The Interledger Community 🌱: Bill Olmstead

REACH.Love — Grant Report #2

Bill Olmstead — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 21:33:05 +0000

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Project Update

We have completed most tasks associated with the grant on our staging website, but have not yet pushed these to the live site. We scaled back some of our web monetization features to focus on areas that facilitate the creation and sharing of projects. These published projects are then monetized through WM. This level of integration, applying WM to published projects, is complete on the staging website. We will also include a call to action around WM on the home page to encourage users to participate in the program.

This grant has facilitated many major improvements to REACH (all implemented on the staging site).

Users can now browse and discover published projects (where WM is implemented).
Users can now search and filter published projects and assets from their library.
We have created a new, much improved asset manager, which includes integration with Sketchfab so new creators can more easily make and publish projects by drawing on a library of existing Sketchfab assets.
We also added the ability to pre-load users’ libraries with any assets we have created to make it easier for them to create projects from scratch.
We also implemented a new visual design throughout and improved the sign up/log in flow.

REACH has taken an enormous step forward thanks to the support of this grant. These new features have completely transformed the platform and we can’t wait to iron out the last couple of issues and launch to the public.

Progress on objectives

1) User Experience Refinement - Undo, Redo, Better project loading, web monetization modules implementation
We have implemented WM on published projects, and refined the platform UX throughout.

2) Sketchfab & Project viewing & Search, add and test Web Monetization standards with specific REACH projects (fashion show, Hayami)
We have implemented Sketchfab integration, project viewing with browse and search, and while we haven’t tested WM with these specific projects, we have tested in generally.

3) Timeline tool (Alpha), web interface design improvements, gather discovery from implementation of Web Monetization in specific REACH projects

4) Asset Management, Implement improvements of Web Monetization

We have implemented a new asset manager that makes it much easier to upload and browse assets. We’ve also implemented Sketchfab integration in the asset manager so that users now have access to a huge library of assets they can import into their projects. In addition, we can now pre-load the asset manager with REACH-created assets.

5) Timeline tool (Beta) & Multiple scenes storytelling, Web monetizaton module final Testing & QA

We have completed final testing and Q&A for WM. The timeline tool has been tabled, as described above.

6) Option for publishing and embedding content, refinements and REACH toolset final Testing and QA

We have completed publishing and embedding content through Share, and have completed final testing and Q&A. Before pushing changes live from the staging site to the live site we do need to address some issues (not WM related) that came up in testing. We are holding these updates until we have a window to launch with more of a focussed PR and outreach effort.

7) Post-grant period - Marketing and outreach

Once we complete development on the subscription system, we will target new Universities to incorporate REACH as part of their immersive development courses, journalism, and other departments that can benefit from it. Our CEO always has a large marketing platform due to her public profile, so we plan to use that to market the platform as well.

Key activities

We have completed the following activities:
Hired development team and UX designer.
Completed wireframes for: Asset Manager, Browse section, Search, Sketchfab integration, Share, Timeline, Asset Hierarchy and Grouping
Completed visual designs for: Asset Manager, Browse section, Search, Sketchfab integration, Share
Built and tested new features (launched on staging site): Asset Manager, Browse section, Search, Sketchfab integration, Share, improved Library.
Updated visual design throughout the entire platform and tweaked many additional features.

Communications and marketing

We have completed the following activities:
Redesigned trailer
Shot and edited first version of the trailer - https://www.dropbox.com/s/gzwgzjtdva7i7ur/REACH%20Hype%20V6.mp4?dl=0

Prepped material for new trailer once the wireframes are completed.
Created a “how-to” that will also be ready to swap material once we have new screenshots of the redeveloped site.
Begun new scripts to integrate more information on how web monetization works in REACH.

What’s next?

We have a manageable list of updates that were uncovered in QA and need to be addressed before we can launch all these new features and visual design on the live website. We also need to implement a revised home page design. This work is being scheduled for late summer so we can also have time to prepare a communications strategy for the launch.

What community support would benefit your project?

At launch, sign up for REACH and share the launch announcement.

Other sources for funding.

Additional comments

Relevant links/resources (optional)

Emblematic Group REACH.love — Grant Report #001

Bill Olmstead — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:21:38 +0000

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Project Update

We’ve made a lot of progress on our project so far and are excited to continue. Our focus so far has been on testing and implementing the Web Monetization standard. Our initial proposal outlined the ability to share revenue back to the content creators who are using our platform to publish immersive Web XR content. Web Monetization does not support tracking user behavior, so we have planned a solution that would support this tracking using session ID, project IDs and receipts. We have reviewed our solution with the Mozilla team and this looks like it is good to go!

We have successfully tested basic implementation of WM without any issues. We’ve also improved our underlying site architecture to get set up for feature implementation.

