wikiHow
I recently had lunch with Jack Herrick, a business school classmate and founder of wikiHow. Without disclosing anything I think he'd want kept private, I can I say I'm amazed at how much he and his partners have accomplished in the last couple of years with very limited resources. A for profit business, based on open source software, they have rocketed to almost 15,000 articles and an Alexa ranking nearing 2,000. Here's an interesting explanation of how they think about using open source technology and community generated content to create a business: http://www.wikihow.com/WikiHow:Is-wikiHow-a-Non-Profit

The site allows anyone to create articles and guides on how to do anything and everything you can imagine. Using much of the same software and many of the same concepts as Wikipedia, they have added more structure to makes it easier (and more fun) to create and edit the information on wikiHow. I recently created my first article for a recipe: http://www.wikihow.com/Prepare-Pimientos-De-Padron

wikiHow and its success is another testament to the power of community on the web. Check it out for some free advice or share your expertise!

uGenie
The Holidays are upon us again and it's time to do all of our gift shopping, but where o'where!?!? One good option is a new comparison shopping engine: uGenie.com, which was launched recently by Krishna Motukuri, a friend and former Amazon.com colleague. In addition to applying a lot of good Web 2.0 design principals, perhaps uGenie's neatest innovation is leeting you shop for a basket of goods across a number of retailers. They also do a much better job helping you to understand the hidden costs and discounts that you will experience at each ecommerce site.

When I was in business school in 1995-1997, we talked a lot about "low barriers to entry" and minimal "switching costs" in the emerging world of ecommerce ("everything is just a click away!"). The thinking was that this would lead to huge numbers of small sellers competing efficiently online. In reality, the first decade of online shopping saw a relatively small number of retailers dominate the majority of sales. This is because only a handful were truly competitive with offline channels on price, selection, and service.

This is changing, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out on 11/16/06 in an article titled "Web Pioneers eBay and Amazon Face a Threat From Older Retailers." I believe that the 2006 holiday season is shaping up as one of the first years where large numbers of consumers will really want to shop around at a number of etailers. This, combined with the fact that most comparison shopping engines fall short on creating apples to apples comparisons, means that uGenie is a perfectly timed gift!

Yelp!

I spent a couple of years at Amazon.com building a Yellow Pages application and though we came up with a number of cool features, we never realized the full potential for the space. Yelp.com, one of the startups in the space has continued to execute very well and really wrapped a lot of social content into the experience.

I'm really impressed with the work they have done. Check out my profile here: http://barnaby.yelp.com.

Cool Wast of Time

I just discovered this site, Likebetter.com, where you choose what you like better between two images after 10-20 choices, the site guesses things about you. It's sort of like a personality test. I signed up and have chosen quite a few. One of the features allows you to be compared to a friend. Click here to see how similar we are: http://likebetter.com/areyoulike/bdorfman

Blogging 2 Days in a Row!!!

One of the things I've been experimenting with is http://www.prosper.com, it's a community based lending service. Really interesting stuff, check it out. I funded a few hundred bucks into my account and am testing out making a few loans. It's very well organized and could become a great alternative for both borrowers and lenders to cut out a lot of the spread currently collected by the banks.

The other thing I did recently was to post a short documentary on Youtube.com. It's somthing I shot with a few friends in Seattle four years ago. We spent a day at Pike Place Market shooting street performers doing their acts and then interviewing them. Since my childhood in New York, I've always been fascinated by street performers and wanted to better understand the life behind the acts. Give it a watch and let me know what you think.

Fall Post...

I continue to do a poor job of posting frequently, so here are a few high level updates.

Still living in Palo Alto and working for Peerflix.com as VP of Product. Most recently been traveling for work a fair amount including a media tour to New York and then a trip to LA to attend the Digital Hollywood conference. The ongoing explosion of video and user generated content on the web is amazing. As much growth as we've seen this year with YouTube, I predict even more growth in 2007. In particular, I expect we will see more subject matter specific user generated video content. Furthermore, the tools for creating and sharing will improve dramitically beyond the current 10 minute/100 Mb limits. Some of the interesting sites/companies I recently learned about:

http://www.dabble.com
http://www.click.tv
http://www.guba.com
http://www.pando.com
http://www.dave.tv
http://www.jumpcut.com

Earlier this year Sheri and I started Avenida to import leather handbags from Argentina. Here are a few videos I created during a buying trip in February...





Well, that's about it for now, I'll try to be better about posting...really, I will!!!

Oh Canada!


I spent last week working at the development offices of my new company, Peerflix, in Vancouver, BC. The more time I spend in Canada, the more I like it. What's not to like.....Friendly people, low prices, great food, and beautiful geography, all in a modern, efficient city. Our offices are located in a dowtown area called Yaletown, which was new to me and I found exceptionally likeable. It's a former industrial area that has been revitalized and now has a wonderful variety of restaurants, shops, cafes, and offices...it reminds me a bit of Greenwich Village in my native NY.

Vancouver is currently going through a construction boom, fueled in large part part by the fact that the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver. Much of the construction is of high-rise condominiums, that are often sold-out long before construction is complete. I really like the architectural style of what they are building and how it is intermixed with the older structures. The city is hilly, has many waterways and is flanked by abrupt, snow covered mountains....all combining to create a magical look and feel.

Peerflix.com and Sundance

Well, I have a new job as vice president of product for Peerflix. A cool site for trading DVD with other people. After nearly seven years with Amazon.com, I'm very excited about the opportunity to work in a small company again.

I started a couple of weeks ago and immediately left for the 2006 Sundance Film festival. This was my 6th time attending the festival, but this time I actually brought my video camera to document a bit of the experience. I've posted a short video on Youtube.com, a very cool new site that is like Flickr, but for video. Check it out:



You can also see a few of my Sundance film reviews and posts on the Peerflix Blog: Day 1 and Day 2