May 16, 2008
I just spoke at the Social Rockstar Workshop at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. about Social Media & Blogging. It was a great conversation and thank you to everyone that attended. I have uploaded to docstoc the online document sharing site for anyone that would like to take a look at the presentation.
Sphere It
May 11, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending May 11, 2008.
Sphere It
April 27, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending April 27, 2008.
Sphere It
April 2, 2008
Taking a page out the Netflix and Amazon playbook, outbrain, a New York-based startup, officially launched yesterday to offer a ratings and recommendations widget for content. With outbrain bloggers, news, media, magazines, rss readers and other publishers/aggregators can add a rating and personalized content recommendation widget to their blogs and sites easily and free.
Sphere It
March 27, 2008
Looking for free licensed content to be able to use on your own blog or website? Voxant Newsroom looks to help by distributing and promoting content from licensed content sources for free. Voxant offers publishers a place to find and embed licensed video, text, and photos from over two hundred news sources from a variety of providers. Voxant places advertising in the its embeddable content to monetize the content making it possible to keep the content available for free to users.
Sphere It
March 27, 2008
If you are in the Washington, D.C. area, mark your calendars for BlogPotomac, a one day event aimed at providing advanced marketing insights beyond the average social media 101. BlogPotomac will be held on Friday, June 13, 2008 at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia. BlogPotomac seeks to provide a local “un-conference” on best marketing practices for the social media community in the D.C. metro area.
Sphere It
March 23, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending March 23, 2008.
Sphere It
March 22, 2008
I was walking down the street in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month and was intrigued by a storefront symbol. I looked into the storefront windows and my eyes were met with colorful graffiti-like artwork, handmade toys and lots of tees. I had bumped into JoyEngine.
JoyEngine is a brand created by the boutique design firm cypher13 and offers a place for artists and designers to unite and share their work. The JoyEngine store doubles as an art gallery for local artists and toymakers. JoyEngine also has its own line of apparel. At JoyEngine, cypher13 promotes and sells artwork created by the cypher13 team, other local artists, and provides access to ultra-limited designer art toys, offers apparel by independent designers, and supplies the local street art scene with spraypaint, paint markers, and other art supplies. Online JoyEngine offers an blogging community for designers and artists where they can exchange ideas and showcase their work. They also offers some cool artist desktop backgrounds for download.
Sphere It
March 19, 2008
Microblogging has made it easy to share but with a number of services available one can get overloaded with options making it difficult to keep them all updating the time. Rather than have to stick to one service you can post to a number of services at one time with the help of Ping.fm. Other services like socialthing! and HelloTxt offer similar functionality but I thought it was worth mentioning yet another service as we all look for the ultimate one stop shop for managing all our microblogging needs at once.
Sphere It
March 18, 2008
CBS Television stations today announced the launch of the CBS Local Ad Network as it looks to get into the advertising distribution game by connecting with local bloggers and social media Web sites.
At first glance, I thought CBS was looking to incorporate blogs and other social media content into the local CBS news sites but after reading on that is not the case at all, it turns out CBS is just leveraging bloggers looking to generate some revenue on their blog or social media content. Network participants can place what CBS is calling a widget (with a huge skyscraper ad unit) on their sites and in return receive a rev-share. Nothing new here. It might be the right program for bloggers or social media content producers looking for a way to monetize and not sell ads though I have no idea what the rev-share looks like and it would be worth a look before jumping in and giving CBS ad impressions.
Sphere It
March 16, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending March 16, 2008.
Sphere It
March 15, 2008
Brica Brica What? BricaBox, the social content platform which I covered previously here and here, that launched a few weeks ago offers users the ability to display structured content with social features. After many attempts I finally got a chance to sit down with BricaBox founder and CEO Nate Westheimer while attending FOWA Miami 2008 which is the latest SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode.
Sphere It
March 9, 2008
Last night at SXSW in Austin, Texas I waited in line for about an hour to get into the 16 Bit event at Scoot Inn. After nearly getting to the front door, I ran into Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV. Gary was fed up of waiting in line and jumped out and proposed we head to our hotel and drink some wine he brought in. I thought it was a super idea. So I jumped on a pedicab with Kristen Nicole from Mashable and Brian Solis from Bub.blicio.us. What happened next was epic...
Sphere It
March 6, 2008
Microblogging has becoming extremely popular as sites like Twitter and Pownce have jumped onto the scene to enable users to quickly share messages, links and files. I recently got a preview of a Chicago-based startup that has created platform a new microblogging platform. Edmodo, a self-funded bootstrapping startup co-founded by Jeff O'Hara and Nic Borg offers microblogging for education and groups. Since both co-founders work in education, they wanted to do something to help others in the space. They also noticed there were not microblogging platforms available with the rostering and privacy options needed in the educational space - so they decided to build Edmodo.
Sphere It
February 27, 2008
Looking to explore and find a few new blogs on the Web? Blogged is blog directory launched earlier this week to aid discovery and exploration of the blogosphere. Blogged is self-funded by founders Kenneth Yeh and Gladys Kong and is powered by readers and also employs a full-time editorial staff to maintain the integrity of the directory.
