Open up your mind and say, ahh...

The Different Types of Wine based on Style and Taste

Hoping to make it easier for crime victims and witnesses to recall license plate numbers, Massachusetts may begin handing out plates with fewer characters and a symbol in place of one digit.

The proposal is the brainchild of Gary Richard, a Bay State businessman and inventor. After reading about several high-profile kidnappings, Richard dedicated himself to using his time and skills to prevent future abductions. What does that have to do with license plates?

“I set about trying to analyze the dynamics of an abduction,” he said. “The common denominator is a private vehicle, and how do you identify a vehicle? The license plate.”

Unfortunately, young children and anyone with limited literacy often cannot recognize some letters and numbers, especially if they go by in a flash. Hell — most adults can barely remember their own plate numbers. Armed with studies that show symbols can ingrain themselves in the minds of toddlers for more than a week, Richard set to work.

He designed a license plate with fewer characters and symbols alongside the typical alphanumerics. He calls it the EZ-ID license plate, and has for 10 years been pushing his home state of Massachusetts to adopt it for all randomly issued general-issue registrations.

He’s finally gaining traction.

 

Under Richard’s plan, which is gaining support from legislators, law enforcement and child advocacy organizations throughout New England, EZ-ID license plates would add a diamond, star, heart or triangle to the existing set of characters. Registries would need no more than four characters to allow for 107 million possible combinations, or three times what current plates allow. Fewer characters also allows using a larger font, making plates easier to read.

“If such license plates are indeed easier to memorize or recognize, this could help, for example, a victim relay a license plate to law enforcement after an incident,” said Cynthia Lum, a professor of criminology and director of George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. “Memorizing a plate is difficult in a stressful situation.”

No one’s empirically tested the effectiveness of the new plates, but the math shows that fewer numbers on a license plate makes even a partially remembered registration more valuable. According to Richard, just the style and color of the car with a symbol alone would narrow it down to one of 360 cars, and more information would further focus the search.

“If you said it was a blue SUV and ‘Diamond 5,’ it’s one of about 12 cars,” he said.

The ability to quickly narrow a list of suspected vehicles helps law enforcement track down the owner of a vehicle. Although the owner of the vehicle may have had nothing whatsoever to do with the crime, it is still an important lead.

“By connecting with the owner, the police can determine who had the vehicle at a given time, or whether the car or license plate had been stolen,” Lum said.

Because there’s no easy way to input a star or diamond on a computer keyboard (unless you’re using a Commodore 64), EZ-ID uses a small two-digit code to indicate its symbol and where it’s located in the character stream. For instance, a diamond in the second position would be entered as “D2.” Vanity and affinity plates would stay the same, so Bostonians could keep their coveted low-number or Red Sox plates, and the addition of symbols would open up a slew of personalized plates people may be willing to pay for.

A bill to adopt EZ-ID has been wending through the state Legislature for years, but Richard remains hopeful lawmakers will act on it this year. The only significant pushback he’s received has been about the cost of the program, but he’s convinced supporters in the State House that implementing EZ-ID would be a minimal expense. Richard said state officials estimate it would cost $30,000 to upgrade the tooling to manufacture the new plates.

“If that’s an obstacle, I’ll pay for that myself,” he said.

Photo: Whirling Pheonix/Flickr

 

Richard Frankel is the co-founder and president of Rocket Fuel, a leading real-time ad targeting platform. You can follow him @rocketfuelinc.

By now, almost everyone has been targeted by online advertising. One minute you’re browsing for a pair of pants and then for days on end, everywhere you go on the web, you’re stalked by the same banner ad offering a discount on pants. Even if you’ve already purchased the pants, the ad continues to stalk you.

For marketers, ad “retargeting” — receiving ads based on previous actions or purchases — can be an effective method to reconnect with interested shoppers even after they leave a website, thus increasing brand recall and boosting conversions. Retargeting, when done right, is useful to consumers, offering them discounts or promoting items they’re likely to be interested in. But done poorly, retargeting can have a negative effect on your brand. Many people find it creepy to be “stalked” and will grow increasingly irritated by your ads.

Unfortunately, most customer retargeting today is done by blunt force. Targeting companies simply serve ads to consumers who might be interested based on demographics, click behavior and browsing history. They hit these same consumers with the same ads for days on end as they travel around the web.

