What are your thoughts on the target audience for the experience that we're currently prototyping in class? Who do you think the audience is and how do you intend to reach them? Consider strategic partnerships, promotion, marketing, and most importantly what value the experience could provide for participants. Finally, what are interesting locations on campus that could bring the experience to life?

I believe that the targeted audience for this experience should be as wide as possible but to be realistic, I believe that it’s mostly students (and even maybe undergrads) that will play (others may not have to time to go through this experience). I think that in order to reach the widest audience, we must first hook our potential users by providing incentives that will intrigue them to learn more about our project (we could for example posted QR code with the word “Help” all around campus to intrigue students and make them want to learn more – and hopefully solve - this mystery). Interesting locations to target could be the ones with high foot traffic such as campus walk, Joe’s coffee or the library. Any other suggestions?

Also, this experience needs to be interesting for the participants and should have both entertainment value and learning potential if we want the users to keep playing (and learning). To this extend, we could have some partnerships with various game corporations to make this experience more fun for our audience. What do you think guys? Who else would be interesting to have as partners?

How about promoting our experience through the campus communication channels: Columbia website, The Spectator newspaper...? Do we want to advertise this outside campus? And if so, through what medias and platforms?

The target audience has to be undergrads/grad students at Columbia. They will be the ones most affected by any happenings on campus. They will also be the right age to find the concept interesting and unique. Hopefully faculty and staff at Columbia will get involved, but I find this to be less likely.

I agree with Julie about channeling some sort of "HELP" hook. This gives it a voyeuristic feel and presents the urgency of the moment and the problem. It also creates a personal connection that will hopefully fuel the participant thru the experience.

I think we should just focus on the Columbia channels to promote the event. I think targeting clearly and effectively is best. I think if we were to hit up too many outside channels (besides focused social media, of course) the message could get murky and we'd have less bang for our buck.

I agree with Laura and Julie that undergraduates at Columbia should be the target audience. That demographic tends to be on the cutting edge of technology and new media, so they would likely find this kind of concept interesting. They're also the ones most immediately receiving the benefits of higher education, so they would probably relate to the topic at hand more closely. Not to mention, students may not necessarily have a ton of resources (ie money), but they are able to dedicate a lot of time and manpower to a cause, which makes them great recruits and message-spreaders for most causes.

I also like the idea of the "HELP" hook for the reasons they stated above. We would also want to create as few barriers to entry as possible. I know a lot of people are reluctant to create accounts, etc., which might be necessary if we're using some kind of point system as incentive to keep playing or participating.

Another campus communication channel that could be useful is Bwog (bwog.com), which is the undergraduate magazine for Columbia. They update multiple times daily with various interesting campus events, and they apparently get a lot of traffic. I agree with Laura about limiting the number of outside channels to keep the message clear, unless there is a cost-effective (free) way to partner with a hugely popular gaming corporation or something like that as a way to drum up interest in the project.

Khan Academy would be a good thing to consider in terms of partners, maybe set up some kind of video partnership up with them and Columbia? Students, professors, leaders in thinking and education making educational material to share with the world, that's some powerful stuff right there.

I'm a fan of having as broad an audience as possible. I mean, this is something everyone can benefit from, so in designating a target audience, we need to appeal to a universal, defining characteristic of human identity. I think Columbia students and people with similar inclinations towards new media are a good place to start, though.

I strongly agree with Julie on the issue that we have to project some incentives that attract participants into our experience. And we should keep them in mystery until the end, which I think is the basic rule for all storytelling tasks, as well as interactive experiences.

The locations can be various. For example, we can install some files and hints in a certain computer in a library, then give the participants hints to locate that computer and find the file we installed. Or we can also utilized the resources near campus(if possible), like restaurant, supermarket, stationary stores, grocery stores and so on. We can try to discuss and cooperate with them in the experience. Simultaneously, this is a kind of AD for them. A double-edge sword!

Furthermore, of course we have to utilize all the methods we can to propagate the experience. Edu website, Facebook and Twitter, etc. Even try to ask officers to forward emails to students... Digital Posters and our own website can both be really cool.

The target audience should be storytellers, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, other communities that provide world services and need out prototype mostly. The importance will be to reach third world countries and make sure that they benefit from the world education services that we can provide.

Our deliverables should be knowledge, information and good cause to improve different communities by providing most valuable skills that they need. If we create good foundation that will visually and graphically be effective then we will just need some compelling promotion afterward to find volunteers, partners and collaborators to work with as a team.

I totally agree with all being said in terms of interesting locations on campus. I also like the idea of raising enthusiasm within other students and other schools. I believe that people act successfully as a team, which means their individual skills also grow. We have a smart group of people and it should inspire others to be a part of something greater then the sum of their individual talents.

I love your last comment, Olga. We definitely need this to be a core value of our project. It's not enough to believe in our own intelligence, our own abilities, we have to have faith in something greater, and we definitely have to have that same faith in humanity.
That's ultimately why I think we need to create that mass appeal with something like that. Maybe we can create a self-worth campaign of some sort? Help people see the intelligence burgeoning inside themselves.

I think it's crucial to approach this project fundamentally from a perspective of value added to our target audience. I think most students on campus are very open to disruptions to their daily routine if it proves to be a worthwhile experience.

There are many existing student groups on campus that have banded together around this issue. It would be great to tap into the existing student networks to promote this project.

I think many of the most interesting places on campus are unexplored, or rarely used by students. I think the project could start out some place very central on campus (College Walk) and then direct student to more obscure places/buildings. This exploratory component might enhance the overall experience (eg. I never knew this was here!).

I agree that it's best to make this project an inclusive experience, since that's one key to "universalizing" our goal. We might turn this into a community project, reach out to students, faculty, and staff here on the Columbia campus-- as well as residents of the Morningside and Riverside neighborhoods.

In order to increase our chances of achieving more immediate, emotional resonance, it might be a good idea to make outreach/publicity as personal as possible. At least in the beginning. We might have a few volunteer actors roaming campus and neighborhoods close by. These folks would be characters from our story who would interact with passersby. The purpose of course would be to draw them into our storyworld.

We might establish partnerships with a thespian club (I'm sure there's one on campus?), and we could get into partnerships with the Khan academy and other technology-based platforms later. Also, even we as producers can become "characters" and actors in bringing this story to life. This way we can take the story wherever we go. With regard to the value of this experience, I think that most of it will be about the bonds we form with others as we promote universal education, and learn more about what's at stake for those left on the margins (in conditions that severely reduce the quality of their lives).

It seems like the longer this conversation goes on, the wider our scope gets. I think that's a good think. It seemed somewhat narrow for us to think of this project as targeting students whether they are grads or undergrads. While any student body is likely to have a concentration of like minded people, there may not necessarily be a unifying ideology in regards to universal education among students- especially not among Columbia University Students. Our target audience may not be determined by simply looking at standard demographics. I think if we truly examined our core story, we could begin to think about who specifically it would appeal to.

While there are students here at Columbia who come from privilege and some who don't, its already quite an achievement to get here. To a certain extent, we're all very lucky and some might say "we've made it". I dont think we want to target just people like us- students who've made it. This is about giving voice to those who are still striving and trying to find a way into not only institutions like this but into the educated sector of society. Finding a way to reach those people is probably key. If we were to even think about doing this on campus we should think to get the attention of applicants and prospective students. There are also many programs on campus that bring youth of all ages to campus for various activity as well as adults.

While there are students here at Columbia who come from privilege and some who don't, its already quite an achievement to get here. To a certain extent, we're all very lucky and some might say "we've made it". I dont think we want to target just people like us- students who've made it. This is about giving voice to those who are still striving and trying to find a way into not only institutions like this but into the educated sector of society. Finding a way to reach those people is probably key. If we were to even think about doing this on campus we should think to get the attention of applicants and prospective students. There are also many programs on campus that bring youth of all ages to campus for various activity as well as adults.

I love Paul's idea about hidden files of information that need to be accessed from specific points around campus. In a simplistic way, these can be answers to difficult questions that need to be answered in order for the participant to advance.

I agree with much of what's been stated here and I admire J's view on thinking about demographics unconventionally to reach a wide range of perspectives.
I think however the most important point was stated by Julie in regards to realistic expectations and goals. Building a foundation in which we know who we're targeting feels tangible and manageable for the purposes of our class and the assignment. I agree, we should look at incentives that will motivate Columbia undergraduates primarily.

The logical way of doing so seems to be to harness the power of those campus communication channels. We could also reach out to student run service organizations and clubs that serve global concerns agendas.

I also agree with Laura that we should focus on Columbia's channels primarily to promote the project. Frankly, I think we'll find the most success starting small, localizing our goals and growing from that strong sense of purpose.

I think the whole point is to encourage participation and get people to start learning AND teaching more. They should get points for every new bit of information they learn AND bonus points for sharing it with someone else in their lives.

I also think we need to reach out to tutoring organizations or local schools that encourage real life participation by volunteering to TEACH others.

I think the best would be to develop an intercollegiate competition with all the colleges/universities in nyc to really get undergrads and grads out in the world making a difference.