Posts Tagged ‘launch’
Ideas are Easy
A little over two years ago, Dean and I were two overworked ECM Consultants. We were flying all over North America every week in suits and ties, helping customers with their information management and technology problems, staying up late writing large and complex reports, drinking in random airport bars, and generally getting more and more frustrated.
The reasons for our frustration were that we felt that the customers we spoke to weren’t getting a very good deal. That the products that were being offered to them were expensive, complex, time-consuming, and in many cases, didn’t meet their actual needs. The very first post I ever wrote on this blog explains it all pretty clearly. Social systems are emergent in nature, and the systems that we have at work aren’t social enough.
One Labor day, we had an idea. We drew what came to be called “The Spiderweb Diagram” — a 7-page scrawled mindmap that detailed what we thought Enterprise Software should be delivering to its customers.
I’ve always said that the idea of a lifetime comes along once every two weeks. Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.
Man, ain’t that the truth.
Today, two years later, the first fragment of that spiderweb diagram made the enormous leap from idea to reality.
Infovark Personal Edition 1.0 is complete, and ready for the world. You can try a copy for free, and if you like it, you can buy one.
It’s taken a lot of hard work — long hours, more than 150 blog posts — and has been the single most frightening, exciting and perilous thing I have ever done.
But at the end of this release, as the build machine finally turned off its super-loud CPU fan for the last time compiling pre-release code, I felt proud of us.
Anyone can complain about things, and most people, when pressed, can think of a way to fix a problem.
We actually did it though. We built and shipped something.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank everyone who helped us get this far.
Warren Thrasher, Infovark’s primary investor. Warren has helped us keep the lights on, and keep everyone fed, as well as providing sage counsel and advice to both of us.
Amy Hoy, who helped us turn our horrible looking Windows application into a much more user friendly and fresh solution worthy of the illustrious ”2.0″ moniker.
Nate and Jay and our friends at Kapish, for taking early versions of Infovark for a spin.
Alison and Paula, who not only put up with having their spouses absent for so long, but also managed to offer support and advice.
You, for taking the time from your day to read our blog! Our blog readers and Twitter friends and the awesome people we’ve met in the Enterprise 2.0 community have been instrumental in helping us get this far. We couldn’t have possibly done it without you.
Thanks!
Try the Infovark Beta
Yes! Infovark is…
And you can totally find it here.
Wait, wait!
We have a few important things to tell you before you get it.
The first is that the Beta works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and the Windows 7 release candidate. You’ll also need to have Office 2007, and particularly Microsoft Outlook, if you want to get the most out of the beta. You’ll also need to have the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installed. And that’s where the real wait comes in.
Seriously. Once you download the 137 MB Infovark installer, we’ll check for the latest version of the .NET Framework. If you don’t have it on your computer, we’ll install it for you, but it could take a good long while. So get yourself a cup of coffee. Or take a walk around the block. Or surf the Internet for a bit.
Once we’ve gotten the prerequisites out of the way, the rest of the Infovark installation is straightforward. We highly encourage you to click Next, Next, Next all the way to the Finish button. I mean, you could try some of the fancy settings, but… well, we’re not quite sure what will happen. If you try it, let us know how it goes.
Wait, wait wait!
We’re not done telling you about the Beta yet! I know you’re itching to check out Infovark, but there’s a few more things you need to know.
After the install finishes, Infovark will ask you a few questions. It’s basic stuff: Your name, email address, short bio, avatar. I’m sure you’re used to filling this stuff out from a dozen other web sites and applications. We just wanted to let you know that we don’t get a copy of that here at the Infovark Burrow. All that info will stay on your machine, where it belongs, unless you decide to share it.
When the interview finishes, Infovark will start digging through your files and email. Don’t worry — Infovark keeps everything it finds private, unless you tell it otherwise. You can also tell it to ignore certain folders on your computer or in your email. Check out this page to find out more about Infovark’s privacy and sharing settings.
This is where another wait might happen. Infovark does a good job of staying out of your way, but while it’s getting up to speed on all the fabulous work you’ve been doing lately, there won’t be much to see. This might be a good time for you to get lunch.
Once Infovark has gotten acquainted with your computer, you can start asking Infovark questions, using Infovark to take notes, sharing information with your coworkers, and lots of other neat stuff. Check out this page for a list of Infovark’s features.
One more thing
We want to hear from you! What were your first impressions? What confused you? What intrigued you?
We’re aware we’ve made something unusual. We have a hard time explaining it to ourselves sometimes, and we’ve spent two years working on it.
Mainly, we wanted to make a business application that helped people work with the information they use everyday. And we wanted to take a fresh approach to office software, combining some of the lessons of today’s Web 2.0 era to yesterday’s business tools.
So if it seems a bit weird, yeah, that’s totally our fault.
Just relax and play around with it a bit.
What are you waiting for?
E2.0 Launch Pad Voting Open!
Launch Pad 2009 at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston attracted lots of interest. Nearly 30 companies have signed up to pitch their new products. Infovark is one of them.
If you’d like to see us on stage, vote for us!
2.0 Guys, 2.0 years, Enterprise 2.0 Launch!
Last year we attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference as a stealth startup, mainly to get a feel for the event. We’re going to attend this year, but this time we won’t be a stealth company.
That’s right. It’s been a long, hard slog, but we think we’re finally ready. We’re going to release our public Infovark beta. We can hardly believe it.
We want to get our product on to the Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad.
If you’re curious about Infovark, please vote for us!