But there is another way. It involves using data modeling and predictive analytics to do real-time precision targeting. With the newest ad targeting methods, you can reach highly-specific audiences such as “middle-income people in northeast Michigan in the immediate market for designer gravestones,” or “owners of English Bulldogs whose pets have arthritis and are looking for warm dog booties.”

In the case of the pants shopper, you could serve different ads to the shopper at each moment based on real-time data analysis. Using predictive analytics, you could find out what items they might be interested in next as a complement to that purchase, what colors and styles they like, or whether they prefer your brand. Instead of being followed by one ad for pants, the shopper might see an ad for belts that match his or her style and budget, or a 15% discount in return for filling out a review of the item he or she just purchased.

If you’ve decided you’d like to take your targeting practices from blunt force to fine-tuned finesse, here are several steps to get you started.

---

Segment Your Retargeting Audience

---

Good retargeting starts with finding receptive, in-market consumers interested in your offers and messages. Start by analyzing all the audience profile data you’ve developed over the years and group your audiences into segments. Conduct real-time tests on these audiences to identify which exact micro-segments are most interested in your products.

If this sounds just like targeting, it’s because the same elements apply. Don’t stop testing. Audiences change over time as consumers learn more about your products, make purchases, read reviews, and are influenced by other products and information in the outside world.

---

Optimize Campaigns in Real Time

---

It’s not enough to optimize your campaigns once a month, or even once a week. If a consumer sees your same ad several times in one week, the feeling of “stalking” can set in quickly. Instead, you should be optimizing your ads in real time.

To target and retarget ads, you’ll need to work with a targeting company that provides real-time optimization; most campaigns only do so once a month. Make sure to ask if they can deliver.

---

Continue to Refine Audiences

---

Make sure your targeting provider offers real-time predictive analytics so you can refine your audience segments on the fly and target and retarget them with specific campaigns and messages.

Make sure to measure the effectiveness of your audience segments against the metrics that matter to you. Perhaps the most important metric for your brand is increasing the shopping basket size or increasing shopping frequency among new customers.

---

Manage Ad Frequency

---

Use campaign analytics and real-time surveys to find out what consumers think of your brand at a given moment. This will help you gauge how your ads are resonating. The goal is to determine the frequency at which your ads are shown enough to boost brand recall and increase sales without annoying consumers.

Remember, the “right” ad frequency is an individual measurement based on your customers and the needs of your company. Real-time brand surveys will help you see both the positive and negative impact of your campaigns.

---

Go Multi-Channel

---

The best way to not “stalk” consumers is to reach them on different channels at different points in the browsing and purchase process. Integrate media buys across display, video, mobile, and social to reach customers wherever they are in the moment and make sure your retargeting company can serve ads onto all of these platforms.

Use deep data analytics to determine which ads work on your audience on specific channels or at specific times.

---

Smarten Up

---

Consumers can feel stalked even on a single website. If you buy inventory on a website hoping to avoid chasing someone around the web, your ad may still appear on that site every single time the person visits. The answer is to buy across a wide range of media via display, video, social, and mobile, then optimize.

Do your brand a favor and use sophisticated real-time predictive analytics to connect with consumers when they want, where they want, and how they want. One day we’ll look back at blunt-force targeted ads the same way we see other digital nuisances. Get a head start on the competition by making your retargeted ads smart, fresh and useful to consumers.

---

Image courtesy of Flickr, diegohp93

The Web Development Series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace’s hosting solutions here.

Taking on a large project can be both exciting and intimidating, particularly if you’re a solo developer. Big builds can be a lot of fun and serve as great learning experiences. At the same time, you have to keep the project moving forward, or risk missed deadlines and burnout.

Below are some tips to help you stay organized and productive, whether you’re working individually or as a team.

---

1. Make Your Contract Rock-Solid

---

When dealing with clients, issues like scope creep, late payments and deadlines are always a concern. And what may seem obvious to you may not be clear to your client. To avoid hurt feelings, delays and financial troubles, your first priority should be establishing a thorough, firm, but fair written contract.

A good contract protects both you and your client. In addition to general terms and conditions, your contract should contain specifics about the project: payment schedules, due dates, deadlines (and consequences for missing those deadlines), cancellation policies, guidelines regarding intellectual property and project scope. You can find many sample contracts on the web, but there’s no substitute for consulting with an attorney. When dealing with the safety of your business and your livelihood, the expense is justifiable, and should be calculated in your business overhead.

