Akoha, according to the company website, “is a new type of ‘social reality game’ inspired by the idea of pay it forward where players play real-world missions that can be tracked online at http://akoha.com.”

(They also just happen to be the first nominee for our Better Tech for Living campaign – which officially launches this Wednesday, October 1st.  Check back with us then for more information.)

The aforementioned “real-world missions” can be followed online as well as by 3.5” x 2.5” (physical) cards and can include things like:

• invite someone for coffee
• thank someone
• make someone smile
• give someone a book
• buy someone a compact fluorescent light bulb

For instance, I received 13 missions on 24 cards (check out the images at the end of this post) in my “Akoha Mystery Starter Kit.” Those mission cards are tagged with a unique number allowing me to track them online. 

Now, let’s say I take one of the missions, “invite someone for drinks” and complete it.  At that point, I can not only mark the mission as complete in my online profile (in exchange for some “karma points”) but also give the card to the individual I invited out for drinks.  They, in turn, can track that card (along with its unique mission ID) and complete the mission themselves…and so on, and so forth.

Given the above examples, if your first reaction was something to the effect of “sounds like a game for hippies” then your reaction was remarkably similar to my own first reaction.  However, the concept has grown on me over the past couple of hours – ever since I received the starter kit.  I don’t foresee myself investing a lot of time in this “game” but I do think it could potentially be a pretty unique “hobby” and I sincerely hope it succeeds.

For me, there’s something unique and engaging about dealing with physical cards in addition to the online aspect and I think it was astute of the Akoha team to implement that type of element into the game.

Do I feel just a tad bit more lame now that Austin Hill, Akoha co-founder, has dubbed his new venture as “games for the Oprah crowd?” Yes.  Yes I do.  Will that stop me from engaging with the Akoha community? Absolutely not.  Again, I think it’ll be a unique hobby to keep up with and I think the most difficult element to the game overall will be explaining the concept to the friends/family members/individuals onto whom I pass these cards and subsequently convincing them to sign up for their own profile.

If you’ve read this much into the concept of the game, you may now be asking yourself: “what happens when I run out of cards?”  (Just humor me, okay?) Well, according to their site:

“Initially, decks of Akoha mission cards can be ordered through the Akoha store. In the future, you’ll be able to customize and order your own Akoha mission decks featuring only the missions you want to play, made just for you, delivered to your home. Special themed decks of Akoha mission cards will also be available in retail locations around the world; for instance, green mission cards to spread environmental acts of kindness.”

If you’ve already joined the Akoha community, you can check out my own profile or, if you’ve yet to get started, read just a little bit more about the company and about the project or request to be invited to the beta.

“Better Tech for Living: Akoha – a Social Reality Game” Image Gallery:
(click on ‘em for larger versions)

I’m personally a little surprised I’ve yet to see the following tools discussed anywhere but the software site dedicated to providing a handful of time-saving Outlook utilities, TechHit, are offering two completely free plugins to help bring social networking to Outlook.

The first, FBLook, provides you with a toolbar which allows you to easily update your Facebook status as well as keep track of your friends’ statuses. You can also check out any requests, messages, notifications, etc. that might be waiting for you online.

The second utility, OutTwit, provides you with alot of the same functionality (and then some) but is instead aimed at the Twitter network.  Here’s a full list of features you’ll find in OutTwit:

• Update your Twitter status directly from Outlook.
• Receive your friend updates as Outlook messages.
• Archive, manage and search your tweets the same way you manage your email.
• Track keywords. OutTwit will automatically download ALL tweets matching the keywords you specify, even if you are not following the tweet sender. This feature is perfect for keeping up to date with the the Twitter buzz on your name, brand, interests, etc.
• Assign custom folder and categories to new messages.
• Automatically sort new tweets into per-sender folders.
• Shorten URLs with tinyurl.
• See graphs of your Twitter usage statistics.
• Tweets sent to you (@replies and direct) are marked with high importance, so you can see them at a glance.

Both utilities, which appear to be actively developed, feature quick and clean installations and are completely free.  Next up, the company plans to offer a brand new utility, dubbed OpenLook, which will allow you to monitor and engage with ALL of your favorite social networks right inside Outlook:

“If you are an Outlook user, you probably have it open all the time. Now you can interact with all your social networks without leaving Outlook. OpenLook seamlessly integrates Social Network experience into Outlook using the power of Open Social APIs.”

I, for one, am looking forward to that one.  So, if you’re a frequent Outlook user (be it by choice or not,) being able to keep tabs on your two favorite social networks listed above without having to worry about a separate, 3rd-party product like Digsby (which we’ve covered before,) might be something worth checking into.

“The extension’s integration into the Firefox Web browser is unparalleled and offers the following priceless, time-saving features…”