Ready for takeoff...

First post. Big weekend.

Quick history: I used to have a sports TV show in the Twin Cities called THE SHOW TO BE NAMED LATER... and it was all about sports fans doing sports fan stuff. None of us were journalists or pros or anything and our viewers liked that. Sadly, not enough sponsors shared their opinion.

TV is a tough business (and, I might add, a declining one), so when my show went off the air I decided to turn my entrepreneurial sports fan ambitions to the Web -- the only thing more democratic than cable access.

That's how I came up with the idea that opened the door that led to the revised idea that was probably way too ambitious that showed me the reality that inspired the supporting idea that attracted the interest that resulted in the defining idea for FanChatter.

Web development is fun, isn’t it? And if you haven’t read Getting Real, you should.

So thanks my alliance with the Ruby on Rails virtuosos over at Slantwise Design (plus more thank you’s to more people than I can possibly mention now… although I promise I’ll get to each of you in time), last Thursday, June 28, 2007 at about 3:30 pm CDT…

FanChatter.com launched.

We’re billing it as the first fully mobile sports fan chat network. Tired of reading in blogs like Mashable! about all the MySpace-for-sports’s circling, I decided to aim beyond mere Web 2.0 toward the undisputed next big thing (that all of us have in our pockets).

FanChatter aims to “mobilize” the long and powerful legacy of sports fan chat rooms and message boards online. That’s why we allow fans to create their own groups by topic (just like your father’s sports chat site). But there’s a whole lot more than that on the way once we get the launch site working properly.

Yes, we stumbled slightly out of the gate. People couldn’t sign up because they didn’t receive the necessary confirmation link email. I struggled with posting from my Blackberry browser. And I’m not sure how well our mobile tools are working just yet.

But we’re up, we’re (mostly) functional, and we made our deadline.

The goal was to launch by the NBA Draft (June 28, 2007) and it just so happened that I would be in New York City (for work – I’m in advertising) on that date. My good friends at the Timberwolves (my favorite team for whom I did some of my favorite work) set me up with tickets, and there I was last Thursday night at Madison Square Garden watching David Stern read off the names and hearing the Knicks fans chant “Fire Isiah” (until they cheered him for getting Zach Randolph and dumping Steve Francis in a trade with Portland).

And all the while I was Chattering live and sharing the site with every fan I met. Only about two-thirds of my entries ended up getting through, however, but I met some great fans including a Florida cheerleader named Brittany who provided glowing background on both of the Wolves’ picks: back-to-back championship teammates Corey Brewer and Chris Richard (7th and 41st overall, respectively).

It wasn’t until the next morning, boarding the Sun Country flight back to Minnesota, that the true value of mobile sports fan chat became clear. Sitting in first class (it was the only seat left when I purchased my ticket and it wasn’t that expensive), I boarded first and found my (p)leather aisle seat near the front. The flight attendant offered me a St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper. I found the sports page and saw Corey Brewer’s face. I looked up and saw… Corey Brewer’s face!

The Wolves’ first round pick was on my flight. I shook his hand, welcomed him to the team and told him I was happy he was ours.

Then, to my surprise, he walked right past me and took a seat back in coach! Brewer is 6’ 8”! He’s the reigning Final Four Most Outstanding Player! I never took (Wolves owner) Glen Taylor for such a cheapskate!

(To be fair, the flight was full, and the ticket was obviously booked within the previous 12 hours so there probably wasn’t much to choose from. Plus, he couldn’t fly Northwest because they were canceling flights left and right and he was due in Minneapolis for his press conference.)

I grabbed my Blackberry and fired off some Chatter explaining what I had just seen. I wondered whether I, standing at a lean 5’ 6”, should consider trading seats with the much taller draft pick. Then the doors closed and my device was shut off.

Well, I did trade seats with Brewer (in exchange for an autograph on my sports page and the photo below).


I also handed him a FanChatter card and wished him well with the team. Hopefully he checks out the site sometime. He really is a great kid. Very humble. Rumor has it he called me a “cool dude”.

As soon as we landed I chattered some more about my good deed, again from my Blackberry. I envisioned my friends reading about this unusual happening as it was happening.

Unfortunately, the site and my handheld weren’t on the same page. Nothing showed up. The great mobile sports fan chat happening would not be recorded on the new mobile sports fan chat network… at least, not on that day.

We ended up back-dating some posts that closely resembled what I wrote from the plane. I also posted the photo to Flickr and linked to it on my Chatter page. You can see it all here and here.

I’m hoping to use the story to get some publicity for the site -- a good deed with a coincidental/ironic twist.

I’m also taking our shaky start in stride. Again, Web development is fun, isn’t it?

This blog will chronicle the growth of FanChatter.com. I’ll provide the non-technical storytelling while I hope the Slantwise guys will offer their perspective on the stuff I don’t understand.

You know, I’m not sure what I want more – a hit site or an NBA title for Brewer and the Timberwolves.

In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, “Good pitching always beats good hitting... and vice versa.”