infinite.ly (Private Alpha) -- A DIY Social Media Tool?

infinite.ly. First thing that pops up in my head when I saw their site is the social media practitioners who could be most benifitted from it. Since I haven't received my invitation yet (which I hope I will get one), I'll just copy and paste the description of they provided on their site of what we can expect from infinite.ly.

Build your social presence

Create a custom microsite that brings together all your content and activity from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Youtube.

So it must be something like Friendfeed?

Understand your market

Track all the mentions, comments and ratings that your content is generating, and find out if the general feedback is good or bad.

So it must be something like, Convoflow, which is created by another Philippine web engineering firm Proudcloud? Or, BackType or RowFeeder (the few that I'm familiar with)?

Talk to your costumers

Communicate directly with your market no matter which social network they're on, from one central place. 

Interesting. So it must be something like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, etc? But I'm pretty much interested as to how is this going to be implemented. Are the feeds from each social site be in one stream like friendfeed? Or, just like how hootsuite/tweetdeck do it -- each of the social sites has its own stream? (Correct me if I'm wrong though I'm not a tweetdeck user.) Or, maybe a whole new way of workflow?

So I guess in short, infinite.ly is a social media monitoring tool. If you're a conscious social media enthusiast, then you probably have an idea how this tool works. If you are not, then you can skip all those Social Media Mastery training with all the bangs and whistles, just sign up for infinite.ly. (You can check this post of mine re groundswell marketing to have a quick idea what's with the 'social media' buzz.)

One of the things I would really like to have is to be able to get results by location. It's more of I wish for it to have a more detailed local results for Philippines. It will be more helpful for local businesses.

infinite.ly is, I believe, another brainchild of Luis Buenaventura.They are still in private alpha so there might be limited invites. Simply heed to infinite.ly to get an invite.

iSTorya.net -- Cebu's Active Online Community

Before Friendster and Facebook, Cebu has already iSTORYA.net, a forum/social site. If you want to get a feel and know more about Cebu, skip Google. Instead, get more reliable information, about the ins and outs of Cebu straight from the locals by visiting iSTORYA.net. The iSTORYA.net now has 62,000+ members and 7million plus posts, from the initial 8 members when they started on February 22, 2002. So with 8 years of contents generated from thousand of members, you will really find valuable resources instead of trying to find a pin in the haystack of Google results about Cebu.

What is iSTORYA.NET (More than just TALK)? (Lifted from its friendster account)

The word istorya means talk, communicate, express or exchange of thoughts and ideas. It is an online community website first of its kind in CEBU. A venue for exchanging of diverse ideas. It is a dynamic website that appreciates the advantages of web or Internet technologies in linking information and ideas with people, products & services with consumers. The website anticipated the need of surfers that frequently have to find, at their own time and at great expense, information about the Cebuano environment in particular. This need for information becomes more acute with people across continents or countries just to get information about the Philippines or more specifically to Cebu. A concept of web-based community information delivery that answers the need of surfers with different activity profile. iSTORYA.NET is a major venture and powered by JAGs Media Network in the area of web-based community, guide and information. Its main differential advantage is its sensitivity to the needs of surfers for accurate and latest information for everything about CEBU.

I'm a member of iSTORYA.net but not an active one though; but I know some of my friends are. I find iSTORYA.net very useful when I need to find reviews and feedback for a certain local product, service, events, etc. It gives way better results than Google.com. I got reliable information from it when I looked for an eye doctor for my mother, I need feedbacks on different schools when I was searching school for my kids. The replies to forum threads are very honest and can be very detailed that they can really help you in making decisions. And, if you want to know, the eye doctor I got based from the posts on iSTORYA.net was really a good one. (My iSTORYA public profile http://www.istorya.net/forums/members/owrange.html.)

If you have plans of relocating or finding a job here in Cebu, you can check iSTORYA.net and you will find reviews of different call centers and business here in Cebu; thus, you will have an idea of what companies to check out and avoid. Or, if you simply want to travel and you want to find out where to stay and to go, where and what to eat, no one knows better than the Cebuanos. Or, if you simply want to connect with people in the Southern part of the Philippines, you can find an active community in iSTORYA.net. When I say active, you will really find real people talking, not spammy accounts posting spammy links.

So if you have a business or something, and you want to connect with the Cebu community, you can start with iSTORYA.net.

