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_ The Jimbo Phenomenon _ Tara Hunt

Posted by: thekohser

I stumbled across http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7221958 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 http://www.horsepigcow.com/about/, 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 http://citizenagency.com/.

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 http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=29269&view=findpost&p=232092 before, but has recently http://blog.ning.com/2010/03/an-update-from-ning-chairman-co-founder-marc-andreessen.html from Ning... into Marc's venture capital firm.

For more of my thoughts on this video snippet, you may join the conversation http://p10.alfaservers.com/pipermail/cpov_listcultures.org/2010-May/000169.html.


Posted by: A Horse With No Name

I never heard of Tara Hunt. When I was a little colt, I was in love with http://www.jamesbondposterpage.com/linda3a.jpg Ah, the innocence of youth. evilgrin.gif

Posted by: carbuncle

QUOTE
Although I spend a good deal of time railing against marketing and consumerism, I am by profession an Online Marketing professional and, well, a consumer to the nth degree.

Anyone who seems to spend all of their time going to conferences and hanging out with bold type internet names but seems not to actually do anything is usually in marketing or PR, in my experience.

See http://athome.kimvallee.com/2009/12/shwowp-will-put-the-wow-into-shopping/ about her remarkably successful start-up, coming real soon now...

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(carbuncle @ Tue 1st June 2010, 12:45pm) *

See http://athome.kimvallee.com/2009/12/shwowp-will-put-the-wow-into-shopping/ about her remarkably successful start-up, coming real soon now...


And Tara's partner at the soon-to-be Shwowp is http://paradivision.com/about/:

QUOTE
Our founder, Jerome Paradis wrote his first program at 7 years old. He chose the name of its company, Paradivision, when he was 12. Jerome knew at a young age which career was right for him.

When Jerome was 12, arcades were popular. He passed many hours playing video games. He felt that Activision was making the best console games at the time. Inspired, Jerome decided to name his future company Paradivision. It is funny since we are now developing social games and Facebook applications with playful elements.

Posted by: thekohser

And Jimbo turns the tables on Tara Hunt, interviewing her.



Tara Hunt is no longer consulting, but making her money by "public speaking". Jimbo agrees, "Yeah, it's great." Her upcoming talks will be delivered to the Pacific Builders Association and to an International Association of Credit Unions (doesn't exist... she probably meant The World Council of Credit Unions) conference!

Tara's definitely working on getting Shwowp up and running.

(Jimbo says that they've known each other for about five years, further adding another data point to my hypothesis that Jimmy maintains no close friends now with whom he was friends before Wikipedia.)

(Jimbo also frankly admits -- 05:20 -- that he is "stupid".)

Posted by: Emperor

Why would you make us watch that? I can't listen to either of them. Are they drunk?

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(Emperor @ Thu 3rd June 2010, 1:07pm) *

Why would you make us watch that? I can't listen to either of them. Are they drunk?


I summarized everything you needed to know, in the text below the video. They're drunk on a toxic mix of delusion and power of crowd worship.

Posted by: GlassBeadGame

Well at least Mr.Wales most recent previous spotting with a young lady was followed up with her launching a web site on civility on the internet. That should guarantee some degree of restraint if she becomes disillusioned with Wales. Although a repeat of Madsen would be especially funny in that context.

Posted by: thekohser

I just received a promotional e-mail from Tara Hunt & Co. I thought I would share.

QUOTE
Hey...sooooo...

You may or may not recall signing up for this list -- we know it's been a while! We apologize for the delay, but we didn't want to fill your inbox with empty promises and meaningless updates until we had something REAL to tell you.

Well...here it is! Something real!

http://www.shwowp.com/ will be part of the TechCrunch http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/2010-sf/ tomorrow (Tues, September 28, 2010) at 3:30pm (PT)!

We were chosen one of 24 startups to launch out of over 1,000 applicants...the team at TechCrunch think we're onto something. We do, too. And mostly, we hope that you do. Tune in via livestream!

Now you are asking the question: "Big deal! When do I get in?"

Here is where we give a promise that we are aiming to fulfill in spades. The demo we will be giving tomorrow is about 90% ready for you to use...but there are still bits and bobs missing. These bits and bobs should take us about another week or two to hack together.

Keep in mind that when we DO invite you, there will still be oodles of work to do - we'll be inviting you to a private ALPHA (we can't even call it a beta!). But we want to build Shwowp with your feedback early on.

Lastly, thank you. Thank you for expressing interest. For your support. For your excitement. Together, we will truly put customers at the center of the consumer universe (and that may be meaningless now...but tune into our demo/presentation tomorrow to know what exactly you signed up for)!

xo

Tara, Cassandra, Jerome + Team Shwowp

Posted by: carbuncle

QUOTE(thekohser @ Mon 27th September 2010, 7:14pm) *

I just received a promotional e-mail from Tara Hunt & Co. I thought I would share.

QUOTE
Hey...sooooo...

You may or may not recall signing up for this list -- we know it's been a while! We apologize for the delay, but we didn't want to fill your inbox with empty promises and meaningless updates until we had something REAL to tell you.

Well...here it is! Something real!

http://www.shwowp.com/ will be part of the TechCrunch http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/2010-sf/ tomorrow (Tues, September 28, 2010) at 3:30pm (PT)!

We were chosen one of 24 startups to launch out of over 1,000 applicants...the team at TechCrunch think we're onto something. We do, too. And mostly, we hope that you do. Tune in via livestream!


Techcrunch isn't listing them on the http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/2010-sf/agenda/. Sooooo, uh, what does that mean?

