Saturday, March 29, 2008

Weather is no fun

I know very few people who enjoy looking at dew points and barometer pressure. My case is different though, you probably don't know anyone.

Looking forward to the forecast isn't high on your list of priorities. Weather isn't as fun as checking our email, blogs or Facebook.

But what if the forecast could create a glimpse of possibilities for your day? A stimuli to all the wonderful things that could happen.

That is different. That's fun and something to look forward to.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Weather 2.0 Won't Work

And here is why...

It's too late and it's too little.

In the traditional format, Weather 2.0 will consists of Google maps, bubbly design, white space and user generated content. And there is nothing wrong with that, in fact, Drizzoo will adopt some of those principles. But you may have problems if that's the only thing you are banking on.

To get really noticed, Weather 2.0 should have been here years ago. Now there's a problem- what would have worked is no longer enough. Between then and now things changed...people changed. What would have been a "Wow!", is "about time". People are occupied with other stuff. It now needs something drastic to break through the dirt and the grime.

Transforming weather is a huge undertaking. It's to ingrained in our society and daily life to be changed by crowd-sourcing. I'm not saying wisdom of the crowds is the wrong way to go. I think people have an intuitive knowledge of the weather and can predict better than the pro's at times.

Weather 2.0 seems like a slow poke-behind on the times. Drizzoo is more than web 2.0 (I'm not calling it web 3.0). It sits in that weird place of real change, where the old and unchanged becomes changed and completely wonderful.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Weather is About You

Weather sites have this romantic feeling towards weather. They believe people take a strong interest in weather. You see this when sites are loaded with pointless figures, videos and links.

This is true for the major players, but even the newer weather sites that tote the Web 2.0 moniker are doing the same thing.

Weather online has become a necessary evil to a point. People want to see the forecast, get the heck out and get on with their lives, but are held up with pop-up ads and other swag. It's like a godly person having no option but running into the liquor store to pickup booze for a recipe.

The best thing a weather site can do is design a system with the understanding that people don't this fascination with weather. IMHO-no one has given them a reason too care!

Drizzoo wants to create a glimpse-a flash of weather perfection. We want people to blink and have the perfect forecast for their life and no one else's.

This was worded strongly, this much I know, but when you care enough about something you kinda get that as a byproduct.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Drizzoo blog.

Here we will be posting about things and stuff related to Drizzoo. You may get a guest writer at times or just me under a different name (like Demetrius Fairbanks). Tuesday will be pizza night.

Things and stuff include, but are not limited too:

Our Ideology behind Drizzoo.

Highlighting features that will appear on Drizzoo

Introducing new ideas

News and updates

Making fun of ourselves

That's pretty much it. Feel free to add us to your reader or whatever. And of course your comments are appreciated.

Peace!

Jon Chamberlin