Upcoming

Upcoming (formerly Upcoming.org) is a social event calendar website that launched in 2003, founded by Andy Baio.[1]

Upcoming
Upcoming homepage in July 2017
Type of site
Events, Social Networking
OwnerYahoo! (2005-2013)
Created byAndy Baio, Gordon Luk, Leonard Lin
URLupcoming.org
CommercialYes
RegistrationNot required
LaunchedSeptember 19, 2003 (2003-09-19)
Current statusActive

Features

Upcoming combines features of an event calendar and a social networking site.[2] Primarily, the site is a searchable, browseable repository of upcoming events, such as art exhibits, conferences, and music concerts. Event information is primarily contributed by the user community, although in its later years, an increasing percentage of event data originated from commercial sources. Users can indicate their plans by marking that they are "watching" or "going" to an event. Users can also establish "friend" relationships with each other and receive notifications about what their friends are attending.[3] Upcoming also offers users reminders via email or SMS when a particular event is about to occur.

The site switched to the Yahoo! user accounts system in early 2007, and changed its domain name to upcoming.yahoo.com. At the same time, the site formally changed its name from "Upcoming.org" to simply "Upcoming".[4][5] Despite this, many users of the site still link to and refer to the site as "Upcoming.org".

Upcoming uses iCalendar, GeoRSS, and RSS for content syndication and supports an open API for searching or submitting event data. It also uses hCalendar microformats, so that events can be downloaded directly into calendar applications.[6] Finally, users can also post badges on their own websites, powered by JavaScript, which listed all their Upcoming events.

Community
Upcoming homepage in October 2008

In 2008, the overwhelming majority of users and events were located in North America, particularly among fans of independent music, web technologists, and the San Francisco Bay Area. However, Upcoming users could be found almost anywhere on the globe,[7] often submitting event data in their local language. Upcoming was fully capable of storing and searching multilingual content, although the site sported only a US-English interface.

Competitors and influence

A close competitor, known as Eventful, emerged after Upcoming was launched in 2003. Some music sites later branched out into this space as well, such as iLike and last.fm, building on their knowledge of their users' tastes. Facebook's event system is very much like a simplified version of Upcoming's.

History

On October 4, 2005, Upcoming.org was acquired by Yahoo!.[8][9] In April 2013, Yahoo! announced the retirement of Upcoming.[10]

On May 7, 2014, Andy Baio launched a Kickstarter campaign to re-launch upcoming.org independently of Yahoo!,[11] which had offered upcoming.org to Baio for purchase following the closure of the website. Within 90 minutes of launch, the project reached its $30,000 funding target. Baio wrote on the launch page for the Kickstarter funding effort, "Like many of the people that used it, I miss Upcoming. Nothing's come to replace it in the years since, and I have the same problems that motivated me to build it a decade ago -- I'm missing interesting events in my city and struggling to discover interesting events when I travel."[12]

References
  1. Waxy.org: Upcoming.org Launch!
  2. "The Web's Most Useful Sites, 2007, Event Calendars". PC World. 2007.
  3. Udell, Jon. "Upcoming events in Keene, NH". InfoWorld. Archived from the original on 2009-01-07.
  4. "The New Upcoming". April 19, 2007. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved October 26, 2008.
  5. "Upcoming.org Absorbed By Faceless Corporation, Free T-Shirts for All". Mashable. April 19, 2007.
  6. "Yahoo! Local adopts Microformats". ZDNet Video. Archived from the original on 2009-02-14. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  7. "Place browser home page". =Upcoming. Archived from the original on 2008-11-01. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
  8. What's Upcoming at Yahoo! Local Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Yahoo acquires Upcoming.org | CNet News
  10. Protalinski, Emil (April 19, 2013). "Yahoo cuts the deadwood with closures". The Next Web. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  11. "Andy Baio crowdfunds $30,000 in 90 minutes to relaunch community event site Upcoming". The Next Web. May 7, 2014.
  12. "The Return of Upcoming.org". Retrieved May 7, 2014.
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