Posted by: Somey

As I understand it, shwowp.com is some sort of "social network for shoppers," which hopes that people are going to take the trouble to enter the details of all their shopping, online and off, into Shwowp's database in exchange for "value-added services" that apparently amount to the same sort of thing you can do with a common spreadsheet program and a few Google searches, though of course you have to know how to use the common spreadsheet program, and you have to be able to use Google without it constantly crashing your browser.

It looks like they're hoping people will ignore the obvious privacy implications of this, not to mention the effort involved in submitting all this data to a third party, and that instead they'll enter in their ongoing expenditure reports because it's "fun," and that the site will "go viral" and become "the Facebook/Twitter of e-Commerce."

Call me a cynic, but I don't think it's gonna work, personally...

http://gozman.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/thoughts-on-the-shwowp-pitch/ saw Ms. Hunt's presentation back in May at a similar "startup camp"-type conference and was also less than fully impressed.

Jimbo would be well-advised to avoid being ensnared in this venture - that doesn't mean he has to stop being friends with Tara Hunt, who is (arguably) very cute, but Wikipedia and Wikia are already too privacy-invasive for most non-passive internet users as it is. This looks to be at least 10 to 20 times more so.

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(Somey @ Mon 27th September 2010, 4:05pm) *

http://gozman.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/thoughts-on-the-shwowp-pitch/ saw Ms. Hunt's presentation back in May at a similar "startup camp"-type conference and was also less than fully impressed.

The http://startupcampmontreal.replayedu.com/nViewer1/?RecordingID=6777 of the pitch, linked to from the blog, was very painful to watch.

Posted by: thekohser

It looks like the feel-good fun and hi-jinks of running a start-up are continuing unabated at Shwowp, seeing that I just received e-mail invitation to try out the site in beta test mode, which led me to http://www.wikipediareview.com/images/4/44/Shwowp_beta_welcome.jpg.

Notice anything that casts doubt on the future success of the company?

Posted by: EricBarbour

(snicker) I saw a lot of this during the Web 1.0 days. A few snotty Stanford kids would pool their
trust-fund money and throw up a broken website, then run around trying to troll VCs for money.
It rarely worked, because VCs aren't as stupid as snotty Stanford kids think they are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Entertainment_Network is the most notorious example of this, although there were plenty of others.
I recall a magazine article about this in 1999 or so.
(Don't go to den.net now, it is still there but it'll crash your browser. And that's a horrible WP article.
I bet they're ignoring it, because Web 2.0 wunderkindred don't like to be reminded of the
disasters of Web 1.0.)

Facebook was started in a similar way, but was different in that Zuckerberg coded a working site
from the start, and had himself a runaway hit immediately. Most of the trust-fundies know
nothing about code.

Tara is a flake, and I wish her the best of luck in scamming people who are older, smarter and meaner.

Posted by: thekohser

Just received this automated e-mail from Tara Hunt:

QUOTE
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?formkey=dGZsNlZOQmxMd2I3OTZ2ZjVvTlVjRkE6MQ

==============================================
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?

Posted by: Zoloft

I love working for pie in the sky, by and by.

Okay... *limbers up his paradigmatic synergiser*

Schwump
- It's like a chump, in a shop, with a 'w' just for the hellavit.

Splat!
- Evokes a trajectory of glory.

Shponzi
- Possibly too accurate. Bring it to a focus group.

Schlump
- Posturing is in, schlumping is awesome!

Schlep
- Has that certain 'ethnic' component for the discerning East Coast shopper.

Schtalker
- Let's call a can of beans a can of beans.

Scumph
- Look, I'm Scumphing, because I'm a finicky Scumpher!

Scuze
- Scuze me, I saw that bag first! Isn't it all glittery?

ShamWow
- Possible trademark and biting issues.

Smegway
- Let's put this one aside for our transportation device in FY2013.

Posted by: carbuncle

Apparently being http://eatmywords.com/blog/announcing-award-worst-brand-2010%E2%80%A6/ has motivated them.

QUOTE
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

Good luck getting usable anything under 5 characters for $500!

Posted by: Cedric

QUOTE(thekohser @ Thu 10th February 2011, 9:53am) *

Just received this automated e-mail from Tara Hunt:

QUOTE
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!

Posted by: thekohser

Tara Hunt just sent me an e-mail from the "new" brand name:

QUOTE
Buyosphere news-ish

some changes in these here parts!

Categories
Sure, we had tags, but whatev! We're thinking towards the future of big data and big data needs big statements! Seriously, though. It will make it much easier to start to slice and dice products in the near future...as we have well over 10,000 products now! smile.gif Wa-hoo!

Tastebuds
Cute, eh? Yep. When you post your products on Buyosphere, you are giving us all a little insight into your personal taste. We decided that 'friends' is often less relevant to our tastes than finding others who have similar styles...so we called them tastebuds!

A note from our spokesdog
Remember that we are in super duper ultra early days beta...and NEED YOUR FEEDBACK! Like the changes? See progress? Hate them? Have suggestions? Want to know where we are going with this? Please use the feedback tab or feel free to email us: contact@buyosphere.com

Thanks,
— Ridley the pug

(photo of dog)

Upcoming Appearances

7/12
Strata Online Conference
http://strataconf.com/strata-july2011
Everywhere.com

7/13-7/15
Startup Festival
http://www.startupfestival.com/en/
Montreal, QC


follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend
Copyright © 2011 Buyosphere, All rights reserved.

Posted by: EricBarbour

noooo.gif This feels like 1998 all over again.....

Posted by: Zoloft

"A note from our spokesdog"

You mean spokespug, Tara. angry.gif

Posted by: thekohser

Tara's company "Buyosphere" just e-mailed me, and I have to say they are at least raising the bar a little, coming up with innovative shopping ideas such as:


Maybe Tara's headed in the right direction!