The main team (admins) behind iSTORYA.net are BeoR (Gerald Yuvallos), Galadriel (Janice Yuvallos), and Vern (Vernon Wenberg III). You can find here the list of moderators. Kudos to them for the 8 years of keeping the online community up and running. =)

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I'm hoping soon to get the story behind this Cebu's online nook, iSTORYA.net.

JJ Lumagbas -- Turning a financial glitch into an application

JJ Lumagbas
Founder/Developer, txtexpense (Alpha)



In one of our conversations, JJ once told me he wants to build his own version of Mint.com. And, he's not faraway from it, his can be even minter than mint. He is also currently a ComSci professor at University of the Philippines Cebu.

1. Of all the ideas you have in mind, why create an application that is about expenses? Was it a random decision?

You know that feeling you get when your paycheck runs out and you say, "Now where did all my money go?" Multiply that by 4 years and you know how I felt after I quit my programming job last year. Since then I've always tried to keep track of my expenses. I started by listing them in a notebook at the end of every day, then switched to my phone, since I had it with me wherever. After 2 months, I wanted a big-picture, so I encoded my expenses into Access. It was such a pain-in-the-ass to encode that I started thinking of an easier way.

2. How long did it take you to build the app from scratch to alpha?

I spent a month learning ruby (leisurely ;)), 2 weeks to get the basic structure of the app down, and another 2 weeks to get the SMS part working.

3. How do you manage creating/maintaining the app at the same time teaching at the university?

I got to be a faculty intern at CodrSchool, so I had a summer break to build it. Since real school started I'm down to once a week for a few hours for maintenance and new features. Embrace constraints, right? (Ed: Embrace Constraints by 37signals)

4. Please tell me about how you design its web interface, and what’s underneath it?

Plain-vanilla HTML. Repeating "keep it simple" kept me from adding ajax and other fancy javascript. For now, at least.

5. Why are you doing this?

To become this guy -- Markus Frind of Plentyoffish.com. 

6. Upcoming plans and features we can look forward to in txtexpense. What feature you are currently working on?

Budgets 

Top features/developments that are priority on your list now.

Better analysis of expenses
Email/SMS Notifications

CONVOFLOW -- a tool for listening to the groundswell

(This is originally posted at my Mobile Tweeting in Philippines blog. I reposted it here since it's about Philippine web app.)

I read this book, Marketing in the Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff,  some time ago. Both
authors of the book are/were from Forrester Research, a technology and market research company. The main thought behind 'groundswell marketing' is that traditional marketing is more of shouting. A typical traditional marketing is putting up an tri-media advertisement -- TV ads, radio ads, newspaper/magazine/billboard ads. Tri-media advertisements are usually a form of shouting, a one-way marketing. After the ads are out, the way companies can measure the effectiveness of their marketing is based on the sales figure. They have not much way to know the feedback of the people.

With groundswell marketing, this is the opposite of shouting. Groundswell marketing puts emphasis on listening to the ground -- the people, the consumers, or simply the audience. This strategy is made easier because of the internet technology. Consumers/people now have ways to express their opinion or give a feedback about a product through blogs, social networking sites, twitter or any micro-blogging platform, online forums/community boards. And, this is a very powerful 'phenomenon' for the reason that people tends to listen more and influenced by other consumers/friend/real people than by the shouting ads.

Right now, if a consumer wants to buy a new mobile phone, he will mostly go to google and search for mobile phones or he will put a blog or tweet or post a status update in his facebook that he is in the look out for a new mobile phone. Now, if you are a small mobile shop owner, you can track these tweets/blogs/shoutouts and communicate (not necessarily sell right away) directly to that person.It is a 'cheap' way of doing marketing.

To do 'groundswell marketing,' you can always use google, search in twitter or social networking websites or blogcatalogs. Easy. But would it not be much easier if you can just go to one website and give you all search results in one page from different social networking sites and content sharing sites? So here comes CONVOFLOW by Proudcloud, a Web 2.0 technology solutions provider here in Philippines. The main core team of Proudcloud is composed of: Jay Fajardo (CEO), Tony Abello (CFO), Robert Madamba, and Alex Rodriguez. They are the same people behind RoofCamp which is about encouraging local start-up experience.



Back to CONVOFLOW, it is a nifty web-based application that helps you search from different social media platforms in one page. As quoted from ProudCloud website,

"Convoflow is a real-time search engine that harvests from social media content to provide a fresher set of information as an alternative to the traditional archival content gleaned from standard search engines. This is particularly important as the velocity of information on the web increases and its relevance is determined by social capital."

