Wish Fulfillment, The Blog


Archive for June, 2009

Elfster at GEL 2009

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

I recently attended Good Experience Live – or GEL – hosted by Mark Hurst in New York City. GEL is very hard to describe, but suffice it to say, it’s a gathering of like minded people who focus on delivering good experience to their users, their customers, their families, their world around them. When such talent gathers together it’s very interesting what comes up and what ideas are shared. Mark has posted several of the presentations from the past several years on his website, and I wanted to share some of the videos that I have found interesting, informative, or just plain fun. There were some VERY good presentations this year and I will share them when they become available. One presentation this year by the founder of Treehugger.com has actually even gotten me to go vegetarian since the conference. There really is some powerful stuff here. We hope you enjoy a small tasting.

“The Bubble Project”

Is it graffiti? Is it smart advertising? Ji Lee’s Bubble Project has turned “bubbling” into a verb much like Google has done for search. Communities are popping up around the country and around the world for people doing their own bubbling. This is a very interesting take on how we need to look at media differently in a new age of advertising, how interactive advertising can be far more interesting and engaging than traditional print campaigns and how people want to be more involved with the images around them.


Ji Lee at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Elf Wanted : Software Engineering Internship

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

We are seeking an Elf that wants to get busy in our digital workshop! Do you know anybody that likes to have fun and make cool stuff? Please pass it on!

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INTERNSHIP at ELFSTER:

Part time or full time.

LOCATION: 

Telecommute & Company Headquarters, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA

INTERNSHIP DESCRIPTION:

The software engineer intern will be immersed in a world of professional development working directly with seasoned engineers. You will have an opportunity to learn and understand how a distributed, multi talented team collaborates to build great software.

A great engineer is like a great elf. They take pride in their work, are committed to excellence and improvement in everything they do, and know how to work well with others. A passion for building great things will get you far and your internship at Elfster will help tap that passion while setting you up for a rewarding future in product development.

FUNCTIONS:

The software engineer intern will collaborate on design and implement technologies to delight Elfster’s 1,000,000 + user base.

• Research and create proof of concept “spikes” of potential technologies for integration into the Elfster system.
• Implement new features and enhance existing technologies.
• Potential application aspects include:

o Social networking apps and plug ins (e.g. Facebook Apps/ Facebook Connect),
o Mobile technologies (e.g. IPhone Apps),
o Browser plug-ins, Bookmarklets
o Core web site development.

QUALIFICATIONS:

We are looking for the most promising candidates. Candidates will have the following qualifications:

• Entrepreneurial spirit.
• Excellent academic record.
• Current college undergraduate students or graduate students in computer science or related experience.
• Passion for superior product design.
• Humility, integrity, passion, and a self-starter attitude
• Experience with some of the following technologies: HTML, Javascript, AJAX, Relational Databases, C#, Java, IPhone SDK, Facebook Applications, Twitter API, JSON, REST, SOAP, Internet Gaming

ABOUT ELFSTER:

Gift-giving 2.0 – Elfster provides fun and easy tools for group gift giving, like Secret Santa. With 1 million visitors over the past year and traffic doubling each year since our launch in 2004, Elfster is on a mission to help people experience the joy of giving, one of the most basic and essential human interactions. Oh yeah, and we love to have sneaky fun, too!

APPLICATION:

Please email your resume and cover letter to intern@elfster.com. In addition, please tell us your favorite site on the web and explain why you love it.