Unquiet Desperation

A week ago, I asked for people to submit some topics that they’d like to hear me write about. Some of my comrades in the Cleveland Programming Wasteland chimed in, wanting to know how I wound up working for Mahalo.

In a word, podcasting.

No, really.

Desperation, Quiet to Unquiet

When the podcasting community started to form in late 2004/early 2005, I was working for a small development firm in Medina. While I enjoyed the work, I wanted to do something more creative in my off time, and because of that, I got into podcasting. My first contact was with Evo Terra, who at that time was the co-host of The Dragonpage. He mentioned his idea for serialized audiobooks delivered via RSS, and dubbed them Podiobooks. At the time, Podiobooks.com was a simple site with five books on the front page.
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Well, you’ve seen me alluding to the big project I’ve been on since late November of last year, and now I can finally talk about it.

In Cleveland, we have a local non-profit called Jumpstart that works to pair investors with entrepreneurs to grow local businesses. About a year ago we¹ started talking to them about an idea they had which would allow these folks as well as service providers and business mentors to put profiles into a system and then, not unlike a job search or dating site, would match all of these folks on the basis of compatibility.

The final result is IdeaCrossing.

IdeaCrossing allows an entrepreneur, investor, service provider, or business mentor create profiles for their business. if you are an entrepreneur or an investor, each night an engine runs which match you with your opposite. Investors then have the choice of contacting the entrepreneurs to learn more and perhaps take the working relationship to the next level². Service providers (non-profits or businesses offering a service for a fee) can enter their information into a directory where folks can get in touch with them. Business Mentors will be matched with suitable investors, so that they may impart their wisdom to the next generation.

Additionally, there are syndicated and local news articles, a full events calendar, and in the next version there will be discussion forums and user-submitted white papers and articles.

I’ve been the tech lead and one of the architects on the project, and I have to be honest: I believe this to be my best work to date. I cannot take credit for every line of code: I had a solid team³ of talented and dedicated developers to manage. Even though it’s been a lot of extra time at the office, I have to admit: this project really excites me. The possibilities and ramifications of being able to put businesses in touch with one another on such a granular level could be very powerful if people take advantage of it. And if it can help Ohio pull itself out of the economic gutter…well…I’ll be proud to say that I had a hand in it.

Location: http://www.ideacrossing.org

Client: JumpStart, via Optiem

Technologies used: ASP.NET/C# 2.0, MSSQL 2005 + Reporting Services, Elise, Ektron

Site Launch: January 25, 2007

1. We=Optiem[back]
2. In keeping with the dating analogy, I suppose[back]
3. Kudos to Adam, Andrew, Bran, Mike[back]