This will not only be helpful for social media people or enthusiast. It can be a big help to businesses or any person who has an interest for a particular topic or subject. For example with Smart Philippines, they now have a twitter account, SMARTCares. The team behind SMARTCares can then use CONVOFLOW to track blogs, conversations related to their products on one page via CONVOFLOW. Below is an example of search result for keywords 'Smart bro.'

At a first glance of the CONVOFLOW 'harvests,' SMARTCares can easily find who are having a bad time with Smart Bro, and who are also happy. They way CONVOFLOW organize the search results by social media platform (Twitter, Friendfeed, BlogCatalog, Digg, Youtube, Flickr) makes it easy for the users to pick up the social media he wants to prioritize. For example, I just want to know what the people are talking about my product on twitter.  I go to the twitter area, click on it -- you can then scroll down/up the tweets by clicking on the arrow at the bottom or you can use your up and down arrow keys for an easier scrolling -- sweet huh!

Convoflow sear results:






Can you feel the power of this tool? At one glance, you know who is frustrated with your product so you can easily talk to them and appease them. People are actually easy to please. Just listen sincerely to their rant and be honest with the real situation, and most likely they will be happy with the sincere attention. They might even tell their other frustrated friends about the explanation you provided them, and so another irate customer appeased, and so on. And, for those people happily tweeting or blogging about your product, you can give them a quick 'thank you' message or maybe you can give them information about upcoming events, and I am sure they would be glad to broadcast it on their blog, twitter and others.

If you have a small business going on and you have not much money to put up a marketing team or an ad for it, this is a cheap way of getting customers. For example, you have a 'planner' business, you can search for 'starbucks planner' since it is the 'in' thing now. So usually people who will tweet about starbucks planner are mostly fond of planners. There, CONVOFLOW, gives you potential customers in an instant. Of course, you do not sell to them right away. You can try to engage with them in conversation, and look for the perfect timing on how you can make them get interested with your product.

CONVOFLOW -- gives you potential customers

I have not much idea about UI or usability, but it serves the purpose without much drama -- simple and functional. But I wish it has a way to filter tweets by country/region, and also I wish it could provide older results.

Convoflow is a good start to get connected to the real people.

iLumina LCD iTV's Inventor -- Brian Quebengco's Talk at Roofcamp

I'm not really awed by his iTV invention, to think that they're probably the first team to build one and Google TV is their direct head-on rival in this product. I mean naming your product with 'i' at the first cannot stop me from stereotyping them as members of Steve Jobs' cult. Come on, there are more product names than prefixing it with letter 'i'. And, they're using Android OS -- so 'i' and android kind of don't sound right to me.

But you need to hear Brian Quebengco talk. I may not be sold to his Ilumina LCD iTV for now, but his vision of creating a Philippine consumer electronic product to become a global brand is not an everyday event in Filipinos' lives. For a person to create something against all odds just to put his country on the map is what we need most today so we should rally behind him and his team, Inovent. If we have Manny Pacqiauo in boxing, then Ilumina LCD iTV will be ours in the consumer electronics area.

To get a glimpse of Brian Quebengco's passion, below is a phrase quoted from StartupDigest's Developer Profile.

7) What got you into technology?

I’m a Human Resource graduate.  But as an Entrepreneur, we don’t think “technology.”  Rather, it was my passion to champion Philippine ideas.  It just so happened that giving the Philippines something it doesn’t have, which is its own CE brand, was the battle i wanted to fight.  This by default led me to figure out what technology would be needed by the world that the other players haven’t introduced yet.  It took me years to find the right technology.

The following video of Brian Quebengco's talk is from Roofcamp gathering. His talk will not fail to make you feel to be proud to be Filipino again. More than his iTV invention, it's his compassion for the Philippines that makes Philippines still has the few good men, that we still have hope.

Roofcamp 8 with Brian Quebengco (INOVENT) from Roofcamp on Vimeo.

Follow their stories here http://inoventrevolution.wordpress.com.

munchpunch.com -- QC/Makati has the most number of eaters & eatery in the Philippines?

munchpunch.com

There exists a lot of local great individual foodie bloggers like Hungitcebu.com, but I haven't quite seen an active social site whose food/restaurant reviews/contents are contributed by different users ala Yelp, Foodspotting, or Fiddme. Not until a twitter friend mentioned munchpunch.com. I heard about it like last year or 2 years ago, and recommended it to my caterer friends, but I had not really gotten myself to use it.