Sphere It
February 26, 2008
BricaBox, the NY-based structured content platform I previously reviewed, publicly launched today to enable anyone to create access and create these rich content experiences with ease. Funded sole by its founders BricaBox has been refered to a "wiki" on steroids (don't tell MLB or Congress) or "WordPress for structured content" as it offers a way for publishers tools to better display listings and such. It should also be noted that BricaBox offers social capabilities to enable community and sharing features which are sometimes confused with those of Ning or other social networking platform options.
Sphere It
February 25, 2008
I got word this morning that TheMarker, Israel’s prominent business magazine and Haaretz, one of Israel’s largest newspapers, featured SOMEWHAT FRANK in a spread titled "The Blogs That Every Israeli Startup Should Know."
Sphere It
February 23, 2008
Twitter is a great communication tool. I use it all the time. I initially enabled mobile notifications but found I was getting a constant stream of Twitter text messages which can be somewhat distracting. So I turned off mobile notifications except for direct messages. But I still find that I miss "@ replies" since they cannot currently be sent to my mobile device.
I just put in a feature request to Twitter. I would love to be able to get "@ replies" sent directly to my mobile device just the same as direct messages are. Anyone else want to see this feature added?
Sphere It
January 26, 2008
Now is Gone so you had better get ready to embrace a new media. I previously chatted with Brian Solis about, Now Is Gone, a book he helped Geoff Livingston author. I sat on a panel discussing social media with Geoff at the New New Internet conference this past November, when he announced his book. So I was happy to finally be able to chat with him about it.
Sphere It
January 24, 2008
Microblogging platforms have been springing up like crazy these days as bloggers look for easier and shorter form ways to quickly express themselves online. Lifestreaming to these platforms also become more prevalent as an aggregation of online activities. I am a big fan of microblogging platforms like Tumblr, Twitter, and Soup.io. They offer a light but powerful platform for self-expression. But there is not a one size fits all solution for every blogger. Chyrp (found deceptively at chyrp.net) offers an open source blogging platform that is more of a medium weight blogging solution.
Sphere It
January 7, 2008
Somewhat Frank Editor's Note: I am pleased to mention that my recent Somewhat Frank health 2.0 roundup article has made its way onto the Read/Write Web Network by appearing today on the fabulous Alt Search Engine blog. In case you are new to the blogosphere, Read/Write Web, Read/Write Talk, last100 and Alt Search Engines make-up the RWW Network and have been contributing excellent content to the masses everyday for years. I am a big fan of the RWW Network and I am honored to be a special guest contributor. Thanks to Charles Knight & Richard MacManus for showcasing some Somewhat Frank content.
Give the article a read here on Alt Search Engines.
Sphere It
January 7, 2008
Lifestreaming has made great strides in the past year as Justin.TV strapped a camera on his head. Robert Scoble, Sarah Meyers and a number of others including myself have participated in one way or another in the lifestreaming video movement leveraging tools like UStream.TV, Mogulus and Blog.TV.
With CES taking place in Las Vegas this week and the unfortunate fact that I was unable to attend (due to my day job) I am going to take full advantage of my friends lifestreaming videos to get the feel of the conference. There is a new tool called Qik that might make lifestreaming even easier than before. Qik is an alpha product that has sprung onto the scene to enable users to stream live video directly from their mobile phone.
Sphere It
December 30, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending December 30, 2007.
Sphere It
December 26, 2007
Looking to record split-screen multi-user videos via your web camera? I am. While there are a number of video platforms that offer single web cam video recording, I recently set forth on a quest for find the ultimate online video product for recording multi-user web camera videos. I came across a site called Tjoon. Tjoon, a startup created by Suite75, offers an easy way to record split-screen multi-user videos via a web camera.If you know of a better solution for recording split-screen multi-user video please let me know.
Sphere It
December 23, 2007
Are you familiar with the ultimate Web 2.0 directory online Go2Web20.net? I sat down from my parents home in Chicagoland to chat with Orli Yakuel from her home in Israel. She recently left AOL where she acted as a Web 2.0 analyst and is now in search for the “dream job.”
Sphere It
December 14, 2007
Distributing content is key to any serious blogger. There are a number of social news and sharing sites offering bloggers the ability to have sharing features on their site. Adding all the icons to your blog can cause some serious 'icon acne' and cramp the style of any blog design. So it is important to make it easy for your blog readers to share your content with others and social news sites alike. madKast, a Boulder, Colorado based start-up, recently launched to offer a way for bloggers to make sharing easy.
Sphere It
December 8, 2007
I got a chance to sit down with Future Works and Bub.blico.us founder and PR 2.0 blogger Brian Solis to chat about the book Now Is Gone that he assisted Geoff Livingston in writing. The book is a good primer for anyone that is thinking about the new media landscape from big companies to entrepreneurs.
Sphere It
December 2, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending December 1, 2007.
