How Similar Are You?

Today we added similarity scores. In case you’re wondering what that is, it’s a comparison of how similar you are to others on UpGuppy and how close someone else’s ranking of a specific topic is to yours.

You can see the similarity scores at work in two spots. The first is when you first log-in. To see this feature in action, you obviously have to rank a few lists (and the more the better!). You can see here that Alex Acree is my closest friend. We’ve ranked a ton of the same lists and tend to rank those things similarly.



The second is by clicking at the link just below any ranking. Again, you’ve got to rank the list. Here is how close my friends are to me in their ranking of Obama’s best Vice-Presidential candidates (which, by the way, my buddy Alex nailed).


Let us know what you think. We're working on developing better ways of displaying the data, which we should have out soon.

In Honor of Obama's Birthday, 3 of the Best Obama Cartoons

Note: you can rank the cartoons, and add you own on the UpGuppy Facebook Application here - http://apps.facebook.com/upguppy/ranking/174558


1. The New Yorker Cover 2008
No cartoon in recent months has attracted as much attention as this cover of the New Yorker. Whether you choose to see it as simply satire or extremely inappropriate, the cartoon gives a brilliant insight into American politics.











2. Pulitzer Prize Winning - Mike Ramirez
A picture is worth a thousand words.

"It was just the perfect metaphor for him because here you have this mystical statue that's revered by all, but nobody really knows much about it, and where it came from, and where it was before."
-Ramirez




3. The Freelance-Star - Clay Jones

This is a great cartoon, capturing some of the more humorous aspects of Obama's recent visit abroad.







Note: you can rank the cartoons, and add you own on the UpGuppy Facebook Application here - http://apps.facebook.com/upguppy/ranking/174558

Top TED Talks

I've been a big fan of TED ever since I was introduced to it about 2 years ago. For those of you who don't know, TED is an annual conference that brings together leaders and thinkers from all facets of life to promote "ideas worth sharing." They post several of the talks on their website. When I'm looking for a break "worth taking" I'll often browse the videos and am inevitably challenged, captivated and inspired.

So, in the spirit of UpGuppy, I put together a ranking of my favorite TED talks, which you can find here. As it stands the top 3 talks (as ranked by our users) follow. Enjoy!

1) Jill Bolte Taylor:

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."

2) Sir Ken Robinson:

Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this."

A visionary cultural leader, Sir Ken led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements.

3) Daniel Goleman:

Daniel Goleman brought the notion of "EI" to prominence as an alternative to more traditional measures of IQ with his 1995 mega-best-seller Emotional Intelligence.

Since the publication of that book, conferences and academic institutes have sprung up dedicated to the idea. EI is taught in public schools, and corporate leaders have adopted it as a new way of thinking about success and leadership. EI, and one's "EIQ," can be an explanation of why some "average" people are incredibly successful, while "geniuses" sometimes fail to live up to their promise. In this talk, he asks why we aren't more compassionate more of the time.

6 Strategies for Choosing a Stall in a Public Restroom

Whether you prefer to rush, saunter, or simply walk into a public restroom when the time comes, you are inevitably presented with a choice: Which of the porcelain shrines shall be blessed with your presence. While sometimes there is only a single option, for the adventurers encountering multiple whitish doors, I humbly offer you the following strategies:

(Quick note: you can rank them yourself on the UpGuppy Facebook application - here)


1. The Throne Room
Things certainly flow easier in a larger space. Perhaps some of us enjoy the minimal graffiti, or more of an open space that allows especially potent smells to diffuse. Whatever the case, the handicap stall is often the go to option.


2. The Covert Operation
For those less confident adventurers, flying under the radar may be a higher priority than the deed itself. In this case, the fear of detection sends these embarrassed bathroom goers to the stall furthest from the door... "They'll never find me here."


3. The Discussion Room
While open space does it for some, for others, nothing like a good conversation leads to uninterrupted flow. What better way to increase the chances of a conversation partner than choosing a stall with as many adjoining stalls as possible, hence you will find them somewhere in the middle.


4. The Work Station
"Get in get out" is the maxim of a certain high-powered group of restroom commandos. In this case the logical choice is the stall closest to the entrance for a more efficient arrival and departure. These distinguished persons stand in almost complete opposition to the covert operatives mentioned above and can almost always be heard checking emails while on the toilet.


5. Flexibility Option
In some of the more heavily traveled rest stops, public restrooms can be filled with all sorts of questionable characters. In this situation, one of the most commonly used strategies involves a little recon. The end goal is usually finding the stall farthest from the one with the weird noises. It seems to be a well known fact that weird noises are linked with uncomfortable smells.


6. The Green Stall
You will not find those who follow this strategy in public restrooms. For them the world is their restroom. A restroom full of open air, a restroom ideal for flying under the radar, a restroom filled with the conversations of mother nature, a restroom with no walls or doors to impede efficiency, and a restroom with infinite possibilities. From these few rebels a single phrase can be heard: "I only poop under trees."

