wedgi.es

The 2nd half of the WCC Basketball Tourney Semi Championships saw something very peculiar happen. On the court, Gonzaga was easily keeping BYU at a distance score wise.  Off the court, Cougars and Zags were discussing their favorite spots to eat in their respective hometowns.  How did this come about?  120 seconds earlier, we gave the entire audience a Wedgie.

The WCC used Wedgies to poll and entertain the audience during the 16 games of their recent conference championship tournament.  The crowd responded via Twilio powered SMS and we gathered and condensed the answers into this infographic with the help of our good friends @grahamkahr and @andreviolante

If you were on a deserted island and you could only bring with you Pickles or String Cheese, what would it be?

Well that’s exactly what we asked Zappos employees at their recent All Hands Meeting. Except we didn’t ask them via Twitter - we put our real-time wedgie up on the projector screen and had audience members text in their vote. (For those of you wondering, we used the magic of twilio.com to power this wedgies feature.)

We asked the audience two other questions.

1. If they wanted to participate in the Downtown Project, an initiative to revitalize Downtown Las Vegas as the most community focused city in the world, and 
2. If the audience were given an empty shipping container Downtown, what would they do with it?

With the help of our good friends @grahamkahr and @andreviolante we’ve whipped together an infographic that correlates all three questions answered by Zappos employees. It’s a glaring look into the dark minds of pickle lovers and their honest friends, the string cheese fanatics.

(click the image for the jpg of the infographic)

If you want to use realtime wedgies in your presentation, e-mail me at porter@wedgi.es

Is this a @zappos All Hands or a @wedgies All Hands? ;)

— Crystal S Chang (@crystalschang) February 9, 2012

@ZapposInsights just sayin that wedgies are cool. @jimmyjacobson @wedgies

— Michelle T. (@chelle1014) February 9, 2012

Props to @jimmyjacobson! The live demonstration of @wedgies was out of control!

— Justin Heeren (@pseudopseudo) February 9, 2012

Are you in town for CES and wondering what #vegastech is all about?  Here are some hangouts and events going on this week in case you want to get off the strip.

Events:

Tuesday - Jan 10th Ignite Las Vegas - 20 Slides, 15 Seconds each with topics ranging from Pizza Making to Painting and Hacking.  Located at the fantastic Insert Coins Bar.

Wednesday - Jan 11th 3D Printing Workshop taught by the amazing Susan Hinton

Wednesday - Jan 11th Night Owls Meetup - a Night Owls meetup in the UsrLib Geek Space. Come and get something done and meet some cool people.

Thursday - Jan 12th Vegas Jelly - Tech Meetup that is 1/3 Networking 1/3 Coworking and 1/3 Beer! Located at the Beat Coffee House

Locations:

Be sure to check out these great venues and places off the strip while you are here.  Tweet something to #vegastech beforehand if you want to meet up with a crew already there.

The Beat Coffee House - located on Fremont St in an abandoned hospital that has been turned into a home for artists and geeks.  I highly recommend the Slap and Tickle sandwich and dollar PBRs for Happy Hour.

UsrLib - a tech library, co-working space and meetup venue.  This place has only been open for a few months but has already proven to be a great asset to the #vegastech community.

Insert Coins - Bar + Arcade, enough said.  

Zappos - and of course you can always come check out Zappos for a personal Bootleg tour.  Just tweet Rick Duggan or myself to get it set up.

We are excited for you to discover the off strip tech world that is developing here in Vegas.  If you have any questions at all, tweet with the hashtag #vegastech and hold onto your underwear.

We like plain text as much as the next guys. But, 140 characters doesn’t always suffice to tell your story. In the spirit of a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words here’s how to put as many images into a wedgie as you want.

With great power, comes even greater responsibilities. Just because you want to duel off animated GIFs, select the coolest beardo for your little brother, or take a peek in Zach’s closet - doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

So, you think you can handle the power? Alright, here’s how:

1) Go to wedgi.es and start making a survey, per usual. Ask a question. Let’s take a look at how @VegasJelly used wedgi.es to crowd source their logo selection.

