SOMEWHAT FRANK

Six Degrees to… Kevin Bacon's Charity?

We’ve all heard of the game “Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon.”  It’s simple: start with a celebrity, say, Selma Hayek and connect her through movies to Kevin Bacon.

• Salma Hayek in Fools Rush in with
• Matthew Perry on Friends with
• Jennifer Aniston in Along Came Polly with
• Ben Stiller in Something About Mary with
• Matt Dillion in Wild Things with
• Kevin Bacon

And there’s the concept.  Now take the game, and do some good with it through SixDegrees.org. 

Launched by none other than Kevin Bacon himself, in partnership with Network For Good, an AOL, Yahoo and Cisco Systems backed charitable organization, celebrities advocate their favorite charities and encourage others to do the same – and that includes non-Hollywood types.  It’s a great vehicle for awareness as well as fund-raising, as Bacon has promised to match the top six non-celebrity fund-raisers with a $10,000. Check out the video below for Kevin Bacon’s perspective on the charity.

Echoing the ever-growing role of the web as a social network, SixDegrees.org rallies us all around a great purpose that evolved out of a simple grassroots game. I never really considered myself a particularly huge Kevin Bacon fan, though Footloose rocked my world back in 1984, I have to say that I think a lot more highly of him now.

You can donate and add a badge to your web site, social network page or blog. Additionally, you join the Six Degrees AIM Pages Network or buy Six Degrees swag on eBay to show your support.

Special thanks to Kyle Bradbury for assisting with this article.

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SplashCast Launches Mixed Media Embeddable Video Player

SplashCast, a Portland-based startup, launched today (January 30, 2007) to offer an easy way to create and share videos, photos and audio online with its embeddable player. SplashCast is a Flash-based site and enables users to create a Flash player to play custom videos comprised of photos, uploaded videos, YouTube videos or even RSS feeds from YouTube or Flickr. Since SplashCast is Flash-based it will allow MySpace users and the rest of the web to place video or slide-shows on their sites with ease. Check out this instructional video by Marshall Kirkpatrick, formerly a key contributor to TechCrunch, for more details on how to get started with SplashCast.

Simple to setup and use, a SplashCast feature that I found interesting was the ability to create a video by passing an RSS feed from Flickr or YouTube. I decided to create a video which randomly pulled videos from my YouTube video feeds. Since it just pulled in a feed I was able to create the SplashCast video very quickly. Code was then offered to be snagged and placed on the page below as shown. 

SplashCast is backed by QMind, its parent company, and raised $1.3 million for the use of related software in enterprise e-learning and is now working on another round of funding. To stay up to speed on the latest from SplashCast check out the SplashCast blog.

Bottom-line: SplashCast makes it very easy to create Flash-based video to be embedded into any page.

Go Bananas With Banana Name

Bananas are one of the most popular fruits on earth. They offer nutritional value by possessing potassium and dietary fiber. What does this have to do with the web and technology? Nothing until now, as Somewhat Frank recently fell victim to Banana Name.

Banana Name is a new blog that showcases the names of other sites as well as local businesses in lights written on a banana. 

"Changing the world one banana at a time."

Banana Name is a unique way to discover new things on the web. Banana Name is the brainchild of Ed Kohler and leverages people's love for their name in lights which I have discussed previously on Somewhat Frank. Also it sort of reminds me of Post Secret, the project that allows users to contribute their secrets to be published anonymously on the web and in a book. While Banana Name doesn't ask for user contributed content, you can get your name on a banana by requesting it. Go bananas!

Media 2.0 Workgroup Formed

The recent changes in the web (i.e. web 2.0) have changed the media landscape. While there are a number of groups dissecting web 2.0 there is not a group specifically for new media or media 2.0. Media 2.0 has moved the power to media from the few to the many. Today there is an answer as the Media 2.0 Workgroup, created by Chris Saad, has officially been announced and can be defined as follows:

"The Media 2.0 Workgroup is a group of industry commentators, agitators and innovators who believe that the phenomena of democratic participation will change the face of Media Creation , Distribution and Consumption. Join the conversation..."

Somewhat Frank, Jeff Pulver, Ben Metcalfe, Jeremiah Owyang and a number of other superb participants have been brought together from a cross-section of disciplines and agendas. I don't necessairily think Somewhat Frank has been categorized quite right yet, but I figure it will all get straightened out with time. As mentioned in the recent Media 2.0 Workgroup announcement:

"Some merely comment, criticize and consult, some develop tools, some live the dream and have started their own Media 2.0 empires and some are fighting from the inside of established media to change the face of ‘business as usual’."

