Loomagoo and TribeCon seek college students for conference

“Fire gave us smoke signals. The internet gave us Twitter. As humans, we find ways to connect, to communicate and inspire. New technologies have eradicated geographic boundaries allowing our social networks to expand and align, creating powerful communities. Communities inspired by ideas, driven by a common purpose form tribes. Join us at TribeCon.” -TribeCon.com

And who’s at the forefront of these idea-inspired communities? College students! They are the taste-makers, the trend-setters, and the artists that create and embrace the community and we want them at TribeCon.  These young, energetic minds are the foundation for the communities to come.  So…Loomagoo has 50 tickets, thanks to our wonderful friends in TribeCon and Chris Schultz, that will be distributed to New Orleans area college students through a series of promotional giveaways.  

First Opportunity: Loomagoo’s Twitter Trivia every Monday.  Follow @loomagoo and keep your eyes peeled for our Video Trivia questions every Monday.  We will be giving away TribeCon tickets every monday of October!

Second Opportunity: Post Exam study guides from last semester on Loomagoo.com.  We will choose students from every school each week!

For more information on TribeCon 2009, visit http://www.tribecon.com

Thanks for reading, 

Andy

Loomagoo introduces “Twitvid Trivia”

I’m cutting to the chase — Loomagoo.com will be launching its Twitvid Trivia game on Monday, September 14th.  The video trivia question will be submitted at 8:00 am every Monday morning, and reposted every hour after that.  Participants have 24 hours to respond to the question via Twitter.  Please include @loomagoo and the tag #loomagoo in your response.  This contest is limited to students, one winner will be chosen each week.  Prizes include Best Buy Gift cards, iPod nano, and CASH. Follow @loomagoo on Twitter to receive the video question every Monday. 

There were some rumors that responses had to be in “Jeopardy” format, i.e. “What is….” This is not the case.  Just make sure you include the tag #loomagoo in your Twitter response. 

We are really looking forward to this, should be a lot of fun, 

Andy

Loomagoo welcomes “Orange Backpack”

 

Everyone…we want to extend a warm welcome to our newest member of the Loomagoo family, “Orange Backpack.”  Who’sthat you ask? If you must know, he’s a new breed of entrepreneurial mind, and although small, about 10 oz’s, he “packs” quite a punch.  His background before Loomagoo is a little fuzzy, BUT, we do know he is from China.  

His role at Loomagoo is important, so much so that we have created a viral campaign around him.  This campaign, dubbed “The Orange Backpack Challenge,” is top secret.  He will, however, be letting you guys in on his whereabouts through his Twitter account, @orangebackpack.  We told him no Twitter but he demanded that he be able to use his Twitter to connect with students.  What the backpack wants, the backpack gets! 

Follow @orangebackpack for his location, as it will change daily.  He’s sort of a vagabond, doesn’t like staying in one place (or campus) for too long.  

That’s all we can say for now.  We will let you know more details as we receive them. 

Thanks for reading, 

Andy

Loomagoo.com teams up with Tulane University

It’s been a long awaited partnership that took months of “schmoozing,” but we finally got it done.  Loomagoo.com has teamed up with Tulane University for the 2009-2010 school year.  Beginning Monday, August 24th, students will be able to buy and sell used textbooks, upload and share class notes and study guides, and connect with classmates.  

In a recent article in the Tulane Hullabaloo (university publication), Loomagoo.com is described as “your own personal eBay, where you are bale to determine how much you’re going to sell the book for, who’s going to buy it from you, and how it will be exchanged.”  

Read the full article, “USG introduces Loomagoo to Tulane“ 

Tulane students, look for all the Loomagoo.com material around campus this week.  USG will be distributing handbills, flyers, and posters to every student.  For those of you on Twitter, follow Loomagoo.com @loomagoo.  Beginning September, we will be doing a whole host of online giveaways and contest through the Twitter account. 

We want to extend a special thanks to current VP for Student Life, Lauren Aronson.  She has been an absolute pleasure to work with and a huge help in coordinating this release. 

