A weblog by Tom Coates concerning future media, social software and the web of data
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###Tom For Sale###

Posted May 14, 2003 9:30 AM.

As many of you know, UpMyStreet.com - the company where I have worked for the last ten months - put itself up for sale a few weeks ago. Many of my co-workers prudently put their CVs online at that time, but for a variety of reasons, until now I've not done so. Yesterday a deal was finally struck which sold UpMyStreet to uSwitch, but unfortunately the other company's offer was not for the entire organisation (cf. Stefan's comments).

As a result - effective immediately - I now find myself looking for a new project to work on. Ideally, I'd be looking to be developing some new social software or community projects (either public-facing or within organisations) or to work around personal publishing and user-generated content. However, I'm also open to possibilities in other areas, so if there's something you'd like to discuss with me, let me know...

If you have any questions, suggestions or are looking for clarification on anything, then please don't hesitate to contact me directly - My e-mail address is on my CV.

Comments

Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.

Hi,

I stumbled on to your site through I think a series of blog links.

I have been reading over the past couple of weeks. Your knowledge of web communities interests me.

I have an idea that I am trying to validate. And I am interested in your thoughts and if you are aware of it having been tried on some other form.

I believe there is a potential community in small business owners and part time consultants. The idea being that owners would present cases (problems) about their business and solicit recommendations from the community at large. I am tapping into an idea that Rob McEwen used at his company Goldcorp (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/59/mcewen.html). I am also thinking about the research marketplace that has been created on Google Answers (answers.google.com). My idea is for a set fee, owners could post a case. Anyone could download the case and offer a solution. The best solution(s) are given/split the majority of the fee. The strength of the community is business owners getting problems solved with the knowledge of the entire community. I should also mention that I believe there is a set of people who would love to read business cases and offer solutions.

That is the short version. There are mechanisms that would need to be created and details to work out.

My question is if you are aware of any such coummunity now and what you think would be important in the success of such a community.

Thanks,

Todd Sattersten
Milwaukee, WI USA

→ Posted by: Todd Sattersten at May 29, 2003 5:20 AM

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