technology. science. marketing.
Exactly one week ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the 6th Annual I.T. and Web 2.0 Venture Forum at Rice University about Bubblevine. Although it was a long and busy day, I really enjoyed my time participating in the event. I met a number of great people and listened to some great company presentations and guest speakers.
my badge
Bubblevine is a project I have been working on for a while now and it’s very exciting to have it go live!
The idea for Bubblevine came about at the end of my junior year in college when I noticed how much stuff (perfectly good stuff) was being thrown away all because students didn’t know what to do with it since they couldn’t take it home with them. Walking down the halls of various dorm buildiings, it was fairly common to see piles of bookshelves, lamps, TVs, bean bags, toasters, futons and other items by the dumpster. I remember thinking to myself that there must be hundreds of kids on campus that need stuff like this to furnish their apartment and dorm room. This is the magical moment where I decided to start my own little project to create a website that fosters a campus community where college students can buy stuff and sell stuff with one another.
There is also one other reason I felt inclined to pursue Bubblevine, and that’s safety. Before there was any other alternative, most students resorted to Craigslist. Although the site works, the downfall to it is that you have no idea who’s house you’ll be going to pick up the bargain deal, what their neighborhood is like, how far the place is in relation to you (until you Google it) and the flip-side, you have no knowledge about the person who will be coming to your doorstep to pick something up. During my college years, my experience with Craigslist has been less than awesome – and I’ve had several. There are two specific instances I vividly remember. The first one was when I thought I found a great deal on a TV. It wasn’t too far from me, so I said, “why not?” Not being a San Antonio native, I naively drove into a pretty sketchy part of town. I came out OK, but sometimes I question if it was really worth it. Another not so great experience was when I drove out to the other side of the city for a dinky desk. = All of this could have been avoided had something like Bubblevine existed. I would’ve appreciated a tool like it while I was in school, because there was probably someone a few streets down or even next door who would have been more than willing to sell me their stuff.
On a different note, the site is currently open to a few schools, but once it gains a little more popularity we’ll expand the list.
Here are a couple of videos to watch:
If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to promote, feel free to contact me. =)
Happy New Year! I’d like to introduce you the new and hip Natuba!
Taking into consideration that it’s 2008, most of us (if not all) have cell phones with cameras. Many of us (if not all) use our camera phones to take quick snap shots of food, people and unusual sightings. We love to sneak pictures of our new baby nephews, our first real attempt at cooking and the surprise candid moments of our friends. How can we not? Having a tiny camera inside of our phone has got to be one of the most entertaining aspects of owning one (unless you have internet access).
The unfortunate reality of all this is that the pictures we gleefully take rarely make it out of our square phones. Most often than not, the only instances that any picture will be shared is immediately after the picture is taken, when you’re with a posse of pals to recap the event or any other situation where your phone is within tangible reach. If you take an awesome picture, wouldn’t you want to share it with your friends (or even the world)?! It would be a waste to leave a picture like this on your phone:
So what can you do? Natuba it! Natuba is the place to store all your cell phone stuff. With it, you can easily upload the pictures from your phone and send “shouts”- fleeting thoughts that you’d like to post up on the web aka text messsages. Once you create your account, you can share your personal link with your buddies so they can see all your exciting mobile pictures! *ta da*
It’s not uncommon for everyone to have their own blog, youtube, myspace, flickr and facebook accounts – if anything, it’s very normal. However, have you noticed that these different sites were created to help you and your friends keep track of each other, but it’s gotten to a point where it’s nearly impossible to do so? Yeah – there are just too many online accounts! Let’s say the average internet user has 5 online accounts and you have 5 friends (although I’m sure you have significantly greater friend pool than that). That’s already 25 different pages you have to regularly check to see if any updates have been made. CRAZY! So, what’s the solution?
Natuba! It’s a website that will compile and aggregate all the updates from your myspace, flickr, rss feeds, youtube and other online accounts all onto one page. That way, rather than giving out 20 or so different URLs to your friends, you can give them one single link. Voila! Simple. Not only will this save you the hassle of typing each link out, it’ll also save you from that feeling of hesitation when you’re faced with the temptation of signing up for a new account. 🙂
I had a ton of invites to give away, but they’re updating the site and will reopen soon. Once I get a hold of more invites, I’ll be sure to write another updated post!
I recently came across Spock, a new internet company that’s working their way to be a people search engine. Yes, I said PEOPLE SEARCH ENGINE. I guess you could call it the Google of People. =p I don’t know a whole lot about the concept, but I’m thinking it has to do with how internet users have different aliases and it would be nice to have a way to keep track and index all of them in one place.
The only way you can join is by invite (boo!) however, i have 100 invites to give out! Leave me a comment with your email address if you want in on this!