---

2. Have a Well-defined Road Map

---

One of the required supplements to your contract should always be a project road map. It should outline all of the project features as thoroughly as possible, and establish the general plan for project progression, from research all the way through deployment.

To start, write out all of the features in outline format. It helps to break them down into groups, such as “Account Administration Features” and “Inventory Control Features,” for example. Keep refining the outline until you’ve defined exactly what is expected and what needs to be developed.

Next, break the project down into different phases, such as research, design, development, testing and deployment. For each phase, state its goals clearly, and define where the project should be when the phase is completed. Have your client sign off on the phases, and include this document with your contract. You may want to make a second copy of this road map to include more technical details, such as technologies to employ and methods to implement each feature — but don’t change the scope unless your client signs off on the changes.

---

3. Establish a Style Guide

---

Whether you’re working alone or with a team, taking the time to establish a style guide for your project will help you maintain consistency throughout. Furthermore, when the project needs updating six months from now, you’ll be glad you made the effort.

There are two types of style guides you should consider: a visual guide and a coding guide. Keep in mind that either or both may apply to the project. The visual style guide should contain information regarding fonts, colors, branding and any other notes on visual appearance. You should also include a few examples of common elements, such as headers, forms, body content, sidebars and menus. While you may never need to go into such detail, the Skype Brand Book is a great example. The guide provides a great presentation to your client, a tool to help them understand how the project will ultimately look and feel. Review the established style with the client (mood boards are great for this purpose), and have them sign off on the look. Refer back to the visual style guide often during your own work to make sure you’re adhering to the set guidelines.

A programming style guide needn’t be project-specific (unless you’re working with a new team that has already established a style different from your own). It may be as simple as following an existing style guide, such as the Zend style guide. You don’t need to start from scratch here, but you need to be consistent. Having a clear set of guidelines will help any developers who may come on board later.

---

4. Take Time to Research, Plan and Test

---

When developing a new project, particularly one that’s interesting and exciting, people have the temptation to dive right in and get to work. An initial lack of proper research and planning can have detrimental effects, especially for larger projects. Take the proper initial steps and spend time researching, diagramming, reading through source code and organizing your thoughts. It will end up saving you time and money down the road.

The same applies to testing your code. It will spare you the tedious and often embarrassing problems of code rewrites, because the only thing worse than having your code fail during a demo is having it fail in production. Testing code and debugging shouldn’t be afterthoughts, so work both into your project estimate and timeline. There are a lot of automated testing suites out there today — everything from PHP and JavaScript to Ruby and Python, and countless other languages. It’s a good idea to learn at least one for each language you plan to use. Don’t forget to have real users navigate your software too. You and your client should both spend time actually using the site you’ve developed before going live.

---

5. Document As You Go

---

If you’re like most developers, you cringe at the thought of writing documentation. Taking the time to document something, especially when it seems clear at the time of creation, feels like a waste of valuable time. However, years from now those thousands of lines of source code may not make nearly as much sense.

Furthermore, programming styles and skill evolve over time, which can make old code hard to dive back into. So take time to document your code as you go. Make it as intuitive as possible by using descriptive names and logical progression. As a good rule of thumb, you should never need to document what something does, but make notes in your code that explain a feature’s purpose and function. Also note any dependencies that it either relies on or creates. Stopping at the end of each new feature and taking the time to draft some end-user documentation is a good idea as well. This will make it much easier to train your client on the software, and will also serve as a good way to catch any usability issues or features that were accidentally omitted.

---

6. Use Version Control

---

This should almost go without saying, but many solo developers don’t use version control for their projects. For a large project, this simply isn’t an option. A good VCS (whether you choose SVN, Git, Mercurial or some other system) virtually eliminates the possibility of accidentally deleting or overwriting code.

In addition to providing an invaluable safety net, commit logs also help you track your progress. And the ability to branch, fork, and merge your code gives you the flexibility to experiment with different methods of feature implementation. You can also refine and fine-tune your software’s performance without the risk of breaking existing code. Finally, it simplifies remote backup and deployment to testing and production environments. These days, version control should be considered an essential part of your development, particularly if you collaborate with other individuals.

