Poetry Garden

NOTE: to enter the Test Festival, use this code: test

Poetry Garden is a multi-user poetry-creation app designed for festivals and other public events. Poetry Garden provides an easy way for event organizers to add an interactive component to their event.

Individuals download the app either before or during the event. When a user attends the event and launches the app on his/her Android device, Poetry Garden uses geolocation to determine that the user is in attendance at the event, and allows him/her to:

-create new poems
-add new lines to existing poems created by other users at the event
-read all poems created during the event

When a user chooses to add to an existing poem, the poem is "locked" for a certain amount of time (default = 2 minutes) so that no other users may make changes to the poem. After the user submits his/her changes--or after the time limit is reached--the poem is unlocked so that another user at the event may add to it. (When creating a new poem, there is no time limit.)

Poetry Garden also features a "slideshow" option which displays each poem for a certain number of seconds (default = 10). Each time a given poem is shown during the slideshow, it contains the latest changes and additions. The slideshow is designed to be used with a PC or Android device connected to a large screen TV or projector, so that all participants at the event may see the poems which are being created at the event.

Poetry Garden offers a highly customizable user interface, allowing event organizers to use their event's branding in the app. Some of the features of the app which can be customized on a per-event basis are:

-text color
-button background images
-screen background color
-event logo(s)
-languages (currently supports English, French, Italian and Spanish)
-amount of time given to each user to modify existing poems (default = 2 minutes)
-number of new poems which each user can create
-number of changes which each user can make to an existing poem (default = 1)

Attending most festivals and events is a primarily passive activity in which individuals attend screenings, lectures or recitals. Using Poetry Garden, individuals at an event are able to read poems created at the event, create new poems, and collaborate on existing poems, instantly transforming them from passive event "attendees" into active event "participants".