Business Network Startup (with social networking features)

We are seeking professional and experienced developers to work with our organisation to build a innovative business network (with some social network functionality). This is a multi-phase project therefore it is imperative that a strong and communicative ongoing relationship can be built with your organisation using both Skype and email. Our project/business is dedicated to support a specific industry in the areas of training, education, marketing, recruitment and employment, e-commerce, business development, research, accommodation and production. More details on the business model, industry and target market will be available to the successful candidate. The project expects to be ground breaking for the industry and MUST deliver on BOTH a functionality and aesthetic front (must look hot and work). We have well defined target markets which operate in multiple countries across multiple languages and multiple currencies. The target market is mobile therefore we would want an increasing portion of the sites functionality to also be delivered for the iPhone via the web. We also wish to support open source technologies as part of our ethos therefore wish to consider the following technologies. GRAILS (SPRING, HIBERNATE etc), MYSQL, OPENX, OPENEMM, Apache Tomcat and the like. We also anticipate that traffic could grow substantially thus the web application needs to be built so that it can be clustered on web and dbase servers. Important note, although we require some social network functionality, the aim of the project is to deliver an environment for people to create a business network, vocational links, enhance their education, vocational training, research the industry and what is happening in it, to establish or market their business and to build a personal profile within the network. Therefore microblogs and personal party photo libraries are not what we want to deliver. This is not being positioned as a social network. We want a site which is Plaxo like, but more aesthetically pleasing. Our logo and some basic graphics have been designed to be integrated into the websites’ development, but further graphic design will be required. We will required full ownership of copyrights. We would like to see some of your previous work in the areas of business network, social networks, web apps, e-commerce as part of the vetting process. Functionality requirements include: Home Page – sign up and logon (payment option for membership) Members profile page basic initially, Calendar and alerts system, Member location (google maps or similar) Personalised url capability: not initially i.e. [login to view URL] or [login to view URL] Contacts list – basic group plus custom list, Add Contacts search, Add contacts from other email – hotmail, gmail and yahoo Instant messenger like Facebook Mail functionality (like Facebook) Advertising positioning and management (using openx) Knowledge Base – Articles and information and grouped by multiple category to facilitate the research to assist people with training, business trips etc News – our own writers plus RSS feeds Market place Classifieds Listing Content management system to manage all aspects control what is published and when. Account management including billings and revenues. Credit card and direct debit system functionality. Plus standard website info privacy, about us, etc Documentation