Yowlink, formerly Yawdie Online World Link, is a free network intended for individuals with Caribbean ties to share information and connect with each other.
Founded in 2009 by a consortium of Caribbean people living both in the Caribbean and the United States, Yowlink went live on January 1, 2010. with 20 members.
History
C. Sharpe, Peta-Gaye French, “Yowlink Admin“, and others were impressed by the wave with which Facebook took the world by storm, obliterating the then popular myspace.com. A few of us even used some of these networks but found that, while nice, none of them represented us as Caribbean people well because their eventual goal was “one size fits all”. Caribbean people know that whenever you try to include everyone, invariably you exclude someone.
C.Sharpe felt excluded and started working on his own idea for a site for the Caribbean. “Yowlink Admin” was enlisted to help with the development, and others chipped in as necessary. Then Peta-Gaye was brought in to help guide with the aesthetics and features of the site, that was named “Yawdie Online World Link” (YOWLink for short).
By the time the Yowlink service completed beta-testing by a select few family members, relatives, and friends, it was late December so a launch date was set for January 1, 2010.
So, on the morning of January 1, 2010, Yowlink was released.
Yowlink Facts
Availability Type: Semi-Private (you may read articles and use IM without logging in but nothing else)
Registration: Required but Free
Target: people, entities, businesses with ties to or interests in the Caribbean, particularly English-speaking Caribbean
Founded: Florida, USA (and Kingston, Jamaica)
Founder(s): Cleve Sharpe, OCP (C.Sharpe), Peta-Gaye French, “Yowlink Admin” (name withheld)
Headquarters: None (all virtual)
Website: yowlink.com
Service Type: Social networking service
Multi-Lingual Support: Chat only; Rest of site is English-only
Launch Date: January 1, 2010
Current status: Active
Social Networking Service
There are quite a few “social networking” sites out there now. Many of you know the most popular ones, namely:
- MySpace
- Linked In
- YouTube
- Hi-Five
- and a hundred others
Does any of the hundred plus networks, including the ones named above, represent you, a person with Caribbean ties, Caribbean friends, Caribbean Parents, a Yawdie? The answer expected is “No” because none of them truly represents any of the founders, admins, support staff, sponsors, or affiliates of Yowlink.
Conan O’Brien coined a term for the next big thing in Social Networking, something he calls “You-Twit-Face” which is obviously a play on the big 3 YOUtube, TWITter, and FACEbook. Funny Stuff.
Anyway, we don’t want you to be just a niTwit-ter or what’s-your-face. Register now or log into Yowlink using your existing Facebook or Twitter accounts and send out YOWs to all your friends. The goal of this network is to have a place where:
- people are civil.
- you connect with friends, classmates, and relatives you haven’t seen or heard from in years.
- you learn from each other and from offerings/info on the network
- we will connect 200,000 plus Yawdies from the “4 corners” of the Earth. We know they are living in almost all countries that have a population of 500K people to over 1.3 billion.
- we link people with any ties or interest in the Caribbean from
- the Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts & Nevis, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, etc.)
- the United States (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Florida, Georgia, Los Angeles, etc.) and Canada (Toronto, etc.)
- the UK (England, Wales, Scotland)
- everywhere
- members find out how other members feel about them, their country, music, and so on.
- members found out how non-members feel about them. That’s misconceptions, misgivings, misinformation, and facts.
- you still get linked to your popular big networks if you so choose.
Yowlink is not an exclusive network. That is, we will not exclude people. We know that “if you build it, they’ll come“. We know that if we create a great network then spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, coworkers, friends, “tourists”, well-wishers, curious cats, and others are bound to come.
Connect with us and send out a “YOW” to your bredren and sistren everywhere.
You may do that here using any of the following tools:
- The footer chat (IM) — private and public chat supported
- Private Messages (PMs)
- Friend request and acceptance
- “Following” or being “Followed by” someone
- Commenting on a friend’s wall
- Groups – wall, blogs, discussions
- Discussions/Forums
- Links (yow links)
- Events
- Comments on articles, pages, and games
Those are some of the social networking features available to every logged in member. Keep in mind, Yowlink is free and will always be.