Venice, California-based Wemo Media announced details of the technology and business infrastructure powering the creation of their ocean-inspired app called “theBlu.”
Press release from Wemo Media:
New York, NY –
Venice, California-based Wemo Media announced details of the technology and business infrastructure powering the creation of their ocean-inspired app called “theBlu.” The Planet Participation Platform (PPP), a powerful cloud-based system, connects creative and engineering talent from all over the world, ranging from students to Academy Award winners, and provides them the opportunity to showcase their work, build an online fan base, receive mentoring from industry leaders, and make money from in-app purchases.
The company’s Planet Participation Platform enables the extraordinary combination of open web democratization with high production value capabilities typically associated with the traditional “closed” studio model. The result is a new kind of entertainment product that is delivered at unprecedented scale, leverages community generated excellence, and is natively online, mobile, and social.
Features of Wemo Media’s “PPP” include:
- The “Maker” Payment System that automaticallydistributes funds to makers on in-app purchases of their original art orassociated technology (code) submissions.
- A curation process that is utilized, for allsubmissions, to ensure that quality standards are met and that “makers’can benefit from the review and approval experience.
- An orchestrated collaboration capability thatallows the platform to support complex projects, like sophisticated movieproduction and game development, requiring a high degree of direction.
- The Wemo Media Creative Graph™ that is at thecore of the system, connecting all of the Wemo Media makers, their skills,their interests, their work, and everything they fundamentally care about.
Empowering Students of the Digital Arts
Wemo Media is committed to empowering students of the digital arts, and their educational institutions, with full access to the Planet Participation Platform. The world’s future storytellers have the opportunity to work collaboratively with industry leading artists and animators, including Academy Award winner Andy Jones (Avatar), and become Wemo Media “makers.” Students engage in a “global studio” environment with their peers around the world, work in a robust production pipeline, and showcase their work in Wemo Media projects, like “theBlu.”
Participating and supporting schools including USC School of Cinematic Arts, Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, The Art Institute of California - Los Angeles, SAE Institute Berlin, Murdoch University (Australia), Loyola Marymount, Ex'pression College for Digital Arts. Complete curriculum integration materials are made available to all participating schools.
TheBlu: The First Project Powered by PPP
“TheBlu” turns the Internet into a globally-connected digital ocean wherein every species and habitat is an original work of art created by Wemo Media’s worldwide community of artists, animators and developers, including Academy Award winners Andy Jones and Kevin Mack, and students alike.
Exploring “theBlu” is as easy as browsing the web and includes information about species, exploration of geo-located habitats, in-ocean tagging of fish, the purchase of species to grow your collection and customize your experience, social activity streams, event and photo sharing, and ocean life swimming from user to user across the Internet, creating real time social interaction.
At launch, “theBlu” will enable a connected social exploration across eight ocean habitats, including over one hundred life forms with new habitats and species released monthly, and fifteen “ambassador” species, sponsored by non-profit cause collaborators, to raise awareness and funds for ocean conservation. Currently a downloadable app for PC and Mac, "theBlu" will soon be available on phones, tablets and smart TVs.
Educational Institution Quotes
"TheBlu and the Planet Participation Platform provides a 'world stage' for students of the digital arts to show case their work, gain real-world experience with feedback and mentorship, and collaborate with other students worldwide in a wonderful, novel application of media technology,” said Kathy Smith, USC School of Cinematic Arts Chair.
"With theBlu, Wemo Media is pioneering a new form of art and entertainment on the web fusing best practices from movies, games, and social media. TheBlu provides an interactive forum for ETC students to explore the convergence of media with professional input. We're excited to be collaborating with Wemo Media on this great project,” said CMU Entertainment Technology Center director Drew Davidson.
“Bringing theBlu into some key pilot classes has turned out to be a very enriching experience for the participating students and from the perspective of curriculum development. Combining a traditional approach, of teaching a skill, with the incentive of applying those skills to a real world project has proven to be a very dynamic formula,” said Hans Westman, Academic Department Chair, Media Arts & Animation, Game Art & Design, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
Wemo Media Quotes
"The largest team I've had was probably on Avatar working with about a hundred animators and artists. TheBlu is the possibility to work with thousands or tens of thousands of artists around the world. The concept of this online world socially growing on the web is a really big idea that's never been done before,” said Andy Jones, Academy Award winner (for Avatar).
“Our platform bridges the social web with traditional media production while celebrating what’s humanly possible by creating a marketplace and new home for a global community of “makers.” We believe that this is the new model for digital entertainment creation,” Said Neville Spiteri, co-founder, Wemo Media.
"This would have been hard to do just a couple of years ago, I think right now is the right time to do this," said Joichi Ito, MIT Media Lab, Director.
TheBlu Times Square Launch Event Details
On May 4th between 5:00pm and 11:00pm EST, (22:00 GMT), “theBlu” will be displayed on the NASDAQ and Thomson Reuters video screens every 30 minutes for a special five-minute show. Participants in Times Square can log in to “theBlu” with their smartphones and join others around the globe in celebrating the beauty and significance of the world ocean –and the launch of “theBlu.” Location: Times Square at 43rd Street. This special event is co-produced with Times Square 2. www.timessquare2.com
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
