Our hack was an attempt to see how the camaraderie of your social sphere could influence everyday consumption habits. Using the Tendril API, we allowed users to track their real-time electrical energy consumption data in comparison to that of their Facebook friends. In addition to being able to visualize trends in energy usage between you and your peers, users were able to commit to energy saving goals. These goals could then be shared on your Facebook wall in an effort to educate the public.

Above, you can see a screenshot of the energy consumption
comparison between you and your Facebook friends.

I am proud to say that our app took home prizes for Best User Experience and runner-up in the Tendril Energy Internet and Smart Home App Contest. It was also demoed by Tendril at DistribuTECH, the utility industry’s leading Smart Grid conference in San Antonio, Texas. It’s refreshing to see a company like Tendril taking advantage of opportunities like this Hackathon and is a testament to the fact that social media can really change the world.

The Green Carrot Team celebrating their win with Eric Shiflet of Tendril.

In addition to learning about how information technology could influence consumption habits, we also learned how an extremely limited amount of time could influence the workflow of our team. Rather than following our conventional methods for producing a web project, we chose to use a more organic approach. In the interest of saving time, our team utilized Google Drawings to create an interactive wireframe that allowed all of us to collaborate in real-time. Opportunities like this hackathon give creatives the ability to test out new methods of working together and if any part of this experience seems interesting to you I would highly recommend attending one in your local area.

This article is copyright © 2012 

San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives

The Carrot Way

Always Be Working Yourself Out Of A Job

This article is copyright © 2012 

As a Producer, I have this thing where I’m really focused on deadlines and what everyone needs to contribute by a certain time in order to get things done and, oops, it’s a year later and I still haven’t written my Welcome post! Luckily, I’ve been given the opportunity to talk about how excited I am to join a company a year after I’ve already become deeply rooted with my second family.

In all honesty, I did write my welcome post (come on, I’m no slacker), but for some top secret reason (read: old fashioned client), we didn’t publish it at the time. I’m staring down at the words I had written, and I feel lucky that a) it all still holds true today and b) I’m even more in love with my job and colleagues (not like that – take it easy) than I ever thought possible.

Anyone who knows me on a personal level, knows that I am not the most outwardly sappy emotional person. I keep that hidden away, reserved for my 1am YouTube wormhole sessions. I mean, have you seen this Beyonce video?! I still cry even though I’ve watched a handful of times. Yet, despite the fact that I keep my emotions private, there have been a number of times that I’ve teared up when hearing other Carrots (especially Mike Germano) speak about the company and us. I have gotten choked up myself as I spoke about my own gratitude towards my Carrot fam (it may or may not have been after several glasses of wine). I’ve never experienced anything like that before, especially not in a professional setting.

If you quickly glance at past welcome posts – you’ll notice a really common thread. Almost all of us talk about how excited we are to gain a new family. To an outsider, it probably sounds really cliche, and I could see how some people may think we are all a bunch of corny saps. They might even think that after a while, and after the excitement wears off, we probably won’t feel that way anymore. Well, those terrible, cynical people are wrong. We truly and honestly are obsessed with one another. It isn’t only because quite a number of us are new to the city, or because this is our first job after college either. I’ve lived in NYC my whole life, and have worked at a number of web agencies since 2005. My blood family lives 20 minutes away from my apartment, yet I still feel an extremely close bond to my Carrot family. There are relationships I have built here that I can see staying with me for the duration of my life (I’m kind of old, so might not be that long).

I don’t play favorites, but I have favorites. They change hourly because any time I get to work with someone, and see how incredibly talented, smart, and funny they are — they become my favorite of that moment. Everyone brings with them a unique strength and approach to whatever position they hold and since day one I have always said how refreshing it all is. I have learned more here during my first few months, than I have in the several years I’ve spent in the industry. Not only has Carrot helped me grow professionally, but has contributed to my emotional happiness in general. I welcome random hugs now – something I used to always be extremely awkward and weird about. I work with a truly dedicated team. We may work hard, spending some late nights in the office, but we manage to have fun, and we’ll never feel like we’re in this alone.

