After just over a year in the Apple App Store, Ku has finally arrived for Android!
Post in the comments below which model of Android YOU are Ku’ing on and get writing!
Download KU for YOUR Android device HERE!
What will social networking look like in 2058? [VIDEO]
No sleeping. No talking. 24 hours of Social Sharing
What could social sharing look like when your grandchildren are getting their driver’s licenses? We’re talking about down the road, in 2058.
We know it’s ubiquitous and addictive, but what does the future have in store for humans’ relationship with social media?
Analyzing current trends and projects, we can see that if growth continues at the current rate, by the year 2058, people could be posting on social networks up to 100 times a day!
If you think that you are drowning in selfies, food photos and exercise updates today, try to imagine what social networking will look like in half a century!
Challenge accepted!
We did a little experiment that gave us a glimpse into what the future of human interaction and social networking could have in store for us.
We fired up our Delorean and took one of our tech-savvy KU users for an extreme journey “back to the future” in 2058 to see what this social sharing reality could potentially look like.
For 24 hours without sleeping, our subject posted updates to social networks every 10-15 minutes for a total of 124 updates in 24 hours.
Her human interactions were severely limited by the need to publish regular updates to her social channels. Every outing, meeting, fitness class and even an outrageous costume party were pierced by her posting constant social updates.
In the beginning of the experiment, the subject posed the eery question of what she is more afraid of, everyone watching her, or nobody watching her.
Will this be our grandkids’ biggest concern?
Will they find peace without sharing the things they do?
We want to believe that with technological innovation, we will also grow in terms of social behavior. In some point down the line, perhaps we will understand that chasing our next social “rush” is equal to taking another hit from a cigarette. Maybe we will finally understand that we are forever stuck in our emotional need to be acknowledged. All of us can relate to a point in our childhood when we built a sand castle and immediately shouted – “Mom, dad, look what I did” Apparently, It all boils down to self confidence – and we get it from our community.
But we can get our confidence from other places: Education, meditation, our well done jobs and our hobbies.
What messages should we convey to our children in terms of confidence?
What are the things we need to reinforce so they live a healthy social life (in the future social culture)?
These are important questions we need to address.
But most of all, tell us, how do you get your self confidence?
7 Ways to Build a Creative Environment
Regardless of whether you paint, sculpt, doodle, write or simply dream, building a creative environment is essential to letting your muses flow. Here are seven tips to from the Ku team to help you build a creative castle. Enjoy!
1. Pick a space
Make sure that you are physically separated from the rest of your home, office or spaceship with a door, wall or curtain. A physical separation not only prevents interruptions, but also isolates your thoughts and feelings making them easier to channel into whatever medium you are creating with.
2. Minimize distractions without limiting inspiration
The internet. It’s a double edged sword when it comes to concentration and productivity, yet often necessary when comes to discovering new inspiration. Avoid checking emails or social networking sites if you need to use your computer or phone to help your creative processes-yes, this includes Tinder! (or even KU)
3. Keep nature close by
Have a plant, or even just a flower, somewhere in your creative workspace. When you find yourself stuck or with writers’ block, there is no better place for wandering eyes to land than a plant or flower. Letting your eyes wander calmly over natures’ mysteries found in a plant or flower can often lead to the next step in your story, painting, poem or sculpture.
4. Play music that inspires but doesn’t distract
Lyric heavy songs tend to distract, while songs without lyrics often amplify your creativity rather than disturb it. Starting with something like Buddha Bar will help get your mind wandering into a creative direction. Anything with a sitar in it is a good idea!
5. Stock up!
Have some snacks, water, coffee and whatever else you need to snack on nearby as the distraction suction is very strong whenever you leave your creative space.
6. Scrap paper
Having a notepad, or just a few sheets of paper close at hand is essential not only for writing down other great ideas for later, but also for jotting down reminders and distractions that pop into your head. Doodling is also a great way to shift into the creative gear that you need to be in.
7. Find your time
For many people, creativity flows in the early morning, when the sun is rising and before the frantic rush of the day begins to pick up. Many creators who excel and dwell in the dark are only getting into bed when these “morning folk” are rising. Early morning, mid-afternoon, late at night? Pick your perfect time and start creating!
