I've never been a fan of buzzwords; anyone that follows me on Twitter has probably seen at least one tongue-in-cheek reference to a location-based photosharing microsocial network I've launched in the past few months. However, much to my surprise, one buzzword(s) has a role in the (thus far) success of my SocialCalm project: game mechanics.

As you'll recall from my Text2Calm project, I've focused on creating calm by showing people the smiles of others. In my SocialCalm project, I attempt to accomplish the same thing except with small groups of people sending smiles to one another. It became apparent during my last pilot that the simple novelty of sending smiling pictures to one another might not be enough motivation for individuals to participate fully in the project. In order to increase motivation, we will add simple mechanics from day to day that take advantage of the fact that groups of people are involved in each text. Today, for example, I sent a particularly odd looking smile to my test groups and challenged them to reply with an even goofier smile. Everyone bought in today, but I think the biggest challenge going forward is going to be maintaining the novelty of the exercise throughout (I welcome any suggestions that would help achieve that).