Front-Page Story: Our new website and the Globond Technology Strategy

Globond launched its first website in the Fall of 1999 when Globond was still just an informal idea, a community of people who had met one another in Sao Paulo, Brazil... We then launched our first “company website” in the Spring of 2002 and it was ahead of its time, including things like messaging and a marketplace before most people even knew what an on-line social network was. However, Globond has never been a technology company, as our focus has always been on the real people. Technology has been a tool, nothing more. For this reason, our website was quickly surpassed by others, some of whom, like Ecademy are now our partners. We used the technologies and tools of these networking companies to help us run our company better and to help us better service our Globonders. Our own site had become more of a marketing piece as we kept on studying the issue of what kind of platform to build for the Globonders.

Now however, we have reached the place where our technology has to match the caliber of our membership, enabling and empowering Globonders as they live and work globally. It is with great pleasure and pride that we introduce you to the new Globond website. Globond is not a technology company but we need the best technology to enable and empower our Globonders as they live and work globally.

This will now allow Globond to segregate our community (subscriptions, free sections etc). To our knowledge this does not exist anywhere else, and Globonders and friends will start to see the power and convenience of this system as we roll it out with our members over the next few weeks. This relaunch of our website is just a new beginning on which we will build together with our Globonders as time goes by and online network fads come and go.

Soon you will see and enjoy features such as Calendar, Dr. Dan’s Confidential Sounding Board, Selected Opportunities, Globonder Journal, messaging, profiles. We will maintain our Exclusivity while being inclusive to larger communities when and where it will benefit our Globonders without compromising their security and privacy.

As we introduce our new online presence, we want to say a few words about the way we plan to keep on working with the other websites:

Ecademy: The members of the Globond Senior Management Team are members of Ecademy and Ecademy Founder and Chairman Thomas Power is a Globonder. We like Ecademy for its high visibility and high-ranking on Google search, its keyword search functions, profile and site analytics, and offline events. Not to mention we like Thomas Power. We also use LinkedIn, Decayenne, Qube, Jigsaw, Plaxo and Facebook as tools and to stay abreast of the latest trends.

Now that our own website is relaunched, Links are possible from anywhere to anywhere. Access to the links may be restricted by login/membership (paid on Globond and Ecademy, and free on Facebook/LinkedIn).
In order to give exposure to an opportunity, the profile or an achievement of a Globonder, we will publish it on the Globond website under “selected opportunities”, “Journal” and/or “news” areas, which are public, and then post that/those link(s) at Ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook and the other networks as well.

For us, the Globond communities we create or have created on other platforms such as Ecademy, etc. have the following objectives:

* To give exposure to our Globonders and their opportunities
* To attract new prospects
* To explain why and how Globond is different from the others

Globond's presence on other sites will be simple and straight-forward, with just a few topics:

* Opportunities from the Globond Community: links to the Globond Journal and to the "selected opportunities" area.
* Inquiries from the Globond Community: If Globonders want to have feedback about a specific topic, we can post their questions on other websites and bring their replies back to the Globond site.
* Globond Members in (the community): our comments to support their efforts and links to their profile in the Globond Journal.
* Q&A about Globond: with the best questions to be posted on the Globond FAQs later.
* Calendar and Pools: if available, we can publish what Globond and Globonders would like to be public on the calendars

We are going to help all of our Globond members get their profiles filled out and published on our new website and to learn how to use the tools and features. Some functionalities will be available only in the future and we appreciate your patience as we roll this out together.

We are counting on the Globonders to keep us on track with our technology from now on, and to help us to develop the site in accordance with our needs. It is with great pleasure and pride that we introduce you to the new Globond website.