---

7. Take Thorough Meeting Notes

---

Whether you prefer to use a laptop or a spiral-bound notebook, take notes when you meet with your client and other collaborators. Otherwise, you may not retain that minor detail discussed during the meeting as effectively. Good note-taking demonstrates to your clients that you’re attentive, interested and dedicated to providing them with good service. It ensures you don’t forget the little details, and it also saves you the embarrassment of having to go back to the client for clarification. It sounds simple, but one minor modification that went forgotten or overlooked could mean major changes in code or functionality. Save yourself the headache, stress and humiliation and learn to write everything down.

---

8. Organize Your Assets

---

As with thorough note-taking, keeping assets organized is another important step toward streamlining your project work flow. You may even consider a separate version control repository for project assets that don’t belong in the finished code base. Your client will likely send you a lot of files, content, artwork and emails containing feedback and requests for modifications and new features. Often, they’ll send more than one version of those files or requests.

Think about putting these assets into version control or some well-defined project management software. It can go a long way toward helping you keep information organized. Sending the wrong file or hunting through hundreds of emails not only slows you down and introduces the likelihood of errors, it makes you look unprofessional.

---

9. Put Due Dates in Writing

---

Due dates may often be established when outlining the project and its contract, but if this isn’t something you’re already doing, or if your current system isn’t working as well as you would like, it’s definitely worth the attention. Large projects tend to have a lot of dependencies, and missing one deadline can often put an entire project behind schedule. Mark due dates on your calendar and discipline yourself to stick to them.

Due dates aren’t just for you, either. It’s not at all unreasonable to give your client due dates for various deliverables, such as content and branding, and to set fixed periods of time for reviewing and approving assets. Clearly define due dates for all parties, and furthermore, address the consequences of unmet deadlines. As with negotiating a contract and drafting the project outline, always try to be fair, but don’t be afraid to be firm. Your client will respect you for it, and your reputation and career depend on it.

Images courtesy of Flickr, ZedZAP .. gone camping, justonlysteve

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Any press may be good press, but good press is even better. Yet, how do you stand out among your competitors and catch the attention of journalists? The traditional route is to pitch your story directly to reporters and hope it’s compelling enough that they’ll bite, or to offer your expertise around breaking news topics with your fingers crossed that the reporter is even working on a story about whatever that might be. Another option, however, is to respond to requests on sites that connect reporters with sources.

The most well-known of those is probably Help a Reporter Out (HARO). Started by Peter Shankman in 2008, it now connects over 100,000 sources with nearly 30,000 journalists (and brings in more than a million dollars per year in revenue). There are others, too — Media Kitty (which is older than HARO), FlackList, ProfNet (perhaps the oldest of the bunch), NewsBasis and Reporter Connection, are among the most active. These communities have grown so popular, that it’s now difficult for sources to stand out on these platforms, as well.

We spoke with Heather Kirk, the founder of Media Kitty, and Jennifer Nichols, CEO of FlackList, to get some tips on how sources can improve their chances of being noticed when responding to queries from journalists.

---

1. Be Fast

---

Speed matters when it comes to catching the eye of a busy journalist for two reasons. First, he is probably operating on deadline, so getting connected to a solid source quickly is important. Second, there are a huge number of other qualified sources trying to catch his eye at the same time. The last time I used one of these sites to find interviewees for a story, I received more than 100 email responses in the first six hours. That’s a lot to sort through, and the further out from my query, the more likely it was that I had already found the sources I needed to complete my piece.

“Respond as soon as you see the query and well before the deadline,” advises Nichols. “Once a reporter has what he/she needs, he doesn’t usually continue sifting through query responses.”

Being quick is also the number one piece of advice from HARO founder, Peter Shankman.

---

2. Be On Target

---

One thing all journalists universally hate is having their time wasted. Make sure when responding to a query on any of the aforementioned sites that your pitch is on target. Journalists are looking for sources that match their needs, not people who maybe, sort of, might have some expertise in a kind of, semi-related area.

“Don’t respond to a query unless what you are offering is truly a fit,” says Nichols, who advises that responses be kept to the point and devoid of fluff, but still full of relevant information. “The trick here is to still keep it short while including the pertinent info.”