Since I started a year ago today, I’ve probably made close to 17 bike trips (happily) to Chipotle to get us lunch, bartended a handful of Digital DUMBOs, we moved offices, hired 15 more people, gained a batchload of new clients, started our official committees, held an awesome birthday party, been featured in a music video, traveled to the other side of the world, etc. I’ve been to Omaha, and the slightly more exciting city of Los Angeles where I was a mere 10 feet away from Lance Bass, and the slightly more beautiful Mila Kunis. Not only has it been exciting to see first-hand how much Carrot has grown, but I feel fortunate that none of this has ever felt overwhelming or rushed. We continue to put out work we are proud of, and expand without the sacrifice of our culture or the beliefs Carrot was founded on. I feel as honored today, as I did on day one to be a part of this exceptional place. Now excuse me while I pour myself a celebratory beer from our keg.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Did you say breakfast? It’s ok if you did, although the answer I was looking for was family.

Back when I was still interviewing, I remember Chris telling me that most Carrots were not from New York City and thus, did not have any family members here. That is why, he said, it is important that Carrot Creative is a family. Since starting here, I have never doubted the absolute truth of this statement. My fellow Carrots quickly became my new New York family and despite being far from home, I’ve never once felt alone.

So in the spirit of family and the holidays and being just a tad bit sentimental, I asked my fellow Carrots to share some of their favorite holiday traditions & memories.

William: Over the holidays we make it a point to watch at least one of the Lord of the Rings movies, usually the Fellowship of the Ring. Then, every New Years eve (that I’m in town for) we have a giant feast of King Crab legs & other related seafood awesomeness before heading out!

Dan: My family gets naked and runs around the neighborhood singing Wilson Phillips songs, drunk. Wait, we’re posting these anonymously right?

Steve: Every Christmas Eve, after dinner, my entire family gathers around the TV, pops in the “Best of Will Farrel SNL” DVD, and watches Mark Jenson’s Family Christmas.

“What do you say, let’s get this party started!”

Kyle: When I wake up at my mother’s house, she makes us all wait at the top of the stairs (even when my room was in the basement). In the beginning it was just me, my two sisters, & our dog. Then my sisters starting having kids, and now there is me, my two sisters, their 4 kids, and two husbands which is far too many people to wait at the top of the stairs. While we’re waiting she’ll take pictures and say “WOW Santa came!” & we’re supposed to act surprised. After she’s gotten a sufficient amount of photos, we’re allowed to come down & open gifts.

After that, my sisters and their significant others will drive to my father’s house on the other side of town. He usually greets us at the stairs with the same “WOW Santa came!” talk. Each of us get handed 1 gift at a time as we sit around the tree while John Denver and the Muppet Christmas Album is playing. We open gifts in the order of our age, my older sister first, then my twin sister gets to open the next one (by two minutes). After all of the gifts are dealt, my father makes everyone breakfast; omeletes titled “Super Dee Dooper Alla Pee Hooper”.

Juliette: When I was little, maybe 2 or 3, my parents bought our first live Christmas tree for the house. I got so excited when it arrived that ran up to give it a hug. I quickly realized that hugging it was a bad idea because it wasn’t soft at all. Hours later, I was rushed to the emergency room covered in hives. It was that day that I learned I was allergic to Christmas.

Will: My favorite tradition is listening to Bing Crosby’s holiday albums with my family.

Adam: My favorite Katzenback Christmas tradition has to be that my Dad has mandated that everyone in attendance must wear a pair of Christmas/Holiday socks. With just shy of 30 Katzenbacks you get some wild sock/slipper combinations along with fierce competition for who has the best pair, but let’s not kid ourselves here. We all know who the winner is…

Kathryn: For the last 14 years, my Dad and I have made it a tradition to drive out to Virginia’s Horse Country for a day of father-daughter bonding, eating, and shopping. We drink hot toddies, talk about the year we’ve had, and end the day picking out ornaments at a German Christmas shop. This year, though, will be the start of a new tradition. Since my parents moved to Western New York we’ll still be battling the cold, but instead of horse country, we’ll be at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Christmas Eve for my first Buffalo Bills game. It will never replace the memories I have in Virginia, but the great thing about traditions is that it’s never too late to begin new ones as long as you’re with the ones you love.

Chris: Getting work done over the holiday break when the brats are gone and it’s quiet. Also, reading or catching up by the fireplace at my parents’ house. Also watching Star Wars.

Daniela: My mother is a little insane about the Holidays – especially Christmas and more specifically, the Christmas tree. She IS the mother in the John Roberts Christmas Tree video.

