the Cif2.net Smartsites Mini Guide. More Mini Guides will come soon.

Hi everyone,

We've set up a nice Facebook page where we'd like to have you leave feedback. Also, you can use it to ask questions about using cif2.net and write answers. Our cif2.net Founder and Chief Customer Support will also be there to help out.

So let's start using it:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cif2-Community/279935875370459

You do remember this image:

Yup, we loved it too. Thing is we tested out spreecast.com which seemed really awesome to use at first and we've tested it with a few of our cif2.net fans who wanted to help. Everything seemed perfect. We had about 100 people register for the event. And then it happened.

The 30th of October Did Come

Had a great morning giving some finishing touches to the event and the ideas I had for the conference. Great talks on Web 3.0 were to follow, the guy who won the first Smartsite built in Romania was to make an appearance, The Heroes Scribe was going to chat with us LIVE and we've had some other nice panels for you guys.

But spreecast failed us. Miserably. And it's too bad, because we do like their platform. That's why we didn't expect this to happen. We had sound problems, the video transmission went down at one point, etc. etc.

It all ended fast. Very fast.

I cut the whole event off after about 40 minutes. People started contacting me, asking to know why I cancelled it. Well, it had to go off the air, because you couldn't really understand anything from it.

Don't worry, we've learnt our lessons. We're going to make a podcast of #cifNsmart 2011 which you'll be able to download or listen to on our youtube channel.

A friend of mine suggested that the Ghosts of Helloween sabotaged me. Too bad the ghost busters weren't around that time. Oh, well, the podcast will be great, so stay tuned. We'll announce it by blog post and email before we release it.

 I know we've said this a couple of times over Social Media, since the 1st of October, but now it's official and you should start registering for the event. Register here! Check the bottom of this post to see more information. More updates will follow Tomorrow. Also, check our blog often until the event to get info on the Panels and the band we're going to bring + T-Shirts and Prizes.

The last year has been really great for us at cif2.net and ever since #devsummer we've been fully focused on bringing an awesome new experience to the websites created with cif2.net. That's why we've taken a big step forward and made websites smart. Other then building websites (of which you will hear much more about at #cifNsmart this year + get many explanations on the subject) we've worked hard on delivering a great website building and blogging experience.

So we've had some of our loyal customers of cif2.net test the new features and I've been moved by their reaction. I mean, literally moved. I wanted to write the #enchant post in September, when I first showed the new features (then in Alpha) to Crisan Marius (http://www.crisanmarius.cif2.net/).

I remember I got Marius to the Cif2.net Office to show him the great new stuff we were developing ever since #devsummer and he was trully wow-ed. I guess he was the first person outside of our team who saw the new interface of www.cif2.net and also the first to actually see the new features. And #enchant is the only word which could be used to describe what he felt. He was trully enchanted and told that he craves for the new features.

He was breathless when he tested the new features after we've launched them on the 11th of October this year. He said he couldn't believe how Ultra-Easy posting to your website and blog became with Cif2.net. As an ex-user of wordpress.com and blogspot.com he thought it was impossibly fast and easy to post to your website. And when he saw how great it was to follow other users and instantly have the interface push the updates to you he could only say that he Loves Cif2.net

That's the kind of reaction we want to get from our customers and we're doing our best to get this reaction from everyone every single time we come up with new, gorgeous updates. People Love Cif2.net. And we Love to #enchant them.

[ UPDATE ]

2 Days and one Smokie concert later, here I am continuing to write this post. Calin did his own all-nighter to get the new accounts that will be created with cif2.net at a very awesome state. You guys're gonna love them.

My heart beats like crazy right now and not only because I Love Cif2.net (which I do, I've married it), but also because of way too much coffee and energizers. Sleep deprived and all, I've never been happier, because we'll manage to get the new Cif2.net interface and functionality online by tomorrow, which is AWESOME!

Here's some photos from my dev works from the 8th of October to the 10th of October 2011.

Picture of the screen with http://www.testnewcif2net.cif2.net when I began work on the new interface. Cif2.net is built on Cif2.net, of course :D

The Office has hosted me for the last week full time and I've lived it up with some Burn, food and coffee. Very healthy life-style, I've heard.

Playing some good 'ol Dub Step from my iRiver Story to get some nice sounds around here.

A big thumbs up for the new interface. It will rock your world!

And even more energizers last night, before the Smokie Concert. Had a two hours break, while at their concert and then resumed work.

Will continue until tomorrow, then getting our deck and pitch ready for Venture Connect Cluj-Napoca. Let's build something awesome!

[Personal post by Florin Muresan, the Chief Awesome Officer]

You know how crazy startup guys are about their startups. I've been sleep deprived for a while now and figured that maybe I should stop for about a day, but come on, when you build something as awesome as Cif2.net, you just can't stop!

