The BargainBabe, Julia Scott, recommended limiting the scope of your site if you are publishing a local content destination. And she is using the collaborative mapping platform developed by Serra Media to do that geographically on her site BargainBabeLA.com.
Scott presented this morning at the Interactive Local Media conference in Los Angeles during a session called “Mapping Out Local Revenue and Services.”
In addition to previewing a new design to the TownLuxe UI that we’ll be launching soon, Scott offered suggestions for growing an active user community (instead of a passive one). She says active users help spread the word and she aims for the 80/20 rule where 20% of users do 80% of the sharing/promotion.
During the Q&A, Scott previewed other technology that we’ll be building out for BargainBabeLA in the near future, including the integration of social media posts by geography and mobile applications for users to view and contribute deals by location.
It has been six months since we launched BargainBabeLA and it continues to show promise. Geoff Donaker, COO of Yelp, told the conference yesterday how it took 18 months for Yelp to gain critical mass in its first location (San Francisco). It’s exciting to think about where Scott and BargainBabe will be a year from now.
It’s like a hack day, code sprint, barcamp, barn raising or many other tech-geek terms for unstructured events. This one-day event brings journalists, programmers, entrepreneurs, web designers and students together to build something cool and, hopefully, useful. The first event, held in May, “sold out” quickly and produced three interesting prototypes by three different teams in a matter of hours.
This time, we’ll be under the globe at the Seattle P-I. How’s this for irony? A news innovation event at the headquarters of the first metropolitan daily newspaper to go completely digital.
If you can make it to Seattle on Nov. 12-13 (or are already in the area), visit the GonzoCamp site and reserve a ticket.
If you’re not local, sit tight. We’re working on plans to bring GonzoCamp to more than a dozen cities in 2010. If you are interested in sponsoring an event in your town, drop me a line.
I’ve been asked why Serra Media sponsors and organizes this event. What’s in it for us, you wonder? By facilitating such an event we fulfill the mission our company: to support innovation in news, journalism and community publishing. Plus we get access to great ideas (for inspiration, not stealing), great people (we’re a growing company, after all) and it’s just a kick-ass way to give back to the community.
Entrepreneurs try to find disruption in a marketplace. So it should be no surprise that yesterday’s First Look Forum, sponsored by the Northwest Entrepreneurial Network, was overloaded by companies that are playing in the digital news space.
Yes, Serra Media was one of them. And although we didn’t make the second round, the entire process was all still worthwhile (more on that in a moment).
Hearing the feedback from those at the event, it’s pretty clear that the top 5 consisted of the 4 biggest opportunities (food industry, construction, medical devices and virtual currency for small businesses) plus one guy who had already made money for investors with a successful exit. That guy, Bruce D’Ambrosio, had the one web content play (DigitalScriocco) to make it into the second round.
But the combination of companies like Serra Media, Arumis (online payment service for web publishers), PodCurry (iPhone applications for news sites), DigitalScriocco (automated content marketplace) and Glue (integrated publishing to online social networks) made it clear that others are seeing the same thing we are: huge opportunity, still, for serving web publishers.
These companies are also the easiest to build, of course, since it doesn’t cost a lot to build web applications. But web publishing is the center of major disruption and don’t expect the dust to settle for several years as the audience – and advertisers – continue the transformation from print or broadcast to digital.
Although it’s always disappointing to not win any competition, I feel like I’m smarter today than I was a month ago due in large part to all the meetings and feedback from people like TA McCann, Kevin Doren, Mark Britton and Roy Leban, in addition to my advisors Jeffrey Smith and Scott Porad, in preparation for this. So that’s the real takeaway for me.
And congratulations to Findood, winner of the First Look Forum. I love their concept and, having met some the team, I count myself as a big fan.
Last week, I had the unique opportunity to organize and judge a business idea “competition” at the Online News Association conference in San Francisco. Next week I’ll be the one on the hot seat (or should I say Shark Tank?).
Serra Media has been selected as one of 12 finalists to present at the First Look Forum on Oct. 12, sponsored by the Northwest Entrepreneurial Network. Each of the 12 companies will have three minutes to present their business idea before an invitation-only audience of investors. Yes, three minutes.
The audience will then vote to select a group of five companies who will deliver a 10-minute presentation. Then, the audience will pick one winner. Grand prize: office space for a year and some nice office furniture.
The program has already paid dividends for our company, no matter how we fare next week. We were assigned screener/coaches and our meetings with TA McCann, CEO of Gist.com, and Kevin Doren, a local investor, have helped us fine-tune our overall business strategy and crystallize our message. Plus, it’s given us an excuse to ask a handful of other smart people for their feedback and we appreciate all the help we’ve received.
The slides for the 3-minute preso have already been submitted. So now it’s time to hone the pitch. It’s only three minutes, right? What’s there to be afraid of?
Aaron spent nearly three years at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. as a newsroom programmer. He was instrumental in developing and launching numerous innovative digital projects, including consumer-facing online applications and internal software development that significantly increased the newsroom’s efficiency.
Aaron graduated from the University of Washington-Tacoma with a degree in computer science.
Welcome to the Serra Blog, our outlet for product announcements, behind-the-scenes developments, hyperlocal learnings and other miscellany related to innovation in local media and digital technology.
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The BargainBabe, Julia Scott, recommended limiting the scope of your site if you are publishing a local content destination. And she is using the collaborative mapping platform developed by Serra Media to do that geographically on her site BargainBabeLA.com.
Scott presented this morning at the Interactive Local Media conference in Los Angeles during a session called “Mapping Out Local Revenue and Services.”
Aaron spent nearly three years at