OttoBib.com was started as a hobby project in 2006 by Jonathan Otto, a 4th year undergraduate at the [[University of Wisconsin-LaWisconsin–La Crosse]], USA<ref>[http://www.neobinaries.com/apps/Category/Search%20Engines/OttoBib.aspx Web 2.0 Application Listings] -- About the company</ref>. It was originally called "That's Crazy Hot!" but the name was quickly changed to OttoBib because the original title was "not suitable for the academic environment and consequently won't take off."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://jonathanotto.com/2006/1/13/21/55/Thats-Crazy-Hot | title = That's Crazy Hot! | date = January 13, 2006 | author = Jonathan Otto | work = OttoBib Blog | accessdate = 2007-02-20}}</ref>
The original inspiration for the site came from [[Seth Godin]]'s January 3, 2006 blog post on "Stuck Systems", where he wrote:
