SharedBook: On Demand

News from Web 2.0 Expo

In 30 years I have never run out of promotional materials on the first day of a show. Yesterday was the exception as hordes of potential customers, advisors, consultants, investors, and maybe even a few competitors swamped SharedBook's booth at Web 2.0 Expo.

By the close of the first 3 hours in which the expo floor was open, we only had a handful of business cards and brochures remaining. So Thea went to the local Kinko's this morning to print additional materials. We were surprised that so many people already seemed to know something about us. Perhaps this was because they had seen the terrific analysis on KillerStartups.com or maybe Marc Orchant's write up on his Office Evolution blog for ZDNet. I also had the pleasure of participating in my first live Web interview as Robert Scoble and I talked about the expansive and diverse print on demand opportunities that are possible with SharedBook's Reverse Publishing Platform.

We are looking forward to another exciting day on the floor. We hear 10,000 attendees are expected for the show, which was originally predicted to have 10 percent of that number. Congratulations to all the people at O'Reilly's Web 2.0 for a well attended event.

How Fast is Fast? It Depends on the People

About a week and a half ago we launched two major versions on our production servers simultaneously: our Open API in beta form, as well as Canadian Currency support for Legacy.com and other features for our stable environment. It was a typical day in this Roller Coaster ride (one of the leading proposed titles for our blog) I have been living since I joined SharedBook, but it got me thinking…

I still remember the days, back when I started programming, where a version was something you launched once or twice a year. We spent months on analysis and design, months on testing, just like everyone believed software development should be back then. We even had a name for this: waterfall methodology. If someone would have told me back then that I would be leading an organization that launches a new version a couple of times a month, or even a week – I would have laughed to tears. And now we have broken another record: twice in one day!

But it seems to be working well in SharedBook. Since day one, we started developing in agile methodologies, having shorter and shorter development cycles that enabled us to quickly respond to what the market taught us. Before long, this wasn’t fast enough. We had to develop our own methodology that would be best suited for us – we call it the SharedBook way.

So we switched to multiple parallel projects development, relying on the agile principles we had applied successfully before, and adopting them as we went. When we started this parallel agile development, we weren’t sure whether it would be possible for such a small startup company. But we decided to try and learn from the experience… and we sure did learn!

As an organization we are constantly learning. After each iteration and each project we ask ourselves: what worked well? What didn’t work that well? How can we do better? And we now have a development process that is very unique to us, and is constantly evolving and changing, as new requirements come in from the market (If you’d like to learn more about the basis where we started checkout this article: New Methodology by Martin Fowler, in fact – check out all the material on his site – I learned a lot from his articles and opinions).

Sometimes I find myself puzzled as to why this is working in SharedBook so well. Friends and colleagues from other organizations, come over to learn from us, and ask the same question. The answer I give is that eventually it all comes down to people. Having the right people makes a huge difference.

I remember when we had just started SharedBook, I was consulting with Yossie (our chairman and founder) about what type of people I should be looking for. He gave me some of the best advice I ever received for recruiting: look for the smartest people you can find (OK, that is not that difficult), who can work well together as a team (OK, now it gets trickier: very smart and team players?) and can easily adopt to change. Find those people he told me – and success is bound to come.

Well Yossie – you were right! I went from thinking that releasing every few months was very fast, to thinking that releasing a couple of times a month is not fast enough, and we are still accelerating… thanks to having a great team, consisting of the right people. I wonder what we’ll do next?

What does Don Imus have to do with us?

There’s no way we’re going to weigh in on the controversy over Imus, what he said, and the resulting actions and statements of others.

But we can provide a place where the issues can be appropriately discussed in The People’s Annotated.  Our newly launched series begins with The Constitutional Amendments. 

Three guesses as to what inalienable right is protected by the First Amendment…!

Now, let’s be very clear – we are NOT suggesting that anyone’s right to Freedom of Speech has been infringed in any way.  In fact, we’re not taking a position of any sort. 

We’re simply saying that there are interesting issues raised, and a dialogue to be had, and a great place to have it just happens to be here.

For instance – the Founders could never have contemplated the Internet, or a world with 1000 cable channels.  How do First Amendment freedoms mesh with these advances in technology? 

Also – doesn’t “no” mean “no”?  “No law…abridging Freedom of Speech…” seems in conflict with the federal legislation that empowers the FCC to regulate content over the public airwaves.  Is it?  And in the 21st century, do we need more regulation, or less, and what Constitutional conflicts will arise?

A civilized national conversation is indeed in order.  All are encouraged to have it via PeoplesAnnotated.com.

Press Releases on Corporate Blogs?

