Ecademy Website: Ecademy.com Summary: Ecademy is a focused business network community, with a heavy emphasis on user-generated content�articles, weblogs, and message posts in their "clubs" (discussion forums). Ecademy also offers extensive face-to-face networking events throughout the UK, and rapidly expanding worldwide. Membership: Over 24,000 members as of February 2004 Over 80% of the members are from the United Kingdom, 7% from the United States, and the rest scattered around the globe (as of February 2004). Ecademy is currently launching dedicated "Trusted Networks" (see below) for the U.S. and many other countries, and expects to see rapid growth in membership in those countries. The membership consists primarily of entrepreneurs, business coaches, consultants, and sales and business development professionals. The majority of the members are involved in business-to-business products and services, rather than the consumer/retail market. Ecademy is remarkable for having attracted the participation of many of the UK-based executives and senior managers of Global 1000 companies. Launched: February 1998 Founders: Thomas Power, Chairman Glenn Watkins, Chief Executive Penny Power, Co-Founder Corporate Overview: Chairman Thomas Power is the highly visible face and voice of Ecademy. Following a lucrative sale to Mercedes-Benz of a computer networking system he developed, Thomas Power spent several years as a leading European IT industry consultant and strategist. He has co-authored four books on IT and technology strategy and futurism and one on networking, with several more in the works. His co-founders, Glenn Watkins and Penny Power, along with Chief Technology Officer Julian Bond and Chief Finance Director John Bromley, round out the core management team. One of the most remarkable aspects of Ecademy has been its ability to launch major new business initiatives by joint venturing or revenue sharing with its members, whose commitment to the effectiveness of the total Ecademy program is demonstrated by their willingness to take these on with no financial support from Ecademy, per se, but just the provision of the technology and the commitment of the network members themselves to support these ventures. As a result, Ecademy has created the most diverse portfolio of revenue sources of any of the social networking sites, including community/social software licensing, Power Networker subscriptions, advertising, revenue sharing from transaction referrals, consulting, book publishing, speakers bureau, site and event sponsorship, board directorships and manage d hosting of private-label Trusted Networks. Ecademy has been privately funded with a total of �2.5 ($3.75) million invested since its founding. The management is considering an Initial Public Offering in 2006. Ecademy is nothing if not ambitious. Their long-term plan is to build the world's largest trusted business network of 10,000 members in each of 1,000 cities or organizations (Trusted Networks) to 10 million members (Power Networkers) worldwide by 2050, generating a combined revenue of �2 billion. Fees: Basic membership: Free Power Networker: Free one-month trial, �10/�14/$15(US) per month, or �100/�140 Euros/$150(US) per year Power Networker membership provides a number of enhancements, most notably: Unlimited network size Ability to view connections between people in your network Enhanced search capabilities Unlimited club (group) membership Ability to create up to 20 clubs (groups) Meeting management and event discounts Affiliate program (get paid when people you refer sign up as power networkers) Description: Ecademy is built on the Drupal platform, one of a number of open-source portal tools modeled after Slashdot that have appeared in the last few years. Web-savvy users, particularly those in the technology industry, will find the user interface familiar, but others may find it a bit daunting, because there is so much going on. The front page has 10 or so "modules", and the main module has 7 sections within it. The top menu has roughly 40 links. User profiles � Ecademy's profiles are flexible and easily personalized. Basic demographic and contact information is captured in a structured way, but the majority of the profile information is in a Notes field, which you can customize as you choose, and the Fifty Words field, where you can put fifty keywords about your personal and business interests. The Fifty Words field also allows the intriguing "Find other people like this" search, which will identify the other people on Ecademy who are most like you based on those fifty words. This is a great tool for identifying and connecting with like-minded individuals and is unique among the major online business networks. Members can also post their complete CV (Curriculum Vitae, or r�sum�) on a separate page. There is a guestbook feature, but because it is a separate page, rather than integrated into the profile page, it's not used very much. Weblogs & Articles � Each user is given a personal weblog, as well as the ability to post longer pieces as articles. Weblog entries are posted immediately, and those of Power Networkers are visible on the Ecademy home page. Articles are submitted into a queue for review by multiple randomly selected Power Networkers. If they approve it for posting, then it makes it into the articles section. This provides some measure of quality control on the articles without any manpower from Ecademy. The most recent articles are shown on the Ecademy home page, and a permanent archive of them is browsable and searchable. Other users can also comment on all blog posts and articles. Clubs � Every Power Networker has the ability to create up to 20 clubs. A club is primarily a threaded discussion forum with a home page that the creator can customize, but as with the other social networks, the concept of a publicly visible "membership" gives members a sense of "belonging", rather than just "viewing". EcademyLists (classifieds) � Broken down by worldwide region and then topic within regions, members can post free classified ads, including community interest, for sale/wanted, jobs offered/wanted, services, personals, and real estate. Personal Networks � Rather than using an explicit designation of "friend" as many other sites do, Ecademy bases it on private