Einar Sigvaldason, TellmeTwin’s CEO, wrote the following blogpost on Interest Graphs. Reposted from his blog:
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I am using the new Facebook feature where I can see in my newsfeed if a friend listened to a song on Spotify. I can then click on the song and it starts playing through the Spotify app that I previously downloaded.
Spotify is great in bringing me music. But for the discovery of music to be meaningful, my friends, the ones I get notifications from, need to have a similar taste in music (media) as I; a similar Taste-DNA.
Besides, why should we limit our media discovery to people just in our social graph? Friends and family are good for plumbing references and contractor recommendations. For that kind of stuff you want advice from someone you can trust to give you the whole and honest story.
For media discovery why not expand the pool of potential advisors to include anyone who wants to see if you are a good taste match?
- Then you can systematically filter and rank these people according to:
How much they hated and/or loved the same media as you.
How much they hated and/or loved the same media as you. People who share your passion (whether it is a negative or positive one) are a much better filter than those who share your neutral view on something.
How much did the two of you stand out from the average?
People who are uniquely against the average opinion, just like you, are a very valuable filter – They are the best candidate to warn you the next time there is a highly regarded movie which you won’t like because it has something about it, some attributes or characteristics, that the two of you hate but people in general love (and therefore: you are in great “danger” of wasting your time on). Equally, they are the best candidate for finding that hidden movie you are likely to love but otherwise wouldn’t have heard of since people in general would not have liked it.
How important was the media to you? Let’s remember that not all ratings are created equal. Some things you love/hate better define your personality than other things you love/hate. People who agree with you on something that is very important to you are a better filter to help you decide on your next experience than those who agree with you on something less important to you (you both gave Fight Club and Pulp Fiction 5 stars but it was really Pulp Fiction that truly represents what makes you tick in front of a movie).
Why you hated or loved that media? People who love or hate something for the same reasons as you love or hate it are a much better filter than the ones who love or hate it for different reasons (you both hated the movie because you both thought it was too pretentious and self conscious).
The people who best resemble you on all the above are the ones who will rank the highest in having a similar interest graph as you. They are your “top twins” and they are by far the best people to ask for recommendations about what music, movie, book or TV show you should spend your time on next.
In fact they are your best advisors for any type of artistic experience since they are the people who come clo
sest to agreeing with you on what is cool, moving, magical and worth expressing and presenting to the world and spending your time on. Often it is not anything specific to put a finger on; a plot, the filming, the actors, the storyline, or a musical beat like Jinni and Pandora use in their analysis. But rather the “it” about the experience. The magic that happens when everything works out for the artist. These people, your top twins, are the people who on a deep level, psychologically, agree with you on what is magical and what is totally lame.
I recently joined TellmeTwin to run its online marketing efforts. TellmeTwin.com has been around for a while, but it pivoted in the spring of 2011 from being an all-encompassing recommendation site to just focusing on entertainment recommendations (the fine arts part of TellmeTwin was hived off to a new sister site called dageek.com).
As is typical in a startup, I have 20 priorities but time enough for maybe half of those. Which ones should I focus my time and TellmeTwin’s limited resources on?
There are many examples of marketing plans (the mint.com one is a good one). And in terms of metrics for consumer Internet startups, Dave McClure’s Startup Metrics for Pirates is great. I have listened to him present it a few times and really like how he logically has set it out. So I have decided to use Dave’s metrics as the foundation to build my marketing plan on. This may seem obvious to some but to me it provides clarity of direction.
Dave’s metrics are divided into 5 sections that can be implemented chronologically (with a lot of overlap): Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral and Revenue. They are all important, but based on where TellmeTwin is right now I am only focusing on the first three.
We do have an existing member base, but given the change in focus of TellmeTwin they need to be re-engaged. As well, TellmeTwin’s value to members increases exponentially as more members join who are also active on the site (a typical network effect). As mentioned, TellmeTwin is an entertainment recommendation site and we have four general categories: movies, music, TV and games. But one of the first things that we have decided is to focus initially just on movies. You can certainly rate items in the other categories and receive recommendations, in them but we need to concentrate on a narrower audience.
