
Summer jobs at Parakey - blakeross
http://parakey.com/jobs/summer.html
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binarybana
So parakey is on the application side of the fence when compared to those like
YouOS... an interesting idea.

"When people need to call their "computer friend" in 2007 to install a
program, scan a document, burn a CD or show a picture to a friend, there is a
problem." So is the main aim of parakey to give applications the ability to
interface seamlessly with the web? Or is it more about the simplicity of web
2.0 design?

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rms
Imagine you are 50 years old and have never before used a computer. It is
impossible to use without extensive training; someone of that age can't figure
it out on their own. Making it intuitive is a design problem but it's not as
impossible as you'd think. And while they're at it, Parakey is uniting the web
and the desktop.

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JMiao
Interesting. I have much respect for Blake and Joe's efforts with Parakey, so
my question revolves around the sustainability of building a business around
making computers easier to use -- there's GOT to be more to this!

In other words, how critical is the problem of computer usability amongst 50
year olds when children today are being "organically" raised in basic computer
literacy?

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blakeross
Making computers easier to use is not our business model, so I'm not sure what
it has to do with sustainability. And there's unique technology underpinning
our efforts, of course. But I can't imagine what could be more central to a
company than trying to create user satisfaction; why do we need more than
that?

Second, I was raised on computers. Just because I know how to use them doesn't
mean I _like_ using them. In fact, I generally find computers to be a pain in
the ass.

Finally, I suspect the problem of usability amongst 50 year olds is a very
critical problem amongst 50 year olds :)

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JMiao
Hey, Blake! My previous post was more in response to rms. When I said "There's
GOT to be more to this!", what I was really meaning to say is that I'm sure
you and Joe have a very good plan for carrying your mission out. Something the
general public isn't quite privy to at the moment. :)

I would agree that the problem of usability amongst 50 year olds is very
critical to 50 years olds. However, I'm interested in how Parakey plans to
deliver their product message (and distribution!) to a mostly uneducated web
demographic -- especially a group with a more narrow use case when browsing
the web.

It's awesome to see you on here, Blake. :)

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rms
I imagine they'll get the message out in the traditional ways: advertising and
PR. As far as distribution, I assume long term plans involve customized
hardware that would provide for an optimal Parakey experience.

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JMiao
Advertising and PR will not be enough (and just saying these will solve your
problem doesn't work either) -- Apple's "Switch" campaign is largely based
around the fun, out-of-the-box experience and ease of use. All of that work
and they still have a way to go in converting people (especially non-college
aged folk).

As far as distribution, a customized hardware solution that will deliver
Parakey's software experience doesn't really address the distribution problem.
How do you get the mythical machines distribution themselves? Besides,
hardware is a very different business with different metrics than the software
game...attacking both at the same time would be extremely difficult.

So my question still stands at how would you get the software out to the
mainstream, especially those who aren't very web-literate to begin with? I'm
thinking about people like my parents who only use their browser to check
Hotmail, read reviews, and maybe do some basic shopping. They would certainly
adopt a new computing platform that was more intuitive, but how do you get
them to do this? The same folks who would greatly benefit from Parakey's work
is the same demographic that still uses Internet Explorer.

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rms
I'm not sure what Parakey's doing, but my idea is to use financial incentives
to encourage viral distribution. Install Granmos for your parents, your
grandparents, the local senior center, and nursing homes. Then, you get a
percentage of advertising revenue from all the new users of Granmos that
you're helping.

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JMiao
While the elderly would certainly love an easier computing experience, I think
my questions above address the overall mainstream population that have a
pretty narrow use case when it comes to internet browsing.

Your approach to viral distribution sounds very complicated.

How do you go about placing ads on something that's supposed to ease the
computing experience? On top of that, would you need to login using your
account at a specific IP address to gain the "credit" for installing the app?
How would the system know who to "credit?"

~~~
rms
It seems like you're looking for a perfect answer as to how Granmos or Parakey
could become one of the top three operating systems. I don't have the exact
solution, but I know there is an enormous market and I wouldn't need ten
million users to have a company worth acquiring. If I knew how to market
Granmos to the point of becoming a monopoly crushing success I would probably
already be getting paid millions as a consultant. I know Granmos can be
successful, even if it doesn't reach the ten million user mark.

PR is a very important way of marketing for Granmos. You can do a local
newspaper press release. Write an article about how a college student is
making it easy for his grandparents to use computers. Send it to every local
newspaper in America. Get new users. This is the kind of thing you can do for
free, but professional PR people do it better.

Maybe I could do something really crazy, like giving stock options to anyone
who acts as an evangelist or developer.

As for advertising, it would mainly be cost-per-action style ads. Affiliate
links for online shops and such. You can do things like pitch a free magazine
subscription offer at users. Those affiliate programs can pay $5 per action.
Also there's the money you get when someone searches Google through your site.
The important thing is to stick to advertisements that have some kind of
benefit for the user.

Tracking the referrals isn't a hard problem. You could distribute Granmos live
CDs with your new users automatically tracked to you. Otherwise, when a new
account is created, fill in the referral box on the signup page.

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JMiao
I'm not looking for the perfect answer, just the answer to how you would get
your first 10 (ten) users.

This would mean reviewing the actual use case and realizing that PR saying
your software is easy to use isn't too compelling. Distributing CDs seems very
90s AOL, costs quite a bit of money, and doesn't have a great conversion rate.

Sorry, rms, if I've come across as too critical -- I'm just trying to ask the
questions that need to be asked. It's a mental workout of sorts.

I'm still very excited to hear more about Parakey -- it's about time computers
became useful!

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rms
How about holding "free computer lessons" at a community center? The lessons
are in using the product in question to easily perform useful tasks.

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pg
Blake and Joe are nice guys; I would recommend this job to anyone. And if you
do end up employee #3 of Parakey, you'll be in a pretty enviable position.

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abossy
This is an awesome opportunity. Too bad I already have a job for the summer. I
would love the chance to work with these guys.

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rms
Hey, props for being the only one trying to solve the usability problems
inherent in today's computers.

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epall
By "others in this space" you're talking about Adobe Apollo and Microsoft WPF,
right? Do you guys have an edge other than just having more apps at launch?

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blakeross
We're not referring to those platforms, actually. Neither has much to do with
the core problems we're tackling, such as that people currently have to
shuffle data between desktop and Web apps. Apollo _sounds_ very similar, but
it mostly solves the developer problem of "I have Web skills but want to
create a desktop app." The additional UI affordances aside, it's still unclear
to me how Apollo apps are worlds better than regular web apps from a user's
perspective.

We were actually referring to some smaller companies that have announced or
launched recently, such as Slingshot.

To be clear, I don't think the issue is having _more_ apps, but having _great_
apps. In our experience, luring users who can then lure developers is the best
way to break the chicken-and-egg problem that any new platform faces. We also
believe that building the apps and the platform concurrently yields a better
platform.

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damien
Sounds like a great opportunity to work with some well known hackers.

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python_kiss
wow Blake Ross is actually on here. I hope you make a googolian dollars out of
Parakey...you deserve it! :)

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blakeross
I love this site; it's about the only one I check daily. But I usually just
lurk :)

