4 ms·

I think this could be turned into a startup. thoughts?

byoung2 17y ago
I think it's definitely a good idea...the hurdle you would face is getting the data. Maybe the existing event sites thought of spidering data but were unsuccessful. How would you do it differently?
- toisanji 17y ago
  I was thinking about this. I'm not sure how the other sites did it, but I would try to write an algorithm that classifies whether a page has an event or not. If there is an event, then parse it and check for duplicates. I have some other ideas for easily allowing users to add events.
- fizx 17y ago
  The event-scraping problem has motivated a year of technology development on my part. Parsley, Parselets, date_range, csvget, SelectorGadget, and a bunch of unreleased niftiness. I've mostly moved on from the problem, but would be happy to talk to anyone who's interested, share my experience, etc.
  - toisanji 17y ago
    I'd definitely like to hear more about your experiences. I couldn't find your email address in your profile, mine is jtoy at jtoy dot net
  - kareemk 17y ago
    I'm also interested and tackling the problem myself. Contact me at kkouddous at gmail - would love to share best practices.
- marram 17y ago
  I would crowd source it.
StrawberryFrog 17y ago
upcoming? Wasn't that the startup. yahoo bought it. ( http://upcoming.yahoo.com/ http://upcoming.yahoo.com/ ) I think the problem is structural - the money flows from gig promoters, hence the interface is not built for the user's desires.
- jli 17y ago
  upcoming was bought by yahoo in 2005. I totally agree that the sites are built for the promoters and not the users. The biggest problem I see how can this be built for the users and make money at the same time, any ideas?
  - StrawberryFrog 17y ago
    Nope, but if there is an answer, it may look like the difference between expertsexchange and stackoverflow (the later is a good example of building for the users). Other commenters raise interesting points as to why this problem is harder than others - events have so many niches, there's a new set of them for each new set of users. And unlike on stackoverflow, in a month all of that data has lost almost all of its value and you need new data.
eugenejen 17y ago
I have been working on one of new startups for events for a year. It will be official lauching soon to college students this month.
neeson 17y ago
Starting launching a startup in this space, but then took a sharp turn and launched Urbantastic.com instead. The idea was to improve the user experience - basically by putting a Pandora-like system in behind a Google-like front end. We launched it, it worked great. With a few clicks the site would sort everything in the city by what you'd be most interested in, and keep that sorting (without signing up) for the next time you came. But about a month in we concluded that the UI was not the issue. I agree with StrawberryFrog in that the issue is structual. I think that there's still a big missing piece. Something's got to get event listers and event seekers in one place that adds more value than just finding things to do (and I don't think content like local news is anywhere near enough). I'm half expecting something to evolve out of Facebook events, but it's not there yet. Also, crunching the revenue numbers from local (Vancouver) weeklies, then multiplying worldwide, it's not the kind of money that you can take a lot of investment for. People just don't spend much time looking for things to do. Short answer: it's a feature, not a product. But to what product does this feature get added? I don't know yet... There's been a _lot_ of failed attempts already.
- fizx 17y ago
  Yelp?
- joe_the_user 17y ago
  Hmm... A full-featured event/calendar plugin app might be really cool... But the "space" is very amorphous. It could include anything from getting twenty people with similar interests together on a Saturday night to rock concert and lecture promotion.
  - marram 17y ago
    Try: http://www.thesponty.com http://www.thesponty.com
callmeed 17y ago
I think there's potential there. But I can think of two big factors/features which should be considered ... and some heads-ups: 1. Location-aware mobile searching. I can't recall how many times I've been driving around with my wife on a Friday night wondering "what should we do tonight?" ... if you built a startup around this post/concept, I think it would be a big mistake not to put a lot of resources into an iPhone/smartphone app. Think of it like Yelp's iPhone app but for events. 2. Let event coordinators sell tickets to paid events from your site. Don't do ecommerce and take a transaction fee. Just let them plug-in PayPal/Google CO info and be done with it. You'll immediately have an advantage over sites that don't do this. Heads up for: - Craigslist. If you start scraping their sites, they will probably block you at some point. - Facebook. FB is growing rapidly as a place for events/RSVPs and it fits well within the "social graph" ... the latest FB iPhone app puts events front and center. Expect them to be a big competitor in this space. Other low-hanging fruit: - City/chamber websites. Every city or chamber of commerce website has an event calendar. You'll probably want to scrape those. - Community colleges, libraries, etc. have non-credit/weekend classes and workshops. If you had a way for them to sell tickets, it might be a nice draw. That's all I got for now ...
ig1 17y ago
That's what eventful.com is. They spider other event sites (including the likes of meetup.com), allow category and location monitoring and provide a cleanish gui. They even offer a developer API if you want to build something on top of it. What eventful don't have is a good search or good marketing. But neither of those are insurmountable problems, and I'm sure they'll tackle them in time. Or just get bought by google who can deal with both of them. However one problem is that many events are not listed on any event directory, but just on individual websites, those are much harder to spider and deal with.

