In our latest release, PUBLIC CHALK takes on events. This is a decidedly different route/service than we had taken/provided in the past, but it just seems to make sense to use the technology that has been built to make PUBLIC CHALK work to use it for event planning.
The main reason is that we noticed that an event has a minimum lifespan of two weeks. The first week of an event happens when you or one of your friends or one of the companies with whom you do business decides to plan an event and you get the invite. The discussion begins almost immediately… What should I wear? Who will be there? Where is this event? There are probably some e-mails or phone calls between the prospective attendees who know each other and some valuable planning might even come out of those sessions such as, “Lets be prepared to discuss the NYC transit system since the head of the MTA will be there.” Or, more likely, “Kim said she is brining light beer so I’d better bring my own Guinness.”
Then, the event actually takes place and just like any other event in the world – there are going to be some great friends or acquaintances who simply will not be able to attend. They’ll have an array of lame excuses and you’ll want to counter those with stories, text messages, and pictures of what is going on as it is happening.
Finally, there is the aftermath of the event. The picture of Jim wearing the lampshade in place of his pants followed by the picture of Judy wearing Jim’s pants… on her head. Or, maybe it is just a really informative video about 21st century transportation options in NYC. Either way, it is priceless to share these stories/memories with friends.
So, You’ll see that PUBLIC CHALK will allow you to create an event, invite your friends, and start chatting about the event immediately. As usual, you can still share photos, links, and commentary, but now it will be surrounding a particular event. Oh, and, if you want to have a more private side conversation, go ahead and create a board and invite the appropriate people – that’s still available!
Happy Event Hosting!
ETJ
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Black Friday vs Cyber Monday
“It wouldn’t be the Christmas Shopping Season if the stores were any less Hotter than they are.” Yes, the quote by Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) from Christmas Vacation still rings true even in this “internet era”. Black Friday showed retail sales of about $41 Billion. Cyber Monday, by contrast, showed sales of about $850 Million illustrating that the internet is still very much in its infancy… at least when it comes to on-line shopping.
Not to say that we haven’t come a long way in the past 15 years. As a matter of fact, 15 years ago, the internet was heard of by a handful of people in the US government, many college students, and a few businesses that had heard of this idea called e-mail.
In a span of about 5 years, that interest grew as on-line startup companies came out of the woodwork and started offering on-line solutions to real world problems. Some of those companies had great business models and were hugely successful and still exist today (Ebay, Yahoo!, Google, Amazon, etc…). Some had simply horrible business models and would have not been funded were it not for the frenzy to get any internet company to market and capitalize. And there were many that had solid business models that went by the wayside. Even on-line shopping was difficult in the mid-to-late 1990’s with most people suffering through dial-up connections on slow PCs.
Then the whole bubble burst! Interestingly, as the bubble was bursting, the bandwidth and faster PCs that make browsing, shopping, and generally using the internet a pleasant experience were being put into place.
Today, you can shop on-line at just about any large retailer and countless boutique retailers. We’ve also seen the use of the internet spread to letting people do tasks more simply on-line that used to take hours such as on-line banking and renewing your driver’s license or auto registration.
Beyond on-line shopping we’ve seen the internet grow into a way to connect people using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn and mircoblogs like Twitter. We’ve also seen the popularity of growth in User Generated Content – now everyone can be heard on any topic.
And, talk about access! Not only can you access the internet quickly from your Laptop or PC at home or at the office. You can also use your iPhone, Blackberry, Treo, etc…
We believe that Public Chalk is a site that will be part of the next evolution of the internet. It is a place where User Generated Content meets social interaction. It is a place where activities and events such as a holiday party can be planned and discussed real-time before, during, and after the event. And it is a place that is accessible “traditionally” via any web site or via the iPhone (eventually going to include the Blackberry and others).
The next 15 years should be a heck of a ride!
ETJ
Not to say that we haven’t come a long way in the past 15 years. As a matter of fact, 15 years ago, the internet was heard of by a handful of people in the US government, many college students, and a few businesses that had heard of this idea called e-mail.
In a span of about 5 years, that interest grew as on-line startup companies came out of the woodwork and started offering on-line solutions to real world problems. Some of those companies had great business models and were hugely successful and still exist today (Ebay, Yahoo!, Google, Amazon, etc…). Some had simply horrible business models and would have not been funded were it not for the frenzy to get any internet company to market and capitalize. And there were many that had solid business models that went by the wayside. Even on-line shopping was difficult in the mid-to-late 1990’s with most people suffering through dial-up connections on slow PCs.
Then the whole bubble burst! Interestingly, as the bubble was bursting, the bandwidth and faster PCs that make browsing, shopping, and generally using the internet a pleasant experience were being put into place.
Today, you can shop on-line at just about any large retailer and countless boutique retailers. We’ve also seen the use of the internet spread to letting people do tasks more simply on-line that used to take hours such as on-line banking and renewing your driver’s license or auto registration.
Beyond on-line shopping we’ve seen the internet grow into a way to connect people using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn and mircoblogs like Twitter. We’ve also seen the popularity of growth in User Generated Content – now everyone can be heard on any topic.
And, talk about access! Not only can you access the internet quickly from your Laptop or PC at home or at the office. You can also use your iPhone, Blackberry, Treo, etc…
We believe that Public Chalk is a site that will be part of the next evolution of the internet. It is a place where User Generated Content meets social interaction. It is a place where activities and events such as a holiday party can be planned and discussed real-time before, during, and after the event. And it is a place that is accessible “traditionally” via any web site or via the iPhone (eventually going to include the Blackberry and others).
The next 15 years should be a heck of a ride!
