iamhawaii.com

[808golfer]

Any thoughts on this site, iamhawaii.com.

Looks like a google rip off to me.

[pzarquon]

Re: iamhawaii.com

Never heard of it.

Google is definitely the model for the sparse design, but it doesn't seem to be like Google at all. Looks like just another aggregator site that polls various sources (local publications, directory information) to get marginally useful results. They seem to maintain their own pool of "shop" listings and events.

Information submission seems awfully labor intensive. I also wonder what the link is with PacificBasin Communications, which publishes the three magazines currently used for article content.

[scrivener]

Re: iamhawaii.com

PacificBasin Communication is listed as the domain-holder.

[zztype]

Re: iamhawaii.com

PacificBasin Communication is listed as the domain-holder.

http://www.pacificbasin.net/

That's the magazine hui owned by Duane Kurisu and Co.

[Cameron]

Re: iamhawaii.com

sites dead

[mel]

Re: iamhawaii.com

Here are a couple more directory and links type sites/pages for Hawaii:

The Hawaii Directory - seems to be a new one.
http://www.the-hawaii-directory.com/

Panther's Cave - this has been around since the dawn of the web
http://www.nahenahe.net/panther/hawaii.html

Long ago there used to a place called Three Shields Hawaii.

Know of any others?

[zztype]

Re: iamhawaii.com

Site's not dead. It's right here: http://www.iamhawaii.com/

If you click the link "About IAmHawaii.com" you'll see what they're up to. No big deal.

Blaine

[pzarquon]

Re: iamhawaii.com

"Coming soon... Forums, public discussions, blogs."

Everybody else is doing it, so why can't we?

"IamHawaii TV"

Well, PacificBasin Communications already does print and radio, so why not?

[Erika Engle]

Re: iamhawaii.com

More for the back-story than anything else:

Ex-Honolulu Magazine editor resurfaces -- at same company
http://starbulletin.com/2005/07/29/business/engle.html

Honolulu Magazine appoints editor
http://starbulletin.com/2005/07/30/b...bizbriefs.html

[pzarquon]

Re: iamhawaii.com

Looks like "I am Hawaii" has officially launched! Our dear Erika has an update in this morning's Star-Bulletin:

Entrepreneur Kurisu starts Internet portal iamhawaii.com

The Web portal is not geared to visitors, Tanouye said. Rather, it is a way to "utilize technology to help people of Hawaii share experiences," and to build community, he said... At the moment, the content on iamhawaii.com is from aio publications, including Honolulu, Hawaii Business and Hawaii Home + Remodeling magazines. "But this is just a starting point," Tanouye said.

Erika also got a quote from some dork who runs some message board. Though before Kurisu puts me on a blacklist or something, I should say I said a lot more (darn space constraints!), but the story really was about what Kurisu wants to do moreso than what he's got right now, anyway.

I can appreciate what "I am Hawaii" is going for. It's ambitious in scope (MySpace/Global Pau Hana meets Yelp/Yahoo! Local meets your typical magazine/newsaper content portal, plus sports plus ecommerce plus...), and its mission certainly hits all the right points about community, collaboration, connections, contributions. Web 2.0, baby! And it'll most certainly benefit from the existing content from other properties.

But "Web 2.0" feels a lot like Web 1.0 lately, particularly in the return to "portals" and sites that do everything rather than one or two things really well. And the new model where users are expected to create all the interesting content for you? Might work if you're YouTube, but otherwise I think you do have to invest some of your own time and infuse some of your own character to give a new "community" a foundation to build on. You can't just leave an open sandbox and drag in some recycled content for color. You gotta get in there and share, connect, and inspire, too.

"I Am Hawaii" sure has grown since it first came up here and got dismissed as "a google rip off," so I'm certain there's a lot more to come. And hey, for all my skepticism, I signed up (as "hawaii," of course!). Can't resist that social networking thing. So join, be my friend, and let's see what they come up with next.

[pzarquon]

Re: iamhawaii.com

Well, I can't find a way to submit site feedback over there, so I'll share my initial comments here...

You can send and receive messages to other users, but the message system is missing a "Reply" button. (A minor oversight there, eh?) I had to go back to a user's profile to send a separate message.

