G.E. SEEDS OF IMAGINATION MICROSITE

This is really is a delightfully beautiful site that celebrates the sort of creativity that my musical hero Harry Chapin sang about in “Flowers are Red”. And I’m not talking simply about the fact that like the song, the site involves the creation of flowers (albeit of the unworldly type). No, Harry Chapin sang about how a teacher castigated a child for not painting flowers the way they really should be. This website on the other hand creates flowers that are not the way they really should be.

It seems the site has been set up to raise awareness of the need for more abundant and safer sources ofreosources that we tend to take for granted. I have seen it referred to as an ADVERGAME - but this is an advergame where the user doesn't feel that (s)he is being conned.

The site uses the input of text – you are encouraged to talk to your flowers - and in so doing, you create the blooms. They state that each bloom is unique. I have not worked out how it works technically, but the very fact that it does so is worthy of celebration in itself.

You begin by planting a seed, which grows, nurtured by your words of encouragement to it. The seasons pass, and your flower responds accordingly. At the end of the process, your plant grows seeds, which you can harvest and plant. And so the cycle begins again.

You can share your plant with others in the gallery. A wonderful touch takes the ‘gallery’ idea into the social software realms now so familiar with the likes of Flickr and del.icio.us etc. As you browse the gallery, if you like the ‘look’ of someone else’s plant, you can take a ‘cutting’ which you can plant and grow for yourself.

This is not the first GE web microsite that I have come across – their drawing wiki (Imagination Cubed) is fantastic and, despite being described merely as a prototype, has great applications for education, I feel.

So a site that lets us celebrate our creativity regardless of our age -my 5 year old loved playing with it as much as I did – is worthy of great praise indeed. It was a truly magic moment to share it with her and to see the unbridled joy on her face as the plant grew before our eyes. [“Talk to it Daddy. Tell it “I love you plant. Grow, grow for me beautiful plant on the computer.”” Such are priceless parenting moments that you will remember forever].

It's so relaxing to use - as the build up to New Year and stresses associated with it, this is such a cool site to look at and play with. One of the really fun things is to see the effect that KEYWORDS such as 'grey' and 'water' have on the blooms you create.

There’s just not enough of this sort of software available on the net and for that reason it’s a SPIRITUAL WEIGHTLIFTER, try it - you'll see what I mean.