Although I've always wanted to add something to the Facebook Application community, I don't feel that my target audience will be found in abundance on Facebook. So I've always put most of my ideas in a notebook and tucked it back into my desk drawer.

But after reading about all the amazing stuff that went on at Startup Weekend, I thought I'd dust off my notebook and share an idea with the people out there who have the desire, time and resources to build an app. This isn't some blockbuster idea that's going to change the world, but I think it solves a problem for students and could be something fun to work on for those who are interested.

The only thing that I ask is that if you find this idea compelling and want to take it to the next level, that you share your development experiences/process with me so I can write about it here (obviously write about it on your own blog as well) :)

So here goes...


The Problem

There are a ton of applications on Facebook that allow members to track the classes they're currently taking and find out who else is taking them. Then you can connect with other students, possibly friend them and message them through Facebook's existing infrastructure.

This obviously adds some value, but it definitely misses the mark on what we could be doing with an application like this. The social graph exposes a lot more than just simply connections between people, it also allows for communication and collaboration between community members as well - so we should be leveraging that within the applications themselves and not relying on Facebook's communication tools.

For instance, what happens when 2 or more students taking the same class are all having a problem with that week's homework assignment? Or what if they're in a study group but one student gets sick and can't make it? Or while they're in the study group they want to share a single source of study notes after the meeting?

What if we could build a "Courses" application that really took advantage of the communication and collaboration features found in many other applications on the web, but brought them into Facebook?

The Solution

Create an application where students taking a course can join an associated group on Facebook for that course. Then within that "Course Group" they can utilize a number of collaboration utilities:

1. General White Board - I'd keep this fairly basic: no advanced formatting, basic text stylization (underlines, bolds, and italics) and allow for HTML links. No advanced permissions: basically anyone in the group can edit the write board. This will be good for keeping ongoing notes, ideas, and general assignments posted.

2. Files - This is where I'd allow students to upload any and all files related to the course they're in. This would also be a perfect place to charge for premium services (e.g. anything over 50 MB and if they want a direct URL so they can access them outside of the system and it'll cost $X per year/month).

3. Advanced White Board - This is the place where users can create multiple collaboration spaces based on the assignment they're working on. For example, if you're in the same study group for a particular class all semester, then you'll obviously be working on different projects. Here you'll be able to create a white board for each project and it'll have some advanced features.

Instead of just basic text editing you'll be allowed to import files - from the files section or linked to from 3rd party sites - add descriptions, easy PDF creation and printing, etc. A 3rd party HTML editing tool will be necessary but those are a dime a dozen now.

4. Deadlines - Simple calendar module with built in reminders and notifications (e-mail, Facebook message, Facebook notification, etc.).

5. Privacy and Preferences - The name of the game these days is privacy and control when it comes to social media applications (Case in point: See TechCrunch's piece of Facebook's new "friend grouping"). So the same must hold true for this application as well. I don't think ALL of these privacy controls need to be incorporated on the first build, but they should be included at some point in future iterations.

• Group Creator Preferences - Allow/disallow members (ie. only members can see content in this group). Group expiration - meaning, will the group die out after this class is over or should it be kept up for future collaboration and/or use by future students in this class.
  
• Member access - All members can/can't edit specific pieces of content, upload files, etc.
• E-mail notification - let members know about updates, new files, etc. via e-mail.

Technology

I'd host this thing on EC2 and Amazon S3 hybrid solution - all of the files could be pulled from multiple S3 instances and perform weekly/monthly backups to a physical server to ensure data is never lost. Use multiple EC2 instances to serve up the application and keep 1 physical web server to act as a load balancer and admin for the instances.

Obviously folks out there with more infrastructure experience than me will likely poke holes in this setup but I think it's a good, low-cost starting point -- especially if you slap a flash front-end on this, then an Amazon AWS solution would definitely be the way to go.

