by Calvin Robinson on November 18, 2008.

You might remember watching the Early Adopter songs on the Popula blog a while ago, and we were trying to figure out what all the fuss was about.

Well I got my invitation today, so I’ve had a little time to test out the site.

In the invitation was a link to this really cool little youtube video, basically explaining Popula;

Yup, it’s another Calendar. But it’s not just a calender, it’s far more social than that.
To me it feels like 30boxes, eventbrite rolled into one.

You pick a genre (music/business for e.g.) and then it will list events in your area, in the near future.
I found a Barcamp, marked my attendance, and it takes me to a very ‘facebook events’-ish page, giving me more info, a google map, address, and a list of all the other attendees.
Clicking on another attendee will show you what other events they are planning on attending.

It’s a very simple design. On first load, the right-hand advert banned caught my attention before the main page – and I’m usually add-bling. So maybe they could do with a little colour?

The functionality of the site is great. If they release an English version, I can see this being very useful in London, to see when the latest web2.0 meetups are happening, and who’s going. But I’m sure there’ll be far more uses. The inde music scene will love this, especially.

So if you have a niche social group, and want to keep upto date with all the latest events, Popula is a pretty good site.
Of course if you wanna just stay home with the cat, you’re probably not going to want to sign up to this one!