Now, If you have 37 minutes available and you really want to dive into an amazingly insightful video, click here. It’s an oldie but goodie! It’s a video made by John Cleese back in the eighties. Great things are, of course, timeless!
Once you find your creative space, tell us about it using a ku! Click here to download Ku Creative Social Network, we can’t wait to hear about it!
What tips can you add? Post them in the comments below!
Give Peace a Ku
Since launching our new #Peace hashtag we have seen some very inspiring kus. We wanted to share some of our favorites with you here!
As the conflict between Israel and Gaza escalates even further, it’s obvious that peace needs a voice now more than ever. We’re trying to accomplish this by bringing together our more than 80,000 users from all around the world to write kus (creative notes) for peace.
Last week, we created the hashtag #Peace within our app and are now encouraging our users to share their visions and dreams of peace using one voice and one platform, Ku. We want to give peace a ku! Our team has been overwhelmingly inspired by the great writing we are seeing and it’s helping keep us calm during these crazy times, we’re sure that others can also benefit from them. Here are some of our favorite “Peace Kus” so far.
Make your own, just click here!
Red, White and Ku!
Oh, say did you see… how everyone celebrated and shared their 4th of July thoughts and activities so creatively?
Expressions of patriotism, freedom and liberty filled the day with images as explosive and colorful as the fireworks that lit up night skies. “Let freedom ring…” as you read these heart stirring expressions penned on July 4th, America’s Independence Day.
-Written by Ku’er TaiChi1
Make your own, just click here!
What the heck is a #themeku (and how can I get involved?!)
Guest post written by Lillian Moffitt
Do you Themeku?
Have you seen #themeku and wondered what it is? Have you seen other Kuers post a Themeku prompt and wondered how to contribute your own theme? Would you like to connect and engage more with others in the Kumunity?
Here is your opportunity to get in on the Themeku action.
How it all started
Themeku began in May 2014 when LadyDonna decided to explore a more socially creative way of Kuing and spontaneously offered up “Transport” as a theme for others to Ku about. Initially, there were only a handful of participants. By the end of May, over 100 Kuers were posting one or more Kus each day in response to the daily Themeku prompt. By mid-June more than 30 people had volunteered prompts.
What’s going on now
Now it’s July and we’re working on a way to make Themeku more enjoyable and accessible to more participants.
Themeku is 100% based on the participation, creativity, and efforts of volunteers from the Kumunity. No one employed with or professionally affiliated with the Ku app manages any aspect of Themeku. That’s right, Themeku is powered by YOU, the individual Kuer in the unity of Kumunity!
How it works
There is no wrong way to Themeku. A word or phrase is offered as a prompt. How you Ku in response to the prompt is up to you. You decide how creative you want to be with it. Doodles, photos, playing off of other Ku responses, rhyming, defining, using synonyms, or even going the opposite direction are all perfect ways to Themeku. Silly or serious, personal or socially conscious, secular or spiritual, all ways are always acceptable ways to Themeku.
Our goal
We want to encourage the world-wide participation of our international community. If you are bilingual or multilingual and would like to help organize Themeku for languages other than English, please contact us by email and we’ll work on that together.
We want you!
We are recruiting volunteer theme setters for July and August. If you would like to provide a prompt, whether it’s your first time or if you’ve done it before, here’s what to do:
* Send prompts to: Themeku.Prompts@gmail.com
* New volunteers – Subject: FIRST PROMPT.
* Previous volunteers – Subject: PROMPT.
* Include: Ku name, prompt word or phrase
* Alternate submission method: Kik (app) to kwunilicious or Donna5150 [IMPORTANT: choose only ONE method, email or Kik to submit the same prompt]
* Receive confirmation with assigned prompt date within 5 days. If you don’t receive a confirmation email within 5 days, feel free to email a reminder.
* Set a notification/reminder to write Prompt Ku and post by 10 pm Eastern the night before assigned date.