So a summary of my marketing / action plan is (and using Dave’s metrics):
1) Focus on user acquisition in channels that will bring us movie lovers / movie reviews / movie bloggers / movie goers / people looking for movie recommendations / etc. We’ll test different channels and narrow it down to the one(s) that give us most bang for our buck. This means not just overall numbers of new members but new engaged members. (I’m going to try to do some cohort analysis)
2) Test the daylights out of the landing pages used to acquire members and iterate quickly (BTW we use Unbounce)
3) Engage existing members through clever(!), personalized email campaigns (we use MailChimp) that make use of data from our member and item database. More on this in a later post.
And don’t forget to say “AAARR” on September 19th (talk like a pirate day).
Cheers.
All of daGeek’s female workers left their job at 14:25 today to join an estimated 50 thousand women in downtown Reykjavik to fight for womens rights. Below are some photos of the event which took place in a rather chilli weather.
On Friday the 24th of September 2010 daGeek premiered the latest additions to the website, an upgrade in the recommendation system, an improved method of earning revenues on Passion Pages and an overall improvement in the user interface. The venue was Researchers’ Night at Visindavaka Science Festival in Reykjavik Art Gallery. Below are photos from the event.
During daGeek´s Art and Design Theme we interviewed the Icelandic designer Sigrun Lilja the founder of Gydja Collection. Lilja was one of the designers chosen to give the nominees at the Emmy Awards 2010 a special VIP giftbag. This is a real honour and a recognition for up and coming fashion designers . We asked Sigrun about the nominated stars, her passion for design and the Passion Page on daGeek made about Gydja Collection.
To watch the interview with Icelandic designer click here: Emmy Awards stars 2010 receive Icelandic design
You can also find the interview and a small article about it on gossip.is
daGeek tries to get people to express who they are and what they are passionate about rather than just trying to impress people.
“Gay Marriage Legalized in Iceland: Lesbian Prime Minister Among First to Marry”
Read more about it on Go Magazine
Go on daGeek and express your passion.
daGeek is promoting its users to become a part of the development and evolution of the site.
“Up-and-coming recommendations website, daGeek (formerly TellmeTwin) is promoting its users to become a part of the development and evolution of the site; encouraging ongoing user interaction.”
Read more about it on Randburg News
Did you know on www.daGeek.com you can build webpages about your passions and earn money of it? 
Here are a few passion pages that people have created:
What is your passion? Go on daGeek and create your own passion page.
With daGeek’s new release you can tailor your recommendations and twin matches, now more than ever..
“daGeek, a social networking and recommendations website, is set to change how people recommend particular passions and interests through the Internet by clever user interaction.”
Read about it on E News Wire
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daGeek has recently released a new version of the website – it is loaded with new things and new functionality!
New Look
The look of the website has been changed. Instead of the green being the dominating color, now its black. The interface should also be simpler, and we hope, cooler 
Earn Money
Users are now able to build their own Passion Pages and earn money. Create a passion page about anything that’s on your mind. Strategically place sales links from Amazon, Clickbank or Google Adsense in between personally written content. You will get 50% of all sales revenues generated by those links. If the content is written from your heart, chances are people will want to read it. If you write it well, chances are they too will become fascinated. In this case, research has shown that people are more likely to trust the purchase recommendation provided by you since you are the expert and you have just proven yourself through your writing.
The Geekmasters
Users who build their own passion pages become Geekmasters of that page. This means they are the only ones who can edit the page and earn money of it. daGeek encourages users to write from the heart. It should be a centerpiece in your message how your passion is moving you, how it makes you feel, and why. We almost want you to be “unprofessional”. This distinguishes daGeek from some of the other websites who are striving to build a database of professionally written content. We are striving for the uniquness, the extraordinary – at the cost of neutrality.