messages sent within the Ecademy system. If you have sent someone a message, or they you, then you are in each other's network. You are considered "unconnected" when the communication has only gone in one direction, and "connected" once you have exchanged messages in both directions. Power Networkers can view the networks of all other Ecademy members. You can also browse lists of "friends of friends", and make that list available via XML in FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) format. Private messages � As with most online social networks, users can exchange private messages through the system. One nice feature that Ecademy offers is that Power Networkers can opt to receive the full text of private messages via e-mail, rather than requiring the extra step of going to the website. This is also helpful to mobile users. Another helpful feature is the ability to cc: another Ecademy user on the private message, making it easier to facilitate introductions between members. Member search � All of the fields in the user profile are fully searchable: name, job title, organization, location, Fifty Words, and even the free-form Notes section and CV. In addition to the member search, you can browse through the entire membership sorted on the field of your choice. You can also view the top networkers based on number of connections or reputation. While this reinforces the power law distribution (i.e., the top networkers tend to stay there because they are more visible, and therefore more people want to connect with them), it does make it easier to identify and connect with the most-connected people. Events & Meetings � Ecademy offers a very robust meeting and event system. Members can post public & private events, as well as arrange meetings with other Ecademy members. The creator of the event can specify the event type, restrictions on registration, visibility of the meeting, visibility of the attendee list, and more. The system can also send automatic reminders to registered attendees. Trusted Networks � The Trusted Networks (TNs) are perhaps Ecademy's most distinctive and promising feature. A TN is a complete branded, hosted community run on the Ecademy platform. They can be focused on a particular area of interest, geography, or even a corporate-sponsored or organizational community. While there are certainly many other platforms out there for online communities, the great benefit of the TN offering is the integration within the larger Ecademy context. TN members benefit from a "one-way visibility" that allows members of the TN to be insulated from the potentially overwhelming and irrelevant (to them) activity of Ecademy, but the TN's content and membership are visible to the at-large Ecademy community, which will help drive new memberships and other outside interaction for the sponsoring organization. Some of the first TNs include Marketplace, a market for B2B services; Resourcing, a community for job seekers, employers, and related service providers; and Broadband Central, sponsored by BT, a community targeted at BT broadband consumers, but open to the public, and offering clubs for online gaming, digital film-making, and other topics of interest to the wired generation. Notes: Ecademy is heavily content-centric. Between weblogs, articles, club forums, and comments on all of them, there's no shortage of means to communicate publicly, creating visibility and earning credibility (assuming you write well and are knowledgeable on your topic). A nice feature of the site is that when viewing a members profiles, there's a link to view their recently created content, as well, making it easier to get to know someone better before contacting them. While content may be king at Ecademy, there's no shortage of other ways to connect and interact with the other members. The member search and browse functions are very robust, and make it an excellent platform for targeted networking, as well. As mentioned above, Ecademy has been able to attract and engage some very senior people. However, those that are engaged are those that fit the "early adopter" profile, and it has worked so far based largely on the good behavior of other Ecademists. As Ecademy grows internationally, though, it will need to put in place more granular filtering and gatekeeping mechanisms for those senior people if it wants to keep them engaged. The worst thing one can say about Ecademy is that it can be overwhelming. The user interface is very busy, but that's because there's simply a lot going on here. Once you can get past that, it is the most feature-rich platform of all the online business networks. What is perhaps most remarkable about Ecademy is the extraordinary loyalty of its members and their commitment to the platform. Ecademy has been able to launch so many initiatives because there is no shortage of members willing to step up and partner with Ecademy. The various Trusted Networks, Ecademy Press, and the regional Ecademy clubs have all been done with minimal capital outlay and no increase of permanent staff. If it can continue to effectively execute on this strategy, Ecademy may well be able to keep up with, or even outrun its better-funded competitors and creating opportunities for emerging leaders within the community in the process. Recommendation: Ecademy is truly an innovator in terms of proactively stimulating business among its members and creating revenue stream for itself in the process. For UK and European residents, and any others involved in global business, it should be one of your first choices, especially if you are in a B2B business. For individuals outside of areas where Ecademy has an on-ground presence, and who are not involved in international business, the value proposition is lower. However, Ecademy's rapid growth plans may alleviate that issue. Ecademy will be of most benefit to those who write well and can spend the time writing in order to leverage the content-rich environment. For organizations, the Trusted Network platform is a robust platform for building your online community. While there are certainly many other competent platforms for this, the unique benefit of Ecademy Trusted Networks is the integration with the broader Ecademy context. Disclosures: Scott Allen is a local coordinator for Ecademy. vc conference Main Menu