I think it's definitely a good idea...the hurdle you would face is getting the data. Maybe the existing event sites thought of spidering data but were unsuccessful. How would you do it differently?

toisanji 17y ago
I was thinking about this. I'm not sure how the other sites did it, but I would try to write an algorithm that classifies whether a page has an event or not. If there is an event, then parse it and check for duplicates. I have some other ideas for easily allowing users to add events.
fizx 17y ago
The event-scraping problem has motivated a year of technology development on my part. Parsley, Parselets, date_range, csvget, SelectorGadget, and a bunch of unreleased niftiness. I've mostly moved on from the problem, but would be happy to talk to anyone who's interested, share my experience, etc.
- toisanji 17y ago
  I'd definitely like to hear more about your experiences. I couldn't find your email address in your profile, mine is jtoy at jtoy dot net
- kareemk 17y ago
  I'm also interested and tackling the problem myself. Contact me at kkouddous at gmail - would love to share best practices.
marram 17y ago
I would crowd source it.

StrawberryFrog 17y ago

upcoming? Wasn't that the startup. yahoo bought it. ( http://upcoming.yahoo.com/ http://upcoming.yahoo.com/ ) I think the problem is structural - the money flows from gig promoters, hence the interface is not built for the user's desires.

jli 17y ago
upcoming was bought by yahoo in 2005. I totally agree that the sites are built for the promoters and not the users. The biggest problem I see how can this be built for the users and make money at the same time, any ideas?
- StrawberryFrog 17y ago
  Nope, but if there is an answer, it may look like the difference between expertsexchange and stackoverflow (the later is a good example of building for the users). Other commenters raise interesting points as to why this problem is harder than others - events have so many niches, there's a new set of them for each new set of users. And unlike on stackoverflow, in a month all of that data has lost almost all of its value and you need new data.

eugenejen 17y ago

I have been working on one of new startups for events for a year. It will be official lauching soon to college students this month.

neeson 17y ago

Starting launching a startup in this space, but then took a sharp turn and launched Urbantastic.com instead. The idea was to improve the user experience - basically by putting a Pandora-like system in behind a Google-like front end. We launched it, it worked great. With a few clicks the site would sort everything in the city by what you'd be most interested in, and keep that sorting (without signing up) for the next time you came. But about a month in we concluded that the UI was not the issue. I agree with StrawberryFrog in that the issue is structual. I think that there's still a big missing piece. Something's got to get event listers and event seekers in one place that adds more value than just finding things to do (and I don't think content like local news is anywhere near enough). I'm half expecting something to evolve out of Facebook events, but it's not there yet. Also, crunching the revenue numbers from local (Vancouver) weeklies, then multiplying worldwide, it's not the kind of money that you can take a lot of investment for. People just don't spend much time looking for things to do. Short answer: it's a feature, not a product. But to what product does this feature get added? I don't know yet... There's been a _lot_ of failed attempts already.

fizx 17y ago
Yelp?
joe_the_user 17y ago
Hmm... A full-featured event/calendar plugin app might be really cool... But the "space" is very amorphous. It could include anything from getting twenty people with similar interests together on a Saturday night to rock concert and lecture promotion.
- marram 17y ago
  Try: http://www.thesponty.com http://www.thesponty.com

callmeed 17y ago

I think there's potential there. But I can think of two big factors/features which should be considered ... and some heads-ups: 1. Location-aware mobile searching. I can't recall how many times I've been driving around with my wife on a Friday night wondering "what should we do tonight?" ... if you built a startup around this post/concept, I think it would be a big mistake not to put a lot of resources into an iPhone/smartphone app. Think of it like Yelp's iPhone app but for events. 2. Let event coordinators sell tickets to paid events from your site. Don't do ecommerce and take a transaction fee. Just let them plug-in PayPal/Google CO info and be done with it. You'll immediately have an advantage over sites that don't do this. Heads up for: - Craigslist. If you start scraping their sites, they will probably block you at some point. - Facebook. FB is growing rapidly as a place for events/RSVPs and it fits well within the "social graph" ... the latest FB iPhone app puts events front and center. Expect them to be a big competitor in this space. Other low-hanging fruit: - City/chamber websites. Every city or chamber of commerce website has an event calendar. You'll probably want to scrape those. - Community colleges, libraries, etc. have non-credit/weekend classes and workshops. If you had a way for them to sell tickets, it might be a nice draw. That's all I got for now ...

ig1 17y ago

That's what eventful.com is. They spider other event sites (including the likes of meetup.com), allow category and location monitoring and provide a cleanish gui. They even offer a developer API if you want to build something on top of it. What eventful don't have is a good search or good marketing. But neither of those are insurmountable problems, and I'm sure they'll tackle them in time. Or just get bought by google who can deal with both of them. However one problem is that many events are not listed on any event directory, but just on individual websites, those are much harder to spider and deal with.