It's nice to see that it has quite a lot of contents. In the Metro Manila, it's interesting to see that Quezon City seems to have the most number of entries (restaurants listed), followed by Makati. Why, what are in those places? Forgive the prom(di) queen.

I've only been to Manila once so if ever I get back there, based on munchpunch.com, I should avoid Navotas or Pateros which only has 2 restaurants listed; and, one of them is Jollibee. So unless there will be more restaurants listed on Navotas/Pateros, I think I'll skip these places because we have Jollibee in my place. Or, it could also mean that if I don't want to spend much on eating, I should go to these places.

And, according to munchpunch.com, Philippines is like divided into 2 groups -- Metro Manila, and Outside Metro Manila. I'm proud that my little province dominates the Outside Metro Manila based on numbers of restaurants listed. So this might mean that Cebuanos are fat but rich and adventurous with food. 

Show us what you got in your barrio. Go and list and review all your favorite and even not favorite restaurants/eatery/pungko2x at munchpunch.com. So that if ever I get to pass by your place, I know where to go,-- instead of just going to your local Jollibee branch -- by checking http://m.munchpunch.com from my mobile phone. You can also install this munchpunch widget on your Nokia phone from the OVI store 

Swell

You can check my reviews of Cebu restaurants here http://www.munchpunch.com/accounts/public/5416.aspx. I have now 5 reviews there, I will be adding more. I'm not really that good of a foodie reviewer but my taste buds are so you can trust my choices.

How about you? Show me what you have in munchpunch.com. =)

Insyc -- anyone wants a Beta Invite?

So after Insync's successful launch last Sept. 15, 2010, they're no longer giving out Beta invites so you can access and use their application. Either they were able to gather more than enough 'beta' users, or it's part of their marketing strategy -- creating an exclusivity or it-must-be-special-because-it's-limited feeling.

I consider myself lucky because I'm one of those who got a beta invitation. It pays to be nosy. I'm using it now alternately with dropbox. Maybe when they will have mobile apps for iPhone/Droid and crossing fingers for Symbian, I can totally let go of dropbox since I use dropbox to read pdf from my iPod.

I think I can share or give access to my folders in Insync to 4 more people. Anyone who wants to use Insync, feel free to list your email address here. I will then share a 'dummy' folder with you so you can then create your own Insync account.

Eric Clark Su -- Philippine's Mark Zuckerberg

Eric Clark Su

Co-Founder/CEO, Twidl Inc.

Generalist, PicLyf (Product of Twidl Inc.)

1. Who are you and what’s the elevator pitch?

I am Eric Clark Su, co-founder of PicLyf - communicating around pictures.

 2. I remember it was Twidl.it before. Why did you change it to PicLyf?

The idea evolved enough that it didn’t fit the name at all anymore. Twidl it came from Twitter + Doodle but we were excited to build something that can let people communicate visually in an open-ended way so we needed a new name to fit that idea.

3. Before PicLyf, were you already doing other start-up ventures or involved in other start-up projects? If yes, what were they?

Not really a startup per se, but I started an indie game development shop with one of my PicLyf co-founder - Blue Jayson Basañes. I wasn’t really aware of this whole startup movement / philiosophy until a few months after deciding to do Twidl it (which became PicLyf) with both BJ and Andrew. 

What made you decide to go the start-up way?

I think it came from wanting to solve the problem of having no good place to communicate visually. I had an idea on how to solve that and got partners to sign on board to help me realize it.

4. Back to Piclyf, of all the ideas you can create a web application, why create about pictures? 

Pictures have very great characteristics in them that I thought made them a very good form of communication compared to text, audio or video. They are less boring to look at, easier to make interesting, more freeform, universal and very portable. There were a lot of application that lets you share photos but each site had philosophies that were less freeform and as a consequence made it very weird or out-of-place to show off something that didn’t conform to the community.

Who came up with the idea?

It was initially my idea though it evolved greatly as I bounced it off of my co-founders and what the early users were doing. 

5. What are the high/fun moments of Piclyf as a start-up?

There were no high moments during PicLyf, it was pretty much depressing stuff after depressing stuff. Just kidding. The highs came mostly from solving problems and watching what our users do on the site.

Any moments/events that make you think of backing out from Piclyf, or from ‘start-up life’ in general?

