Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 188
March 6, 2017
Get To Know Radish, The Serialized Fiction App Bringing Novels To Smartphones
When Seung Yoon Lee was president of the Oxford Union, the centuries-old debating society at the famed English university, he says he saw himself as a “content curator.” Part of his job, after all, was to invite intellectuals, politicians, artists, and celebrities—everyone from Peter Thiel to John McCain to “Gangnam Style” rapper Psy—to come speak at Oxford.
“I imagined it as a 200-year-old Ted Talk,” he says.
The experience proved to be a training ground of sorts for Lee, who goes by “SY,” and who recently cofounded Radish, an iOS and Android mobile app for serialized fiction. The writers on Radish aren’t quite as famous as those whom Lee assembled at Oxford, but the idea behind the venture is similar: providing a platform for artists to express themselves. Even the tech component that drives Radish is something Lee was dabbling with at school—under his leadership, Oxford Union speeches made their debut on YouTube.
But the real innovation behind Radish, which recently raised $3 million from investors including the United Talent Agency, Bertelsmann Digital Media, and author Amy Tan, is that it allows its writers to make money from their writing. Unlike Wattpad, another fiction app that has taken off with young genre writers, Radish has a micro-payment system similar to online games like Candy Crush. The way it works is that anyone can get access to early chapters of Radish’s 700 authors, but if you want to keep reading, you have to pay, anywhere from 20 to 40 cents per chapter. (Those with patience, can wait until those chapters are made available for free a few weeks later.) Revenue generated by these payments is split 50-50 between Radish and its writers. As a result, Lee says the app’s top writer earns $13,000 a month.
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“Thanks to Candy Crush and other games,” says Lee, who has the youthful face and windswept hair of a pop star. “People have gotten really used to mobile micro-payments. So we said, why don’t we apply that model to books?”
Releasing installments of novels over a period of time to salivating readers dates back to Charles Dickens, someone whom Lee often refers to when giving his pitch about Radish. But the more recent inspiration comes from countries like Japan, China, and Lee’s native Korea, where “freemium” online publishing—where writers are rewarded in exchange for advance chapters—has become highly prevalent. Self-publishing websites attract over 40% of all of China’s internet users every month. And it’s lucrative: In China, top online writers—known as zhigaoshen, or “supreme gods”—can earn millions of dollars a year. Most of this money comes from royalty fees, as Chinese TV, movie, and gaming studios increasingly turn to online novelists (who typically specialize in short-form sci-fi, romance, and historical epics) for “IP” to turn into visual entertainment. According to the China Daily, 114 online novels were bought by entertainment companies in 2014, 90 of which were adapted into TV shows. Meanwhile, the Chinese online game company Giant Interactive bought 40 online novel copyrights during that time.
Wattpad has had the most success so far in adapting novels for the mobile age. A Toronto-based site and app that allows its mostly young, female fans to directly engage with authors and even comment on specific paragraphs, Wattpad has accrued over 45 million users. One of the novels published on the platform, After, by Anna Todd, has been read over 1 billion times. Simon & Schuster published the novel and its sequels—a romance inspired by One Direction’s Harry Styles—in book form, and Paramount optioned the film rights. Top writers on the platform can make money through these sorts of multimedia deals, as well as through advertising, but there is no direct payment system.
Robert Thier, a German writer (though he writes in English) who has over half a million followers on Wattpad, calls the platform “a Facebook around books.” He says that the fans he’s accumulated on the site have been “very useful” and “an amazing way to gather feedback from a wider audience who doesn’t normally have access to published books because they can’t get to them or afford them.” But even with his massive following, he hasn’t made any money.
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How Self Publishing Can Create a Solid Brand
It’s a big question in the business space: Is it better to self-publish a book or pitch it to a big publisher? It comes back to why you’re publishing a book in the first place. And with self publishing becoming easier than ever, Amazon has become loaded with best-sellers.
Books published in 2016 only have about a 1 percent chance of ever seeing the shelves of a bookstore, begging the question: Why publish at all? Well, that’s the wrong question. The question that the savvy entrepreneur should be asking is: Why use a publisher at all?
In 2015, Jared Kleinert published “2 Billion Under 20,” a book highlighting millennial entrepreneurs making world-changing moves. The book did well at first, but as with most large publication books it had a limited life cycle and Kleinert had limited rights. That’s because when you work with a publisher, like Kleinert, you waive rights to really owning you book, along with any ability to repurpose its content.
