ON the GROUND NEWS REPORT( OGNR) the Citizen Powered News Network officially launched at Kingston BETA

@kingstonbeta | #kgnbeta

ON the GROUND NEWS REPORT( OGNR) the Citizen Powered News Network officially launched at Kingston BETA, Jamaica’s tech community event held recently at JAMPRO’s headquarters.

Tech Entrepreneur and Co-founder Paul Thompson in a presentation to the audience of young aspiring and current tech entrepreneurs, college students and investors, showed how his company harnesses the power of citizens to report, validate and distribute news that is fast, accurate and reliable through its website, social media channels, SMS and Mobile App.

During his presentation he also showed the level of traction is has gotten since it launched. It now boasts 20,000 registered site users, 95,000 Facebook Followers, 13,000 Twitter Followers, 5,000 Web App Installs, 3rd most trafficked Jamaican Media Website.

Over the past year as OGNR grew into a business, it has added known entrepreneurs like Kamal Bankay of Dream Entertainment and Advertising Pioneer Adrian Robinson and Harvard Law School luminary Professor Charles Nesson.

Founded and hosted by entrepreneur and social media consultant Ingrid Riley, Kingston BETA also saw a range of idea pitches from 7 other entrepreneurs. The pitches presented ranged from ideas covering finance, banking, mobile games and online content. There was Shelly-Ann Marshall who presented her “Your Financial FactSheet” website, which began as a hobby and is now a useful resource for people in need of financial information about loans and other products offered by Jamaican financial institutions.

Dwayne Samuels of the Xormis the Microsoft Imagine Cup winners from Northern Caribbean University(NCU), confidently pitched Grik.ly a business card application for smart phones which includes an innovative distribution and conversation statistics feature.

There was a pitch by Damian Daley CEO of Software Architects for “Dunce Bat” a Jamaican word game app.

Staysean Daley pitched her Caribbean Stock Photography website KRAASImages.com a aimed at addressing the unique needs of providing Caribbean content to the global market.

Paulo Fierro flew to Jamaica from the Cayman Islands to pitch his mobile banking app “Banky”. The app presently only supports Butterfield Bank in Cayman and is a quick and simplified way to check your bank account statement on your smart phone, but presented with greater visual user experience.

Then there was Adrian McCalla pitched Cost Bucket from the United States along with his partner in London via Google Hangout. Cost Bucket is an accounting software which will be accompanied by support services which the company plans to locate in Jamaica.

Kingston BETA is Jamaica’s Tech Community Meetup. It’s a tech event series that’s the hub of the Jamaican Tech Startup Scene. It brings together aspiring and current Jamaican/Caribbean entrepreneurs, developers, designers, tech professionals, college students and investors – To Learn. Be Inspired. To Network. The event has a BETA Pitch segment – that’s a platform for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas that are tech driven or tech related. The event also hosts guest speakers, panel discussions and product launches. We’ve had over 50 events, 5,000 attendees and over 200 entrepreneurs have pitch their ideas. It is staged by ConnectiMass Foundation, founded by Entrepreneur and Social Media Consultant and Trainer Ingrid Riley