ETJ
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Time to Step Back and Give Some Thanks
It has been a tough year for me. I tried to sell my car to support my startup habit but the economy crashed and that didn't work out. Speaking of the startup, we missed just about every deadline we set. And, my dog of 14 and ½ years moved on to doggie heaven. But, truthfully, I kind of like the car anyway. And, the deadlines we missed were mostly because we changed up some functionality and have really made our product better. The dog… well, anyone who has ever had a pet die knows that it is just tough. Still, I have much for which to be thankful!
First, I would like to take a moment to thank some of the great people I've met this past year who have been extremely helpful in making Public Chalk a reality. There are all the great people at NextNY who host great events and support the NY Tech community. There are the folks over at Mashable who keep us informed as to what is going on in the world of Social Networking. And there are the guys at Center Networks who keep us up to date on just about everything.
Second, I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with Tobin Schwaiger-Hastanan from Cupid's Lab. Tobin has been instrumental in getting our iPhone application off the ground. And we got some great advice (and some inside information way back in May about who our next president was to be) from Marc at Celebrifantasy.
Third, I'm thankful for my business partners John and Matt. We don't always see eye-to-eye or even understand what each other are talking about. Sometimes John and I think Matt is crazy. Often, Matt and I think John is crazy. I cannot even imagine what they say about me when I'm not there… I hear enough when I am there. But, our individual strengths over the year have really moved Public Chalk forward.
Finally, I'm thankful to Claudia, Sara, and Paul… the "significant others"… for letting us get away with working so many evenings and weekends instead of spending more time with them. I know that all three of them often think that the three of us have lost our collective minds… especially when we get home from working all day on Saturday and make them look through all the new design changes and features before we eat dinner.
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
ETJ
First, I would like to take a moment to thank some of the great people I've met this past year who have been extremely helpful in making Public Chalk a reality. There are all the great people at NextNY who host great events and support the NY Tech community. There are the folks over at Mashable who keep us informed as to what is going on in the world of Social Networking. And there are the guys at Center Networks who keep us up to date on just about everything.
Second, I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with Tobin Schwaiger-Hastanan from Cupid's Lab. Tobin has been instrumental in getting our iPhone application off the ground. And we got some great advice (and some inside information way back in May about who our next president was to be) from Marc at Celebrifantasy.
Third, I'm thankful for my business partners John and Matt. We don't always see eye-to-eye or even understand what each other are talking about. Sometimes John and I think Matt is crazy. Often, Matt and I think John is crazy. I cannot even imagine what they say about me when I'm not there… I hear enough when I am there. But, our individual strengths over the year have really moved Public Chalk forward.
Finally, I'm thankful to Claudia, Sara, and Paul… the "significant others"… for letting us get away with working so many evenings and weekends instead of spending more time with them. I know that all three of them often think that the three of us have lost our collective minds… especially when we get home from working all day on Saturday and make them look through all the new design changes and features before we eat dinner.
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
ETJ
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Dating Your Website
No, not putting a date on it or using graphics or logos that date it like the rings on a tree. I'm talking about actually dating your website. Taking it out for dinner and a movie and then deciding whether or not to call it the next day. I know it sounds a bit odd at first, but really, it is what we do. We all visited Facebook or Yahoo! or Google or any of the other thousands of sites on the internet and we make a decision as to whether or not we like the site enough to come back… after waiting 3 days, of course.
The problem with "dating" web sites isn't on the client side. I don't really care if a site I visit isn't attractive enough or smart enough. I just move on. And, unlike dating in the real world, the web site itself is just a bunch of code that somebody put out there. It is incapable of feeling and is therefore not "rejected" and won't devour a ½ gallon of ice cream while wondering why you never called if you never go back. But there is a parallel. Just like the teenage girl out there who is starting to date, the web site has creators (parents). And, just like the teenage girl, the creators of the web site want nothing but the best. A boyfriend (or users) who will call often, use the web site for its intended purposes, and love (maybe even worship) the web site… not only for its great looks but also because it is smart and adds something to that person's life. Of course, as creators of a web site, we are really interested in the dowry.
Much like dating… when you arrive at a web site (or see a potential mate), you must find something very attractive to make you want to stay and find out more about it. Without that initial attraction, you will probably pass right on by without looking any further. Now, once the entity is a bit more well-known you may be inclined to stop by for a visit even if it isn't the prettiest choice out there. For example, you might find out that, while it doesn't look the best, that it is really easy to use and you get a special prize at the end. But, suffice it to say… the old adage holds true, "Looks aren't everything, but they sure do help.".
Again, like dating… after you arrive and decide to stay for a while, you're going to start caring about much more than the looks. How well do we get along? Do they do everything I want to do? Can I live with the things that they don't do? Can I ask to have certain features added? Are they smart? Can I talk, be heard and understood, and get stimulating feedback? Or is it a one-way conversation.
In the world of building websites, this dual-need means that you need a great user interface and some great software that users will find intriguing and useful to back up your good looks. If you can manage this, you'll have plenty of dates… I mean users…
ETJ
The problem with "dating" web sites isn't on the client side. I don't really care if a site I visit isn't attractive enough or smart enough. I just move on. And, unlike dating in the real world, the web site itself is just a bunch of code that somebody put out there. It is incapable of feeling and is therefore not "rejected" and won't devour a ½ gallon of ice cream while wondering why you never called if you never go back. But there is a parallel. Just like the teenage girl out there who is starting to date, the web site has creators (parents). And, just like the teenage girl, the creators of the web site want nothing but the best. A boyfriend (or users) who will call often, use the web site for its intended purposes, and love (maybe even worship) the web site… not only for its great looks but also because it is smart and adds something to that person's life. Of course, as creators of a web site, we are really interested in the dowry.