* Tag TaiChi1, kwunilicious, LillianEMoffitt, and LadyDonna and use #themeku when posting your Prompt Ku
* If your Prompt Ku isn’t posted by 10 pm Eastern the night before, kwunilicious, TaiChi1, LillianEMoffit, or LadyDonna will post back up Prompt Ku using the prompt you submitted by email.
* Volunteers will be scheduled according to these guidelines:
* First time volunteers will be assigned with the first available date.
* Volunteers who have provided fewer prompts will be scheduled sooner.
* Prompts will be scheduled in order received if there are no new volunteers and existing prompters have submitted the same number of prompts.
* Submit questions, concerns, and comments to Themeku.Prompts@gmail.com
* Have fun!
We Apologize for the app “Yo”
Something needs to be done to retrieve our lost culture of expression.
That’s the reason behind the app “Ku”!
As app developers dealing with words, emotions and meaning, we see “Yo” and a small part of us dies inside. We hate seeing communication become so shallow. It seems that Yo is another pillar in a culture of people speaking to each other but actually – saying nothing…
Say what you want to say about Yo: It’s silly, ingenious, simple, brain dead, we don’t care… This post is not about any of that. It’s about what we can learn about the human condition.
The fact of the matter is – people use Yo. Period.
Why?
Because it’s enough to communicate and convey the message we have.
The cool part: We know the other person receiving the “Yo” will know exactly what we meant.
How?
Context creation! Let me write that again – Context Creation!!! Meaning:
Our brains know how to build a clear experience out of meaningless bits of information.
These bits are meaningless until our mind does that magic it does, pouring meaning into this burst of sounds, sights, feelings, smells and taste.
Wait, that’s not news! We already know that right?
We probably do… but we are absolutely oblivious to the extent of how much that happens all the time!
Music – What the heck is that?! An ongoing pattern of noises following repeating cycles. Seriously now, if an alien would have came to any concert playing tonight without any capacity for music appreciation, how would it describe Music?
For us human beings, not only do we see beauty in the “air pressure disturbances” that we call music, we actually start feeling things – Sadness, happiness, longing…
Now to the point:
Speaking – It’s a combination of words that create sentences. Usually understandable, as we have become more emotional the message becomes more complicated and we have trouble getting to the sheer meaning.
For some people, however, a certain combination of words can capture life moments, create feelings and even bring someone to tears.
These are just words. Words like Yo… Or Ku…
Ku – Turning your words into art
Ku is an app. Just like Yo, it has words. Just words. Sometimes a few doodles… And much like Yo, it interacts with that human condition called Context Creation, but this is where the imagination stops.
While Yo is functional (and sometimes sweet or funny) Ku brings out those moments in life that cannot be captured by regular sentences. I am talking about those moments that you have just before falling asleep, or when an emotional turmoil is approaching.
Sometimes there is no other way but to let it all out, in those patterns of (just) words that give meaning to these moments. We call them – Ku moments.
So next time you feel a Ku moment in your life – There’s an app for that!
Yo – Don’t just communicate!
Inspire!
Why my social media network is better than yours!
A guest post by TaiChi1, a retired military broadcast journalist and avid “Kuer.”
As a writer, I am for all things that enhance literacy. When I first encountered [Hey]Ku what caught my attention was the catchphrase “Share a Moment…Creatively.” Sure enough, a bunch of cool writers and artists hang out there and have become a cohesive collective, flexing their prowess as wordsmiths and visual communicators, but just as that catchphrase was on target and never changed, neither has Ku’s mission of CREATIVE STATUS UPDATES!
A recent ku by TaiChi1
Even so, Ku is a rarity in the writing community online or off, hence its popularity as an unpolished, uncut diamond in the rough providing immediate access to well crafted, uncensored prose and poetry — FREE — and without annoying adds. How is this possible? Well, that’s just the “magic” and allure of Ku!
Journalists writing about Ku rarely mention the artistry, sticking with verifiable facts about how the app works, the beauty of the interface and ease of sharing with other platforms. In fact, you won’t learn much about the community of writers unless you join and actually experience it.
