Posts Tagged ‘Culture’

What You Can Learn From Zynga’s Cool Company Culture [PICS]

Posted on May 20th, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments




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

When thinking of model places for workplace perks, the successful startups of Silicon Valley undoubtedly come to mind. And while heavy-hitters such as Google and Facebook are famous for their jaw-dropping employee amenities, up-and-coming mid-level companies are also getting in on the act.

Mashable took a tour of Zynga, a wildly popular distributor of some of the most played social and mobile games. When it comes to perks, the father of FarmVille doesn’t skimp. In fact, Zynga’s office is so loaded with perks and amenities, it would make working from home a bore.

Good Food

It’s not uncommon for tech companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco to offer its employees catered lunches, but Zynga takes it further with meals cooked on-site by professional chefs. Each floor has a fully-stocked and themed kitchen, including a candy kitchen and a healthy “zen” kitchen.

Everything is prepared on-site — there’s even a pizza oven — and made with locally sourced ingredients. The company’s executive chef is Matthew DuTrumble, who was the youngest chef instructor at the California Culinary Academy and also had a show on the Food Network, Private Chefs of Beverly Hills. Want to eat some meat for lunch? The on-site butcher will take care of that in his two-floor kitchen.

If you’re more interested in keeping a good diet, there are always healthy options, including a fully loaded salad bar and freshly brewed Kombucha. The healthy options are an important perk, considering desk jobs are notorious for helping people pack on pounds.

Good Fun

In the basement, there is a lounge area packed with big screen TVs, a curved wood bar area and free beer on tap. If you’d rather unwind with a workout than an ice-cold beer, you can hit up the Zynga gym. Employees can take CrossFit classes, meet with a nutritionist or schedule a free massage.

And if you want to work and play with your canine friend, he’s more than welcome — every day is bring your dog to work day at Zynga. After all, the company is named after the CEO Mark Pincus’ late dog, Zinga.

Work Hard, Play Hard

Zynga provides hotel-like amenities to keep employees happy and retain (and attract) talent. Tech companies in particular are notorious for providing awesome on-site perks to encourage employees stay at work longer and up their productivity. Facebook offers employees a free shuttle to work, plus numerous “micro-kitchens” stocked with snacks, and a free cafeteria where employees are welcome to invite family members for lunch. Google has a golf course, basketball courts and nap pods for a mid-day snooze.

Zynga churned out six games in the first quarter of 2012, so the team is definitely working hard. Despite the long hours, the employees’ access to a spacious top-of-the-line gym, a team of chefs and all the free beer you can drink makes for quite the hook-up.

All the perks in the startup world make sense — several Gallup studies have shown a correlation between productivity and worker happiness, and Gallup estimates that organizations whose employees are not happy and engaged lose out on billions of dollars in potential revenue.

Check out the gallery of pics below to see some of the cool stuff they get to do at Zynga.

Work Life at Zynga

This staircase leads to the lounge area and the gym.

Click here to view this gallery.

What do you think about this company? Would you work here? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments.

More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum:

- Should Small Businesses Follow Everyone Back on Twitter?
- Are You Falling into the Pricing Trap?
- How to Take Your PR Pitches to the Next Level

More About: mashable, open forum, startup, Zynga

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Read the original post on Mashable!

 

Book review – Web Aesthetics: How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society

Posted on January 22nd, 2011 • Filed under Look • No Comments

web_aesthetics.jpgWeb Aesthetics: How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society, by Vito Campanelli (available on Amazon USA and UK)

Institute of Network Culturea and NAI Publishers say: We live in a world of rapidly evolving digital networks, but within the domain of media theory, which studies the influence of these cultural forms, the implications of aesthetical philosophy have been sorely neglected. Vito Campanelli explores network forms through the prism of aesthetics and thus presents an open invitation to transcend the inherent limitations of the current debate about digital culture.

The web is the medium that stands between the new media and society and, more than any other, is stimulating the worldwide dissemination of ideas and behaviour, framing aesthetic forms and moulding contemporary culture and society.

Campanelli observes a few important phenomena of today, such as social networks, peer-to-peer networks and ‘remix culture’, and reduces them to their historical premises, thus laying the foundations for an organic aesthetic theory of digital media.

