SOMEWHAT FRANK

Social Media Club DC Wrap-up

Last night, (October 30, 2006) I had a chance to attend the Washington, DC stop on the Social Media Club International tour (which stopped in San Francisco last week). The Social Media Club is an organization founded by Chris Heuer with the mantra:

"If you get it, share it."

I slipped into the event late since I had to travel through rush hour traffic from AOL HQ in Dulles but the hour or so I did attend included a very poignant conversation regarding the direction and nature of human communication. Although the meeting resulted in more of a discussion to "define humanity" I found one quote to be extremely powerful:

"Technology will change, people do not change. Therefore, (managing social media) is more of a challenge of managing humanity."

That being said, I think it's interesting that communication is still influencing "humanity" in similar ways, despite the methods through which it presents itself. I posted a few photos here.

PureVideo Search: Aggregates & Categorizes Top 10 Online Videos

With online video such a hot medium in the web 2.0 landspace there are a crowd of video sites in the market. PureVideo Search, a video search engine, recently launched to try and assist in organizing the online video space. PureVideo Networks is Los Angeles based media and technology startup founded by Erik Hawkins and Greg Morrow. In addition, to the PureVideo Search they have also created StupidVideos.com and GrindTV. Erik recently was interviewed by Folkonomy and gave some insight into where he sees the entertainment and media industry 10 or 20 years from now:

"...I suppose we’ll see even more time shifting, more mobility, and a cleaner user experience. Collaborative filtering and user profiles/playlists should also advance quite a bit, so you should be able to access your media collection from anywhere, or discover new media suited to you easily. I’m not sure what devices we’ll be using, but I do think that most media playback devices will be IP based, so that you can interact with the content, and so that your usage can be tracked."

While video search is not a new idea with companies like AOL, Google and Yahoo already offering video search services, PureVideo Search is a meta search engine for video. This means that PureVideo Search combines crawling the web looking for items with a feed-based search index.  The PureVideo Search homepage presentation of categorized top 10 videos from around the web (i.e. YouTube, AOL Music, MSN, ESPN, CNN.com, etc.) could help to keep users coming back for more. The categories include "Music," "Sports," "Comedy," "Viral," "Entertainment," and "News."  Finally, PureVideo Search offers a widget that enables users to add a videos search results to a personal homepage, blog or other web site.

Bottom-line: While PureVideo Search offers some interesting features, it leaves room to improve its search functionality and add additional web 2.0 hooks. I expect it will - afterall it is currently just a beta product.

RIP Pluck Consumer RSS Feed Reader

Pluck, a Austin-based social media company that I have mentioned several times on Somewhat Frank, has decided to kill its popular consumer-facing RSS Feed Reader. This is an interesting development as Pluck built its business on its RSS Reader but has since moved in other social media directions. According to an update on the Pluck web site:

"All versions of Pluck's RSS readers for Internet Explorer, FireFox and Pluck's web edition will be discontinued on 1/5/2007. The RSS Readers have served our community of end users well for several years, but with Pluck's focus in other business areas, the venerable RSS readers are set to be retired from our product line."

About a year and a half ago Pluck was my favorite RSS Reader but I felt like the product did not evolve as other products kept improving. However, the shutdown could be attributed to a number of changes in the RSS space which include the launch of IE7 with integrated feed reading, Firefox live bookmarks and lack of a solid revenue model for a feed reader -  RIP Pluck RSS Feed Reader.

Parenting Social Networks: Parents Connect & Share Advice Online

Joseph Morgenstan once said, "Children are gleeful barbarians." So how do parents handle "gleeful barbarians?" Parenting is not an easy task but parents are no longer alone. With the web 2.0 movement there have been a number of parenting sites that have been introduced to help unite parents to do battle with the "gleeful barbarians." In this article I will profile a few of the more prominent parenting social network sites.

GotKidsNetwork.com a social networking site for people that have "got kids" is geared towards finding deals, nannies and advice online. Though the site has a lot to offer, I found the sites design of the site to be less than desirable.