So here's to another awesome night of making great things happen :D i plan to launch the new interface by Monday (yes, this Monday) so I'm geeking it out and doing my best to deliver Awesomeness. Plus, Calin has been up all last night and been doing some amazing things today. We really want to launch all the new things we've been developing since the beggining of #devsummer. Because #cifNsmart awaits at the end of October and we want to WOW you all, dear cif2.net users.

Plus, I've written on my Trigwee page that I love the idea of: 

One night to kick-start a startup 

I will update this post with more posts from me dev-ing the whole thing.

We have some pretty neat stuff planned for October this year. Remember that we launched the Beta version of cif2.net last year? Yeah, that was awesome! We've gained 2500 users since then. It's really great because over the last 4 months we've gained 1,900 of them.

We are going to announce new stuff happening for this October soon. But until we do that, until we're going to move Forward, we have to take some time to think and for a small while, just look backward to what we've accomplished, what our users said about us, what are their desires. We know what the future will be for cif2.net, we know how the Web will evolve, because we are going to Build the Future. But we do need a little feedback. No system has ever worked without feedback. Think of your car's ABS. Think about automated systems and other such examples.

Two days ago we wrote about the Path of our startup. And it's been awesome writing all that. Today we've done even more then that, and created a Memolane for cif2.net, which I want to share with all of you. So that you can easily track the evolution of our project.

Ladies and gentleman, I bring to you: Our Memories. Our Stories so far http://memolane.com/cif2net

Web 3.0 is an unshaped concept. It's a dream, but like any dream, it needs people to dream it. And people to find the key to unlock that door.

So how do you find the people? How do you find that key? Let's consider for a moment that we don't find the key. The key and mostly the ideea, finds us. We just receive it and have to make use of it, spread it, make it awesome ! This a story of things that lead to other things, some greater then others. This is a story of reaching Web 3.0.

[ Introduction - How do you get to the idea of Web 3.0 ? ]

It all started from an urge of making website builders awesome. Me and my associates, were having much success with a website builder, called Cifnet, which Calin Vingan (current CEO of cif2.net) built back in 2007. It was a great CMS platform that was used by over 10.000 people in Romania. Most of our clients were businesses. But of course, tech has evolved very much from 2007, and by 2010 we felt like we wanted to improve that platform and go to something bigger. Something different. Something that... Yes, you're right. We did not have a clear idea. And, in my opinion, that's the beauty of it.

We built and built, trying to give a new angle, a new spin to Website Builders. So we worked hard, because we felt that we were onto something, we knew that we were going to reach something awesome. The platform we were developing caught a very interesting shape and it included up-to-date tech, with all sorts of intuitive editing possibilities. It was great for a Web 2.0 web app.

That's when I got the idea that hey! Much can be achieved through Web 2.0. Let's make Rennaisance 2.0. I worked on that idea, feeling that it was the future and that it could bring great benefits to people's lives.

I presented my idea at a Toastmaster's event and people responded well to it. They found it interesting. But there was this journalist, Mihai Gotiu who was like: "Yes, nice, but there's already talk of 3.0. So why focus on Renaissance 2.0 ? Do 3.0 ! It's the future".

Well I will admit that I was all like: "What's this guy talking about ? There is no definition for Web 3.0. Just some oppinions as to what it might be somewhen in the future. Is he crazy ? I mean, there is Marketing 3.0, which is still not very much known, but 3.0 .. really now ?"

Yup, but deep down in my soul I knew that was a challenge for me. So: Challenge Accepted ! Great. Now I was in a very dim place, because everything was so unclear. 3.0, what is 3.0 ? Is it anything like Marketing 3.0 ?

I didn't know exactly what to expect from this unclear Tech concept. But I knew in an instant that for it to happen, I had to push technology further. But let's see some basics, let's see some of the ideas that go around about Web 3.0. Shall we ?

[ Web 3.0 - An attempt to define it ]

It's hard to say what the definition for Web 3.0 is. That's why this will be an attempt at defining it. Many others have tried to find this "Holly Grail" of the Internet, but so far, there isn't a stable definition.

Some people believe that Web 3.0's most important features are the Semantic Web and the personalization of the web. Conrad Wolfram has argued that Web 3.0 is where "the computer is generating new information", rather than humans.

There are some other ideas, such as the fact that Web 3.0 will be when humans will be "plugged to the Internet" from the cradle and unto the grave. Others consider the Semantic Web to be a whole new Web 4.0.

" According to some Internet experts Web 3.0 will allow the user to sit back and let the Internet do all of the work for them. Rather than having search engines gear towards your keywords, the search engines will gear towards the user. Keywords will be searched based on your culture, region, and jargon. For example, when going on a vacation you have to do separate searches for your airline ticket, your hotel reservations, and your car rental. With Web 3.0 you will be able to do all of this in one simple search. The search engine will present the results in a comparative and easily navigated way to the user. " 

- from wikipedia.org

" I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize. "

– Tim Berners-Lee, 1999

Now, let us "digest" these a little bit. If you think of Tim Berners-Lee's idea and the example given in the paragraph taken from Wikipedia, doesn't it make your mind go to Mint ? Yes, the startup that began spreading like wild fire, because it knows how to search data about your accounts, wallets, spendings, the budgets you want to use for certain activities, in a very Smart (pun intended) way. Basically, it does the whole sorting part for you, making your life easier when it comes to paying bills and checking your spendings.

