7 Models for Online Product Delivery

An absolute brilliant and definitely must read from Dion Hintchcliffe: Building Modern Web Apps? Better Have A Deep Competency in Web 2.0, Open APIs, Widgets, Social Apps, and Much More (if the link doesn't work try the Google cache)

Dion presents 7 different models for delivering online applications:

1. Web sites: This the classic model for Web presence.
2. Syndication: Countless aggregation services now exist that make a site's information embedded in their services as well as a way to offer users a method for pulling information from a site and experienced in a means of their choosing, from Google Reader and Newsgator to the innovative Yahoo! Pipes.
3. Web 2.0 applications: in this context we're referring to the fact that Web 2.0 apps package up the 3rd major type of networked value: user participation.
4. Open APIs and Web services: This is one of the most important long-term decisions most online businesses can make.
5. Web widgets: Selecting parts of a Web site and it's data and packaging it up to make it run inside a portable, user distributable widget has been growing more and more popular over the last few years.
6. Social networking applications: This is an amazingly fast moving field as you can see from a recent post on the latest happenings on the OpenSocial blog, to the extent it's hard even for well-funded companies to keep up.
7. Semantic Web and Web 3.0: The Semantic Web, one of the original visions for the World Wide Web, has taken a while to arrive but it's beginning to look like it may hit critical mass in the next 12-24 months.

Dion goes on and explains why adopting the new distribution models is essential for new business.

[...] Unfortunately, the number of capable practitioners of these new distribution models remains relatively small compared to the large body of experts in traditional Web product development. Demand is also low for these new skills as most organizations have been painfully slow to appreciate how much online product development has changed.[...]

The Roles in a Startup

Interesting post on The Business Insider about the roles and their area of expertise and responsibilities in a startup.

• Visionary/Architect. Idea generation, shape features, repositioning, market fit, competitive landscape, research.
• Lead Developer(s). AKA Hackers. A good place to have a pair of jelled programmers. Uses web framework, creates functionality; knows Python/Ruby, Javascript, AJAX, Flash(?), HTML, databases.
• Sysadmin. Network, web server, NFS (for VCS/file sharing), caching, other infrastructure, data backup, backup hardware, performance tuning, scalability.
• Toolsmith. Team is provided with: productive development environments (all users can say ‘apt-get install …‘), frameworks, editors, interpreters, multiple browsers, GIMP/Photoshop, (D)VCS, wiki, maybe BTS, quick training/consulting on tools/environment, continuous integration.
• Webmaster. SEO, analytics, domain registration, site hosting, Apache/lighttpd.
• DBA. Helps developers plan schema, set up tables, design for scalability, tuning/optimizing.
• Graphic Artist. Color coordination, logos, icons, image libraries, etc.
• CSS Designer. Usability, accessibility, layout, look-n-feel.
• Content Creator. User-facing documentation, populate/organize wiki, design tutorial, usage studies.
• Customer Support. Answers phones, forum voice, FAQs, knowledge base, help entries, problem solving.
• Tester. Bangs on site, tries devious things, automates stress.
• Marketer. Evangelism, blogging, advertising.
• Manager. Coordinates all team member activities.
• Lawyer. Business setup, guidance, law interpretation.
• Chef. Handles all other (random) tasks to keep team functioning.

While you don't need to take the list as an exhaustive and definitive one (as pointed by the commenters the author has left aside some important roles like Sales), I still find it interesting.

A good exercise for every startup is to figure out a the way to reduce the number of people it actually needs to successfully cover all these roles.

Idea: Virtual Mall

Have you thought about renting space in a virtual mall?

It should be like a mall but online, with stores, and we will sell "space" in it so there will be many size of stores, and each one will have different prize, the incomes will depend of the comission(probably 3% of each transaction) and of the stores selled. It should work with "credits" that the users should buy from us to buy the products.

Not sure though, if the guy got the money to start it or not.

Joking, manzu is asking me on Twitter:

What can we do for the bored mall addicts in a virtual mall? How can they live without the benches in the mall?

Update: It looks like the Australians have already implemented the idea of a virtual mall!

Craiglists for every niche

Do you know the barter section of Craiglist? If not and you have some old stuff around your house that you'd like to trade out go check it in your area. Even if there is not very much in this Craiglist section maybe you'll got the chance to at least get rid of those old and not so useful things.

But what if you are a student in a campus? Then Bubblevine may help you:

Bubblevine is the place for college students to buy stuff and sell stuff.

According to its creator, entrepreneur Monica Yoo this idea is originated in her own college experience:

While I was a junior in college at Trinity, I was looking for apartment furniture on Craigslist but found that the stuff I needed was all over town, often in sketchy areas that I wasn’t comfortable going to. Meanwhile, college kids were throwing away stuff at semester’s end.

Source: Buy & Sell Your Stuff on Campus with Bubblevine

A more generic trading site is Love2trace whose more detailed review can be read on Startup Houston post: Get Your Trade On At Love 2 Trade

Rebranding

I think it is that part of the year when you are doing a major change. Mine is to rebrand this old blog. But what exactly do I mean by rebranding?

Firstly, I have picked a new, not very shiny but breathy template. This will allow natural text flow and hopefully will make it really legible.

Secondly, I will post on this blog entries related to online business, research and anything that may fit into the internet category. Just to give you a preview, here is a set of sample posts:

• Breaking news: TechCrunch is announcing that Microsoft withdraws Yahoo bid
• More Niche Craiglists
• .ro in just a few words
• Open, Distributed and Educational Twitter

Last but not least, please send your feedback. Now and anytime you feel like. I love hearing from you all.