Join us, comment, trackback, nominate your favourite voices for the workgroup and drive the conversation forward. You can find the workgroup at: http://media2.0workgroup.org

Desktop RSS Readers Die, RSS Addiction, LinkedIn Resumes, Farecast Insures, Babelgum TV & MyBlogLog Gets Flickr'ed

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 01.28.07

My Kinda Town Lit Up With Photo Effects

I stopped in Chicago this weekend after TECH cocktail 3 to catch-up with friends and relatives and so when I found the above photo I thought it made sense to showcase it. It was taken by Trey Ratcliff from Stuck In Customs. The unique technique he used to stylize his Chicago skyline photo is explained in great detail in this tutorial.

The Decline of Desktop RSS Readers

Read/Write Web pulled together an interesting piece discussing the decline of the desktop RSS feed reader. The article is concluded with a poll which upon voting showed that web-based RSS feed readers were the most preferred by about 55% of voters.

My Life As An RSS Junkie

Can you be addicted to RSS? After reading this article you will definitely think so. Check out this article for more information on technology addictions.

LinkedIn Creates 9 Million hResumes

9 million resumes in a microformat - that is pretty amazing. I wonder if sites like Careerbuilder and Monster.com are feeling the heat as LinkedIn moves in for the kill.

Farecast offers insurance on their Air Ticket predictions

Farecast, the travel fare forcasting startup, is now backing up its fare predictions are accurate by offering insurance to users for $9.95. I wonder how many users jump on the offer?

The Next Generation TV Over the Internet

Babelgum is a desktop client that allows their users to watch videos on their computer in a very TV-like experience. You can browse through the channels and choose your favorites show. You can rate the movies, add them to your favorites and watch them later on the video channel.

MyBlogLog picture feature improved by Flickr

Just as I reported back in December as MyBlogLog added a pictures feature they have since taken on Flickr as well. I think this is a great move as MyBlogLog further positions itself to connect faces with names as a social network built around other web sites, blogs and social network profile pages. Brilliant!

midomi Search Engine Names That Tune

Have you ever heard a new song and wanted to purchase it but had no idea who sings it or the name of the song? It happens to me all the time. I will hear a new song on the radio and not catch the name of the track which makes it extremely difficult to find and purchase the song later. My search usually involves listening to a number of chart topping songs and many times I never find the song I was looking for. There has to be a better way! midomi has proposed a solution by offering a search engine that enables users to search for music by singing lyrics of the song.

midomi recently launched to offer a music search engine with social networking hooks. midomi allows users to sing, hum or whistle a song and the engine finds the song. With the mission of building the most comprehensive database of searchable music and is taking a social user generated approach. Aside from searching users can contribute to the song database by singing in midomi’s online recording studio in any language or genre. Contributed music is then added to the search index and is served up to when others search on the site. Users can also create profiles added the classic social networking features of adding friends and sharing music information and recommendations.

midomi has the rights to over 2 million tracks and sells them via the site. The tracks are in the wma format and are $0.99 per song. In testing midomi the voice-driven search seemed to find more user uploaded music than mainstream music downloads. Ironically, Mike Arrington also recently checked out midomi and wasn't too happy with it. Check it out for yourself and make the call.

TECH cocktail 3 Tonight In Chicago

TECH cocktail, an event series I co-founded and co-host with Eric Olson with the mission of better connecting the technology and business community to help better tell the local story, is having its third event tonight in Chicago. With over 700 guests signed up we expect a large turnout at Amira tonight. For details about the event check out this podcast Eric and I did yesterday with Technology Evangelist.

In case you are just tuning in, I took on a new role with AOL last September. It was a great opportunity and I love doing product development in the web 2.0 space at AOL. With the move, Eric and I agreed we could keep the TECH cocktail good times rolling with the idea that our professional responsibilities always come first. Up to this point we have been able to manage to keep any schedule conflicts at a minimum.

I regret to inform you I will not be in attendance tonight in Chicago at TECH cocktail 3. I have been in Silicon Valley this week on business and my attempts to get to Chicago for Tech Cocktail 3 were foiled as my flight was unexpectedly canceled. I will still be headed into Chicago this weekend but will have to catch up with TECH cocktail supporters, friends and guests at the next TECH cocktail. I apologize to all that were looking to sync up at the event as I looked forward to it. The show must go on and that is why Eric and I knew we needed to have co-hosts for the event. Eric Olson will be there to fire everyone up and keep the TECH cocktails flowing - though I may be able to make some sort of guest appearance on the Amira TV screens.

