Hup.me news and announcements

The push to launch the Hup.me service saw us open our new offices in the heart of the bustling Catalan capital, Barcelona. Chosen after some weeks of searching and going back and forth around the city, our little HQ is perfectly situated for work, as well as grabbing bites to eat and a little relaxing shopping.

The office is a great space for collaboration between the core three of the company, Gemma, Abraham and Gaëlle, and just a stone’s throw from Plaça Catalunya.

With Christmas and New Year’s, like everyone else we’re having a little pause, but with the arrival of 2010, it’ll be full steam ahead. If you find yourself in Barcelona, fell free to come and visit us! Drop us a line and we’ll happily give you directions. Best wishes for 2010!

Check out more Hup.me Headquarters pictures

Hi there, we’d like to tell you about a blog we created recently – Planet hup.me. This is where we’ll share our trips and events with you, and we hope it’ll be informative, interesting and fun.

People are making more and more short trips these days, and while useful, traditional guidebooks can be overwhelming and have too much information. For mini breaks, a better idea is short, practical advice so visitors can quickly capture the true essence of a place.

We’d love people to contribute to this blog, so head over to Planet hup.me and leave a comment if you’d like to share your expert knowledge of a location or event with the world!

Here at Hup.me yesterday, we improvised a Christmas dinner, an excuse to celebrate the fact we opened our office a few weeks ago, and have spent hours at the computers, ordered pizzas and all kinds of unhealthy food.

Abraham is leaving on holiday to visit his hometown for some weeks, and there’s no better farewell as to get together and celebrate the latest Hup.me developments. We chose a restaurant near the office, so that our technical director and his crutches would not get tired, and the truth is that we used the occasion to confirm many plans for 2010!

Early next year we will channel all our energies for the final straight, and release the Hup.me project.

By the way, we are planning to buy a drink for all the Planet Blog collaborators and friends helping us with their time and advice.

Almost 6 months ago (May 12) the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced a new law to change Spanish economy, until now based, construction and tourism. These industries have encouraged economic growth that haven’t benefitted everyone, and that has been very sensitive to the ‘crisis’. Some people question whether a change in the law is enough to alter something as complex as the Spanish economy.
Reality is stubborn and people too! Any change now won’t affect the current recession anyway.

Following that announcement, little more was heard until just a few days ago. Although it seemed that had little to do with the Internet some rules have been “slipped in” that seriously affect it.. The rights of Internet users have been sacrificed, by the will of the audiovisual lobby. This law would close websites without any court order if it contained (or is suspected to contain) links to content protected by copyright. Following any of the rules of this law, the first page that should be closed is Google!

The protests and buzz have been big enough that finally the minister of culture, Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde, has met with a diverse cast of leading figures of the Spanish internet). It was with well known people like Ignacio Escolar, Enrique Dans, Rosalía Lloret, Jesús Encinar, Julio Alonso, Pepe Cervera and Fernando Berlín among others, a total of 14.

The little that is clear from this meeting according to bloggers is that, first, that the government has no intention to withdraw this provision of the law and secondly they are wondering how the law will be enforced. Simply closing “suspicious” sites hosted in Spain, or if you are hosted abroad force ISPs to cut the connections that are open to try these websites. And we complained about the recently approved law notices in France!

Lists on twitter, Facebook groups, and thousands of webs and blogs are supporting the Manifesto of the rights of internet users: Faced with this avalanche it seems that the government begins to backpedal on their intentions. Will it be possible to reach an agreement? Can the net get more? Can we stop increasingly restrictive laws against the rights of Internet users, that protect the obsolete business of a few?

With Hup.me, we are creating a site where you can organise your life socially. From concerts to dinner parties and holidays, Hup.me will be a place you can easily see and share information about the fun parts of your life! When going abroad, you’ll easily see if a friend will be in the same place, and won’t return home only to find out you missed them.
Basically, Hup.me aims to be a social hub for your social life. You will be able to:

- Update and share your event calendar. Manage your schedule and share events, with the privacy controls that ensure only the people you want to will see your information. Tell your friends you’re off to Thailand to lose yourself for three months, but not before you attend that birthday party next weekend.

- Create a wishlist. Here you can record the things you want to do, and places you want to go. Everthing from movies to obscure Scottish towns – keep them here, and your network friends will be able to see where your interests cross over. Maybe someone else wants to visit Glasgow too!

- Plot your current and future local location on a map. If you’re travelling the people who you want to know will be able to watch and predict your progress around the planet! Great for a worried family.

– Use Hup.me to find other users. In your city, or somewhere you’ll visit, or people going to the same concert. Connect and find people with your tastes, or people to share travel expenses on the long drive to Dallas, Texas.

- Browse user content. like reviews, to get a feeling for new places, or recommendations of places to go and things to see. If you can’t decide between two restaurants in New York, maybe a Hup.me user will be able to tell you which is best, and which is infested with rats!

More features will be added as we develop the site, so stay tuned!

Hello!

So, welcome to the hup.me blog, where we´ll be keeping you up to date on this new social travel and events utility.
The team are hard at work developing at the moment, and forcing me at gunpoint to update this blog.

On this blog we hope to bring you some interesting news about events happening where we are, and hopefully some interesting or entertaining stuff too.

Much more coming soon!