We’ve had the same fake tree since I was a little kid, and each year my mother would spend at least a solid week decorating it. This wasn’t a relaxing mellow activity either. Every day spent on decorations meant screaming, cursing, my mother on the floor sweating on the verge of tears, exclaiming this will be “the last year” she is doing this, that she hates the tree, etc. But each year – the day after Thanksgiving, she starts setting things up as always. My favorite memory is of the elaborate village she’d create underneath with fake snow, shops, people, a skating rink, and even a ski mountain with little skiers going down it. I’d sit on the floor and make up stories about the people living there and it would provide hours of entertainment for me (I had no friends). The village has now moved to the mantle place and while it may not be as intricate and detailed as when I was younger – the tree is still pretty impressive. Now that I am older, I appreciate how intense my mother gets around the holidays & decorating because it means I get to have these awesome memories & hilarious stories to tell for years to come. Oh and one weird thing me/my sister used to do every Christmas eve is play “bank” (as in, we were both bank tellers working at a bank) while watching Christmas Story.

Mike: One year my mom bought a fake tree. My brother and I came home and after some drinking, decided to go outside and cut down a real tree instead. We chose a 15 foot one, cut it down, dragged it inside the house, and decorated it. There were leaves and dirt everywhere. Maybe we were drunk, maybe the tree was lopsided, but the next morning the entire thing fell over. It is still my favorite tree.

Alexis: I like that my family has a big Christmas Eve dinner (even though we’re Jewish, shh).

Darryl: My favorite holiday tradition is drinking hot chocolate and eating Christmas cookies. And eating Christmas cookies. And eating cookies that are decorated for Christmas. Christmas cookies are the center of all that is good. Do you know where I can get some more Christmas cookies?

Jeff: Every Christmas Eve my whole family sits on the couch and my dad reads us “The Night Before Christmas”. It’s real cute.

Sunny: For at least 22 years (probably longer since my sister is older than me) my mom has let us open a single present (of her choosing) on Christmas Eve. It is always pajamas. My sister and I have probably owned more pairs of pajamas in our lives than any other human beings on this planet. That’s at least 38 pairs of pajamas between the two of us over the years. That’s obscene. The other part of the tradition is that my sister and I (and our mom) alway feign surprise when our gifts turn out to be (!) pajamas.

So, from all of us in the Carrot family, Happy Holidays!

This article is copyright © 2012 

We work in a world heavy with management, red tape, legal mumbo-jumbo, and an overall disdain for fun things. This landscape is perhaps the most rugged in the lands of technology companies. Carrot has abandoned this world. They’ve taken to space as a crew of self-proclaimed pirate astronauts.

This is what I found most appealing about the prospect of working at Carrot. I dealt with my fair share of management-heavy organizations. I was tired of the mundane work days and felt it was time to move on to something better. Working at a company that genuinely trusts their employees and actively encourages them to have fun was something I wanted in on.

After visiting the Carrot Headquarters for my interview, it became obvious that they disregard traditional business dogma where employees end up being treated like untrustworthy hooligans. Carrot is full of people who are genuinely passionate about what they do. In such an environment, you don’t need managers, supervisors, team leads, or any other non-workers to whip employees into action. Instead, they’re all actually excited to do work… and to do a damn good job. A few natural side-effects become apparent in such an unconventional workplace:

1. Work can actually be fun. When co-workers trust one another to do their jobs, they’re able to have beer, video games, and other non-worky paraphernalia in the office. Everyone needs a break at some point. It’s best to be able to actually enjoy it.
2. While working with passionate individuals, employees will inherently learn from one another. Nobody makes a better teacher than someone interested in the subject they’re teaching.
3. NO TPS REPORTS.

I was absolutely thrilled when I got the job offer from Carrot. I obviously took the job and look forward to working with my new family away from home. I hope that together we’re able to continue demonstrating that happy, motivated employees do the best work. Everyone deserves to be happy with their work.

This article is copyright © 2012 

And thus, Instacheer was born! Carrot designed and developed a website that pulls in holiday themed Instagram photos that fall in snowflakes over an animated snowy scape. You can easily toggle the various tags on and off. This way, if you have a hankering to only see photos of dogs dressed up as Rudolph, well… we wouldn’t dream of stopping you.

