Comments for BricaBox - The Beginning of Social Content Platforms?

BricaBox - The Beginning of Social Content Platforms?

2008-02-26T06:07:18Z

BricaBox is a new type of service that combines elements of social networking and content creation into a medium it calls a "social content platform." The NYC-based startup hopes to do for social content what Ning did for social networks. It launches quietly early this morning in public beta.

It probably seems like a thin difference, but within the social content platform lies an elegant concept. The site delivers a platform upon which any sort of content vehicle can be built.

]]> Out of the box options include sites for restaurant reviews, photo and map mashups and video archives among others, but the real service is in the box labeled "Create a BricaBox from Scratch."

Using the homebrew option, users can utilize BricaBox components called "blocks" to build entirely new sites with completely diverse functions all inside the site's framework. One prominent example was the Silicon Alley 100: Peoples' Choice awards of the area's most influential figures. As this video illustrates (literally), the scope of content possibilities is wide:

The beauty of the project revolves around its outward simplicity. Creating a framework that supports so many variables took some failed experiments in other Web languages, before being rewritten in PHP. According to co-founder and CTO Kyle Bragger, BricaBox was initially built with Ruby on Rails, but scalability proved impossible due to the technical complexity of the service. But therein lies the elegance.

Despite the complex actions happening under the hood, users need not know anything about Ruby or PHP or anything difficult for that matter, they need simply to have an idea and initiative. Co-founder and CEO Nate Westheimer sees the the service as a fundamental evolution in Web publishing. "Think about what Blogger was before people knew about blogs," says Westheimer. "The Web has progressed since then. Now we have a more connected Internet -- both in terms of data and socializing. The time has come for a publishing platform with both elements. BricaBox is a simple way to mix and mash the tools needed to create unique, social content websites." Westheimer claims that "no one else does that."

Whether or not the Web will embrace his concept remains to be seen, but BricaBox appears to have created something unique. As the above image shows, it's not Ning and it's not Wordpress. Tell us in the comments if you know of a similar service.

Comment from Harish Kumar on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T14:03:02Z

Its interesting to see how Bricabox is trying to differentiate itself from NIng.

The fact is that Ning set out to do exactly what Bricabox is trying to do. ie. create a social content platform. The original set of apps on Ning are exactly those that are featured on bricabox today ie flickr, yelp, and delicious clones.

Ning even went a step further in creating a shared content store. ie. An application could reuse content created as part of other applications – something that bricabox does not have. From a technical perspective, Ning is so much more sophisticated than Bricabox.

What Bricabox is trying to do is fix one key limitation of Ning - the need to mess with code to build simple apps. Assembling apps by ticking checkboxes and dragging around modules does indeed make it more accessible. But Bricabox falls short on so many fronts – poor performance, unattractive default apps, limited data customisability and loads of ads on day one(a mistake that Ning made and fixed after a few months).

The big question is if Bricabox can succeed in doing what Ning failed to do with its original initiative. I for one am not sure. And it does not help that Ning is in a far better position today to execute on its original vision, thanks to its large userbase.

Comment from Nate Westheimer on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T14:39:46Z

Thanks Blake for the great piece, and thanks Harish for the comments. Notes taken!

Quick response from me regarding ads: the ads are totally optional and it's free to take part in the ad program. There are a few templated sites which have them in there by default, but that's because we thought people would want to run ads on those types of sites (i.e. it's default with the restaurant review site, but not the photo/maps mash-up site).

Anyway, we're definitely going to focus on adding new designs, functionality, and we'll always keep an eye on performance.

One last note: we're two hardworking guys who have bootstrapped until now. Ning has raised $40 million :-)

As always, if anyone has any questions, email me at nate@bricabox.com and I'd love to talk to you.

Nate Westheimer
BricaBox CEO

Comment from one software developer on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T15:36:32Z

Yes this is nice.
But it is also slow, right?

Comment from Harish Kumar on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T15:49:57Z

The fundamental question is not about minor kinks or application maturity. I am sure that Nate and his team would fix it fairly rapidly.

The question is more about strategy. Is there indeed a market for ultra niche social content apps? Are users more likely to deposit content in a app with a small user base or in one with thousands of users? Ning’s history goes against this hypothesis. It explains their rather abrupt shift in focus towards social networks (the reinvented groups!)

I tend to think that the best way to approach this market is to focus on a vertical first before offering a horizontal solution. Building credibility and a community is perhaps the key to get people to create and share liberally. The platform stuff can come later.

In a way, that is precisely what the major social content apps are doing (digg, flickr etc). And this applies to enterprise apps as well (salesforce!)

