Screenshot of Omahype.com
If you enjoy digesting Silicon Prairie News and live in or are interested in Omaha events, you’ll likely dig another local online publication that launched this past Friday, December 17th. Omahype.com is self-described as “a curated online events calendar that touts creative, intellectually stimulating, and irreverent fun happening in and around Omaha.”
While the mission of Silicon Prairie News is to cover the individuals and companies that make up the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially those in the tech industry, Omahype’s aim is to “spotlight youth culture, connect artistic communities, and give rise to Omaha’s creative class.”
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The launch of Omahype was first covered by long-time Omaha music blogger Tim McMahan on his blog, Lazy-i. (Note: McMahan is also a freelance writer for The Reader, and if you’re not currently reading Lazy-i, I suggest you check it out weekly, if not daily.) His post, “Omahype is live, launch party tonight,” offered a personal congratulations to the site’s creators and gave details on their launch party, while his Reader column published earlier that day, “Column 301: The Return of Omahaype,” contained an interview with one of the creators, Laura Burhenn, and had an excellent overview and short backstory of the site.
The Omahype creators, Burhenn (singer/songwriter behind Saddle Creek Records‘ band The Mynabirds) and Will Simons (former writer for the now closed-down Omaha City Weekly), partnered with Secret Penguin earlier this year for design and development. Additionally, they worked with Secret Penguin to obtain the domain name from its previous owners – Andrew Bowen and Ian Atwood – who used to house a music-focused blog on it. With this in mind, the Omahype launch last Friday, December 17th, was actually a “re-launch” (notice the image above reading “Happy Re-Birthday Omahype).
To learn more about Omahype’s backstory and the individuals behind it, I strongly encourage you to read McMahan’s December 17th column:
Column 301: Omahype Returns
The notorious music blog takes on a new life…
By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Sometime in March 2009, a quiet sadness swept over the Internet when Andrew Bowen and Ian Atwood grasped firmly and pulled the plug on one of Omaha’s more original websites: omahype.com.
Omahype enthusiastically chronicled the local music […]
To learn more about how Secret Penguin has played a role in Omahype, we conducted a brief email interview yesterday with the youth branding firm’s art director, Cody Peterson.
Silicon Prairie News: What is Secret Penguin’s role in Omahype?
Cody Peterson: We designed and developed the website. The logo was designed by Micah Max Schmiedeskamp for the original Omahype but was never used.
What’s the short backstory of website from your perspective?
Laura came to us about a year ago wanting to start an events website in Omaha. We brainstormed names for awhile and someone threw out Omahype as an idea. We contacted Andrew and Ian and told them the plan and they were down with it. They are both amazing guys and I think they just want to see Omaha be a place where bands and artists can survive.
What are a few features of the site you’d like to point out?
Right now the site is basically just an events calendar. So for now I would suggest to subscribe to the RSS feed.
What additional features of the site can we expect to see come?
In the near future we will be adding photo galleries, commenting, and just a bunch more tiny features. If anyone has suggestions on what they want us to add, please send them our way! We may even change the colors of the calendar to be more readable (thanks Danny!).*
To read a recap of Omahype’s launch party, see their post: “Wrap-Up: Omahype Launch Party w/ The Mynabirds & Friends.”
*This was my bit of feedback I gave Cody this past Friday when I spoke with him at the launch party. It’s good to hear they’re looking at changing it.
