Disney Studios was started with a rat, er, mouse that is.

Happy 2008 to you too. Hope you were somewhere other than the Seattle (dud of a fireworks) show.

Happy 2008. I'm looking forward to the new Zoodango. When will it be up?

Zoodango's launch date is Feb 26th.

Nice. What about your TV show with aimee trotter and others on discussing modern-day business...Vibe 180 was it?

Happy 2008 to you as well James. Looking forward to the new product.

Hi James
From what I’m reading it seems like Zoodango’s mission has morphed more towards the concept of party planning. In that regard, you might want to check out partypop.com as a successful model for such a site. They benefit from the myriad of small local party businesses that pay to have a presence on their site, and they’ve expanded that simple concept nationally. They even have a 3D virtual Online Bridal Show portal.

Zoodango could be seen as a classier version of this idea. You can still retain the “social networking” aspects of Zoodango, but this may be a tried and true way of achieving a positive cash flow.

Ilya, we only got through pilot episodes of Vibe 180. I may show the rough cuts of all the pilots on my personal website. We are using this pilot series as a way to pitch to networks.

Paul, thanks for the tip. Zoodango is focusing on building a smart, cool, and fun way to meet up with friends. Our first application will be similar to online invitation services (like Evite), except that we've built a very smart engine that helps you decide where and when to meet up based on who is invited. Zoodango will also incorporate venue information into the system with reviews and community around your local venues. Maybe it's a matter of symantics, but rather than party planning, we are providing technology that helps people search and find answers for social outcomes.

HI James -

Are you tracking preferences left by guests on how well like they like certain venues or are you data mining different venue websites. Are you suggesting venues based upon residence?

I'm anxious to see your methodology.

Jeff, great questions. We will be releasing a white paper on our technology fairly soon. But to answer your questions at a high level, we will take a combination approach of using 1) aggregate community data (ie: how well do other Seattle folks like the venue for a certain activity?) 2) personal preference data, 3) user interaction data, 4) and location data. By using a neural network design, the system will learn and start behaving similar to how a human chooses location, day of the week, and time of the day information.

So from what I'm gleaning, you're using AI technologies.

This is going to be cool.

Cool, hip, and smart....

Jeff, our goal is to provide a smarter alternative to evite. As a tech entrepreneur, I can't stand the lack of innovation from them. You saw what happened to the 1.0 Portals... they got eaten by Google's innovation and technical superiority. We saw what happened to Myspace as Facebook built a better mousetrap.

Zoodango is attempting to challenge evite as well by offering a superior solution. We are essentially offering community features with actual SMARTS combined with venue integration....none of which evite does well. So, use Zoodango and tell your friends about it by inviting them to your next get-together through Zoodango.

I would be interested sometime in seeing how the project management process would work under that large scale of a project. I'm working on research for a dissertation on intrepenurial aspects of project management and this sounds like it would be an intersting case study.

i thought vibe180 was going to be a zoodango sponsored events? I was really looking forward to it!

Marylee1125, after filming vibe180, we realized that zoodango was not the best place to show it from a branding standpoint. As soon Zoodango is moving more into the area of competing with evite...we felt the show does not integrate well. We will show the pilot very soon. Either way, you'll be able to watch it.

I had no idea Zoodango was moving into the Evite business model. Was this a new development? We’ve used Evite for years and it has a sizeable amount of features, articles and promotions, not to mention advertisers and solid branding (perfect name). James, you have your work cut out for you.

Paul, I agree 100% that we've got our work cut out for us. Zoodango will not aim to go into the party planning business. I talked with the VC's who backed Evite, and the whole model is about party planning products and services. Evite has also received much criticism for a lack of innovation and lack of community type features.

We will be attacking the market....not necessarily for the home barbeque parties, but for people who want to meetup with friends at venues. We will have a very smart engine that actually helps people decide where and when to meet up.....and we also will integrate venue information right into the invite process.

Before Google, everyone thought Yahoo and MSN could not be beat. Before Facebook, no one thought Myspace could be beat. With innovation and great technology, we believe we can grab serious market share. All I ask is that people try Zoodango's invite engine before they make their decisions. You are absolutely right in that some people will always want to use Evite because they are comfortable with it.....but I also know a lot of people who want a smart and fun alternative.

