Back in June of last year, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, the husband/wife team that started Flickr, left Yahoo to pursue other interests. We already know what Fake’s new project is, the just-launched Hunch. Now we know what Butterfield’s new project is. Or, at least, what it’s called: Tiny Speck.
Butterfield sent out a tweet tonight announcing that the new company was hiring. The link he sent goes to a page on a site for the Tiny Speck project. Along the top of the jobs page it reads “We’re a new company, founded by four core members of the original team behind Flickr.” It’s no secret that another of those four core team members is former Flickr head of engineering, Cal Henderson, who left Yahoo in April of this year.
So what is Tiny Speck all about? That is still not entirely clear. The word on the street has been that it’s some kind of new social gaming endeavor, but all they’ll say on the site is “We are working on something huge and fun and we need help.”
And the main page doesn’t offer much help either. On it you’ll find the words, “O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!” For the non-English majors, that’s a line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which is also the passage that inspired the title of Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World.
Below that, you’ll find the logo, and below that you’ll find the link stating that Tiny Speck is hiring. And below that it reads, “Other than that, we have nothing in particular to say for ourselves right now.” Mysterious.
So, is there anything to be drawn from this position they’re hiring for? A bit, yes. The position is Creative Production Team Lead. The description says this person will be supporting staff and contractors including “illustrators, along with the occasional writer, animator or sound designer.”
So clearly this is a creative project — it almost sounds like their making an animated movie. As awesome as that would be, with people like Henderson on board, you can bet there’s impressive engineering going on to turn this all into a game of some sort (if that is in fact what this is all about).
Something else that is interesting is that this is being run out of Vancouver, according to the job posting. That is also where Flickr got its start. And guess how Flickr started? As a photo tool for a project called Game Neverending, a massively multiplayer online game.
It eventually became clear that the photo sharing aspect was the idea that would take off for Ludicorp, Butterfield and Fake’s company. So Game Neverending was tabled, and Flickr was born. Yahoo then bought Ludicorp and the rights to Flickr in March of 2005.
Looks like we may be seeing Butterfield returning to his roots.
Random hunch- Augmented Reality game.
I see what you did there. Hunch. Nice.
Perhaps a multiplayer guessing game! A business synergy between the husband and wife
No, Butterfield and Fake aren’t married anymore.
Flickr is shit – and this will be too.
I’m going to go with some kind of game, or a game company as my guess.
Game would make sense; the founders left GNE to work on flickr.
( http://en.wikip...ame_Neverending )
I always hated their smarty pants, fake “we’re your friend” tone… Flickr would do just fine if it didn’t try to be “funny” in it’s UI.
> Flickr would do just fine
You don’t think that being acquired by Yahoo and becoming one of the largest photo sharing communities means that it has done well already?
I also don’t actually happen to find the quirky tone offensive, it makes a nice change from boring.
Totally agree.
Agree too. I think the name is nice, friendly and it standouts for me. Can’t wait for the launch.
yup this is right flickr will go the same but this tiny speck can be more interesting
“Other than that, we have nothing in particular to say for ourselves right now.”
Sort of like this article.
well, we did get to see the “Juno” logo, or something close to it.
Seeing as they are quoting from the Tempest is sounds as if there be magic on a magic island. Unless they just like Miranda and Shakespeare that is
The Tempest quote is a weird choice. A lot of negative subtext there.
“they’re” making an animated movie, not “their”
+1
I wish these types of comment boards had a separate spot for typo notification, so it wouldn’t have to be out there for everyone to see. They could correct it quietly.
There’s an idea for someone to work on.
OK, you got us. Tiny Speck is going to be a typo correcting service, for all those times you’ve missed out a tiny little speck.
Ah, the potential to be a great project, no matter how small.
They want people to apply for a job there, but they won’t say where they are located?
I am currently on work share, and I would like to have my 8 hours back retaining 100% no deductible medical and dental coverage.
Right now the state is paying my lost time, but it sends me IOUs for large sums of money. As in California currently owes me several thousands of dollars. I would like to be back on real full time asap to avoid this.
Is this job in LA or Norcal?
I think the ad says Vancouver…
And I think it’s only one job.
OMG, Canada, ick no. I would rather live in a box under a bridge with rats as roomates.
Ahahahahahaha! Good stay out! Vancouver and Canada don’t want YOU.
Don’t trip over those heroin addicts in downtown vancouver eh?
They’re the reason you gas costs 8 bucks a gallon, sucker
You gas should be your gas. I’m typing this on a phone.
Canada is one big sh1thole
Sanjay Truth #1: The likely success of a start-up is inversely proportional to its “hugeness” potential.
Such is the word of Sanjay.
Now that his financial devices have been satisfied to the extent necessary to live, he is following his dream. Kind of like http://newfiction.com except we reinvent audiobooks, not videogames
Tom Lopy
Is the “hiring” status just a publicity ploy? Seems like they’re one of the few in this economy.
Stewart Butterfield, much luck with your new venture.
Mrs. Butterworth has a new start-up too–www.pancakes.com/.
From what I heard they have already lost one founder since they started and has taken someone else on board. The likely victim seems to be Jennifer Ouano, which is still listed as an owner of tinyspeck.com domain. Just 2c.
Personally, I think TinyLick.com is a much better name!
I launched that site just last week. I wonder how many TinyX’s are left?