On Jan. 17, 2017, Kleinert released his follow up, “3 Billion Under 30.” This time, with one major difference; it’s self-published. He looked at why he’s really writing the book, something the modern author really has to look at. The purpose of the second book is to build a brand, and as a self publisher he can create a brand he can control.
According to Kleinert, what are the major reasons to self-publish?
Network: His book is a compilation of stories from 75 young entrepreneurs. He builds a connection with them by telling their story, in addition to helping them grow their own brands and business.
Press: You can promote the text online as blog posts or chapter excerpts, which would not be an option if you’re working with a publisher.
Working with the Best: Traditional publishers are losing the best editors and designers because they are beginning to understand that the free market will pay them much more for their work. As long as you are willing to pay, publishing a book yourself will allow to hire the cream of the crop and create a better and more authentic product than could have been done through a book publisher.
The positive and the negative of self-publishing is that the writer bears all the responsibility for marketing the book. However, the entrepreneur that has spent time building his network and knows the value in good PR can really knock it out of the park.
Another creative option that self-publishing allows for is joint ventures or getting others to promote your product. Find the right JV partners, preferably with massive email lists, offering them the right commission or incentives that will drive them to promote the book to their followers; creating a wider and more engaged reach than a publisher can create.
The book itself is no longer the product, but it is a conduit to what the book creates. Publishing a book is now about building a solid brand that has longevity. Publishing it yourself is the only way to really hold the reins of your brand.
Source:
https://www.business.com/articles/jeremy-ryan-slate-self-publishing-can-create-brand/
What is Sacred Geometry and How Can It Help Your Life?
The term ‘sacred geometry’ refers to various shapes and forms that have been used traditionally in art, architecture and meditation for thousands of years. These same shapes and forms are also found in natural organisms.
Sacred geometry can appear somewhat esoteric, but a basic understanding of sacred geometry can provide a helpful way of viewing our world that you can use in your own life.
What is sacred geometry?
Ancient cultures, including Christians, Hindus, Greeks and Egyptians, recognized that certain patterns or geometric shapes are repeated throughout nature. For instance, the cells of a honeycomb are hexagons, and a snail’s shell is a spiral.
These common patterns and shapes came to be known as sacred geometry. They were further broken down into various numbers, mathematical formulas and specific symbols that the ancients believed were the building blocks for everything in the universe.
Modern science supports this theory. It’s been found that the molecular shapes that form the basis of life are in fact many of the same patterns identified by ancient cultures.
Knowledge of these sacred symbols and mathematical formulas allowed the construction of many historical buildings, such as the great pyramids of Egypt, the Greek Parthenon and the intricate temples found throughout South and Central America.
Significant Shapes and Numbers
1. Sphere
The sphere is considered a container that can hold all forms. It represents oneness, inclusion and integrity as all measurements are equal in a sphere. Planets, seeds, cells and atoms are all spheres.
2. Circle
A circle is a two-dimensional representation of a sphere. It is thought to show the unity and total completeness of the universe. Also, the ratio of the circumference of a circle compared to its diameter is called Pi, which is an infinite number that never ends and never repeats.
3. Point
The center of a sphere or circle contains a point. All measurements either begin or end at a point, so it is typically associated with the beginning and ending of any type of creation.
4. Spirals
Many types of spirals exist, such as flat, 3-D, right- or left-handed, equi-angular and logarithmic. Perhaps the most well-known spiral is the shape of a nautilus shell. All types of spirals show expansion and growth and therefore symbolize infinity.
5. Toroids
A torus looks like a donut or an inner tube. The round sides are perfectly circular. Sacred geometry considers the torus a primary shape in all existence. For instance, the seven primary muscles in the heart form a torus.
6. The Vesica Piscis
In Latin, vesica piscis means the bladder of a fish. It’s the almond shape that is formed at the intersection of two circles of the same size when their centers touch.
The circles can represent the joining of a sperm and egg, leading to creation. It can also represent common ground or a shared vision between people. In the Christian tradition, it symbolizes Christ.
