A round financing, of which Safeguard Scientifics deployed $1.3 million.

 

When Mike Smalls, Hoopla founder and CEO, launched the company at the end of 2009, he says, "I didn't even know what gamification was." His desire to combine gaming and sales came, rather, from solving his own challenges running the sales aspect of organizations, including TurnTide, which was sold to Symantec, and Destiny Software. "It's always a challenge trying to get optimal behaviors and actions from your team." 

 

Smalls, looking into psychological and motivational elements, discovered game mechanics. "I didn't know it at the time, but I was stumbling across the same market as gamification of the enterprise. I was focused on the sales call center world."

 

The feed on Hoopla's wall mount monitor has a sports-like feel, and its graphics have been compared to ESPN. "The audience we are targeting, sales and call center folks, tend to be heavy sports fans. It works for them to have the analysis played out." He adds that sales people tend to be more competitive. "It's a little more in your face culture of competition. You wouldn't apply the same model to the Human Resources department," says Smalls.

 

Hoopla's initial product was a free countdown clock app for Salesforce, which generated a database of 400 customers. Smalls considers the scoreboard which followed to be Hoopla's flagship product, with "dozens and dozens" of customers already, without a lot of marketing. "Every one of our paid customers has come to us. We've built relationships with Salesforce sales reps or on the App Exchange." 

 

Hoopla's scoreboard technology is available on an annual subscription basis. Price points are based on the number of users, says Smalls, who estimates the cost at about a hundred dollars per user per year.

Source: Mike Smalls, Hoopla
Writer: Sue Spolan

Size Seeker, you are blowing my mind. A new company about to launch out of University City has the potential to vastly improve the online clothes shopping experience. "Only about 7 percent of clothes are for sale online," says Ian Campbell, co-founder of Size Seeker, which uses Xbox 360 Kinect technology to find correctly sized clothing for online shoppers.
 

Size Seeker will officially launch at this month's Philly Tech Meetup. "It's not necessarily bad to be provocative when you are an entrepreneur," says Campbell. "Retail is about entertainment and being edgy." Campbell and partner Mona Safabakhsh met in the Wharton MBA program, where they are both currently enrolled.

"We each had clothing in closets that we'd bought online," recalls Campbell of the company's inception. "It's hard to find what size you are. Due to a vanity sizing problem, you don't know if you're a medium or a large. We both had clothes in our closet that were past the 30 day return window. We'd ended up with clothes that were never worn."
 

Settling upon the Kinect for Xbox 360 as a means to measure people accurately in the comfort of their own home, Size Seeker built a program that captures the shopper's entire body in a matter of seconds. Campbell compares that with other programs that may take five minutes or longer to achieve the same results. Partnering with TC Squared, Size Seeker was able to create a database of 100,000 body scans, bringing the accuracy of future scans to within an inch.
 

Using the Xbox for Size Seeker gamifies fashion, says Campbell, who adds that the online clothing industry shows enormous potential, growing 20 to 25 percent over the last 10 years.
 

Size Seeker is now looking to hire developers for the data platform. "We are a B to B company," explains Campbell. "We are essentially helping brands and retailers reduce return costs and convert new customers." Size Seeker's technology may have the power to bring the clothing industry up to speed with items such as computers, of which 50 percent are now sold online.

Source: Ian Campbell, Size Seeker
Writer: Sue Spolan

Innovation in Philadelphia: it's not just all about tech. Government, retail, media and the way we work and live made major strides forward in 2011.

The University of the Arts' Corzo Center for the Creative Economy funded arts entrepreneurs this year, and businesses like Little Baby's Ice Cream, Kembrel, Gritty City Beauty, LevelUp and ReAnimator Coffee are just a few examples of the retail revolution underway in Philadelphia. Storably and Inhabi launched to re-imagine rentals. Milkboy Coffee expanded from Ardmore to Center City, and made plans to move its recording studio downtown as well.

Crowdsourced civic change is a major trend in Philadelphia's innovation efforts. We were named a Code for America city the second year in a row; programs like Open Access Philly and Change By Us live at the intersection of technology and civic engagement, with government stewardship by Jeff Friedman. Adel Ebeid arrived to lead the city's newly formed Office of Innovation and Technology in increasing broadband penetration.

