StarBulletin.com

Monkey around with your Web personal brand


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POSTED: Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Local online startup Chi.mp unveils two new releases today.

               

     

 

On the Net:

        » http://chi.mp
       

» www.hsblinks.com/2i

       

» www.twiistup.com

       

The geeks and geekettes have not released a new service in three months where they normally do every two weeks, but they've been gearing up for something big, said Rob Farrow, co-founder and vice president of marketing.

Chi.mp is an Internet domain and an acronym for “;Content Hub (and) Identity Management Platform.”;

As reported here in September, Chi.mp seeks to give users control over their personal brand in the online ether-sphere, Web-i-verse, or whatever the cool kids are calling it these days.

The local start-up will unveil its “;Ultimate Black Book”; contact management tool and its “;Personas”; feature today.

“;These items are really differentiators that set Chi.mp apart”; from other services, Farrow said.

The black book tool enables users, that Chi.mp calls site owners, to import contacts from a range of popular address book applications and online services into one, portable location.

They include Outlook, Mac, vCards, Entourage, Twitter, Flickr, Gmail and more.

Site owners can merge redundant contacts, manage how contacts are displayed, whether and how they are shared, as well as export them.

The Personas feature is what will keep your boss or potential employer from finding a more, say - casual - image of you online.

“;The idea is, let's say you and I are friends and (so-and-so) is your boss,”; Farrow said. He would arrive at erikaengle.mp “;and see the pantsuit-wearing, career Erika.”;

“;I would come to the site, log in with my OpenID and request to become a friend and you would accept me.”;

Had your columnist established additional personas online, he could be allowed access to one, some or all of them - if they existed, of course.

Chi.mp sites are free and site owners may set up as many Personas as they wish.

Currently in private beta testing with tens of thousands of users around the world, one must be invited to become a site owner, with a beta code.

With today's and subsequent releases, more beta codes will be available.

The goal is “;throttling how fast we can take on users and take in the feedback they have,”; for quality control prior to its public launch in early-to-mid-March.

The Chi.mp team will be at next month's Twiistup in West Los Angeles, “;a mashing of tech, media and entertainment (companies) and since our product is so much about personal branding we fit nicely in that genre,”; said Farrow.

 

Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Reach her by e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).