Much like dating… when you arrive at a web site (or see a potential mate), you must find something very attractive to make you want to stay and find out more about it. Without that initial attraction, you will probably pass right on by without looking any further. Now, once the entity is a bit more well-known you may be inclined to stop by for a visit even if it isn't the prettiest choice out there. For example, you might find out that, while it doesn't look the best, that it is really easy to use and you get a special prize at the end. But, suffice it to say… the old adage holds true, "Looks aren't everything, but they sure do help.".
Again, like dating… after you arrive and decide to stay for a while, you're going to start caring about much more than the looks. How well do we get along? Do they do everything I want to do? Can I live with the things that they don't do? Can I ask to have certain features added? Are they smart? Can I talk, be heard and understood, and get stimulating feedback? Or is it a one-way conversation.
In the world of building websites, this dual-need means that you need a great user interface and some great software that users will find intriguing and useful to back up your good looks. If you can manage this, you'll have plenty of dates… I mean users…
ETJ
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Inventing the Internet
Barak Obama is now president elect of the United States and if you believe the media, he owes much of his success to something “invented” by a fellow democrat… Al Gore… and his magical internet.
Okay, we all know that Al Gore did not invent the internet. A whole slew of scientists and scholars invented the internet and the all important TCP/IP protocol. But, it was in a writing by Vinton Cerf where the term “internet” was first used in 1973, and, as a result, we still “Cerf” the internet today.
I highly doubt that when Vinton Cerf first wrote the word “internet” that it would become a global phenomenon and propel the World Wide Web to be a hub for the exchange of ideas, commerce, and social networking. But, it certainly has done just that.
And, the internet is far from being done expanding. The internet is still a baby in many ways. Most communications over the internet today are still asynchronous (e-mail, wall-to-wall, message boards). We’ve seen access expand from the colleges and universities to the workplace to becoming a revenue generation monster supporting entire businesses such as Google, Yahoo, Ebay, 800flowers, Expedia, and the list goes on. As more people get high-speed access to the internet it will continue to expand. And, lately, it has jumped off the desktop and laptop to the phone.
The applications have also grown dramatically. First came static home pages for businesses and individuals. The logical growth from there was eCommerce and Business to Business commerce. Then the social networking boom that started connecting people for various reasons – professional contacts, dating, and long lost friends from high school or college.
Public Chalk is built to take on what we believe is the next growth spurt in internet applications, the community in real time. You live your life among groups of friends surrounding particular interests or events in real time. We are building Public Chalk to provide the ability to create the group of friends who are interested in a particular topic or event and allow that group to converse about that topic or event, share media, and plan from their PC or their iPhone… synchronously (real time). All the discussion will be archived for future reference and new topic will rise in the place of past topics.
Still wish we could say we invented the internet…
ETJ
Okay, we all know that Al Gore did not invent the internet. A whole slew of scientists and scholars invented the internet and the all important TCP/IP protocol. But, it was in a writing by Vinton Cerf where the term “internet” was first used in 1973, and, as a result, we still “Cerf” the internet today.
I highly doubt that when Vinton Cerf first wrote the word “internet” that it would become a global phenomenon and propel the World Wide Web to be a hub for the exchange of ideas, commerce, and social networking. But, it certainly has done just that.
And, the internet is far from being done expanding. The internet is still a baby in many ways. Most communications over the internet today are still asynchronous (e-mail, wall-to-wall, message boards). We’ve seen access expand from the colleges and universities to the workplace to becoming a revenue generation monster supporting entire businesses such as Google, Yahoo, Ebay, 800flowers, Expedia, and the list goes on. As more people get high-speed access to the internet it will continue to expand. And, lately, it has jumped off the desktop and laptop to the phone.
The applications have also grown dramatically. First came static home pages for businesses and individuals. The logical growth from there was eCommerce and Business to Business commerce. Then the social networking boom that started connecting people for various reasons – professional contacts, dating, and long lost friends from high school or college.
Public Chalk is built to take on what we believe is the next growth spurt in internet applications, the community in real time. You live your life among groups of friends surrounding particular interests or events in real time. We are building Public Chalk to provide the ability to create the group of friends who are interested in a particular topic or event and allow that group to converse about that topic or event, share media, and plan from their PC or their iPhone… synchronously (real time). All the discussion will be archived for future reference and new topic will rise in the place of past topics.
Still wish we could say we invented the internet…
ETJ
Monday, November 3, 2008
Long Way to Run
This past Sunday, I ran the New York City Marathon. As I set out crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, I thought of just how much running a marathon and starting a company are alike and, of course, how much they are not at all like. Here are just a few of my thoughts.
ETJ
- Alike – You spend hours upon hours preparing for that one day that you will “go live” or run the marathon. Your family and friends watch you doing all this prep work – working late hours – or getting up really on Saturday morning to run 20 miles – and wonder what is wrong with you.
- Different – You may get a headache from working on your startup company but you won’t get sore legs.
- Alike – To truly be successful you need to surround yourself with the right people. In a startup company this includes your business partner(s), the staff you hire, the staff you contract, and if you are lucky, the first few customers. In the marathon it is finding the right group to train with and then recruiting the right race support people.
- Different – When you finally launch your company, chances are that you are not going to have a crowd of millions of people in the streets cheering for you… but, if you can manage to get that – go for it – make sure to invite me.
- Alike – At about 7/8 of the way through either the marathon or starting a company you may be overwhelmed by the stress of it all and violently puke up a stomach full of Gatorade and water.
- Different – The results from getting your company started are not going to be posted the next day.
- Alike – The devil is in the details! Making sure you have the right shoes and your lucky socks is very important on marathon day. Making sure you have the right PowerPoint presentation is also very important on the day you present to investors. The right shoes and lucky socks couldn’t hurt either.