Summary

As you can see this is a mix of Facebook groups and Basecamp - in fact, it's more like Facebook groups on steroids! This is something that students will definitely find useful if it eliminates the friction found in Facebook's infrastructure and has an intuitive interface. I mean, Zuckerberg himself talks about building an app like this while he was still in school. And even if that's just PR fluff, it still illustrates the value something like this would bring to the community.

Making it go viral wouldn't be difficult at all because the application relies on invites and group collaboration for its most basic uses. That takes a lot of pressure off of thinking about marketing and will allow the developer to focus on the user and on the product.

And picture this application in the next year, 2 years or even 3 years. The data assets that will have been built from the millions of students putting up course material, study notes, papers, pictures, etc. will be a study tool in and of itself outside of Facebook.

I'd like to hear any thoughts and feedback you may have. And like I said, if you decide to go ahead with this please share your experience with developing it.

Good luck!

The Alley Insider is starting a tradition which died in the rubble of “dot-crash 1.0″: they’re compiling a an “annual list of the 100 most influential and important people in the New York digital community.”

This tradition was started, of course, by Jason Calacanis and the The Silicon Alley Reporter; and in 1999, the year which Calacanis said “was the year the Alley truly arrived,” they published the list with the cover on the right:

Well, now the Alley is back in full swing and the Insider is taking full advantage of that, hoping to help New York’s tech scene, and perhaps help themselves while they’re at it. Putting it in perspective is this part of an article in Vault:

Publishing the list has also imbued Calacanis and co. with a strange kind of power. Early on, Calacanis’s efforts to publicize the Alley as a legitimate entity were reminiscent of a bass player passing out flyers for his garage band. Now, however, top executives work him like ’70s disco divas trying to get into Studio 54. “People recognize me on the street, I get invited to amazing parties, and there is a high schmooze factor because of the list and its power,” boasts Calacanis.

If what this article describes is accurate, I think the Insider has already done a little better than being just a “bass player” with fliers — helped of course by new distribution methods, such as RSS and lively Alley blogging community — nonetheless, something like this will certainly help solidify SAI as the Alley Paper of Record (wouldn’t it be great if we could publish our LLCs in the Insider?!)

Now, all that’s left to our imagination is WHO the SAI 100 will be. Will it be all Fortune 500 CEO with the big VCs and Angels thrown in there? Or, will Blodget an co. cater to their more grassrooty following (surely a great deal of their page views come employees of small-time companies) and pick small-time, but well-publicized CEOs (Etsy’s Rob Kalin?) and local academics/bloggers, such as Clay Shirkey and Jeff Jarvis?

Of course, with a list 100 long they sure have a chance to make that list diverse, and the team is even asking for input; and, what I especially appreciated about the call for input was the variety of it they’re asking for (which includes a category yours truly has been accused of existing in, if only tongue-in-cheek). From the announcement:

Please help us improve the list by forwarding this post around and sending any of the following to tips@alleyinsider.com:

• Nominees (please include detailed reasoning).
• Quiet but important community contributions by individuals that we might have missed.
• Overblown, undeserved hype about individuals that we might have been fooled by.
• Your vote for the single most important and influential member of the NY digital community.

Anyway, as has been my mantra in the past: anything like this that gets the community excited about its assets (human, in this case) is a good thing for the rest of us, as we go out in the world as say, “I’m from the Alley.” Let’s see how this all plays out.

For Your Imagination’s studio space a few blocks from the Flatiron building is turning into the center of New York’s web 2.0 universe. At least three web events were held at the web video production company’s office this week. I’ve missed last weekend’s One Web Day party and perhaps others.

(more…)

Last night I went to sync my new iPhone (yes, I succumbed to my techno-lust after Apple lowered its price by 33%) and found that the phone's software was going to be upgraded. Before I clicked "yes" I went on the web to find out more about what the update would give me.

I liked the idea that I would be able purchase music directly to my phone. I especially liked that the speaker phone would become louder (it was so quiet before as to be almost useless). There were some other nice new features as well... wonderful!