Comment from Kyle on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T15:57:02Z

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback. The slowness is an issue we're aware of and we're working hard to improve.

Comment from Emeric on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T15:57:44Z

It is quite interesting to see that Bricabox is presenting its service the same way Ning was presenting its first version 3 years ago. At that time I loved the value proposition of Ning :-)

Concerning your question regarding similar service, I guess affinitiz.com can be viewed as a similar service. We've been around for 7 years in France but really have a "Ning like" offer since 2006: the ability to create your own vertical social network.

Like Bricabox, affinitiz is positioned at the crossroad of social network and social media platforms and aims at offering users all the tools they need to publish all type of content (photos, videos, maps, polls, events, etc.) on the web through blogs or public communities or within private communities.

As opposed to Ning and Bricabox, we offer a mobile version (with an optimized version for the iPhone, see: http://www.apple.com/webapps/socialnetworking/affinitizblogsandcommunities.html).
As we have been only in French until recently, we have very little coverage in the US.

To see some examples (in French):
- A social event site (listing of concerts and cultural events in Paris): http://affinitiz.com/space/sorties-paris/event
- A restaurant review site: http://affinitiz.com/space/restos-paris/type/address/2
- A social travel site: http://affinitiz.com/space/kemer2006/blog

Unfortunately all these are in French, but it gives an idea. For a demo site in English, see: http://affinitiz.com/space/demo/blog

Comment from Avi Flombaum on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T19:38:16Z

Has anyone actually tried creating a "bricabox." I'm a programmer and I can't figure out how to use it - I can't seem to get any content on it - whether I start from one of their premade themes or from scratch. I think this service has a LONG way to go in terms of usability if they really intend on allowing "anyone" to create social content.

Comment from Brij on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T20:00:50Z

Blake - Thanks for amplifying the importance of this social content publishing category. We have been pushing the concept of email based social media publishing. It constantly amazes me to hear from people that they are happy with their existing publishing tools.

Are we saying Wordpress is the best we can do in terms of social media publishing innovation? Nothing against Wordpress but there is lot of scope for improvement here. Blog authoring is hard we all know that.

All the best to Nate and his team! This area needs more attention. You did a great service putting that in your title.

Brij
CEO
www.messagedance.com

Comment from Avi Flombaum on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T22:32:44Z

Just wanted to say that the problems I was having creating content have been fixed. Had a refreshingly good conversation with Kyle from Bricabox about the problem and he quickly fixed it and deployed it. While I still think they have a long way to go, that sort of agile and modest approach to development will take them there in no time.

Comment from TVSPY on 2008-02-26

2008-02-26T23:45:48Z

I'm not sure I like this, there's no portability with BricaBox. It's a good idea, but I want transparency - I mean Bricabox doesn't allow you to export that data or the site elsewhere should you outgrow their service or want to expand it past what is possible with them. So you're stuck in a rut with that service, good for novice users but bad for anyone wishing to expand beyond a cookie-cutter type template.

Comment from Corporate gifts on 2008-02-26

2008-02-27T02:04:46Z

I really appreciate the tips in this post. As owner of a corporate gifts company, BricaBox is very useful. Please continue to submit more quality tips and ideas.

Comment from Steve on 2008-02-26

2008-02-27T04:20:25Z

Nice idea but it will never work.

They talked about this quite a bit on STEVEROSS4PRES.COM and decided it was a bad idea.

Nice try though!

Comment from Dave on 2008-02-26

2008-02-27T04:21:23Z

Yeah, that Steve Ross is awesome!

WWW.STEVEROSS4PRES.COM

Comment from Albert on 2008-02-26

2008-02-27T04:22:48Z

WHY is everyone talking about steveross4pres.com ??

Yeah its funny, but good lord people! You would think it was an apple product!

oh well might as well join in:

www.steveross4pres.com yada yada

Comment from Kyle on 2008-02-27

2008-02-27T15:32:40Z

@TVSPY: Actually, we have a basic API that will give you all of your entry data in XML and RSS (ATOM coming shortly), and will be rolling out more API related functionality in the coming weeks. We're also working on a widget system that will allow you to use our functionality elsewhere (your own blog, site, etc.)

Just hit http://(yoursubdomain).bricabox.com/entries.xml

Comment from Andrew on 2008-03-04

2008-03-04T14:39:46Z

Several previous comments raised the issue of BricaBox's similarity to the "original Ning." I think that the concerns are overstated. See:
http://changingway.org/2008/03/03/bricabox-deja-ning-all-over-again/