Archive for October, 2007
New Script Gridnetworks Gets $9.5m To Compete With Brightcove
Posted on Oct 31, 2007 08:55:08 PM
Today,
GridNetworks, a company that powers IPTV, has received $9.5 million in funding from Panorama Capital, along with two other undisclosed strategic partners. Internap Networks Services Chief Executive Tony Naughtin is now heading up GridNetworks, along with two other Internap execs Christopher Wheeler and Mike Ortega.
GridNetworks’ slant it to deliver HD-quality programming over the Internet, in an effort to bring the HDtelevision experience to broadband. It also aims to deliver video more securely and cheaper than its rivals, which include the likes of Brightcove.
With only about $500,000 in initial funding, GridNetworks has been around for a few years now, and is now getting the kind of funding that can help it better compete with the onslaught of IPTV services, such as DAVE Networks, which is building up an arsenal with its partnership with YuMe for video advertising.
[via seattle pi]
Networking Citeulike Si Rinnova E Incontra Il Web 2.0
Posted on Oct 31, 2007 03:30:05 PM
Today, Grandi novità per CiteULike, il sito di social tagging creato da Richard Cameron e dedicato agli articoli ed alle monografie (N.d.R. termine bibliotecario per significare libri ) scientifici. Come forse sapete o avete notato seguendo le mie folksonoMY, nella colonna di destra di questo blog, sono un’utente affezionata di questo sito, sul quale archivio documenti relativi all’open access e agli archivi aperti e nel quale ho creato il Gruppo Open Archive (join! join!).Molte nuove funzionalità, molto going social, molte conversazioni, per i singoli utenti e per i gruppi, molti tab, molto Facebook-style, qualche lievissima modifica al layout e un fantastico blog per ogni utente! Un estratto dalle news del sito:Users - Your own CiteULike content is now all accessible through a series of “tabs“:ProfileLibraryWatchlistGroupsBlogAn overview of the functions available under each tab is given below.Profile - Each CiteULike user now has a profile page. You can use this to put some information about who you are and what you do. We will be adding to the collaboration features of CiteULike in the future; you might want to fill out your profile to let other people know a bit about you. Your profile page displays a news mini-feed which gives you a potted history of your significant activity on the site.Library - All of your library functions are available under the library tab. The JavaScript-based ‘Search My Library’ function has been retired (those of you who have very large libraries will know that it wasn’t working very well), and has been replaced with a more normal search box. We believe this is a great improvement; please let us know if you disagree. You can now post private articles to your library. See below for more details. …
(Link)
Server Capazoo Has Lots Of Ways To Make Money Off You
Posted on Oct 31, 2007 11:50:12 AM
Today,
CapaZoo is a new social network from Canada that’s encouraging users to participate on the site by offering them money. Well, you can get tipped for your awesomeness, and then cash out after certain point.
There are a few different types of accounts you can create: business, athlete, individual, arts, or charity. All but business profiles are free (a business account will run you about $35 per year). Once you set up your profile, you can start customizing it and adding media. Businesses will have advertising options throughout the network. You can get tipped for your media, as well as for your profile. So the goal here is to get as much content on the site in order to incur more tips.
You can’t hand them out for free, however. You start out with 25 zoops (CapaZoo’s currency) and go from there. If you’d like to tip someone, you select how many zoops you’ll give them. If you’d like to add zoops to your account, you can pay $10 for 10,000. Likewise, earning 10,000 zoops means you can get $10 on your credit card. You can’t actually cash out, though, unless you’ve upgraded your account. And that will cost you $25 or $35 per year, depending on what type of account you’d like (privileged or VIP).
So all around, CapaZoo is finding ways to make money, and hoping it’s enough to get you to heavily participate in the site. Need more of a push? CapaZoo also has retail partners that offer discounts for users. For instance, you can get 15% off of your next Hertz car rental. This is all part of the CapaZoo Savings Program, which will calculate how much money you’ve saved through its discount offers. Again, you’ll need to upgrade your account to take part in the Savings Program. I think I’ll hold out for the CapaZoo credit card with rewards points I can earn with every purchase.
In terms of the network itself, the community tools are what you’d expect, and focus largely on photos, videos and music. There doesn’t seem to be provisions for blogging. Navigating the site is easy, as is finding other members to connect with. CapaZoo also has a very inclusive lifestyle magazine with good topics, but it falls a bit short on the actual content. CapaZoo is based in Canada and has reportedly raised over $25 million in private capital, without the aid of venture capital funding. Similar sites include cre8buzz, MyLifeBrand, ClipStar, TalentBase and countless others.
Internet Labels Win Suit Against Song Sharer
Posted on Oct 31, 2007 07:30:04 AM
Admin wrote: The verdict against a mother of two from Minnesota was a crucial victory for the recording industry in its legal effort to rein in music piracy.
(Link)
Brand New Scripting Geniusrocket Is Guru For Advertising
Posted on Oct 31, 2007 03:40:04 AM
Admin wrote:
GeniusRocket is a new advertising platform, you could say, that’s looking to the creatives out there in order to create a marketplace where companies seeking a new ad campaign and artists can meet. And collaborate.
There are several factors that come into play for GeniusRocket, including online collaboration tools, a social network, and a marketplace. One good thing about the incorporation of all these factors means that the GeniusRocket service and community is shielded from the fate of those marketplaces an tools that connect people in the offline world, or simply provide mechanisms for communication to take place outside of its website.