Almost everyone's listed home state is "Ha." If they wanted the two-letter abbreviation when you sign up, they should say so. It'd be even better if they just let you enter whatever you want.

The site sends e-mail notifications, but they're the "Log in to see!" sort that increases pageviews at the expense of actually being useful to users. Why not tell me who is sending a friend request? Why not give me an encrypted link that lets me say yes or no immediately? And if they've sent me a message, why not include the message text, instead of making me log in to see it (and still be unable to reply to it)?

The site boasts a "business directory" (mostly syndicated data from Acxiom that's used by other similar portals), but I can't find a way to browse it. At first I thought there were only five businesses listed (its "most popular" entries). But if I search for Zippy's, I get seven pages of phonebook results. What if I just want to review or "favorite" Zippy's as a whole? Do I have to pick the one at 44 Oneawa Honolulu, HI 96813?

The site collects all kinds of fun profile information -- from high school to favorite movies -- but unlike most social networking sites, these entries aren't 'pivot' links to help you find others who've listed the same answers. Being able to search by listed high school would be a particularly popular feature in Hawaii.

More fundamentally, if the site is billing itself as a place to interact and contribute, it needs more places to do so. Right now I can "favorite" articles from a fixed set of sources (PacBasin publications), I can leave comments on other users' profiles, and "favorite" and review businesses (see above). But where else can I interact with others? Or, you know, post comments like these? Kind of hard to have a wide-ranging conversation on one person's profile, or under one business' random phonebook entry. Most social network systems have topical 'groups,' at least, or profiles that are really just concepts or brands that people can gravitate toward.

I'm enjoying looking at profiles and getting friend requests, but the place needs more shave ice syrup to make it sticky.

[tutusue]

Re: iamhawaii.com

[...]Long ago there used to a place called Three Shields Hawaii.[...]

Just stumbled upon this thread so sorry for the belated reply!

Anyway...Three Shields Hawaii! There's a name from the past. I wonder whatever happened to it...and where Dan is now! That was one of the first sites I perused on the web at least 11 years ago. I think I even got Dan in for an audition or 2!

[rox]

Re: iamhawaii.com

After reading these and doing a *very* quick look-see on the site, what struck me is that it is "big business" trying to build top down (and ride the social networking bandwagon??) as compared to users getting together for a reason. It's all about the energy in a sense. As you said Ryan, where is the heart?

Although someone's got heart as it looks like most ratings are 5 star.

[Quark]

Re: iamhawaii.com

This feels like a Global Pau Hana engine. I signed up just so that I can add my one and only friend, Ryan Ozawa. I also signed up to see what sort of stickiness the iamhawaii crew comes up with. Global Pau Hana maintained a degree of stickiness by having an instigator in each city pull together real world meetups every so often. I am curious to see if that is something that gets implemented at iamhawaii. Only time will tell whether they acheive critical mass.

Burt

[pzarquon]

Re: iamhawaii.com

Hey, Rox! Good to find you here.

We're likely of the same mind. When I read the official press release, I was imagining it as the output of a "Web 2.0 Buzz Generator" -- some kind of Silicon Valley Mad Libs. I have no doubt they want all those cool things (social networking! community building! music and sports promotion! grassroots organizing! genuine voices! real people!), and those things are achieved to varying degrees of success out there, but you don't get them by throwing specs or vague concepts at some coders in India or Asia. To foster real voices, you have to have one in the first place. And before you try to do everything, you should be able to do one or two things well.

Right now, logging into Iamhawaii.com is like walking into a decently appointed but otherwise empty playroom. It's bright and clean, but it doesn't feel like anyone's in charge, no one's encouraging anyone to do anything (stock "prompts" like "fill out your profile" don't count), and each of the many, many toys lying around is missing a part or two. And as this thread demonstrates, there's no feedback mechanism or any sense that anyone's listening.

There's a lot of potential, but I wouldn't have drafted a slickly-worded promise-the-sky press release based on what they've got now. It's alpha release caliber at best, and some real testing should've come before the article in the paper. There's a lot of talent in the companies and people linked to this venture, but web communities is obviously not their forte.