And now for the best news of all! Everyone can rank and add their own favorite strategies on the UpGuppy Facebook application. Check it out.
http://apps.facebook.com/upguppy/ranking/23388

Do the University of Florida Gators really party harder?

The Princeton Review has just released its latest list of the biggest party schools in the country. The University of Florida came out on top this year beating out some stiff competition, including last year's reigning champion West Virginia University.

What do you think are the biggest party schools in the country? You can rank them here on UpGuppy:

http://apps.facebook.com/upguppy/ranking/162497

Let's see if the Princeton Review got it right.

Woohoo! 1,000 Users And Growing!

Just a quick note that we finally reached 4 digits (just 7 or so to go before world domination!). Thanks to all our users for checking out the app and providing ongoing feedback. We look forward to continuing to hear from you.

Version 0.1

We rolled out a bunch of new features today that we're hoping you like (you can thank Daniel O'Shea for all his hard work on this front):

1) Commenting in the house. We got the message loud and clear that you wanted to talk about rankings not just rank them. The new version gives you the chance to do exactly that. Just click on the commenting tab above your ranking and chat to your heart's content.

2) You deserve recognition. Previously there was no real way to track ownership, meaning you didn't get cred for all the great rankings you created. Well, now you do. Create a ranking and check it out.

3) Snazzy new profile box. Thank Alex Budnitz for that!

Get on the app and let us know what you think!

Chinese most optimistic people in the world?

The Pew Global Attitudes Project recently announced that Chinese citizens are the most optimistic people in the world regarding their national economy and the direction their country is heading (read here). In stark contrast, according to the survey, only 23% of U.S. citizens believe the U.S. is heading in the right direction, and 20% believe the economy is good.

I'm curious to hear more about why people think the U.S. should be optimistic about its future. Tell me what you think here.

Top NFL Quarterbacks

With the off season now in full swing, I have been looking for some excuse to once again indulge the football shaped hole in my heart. Several days ago, SportingNews did just that with it's list (link) of top NFL quarterbacks.

With little surprise, I noticed Tom Brady perched atop the number one spot. A spot well deserved as shown on the left here after throwing his record breaking 50th TD. With much more surpise, I noted the single quarter back to defeat the Brady, Eli Manning, all the way down at #12... fishy

Well lucky for us we have UpGuppy.

And the NFL QB ranking on UpGuppy. (link)

Behind the Fish

Alex Acree caught the entrepreneurial bug a few years ago and is still alive to tell about it. He's the CEO of UpGuppy, before which he helped start a legal outsourcing company, internet fashion magazine, community bank, and nonprofit community organization. Alex is one of the many Yalies on the team having earned his J.D. and M.B.A. there.

Logan Beirne became handy with power tools in January after developing an unhealthy addiction to home improvement shows. He has over seven years of finance experience in investment banking and private equity positions at JP Morgan, UBS and GE Capital. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and can write with both feet.

Alex Budnitz loves to draw pretty pictures and does some version of that in his day job as senior art director at Stoltze Design in Boston, where he works with a diverse group of national-level clients. His work has earned him numerous trophies and has been featured in many a glossy publication.

Ethan Fletcher is a Boston sports fan who still can't believe the locals came within a freak David Tyree catch of winning all three major sports championships in a row (sorry, hockey). He has a professional background in entrepreneurship, progressive politics, and business strategy. Ethan holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and graduated from Tufts University (go Jumbos!) longer ago than he cares to admit. He often signs his emails "UpGuppily yours" and is widely considered the funniest member of the team, but then looks aren't everything.

Justin Jannise is an English literature major at Yale College. A lifelong ranking addict, he has experience in print journalism, radio broadcasting, museum management and flipping burgers. Justin is also an award-winning Meryl Streep impersonator.

Joey Kiernan is a sophomore at Williams College where he's studying computer science. Joey currently divides his time between UpGuppy, studying and rowing. He also occasionally eats (when he has the time).

Arun Mohan is a doctor surrounded by lawyers. He's often scared during meetings. Before UpGuppy, Arun was a co-founder at PictureRx, a healthcare software company. His good looks and charisma (not as tantalizing as Ethan's) have earned him recognition as one of Georgia's "Top 40 Under 40." Arun apologizes for having once stolen and raffled off his best friend's car while a student at Swarthmore College.

Daniel O'Shea does double duty as our in-house technology God and CTO. Before coming to UpGuppy, Daniel was the Co-Founder, Sr. Vice-President and CTO (lots of titles) at Foldera.com. When he's not writing killer code, Daniel lives and breathes the Lakers (much to the dismay of Ethan who loves the Celtics).