Maya's Mom, Palo Alto-based a social networking site for parents, launched recently to to enable parents to connect and share parenting experiences and knowledge. Maya's Mom focuses on allowing parents to share information. The site is made up of parent submitted kid's activities,  a Q&A section called talk and groups focused on various topics. Maya's Mom was founded by Ann Crady Kennedy as the site gets its name from Ann's daughter. Also Maya's Mom recently received an angel round of funding.

Minti, a parenting social network founded by Clay Cook and profiled previously on Somewhat Frank, offers a place for parents to meet other parents in addition sharing parenting advice. Minti enables parents to create blogs, harness the simplicity of RSS updates, discussion forums and group creation.

MothersClick, a social networking site for mom's that may never be profiled by TechCrunch, launched recently with similar features to Maya's Mom. The site offers a question and answer section, groups that are plotted by location on Google map, blogs for moms and fun stuff which includes podcasts and other parenting related partner blogs.

ParentsConnect, a social networking site for parents produced by Nickelodeon, offers a local guide, message boards and video blogs for parents looking to trade advice. The site is lead and moderated by a group of 21 "host parents," who also share their own experiences in raising kids by overseeing the message boards as well as contributing to blogs. Seeking to encourage interaction, the company has already added blogs for users based on feedback recently during the beta test, and may also eventually give users the ability to sell items on the site.

Bottom-line: If you are a parent looking for answers, there are a galore of solid parenting advice options online.

Disclosure: I do not have any children and do not think they are "gleeful barbarians." :)

Freshwater Venture: Exposes Chicago's Rich Entrepreneurial History

Freshwater Venture is an effort devoted to restating the rich Chicago entrepreneurial history by profiling the startups that have been developed in the Chicagoland area. Freshwater Venture was created by Keith Schacht and Eric Antonow as they looked to raise the profile of entrepreneurs and their ventures in Chicagoland. The Freshwater Venture offers an index of startup profiles, industry roundups and a few video profiles. One of the most interesting features thus far is a Google Map mashup called Chicago Map 2.0 which plots 165 of the Chicago startup company office locations (shown below). This site is a great resource for anyone looking to better understand the history of Chicago startups.

The Freshwater LIVE event took place tonight (October 26, 2006) at the Gleacher Center in Chicago bringing together a number of the CEO's that are profiled on the site in addition to other notables in the Chicago entrepreneurial community. The event was slated to have several of the founders of local startups reading their original business plans in addition to offering some very, very early stage funding. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend so I cannot say if any of that really happened but Eric Olson, co-founder of TECH cocktail was at the event so I am sure to be filled in. TECH cocktail made a donation to support the event as it is very much in line with our mission.

Calling All Collegiate Coding Rockstars!

Are you a college student, computer programming superstar with dreams of being crowned supreme collegiate programmer of all the land? If so, you might want to sign up for the TopCoder Collegiate Challenge which is set to take place in San Diego on November 17, 2006. The event is being sponsored by AOL as part of the AOL Developer Network. I had a chance to talk to Duke Tunstall who has organized AOL's involvement in the event and he had this to say about the upcoming competition:

"I am really thrilled to be a part of this event.  I was originally a little skeptical about mashing developers with a sporting event, but when it all started to come together, WOW!  The excitement and level of competitiveness that these guys bring is incredible and I have only witnessed it online so far.  I can't wait to be side by side with the finalists in November."

Of course if you cannot make it out to sunny Southern California then be sure to tune into the Webcast which is being produced by AOL. Om Malik also has published his perspective on the competition. Finally, if you are looking for sweet full-time coding gig - AOL is hiring!

Last Chance To Win $1 Million In Gold

In my first few days at AOL, I highlighted AOL Gold Rush the innovative interactive game that offers players a shot to win $1 million in gold by leveraging their pop culture knowledge. I asked if people were playing AOL Gold Rush and according to a recent report I think the answer is pretty clear:

"The game has attracted an estimated 8 million visitors since September, who have been to the website over 12 million times racking up an estimated 80 million page views, according to AOL’s internal reporting."