TEDxPhilly, Young Involved Philadelphia, Philly Tech Week, PhillyStake, the Philadelphia Geek Awards and IgnitePhilly mixed business with pleasure, merging crowds and companies in festive settings.

Gaming and gamification continues to trend; local efforts include Cipher Prime, Port 127, Play Eternal and networking group PANMA.

Incubators and coworking spaces surged, with Indy Hall making expansion plans for K'House, Philadev's Musemaka, OpenDesks, Startup Therapy, and Novotorium in Langhorne.

In media, Wharton Publishing went all digital; Ryan Seacrest opened The Voice studio at CHOP; G Philly, Hidden City's Daily and Generocity launched; WHYY's Newsworks grew; and if it was relevant to technology, Technically Philly covered it all this year, never missing a beat.

Writer: Sue Spolan

Stephan Jacob began his Wharton MBA with a specific plan. The day he decided to start Kembrel, an online retailer that now has a brick and mortar presence, was the day he applied to Penn. "For me, those two years were about finding partners I could trust to start a business," says Jacob of Cherif Habib and Aymeric de Hemptinne, Kembrel co-founders and fellow MBA grads. Kembrel recently raised $1 million in startup funding from MentorTech Ventures, Blazer Ventures, and private sources.

Jacob, who grew up in Germany, came to Philadelphia with a degree in computer science from the University of Mannheim. None of the founders was born in the United States.

"I was not at all into fashion," admits Jacob. "Fashion as consumer, yes. But I was more into web and software development. It's been an interesting learning curve, understanding how the industry works in the United States, identifying the supplier network."

Jacob credits Wharton with essentials like connecting Kembrel with advisors and investors, and even the company name, inspired by Wharton's Vice Dean of Student Life, Kembrel Jones, AKA Dean Of Happiness.

The retail operation launched its first beta version in April 2010. "It was a business with a plan, not just a business plan," says Jacob. "We dedicated that summer full time to the business and launched in September of 2010 with the vision of being a marketing platform for consumer brands that reach the college demographic."

With 32,000 online subscribers and 400 members who have signed up for the newly introduced  VIP level, Kembrel has a national reach, with a presence on over 2,000 campuses. The greatest activity is at Penn, University of Texas, University of Cincinnati, Northeastern, Harvard, Florida State, Ohio State, and University of Michigan.

Kembrel just opened up a store at 1219 Locust, which is also the company headquarters and fulfillment center. "We've only been open since Nov. 18, and it's interesting to see the cross conversion. It's something we are still experimenting with, how we can create a consistent experience for our customers in store and offline." The ability to stop in and try on clothing alleviates the fit problem with online purchases, Jacob adds.

Jacob agrees that Kembrel must compete with the big brick and mortar players who already have an online presence, but that Kembrel represents more aspiring, less known labels and young designers who are not in national chains.

The company, with five full time employees and under $50,000 in monthly sales, is hiring on the buying and merchandising end, and is now looking into growing its national physical presence.

Source: Stephan Jacob, Kembrel
Writer: Sue Spolan

PCS Technologies, located in the Hunting Park section of Philadelphia, has been around for 20 years, but the past two years have seen rapid growth under the leadership of Chandra Allred.

"We just hired two people, and we are looking for more," says Allred, chief operating officer of PCS, who is still in search of a technical/creative writer, as well as programmers.

With clients that include Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie, The Gap (which also owns five brands, including Banana Republic and Old Navy), and Bed Bath and Beyond, PCS is a supply chain software firm. Their product, PCSTrac, helps companies keep tabs on millions of pieces of inventory.

"The Gap has 3,500 stores," explains Allred of just one of PCS Technologies' clients. "They use our scanning software to populate the enterprise wide system. Store associates don't scan at all. It's a huge labor savings." And a huge responsibility. "If there is an issue with our application, it's not just affecting the logistics and supply chain, but it's also affecting national and international inventory."

With under 25 employees, PCS software makes sure a million cartons a week get from the manufacturer to the store. Allred left her consulting business to join PCS in 2009. She was hired to retool the company's strategy.

"They were at a pivotal point in terms of growth. One of the co-owners of the firm approached me about running the company," Allred explains. "Since then there has been tremendous growth. In two years, our client base has more than doubled, and our installations have tripled."

PCS, says Allred, makes its money through recurring revenue. While there are initial licensing fees for its software, the company's main revenue stream comes from monthly product support fees.

