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June 18, 2008

Join Me On Jonny's Par-Tay

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
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!

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May 3, 2008

Video: Touring America's First Startup

Frank Gruber 2 Comments »
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.

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February 21, 2008

LiquidTalk: iTunes For Business

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Trying to keep up to speed with the latest corporate or team communications can be a bit daunting. LiquidTalk, a Chicago-based startup, offers a business solution to help keep people in the corporate look via the devices (iPhones and BlackBerry) that we all have on us 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.

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February 7, 2008

Introducing SOMEWHAT FRANK TV Video Podcast

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
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. 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.

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December 23, 2007

Video Interview: Orli Yakuel Go2Web20.net

Frank Gruber 5 Comments »
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.”

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December 1, 2007

Video Interview With Greg Cangialosi Author of The Business Podcasting Book

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
I got a chance to chat with Greg "The Trend Junkie" Cangialosi today regarding his new book "The Business of Podcasting Book." The book is a great guide for any corporate executive or other party interested in better understanding podcasting. Greg and I leveraged BlogTV, a split screen webcam video platform I previously highlighted on Somewhat Frank, to chat about a number of topics related to social media from discussing our podcasting pal Gary Vaynerchuk who has been changing the wine world to a quick getting started with podcasting step-by-step.

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November 3, 2007

A Trend TV Somewhat Frank Interview

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
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.

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July 8, 2007

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

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
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...

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April 30, 2007

SplashCast Now Playing Podcasts & RSS

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
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...

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February 12, 2007

AudioSnacks: Bring Voice To Your Travels

Frank Gruber 4 Comments »
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...

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February 11, 2007

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

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
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...

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October 18, 2006

Wallstrip Videoblog Profiles Hot Stocks

Frank Gruber 6 Comments »
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...

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October 1, 2006

The White House Has RSS Feeds & Podcasts

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
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...

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September 24, 2006

Attensa 2.0: Free Enterprise RSS Reader

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
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...

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September 24, 2006

Blog Icons Unite on TalkCrunch Podcast

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
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...

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September 23, 2006

Geek, Poke and Laugh at Web 2.0

Frank Gruber 2 Comments »
Continuing with my recent theme of exposing humor related to web 2.0 as I have here and here, I would advise you to check out Geek And Poke. Geek And Poke offers a nearly daily cartoon focusing on clowning web 2.0, podcasting and blogging concepts. Many of the cartoons are...

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September 9, 2006

CrunchCast is Back with Kiko Discussion

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
TalkCrunch the podcast which is part of the Mike "Captain Crunch" Arrington powered CrunchNetwork, is back!!! TalkCrunch has released a new podcast in which host Mike Arrington interviews Elliot Noss. They discuss Tucows and ths purchase of the Ajax calendar of Kiko via eBay. Yes they bought Kiko on eBay...

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August 12, 2006

Blogosphere 50M Strong: NPR Discusses

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Earlier this week, chief executive and founder of Technorati, David Sifry released his quarterly, State of the Blogosphere report. David revealed that Technorati is currently tracking approximately 50 million blogs which means the blogosphere is still doubling every five to six months. This is pretty amazing growth and one would...

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August 2, 2006

FeedBurner Users To Podcast For Company

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
FeedBurner, the Chicago-based feeds management company, released its second podcast after producing its first back in 2005. Feed Burner handles 61,819 pod cast and video casts for 3,744,215 subscribers so I can only imagine the break between casts was due in part to managing all those feeds. FeedBurner has also...

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June 20, 2006

Waxxi 2.0 To Include Arrington and Parekh

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Waxxi, the interactive podcast event company which launched its first cast featuring the Naked Conversations in May 2006 has announced that its second interactive podcast (or Waxxi 2.0 for those of you infatuated with the 2.0 thing) will feature TechCrunch pal Mike Arrington and Internet pioneer Michael Parekh. It is...

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June 15, 2006

Mozilla Laying Down The Feed Icon Law

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
The Mozilla Foundation which brought us the Firefox browser in addition to the fairly new orange feed icon, shown to the right and discussed previously on Somewhat Frank, has decided to create guidelines for the use of the feed icon. Apparently, Mozilla had the browser Opera sign an agreement prior...

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June 10, 2006

Attensa Goes Corporate: Enterprise RSS

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
Attensa, the Portland, Oregon-based company specializing in creating business-class RSS solutions, has been busily working on an enterprise RSS solution. No, not the Star Trek Enterprise spacecraft; I am referring to a new hardware product called Attensa Enterprise Suite RSS Server. Attensa Enterprise Suite RSS Server, or AES:RSS for short,...

