mahipal

He also had a much simpler take on it...

    I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.
    
    - Richard Feynman

Thanks! Yes, I've been talking with some college professors, and it looks like the software would work well there too.

There may need to be some customization of the analytics to handle their larger classes, which we're open to -- we've basically just been building features based on the requests from our teachers.

Feel free to pass on my email -- m [at] classpager.com -- if the teachers/professors have any questions.

Good feedback -- thanks.

For #2, do you have any suggestions of other things that would work well on the home page?

And for #3, I went into detail on use cases/specific problems that we solve here: https://www.classpager.com/more -- Are you suggesting some of that be moved to the front page, or are you saying that the hook there is still unclear/not compelling?

Hmm, thanks. We'll have to work on the front page copy.

Do her students never reply to the text messages she sends out? That's the core of the value-add -- whether inside or outside of class, students can reply to ClassPager and we show it to the teacher on the web site.

If she doesn't want students to be able to reply at all (i.e. she wants it to be totally 1-way communication) then I'm actually inclined to agree -- Remind101 is definitely the best and most cost-effective choice there.

Thanks! Yeah, we hate those clickers too.

Thanks for catching that.

Thanks!

If she or other teachers have any questions, they're welcome to email me: m [at] classpager.com.

We've been piloting with teachers, so we're starting by marketing to teachers directly. The goal is to have a product that's both useful at the free level and affordable at the premium level, given teachers' budgets.

We've started talking to schools, too, but I think it will be some time before we really target the marketing there.

Thanks Thomas! I love your designs (and http://www.weekendhacker.net too :)

Yes, that's very true. It's going to take a while to convince schools to change all these entrenched behaviors and policies.

But, as you're getting at, it's also obvious that technology should be -- and will be -- an integral part of the classroom in the future. So we're hoping that, by making it as easy as possible to get on board, and by making the tech usable both inside and outside the classroom, we'll help teachers and classrooms move towards this future.

Thanks! We spent a fair amount of time polishing little UI details.

I really appreciate you forwarding it to your teacher friends. If they have any questions at all, or just need a walkthrough, they're welcome to email me: m [at] classpager.com.

Yes, there are many different angles.

To be clear, the technique of messaging in a special code to a number to "subscribe" to a service has been around for many, many years before edtech companies started using it recently. But it's a good approach.

And there's one big difference: services like Remind101 offer broadcasting, but they don't allow the students to reply.

We're out to open up and optimize the communication between teachers and students. Over time, each side will get the tools that serve them best. That's why the UX is web-based for teachers and SMS-based for students.

Thanks! And I love that line about the "personal connection" without breaching privacy -- I'll have to use that.

One of the things we've been exploring is ways to integrate over existing LMS software, and it's been pretty disappointing to hear how no one has any sort of plugin system or API for apps.

Yes, we have classrooms using the service.

I'd love to talk to them, if you think they'd be interested in a conversation. We're headed in a bit of a different direction (message analytics and eventually generating questions), though I agree it looks pretty similar right now.

Thank you!

I really appreciate you forwarding it to them. If they have any questions at all, or just need a walkthrough, they're welcome to email me: m [at] classpager.com.

Well, it's definitely an iterative process. Over time, you'll converge on a "management style" that works for you and for your contractors.

Here is a good starting point, though -- Derek Sivers has a really good blog post that outlines a concrete process for hiring on oDesk: http://sivers.org/how2hire

If you're on the east-side, don't forget about http://pasadenaangels.com

Feel free to drop me a line -- there is a scene, and there are investors, although of course it doesn't compare to SV.

The HD audio stream is a cool idea. I've been using YouTube as my main source of music lately, so I'm willing to call it a related feature. ;)

What do you mean it doesn't support your habits? Can you describe your video-watching habits?

Cool. I've discovered several other apps like this in the past week or two. Is yours still up?

Glad to hear it. Feel free to email or post any more thoughts. Good critique is always valuable.

It will work with embedded videos very soon. We're tracking down some errors in a JS DOM parsing library that the web app uses.

Good points on the UX. Thanks. I'll make sure that gets fixed.

That's a very good point. I'm going to move fbConnect way up the list. Thanks for the tip.

Good to know. It was my first such experiment, and it does boil down to a few core principles I wanted to apply. I'll write something up once things calm down a little bit.

Thanks! Glad you like it. The iPad app is coming soon, but in the meantime the site should work on your iPad without a problem. Mixergy and TED will definitely be coming soon to the list of supported sites.

As for the error, you might've caught us while we were frantically rebooting. :) But I'll check it out.

I definitely struggled with that bit of copy. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for the other feature ideas!

Now that we've launched I keep stumbling across more and more implementations. So far, I still like mine the best. ;)

Twitter integration is high on the list. Since there's so many things to do with Twitter, I'm prioritizing the easiest one: just being able to tweet out links to videos on Instafilm.

I like the pinboard.in idea. I'm interested to hear any other things you'd want out of a service like this, too.

Thanks! I suggest you'd use this because it supports more sites than just YouTube (and, if you ask me, because the UI is better too ;).

Right now we only support Vimeo and YouTube, but we'll be adding more soon, once we find out what people want.

Thanks!

The site works on your mobile device since it uses HTML5 embeds. A native app is in the works.

Caching is more difficult since it violates the TOS for some web sites -- but not all. So I'll have to sort this out on a case-by-case basis, but it may be added at some point too.

I had this built to scratch my own itch: I would always find videos that I wanted to watch and bookmark them. And then I'd lose them in a sea of bookmarks. Whenever I wanted to watch something, it was hard to find something that fit how much time I had. So this solves both those problems.

I say "had this built" because it was my little experiment in management. The whole thing was put together by a team of 4 (including me) and now we've launched it without me writing a single line of code. Since I'm the guy who's usually coding nonstop to launch something, it was a refreshing change and a fun experiment.

I'll be blunt, and I hope you take this all with the understanding that I'm only trying to help. I've tried to point out specific things you can do/add wherever possible. With that said...

Your home page is incredibly confusing, primarily because there is no call to action. Even though I know and use Airbnb, "Airbnb for food" could still mean several things, and I'm not even sure what the # of countries has to do with anything. Suggestion: ditch the Airbnb comparison and put up a 1-sentence elevator pitch followed by a 1-sentence call-to-action. Example: "Housefed.com lets you find and eat with talented chefs in your area. Get started by _______."

Continuing on the call-to-action thread, there isn't even anything for me to do! Am I supposed to search? Am I supposed to click on the food? Clicking on the food takes me to an equally confusing page with nothing for me to do there either. Suggestion: add an obvious thing for me to interact with (search box? I don't even know what...) and lose the sorting features, which add nothing to the first impression.

After signing up -- even though nothing on the site makes me want to -- nothing changes! I still have no idea what to do on your site, or where to do it. Suggestion: let a not-logged-in user browse the available food and understand WHY it's posted (so that they could eat it, I assume), and then invite them to sign up with a statement like: "Want to eat this and other delicious meals in your town? Sign up and get housefed!"

I suggest you spend a lot more time studying http://airbnb.com and the subtleties of their homepage and UX. Notice that their home page tells you EXACTLY what to do ("Find a place to stay.") and shows you HOW to do it (by filling out one field that tells them "Where are you going?"). I can use and browse everything on their site without logging in or signing up, and they detour me to the sign-up page only when absolutely necessary.

I remember your original "noob" post. Congrats on making it this far. Seriously. Most people would've given up long ago. Keep at it. I think your site fills a real need (at least, I would use it, fwiw).