"It's the reverse of a lot of software applications," says Allred. "In this industry, normal maintenance costs are 18 percent of licensing costs. Ours is completely flipped. Our software is very high maintenance. If data isn't showing up, you're stuck. It's a production environment."

Next time you're trying on a fuzzy cardigan at Urban Outfitters, it's PCS that gets it there.

Source: Chandra Allred, PCS Technologies
Writer: Sue Spolan

Cipher Prime has the market cornered on the music of beauty, and the beauty of music. The startup game developer based in Old City recently released Fractal: Make Blooms Not War on the Steam network, which Cipher Prime co-founder and Creative Director William Stallwood terms the largest game distribution platform in the world, for Mac or PC in English, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

With in-game titles like Clustodial Duties and Bippity Boppity Bloom, Fractal is a good example of Cipher Prime's philosophy of fun, creating a new genre of trippy puzzle games.

"I like pretty pictures and colors," jokes Stallwood, who is responsible for the gorgeous graphics that set apart Cipher Prime games like its newest title, Pulse: Volume One, which Stallwood says was the number one selling iPad music game in the world in May 2011, and Auditorium, the team's first title and its largest revenue generator.

Like the other titles in the Cipher Prime catalog, Pulse is easy to learn and hard to put down. A review in Digitally Downloaded called the newest release of Fractal " a thoroughly charming and chilled out little puzzle game." 

Co-founder Dain Saint is the soundtrack powerhouse of the duo, and Cipher Prime's music is set to spin off, with an upcoming CD release of game tunes.

Stallwood says the three and a half year old company is about to launch a fourth title, Splice, in the next month, although he cannot furnish details just yet. Stallwood, who is from South Jersey and attended the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and Saint, who grew up in North Jersey, are able to make a living having fun. Auditorium was a web based game that was then launched on iPhone, PS3 and PSP.

Fractal, built using Flash, initially didn't do as well, says Stallwood, hence the new and improved relaunch on Steam. Pulse began life as an iPad only game, and has won many awards, with 10,000 downloads a day at the outset, and currently purchased an average of 100 times a day, at a price of $2.99. Fractal is available at the iTunes store for $1.99, and Auditorium on Steam sells for $6.99 per download.

Source: William Stallwood, Cipher Prime
Writer: Sue Spolan
 

If you've got an idea for a frictionless startup, then you have a shot at winning $5,000, no strings attached.

Philadev Ventures, the startup accelerator, has just launched Musemaka.com. A maximum of 200 entrants vie for one slot, paying a $100 entry fee. The winner gets a $5,000 budget to create a company. "We hold a challenge open until it has 200 entrants or for a period of three months, whichever comes first," says Philadev co-founder Chris Myers. "During a three-month period, we could fill one challenge or five. Whatever the number, winners are announced 30 days after a particular challenge closes."

Phil Ives, who co-founded Philadev with Myers, defines a frictionless startup as any business idea that costs little or nothing to start. Take the example of a blog. "If you are the writer, and you act as editor, it costs no money to start," says Ives. "Another example is a startup that begins with the design of a physical widget which can be outsourced to China, and requires a three to four thousand dollar initial investment to start selling products."

Philadev has been in business for one year, and Ives says of the six initial companies under its wings, two are about to launch publicly, although he cannot divulge details just yet.

"We have a couple of startups in our accelerator that would be better for this," says Ives of the inspiration for Musemaka. "For us as Philadev, if they don't raise venture or sell their idea, we can never see revenue."

Philadev will not take equity from Musemaka companies, but Ives is open to a future equity relationship. "It's a way for us to discover new startups," he says.

Ives is greatly influenced by the work of Tim Ferriss, whose bestselling book outlines the concept of the Four Hour Work Week. Ferriss defines a muse as an idea that can be tested for under $500, automated within 4 weeks and maintained within a maximum of one hour per week.

"The rolling nature of the application process is important because it helps to address the startup discovery problem I identify on the site regarding Y Combinator.," says Myers. "That's the most extreme example, but it is really difficult to imagine  how any venture group that employs business judgment to evaluate submissions is capable of handling 520,000 submissions a year, as Y Combinator does.

"The result is probably lots of good startups left out of the running. Their application numbers to class size gives startups something along the order of a 1 in 5,000 chance," adds Myers, who also indicates that an applicant has a better chance of getting into Harvard than Y Combinator. 