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June 8, 2006

Typepad Now Offers FeedBurner Inside

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Typepad, the blog platform by Six Apart which powers Somewhat Frank, announced a new partnership today with Chicago-based feed management giant, FeedBurner. This means that Typepad users can now more seamlessly integrate their feeds into a Typepad blog using FeedBurner and take advantage of FeedBurner's excellent metrics capabilities. The most...

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May 30, 2006

Waxxi Podcast Unleashed

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Waxxi, an interactive podcast event company, which held its first event on May 20, 2006 has released the first interactive podcast audio. I participated in the event and highlighted it on Somewhat Frank. The event featured Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, the authors of Naked Conversations as well as participants...

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May 20, 2006

Waxxi (Naked) Interactive Podcast Rocked

Frank Gruber 3 Comments »
I just participated in the first waxxi Interactive Podcast event with Robert Scoble and Shel Israel authors of the book Naked Conversations and it was an amazing experience. Waxxi's interactive podcast enabled me to connect with Robert, Shel and everyone else on the call making it a very rich conversation....

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May 19, 2006

88Slide For A Daily Trivia Challenge

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
88Slide is a video blog or vlog produced daily by Rock Creek Park Productions which uses a sixty second format to convey a trivia question. Views can call or text message the answer to the daily trivia question and be entered to win a prize, usually a ten dollar gift...

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May 16, 2006

Amanda Congdon RocketBoom Keynote

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Amanda Congdon, co-founder and anchor of RocketBoom, gave the closing keynote today (May 16, 2006) at Syndicate NY which consisted of several videos of RocketBoom. What does syndication mean anymore? Amanda admitted that she does not actually know what it means and she mentioned that a Gilmore Gang podcast she...

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May 16, 2006

Building A Brand Through Podcasting

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
The keynote panel discussed their successful podcasts with Audrey Reed-Granger from Whirlpool, Gretchen Vogelzang and Paige Heninger from MommyCast and Scott Sigler from SNP. Ever hear of MommyCast? It is a niche podcast by Gretchen Vogelizang and Paige Heninger about being a mom and cover just about anything they can...

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May 16, 2006

Jeff Jarvis Unkeynote

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Jeff Jarvis kicked the Syndicate NYC conference off in non-traditional fashion which his unkeynote address. Rick Klau of FeedBurner was in the audience and did a great job noting some of the questions that were asked during the Q & A keynote session. Matt Terenzio was blogging the keynote and...

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May 16, 2006

Finally In The Big Apple For Syndicate NYC

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
After a three hour flight delay I landed at La Guardia Airport in New York for Syndicate NYC presented by IDG which starts Tuesday (May 16, 2006). I am excited to be in New York City which is a city I have not frequently visited. On the plane I listened...

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May 4, 2006

Waxxi Offers Interactive Podcast Event

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Waxxi, a web 2.0 startup focusing on offering interactive podcasts and creating a global online community, has scheduled a kickoff event aimed at bringing large scale interactivity to podcasts. The event will feature Robert Scoble and Shel Israel authors of Naked Conversations and will take place on May 20, 2006....

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May 3, 2006

FeedBurner Drops The Blues

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
FeedBurner, the Chicago-based feed management company, coming off a recent mention in Crain's has launched a fresh and clean look to its website. Gone are the days of the dark shades of blue as they have been replaced with white space and gradiant color (very web 2.0-ish). I like the...

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April 19, 2006

Feedburner Reports on Podcast Growth

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Feedburner published an outstanding in depth article today (April 18, 2006) on the state of podcasts (or the podosphere). The report was rather interesting and divulged the following interesting points: 1.) Feedburner now manages more podcasts than there are radio stations 2.) Podcasting is outpacing the speed of adoption of...

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April 16, 2006

What is Mint?

Frank Gruber 3 Comments »
I recently listened to a Ruby on Rails Podcast interview recorded at SXSWi (March 12, 2006) of Shaun Inman the creator of Mint. I had never heard of Mint before so I spent my time listening for clues to answer my puzzlement. What is Mint? It turns out Mint is...

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April 12, 2006

A Podcast Promo Grid Only Seconds Away

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
If you are looking for some free publicity for your podcast you might want to check out seconds11. With seconds11 you can claim a square on the podcast grid (shown above) and potentially gather referrals. Metrics are collected for each podcast on the grid and the rankings can be found...

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April 11, 2006

Pointing Out Popular Podcasts

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Big In Japan, the company behind PodServe, has posted the ten most popular PodServe podcasts. I am always in search of new sources of information so I appreciate the post. I may have to add these three to iTunes: Naked Conversations Discussion Daily Tech Show Big in Japan Podcast If...

