For the last 10 weeks, I have been an active member of Pioneer, a “weekly contest for creative people around the world making their ideas become real.” Their Twitter bio describes themselves as: “A home for the ambitious outsiders of the world. Pioneer is a community of creative people working on interesting projects around the globe.” Now what exactly is Pioneer and why have I been using it all summer?
Pioneer provided a tournament structure for people to compete via their passion projects with weekly updates, voting on the success of others’ progress, and to potentially receive guidance and funding. Now guidance and funding was the initial lure for me, but as I quickly found out about myself, required weekly updates gave me a much-needed structure to my week. Every Sunday night I would submit a report on what I accomplished throughout the week and what I intend on completing the coming week. The next day I would vote on the progress of my peers and by the start of Tuesday, I would see my spot on the leaderboard move accordingly.
Now I have been very fortunate to break into the Top 100 Globally and received access to a Board of Advisors that I reached out to for feedback. And I have been able to take this feedback into consideration with the management of dorkaholics, such as identifying an editorial insight, defining a distribution strategy, and developing content that supports the brand.
Currently, I have accumulated 7154 points, placing me Rank 88 in Global Standings and Rank 11 in US West. And last Sunday I stated:
What do you want to have done by the end of next week?
1️⃣ Launch new contest featuring movie posters from Warner Bros
2️⃣ Send this month’s newsletter featuring summer’s best content and information on next contest
3️⃣ Create new content that aligns with the Board of Advisors’ recommendations
4️⃣ Edit podcast, upload, share
Results:
1️⃣ Details on the contest can be seen here.
2️⃣ Link to the newsletter is available here.
3️⃣ The use of hashtags such as #AsiansInComics, #AsiansInMedia, and #AsianWin now serve to identify content on dorkaholics.com that features Asian individuals working in the comic book industry, Asian individuals working in film or television, and awards to Asian individuals in entertainment. Examples of new content based on these recommendations are:
- #AsiansInComics Kubert School Faculty Welcomes Lisa Y. Wu to Its Faculty
- #AsiansInComics Insights from Publishers Oni Press and Lion Forge Merger
- #AsiansInComics Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel explained as Disney+ series is revealed
Older content that I have gone back to incorporate the feedback are:
- #AsiansInMedia Simu Liu brings much-needed representation as Shang-Chi
- #AsiansInComics Takeshi Miyazawa brings a manga aesthetic to Marvel in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
- #AsiansInComics [San Diego Comic-Con 2019] DC Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio speak with ICv2
- #AsianWin ‘Shoplifters’ by Hirokazu Kore-eda challenges conventional ideas about family and bonds
- #AsiansInComics [San Diego Comic-Con 2019] DC Comics Announcements
- #AsiansInComics Kubert School Welcomes Amy Chu to Faculty
4️⃣ The podcast is available here.
5️⃣ Unplanned accomplishments include: Attending Anime California and interviewing Sean Chong-Umeda and Kaho Shibuya, restructuring website categories and menus to highlight Contests and Podcasts while consolidating Photo/Video Galleries into Events or Features.
Next Week: I plan to…
1️⃣ Publish Video Interviews with Sean Chong-Umeda and Kaho Shibuya
2️⃣ Record and release another Podcast episode
3️⃣ Implement Facebook Instant Articles
4️⃣ Create graphic elements that can be used for repeatable social media content
5️⃣ Continue producing content that is based on news that would be of interest to Asian pop culture fans.
Why am I posting these details of my work this week?
After using Pioneer, I have an appreciating for regular goal tracking and transparency. I believe it is important to make my progress available to anyone interested in how dorkaholics.com gradually grows throughout the week to complete goals and determine new ones.
