SOMEWHAT FRANK

Join Me On Jonny's Par-Tay

JOIN ME ON JONNY'S PAR-TAY!

I will be talking about startups, Web 2.0, social media, SOMEWHAT FRANK and TECH cocktail on the video show, Jonny’s Par-tay on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9pm EST. The show is hosted live by DC TECH cocktailers Scott Stead and Jonny Goldstein so tune in. Here are the details:

What: A rollicking conversation with Jonny Goldstein, Scott Stead, and you! You get to interact with everyone else via live text chat.

When: Wednesday, June 18, 9-10PM EST

Where: jonnyspartay.com

Be a part of the live conversation as we talk about TECH cocktail, technology startups and more. It should be a lot of fun!

Video: Touring America's First Startup

The United States is ultimately a startup so I thought that is might be fun to take advantage of living near the nations capitol and show off the main office of the executive branch - the White House. I was able to capture some of the sites and sounds of the White House as part of the spring tour which I found out about through their own use of technology via the White House RSS feeds and podcasts.

LiquidTalk: iTunes For Business

Keeping up to speed with the latest corporate or team communications while on the road or away from the office can be a bit daunting. Many companies leverage video or audio messages which cannot be accessed from outside the corporate firewall. LiquidTalk, a Chicago-based startup, offers a business solution to help keep people in the corporate environment in the loop via the devices (iPhones and BlackBerry) that we all have on them at all times. It is like having iTunes for business as it syncs all your corporate communication messages to your device for on the go consumption on your own terms.

Introducing SOMEWHAT FRANK TV Video Podcast

If you are a regular SOMEWHAT FRANK reader you probably noticed the recent redesign which included a color palette change, logo update and slight tweaks to the navigation. I guess I got the creative bug and wanted to rearrange the furniture a little and show off my design skills (or lack there of). :)

Along with that change SOMEWHAT FRANK also now has a video podcast called SOMEWHAT FRANK TV. It will offer in-the-field reports and video interviews with startup founders, authors and other social media and web technology related experts. You can subscribe on iTunes or favorite feed reader. Or you could just watch it on SOMEWHAT FRANK. I hope you enjoy it!

Video Interview: Orli Yakuel Go2Web20.net

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.”

Video Interview With Greg Cangialosi Author of The Business Podcasting Book

I got a chance to chat with Greg "The Trend Junkie" Cangialosi, CEO and President of Blue Sky Factory, today regarding his new book "The Business Podcasting Book." The book is a great guide for any corporate executive or other party interested in better understanding podcasting. Greg and I chatted about a number of topics related to podcasting and social media which ranged from discussing our podcasting pal Gary Vaynerchuk who has been changing the wine world to a quick getting "how to get started with podcasting" step-by-step.   

A Trend TV Somewhat Frank Interview

I got interviewed by trend junkie and entrepreneur Greg Cangelosi of Trend TV this week while at the The New New Internet Conference. Greg is a podcasting expert and just authored a book titled The Business of Podcasting. 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.

Facebook Growth, Content Worth 4.3B, Twitter vs. Pownce, Podcasting Tools, Sphere Success & CrunchBase

Photo of the Week: American Flag on Parade at Dewey Beach for the 'Running of the Bulls' taken by Matt Hirschmann.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 07.08.07

Facebook Sees Flood of New Traffic from Teenagers and Adults
In the months prior to allowing open registration, Facebook.com’s traffic hovered at approximately 14 million visitors per month. However, after Facebook opened its doors to the general public, visitation accelerated to reach a level of 26.6 million visitors.

Your Content is About to Be Worth $4.3B
MediaWeek reports that advertising on social networks, blogs and other venues where consumers produce content is about to become a much bigger business than it is now. It's on pace to be a billion-dollar business this year. However, by 2011 it will grow to $4.3B.

Twitter v Pownce: It’s The API, Stupid
Nik Cubrilovic compares Twitter to Pownce and believes that there are two key things that Twitter has done well that Pownce has overlooked completely.

CrunchBase
TechCrunch quietly rolls out a web 2.0 directory of companies and services.

MyBlogLog: DNS for People
Ian Kennedy explains MyBlogLog's strategy. They want to build a platform which allows you to get to know someone through what they produce and share, collectively, across all networks and the internet.

Podcasting Toolbox: 70+ Podcasting Tools and Resources
A great list of podcasting resources aggregated by Mashable.

'Hyper-Local' Site Backfence Shutting Down
Backfence emerged about the same time, a couple of years ago, as InsiderPages, Judy's Book and Yelp. Now it appears to be closing its doors.

Classified Info: Craigslist Alternatives Compared
The online classified sites compared.

Sphere Quietly Nailing Its Business Model
Instead of focusing on building a better blog search engine (an area that Google now dominates after a recent Technorati refocus), Sphere has spent its time developing technology that automatically finds blog posts related to whatever a user is looking at

Netvibes, now with one less CEO
GigaOm reports on some changes at Netvibes which includes the departure of Pierre Chappaz. Chappaz is leaving Netvibes and instead will be focusing on Wikio, his personalized blog and news search service that is now said to have two million unique visitors a month.

