Once in a while, a new product or service comes along that fundamentally shifts how we live every day. All of us can use a well placed reminder note once in a while, and I Want Sandy did that with a uniquely humorous elegance. It was essentially a command line reminder service controlled through email, and in many ways it set the standard for a useful cloud powered Web applications. But sadly, on Dec. 8, 2008 I Want Sandy will go offline, but from those ashes an open source project is rising.

For now the project is named Sandy’s Back, and it’s the beginning of an effort to rebuild I Want Sandy in an open source environment, owned by a community of developers and users. I Want Sandy was a service created by Values of N and was led by Rael Dornfest. Dornfest has recently accepted an offer to work at Twitter and since receiving that offer has decided to decommission the I Want Sandy service, according to a company announcement.

Because of I Want Sandy’s intuitive connection to people through email, it quickly became popular with a significant segment of people. There are a variety of other reminder services that use email, but adding or editing new appointments and todos is typically accomplished through a web interface. With I Want Sandy it was possible to do almost everything through email.

The public perception of this move seems to be overall negative and it remains to be seen how the negative publicity will affect Dornfest’s future career. Here’s an example post from one user in response to I Want Sandy’s closing message:

I’m so glad that we were all able to contribute so much value to you so that you could be acquired, and shut down that which we contributed so much value. Thanks for nothing.

That message seems to capture the common theme running through most of the messages. Users feel that although the service was free, they contributed value in refining, expanding, and polishing the system which eventually translated into new opportunities for Dornfest at Twitter.

But, there is a silver lining here. Dave Ross, who previously was a “non-employee deputy” on I Want Sandy’s Get Satisfaction forum is beginning a new open source project that’s focused on rebuilding the system. He’s seen a fair amount of feedback from the existing community and intends to apply that experience in making the new system. Right now the Sandy’s Back project has a blog and a Twitter username.

Instead of channeling energy into razzing Dornfest on his decision to move to Twitter, let’s focus on building something owned by the community that’s even better!

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Entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 1:02 am under Internet, Open source, Social Media.

Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
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