The idea of Semantic Web is all very nice, but it will probably not be 93% succesful ever. You would need a whole team of profilers working with entrepreneurs and tech-heads. Ok, this is just an oppinion, so let's just take John Smart's idea and place the Semantic Web in the field of Web 4.0.

Great ! Now back to Web 3.0. Wait. First, let's take a walk through Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Marketing 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. You don't just call numbers because that's what you wanna do. There has to be a corellation between them. So let's analyze these in parallel.

Web 1.0 was the basic website. You got to a website, had an awfully hard time getting products into a shopping cart and then buying, end of story. Or, you had to watch photos of products, download catalogues and then write an email to the owner with the names of the products you wanted. There was only the website. You had no real say, just observed.

Marketing 1.0 cared about selling products. Selling many products. And that was it. It was a product-oriented kind of marketing. There was just the product. And it had to be bought.

You see? Both are 1.0. Both are oriented on products, not on the people who buy them. Customers had to get those products, so even if something was not completely right with them, they still got the products and that's that. These two may not have been in the same time period, but they did act the same way. We are not talking about right-on chronological timeline, we are talking about the relation between Web X.0 and Marketing X.0.

Then, the world changed. There were a whole lot of products available for the clients. Clients could buy this or that. They could go to this website or to the other website, what did they care ? They had freedom to choose from a whole lot of different options.

Thus, came 2.0, both in marketing and in Web. The marketing became client-oriented. The client had to be pleased about the products and the way they were treated by the companies. Clients began talking between them and now it had a direct impact on sales. On the Web, people found out the same thing after a while. Now they had a voice. They could leave feedback on forums, online shops, blogs, social media, etc.

People began having a voice in 2.0. Well, snap ! Companies needed one too, or just needed to help them exercise that voice. Brands were created. Social Media was created. Sweet.

But it did not stop, of course. People became even smarter and started finding out all sorts of things about everything that was happening in the world. Marketing 2.0 was done to make a difference between those who were 2.0 and those who weren't. But most became 2.0 after a while. So what could make a Brand different from another now ? The things that consumers learned about those brands. The things they started to find out about those brands. Like if a brand helped Japan after a tsunami or not. If they helped develop the educational sector in Africa. If they actually gave something back to men kind. Yeah. People started caring about stuff. So, companies climbed to Marketing 3.0 and began doing all sorts of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Campaigns.

What did they get from this Marketing 3.0 and from the fact that Corporations showed they cared about the world ? They got a "soul" in the vision of the clients. Yes, that's right. Companies started having a soul. Marketing 3.0 gives them a soul.

So what about Web 2.0 ? What did the web do ? Why did it not climb up to Web 3.0, yet ?

I mean, Social Media is awesome. But it's still 2.0. It's just humans interacting with humans, through machines, websites, whatever you want to call them. Humans do mostly everything (I think everything) manually (when not using Twitter Spam-Bots, but I am refering to real interaction, not spamming activities and mal-practices). So it's Consumer 2 Consumer, Business 2 Consumer and Business 2 Business (yes, 2 is for just 2 sides that are involved in the process and it's a 2.0 thing). Everything made until now is 2.0. Well, mostly everything, because some tech has already started to mutate.

Web 3.0 will be when the Web will begin having a Soul, just like it happened with Companies and Brands in Marketing 3.0. It will be when the Web will start interacting with the users.

Wow ! Yup, but more on that in a short moment.

[ Pushing Technology Further ]

Remember how I said that technology needs to be pushed further on ? I assure you that this idea had not first occured to me whatsoever.

It occured to the first guys who decided: "Hey ! We have computers and advanced computing systems. Let's make telephones Smart !" and the enthusiasts who said: "Yeah, that might be something, I guess". It was. You have a dumb phone in your left hand and a smart phone in your right. You look at each of them, compare, but are still attracted to the smartphone and not only because it's a shiny iPhone 4 or something. It's because you became attached to it, in the way that you feel you need the telephone more then just to send SMS and call people. Even more then to have contacts on it, or to write a small, limited shopping list. You need it to help organize your life, your daily activities. You don't want to sign in to all sorts of email websites every time to see if there's a new mail for you. You want your phone to push it to you, to have your telephone tell you: Dude, you've got mail !

And that's not even half of it. The phone can tell you stuff related to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, messages you receive there, whatever. You take notes in the "clouds", which you can access later on from your laptop. You can unlock the door to your house over Mobile Internet. You can have your dear beer-cannon throw you a beer in bed, through your smartphone. Nice, right ? Telephones know to do stuff right now. 

As I've said earlier, they know what's up with your bank accounts and can alert you if they "think" something suspicious has been going on in your bank accounts.