So check out Instacheer, share with the ones you love (and even ones you don’t love), and have a great holiday season from the Carrot Creative team!

This article is copyright © 2012 

Facebook’s ubiquitous like button has worked it’s way onto almost every blog and news outlet, and many other sites that encourage their readers to share content via social media. It’s iconic ‘thumbs up’ graphic and the simplicity and ease of use have made the like button a huge success. A study by Bright Edge research shows that 25% of the top 1000 websites include a plugin from Facebook (the most popular being the like button), and that there have been over 65 million likes and shares of the top 1000 websites. This level of activity demonstrates a very tight integration between popular sites and Facebook.

Facebook’s Domination

As we all know, Facebook is an internet giant. The average salary at Facebook is around $100,000/year, they have over 2,000 staff employed at offices in 24 countries, and the company’s net worth is around $84 billion. But very few of us have paid them a single cent in our lives. What’s filling in the gap?

Really, really effective advertising. By allowing advertisers to target the exact audience they are looking for, Facebook creates a much more effective advertising platform. They know who you are, what you like, what your job is, etc. and when they show you an ad, it’s more likely to be successful when they target you. In addition, people spend significantly more time on Facebook than anywhere else on the internet, which means an ad on Facebook is significantly more likely to be seen than an ad anywhere else.

But really, I don’t mind that they use my data to help advertise. Facebook is a great service that I use all the time for free, and if their motive is to show me ads that I am more likely to actually appreciate than some strange robot telling me about lowering my mortgages, I’m all for it. But Facebook is growing, always looking for ways that they can know me better, and they often utilize technology in a very clever way and includes things that most people are not aware of.

Let’s Talk About Cookies

From Parks and Recreation on NBC

So what exactly are they doing? Before we get to that, let’s talk about cookies — and sadly, I don’t mean the kind you can eat. Cookies are a way for a website to know who you are. By default, when you log in to any website, then go to another page (maybe from your home feed to your profile), the website forgets who you are immediately (http is a stateless protocol). Having to log in again every time you go to a different page certainly wouldn’t be convenient, so cookies are the way that websites can remember who you are.

I’ll admit it, the name cookies makes no sense — they are really just small files stored on your computer that contain the name of the website that stored them, and a couple other little bits of information, most often your user name or ID. Any time you load up a new page, a website has the right to ask your computer to give it back cookies that it originally set. The computer happily abides, the website sees your user ID in the cookies, and goes “ohhh right, I remember who you are. I’ll keep you logged in then.” Makes a lot of sense, right? The important part here is that a website can only get back cookies that it set originally. Imagine if they could get any other site’s cookies as well! That would almost certainly be dangerous, and is prohibited in all modern browsers.

Cookies and the Like Button Can Log Your History

Back to the like button. Any time you put a like button or other Facebook plugin on your page, you are essentially embedding a tiny window that loads Facebook.com and just shows the button. This means that if a Facebook like button is on your page, it knows where you are, and it can get the cookie back from facebook.com as well and figure out who you are too. The embedded site (and button) then diligently records the website that you visited, the date and time that you visited it, your browser, computer’s address, and screen size, and quietly files that away, associated with your user name behind the scenes. Clever, huh? Even if you are logged out from Facebook, it still tracks you. It doesn’t use your name, but uses a unique identifier which Facebook could easily associate as soon as you log in. However, Facebook maintains that it does not engage in this behavior.

Facebook keeps a log of the last 90 webpages you visited and they were able to track, and plans on using this data to provide additional targeting information for advertising.

What else does Facebook know about you? A whole lot. And the more popular it becomes, the more they can find out. Although there is a page at which you can apparently download all your information, there is a lot that does not come with this file. Users have reported that after petitioning Facebook extensively, they were able to have Facebook send them a CD containing a PDF of all the information that has been collected about them, as it is required by law. These documents can extend up to thousands of pages and contain a vast range of information logged by Facebook, including chat logs, credit cards, emails, computers used to log in, pokes, locations/checkins, removed friends, and much more. And all of this data is retained even if your account is deleted.

What does all of this mean?

