Welcome to Passive!
I'm Alec Munro, participating hypercubist and long time fan of the Nissan Cube.
Back in the day, the Cube was a Japan-only "box-on-wheels", that delivered a high-level of utility in a compact and appealing (to some) package.
It hasn't changed much, except for just now being available in North America. It arrives as a low-end "subcompact", competing directly with Kia's Soul, and undercutting similar utility-over-style vehicles by thousands.
For me, the Cube seems (I haven't driven one) an ideal vehicle. The height makes getting in and out easy, a feature of our 2002 Odyssey that we have certainly appreciated. It's especially handy when it comes to securing Maisy in her car seat, not to have to bend down so much. :)
Make no mistake, we really like our Odyssey, however:
- We rarely use the back seats
- Fuel economy is terrible
- It's a fairly large vehicle to park
I'm also a Nissan enthusiast in general, having lusted after the Infiniti G35 since before I got my driver's license. So it's exciting that they have a vehicle that fits our needs so well. Though the Versa is definitely an attractive choice as well.
But back to the hypercube. To launch the Cube in Canada, Nissan is giving away 50 of them distributed among 500 participants. The goal of the project, as I understand it, is to use the contest itself as the primary means of promoting the vehicle. So the participants (hypercubists, or cubists, for short) create awareness of the Cube, by creating a "canvas" and encouraging people to vote for it. This canvas can contain text, pictures, audio, video, and links to other websites. Cubists are also encouraged to create other resources that build Cube awareness, such as Facebook groups, Flickr albums, web sites, etc.
I want to win one of these Cubes. My strategy is threefold:
* Analyze the cubists with the most votes, and attempt to determine common threads, then weave those into my canvas
* Build tools to gather cubist statistics, and help me promote the Cube
* Study the rules and intent of the Hypercube and its creators, and try to build that information into the way I promote the Cube
I'm off to a slow start:
http://hypercube.ca/en/Canvas.aspx?id=56ee52a9-4c1b-468d-91af-543542f6d6a5&lang=en