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April 10, 2006

Where Do You Listen to Podcasts?

Frank Gruber 4 Comments »
According to a recent Forrester report only 1 percent of online households use podcasts. 1 percent! I am proud to be part of that single percent. I usually listen on the daily work commute on the crowded elevated train where I need two keep my hands free to hold on....

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April 3, 2006

Online Feed Readers Battle on TalkCrunch

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
I recently wrote an article for TechCrunch reviewing 9 online feed readers. As a follow-up to the article Mike Arrington of TechCrunch rounded up executives for four of his favorite online feed readers: NewsGator, Attensa, Rojo and FeedLounge for a TalkCrunch podcast. I co-hosted the cast with Mike as we...

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March 23, 2006

What is Big in Japan?

Frank Gruber 4 Comments »
Gigapets? Rhett Miller? Sushi? What IS Big in Japan? Big in Japan is a (surprisingly Texas-based US-based) company in the process of completing a "Web 2.o toolkit" which includes a number of valuable services to help bloggers promote their blogs. Big in Japan calls its products "pro-sumer" products since they...

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March 19, 2006

Adidas + Computer Tech = Smart Shoes

Frank Gruber 5 Comments »
Adidas, the athletic shoe and apparel giant, has married computer technology with its latest running shoe, Adidas 1. The shoes use a 20-megahertz microprocessor implanted in the sole which collects readings and from the shoe's movements and adjusts the fit of the shoe accordingly. This is very innovative and according...

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March 18, 2006

DiviCast For Visually Enriched Podcasts

Frank Gruber 1 Comments »
DiviCast, a product currently in a private beta, shows promise for producing enhanced podcasts with embedding images and links. So if you are listening to an enhanced podcast you may see images or links associated to the topic being discussed, on the display of your player, adding a visual element...

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March 16, 2006

TechCrunch Hits Airwaves With Podcasts

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
TechCrunch, the popular blog network founded by Mike Arrington and Keith Teare focusing on tracking the latest mobile and online technology, has continued to expand the network with the addition of TalkCrunch, a blog devoted to housing a weekly TechCrunch podcast or CrunchCast as I like to call it. This...

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March 14, 2006

FeedBurner Opens West Coast Digs

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FeedBurner, the Chicago based feed management company, is showing some "California love" as they have decided to set up shop in San Francisco to help facilitate additional strategic alliances and partnerships. FeedBurner has hired Don Loeb, former director of business development for Yahoo!’s Network Products business unit, as the new...

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March 1, 2006

FeedBurner Adds Stats, Podcast Metrics

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Just off its second birthday blowout this weekend FeedBurner is has continued to improve the its metrics offer by improving the statistics packages. The most notable improvement is the ability to track podcast cast downloads which is part of the standard package. The improvement was summarized by FeedBurner by saying:...

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February 25, 2006

FeedBurner: 2 and Spreading Like Wildfire

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Happy birthday to FeedBurner, the Chicago-based feed management company, which celebrated two years since its pre-alpha launch today (February 25, 2006). FeedBurner now manages more than 208,474 feeds for more than 135,238 publishers and continues to add new publishers like wildfire. So to extrapolate the numbers a little bit -...

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February 9, 2006

FeedBurner API Now Open

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
FeedBurner the Chicago based feed management and metrics company who released FeedFlare back in December 2005 has released the full FeedFlare 1.o API. What does this mean? It means the possibilities are now endless as the API empower creative developers to go wild to produce syndication mashups. FeedBurner also gives...

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February 8, 2006

Looking For Solid Tech Podcasts

Frank Gruber 2 Comments »
This morning I was looking through iTunes and searching with Podzinger for new technology and Web 2.0 podcasts to subscribe to f0r my 20 minute commute each day. My commute consists of climbing into an overcrowded CTA train car and standing scrunched next to total strangers while holding on to...

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February 5, 2006

What is ESBN?

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
ESBN or Electronic Standard Book Number is a new beta that offers Web 2.0 digital rights management and copyright solution to help identify electronic content online. ESBN uses a 19 digit number similar to the way printed books are identified with an ISBN number. The goal of ESBN is to...

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February 2, 2006

Educational Institutions Can Leverage iTunes Technology

Frank Gruber 0 Comments »
Apple is attempting to lend a helping hand to the education system by creating 'iTunes U'. This new service which leverages the iTunes platform to offer a free, hosted service for colleges and universities that provides easy access to educational content, including lectures and interviews 24 hours a day, 7...

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