The history of TheBroth

TheBroth was conceived by a small but rather industrious bunch of developers at Cherry Internet Services Pty Ltd, an internet publishing company located in Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

Our goal was quite simple. Make an application that just totally rocks!

Like most developers, we were quite enthused by the paradigm shift that the ‘net experienced in the last few years. A new set of technologies emerged that used buzzwords such as Ajax and Web 2.0 that when combined cleverly, would make internet applications possible that are as responsive and powerful as offline, stand-alone applications.

What if we could harness the power of these new technologies, and create something that is truly open, and truly beneficial for the whole internet community at large? Where casual internet surfers can have as much fun and satisfaction as web developers, serious artists, marketers, to name a few of the main benefactors of TheBroth.com?

Web 2.0 — taking back the internet

Web 2.0 applications? What does it take to make one? What even is a Web 2.0 application? Well, we think that TheBroth is such a beast. We aim to be trailblazers in creating massively multi-user online applications, and we’re happy to share our know-how and experience with the whole developer community!

This way, we hope to make a contribution to the advance of the internet and a truly global community that is free and available to everyone.

With TheBroth, we were not the first to experiment with multiplayer near-real time applications. Other developers came up with entertaining games and applications, many of them flash-based. While innovative, we couldn’t help but notice that these early applications were also somewhat pointless and only good for mindless fun for a few minutes.

Ajax — not just for your bathroom!

Our own experiences with the new technology — developers often refer to it as Ajax — made us recognize that Ajax clearly was where the web was heading.

Ajax is recognized as one of the main ingredients of a “Web 2.0″ application - whatever that means! Web 2.0 surely isn’t well defined, but for now, I think we can agree it kind of means: next-gen, free, cool, web application.

So we were thinking, ok, as developers, what amazing stuff can we do with Ajax and Web 2.0?

For the user experience while visiting a web page, the main effect that Ajax has is that stuff happens without having to reload the page. This brings with it countless new challenges when creating user interfaces, but our minds were set on just one idea: How can we create something that uses mostly all the positive effects of Ajax, without falling victim to its potential pitfalls?

Believe it or not, we are actually quite impressed with Microsoft’s foray into advanced online gaming, in particular with Xbox Live for the Xbox 360. We liked the idea of a global community that can come together and play together, coexist together, and perhaps even create something of value together.

And so our idea slowly crystallized in our minds. What can many people together create that is of great value? Hmm, wikipedia exists already (what a wonderful concept!). So… what about collaborative art then? Ahhhh… and so TheBroth was born.

TheBroth — unique collaborative art

Art is free of restrictions, and as such very individualistic. That’s cool. Today, every kid can launch a copy of Photoshop (another one of the great applications of our lifetime) and create something rather astounding.

We felt that if we offered a global playground that allows collaborative art, it had to be with certain restrictions to give everyone equal chances to contribute. No plugins, no flash, no fast computer required.

At the same time, we had to channel the global, up-to-the-minute consensus at what constitutes art and what constitutes wanton destruction.

And of course, perhaps most importantly, it had to be just simple, addictive, mind-blowing fun, where the idea takes on form and really allows for massive numbers of people to interact at the same time, beyond borders of language, age, gender or politics.

We are considerably proud to be able to offer something that we feel fulfills all criteria. TheBroth is real-time global collaborative art, with a built-in karma system. It is infinitely extensible to new mosaics.

TheBroth — Lifestyle statement for a new generation

Maybe we’re supergeeks, but I can’t help smiling upon the thought of wearing a T-shirt or any other clothing item with a design made by hundreds of internet users that all equally collaborated in the fun, and created a unique design that I am now wearing, showing off my “2006 netizenship” with pride.

Currently, you can get a T-shirt or polo shirt with a unique design. We soon hope to launch a world wide clothing range based on TheBroth brand.

Many cooks spoil TheBroth - Or not…

Where does the name come from? Well indeed, it comes from the proverb “Many cooks spoil the broth”. Only in our case, many cooks actually make what TheBroth is all about!

Many people told us that “TheBroth” is a cool and very fitting name, even though many didn’t even make the connection with the proverb! Well, that’s ok too… we’re not trying to play the cooking angle so much anyway - fine with us!

Discuss in the forum - is TheBroth really collabor-arting?