52 Bicycles

David Beisel threw a great Web Innovators Group as always. Had some “side dish” tables around the sides, which were interesting, though I did not have time to fully appreciate them. (One looked especially interesting - collaboration for software teams. Hey guys, care to drop me a line with your name? Update: they are Assembla) 

And of course I was boosting Barcamp in the room. If you haven’t signed up, please go now! Or click the snazzy picture on the right.

The presentations were an interesting pair that made me think about data. Because at the end of the day, both (and indeed most software) is abou the collection, retention, and reporting of useful information in context.

To that end, the demo of Proxpro disappointed. Yes, you can query their database to ask about people who might be nearby. Yes, they can show it through maps and frighteningly detailed profiles. But where does this data come from? There was one indication that they make use of Zoominfo, but their allusion to a “social” aspect made me think there was some user-generated data component - so how does that data get generated? Show me the reporting side of a well-populated database, and it’s easy to impress - the reporting tools are less interesting than just showing the well-populated database. So showing that “application” is much lower-value than demonstrating how the data will get there in the first place - and there the demo gave us nothing.

Margaret Olsen’s demo of Plum (it makes more sense if you imagine the silent “b”) had a large piece segment on the data collection piece. Interestingly, Olsen seems to be in the cosmopolitan camp, as Plum offers desktop widget to help in capturing various pieces of media to the service. Storage might be online, but significant pieces of the interface are not, which is cool and interesting.

On the flip side, I couldn’t see a business model for Plum, while the focus on professionals in Prox made easy sense to me.

Demos rarely answer all the questions, and while I tend to think that mine are pretty fundamental, it’s entirely possible that both have good answers. I certainly wish them the best, and look forward to seeing their progress!  

Edited because I hate word repetition, and because links are good. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Technology Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. Reddit This