The "platform" for telephones to become Smart was built. Smartphones were invented, people started using them and they saw that it was good. New entrepreneurs came and made them even more awesome. The guys who made Lokitron (the one with locking/unlocking your door through mobile internet), or the one with the beer cannon app, or the Founder of Mint, the startup with the bank accounts. And I am certain that even more great apps will come, to make phones even Smart-er.

So you see? These guys pushed technology further, for mobile phones, and got to something awesome, which we all love these days !

But phones were definetly not the only things which could become Smart. And Google proved that, by launching GoogleTV. They've made TV sets Smart. Yup, not only phones are smart anymore. Television sets have also gone smart.

Making television smart. That was an interesting idea. I found it really amazing. And then, like a 300kW of raging electrical current, it struck me ! Dude, what was I thinking ? Wait.. what was I not thinking ? Check this out.

I was consumed with making websites from a different angle, making them more awesome, somehow. That's exactly what the first guys who made smartphones tried to do, too. That's what the GoogleTV guys wanted to do, too. Now it all made sense.

Finally it made sense. We were actually building Smart Sites. And it does make sense. I mean, websites are the heart of the Internet. You can't have Internet without websites. So why not make Websites become Smart ?

It was easy for us to take that step. Because all that time, we were actually building the very foundation for Smart Websites, we just didn't know exactly what it would turn into, that's all.

[ Smart Sites - What are they ? What can they do ? ]

Smart sites are websites gone awesome. They are different from normal websites in many ways. Old websites, such as old telephones or dumb phones, as I prefer to call them, can't " tell " you anything. You have to go searching for all sorts of data and information manually.

You could do some of the things you can do on your Smartphone on your old Dumbphone. It's just that it would take you a lot more time to do it, because you'd have to do every operation by yourself, with no help from the machine whatsoever.

The same with websites. Old websites were just there. You had to figure out absolutely everything and your website was just that place you had, but didn't really feel too close to, like you did to your smartphone.

Here's where Smart Sites come into play. A smartsite has personality. This is a feature that we are going to develop even further. Your website has a "soul", it exists there on the internet and it evolves with each thing going on: like you get more links to it, more visitor check it out, you post new blog articles, you get Apps, etc. It levels up and depending on it's level, it tells you what you need to improve, what you should pay more attention to, etc. It grows with your every action and dependent upon it. It slowly turns into an entity you're gonna love.

You can have your friends over on your smartsite. And to be really smart, your Cif (that's how we call smartsites made with our platform, cif2.net) sorts your friends and the people you follow, showing you first the people with the most activity in the past few weeks, so that in the front, you'll always have those people who are actually relevant to you. You don't need to see the smartsites that had no activity in a very long while. When you need to get to those, you can always just skim through your friends list. You need to see something of value to you, something that helps you.

Smartsites know things about other smartsites and they can show it to you. You can see your friends' smartsites and check out what they've been up to, who they follow or friend, what level their smartsite is, to know how good they're doing and you can also see their recent activity. Soon, more interaction methods between smartsites will be made available.

They provide you with sets of tasks, which they display to you, depending on their level. The tasks they give you to perform will help you understand what needs to be done with your smartsite in order to get results. Because you need results, whether you're a blogger, an artist or a company.

So you see ? It takes the info that is being stored in our database about your website and it sorts everything out, so that it can provide you with valuable information. It takes some of that information and it shows you that it is evolving very well and has more chances at getting results, so that you know you're headed in the right direction. It takes some other data stored in the database and it displays your friends, sorts them so that you see those who are relevant first and it tells you what you want to know about them, their friends, their recent activity, etc. And you never have to wonder about what would make your website even better, because you have tasks. What your smartsite does is it guides you, helps you develop it and turn it into something great. This is a unique experience, which you can't get from the old kind of websites.

We are working on developing more apps that make use of the huge amounts of data we get for every single smartsite registered on cif2.net

There will also be a developer's platform available, so that other smartsite enthusiasts can build their own apps and turn smartsites into something even Smart-er !

[ Through Smartsites, we reach Web 3.0 ]

This is the begining of Web 3.0. We are talking about all the definitions of Web 3.0 which do not include Semantic Web (even though it might get to that eventually, but let's leave that one to Web 4.0 for now).

Good. Now let's rewind a bit.

Conrad Wolfram has argued that Web 3.0 is where "the computer is generating new information", rather than humans. Well, folks, smartsites are doing just that. They take what they receive in the database and turn it into new information. They take some data they get and generate you some valuable information. This part is Smart and it is done ! Also the part with Web Personalization. With smartsites, the web starts having personality.

" I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize. "

– Tim Berners-Lee, 1999

Our smartsites already "talk" to one another, exchanging information. They already are "inteligent agents". Of course, there is room for development, which we can hardly wait to do.

And now, the definition I gave for Web 3.0, as a parallel to the 3.0 development in Marketing. "Web 3.0 will be when the Web will begin having a Soul".

