The Highly Evolved Newsfeed

The First Non-Profit Platform with D-I-Y Apps

Regan Robinson — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:08:57 -0400

Highly Evolved today unveiled the beta launch of "SoundSafe.org":http://www.soundsafe.org/, a community portal that empowers San Francisco artists with a revolutionary set of interactive tools and resources - all in the name of cultivating self-sufficient, professional music careers. This localized music hub allows users to network with others, to find talent and to book gigs, to post classifieds and to access the organization’s “Thrive in the Music Business” kit -- the ultimate guide to navigating the Bay Area music industry. The platform’s architecture is the brainchild of Highly Evolved and its team of technology, innovation and user interface experts. In addition to being a profile-based, social networking tool, the site gives members the ability to upload their own videos, send messages, purchase the non-profit’s gear, feature their skill sets, volunteer their time, track their calendars and donate money to the organization. What’s more, the site allows users to upload their own music that is streamed via the “SoundSafe Radio” widget. “We’re beyond excited to launch this site,” says Freedom Allen, CEO of Highly Evolved. “SoundSafe came to us looking for an online solution that would support their real-world mission, and this platform empowers musicians with a set of comprehensive applications with which to realize their dreams. We are big proponents of utilizing technology to make people’s lives better, and the SoundSafe project provided the perfect opportunity for us to do just that.” According to Jean Spinosa, President/Co-Founder of SoundSafe, "We're an organization borne out of destruction and abandonment, and we fought and won to turn that loss into gain and to create something healthy and productive. Though we no longer have a physical building, we do have a permanent and meaningful place in the heart and spirit of the San Francisco music community. This new website is not the end of this story, it's a starting point. We're not sure where it will lead, but we know it will open myriad avenues of communication and creativity through the city. It's well suited to the lifestyle of the modern Bay Area musician -- all of whom might live great distances from each other, but who come together every day on the web. This will be their home and it's called SoundSafe.org."

Are You on MTV?

Regan Robinson — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:49:55 -0400

For the "I Am on MTV":http://www.iamonmtv.com/ project, we designed and architected this new entertainment destination that contains every person that has been on MTV, from huge celebrities down to contestants on their reality shows. It’s a deep excursion into the interconnectivity of all their talent. Plus, if you want to ever get onto MTV, this is the site one will go to for their fifteen minutes of fame. Its the one place where anyone can see everyone, from Lauren Conrad and Damien Fahey to Martha Quinn and Puck (for those of you from the older MTV generation, like us).

Giving Back Feels Good

Regan Robinson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:35:10 -0400

The "Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial Fund (LABMF)":http://www.labmf.org is a non-profit organization founded to honor the life of Lindsay, a 23 year old Rhode Island College graduate who was brutally murdered by her boyfriend, with the purpose of providing educational resources to teachers. This compassionate and gifted young lady was also the relative of one of Highly Evolved’s partners. Social responsibility is a core driving principle for us and integral to our business model, and as such we continually look for opportunities to give back by donating our services to worthy non-profits like LABMF. This site was built with a turn-key solution in mind, giving the administrators complete control by allowing them to update and format the pages, deploy newsletters, track site performance metrics via Google Analytics, all the while knowing their data is safe and sound with our Site Process Monitoring / Offsite Database Backup technologies. Like all of Highly Evolved’s clients, LABMF’s site is hosted on a carbon neutral solution. We guess the good keeps on giving...

'Acceptable' Social Networking

Regan Robinson — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:24:56 -0400

"Acceptable TV":http://acceptable.tv/, born from the revolutionary short-film competition Channel 101 and hosted by comedic heavy hitters such as Jack Black, was the first show to ever use the web as a space to foster talent via 3 minute content pieces that could then win the chance to run on the broadcast. Instead of VH1 television executives determining which pilots were worth watching, the site users were able to pick the shorts that deserved the right to be seen again, and which ones should get canceled. Integrated into the Revver API., this Ruby/Flash hybrid included a robust Profile Engine, Voting Mechanisms, a Content Management System (CMS), User Moderation Tools, Contest Management Tools, Blogging Capabilities and a Video Upload/Player Integration Module. The challenge was taking a social networking site that involved user-generated content and an intricate layer of membership levels, and make it fun, intuitive and well, acceptable...

