Interview: WikiBios
Posted in: Interviews
If you’ve ever wanted a way to document your life then you have to check out WikiBios.com. WikiBios, a company started by three recent Duke grads Jeff, Ajay, and John, lets you create your own online biography which is then written and updated by your friends and family members. To get more of an inside scoop, SpaceCadetz interviewed one of the WikiBios founders, Jeff Sheely. If you want to know more about WikiBios, check out Jeff’s personal WikiBio here and read his interview below.
What’s up, Jeff? Thanks for doing this interview man, it’s much appreciated. Care to give the SpaceCadetz readers a quick bio of yourself?
Hey Scott. First of all, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. I am from Houston, Texas, and I am a recent graduate of Duke University, which is where I met Ajay and John. We lived together in the dorms for four years and are now working on this project together.
So your company is called WikiBios. Tell us what the concept is behind the site and how might people find it useful.
WikiBios are online biographies that you set up and then allow your friends and family members to tell the story of your life. The site revolves around the idea that has a unique and interesting story that deserves to be told. We aim to create a database of biographies for everyone in the world, as told by those who know them best. Your friends/family can post stories, good quotes, what makes you cool, and everything else that they want to throw out there. The only thing is that you can’t edit your own WikiBio, because the point is to see yourself through the eyes of your friends/family. We think it fills a niche on the internet that people can use to learn what makes them special in the eyes of their loved ones.
How did the initial idea come about?
The three of us were sitting at a bar in Durham reminiscing about our four years together and talking about how we wished there was a way that we could document the good times that we had together. Our conversation eventually turned to websites, and Ajay came up with the idea of having wikis that would allow people like us to write about what makes their friends great. Basically, our impending graduation made us think about how great our friends are and want to document what makes them great, and from that we realized that we surely weren’t the only ones who felt this way. We truly believe in the concept behind the site, which is that everyone deserves to have their life documented, and we believe that there is no one who can better do that than the people who know them best.
Say someone vandalizes your WikiBio. Is there an easy way to fix that blemish?
Absolutely. While we firmly believe in our community’s dedication to the project and that are users will be courteous in writing WikiBios, we do understand that we don’t live in a utopia. This is why we have implemented the rollback feature on all sections of all WikiBios. Once you are logged in, you can revert your WikiBio to an earlier version (how it was before any vandalism or deletion occurred). In addition, we regularly log IP addresses and recall them when rollbacks occur, so that we can review cases and block people from the website when necessary.
Can a WikiBio be linked to or posted somehow on a MySpace profile or personal website?
Yes. We have actually just launched a “Wiki My Bio!” campaign that provides banners and buddy icons for people to put in their MySpace and/or AIM Profiles. We think that WikiBios and MySpace compliment each other very well, as WikiBios allow you to not only see what the person says about themselves (on MySpace), but also lets you share what you know about him or her. This makes a WikiBio a perfect add-on for a MySpace profile, and we have created this page to let people set that up by encouraging people to “Wiki Their Bio!”
Can WikiBios compete with the existing feature sets of sites like comments on MySpace and testimonials on Friendster? What sets WikiBios apart?
While we have some similar elements, we are quite different from those sites. As the old saying goes, “you don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been,” and while those sites focus on where you’re going, we tend to focus on where you’ve been. Our purpose is to allow your friends and family to tell the story of your life and why you are unique and special, as opposed to simply allowing them to give you a shout-out. It’s different from the other social networking sites in that you have to rely on your friends and families to write about you instead of doing it yourself, which we think gives a unique appeal.
How is the company being funded so far?
At this point we don’t really have any major funding. This is a very organic concept, and it will succeed or fail based on the interest level of those people who sign up. We are attempting to grow through word of mouth as people learn about the concept through our current members or on sites such as SpaceCadetz, as we think these people would be more inclined to be active participants in the site. We might eventually spend more money on advertising or on a larger staff, but as of now it is just the three of us doing our thing.
What major roadblocks have you run into? Any haters that you’d like to call out?
Naw man, people have been largely supportive. Any criticism that we’ve had has really been constructive, and we’re more concerned with improving our site than worrying about people who might want to see us fail.
Most college grads are out job hunting or starting out as entry-levelers. What’s it like running your own company?
It’s certainly an interesting experience. I honestly feel really lucky to have met such great guys as John and Ajay at Duke and to have been able to collaborate with them on a project such as this. I never expected to be in this sort of position, but it’s a great opportunity, and I I feel that we owe it to ourselves to give it our best shot.
So what does the future hold for you and WikiBios? What are your short-term and long-term goals for the company?
We certainly hope the future is bright. Like I said earlier, we truly believe in the concept, so that of course makes it much easier to keep improving on the site and making it more appealing to our target market. In the short term, we just want to keep adding features to the site and to build up our base of users. We know that in a Web 2.0 concept such as this, it is important to convince users that the site is worth inviting their friends to, and that our best way to grow is to appeal to our current users. Therefore, we want to ensure that we continue to improve our product. For the long-term, we hope that the site really catches on and that people end up believing in our project as much as we do.
What features are you planning on adding in the future?
We are currently working on adding connectivity features that will allow users to link with other users as friends and members of groups. We think that these additions will help to foster a greater sense of community among our users and encourage them to add to each others’ profiles. We also hope to add some multimedia features soon, but we are still working out the details. If any of your readers have any suggestions, we’d love to hear from them at wikibios@wikibios.com.
Any shoutouts?
I’d just like to thank everyone who has helped us out throughout this whole endeavor. We have had a great deal of feedback, and it has all been appreciated and incorporated into the website. I’d also like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell your readers about our site. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who has signed up, and encourage anyone who has any questions or comments about our site to e-mail us at wikibios@wikibios.com. Peace!
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