Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Web 2.0 -- Sort of

Some entrepreneurs building networking platforms on top of the Web like the Web 2.0 label; others do not. Some time back, I asked about Web 2.0 companies in and around Pittsburgh. Here are three candidates.

First up, Zigron, which (from what I can tell scrolling through the site) is located in Glenshaw and develops Web 2.0 services and tools. In the comments, Z. is welcome to make a more elaborate pitch. And to explain the meaning of the name.

Second is ClearSpring Technologies, which (since I waited a little while to post this) may have moved from Pittsburgh (Dormont, actually) to Northern Virginia. Founder Hooman Radfar is still active in the blogosphere. Hooman -- chime in, if you can, with details on what ClearSpring is up to.

Third is a company that's just coming out from behind the screen: TalkShoe, based in Wexford. To get the company's name, imagine yourself as Ed Sullivan, and say "talk show." (As in, "It's a rilly big shew!) Founder Dave Nelsen gave me a demo last week. TalkShoe has a very cool technology platform -- integrated voice and text chat, suitable for a one-to-many "talk show" format and for many-to-many conversations, with recording/streaming/downloading functionality -- and it's free. Anyone can sign up, login, and run a "talkshoe" (or talkcast, as the company calls them). The company also offers services for the business market. eWeek had a recent piece, and the PG ran this feature. TS doesn't strike me as having the potential for massive local job creation (rats!), but if it finds the right market -- and I don't know what that is, and TS may not, yet, either -- it could really take off. What if you plugged TalkShoe into MySpace?

Is there room on the Web for a talkcast about technology-based entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh?

3 comments:

Hooman said...

Mike, we are developing a novel set of services to enable the disaggregation of content and services on the web. We are in stealth mode and will be opening up around Web 2.0 Conference.

For what it is worth, I think that Talkshoe has got a great team and a fantastic vision. Most definitely one of the most forward-thinking groups I encountered back home.

And - yes - we are now located in Virginia. That being said, I am a Pittsburgh guy and always will be. Hope all is well and thanks for thinking of us.

Anonymous said...

clusty.com

They might not have a lens-flare on their logo but they're doing some pretty cool stuff.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for mentioning our name (Zigron.com). We are probably the only web 2.0 company, in Pittsburgh, providing services in web 2.0 area with specialization in AJAX combined with JSF and other J2EE technologies. We are also developing our own web 2.0 product, which will be ready in couple of months. Thanks again,