Midterm Proposal and Elevator Pitches

1) Write your midterm proposal. What is your plan for your online presence now that you have explored some possibilities? What concrete steps could you take to advance your voice online? How do you plan to separate yourself from the crowd? Or if you are starting from scratch, what is your new plan?

I want Zero to both tell his story and interact with his followers. I plan to have him tweet more on topics not related to the telling of his story. I experimented with it last night (posting photos on Twitter), but so far I have not gotten a response. However, I think a more “interactive” voice might help his cause. Audience participation could be the key to maintaining interest. Then again, it may not work. The joy of experimentation!

My plan for Zero is to complete his story by the end of the course: he will go a humane society, test positive for FIV, go up for adoption, become ill, go back up for adoption, and then be adopted. My idea is to experiment with a persona that could generate awareness about homeless animals and the role of humane organizations. My concrete goal is to enjoy and experiment with creative writing.

Creating a “voice” for Zero has been a challenge because I feel like is voice is my own. When I write, in my head I’m verbally telling a story. It’s my voice I hear.

I think in order to create a new voice for Zero, I’d have to first experiment with my own voice. For example, in her film The Future, Miranda July was both one of the main characters in the story and also the voice of Paw Paw the cat. Her creation is perfect. I couldn’t imagine a different narrator for the part of the cat. (Check out the video below. You hear Miranda, as Paw Paw, in the opening seconds of the trailer.)

If I were actually launching a similar project (meaning: if this was not just a classroom experiment), I would likely have to do something to make Zero special. As Prof. Kalm suggests, I would have to “separate myself from the crowd.” I have very few technical skills when it comes to computers, so I would have to rely on basic platforms.

One idea would be to do a YouTube video series in which viewers can go on virtual tours of humane societies across the United States. It would be a blast to travel the country getting footage. This plan would depend on my purchase of a winning lotto ticket, of course.

Another idea would be some sort of charitable contest: submit photos of YOUR Zero. In other words, readers would submit photos of their adopted cats and the winner would have a certain amount donated to the humane society of their choice. Perhaps it would be like the current Humane Society of the United States campaign: voters would donate $1 per vote.

(Shameless plug: You can donate to the HSUS and CT Humane by voting for my friend, Nokomis, here.)

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2) Write two elevator pitches for two ingenious ideas within your niche. One might be a proposal for a website or app, another could be a foundation or initiative. You will expand on these ideas after the lectures next week. For now just come up with a few possibilities.

Proposal 1: Animals for Adoption Application

I propose an alert system that would tell a user when an animal matching his or her criteria becomes available for adoption.

There are several content aggregation websites, such as Petango and Petfinder, that amass data about animals for adoption. Users can enter certain criteria regarding the animal companion they’d like and search for potential matches near a certain location. For example, if I wanted to adopt a Golden Retriever near Springfield, Mass., I could enter those search terms and view any matches.

Petfinder does offer an iPhone application that allows the user to utilize the website from his or her phone. He or she can search for animals, tag favorites, and email links to friends.

My suggestion would be the creation of an application that actually tells the user when a potential match has become available. For example, if I wanted an adult Golden Retriever near Springfield, Mass., I’d get a notification (on my phone or email) when a similar dog was posted on the database.

I also think it would be fun to make an application for the organization I work for. We use a database called Petpoint. If an animal is made “available” in Petpoint, he shows up on our website. I can’t tell you the number of people who call in wanting a certain animal, but that animal has already been adopted. We tell them to keep an eye on the website. It would be even better if we could have interested people download an application that would alert them whenever an animal meeting their criteria went up for adoption. They could make the criteria as broad or specific as they wanted. This alert system would have to be linked to our Petpoint database, as that is the most up to date system.

Proposal 2: Live Web Cams in the Cat Colony Rooms

Do you want to check out that nice tortoiseshell cat you saw on your local humane society’s website, but you aren’t able to make it in until the weekend? Cue the web cam for her colony room, and you can watch her eat, sleep, and play.

At the humane society where I work, colony rooms house many of the cats for adoption. If they are cat-friendly cats, they are candidates for the room. Being in a room is much less stressful for a cat compared to sitting in a kennel. The rooms also allow visitors a more homelike environment in which to visit potential adoptees.

It would be fun for website visitors to be able to watch the kitties on screen. Some web visitors would watch just for fun, while others might be scoping out new family members. Because the colony rooms are public areas and anyone entering can assume there is no privacy, the colony rooms would be the most reasonable places for webcams. (It would be more difficult to attach webcams to individual kennels for animals that are not as free-roaming as the cats in the rooms.)