Gosh, I never thought about quitting it but I always thought about moving the company somewhere else besides the Philippines. I wish this wasn’t true but Philippines is probably one of the most weirdest place to be a startup. The friction is huge with everything and a lot of the people you think who can help you, won’t. But I am glad we are starting to grow a community on the site, i do think it will get easier as we go along.

6. What were the biggest mistake you have done so far?

It would probably be not focusing enough on the mobile clients, we probably took a bit too much time on discovering our user experience but i still it was necessary.

7. What was the most surprising thing you have encountered while building PicLyf?

How hard it was to find the right people. We have cycled thru a total of around 40 applications, interviewed and tried 10 to 13 people and retained only 2. We still lack a couple of key hires but we believe that its better to be understaffed than being wrongly staffed.

8. You have the generalist title in the Picly’s About Us page, what are the different roles you have in Piclyf? 

I’m responsible for the vision of the startup (which changes every week or so.), the visual design, the user experience and a few other aspects of the company. BJ does all the hairy technical stuff and architecturing, Andrew handles the operation, finance and the ‘etc’s. Mark does all the magical jquery UI stuff + some modules and Sherwin is in charge of the game mechanic modules as well as a couple other ones.

Which role you like most/most passionate about?

I think it would be where I am shaping the product and designing it.

Which role you least like, if there is any?

Dealing with paperworks, and other non-product tasks.

9. Last, what music puts you in the zone to ‘work’?

Lately, its been a dose of Interpol, Radiohead, the National and new stuff from thesixtyone.com or wearehunted.com.

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The slides from his y4it event talk.

How to make the next Mark Zuckerberg in the Philippines

View more presentations from Eric Su.

Wheedly.com -- an awesome place to share your stuff

It looks like a fun time right now in the local tech scene. A lot of local web applications will be launching this quarter. And, one of them is Wheedly. According to Paolo Lim, one of the founders/developers at codecamper, I can look at the inside of it by October -- which could mean that they will open its Beta version next month.

Get your invite now at Wheedly.com to be one of the firsts to wheedly!

Meet Our Community Heroes -- Microsoft Heroes (Philippines)

Adrian Rodriguez

Jay Paloma

Jay R Barrios

Chester Coronel

Jerome Punzalan

Jacinto Limjap, Jr.

Edu Lorenzo

Glenn Gamboa

Allan Spartacus

Rodney Jao

Elcazar Adame

via microsoft.com

They are not called Community Heroes by Microsoft because they almost look like Bill Gates/Ballmer, owkeis. Well, maybe because it takes great courage to be a Microsoft developer.

Gloo.com.ph -- real-time fun collaboration tool. Think Google Wave Minus the Productivity

The first time I had a look inside Gloo.com.ph, I cannot help but liken it to Google Wave where there is like a big virtual whiteboard where everybody can write/collaborate on it at the same time, and everybody can see the changes real-time. So while Google wave is for your work, Gloo is for fun-like activities like sharing pictures and videos, notes, doodles, and cotton-candy rainbow stuff. 

Globe Broadband Plans Add-on | All-Access to Gloo from Globe Broadband on Vimeo.

But I believe it is NOT right to say that Gloo copied the real-time collaboration idea from Google Wave since it existed way back in 2008, while Google Wave launched sometime in 2009. Maybe it's more of Google found out about Gloo, and decided to make a serious version of it and then call it Wave. Well, I'm not really sure who came first or what, but one thing I'm sure is that Google was first to announce that they will no longer make any further developments on Wave (Note: Google wave is still available).

Gloo.com.ph won in the GlobeLabs Challenge 2008 for Mobile Social Networking. It is developed by Berkadoods composed of 2 dudes -- Jun Tagama and Jerome Punzalan.

Jerome Punzalan

I had a very quick chat with one of the individuals behind it, and learned that Gloo and Berkadoods just all started with GlobeLabs Challenge. They just decided to join the contest without any thing developed yet because of the big prize (300K). They developed the initial product from scratch for a month for the contest, and they even had to do it remotely since Jun Tagama had a business trip to Australia. Then, came the GlobeLabs awarding with only one of them to accept the prize since their 'barkada'/group was set to fly to Macau on the same day. 

They impressed the judges with their product concept that they wanted to commercialize it but Globe Labs could not deal with individuals, thus the 2 dudes had not much choice but to register Berkadoods (Berkadoods is the name of their barkada/group) in SEC. Thus, it took almost a year for them to finalize their contract with Globe. (Maybe SEC should have some special ruling for start-up groups that makes registration process easier and faster.) And, I guess the rest is for next-time because it's not yet history. =)

So what you can do in Gloo?

