Plunar

Some people are wondering about Plunar. What is it?

Plunar was my MBA project. You can say it was my thesis (if there was one for business school) - as I spent every waking moment doing it. It was a business plan built on TWiki - the most popular and widely used wiki software for the enterprise market. What's a wiki? Wikis are webpages that can be edited by any web-browser. Here's an article via Wikipedia (yes, Wikipedia is a wiki).

Worked with some very smart people - Sabino and Mira from the Business School; Shane from MIS, and DK from EECS. We were mentored by great people too - Peter Thoeny of TWiki, Stanley Knutson, Russ Holdstein, and Bob Tenant. Shout out to these great people!

Learn more? Here's DK's Plunar page (and a picture of the team).

Tagging Hot People

I know you've spent some time checking out people on social networks. And you've all had your impression on them: pretty, smart, funny, etc. These descriptions are probably based on your impressions as you surf the page, or based on your actual interactions with them.

Each profile on these social networks has its own URL. Well, guess what - you can tag them on Delicious! So, how about a social experiment? How about tagging the hot people you find? Lets keep it simple, tag this way:

[social network]hot[guy/gal]

Thus, it would be: friendsterhotguy, tribehotgal, etc. You HAVE to keep it to one word.

To keep us all on the same page, use the following words for each service:

Friendster - friendster
MySpace - myspace
The Facebook - facebook
Tribe.net - tribe
Hi-5 - hi5
Multiply - multiply

Yes, I know its shallow but bear with me. Feel free to add the other networks I've missed.

Wikisphere

A new player in the consumer wiki market - Wikisphere - gets $5.2M in funding from Trinity Ventures and Frazier Technology Ventures. The new company is run by Blue Nile Co-founder Ben Elowitz. Read more.

Credit Ross Mayfield for spotting this.

MySpace and The FacebookTombstones

Saw this post from Danah Boyd's blog. Cal undergrad dies at car crash, and friends use her MySpace and The Facebook profiles to leave her messages. Its a bit creepy as the pages contain pictures of her when she was alive. And the pictures of her friends are not really sad looking.

Well, it is Halloween....

TagCamp Day 2

Another round of ideas, discussions and meeting people today at TagCamp. I felt that I was at the end of an information firehose which so much stuff being thrown at me. Much more difficult since I'm a non-techie. But shutting down and getting some time-off, here are some of the companies that got my attention.

1. Kaboodle: allows you to organize information into one simple 'kaboodle page." Mainly used for shopping research, Kaboodle gives the user a way to make an educated purchase. Look for applications in academic research, trip planning, etc. The kaboodle page kinda reminds me of a wiki page. Like the one of the co-founders too - Manish Chandra - who's a BerkeleyMBA. Go Bears!
   
2. Wink: Search with tagging is turning out to be a biggie. We need to get into the hidden gems within deep dark web, something that Google can't really do. Dunno what the service promises, but hopefully Chief Architect Luke Lu will give me a peek. *wink*
   
3. Mobido: a new, one-man crew service that allows you to share pictures taken through your camera phone with people who know your special tag. Mike Prince runs this outfit and hopes to create social networks built around mobile phones.

Cool stuff coming from vertical search too - SimplyHired (jobs) and Oodle (classifieds). Also notice instant messaging/sharing company Imeem.

Lastly, special thanks to Hong Qu for allowing me to help him out inPhotoRouter.

TagCamp Day 1

I attended TagCamp yesterday, and had the opportunity to meet some very smart people and listen to their ideas. For those you don't know, TagCamp is a geek-getaway to talk about the infrastructure, ecology and application of tags into what people are calling Web 2.0. More on TagCamp here.

Met up with Greg Nahrain of SocialTwister in the afternoon, and had the opportunity to have dinner with Stowe Boyd of Get Real before heading to Commercenet HQ on El Camino and S. California St.

Interesting new things:

• Raw Sugar: and the use of tags in search; kinda reminds me of Eurekster though.
  
• Riya: a start-up launching Monday; they're all about computer recognition of photos and photo-tagging
  
• Danah Boyd talking about what motivates people to tag. Interesting how selfish motivations can contribute to the well-being of a group.
  

Hung around til 2am. More later.

Wiki Wednesday

I'm not sure if you're familiar with wikis, but you might've used them without knowing it. Probably the most popular wiki is Wikipedia (duh) and, last I looked, its in the top 10 most visited websites in the world (according to Alexa). Essentially, wikis are webpages that anyone can edit. Because of that, it lends itself to collaboration between people, whether they know each other or not.

Well, the wiki world has its own community and that community has decided to do Wiki Wednesdays. Inspired by Mobile Mondays and Tag Tuesdays, its essentially a small get-together (Ross Mayfield calls it an 'ice cream social'), that happens in multiple locations during the first Wednesdays of every month. It's an event where similar-minded people get together, talk about what they're doing, and what's new inside (or outside) the wiki community.

I went to the first one in Palo Alto a couple of months back, and it was a nice experience (especially the informal demos that came toward the end). I managed to drag Peter Thoeny along too.

Well, the next Wiki Wed is next week - November 2. Drop by if you can.

The Start-Up Exchange

Ross Mayfield and the guys at SocialText created some cool stuff in the last month. The Start-Up Exchange is a resource for aspiring entrepreneurs. It has a list of people and groups you can tap into - angels, VCs, fellow entrepreneurs, etc. Plus, a host of articles to help you in your way.

Btw, its a built on a wiki - so you should see more and more information each day as the people who use it contribute. If you stop by, you should add your knowledge to it.

Another favorite from the same group is a wiki for Wiki Wed. More on this next time.

User Generated Content & Friendster 2.0

The key success of social networking sites is what they call 'User Generated Content.' Think about it - portals such as Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN have to work with 3rd party sites to syndicate content. Partners such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Motley Fool, etc. make coming to these sites more interesting.

With Friendster, MySpace, and Tribe, the content comes from the users. They provide the pictures, the opinions, and the information that make their members glued to their webpages. Very cool, no?

Friendster recently launched a new version that shows their members the newest information. They have a 'Dashboard' that lists all the latest pictures, testimonials, and what-not uploaded by a member's contacts. Not only does this encourage a member to spend more time surfing on Friendster, it also encourages the member to add more information and be 'checked-out' by his/her friends.

They call this Friendster 2.0. Hmmm...kinda like Web 2.0....

The 3rd Wave

Social software got its start from the three social networking sites - Friendster, LinkedIn and Tribe. However, as it expanded, it actually took in blogs, wikis, instant messenger and the like under its fold. Anyways, the second wave of social software came with tagging and folksonomy: sites such as Flickr and Del.icio.us where the content is managed and shaped by its users. Pretty cool.

The third wave continues with the user-generated content started by the social networks, and management of information seen in the second set. This one is marked by sharing more personal stuff: events, places and calendars. Here some good examples of players on this field.

Events: Upcoming.org
Calendars: Planzo, CalendarHub
Places: Plazes

Check 'em out. They might be the next Google or something.

About David

Observing the Internet, and looking to build cool stuff. I've tried a couple of times, have failed badly, and will keep on trying. Still got lots of consumer ideas, and looking to execute on them. I love social software and communities of interest (think Friendster, Flickr, 43Things, and Delicious). I've got the long-term, where-we're-going side covered. If you have the technical expertise (AJAX, Ruby on Rails, APIs), give me a holler at david DOT quiec @ gmail.com.

Here are some personal links you might be interested in: my pics on Flickr and my bookmarks on Delicious.