Cameesa - The Blog

The Vinyl Lounge t-shirts are now available in the Cameesa Shop.

I was very excited and proud to wear ‘The Vinyl Lounge’ T-shirt, in memory of my best friend Gino.  I don’t think that it could have turned out any better.  For those that have not heard yet, there is a significant story behind The Vinyl Lounge.

Once again, thanks Ryan, and G, this one is for you:

 he dust had finally settled on the field, a mixture of sweat and dirt caked his armor.  The dark black of blood stood out in bold relief upon his graying beard.  The man was not tall but he always dominated a room, he was not particularly handsome but to look in his eyes one knew he was not lacking in confidence, he had neither an expensive overcoat nor an abode in which he could welcome the heads of state, but one knew he was a Sovereign.The man who wondered into the wasteland so long ago observed his well used hands, thick with callous and strong from years of the iron. 

The campaign had gone well and victories were in abundance, but a uneasiness soon settled upon him.  It was getting more difficult to find new men to campaign with him.  Each battle was always a great victory and he had long ago achieved dominion over his enemies, but new men were not in abundance.

But the man simple shrugged and picked up.  He would continue his battle in the years ahead until there were no more men to accompany him.

nd after each golden age there is a dark age, just as the wheel has told time and again.  It is a time when there are few bearded men to gaze at on each street, no matter the cold.  It is a time of little movement.  It is a time of silence.  It is a time of mis-recollection.  The question is no longer “to grow ones beard or not” but simply “am I a man or not?”

Except from A time of darkness
Ka’shan Qing

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If you wish to participate in Neanderthal November 2008, you must obey two rules: 1) Do not shave throughout the month of November, 2) Send your pics to my email account or kamil[at]cameesa[dot]com, by the 10th of December.

Divisions will be dictated by country, province or state.  Divisional winners will be chosen by majority within the division OR the inner council will choose divisional winners.  The divisional winners will then be presented to the Oracle.  The Oracle will decide the grand champion.

We just wanted to let you know that our newest t-shirt, “the Day of Bad Rain” by the_jcw, can now be found in the Cameesa Shop.

It was my birthday yesterday and I got a little time to reflect in what I have done My last few years in Chicago:

• In 2004, I finished my Bachelors at Saint Xavier University.
• In 2005, I finished my Masters at The University of Chicago and got a job at Bank of America.
• In 2006, I moved downtown Chicago, began studying social dynamics, and visited Costa Rica.
• In 2007, I joined Andy, and began working on Cameesa, in my spare time.
• In 2008, I launched Cameesa and started working full-time on it.
• In 2009, I ?????

I forget where I read this, but it was in some sort of self-development book.  Their point was:Set a goal that will allow you to distinguish each year of your life.  So, 20 years down the road you can still reflect what you have done in your life.  Why is this beneficial?  You will be able to reflect on how far you have come and what you have accomplished.  I think it’s a pretty cool exercise and recommend it to everyone.

Try it out, it should take about 5 minutes: Write down a significant event in your life representing every year, for the last 5 years.

Guys, the_jcw just submitted a phenomenal design, Where the Clouds Came Out.  I think that the colors are vivid, and eye-catching.  I have supported it and you should as well.

There are a few new features on the Cameesa site.  As of October 20th, for logged-in users:

1) You can post on your friends wall by going to their Profile.  For example, to post on my wall: log into your Cameesa account, and navigate to kamil’s profile, then type some text into the Profile Wall, and click Post.

2) You can follow as many forum posts as you wish, by clicking the ‘Follow This’ check-box on our Forum Page.

3) You can find ‘My Account’ in the header, and can access crucial information more quickly. For instance, click on My Account and you’ll be able to update your avatar, and other information…or check out the designs you are currently supporting.

In addition, we moved our Feedback link to the top header….to get your Feedback. So let us know what you think….anything goes.

I would like to introduce you to our friends, Assault Shirts.  In short, Assault Shirts is a Chicago-based T-shirt startup.  In long, it is an awesome place where you can find many artistic and cartoonistic designs….and can get custom tees made…..while looking at a futuristic, cutting-edge site.

Assault Shirts are experts at shirt customization, and they design t-shirts for bands, sports teams, radio stations, and pretty much everything else.  So, if you need a shirt but don’t know how to design then I highly recommend that you work with Assault Shirts to get your first t-shirt made.

Assault Shirts consists of three members: Tim, Candice and Craig, whom have been working on their sick site over the past 6 months.  Although, I haven’t had a chance to meet Craig yet (congratulations on the marriage), I know that Tim and Candice are some multi-talented cats.  Tim has designed, and is running majority of the the site, and Candice is contributing many of their slick designs, especially their best-seller, Chainsaw Killer Bunny

Finally, I highly recommend subscribing to the Assault Shirts Blog.   It is greatly written, and very informative.

The Takeaway: 1) Check out the site; 2) Check out the blog; 3) Order a t-shirt; 4) Be a good citizen.

I was reading a post on TroundUp today and came across something very unique, and interesting that needed to be re-iterated:

Although it’s sold out, you can find out more about this shirt on Etsy.  It’s unfortunate that some companies have cut back on t-shirt materials.  What’s next, holes in the crotch area of Lucky jeans?

So…….a few months ago, we decided that the Cameesa concept needed to be explained with a video. Trying to use CommonCraft as an example, we attempted to explain it in a video.

Andy and I  spent 15 hours putting this video together…..and then 15 minutes deciding that IT SUCKED…..HA. We needed to share this with you, there’s actually one other explanation video but I don’t know if we want to embarrass ourselves even more.

p.s. Check out our new Cameesa YouTube Channel

Jeff Howe has an interesting post about the limits of crowdsourcing.  In it, he sights how the crowdsourced news site Digg is experiencing another user revolt because the site has removed 80 some nefarious user accounts.  Digg works by allowing users to vote for news stories, and displaying the most popular ones.  The offending accounts are accused of attempting to game the service by automating the voting process.

There is a high perceived value in having a story with many votes, as it will be seen by a large number of people.  Enterprising deviants will obviously try to find ways to promote specific stories because it gives them a sense of control over the media and free press for whomever they choose.  It’s like a value added service almost.

This exposes a key flaw in online voting based crowdsourcing: the ability for minority control.  The values of crowdsourcing espouse democracy and wide-range group thought.  However, on the internet one person can appear as many by writing programs to manage multiple user accounts.  How do you combat this?

First, we need to examine to value of an anonymous online vote, or “digg” as it’s called.  If I digg something, what does that actually mean?  Ideally, a digg should be a reflection of my tastes.  I would have read the story, found it useful, and “dugg” it to say to the world: “I endorse this”.  But the ideal scenario breaks down because of the anonymity of the internet.  On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.  So digging a story really says nothing about the real life you.

The value of a digg is therefore worth the amount of time it takes you to click the “digg this” button.  But what if you could write a program to do that?  The value of a digg then approaches nothing.  Therefore, the challenge for the Digg team, and anyone in voting based crowdsourcing, is to encourage users to care about their reputation.  It is the only way to give currency to a digg and meaning to the system.

Instead of trying to give currency to a virtual object (a digg), why not just use REAL currency to allow people to signal their intentions?  That is what we are doing with Cameesa.  We realize that an online vote has little value, due to anonymity and inherent gaming, and believe that true group opinions are best taken online with crowdfunding.