Come hither to Clivir

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on Sept 23rd 2008]

Clivir is a recently launched tutorial based learning community that allows users to teach or be taught.

The Perth based startup focuses on giving users the tools and platform to actively teach other users about anything that interest’s them. Users can create lessons or classrooms, depending on the extent of knowledge or popularity of their teaching.

Example - John has extensive knowledge on photography. He sets up a lesson on basic photographic principle’s and has 3 clivir users attend his first lesson. The lesson goes well, the lessons attract more users and John is asked to expand on the topic further, so he sets up a classroom on Photography where users can share information and dissect the topic together in one space with John being the teacher.

After taking a few lessons myself, credit is due to Clivir for the clean, easy to use interface that beats most other competitors hands down.

It is also interesting to note that the site has no visible advertising to distract teachers or students. This suggests that the Clivir team really do want to help people learn rather than make a quick dollar, which is very noble indeed. However, as the site grows, a revenue model will have to be implemented and how they do that without disrupting the classroom will be interesting.

So far Clivir has been fun and I will continue to use it as the grows, both in a teacher and student capacity.

If you have an interest or hobby that you would like to share with, learn from or teach to others, give Clivir a try.

5 Questions - Anne Bartlett Bragg - MD Headshift Australia

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on Sept 25th 2008]

Global Social Media agency Headshift has recently set up shop here in Australia. I interviewed the Managing Director Anne Bartlett Bragg to find out more about Headshift and why they have decided to open an Office in Australia.

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What is Headshift’s core business and what scope have you got in Australia currently?

“Headshift specialises in Social Software Development and Social Media Consultancy.”

With a move into the Australian Market, you are obviously anticipating significant growth in the social media and web 2.0 sectors. What indications or observations lead headshift to setup in Australia now?

“The UK and Europe experience has taught us to identify key indicators that point to a rise in popularity of Social Media. i) The interest in Social Media and Social Technologies has started to hit the mainstream media. When the mainstream media starts covering a once unfamiliar technology or way of thinking, suddenly that technology begins becomes justified and less scary in the mass market, leading to larger companies to begin testing the technology. ii) The language is out there. The market is beginning to talk about Social Media Technology in ways that can help their business reach new markets and new customers. Talking is the first step, implementing and using the technology is the next step. iii) Early adopters are seeing results from using Social Media. The few companies that are already using Social Media effectively are talking up the positive aspects of it, which gives other companies the confidence they need to step into this market.”

How does the social media/web 2.0 scene in Australia compare to that of the UK and Europe?

“Currently Australia is 2-3 years behind on a corporate basis, namely in implementation. As I mentioned before, alot of companies are now talking about it, but few are actually ‘doing’ it.”

What companies do you target and why?

We target three types of companies.

1. Companies that have a high focus on internal communications - as they benefit greatly from internal social networks. These companies are largely knowledge workers that have a dispersed audience and need to share information with one another on a constant basis.
2. Companies that want to reach their target market by leveraging off social media externally. This may involve building their brand through the larger social networks like facebook or building a network about their brand with platforms like Ning.
3. Community projects are becoming more popular with us, as more people begin to realise the power of social media and how it can expand the reach and awareness of their cause very rapidly with little financial sacrifice.”

Where do you see the Australian web 2.0 and social media scenes in 2 years time?

“In 2 years I believe Australia would have caught up with the rest of the world. Being slow to adopt is not necessarily a bad thing, as the early adopters lay the groundwork for the rest of the market to springboard off. The result is that Australia will grow faster than the UK and Europe and has a real chance of possibly getting ahead of them in 2.5-3 years time. Australia is also far more dispersed, literally, in terms of landmass than that of the UK and Europe which will mean once Social Media Technologies become mainstream and the infrastructure is there to support them, people will use the technology as a primary source of communication as it is cheaper and far more effective than what they have currently.”

Headshift employs 2 people in Australia, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne, however the company is looking to expand its employee base in the coming months.

These are all promising signs for the Social Media and Web 2.0 sector in Australia, as big players are starting to plant roots here in the expectation that the market is growing and will keep growing significantly in the near future.

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Thanks to Anne for the time taken for the interview. To find out more about Headshift visit the Headshift Australia website.

OurSwaps, The Game Of Swaps Has Changed.

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on Oct 17th 2008]

OurSwaps, the first project to come out of Geekdom, has announced a new feature that allows people to combine cash offers with the products they want to swap. This means users can effectively swap products that are not of equal value by adding a cash sweetener to the deal.

OurSwaps isn’t the only player in the swap-site game - there’s even another great Aussie swap site - SwapAce - but the ability to combine things and cash gives them a unique position in the market

Revenue is created by taking 5 credits (1 credit = USD20 cents) each time a swap is completed.

To date, the figures look good for OurSwaps. The site was soft launched in early April and they recently opened their doors to the public in early August. During this time they have built a base of over 3000 members, with between 50-100 new users signing up every day.

The interface is clean and well designed, with very similar architecture to that of most other online trading sites. The company is looking to ramp up its activities over summer with a global view in mind.

It seems OurSwaps is tapping into a part of aussie culture that has existed for decades, that being the fact that users have the option to barter a cash incentive over the top of the product being offered instead of just swapping the product at face value.

An Ebay killer? Time will tell.

Google Turns 10 And It Very Nearly Didn’t Happen.

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on Sep 8th 2008]

US Search giant Google turns 10 years old today.

