Quotogram Blog
Capturing Quotes Made Simple
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As the holidays quickly approach us, we wanted to share some exciting updates about Quotogram. We were selected as finalists to present at the MoDevEast Conference Disruptathon. At the event, we competed head-to-head with nine other startups. To convey Quotogram’s true meaning, we put together a compelling presentation and an inspiring video quoting everyone from Albert Einstein to John Lennon. It turned out to be a big hit. The audience voted and Quotogram placed in the Top 3 for a few categories. Not bad for a team that met for the first time in November at a DCWEEK Hackathon!
Meanwhile on the development front, we’re coding away on the web and mobile apps and hope to create an amazing way for our users to find and share quotes…details to follow.
Of course, we wouldn’t be Quotogram if we didn’t share our Top 5 Holiday Quotes, we hope you enjoy!Top Five Holiday Quotes:
5. “Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you’re home.”
- Carol Nelson4. “Are you having a holly, jolly Christmas?”
– The Grinch3. “Hanukkah is the festival of lights. Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.”
-Adam Sandler2. ”Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age.”
- Terri Guillemets1. “Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.”
– The Quotogram Team -
“Ideas are like wandering sons. They show up when you least expect them.”
- Bern Williams
The Idea.
It was the evening of October 5th, 2011 and the news about Steve Jobs’ death spread like a storm over the Internet. “Remembering Steve, people started tweeting his most well-known quotes and some that I’ve never heard of” – said Gary Romanov. Out of curiosity, Gary started searching Google to find the story behind each quote: when it was said, where it was said, and why. “The more time I spent searching, the more frustrated I became”, – recalled Gary. “I could not believe that with all the information currently available to us on the Internet, we wouldn’t have one resource that would provide a simple way to capture and organize all well-known quotes based on a timeline, location, and topic.” Fast forward a few weeks to DCWEEK’s Hackathon, and this idea became a reality with the birth of Quotogram.
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
- Henry Ford
The Conception.
Digital Capital Week is truly an amazing time for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It is an event where designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and social innovators meet to discuss, start, and accomplish amazing things. Over 10,000 people signed up to attend the 2nd annual DCWEEK. With dozens of sponsors and hundreds of events, it is a great opportunity for great things.
One of DCWEEK’s first events was a Hackathon where developers of all skill sets came together to learn, to teach, and to build; it is the perfect environment for innovation. The event kicked off with two hundred or more people listening to Peter Corbett’s introduction to DCWEEK and its Hackathon. After the introduction, three breakout groups were formed based on the developers’ interest in web design and development, node.js, and mobile app development.The team behind Quotogram all met for the first time at the web design and development breakout. At noon, the focus of everyone’s conversation shifted to where to go for lunch. The group ventured out to Clyde’s, a restaurant down the street. Conversations filled the time. Spurred by the Hackathon’s purpose to work on a project or new idea, the topic of conversation kept coming back to “lets build something this afternoon.” A few ideas were tossed around, but what caught most of the group’s attention was an idea to create a site focused on quotes. The idea was simple — create a site where people can go to find, post, and share awesome quotes in an easy and beautiful way.
When they finished lunch, the team of eight went back to Microsoft’s building to start the work that would become Quotogram. “What strikes me the most” – recalled Gary Romanov, “we had 8 people each with a different set of skills: UI, UX, Back-end, Sysadmin, Marketing, Mobile, and Web development. It was clear right away that we had a team you can only dream of.” They ended up working well into the evening until the lights were out and they were virtually the last people on the floor. For the next week, the group worked tirelessly and hacked together the basic framework for the Quotogram web app.
“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.”
- William B. Sprague
The Advent.
Things moved fast. Before they knew anything but each other’s Twitter handles, they had already purchased business cards and were handing them out at DCWEEK’s Opening Keynote. They took advantage of all that DCWEEK had to offer by attending events to pass out Quotogram cards, share the idea with other people, and even pitch it to a room full of people. As they got the word out for the remainder of the week, the feedback about Quotogram was overwhelmingly positive.
Now that DCWEEK is over, the team has been working on Quotogram with the same passion for innovation and entrepreneurship as that first lunch at the Hackathon where it was just a cool idea. Some might think Quotogram began out of randomness, but this serendipity is part of DCWEEK’s magic. It’s a time where people’s best work can happen. A time when they can share a passion for an amazing idea, get in the same room, and just make it happen.
About Quotogram:
Quotogram is a site where you can discover and share quotes. Find out where and when great quotes come from, and what great minds spoke these words first. Use Quotogram to share an awesome quote from a conference you just attended, a book you just read, or your all-time favorite movie.
Got a quote? Share it with us: Quotogram
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It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
Also known as “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein, Oxford, 1933 -
The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.The Dalai Lama XIV, Tibet, 2008
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We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. And that those people that are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that actually do.Steve Jobs (1998 “Crazy Ones”)
