Time for everyone to meet another one of our writers - Mike Watkins.

Mike is a 22yo Kiwi whose background in Tech began in 2004 when he created findatraveller.com.

Findatraveller connected solo travellers around the world, the idea being no solo traveller had to travel alone if they didn’t want to.

In late 2005 a decision had to be made regarding the future of findatraveller, as traffic was low and growth was near non existent. He shut down the site in early 2006.

Here, in Mike’s words, is what happened next: -

For the next 18 months I analyzed the online backpacker industry intensely and made note of several new technology developments coming out, as well as what the backpacker really needed in a website. From this, gunnago.com was born.

Gunnago’s core centers around googlemaps technology and allows backpackers to find information quickly and easily as it is done geographically. The interface is unique and can display a large amount of rich media from within the one screen, without endless amounts of annoying page refreshes. The base design was completed in early 2007 and the first edition of the business plan completed by mid 2007.

After working through contacts he had met at Google, Mike was able to source an angel investor and gained seed capital funding for gunnago in late 2007. The site is weeks away from a beta testing phase and will be launched publicly in the latter half of 2008.

To quote Mike: -

I’m always interested in new ideas or thoughts in how to capitalize on the social and new media spaces and would welcome the chance to have a chat with people or companies willing explore the opportunities that this space is creating.

As I mentioned before, I will be putting up contact details for all our writers in the near future but, once again, in the meantime, feel free to welcome Mike in the comments

Anyone know what happened to the 2 Web Crew podcast today?

Wednesday 1pm has come and gone and there’s nothing.

Nothing on their Podcast Network site.

Nothing on their Ustream Page.

To quote StuartL: -

yeah, the silence is pretty deafening isn’t it?

Maybe Duncan got sidetracked with his Google Reader issues.

If anyone’s got an answer to his problems please give him a hand. We need the podcast to come back…

The on-again off-again saga of Aussie online storage startup Omnidrive continues.

Only last month founder Nik Cubrilovic was telling anyone who would listen that the fact that the domain had expired and the service had gone down continually was not a sign that Omnidrive was on its way to the deadpool.

Well, now the company has been listed as deadpooled in TechCrunch’s CrunchBase.

The relevance of this?

1. TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is an investor in Omnidrive, so if the company wasn’t deadpooled you’d think he’d quickly fix this up
2. Nik Cubrilovic is a regular poster to TechCrunch so you’d figure if it wasn’t true he’d either sort it out himself or be on the phone to his mate, Arrington, to do it
3. Duncan Riley explains that only TechCrunch employees are allowed to make changes to Crunchbase like this, and he’d know, he used to be one.

It hasn’t been confirmed, but with the evidence of a month ago, today’s new evidence and the lack of a response from anyone involved with the company all combined, it’s not looking good.

UPDATE:

So Omnidrive is no longer deadpooled on CrunchBase and Nik has come out and commented on Inquisitr saying Omnidrive is not dead and, in fact, had a record traffic month in May. For those who can’t be bothered reading the comments, here’s Nik’s explanation for the deadpooling:

Ye I believe it was one of the interns and yes it was an accident.

Hmmm…