Geekmasters Generation One
Geekmasters Generation One project is the offline experience. Users meet in pre-defined locations to share insight and receive guidance on how to improve the experience and maximize revenues. They are also monumental in the development of the site and in deciding which additional features are needed to maximize the user experience. An integral part of this is daGeek mentality – the purpose is to have fun and be with other people so we make sure to socialize at least as much as we work together. If you want to join a Geekmaster group or direct one in your area send us an e-mail to jobs@dageek.com
Recommendations
As a daGeek user you are now able to select only particular passions to base your recommendations on. Lets say there are 10 popular movies you feel very strongly about (love or hate) but most people disagree with you. Use the new feature to filter others who share your uniqueness only in this particular respect. Then ask them (through our site) which movie you should see tonight. They are likely to be able to prevent you from seeing a blockbuster movie you would have hated, which everyone around you is praising. As before, daGeek is true to the original concept of Tellmetwin (its predecessor), which is to not use machine based algorithms but rather filter out the people who have a history of thinking like you (your twins) and ask them. With this new feature you can now go much deeper and filter only and exactly what it is you want to filter out at any given moment.
Lists
Lists are new on daGeek. They are used for the new recommendation feature described above. In addition you can make lists such as “Music for bath”, “My 10 favorite travel destinations” and “Movies to see”.
Find People
The new lists feature has also been integrated with the “People finding” function. Similarly as in Recommendations you start by making a list of your passions. If your life long passion is Italy, salsa & reptiles and you absolutely hate U2, cats and Big-Lebowski-the-movie then use this feature to find your twins, people who share your “peculiarity” only in regards to these particular passions.
Activity
Immediately when you return to daGeek you now see the new Activity page. This page has a News feed from the most recent and most interesting passions and ramblings of your twins. What are your twins obsessed about today? Also this page features your newest twin matches, recommendations, activity on the pages you have created, mailbox and people who favorited you.
There are also many smaller additions to daGeek such as a Wall Post on Activity and Profile, which makes it easier to communicate with others. We will tell you more about that later.
What is daGeek:
daGeek lets users create their own Passion Pages and earn money. This is a known and proven concept and daGeek’s flavor is one of partiality, we want you to be “unprofessional”, to come from the heart. daGeek is a community of people who are unique and aren’t afraid of expressing it. daGeek uses award winning algorithms to pair users for chat, fun, relationships and recommendations, based on shared “uniqueness”. The recommendations were the core concept of daGeek’s predecessor Tellmetwin, a Red Herring Top 100 European Technology company award winner in 2009.
Go to www.daGeek.com to see for yourself !
And check us out on:
Have a great weekend
Tags: article, New version
Here you see a list of 15 geeky characters from tv or films that we know and love! They are not afraid to be themeselves. Some of them are very obsessive and that´s what helps them in the end. Now you can go to daGeek and claim these obsessions if you want.
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- Steve Urkel is the geek we know, with with large, thick eyeglasses, high-water pants held up by suspenders, multi-colored cardigan sweaters and a high-pitched voice.
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- Spock is a character in the fictional Star Trek media franchise. He made vulcan greeting sign.
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- Shelton Cooper from Big Bang Theory. He´s a Caltech theoretical physicist. He has a overtly intellectual personality, he´s calculating, cynical, exhibits a strict adherence to routine and he lacks of understanding of irony, sarcasm and humor, and a complete lack of humility.
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- Neo in The Matrix. Thomas Anderson is one of billions of humans neurally connected to the Matrix. He is a quiet programmer but he is also a computer hacker who penetrates computer systems illicitly and steals information under his hacker alias “Neo”
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- Napoleon Dynamite is a high school student from Preston, Idaho who lives with his grandmother. He´s unemployed and spends hours on the Internet chat rooms talking to babes and he´s training to be a cage fighter.
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- Michelle in American Pie. Is the red-headed band camp geek is has the most famous line of the entire franchise “And this one time, at band camp”.
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- Indiana Jones he´s a college professor, He has an obsession over archeology and he does everything in an unconventional way. He’s the geekiest action hero there is.
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- Hannibal Lecter he´s a psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. He has obsession for food, wine, cannibalism and catching serial killers.
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- Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters. is a tall, laconic, bespectacled and awkward. He has a obsession over paranormal/quantum studies and science. He is the creator of the Ghostbusters equipment.
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- Dwight Schrute in The Office. Dwight is the top salesman for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and he´s lacking social skills and common sense
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- Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park. He´s a paleontologist and has an obsession about dinasaurs and that is what saves him.
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- Data from The Goonies. He´s extremely intelligent and has many inventive gadgets. Has a obsession over making new and great gadgets.
