My Journey to build a Social Networking Site

Testing

ecpod — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:51:21 +0000

Our first press release – Mar 29, 2008

ecpod — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:08:02 +0000

None of us have written a press release in our lives - so here goes our first one! We submitted this press release to all major newspapers, magazines in Hong Kong as well as third party websites that offer online submission of press releases (on Mar 29, 2008). None of the newpapers and magazines journalists get back to us but at least we did well to be accepted by online websites (and at the end draw some traffic back to our website). After I read this a few more times, I start to feel that this is more like an article rather than press release. Well, I think we should try harder next time and find a more interesting story angle for media rather than writing such an article. Also we should spend more time to get to know more journalists/edtitors before we send to them. Well, lesson learnt and we hope to do better next time. Happy reading our “pressarticle” below:

Language Tuition, Self Promotion, Learn By Videos – At No Cost

(Hong Kong) – A team of young entrepreneurs has launched a web site that enables people of all ages from all over the world to learn English and Mandarin – for free. Found at http://www.ECPod.com on the World Wide Web, the web site has more than 2000 user-submitted videos for the teaching of English and Mandarin.

The site however, is not just for learning.

Described as “a new concept in education,” by Adam Schiedler, an English teacher who helped found the project, this site provides a platform where users are able to choose what they learn (or teach) via the use of online video clips. Subject videos range from financial language to learning how to make a joke; from Chinese calligraphy to sex. Tutors also use the site to attract students wanting further private tuition by posting their own clips.

Based on this concept of user-generated videos, ECPod.com does not produce any videos of their own. Instead, they channel their resources into vetting the video contributions for correctness or suitability. “When we first started this project, the response we got was that users want to learn from people all over the world, people of different backgrounds, people with different accents,” says Warwick Hau, a founding member of the site. “We feel users learning from other users create warmer, more communal learning materials – something lacking in many traditional systems of learning,” says Hau. Indeed, a contributor from one culture may choose what he wants other users to learn about his culture. The choice in itself speaks for the contributor’s cultural background. “You cannot get this from textbooks,” Hau adds.

Confronted with the reality that user-generated clips could result in offensive material being presented, ECPod.com moderates all videos submitted. “It is a mammoth task given the limited staff we have, but we have to do it to ensure our core premise of providing entertaining education,” says Nathan Ng, Vice President, Sales and Marketing at ECPod. “Keeping in mind the wide demographic of the audience we are reaching, we recognise the possibility of offensive material being posted, and that we cannot allow.”

Still in its beta development stage, the site allows users to create a profile of themselves and make friends with other users through the site’s ECPal function. Users are able to comment on, rate, or share videos with friends as well as communicate with the video’s producers. Users are also encouraged to report errors, thus increasing the effectiveness of the language learning on the site – a user may comment on the grammatical correctness, thereby sparking more discussion and interaction. ECPod.com has also recently launched a contest for Most Creative Clip submitted during the duration of the contest. The winner will receive a new iPod Touch.

Thus far, the site has received a warm response from users in China. Fu Shou Bing, a popular producer on the site, says “ECPod.com has allowed me, a retired teacher, to continue my passion, which is the teaching of Chinese language and culture.” The site has also allowed students in China the opportunity to hear more of the English language spoken by native speakers from all over the world. “It is difficult to learn English properly without hearing what the words sound like, coming from native speakers,” says Lingling Cao, a Chinese student studying in Chinese University of Hong Kong. “Moreover, hearing all the different accents takes learning to a whole new level – we learn not just how English should be spoken, but also how different English-speaking cultures speak it.” Indeed, the site boasts diverse contributors from the UK, who contribute in Queen’s English, to Germany and even South Africa, who contribute in a South African accent. A student learning via more traditional means would be hard-pressed to understand English spoken with different accents, thereby defeating their goal of being able to use the language widely.

“We envision ECPod becoming THE language learning/networking site, as Right Up There as YouTube, Facebook and Baidu are, in their respective fields. Since launching, traffic has been doubling steadily and is continuing to grow. Plus, with the feedback we’ve incorporated into Phase Two of our developments, we are highly excited about ECPod’s future,” says Nathan Ng. Phase Two will be launched during the course of 2008.

