voci.us aimed to build an online community for discussing news articles. The founders interviewed news consumers and media partners to develop a centralized platform. However, they found that news sites were hesitant to drive traffic off their sites and slow to change. While users liked the idea of engaged discussion, they were slow to migrate to new platforms and more likely to share than discuss articles. The founders concluded that news partnerships would be a slow process and that they needed to focus on engaging users and testing community features before further developing the site's technology.

1. voci.usbuilding communities around news

2. Team MembersDan Berenholtz

3. Venkat Dinavahi

4. Evelyn Larrubia

5. Thomas KongInitial IdeaCentralized online platform to discuss news events

6. Smart, informed audience

7. Use social media identity

8. Comment on any story

9. News media as key partnersBusiness Model Canvas # 1Users-Providing central place for individuals to connect with other readers about news storiesNews Partners-Taking away burden of policing comments-Enabling communication among their readers-Driving trafficAdvertisers-Financial News Sites-Talking to Users and Large News Sites-Finding AI developer-Drafting Mockups-Developing SiteCo-creation-Multi-sided platform-The web-Social Networks-News Sites-Partnerships w/ News Sites-Large user base-Human Resources-CPM Ad revenue-Fixed Costs-Variable Costs

10. What We DidSurveyed users

11. Interviewed users

12. Talked to six large newspapers and chains

13. Executives

14. Editors

15. Legal Staff