Sphere It
November 26, 2007
Brica what? BricaBox, a New York-based startup, offers a publishing platform for organizing and displaying content in a more structured manner. It's goal is to offer a more structured way to present content. Wondering why you might need more structure? Read on to find out how you might be able to use BricaBox.
Sphere It
November 16, 2007
I co-hosted a sixth TECH cocktail in Chicago last night and co-host Eric Olson and I had a blast doing it. With 500 plus attendees at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville there was so much energy and love in the room it was an amazing feeling. I got to see many familiar and many new faces as we continue to try and build a better and more tightly connected community in Chicago.
Sphere It
November 7, 2007
Microblogging platforms are more plentiful than ever with sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku among others. However there are so many blogging platforms it is inconvenient to post to them all. So in steps hellotxt to lend a helping hand. hellotxt enables users to aggregate microblogging services and insert messages on all main microblogging services simultaneously.
Sphere It
November 4, 2007
How can you engage your client community via blogs and social media? Last Thursday, I spoke on a panel at The New New Internet Conference to discuss this very question. The panel consisted of Gary Vaynerchuk video blogger at Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library, Geoff Livingston blogger at The BuzzBin and author of Now Is Gone and Rohit Bhargava blogger at Influential Marketing and author Personality Not Included and myself blogger at Somewhat Frank, co-founder of TECH cocktail a community-building event startup and product manager of myAOL. If you want to find out about social media you best watch the video and learn about blogging, engaging social media and hustle 2.0!
Sphere It
November 3, 2007
I got interviewed by trend junkie and entrepreneur Greg Cangelosi of Trend TV this week while at the The New New Internet Conference. In case you might not know Greg Cangelosi is a podcasting expert and just authored a book titled . I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.Greg and I sat down and chatted and he captured the casual interview on Trend TV.
Sphere It
September 26, 2007
This has truly been an action packed 2007 web/tech conference season thus far. I previously listed a number of conferences to attend in 2007 but as of late a number of new ones have popped up. I wanted to highlight few additional conferences as they are approaching fast and you might want to get your tickets booked now. You will find me speaking at these three conference...hope to see you there.
Sphere It
September 24, 2007
coComment, a Geneva, Switzerland based startup, first surfaced in early 2006 as a way to track all of your blogosphere conversations and in its initial form as just side project experiment. coComment is back and this time they are a serious company looking to help organize, track, share and fuel conversations online. coComment has launched version 2 which offers a number of commenting options and most noticeably is a lot more social.
Sphere It
September 17, 2007
TechCrunch40, the 2007 TechCrunch launching pad conference, is upon us and you can keep up with the event just updated techcrunch40.com website. The site offers fully-featured hub for TechCrunch40, which starts this morning and continues through Tuesday evening. It will offer details about the 40 presenting companies (as they launch), the 100 demo pit companies and speaker details. The site will upload video clips of each set of presentations. The site also has Flickr photos can view photos of the conference and messages about the event via Twitter.
Sphere It
September 16, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending September 16, 2007.
Sphere It
September 11, 2007
Typepad, the popular hosted blog platform by SixApart, has announced a new iPhone optimized interface. Typepad users can now visit http://i.typepad.com on an iPhone or the new iPod Touch in their Safari Web browser use an optimized version of Typepad.
Sphere It
August 31, 2007
BlogDay is here again. BlogDay is the one day celebration of the blogosphere created by Nir Ofir also of BlogTV fame. BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On BlogDay bloggers highlight or recommend five other blogs to their blog visitors aiding the discovery of new blogs on the Web.
Sphere It
August 19, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending August 19, 2007.
Sphere It
August 8, 2007
Spigit launched into beta in mid-July to offer up a startup simulation game to help entrepreneurs showcase new ideas and innovations and in the process connect with a network of professionals. Spigit seems to have blended a multiply player online simulation game with a social network while aimed at creating a new company. Spigit can act as a testing ground for new ideas by helping to predict if they will succeed or fail with less invested.
Sphere It
August 5, 2007
Photo of the Week: Barry Bonds hit home run 755 last night in a game vs. San Diego tying Hank Aaron for most career home runs in Major League history. John Feeley was in attendance and captured history with his zoom lens in this shot (shown above). Somewhat Frank Weekly...
Sphere It
August 4, 2007
Add Somewhat Frank Weekly Video to your page As I highlighted earlier this week, Gary Vaynerchuk of the popular wine video podcast Wine Library TV made an appearance on the NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien television program this week. In case you missed watching it on Wednesday evening you...
Sphere It
July 31, 2007
Gary Vaynerchuk, the host of WineLibrary.com's video blog Wine Library TV is a pretty entertaining guy. I got a chance to see Gary's energy in action a few months back when he both demo'ed and sponsored at TECH cocktail DC 1. Gary's love for wine and charismatic personality has created...
Sphere It
July 25, 2007
In case you missed it, San Francisco had a power outage today that was caused by an explosion downtown. The fire from the explosion knocked out electricity and several big siteswhich included Netflix, Craigslist, Typepad, Vox and LiveJournal - all were down for several hours. Somewhat Frank is powered by...
Sphere It
July 15, 2007