You and your friends can share pictures, doodle together -- whatever changes your friend will do on your shared space will also show up in your space. It's like having one whiteboard/corkboard where you put whatever stuff, only you do it virtually.

You can doodle together.

Add pictures/images.

Chat, then send MMS/SMS from the web. The SMS/MMS fee will be charged to the mobile number you register for your account.

And, find out more by signing up at Gloo.com.ph.

Insync -- byebye to your USB sticks. & should I drop dropbox for it?

Insychq.com. It's not a boyband, owkei. My simple description of it: It saves/backs up your google docs into your computer. If you are a google docs fan, then this will come handy. Why? This way you can access your google docs if you don't have an internet (correct me if I'm wrong), or whatever legal purpose you have in mind. If you are a dropbox fan, then it's like a dropbox plus a google integration.

I'm confusing with my above description. Let me do it again. So Insync is actually more of dropbox + google docs.

I don't like to mention dropbox when describing Insync but it's the easiest way I can explain it, so I have to deal with it. So it's like dropbox because you can install it like a local folder in your computer. Then, you can just drop any files into that folder.

local folder of Insync

local folder of Insync

Then it will sync/send/save, in the background, the files you add to the Insync folder to your google docs and/or to the Insync web 'server.'

Insync icon on ur desk tray which shows if your files are sync or not 

Once your files are in the Insync web server or 'cloud' (as what others would call it), you can then access your files from any computer as long as it has internet connection by simply logging in to your Insychq account or google docs account. So you no longer need to carry around USB sticks. =)

My files on Insync Web. 

Files added to Insync/Google Docs folder will also sync to my google docs

And, you also don't need to pass around your USB stick to your friends, or email each other files back and forth, because you can share your folder from your Insync account to your friends. So you can also use Insync as a collaboration tool.

To say goodbye to file chaos, get a beta invitation from https://www.insynchq.com and use this.

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Milo Felipe -- Thoughts from the Man Who Started a One-Man Software Company

Milo Felipe
Founder/Developer, milObjects Software




1. Based on your blog, The Art of the Start of Guy Kawasaki inspired you to start a company back in 2006, so what was the first thing you do when you start your company? Did you quit your job? Or, you started milObjects as a side project while you maintained a corporate job?

The first thing I did was file my resignation. Then during the 30 day notice period, I went through the process of registering my company. My last day was Oct 20, 2006. I didn’t have any idea what product to do when I started milObjects. I really just wanted to not be an employee. I was freelancing while I maintained a corporate job. I thought,”why not make freelancing my main job?” My goal then was to just earn the same income as my corporate job’s income. I was hoping of getting more consulting projects if I had a registered company, even if it’s a one-man sole proprietorship business.  

What was your family/friends reactions to your decision?

They we’re all supportive.

--------------------------------

2. SignAppNow (milObject's online sign-up sheet product) was launched in 2009, so what projects were you involved between 2006 and SignAppNow then also your Android applications?

I’ve been doing consulting work since I started and up to now. It is still my main (and only) source of income. SignApp Now and my android apps aren’t generating substantial revenues (yet). I do consulting to bootstrap development of SignApp Now and other product development efforts.

-------------------------------------

3. About SignAppNow, of all possible applications you can develop, why online sign up sheets?

I was consulting for a company and I was given a company email address. I noticed HR sending emails to everyone asking them to sign up to something by replying to the email. Everyone was hitting “Reply to all” so everyone was receiving all the messages. The email thread became so long as people were appending there names to the thread. I got the idea for SignApp Now from this. I thought, “What if there was a simple way to get the names of people who’d like to sign up for something?” It had to be very simple. I got the idea for the no registration required from Posterous.com. I didn’t even bother to look at there were already existing sign up sheet apps until after I released (there were some existing sign up sheet apps already). I was also learning the Grails framework that time so I was quite determined to build the app. I release a very basic version and got some positive feedback. The current app is quite simple and people are requesting for some advanced features. So watch out for version 2. =)

SignApp Now won’t definitely be the last app from milObjects. =)

4. SignAppNow has a pretty web app interface, it looks neat, eye-candy but not cluttered. (Sorry for my non-techy terms.) Are you the only one behind the interface design?