Says Ives: "This contest addresses a big piece missing from existing small business development organizations. Those places seem really good at helping people open up a physical retail space, but they haven't really cracked the nut on software as a service."

Money, he adds, is never the reason a business doesn't get built. And a big part of the Musemaka package is sage advice from Philadev, including when to call in the high priced lawyers, and when to start small and build.

Ives and Myers have just begun the process of getting the word out about Musemaka, and expect applications to start rolling in within the next month or so.

Source: Phil Ives, Chris Myers, Musemaka
Writer: Sue Spolan

Philadelphia continues to grow in its national leadership role as a center for all things green and sustainable. This weekend, The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia hosts the 2011 Social Venture Institute, a two-day seminar with the mission of growing green businesses now in its ninth year.

"The Social Venture Institute is our region's premier sustainable business event. SVI was one of the first conferences to discuss the Triple Bottom Line business model of incorporating People, Planet and Profit into a business’ success," says Jennifer Devor, Events Manager at SBN. "While the audience is primarily from the Greater Philadelphia area, we do have a handful of entrepreneurs coming from around the country. We have people registering from as far away as Washington State."

Mayor Michael Nutter, who was handily re-elected for a second term last week, emphasized the role of Philadelphia as a center of sustainability in his acceptance speech:

"Four years ago I said that Philly could be the greenest city in the United States of America. Today the federal government is investing $130 million at our Navy Yard to build a clean tech hub, our recycling rate is three times higher than it has ever been, and we are one of the leading cities in America taking advantage of the growth in the green economy."

The Social Venture Institute (SVI) will take place at The Hub, self-proclaimed as the only privately held LEED Silver certified meeting space in the country. Rather than keynotes, SVI has True Confession Speakers, including Paul Saginaw, co-owner of Michigan based Zingerman's Community of Businesses, and MaryAnne Howland, owner and president of Nashville, Tenn., ad agency Ibis Communications.

The schedule, aimed at teaching "entrepreneurs how to run successful businesses that have a positive social and environmental impact," includes workshops and networking sessions that cover topics from finance to social media. Devor expects around 200 attendees and 30 experts, including representatives from Praxis Consulting Group, Women’s Business Development Center, Valley Green Bank, and Technically Philly.

"This conference is about learning how to balance your business goals with your passions and change the way people run businesses," says Devor.

Eighty scholarships, funded by The Prudential Foundation, are available to minority entrepreneurs and low-income applicants and reduce the cost to $40; full price tickets range from $45 to 180, depending on the number of sessions you'd like to attend. Both scholarship and full price tickets are still available.

Source: Jennifer Devor, Sustainable Business Network, Mayor Michael Nutter, City of Philadelphia
Writer: Sue Spolan

Here comes the promise of Mayor Nutter. In less than two years, Jeff Friedman has revolutionized Philadelphia's role in connecting community engagement and technology. On Oct. 28, Friedman, manager of the Mayor's Office of Civic Innovation & Participation, hosted Crowdsourcing at the Intersection, a free all-day Open Access Philly conference.

Speakers at the Science Center's Quorum included crowd pleasers Robert Cheetham, Alex Hillman, Geoff Dimasi, Desiree Peterkin-Bell and Paul Wright, co-leader of the forum and Comcast's project manager for Local Media Development and the new Project Open Voice initiative.

Mayor Michael Nutter, who offered remarks right at the top of the program, announced that Philadelphia's efforts have won a top-10 place on the Public Technology Institute's list of Citizen Engaged Communities. "We are in the customer service business," says Nutter of the city government's outreach strategy, in which open data and constant communication is crucial. During his speech, Nutter tweeted a photograph of the audience to prove his point.

Friedman stated as his broad goal a movement without strict membership rules convened to articulate a shared vision for open access to data. Cheetham's company Azavea, in partnership with NPowerPA, Technically Philly, and The William Penn Foundation, created the Open Data Race, and Cheetham announced winners at the forum.

Out of dozens of contenders, first place went to Public School Notebook, which wants data on where Philadelphia public school students go after 12th grade; in close second place, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia requested information on bike thefts, and third place went to Conservation Pennsylvania for vacant land data. In addition to information, winners receive cash prizes of up to $2,000.