The final round of AOL Gold Rush starts tomorrow (October 26, 2006). So if you know fashions, fads and other pop culture tidbits you might want to give it a shot by going here: www.aol.com/goldrush. What would you do if you won a million dollars?
 

Google Seeks Growth Via Custom Search

Google has launched a custom search engine today (October 24, 2006) called Google Co-op. Co-op enables  a user to create and launch a customized search engine which includes just a few specific websites. This should make for an interesting competition between a crowd of other products which includes Rollyo, Eurekster Swicki and Yahoo Search Builder. According to the Financial Time report:

"Users of Google Custom Search Engine will be able to select the websites they want to be included in their searches, and add to this list in future by “tagging” websites they visit. Any searches will then return results just from that slice of the Google search index."

This launch does not surprise me as Google has been missing out on search growth in the hot vertical search market.

Related Articles: 

Rollyo Personalized Search Launched
What is Swicki?
Swicki & Rollyo Here Comes Yahoo! Search

Constituent Dynamics Polls For Predictive Election Results

A few weeks ago I profiled The Washington Stock Exchange, a new site offering political junkies the opportunity to play in a special stock exchange dedicated to political probabilities.  With just over two weeks remaining until election day, there have been a number of political sites emerging to better tell the election story.

Constituent Dynamics offers an amazingly in depth look at the political reality.  The site focuses on new polling methods to produce more accurate and predictive results.  While targeted toward professional political operatives, the Majority Watch project offers an impressive look at the midterm elections that any lay-man can enjoy.  Majority Watch features updating polling data for key races, with more being added everyday plotted on a map (shown below). Similarly, Google has also recently rolled out their own election focused mashup which combines Google Earth with information about the upcoming congressional elections.

If you are looking for election news, Constituent Dynamics offers more information than is offered on many mainstream news site, you can select an individual District to view demographic breakdowns and side-by-side data comparing the midterm race against the last presidential election.  All said, it is an impressive site for anyone interested in politics in general, or this year's tumultuous midterm elections in particular. Of course, if you are looking for additional content and analysis, you might want to visit The Stump - AOL News Elections Blog, AOL's recently launched elections blog.

Midwest Startups Profiled by TechCrunch

TECH cocktail got some more TechCrunch loving - several of the Tc2 startups from the October 12 Chicago event were highlighted. Thank you Mike Arrington for allowing me to cover the event for TechCrunch - hope you can make it out and cover TECH cocktail 3! Featured startups included:

Liquid Talk
eSigma
GrubHub
Pawky
Planypus
Time59
FitLink.com
HouseBlogs.net
Menuism
Metroproper

Be sure to check out the article here. If you like it digg it here.

TECH cocktail 2 Video Unveiled

TECH cocktail 2, an event I co-hosted with Eric Olson on October 12, 2006 in Chicago, helped to bring together the technology business community. If you missed the event but want to know what it was all about be sure to watch the video that was produced by Lambert Smith of Stone Cliff Productions.

Thank you to everyone that participated in TECH cocktail 2. Special thank you to Lambert Smith for creating this TECH cocktail 2 video which captured some of the evenings happenings. Stay tuned for details about TECH cocktail 3!

Should Technology Change Sports?

The wonders of technology...  At work, it can make us more efficient and it can even make us seem smarter.  At home, it helps us navigate trips, stay in touch with friends, and opens up an unending mall right on the screen.  On the field, it makes us faster, more precise, or stronger.  Simply stated, technology helps us perform better.

But what happens when the line between man and machine gets blurry?  When does “supplement” become “synthetic”?  We hear often about steroids – and what are they but biotechnology?  And when does it all become obsolete?  A few years ago there were controversial second skin-like swimsuits at the Olympics.  But the Games came and went with the typical tight races and record breakers inherent in any athletic cycle.

