Carmen Ferrara’s Weblog 2.0

Long time no post, but I wanted to put this out. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been gathering lots of feedback from people - some really great stuff has come out of these discussions. It is so important to just get out there and talk to people about your business and your ideas. The insight you gain truly helps to mold the product into what it needs to be. Based on the feedback, I’ve decided to cut out three features for the v1.0 release of iPresent Producer.

• SCORM and AICC support: SCORM and AICC are the leading e-Learning technical standards that define methods for creating shareable and reusable e-learning elements such as courses, quizzes, and other instructional materials. This was a feature I was initially developing for the Higher Educational market, where Learning Management and Course Management Systems are prevalent. In speaking with quite a few Babson professors it seems this requirment is just not deemed critical, particularly for a first release.
• Screen capture to video: This feature allows you to create “screencasts”, or videos of the computer desktop while narrating audio. This allows you to create software demos or even step by step “how to” tutorials explaining how to perform certain functions within a piece of software or website. The users I spoke with seemed far more eager to use the audio with synchronized slides, podcasting and video webcast creation features as opposed to the screen capture capabilities.
• Quiz and survey authoring: Since we will not have iPresent Online up and running by the time we release v1.0 of iPresent Producer, it just doesn’t make sense to offer this feature initially. These features go hand in hand with viewing user reports to see how your viewers faired on a quiz or to view survey results. Since iPresent Producer v1.0 will be a stand-alone tool without iPresent Online integration (and therefore no back-end database yet), it just didn’t make sense.

Anyhow, I think this was the right decision as it will help me to focus on the most critical features first. I am putting together a detailed Features page for the website along with screenshots that will clearly show what iPresent Producer will be able to do. Stay tuned.

One of the hardest things a new company must overcome is how to best articulate its product/service offering. It sounds easy, but it isn’t. You’ve got to be able to clearly, quickly, and cleanly answer the question “What is it?”. Well, here is my attempt at that. I’ve just published a rich media presentation that was created using an early version of iPresent Producer (our soon to be released, first product). This is an audio with slides presentation where I am the speaker. It is meant to provide an overview of our product and services, describe our value, and offer a sneak peak at the product.

What’s nice about our software is that I can actually use it to describe what we do. As the company progresses, I plan on doing a lot of that - using our own products on a daily basis. Sometimes referred to as “eating your own dog food” - it is something I firmly believe in.

Please take a look at the demo and let me know what you think.
iPresent Demo (7 Minutes 39 Seconds): www.ipresent.net/demo

I talked about the Rocket Pitch event earlier this week. Well, it turned out to be a great event. First off, the turn out was very good. This is the 6th year Babson has held this event, and interest continues to grow. The audience consists of students, faculty, and alum as well as a professional investors, lawyers, and others. The primary goals of the event are: 1) Allow early stage companies an opportunity to “pitch” their business concept and receive feedback 2) Make connections with potential investors, customers or advisors.

As for me, these two objectives were certainly met and exceeded. I got very positive feedback on the concept and had quite a few individuals express interest in partaking in an early beta of the product. I was also able to demo my current prototype of iPresent Producer. All in all, I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to speak about the company and the products in front of a great group of people.

Here is a podcast of my speech in both MP3 and Windows Media formats. I re-recorded it so I could post it here:

Podcast: MP3 or WMA - (3 minutes, 42 seconds)

P.S. - Stay tuned, in the next day or so, I’ll be posting an audio with synchronized slides version of this presentation that will be created with an early version of iPresent Producer.

My company got a mention in this week’s edition of Mass High Tech. Here’s the article. They had a short write up on this year’s Babson Hatchery businesses. It’s always nice to get some coverage, and this qualifies as our first. Anyhow, I’ll be presenting this Friday over at Babson as part of their annual “Rocket Pitch” event, so I’ll be posting a podcast of my “pitch”. I will also be posting on how the event goes. This is really my first public event where I’ll be talking about the company, meeting people, and getting feedback. I’m looking forward to it.

First off, it is not an Apple product. :] I struggled with the company/product name for quite some time, but I kept coming back to iPresent. I just thought it captured the essence of what we are trying to do. It’s about empowering users (presenters) with easy to use, yet powerful rich media authoring and publishing tools. Our software is designed for those individuals that need to communicate, train, and express thoughts to others quickly and effectively - but they don’t want to be bogged down by the technology. Here’s the more formal introduction. Read more »