Another 2 days of travel. After a very productive week of meetings and exploration in San Francisco, I’m off to Paris to see my brother’s new place, and to explore about the European mobile and interactive landscape. After working the interactive market in NYC for some years, I’m excited for a breath of fresh air and a reminder of the European marketplace. I’ll be focusing on the network architecture and usage that’s deployed in France, which devices and apps are popular, and how brands are using interactive and mobile to extend their brand reach.

Also, I’m excited to be able to use Freebox city-wide wifi services which blankets Paris. Freebox home internet service subscribers also get access to a citywide mesh-network of wifi hotspots.

Terry Angelos, Co-Founder and CPO, TrialPay
Will Harbin, CEO, KIXEYE
Lisa Marino, CEO, RockYou
Rony Xu, CPO, Happy Elements

With the requirement that Facebook Credits become the exclusive premium virtual currency in social games on Facebook starting last July, there was much debate in the developer community regarding what both the short and long term impact of the change would be on the health of the developer ecosystem. Now that developers have had six months of experience exclusively monetizing through Credits, what does the monetization roadmap hold for 2012? How will Credits evolve beyond its current form to meet the needs of social game and other digital media publishers? Find out what top developers think.

• How’s Facebook credits working out for you? Will Harbin – It is what it is. Our original hypothesis is that it would makeup up for the 30% commission, but that hasn’t been true. Lisa Marino – From our perspective, it’s fair for Facebook to take their 30% share. The developers need to learn how to design around those kinds of executions, and to maximize what’s going on in your community.  Rony – We like credits, and see 10-20% higher revenue in our game, in the Taiwanese market. Consumers in Taiwan don’t like to connect their online banking accounts because of privacy concerns. People like prepaid cards. So using Facebook credits gives audiences confidence.

Brief notes from sitting in on the “Trends in Social Game Product Development” panel at Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco, CA.

Trends in Social Game Product Development
Brenda Garno Brathwaite, COO & Game Designer, Loot Drop, Inc.
Bill Jackson, Creative Director, CastleVille, Zynga Dallas
Sebastian Knutsson, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder, King.com
Mike Sego, CEO, Gaia Interactive

While acquiring customers has become more expensive over the last couple of years, monetization rates from top developers have continued to substantially improve. Today, there are examples of developers large and small that are finding distribution, engagement, and monetization success, despite all the changes in the world of Facebook and social gaming over the last year. At the same time, genres and content are continuing to evolve with new mechanics and game play. How should developers be thinking about product development in 2012? Top developers will discuss.

•  Bill Jackson – Social is the next generation in gaming. Not a new direction, but the logical next step. I do believe there is an opportunity in the gaming space for networked, synchronous play. Right now the right game needs to come along that demands it. This is something that’s well developed in the console game space, but not yet very well seen in the social gaming realm. Also exciting is progressing the asynchronous play out there right now.
• Mike Sego – Position that the only trend in game development is better graphics is wrong. The next step is naturally social. Lower cost to developing for social and mobile platforms – this allows for a much larger variety of games. Now, 3 developers working in a garage can open up a whole market of social and mobile. This is not as possible when you’re thinking only in terms of graphics and rendering improvements.  Building social features isn’t absolutely necessary for game development. It’s important to use social features appropriately, and use them to enhance the actual game, not just junk it up with social. Regarding synchnous play, I think the games that are most successful on Facebook are the games that mimic the usage pattern on Facebook – asynchronous. Games like Words With Friends work – people login and take their turn, and logoff – this is asynchronous.
• Brenda Brathwaite – Now that we have this ridiculous culture of fast follow and mobile, games like parking wars and Farmville is possible.
• Sebastian Knutsson – I see the the use of friends in the future of social development as moving more and more to collaborative gaming, and multiplayer gaming. I like Tetris Battles, organized and networked tournaments. Allowing people to connect with their friends is where it’s at.
• What can we learn from Cow Clicker? Brenda – It distills down the core essence of a social game. The fact that it worked is a very interesting statement about the players. Burned to the ground in the Cowpocalypse. Ian would like to be known for something other than Cow Clicker.

Related tweets:

• 4 factors that u can use to figure out Customer LTV – short-term retention, long-term retention, % of paying users, ARPPU – Gaia
• “The core thing is making a game that YOU like to play”
• “Can you monetize guilt?” Brenda Garno says World of Warcraft has been doing it forever!

• iOS App “Highlight” – Location based social app. Uses background location to correlate who else you’re physically near at a given moment, and provides a very basic interface with which to reach out. It’s an initial first-gen iteration of a powerful concept. It works well, and the next step for the company will be to revamp the UI, add a few more compelling features, and slowly monitize by forming partnerships with groups like Scoutmob, Foursquare, etc. Similar in functionality to Sonar, but more based on GPS rather than CheckIn activity. Coverage on GigaOM.
• Scoutmob – Another location-based deals site. Pushes out local deals to consumers, often very attractive discounts. Did the smart thing and integrated in with Foursquare to push deal discovery on checkin. Scoutmob website.
  

  How We’re Different In 90 Seconds from Scoutmob on Vimeo.

• Semi-hourly cow eye dissection at the Exploratorium.  I haven’t dissected a cow’s eye since high school science class, and it was fun to do it again. Amazingly, I think I retained most of my knowlege about mammal eye anatomy!