While still in beta development, http://www.ECPod.com is active and already has two subsidiary sites, http://ct.ECPod.com and http://cn.ECPod.com, for faster video streaming speeds in China.

For further information please contact:

Mr. Warwick Hau (Vice President, Communications and Marketing)

Office: +852 2488 9191

Mobile: +852 9550 8772

Email: warwick.hau@ECPod.com

About ECPod

Founded in June 2006, ECPod is an educational-cum-social networking website focused on driving higher levels of English and Mandarin proficiency via a member-teach-member community. Members share language expertise, colloquialisms and folklore using Web 2.0. ECPod allows people to easily upload and share educational video clips on www.ECPod.com.

Some of the information contained herein including any expression of opinion or forecast has been obtained from or is based on sources believed by us to be reliable, but is not guaranteed and we do not warrant nor do we accept liability as to adequacy, accuracy, reliability or completeness of such information obtained from or based on external sources. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Other than in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations, the company assumes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking information contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Describe ECpod in 10 seconds

ecpod — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:03:17 +0000

A lot of people ask us what is ECpod and to describe this website in 10 seconds. Well, here you go:

*** REMEMBER: THIS IS ALL FREE! ***

When in Rome, why not let the Romans teach you?

ecpod — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:46:10 +0000

In Huangshan (黄山) southern Anhui province in Eastern China, Fu Shou-Bing
logs on to the computer in the public library near his village. Since
discovering ECpod.com (http://www.ECpod.com), the retired High School Chemistry teacher has been logging on almost every day to the English-Chinese teaching website.
Sometimes he cycles the 25 miles home, cooks himself a simple lunch of
rice and stir-fried vegetables with salted fish, often returning once
again to the library and his new hobby in the evening.ECpod.com boasts an educational website that teaches members
conversational English or Chinese (no “this is an apple” stuff here) via
video clips contributed by other members. After a vetting and often
transcribing process by language tutors commissioned by the site, the
clips are available free of charge in YouTube fashion. The twist? Members
film each other in everyday activities, hoping other members will learn
not just their native tongue, but also cultural innuendos lost in
textbooks and more conventional means of language learning.

“One member filmed himself cooking in his kitchen. We got a few emails
asking what condiments he used,” says a bemused Warwick Hau, one of the
site’s more public faces. One emailer even wanted to know if she could
achieve the same Chinese stir-fry using ingredients from her regular CR
Vanguard (华润超级) supermarket. “We often forget our every day activities
may not be as mundane to people on the other side of the world,” Hau adds.
Another such clip is “loaches” – a Chinese mother of 3 filmed her children
and their friends playing with a bucket of loaches – slippery eel-like fish
the children were picking up and gently squeezing between their fingers.Lately the members have also begun to make cross-border friends and
contacts. The ECpal function works much the same way sites like
Facebook.com and MySpace.com work – members can invite each other to view
their clips and make friends. And it has its fair share of juvenile humor
as well. “Farting Competition” features two teenagers and graphic sound effects. Within several days, the clip was one of the most popular videos that week, likely due to mass-forwarding by the participants’ schoolmates.For other members keen to learn more than the fact juvenile humor is
similar everywhere, there are many home videos featuring unlikely little
nuggets of wisdom. “The last thing I learned from the site is why you
never find green caps for sale in China”, says Adam Schiedler one of the
English language contributors to the site. Green caps signify cuckolded
husbands, particularly shameful in China as they are a huge loss of face.
Adam vows not to buy any green headgear for his newfound friends.

The subject matter of the videos often speaks volumes about its
contributors. Members choose their own content and film the clip wherever
they please, some of their efforts drawing attention to rural surroundings
and the quaint insides of little homes otherwise not seen unless you
backpack your way thru the tiny dirt roads and villages along the Chinese
countryside.

Idyllic countrysides and cooking lessons aside however, ECpod marries the
latest video sharing technology with the old school way of teaching a language -
from the native speakers on the street. It’s a modern, more convenient alternative to spending 6 months in China. And why not let the Chinese teach you?

Article Contributed By:

Samantha Ashley

Freelance Writer