- Different – Once you start the marathon – it is all up to you to run your best and have a good time. Launching and running your company is a team sport.
- Alike – If all goes well, you will be rewarded handsomely for undertaking either endeavor.
- Different – If you are successful, you’re going to pay lots of taxes on your startup company. You won’t pay taxes on your marathon unless you win.
- Alike – After starting your company or finishing a marathon you’ll have plenty of war stories to tell your friends who will be very interested to hear almost every detail.
ETJ
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Write it Again
If you've ever been part of a startup of just about anything, you'll know that the end product is rarely what you set out to build. If you've read any of these blog posts, you'll know that Public Chalk is far from our original vision. The good news is that we really like what we've built. We like it a lot better than what we had started out to build. The problem is that now we are starting to shop our idea to potential investors, banks, and even friends who want to know what it is, exactly, that we built.
Just the other day, I sat down to "review" the business plan… that very same plan that hadn't been touched in about 6 months. I started updating the original plan and then realized how far we had evolved from our original plan. So, I scrapped the original plan and started a brand new plan.
Business planning aficionados will tell you that writing a business plan adds value in three major ways:
Good luck updating/writing/keeping up to date your own business plan.
ETJ
Just the other day, I sat down to "review" the business plan… that very same plan that hadn't been touched in about 6 months. I started updating the original plan and then realized how far we had evolved from our original plan. So, I scrapped the original plan and started a brand new plan.
Business planning aficionados will tell you that writing a business plan adds value in three major ways:
- It serves as a document that you can share with anybody who wants to know what it is that your business does. This can be potential investors, family, friends, employees, and it can even get you and your partner(s) on the same page.
- It serves as a place to lay out your financing requirements, potential revenues, future expenses, and just how you plan to make your business a raging success that will be able to support you and your employees while also paying back the bank and making the investors rich.
- Finally, it serves as a learning exercise. This particular go-around was especially enlightening for me. While we had discussed most of the ideas I wrote, there were definitely some points of clarity that needed to be hashed out and a few new ideas that came to fruition just because they were obvious while I was writing. The best part about writing this document is that a large percentage of the functionality and features I discussed were based on actual software that has been built that we own that is actually working.
Good luck updating/writing/keeping up to date your own business plan.
ETJ
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Last Chance to Impress
This Wednesday, October 15, is the last chance for Barack Obama or John McCain to impress the American people as they face off in the final Presidential debate of the 2008 campaign.
The debate season has proven busy for us on Public Chalk. Many people have joined us to discuss the debate real-time as it was taking place and many who have joined us during the debate continued the conversation long after the debate has stopped.
Whether you are sick of hearing McCain talk about his war experience or you are tired of Obama talk about his middle class rescue plan, weigh in and share your opinions with everyone on Public Chalk.
If you are already a member, you can just log in from the login page. If you are new to Public Chalk, you can follow the Public Chalk Presidential Debate link (debate.publicchalk.com) to register and be taken right into the board where everyone is chalking about the debate.
The conversation from our existing members has been stimulating and some great opinions and insights were offered and we’d really like to hear what the rest of you out there have to say.
Talk to you on Wednesday!
ETJ
The debate season has proven busy for us on Public Chalk. Many people have joined us to discuss the debate real-time as it was taking place and many who have joined us during the debate continued the conversation long after the debate has stopped.
Whether you are sick of hearing McCain talk about his war experience or you are tired of Obama talk about his middle class rescue plan, weigh in and share your opinions with everyone on Public Chalk.
If you are already a member, you can just log in from the login page. If you are new to Public Chalk, you can follow the Public Chalk Presidential Debate link (debate.publicchalk.com) to register and be taken right into the board where everyone is chalking about the debate.
The conversation from our existing members has been stimulating and some great opinions and insights were offered and we’d really like to hear what the rest of you out there have to say.
Talk to you on Wednesday!
ETJ
Friday, October 10, 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen… The President of The United States
In just a few more short (hopefully) weeks, that phrase will apply to a freshmen president. He’ll inherit the economy of not only the United States, but of the entire world. Just a month ago the economic outlook could have been described as bleak. Today the economy can most accurately be described as, “In a death spiral”. He’ll also inherit a national health care crisis and a continuing war in Iraq and escalating problems in Afghanistan. Then there is the energy crisis… high oil prices… do we go alternative or start drilling offshore? Oh, and, then there are the "lesser" issues like gay marriage, abortion, and restoring the ice shelf for the polar bears.
It is a tall order for any man or woman. On top of all the issues the new president will either be the first black man to run the country or the first man with a female vice president. They’ll also be moving into the white house immediately following the election instead of waiting until inauguration day.
Talk about all these issues! No, really, talk about them. This is probably the biggest election season for change since 1980. There are more young people involved in politics than ever. For the first time in 20 years there are more registered democrats than republicans and even the libertarian party has shown significant growth.
Over the past few weeks, we at Public Chalk have been inviting lots of people to join us on-line to offer your opinions and insights during the vice presidential and presidential debates. People have offered some great insights, some good resources, and some hysterically funny comments on the state of affairs.
Another thing that has happened is that we noticed that the conversation about the debate or politics or any of the issues mentioned above continues well beyond the debate. We’d love to hear what you have to say. Join us by following this link to Public Chalk. You’ll be asked to register. Once you do, you’ll be put into the crew that is talking about the presidential race. Don’t like that crew? Create a new one and invite your friends.
Oh, and, don’t forget to get out there and vote! Every one counts.
ETJ
It is a tall order for any man or woman. On top of all the issues the new president will either be the first black man to run the country or the first man with a female vice president. They’ll also be moving into the white house immediately following the election instead of waiting until inauguration day.
Talk about all these issues! No, really, talk about them. This is probably the biggest election season for change since 1980. There are more young people involved in politics than ever. For the first time in 20 years there are more registered democrats than republicans and even the libertarian party has shown significant growth.
Over the past few weeks, we at Public Chalk have been inviting lots of people to join us on-line to offer your opinions and insights during the vice presidential and presidential debates. People have offered some great insights, some good resources, and some hysterically funny comments on the state of affairs.
Another thing that has happened is that we noticed that the conversation about the debate or politics or any of the issues mentioned above continues well beyond the debate. We’d love to hear what you have to say. Join us by following this link to Public Chalk. You’ll be asked to register. Once you do, you’ll be put into the crew that is talking about the presidential race. Don’t like that crew? Create a new one and invite your friends.
Oh, and, don’t forget to get out there and vote! Every one counts.
ETJ
Thursday, October 2, 2008
To Build the Perfect Team, Software, and Startup Company
We’ve been working on Public Chalk for over a year now. Well, that is a bit strong – because we started out on a completely different path before we settled on what, exactly, we were building. Along the way, we made plenty of mistakes, learned a few things, and we’ve actually progressed!
If you want to join us tonight to talk during the Vice Presidential candidate debate, come to Public Chalk and register. You’ll be put right into the Biden vs Palin crew. You can also read what others have said even if you are a few days behind.
If you just want to read about what I promised in the title… read on…
- Realize that there is no such thing as a perfect team. Somebody is going to be annoying – and if you can’t pick out the annoying team member, it is you.
- Pay everyone lots of money. This may prove slightly problematic in a startup company. If it isn’t, good for you! If you are like the rest of us you’re going to have to get creative.
- Realize your strengths and work in that direction. If you are not the sales guy, do not do sales. If you are not the techie guy, do not install the new servers. Of course, if you are working on a startup, learn the job and do it, otherwise, it won’t happen.
- Write a great business plan and put together a great presentation to get everyone you work with super-excited about your idea. Then bury it in the drawer and forget about it because no one else is going to get as excited as you are and your idea will be unrecognizable within the first 2 weeks of development.
- Roll out your software quickly and see what everyone thinks. Naturally, most people won’t be able to log in and you either over-thought every part of your application making it insanely complex even for the brightest people or you didn’t in which case no one will be interested.
- Always listen to and respond to feedback from your primary investors. Okay, this one is probably a good thing to do 90% of the time. The other 10% just nod, ignore, and move on.
- Recognize all your goals, repay your debts, make some money or raise some funds or help starving puppies or whatever your startup was supposed to do.
- Have fun along the way. Repeat.
ETJ
Thursday, September 25, 2008
World War 4 Will be Fought by Bugs
Spend some time designing and developing and evolving software and it will feel like you’ve been through a war or two or three. There are never enough hours, never enough coders, and the design is always wrong. But, once you’ve fought through all those hurdles, you can proudly release your product. You can even release your product to the world if it is internet based.
And, that is when the fourth war starts. The bugs come crawling out of the woodwork, or in this case the software. Some of them are really little bugs that cause huge problems and some are really big bugs that cause little problems. Often, squashing one bug causes more, angrier bugs, to attack.
Bugs fighting WW4 on your turf are a big problem for a few reasons: 1) Your Beta users, most who don’t understand software or software development, will eventually grow weary of reporting bugs and may even stop using your product. This is obviously bad. 2) Your team of programmers (some people only have 1) will grow weary of hearing about the complaining Beta users as well as the bugs and might even be happy when the most vocal users stop using the system or reporting bugs. This is obviously worse. 3) While you are in the trenches fixing the bugs, that list of great new functionality that you had shelved until after the initial release is sitting collecting dust. This is really bad – especially if you happened to blog about all the really cool new features that users should be looking forward to using.
Our war is more of a conflict, actually. As it turns out – so far – the bugs we have found have been relatively minor and have been fixed quickly. Our problems exist more on the user interface front. It seems that when many first timers arrive at the web site they have a common question, “What do I do now?” So, as we’re fixing the bugs, we are also trying to make it more obvious as to what, exactly, we intend you to do. Then, you may do as you wish.
But, if you have the patience and want to test out some great new software and give us some feedback and help us squash some bugs and give us some usability tips, register, sign in, and tell us what you think
ETJ.
And, that is when the fourth war starts. The bugs come crawling out of the woodwork, or in this case the software. Some of them are really little bugs that cause huge problems and some are really big bugs that cause little problems. Often, squashing one bug causes more, angrier bugs, to attack.
Bugs fighting WW4 on your turf are a big problem for a few reasons: 1) Your Beta users, most who don’t understand software or software development, will eventually grow weary of reporting bugs and may even stop using your product. This is obviously bad. 2) Your team of programmers (some people only have 1) will grow weary of hearing about the complaining Beta users as well as the bugs and might even be happy when the most vocal users stop using the system or reporting bugs. This is obviously worse. 3) While you are in the trenches fixing the bugs, that list of great new functionality that you had shelved until after the initial release is sitting collecting dust. This is really bad – especially if you happened to blog about all the really cool new features that users should be looking forward to using.
Our war is more of a conflict, actually. As it turns out – so far – the bugs we have found have been relatively minor and have been fixed quickly. Our problems exist more on the user interface front. It seems that when many first timers arrive at the web site they have a common question, “What do I do now?” So, as we’re fixing the bugs, we are also trying to make it more obvious as to what, exactly, we intend you to do. Then, you may do as you wish.
But, if you have the patience and want to test out some great new software and give us some feedback and help us squash some bugs and give us some usability tips, register, sign in, and tell us what you think
ETJ.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
But, Why?
