The Simplest of Shapes, the Most Innovative of Concepts

Added: (Mon Mar 08 2010)

Pressbox (Press Release) - True to his circle nature, Eric the Circle brings together elements of social media, publishing, branding, crowdsourcing, and merchandising in a novel and creative way

SYDNEY, Aust, March 9, 2010 – Today marked the launch of ‘Eric the Circle’, the world’s first truly un-authored cartoon character, a social media application developed by combining a range of technologies to facilitate user generated content, content distribution and social networking.

The advent of online creation and sharing tools means people can collaborate with friends, to share ideas, comments, thoughts, jokes and stories. Eric the Circle is a medium that allows people to comment and share in a visual and creative way. Eric the Circle blurs the old delineation of the author and the reader, as for the first time an un-authored, un-credited character (Eric the Circle) appears and is turned over to the people to do with as they will. From day one, Eric is the circle of the people, for the people, allowing unprecedented flexibility to create and share.

Eric goes further, with creations that are digitally earmarked to track their usage with a view to remunerating the initial author when they are used to generate revenue. The seamless link from multiple access points, including social media to main site brings together existing digital technologies and takes them to a whole new level of integration.

Eric the Circle will let consumers not only determine the content they want, but create it themselves. They can then choose to share it, and shortly will be able to put it on merchandise, or incorporate it into their Eric the Circle iPhone application or online game.

The traditional copyright, publishing and distribution models seem to have rolled out as Eric the Circle rolls in.

Who and what is Eric the Circle?
Eric the Circle is the world’s first truly un-authored cartoon character. He is created by the people, for the people. To meet him you can log onto www.ericthecircle.com to view, then quickly and easily create your own Eric the Circle cartoons.

What can I do on the Eric the Circle website?
• Find out about Eric the Circle and his story
• View classic and user created Eric the Circle cartoons.
• Search for your favourite Eric cartoons, topics or authors
• Vote for and comment on Eric Cartoons
• Alter, amend and improve Eric Cartoons - i.e. personalise them
• Share Eric Cartoons with friends and colleagues via social media services
• Create your own Eric Cartoons on any topic - whether that be personal interest, news and current affairs, or a passing idea that happens to catch your attention

Coming Soon to the Eric the Circle website?
• Immortalise your Eric creation in custom made merchandise
• Be paid when other people use your Eric Cartoons in any purchased Eric the Circle item
• Apple and Android applications are on the way

What’s Eric’s purpose?
Eric’s mission is to become the medium that allows people to comment and share in a visual and creative way. Sometimes 140 characters just isn’t enough and you need the help of a cartoon character to find a common language.

Eric believes everybody has a story to tell and a comment to make. He believes that if people speak through him he can bring the world together.

What’s Eric’s Story?
A short illustrated overview of Eric and his background is available at: http://www.ericthecircle.com/story and how-to videos can be found at: www.youtube.com/ericthecircle

Why is Eric a circle?
The circle is the most drawn shape in human history. Why? Because from childhood onwards we can see ourselves in a circle. We relate to the human aspect we see within the shape. In this way Eric’s story becomes our own.

Why is Eric being launched now?
The advent of online creation and sharing tools means that we can now collaborate with Eric, and with our friends, to share our ideas, comments, thoughts, jokes and stories.

Eric’s integration with Open Id (allowing one click login via Facebook, Twitter and Google) opens up simpler, quicker and better ways to share than ever before.