Tara Hunt, one of Jimmy's old friends Options

[thekohser]

I stumbled across this video today, an interview between Tara Hunt and Jimmy Wales. (Thanks to what appears to be a botched editing job, you'll want to let the video run for about 40 seconds before paying attention.)

Ms. Hunt describes Jimmy as one of her friends and heroes, though it's been so long since they last chatted, she thought he still lived in San Francisco, unaware that (Golden Acres) Florida is where he puts down roots now.

I got to researching just what Tara Hunt does for a living, and it's difficult to understand how she pays the bills. She apparently identifies as a "consultant", running a website called HorsePigCow.com, which according to Alexa reaches about one-half the people and garners about one-fifth the page views that Wikipedia Review does.

She claims to have founded Citizen Agency, but then left it in early 2009, and they haven't blogged about themselves since October 2007.

When Tara and Jimmy were both living in San Francisco, they "could never see each other there", but they would meet up in Paris or London, at conferences and such.

Seriously, what is the means of income for someone like Tara Hunt? I didn't spy a wedding band.

Other tidbits:

04:10 -- Jimmy Wales: "I have a friend who is a TV host in Saudi Arabia. And she..."

05:16 -- Jimmy Wales' copy of the book, The Victorian Internet, was given to him by Marc Andreesen. Marc used to date his co-founder of Ning, Gina Bianchini, whom we've discussed here before, but has recently stepped down from Ning... into Marc's venture capital firm.

For more of my thoughts on this video snippet, you may join the conversation here.

[thekohser]

Just received this automated e-mail from Tara Hunt:

Okay, okay, so the name SHWOWP sucks...then help us find a new one!

The Story Behind This

We've known it for a long time now...people just don't like/respect/wanna say/feel warm and fuzzy about the name Shwowp. It's kind of the victim of a bad mashup much like an equally hated word (Syner...won't say the rest). We thought it would be descriptive (WOW in SHOP), but instead it rolls off the tongue like a fuzzy sandwich.

It was already in the works to change the name. We came up with this bright idea EONS ago...but Tara was all, like, "Let's do it when we raise our Angel round as a new unveil!" Well, it seems people just don't want to wait that long. It's just *that* offensive.

The truth is, we don't have a gabillion dollars to go out and bid on awesome, fancy names yet. But that doesn't mean we don't already have options lined up. We've bought a few URLS over the past few months that are actually pretty nifty (or we think so, but we *did* come up with Shwowp, so...) and we thought we've decided to throw it out there to see if they resonate with everyone. We've also left a spot open for your own suggestions.

We can't offer up a fancy prize yet, but can say that we will have a reward in the future for someone who comes up with the 'winning' name. In the meantime, you will get all sorts of love, attention, adoration and whuffie.

The Parameters

These are some of the things on our wishlist for the future name:

- It should be fairly short (under 10 characters for sure, under 5 would rock)
- It should be kind of descriptive (shopping, taste, persona, style - something that says "This is the stuff I buy that says a little bit about who I am") (to understand what we are about, watch this: http://www.vimeo.com/15847235.)
- It should be able to be made into a verb (Shwowp can be Shwowpping and Shwowpper)
- It needs to be available or inexpensive to bid on (under $500) Check it on GoDaddy.com or NetworkSolutions.com

So...get creative! And thank you in advance for still using Shwowp, talking about it and being overall awesome!

Go here to take the survey: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?fo...2ZjVvTlVjRkE6MQ

==============================================
You are receiving this email because you opted in when you signed up for Shwowp.



Our mailing address is:
Shwowp Inc.
460 St. Catherine St. West
Suite 914
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1A6

Our telephone:
15149950063

Do our work for us, for an undetermined future prize, PLEEEEEEEASE?

This post has been edited by thekohser:

[Cedric]

Just received this automated e-mail from Tara Hunt:

Okay, okay, so the name SHWOWP sucks...then help us find a new one!

*snip*

We can't offer up a fancy prize yet, but can say that we will have a reward in the future for someone who comes up with the 'winning' name. In the meantime, you will get all sorts of love, attention, adoration and whuffie.

*snip*

Do our work for us, for an undetermined future prize, PLEEEEEEEASE?

The whuffie is a lie!