I have written that smartsites simply evolve, they grow, they tell you things, they do some thinking on your behalf. They may be just a part of the Internet, but they are alive, even in the current under-developed state. With more apps to come, we may get to something major. They develop a soul, just like brands did in Marketing 3.0. Be certain that your Cif will be different from one of your friend's Cifs. And as smartsites and the cif2.net platform will be developed, it will come to pass that no two smartsites can fully, nor trully be alike.

Web 3.0 will not be about machines taking control, but it will be about half-human input, half-machine input. Needless to say, this means Smart technologies. This means smartsites, smartphones, smart TVs.

If you consider this carefully, we already reached Web 3.0. A little more developing and we will actually be inside the Web 3.0 Era.

Again, think back a little, to what I wrote on the 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. Here are some sketches to illustrate these concepts.

A little explanation for the Marketing 2.0 drawing: consumers interacted with other consumers, but in that case, the brand had no say, it had no input. But when it started having a "soul" in Marketing 3.0, it began sending it's input into the consumers' conversations, it was no longer something distant. Brand makes education in a poor country much better, you don't care any longer that you heard something bad about the brand, because you KNOW the brand and what it stands for and it kind of tells you "I would never do that". And you believe it.

Now about the drawings with the Web. You see, in the last one with 3.0, there is input from 3 sides. Two human sides and one computer side which talks in it's own way with both human parties of the Web. The web's becoming alive and it's turning 3.0. It's starting to have its own voice. It interacts with the two human parties.

Gentlemen and most wonderful ladies, you are standing on the edge of a whole new ocean of 3.0. Just on the edge. Do you feel the breeze? So revigorating. PLUNGE IN! ... Experience the future.

[ Author ]

This paper has been written by Florin Muresan, Founder and Chief Branding Officer of cif2.net, Online Entrepreneur, Bringing out the Awesome in every Project. Pioneering Web 3.0. 

Cif2.net is the platform that builds smartsites.

[ Bibliography ]

Philip Kotler - Marketing 3.0

Smart, John. 2003. "The Conversational Interface."". Accelerationwatch.com. 2008-11-14. Retrieved 2011-02-06.

Agarwal, Amit. "Web 3.0 concepts explained in plain English".Labnol.org

Conrad Wolfram on Communicating with apps in web 3.0 IT PRO, 17 Mar 2010

Visit: Pioneering Web 3.0 through Smart Sites [first draft], Developer. Florin Muresan 

It is awesome to work on cif2.net. There's nothing more rewarding then knowing from all your heart that what you build is going to #enchant people from all over the world, help them connect and interact, and change the way they use the Internet for ever.

We have a great Vision for this project, we know where it will take us and what we wish to build. To put it simple, we plan to build the future. And with all the developing that has been going on during #devsummer and after #devsummer, we've managed to push things forward a lot.

But as with everything in life, before moving forward, you have to look backward and see your Path. See all the things that brought you to where you stand. Right this instant. Find your wrongs, find your rights. Use the feedback, then move forward. And bring greatness! Build the Future.

So without further ado, let the Path of Cif2.net unveil before your eyes:

It started when I got back from Pisa, in 2010. It was one of the best welcomes I have received. Me and my team mates have all been thinking separately about how to build our Freemium Website Builder (yes, just then we did not know how awesome Cif2.net was going to be).

We met immediately after I've returned and we all came up with awesome ideas on how and what to build. It was a perfect moment. Then we knew... we had something great. We were on to something great.

This is a story of things which lead to other things. And it will lead further on to the development of the Web and to taking the Internet to the next levels, 3.0 (the Smart Web) and who knows? Even 4.0 (which I know will be the semantic web.)

But before all this Vision, it was just us, passionate about building something great and following our hunch that we're onto something.

We started building rewards into Cif2.net. Many of them, on different Levels. When you complete tasks, you get rewards and Coins.

You can use those Coins to buy Apps. All sorts of cool Apps to make your website better. Plus, we let you build your website as you want, and have the design as complex or simpel as you want. Have a blog and a website. Both in the same site. Created by you.

This and:

So you can easily follow your friends and see what they've been up to. We figured that we always wanted to know when bloggers and websites we followed made changes or were active. We wanted an easy way of following their progress. We wanted to keep close to them and have the Web tell us when they did anything new. Cif2.net even sorted them out for us. The one who had the most recent activity was shown at the left and the rest followed depending on how much activity they had.

We needed a nice Logo to use. And also, we wanted some awesome little creature to represent the users of Cif2.net. And we've realised that hey, people are very much aggitated these days, they consume a whole lot of energy, and they want to be fast. Just like a Squirrel. Then we've figured out that the Squirrel tends to run out of energy, so we gave it some Coffee (Also, Cif2 Coffee is under development. You'll love it.)

Tried some more to get the concept right.

And v7 seemed to be most awesome for our dear Cif Squirrel.

Then we hired a professional designer to bring to digital life:

And here was our beloved Cif Squirrel. Say Hello! Cif's very friendly.

