Mint Digital

We are hiring someone to help us grow a community around our forthcoming game, Football3s. If you are interested here's the info.

I've recently discovered e-mint. It is a Yahoo! Group that discusses how to run online communities.

They are a friendly bunch, as shown by the warm welcome I received from Tamara Littleton of eModeration:

"We worked with a Mint Digital application on a very successful social network for ABC Family over at Disney [Virtual Rush], we love you guys :)

Not everyone puts as much care into the moderation tools. They're often an afterthought so it was good to work with people who thought about how moderators would use the tools."

It's reassuring to see that e-mint possesses the very features of online friendliness that it exists to promote.

Mint is working on a new project. It's about wisdom. I can't say much more than that right now.

Today, I stumbled across a new book. Wisdom. It is "inspired by the idea that wisdom is the greatest gift one generation can give to another."

Andrew Zuckerman, the author, says:

"My whole life I've looked up to older people. It just seemed logical to me that these are the people that have done it. They've got all the secrets. Why wouldn't you ask them?"

Thanks Andrew. You've created a wonderful piece of work. Mint is inspired.

At DocFest on Saturday, Lunchtime Loveboat won the Crossover Labs pitching competition. This award is considered the America's Cup of interactivity.

Lunchtime Loveboat combines the flirty dating of a site like I'm in Like With You with the reality energy of a show like The Salon.

After learning that this year's New York Future of Web Design Conference would land on election day and be situated right next to Times Square, I expected a rather exciting and inspirational atmosphere.

My personal highlights were...

On the 15th of October, Mint was confronted with its 10,000th case in FogBugz, an imposing visual landmark of four consecutive zeros across our computer screens. An outsider’s reaction might be that Mint has made a lot of mistakes in the last couple of years. Surely 10,000 bugs in roughly 2 years for a company the size of Mint Digital must be bad thing, no?

At Mint, the 10,000th bug is not only a positive milestone, but also a time for reflection on our development process, our accumulation of collective expertise, our desire to involve all team members in all projects. Instead of a liability, it represents on one hand the accomplishment of the volume and diversity of Mint’s work. Perhaps most importantly, bug 10,000 captures the dogged commitment to a process that has provided a practical foundation for Mint’s core values.

When Ned Canty from NYTVF approached Mint about hosting an event, he was keen to avoid the typical panel format. He wanted something that focused on the creative challenges of producing cross-platform entertainment.

Inspired by Wikinomics, I thought I'd try to open source approach to the ideas development process.

Creativity Live was a mass participation brainstorm between three sharp digital minds (Ian Schafer from Deep Focus, Paul Kontonis from For Your Imagination and Tom Ajello from Poke NY) and 150 audience members.

I think you will find that the best things in life have the word 'pop' associated with them.

Five examples:

1. Top of the Pops – the best TV music show ever;
2. Pop Tarts – a great breakfast although allegedly dangerous to eat fresh out the toaster (hmm doesn’t this apply to ANY food that’s really hot? Wait for it to cool, problem solved!);
3. Cheggars plays Pop – as a child I went to the live show in Swansea;
4. Pop – e.g. cherryade;
5. The Body Pop – one of the most entertaining dances there is.

Channel 4 just launched Sexperience (commissioned by Adam Gee). Yesterday 463,744 pages were viewed. Each visitor viewed 10.5 pages on average, indicating a high level of engagement.

The backbone of the site is over 350 videos, featuring multiple answers to questions like When were you sure of your sexual identity? or Have you ever slept with more than one person at the same time?

Mint Digital is delighted to be a new media sponsor at this year's New York Television Festival. As part of their Digital Day, we will be hosting a panel called Creativity Live on Tues 16th Sep at 2:30pm.

Creativity Live is a mass participation brainstorm that brings together the sharpest and most creative minds in digital media. Three panellists, one moderator and a 150 strong audience will be given just one hour to develop three cross-platform entertainment ideas. After the event people will be able to go to the NYTVF website, where they can vote on the ideas they would like to see taken forward.

If you fancy joining us, RSVP to toby@mintdigital.com. Alternatively, quote "telly2008" to receive a 20% discount to the full festival.

Last week-end’s Edinburgh International Television Festival will have to go down as one of Menthol TV’s finest hours yet.

It’s hard to know where to begin. I could start by telling you about the captivating speech given by Clay Shirky on post Gutenberg Economics and what this spells for TV in the 21st Century. Or Peter Bazalgette’s theory on how the credit crunch will accelerate US driven consolidation in the industry. Or what about how MENTHOL TV BLEW THE ROOF OFF THE PLACE with a devastating pitch by chief Mayhem Maker and dragon slayer Mona Yousefi!

Having been selected to take part in a special festival edition of the BBC’s Dragon’s Den, Mona had 5 minutes to impress four real life-commissioning editors with her Mayhem Makers pitch. Within seconds Mona had the dragons and the audience on the edge of their seats. Regaling the auditorium with tales of Mayhem Makers’ sell out West End screenings and the story behind the show, the knock out blow came when she played the promo.

The crowd went mad and the dragons were speechless, except for Heather Jones, MTV’s Executive Vice President, Content & Creative Director of Television who said.

"It was worth coming to Edinburgh just to see this"

Thanks to Mona’s outstanding pitch, we won the competition but what was most exciting was the response from the 250 TV types in the room. They loved it! Mayhem Makers was the people’s choice.

Another Mint / Menthol TV project that was making noise at the festival was Osama Loves.  Cover star of Future Media, Osama the Nigerian Tailor and his love for chickens was everywhere. Watch this space on news about the documentary due to air later this month.