Source: Jeff Friedman, Mayor Michael Nutter, City of Philadelphia; Robert Cheetham, Azavea
Writer: Sue Spolan

VCopious is expanding rapidly. The nine month-old, Conshohocken-based software company just announced it has received funding of an undisclosed amount from a consortium of four funders, including Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA, Emerald Stage2 Ventures, MAG and Silicon Valley Bank.

CEO Ken Hayward says VCopious is now "into a stage of development geared toward market facing activity," and capital raised in this round of funding will go toward global expansion. VCopious also announced that Siemens Corporation has signed a multi-year agreement to use the VC2 platform, billed as the "world's first virtual spaces application server appliance." The firewalled networking, socializing and tracking tool allows people to meet in cyberspace, regardless of physical location.

VCopious already has a strong relationship with SAP, which it counted as one of its first customers. "It's a proven model," says Hayward of the technology that was built with no original outside financing. "Unlike other tech startups that are trying to raise money to build the technology, we've been out raising money to expand market activities."

The next step for VCopious is to build out a sales organization that's focused on high level direct sales to enterprise, and then find distribution partners that will move the product beyond the reach of its own direct sales force, according to Hayward. "One of the most sought-after destinations is around collaboration, ecommerce and social media. Between those, the VCopious platform is an aggregation tool for all those capabilities."

While Hayward will not talk about revenue or company growth in concrete terms, he projects that the company's staff will double by the end of 2012, from 25 to 50 employees, which is impressive for a company that only launched in early 2010.

Source: Ken Hayward, VCopious
Writer: Sue Spolan
 

If you want to know how young Philly's doing, let me sum it up for you: smart and good looking. From the highest reaches of government right down to our youngest up and comers, there's never been a more attractive bunch of people in charge.

The second annual State of Young Philly, convened by the all-volunteer Young Involved Philadelphia for a two-week run, was a series of six events designed to engage, connect and represent citizens. Targeting community engagement, education, sustainability and the creative economy, State of Young Philly drew close to 1,000 young professionals and representatives from over 50 organizations in the city, according to organizers. From the first packed event at World Cafe Live on Oct. 4 to the standing-room only crowd at the finale at The Gershman Y, the crowd was diverse in age and background and alike in its forward-thinking approach.

Claire Robertson-Kraft, Young Involved Philadelphia Board Chair, says, "When I first moved to Philadelphia just over a decade ago, I was initially struck by the negativity of the city. But the spirit in the discussions over the course of the past few weeks has been very different than that initial perception I got when I first moved here. Rather than focusing solely on what was in need of improvement, each of the discussions was as much about how to build on already existing innovation and assets the city has to offer."

Alain Joinville, Public Affairs Coordinator for the city's Department of Parks and Recreation and a Young Involved Philly board member, adds, "It was easier to get partnering organizations involved. The State of Young Philly series is the biggest and most audacious project our organization has undertaken in its 11-year history, and we did it pretty well last year, so we are seen as a credible organization in the eyes of the City's leaders and leading organizations."

Robertson-Kraft points to several initiatives that launched in the lead-up to this year's State of Young Philly: a local version of the online web portal Change By Us,a partnership with United Way to improve Philadelphia public education, entry into the Open Data Philly challenge, and social media hashtags #WhyILovePhilly and #PhillyArts.

But ultimately, the draw of State of Young Philly is the promise of doing good combined with a commitment to fun. Reports Robertson-Kraft, "Let’s just say that the after-party went into the late hours of the night. At all of our events, we strive to achieve that perfect balance of meaningful conversation and a good time."

It's a whole new take on a thousand points of light.

Source: Claire Robertson-Kraft, Young Involved Philly
Writer: Sue Spolan

If you want to get ahead in the startup world, it helps to be audacious. Startup Weekend Philadelphia took place this past weekend, and the winner was Eff the PPA, a mobile app for finding parking, preventing tickets, and fighting parking tickets for a mere $5 fee. Second place went to HangPlan, a mobile app and website that helps people make plans with friends. Third place was awarded to Intro'd, a simple mobile app for connecting your colleagues.

Philly Startup Weekend (Twitter hashtag #phlsw) took place at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, thanks to law professor Karl Okamoto, who was also a participant in the 54-hour event. Okamoto's initiative, ApprenNet, with the Law Meets project, grew out of the first Philly Startup Weekend in February and is already in use in 60 law schools as a way to leverage peer learning, with potential vertical applications in other kinds of businesses. In fact, Okamoto and team will be meeting with a national restaurant chain this week to see if the Meets model can translate to hospitality management.