Writting the project was something that took us quite a while. This was our first idea of what Cif2.net was going to be. It has grown so much since then. We also wanted to use what we've written here for crowd-funding. Btw, you can still see all the old stuff here: http://www.project.cif2.net/

Our kickstarter experience wasn't very great, because they were looking for art projects and back then we did not have a fan base, so they didn't post our project. Well, at least we got our project written.

Then we've made more rewards.

And Cif2.net slowly became a LifeStyle for people involved. We wanted to grow it in this direction.

We had an awesome Social Media campaign which we wanted to use for pre-branding and get people to talk about Cif, starting some real Buzz. It was over my expectations. I did not expect to get people so engaged with our Who Is Cif? campaign.

We had about 12 Winners, who won lots of coins in cif2.net, to help them kick-start their online projects. They loved them, they all had online projects they wanted to develop.

I've learned that from Cif Talk, a campaign we held on the social media, targeting the winners of Who Is Cif? and trying to see how we could personalize our prizes so that they'll provide them with value. It helped start even more Buzz about Cif and Cif2.net

The launch of the first platform followed. Thanx to Who Is Cif, we had people to test it. It was in Beta.

Halloween 2010 was something special for us, because we ran the Free Ghosting or Free Hosting campaign. We did not get as much Buzz as we did with Who Is Cif, but we had two winners who got 3000 coins in Cif2.net and were really happy about it.

This was the logo we wanted to use, until we've figured out it really wasn't good enough for what we had in mind.

The Cif2.net Logo followed, which received great feedback and we'll keep using from now on.

Building a lifestyle and trying to offer more to our clients, we've set up all sorts of information points.

So that they could follow the things they loved, by topic.

We launched Themes for Cif2.net to provide better and simpler design for Cif2.net websites. They were much better received then the old Templates we've had.

We worked on implemeting new Features and we launched Cif2 Romania. The conversion rate for Cif2 Romania were amazing! Created Account/Visit ratio was almost 1:1. We were wow-ed. We got only little traffic, but the traffic we got converted immediately.

And had much to celebrate. Our older project, Cifnet.ro, was doing great and we were celebrating how well it all went for us during the economic crisis in Romania. Unlike other webdesign companies, we held our ground and also developed a new startup. Pretty impressive, right? We also launched new products on it and were well received.

A change of direction followed. And the whole Vision for the product was now clear.

Cif2.net was going to create Smart Sites. We've realised that for now, our goal is to make the Web smarter. Create the Smart Web. Build the Future.

We've worked a lot. But still had our fun here at the office in our great environment. Here I was making us some Cherry Cola.

We don't really have Cherry Cola in our country, so I've found an alternate method. You should try it. Great moment!

Planning much.

Our Cif Squirrel mascot hugging a good 'ol Smirnoff Ice.

My level really got higher in Cif2.net. Here I reached the Fusion Levels, which are levels 10-15.

We stayed up long nights.

And some more long nights to kick-start our startup.

My awesome new Pimped out Office, made during the first days of #devsummer.

More Cherry Cola?

More planning.

Sometimes we were melting down.

But we ate some more.

And developed much more. We can't wait to place all of these new features into Cif2.net. I've personally been using them since #devsummer and I'm deeply in love with them and the new Cif2.net. Showed it to one of our biggest fans and he was crazed seeing it. Keeps asking me when we'll update for all users. haha. pretty soon, dear crisanmarius.cif2.net

This is our Path so far. It has been wonderful sharing this with you and we want to invite you to walk your own path along with us, for some great surprises and the opportunity of seeing how the Future is Built.

Build the Future. Is our Path.

#Devsummer is over, dear friends, but the good news is we have 2,418 users, building great websites with cif2.net and enriching the Cif2 Community with valuable content. Also as stat, we are 173k on Alexa.

There is so much to blog about, regarding the latest things developed for cif2.net. But we want to brag about them more when we launch the new version :D Which will be pretty soon.

Enjoy some stories from #devsummer, picked up from our social media accounts:

Hi! I've checked the tips I've written here on 3 of my FB accounts yesterday to make sure I wrote them well.

NOW.. I've seen the chatbar at the right of the page. I clicked that blue button to activate it.

Then, I clicked that Gear button from the bottom. Window opened. I un-checked Available to Chat.

Then I clicked Hide Sidebar. And it was gone. forever. And I wasn't on chat anymore.

It works for me. Does this work for you guys?

Visit: How to turn off Facebook Chat - Finally you can stop the nuissance, Tutorials. 

We did promise you some great sneak-peaks into what we're working on and while we won't show you our new break-through features yet, we wanted to show you this new interface for blogging within cif2.net. A small preview you can geek out about with your friends. :)

Building a Free Web has been our goal, ever since we started developing http://www.cif2.net back in the day. Which basically means last year.

It's been a crazy idea, because it involved just us spending a lot of money and time on developing it. During that time we've ripped a lot of the budget we made with our webdesign company. And it was 2010. The small business world in Romania wasn't that great. But we pursued the dream and by October we had made Free Web. People have started signing in for a while.