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Marco Manray Cadioli, Red Book, from In China

Vito Campanelli lectures on the theory and technology of mass communication at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. He is a freelance curator of digital culture events and co-founder of MAO – Media & Arts Office. His essays on media art are regularly published in international journals. And so far i had followed his writing on Neural online and paper mag. I opened his book with curiosity. And closed it with the feeling that it was probably the most intelligent publication i had read on media art culture for a long long time.

Web Aesthetics navigates with verve through the idiosyncrasies, rituals, dynamics and paradoxes of web culture. Some of the issues Campanelli brings attention to are well-known, other would gain from getting more attention: spam, the inability of present legislation to adapt to the age of digital media, blogs as stages of self-referentiality, the domesticated forms of dissent offered by facebook groups, the acceptance of a ‘disturbed aesthetic experience’ when downloading movies, remix practices as new cultural default, the difficulty experienced by new media culture to steer out of its ‘underground’ stigma, the erosion of the boundary between art and design, interactivity, the codification of website usability, etc.

Some of the points Campanelli makes echo my own preoccupations. Such as when he writes loud and clear what media art festival goers have been whispering for as long as i’ve been one of them: the disinclination of the community to practice or welcome any form of dissent and external critique. Or when he raises the problem of monolingualism. Most of the conversations in conferences, blogs or on mailing lists are indeed taking place in english with all the limitations this entails. While Campanelli’s book is written in english, he refreshingly brings much of his Italian culture on the table with many references to Italian thinkers and artists.

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Natalie Bookchin, Mass Ornament, 2009

Yes, the book is theory. It is dry. Unlike most of the books i review on wmmna, it contains no picture whatsoever but the writing is lively, the style is sharp and witty, and not matter how complex the issues he raises are, Campanelli dissects them with clarity and ease.

Expect serious reflections along with a subtle sense of humour and a couple of data dandies.

Don’t miss Geert Lovink’s Web Aesthetics Interview with Vito Campanelli.

Image on the homepage: Marco Manray Cadioli.

Read the original post on we make money not art

 

Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, “The Culture of Curiosity,” Lecture, Coney Island Museum, Sunday August 15, 4:30

Posted on August 8th, 2010 • Filed under Uncategorized • No Comments


Next Sunday at 4:30 PM as part of the Coney Island Museum’s “Ask the Experts” Series, Evan Michelson–co-proprietor of Obscura Antiques and Oddities and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence–will be giving a reprise of her popular “Culture of Curiosity” lecture, which some of you might have seen at Observatory last November.

If you missed it the first time, or were made curious enough [sic] about the topic to want to know more, do yourself the favor of heading down to Coney to hear Evan wax poetic [sic] in a new and expanded discussion of “the continuing appeal of curated chaos in the home.”

Full details follow; very much hope to see you there!

“The Culture of Curiosity”
An illustrated lecture by Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Date: Sunday, August 15
Time: 4:30 PM
Admission: $5
Location: The Coney Island Museum

From humble parlor to Princely treasury, the Culture of Curiosity has endured for hundreds of years. In equal parts uncanny obsession, camp statement, melancholy musing, frivolous commentary and timeless truth, ultimately it’s all about mystery.

Come and join Evan Michelson (Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence) in an exploration of the continuing appeal of curated chaos in the home.

Evan Michelson is an inveterate collector and museum aficionado. She has spent a lifetime obsessing over specimens, lurking in crypts, touring necropoli and gathering information on all things fading from the collective memory.

For about two decades Evan was in and out of various aggressively confrontational/decadent bands. She is currently co-owner of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Morbid Anatomy Library. She lives in Victorian excess with her husband, a few pets, and many esoteric and uncanny objects.

You can find out more about the event by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

The above photo is a Wax Department Store Mannequin from the Early 20th Century from Evan Michelson’s incredible home collection, as seen in my recent exhibition The Secret Museum. You can find more images of her collection here.

Read the original post on Morbid Anatomy

 

Marina Abramovic’s frequent companion

Posted on May 11th, 2010 • Filed under Uncategorized • 1 Comment

Maybe it’s just an image that pops while I’m connected with Marina. Let’s say it’s an image of someone I love deeply, and then this creates the emotion, the tears just come out. Most of the time it’s tears of joy. You’re just being and thinking about somebody or something that’s important in your life. And then just acknowledging this person or situation and moving on into being present because yeah, the tears come, but I don’t want to cry for the entire sitting. I want to move on and continue to be with Marina, to be present.

via Marina Abramovic’s frequent companion.

 

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