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WebInno summer edition is tomorrow, July 15th, at the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge. If you are into anything remotely related to the Internet, this is a must-attend event. The organizers have been soliciting ideas about how to improve the event, hopefully we’ll see improvements. Unfortunately I’m going to miss it, will be in Nantucket for a few days.
Heres are the presenters and my quick take on each.
Totspot - Adam Katz. kid-centric photo-sharing. My initial reaction is why would you have a separate place for kids? How many url’s does grandma need to know to keep track of her family? This is a great photosharing site acquisition. Who needs yet another destination?
WebNotes - Ryan Damico. Annotating web pages has been around forever. I remember looking at some stuff from MIT circa 2001 and there have been plenty of startups going after the space. Great idea that has never really caught on. Magnolia, Delicious and other social bookmarking sites could all do this and choose not to. I wonder why? Can you imagine what the front page of the New York Times would look like with annotations all over it? Needs a filter/reputation system, stat!
Zeer - Michael Putnam. Like Yelp for individual ingredients and an online shopping list and a “going green” resource all in one. I like the mobile phone version of my shopping list, spares me looking ridiculous ripping up my legal pad shopping list when I forget my pen. Make it an iPhone app and forget the healthy community stuff. Or focus on getting acquired by Peapod or wherever else lazy people get their groceries delivered.
Following those presentations, each of our “side dish” demonstrators will have an opportunity to give a quick 30-second overview of their service to the audience followed by a showcase of their company at tables spread throughout the periphery of the room during the unstructured networking portion of the evening:
211me - Robert DeFranco. Mobile mashup greetings cards, eco-friendly digital v-cards? Are you a business card or greeting card company, profile aggregator, centralized ID or what? Managed digital business cards? I guess someone will pay for it. Too many things to too many people, lacks focus.
WordChamp - Daniel Blumenthal. Online language learning. Cheaper Rosetta? 39,000 teachers from 194 countries, but what are their qualifications?
PaperG - Victor Wong & Roger Lee. Self-serve local advertising network. Lots of local media are using it, will it work outside of Boston?
Creaturepark / Ingeeni Studios - Michal Hlavac & Henry Kaufman. Smarter version of Webkins? No description of service easily available.
YouCastr - Ariel Diaz, Jeff Hebert, Matt Hodgson, & Brad Johnson. Self-serve sports broadcasting network. There are a dozen general community broadcasting competitors with sports channels, will a standalone network survive?
LuckyCal - Sanjay Vakil. I met Sanjay a few months ago. Very smart guy. LuckyCal finds events you might like based on your preferences.
Snipd - Alex Schliker. No information. Why even bother having a website if we have no idea what the service is?
Tikatok - Sharon Kan. Mad-libs for parents to create and publish stories for your kids. Part of me loves the idea but hates the lack of creativity. Is this better for kids than reading a classic children’s book?
As a special treat, Webnotes will be providing a “sneak peak” of their soon-to-be-launched service which is currently in closed private beta, and will be exclusively opening the service to WebInno attendees the day of the event. Snipd will also be sharing a pre-launch inside look at their service.
Everyone who is interested in web and mobile innovation is encouraged to attend the free event. Please RSVP (and find additional details) on the event page (http://webinno18.eventbrite.com/) if you plan to join us so we are able to print name tags and appropriately size the room.
