Q&A with Scrapblog CEO Carlos Garcia
August 1st, 2007 by Jim Savage
Carlos Garcia is CEO of Scrapblog, the first Web-based service for creating and sharing multimedia scrapbooks. As one of the pioneers in the Web 2.0 space, I asked Carlos to share some thoughts on the trails that Scrapblog has blazed and what the future of Web 2.0 social media holds.
Q: Scrapblog utilizes a variety of innovative Web 2.0 concepts, including merging multimedia, social networking and extreme personalization. These concepts are just taking off today. What gave you the idea to create Scrapblog two years ago?
Carlos: Back in October 2004, my wife and I were at the first Web2.0 Conference in San Francisco. We started a conversation about how social media would evolve. We made an analogy to the traditional photo album and how it had evolved into the richer, more creative experience that traditional scrapbooks have. We concluded that a similar evolution would happen online.
Q: When you first conceptualized Scrapblog, did you imagine that these customizable online tools would flourish as quickly as they did?
Carlos: Yes. The Web is constantly changing and most of those changes are related to improvements in user experience and participatory media. I know, and knew back then, that we are not the only ones trying to innovate by allowing users to express themselves in a creative and personal way.
Q: Scrapblog appeals to a wide variety of age groups – from college students to newlyweds to grandparents – for a variety of reasons. Which demographic is the most frequent user of Scrapblog? For which user set was the technology originally created?
Carlos: We created Scrapblog for everyday people who want to express themselves in a creative way and tell better stories online and in the real world. That said, Scrapblog appeals to a broad and diverse group of people. Nevertheless, women are the majority of our users. Young mothers and teenage girls make up the most visible groups within our community. It is very interesting to create a product that is inviting to a large group of people and let the community define the product from that point on.
Q: What is the most creative use of Scrapblog that you have observed?
Carlos: There are many, but I was recently surprised to see non-profit organizations and political campaigns using Scrapblog to spread their message and raise funds. Teachers are also using Scrapblog to document field trips and engage students to participate in educational assignments by creating their own scrapblogs.
Q: In the next five years, how do you see the multimedia convergence industry evolving?
Carlos: Five years is a long time in this industry. I would predict that in less than two years we will see wide spread adoption of home entertainment systems that are fully dependent of the Web.
Q: Lately, there has been talk about Web 3.0. What does that term mean to you and what is Scrapblog’s position in a Web 3.0 world?
Carlos: I doubt that the term Web 3.0 will be adopted. Web 2.0 marked the revival of the Web after the burst of the bubble. The Web is now in a state of constant evolution, so I do not see the need to mark another dot in the Web’s history just yet (at least not as relevant as Web2.0 has been). The important aspect about the future of the Internet is that the user is at the driver’s seat now. At Scrapblog, we will continue to listen to our community as the primary ingredient for “what’s next.”
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