Well, we’ve done it. We have built some great software and, as you can see by the logo on the site, it is now available in a beta release. Granted, it needs a few enhancements from the User Interface and Usability perspectives (like it would be really good to be able to know how to get to the registration page from the login page and things like that) but overall, it works well.
Now, we find ourselves and our users asking the question… why? What does your software do? And the answer is that it does many many many things and it does them well and those things that it does are easily put to good work in a huge array of scenarios. It is the equivalent of being told that you can do anything you want to do. Unfortunately, when you are told that you can do anything you want to do, the result is that you often do nothing.
So, we are looking for our niche. That “thing” that we do. That purpose for our great software. When we find it, we will adapt our software to that particular niche. Then, with any luck, we’ll get some traction and a good user base and eventually reach far beyond our target niche.
During this exercise we are asking ourselves… what is it that people do? What is missing from the on-line experience in one particular niche? Is there something that people do not in New York City or on the West Coast that we should harness and make our niche? What do all those people in the middle of the USA do? Certainly they must be social, right?
As we continue our quest for a purpose, go ahead and sign up using the register page. Then, if you have any ideas for how you’d like to see this web service used, put it in the User Feedback crew. As your kindergarten teacher might have said, “There are no stupid questions and there are no bad ideas.” Of course, she was lying, but the converse is true, “There are good questions and great ideas!”
ETJ
Now, we find ourselves and our users asking the question… why? What does your software do? And the answer is that it does many many many things and it does them well and those things that it does are easily put to good work in a huge array of scenarios. It is the equivalent of being told that you can do anything you want to do. Unfortunately, when you are told that you can do anything you want to do, the result is that you often do nothing.
So, we are looking for our niche. That “thing” that we do. That purpose for our great software. When we find it, we will adapt our software to that particular niche. Then, with any luck, we’ll get some traction and a good user base and eventually reach far beyond our target niche.
During this exercise we are asking ourselves… what is it that people do? What is missing from the on-line experience in one particular niche? Is there something that people do not in New York City or on the West Coast that we should harness and make our niche? What do all those people in the middle of the USA do? Certainly they must be social, right?
As we continue our quest for a purpose, go ahead and sign up using the register page. Then, if you have any ideas for how you’d like to see this web service used, put it in the User Feedback crew. As your kindergarten teacher might have said, “There are no stupid questions and there are no bad ideas.” Of course, she was lying, but the converse is true, “There are good questions and great ideas!”
ETJ
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
New Releases, Bugs, and All That Running
PUBLIC CHALK Beta was finally released on September 6, 2008. Oddly enough this was also the wedding day of Matt and Sarah – our lead programmer and the woman who somehow tolerates John and me. Maybe she really does think that the functionality is cool after all.
We did release a bunch of really cool usability and behind the scenes features that you can check out the features in the new features blog.
As with any release, there are bugs. Some are very frustrating because they are things that we tested and fixed while in the development database that somehow managed to make it into the production database. Others are brand new “undocumented features” that we really don’t want but didn’t ever think of testing for. We have documented those and have them in the hopper to get fixed.
Here is a tip for anybody in the software industry… do not do a major release the day of your lead programmer’s wedding… especially if he is planning to go to Croatia for two weeks and be generally unreachable.
The good part about this release is that we have noted that despite the bugs that the software on the whole is generally good and useable even though it isn’t the prettiest user interface on the planet. We have also noted a bunch of things (not bugs) that will make the software even more usable and we will be implementing those in a future release.
For now, though, I think I’ll go for a nice long run. A 220 mile relay through New Hampshire actually in the Reach the Beach Relay. I’m leaving tomorrow and I’ll be back on Saturday night. This will leave John alone with his thoughts… unless a few of you want to join PUBLIC CHALK and talk to John in one of his crews.
ETJ
We did release a bunch of really cool usability and behind the scenes features that you can check out the features in the new features blog.
As with any release, there are bugs. Some are very frustrating because they are things that we tested and fixed while in the development database that somehow managed to make it into the production database. Others are brand new “undocumented features” that we really don’t want but didn’t ever think of testing for. We have documented those and have them in the hopper to get fixed.
Here is a tip for anybody in the software industry… do not do a major release the day of your lead programmer’s wedding… especially if he is planning to go to Croatia for two weeks and be generally unreachable.
The good part about this release is that we have noted that despite the bugs that the software on the whole is generally good and useable even though it isn’t the prettiest user interface on the planet. We have also noted a bunch of things (not bugs) that will make the software even more usable and we will be implementing those in a future release.
For now, though, I think I’ll go for a nice long run. A 220 mile relay through New Hampshire actually in the Reach the Beach Relay. I’m leaving tomorrow and I’ll be back on Saturday night. This will leave John alone with his thoughts… unless a few of you want to join PUBLIC CHALK and talk to John in one of his crews.
ETJ
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Open Privacy
Open Privacy is a relatively new concept that was ushered in with the Internet/Social Networking era. It is an oxymoron, albeit one that needs to be turned into a NOT oxymoron – whatever that is…
The problem starts when people, maybe even you, put personal information on-line that you’d like to share with other people who also happen to be on-line. You might, for example, want to tell your close friends that you won some money in Atlantic City gambling over the weekend. Okay, a far stretch, but it works for this example. The thing is that there is a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning and you really don’t want the pastor/rabbi/minister/etc… of your church/synagogue/mosque/temple/etc… to know that you are a gambler. And he/she just also happens to be part of the on-line community and would/could easily find out about your secret life in front of the slot machines and make an example out of you the next time they preach.