Last month was 2gether08. The stand-out speaker was Russel Davies who gave a wonderfully counter-intuitive talk on how being clear often runs counter to being interesting.

Also Julian Baggini was great talking about his Welcome to Everytown experience. At a technology conference, it is easy to forget how important locality is to most people. Two thirds of Britains live within 5 miles of where they were born.

Mint was proud to premiere Web 2.0: The Musical. It looks like we'll perform this nonsense again. Watch this space.

Also, I made a speech on How to be Generous. Here's the Guardian's take on it. This blog post is sort of my summary.

On Monday, we launched the unsignedAct website, part of a cross-media campaign to find the best unsigned musical talent in the UK.

The project is BIG. It spans web, WAP, print, TV and live music events. It is sponsored by Orange, broadcast by Channel 4 and enabled by Sony Ericsson. Universal Music provides the prize (a record deal).

IRIS, Princess, Airmotion and Mint are turning the whole thing into a reality. IRIS have done a splendid job on the branding and visual identity (the logo has been built from custom-made flight cases). Princess is producing the TV show. Airmotion is making the WAP site. And Mint? Well, our handsome team refined the site concept, designed the user experience and built a rock-solid piece of software.

Acts enter the competition by making a demo CD. Each demo CD can be customised with artwork and contains up to 3 tracks. It's intended to be a little gem, showcasing the best of each band's creativity.

Fans add their favourite tracks to a personal mixtape. Mixtapes can be customised and shared with friends (check my selection, below).

It's been 48 hours since launch. Over 1,000 bands and solo artists have entered. Princess were hoping for 3,000 acts to enter in 3 weeks, so it is a promising start.

Have a look at unsignedAct for yourself. Dive straight into the demo CDs or browse the mixtapes.

Have fun!

Today, on August 1, 2008, both the UK and US offices of Mint Digital internationally celebrated the first Ron DeVera day. Simply put, Ron was the first employee hired by Mint Digital to sport a mustache. Since his arrival at Mint, he has ascended to near legendary status through his relentless work ethic, peerless HTML/CSS/JS skills, and his total domination in all company award categories. All these traits are personified by the tasteful choice of facial hair that has endeared Ron to Mint.

In the quest for the secret to the DeVera mojo, Mint Digital requested that all employees cultivate what is known simply as "the look". All the entries have been digitally documented and uploaded to Mint Digital's photo challenge site which was developed at this year's WebApp Weekender. Anecdotally, Mint has found that the mustaches have improved the collective morale, increased individual productivity, flattened the learning curves for difficult technologies, enhanced creative output both qualitatively and quantitatively, and have provided numerous unspoken benefits outside of the office as well.

Personally, I must say that I was confronted with aesthetic choices of uncommon weight and subtlety. When I fashioned my mustache early this morning, there was a temptation to be outlandish, a seduction towards the theatre of the garish.

However, I reflected and stopped myself immediately. This was no banal mustache-growing competition one might find in some underfunded regional circus.

This was Ron DeVera's day.

We are delighted to see Osama Loves being reported in The Sun.

To celebrate, here's some Mints doing the Osama Loves pose:

On Wednesday at 2gether08, we première our new show. It's already generating buzz.

"I laughed so much, I almost integrated with Flickr."
says Jon Gisby

"Take some Tweets, throw in a Poke or two, add a Digg and a Recommendation, and voila - 'Web 2.0: the musical' - enjoy!"
says Adam Gee

"2.0 out of 2.0. I loved it."
says Matt Locke

Filmmaker Masood Khan and junior doctor Farrah Jarral are setting off on Osama Loves, a mad adventure to prove that not all Muslims are ‘extremist nut jobs’.

Over 50 days, they seek out 500 people called Osama and ask them "What do you love?" They hope that by using the name of the world’s most infamous Muslim, they will reveal the sunnier side of Islam.

The mission, and the resulting documentary, is produced by Mint's TV arm Menthol. The website is made by Mint Digital and as such, it is the first of our TV/web crossover commissions.

It is a very exciting project. I can't wait to see what happens.

Good luck, Farrah and Masood!

Some days it feels like clients don't understand all the effort we put in. Other times they really do, and it makes the appreciation all the sweeter.

Tam at DocFest wrote this lovely email:

Congratulations Mint geniuses!

On behalf of Festival Director Heather Croall and the entire Doc/Fest team, I would like to say thank you for all your hard work, thoroughness, persistence, cool-headedness and patience. Thank you to the software development team who make everything seem effortless. We are in awe of your conceptual brilliance and phenomenal problem solving skills.

Thank you to the design team [our friends, Designers Republic] who make us look so good: true talent and unparalleled attention to detail.

We love our website. It is a great testament to Mint's visionary leadership and renegade team spirit.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

With much respect and appreciation.

Tam Nguyen Festival Producer

Looking around the Mint Imperial (our luxurious Vauxhall office), you might think that Mints don’t get fashion. The average Mint looks like he hasn’t been shopping since C&A closed its doors.

Luckily we do know about web apps. Last week, we launched Style Insider, a web application for the seriously fashion conscious on behalf of River Island and Graduate Fashion Week.

The site is fabulous. As well as providing all the latest news and behind the scenes content from Graduate Fashion Week, Style Insider offers tips and advice to fashion students looking to break into the industry.

Best of all is the UGC Style Insider Challenge. River Island shoppers photograph their own look and upload the picture. Users vote for the most stylish or individual look, leading to prizes for the most popular entries.

We've having a summer party for everyone at Mint, their friends and anyone else who wants to play. If you want to get involved, email thedaddy@mintdigital.com.