Dave Wilkinson is a Jedi master of grassroots marketing having run an 8,000-member nonprofit where he did exactly that. Dave has also led successful efforts to launch a $25M bank and an innovative $75M housing finance pool. If you haven't already guessed, Dave also earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, but is a Virgina Cavalier at heart. There is nothing funny about Dave.

Benedict Wong is our marketing queen and in-house early adopter. Not surprisingly, Benedict is an engineer by training and recently finished business school. She has had several stints at hi-tech companies like Motorola where she is a product manager.

All-time favorite video games

CNN's iReport is asking the age-old question for gamers: which games are your favorite? There are thousands to choose from over the last 30 years. IGN and countless other video game mags have posed the question to their readers. Now, I'd like to do the same for UpGuppy users. What do you think are the best console video games of all time?

To add yours, click here
or go to the following URL: http://apps.facebook.com/upguppy/ranking/121853

Here's my ranking:

1. Nobunaga's Ambition (NES)
2. Halo (XBOX)
3. Super Mario World (NES)
4. Goldeneye 007 (N64)
5. Final Fantasy 4 (NES)
6. Legend of Zelda (NES)
7. Chopper Command (Atari)
8. Tetris (NES)
9. Street Fighter II (SNES)
10. Mortal Kombat (SNES)

Should You Create a Ranking?

I recently received the following from a friend:

"I’m not much of an expert on anything? You sure you want me to create a ranking?"

When we created UpGuppy we had two major goals. First, we wanted to develop a tool that would move rankings away from the purview of experts. We were tired of having the folks at VH1 or People tell us who the best artists of the century were or who the sexist man alive was. Second, we wanted to give users the power to dive into the long-tail of rankings. Forget the big, annual ranking that everyone knows about, we were interested in giving users the power to explore the rankings that only a small group of people might care about or that were being ignored by the mainstream media.

The point here is that you can use UpGuppy to rank anything. It doesn’t have to be exhaustive or clever or earth-shattering. It just has to be interesting to you.

I recently created a list of the most pressing issues of our time, which you can check out here. Over the course of a few days, the list grew from 10 items to 28, with issues I had never thought about. The truth is that I was no expert on the matter and chances are neither were many of the people who ranked the list. And therein lies the beauty of the app.

So think about what you’re interested in. Movies, bars, food, sports, politics, whatever. Almost anything you know can be converted into a ranking. And then go for it. Create something, share it with friends and watch it transform.

The Best Movie Robots

Inspired by WALL-E's theatrical release last week, Lucas Kaiser and Eric Amonson at FilmWad recently did a ranking of The 13 Best Movie Robots. It's a pretty great list, but I think they're missing a few key players including Kitt from Knight Rider (who is, by definition, a robot), the Fembots from Austin Powers (who have the dual honor of winning the awards for most beautiful and hilarious robots ever) and ED-209 from Robocop (who is a serious contender for the righteousness award), among others. I've created a similar list on UpGuppy, which you can check out and rank here. It'd be interesting to see who else is missing and who the crowd favorite will be.

Rank and File

Great article in last week's Sunday Times Magazine on lists by Virginia Heffernan. You can read it by clicking here.

The article really speaks to both the addictive nature and organizing power of lists. We see UpGuppy as a step beyond lists in that it helps drive consensus (by combining lists). The great thing is that is that you can still tease apart individual rankings to see how that consensus developed.

Welcome to UpGuppy!

Hello and welcome to UpGuppy!

This is mostly a product blog, but you'll occasionally hear our thinking on a variety of topics such as the web 2.0 space, media and, of course, rankings. After all, we love rankings. They're concise, informative, and addictive. They provide structure and context to information, helping create knowledge. And we've built a tool to help socialize them.

At UpGuppy you can create a ranking on any topic and share it with the world. Anyone can rank your list and we all get to discover what the crowd loves and hates, as well as finding out what our friends really think!

Until now, VH1, US News, ESPN and others simply told the rest of us what was better than what. But that's all about to change. With our recently released Facebook app and soon to be launched public beta site the days of the iron-fisted rule of the ranking elites will be numbered! We're going to crash the gates of the media castle, give the power of rankings back to the people, and usher in a new era of rankings freedom!

So who are we?

There are several of us and we don't have a lot in common except that we share a love for little orange fish and several of us are lawyers who don't practice law (we do have a doctor to round out the group). We'll put our bios in a subsequent post.

If you're interested in taking a look at our application you can click here.

We'll be the first to admit that the app isn't perfect (it is a beta after all), but we're hoping that you'll be part of our community and will guide how it evolves. If you ever have any comments, criticism, or brilliant ideas please do share. We will tell you that commenting, privacy features, and the ability to include media in rankings are 1, 2 and 3 on our to do list.

Thanks so much for taking the first step and coming this far. We're really excited about what we have and look forward to having you join us for the ride!