The social web sites at large seem to solve this problem by allowing users to block certain other users from seeing certain parts of their information. This seems to work rather well if the user is a “power user” and understands the nuances of the security scheme that is provided for their use. Of course, the security scheme can be as complex and confusing (and powerful) as possible if you are a “larger” social network presumably because enough people out there understand it (or just don’t use it) and can explain it to their friends (or spy on them) as appropriate.
The real problem comes in when you are a smaller start-up social network clamoring for users/members. On one hand you want to be as open (read social) as possible and on the other hand you still need to protect your user’s/member’s privacy all without confusing them. Start off too “open” and you lose a bunch of users/members who would rather be a bit more private and start off too “closed” and your social network looks boring and… no one wants to come to a boring party.
This is our current struggle at PUBLIC CHALK. Open enough to be interesting, closed enough to protect our members, and security simple enough that our members and users will understand and use it.
ETJ
The problem starts when people, maybe even you, put personal information on-line that you’d like to share with other people who also happen to be on-line. You might, for example, want to tell your close friends that you won some money in Atlantic City gambling over the weekend. Okay, a far stretch, but it works for this example. The thing is that there is a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning and you really don’t want the pastor/rabbi/minister/etc… of your church/synagogue/mosque/temple/etc… to know that you are a gambler. And he/she just also happens to be part of the on-line community and would/could easily find out about your secret life in front of the slot machines and make an example out of you the next time they preach.
The social web sites at large seem to solve this problem by allowing users to block certain other users from seeing certain parts of their information. This seems to work rather well if the user is a “power user” and understands the nuances of the security scheme that is provided for their use. Of course, the security scheme can be as complex and confusing (and powerful) as possible if you are a “larger” social network presumably because enough people out there understand it (or just don’t use it) and can explain it to their friends (or spy on them) as appropriate.
The real problem comes in when you are a smaller start-up social network clamoring for users/members. On one hand you want to be as open (read social) as possible and on the other hand you still need to protect your user’s/member’s privacy all without confusing them. Start off too “open” and you lose a bunch of users/members who would rather be a bit more private and start off too “closed” and your social network looks boring and… no one wants to come to a boring party.
This is our current struggle at PUBLIC CHALK. Open enough to be interesting, closed enough to protect our members, and security simple enough that our members and users will understand and use it.
ETJ
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
New Features!
Welcome to the PUBLIC CHALK New Features blog! We continue in our pre-beta stage and we are getting lots of great ideas from our testers and we’ve even come up with a few of our own. Not to mention that list of items that we knew we’d have to fix. In our next “features” release, we plan to provide the following items:
Check back here for more new features coming soon.
ETJ
- Tags – What are tags you ask? Well, they are short notes (1 or 2 or maybe 3 words) that describe something. An example would be if you were describing a bottle of wine – you might tag it with 3 tags including Tag 1 – Red; Tag 2 – Cabernet Sauvignon; Tag 3 – Vintage 1996. And if you did, I would hope to get an invite to help you drink it. But in PUBLIC CHALK you will be able to tag an entry in one of your crews. So, if someone in one of your crews says, “I love Asics” you might tag it as 1) Running shoes; 2) Gel. Then you will be able to search Tab 3 by tag.
- Hover Over – Ever wonder what something on a page means? Well, now you’ll be able to hover the mouse over many of the things on the page and get a pop-up box with a quick explanation of what a particular hyperlink or button does.
- Drop Down Options – Previously, if you posted an item, you would see a small gray “X” to the right of your post which would allow you to delete the post. That small gray “X” has been replaced with a dropdown options box. One of the options will still be delete (if you were the poster). The other options include Email which will allow you to notify everyone in the crew via e-mail of the post (whether or not you posted it) and Tag (see Tags above).
- Edit Events – you set it up, you posted it, and now it has changed. In previous versions this has been a sad state of affairs – you couldn’t change an event once it was posted. This has been corrected with the “Edit Event” dropdown feature which will allow you to change any aspect of your event. You may also use the e-mail feature to notify everyone of your event or you can delete your event entirely.
- Invite Enhancements - Now when you invite your friends from your contact book, you'll notice a list of the people you've decided to invite to the crew that appears at the top of the page as you check them off. Don't forget to double-check this list before clicking the invite button... wouldn't want to accidentally invite mom to the "What I did last Saturday" crew!
- Finally, with all this talk of Tab 3 – we’ve made some improvements there too allowing you to search by tag and telling you which crew your search results came from.
Check back here for more new features coming soon.
ETJ
Monday, August 25, 2008
Pre Beta
Remember the days when “Beta” meant that the software just wasn’t quite ready for prime-time use but that you could “test” it out and provide feedback? Things were expected to break and be a little clunky. Those days are long gone. Today, “Beta” means that you can use it but it isn’t really guaranteed. Gmail was in beta for 7 years. The “New” Yahoo! mail is still in Beta and it has been out for well over a year. Both services work very well and have since the first day that they were available for “Beta” usage.
After many months of work, Public Chalk is in a state where the software isn’t quite ready for prime-time use but you can “test” it out and provide feedback. Unfortunately, that is no longer called “Beta”. So, we have invited a few friends associated with a few groups or events to test out the software in “Pre Beta”. Once we have the kinks worked out and the software is “Ready to Use”… we’ll call it “Beta” and invite a whole bunch of others.
Public Chalk, as it exists now, is a very robust service. It accomplishes the goal of providing a place for people to chat among friends in specific crews or groups of people, upload photos, enter reviews, make announcements, plan an event, and even text in messages to crews. And, beyond the user experience, there is lots of code in the background that manages all of these services and makes them secure.
Of course, there is a list of well over 100 “enhancements” and additional services that we’d like to provide for our users. Check back here for what is coming up next. Current users, please let us know of any issues you encounter or what you’d like to see next using the user feedback crew.
Thanks!