But I also found some reports of people installing the upgrade and turning their iPhones into "bricks". Most of these people had altered their phone in some way. Some people had unlocked their phones (which Apple had specifically warned against). Others had merely added some 3rd-party applications.

I had done neither of those things. But, disturbingly, there were also a few reports from people who had not hacked their iPhone in any way but were still having major problems. Some had to actually go to the Apple Store and get a new phone.

Well, that all seemed really unlikely, so I went for it. After a somewhat lengthy download it started to install. Then my moment of panic set in. My phone reset itself and when it came back up, the only thing I could get on the screen was a yellow triangular warning symbol with the evil words "Please Connect to iTunes". Um, I WAS connected to iTunes. Well, I THOUGHT I was connected to iTunes...

Apparently iTunes disagreed. No matter what I tried, iTunes would no longer recognize my phone, and my phone wouldn't display anything but the warning screen. Arghhhh!

After bitching about this sorry state of affairs on Twitter and mostly just getting some consolation responses (though it was cool to see "A-list" bloggers Dave Winer and Robert Scoble both link to my complaints - now if only I could figure out a way to get them to link to my blog posts!), I remembered the "First Rule of Technical Support". Before trying any other solution, shut down everything completely and start again from scratch. I wasn't sure why that would work in this particular case, but I'm guessing that when I did technical support for the Ingres database at Computer Associates in the mid-90's, that a silly number of the cases I handled were somehow fixed in this way. What had I to lose?

And you know what - it worked! Eventually...

The iMac rebooted (I LOVE this new iMac by the way - a topic for another post) and I plugged the iPhone into its doc. Nothing happened. So, I manually brought up iTunes expecting the worst. However, this time a pop-up window appeared telling me that the phone needed to be restored to its factory settings. Progress!

I clicked "OK" and it went through a complete restore. It allowed me to restore from my last backup, which meant that I wouldn't lose any data at all. It took a while to move all of my music and photos back over, but when it was done, my phone was as good as new! Whew! The "First Rule of Technical Support" lives!

On a side note, this was my first experience really "using" Twitter and I liked it. I'll write more about that soon.

A U.S. District Judge does not seem to be buying the Taxi Workers Alliance lawsuit against the city, in their attempt to stop the installation of GPS devices in New York City taxi cabs. While the ruling will not be made until Monday, the judge yesterday said, “I’m trying to figure out where this requirement crosses the allowable boundary.”

Drivers are concerned that the GPS units will track them when they are off-duty, and see the requirement as a violation of their civil rights. Driver are also concerned that if the installed Wi-Fi goes off-line, they will be stuck with customers who cannot use their credit cards and will lose money.

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You may also be interested in:

Taxis Strike In Paris, Too. In NYC, More Cabs, Soon. (09.27.07)

Strike? No. Lawsuit? Yes: NYC Taxi Cab Drivers Sue NYC Taxi And Limousine Commission Over GPS. (09.19.07)

“Credit Or Debit?” Why Your Supermarket Wants You To Pay With A Debit Card. (09.04.07)

The Great NYC Taxi Strike of 2007? (08.27.07)

See a map of New York City.

Tags: GPS, News, O.J., Taxi, Transit, Transportation, Wi-Fi

Folks, this is a re-post from what I wrote and had Tony put up on the CooperBricolage Blog. Check it out.

Dear CooBric-ers,
Gosh, do we have some news for you!

The current home of CooperBricolage, Cafe Fuego, is about to begin a massive renovation of its restaurant on St. Marks Place in early October. New name, new chef, new menu, new management– nearly everything.

Since this is the current home for coworking in Manhattan, we need to start looking for a new home immediately. The end of September marks the end of our usage of the space.

While we’re operating on short notice, we see this as an opportunity– a blank slate– which will allow us to retool the model to best suit your needs as members of the NY Tech Community.

Thanks to the feedback we’ve gotten from many of you over the past two months, we’ve now got a pretty solid idea of your needs. You have all made important contributions to this process, and now you have an opportunity to contribute more– by helping us further define the next space. The possibilities for our next place are endless, because the place hasn’t even been picked yet!

