The Amazee Blog

13:03 – Uh oh, the first users are starting to complain. So, here it is again: We are currently updating Amazee.com, this is why you are being redirected here if you have tried to reach www.amazee.com. This is a big release and therefore requires, unfortunately, a considerable downtime of a couple of hours. Tech is working as quickly as possible and so far things are going smoothly. By the end of the European day we should be able to present the all new Amazee to you, including a new start page, new project setup and a lot of behind-the-scenes technical improvements. Please excuse the inconvenience and bear with us!

11:22 – While Vasi is doing some work, the rest of the team is going for an early lunch. Keep your fingers crossed it stays that way. Well, not Vasi doing all the work and the others munching away, you know what I mean …

10:53 – For now, everything is quiet in the office. Like any other Monday. Will things run this smoothly all day long?

10:15 – Lucas is reeeeally focused. He doesn’t even stay in Skype group chats in order not to get distracted. The rest of the team exchanges respectful looks in the face of his professionalism.

10:00 – Tiiiiiiiiime tooooo say goodbyeeeeee!

G’day Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the great Amazee release blog post, my name is Mathias and I will be your host for today. While the Amazee tech team is getting pumped for the release that will bring you an all new Amazee, I’ll explain. At this moment (10 a.m. in The Old World) we are taking good old site offline and start working on implementing the new site. I have no idea what it is exactly Vasi, Michael and Lucas are going to do within the next hours, but I imagine it must look something like this:

Seriously: Since this is going to take a couple of hours, we decided to redirect you to our blog, which is probably why you are reading this. My job is to keep you updated in irregular intervals about how things are going. Watch out for updates in this post, on Twitter and on Facebook. The sweat, the tears, the nervous breakdowns – I shall spare no detail!

This post was written by Mathias Möller | No Comments »

This is a (public) service announcement! As most of you might have heard via Newsletter or other channels, the next Amazee generation is on its way. On this coming Monday, March, 15, we will release an almost all new Social Collaboration platform, with a new start page, new project setup and loads of behind-the-scenes improvements.

However, this means that Amazee.com will be down for a considerable time on Monday while we release. The Tech department will start to move things at around ten o’clock in the morning, Central European Time. We are aiming at being back in the afternoon around four o’clock, but of course we will keep you up to date here as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

(Picture: Mr. Thomas, CC)

This post was written by Mathias Möller | No Comments »

Geeks, Nerds and Dorks are sexy. This truth has been well-established over the last years (and if we have contributed to it is yours to judge), and finally, here’s the hymn. Enjoy!

(Get the background information at TechCrunch.)

This post was written by Mathias Möller | 2 Comments »

The Web Mondays in Zurich are really becoming a capacity test for startup offices: Last night about seventy Web worker, Upstarts and young entrepreneurs attended the 13th installment of Zurich’s most important meetup for small Internet-related business. However, the masses were well accomodated by the still fairly new Wuala offices (thanks again for hosting!)

The presenters, Hyperweek of Geneva as well as iMusicianDigital and Oskope from Zurich, who also provided snacks and drinks, used their moment in the spotlight well to introduce their products. Raphaël Briner presented the Community solutions provider Hyperweek with a shot of extravaganza, while Shigs Amemiya of iMusicianDigital gave a brief, but enlightening overview over the history of digital music. Their service provides distribution of digital music files to many online stores for musicians. The presentations part was rounded of by a short introduction of the image search engine Oskope by Alain Leclerc.

Before and afterwards the really nice Wuala office was bustling with chitchat of the startuppers. It’s been a good night once more to exchange and catch up with everybody. And with the attendee numbers being high as they are, it seems like the Web Monday is definitely here to stay. The next event will soon be set up, of course you will hear of it on Amazee.

If you have blogged about the event or taken pictures, feel free to drop a link in the comments and of course on the project wall! You can find a couple of pictures on our flickr site as well.

This post was written by Mathias Möller | 1 Comment »

Here’s a funny video explaining (in German) how a movement is started. From the innovator to the early adopters, to the followers. Basically what you see is exactly how any Social Website (or, for that matter any other innovation) works.

(Via Twitter.)

This post was written by Mathias Möller | 1 Comment »

But we had the great pleasure to welcome the green soul of Berlin, eco-pop performance artist HolK (in the middle) for a first brainstorm on how we can support his noble cause – after he won our latest contest. Please dare to leave a comment if you know who the friendly guys on the left and the right side are.

This post was written by Gregory Gerhardt | 2 Comments »

Wow, these are fast, but good times for Amazee! Last night we launched our third customized platform, this time for German TV channel ProSieben. This platform is part of the Your FlashForward page, which in turn accompanies the American TV series FlashForward. Last night the pilot aired in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and so did our little contribution.

FlashForward is about a scenario in which all men on Earth fall into unconsciousness for a little over two minutes and have a vision of what their life will be like on April, 29th, 2010. On our Your FlashForward site users can plan whatever special action they want to take on April 29th – all in the good old-fashioned Amazee project style. After all, this is what FlashForward is all about: not giving in to fate and changing one’s own luck.

We are quite content with the way the platform turned out and we sure hope you like it as well! Last night we kicked of both the launch and the series with a night at the office, FlashForward surely is a program to watch. If you dig crime stories with a slightly paranormal touch, then this is your kind of thing!

This post was written by Mathias Möller | 2 Comments »

Last Friday Amazee launched its second customized platform, Intergeneration.ch. The President of the Swiss National Council Pascale Bruderer Wyss is the patron of the new platform that aims to connect generations. Or in her own words:

“Wherever young and old meet, the enormous potential within our society is especially evident. It is wonderful that so many towns, organisations and even individual people have recognised this fact, and devote their time – mostly in a voluntary capacity – to this issue. As a result, there are many fascinating projects going on in Switzerland that encourage communication between the generations and provide all sorts of opportunities for exchanging ideas.

On this site you will be able to discover the inter-generation projects that are on offer in your area, and how you can get actively involved. But that’s not all; you will also be able to learn about projects all around the country, assess their value, exchange ideas about them with other people, make new acquaintances and launch new ideas together.”

If you’re interested, found out more on Intergeneration.ch!

On Friday we announced the platform at a press conference in the Bundeshaus in Berne. It was an interesting and a nice experience to sit on the podium with some great women! :)

Above you see Pascale Bruderer Wyss, President of the Swiss National Council and Annemarie Huber-Hotz, President of Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft, who is the owner of the new platform.

Here the entire podium…

… and here is Monika Blau, Project Responsible at Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft next to me.

Thanks a lot to everybody involved! We are very happy and proud that Amazee is part of this positive project platform for Switzerland. Thanks also to Sandro Huber for the pics!

This post was written by Dania Gerhardt | 1 Comment »