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- Comic Book Guy in The Simpsons. He´s geeky and snobby man best known for his sarcastic quips. He is obsessed with collecting comic books and is an avid science fiction buff.
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- Bret and Jemaine in Flight of the Conchords. They are band from New Zealand, trying to seek fame and success in New York City. They are music geeks.
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- Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption. He loves being a banker, loves to read, and listen to Mozart. He even carves chess pieces. It’s really his geekiness and obsession that saves him in the end.
Have a wonderfull week: www.dageek.com :)
daGeek kickstarted the Geekmaster project on June 16th. Geekmasters are those who create the content on daGeek and earn money, a 50% split with daGeek. We are terribly excited. Geekmasters create Passion Pages about whatever it is they are passionate about. They then strategically place sales links in between personally written content. The Sales links come from Amazon, ebay, Clickbank and Google Adsense. Contact jobs@dageek.com if you are interested to become a Geekmaster and join the group.
Here is 9 most successful technologies geeks in the world. All of them fascinating.
1. Mark Zuckerberg = Facebook founder
2. Jimmy Wales = Wikipedia founder
3. Steve Jobs = CEO of Apple
4. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen = YouTube founders
5. Evan Williams = Blogger and Twitter founder
6. Larry Page and Sergey Brin= Google co-founders
7. Craig Newmark = Craigslist founder
8. Bill Gates = Chairman and CEO of Microsoft
9. Michael Dell = Founder and CEO of Dell
Have a nice daGeek day
http://www.dageek.com/
On our site www.dageek.com you can obsess about things that you love and hate and then you can share it and discuss your obsessions with others. We just want people to be themselves. We found this good sentence on the internet ”If you want to be good at something you have to be obsessive”. We think it´s very true.
This great article is about why obsession can be a good thing.
http://zenhabits.net/why-you-deserve-to-discover-your-obsession/
Being Obsessive
Have a Wonder-full Week
daGeek Team
B YOU!
This is the daGeek team, drawn by Einar B.
We are giving our site a little re-design.
Below are 6 suggestions. They are identical except the Logo & Character are different.
Please click each photo TWO TIMES for a larger view.
We’d love to hear your opinion.
Which logo/character should we select for daGeek ??
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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1.
This is the first character, But we didn´t finish him, he has no eyes.
2.
This was the second one, Silly Bird.
3.
This is the third one, but he was to cartoony for us.
4.
This was the fourth, his name is Albert the donkey. We tought he was also too cartoony for our purpose.
4(b).
This is Bambi the helper sheep, she´s Albert´s friend.
5.
Squizzy is the fifth character.
6.
This is our sixth character, we don´t have a name for him yet.
7.
This is our seventh character.
And here are more sketches by master artist Einar Baldvin “Baronsitra“.
And now you know. We would love to hear what you think, so plz comment.
daGeek Team
Tags: Development, sketches, squizzy
Squizzy and the boys heading back to the office
Tags: sun
Reykjavik, May 2010
Tellmetwin, the 2009 winner of the prestigious Red Herring Top 100 European Technology Companies awards, has changed it’s name to daGeek.
daGeek has also released a new version of its website.
The core business is still the same says Einar Sigvaldason daGeek´s CEO i.e. users map their character preferences to match with others and then use their newfound “twins” to discover new things in life such as what movie to see next or where to travel to next.
What has changed, Einar says, is the focus and the message of the site. “We really want our users to be comfortable with who they are. We want them to be unafraid to show their eccentricity, geekiness, obsessions and uniqueness. daGee should be the place where you can speak your mind no matter what.”
Like its predecessor Tellmetwin, daGeek focuses on user generated content. Users can create “about” pages for any possible topic they might be passionate about right now – these pages are called Obsessions.
With focus on social media daGeek also announced that a Facebook page, a Twitter channel and a blog has been opened.
Join us on:
The daGeek team was there last sunday, painting the wall green…. our inner child got bursting out and before we knew it we had created a forest ( the green column in the pic.) The forest was painted with printing paper and our hands….a natural development of that was to mark the other column with our palms and signatures!
We really like our new office now
Einar and Heiðar marking the column with their signatures
Einar and Tinna creating the forest
Using printing paper to paint
Rut and Tinna happy with our signatures!
Heiðar and Rut happy with their signatures!
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