A lot of people learn about these things, panic, and swear off Facebook, claiming that it’s an invasion of privacy and puts all their personal information in public (sometimes throwing their computers in the dumpster). I think this is a bit extreme. As mentioned earlier, Facebook is a fantastic free service, and they are simply trying to keep themselves alive and funded by creating a more effective advertising platform. As with most aspects of internet privacy, it’s important to note that although they are logging loads of information about you (if you use gmail, google has all your emails stored and can read them any time as well), they are not sitting around reading your chat logs and making fun of you. Not only would there be no reason to do this, there’s no way anyone who works at Facebook has the time for it. Your data is processed en masse by computers and used simply for targeting ads.

On that note, the fact that they have so much information about you could potentially be a concern if their policies change. If they were to make your personal information available for purchase, for instance, there would be cause for concern. This does not seem likely, but it’s worth keeping a careful eye on Facebook terms and policy changes.

So while the amount Facebook knows about you may seem scary, it’s important to keep it in perspective: although it’s good to know what’s being tracked and what isn’t, as long as they continue to use your data only for advertising, it is certainly not something to be freak out about. In fact, we should be happy that it allows them to show us advertising that we could benefit from.

This article is copyright © 2012 

At the risk of putting myself in an awkward situation if the singularity goes down and there’s ever a robot uprising, I’d like to go on record saying that I’m a passionate believer that technology should be used to better serve humanity and to positively affect the human experience.

Whether it’s Facebook lending a hand in the overthrowing of a repressive regime or two L-train crossed lovers reconnecting with the help of a missed connection posting on Craig’s List, I’ve always been fascinated by the many ways technology affects lives.

My fascination with that sweet spot between the overlapping worlds of technology and people is what drew me to Carrot. As soon as I began the online job application it was clear that I was applying to work on a team that built things with real people in mind, not user ID numbers in a database.

I love the Internet. I believe it’s a vital culture that needs our participation and protection in order to work. I believe that if a brand is going to get involved with social media, and if they’re going to do it correctly, that brands needs to focus on building genuine connections with customers, maintaining an authentic voice and adding value to the stream.

Before I applied to Carrot I knew that I wanted to work with a team that understood the web and that was passionate about social media. And as I sit here surrounded by the energy and excitement that comes from being in a room full of Carrots, I know that I’ve found that team.

This article is copyright © 2012 

And please remember to donate to the cause. Today is your last day!

A huge thanks to everyone who has supported our Movember team so far! See you next year!

This article is copyright © 2012 

I’ll let you in on a little secret: finding a job isn’t easy. Okay, so that’s not really a secret. But finding a job you really, really enjoy, especially right out of college, is difficult. I graduated in May with no job lined up, and while it was a little stressful, it didn’t really bother me. Sure it confused my friends and family who didn’t seem to understand what my plan of action was, but without knowing when and how it was all going to come together, I just had a feeling it would.

I spent the majority of my life in Virginia and always assumed that living and working in New York was pretty unattainable. I had no professional contacts in the area and could count the number of people I knew in the city on one hand. But despite this, I realized that New York is absolutely where I needed to be. Looking back, there were two things that really helped me end up at Carrot. First, I stayed away from large corporate jobs. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted and I didn’t want it to pull me away from what I knew was the right direction for my career. I simultaneously worked as a Community Manager/Marketing Clerk at Virginia Tech’s University Bookstore and interned in the quality assurance department at a digital agency in Blacksburg. Second, I constantly kept tabs on the industry. I read AdAge, blogs, and followed interesting people in the advertising world.

Fast forward to October when I stumbled upon an article that Darryl wrote for Ad Age. It was gameday in Blacksburg. I don’t even remember why I was still at home and not at a tailgate, never mind why I was taking the time to scan the headlines of Ad Age. Luckily I did, because it’s what lead me here to Carrot. My first visit to Brooklyn was the day of my interview but I knew from the second I walked out of the Carrot office that it was the right place for me to be. The rest is all sort of a blur at this point. Within two weeks I accepted a job and completely relocated from Southwest Virginia to New York… and I haven’t looked back.

So what’s this all really mean to you? This means that if you’re looking for a job — the right job for you — stick to what you know is right. It doesn’t really matter if others understand, just as long as you trust yourself. It may be hard to turn down offers and opportunities, but if they aren’t in line with the direction you want your career to go then the best thing you can do is pass on them. Wait until the right opportunity comes your way. Trust me, it’s worth it.

This article is copyright © 2012