Kirk also advises keeping the clutter out of your pitch and finding a unique — but still germane — angle to set yourself apart. “Relevant, researched and realistic replies score best. Attaching their hook to your material is key — colorful examples, links to fitting images, engaging background briefs and on-target experts with clout, character and ready accessibility all help set you apart,” she says.

---

3. Be Honest

---

“Don’t bait and switch,” says Nichols. “If you offer an executive for an interview, make sure you can deliver. Reporters don’t have the time or patience for your CEO to somehow now be on a plane to Rome and have only an assistant VP able to chat.”

Coming off as dishonest is the best way to sour what could have been a long-term relationship with a reporter. If a journalist doesn’t think he can trust you, there’s very little incentive to ever quote you (or your client) as an expert in the future.

“Many sources see every journalist lead as an opportunity to finagle their way into publicity, jazz up their client reports or nurture new contacts. Leads can offer all of these, but only if you tackle replies with transparency and sincerity,” notes Kirk.

---

4. Be Personal

---

Remember that when using these types of source-matching sites, yours is likely one of hundreds of responses that the reporter has received. Sometimes a personal touch goes a long way toward making you stand out from the crowd.

“A well-written, personalized and targeted response where there is a clear fit will get you noticed,” says Kirk.

Similarly, Nichols advises Googling journalists before pitching them to familiarize yourself with what they write. “Check out the style of their stories and how they typically present info and mimic that in your pitch,” she says.

---

5. Be Precise

---

Make sure your responses are accessible. No reporter has time to sift through a wordy or poorly composed pitch to try to find that nugget of expertise or the unique perspective that you might be able to offer. Craft a response that is straightforward and to the point and you’ll increase your chances of being tapped as a source.

“Make your reply easy to scan with bullet points and rich context. Rather than bulk up an email with attachments that call for an extra step to open and review, links are handier. Keep your response lean yet workable, colorful yet specific. Look for niche services that tailor to specific beats to up your odds even more,” says Kirk.

What other tips do you have for being a good source? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, urbancow, kycstudio

Apple released the first developer preview of Mac OS X Lion Thursday, offering a glimpse of what can be expected from the next iteration of its desktop operating system.

Slated for release this summer, Mac OS X Lion is all about fusing the worlds of Mac OS X and iOS together. On its Mac OS X Lion Preview page, Apple sums it up best: “The power of Mac OS X. The magic of iPad.”

Some of the features in Mac OS X Lion have already found their way into Mac OS X Snow Leopard. When Apple formally announced Mac OS X Lion in October, the company showed off some of the new features that had already arrived in iLife ’11. The company launched the Mac App Store in January, and many of its UI elements (which look unusual in the context of Mac OS X 10.6) are carried over into Mac OS X Lion.

---

Multitouch, Multitouch, Multitouch

---

For the last few years, MacBook Pro (and Magic Trackpad) owners have been able to take advantage of multitouch gestures in Mac OS X. In supported applications, swiping fingers a certain way or using the pinch-to-zoom gesture will influence what you see on the screen.In Mac OS X Lion, gestures and multitouch support consume the whole OS. Swipes can initiate system-wide features — like pulling up the new application dashboard Launchpad — and can also switch between applications, application screens or zoom in on specific content.

Check out this video from Apple’s website that shows off some of the new gestures:

---

iOS Style App Launcher

---

Launching applications in Mac OS X has always been a bit odd. Yes, users can drag shortcuts of apps to the dock for easy launching — but there isn’t a system-wide menu way to pull up apps (unless one puts a shortcut to the Applications folder in the dock — which is what I do). That changes in Mac OS X Lion.

Using a swipe down gesture brings up a Launchpad that showcases every app on the system, iOS style. Users can scroll through and select apps. Similar gestures and support have appeared in the beta releases of iOS 4.3. Although those gestures aren’t expected to make the final release, it does show that Apple is working to unify how apps are accessed across platforms.

---

Mission Control

---

Mission Control is another new Mac OS X Lion feature. Apple demonstrated the features at its big Mac event in October but now we have a better idea of what the feature is and how it works.

In essence, Mission Control is the Expose feature in Mac OS X fused with Spaces. Open windows are grouped together by applications and the users gets a broad overview of every open panel and application, regardless of whether it is running full screen or not.

We’d also like to see something like this implemented in future versions of iOS.