One Word: Plastics

Regan Robinson — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:09:51 -0400

Given I am Miss Robinson, I thought I would share a clip from you from one of my favorite movies, "The Graduate". This is the scene where Benjamin Braddock is advised to go into plastics. At the time is seemed like a good idea, and it was. I bring this up as Cosmo and I have had numerous conversations about the gluttonous mess that is becoming the "wild, wild web," as I call it. Every brand is building a new site, and every man, woman and child out there has dreams of getting rich quick -- and the "killer app" to prove it. Some of these ideas are awesome (think "Dropio":http://www.drop.io), and others (like "Yuwie":http://www.yuwie.com) make me wonder how and the heck they got funded. To me and the rest of my team here at Highly Evolved, the future is in plastics, but not the kind that poor, misguided Benjamin was told to get into. Stay tuned as we roll out our next technology platform, code name "Plastic"...

Come Fly the Friendly Skies with Us

Regan Robinson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:29:01 -0400

Bulletproof Technologies, the creators of the Destination4 Air engine that debuted on the Easyjet site, is working with Highly Evolved to create intelligent User Interface solutions for the newest version of their travel booking technology. From the initial architecture stages, thru beta and finally deployment, we have brought our experience in GUI creation and marketing to the highly successful next generation booking engine. This effort is an example of Highly Evolved's desire to maintain long-term client-partner relationships. Our first initiative was for a new domestic air service, and we created the site for the airline, along with the booking engine design UI. In addition, we created the Reservation Agent Call Center GUI for the ResAgent program which ties into the same database. We also created the Departure Control System GUI that is used by the customer service reps at the airport service counters and self-serve kiosks, and this program also is ties to the central database. Currently, we are working with Bulletproof to augment this system for a prominent international airline. Come fly the friendly skies with Highly Evolved!

The World's Coolest Interface on Democracy

Regan Robinson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:20:58 -0400

Big Citizen™ (Big-Citizen.com) Introduces The World's Coolest Interface on Democracy -- The First Ever Web Application to Empower Yourself, Find Flip-Flopping and Watch Big Government! Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) February 1, 2008 -- Big Citizen™ (Big-Citizen.com) today unveiled the "On the Record" feature in time for the upcoming presidential primary elections. "On the Record" enables the American people to form opinions and make choices on the presidential candidates based on facts, actions and events rather than misinformation, emotion or rhetoric. Big Citizen is a revolutionary system created to allow every American to have a voice in our political process. Fiercely non-partisan, Big Citizen is the only web application where users have easy access to a factual view of the political past and present, allowing them to cut through the spin posited by elected officials, their campaigns and the special interest groups funding them. Big Citizen is the brainchild of Freedom Allen, CEO / Partner of Highly Evolved, and his team of technology, innovation and user interface experts. In 2004, Freedom created a way to catalog the events, falsehoods and distortions that plague the political system. One look at Big Citizen's interactive grid of the candidate's positions can save you hours of research preparing for the elections. We've collected evidence of the candidate's positions on the most important issues and built a quick and fun way to find out who thinks what. It's about putting power in the hands of the people. "One look at Big Citizen's interactive grid of the candidate's positions can save you hours of research preparing for the elections. We've collected evidence of the candidate's positions on the most important issues and built a quick and fun way to find out who thinks what. It's about putting power in the hands of the people." Freedom's groundbreaking idea (formerly called "PowerVoter") was a technology application that solved the problems of a chaotic political universe. What resulted was a game-changing, historic re-definition of ethics and transparency in government, a platform to bring politicians, voters, issues and special interest groups together in the same place. By making politics transparent, the public can use Big Citizen to pull back the curtain and to seize a clear view of the process. Now every American can wield Big Citizen to watch Big Government and take action on the issues like never before in our history. In the upcoming months, Big Citizen will continue to deploy a series of unprecedented technological innovations to connect citizens with their democracy and bring the process into the 21st century. Stay tuned as Big Citizen unveils the world's coolest interface on democracy and launches the additional features and tools in the coming weeks and months. To learn more about Big Citizen please visit "Big Citizen":http://Big-Citizen.com.

