Author Topic: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)  (Read 505813 times)

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PSMKay

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The International December Madness Committee (IDMC) is pleased to announce the grand opening of the 2nd December Madness season! The first matches will start on Monday, December 1, 2014. SMNetwork will serve as the host for the games as in the 1st season.

For those of you who have joined since early 2013 and missed the first event, it was a bracket-style elimination tournament where stage managers voted on their favorite tool, gadget or office supply. It was a knock down, drag out battle that wound up with Paper winning the final match against Laptop, but Laptop scoring more points overall in the course of the entire tourney. You can see everything that happened on the archived board here.

After the scandal that rocked the Paper team in May of this year the IDMC has opted to focus the 2nd season entirely on Digital competitors. In the seeding this year are 32 digital tools that you might use to do your jobs. From Dropbox and Evernote to Qlab and Twitter, we'll be running the gamut of apps, websites, software and social media to determine the best, most useful digital tool for stage management.

Here's a quick refresher of how the game works:

Quote
Much like with sports seasons, I've come up with a tournament order. I have attached the starting lineup and a bracket form to this post for anyone who is inclined to gamble on such things or wants to play fantasy football with the tools included. Pick your favorite and root for it as if it were your home team. It will make things far more interesting. Feel free to campaign for your favorite items, extol their virtues, and trash talk the other stuff. *evil grin*

Matches will be decided by poll. Four polls will run simultaneously for the first two rounds, each round lasting approximately half a week. This means we should be finished in early January. Give your relatives another reason to look at you strangely - stop by and cheer for your favorite all through the holiday season!

One special note for this year: the bracket due to limited space uses commercial software that's also available in popular free alternative versions. The use of a brand name is not meant to discount these alternatives - please include them in your considerations. The function matters more than the brand. (In other words, if you use LibreOffice Writer feel free to consider it in the place of MS Word when it's game time.)

Bracket is attached to this post. Feel free to print it out, post it on your office wall, carry a copy on your phone. If you're not familiar with any of the apps mentioned feel free to ask around here in the next week as we get ready to start... Decemberrrrr Maaaaadnesss!

(Note for those joining late: If you'd like to see the original blank bracket use the PDF dated 11-16-2014 attached to this post. If you want to catch up to the tournament's current position, use the "Current Bracket" attachment. It will be re-uploaded every time a new round begins.)
« Last Edit: Jan 01, 2015, 03:05 am by PSMKay »

iamchristuffin

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #1 on: Nov 24, 2014, 01:06 pm »
In reference to your note about 'function matters more than the brand' - are Google Drive and Dropbox not exactly the same in that regard?

PSMKay

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #2 on: Nov 24, 2014, 01:12 pm »
Google Drive has a full office suite integrated into it. Dropbox does not. Whether that office suite is a strong enough product to differentiate it from Dropbox will have to play out in the matchups. :)
« Last Edit: Nov 24, 2014, 01:16 pm by PSMKay »

Tempest

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #3 on: Nov 24, 2014, 06:24 pm »
Oooooo, this one's gonna be good. As someone in a position where I typically am running the shows I'm "calling," I'm rooting for Qlab!
Jessica: "Of course I have a metric size 4 dinglehopper in my kit!  Who do you think I am?"

PSMKay

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #4 on: Nov 24, 2014, 09:38 pm »
I agree, Tempest. There's a lot of "teamwork" apps on here, but also a lot of apps that allow one person to do the job of many. Small shop SMs who work with one assistant/alone will push the entire tournament in one direction, while SMs who normally work in enormous teams will push it the other way.

iamchristuffin

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #5 on: Nov 24, 2014, 09:59 pm »
I imagine Dropbox and Text messages (as well as Word v Web) is going to be a very close-run thing!

My early prediction would be that Word wins, followed by Camera, and Webmail running 3rd....let's see how badly that turns out!

KMC

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #6 on: Nov 25, 2014, 10:18 am »
The "Software" division is going to be brutally competitive!  A lot of great tools in there. 
Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

Maribeth

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #7 on: Nov 25, 2014, 02:34 pm »
Love that the "AEA docs" is on there- one of my most frequented sites! Definitely a tough matchup with webmail though.

As for software, I'm rooting for Spreadsheets all the way!

PSMKay

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #8 on: Nov 25, 2014, 03:37 pm »
I'm pleased as punch to announce that Maribeth will be joining me as co-host of December Madness this year! She'll be handling the matches for the Websites and Social divisions, and I'll be handling Apps & Software. Let's hear it for Maribeth! Yaaaaay!

PSMKay

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #9 on: Dec 01, 2014, 12:03 am »
Live from the IDMC Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, it's DECEMBER MADNESS 2!

*** Fanfare ***

*** Opening march of the competitors ***

(This live broadcast of December Madness is sponsored in part by SMNetwork and stage managers like you!)

*** Ridiculous modern dance routine performed by well-behaved robots in spandex ***

*** Solemn reading of the serenity prayer in 12 languages ***

*** Additional segment only broadcast to visitors outside the US ***

*** Ceremonial pressing of the Go button by 2012 winners Laptop, Paper & Headset ***

*** Cut to Camera 1 ***

Ladies & Gents, are you ready for another exciting season of December Madness? Last year's winner Laptop has given us a huge legacy of digital aids that stage managers can use to make their job easier. Your task this year is to determine which of those tools is the most useful to the modern, computer-savvy SM.

Our first round opens tonight and runs through midnight, EST on December 3. The open matches will be stickied at the top of this board. Cast your votes in all four of the open polls and contribute to the conversation to encourage others to vote with you. Root for your favorites in the bracket and help others to learn how to use the competing social media sites, apps, general websites and software. Tell your friends who don't often visit SMNetwork to stop by and cast their votes as well! It's always easier to compete for a cheering crowd. Let's make each victory a decisive one.

nick_tochelli

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #10 on: Dec 02, 2014, 04:04 pm »
I solemnly swear I will behave myself this year...

PSMKay

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #11 on: Dec 02, 2014, 04:08 pm »
... and if you believe that, he's also got a bridge to sell you.

loebtmc

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #12 on: Dec 02, 2014, 09:36 pm »
I solemnly swear that I will do my best to pretend to behave, then totally go south!

PSMKay

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #13 on: Dec 04, 2014, 12:01 am »
We had two tight matches in the Apps & Software Divisions for the first round.

Dropbox came out strong in the first quarter, but steadily lost ground to Text Messaging over the course of the match. It was a close victory, with just a four point spread between the two teams at the whistle. SMS pulled out a win 20-16 and will be heading on to the sweet sixteen.

Over in the Software division, Word came out fighting and its killer offensive ribbon managed to hold off Web Browser's steady pace throughout the entire match. Despite some excellent rebound action on the Web Browser side, a last minute assist from Google Drive and some great turnout from the Browser fans, the Dream Team of Firefox, Chrome and Safari couldn't pull a win out of the cache. That's one cookie that has definitely crumbled. Word wins 20-14.

Coming up in the next round I think all eyes are on the next Software division matchup, where Excel will be taking on Acrobat in what promises to be an exciting game.

Over to you, Maribeth.

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Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« Reply #14 on: Dec 04, 2014, 12:27 am »
Well, Kay, the first round of our Website division was a sweep- Webmail blew AEA Docs away, 29-2. Webmail had a more diverse team this year and some are questioning if AEA Docs even had a chance against such a highly seeded competitor.

The Social division was also quite one-sided, with the popular Facebook team the clear winner over Yelp. This 28 to 4 match was not much of a contest, but one has to consider what strong competitors Facebook will face in the next round. Fan favorite SMNetwork or the highly lauded LinkedIn could prove too much for this social team- but we'll see.

In Round 2 we have the highly anticipated Doodle vs Web Calendar match. Over in the Social division, we've got Twitter vs. Tumblr, which could be a close one.

Game on!