So start to think about the best places you do work in the city. What cafes currently need a strong community of tech/start-up workers? Where do you already spend your days working? Would the management be psyched about a cause like ours?

We’re examining not only cafes, but leased office space as well. If you are a cafe/space owner or know one who you think would be interested, we’d love to hear from you!

Use the comment section below or contact us if you can think of a great location for CooBric. This is a fantastic opportunity to change the face of Silicon Alley.

Thanks for your continued support, and stay tuned for here for updates on our progress!

Regards,

The CooBric Comm

MushyGushy.com has unveiled a new e-card designed specifically to be sent to friends and loved ones serving in the armed forces. Here's a sample. We will be getting the word out to bloggers and publications that reach the families of those in the military. PLEASE pass it on!

Spent the afternoon down at Cooper Union in Manhattan to listen to Amazon galavant about their Amazon Web Services suite/platform. I chose to attend the event because I knew very little about the platform before today and wanted to increase my knowledge base. I also had some friends attending (Michael, Nate, Jonah, Jason, Howard, and others) and wanted to network with other successful New York innovators/entrepreneurs. I even had the chance to meet Esther Dyson in person. Amazon certainly impressed me with the event. The general population knows Amazon as a shopping mall (says Fred Wilson), but if you ‘long’ them, they may very well turn into the Web OS. From online storage, on-demand computing, and their recent entry into payment services, Amazon could very well provide the facilities that a next-generation application needs to get off the ground. Why would an entrepreneur chose to use this new platform? Simple: leverage the power and economy of scale of Amazon and pay severely reduced rates over other independent providers. Now, for me, I’m skeptical although, cautiously optimistic. I like it a lot. Almost too much. It’s one of those things where it’s almost too good to be true. From an investment standpoint, would you want to see one of your portfolio companies putting all their eggs in one basket, a basket that is brand new and doesn’t offer an SLA at this point? What happens if Amazon’s S3 (cloud) goes down and your files cannot be found. What if the EC2 (computing) goes down and your processes do not get executed, thus, your service/business returns either incorrect or no data. I’m sure there are plenty of companies (some expressed them today) experiencing growing pains with the AWS service, but the benefits may outweigh the issues. There were a few companies that showcased their products and companies like Mogulus is powered solely by AWS. Other than the front-end and administration areas, it’s backbone is AWS. New York has a thriving digital media scene as evidence today. The participants in the presentation were all NY based companies (though Cruxy has people all over) and it’s great to see the industry picking up. As an entrepreneur and digital media guy, I really enjoyed learning about AWS and look forward to studying it further for possible uses in the future.

“Imagine walking into a participating Starbucks, hearing a great song, and being able to instantly download it onto your iPod or iPhone. We think this is very cool.” - Steve Jobs

“Getting free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and the ‘Now Playing’ service at Starbucks is a great way for customers to discover new music,” Jobs continued. So, if you bring your laptop to Starbucks, but don’t have Wi-Fi access, via a T-Mobile account (you can get a one-day free trial,) you can still access the iTunes store for free, and download music, video, and podcasts (but not NBC TV shows.)

From October 2 to November 7, U.S. Starbucks stores will be handing out “Song of the Day” cards, which can be redeemed online to download a free song. The songs will change daily, and will include artists such as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Dave Matthews, among others.

Access to the iTunes service within Starbucks will launch first in New York City and Seattle on Friday, October 2.

Tags: Apple, Bob Dylan, Dave Matthews, Paul McCartney, Seattle, Starbucks, T-Mobile, TV

I have attached below some notes from the Financial Markets World conference on Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0 in the Capital Markets Industry .  

My own talk was on "How to Source Deals with Web 2.0 Technologies". It was focused on how private equity funds, venture capital funds, and hedge funds can more efficiently find companies in which they can invest. Slides are here. 

