Waterloo, Web & Whimsy

It's been a long and tumultuous road, but a few days ago Jesse Rodgers and I opened the curtains on a project that we've been working on with Thom Ryan at Communitech: http://Waterloo.TechStartup.ca

It's a simple idea - we're trying to answer the questions "What's going on?" and "Who's doing it?"

The site is intended to be a one-stop-shop for anyone trying to get involved in the tech startup scene in waterloo region. Starting your own business? Visit the Resources section to access a best of class list of helpful links. Want to know what events are coming up? Visit the Events Calendar and peruse the local startup events scene.

All told, there are a number of helpful tools, and throughout them we've tried to keep the following in mind:

Automation is awesome: most of the content on the site is automatically generated by pulling in various RSS and iCal feeds, and monitoring activity from Twitter.

Focus on people: there is a directory of People on the site (anyone can add/edit an entry) and we are tracking the activity of individuals mentioned in the community (for example, try searching "Ali Asaria")

Track as much as possible: under the hood, the platform is tracking a lot of activity (who's posting, who's mentioned, what's being clicked, etc) so we can make good decisions going forward.

We have a lot of ideas for features and ideas, and when we demoed last night at StartupCamp we were given more. Although I can't commit to specific delivery dates, here are some of the features that we're working on and/or were suggested by others:

• 1. Questions/Requests board (post startup needs, partnership opportunities, requests for help)
• 2. Better branding/exposure for startups (ideally through better integration to Startup Index, Crunch Base or something similar)
• 3. Highlight "key" people, based on the news/blog/twitter activity about them
• 4. Emailed daily and weekly digests
• 5. Automatically determining what's "hot" by social engagement and viewing activity

So, what we're looking for are additional RSS feeds to follow, more local tweeps to follow (visit @WatTechStartup) and additional ideas/feedback. Oh yeah - and be sure to tell your startup friends about it!