2 posts tagged “beta”

Greetings from Florida!  I arrived here but a week ago, and can't help but feel that my summer is off to a late start.  There I was Friday, finally on the transcontinental flight home, so antsy to arrive that I couldn't even watch the in-flight episode of Two and a Half Men. And by the time I did reunite with my friends and acquaintances later that night, the conversations were way off; my “catch-up” questions were just too May.   By mid-June, “how did finals go?” is passé.

Work-wise, though, I came home just in the knick of time.  DailyMe had earlier agreed to take me back for another round of interning, and it wasn't until early June that they cleared me office space.  Turned out to be worth the wait: by the time I got back, they had cleared me a whole suite’s worth of space.  Well, not me personally.  More precisely, Sales and Marketing--the two groups I work with--recently moved to a different set of offices within our building.  This was partly to help accommodate the burgeoning company's staff increase, but also to give the Sales and Marketing a little space as they matured into teenage departments.  The CEO even let them get bunkbeds in their new pad. 

So I've been relegated to the new suite with another recent hire and Mrs. Boss--but the function goes hand in hand with the new features on DailyMe's site.  DM just incorporated some news organization tools meant to help readers find the most important news at a given time.  Users can still prioritize DailyMe’s articles based on their personal preference survey, but now they can also see what headlines our editorial board thought worthy of attention along with the most popular news of the day, DailyWe, as determined by what fellow DM’ers are reading.

I don't mean to wax nostalgic, but it felt funny to experience another DailyMe launch so soon after returning.  It was more than 7 months ago, but I remember the original service's initial Beta launch like it was yesterday.  I had just finished my first summer internship, and watched the old site go live on a laptop screen not unlike the one I'm viewing now.  Reliving that excitement all over again last week was great, and I hope we continue the trend of one grand unveiling per summer.  Pretty soon, I'll have seen more launches than an astronaut's wife and the mayor of Cape Canaveral combined. 

Until then, though, I’m just happy to be back and be bloggin’. 

Peace, Love, and Personalized Media,

-         John the Intern

http://DailyMe.com

I’ve been sitting in front of a blank Word document for about forty-five minutes, and Times New Roman is not getting any more fashionable. 

And though I’m seldom one to fallback on self-reference, I found it impossible to come up with a sharp opener worthy of today’s topic.  Can you guess what it is?   I’ll give you some clues: it’s a word freely associated with some of America’s greatest ventures; it’s the second meal of the day with a twist of the letter “A”; it’s the message we’ve all been waiting for…it’s the friggin’ DailyMe.com LAUNCH!!!!!! 

The company’s long gestation period left me a bit antsy, but a smooth delivery by the OB/GYN of abstract business entities (“Congratulations ma’am, it’s a .com!!”) brought relief.  Though I am not physically with the rest of the team in Florida, I understand their celebration was characterized by loud cheering, swivel-chair spinning, and a shortened lunch break to compensate for the work-time lost.  After all, it would take an obscene amount of hubris to treat our first destination as the end of the journey.  You wouldn’t turn around at the Fort Pierce rest stop and call it a vacation to Disney World, would you? 

Anyway, it was great to step out of the partial-employee role for a minute this week and accept a friendly yet “official” invitation to the DM Beta test.  I knew what to expect, but was happy to see some of my favorite features in action.  I can now get full coverage of my South Florida sports teams from local newspapers while keeping up with the latest Britney sitch from national columns (keeping track of capricious celebrity’s makes for some good mental calisthenics).  I’m also really enjoying the Automated Print feature, which places a digest in my roommate’s printer before I wake-up every morning (a convenient “Grab & Go” for the dining hall if you are tired of reading the university’s Daily). 

I’m also pumped about the site’s upcoming community features.  It’s fascinating (and only a little intrusive) to see what other DailyMes are spouting to their readers each day, and such a tool could double as a match-maker.  Wouldn’t it be nice to find a woman who also subscribes to “Reality TV Junkies” and “Gamers Anonymous”? 

Anyway, now that Dailyme.com has entered the world at 7 lbs. 6 oz., 21 inches, and varying bandwidth, you should visit the kid!  ‘Cause this launch has been a blast-off, and haven’t you always wanted to be an astronaut? 

Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.

-John the Intern

www.dailyme.com