An interesting article recently discussed the latest round of controversial sports equipment, training strategies and apparel, and how the incorporation of these new technologies may influence athletics for better or for worse.  There is also a slide-show showcasing what lies ahead or sports technology.

Should technology be allowed to change sports the way it changes business?

Six Apart Business Blogging Event In DC

Yesterday (October 19, 2006) I had the opportunity to represent AOL at the Six Apart Business Blogging Seminar in Washington, DC. The event was a half day seminar focusing on politics and advocacy. It was supposed to be lead by Six Apart's Anil Dash but unfortunately, Anil was ill so he could not make the engagement. It was unfortunate but Marissa Levinson and the rest of the Six Apart team did a good job filling in. Joe Loong one of the major bloggers also was in attendance. Jake Parrillo spoke on behalf of FeedBurner about leveraging feeds for politics and advocacy. Jake is a politician himself so speaking at this seminar was a great fit for him.

The event spoke to all levels on blogging and feeds. I have written several posts on Somewhat Frank (a Six Apart Typepad hosted blog) about business blogging, feeds and how to get started with blogging, so I thought it might be helpful to point some of the most popular:

• Naked Conversations: Blog Success Tips
• 8 Tips To Promoting Your Blog
• BusinessWeek Talks Business Blogging
• Technology Evangelist 'The Innovators' Series Visits Somewhat Frank

While all the speakers did a wonderful job presenting, I definitely was more interested in the questions the audience had to ask since it offers some insight into the understanding of blogs and feeds outside the tech community. Photos from the event can be found here.

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.

Philanthropy Through Technology

Let me guess: you’re sitting at your computer, skimming through this article looking to see if anything applies to you, so you can get back to that list of ALL those things that you simply MUST accomplish.  I’ll save you some time: it DOES apply to you, so slow down and ingest…

As many of us experience every day, a reoccurring theme in blogs – in any social commentary, really – is the increasing pace of our world.  Thanks to pay-by-touch features, e-ticketing and Crackberries (to name only a few), our insatiable quench for time is placated by technology.  Gadgets, gizmos and thingamabobs (my non-techie lingo for widgets, applications and start-ups) create time for your “to dos”, but what about the things that aren’t on that list that we still want to accomplish?

As a non-profit enthusiast, I am thrilled that this “technology creates time” phenomenon now extends extensively into philanthropy.  No matter whether you’re a proponent of a particular cause or you just want to help out, technology has, yet again, stepped up and delivered TIME for you to fit it in.

For enviro-minded people, TerraPass helps counter the carbon dioxide emissions created by your lifestyle… and you don’t even have to leave your computer!  Just plug in your car’s information, your flight plans, your energy bill, etc. and TerraPass crunches your carbon dioxide output.  No it’s not just to make you feel guilty; this site also enables you to donate an amount to alternative energy sources to offset your damage.

Scared that putting your foot in the door of a charity will result in a non-stop barrage of calls, letters and requests?  Fear not: One Brick is a commitment-free nonprofit volunteer organization pointing you quickly to what needs to get done and who needs your help.  Sign up on your terms to bypass the tedium of long-term planning, meetings or orientations.

Sometimes you don’t have to do anything but be consumer to help. Apple just announced the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition.  More than just a sassy color – Apple donates $10 of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.  Inspired by U2’s Bono and other AIDS advocates, Apple’s offer exemplifies many retail campaigns to bring simple charity support to the masses. For more on the (RED) campaign check out this recent article by Read/Write Web.

GoodSearch, a product that has been highlighted previously on Somewhat Frank, allows you to designate a donation to the organization of your choice each time you perform an online web search.

Kiva is a really interesting non-profit that allows you to loan money to entrepreneurs in under privileged parts of the world. This process is called micro-finance. Eric Olson highlights his first micro-finance payment to Kiva in detail here.

Thanks to philanthropic techies, we can all now find the time to help out.  I'm sure I left a few organizations out so please add others you know of in the comments section!

This article was a special guest contribution to Somewhat Frank by the extremely talented writer, Kyle Bradbury. Thank you Kyle.