We did not promote it too much then, because we felt we can do better and that we have it in us to change the Web, to change the way people interacted with their websites and with their friends. But then, we realized that we were going to change the way in which the Web interacts with You.

It's #devsummer right now, so we're working hard on changing the web and making the Free Web better then ever. It's a whole story of things that lead to other things. And the road ahead will have us Build the Future.

Cif2.net - It's time for Webvolution.

The begining of #devsummer was for me something like seeing Skyrim for the first time. That heartiness, those trembling sounds coming from a misty pit. Dum-tu-dum. DUM. Wind blowing mildly and then... you forget everything and realise you've been into a deep trance. This was the feeling I had and I could hardly for #devsummer since May. Or April, or maybe January, or the day I was born.

And it's been worth it. Day one was great, because I had finally managed to get all the ideas we had written in all sorts of notebooks and documents, spread through each dark corner of the office, during the past year. And on mobile phones of course. Well, it may have taken more then a day, but it was worth it.

End of day 1. A new moment, a new path for cif2.net.

When you have a Community of bloggers such as we do and also of important businesses, you will come to think at one point that: "These guys delve into very delicate topics. Someone might want to silence them", or "These businesses may have a shady competition, who might be willing to do quite much to get them off-track".

For us people of Cif2.net, those fears have come to pass gladly, because we've started having Ninjas come on board. That's right. There are Ninjas in the Cif2 Community, but fear not, they are here to be our Guardian Ninjas.

One of them has even made some demonstration movies for us and we will upload them in the following weeks.

The other one has started tweeting, and if you're a twitter-er, you can follow him on twitter.com/Cif2Ninja, or you know @Cif2Ninja

This is him. Some people get scared by him. If you're not on his list of targets you should not be afraid. He may touch your ear with the point of his blade from behind, though. He follows people very Close.

More about them soon. Have a good one, Cifs! And fear not, with two Guardian Ninjas you can dig dirt on anybody you want. Except the Ninjas. They WILL kill you if you do that.

I guess it makes perfect sense to have Smart Sites on your Smart Phones. It does, right?

That's what we thought as well. So today in the morning we decided: Hey ! Let's make cif2.net awesome for mobiles.

Bing ! Idea popped into our heads, eagerness in our hearts, motivation from our Ninja Guardian (oh, yeah, more about this later on), we optimized your Cif2 for mobile. So now you can send a nice QR Code to your friends, print it on a T Shirt or just tell people to access your blog on their smartphones and they'll see it very nicely laid out on their screens.

The upper Cif2.net bar won't appear, nor will the sidebar(s), just the plain good 'ol text and it will load very fast.

This is a feat you're gonna love. Try it on my blog. Get a QR Code scanner app and scan the following code:

We've made a major update regarding the Smart Sites created with Cif2.net. This new update is about the SEO of the blogs and websites made through Cif2.net.

Your Cif2 is now even more technologycally advanced and you are going to see this when you start getting backlinks to your website.

The Cif2 Blog of Florin Muresan and Calin Vingan get indexed instantly, it's like they'd have an online News Magazine or somethings. They post the article and BAM! It appears in Google.

They have about 500 backlinks, it's true, but their blogs get indexed much faster and much better then if they had the same blogs elsewhere. And visibility on Search Engines is King.

Bottom line is, you get the same. Just go to Menu and click the META button on the page with your blog. a list drops down and you can click a check box to have Cif2.net create Meta automatically from the content of your blog.

Do it. It will bring you awesome results !

Cif2's got a Need for Speed. That's why it's always gotta be speedy.

We know that cif2 accounts load fast when not in admin mode, so we wanted them to load fast in admin mode as well.

We implemented some new stuff through jquery and ajax at loading the images and the avatars for friends and followers. Also worked at how Rewards and Tasks are loaded.

Another major update was on the Design and Tools tabs in the admin bar.

We are pleased to see that people like Cif2.net and have such a crush on it. New content and features will be uploaded soon to this Smartsite and to the others.

Don't forget to tell your friends on:

First of all, we'd like to wish all of you an awesome New Year, and don't worry, cif2.net is soon to enter the second phase of Beta. But more about that will follow next week.

Right now, I want to tell you that cif2.net just finished Themes ! (which is something to blog and talk about).

Themes are simple and very modern designs for websites and blogs, which you can always change with just one click. They are very pleasant and load fast... oh, yeah, and the looks will stun.

How cool is that ?

See for yourself on http://www.cif2.net/. Go ahead, create an account and check out the Themes  
Here are a few peaks, from my blog:



 










Visit: Cif2 Themes are now Online - and they Rock !, All. 

Hooray !

We're pleased to announce you that we've launched the first 2 subsidiaries of cif2.net.

The first one is Red Tweets - The First Twitter Directory that Chats and Plays Music.

