Nearly two years ago, when the iPhone 3GS was still the hot new phone and most people thought Androids were some kind of robot, my co-founders and I were starting to seriously consider launching a mobile venture.
Before we launched the venture, however, I had a personal desire to canvas the Austin tech community to see just what people, companies and other mobile assets were already in place or underway. I knew they existed, at places like the Austin Technology Incubator and the University of Texas. But, search as I might, there was no ready list that came up in the online results.
Being the entrepreneur-friendly and highly networked community that Austin is, I was able to pretty quickly identify some key “centers of gravity” for mobile technology in the community. As I started to compile the list, the effort quickly began to shift from identification to principles for organizing the information.
Yes, I wanted the information for myself and my colleagues in our new venture, Appconomy. But, it also seemed that the information would be of greatest value and most current if it could be shared with the rest of the community, at-large.
The organizing principle that emerged was to organize a map of assets into a mobile “scene.” The concept of a “scene” is drawn from a diverse group of thinkers, ranging from best-selling author and researcher Richard Florida to the work of the ATXEquation team of Bijoy Goswami and Heather Mckissick.
By drawing on their work and the Mindmeister-powered model that they used, we started to organize the mobile scene in greater Austin. Obviously, we weren’t the only ones that needed the information, because word spread quickly.
As we made the first version of the Mindmeister wikimap available for Austin, more people created their own accounts and added people, events, companies, and other scene assets. Knowing that Austin wasn’t unique in the explosion of mobile ventures, we invested in starting similar scene maps for other cities, as an attraction to the thought leadership blog Appconomy produced.
This required a shift to a multi-user subscription to MindMeister, so that we could have multiple team members building maps. To date, we’ve launched mindmaps for mobile scenes in thirteen communities across the US, with seven more identified to be produced.
While the number of nodes any one map can make it a bit cumbersome, the mobile phone and tablet MindMeister apps have further enhanced the value of the mobile scenes. And, the intuitive user interface, universal network convention, and radiating branches out from the core of each map, makes MindMeister an easy sell.
It’s been a great tool for Appconomy, helping make our local tech community stronger and helping extend our company’s brand around the country.
Steve is a VP and co-founder of Appconomy, Inc. which provides a platform of services, called the AppWallet, that makes it easier and more affordable for large brands and merchants to make money with their mobile apps.
In addition, Steve is a frequent speaker at industry events, an author/producer of nine books and dozens of articles, and an adjunct professor at St. Edwards University. For more information, visit his personal website: guengerich.com