ETJ
After many months of work, Public Chalk is in a state where the software isn’t quite ready for prime-time use but you can “test” it out and provide feedback. Unfortunately, that is no longer called “Beta”. So, we have invited a few friends associated with a few groups or events to test out the software in “Pre Beta”. Once we have the kinks worked out and the software is “Ready to Use”… we’ll call it “Beta” and invite a whole bunch of others.
Public Chalk, as it exists now, is a very robust service. It accomplishes the goal of providing a place for people to chat among friends in specific crews or groups of people, upload photos, enter reviews, make announcements, plan an event, and even text in messages to crews. And, beyond the user experience, there is lots of code in the background that manages all of these services and makes them secure.
Of course, there is a list of well over 100 “enhancements” and additional services that we’d like to provide for our users. Check back here for what is coming up next. Current users, please let us know of any issues you encounter or what you’d like to see next using the user feedback crew.
Thanks!
ETJ
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
One Week
More than a Barenaked Ladies song… it is the amount of time we just spent (this past week) fixing issues with PUBLIC CHALK and finishing up some of the initial functionality that we thought was “absolutely” necessary before we rolled any part of this out to even a small group of friends.
Here is a list of just a few things that we accomplished this past week:
- We tested and made some fixes to the invite functionality.
- We changed the register process to make it as streamlined as possible for new members.
- We drank 3 very nice bottles of wine. Note that this was done over an entire week by three of us, not all at once… although, at times, I think we could’ve all used our own bottle.
- We changed the look and feel of the application. Our initial color pallet was not working anymore – too much orange and pink and teal (no, I’m not joking, those really were the colors… and, no, our designer was not retarded).
- We incorporated the new name and logo.
- We worked on overall performance to make sure moving around the site is quick.
- We taught the dog how to jump into the pool. Before this week he would always walk down the steps. Now he throws himself in with abandon from any side of the pool.
- We updated copy throughout the site – including the copy on the initial crew – so that, hopefully, it makes sense to everyone who reads it as they learn about the site. In case you are curious, copy means the text on different parts of the site. I was just calling it, “The text on different parts of the site”, but I was told that I had to be more official and call it copy.
- We took a really cool “welcome” picture you will see in the “Getting Started with PUBLIC CHALK” crew. I know, it looks like it would be a 3 minute project – but it took us a good 15 minutes to get a picture we liked.
- And, we made a list… of a whole bunch of additional functions that we want to implement soon after rolling PUBLIC CHALK out. We realize that we’re going to have to fix some bugs – but we also want to make some really cool new features available soon after the initial release.
ETJ
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Oh Romeo!
On April 2, 2008, I wrote a blog called “What’s in a name?” I talked about how we had gone ahead and chosen the name “Theo” before actually owning it and how we had fallen in love with the name. But, like Romeo and Juliet the quest to consummate our perfect love ended tragically. A lesson was learned that I’ll share – don’t pick your name until you are sure you can actually own it one day. And don’t assume that:
But, unlike Romeo and Juliet who had the misfortune of actually carrying out their suicide pact, we, as a group, decided not to put on the black sneakers and drink the green Kool Aid. Instead, we renamed ourselves to something that makes a bit more sense than Theo, that we kind of fell in love with, and, most importantly, that we could actually buy!
There was going to be a big unveiling of the new name right here in this paragraph, but I am assuming that you have probably already looked at the new logo and maybe you even got here from the link on the web site and maybe the URL from blogspot gave it away. So, I’ll just tell you a little bit about the name and the logo.
The name is kind of logical for us. Public Chalk’s mission is to provide a real-time multimedia utility that engages your groups of friends in conversation. Basically – pick up a piece of chalk, find a blackboard, invite the friends who will be most interested in what you have to say, invite them to watch you write, let them write back.
The logo was designed by kick-ass San Francisco based Stan Zienka. You can see that the lettering is simple and upper case – just like you find on most chalk boards and the background is deep gray, not accidentally also just like a chalk board.
So, we have a name. Oh, and, while we were trying to figure out the name a lot has happened on the development side of the house. We expect to deliver release 1.0 in early August. Check back soon for the initial feature set and planned development beyond the initial release.
ETJ
- Sedo.com is ever on your side (or that they have any type of good customer service or will actually do anything for you that you cannot do on your own) or
- That a person listing a domain for sale actually plans on ever selling that name (rather they lead you along letting you think that at a certain price point they will be satisfied and when you actually meet that price they say no and go tell someone else that they were offered $xx or in our case $xx,xxx in the past for their domain name).
But, unlike Romeo and Juliet who had the misfortune of actually carrying out their suicide pact, we, as a group, decided not to put on the black sneakers and drink the green Kool Aid. Instead, we renamed ourselves to something that makes a bit more sense than Theo, that we kind of fell in love with, and, most importantly, that we could actually buy!
There was going to be a big unveiling of the new name right here in this paragraph, but I am assuming that you have probably already looked at the new logo and maybe you even got here from the link on the web site and maybe the URL from blogspot gave it away. So, I’ll just tell you a little bit about the name and the logo.
The name is kind of logical for us. Public Chalk’s mission is to provide a real-time multimedia utility that engages your groups of friends in conversation. Basically – pick up a piece of chalk, find a blackboard, invite the friends who will be most interested in what you have to say, invite them to watch you write, let them write back.
The logo was designed by kick-ass San Francisco based Stan Zienka. You can see that the lettering is simple and upper case – just like you find on most chalk boards and the background is deep gray, not accidentally also just like a chalk board.
So, we have a name. Oh, and, while we were trying to figure out the name a lot has happened on the development side of the house. We expect to deliver release 1.0 in early August. Check back soon for the initial feature set and planned development beyond the initial release.
ETJ
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