Me again. Just filling in for our development team leaders in Israel today. You can expect to hear from them later this month.

Earlier this week, I posted our Open API and PeoplesAnnotated.com press releases here. Someone came to me and suggested that maybe it wasn’t the best place for the information, or there might be another way to do it that wouldn’t take up so much space. While I just wanted to make the information available through the blog, the person that raised the point felt like it was too self-promotional. Something that none of us wants our blog to be, especially me. So I gave it some thought and I think we may have a solution.

When we have press releases in the future, I think we should post the headline and the lead paragraph along with a link to access the rest of the announcement – just as an FYI. That way we can still use the blog as a way to let people know when we have news and they can click through to access additional information if it’s of interest.

What do you think? Does this sound like a good compromise, or would you handle it differently? 

Upcoming Events

It has been a busy couple of weeks at SharedBook… We launched our Open API last week, this blog on Monday and PeoplesAnnotated.com on Tuesday. Now we’re getting ready for two events on opposite coasts!

Caroline, Bridget (our head of business development, look for her to post here on Tues.), Thea (our marketing manager) and I are heading out to San Francisco for Web 2.0 Expo. We’re exhibiting in Booth #327 and looking forward to meeting with as many people as possible. If you’d like to catch up while we’re there, send me a note: amanby at sharedbook.com.

While we’re in California, Dave Brown, our head of IT operations, is headed back to Boston for the ON DEMAND Conference & Exposition. Dave will be there on Wednesday (4/18). If you want to talk to Dave, you can reach him by e-mail: dgbrown at sharedbook.com.

Speaking of travel - stay tuned. Word has it that Mor Schlesinger, our head of research & development, is planning to post a few thoughts here on Monday. Mor will be joining in from her desk in Herzlia, Israel, where our development team is based.

How Branding Has Changed in Today’s Marketplace

It’s all a matter of attention.  Marketers used to expect it.  Routinely.  And consumers gave it, freely.  Back when the country gave its attention, in aggregate, to one of only three national television networks, marketers always had consumers’ attention.  And from that attention, great brands were built.  You know them: Tide. Coca-Cola. Wheaties. Sony.

With attention evermore scarce, how will the next generation of brands be built?  We think on the basis of delivery of True Experiential Value.  A brand’s TEV, the answer to the customer’s question, “What can you DO for me, really?” will determine its success or failure in the Internet Age, the age of transparency.

Today’s best brands deliver TEV by outperforming other alternatives, or by filling a previously unfilled consumer need.  Google: demonstrably better and more relevant search results.  Apple Mac: Easier, virus-free functionality.  Regent Seven Seas Cruises: A service experience like no other.  (Full Disclosure: Regent is a client of ours.  And their vacations are truly wonderful, believe me!)

To break through the attention barrier, a company must deliver TEV, which can then be spread through word-of-mouth, using online communication as well as offline.  This person-to-person brand building is a critical component in today’s marketplace because consumers are bombarded with so many messages (I see ads on taxis, on blogs, and even at home on my beloved TiVo Series 3!) that they tune out most of them, and rely even more than ever on the recommendations of friends and family.  And trust that the online community will help them sniff out the players from the fakers.

So is it really harder to build a lasting brand in today’s marketplace?  Everybody says so.  Perhaps. 

But maybe...maybe it’s easier. IF you can deliver. Because today, if you deliver TEV, or what we used to call “the goods,” the networked economy can bring to bear velocity of messaging which truly can create a tipping point to allow your brand to achieve visibility.  And then, your brand won’t be based on a jingle, or a slogan, which is why we don’t hear much from Pepsodent or Rambler anymore.

Introducing The People's Annotated

SharedBook launched PeoplesAnnotated.com in beta form today, a site where people can go to share and exchange ideas on a variety of topics, beginning with The Constitutional Amendments. The press release follows and is also available via Market Wire.

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

HAVE AN OPINION ABOUT PAYING INCOME TAXES? GO TO PEOPLESANNOTATED.COM

New Site Offers a Place to Exercise Your First Amendment Right and Comment on Timely Topics

NEW YORK – April 10, 2007 – SharedBook Inc. (www.sharedbook.com), the Reverse Publishing Platform provider, launched PeoplesAnnotated.com in beta form today, a community where individuals can share and exchange ideas on a variety of topics, beginning with The Constitutional Amendments, the first in a series of non-fiction documents that will be posted for discussion. The 16th Amendment gave Congress the power to collect income taxes.

Individuals can go to PeoplesAnnotated.com to express their opinions, site references and post anecdotes in real-time through the patent-pending annotation, collaboration and publishing capabilities of SharedBook’s on-demand Reverse Publishing Platform.