Thanks for reading, 

Andy

Loomagoo.com featured on FoxBusiness.com

Loomagoo.com was recently featured on FoxBusiness.com (by way of Bankrate.com) in an article titled “4 Ways to Slash College Textbooks Prices.”  Loomagoo is mentioned as a service for students to buy and sell used books from one another.  The following excerpt was included in the article: 

In November 2008, a group of entrepreneurial students at Loyola University of New Orleans started their own online swap meet, Loomagoo.com, which now has about two dozen participating schools located primarily in the South and Midwest. The idea to launch the site was fueled by economic necessity, according to co-founder Andy Beal.

“We spent a lot of money when we evacuated for Hurricane Gustav in September, and when we came back we didn’t have any money to buy books,” says Beal, who graduated from Loyola in May 2009 with plans to attend law school there in the fall.

Noting that the bookstore’s inventory of used books was usually limited to those for which no new edition had recently been published and that the stores set buyback and resale prices, Beal and his partners sought to offer more choice and flexibility. “We decided to create an online marketplace so that students could buy (used books) directly from students,” he says.

Beal says a few similar student-run book exchange sites, many of them regional, have come across his radar since Loomagoo.com went live.

Many thanks to Sonja and Bankrate.com for the wonderful exposure. 

Thanks for reading, 

Andy

Loomagoo founders “inspire” book drive for New Orleans youth

As much as we like getting press for Loomagoo.com, it is a greater honor to receive mention for our work “offline.”  In March, Chris threw out the idea of a book drive to benefit underprivileged youth.  With textbooks being the majority of listings on Loomagoo, this seemed like a natural path to explore.  After pitching the idea, we partnered with Jim Bernazzani and the New Orleans Youth Rescue Initiative.  

The Book Drive placed over 4,500 books directly in the hands of the city’s youth.  We are very grateful for the hard work of Jim, Victoria, and the rest of the YRI Staff, and thankful that we could be associated with such an extraordinary event.  Here’s the article text for the Times-Picayune:

“The Youth Rescue Initiative, which creates structured opportunities for at-risk youth in New Orleans, received an overwhelming local and national response to its recent community-wide book drive.

Initiative founder and president James Bernazzani, former FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans Division, joined forces with Irvin Mayfield Jr., jazz trumpeter and chairman of the board of the New Orleans Public Library, to help spark donations of more than 4,500 books for the “Power Through Reading” program, which serves nonprofit reading programs for children in preschool through middle school.

The program was inspired by Loyola University students Andy Beal and Chris Zimny, with support from the Lindy Boggs Literacy Center at Loyola University under the direction of Petrice Sams-Abiodun.” 

Read the full article here. 

Thanks for reading, 

Andy

New “Download” System, Add Your Own School

I can’t count the amount of times that we have asked ourselves, “how do we generate content on the site, what makes a college student willing to share their hard work on the internet?”  Starting tomorrow, we will release our solution.  The new system gives every new and existing user, 3 downloads.  These can be used to download notes, study guides, etc.  Repeat downloads and files uploaded by the user will not deduct a download.

Textbook listings are not included in the new system.

We introduced this system to encourage a consistent flow of new information onto Loomagoo.  Creating a culture of equal exchange is very important and we feel like students that are benefiting from the site’s free resources should give back.  Of course not everyone will…that’s the internet for ya! Some say the 80-20 rule applies online, 80% of your content is generated by 20% of your users.  I think it’s more like 95-5.  In any case, we know each student has something valuable to contribute and we want to “grease” that exchange but providing incentives for students that upload and share with classmates. 

Attention, all schools not on Loomagoo, Listen up! We’re tearing down walls like Berlin in 1989.  Beginning tomorrow, students that don’t find their school in the dropdown list can add their college or university and start posting textbooks and class materials We were getting emails from students, asking how to get their school on the site.  I’d have to go in, add the site, then email the student back.  Those hoops are gone, and we’ve put more power into the hands of the students.  

From here on out, we’re gonna let you guys run the show.  Here’s a screenshot of the new layout that will be live tomorrow.   

 

 

Thanks for reading, 

Andy