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Oppikoppi on m.24.com, an opportunity lost?

August 5th, 2008 · Comments

There’s a time and a place for niched mobile social networks. The time is this weekend, the place is oppikoppi.

After reading about an interesting development by Orange called “Glastonav“, a mobile application for those that attended this year’s Glastonbury festival, I was curious to see what Oppikoppi had up their sleeve following a post on their blog this morning.

Oppikoppi WildCard on your Mobile
Whether you have experienced a Bad Beat or are showing off hiding a Royal Flush, this year’s Oppikoppi “WildCard” Festival from 7-9 August at Northam, has a suit for everyone!

Get the festival info, band line-ups, survival tips, maps and downloads for this year’s festival by visiting the Oppikoppi Wildcard WAP site!

Sms KOPPI to 32424 (sms costs R1) to receive the link on your phone. Alternatively follow these easy steps:

1) Go to m.24.com on your WAP-enabled phone.
2) Click on Entertainment or Downloads
3) Click on Oppikoppi

What is revealed is really just a “brochure” site with listings of who’s playing when and where, a map, and some downloads (which is cool).

I think that there could have been so much more done with a medium like this. Some kind of audience interaction would be the way to go.

I believe one simple addition to the site would make it a better offering - live reports from each stage with the ability for users to comment. This could be done by using a simple blog interface.

Other nice additions could be:
- A bulletin board for the organisers to communicate.
- graffiti wall for festival goers to say what they want.
- friend finder (geolocation dependant) - after adding your friends, you could see where they are.

I’d really like to see a twitter channel too. This would be the easiest thing to run and update. A niched version of Twittersa for oppikoppi would be awesome. Not sure how it would look on a mobile though, presumably the ajax live loading would work.

Ultimately, there’s a really great opportunity for the organisers to pull together a community for the event. Call it a niched social network if you will. One with a limited lifespan - no expectations or requirements to manage the community after the event (although there’s surely scope for a more long term strategy?).

I know the guys at Blueworld are going to be launching some kind of Myspace equivalent / local band platform at oppikoppi this year, but it would be great if they used their existing tech platform and skills to create a space for “temporary” communities such as this.

Don’t get me wrong though, after all is said and done, I know that the guys at Oppikoppi Productions are improving their digital stuff all the time. They’ve built a fantastic site that ticks most of the “best practices” boxes. It’s just a case of taking it to the next level, inexpensively and effectively!

Oppi!…

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Tags: Music · Social media · Web

  • All great ideas Scott. Your Twitter idea I don't working as all though - I doubt there'll be too many web geeks at Oppi. And building an Twittersa type service for a handfull of people to interact would be a waste. Personally I think an Opiikoppi branded MXit room would be a better idea.
  • agree, although to be honest, i think that with a little education on
    the oppikoppi site, people will pick it up quickly. But maybe the
    twitter idea was a bit premature.

    the other thing to consider of course, is that all this might not fit
    into the way oppikoppi want to be. they might want to keep it old
    school and limit tech as much as possible.

    2008/8/5 Disqus <>:
  • Yeah keeping it all old school maybe there way, but they have to think about the new age festival goers - personally I would love a mobile solution to let me know what my friends are watching and where to geo locate a passed out mate.
  • unodewaal
    What you might rather want to do is build a platform that will allow you to do the same for future events - so that you don't just do a once off.

    Speakerbox will hopefully be able to be a platform for that.
  • absolutely. no point in building something that can't be reused.

    looking fwd to seeing what speakerbox is all about.

    2008/8/5 Disqus <>:
  • So Speakerbox is Blueworld's band platform?
  • as far as Mr. Norman suggested at the 27 dinner

    2008/8/5 Disqus <>:
  • chrisroper
    Hi

    Speakerbox isn't Blueworld's band platform - Blueworld provides a social networking platform for Speakerbox, which is a music site that revolves around rock, urban, pop and dance communities.
    We're launching it at Oppikoppi, with a bunch of stuff, including streaming 7 bands live in association with MK. Which all means that we've had to focus on doing a basic amount of stuff, like the mobile download. And since the site isn't actually finished yet - mind you, we still have 12 hours - I'll have to leave it at that!
    Still, by Friday, you should be able to visit www.speakerbox.co.za and see what we've done. And check out our live stream friday and saturday on mk or speakerbox.co.za.
  • look forward to seeing you guys there!

    2008/8/5 Disqus <>:
  • chrisroper
    thescott - if you're there, please visit us at our Speakerbox Poker Den in the VIP area. Actually, mail me on chris.roper@sa.24.com so I can send you an invite. But make it sharp, we're leaving for Oppikoppi in a few hours!
  • amabacha
    Hey Scott, thanks for your post on the m.24.com’s koppie site.

    To clarify, the Oppikoppi WAP site was built by the 24.com Mobile team in association with Channel 24 and Speakerbox who are the official media partners for Oppikoppi.

    I totally agree that more can be done with mobile on a project such as this but having closely watched what happened at Glastonbury this year with the GlastoNav, reading TechoKitten’s comments on the fails and having tested the app myself, I believe our site meets the requirements we set out to achieve. We’ve put a site together that works well on any WAP-enabled phone, doesn’t require a lot of data to use and most importantly will enrich the Oppikoppie experience for those making the trek out to Northam.

    Opportunity Lost? I don’t think so, in my humble opinion. Are we planning to “take it to the next level, inexpensively and effectively” Absolutely! Watch this space!
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