Webjam

Infobox Website
name = Webjam



caption =
url = http://www.webjam.com
commercial = Yes
type = Social networking
language =
registration =
founders = Yann Motte, Marcus Greenwood, Alberto Barreiro
owner =
launch date = 2006
current status = Online
revenue =
slogan = The place for you, your groups, your sites

Webjam is an online platform that allows individuals or professional organisations to create their own websites and social networks.

Noun

A "webjam" is a site constructed by a user or users of the online social networking platform Webjam.

Through Webjam users can choose the look and layout they want for their groups, personal pages or sites. They can also add applications like MP3 players, streaming videos and RSS news feeds.

Company

Founded in 2006 by former Yahoo! executives Yann Motte and Alberto Barreiro as well as programmer Marcus Greenwood in London, UK, Webjam allows individuals and communities to create, aggregate and share content online.

Webjam hopes to compete with large social networks like MySpace and Facebook, by appealing to users or groups who want to create a web-presence around specific interests or hobbies. [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/04/elevator_pitch_webjam_europes.html by Jemima Kiss, PDA The Digital Content Blog (Media Guardian), April 29, 2008] [http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/11518/12542/new-social-networking-easy-set-up.phtmlby Ian Hughes, Pocket-lint, 3 December 2007] [http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40891&c=1by Rachael Gallagher, Press Gazette, 16 April 2008]

Features

Webjam bundles community features with a straightforward drag-and-drop interface, a catalogue of modules and styles and a feature to replicate a module, a style, a page or even an entire Webjam from the community. [http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/09/webjam-lets-users-be-copycats/ by Natali Del Conte, TechCrunch, Dec 9, 2006.] Users can create a new page with someone else's content and modify it to their liking with Webjam's AJAX editor. [http://www.crunchbase.com/company/webjam Webjam Company Profile]

Users can utilise functionalities such as blog, photos, forum, newsfeeds or maps, and combine them in their preferred layout. A page or a module can be public, private, or restricted to a community. [http://www.t3.com/news/webjam?=35166 by Joe Minihane, T3, Jan 29th, 2008.] Layouts, contents and modules are replicable, so that users can build their page based on previous pages.

Users can piece together their wanted online community, taking feeds from major services including Flickr, Google, YouTube, Amazon.com and Gmail.

These sites or webjams can be created through one-click options, which has led to Webjam being called "the Swiss Army knife of the internet user". [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7140599.stm BBC News online, 24 December 2007.]

Origin

The founders took their inspiration from their earlier involvement in a local resident association website named the Jam Factory, in central London. [http://about.webjam.com/webjam/aboutus/ Webjam Info]

As neighbours, they had initially volunteered to develop a website restricted to the community of residents to share connections, discussions and local recommendations. [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/property/bermondsey-and-its-online-village-people-526063.html by Nigel Summerley, The Independent, 22 February 2006]

The spark of interest from neighbouring buildings triggered a more ambitious vision of enabling anyone to give a purpose to their online connections.

Funding

In 2007, French early stage venture capital firm [http://www.isourcegestion.fr I-Source Gestion] invested $2 million in Webjam. [http://www.techwinter.com/2008/03/29/webjam-not-your-ordinary-community-builder/ by Roger Kondrat, TechWinter, Mar 29th, 2008]

Awards

* European Startups' Startup of the Month, April 2008. [http://about.webjam.com/webjam/press/ Webjam Newsroom]

* Finalist in the Red Herring 100 Europe, May 2008. [http://about.webjam.com/webjam/press/ Webjam Newsroom]

* .net's People's Choice Award, December 2007. [http://about.webjam.com/webjam/press/ Webjam Newsroom]

References

External links

* [http://www.webjam.com Webjam Homepage]
* [http://about.webjam.com/webjam/aboutus/ Webjam Info]
* [http://about.webjam.com/webjam/blog/ Webjam Blog]
* [http://about.webjam.com/webjam/press/ Webjam Newsroom]
* [http://www.crunchbase.com/company/webjam Webjam Company Profile]