You can go there, chat with cool people, read the music blog, find new awesome people from twitter to follow and talk to, listen to Electro or Rock radio stations and Submit Your Twitter Account !

You see ? We, the team of cif2.net, and Cifnet LTD. want to deliver new awesome ways of using the Internet. So why submit to a Twitter Directory that doesn't give you anything back, when you can submit to a place with cool people, and enjoy yourself while doing it ?

It's definitely a MUST SEE !

Then, on the list we have the Expression Blog. 

This is a blog I started because I realised that I can really help people express themselves in the new online world. So it will have some great ideas and tips on how to say iExist ! on the world wide web and become known.

Both of them work on our Core Ideas: Making people say iExist and Bringing new awesome ways of using the Internet.

More will come, but these two  should get you excited enough ;)

See you on the next post :D

- Florin Muresan 

Visit: We've Launched the first 2 subsidiaries of Cif2.net, All. 

Yes, I had to bring this up, because we still have to fit in even more ideas, but I'm telling you: This is going to be Revolution in Softwares that take you online. 

Cif2.net will not only take you online, but it will help you Exist there, it will help you express yourself online and be known to the others, no matter where they come from: Anywhere in the world, Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, etc. 

This is not the sort of tool that addresses to businesses or artists, this is a tool that adresses itself to anyone Human ! Yes, and we will also have some cool apps that will help you make the most out of your Internet connection and help you rediscover your passions for Music, Art, Travels, Cooking, etc. 

The world is online and it just became an open place ! Sign up to cif2.net and let us take you there ! 

Visit: Beta is Still ON !, All. 

Hey ! We've taken the ideas we presented in the project to a brand new level, which is really going to be something great which will get you excited :D

We've been very busy with plans and planning these last 7 days and the direction CIf2.net takes is much larger than initially anticipated.

That's why we're working hard to get the new ideas and functionalities online as soon as possible and we're also planning to extend the team.

More details will follow.

For now, let us just say that CIf2.net is Your own way of saying iExist ! 

Visit: New Direction for Cif2.net, All. 

This year, " Free Ghosting or Free Hosting ? " is the new trick or treat ! So Sign Up to cif2.net on the 31st of this year and receive some special prizes :D

And remember: Cif2.net is Your own way of saying iExist

Visit: Free Ghosting or Free Hosting, All. 

Hey ! We've wanted to help you a bit and offer you 3000 coins if you Sign Up today for Cif2.net

You will be able to use the coins to get many useful apps for your blog or for your website !

So sign up today and send us a tweet @cif2net or write on our Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cif2net/157365210954188 

See you on cif2 ! 

Visit: Win 3000 Coins in October, 22, 2010 !, All. 

You can see it live on http://www.cif2.net

The moment you've all been waiting for is here !

Cif2.net is now launched in Beta mode. We changed the dedicated servers, so now it runs real fast and you won't have any problems with it.

You can find the Help Center here http://www.cif2.net/faqs/ . Use it to find out all you need to know to get your website started. Much more content will be added soon, so that you can make it more awesome then ever.

We have a feedback page which we would really like you to use. Since it's a beta, we'd really appreciate any input you can give us. http://www.cif2.net/feedback-pag500.html#disqus_thread

Head down to http://www.cif2.net/ and Sign Up ! You can easily use your Facebook, Twitter or Google account to do that.

Visit: Cif2.net is launched in Beta Mode ! Official Cif2.net post, All. 

Hello, everyone !

Cif Talk ran for a lot more then we initially anticipated and this will be the last week in which we will have our Cif Talks. We hope to get in touch with the rest of the winners as soon as possible, because we really want to give them our awesome Cif2 Prizes !

The people on Facebook have already been contacted and now we're aiming the ones on @twitter, so you can check the conversations out, @florin_muresan

See you ;) 

Visit: Cif Talk's last week !, All. 

Hey, everyone !

Some of you may have already seen that the First Round of our Who Is Cif Contest has ended. We had 12 great winners AND ... a whole week of Cif Talk, until now.

That's right ! And it's still ongoing !

Cif Talk is the event in which we get in touch with the winners and learn more about them and their future plans, so that we know what packs of Cif2 items we can give them to help build their awesome projects !

Until now we've had Janice, who wants to build an online presence for her will-be-published book, Sabina, who wants to help her family's business grow online to get  more clients from all over the country, Steven Lamb, who wants to present his newest project world wide, Matt Sicotte, who wants to build an online business and April Todds, with a very cool project, that we can hardly wait to see started, related to Twitter and Music :D

They are all great people and we can't wait to get in touch with the others as well. 

Visit: Cif Talk - We're giving Prizes !, All. 

Hello, everyone !

Thank you for your interest in the Cif2 Project :D We've just written the project presentation and we can't wait to get all of these kick-started ;)

In the mean time you can check out the More Activity section to see what 2 of our team mates write on their blogs.

We also plan to release a pdf presentation in the Downloads section, which you can easily show of to any of your friends and family, people you know would like the projects ideas. 

Visit: Writing the Project Presentation, All.