In just under a decade two college maths geniuses grew an idea into a global monolith turning over US$16.5B a year. However the most poignant thing about the Google story is in the early days, before Google ‘The Search Engine’ even really existed.

Once they had written the original algorithms for the search engine Larry and Sergey actively went around Palo Alto and Menlo Park trying to sell the product to big VC firms and blue-chip companies. They were very quickly laughed out of the room. The big players thought portals like AOL and Yahoo were still the future of the internet and nobody would really have any use for a ‘backlinked’ search engine.

So after some thought, Larry and Sergey pushed ahead and launched the company anyway. The rest as im sure you all know is history.

The Google story re-iterates the point to any IT entrepreneur, Australian or overseas, that no matter how far out your idea is, no matter how often you get laughed out of a room, if you have the perserverance to stick with it, something will happen.

You may create the next pets.com, in which case you’ll have learnt alot from the experience to move forward with.

Or you may just create the next Google, in which case all you need to look at are the digits down the right hand side of this page…

Happy Birthday Google!

iPhone To Be Sold On Pre-Pay, Gen-Y Thanks God.

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on June 12th 2008]

There has been a new development that I think is very important when considering how many iPhones will be sold in Australia following their release on July 11th.

Optus and Vodafone both announced yesterday that they will be launching the device on pre-paid plans, allowing customers to buy the phone outright without being tied into a contract.

Gen-Yer’s who struggle to keep control of their credit card and cash, which is, well, 90% of them, will have at least one war story to tell you of being burned by a fixed cellphone plan. Pre-pay plans suit this demographic a lot better as they have control over how much they spend and are immune to getting stung with a hefty bill at the end of each month.

A week ago the iPhone was out of my reach as i only ever use a cellphone on a pre-pay plan. Now, I’m looking forward to getting one.

I’m anticipating that the above will apply to most consumers sitting within the Gen-Y demographic as well.

If that’s the case, expected iPhone sales will be considerably higher than they would have been prior to yesterdays announcement. Its a very smart move from the telcos involved as one of the iPhones largest target markets will be the Young Professional, Uni Student or Tech Savvy Gen-Yer.

Get ready to see a lot more young iPhone users around the place in the coming months. The financially challenged just got let into the market….

Victoria Broadband Bid - “A Private Equity Bid Unlike Australia’s Ever Seen Before”

[article written by Michael Watkins for technation.com.au on June 15th 2008]

Details have emerged of who is behind the secretive Acacia syndicate that is planning to launch a bid for part of Kevin Rudd’s broadband network. The part in question will cover the state of Victoria with broadband, worth a reported $4.7 billion in taxpayer funds.

Investors in Acacia include Telstra Countrywide CEO Doug Campbell, directors at KPMG, Highpoint Property Group and Seek founders Paul and Andrew Bassett to name a few. A very high profile list in Australian business circles, with some referring to the group as the “Melbourne Mafia”.

Telstra, is of course nervous at the news as they will lose control of the broadband roll out if the new network is separated from Telstra’s existing fixed-line network. Telstra Chairman Donald McGauchie was quoted as saying “The Government needs to take this whole flawed, nonsensical concept of structural separation off the table”.

Telstra has every right to be nervous. I’m sure most consumers hanging out for faster broadband speeds in Australia will endorse a break from Telstra’s monotonous, slow moving structure to that of a fast, nimble provider who could roll out the new infrastructure at a faster pace.

The project looks set to be sold back to the government once the core infrastructure is put in place and the system is working fluidly, much the same as toll roads have worked in Australia.

I can only see this as a good thing for the countries Tech Industry. Telstra is a dinosaur that has failed the Australian Tech sector and consumer with 3rd-World broadband speeds.

Faster broadband speeds equals more breadth and depth for Tech startups to make realistic plays worldwide and actually stay in Australia whilst doing it.

Maybe I am jumping the gun on Telstra. I just think they have had long enough to make cheap, fast broadband accessible in Australia. If a batch of new syndicates can come in and offer the country what it needs to make it a realistic player in the worldwide tech industry and do it fast, I’m all for it.

Introducing Technation Writer Mike Watkins

[aricle published technation.com.au on June 11th 2008]

Time for everyone to meet another one of our writers - Mike Watkins.

Mike is a 22yo Kiwi whose background in Tech began in 2004 when he created findatraveller.com.

Findatraveller connected solo travellers around the world, the idea being no solo traveller had to travel alone if they didn’t want to.

In late 2005 a decision had to be made regarding the future of findatraveller, as traffic was low and growth was near non existent. He shut down the site in early 2006.

Here, in Mike’s words, is what happened next: -

For the next 18 months I analyzed the online backpacker industry intensely and made note of several new technology developments coming out, as well as what the backpacker really needed in a website. From this, gunnago.com was born.

Gunnago’s core centers around googlemaps technology and allows backpackers to find information quickly and easily as it is done geographically. The interface is unique and can display a large amount of rich media from within the one screen, without endless amounts of annoying page refreshes. The base design was completed in early 2007 and the first edition of the business plan completed by mid 2007.

After working through contacts he had met at Google, Mike was able to source an angel investor and gained seed capital funding for gunnago in late 2007. The site is weeks away from a beta testing phase and will be launched publicly in the latter half of 2008.

To quote Mike: -

I’m always interested in new ideas or thoughts in how to capitalize on the social and new media spaces and would welcome the chance to have a chat with people or companies willing explore the opportunities that this space is creating.

As I mentioned before, I will be putting up contact details for all our writers in the near future but, once again, in the meantime, feel free to welcome Mike in the comments