Some of the most exciting aspects of this grant are our work integrating with Sketchfab, improving our editor features, and allowing users to publish their work and browse and experience each others’ projects. We’ve done some incredible early concept work for a visual timeline using visual programming to make Web XR creation as simple as possible. We have wireframes ready for the Asset Manager with Sketchfab integration, as well as Browse, and are almost ready to put these features into development.

Progress on objectives

1) User Experience Refinement - Undo, Redo, Better project loading, web monetization modules implementation
We have conducted extensive research into the web monetization standard and have implemented WM on our staging site using test accounts. We have also tested using WM on an iFrame, and investigated the feasibility of sharing WM revenue with content creators on our platform. In terms of sharing revenue, we outlined a technical strategy for tracking the revenues gained for each piece of content based on tracking user behavior. We will continue to monitor privacy implications as we move forward in the next month.

2) Sketchfab & Project viewing & Search, add and test Web Monetization standards with specific REACH projects (fashion show, Hayami)
We have created wireframes for implementation of an Asset Manager that will allow users to browse and import content from Sketchfab using Sketchfab’s API. Google Poly is shutting down so we will not be implementing that integration, but we have decided to include a REACH library that makes Emblematic Group created or licensed materials available to users. We have tested a universal implementation of Web Monetization and will likely roll it out among all projects, not just those specified in the proposal. We are currently working on visual designs for the Asset Manager and will move into development once those are complete.

3) Timeline tool (Alpha), web interface design improvements, gather discovery from implementation of Web Monetization in specific REACH projects

We have developed exploratory wireframes for the timeline tool, but we decided that in order to pursue a broader rollout of Web Monetization a higher feature priority is to allow users to share their published projects with others through a browse interface similar to YouTube or Vimeo. That way we can apply Web Monetization to more publicly discoverable published XR pieces. We are currently wireframing the Browse screens and expect to have visual design completed next week. Once visual design is complete we will move this feature, along with the Asset Manager and the expansion of Web Monetization, into development.

One aspect of the timeline that we are still hoping to implement in this grant is adding grouping of assets, and moving to a hierarchy model.

4) Asset Management, Implement improvements of Web Monetization

This and the following items are in discovery phases for development.

5) Timeline tool (Beta) & Multiple scenes storytelling, Web monetizaton module final Testing & QA

Coming soon.

6) Option for publishing and embedding content, refinements and REACH toolset final Testing and QA

Coming soon.

7) Post-grant period - Marketing and outreach

In preparation for the post-grant period, we have made a new REACH.Love trailer. It will be featured as part of Nonny’s talks, including a March 18 SXSW special panel. Other events include (but are not limited to):
Monday, March 8, 2-3pm
Girl Culture instagram takeover
Wednesay, March 17, 2-3pmPT
Keynote at Yale’s Center for Creative Arts & Media
Friday, March 19, 11:50a- 1pm PT
Women Founder’s Network Interview
Thursday, April 7 from 1-2pm PT
Keynote at Capital One international conference for their Hispanics in Technology group
Thursday, April 8 2-3:30pPT
Keynote Cornell University Milstein Program on Technology and Humanity /Hamilton University
Tuesday, April 27, 11am PT
VFX Pros Tell All Webcast

Key activities

We have completed the following activities:
Hired development team and UX designer.
Completed Phase 0 of development to get staging and production site up, and to investigate and formulate a strategy for web monetization
Implemented and tested web monetization on testing site
Completed wireframes for new Asset Manager and Browse section
Completed exploratory wireframes for new visual timeline feature and editor hierarchy improvements
Completed new visual refresh

Communications and marketing

We have completed the following activities:
Redesigned trailer
Shot and edited first version of the trailer - https://www.dropbox.com/s/gzwgzjtdva7i7ur/REACH%20Hype%20V6.mp4?dl=0

Prepped material for new trailer once the wireframes are completed
Created a “how-to” that will also be ready to swap material once we have new screenshots of the redeveloped site
Begun new scripts to integrate more information on how web monetization works in REACH

What’s next?

We need to move from scoping, wireframing, and visual design into development for all listed items. Our direct next steps are to complete visual design for the Asset Manager (including Sketchfab integration) and Browse, and to commence work on the expanded implementation of Web Monetization to support sharing revenue back to content creators.

We then need to raise the funding to implement the timeline element which will be more complicated to actually develop than originally anticipated.

We will continue to workshop REACH with various universities to give students an opportunity to explore WebXR creation.

What community support would benefit your project?

Continued conversations around privacy for tracking user behavior so we can allocate revenue percentages back to content creators without compromising privacy.

Have users begin to create test projects with the site to see what content works as we continue to develop timeline.

Other sources for funding.