7. Platonic Solids
The platonic solids are a group of 3-dimensional shapes. Each one is made up of equal-sized faces, such as a pyramid shape with 4 equal faces. The five platonic solids are:
Tetrahedron – 4 faces in a pyramid shape
Hexahedron – 6 faces in a cube
Octahedron – 8 faces
Dodecahedron – 12 faces
Icosahedron – 20 faces
The ancient Greeks believed that these five shapes symbolized fire, earth, air, spirit (or ether) and water, respectively. These are the only five 3-dimentional shapes that can be made with equal-sized faces. They are called Platonic solids because Plato identified them in Greek times.
8. Metatron’s Cube
In Judaism, Metatron is the angel who guards God’s throne. The figure of Metatron’s Cube has been considered sacred for millennia. All five of the Platonic solids are found within the cube. Because of this, it is thought that Metatron’s Cube contains the building blocks of creation.
9. Flower of Life
This is an ancient symbol found throughout many global cultures. The modern term is Flower of Life. It is represented by multiple evenly-spaced circles overlapping each other to form a flower-like pattern. It is said to depict the fundamental forms and patterns of space and time. All the Platonic solids, the vesica piscis and Metatron’s Cube are within the Flower of Life symbol.
10. The Golden Ratio
Also known as phi or the golden mean, the golden ratio is a mathematical ratio that occurs when two items have the same ratio when compared to each other as the ratio of their sum compared to the larger of the two items. The diagram below graphically shows the golden ratio.
Studies have shown that people consider faces with proportions closest to the golden ratio as the most attractive. Many forms in nature also show this ratio, such as certain flower petals, tree branching structures, shells, DNA molecules and hurricanes. Interestingly, the growth pattern of a Romanesco broccoli is arranged in an almost perfect golden ratio.
How Sacred Geometry Can Help Your Life
Sacred geometry has played an important role in mathematics and engineering, but what can it do for your everyday life? A greater understanding of sacred geometry can have many benefits.
Improves your spatial understanding and visual ability. Many projects require an ability to imagine what is needed inside a certain space, such as planning a house renovation, determining what size of car to buy or laying out a new garden. Practice visualizing 3-dimentional shapes and dimensions will help with tasks like these.
Can assist with meditation and personal awareness. Mandalas are specific shapes used by various traditions to represent the universe and act as aids for meditation. You can work with mandalas to help your own meditation practice. Or you can simply decorate with symbols that are meaningful to you and place them as reminders throughout your home.
Promotes a greater appreciation of nature and the universe. Once you’re familiar with some of the basic shapes, you’ll start seeing how they repeat in many places throughout nature and man-made structures.
Enhances 3-D thinking. If you work in graphic design, movie production or any other type of design work, an awareness of sacred geometric patterns will help train your brain to see patterns and improve your design and 3-D skills. Studying the sacred shapes and patterns may give you some great ideas for your next project.
Engages your whole brain. The left side of our brain tends to be the more logical, technical side, whereas the right brain is typically the creative, intuitive side. For most of us, one side of the brain is usually dominant. The nature of geometry engages both sides of your brain and helps them to work together. This can make you more effective in life overall.
Source:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/what-is-sacred-geometry-and-how-can-it-help-your-life.html
How Echo, Google Home, and Other Voice Assistants Can Change the Game for Content Creators
Publishers gave a lot of blood, sweat, and tears getting their content up-to-speed on mobile over the past few years. But that’s a platform primarily geared to eyeballs and fingertips—something they knew a bit about. Now, things are getting audible with speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo and Google Home, featuring Google Assistant. And, according to experts, publishers have to adjust. To do otherwise is to risk being drowned out by the sound waves of competitors and overlooked by consumers eager for immediate gratification audio.
Smart speakers aren’t simple, one-way Bluetooth-?enabled waterproof woofers and tweeters that make nice stocking stuffers for music-loving teenagers. They’re powerful digital assistants, tethered to your home, that use two-way voice computing technology without having to rely on your smartphone or its tinny little speakers. And that makes them game changers for content providers.
“Smart speakers are helping content publishers become truly ubiquitous. Today, they can reach their users only on screen-based devices, and then only when the user is actively engaged with them,” says Beerud Sheth, co-founder and CEO of Gupshup, a bot developer that is partnering with Google to make it easier for companies and developers to interface with Google Assistant. “With voice-based smart speakers and their AI [artificial intelligence] assistants, content publishers can be an ambient presence throughout their user’s environment, and the smart bots they create can also personalize news for the user—delivering only specified content to them.”