Thank you to all the sponsors, demo'ers and guests - have a SingleHop cocktail for me. Take lots of photos and video to post online so I can see how it goes. Cheers!

Empressr For Slick Online Presentations

Empressr offers the unique ability to create, share and store Flash-based slide presentations online with ease. Empressr aims to impress by offering the ability to incorporate rich media features, like streaming video and animation into an online presentation. Empressr has incorporated an easy to understand set of steps to help users create crisp looking presentations without prior knowledge of Flash technology. Empressr is free to use and store up five presentations on its secure servers and premium options are available additional presentation storage space. Finally, Empressr presentations use addressable URL to offers users the ability to share presentations with easy.

Empressr is easy to use and offers a great solution for anyone looking to create solid presentations without purchasing PowerPoint or other types of presentation creation software. The only negative I could see was that you cannot currently export your Empressr presentations for offline use. This could be troublesome in the case that a conference hall or other venue does not have an Internet connection. However, it appears Empressr understands this concern and is looking to address this issue with future enhancements.

Bottom-line: Empressr is an online application that allows you to easily create, share and store presentations. Take Empressr for a test drive for yourself here.

Footnote: Tech Geek Meets History Nerd

Who would have thought that a history buff and a techie would EVER have anything in common? Turns out, they do – and it’s on the techie’s turf.

A historian’s dream, Footnote brings the Smithsonian’s National Archives – thanks to a partnership with the museum – and much more right to your screen.  The perk: no more traveling to research primary documents.  You no longer have to hit the road to see the Declaration of Independence… you can view it – in excellent detail – on Footnote.

Harnessing the web’s power to unite all sorts of people, Footnote.com is also a fantastic example of web 2.0’s accessibility. True to the social media movement, Footnote.com connects historians and fosters group collaboration on document analysis – hence the name. Users can contribute comments, annotate historical documents, upload images and even create new pages within Footnote. For more details on how Footnote works check out the screen-cast below.

The negative: not all documents you encounter in Footnote are free to view.  However, with time that could change and if you really want to see something up close, then I’m pretty sure it’s still cheaper than a plane ticket. 

8apps Suite Of Productivity Tools

8apps, an online suite of productivity applications, recently was launched by Tokyo-based jonkenpon. The current suite consists of three applications which are all in private beta but will be released with time and as new applications are released. According to co-founder,  Jon Yongfook Cockle, the goal of 8apps is as follows:

"I’m hoping that in 8apps, I can provide a suite of 8 applications that provide both an indispensable function and a simple, easy-to-grasp user experience."

The current applications in the suite are called Handshake, Orchestrate and Blueprint have been briefly highlighted in this article.

The backbone of the 8apps suite is an application called Handshake which is a professional social network for users to make new contacts, strengthen existing relationships. It is more a contact management system that is integrated into the rest of the 8apps products as any contact in Handshake becomes accessible in the other applications.  The network enables users to weigh in on their contacts skills which creates an interesting profile graph as shown in the right rail of a profile.

Orchestrate helps you to keep track of your “to do” list or simple tasks. It offers the ability to color coat various lists for better organization. Lists can also be shared with contacts from Handshake.  Orchestrate was well received in its initial release and was previously mentioned in the Wall Street Journal.
 
Collaborate with Blueprint as it allows users to brainstorm online by interacting with a number of individuals from Handshake without forfeiting control of the process. The project manager can control the look and feel of the layout by dragging and dropping items around the board.

Maybe it is the name, the inviting interfaces, or simple productivity apps but something about 8apps reminds me of 37signals. Nonetheless, I look forward to the official launches of these and other 8apps products to the masses.

For more information check out this article on jonkenpon which offers two screen-casts explaining the applications in more detail.

2000 Faces of the Blogosphere

What happens when you place the faces of 2000 bloggers in one huge collage? See for yourself below, in this recent project by Tino Buntic called 2000 bloggers.

Can you find my ugly mug among the sea of bloggers? Also, how many other faces do you recognize?

SimpleSeating: Seating Charts Made Easy

Deciding where everyone should sit can sometimes be a daunting task at a dinner party, in a classroom or even in the workplace. To help with the problem, SimpleSeating uses a simple Ajax, drag-n-drop interface to create detailed online seating charts in a flash.