2) Add your two options, like you usually would, but paste in any kind of image URL, .jpg, .gif, .png, you name it, it’ll work. 

You can also paste in any page with a large image, like this e-commerce product page, and we’ll parse out the largest image and input it into the wedgie.

3) Press share, and we’ll hit you with a preview of your wedgie. If you don’t like how it looks, or the images didn’t render like you expected, press back, and you can edit down, and try again.

4) Share the wedgie out like you normally would. Because of the length of the URLs wedgi.es will typically only share a single URL. Let your friends pick a winner.

To see how the real @VegasJelly logo was selected, see their simple survey.

To make your own, get going at wedgies.

We had a hunch our @wedgme t-shirts would be popular. We had no idea they’d start a vegas micro-trend in brogramming.

“	Rockin’ my wedgi.es shirt while designing some new features! @PorterHaney @jimmyjacobson @wedgme #fridaynight http://t.co/viqFa4N
	lizkuz August 26, 2011

Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter

twitpic.com

“	Stopped by home to grab my @wedgme tshirt for tonight’s @VegasJelly! http://t.co/PbJR9Ou
	crystalschang September 1, 2011

Stopped by home to grab my @wedgme tshirt for tonight’s @VegasJelly!

twitpic.com

“	Why are all these hot chicks hitting on me today? It must be the super deep v-neck from @wedgme http://t.co/oowYday
	dylanbathurst September 1, 2011

yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/hw1bsaj Shared by dylanbathurst

yfrog.com

“	Rockin’ my Wedgie tee @TheBeatLV! Thanks @jimmyjacobson & @wedgme! @ The Beat Coffeehouse http://t.co/G1Mo4As
	moelissa September 13, 2011

“	@deepfoo Short summary…I’m kinda a big deal. The wedgies Ts were very selective with who they chose as their owners ;) cc: @jimmyjacobson
	moelissa September 13, 2011

moelissa’s photo at The Beat Coffeehouse

instagr.am

“	And in walks @makenai cramping my @wedgme style. This was not planned. Cc:@jimmyjacobson @ The Beat Coffeehouse http://t.co/YfuIQ3N
	moelissa September 13, 2011

moelissa’s photo at The Beat Coffeehouse

instagr.am

	Raging on some @wedgme brogramming before I rage on Washington DC /cc @jimmyjacobson #fb http://t.co/5NSSwGk0
	brianegan · September 16, 2011

“	@brianegan @jimmyjacobson @dylanbathurst oops my bad. This better? http://t.co/iochrOfj
	suziam September 17, 2011

@brianegan @jimmyjacobson @dylanbathurst oops my bad. This better?

twitpic.com

yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/mnydedj Shared by jimmyjacobson

yfrog.com

yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/nyi2ycj Shared by jimmyjacobson

yfrog.com

#vegastech

I’ve been participating in Vegas Tech for the last three months and I didn’t even know it.

Here, I’ll start at the beginning.

You see @jimmyjacobson, @lizkuz and I ( @porterhaney ) sat down on 4th of July weekend to see if we could build something people liked and used.  If they liked it, we’d build more, if they didn’t all we’d lost was a weekend of hacking and hustling. 

So, what came out of it? wedgi.es - simple surveys to share with friends. They’re social surveys which are fun to make and exciting to answer.  I’m not here to plug wedgi.es though, I’m here to talk about #vegastech.

After our impromptu weekend of hacking, @jimmyjacobson brought wedgi.es back to the Vegas Tech community and handed it over.  Jimmy said, “Here’s what I’ve got, tell me what you think.”

That simple question essentially launched wedgi.es for us.  Immediately dozens of smart people poured out of the wood work and started hammering on wedgi.es - beta testers, power users, UI experts, front end coders, back end coders, funding offers, and just people who wanted to talk wedgi.es.