Visitors to PeoplesAnnotated.com will have the option of participating in the global community, or setting up a private community with family and friends. They will also have the ability to publish their own version of The People’s Annotated works in professionally-printed book format, complete with text and annotations, and to contribute to the selection process of future documents.

“As a technology company pioneering the concept of Reverse Publishing, SharedBook is constantly looking for ways to introduce relevant and unique products to the marketplace,” said Caroline Vanderlip, Chief Executive Officer, SharedBook Inc. “The People’s Annotated is designed to highlight the way annotation can be used to facilitate community discussions, and to illustrate how SharedBook’s Reverse Publishing Platform automatically flows online content into a structured book product that can be purchased as is, or personalized further.”

With PeoplesAnnotated.com any text on the Web page is selectable for annotation such as a letter, word, group of words or photograph. Unique to the SharedBook application, users also have the ability to navigate content via multi-portion displays simultaneously. This means that place-holders or footnotes related to the annotations are embedded in the document in the content window, while the corresponding annotations are presented on the same page in the community window.

There is no cost to view comments or participate on PeoplesAnnotated.com. A quick registration is all that’s required to post. Books can be produced beginning at $29.95. For more information, please go to www.peoplesannotated.com.

About SharedBook

SharedBook Inc. is a technology company that specializes in integrating and publishing data from various sources into a structured book product that can sit as a flipbook on the Internet or be professionally printed.  The company’s collaborative on-demand Reverse Publishing Platform allows users to extract data and content from multiple sources, manipulate it, and then distribute their unique creation in digital or hard copy format. SharedBook partners include AYSO® Soccer, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Canyons Resort, Cruise West Cruise Lines, 4-H, Legacy.com, Little League International®, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Sportography, Inc., Steamboat Ski Resort, 30 Minute Photos Etc., TLContact, Inc. (the makers of CarePages.com), USA Football and Yosemite, among others.

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Choosing the Company You Keep...

Traveling back from a business trip to Boston last week I found myself at Logan Airport, hungry, and waiting for my evening flight home.  Sitting in one of the airport eateries watching the Red Sox in the process of losing their opening day game, I struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler. Turns out he was a technology guy too. Steve Costa (if the name sounds familiar that’s because he was on the U.S. Olympic swim team back in the early 90’s) is a Technical Consultant at EMC, the storage company. In any case, I talked with this subject matter expert at length about the state-of-the-state in storage. It was a nice way to pass the time. We swapped war stories, I learned a few things, and we exchanged business cards when we parted.

 

On the way home I reflected on our conversation, not so much about the technical specifics but more importantly about the criteria used when evaluating a potential vendor.

 

Yes, some folks with deep pockets take the easy way out. It’s not particularly difficult to pick the “Cadillac” out of the crowd – the product that not only has the features and functionality that you need but ALL the features and functionality that could possibly exist in the entire product matrix.  It’s easy to get caught up in everything a product or vendor can do but it’s imperative to stay focused on your specific needs. Keep yourself in check and it will maximize the value for your capital dollars spent.

 

Business relationships are key too! It’s hard to assign a numeric rating scale (there’s some subjectivity here) but if time has proven anything it’s the willingness of both parties in a business deal to get through the difficult times that make for a successful long term relationship. The bumps in the road inadvertently always come up. It’s how you deal with them that matters most.

 

Whether it’s products or services, we’re likely talking about the account team and the support group, their effectiveness, timeliness and overall strategic value.  The other thing I like to see in a company I’m going to do business with is an accessible and engaged senior management team. It’s settling to know you can pick up the phone and talk to an executive that can advocate for your special needs when they arise.  I’ve done business with well established companies, as well as enterprise technology startups that have become wildly successful – do your home work, evaluate the people (it’s like an interview) and stay engaged once you get the ball rolling.

 

It’s been about four years since I did business with EMC but based on my happenstance meeting with Steve and his subsequent follow-up, they’re coming in to see us later this week for a product briefing. EMC apparently has a renewed push in the SMB space. I’m looking forward to it!

SharedBook Open API

Dave is planning to post later today. In the meantime, here's the open API announcement that Caroline mentioned yesterday. You can also access it via Market Wire.

FREE THE WEB! SHAREDBOOK RELEASES 14 BILLION PAGES OF ONLINE CONTENT WITH OPEN API

Web Developers Can Now Integrate Data into Reverse Publishing Platform for On-Demand Output in a Structured Book Product

NEW YORK – April 5, 2007 – SharedBook Inc. (www.sharedbook.com), the Reverse Publishing Platform provider, published a suite of open application programming interfaces (APIs) today that allow any Web site to flow online content into a structured book product for on-demand output by their users. Released in beta form, the SharedBook open API framework provides a means for Web sites to monetize archived materials and user-generated content and build brand awareness through the book’s pass along value.