There's always room for a new #1. Just saw on the business news that Starbuck's is losing ground to Macdonald's, of all companies. Macdonald's is even planning to add coffee lounges to some of their locations. I admire your drive, keep innovating.

Thanks Paul. We will do our best....our whole goal is to keep challenging the status quo and creating innovation for the consumer. Zoodango's biggest differentiator...the thing that we'll be known for....the topic at the cocktail party will be our "Ask Zoodango" feature. Even if people want to use some other site for the invitation part, they can still "Ask Zoodango" for recommendations on place and time based on who will be invited. We believe that the Ask Zoodango will be so compelling that people will go ahead and create their invitation with us as an easy step #2.

Hey James I was wondering...have you looked into things linked Linked in and Spoke that attract so many people? I'm wondering why so many people have profiles on linkedin but not here...

What will zoodango do to try and also gain the membership of those kinds of people?

Ilya, we've got some big plans....but we are not going after the same market as Linkedin. Instead of just being a social network, we've been working on technology that is in the arena of "social search" which is simply search for social outcomes. We built "Ask Zoodango" to answer these questions. We have integration plans with Open Social and Facebook to increase the usage....however, we don't want to just offer a social networking profile....we want to be different in our profiles....our profiles will help our users take advantage of "Ask Zoodango" instead of just creating a profile and linking with friends. Does this move us away from purely professional networking...yes it does, but professionals can use the site just as well to set up meet ups. But, Zoodango will be really about lifestyle. I think everyone will love the new Zoodango.

Hmmm...another issue that's come up...

Will there be any way to stop users from using the blog function as blatant advertising? Correct me if I'm wrong but these networking-type sites collect revenue from advertisers paying to place their advertisements on the site. Will Zoodango 2.0 be implementing any sort of feature to prevent "bloggers" simply getting free advertising? I know it's infuriated me on more than one occasion to the point that I wanted to leave a nasty comment about freeloading advertisters. It just screams with the cheapness that I see when I see a paper stapled to a powerline pole in real life and it might have bumped off an interesting blog.

I have no problems with people embedding advertising in their blogs that have to do with something OTHER than advertising, as I believe I have embedded my resume once when I was frustrated at HR people and the obstacle in my life to find employment for myself, as an addon to anyone who cared. Also, I know some of the people on my zoolinks do that who I admire greatly, but sometimes I just see blogs along the lines of:

<<Unmentioned firm's>> business strategy is "etc etc etc..." and the blog didn't even leave room for comments, not even disguising its intent to advertise, and the very same "blog" was posted *twice*, verbatim might I add, simply to stay on those three blogs on the bottom of the page longer.

As a developing professional, I like to read the blogs to gain insight into the lives of other professionals and see how the real world is from their experiences and learn from their experiences, rather than read advertisements all day for services I don't need. I hope this issue is addressed.

Thanks!

-Ilya ^_^

Hi James
I actually get a kick out of reading other peoples’ attempts at self-promotion on the blogs. The more blatant, the more entertaining. I find them instructive and a good business exercise to study other peoples’ tactics, and gives Zoodango added value for that reason.

I believe you should go exactly the opposite way as certain individuals suggest and expand the blog section. That feature is now perhaps the biggest attraction on the site. That way, entrepreneurial self-promoters can co-exist with chit chatters that prefer to write existential musings on the existence of God, whether the Seahawks will win this year, etc, etc, and everybody is happy.

If Zoodango were to impose restrictions or arbitrary charges on people reaching out and trying to make initial business contacts, as certain short-sighted individuals would suggest, then you run the risk of people abandoning Zoodango and simply switching to the hundreds of other more business-friendly sites.

What this site desperately needs is content of all kinds. Even free, user-generated content that provides pure entertainment value as well as a serious business exchanges. I was even preparing to launch a business-related gag cartoon like Dilbert for Zoodango.

Even wealthy real estate execs like Morna Mcgann, that are rich enough to live in Jupiter Florida, are savvy enough to engage in free guerilla marketing on Zoodango. I think getting eyeballs from quality individuals like that are worth fifty website lounge lizards and a step in the right direction.