Sprout; a new web 2.0 initiative that has THE genuine potential
Written on 14th March 2008
5 COMMENTS 
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
I have to admit to I am not quickly impressed by new web 2.0 initiatives. In fact, the scattered rise of new blogging, social & business communities and other web 2.0 made me really lost the count and to be honest, it doesn’t matter for me. Why? Because a mere handful of the initiatives are able to do the ‘thing’ that make them The Next Big Thing and make them survive, let even alone generate revenue streams on the long run.
Today, I coincidentally discovered a new service named Sprout. Sprout is a service which has – in my opinion – the characteristics to make it a success. It is easy, build on community efforts, easy to share and has incentives to promote.
First of all, what is Sprout?
‘…interactive and portable chunks of web content. Some people call them widgets, mashups or mini-sites but we just call them sprouts’
In other words. Sprouts can be used to make mini-websites within your blog, personal site, news site etc. The Sprout below elaborates on the wide range functionalities and potential purposes. See an example here.
As I already said, Sprout has the potential to become a new way of interactive sharing across the web. The table below specifies the differentiating functionalities of Sprout, YouTube and SlideShare briefly.
Especially the interaction of the web chucks is that what make them distinguishing. Youtube and Slideshare have already major communities involved and Sprout integrate the functionalities of these two and adds interactivity in order to gather new communities. Therefore, I’m curious about the expected usage of Sprout in the near future, I’m already convinced of its potential!
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By Jeroen Bakker on Mar 14, 2008
I assume you have stock options in Sprout? If not, you should get them to pay you for writing this :-)
I’m not impressed by looking at their site and their proposition. I don’t get it? I don’t want to step on your toes, but where did you get the idea that YouTube isn’t about interaction? YouTube IS interaction if you ask me, since it’d be an empty site if it wasn’t for the community interacting with the site and with each other..
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By Eric Bun on Mar 14, 2008
No Problem, I like to take strong statements in order to get the discussion going.
It is more about the idea that the chunck of youtube is not that interactive. The sprout chuncks give you a range of functionalities that can be added to make it really interactive. For instance, you can even embed youtube movies and make video overlays, comments etc and add tabs in which you refer to other content such as images, slides etc. I think Sprout generate possibilities for creative bloggers who want to embed more interative content items.
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By Mathijs Maliepaard on Mar 14, 2008
The idea of having people share your Sprout is nice, but is has downside because the author can change it afterwards. So when you place a Sprout on you own website you have to really trust the author because you are giving him control over a part of your site. And how many people really trust each other on the web?
Also nice for tool for spammers I think. First create a funny hilarious Sprout so people start sharing it and then change it to a commercial ;-)
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By Bob Boynton on Mar 14, 2008
It’s easy, and it’s fun!
You can make something quite attractive with it. You drag or you click and you have built in motion as well as video as well as images, as well as text, etc. Then you get a widget that they will deposit on 18 ‘blogs’ or other popular sites or you can copy the code. Who can ask for more from a simple tool?
I suppose you could do something ’serious’ if you had to though you would then want to be able lock it down, I suppose. Maybe they will add locking down to the next iteration.
About Bakker-Bun on interaction: YouTube is principally an aggregator. There is a modest editing capability, but its primary function is aggregating and playing video. Sproutbuilder is a mash together site with about as modest a production capability as YouTube has editing capability. They are different in purpose and the interaction of each is associated with its purpose.
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By erwin blom on Mar 14, 2008
I like Sprout but what you do is comparing apples and oranges.
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