Release 2.1.2 (Hoverazee)
May 27, 2010
We got up early today … and released version 2.1.2 on Amazee.com. It’s called “Hoverazee” and it contains what the name is telling: cool new hover effects!
If you see a user or a group in the right sidebar, you can now just move your mouse over it to get more information about this item and even directly perform some actions. So it is, for example, much easier for a group member to invite visitors to this group.
But there is more in this release!
- We restyled and aggregated the profile and account settings. Now it is more like a wizard, where you can easily change all your profile information and account settings in one place.
- The first page in the search now aggregates the top groups and users, it also got some restyling.
- After some hardware and software speed improvements, we are also improving the code to make Amazee faster. The first bunch of improvements is now included, but there is much more to come in the future!
- And of course – as always – many small bug fixes and style improvements.
We’d love to hear from you what you think about our new features. Just leave us a comment or write us an email to support(AT)amazee(DOT)com.
The Hub Zürich info event @Sphères
May 27, 2010
After a short introduction round with an impressive bunch of visitors from the private and the governmental sector, Niels, Michel and Hagen gave us an overview of The Hub Zurich‘s plans. With roots in London, the young Hub network is rapidly spreading all over the world (to places as far as Zurich and Kabul!).
The goal of The Hub is to gather socialpreneurs (= people who aim to solve social challenges with an entrepreneurial approach) in locally organized office spaces. Or in other words: Provide a fruitful ecosystem for socialpreneurs to share and drive their ideas from intent to action – kind of a physical Amazee.
The Hub Zurich is going to be incorporated as an association and placed in Zurich’s brand new Viadukt. Grand opening is scheduled for January 2011. Among the first sponsoring partners are prominent organizations like the WWF – however, some more cash will be required to get the nascent hub to blossom. If you would like to contribute, sponsor or profit – here on Amazee you can stay tuned and contact the founders and their community of changemakers.
Crowdsource a car? Why not?
May 25, 2010
In the German news magazine Der Spiegel I stumbled upon this interesting story: If you don’t like the cars the industry has to offer and you are disgruntled with the way things work in the business, why not go ahead and build your own car? And I am not talking about a funky self-made mashup of a horse carriage and a 1970s eastern european piece of Socialism on wheels. Local Motors is the real thing!
One of the many problem the automotive industry is still facing today is the high cost of development. Local Motors, established in 2008, gets rid of this cost factor, simply by crowdsourcing the design and technical development. Since starting the enterprise, their design competitions have generated some 60,000 different suggestions. Once all submissions are in, the community, consisting of over 6,000 users, most of whom have worked in the business before, votes on the designs.
The first car to be build will be handed over to its owner in the fall. Local Motors, based in Massachusetts, plans to build in micro-factories all across the United States which will produce cars in small numbers. We think, it’s a very interesting approach to an old business, however, they fail to set a sign by coming out with an eco-friendly first model. Their “Rally Fighter” has a three Liter, six cylinder engine which runs on Diesel. An average fuel consumption is not given on Local Motor’s site. Read more about the company at Der Spiegel in German and at Wired in English. Picture by livinonimpulse, licensed CC.
Welcome Livia!
May 20, 2010
We have a new team member! Please give a warm welcome to Livia. She studies Computer Science and is doing an internship with us for a couple of weeks. While here, she will be support the Tech team of Lucas and Michael. Glad to have you with us, Livia!
Take our new e-participation survey!
May 19, 2010
Just a quick announcement from our scientific department to let you know that we have today released a survey regarding your e-participation habits. This one is being conducted in cooperation with the Idheap institute of the University of Lausanne and will take no more than ten minutes of your time. We’d greatly appreciate your input and it will surely earn you heaps of gratitude from our side! So, if you are ready, this way, please!
Wuala in the UX Chuchi
May 18, 2010
Yesterday was Wuala‘s turn to get its usability chuckholes uncovered in the UX Chuchi. From the folder color, to sharing principles, to finding the right positioning between a social sharing platform and an online backup platform – we discussed it all; and while everybody agreed that less functionalities would do, nobody really wanted to commit to eliminating his favourite parts of Wuala! Next to suffer the heat of the UX catharsis: Koaaba. RSVP just over here
Hi-Calorie greetings from the Big Apple
May 17, 2010
Our colleague Michael went to New York on holiday and all we got is this überamazee ton of white and orange M&Ms! Yeehah, cheers, mate! (It is actually a lot bigger than it looks in the picture!)
Jacaranda Feelgood – our first Co-branded!
May 12, 2010
Today we proudly present you with our first co-branded “Customized Base” solution, Jacaranda FM’s Feelgood platform! If you check out the screenshot above, you’ll see that it actually looks a lot like your good old Amazee site. The co-branded solution we offer is designed to give maximum reach to our customers by docking it to the Amazee mother at affordable prices.
So, this is what Jacaranda FM opted for. The South African radio station is part of the Kagiso Media group and is one of the largest regional private broadcasters. They want to engage their listening audience in Social Action, for example the station’s own “Winter Warmer” group.
Thus, we painted Amazee purple and lilac, but apart from that, Jacaranda’s Feelgood is pretty much like the mothership: One who has signed up with Jacaranda can easily go explore groups on the Amazee side and vice versa. It’s like a cool Stargate version that brings you the best of both worlds: Jacaranda groups are shown on Amazee, on Jacaranda in turn you can filter groups by platform!
We are proud to be associated with Jacaranda FM and Kagiso and are eager to see some online Social Action happening across the globe. Feel free to get involved in what’s happening down South!