SplashCast Now Playing Podcasts & RSS

SplashCast, a Portland-based media player startup, has launched MyPodcastNetwork to enable users to play podcasts directly from the feature rich Flash-based media player. Previously, the SplashCast player was limited to only pulling in RSS feeds from YouTube and Flickr but with the MyPodcastNetwork feature you can pull in any podcast feed you like. Users can now play any podcast on your web site, blog or personalized startpage. When a podcast updates, the SplashCast player will automatically pull in the latest. This will make it easier to collect and play your favorite video and audio podcasts which could disrupt some podcast subscribers dependence on iTunes.

SplashCast is also assembling a Podcast directory to help users find the podcasts they are looking for. Users can submit any RSS feed with enclosures to the SplashCast catalog and it will be available for viewing in a SplashCast player.

What's next for SplashCast? It sounds like the focus will be on improving its search functionality and adding some basic editing tools to help users remix media content.

Find out more about MyPodcastNetwork from SplashCast Director of Content, Marshall Kirkpatrick in the video below.

AudioSnacks: Bring Voice To Your Travels

If you are into traveling to explore new places you are going to love what AudioSnacks has to offer. AudioSnacks, a Chicago-based company founded by Michael Salvatore, offers a catalog of user-generated audio tours. So if you are traveling to Scotland you could download an audio tour to accompany you as you tour Edinburgh which could add some insight to your experience. Also if you are a Scotland expert with tour guide aspirations you can create an audio tour and add it to the AudioSnacks library for others to enjoy plus make money doing it.

If you are looking for audio tours to download and take with you on your next trip you can search or browse the various options as explained in this AudioSnack demo. If you are interesting in contributing an AudioSnack tour to the community there are a few different levels at which you can contribute. They include simply writing out the tour for AudioSnacks to produce to actually producing the AudioSnack yourself. Which ever method you choose to contribute you can set the price of the download and get paid for your efforts. To find out more information about how to start contributing be sure to check out the AudioSnack tour creation guide.

I am not sure if I would ever take the time to contribute an AudioSnack myself, but I did find a number of tour options while searching the extensive AudioSnack catalog. I also think it is worth mentioning that AudioSnacks offers College Campus Tours as well - which would have come in handy this weekend at Stanford if it weren't for the rain. If you are a college student and well-versed in campus history you might look to make some extra money by creating an AudioSnack of your school. I would think educational establishments would also look to create their own "official" campus AudioSnack to represent their school.

Bottom-line: AudioSnacks offers user-contributed audio tours. Users can download or contribute an audio tour to bring a guiding voice and organization to your next tour.

Web Influencers, Netvibes Security Issues, AIM is #1, Go2Web20.net Revamped, Attention 200 & Design Geekery

It rained quite a bit this week in Silicon Valley so I thought this photo titled rain on tuesday taken by Daisy Romwall was appropriate.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.11.07

The Wizards of Buzz
The Wall Street Journal took an in-depth look at some of the social bookmarking sites that help others to discover the hottest content on the web. These sites include Digg.com, Netscape, Reddit, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Newsvine – all of which empower users to submit content items from around the web. Items are rated and promoted via voting or other mechanisms within the site.The most popular or highest rated items bubble to the top and usually become even more popular as traffic surges towards sources of these hot content items. These social bookmarking sites are managed by a number of users but there are some key influencers that do the most consistent heavy lifting. WSJ put out a podcast to go along with the article and it can be downloaded here.

Netvibes module developer collects web creds, personal content
Niall Kennedy highlights how Netvibes, the personal homepage startup, recently experienced some serious security issues. Netvibes was recently praised by Wall Street Journal reporter Walt Mossberg, but it appears its open-source approach to development has left its users at the mercy of rogue developers. What does this mean? Basically, it means a rogue module developer could take advantage of Netvibes’ users to steal personal information like emails, bank information and just about anything else personal you might find in a homepage module. This is unfortunate for Netvibes as most of its quick growth and development is due to its developer network. I guess Netvibes will have to rethink its security and privacy approach if it or risk losing the trust of its users.

Wall Street Journal IM Ratings: AIM Is #1
What instant messaging product do you use? If its not AOL’s AIM 6.0 you may want to reconsider your choice as an article published this week in the WSJ titled "Rating the New Instant-Messaging Programs" compared AIM 6.0, Yahoo! Messenger 8.1, and Windows Live Messenger 8.1. AIM 6.0 was rated #1.

A Lesson in Viral Video
Inside Higher Education details the events surrounding the Web 2.0 video created by Michael Wusch which Somewhat Frank helped surface in the blogosphere. The article further emphasizes the viral power of the web and the influences of the blogosphere.

Go2web20 Relaunched!
The popular and slick web 2.0 directory created by Orli Yakuel has been revamped and relaunched with a number of improvements which should make the faster and easier to use. It should also offer more information for users. Included in the changes is the creation of a few innovative advertising options.

