http://www.viddler.com/player/225e1792/
Maryland based CollectiveX launched in February 2006 as a way for groups to create a quick and well designed social space online. Users could share calendars, files and contacts, and message each other on a forum.
We covered CollectiveX in our roundup of “build your own social networks” last month.The original idea overlaps with both LinkedIn and Ning. CollectiveX is a good place for groups like boards of directors to share contact information, files (board minutes, financials, etc.) and share a forum for communication. Since your business contacts are shared just with the people in your group, you don’t have to worry about the “LinkedIn problem: -being constantly spammed for introductions. And like Ning, CollectiveX lets users quickly and easily create a social network. There is less flexibility on the types of networks that can be created, but the added structure is good for certain types of users.
The new product that CollectiveX is launching now is called Groupsites. The video above gives a good introduction to the service. The company is expanding the service to allow for social, not just business, networks. New networks can now be public by choice, and users can create separate professional and social profiles.
Users have a single dashboard to access all of the networks they belong to. They can be viewed one at a time, or grouped. For example, a user can click a button and see all stored files for all groups, and then search within those files.
The basic service is free, and the company charges additional fees for additional storage, advertising removal, etc. Large companies can also pay a yearly license fee to create multiple networks. Accenture and others are customers of this enterprise product.
The company is also simultaneously launching directory of their open social networks at Groupsites.com.
CollectiveX is certainly comparable to some of the better funded sites who’ve spent millions on development. The company has raised only a very small amount of seed funding to date, and what they’ve done with it is impressive. They are also nearly cash flow positive, the company says, and should be profitable by year end. They are beginning to pitch venture capitalists on their Series A round of financing.
See Read/Write Web for more.