Jordan Isip is an active guy. The 25-year-old University of Washington graduate is a member of karate, judo, bicycling, hockey and happy hour groups. But when you are a member of a lot of groups and have technical skills -- as Isip does -- there's a bit of a problem: Everyone wants you to create a compelling Web site for them.

That was the genesis of GroupieGuide, a free online service that helps members of various groups promote events, share photos and communicate with one another. Obviously, this is a crowded arena.

Just this week, Seattle's DevHub launched a Web platform that makes it relatively simple to create a Web site and San Francisco-based SynthaSite pulled in $20 million for its easy-to-use Web site builder. Adding to the competitive landscape is Seattle-based Wetpaint, with more than one million wikis driving over eight million unique visitors per month. And then there's  the big players like Google, Facebook and Yahoo groups, all of which are designed to help people connect with other like-minded individuals.

Despite the competition, Isip thinks there's a better way. An Eagle Scout who also holds a black belt, Isip tried organizing some of his groups on Wordpress, Wetpaint, Google and other sites. But he got frustrated with the design and the clutter of ads.

"They just didn't do it for us... They are kind of impersonal," explained Isip. "It is not really based around a calendar of events, and that is the main goal for us." 

At this point, the site is still in private alpha mode. (GroupieGuide has 50 invites for TechFlash readers.) 

Isip, along with Evri's Carlos Rodriguez and software developer Joe Van Dyk, started kicking around the idea about four months ago. They got more excited after chatting about the concept at weekly meetings of Ruby on Rails enthusiasts, with each of the developers devoting weekends and nights to GroupieGuide. 

"We've been kind of building this all on the side and kinda seeing how it goes," said Isip, who runs the Fixie Consulting Web development shop. So far, about 400 groups have been started.

GroupieGuide hasn't completely figured out the business model yet, though Isip said he wants to avoid online advertising. There could be ways to charge for event registrations or to offer groups the ability to print logos on T-shirts, business cards or other materials. It also eventually plans integration with other services such as Flickr, Twitter, blogs or other social media tools, as well as integration with online calendar services.

"There are various ways on how to monetize it, I think," said Isip. "But we are really trying to make it as appealing as possible right now before we start doing that kind of stuff."