WebAppropriate

I made it to my first ever Open Coffee Club last Thursday - and I don’t know why I’ve waited so long. If you’re an entrepreneur/entrepreneurial developer etc, you really should join the Ning group, find your nearest OCC, and get along to the next meet-up.

Pretty much everyone you meet at OCC will be eager to talk about their businesses/ideas. However, I’m not sure if the whole OCC scene is only intended for Web startups, but most of the people I met were working on something completely Web-focused. Obviously, that wasn’t a problem from my perspective (and the same probably goes for anyone reading this blog), because it meant I could have some really in-depth conversations on Web business, design and development.

Most attendees will be interested in finding out about, and critiquing whatever you’ve been working on. If you take your laptop with a product demo ready, you’ll inevitably get some great feedback. There’s free Wi-fi too, so no excuses.

I should be attending the next OCC in Waterstones on Picadilly, so leave a comment if you’d like to meet-up. I intend to be in London from Wednesday (12th December) to Friday, so if you know of any other Web tech meet-ups, please let me know in the comments!

The guys from Songkick held a UK hacker/entrepreneur meet-up last week at their offices in London. It was (and will hopefully continue to be) a great chance to meet lots of talented and entrepreneurial hackers, and to keep up-to-date with the latest UK startups.

There were some good demos too; Songkick and Hypernumbers showed some really interesting upcoming features for their services - and you can tell they’ve both been through the startup camps (Y-Combinator & Seedcamp). It was a freestyle demo environment, so if you’re looking to show-off your Web app, this is the sort of audience you’ll want to demo to.

Ian from Songkick originally organised the event on the Y-Combinator Hacker News site, but around thirty-five people came from all over the UK to attend - which shows just how much events like this are needed for the UK Web startup scene. Fortunately, it looks like this was the first of a monthly fixture. If you’re a UK hacker/entrepreneur, make sure you join the new GroupSpaces group for this event, and hopefully we’ll see you at the next one in January;

A quick introduction to Web Appropriate and the blog (you’ll find this on the ‘About’ page):

Web Appropriate is the working title of a UK-based social Web application targeting the movement of a core social networking demographic (twenty-something Facebook users), and their transition in to the working environment. This isn’t an enterprise technology - we’ll be looking to consumer focused social Web services like Facebook, Twitter, and Jaiku, to create a service that people will find compelling.

The application is already being coded in XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript - but additional Web development expertise is required to get the service out there and to start getting some traction.

If social networking, Facebook platform, APIs, and addictive Web apps all make sense to you - and if you also believe there are still many upcoming opportunities on the Web, social network platforms, iPhone, and other channels - Web Appropriate is looking for more team members. Please check the team requirements page for more info!

The Blog

The blog will cover the usual startup activities, i.e. the service, problems, successes, favourite technologies, the Web industry, and a few posts on Web entrepreneurship and meetups, all with a focus on the UK. There’s life outside of SV, and we’ll be promoting that here!