Social Media More So Than Social Gaming

Image via CrunchBaseKevin Slavin Sold His Company To Zynga
Meeting Kevin Slavin: Tumblr's Brilliance

In my leisurely talk with Kevin Slavin yesterday, we touched upon many topics. On my part I was very eager to get out of him the Area/Code story. And I did. He relayed how it was two people for a year. And how they grew organically for a few good years until they got bought by Zynga, and now his team is Zynga's New York City branch.

And of course we talked microfinance a bunch, which is why we were meeting in the first place. Here was a social gaming master. And so I brought up the topic of putting social gaming to the service of microfinance. And he said he was not so sure gaming was a good fit for microfinance.

We both agreed social media can play a much larger role than social gaming when it came to microfinance.

Kevin Slavin Sold His Company To Zynga

Meeting Kevin Slavin: Tumblr's Brilliance



Kevin Slavin's - Area/Code co-Founder of Area/Code ..... Founded in 2005, Area/Code creates cross-media games and entertainment .... Area/Code builds on the landscape of pervasive technologies and overlapping media to create new kinds of entertainment. They have built mobile games with invisible characters that move through real-world spaces, online games synchronized to live television broadcasts, and videogames in which virtual sharks are controlled by real-world sharks with GPS receivers stapled to their fins. Their Facebook game “Parking Wars” served over 1 billion pages in 2008. ...... Before founding Area/Code, Slavin spent over 10 years in ad agencies including DDB, TBWA\Chiat\Day and SS+K, focused primarily on technology, networks, and community.

Kevin Slavin | LinkedIn Spent a decade or so in design, advertising and branding ..... a few years as a strategic planner...... With Frank Lantz, co-founded Area/Code Entertainment in 2005 (acquired by Zynga in Jan. 2011, becoming Zynga New York) ....... Between 2005 and 2011, Area/Code focused on cross-media entertainment and "games with computers in them." ..... Frank and I were named in 2008's "Creativity 50." ...... In 2008, I co-founded AFK with Ben Cerveny and Tod Kurt, focused on building platforms for spatial interaction. ...... In 2010, I co-founded Starling with Declan Caulfield (Fremantle) and Kenny Miller (MTV), building second-screen engagement with broadcast television. I lead product vision and development. ...... Together with Adam Greenfield, I developed the Urban Computing class at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. ..... I serve on advisory boards for a few small, ambitious, interesting companies ...... creative direction, business development, geolocative technology, urban computing, social television, advertising and marketing ....... Starling has soft-launched in Q1 2011