Lauren Buckalew from our Shanghai office took notes, below:

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A pilot study on awareness and use of Web 2.0 by Canright Communications and Evalueserve found that of the executives surveyed, 44% were “extremely” interested in Web 2.0 for business, but only 17% felt “extremely” or “very” knowledgeable about the technology.

The survey results—which were distributed at the Financial Markets World Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0 in the Capital Markets Industry event today—mirrored the speakers’ sentiments: the business community in general imagines grand possibilities for Web 2.0 technologies in the workplace, but the barriers to adoption, such as lack of understanding at the executive level or compliance issues, are still great.

I came to the event excited to be educated. I knew a little about Web 2.0, but I was overwhelmed by the possibilities I saw in the news and just wanted authoritative instruction on how to filter through all of the noise.

The most informative sessions to get the overview were Matt Nelson of TowerGroup’s opening remarks, and the last talk I attended, Dion Hinchcliffe’s ‘Applying Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 in Financial Services: Early Notes from the Field’. In fact, Dion’s absorbing speech would have been better placed early in the day, as it provided a good background, real-life examples of Enterprise 2.0 successes, and a straightforward summary of its shortcomings.

Other speeches and roundtables drilled down on specific topics, like Instant Messaging, Collaboration, Web 3.0, and David Teten’s talk on using Web 2.0 to source deals (I did not hear the last talk by Tom Steinthal of BSG Alliance). Since I was learning about these areas for the first time I was only able to understand on a superficial level, but was most impressed by Penny Herscher of FirstRain and her simple yet sharp insights.

Stephen Leung, a Senior Manager at BEA Systems, who was a panelist on both the ‘Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 in the Financial Services Industry’ and ‘Rich Internet Applications and the Client Portal: Using Web 2.0 to Improve the Client Experience’ panels, spoke on the infrastructure and applications side of Web 2.0, and probably received the most questions from the audience.

Although the roundtable topics had various titles, and nearly all of the discussions went overtime out of lively discussion, I didn’t come out of the event in control of Web 2.0 like I thought I would; I just learned how much more there was to it, especially more creative uses of Web 2.0 apps for businesses than I could have imagined.

In following the “Top 10” theme used by Xignite Chariman/CEO/Founder Stephane Dubois to kick-off the first roundtable, here’s my Top 10 Learnings from the event:

10) Web 2.0 technologies should fit into existing workflow and should be invisible to users.

9) The finance world’s secrecy and competitiveness inherently conflicts with Web 2.0’s nature of viral, self-correcting information sharing.

8) Longtail, mashups, fine-grained entitlement, folksonomies, meta data, geo-tagging and MetaWiki are good things… once you understand them.

7) Individuals can use Web 2.0 tools to leverage existing social networks to generate sales or make deals. One can do this outside of any business structures, based on one’s own diversity of contacts, character, competence, the relevance and strength of one’s contacts, and access to information.

6) Executive decision makers’ lack of information on and understanding of Web 2.0—“What’s the ROI?/I don’t have time for this!/Kids these days and their crazy technology…”—prevent companies from realizing adoption. Any new technology would face similar barriers.

5) Web 2.0 is not a technology or a step in development, but a social concept.

4) Legal/compliance teams haven’t yet figured out how to effectively regulate Web 2.0 tools without reducing them to meaninglessness. But giving employees unbridled Web 2.0 tools is also not recommended.

3) Internal company wikis—which act as a unified log for all project developments and conversations—are a successful example of Enterprise 2.0 in the real world. Key to success is to motivate employees to use it and control the structure themselves.

2) Each element of SLATES (Search, Links, Authoring, Tagging, Extension, and Signals) is required for a Web 2.0 tool to be effective.

1) There is no clear solution for how the capital markets industry should integrate Web 2.0 into business. The interest is there, but Web 2.0 is still effectively consumer-driven, not enterprise driven.

More discussion on Enterprise 2.0 is in order, but before then, more actual application of Enterprise 2.0 in the workplace would be more informative.