Loading ...I’ve just launched a Web start-up in private beta (the one that was under the ‘WebAppropriate’ working-title). I can’t quite believe it and neither can you (presuming you’ve noticed the nine month gap between posts on WebAppropriate.com). It’s a Ruby on Rails-powered application called SoIndustry, and the mission statement is, “to help you keep in touch with your industry”;
Why SoIndustry.com? I’ve been monitoring the market[1] for quite some time (check the WebApproriate blog for proof) and SoIndustry has an opportunity, through its positioning, packaging, and initial feature set, to answer my concerns with what does (or doesn’t) exist in other Web applications & services. How? It’s probably best if you sign-up to SoIndustry, I’ll activate your account asap, and you can test out the site - but here’s a brief explanation: You get a professional/industry orientated profile alongside cleanly presented status updates, replies & conversation (which are easy to follow), and commentary on news (and the news itself). You join an industry network which quickly slices through SoIndustry to the content that matters to you (as we build up the userbase, that is - it’s early days). If that wasn’t enough, SoIndustry also allows you to start your own channels for content (group-specific status updates combined with automated RSS aggregation) in the form of ‘Newsfeeds’, which can be shared in the same way that ‘Groups’ are, in other services.
As a beta prototype, SoIndustry is already a lot of fun to use (experienced Web designer/developer friends are telling me the interface feels very polished and that the site is very easy to navigate), it gives you tools and branding opportunities you can’t find anywhere else on the Web (check out @Ryan and @JonMoss and their profile banners), it’s far from perfect, but there are big plans for improvement, and I am definitely going to enjoy working on it more than any other Web application out there right now - I can’t wait to iterate on the feature set.
As for the development process and the logistics of designing and developing a web application on your own (not advisable); getting to grips with Ruby on Rails, and Web development/programming in general, has been challenging. But now that I’ve come some way towards an understanding of how to get from an idea to a working Web application, the product development process is becoming enjoyable. From now on you can expect blog posts on the topic ‘building a Web startup’ to be published here, so if you’re interested in finding out more about how I went from an idea to SoIndustry.com, subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed or sign-up to SoIndustry.com, I’ll be posting updates from my SoIndustry profile, too. It won’t be all about the technology, either. I’ve had numerous meetings on the business-end of the product (incorporation, T&Cs consultations with the professionals, even had a term sheet on the table, at one point) and we’ll cover those, too.
Finally, check out SoIndustry.com and sign-up for a beta account (grab your preferred username identity, several first-names are still available), and leave a comment here for the VIP treatment and to have your account activated asap. And once you’re on the inside, you can send beta invitations to friends/contacts interested in promoting their professional services and keeping in touch with their industry.
[1] The handful of socially-orientated web applications that we hear about the most, i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & Jaiku.
Congratulations on the launch! I thought it had been a bit quiet around here. Can’t wait to have my account activated to have a look around!
Phil, thanks - I’ve activated your account. Take a good look around and post an update if you have a question. Hopefully it holds up for you, my first Rails app ‘n all.
Awesome! Glad to finally see an update here. It seemed like you just dropped off the face of the planet there for a while. :p
Anyway, I’d be glad to help test or do whatever I can.
I just made an account for myself. Can’t do anything yet though because I haven’t been activated.
Activated now. Wow! This looks really great Neil. Great work! It looks very professional. It’s something I would use a lot.
Noticed your careers page. I’ve been looking for a job for a while now. *wink wink*
Hi James, thanks for the comments. I’m not sure if it’s Hotmail but I seem to be missing out on email notifications from Facebook, WordPress admin, etc, so I’m a little slow with replying (makes you realise how important email is, even with all these activity dashboards). Look forward to hearing any more thoughts - you can post them as status updates - and do let me know if you see any room for improvement on the front-end stuff, I know that’s just one of your specialties.
I was planning on setting up a Newsfeed around front-end web development (we already have #RubyDevelopment for Ruby on Rails, et al), there’s a few other guys in there would are in a similar line of work.
I just posted my first suggestion as a status update.
Also, what about multiple Industries for each user? Or maybe I’m misunderstanding something. Nothing too unusual for me.
I saw the suggestion - Rails could have a quick fix built in to the framework. Multiple industries is an interesting one, perhaps a limit of two or three. The categories definitely need some work, at the very least.