But back to the winners. Eff the PPA draws its rebel energy from the team of Drexel Law student Hans Smith and entrepreneurs Ted Mann and Ashwin Dhir. In short order, the team built a powerful app that even includes a geolocation function and timer so you don't lose track of your vehicle or the time left on your meter. The team exhorts, "It's time to beat the parking authority at their own game. This app gives you the inside scoop on how to score a legal spot. And if you are still socked with a ticket, it gives you a quick and easy way to get it thrown out." While judge Tracy Welson-Rossman voiced her concerns about the name, saying she didn't want to sign up for the startup's twitter feed, the group got the most audible and hearty audience response of all presenters.

HangPlan, which came from the mind of Melissa Morris-Ivone, who recently made an impression at Ignite Philly with her presentation about the Operation Nice blog, is a way to streamline social gatherings. Rather than find out after the fact about a great party, HangPlan, endorsed by Philly Party Ambassador, lets users get the scoop before the first toast. "We not only created a web app, mobile app, and an API, but we developed a brand, gathered research, and put together a social media presence," says Morris-Ivone.

You can see a full list of all 20 startups that presented this weekend. Brad Oyler, one of the organizers of the weekend, thinks the more full-time presence of mentors made a big difference and he's looking forward to the next startup weekend in April.

"Also, a lot of the teams focused on customer feedback to help shape their business," says Oyler. "A few teams, like SME Brain and ApprenNet, even had meetings with some serious clients."

Source: Karl Okamoto, Brad Oyler, Melissa Morris-Ivone, Philadelphia Startup Weekend
Writer: Sue Spolan

It's pretty much impossible to surf the web these days without coming across some kind of gamelike feature. Do a Google search and a glinting +1 button accompanies each result, beckoning you to click. What's all this about? It's called gamification, and it's the hot topic for web design. There's only one problem. No one really knows how gamification works. There is no formula for fun.

Last Monday (Oct. 3), Penn's Wharton School hosted Gamification: Practical Advice from Game Developers. Ultimately, practical advice was trumped by theory. Panelists and speakers agreed that gamification is a nearly undefinable term. We know it when we see it. But how to achieve it?

If you think about the kids today and their incessant videogaming, refocusing the online experience to act more like a game makes sense. "Ninety-seven percent of kids 12 to 17 play videogames," cited Wharton professor Kevin Werbach, referring to a recent Gartner study. The mobile check-in service Foursquare is the poster child for gamifying, he said, with its point system, leaderboards, badges and fun little icons. Werbach also pointed to FoldIt, which was developed by researchers to crowdsource the process of protein folding. Werbach's current provisional definition of gamification: "The use of game elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts."

It's plenty easy to define what gamification is not. But getting to a place of practice is quite another challenge. Panelists included Frank Lee from Drexel University's gaming program who comes from a psychology background; Playmatic's Margaret Wallace; Ethan Mollick, an assistant professor at Wharton; Jesper Juul, who writes The Ludologist blog and is a visiting prof at NYU; and 30 year gaming veteran Eric Goldberg, managing director of Crossover Technologies.

Mollick, who wrote the book Changing The Game, said that the billions of hours spent online playing games are a powerful message to business. "It's a reality is broken approach," explained Mollick. "Life is boring. Games are fun." One thing all agree upon: if gamifying a site is purely a marketing ploy, it will not fly. Chris Grant, editor in Chief of Joystiq, posited to the panel that no one is fooled by a crass attempt at commercialization. Gamifying cannot be unethical, immoral, or exploiting people's time.

Eric Goldberg responded, "Games are an art form, like movies and fiction. One of the core lessons game developers learn early on is that we are in the crack cocaine business. It's the manipulation of people. Manipulation, like any other tool, has the potential for evil and good."

So, back to practical advice. Mollick concluded, "Fun is hard to theorize about. Competition is fun. Randomness and art are fun. The best way to figure out what is fun is through development, testing and gathering data on how to get closer to fun." Because fun is good. And quite possibly lucrative.

Source: Kevin Werbach, Ethan Mollick, Eric Goldberg, Chris Grant, Wharton Gamification Conference
Writer: Sue Spolan