View source for Amazee


URL = http://www.amazee.com


=Description=

Michael Horvath:

"Amazee.com, a social collaboration platform, which launched in September 2008, has set
the goal to provide a global collaboration medium. Amazee is headquartered in Zurich and has
an office in San Francisco, thus has the optimal global footprint to extend the social collaboration
movement from the US to Europe."
(http://static.amazee.com/files/The_Evolution_of_the_Information_Revolution.pdf)


=Characteristics=

Key Features of Amazee include:

• Social Networking Tools consisting of member profiles, invitations, messaging and
newsfeeds.

• Collaboration Management features including to-do list, calendar, discussion forum,
write-board, voting, member right management and file sharing.

• Site Promotion is enabled by a shareable project home page accessible by anyone on the
Internet without an Amazee membership, making it easy for project teams to drive new
members to a site via all the tools available on the Internet, including other social
networking sites, email campaigns, media outreach, and advertising.

• Project Funding is an important and unique part of Amazee, providing several built-in
mechanisms for projects to raise money.


=Discussion=

In the course of the research for this paper, the author came across Amazee a recently
launched online platform for social collaboration, a very relevant key word when looking at the
growing influence of social networks. In order to get a better insight into the rather new
developments in the areas of social collaboration and social action, the author set up an interview
with Gregory Gerhardt, the CEO and Co-founder of Amazee.com. Gregory’s profound
knowledge as well as his exposure in the Silicon Valley places him at the core of the online
collaboration movement. 

Gregory describes Amazee as following:


"''Amazee is a more evolved social networking site devoted to the joy of collective action
and designed to empower individuals and small groups to launch global initiatives'',"
(Gregory Gerhardt, CEO of Amazee)


Amazee, unlike the typical social networking platforms, puts not the personal profile center stage
but rather the project profile. “The project profile is the main vantage point of our platform as
people are connected not directly via their profiles but through common projects.” Gregory
explains. While on Facebook the groups are usually organized around static interests like
hobbies, work place or real life organizations, on Amazee the projects are of dynamic nature.
Projects are usually set up with a goal in mind. Once that goal is reached, the project is
completed and archived, thus projects are in general a timely limited venture. “We position
ourselves right in the middle of the three domains of social networks, campaigning platforms and
collaboration tools, as we incorporate features from all three segments.” Gregory says.
(compare to figure 2) In all three domains, there are already large established players.

Nevertheless, the space in the overlap has been neglected in the past and Amazee is set to change
that with the launch of their platform in September 2008.

“We have come to realize, through feedbacks from
our users, that a certain level of social interaction between people outside of respective projects
is desired. As a result and to improve our platform, we are in the process of including a friendfunction,
which will enable the user to add friends, track what they are doing, interact with them
on a non-project basis as well as recommend project to them or recommend them to be added to
a project.” Amazee will, at least in the basic functionality, include more Facebook-like features
in order to leverage their sophisticated project management tools.

“At Amazee, we position ourselves to serve the upper regions of the Maslow pyramid,
where as Facebook and other plain social network platforms are aiming at the middle of the
pyramid.” Gregory specified.

A general modularization of the people’s lives can be observed. “Many people in today’s
world think in terms of projects. Their work is a project, their hobby, their social engagement
and so forth” Gregory observes. “Amazee is aimed to become the place, where people keep track
of their life project portfolio and manage and share it efficiently.” It can be observed, that the
private and physical “I” is increasingly often merging with the public and virtual “I”. “People
tend to realize, that by portraying their true personality in the virtual world, they can
increasingly leverage their influence in the real world to become an influential personality in the
virtual world. As a result, they can apply their virtual influence to achieve real world projects.”
Gregory explains.
The platforms, which have become the leading social networks, share one common
feature: They mostly replicate existing real-world networks in the virtual world. “Traditionally,
the circle of friends that one has on Facebook mirrors the circle of friends one has in the real
world. In the early days of virtual social networking, only rarely two people connected as friends
without having met in person at least once in their lives.” Gregory explains. “On Amazee, we
want to encourage people to start projects and achieve goals with a team of which not every
member has seen the other member in person or has known that person prior to the launch of the
project.” Gregory specifies. The intention is that the project manager has the option to choose
from a worldwide pool of potential team members.
A general hesitation, especially in Europe, can be observed when it comes to collaborate
and communicate with people without a prior physical encounter. In America, and especially in
the Silicon Valley, Internet users are much more open to accept a virtual personality as the true
personality of the person behind the profile. As a result, meeting someone in person or being
introduced on an online platform has become increasingly equal and consequently online
collaborations are more willingly formed. “Since online profiles and online personalities have
become increasingly accepted as the mirror of one’s true personality, people start to realize the
Figure 3: The pyramid of needs according to Abraham Maslow
Source: http://nodearth.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/maslow-pyramid.jpg
14
importance of building up a virtual reputation. With other words, your actions and contributions
in an online environment are becoming increasingly important for the formation of your
personality, your track record and thus your reputation online” Gregory says.
As opposed to the early days of online interaction, where people usually were hiding
behind user names, today people want to be recognized and accredited for what they do. Thus, in
settings where people can contribute and link the contribution to their personal profile, the
participation rate is much higher. Online users want to be presented with their true personality,
which is increasingly reflected in their virtual profile. Back in the day, where the Internet was a
rather new phenomenon, anonymous chatting and posting was prevalent. Today, people want to
leave a personal imprint, which can be traced back to the creator.
As per November 17, 2008, Amazee had over 4’000 signed up users, 764 registered projects and
52 alliances. “Even social collaboration demands active project management. Many users have
the impression, that once their project is registered online, the goals will be reached by itself.
That is not the case. Projects must be actively promoted, managed and communicated.” Gregory
explains. In online project management a typical contributor split, which can be also observed in
the real world, occurs. Typical project participants can be divided into 5% leaders, 10%
contributors and the rest is split into direct followers and stalkers, which only occasionally come
to see how the project is going.