Easy to use, SimpleSeating offers a number of features which include RSVP tracking, meal tracking and simple guest notes. SimpleSeating also provides a variety of table arrangements, sizes, and configurations to fit just about any situation. Event seating charts can be printed or shared with others by passing along a link to the chart. SimpleSeating allows a free use for one event at a time of up to fifty guests.  If you are looking to plan a few events at once, the Basic plan is available for $19.95 for two events up to 350 guests, the Plus plan is available for $44.95 for five events for 450, and the Pro account for up to 450 guests, but email for a quote.

Planning a seating chart for a recent family birthday party was simple with SimpleSeating. After registering, a quick SimpleSeating tour explained the simple procedure to name the event, add guests, and even determine the entrée of each person. Groups could then be seated at the same table or could be divided by last names. Everyone’s favorite, "kid’s table" can be differentiated from the "adult table." Guest lists can be imported and exported in the .csv format to cut down on redundancies surrounding setting up multiple or reoccurring events.

Bottom-line: SimpleSeating is an easy to use tool for creating seating arrangements for your next dinner party, banquet, wedding or even for the office.

Zirrus For Web 2.0 Inspired To Do Lists

I have had quite a bit "to do" lately so I thought it was an opportune time to discuss an interesting "to do" list product. Zirrus is a very simple "to do" list product that incorporates a number of web 2.0 characteristics. Zirrus gives users two "to do" lists to keep track which can be defined as follows:

Braindump - a place to dump anything you think of
Now - consists of more immediate "to do" list items

Zirrus offers the ability to view your items in both a list and cloud view. With either view, items can be added with various priority levels which change the size of the font of the item. Items can also have tags associated with them for additional sorting. For a three minute overview of Zirrus check out the Zirrus quickstart demo.

Bottom-line: Zirrus offers a simple, yet unique web 2.0 "to do" list product which could help to keep track of all of the things that come your way.

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Swivel: A Graph & Data Lovers Delight

Do you obsess about data? If so, Swivel might be able to help feed your obsession as it lets you explore, compare, share and upload data and graphs about politics, economics, weather, sports, business and beyond.

Swivel offers a free social-based reposistory and charting tool for interesting graphs and data sets. Users can register to upload data and create graphs. Users can also contribute ratings and comments which are used as a popularity metrics for organizational filter purposes. Graphs and data sets are organized by popularity, date and tags. If you are looking for a specific graph you can register and upload your own graph or chart. All the public data in Swivel is under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

In my explorations I found an interesting chart displaying trends in iPod sales and decided to share it by embedding it below.

Swivel launched in early December 2006 and already has over a half a million graphs created. Data-lover or not, Swivel could prove to be a handy tool for spicing up a blog post with an interesting chart of graph.

For additional perspectives on Swivel check out these articles on PRPulp and IT Redux.

MyPunchbowl Helps Plan Events & Parties

MyPunchbowl, an event planning assistance site, officially launched today (January 15, 2006) to offer a simple way to pull together an at-home party or event. MyPunchbowl offers online assistance throughout the entire event planning life-cycle. MyPunchbowl breaks the event down into four milestones which are shown in the left rail of the site. They can be explained as follows:

1. Save The Date - allows users to create and send a customized “save the date” message.
2. Invitation - enables a user to create a customized invitation. The invitation allows users to search Flickr for Creative Common photos which can be used within the invitation. The invitation also generates a map to the location based on the address entered. Users can change the color of the layout and text by clicking the 'page color' button.
3. Get Supplies - makes it easy to find local supplies stores by listing and mapping them for you.
4. After Party – enables the host to start a message board for all the guests to comment on the event. In addition, the guests can add photos to a shared photo gallery by adding photos directly from Flickr. As a Flickr user this a great feature but I would like to see MyPunchbowl offer the ability to port photos from other services as well.

MyPunchbowl is easy to use and will definitely give Evite some competition as it offers an extremely simple interface with customized layouts. Unfortunately, MyPunchbowl is still working through some Ajax related layout issues that arise when using the site on the Safari web browser - Mac users should user Firefox instead for the full MyPunchbowl experience. As a PC users, this did not stop me from creating a simple invitation example as shown above.

MyPunchbowl was founded by Matt Douglas and Sean Conta who both have music backgrounds and years of product management experience in their past. It’s no surprise that Matt and Sean also like parties. Matt's favorite reason to party is Groundhog Day, while Sean’s is New Years Eve.

For additional perspectives on MyPunchbowl check out these reviews of on Download Squad, VentureBeat, CyberNet and TechCrunch. Also be sure to check out the MyPunchbowl blog for future updates.

Bottom-line: MyPunchbowl offers users all the components necessary to plan a simple event. It offers party planning assistance through the entire planning life-cycle which is compelling to anyone that has ever hosted a party.