SCVNGR Blag

Hello Blog Readers!

Some very exciting news!

Google has invested $4MM into SCVNGR to help us grow the company bigger, better and faster! They were joined in the round by Highland Capital (who led our Series A investment). We’re very excited to be working with Google and Highland as SCVNGR enters this next phase in our growth.

Rich Miner (founder of Android and partner at Google Ventures) and Peter Bell (founder of Storage Networks and partner at Highland Capital) are now on our board of directors!

You can read more about the round (which was first broken by TechCrunch on Christmas Eve!) here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/24/scvngr-google/

We’ll be doing a proper press release / announcement sometime in early January and will be giving you the full details on our exciting plans for the future. So stay tuned!

Happy Holidays from the SCVNGR Team!

Greetings,

We’re starting a new feature where we’ll be highlighting innovative uses of SCVNGR in the field! This week’s post comes from Texas! Read on below:

Students visiting the Texas Maritime Museum last week took learning into their own hands in a unique educational experience with a digital twist.  Jennifer Rogers, the museum’s educator, designed a hunt through the museum.  Students received questions, clues and riddles on their cell phones via text message prompting them to explore the museum’s exhibits.  The material covered both maritime concepts as well as Texas history with questions ranging from “How many barrels of crude oil can the S.T. California Getty carry?” to “In 1821, what pirate was driven out of Texan waters?”  Students reported that many questions were more challenging than they initially appeared.  When asked, “What form of transportation contributed toward the growth of the commercial fishing,” some students were tempted to respond with “boats” or “ships” before learning more about commercial fishing at one of the museum’s information kiosks… we won’t give away the answer head to Texas Maritime to find out!

Rogers conducted a survey after the hunt to learn more about the students’ experience.  The student’s response was overwhelmingly positive and described how it was not only fun but something they would do again.  Interestingly, many students identified the experience as “hard” or “somewhat hard,” but as Rogers noted and the surveys confirm this challenging material did not deter their enthusiasm for the program.

Many of the teachers were impressed with how the program allowed students to complete the questions at their own pace, while requiring them to read through information signs or listen to clips on the kiosks.  Rogers shared the questions from the hunt with the teachers and they plan to use it as a tool to review the material with the class post-scvngr and increase knowledge retention.

Have a great story about SCVNGR in your neck of the woods, let us know and we’ll feature it up here!

We just got word that our most recent update to the SCVNGR iPhone App has been approved! It’s got some great new features so why not give it a download?

It’s got some great new features including:

• custom commands
• real-time maps with satellite imagery provided courtesy of Google Maps
• disable spin feature from settings screen
• welcome screen to explain how to use the app better
• nearby scvngrs immediately listed
• Visual improvements on the Mission Tab
• info and commands screen

Download it here!

The SCVNGR Open House last night was a huge success. We had over 120 people come by and enjoy free food and drink, check out our digs, hang out with our rockstars and ninjas, show us their hidden talents (check the clips below for more on that) and explore SCVNGR HQ!

There were some true rockstars in attendance and if you were one of those (you know who you are) shoot us an email at jobs@scvngr.com.

If you missed the open house, don’t worry, there’ll be another one at some point and in the meantime, you can watch the incredible clips below from the “talent” portion of evening and read a bit more about it here.

We had everyone play a scvngr (of course) through the building to find the different offices, discover the Nerf Armory, complete awesome (and maybe slightly awkward) challenges and overall get to know SCVNGR and the team that has brought it to where it is today. (And will take it to where it’s going tomorrow.)

Nick and Kellian were offering swing dancing lessons from the Museum Team, Evan and Christina were teaching people how to properly handle a Nerf gun over at University Central, Michael was showing off his gong-ringing “technique” and the engineering team was apparently confusing everyone with riddles which were perhaps a little too tough. Overall, it was a great time.

Thanks to everyone for coming and we look forward to chatting with many of you further and hopefully having you join our awesome team.

Well, SCVNGR has been having a couple awesome months and so we decided to cash in two (2) of our monthly office prizes for…. SCVNGR Paintballing.

A picture’s worth almost 2000 words (what with inflation and all), so read on below for details:

Greetings, Blag readers, from the Museums Division of SCVNGR!

Museums? You say. There’s a museums division at a mobile gaming company? You bet!

For all of you who are a little surprised, don’t worry, it’s really quite cool and very very easy. We’re working with museums to bring high-tech mobile educational adventures to museums all across the country just… like… that.

What is better than a DaVinci Code Scvngr through a city solving clues and mysteries? A DaVinci Code Scvngr through a fantastically mysterious space with tons of hidden corners, intrigue and unidentified objects, solving REAL mysteries of history. Throw in ACTUAL historical artifacts from Mesopotamia or turn-of-the-century America, symbolic art, paintings worth millions, unusual tools from the Middle Ages and letters from John Adams to Abigail. Honestly, what’s more intriguing than reality? Except, maybe some augmented reality games powered by SCVNGR.

“I’m into fun!” shout the gamers here in the SCVNGR Community. “We’re into learning!” say the museums launching SCVNGR at their institutions. “Just you wait!” we say. Check this out:

We’re building already with about 2 dozen museums across the country and we’re pretty excited about the creativity that people are pouring into their scvngrs!

Appetite whetted? Go ahead and check out which museums near you are sending their Beta Scvngrs live. But be forewarned, you may actually learn a thing or two about art and history while you’re adventuring. Just don’t let on that you learned something while playing a fun game. We don’t want to cause any trouble…

Have fun exploring!

Kellian Adams

Ed Tech Ninja | SCVNGR Museums