Consider what that means to Echo users. In addition to following voice commands to play music, answer questions, purchase merchandise, and manage smart home devices, Echo can stream virtually anything playing on your phone, tablet, or laptop, including radio channels via TuneIn and podcasts from iHeartRadio. It can also read ebooks and audiobooks. Amazon has partnered with many publishers to provide content via Echo and Echo Dot, including The Guardian, CNET, GateHouse Media, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing.
Google Home offers similar features, including the ability to stream Google Play and Spotify and read the latest headlines and stories from content partners such as VentureBeat, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and BuzzFeed. Most recently, Google teamed up with CNBC and NBC News to feature their news stories and headlines on Google Home.
Smart speakers provide an exciting new distribution mechanism for digital content providers, says Andrew Cross, VP and partner at Walker Sands. “While the format doesn’t lend itself well to deep content yet, it does make the content accessible to a potentially large subset of new consumers,” he says.
Long term, these devices provide an opportunity for content to be delivered to the user at the right point in time, based on predetermined or specified behaviors. “The classic example is waking up in the morning to news headlines. As you walk into a geofenced area, such as your kitchen, your AI assistant reads you your calendar for the day, and as you approach the front door, you get a weather report,” Cross says.
Many believe consumers will increasingly become more dependent on smart speakers and their ilk. “That’s because they will offer news in a much more interactive manner than traditional news sources. The user will be able to skip a story or dive deeper, as required, and even query the assistant for specific topics and further customize and personalize the experience over time,” says Sheth. “Once that’s done, there’s no going back to traditional passive content sources.”
Annie Scott Riley, digital strategy director for Carmichael Lynch Relate, agrees. “We need to adapt our editorial practices to provide the relevant, succinct content that people are looking for. Because these devices are providing consumers increasingly passive ways to access content, we have to be smarter about how we match their queries,” says Riley. And smarter, too, about the way content is written for smart speakers. “People are looking to get news content in a quickly digestible way—short, smart, interactive radio. Content providers may or may not be fit for this radio style, based on their content and user activity,” Riley adds.
Jordan Edelson, founder and CEO of Appetizer Mobile, says partnering with major news players such as NBC and The Guardian legitimizes and gives street cred to these devices and their technology. “Having major news players adopt the technology sends a positive message to other content providers,” Edelson says. “Other large content providers will follow suit.”
But that doesn’t mean there’s ample room for the small-fry publisher inside that smart speaker. “Smaller content providers are definitely fighting an uphill battle when it comes to preference for inclusion on platforms like Echo and Google Home,” says Cross. “It’s still in the early innings of user adoption, so it makes sense that Amazon, Google, and others would seek out partnerships with tier one content providers that bring an audience of their own to the platform and lend credibility out of the gates.”
Edelson believes it may be several years before smaller publishers gain greater entry into the smart speaker market, especially if Amazon and Google strike exclusive deals that limit competition. “Having content that is popular among users, is unique, and provides the greatest utility will have the best shot at gaining entry,” says Edelson. “Thankfully, smart speaker manufacturers are giving access to developers to integrate with their software development kits. …”
Any content provider can climb aboard the Alexa bandwagon now by creating a Flash Briefing skill; a Flash Briefing is customizable audio—often in the form of news updates, interviews, lists, and comedy bits—that Alexa can read aloud or play to users. Major content players currently offering Flash Briefings include the Associated Press, NPR, and the BBC.
Publishers can also interface with Google Home by working with the Actions on Google platform and building Conversation Actions that allow two-way dialogue with users.
“Content providers can get into the game by launching a chatbot for these platforms that’s simple and easy. Once they see users interacting with it, they can refine the end-user experience and add more advanced capabilities,” says Sheth.
Content players will need to keep pace in the voice assistant space or risk getting left behind, Sheth insists. “The past paradigm shifts—from desktop to websites and then to mobile apps—have been highly disruptive to content providers,” he says. “The ones that survived were early adopters who figured out the new medium and transformed their product and business models accordingly. The shift toward intelligent bots is going to be equally disruptive. Content providers will need to learn and adapt.”
Riley, however, isn’t so sure smart speakers represent a major paradigm shift. “Beyond shopping capabilities and seeking partnership opportunities, content providers should wait on investing heavily in adapting for these devices,” she says. Riley believes that the real game changer will eventually be a device that incorporates smart visual projection and motion-sensing solutions. “These audio assistants are a half step in technology, and publishers will need to redo everything in a matter of months when someone hits the market with a visual complement.”
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