RocketDock: Add A Mac-like Dock To Your PC
If you are a Mac-lover stuck in a PC-user’s body then you might want give RocketDock a try. Lifehacker recently showcased it as a download of the day so I gave it a try. Upon installing the application created by Punk Software it instantly fulfilled my longing for a Mac-like dock for managing my desktop. Here is an instructional video which details the various configuration options of this nifty little add-on. Oh and buy some schwag or donate to support their development efforts.

31 Places to Monitor Your Reputation Online
If you are into tracking what people might be saying about you online you might want make sure you are checking a bunch of online sources. This article lists 31 places to keep your online reputation in check.

23 Signs That You're Becoming a Design Geek
While developing products I often find myself thinking I am a designer and I know I am not alone. I am admittedly not even close to the skill level of a full-fledged UI designer (like the designers I work with at AOL – they rock!). Nonetheless, this article will give you 23 design geek signs.

Announcing: The Compete Attention 200™
Compete recently posted a list of the top 200 online destinations based on their metrics tracking systems. Surprisingly, Somewhat Frank did not make the Attention 200 – this has to be some sort of mistake.  :-)

Wallstrip Videoblog Profiles Hot Stocks

Wallstrip.com, a videoblog that integrates stock culture with pop culture, launched earlier this week (October 16, 2006). Using a similar format and feel as the popular videoblog RocketBoom, Wallstrip looks to harness a few minutes of your attention to profile one popular stock per day by taking to the streets to determine why it is doing so well. Wallstrip is produced by Howard Lindzon and hosted by Lindsay Campbell. Just three episodes in, Wallstrip has showcased, Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), and Chipotle (CMG) - all of which produce very popular mainstream products. 

In watching the first couple of episodes I thought Wallstrip was well written as it successfully presents details about each company in easy to remember bits of information. After each episode Wallstrip carries the conversation onto the web with both inline comments and Wallstrip Conversation which is a seperate area of the site that has enlisted a number of professional investors like Fred Wilson to write a blog post about the showcased company of the day. Wallstrip also has created a pretty slick video widget that can be embedded into your blog or personalized homepage.

Bottom-line: If Wallstrip can continue to produce quality daily videos profiling popular stocks in creative "mainstream" terms then there is no doubt in my mind that Wallstrip will also become extremely popular. Furthermore, Wallstrip could become an excellent educational resource for anyone trying to learn more about the stock market.

The White House Has RSS Feeds & Podcasts

With my recent move to the Washington, DC area I have been exploring what the new city has to offer and I noticed that the White House has RSS syndication feeds and podcasts. Yes, it's true.

It is great to see the government supporting the web 2.0 movement leveraging syndication feeds to get the White House updates out.  I'd love to see how many subscribers each feed has. I wonder if they are even capturing those metrics?

Of course, my favorite offering is a video podcast starring first pup, Scottish Terrier Barney.

Attensa 2.0: Free Enterprise RSS Reader

Attensa, a Portland-based company, has continued to improve upon its enterprise RSS feed reader solution which I highlighted previously, by releasing Attensa 2.0. Attensa believes that an Outlook integrated feed reader is a core requirement for large corporations.

Attensa 2.0 offers all of the same features of the previous 1.5 version including the ability to leverage "attention" click stream data to fight information overload as the most influential information is bubbled to the top. Attensa 2.0 offers the ability to set desktop alerts to deliver server alerts, out of inventory updates, pricing changes or other specify needs. Attensa responded to feedback from its Attensa 1.5 corporate integrations and now offers audio and video podcasts inline. Inline audio and video enabled corporations to easily enable podcasts for corporate training and other internal uses as enclosures do not send users to external sites or intranets sites for playback. The screen-shot to the left shows an audio file being played inline.

Attensa 2.0 is being offered with forum support and a PDF user guide for free! Additional support and access to the Attensa knowledge base can be purchased for $24.95 per year per client. For more information on Attensa 2.0 check out these articles on TechCrunch and the Attensa Blog.

Blog Icons Unite on TalkCrunch Podcast

A meeting of the blogger minds has been unleashed on TalkCrunch today (September 24, 2006). The podcast, which is part of the CrunchNetwork, brings together Om Malik, Robert Scoble and Mike Arrington to discuss a number of topics ranging from the state of voice over IP (VoIP) to their favorite startups and the hot news this week in tech which include mentions of Digg, Facebook, Myspace, Skype, PicksPal, Techmeme, Jajah, Scrapblog, Rebtel, Hullo and GrandCentral. Surprisingly, they failed to mention one of the hottest startups on the web - TECH cocktail.   

These questions surfaced during this one hour podcast:

• Why is VoIP so complicating?
• Is Scrapblog the next MySpace?
• Can Digg kill local newspapers and/or disrupt Google News?

Listen in to these three don's of the blogosphere as they weigh in with their perspectives.