I came up with the design idea and asked a friend, Irving DelaCruz, to implement it. He’s my partner for SignApp Now.

Are there other web apps you get inspiration from when you do your design?

I get inspiration from the apps of 37signals and all the other “simple” apps out there.

Do you have someone you look up to in terms of designing?

No specific person. I just try to learn from the design of all the other apps out there.

Any books you read and can recommend when it comes to designing web interfaces?

Don’t Make Me Think, Defensive Design for the Web, articles from the web.

Any secret weapon/tool you use for designing?

None

-----------------------------------

4. How many are you in your team? What are the different roles you have to play?

milObjects is just me. I’m a one man company. For SignApp Now, it’s just me and Irving. Irving does everything involving graphics and images. I do everything else. I gave him 3% of SignApp Now.

-------------------------------

For more screenshots
of milObject's 3 Android
Apps, click here.

6. Just based on your SignAppNow, my impression is that you are an Apple fan (they’re usually so obsessed with interface design), so I’m wondering why you created android apps? Why not apps for iPhone?

I like Apple products, but I’m not a fan. I don’t buy every new Apple product that comes out. I don’t stay up late to watch Apple announcements. I had a MacBook before that lasted me for 3 years. I’m saving up for a new MacBook Pro, but I’m not in a hurry to get one. I can still work with my Asus laptop. I have a first gen iPod touch that I still use up to now (just for watching videos). I created android apps because I already know Java (android uses Java). iPhone uses Objective C and I just don’t have the time (or don’t want) to learn Objective C.

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7. As a start-up guy, what are the funny moments? Moments that inspire you to continue doing what you are doing?

I can’t think of any funny moments. I get inspired by other startup’s success stories that I read or get to know of.

Are there moments that you also feel giving it up? 

Yes, always. For example, when I think of an idea and try to do it and realize how big the scope is or how difficult it will be for a one-man team to pull off. Sometimes I think of just returning to being an employee or migrate to another country.

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8. What is your dream application to build?

I don’t have anything specific. My dream is to build something that will give me enough income to stop doing consulting work. =) It doesn’t have to be a multi-million dollar app. Just something small and easy for a 1-5 person team to maintain.

A Filipino Developer's Take on App Store -- is it another bubble?

Digital Sinigang: Beyond the App Store: "The bad news is that the AppStore is not a gold mine--with over 250,000 apps available, its going to be a long shot for an indie or a start-up to be successful. The good news is that Apple gave birth to a whole new set of other 'side' businesses that went with the AppStore revolution--you just need to be creative. Remember the saying 'don't put all your eggs in one basket'? As any entrepreneur will tell you, diversification is one of the keys to long term success. Now that you've started your own app-making business and released your first iPhone app, here are some more business ideas that 'could' go hand in hand with your long term plans."

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I first came across about iPhone Apps, or mobile apps in general, to be just another dotcom bubble from Tomi Ahone's blog. Then, came different variations of Tomi Ahone's post -- some agree and others disagree.

Then, I came across the post, Beyond the App Store, of @egarayblas of Kuyi Mobile. I think I was able to download 1 game application, Jumpbot, from them which my 2-year old boy enjoyed playing. The post somehow confirmed that making money from iPhone apps is not a walk-in-the-park. Well of course, his post is not something new. But the thing I find interesting about it is that it came straight from a Filipino iPhone app developer. It also gives me more incite on how the local tech start-up operates.

Did Smart Bought Chikka to Create their AllTxtComboPlus Service?

alltxtcomboplus.com.ph/

chikka.com

I happen to came across with these 2 sites the last week, and I cannot help but think that the team working on these 2 websites are the same. The 2 websites are like twins -- look and feel. I did not know yet that Smart bought Chikka last year so I guess that's the reason why they look the same (yaah, I'm late). In the business/marketing world, they call it branding. =)

I was fresh out of college when I first used Chikka.com -- so that's like 7-9 years ago. The unlitxt services of Telcos did not exist yet that time so it was a budget saver. Anyway, I could still remember it was like Chikka and Globe back then. So interesting why it's Smart that finally bought them.

So it looks like that here in the Philippines, you need to exist for like 10 years to be invested by a TELCO. Then, after that the TELCOS will then let you create their different kind of unlimited text/call/internet services. Exciting??? Well, if you are bought at P750 million (figure Smart paid Chikka), why not!!! 

So I guess the best way to get TELCO to buy your application is that it must give them all kinds of unlimited services.