Come be part of making this game awesome!

[Jacob Corvidae]

We've got a great volunteer team working with actual seed money to make a gamified program to revolutionize how people take action on sustainability work to improve their own homes, lives, communities and the world. It's like LEED, OK Cupid, and Girl Scouts all rolled up with game design.

We're working on a lot of cool pieces. If you are interested in helping with setting up digital support architecture (from Wikis to Discourse forums), creating simple flash animations, developing outreach materials, setting up sound support or any number of other things. Or playtesting!  Or something else that you're interested in contributing. Let's talk.

This is going to be an epic win.

You heard it here first.

Let me know if you're interested.

Jacob Corvidae

[Filipa Campos]

Hi Jacob,

Are you still looking for contributors?

Could you tell me more about the project?

Thanks.

[Kirsten Bonanza]

I'm interested in learning more as well.  Possibly helping with outreach materials, definitely playtesting.

:)

Kirsten

[Jacob Corvidae]

Hello Filipa and Kirsten, 

Here's the next layer of information about the program below. I'll be sure to post playtesting info later. Let me know about any other interest - see a few of the ideas above.

- Jacob

OVERVIEW

   The project is called Actioniirs. Most Americans* have taken some steps to reduce their environmental impact. Interest is there. Actioniirs will help turn that interest into action. We will remove some of the common barriers to make personal sustainable changes easier, more rewarding and more fun. It creates an empowered pathway for people to improve their own lives while helping their communities and the world.  Imagine what's possible when a majority of any neighborhood, church or workplace is made up of Actioniirs.

Goals
Our goals in 2013 are:

1. Create the basic platform in a way that is functional and fun
2. Conduct 2 pilots
3. Enroll 1,000 people
4. 90% participation of enrollees, meaning they complete the basic assessment, and return to mark at least 1 new action taken.

Vision

Note that these visions are based on the Ari Weinzweig approach, as explained here: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/creating-a-company-vision.html .

Vision for the Actioniirs program 3 years after launch:

The Actioniirs community is huge with many thousands of active participants. While some of the earliest users have reached a plateau and aren't making many changes to their own homes or lives at this point, most are still active participants in the community, sharing tips and encouraging newer members to go farther. It is this community of human connections that has made this program truly remarkable. People aren't just participants. They are Actioniirs, and they have made amazing things happen. We are all proud of the anticipated impacts, the aggregated energy savings, water savings, etc. that have inspired so many to do their part. Those of us who were part of  designing the Actioniirs program didn't anticipate the creative ways that the Actioniirs themselves would invent of taking this farther, supporting each other in ways that weren't designed into the program, and building their collective impact.

That impact is significant, with large measurable reductions in energy and water use, healthier homes, and other green impacts. Data collection is built into the program, and the aggregate results inspire individuals to add their own personal efforts to community-wide goals.

Community and action have always been at the heart of this program. It's successfully navigated the balance between online tools and interactions on the one hand and material changes to people's homes, behaviors and face-to-face interactions on the other. Testimonials are frequently coming in from people about how much they appreciate Actioniirs, and how enrolling has changed other things in their lives. They've taken better control of their finances, they're making healthy choices, and they're helping others do the same. People describe a feeling of empowerment and integrity and actually accomplishing what they already believed would be good things to do. And that feeling, for many, has been transformative. People share stories of how they've gone on to make other changes in their lives which aren't part of Actioniirs, but which they attribute to their success here. This is the inspiration that keeps us all, as a community, so committed to being a part of Actioniirs and continually helping it get better - and get to more people.

Changes at the community scale have also been inspiring. A few neighborhoods, workplaces and congregations have gotten 100% participation in the program, and their stories are compelling. They talk about the way that this work brought them together as a community, but how they also enjoy the benefits. Employees describe their workplace as more fun for the friendships they developed through this program. One congregation made a special fund that people paid into from their utility savings, and they now use that fund to support disaster relief in another country. Neighborhoods have declared themselves energy secure zones and are showing how their foreclosure rates have dropped dramatically since reducing utility costs so much. We've even had one marriage that resulted from Actioniirs meeting through the program!

So we all keep going on to spread the love, and sure enough it's spreading farther. What started in Metro Detroit is now being used nationally, and it looks like we have lots of interest in dramatic growth in the years ahead.

[Filipa Campos]

Ok, I'm a designer, ui and game artist, how may I help you?

[Kirsten Bonanza]

I got to meet Ari at BALLE last year - the Zingerman operation is pretty awesome.  I agree with the way that you are going about the visioning and I have some input to that end that might help.  I agree 100% that the vision dictates how opportunities are approached and would love to help with the planning or game design process. 

[Meghan UX]

I'm interested and can provide feedback on UX - game flow, overall architecture, defining potential user groups and how each will interact with the game, potential problems, text review, game testing, and more. See my website at Meadow Consulting, UX Strategy and Research.