Since it lets you create free form apps, you would enjoy creating them. By connecting various aspects of your ideas, you will enjoy seeing your idea getting shaped. Well, that's my version of SpiderScribe. Let's learn more about it from the creator himself in the interview below:
Tell us about the fascinating concept used by 'SpiderScribe'.
We all do draw and connect things on paper. It just explains some things better. There are tools on internet that do that - mindmap apps - but most of them are very structured. A traditional mindmap has a central node, and everything else connects to it. Plus most of the mind maps are heavily built around text, with many complex options. We decided to built an app that lets you create free-style maps (connect the nodes in any way you want), but, most important, we added types of nodes relevant to internet. Besides text you can upload files, images, calendar events and even geographic location (and we plan to expand on that). We tried to make it very simple and easy to use, and make it easy to share the maps online.
Why is it named 'SpiderScribe'? I am sure there must be an interesting reason behind it. :)
It's difficult to come up with a name in our days, if you want to also secure the URL. We played with many (many!) word combinations... "Scribe" ((as in "writer) was one of the word we tried to combine with other words. "Spider" was another word - from the way the mind maps look. So at one point we got this combination together - it sounds good and is easy to remember. SpiderScribe.com domain was taken, so we got SpiderScribe.net, and I actually think ".net" fits the "spider" part, and the fact that it's a network of shared online maps.
How did this creative idea strike to you?
From doing free-style maps on paper, then having to scan it to show it to the team. So making an app to make the process easier and the maps looking nicer was a natural step.
If you were to list its primary advantages/top features, what would be the first three ones?
* easy to use and no-format limitation for maps. And if you do something wrong - there is the "undo" function.
* ability to connect web-relevant nodes like files, images, calendar events, etc...
* easy sharing and collaborating online in real time
* quick search through the maps by keywords SpiderScribe.net was released less than two weeks ago, so we have many more ideas to implement.
You guys are in your initial stage, what kind of response you guys have received so far?
Yes, it's just a fresh new beta, though we've been working on it for over a year now, considering our other active projects like project management apps 5pm (www.5pmweb.com) and smartQ (www.getsmartQ.com). We got a lot of positive feedback, especially from teachers. Some bigger sites even picked it up already, like PC Magazine. So it's been pretty good for a new software in beta, in a world where every day there are dozens of betas in the same field. We are using all this feedback to improve and expand our app.
Tell us about the pre-launch experience. What were the difficulties you'd to face?
There was a lot of testing related to sharing and security. It works differently from our commercial software. So this was new for us. But, generally, we've done if before twice, so it was basically just building the app, until we realized it has enough for us to share it with others and call it a beta. We did not have any internal deadlines and released it when we felt comfortable with it. We've been using it internally for some time now. Is there any specific set of audience you try to focus on? While we mostly build business software, we realize SpiderScribe.net will be popular with individuals and non-profits like schools. We plan to make it easy for users to create and share content with SpiderScribe.net, so others can benefit from it. At the same time we can see businesses using it for brainstorming and project planning, so we plan to integrate SpiderScribe.net with 5pm, for example.
What are the promotional methods you mostly rely on for promoting your venture?
We did not do much promotion with SpiderScribe.net. The launch was announced through our TheoWorlds.com website, there was a newsletter, blog post, some Tweets, and that's pretty much it. The community picked it up very quickly - many blog posts and re-tweets. Plus teachers have some very strong online communities and once they shared the link, it drove more traffic. Now it spreads through the review websites and so on.
Share the best incident that you encountered from conceiving the idea till present.
We made it public and people didn't throw tomatoes at us :-). It's a great moment when you show to the world something your team spent months and months working on.
Would you like to share your future goals/plans regarding 'SpiderScribe' with us?
There is a lot of work to do. We listen to feedback and we plan to add soon some very important features like printing and exporting to images (in the works). Anything that makes it easy for people to take the maps and share them in any way they want. We plan to add the maps gallery on our site (public ones), to make it easy for people to find maps they need. And, we plan to remove the word "beta".
Since you've recently started up your business, one can look up to you for the best advice. What message do you have for them?
As I mentioned, we've been building software for some time. The best advise to give - build something that solves your problems, something you know about. Don't build a social network just because everybody does. Make it easy to use, and don't bother about too many features initially - your users will let you know pretty fast what they really want.
Thanks for talking to us and letting us know about the wonderful concept of SpiderScribe.
We wish you all the very best!
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