The official coComment weblog

We wanted to tell you about the “31 Day Comment Challenge”, a fun contest coComment user Edublog strated just a few days ago.

What is the “31 Day Comment Challenge”?
One of the organizers, Sue Waters from Edublogs told us they created the contest with the goal to “showcase the importance of commenting on blogs, as it’s a crucial aspect of blogging conversations for achieving the greatest learning”. The experience is fun and the contest has had great momentum thus far, not to mention the cool prizes!

Anyone can join the contest — educators, school students, non-profit bloggers, corporate bloggers etc. In fact the best part of the challenge is you don’t have to be a blogger! Just add your name to the Comment Challenge Wiki (or if unsure how to add your name leave a comment on this post here and Sue will add it for you).

We hope you check it out and start commenting!

coComment is partnering with Marina from HotForWords at the PopSugar/TechCrunch event … blogging live from the event! So be sure to go here during the event and post comments for Marina to respond to!

Here is the info on the event:

• Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008
• Time: 6:30 pm - midnight
• Venue: Vanguard, 6021 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood map
• Facebook Event
• Photo/Flickr Tag: PopCrunch2008

This should be a LOT OF FUN!

Marina will be asking random people if the know the correct origins of some common words and phrases.. we will be videotaping it and uploading the video LIVE during the event! We will also upload the answer videos at around 9pm.

Be sure to come here during the event to blog with Marina live.. or, perhaps we’ll see you at the event in person!

PopSugar TechCrunch

-Marina - HotForWords

coComment started, as a company, in January 2007. coComment, the concept, is significantly older having first seen the light of day as a proof of concept demo at the Lift 06 conference.

In that time, we have transformed what was a concept into a company with a very different (and much larger) product set, built a team of 22 people and acquired over 1.15million users.

However, in all that time, we’ve not made a cent/penny/grivna in revenues nor have we sought to do so. The funding from coComment has come solely from its investors.

For us, 2008 is a critical year. It is the time when we need to go from ‘promising startup’ to ‘viable business’ and a key part of that is starting to generate revenues. We want to do so in a manner that does not alienate our users nor distract them from what they want to do with coComment.

We have therefore started running advertising on the site, in our feeds to others sites and in coComment windows. I know, of course, that most people would prefer to see advertising-free services but the reality is, of course, that ultimately we cannot provide the service to you without generating revenues.

I also want us to offer our users the opportunity to have an ad-free service for an annual fee of $5.

I’ve seen some comments on other blogs … but not many. I therefore wanted to raise the issue here so that everyone has an opportunity to respond and let us know what they think. We’re all in favour of conversations so we’re happy to start one about this and get your views.

Best regards,

Matt.

coComment.com is taking a different approach to the Starbucks “The Way I See It” campaign by offering free coffee and thought-provoking unfinished sentences on coffee sleeves to start real conversations. If you are in San Francisco on April 4th, stop by and have a cup of coffee on us in Union Square or just jump in the conversation and win more free coffee.

Why are we doing this?
Starbucks launched their “The Way I See It” campaign as way of creating conversation. Putting supposedly interesting quotes on coffee cups only created controversy that Starbucks was ultra-liberal and looking to promote a political agenda. coComment, a service which allows you to enjoy the full potential of comment-based conversation on the web, is taking a stand to promote real conversations the old-fashioned way – by buying people a cup of coffee and asking them to complete thought-provoking sentences on their Web site (http://www.cocomment.com). Coffee drinkers can finish sentences such as “if I learned definitively that God does exist, I would _____” and “if I could name my own presidential candidate, it would be______” along with four others that people can finish online and review other people’s ideas. coComment team will be available at the event for interviews and talk about better conversations on the Web, or just email me at kristina@cocomment.com

Thanks
Kristina

Red Herring announced that coComment was named a Finalist of Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.

“To be a young company named as a finalist of Red Herring 100 Europe is an honor,” stated Matt Colebourne, CEO of coComment. “While we are proud of what coComment has achieved in a short amount of time, we are even more excited about the initiatives that we will be introducing to our product and the site later this year.”

“This year’s impressive list of submissions from companies demonstrates Europe’s growing role as a major center of innovation in the global technology sector,” said Red Herring Editor-in-Chief Joel Dreyfuss. “The exceptional accomplishments of European technology startups and entrepreneurs are a testament to the rapid advancements being made in building the European innovation ecosystem.”

Red Herring’s lists of top private companies are an important part of the publication’s tradition of identifying new and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs. Companies like Google, eBay, and Skype were spotted in their early days by Red Herring editors, and touted as leaders that would change the way we live and work.

Red Herring’s editorial staff rigorously evaluated several hundred private companies through a careful analysis of financial data and subjective criteria, including quality of management, execution of strategy, and dedication to research and development.

Red Herring will honor the Red Herring 100 Europe Finalist companies at its Red Herring Europe 2008 event. Scheduled for April 14-16, at the Westin Dragonara Resort, this intimate, three-day event is themed “The Pursuit of Disruption” and will explore how European firms are leading the charge in many technology sectors, gaining the competitive advantage, and driving entrepreneurial success in ways that create business opportunities for challengers and incumbents alike.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company which unites the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. More information about Red Herring is available on the Internet at www.redherring.com.

CoComment is partnering with well known venture blogger, Jon Burke, from the alarm:clock to bring you a unique experience, starting this Friday! To demonstrate the utility of commenting across any subject, coComment is asking Jon to blog about something completely different, The Landmark Forum. You can follow his blog posts each day on landmark.cocomment.com

That means that this weekend alarm:clock will be attending a self-help conference called Landmark Forum. Over the years, Landmark has won a rabid following and has also been covered by the media, including Huffington Post and GQ. Can’t wait to see how this venture blogger, normally concerned with the less than spiritual world of start-up investments, can gain from this spiritual wellness fest.

Today, minutes before the Landmark Forum starts, this is what Jon has told us he expects to feel like:

Leprechauns, booze, girls, and clover….this year coComment and 971freefm.com are partnering up so you can comment with users around the globe and in Los Angeles on anything St. Patrick’s Day related. Don’t miss the 971freefm.com live in-studio webcast of all day day drinking show. And because we know you guys want to get in on the drunken revelry, visit our St. Patty’s Day blog and start posting your stories! We will have great prizes for our commenters, so stay tuned …

coComment will be presenting at the Mashable event, MashMeet NYC REMIX, and we want you to come and hang out with us if you are in New York City. We are giving away 4 tickets to the first 4 e-mails we receive at kristina@cocomment.com. The last two MashMeets were a big success with sold-out events, so next week should be great event as well. You can find out more about it here.
Hope to see you soon and thanks for reading this post!
coComment Team

Our CEO Matt Colebourne will be presenting at Always On conference held in New York City, this coming Tuesday (1-29-08) as part of the “Hottest companies in the web services sector”. If you are in NYC next week come by the coComment table and say hello. This year’s theme is Disruptors of Marketing, Advertising, Branding and PR and we look forward to some interesting conversations! coComment Team

One of our integration partners Snap.com is running the Badge-O-Rama contest, and we thought you might want to participate and help choose the winning badge. You can post comments, track them through your coComment account and view what other had to say about the badges. Click here to access the contest and start commenting.