The Vegas Tech community came out in droves to support us, and I didn’t even know any of these people in person.  They’re genuine people who just want to support each other’s dreams.  And that’s exactly what’s happening.

Vegas Tech is just getting started, only a few months old there is already a mass of support from things like the @vegasjelly, a bimonthly meetup to discuss all things #vegastech, or @launchupLV, an evening that happens every month where startups pitch for their very first time and raise awareness in the community, and @SWVegas, a startup weekend where new companies go from concept to business in 54 hours.

All of these community events have helped get great ideas off the ground.  Some of these include things like @rumgr, a iPhone app to sell goods without doing anything but uploading a picture, or @aylooinc, who is reinventing how we engage in conversations online, or @tracky, a new social network to track things among groups and lists.  

I landed in Vegas a few days ago and have been immersed in the tech scene since I got here.  I was welcomed in as one of #vegastech’s own even though I just got here. It’s remarkable what’s happened in a few short months.  I feel incredibly lucky that wedgi.es is involved and can’t wait to see where #vegastech goes next.

I know one thing for sure, and that’s without #vegastech services like wedgi.es would have never had the opportunity to get off the ground.  

Not even a little bit.

“	I’m pretty sure @wedgme and @dogtilt are my favorite new sites of 2011.
	zachware August 26, 2011

“	fyi @jimmyjacobson @wedgme is my favorite thing to do on twitter… I’ll answer questions about unicorns and briefs all day.
	stewart_ch August 19, 2011

“	w00t, over 100 votes now on the big debate b/w unicorns and puppies! http://t.co/5i6frnh
	crystalschang August 19, 2011

“	@wedgme it is hard to believe that wedgies would not be a hot item at a fashion show for pretty obvi reasons. #geniusmarketing
	deepfoo September 7, 2011

“	@wedgme Very pleased with results so far. 40 votes in an hour on a summer Friday, asking traders for real votes. Home run.
	deepfoo August 19, 2011

“	Looking forward to trying out @wedgme after great presentation by @jimmyjacobson last night #vegastech
	mikeyoder August 19, 2011

“	Thanks for the great feedback for wedgi.es If you missed it on the slides, text ATOMIC to (702) 765-0734 for your a sample wedgie #vegastech
	jimmyjacobson August 19, 2011

“	@PorterHaney - love the idea of @wedgme. Although as I 1st timer I didn’t realize clicking = voting and I clicked the wrong link to start!
	CamFortin September 6, 2011

“	.@StartupLJackson prefer dinner at a slow pace w @sacca in Tahoe http://t.co/Awb9yGq or fast pace w @fredwilson in NY http://t.co/8adlEVD
	PorterHaney August 19, 2011

“	.@PorterHaney trick question. I prefer a medium paced dinner in SF over which @sacca & @fredwilson battle rap about who is the better VC.
	StartupLJackson August 19, 2011

“	@chrislevy thanks gents! I’m going to add a list of “hand picked wedgies” so you don’t have to go hunting for them.
	jimmyjacobson August 19, 2011

“	@jimmyjacobson @chrislevy @stewart_ch Call them Wedgie Extractions.
	makenai August 19, 2011

“	RT @chrislevy: @stewart_ch @jimmyjacobson @wedgme So true! I’m glad you tweeted this. I love seeing the numbers!
	jimmyjacobson August 19, 2011

2/3 survived, 1/3 no longer hungry

“	Could you feel the Virginia 5.8mag quake? Choose One: Yes http://wedg.me/qcLJrL or No http://wedg.me/qXFXtq
	wedgme August 23, 2011

“	@laurenleto @goggin13 glad to hear at least 2/3 of you are okay and that @thedarkpmo isn’t hungry
	jimmyjacobson August 23, 2011

“	@jimmyjacobson @goggin13 @laurenleto I was grabbing lunch, walking down the street and missed it!
	thedarkpmo August 23, 2011

“	@thedarkpmo @jimmyjacobson @goggin13 silly pmo you gotta pick a wedgeme, side note, i picked no but i meant yes!
	laurenleto August 23, 2011