Less Distracted

lov.li is a new community marketplace / social network for artists an crafters. It was mostly written from my desk at Less Distracted. Here’s the description I sent out to the bloggers.

Lov.li will officially launch (beta) January 11^th, 2007.

While we’ve had the password down for a few weeks now, we’ve kept quiet while we zap bugs and improve usability. Now we’re ready to put the word out that there is a new way for artists, craftspeople and the people who love them to find each other.

http://lov.li

What is lov.li?

lov.li is a community of people who make art, crafts and handmade products, combining a social network, gallery and store.

Who is lov.li for?

• Artists and Craftspeople who create paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, glass, books and zines, carvings, knitting, bags, clothing, furniture, chainsaw art, jewelry, toys, music, puppets, zines, candles, soap, or anything else they made with their hands or brain.
• Anyone looking to buy a unique, handmade piece of art
• Anyone looking for inspiration or something to do

What can you do on lov.li?

• Share your art and handmade items
• Sell your art and handmade items
• Create Groups
• Promote Events
• Blog
• Share Video
• Make Friends

How is lov.li different?

• In contrast to online storefronts, lov.li emphasizes the community aspects of making and finding art.
• Lov.li does not charge listing fees, only a 3.5% commission on sold items. Items posted on lov.li do not have to be for sale.
• Groups allow members to create and moderate communities of interest and can use lov.li to coordinate their ‘real-life’ art communities and events.
• Lov.li uses your address to find users and events nearby.
• Lov.li always sorts items by their relevance to you – by social distance, geographic distance, and your interests. Even before you log in, lov.li will make a guess at where you are and return local items.
• Lov.li gives vendors a way to actively promote themselves – making more friends increases visibility of items.

Platform:

• Lov.li is built on Ubuntu Linux, Apache, MySQL, and the Cake PHP framework.

Who started lov.li?

• Patrick Sullivan, Founder and Lead Developer. Patrick is serving as lead developer and fundraiser for lov.li. Patrick has worked for more than 10 years in software development, marketing and sales at diverse companies from agencies and startups to Intel. He brought new-to-the-world products to market as CTO of Nameboy.com. Patrick is a printmaker and photographer. He has a BA in Political Science from Reed College and an MBA from Portland State University.

• David Moody, Marketing and Operations Director. David is driving lov.li’s marketing efforts. He received his MBA from Portland State University where he concentrated in marketing and is currently head of the marketing department for a local company. David used his molecular biology degree in the bio-tech field, in both technical and sales roles. David is currently restoring a vintage Portland home and is passionate about art and the DIY community.

Company Info

• Lov.li is located in Portland, Oregon. We are currently angel funded and seeking institutional investors.

For more information or interviews, contact:

Patrick Sullivan – 503-806-3770 – skype: expatrick

Logos and screen shots can be found at

http://lov.li/pages/press

We have a couple spots looking for new people, here’s the basics:

• $150/month utilities & internet included
• $100 deposit
• You get your own space that’s not in your living room & certainly not a cube.
• Available now

Currently We’re a mix of independent multi-media/print designers & web programers.

If you’re interested, send me an email @ rtyler|at|marverde|dot|net

Our little blog doesn’t receive much traffic. A quick glance at Mint shows about 200 unique visitors a month, and there’s a whopping eight sites that link to us currently. This is why I was a little bit shocked when I logged into WordPress today to find we’ve been hit with comment spam 76 times in the last 15 days. Thankfully, it was all caught by Akismet.

Join us this Wednesday, May 17th, for our second rooftop movie of the summer. This week we’ll be showing the 1968 comedy (?), Head.

A plotless collection of various musical encounters and adventures by the famous rock band “The Monkeys” which follows Davy, Peter, Mike and Mickey as they travel through an assortment of places in search of meaning.

Same rules as last time. Be here at 9:30pm. Movie starts at 10. And if you haven’t been here before, this is what our roof is like.

UrbanHonking says:

UrbanHonking is currently in the middle of putting together the our new spring line-up and blogging the shit out of the PDX Film Fest.

Ryan says:

I’ve been super busy lately, trying to enjoy the beautiful spring weather mountain biking with my bike club. working on a number of projects including: a new access & authentication system in PHP for Bizware’s Webteam tools, a file management intranet type system for Evco Plastics, the B2C front end to the new Rezzline hotel reservation system, and as soon as I get a minute to breath (next week?), I’ll start on a CMS back end for ZD’s next water park project. Oh yeah, I’m also going to continue the remodel of my house & help to get a mountain bike park started in Portland.

Chris and Greg say:

1. http://Grabb.it, the first music player that’s native to the web. Grabb.it plays songs, just like iTunes, except instead of local songs ripped from CDs and downloaded as mp3s, Grabb.it plays online songs from all over the web. And instead of just sitting there like a music player on your local computer, Grabb.it connects you into the always-on global musical conversation.
2. A semi-secret Amazon-based startup for a client.
3. An online chocolate store for local favorite Pix Patisserie.
4. A new website for PDX Pop Now!, an annual free all-ages festival of Portland music.

Read the rest of this entry »

Join us Thursday, April 27th, for the first of what we hope to be a summer-long series of movies on the roof of our building. We’ll be showing the 1986 mega hit, Rad.

A hometown kid on his BMX against the best in the world. At Helltrack… the heat is on. The story of one young man, Cru Jones, who has the intensity and desire to win a BMX race called Helltrack.

Meet in front of the building at 9:30pm. The movie starts at 10pm and we’re not climbing down to let in late comers. Bring blankets, pillows, beers, and popcorn. To get on the roof, there’s a short ladder climb, so keep that in mind when deciding what to bring.

Big ups to Marcus for this lovely flyer:

Mariano is from Argentina and we all wish we had an accent like his. He’s a talented designer, a really nice guy, he rides his bike to work every day, and has a killer iTunes library. Welcome!

As the Urban Honking Ultimate Blogger competition draws near, the local press seems all a twitter. It’s all very glamorous.

Our building’s forebearers. Sprayers, Shears, Death, Kanes, Rakes, Gloves, Products, Magic. And Seed.