---

Auto Saving, Built-in Versioning and Resume

---

Apple is introducing a system-wide auto-save feature in Mac OS X Lion. That should help prevent situations where a user writes a 2,000 word post in a text editor, forgets to hit save and then loses the entire thing when the text editor decides to crash. Wouldn’t it be nice if the OS itself could help avoid that?Mac OS X Lion will also create and store versions of documents as they are written. Previous versions can be accessed, Time Machine-style, from a cascading window setup and older versions can be reverted with one click.

Apple is also introducing new technology that will let users pick-up exactly where they left off even after restarting their Mac. That means performing a system update won’t require a user to open every document or URL window after a reboot.

It also means that after you quit an application, you can open it up exactly where you left off.

Mac OS X has long been the gold standard for having a solid standby/resume system for its laptops and desktops. I’ve had laptops in sleep mode for four months that have resumed exactly where they left off (after the battery was re-charged, of course).

Making resume even better should help facilitate that “always on” feeling you get using the iPad.

---

Mac OS X Server

---

Rather than sell as a separate version, Mac OS X Lion will come with Lion Server built in. This is a unusual move for Apple. Last year, the company discontinued its Xserve line, focusing instead on the Mac mini Server and Mac Pro Server offerings.We don’t think the message here is that Mac OS X can’t power a network server — it absolutely can. Instead it might be a recognition that central file servers are less necessary than they used to be. Regular laptops and desktops can be easily configured to run as a server.

In my house, we have five Mac OS X machines running at all times. We have a media server running FreeNAS in a closet. But in reality, we don’t need any server software to communicate or exchange files between Mac machines.

A very cool feature in Lion Server is file sharing for the iPad. When configured to support WebDAV, Lion Server can offer iPad users access to documents in apps like Pages, Keynote and Good Reader. For businesses that embrace the iPad, this is a great move.

---

Preparation for a Touch Based Future?

---

It’s very clear that iOS — especially the iPad — is influencing the future direction of Mac OS X.The success of the iPad, the new MacBook Air and the Android tablets indicates that the portable computing device many of us use in a few years won’t be a laptop, but a tablet. I would expect to see a MacPad — an iPad/MacBook mashup — in the next few years.

With that in mind — and knowing that Apple has some interesting patents on touch-based technology — I wonder if Mac OS X Lion is being launched as a kind of transitory OS.

There are fundamental differences in how touch-based systems like iOS operate compare to traditional input systems like Mac OS X or Windows. Not only are user interface and user experiences different, the way information is accessed is different too.

Mac OS X Lion is the first step in bridging the gap between those two universes.

DKNY won four of the eight awards presented at the Fashion 2.0 Awards at the Trump Soho Hotel on Wednesday evening.

DKNY edged out top-nominated contenders Bergdorf Goodman and Gucci in the categories for Best Twitter, Best Mobile App, Best Blog and Top Innovator. Levi’s won Best Facebook Page, Bluefly was recognized for Best Online Video, Armani Jeans’s “The Room” was awarded Best Website, and Tumblr took home honors for Next Big Thing in Tech (we couldn’t agree more).

Like the Mashable Awards, winners were determined entirely by popular vote, following an open nomination round. DKNY’s “PR Girl” rallied her Twitter followers for votes in the final days, securing the brand’s place on top.

The awards are designed to recognize innovation in an industry that, before the latter half of 2010, was sincerely behind other industries in its adaptation of social media, live streaming, mobile and 3D (or, in some cases, “4D”) technology.

A livestream of the awards ceremony, co-hosted by Style Coalition and TheFind, is embedded above. You can also check out the full list of nominees and winners (in bold) below.

---

Best Online Video

---

Adidas Originals, “Star Wars Cantina”
Chanel, “Animating Chanel”
Bluefly, “Closet Confessions” (winner)
Lanvin, “Lanvin Loves H&M”
The Outnet, “TheOutnet Big Preview”

---

Best Twitter

---

DKNY (winner)
Coach
Rachel Roy
Kate Spade
Bergdorf Goodman

---

Best Facebook

---

Adidas
Armani
Ann Taylor
Gucci
Levi’s (winner)

---

Best Mobile App

---

Bergdorf Goodman
DKNY (winner)
GoldRun
Gucci
Net-a-porter

---

Best Blog

---

Bergdorf Goodman
Bluefly
DKNY (winner)
Anthropologie
Tory Burch

---

Best Website

---

Armani Jeans (winner)
Alice + Olivia
Burberry
Chanel
Gucci

---

Next Big Thing in Tech

---

BigLive
Fashism
FashionGPS
Shopkick
Tumblr (winner)

---

Top Innovator

---

Asos
Bergdorf Goodman
Burberry
DKNY (winner)
Ralph Lauren

Dave Sloan is CEO of Treehouse Logic, which offers a hosted design tool solution that enables customer co-creation. You can reach Dave at dave@treehouselogic.com and follow him on Twitter.