So, who is Ku for anyway? Is is just for writers? NO WAY! It’s for EVERYONE! One thing I enjoy about Ku is the instant connection to people and cultures (throughout the U.S. and from around the world — places like Canada, France, Korea, Malaysia, and England, to name a few) all in real time.
Bookstores beware! And I’m even speaking to the digital giants like Amazon who is reportedly the top seller in the digital book market, with Barns & Noble and Apple battling for the number two spot. But in my humble opinion, Ku BEATS THEM ALL HANDS DOWN because the writing is fresh, uncensored, and immediate — not months or years old due to a lengthy publishing process. And with Ku, users get fresh new writing DAILY in a PERPETUALLY updating journal of words, thoughts, feelings, and artistry through words, doodles, pictures and sound.
A recent ku by TaiChi1
So, if you’ve ever thought about writing, Ku is one place I recommend because you get to see GREAT writing at ALL levels. You get to learn about different types of writing and experiment with techniques and forms. Oh, and because they are, for the most part, status updates, you learn a lot about the people writing them, too!
Ku is fun, engaging, and addicting! But these are just my feeble words to describe something you have to EXPERIENCE yourself to fully understand.
Scherzo, 1 year and 2000 kus later!
You met Scherzo just over a year ago when we featured him as our Heykuer of the week. Yesterday he wrote his 2000th ku. Here are his thoughts on inspiration, music and the future of ku!
You’ve been with us since the beginning, what are the biggest changes you have seen in the app?
Biggest changes in the app are the ways to enhance your Ku’s. The doodling, pictures, and sound features REALLY add an element that can enhance a Ku.
What changes do you want to see?
Changes I want to see. I would like to see EVEN MORE interaction with the app. I would like a messaging feature to the app so fellow Ku’ers can get to know each other. Also the opportunity to collaborate within and OUTSIDE THE APP would be a big step towards the FUTURE of Ku.
Who inspires you (inside and outside the app).
My inspiration inside the app, that’s a tough question. I’ll get back to that question. My inspiration OUTSIDE the app would be Ukulele Virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro. His approach to the ukulele and performing live is very inspirational. His zen-like approach is very contagious and is very mind opening for an up and coming ukulele player/performer like myself. I’ve met Jake 6 times now and every show that I see of his, I am always learning something new.
As for my inspiration inside the app. As vague and generic this answer will be, my inspiration is all of the users in Ku. All of the users are different. It’s like going to the grocery store and seeing all the different kinds of food/people there are in this world/community of Ku. Reading a vast variety of Ku’s at any given point in my day can lead to so many moments of inspiration that I can carry on with me to my everyday life.
Where do you channel your creativity outside the app?
My channels of creativity outside of the app happen at the weirdest time. At times I will watch “Sons of Anarchy” or “Breaking Bad” and certain moments, plots, or dialogue will inspire a Ku. I usually try to place myself in the eyes of a certain character and write a Ku. Other moments of inspiration come to me at work, or sitting outside on a break “people watching”.
Tell us about your music, where can we listen?
My music: I have a YouTube channel. www.youtube.com/JionJugo
I am a solo ukulele instrumentalist. My music genre ranges from Mozart, Liszt, Beethoven, Edith Piaf, Patsy Cline, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, to Daft Punk. As a solo ukulele instrumentalist, the options to express are endless. The challenge is in how you execute and connect with the listener/audience.
Anything you would like to tell other Kuers and Kuers-to-be?
To the Ku’ers: always be yourself. Write what’s in the heart, BUT CHALLENGE YOURSELF. Write what first comes to mind. Pretend to be another person, or character, and write based on what the character would see. Do not be afraid to write. What you share WILL INSPIRE others.
Ku’ers to be: Why aren’t you on Ku yet? It’s a free app full of VALUABLE inspiration. The chance to learn what others feel, see, and/or think is very intriguing.
Behind the scenes at our Ku App video shoot
A few Saturdays ago we transformed our office into the set for our Ku App video shoot. After a few weeks of edits, it’s now ready to view! We did it all ourselves (aside from cooking the delicious Thai food we had for lunch)!
Let us know what you think in the comments and be sure to check the video out!
Enjoy!
Ku 