Userstory Lab Builds Object-Oriented Social Networks

Userstory Lab builds "object-oriented social networks." The company aims to create social network around "objects", whether they be book titles or Twitter topics. By doing so, Userstory Lab hopes to build an effective collaborative filtering platform and help curing information overflow. Through its services, users will be able to "organize and share their experience", Userstory Lab hopes.

Image from Userstory Lab

Userstory Lab’s first object-oriented SNS project is a book readers' social community called Userstory Book (currently in beta). Users can build their own personal book libraries and discussion communities, sharing their favorite books and bringing together other interested readers in dialogue. Userstory Book allows people to curate their libraries by easily adding books either by ISBN importation or using a bar-code reader on their smart phones. We will have intelligent recommendation services and location-based services for impromptu meet-ups among our users.

The company also has a second project in its pipeline: Tweetmix, a social filtering Twitter mash-up service that aggregates Korean tweets/links and brings value-added information to the users. Also under development is a flexible SNS framework and memory caching project called Kooo.

So obviously the company doesn't want to settle with only one service. They plan to "expand into a large number of other offshoot services", but also will bring these multiple service under a single umbrella, with disparate services being interconnected through a universal login (think Google Apps.)

Says Userstory Lab: "At this point we are pushing the boundaries of object-oriented social networks related to books and Twitter social filtering, sharing and memory caching. But our beta services are only the start of our plans for new and innovative services that revolve around organizing and sharing experience, both online and offline. These have not yet been seen in domestic Korean web applications."

Yuno Jung, Userstory Lab founder and CEO, worked at NHN and Ohmynews. Over the course of his five years working with content providers and portal business models, he saw the need for a rearrangement of traditional syndication channels to personalize and provide value-added information to fit individual needs. Jung started Userstory Lab to build these essential services.

The company also has hired a foreign product manager "to advise the team on how developments in overseas tech companies and trends could be used for novel domestic approaches to web services" -- a rarity among Korean small startups.