Rather than write an interface to extract data as with most open APIs, Web developers can create new ways to introduce content into SharedBook’s browser-based, private and secure book creation software. Web site owners control what data is pushed into the SharedBook platform and the level of control given to their users.

With just one click, the SharedBook Reverse Publishing Platform intelligently maps streams of data into an online book making template where individual users can manipulate the content, contribute additional information, and invite their family and friends to share in the experience.

“Following the success of our first data integration project with Legacy.com, we realized that one company could not build individual doorways to each and every Web site that contains personal data,” said Caroline Vanderlip, Chief Executive Officer, SharedBook Inc. “The SharedBook open API framework will enable any Web site to maximize its online assets by re-purposing them into a book product that can be professionally printed or created as a digital flipbook through SharedBook.”

Using SharedBook’s API calls, Web developers can take comments and photos from blog posts, message boards, photo galleries or other sources and stream them into a SharedBook book making space. Users can then include this information in their books and purchase the product as is, or edit the content and personalize the book further if they choose.

The SharedBook API includes methods to push data into the following sections: cover and title, dedication, article (story), comments and photos.

Developers are welcome to experiment with the SharedBook API for non-commercial use. Pricing and revenue sharing are available for book production. For more information, go to www.sharedbook.com/dev.

About SharedBook

SharedBook Inc. is a technology company that specializes in integrating and publishing data from various sources into a structured book product that can sit as a flipbook on the Internet or be professionally printed.  The company’s collaborative on-demand Reverse Publishing Platform allows users to extract data and content from multiple sources, manipulate it, and then distribute their unique creation in digital or hard copy format. SharedBook partners include AYSO® Soccer, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Canyons Resort, Cruise West Cruise Lines, 4-H, Legacy.com, Little League International®, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Sportography, Inc., Steamboat Ski Resort, 30 Minute Photos Etc., TLContact, Inc. (the makers of CarePages.com), USA Football and Yosemite, among others.

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Hello World!

We are SharedBook, a New York-city based tech startup, and today is a huge day for us. Just last week we published a suite of APIs that will enable any third party - business or consumer - to integrate data into SharedBook's platform for on-demand output. With the introduction of our API, we believe the time is right to take the leap into the blogosphere. So hello world! Here we are.

When we first discovered the ease of data integration with Legacy.com, the online obituary provider, last fall, we thought we might be on to something. As soon as we gave Legacy's users the ability to create Commemorative Guest Books, people started to make them. It was then that we knew we had to find a way to make SharedBook's Reverse Publishing Platform widely available. Hence, our open API.

With some 14 billion pages of content online today and growing, we believe the opportunities to Reverse Publish information from the Web to print are wide open. And we're planning to introduce another example of our application this week that will highlight some additional features. Stay tuned for more.

Since this may be your first introduction to SharedBook, here's some background. If you already know us, or want to skip this, feel free to go to the next paragraph. In corporate speak, SharedBook offers a collaborative on-demand Publishing Platform. Translation: we take online content from multiple sources with whom we have partnerships and map it into a structured book product. I am admittedly biased, but it's pretty cool to see the platform in action. With just one click, various content from our partner sites like CarePages.com (launching soon) and Legacy.com, automatically flows into a structured book product that can be purchased as is, or personalized further.

OK, so moving on, that brings us to where we are today. The first day of SharedBook's blog.

In the days ahead you can expect to hear from at least one member of our management team daily. From my desk in New York to Mor Schlesinger, the head of our development team in Herzlia, Israel, we want to give you the insider's perspective into what works and doesn't as we continue to build the business of SharedBook and define the many ways that a Publishing Platform can be used, with emphasis on Reverse Publishing and MicroPublishing (more on this at a later time). We plan to share some of the lessons we learn along the way as well as our successes as they apply to branding, IT, business development and other areas. There might even be a few personal passions added for color.

We want this to be a resource to you as an entrepreneur, small business owner, developer, SharedBook enthusiast (we hope), you name it - we intend to cover a lot of territory from many different angles. You have my word that we will do our best to provide relevant, helpful and timely content along the way.

We are also here to listen and learn from anyone that wants to teach us. We are naturally inquisitive people and always open to learning about new opportunities or ways to do business. That is part of what prompted us to take this very public step.

Please join us in this journey and let us know what you think along the way. This is your personal (albeit public) invitation to join in the discussion at any time.

Whew, I am glad that's over. Now that we've started, I can't wait to see what Dave Brown, our head of IT operations, has to say tomorrow. Dave?