Today a Cornell undergrad student asked me to post about her new startup company, which is based in Ithaca. The email thread resulted in a guest post. So, here is a guest post by Jacqueline Neves, a junior at Cornell about her new startup – check it out! And if you would like to guest post, just let me know. Thx.
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uJiiV: The New Social Calendar
The student, the professional, the parent. What do they have in common? Their busy lives. All of us keep multiple schedules whether we realize it or not. A work schedule and school calendar are obvious, but what about that football team who’s games you never miss? That’s a calendar you manage as well.
I am a junior at Cornell (Applied Economics and Management, 2014), and I’m the founder of a new internet startup called uJiiV.com. uJiiV.com, is a new social network based around the fact that we all manage multiple calendars, and how you can integrate those events with your Facebook and other social networks in order to better coordinate with friends and groups. Our site allows you to sync or subscribe to the calendars of your connections, allowing you to pull all your “calendars” into one location with ease. The idea is that when national organizations, such as pro sports teams, as well as your own circle of contacts have uJiiV accounts, you will be able to keep track of everything in your life with ease: work, school, family, travel and leisure. This summer I assembled a team and we have been building the site, which is nearing completion. And with a team that includes 16 Cornellians, we have been steaming right ahead in the development of the site and of the business.
We are planning a prototype launch for next week. And interestingly, this launch will double as an international debut because I am currently studying abroad in Cannes, France. While being 6 hours ahead of New York may seem like a hassle for a startup founder, things could not be going more smoothly. I am in constant contact with the team and we are right on track with the goals I set back in May. This not only shows the power of technology and why a site like uJiiV that allows you to connect with your circles of contacts easier is necessary in the digital age, but also the competence and skill of my team. In fact, the importance of surrounding yourself with a skilled team became clear to me within the first days of creating this venture. I have to say that I am proud of the progress we have all made so far.
For more information on uJiiV, see our informational video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9XiMJvHssc or contact me at jln57@cornell.edu.
ithaca VC 
How is this different from curent sharing functionality in gmail?
Hopefully Jacqueline will reply. But, for example, gmail does not pull in your favorite team calendars automatically…..at least I don’t think it does.
The key distinction between uJiiV and Google Calendars is that uJiiV turns the calendar into a social entity, which Google does not. Google calendars may allow users to share their calendars with contacts, but the Google platform is not one in which users are encouraged to interact with the calendar as they do with their other social networks–it does not encourage collaboration, as uJiiV does.
uJiiV is a way to structure what people have been doing on Facebook and Twitter for years, i.e. the “Jacqueline Neves is going to Starbucks with (tag 1), (tag 2) and (tag 3)” type posts. Today’s social media user is becoming more sophisticated and therefore craves more complex ways to interact with their networks. Pinterest is an example of company that has already figured this out. Pinterest has taken the need to show others what you “like” and what your interests are and has provided a platform to neatly record and advertise these likes and interests, all the while staying connected to Facebook. People were informally doing this on Facebook already, but because users are becoming more savvy, Pinterest is a hit. uJiiV is similar to Pinterest in this regard.
On the technical side, we do make it possible for people to sync or subscribe to friends or organizations. Syncing allows you to pull the events from a friends calendar onto one of your own, similar to the sharing option mentioned present in Google Calendars. Subscribing, allows you to follow a friends calendar, similar to how you can follow a friends Pinboard on Pinterest. By doing this you pull the entire calendar onto your profile, which allows you to see the events but still keep it separate from your personal calendars.
Take a look at our video, it should make this more clear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9XiMJvHssc