  

A new breed of action sports film comes to life as Red Bull Media House, in association with Brain Farm Digital Cinema, present “The Art of FLIGHT”, a Curt Morgan Film. Two years in the making, “The Art of FLIGHT” gives iconic snowboarder Travis Rice and friends the opportunity to redefine what is possible in the mountains. Experience the highs, as new tricks are landed and new zones opened, alongside the lows, where avalanches, accidents, and wrong-turns strike. Immerse yourself in a cinematic experience as Brain Farm and their arsenal of filmmaking technology capture the culture, wildlife and scenic landscapes the riders take in along the way. Join in the ride as the creators of “That’s It, That’s All” completely rewrite the formula for action sports cinema with “The Art of FLIGHT.”

– iTunes

Find on iTunes and Amazon.

Behind the Scenes: http://snowboardmag.com/videos/behind-scenes-art-flight-aspensnowmass

See this image in my Flickr Photostream.

Course Summary, by Course Leader Roger Yim:

Instructors: Roger Yim, Emily Ledingham, Lindsay Yost

The Winter Outdoor Educator course was held in the Arizona Creek area outside of Grand Teton National Park. This was a 15 day self-sufficient expedition with 2 days of resort skiing at Grand Targhe Resort, a one day terrain tour and 2 days of classes and preparation. There were 13 students initially and 3 instructors. One student was evacuated in the first several days of the expedition due to an illness. The course was challenged with 120 cm of new snowfall, wet snow conditions and down to -18 C air temperatures. The curriculum focused on ski touring skills, winter camping, avalanche assessment/rescue and leave no trace. Students taught minin classes to improve their teaching skills and worked on self-leadership, peet leadership and some limited designated roles. Some of course highlights were improvement in skiing, avalanche and the impressive scenery of the Tetons. The students have developed a good foundation of backcountry ski skills.

Photos on Flickr (Slideshow)

Video on YouTube

• Day 1 – Food Rationing and Gear Selection
• Day 2 – Telemarking at Grand Targhee
• Day 3 – Backcountry Film Festival
• Day 4 – Avalanche Rescue Training
• Day 5 – Skinning and Field Gear Evaluation
• Day 6 – Into The Backcountry
• Day 7 – Snow Shelter
• Day 8 – Ski Touring
• Day 9 – Blizzard Evacuation Attempt
• Day 10 – Jake Deserts The Group
• Day 11 – Rescuing the Evacuation Team
• Day 12 – Avalanche Science
• Day 13 – Redemption From The Storm
• Day 14 – Climbing to High Camp
• Day 15 – Touring
• Day 16 – Avalanche Rescue Training in a Blizzard
• Day 17 – Whiteout
• Day 18 – Test Pits
• Day 19 – Touring
• Day 20 – Kick Wax
• Day 21 – Transferrence

• Woke up early at our final campsite. No breakfast, packed up quickly and skinned out the last 500 meters.
• Van and truck picked us up on side of road, and we drove 2.5 hours through driving snow, over Teton Pass, to NOLS Teton Valley Base.
• At base, each of us de-issued personal gear, and then cleaned and de-issued group gear. After being together as a group in the backcountry, we worked very effeciently together as a group in the front country.
• NOLS TVB staff made us a tasty, light meal for our return – too much heavy food after weeks on backcountry rations is a bad idea, makes you sick. So we ate a light lunch.
• After lunch, finally showers and change into fresh clothes. First shower/shave in weeks!
• Finally, at the end of a long day, graduation and final group meeting.
• People departed for Idaho Falls and Jackson soon thereafter. Most of us went to the same hotel in Idaho Falls. Good to stay in the frontcountry with a bunch of people.
• In Idaho Falls, we dropped our bags at hotel, and met up for dinner at Outback Steakhouse. A terrible chain restaurant, but after backcountry rations, a welcome site. Hearty, fatty, cheap chain food was just what was needed. Steak, lobster, shrimp, bloomin onion, beer, cake, ice cream, questadillas, hot wings, waffles, etc etc. Ate as much as we could.
• LATE night for us – passed out at 9:45. Shared hotel room with Scott.
• Tomorrow, final group breakfast at Dennys.

• Extra early wakeup at high camp this morning, to allow time to pack everything up and get going. Today we retraced two days worth of upward tracks in one day, so 9 hours of hard travel time were allotted.
• As part of getting ready to depart, we partially destroyed our snow shelters and kitchens. After living in them for so long, its a strange feeling to destroy it.
• As we departed, we laused for a quick group photo.
• Descending from high camp on telemark skis while towing a gear aled was intense, and not an easy feat. The running wisdom is “go faster than your sled”. Going around corners and through steep drainages is particularly difficult.
• When we finally reached the flat meadow, we decided not to put our skins on our skis for travel across the flats. Instead, we used kick wax to give is grip going across the snow. Kick wax comes in small round blocks, and is applied cold to the bottom of the ski. Unlike hot wax. Kick wax makes the bottom of the ski stick to snow. The wax does work to give more grip on the snow, but only a little bit. Even a slight incline becomes a major chore. Although it’s said that you can go faster with kick wax than with skins, I found it to be quite the opposite – skins are much better.
• Our final camp tonight is very close to the road, in a stand of aspens. We set Up a few megamids and a few individual shelters. A few people are bivying too.
• Tomorrow morning we’ll get picked up by the truck at 9:30 and will be on our way back to NOLS base for hot showers and fresh food.