Pixton: Do-It-Yourself Comics

Hot off the press in today's issue of The Globe and Mail, Pixton was named one of the "20 companies that are driving innovation and changing the way we use the Internet" by Backbone Magazine.

Judge Michael Geist, an expert in internet and e-commerce law, enjoyed seeing something “new and creative” and Judge Bradley Shende, media expert on Global’s Morning News, said Pixton “outputs creativity, collaboration, crowdsourcing and community all in an innovative new spin on an old, previously non-democratic medium.”

PICK 20 is the only national ranking of its kind and judges scored the nominees against five criteria: ROI, competitive advantage, ongoing value, execution and innovation. Other winners include Now Public, Kaboose, and social gaming powerhouse Club Penguin.

Pixton.com attracts people of all ages, from 199 countries representing more than 40 languages, to tell jokes, share stories and express opinions in professional-quality comic formats. Members can grab, create and remix their own Pixton comic characters and storylines with a click of the mouse, making do-it-yourself comics a fun, social and interactive game-like experience found nowhere else.

So far we've doubled our membership twice over the past six months, with over a quarter of a million characters created. Our vision is to transform how the world makes comics, creating a premier destination on the web while driving a high-growth business, and this award recognizes us at a time when we're only just getting started!

Congratulations to the other winners! Read more about the PICK 20 here.

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Brianne Brewer, Manager of Edu4U, Dell's online Primary/Secondary education community, recently invited Clive to blog about comics in the classroom. What are your thoughts on using comics and social media in the classroom?

Read the article here</a>.

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Clive had the good fortune to have a talk with Haig Armen, Creative Director of LiFT Studios in Vancouver. The conversation starts with Clive explaining how his past experiences have lead him to becoming a web developer. Then he explains how the idea of Pixton came about and some of the features he hopes to roll out in the near future. It concludes with a discussion about how Google and SketchUp are leveraging user contributions to build a central repository of digital 3D models and a replica of the world.

Watch the video here.

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Michael LoMonico, Senior Consultant on National Education for the Folger Shakespeare Library, blogs about using Web 2.0 tools such as Pixton to help today’s students engage with The Bard.

Advances in technology have given Shakespeare teachers excellent tools to help students explore the texts more closely. He believes that Web 2.0 tools empower students and give them real-world tasks that they can post for the whole world to see.
 
"Using Pixton to create scenes from a play is a simple way for students to explore Shakespeare’s texts in a graphic format. With Pixton’s built-in graphics and templates, the user can make the most subtle facial expressions, as well as detailed hand and body positions."

Here’s a passage from Macbeth created by one of his students.

To read the entire article on PBS Teachers, click here

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Yesterday I presented Pixton to another class-full - this time, to Art Direction students at the Vancouver Film School, one of the world's best schools for production, animation, and game design. This was the last class before graduation and we all had fun making Pixton comics. The students had plenty of excellent questions and suggestions. Many thanks to the instructor, Maria Kennedy, for inviting me to come in and talk!

~ Clive

Here is a funny comic made by one of the students:

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Last week we were contacted by Aaron, a Bachelor of Education student at the University of British Columbia. He and his classmates were doing a project on technology in the classroom, and they had selected Pixton as the subject for their presentation. Was I available to come in and talk about the website? Absolutely!

I happily went to UBC on Friday afternoon and showed the class of about 30 B.Ed. students how to use Pixton and Pixton for Schools, and we discussed the applications of comics in education. It was fun! Thanks to Aaron, Jens, Jordan, and Gabriel for giving me the opportunity to spread the good word.

~ Clive

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Congratulations to the Doris Miller Junior High School teaching team for winning the Time Warner Cable's Spotlight on Education Award for their project called “Pixton with Shakespeare.”

The project made it all the way to the national finals for the National Spotlight award.

The team of Kelly Blanks, Melissa Dupré, Grace Mueller and Roxann Tull each received $125 and a plaque and will split a $500 team award, in addition to Miller receiving a $1,000 technology grant.

The Miller eighth grade Language Arts Department was studying “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, and the teachers wanted enrich the experience through the use of technology. They used Pixton to create a scene from "The Tempest”. Team member Mueller said, “Using their own interpretation of the scene, students developed the cartoon.”

We are very pleased that Pixton is making a difference in enriching students' experience of Shakespeare. Interactive web comics are a valuable tool in the classroom, to supplement conventional reading materials as well as to give students another way to express their ideas.

The success of this project will undoubtedly be an inspiration to others - again, well done!

To read full article click here.

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The race to be the 'first' tweeter has pushed the bar right out of this world...and into the afterlife!

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This has been an especially good week for Pixton!

The Horizon Interactive Awards, a leading international interactive media awards competition, announced the 2009 award winners to highlight this year’s “best of the best” in interactive media production, and Pixton was recognized for its excellence with a Silver Award in the Entertainment Category!

Check out the winners here.

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We are pleased to announce that Pixton has officially won "Best User Generated/Crowd-sourced Content Site" in the New Media BC Popvox Awards, honouring the best of BC's Digital Media Industry.

A big round of applause to all of our Pixton members, evangelists, family and friends who made this award possible. We thank you for your continued support and taking the time out of your busy lives to vote.

The PopVox Awards Gala is the people’s choice awards held during Vancouver Digital Week, May 11-14. Drop us a line if you will be attending!

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