A taste of things to come (16)
I mentionned a while ago that MTW would be transitionning to a full-team of bloggers, and many more UI improvements.
At that time, the motivation came from the meetup at Laika, where many suggested that it’s one of the main ways that could make MTW sustainable and become a long-lasting actor in the Montreal Tech landscape.
I couldn’t mention it back then, but one of my inspiration was GamersGlobal, an european video games website. They’ve got a publishing system where every reader is invited to register an account. Readers can then write content and edit articles, with valuable users getting higher ranks. Here is their pitch:
Do you want to do more than just read news or articles about games? Then join the GamersGlobal community today and grow from “User” to “Editor”! Together with our professional journalists, you’ll be part of an accurate, high-quality, up-to-date gaming website. It’s easy, it’s free, it’s fun
The beauty of the system is that they’ve created a community where they get both quality and quantity, original content, with a solid user base, with sections like “New” gathering contributions by users, “Special” which gets contributions by the editorial staff, Top and Hot which are variations on most commented/most viewed articles.
I’ve discussed with quite some time with the technology team of GamersGlobal. They were using Drupal with customized modules, and MTW could get the same CMS, which then solved the problem I raised. But the discussion ended and another completely different system is coming.
So what’s not to like with GamersGlobal’s CMS? Well:
- MTW would then need a Drupal technology team and commit to it. I don’t have anything against Drupal, but it’s a software I have no experience in
- MTW would turn into a pure media outlet, where the only prospects for revenues are advertising. As everyone knows, it’s an industry that is getting hit hard these days, so that wasn’t a good bet. I also don’t like the idea of pushing pageviews up, and the idea that you only get substantial revenues for millions of pageview …
- I think MTW’s real value is not in the content, but in the community that was created around the website. The website gathers tech entrepreners, developers, industry experts, even investors, and I thought there was something to do about it
Talking and meeting technology people from Montreal since MTW came up, I also knew there were consistent problems in Montreal that makes it very difficult to be an entrepreneur:
- It’s very hard to find co-founders or partners for a project, and there is no place yet that solves this problem,
- Finding people to work on your project is also difficult
- Most of the early adopters and experienced entrepreneurs get into the “loop” after a while (going to events that matters, knowing what’s important in Montreal, getting on twitter or other websites to stay in touch with others …) but for newcomers, e.g. for students, the path is daunting. I’d even say, there isn’t even a clear path if you are a technology enthusiast in Montreal,
- Part of the problem in Montreal is that the density of people interested in technology and entrepreneurship is so low that it’s very easy to loose “faith”. You either move to Northern California or just do something else. I believe in places like Montreal, or for that matter in all cities that are NOT Silicon Valley or Boston, you need a central place to get like-minded people connected, share projects, get feedback, and keep the energy high, etc.
The upcoming system for MTW aims to solve all of the forementionned problems. In case you haven’t read between the lines, it’s a mix between WordPress, digg and Facebook (well it’s more like Facebook than WordPress). I’ve shown an early preview of the system to a few “stakeholders” (the same people that would use the system) and the reaction has been very good. There is also very good prospects in making it a business — and more importantly making it a platform where everybody wins and where we’d get a place that supports technology enthusiasts, like a virtual Silicon Valley, making the need of starting a technology venture in the Valley irrelevant. Potentially, the system could also be extended in other cities, but that’s a completely different story.
So that’s the explanation why MTW wasn’t updated for the past weeks, and probably for the week to come too. Thanks to keeping up with the website!
Hey, now that would be cool.
I hope this new interface for Montreal Tech Watch will begin soon.
Also you state that there may be a possiblity of generating business if you post an articule, now that would attract a lot of people.
The Articules in MTW are always interesting and keep me up to date at what’s happening in Montreal’s Tech World.
Regards Robert
Yes, the articles are going to stay a dominant feature in the new MTW, but users will be encouraged to sign up and connect with other users, and use the tools provided to them
As an entrepreneur (www.yourteledoctor.com), I am facing all the problems that you are stating.
It took me more than 10 months to find out about tech entrepreneur breakfasts and get into the “loop”. Although I had this desire to be a tech entrepreneur since I started my bachelor degree in Polytechnique.
The problem of co-founders and linked minded people is also a problem. I heard this comment so many times: “The same people at the same events”.
We need something that will do the melting and invite new people (from universities) to come up and participate.
Regards,
:)
Thanks for the help, the thing though is that development has started a while ago.
Do you do Ruby on Rails?
A taste of things to come http://tinyurl.com/3gzp6g
Srsly, keep us posted, I would love to contribute to MTW once in a while…
MTW currently uses WordPress, and it’s been maxed out.
I’ve probably outgrown WordPress, in the same way Blogger was not up to the job after it was used for MTW in its first 6 months.
Developing a new system as you said is going to be risky, but I am willing to go for it, the potential benefits far outweighs risks in my opinion.
and thanks for the support btw :) I’ll probably post a followup very soon to see if this can be done “together”
Mark
[...] We are working away on a few new things, I have been wrangling some new co-authors and have been generally thinking about the direction of StartupNorth. It feels a lot like what Heri has been thinking about lately. [...]
You’ve made similar comments a couple of times and I’ve read it elsewhere and I just don’t get it. I can understand the finding partners, finding help but getting to know the community? I just don’t see how it can be seen as hard…
- Google a couple of terms including Montréal (“tech Montréal”, “tech entrepreneur Montréal”, “php Montréal”, “ruby Montréal”, “python Montréal” and “drupal Montréal” all return good results within the first 5, all people who talk about groups and events).
- Find blogs and learn about events
- Show up and talk to people.
Wow. Hard.
No, we don’t go get them in schools yet but come on, 10 minutes of Googling isn’t something thought in schools?
I’m not saying you’re not right with what you have in mind and good on you for expanding what you are doing here, should be interesting, but it blows my mind that people supposedly can’t find “the loop”.
[...] startups, hold startupdrinks, and even contribute to a team, whenever possible. The model was not scalable though, as one can [...]
[...] their events. I did help a lot of people but I couldn't answer to all requests unfortunately. See here.Another reason was Blitzweekend. During the event, we had all this talent and all the energy, just [...]
Leave a Reply