We were at Barcamp Singapore!

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Barcamp Singapore II on Wednesday night was great. Some really interesting speakers from Google, Singeo, Lilihood (loved their control interface) and Homespace, and I loved Preetam's idea pitch about object-tagging. I didn't get to catch the Mobile breakout, because we were presenting a demo on Shoplette for the Maps session, but I'm sure it was great too. Will have to check out the video once it's out.

I think what really made Barcamp II for me was the feeling of learning from each other and sharing our approaches. It was great that the participants weren't just talking about what their site/service did, but also their approach to different problems and how they solved it. That was really helpful. Kudos to Singeo for the tip on Fire Eagle and Skyhook, and also to the Homespace team for their tips on Clusterer and custom info windows for Google Maps. We hope, when we have more stuff on Shoplette, we can share tips that might be useful and valuable to other startups as well.

Barcamp II was the first time we spoke about Shoplette to a public audience and it was a good experience. I think what we gained most was from the questions people asked about Shoplette and the feedback they shared with us about the service. And we actually met a few of our users at the event, which was a real blast!

It's great when you actually get to meet the people who use your service because you get a much better sense of who your market is. Putting an actual face and personality behind your users beats any kind of demographic description in trying to understand what they're expecting and might like from the service. Plus the fact that you get to thank them profusely for their support! (We're incredibly grateful!)

So thanks to the organisers of Barcamp II for a great event, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next one!

Remember to have fun!

Great words of wisdom from Chef Giovanni on "Jamie's Great Italian Escape":



Remember to have fun!
Not just work, work, work.
Let your hair down and play once in a while.



Strangely, my idea of fun is learning Objective C and Cocoa. Erm... Not quite right. But, damn! Objective C really makes object-oriented programming so natural it hurts not to.

We're (finally) in Beta!

Well, actually since a couple of days ago. But I finally have time to blog about it!...



We've been a total of six months in development, three months for the current version, and after a harrowing few months in closed Alpha testing, Shoplette is finally in Public Beta! Do check it out at http://www.shoplette.com



Launching a Beta is scary. There's no doubt about the importance of getting a beta out in the wild quickly in order to test, test, test - you'll never really know the market response otherwise, and you might be working yourself into a corner or dead end without any live feedback on whether the whole idea makes sense. But when you really have to bite the bullet and release your service for market testing, it's pretty scary.

What will they think of it? Will anyone like it? Should we keep working on it, and cleaning it up more, before we let anyone else see it? Do we have only one chance with users, and if it's not good enough now, will they ever come back? These were the questions circling overhead before we launched the Beta.

But in the end, it's something we've been looking forward to for a long time now. A chance to put Shoplette out there in the wild, and to see if it's something people will like to do. You never really know until you test it, and I'm glad we bit the bullet and got it released.

So now it's in your hands. Please check it out, sign up, give it a spin and let us know what you think. We're really happy to receive any feedback from you, good or bad, at team[at]shoplette[dot]com.

Hope you enjoy the site!

http://www.shoplette.com

PSPs on Public Transport

On average, there are 4 PSPs in any MRT train carriage everytime I board the train. I suppose this varies by the time of day (probably happens more in the afternoons and weekends than peak hours on workdays - but then, maybe not) and the carriage (maybe they gravitate towards the end carriages where they can sit down and play).

But anyway, it's an interesting observation. If you take it as an average and multiply that over the number of carriages in an MRT train (??), I think that adds up to a fair number of PSPs.

Apart from possible hypotheses we can suggest about lifestyle and consumer purchasing trends and the ubiquity of handheld gaming, there are also interesting thoughts to draw out about social behaviour in public and on public transport, the idea of private space in public space and common behaviour within this semi-private space, and of course, being in a private (?) virtual world (the game) while sitting in a very public real world space. How natural is it to switch frames of reference from real to virtual, or offline to online, these days?

How does it feel / to be on your own / like a rolling stone?

Listening to Bob Dylan now, which I haven't intentionally done before. I'm surprised that I haven't. Perhaps out of fear. That I should identify with his music and his writing. And fail to reconcile.

But today I am in exactly that mode. Of early dreams frustrated. Of ambitions abandoned disillusioned. Of a loss of faith in progress. But also a feeling of liberation. Or being thrown into the wild. The great unknown ahead. A heady mix of fear and excitement.

Living with uncertainty and launching into the unknown, taken positively, a pioneer spirit, negatively, foolhardiness. Where there a constant feeling of discomfort. And yet the freedom allures.

What is it about freedom that makes it a value unto itself? Is it really all that it's cracked up to be? Political freedom, moral freedom, economic freedom, financial freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom to choose, freedom to act, freedom to live, freedom to be. Something so intangible, yet so desired. Something so contentious, yet so accepted.

How does it feel
To be on your own
When no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone

- Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone

Beautiful poetry.