Do you have good taste? Feeling inspired? Lots of new fashion startups want to tap into your creativity. These new fashion sites are not your grandfather’s fashion brands. Instead, they invite anyone with design aspirations to co-create their own clothing or outfit.

Here are three ways to get started in fashion design from the comfort of your own computer.

---

1. Design and Sell Fashion Online

---

Garmz’s goal is to activate fashion talent. Based on a crowd-sourcing business model, designers upload their best designs and the community votes on favorites. The most popular designs get produced and put up in the Garmz online store. Profits from sales of the designed garment are shared with the designer.

Fabricly has set out to help you, the designer, launch your own clothing line. If you want to design for Fabricly, you simply submit your sketches via e-mail. The Fabricly team evaluates submissions and selects designers it wants to promote. Fabricly takes care of sourcing, production, PR and shares profits with the designer. “In short, Fabricly takes the pain and financial risk out of growing a fashion label.”

Both Garmz and Fabricly are in the business of democratizing the fashion world by giving creative, up-and-coming designers access to the fashion industry. As Garmz and Fabricly attract more designers and publish more unique content, they will grow the community of designers and shoppers. These sites give designers a platform to design, produce and sell their products online.

---

2. Design and Inspire

---

Instead of asking designers to sketch out free-form designs, Polyvore provides a web-based scrapbooking tool that accesses a broad library of fashion pieces. “Polyvore is the web’s largest community of tastemakers where people can discover their style and set trends around the world.” Polyvore encourages users to create sets, follow other users and inspire each other with fashion finds. The site also inspires creativity among its members by hosting design contests. These contests are often judged by celebrity icons like Kate Moss.

Fashiolista takes on the difficulty of finding fashion across a crowded InternetInternet, i.e. “the shopping jungle,” by having members find and rate fashion finds. Users install a web browser extension to get started. As they browse through the Internet’s vast selection of garments and accessories, they can hit the “love it!” button from their browser tool bar. Loved items are added to a user’s Fashiolista profile and to the Fashiolista database of browseable items. Users customize their profile and follow fashion-forward members that inspire them, creating a fashion social network.

GoogleGoogle’s Boutiques.com invites members to create and follow online boutiques. Members can love, hate and share individual fashion items. To find items that may interest you, take the trademarked “stylyzer” quiz to be shown personalized recommendations. Like Pandora or Netflix, the algorithm learns more as people interact with the site, constantly improving the quality of recommendations. “Ultimately, Boutiques.com will provide shoppers with a much richer and interactive shopping experience and help drive traffic to retailers’ websites.”

---

3. Design and Buy

---

FashionPlaytes is a site where girls are their own fashion designers. Shoppers use a visual product configurator, i.e. “sketchbook,” to make selections including garment type, size, color, trim and accessories. FashionPlaytes offers tween girls an opportunity to design clothing and have it produced to wear at a reasonable price. The design experience is fun and playful, reminiscent of a video game.

Blank-Label is a build-a-shirt site that allows men to design their own dress shirt by selecting a fabric, style, collar and buttons. As users make selections they see a realistic graphical representation of the shirt they are creating. Users can submit their measurements along with their creation and should expect the custom shirt to take a few weeks to be sewn and shipped. “Designed by you. Stitched by us,” is the company’s slogan. Other custom shirt sites include World of Alfa, Shirtsmyway, and Propercloth.

These cool design-it-yourself startups are including you, the creative designer, in the shopping process. Some are marketplaces for up-and-coming designers, some are social fashion sites that encourage creative interaction and sharing, and others simply add visual product design to the online shopping experience. In any case, the Internet is becoming a hotbed of interactive design experiences. Get to it!

---

Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, vm