So if you’re an artist and would like to get paid for the commercial use of your work, you can come to GeniusRocket and start posting. This is one way to create an online presence for yourself within the GeniusRocket community. Now any company looking for artists to work on a campaign can more easily find you. And GeniusRocket doesn’t let all this hard work on your part go to waste. The community can vote on user content, and every month GeniusRocket gives away a cash prize. So the community is leveraged for social networking purposes in order to give you more options for interaction, and a reason to keep coming back to the site, even if you’re not getting any gigs.
If you’d like to work with a group of people on a particular project, GeniusRocket can facilitate this as well. Say you’re a cinematographer in need of a graphic designer for part of your next video creation. Post this project on GeniusRocket and begin searching for graphic designers, while they search for you too. This is similar to how companies can also post projects in hopes of finding the right people to create its ad material. In this way, GeniusRocket works like Guru, in that it’s allowing companies to post their needs, state the price and timeline, and let the work find them.
In the same way that several other industries are aggregating talent and providing a level of outsourcing to freelancers, GeniusRocket is making talent more readily available and accessible for an affordable alternative to small and large businesses alike. If you spend less on the creation of your ad content, you have more room in your budget for its promotion. GlobeShooter is another community that’s dishing out the longtail of talent for use of commercial marketing.
Article Top Us Social Networking Sites
Posted on Oct 30, 2007 10:55:12 PM
Admin wrote: From Search Engine Journal”Nielson/NetRatings has put out a report on the top 10 social sites and blog sites. I think there are some interesting findings such as Myspace still being on top of the social space. “MySpace.com continues to sit comfortably atop the rankings of top US social-networking sites with 58.6 million unique visitors in September, according to a custom list of top US social networking sites.”Here are the Oct. 2007 rankings:1. MySpace2. Facebook3. Classmates Online4. Windows Live Spaces5. AOL Hometwon6. Reunion.com7. LinkedIn8. AOL People Connection9. Club Penguin10. BuzznetWhat no Webkinz!? Orkut? Plaxo? I am only slightly embarrassed to say I belong or have belonged to the majority of these. Just call it research. Yes, that’s the ticket.Check it out.Stephen (Source: Stephen)
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Update Obama Girl Gets A New Home At Next New Networks
Posted on Oct 30, 2007 08:00:13 PM
Today,
BarelyPolitical, home of the Obama Girl, has been acquired. That’s right–snatched up. It’s now part of the Next New Networks family. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
NextNew is a new media company that will be creating branded micro-networks for Internet distribution. The acquisition of BarelyPolitical marks the establishment of a political comedy network for NextNew. Launched earlier this spring, NextNew is a startup founded by former execs from MTV and Nickelodeon, and is likened to the Weblogs of online video.
With a growing number of verticals, NextNew seems to be on the right path, as several content creators and video networks have taken a similar approach for a combined effort of concentrated content being distributed across the web. We’ve seen this with Blip.tv, YouTube, and countless others.
So is this a poor choice for NextNew, seeing as the elections are just around the corner and there won’t be a need for a Romney Girl vs. Obama Girl cat fight clip? Nah. With a new president in the White House, there will be plenty of material for the ongoing creation of satire that BarelyPolitical is now known for. See below for the first project from BarelyPolitical for the Next New Network, “I Like a Boy.”
http://view.break.com/368165 - Watch more free videos
Brand New Article Investment By Microsoft Values Facebook At $15 Billion
Posted on Oct 30, 2007 03:00:13 PM
Admin wrote: Microsoft has won a high-profile technology industry battle with Google and Yahoo to invest in the social networking upstart Facebook.
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New Article The Experiential Gap: That Rhino Again
Posted on Oct 30, 2007 11:20:10 AM
Admin wrote: Stephen Abram gave a lively presentation to OCLC Members’ Council on Sunday night. Several times he remarked that somebody has to have tried a service, Second Life or Facebook for example, and ‘had the experience’ if they are to speak sensibly about it. This reminded me of a favorite image which I have used a couple of times here before and which bears continued repeating ;-)I read a few chapters of Steven Johnson’s Everything bad is good for you over the weekend. (I am usually a little behind the curve on these things 
I was struck by the following quote:I worry about the experiential gap between people who have immersed themselves in games, and people who have only heard secondhand reports, because the gap makes it difficult to discuss the meaning of games in a coherent way. It reminds me of the way the social critic Jane Jacobs felt about the thriving urban neighborhoods she documented in the sixties: “People who know well such animated city streets will know how it is. People who do not will always have it a little wrong in their heads - like the old prints of rhinoceroses made from travelers’ descriptions of the rhinoceroses.”The Jane Jacobs analogy is so good. This experience is familiar to somebody who has moved between cultures, and who tries to explain what one is like to somebody from the other. I think that we can observe something like this in many of the library discussions about gaming and social networking. For somebody who has not internalized the experiences, the temptation is to assimilate it to some other part of their experience. As in “Oh, it is like ….”. But, thinking it is like something else means that you may have it a ‘little wrong’, and miss the real meaning. [The rhinoceros in the room] Quick Bookmarks: del.icio.us Digg Google Reddit Furl (Source: Lorcan Dempsey)
(Link)
Article Youtube Launches In Australia & New Zealand
Posted on Oct 30, 2007 05:25:07 AM
Today,
YouTube is headed to Australia. With its obvious efforts to expand globally, Australia is its next stop. The video-sharing network is also expected to launch a local YouTube site tomorrow for New Zealand. Australia’s new YouTube Site can be found at au.youtube.com.
The local site will be featuring relevant video content from Australia, from Australian users. Along with this launch is the revealing of several new local media channels from Southern Cross View, SKY News, ABC, Network, TEN, Seven Network and Fairfax Media. The launching of YouTube’s local Australian site comes shortly after the video-network made moves in a handful of other countries, including Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.
[via Australian IT]