Kickstarter Spotlight // Molly and Olly: Tasty, Aromatic Internet Robots

Like it or really, really hate it, tweeting has become a legitimate part of doing business. While tweeting and re-tweeting and adding followers can provide some bizarre form of gratification, you may be feeling like all your hard tweeting is going unappreciated. Well, no longer.  In this week's Kickstarter Spotlight--an ongoing series in which we highlight some of the most innovative campaigns brought to our attention--we bring you a truly strange (though possibly brilliant?), Pavlovian take on social media: Molly and Olly.

See, Molly and Olly is your very own personal Internet reward system. Molly is a "module that turns your tweets into sweets by counting how many times you get retweeted, then releasing a tasty candy when a number you've set it reached." While Olly, which can be stacked on top of Molly, is a web-connected robot "that turns your online notifications into smells." You can fill it with any scent--your girlfriend's perfume, an essential oil maybe--and sync that scent to specific notifications, say, every time your business gets a "like" on Facebook or someone buys something from your e-commerce site. 

If you want your office to be filled with the sweet smell (and taste) of success, consider hopping on board Molly and Olly's Kickstarter campaign. The project has quite a ways to go to meet its goal in just three days. Though just think: Help them out by tweeting this into the digital universe and you'll be warming up for all the sugar-fueled, aromatic goodness Molly & Olly can bring.

-- Perrin Drumm

ROBOT HEART STORIES // Designers And Illustrators: Tap Into Your Inner Child

Illustrators and designers: Want to bring a child's imagination to life? If so, check out Robot Heart Stories, an exciting experiential learning project that brings together visual artists with 40 fifth-grade students from Montreal and Los Angeles.

Conceived by filmmaker, storyteller and experience designer Lance Weiler and creative producer Janine Saunders, Robot Heart Stories centers around a robot who's crash landed in Montreal and needs to reach Los Angeles to catch a rocket back to her home planet. The students are responsible for the storyline, using their imaginations to chart the robot's journey across North America. The designers get to depict those stories using photographs taken by the project's organizers at different places along the robot's path.

If you'd like to take part, all you have to do is pick one of the students' stories, download the associated photo, create a design inspired by the story and upload your final creation. For more details check out the FAQ. You've got until November 17 to submit your work.

Your submission will be featured on the Robot Heart Stories website and considered for a coffee table book, with all proceeds going to creative writing programs in public schools.

OK, now get cracking on those designs.

Because, really, how can anyone turn down this little guy to the right?

-- John Ruscher