New Media Med Blog

Mark Little asked the panel in the web summit last night for advice on setting up his new venture. The last word of the evening came from Wired Editor-at-Large, Ben Hammersley. He just said “Whatever you do Mark  – Make it beautiful”. We all laughed and Mark was really bemused at having  to tell his colleagues in his startup in the morning to “Make it beautiful”. But when you look back at the evening, there was one common theme running through and it was the passion which every entrepreneur had for their idea such as Chris Horn’s joy of getting the first sale with IONA. That simple theme of “Making it Beautiful” was there throughout the evening. There was Craig Newmark’s passion to keep Craigslist as it has always been and not to sell it. And Matt Mullenweg’s clear core values of democratizing writing and making the writing as good as possible.

People ask me how New Media Med is going to make money and I often get very caught up with all the myriad of tantalising economic models which have emerged in the Internet.

Now I’ve settled on

“We make and sell online communities.”

No more complicated economic models.

And keeping it simple is beautiful.  Thanks Ben Hammersley for that suggestion.

The Irish Times just did a article on the online community which New Media Med built for University College Cork. The online community called “Lose the Blues” is aimed at students experiencing depressive symptoms. The website is designed specifically for 18-24 year olds, who may be experiencing low moods. The community allows users to share their experience and offer peer support to each other within a safe environment.

The website was developed by Aine Horgan, and is part of a research study being undertaken at UCC by Ms Horgan and supported by Dr John Sweeney and Prof Geraldine McCarthy in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. The aim of the research is to see if the website can help improve one’s mood.

By building this online community,  New Media Med gives UCC complete control over their own data which was very important to ensure a safe environment. Having all the data also allows UCC to produce the reports needed for their research. New Media Med provides all the infrastructure for reliable trusted online communities where you control your own data.