This is a pseudo transcript I took of the Hivelive podcast from ColoradoStartups.com. When I read about HiveLive I was really curious because they are basically a hosted provider of a "social publishing platform" and it just so happens that I'm a developer who uses an Open Source "social publishing platform".
John Kembel's history:
- design consulting firm (like ideo)
- dodots - thin client browser/widgets before Dashboard was cool
- hivelive: "enterprise social software"
- tap into power of social networks
- marketing communication vehicles
- amplify lead generation, insights, support
- flexible, cost effective, on demand, platform
2006 Founded Hivelive
- Existing solutions are social software packages (blogs, wikis, forums)
- They were either overly generic or inflexible
- They didn't allow sharing
- HiveLive is a unified platform - permissions and content richness "not just blogs/wikis/forums" for sharing
Existing Solutions vs. HiveLive
- One common approach is to stitch together lots of technologies
- People take a blogging platform, a separate wiki, a separate forum, social networking and try to build build unified package
- The results are not good
- So, don't staple together a bunch of solutions
- HiveLive: Start with social networking, add on "hives" to share information
Why is social networking important to businesses?
- humans are social
- communities where socialization is part, but rather than being the focus, the business is the focus
- tie business to customers - delivers lead generation, loyalty, insights, support all in one trust based relationship
HiveLive Competitors?
- Hivelive is different in that they use building block rather than integrating point solutions
- Configuration is via "clicking not coding"