Big Citizen Launches 'On the Record'

Regan Robinson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:05:59 -0400

February 1, 2008, was a big moment in our history, as we launched our first intellectual property project, Big Citizen. Besides our creative, marketing and web development services, we have another side, and that is the development of proprietary products and platforms. Big Citizen is merely one in the arsenal of projects we’re working on. Check out the website and our corresponding press release announcing the beta launch of the “On the Record” feature, a tool enables the American people to form opinions and make choices on the presidential candidates based on facts, actions and events rather than misinformation, emotion or rhetoric.

Check out www.prweb.com for more information.

Turnkey Solution for Stila Cosmetics

Regan Robinson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:01:18 -0400

"Stila Cosmetics":http://stilacosmetics.com is a global cosmetics company and the brainchild of a celebrity makeup artist. Stila was purchased by Estée Lauder in 1999 and sold again in 2006. Upon becoming an independent company once more, Stila had a huge problem to solve in a very limited amount of time. They needed to migrate their data from a legacy database system to a custom-built solution -- quickly! In four short months Highly Evolved designed, developed and deployed an e-commerce site using Ruby on Rails, Flash and Ajax, complete with an Inventory Interface System, a Content Management System (CMS) and Mail Build Newsletter Template, as well as an Authorize.net payment gateway and integration with the order fulfillment system. Now they’ve been able to successfully take the turnkey solution in-house.

Kaboom Achieves What Most Startups Can't

Regan Robinson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:50:49 -0400

Kaboom is an upstart, USDA organic line of energy and wellness drinks. The product is amazing, but they didn’t have the budgets and funding to compete with the big players. We had to make sure it looked as great as it tasted, while ensuring that the product design speak volumes about the upscale, healthy, green vibe of the product and the company. With no media buys or ad budgets, the product itself shouldered the responsibility of standing out in a sea of competition. We threw the initial plastic bottle the client had considered right out the window and worked with them to develop a unique sophisticated glass package for the Wellness line. We worked with them to secure manufacturing in China to guarantee the product was 100% recyclable and didn’t create any environmental impact. We forged strategic partnerships with brands such as the Hyatt Hotels, TheKnot.com, Qantas Airways and Nordstroms, we executed social networking strategies on MySpace and secured product placement at events. We launched their cause-related marketing program by aligning them with the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation, an effort that resulted in press coverage on Dr. Phil, CBS Evening News, Good Day LA, Fox 11, MSNBC and The LA Times. We got them $50K worth of free media, and set the stage for future partnerships with the Spectrum Clubs, The Bravo Network and Southern Wine and Spirits -- all at no cost to Kaboom. Kaboom was able to achieve that most startups can’t -- national distribution in not just organic and upscale types of markets (Whole Foods, Wild Oats), but also in major chains such as Albertsons, Safeway and Vons. Kaboom will tell you that it was a combination of the quality of the product and the packaging that allowed them to gain entry to a distribution chain that is very difficult to crack as a newcomer with no previous product history. They almost didn’t have to say anything, as the glass bottle speaks for itself. The energy line has been on the market for over a year now, and every distributor reorders and increases quantities, as they sell out constantly. BevNet, the industry reviewer of beverages, gave Kaboom a 5 star (out of 5) rating, and called out the packaging in particular. Rolling Stone ran the bottle as the product to watch, and Kaboom received no-cost advertising in over 25 national and international publications in exchange for promotional considerations. Kaboom received a Gold Davey Award for packaging and a Silver Davey Award for re-branding in 2006 judged by the International Academy of Visual Arts.