Amazee sees social collaboration as the logical evolution of social networks. To achieve
the largest possible exposure, Amazee has entered into agreements with media partners, which
extend the reach of the virtual platform into printed media. “Projects that have created a certain
motion in the virtual world are selected and presented in the print and online media of our
partners, reaching over 40’000 subscribers via the printed press or the online magazine.”

Gregory explains. “This increased exposure of the projects is likely to establish Amazee as the
main platform for online collaboration and project management, while at the same time, gives
the project initiators a stage to address new and potential participants. Spreading the word and
getting media coverage is what empowers every single online motion. Be it a project, a petition
or action, once the mass hears about it and it appeals to them, change is likely to be set in
motion.” Gregory describes.

By building up a social collaboration platform, Amazee has stated in their mission to
remain completely neutral. Their goal is to provide the instruments and the platform and let the
users provide and decide about the content. “We do not intend to actively influence the projects
on our platform as long as they play within the guidelines of our Terms of Use.” Gregory says.
With random monitoring as well as user reporting options, Amazee keeps an eye on the dealings
on their platform. “Every user has the possibility to report potentially dangerous or
inappropriate projects directly from the online interface. Our administrators will promptly take
actions to insure conformity with our Terms of Use.” Gregory explains. Due to the fact that
Amazee is still in the starting phase, an automated and constant monitoring of the content is not
yet necessary. “We are considering adding active oversight applications to our platform
framework once a critical mass is achieved” Gregory says.

Regarding the revenue model, which currently for most platforms is traditional
advertising, Amazee is envisioning advanced forms of advertising and sponsoring. “Our analysis
has shown that companies like their logo and identity to be linked, also referred to as engaged
branding, to projects and events for good causes and with clear objectives. As long as the project
has a “positive feel” to it and aims at achieving a goal, companies are very likely to be willing to
present themselves as sponsors of these projects.” Gregory says. The income generated by
engaged branding sponsorships, combined with a Freemium user revenue model are likely to
become the main sources of income for online platforms. The Freemium model is a combination
of a free and a premium fee based revenue model. The premium users pay a fee for unlimited
access and additional tools and options, where as the free users on the other side, have limited
access and functionality but add to the critical mass in order for this model to function.
“The social collaboration movement is still at a very early stage even in the USA, which usually
is 2-3 years ahead of Europe. Nonetheless, clear trends towards a growing popularity and
influence of collaborative networks can be recognized.” Gregory describes. “The establishment
of user habits and source credibility takes time and does not truly become established until a
critical mass of followers is reached. Once that number is achieved, in my view, the new
collaboration platforms and above all Amazee will become very powerful instruments for
charismatic leaders, which will have the ability to project their real life status into the virtual
world while reaching billions of people on a very personal level via the collaboration
platforms.” Gregory envisions. In a world where numerous online platforms and applications are
fighting for the attention of the users, only the best will prevail.

“I am convinced that by constantly improving our platform and by listening to our users and the
general Internet public, we will in the future, combined with far reaching network of partners,
establish Amazee as “THE” platform for social collaboration similar to the status of what
Google is for Internet search today.”
(http://static.amazee.com/files/The_Evolution_of_the_Information_Revolution.pdf)


[[Category:Facilitation]]