Tonight sees the launch of Robert Scoble’s newest project, Building43, an online community that he’s building in partnership with web-hosting provider Rackspace (we’re having them over to celebrate with us at our birthday party). When we first heard about the new site, Scoble described it as a “community that’s for people who are fanatical about the Internet”. He’s still sticking with that vague tagline, but now it’s becoming a bit clearer as to what he actually means by that.
The site’s goal is to help businesses use modern technology and social sites to increase their exposure and the money they’re making. But rather than focus on the latest in breaking news, it’s looking to offer more practical advice, like how to “Pimp Out Your Facebook Page” (see the video below), or The new economics of entrepreneurship, a blog post by Guy Kawasaki.
Scoble says the big difference between the content he’s previously offered and Building43 will be a new emphasis on practical tips, though there will still be more general interviews. He says that we can intially expect to see two new videos a week, but that soon it will have new video features on a daily basis as the site ramps up (there will also be regular blog posts). And he’s kicking things off with an impressive roster of interviewees, including Fred Wilson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marissa Mayer.
Building 43 has five people working on the site full time, but it’s also looking to accept content from the community. Users will be able to upload video and blog posts after agreeing to a Creative Commons 3 license, and the site will also feature a FriendFeed room that monitors for mentions of the term Building43 across the web. The hope is that any time you have a tech tip that could be applicable to businesses, you can share it with the Building43 community by mentioning it in your post or tweet.
Building 43 has a good idea on its hands — it’s no secret that there are countless businesses with websites stuck in the 90’s and absolutely no idea how to tap into social media. But it’s still going to have to find a way to make these businesses aware of Building 43, which isn’t going to be an easy task (if they don’t know how to use Facebook, there’s a good chance they don’t know who Robert Scoble is or that Building 43 exists).
To hear Scoble talk about Building 43 a bit in his own words and his thoughts on clown computing, check out this Qik video taken at the TechCrunch offices yesterday.
