Idea Lab

As I mentioned in my last post, Printcasting is finally beginning to take shape. We're very excited to have a working prototype that performs the very basic tasks: pulling in RSS feeds, flowing feeds into print templates, and placing targeted self-serve ads. You can see it in action in this 8-minute video:

Printcasting Prototype Demo from Dan Pacheco on Vimeo.

There are a lot of things that still aren't working in the prototype, which I get into in the video, and the design is still intentionally "wireframy" at this point. So why are we showing it?

First, since our public launch is still five months away, we want to start getting early feedback so that the final product is as easy to use as possible. We've done that with a few groups so far, including representatives from Adobe, HP Labs and MediaNews Group,  Rich Gordon's Media Management class (which works under the banner of Crunchberry project) and of course Bakersfield Californian employees. Their feedback has already proven invaluable, and now we want yours. Please post any ideas or questions at the bottom of this post. Or, if you prefer to contact me privately, I can be reached at dan at printcasting dot com.

Second, we hope that seeing the prototype will get your creative juices flowing about how the technology could be used in your geographical area. We will initially launch Printcasting in Bakersfield, California, but by next December we plan to have five other organizations signed up to Printcast in their towns. We've already heard from a couple of interested parties (newspapers), but we want to case the net wider than just newspapers, and also include more than just U.S. companies.

We've stopped work on the prototype and are now working around the clock to get a more full-featured alpha ready for November. Let me know if you're interested in being an alpha tester. You can also join the Printcasting.com social network, which among other things will add you to a mailing list that we use to provide updates about the project.