SOMEWHAT FRANK

Strutta Turns Your Home Videos Into A Game

Do you have a particular home video showing off a skill that you think you might be better than anyone at? Strutta, a Vancouver-based startup, has launched into beta to allow you to prove you are the best. Whether your skill is break dancing, playing the harmonica or doing fast food rapping - Strutta creates an avenue for competing on the Web via online video contests.

AOL Buys Sphere For Content Recommendations

My first day working at AOL back in the fall of 2006 I had the pleasure of having lunch with Sphere CEO and founder Tony Conrad as he was visiting to start working with the AOL. Since then, Sphere which I covered previously when it launched in May 2006, worked with both AOL News and myAOL Mgnet Recommendations to offer related content recommendations. It is a pleasure to see that AOL has finally acquired Sphere for an undisclosed amount.

GoTrybe Aims To Keep Kids Fit & Healthy

Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Most computer games, mobile devices and other online activities these days contribute to a sedentary lifestyle. How can kids keep on top of the obesity? GoTrybe, a Tennessee based startup, offers a interactive online approach aimed at attacking the problem. GoTrybe is an interactive community for kids based on health and wellness. 

Twitter Accounts For Sale, Google App Engine Launches, Business Development 2.0, PageFlakes In Trouble? & Online Rep Tracking

Photo of the Week: With tax day looming on April 15th, I spent many hours this past week & weekend going through and organizing paperwork just like the photo above taken by Camilo Rueda López which resulted in less time to blog.

SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits: 4.13.2008

Video: Sociality Talk With Thomas Vander Wal

I am a taggaholic. I love to tag items in Flickr and across the Web. I even find myself sometimes tagging other peoples photos and online content. This would not be possible without "folksonomy" and recently got to watch Thomas Vander Wal present at AOL as part of the AOL Developer Network Speaker Series. Thomas Vander Wal invented the word "folksonomy" and knows a thing or two about the social web. It's more than just today's social networks - it's layers of interactivity, circles of sociability, reputation and identity. He also shared his thoughts on the spheres of sociability, social objects, and the path to get users to fully embrace creating and sharing social objects.

I got a chance to talk with Thomas after his presentation and it is episode 20 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV.

Evernote Helps Remember Everything, Anywhere

There are so many things to remember these days that it can be somewhat difficult to keep track of everything. While notes in a moleskin, sticky notes, emails to yourself and photos of things you want to remember might be a few ways to remember things - all these methods seem to scatter reminders all over the place. Evernote, a Sunnyvale, California based startup, looks to offer a place to send, store and retrieve all of the things you need to remember.

AOL Launches the Technology Network

AOL as they have just relaunched Switched as the hub for the newly created AOL Technology Network. The network will bring together content from Engadget, Switched, TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog), Download Squad, Engadget Mobile and Engadget HD to form the second largest technology news publisher online.

The network helps to combine all the great technology blogs offered by AOL and Weblogs, Inc which was acquired by AOL in 2005 and should make for a compelling advertising offering for Platform-A, AOL's advertising conglomerate.

Advertising.com Launches PubAccess Self-Service Ad Program For Publishers

Smaller publishers like myself currently do not have lots of options when it comes to CPM ad solutions. Quite frankly the options are slim pickings and there are lots of publishers just like me. Platform A's Advertising.com, an AOL owned company, looks to change all that by today launching PubAccess a web-based self-service advertising program for smaller publishers. PubAccess will give small publishers access to the Advertising.com ad network.

PubAccess gives publishers control over their ad inventory within the Advertising.com display network and allows them to block advertisers and categories, pull tags and view activity reports. PubAccess has a minimum requirement of 500,000 impressions per month for the CPM program and there is no minimum for the affiliate program. PubAccess will debut at the ad:tech conference next week in San Francisco.

Lifestream.fm Social Aggregator Examined

Lifestream.fm recently launched into beta, so far I have to say, this is the best “life streaming” service I have found. However, it has tough competition with FriendFeed, SocialThing, and others. Lifestream.fm offers users the ability to aggregate numerous services such as Del.icio.us, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, Pownce, Tumblr, and many others. It also allows you to aggregate numerous RSS feeds.

Flickr Now Takes Videos (or "Long Photos")

Flickr, the photo community which we have all grown to love, after months of rumors and specutation has launched Flickr Video today. With almost six thousand photos on Flickr I was interested to see just how video was integrated. I was concerned adding videos might mess with the simplicity of the lovable photo sharing site that I have grown so accustom to. Flickr implemented short videos based on the  idea of “long photos” setting the limit to 90 seconds maximum time limit on videos. This makes it clear Flickr is not the platform for video podcasts or other stuff but more for short photo-like blurbs of life.

TripIt Mobile Version Launches

As a member of the frequent flyer club, I have used TripIt and previously reviewed when it first launched. Now TripIt has made traveling easier by adding some additional mobile support for users on the go with the TripIt Mobile release. With TripIt Mobile users can access what they need to know from their mobile phones including flight changes, and in my case cancellations, hotel addresses and phone numbers, and auto rental info. By adding additional integration components for your TripIt account, even restaurant reservations can be accessed.

Making TripIts applications available on mobile devices makes a lot of sense since when you are traveling you are most likely cannot as easily get on your computer.  TripIt offers applications to enable staying in touch with others in your social network, allowing you to schedule appointments if in the same area or at the same event. In checking out the mobile experience I snapped the photo shown here can be visited on your mobile device at: m.tripit.com.

What Schools Offer On-Campus Venture Funds?

Stanford University recently launched on on-campus venture fund called SSE Ventures. I think this is a great idea but I do not thing Stanford University is the only school that is doing this. So I thought I would ask SOMEWHAT FRANK readers to try and come up with other schools that might have similar programs. Here is a SOMEWHAT FRANK question for you:

What Schools Offer On-Campus Venture Funds?

Leave the school name, fund or program in the comments section below.

Blogging To Death, Facebook Chat Looms, Twitter Tools, Standford VC Funding, Fun Mobile Video & Photo Apps & Social API Clash

Photo of the Week: Spring is here and baseball is back as I snapped this photo of the Wrigley Field "W" flag while in Chicago this past weekend. Baseball is a lot like blogging (as I explained awhile back).

SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits: 4.6.2008

Video: TECH cocktail Earns CityLIGHTS Award

The Illinois I.T. Association CityLIGHTS 2008 Awards Gala took place in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, April 3, 2008. The event was held at Union Station which you might recognize from the epic scene from the movie The Untouchables where Kevin Costner saves a baby carriage while also shooting up the Al Capone gangsters on its marble steps. While did not save any babies TECH cocktail, the community building startup that I co-founded with Eric Olson, was nominated for the CityLIGHTS Award for its positive impact in connecting the Illinois technology community. I am please to report, that TECH cocktail took home the hardware. I was deeply humbled by winning the award as it serves as validation that all the long hours and hard work is truly helping to sculpt a better connected local technology community while helping to amplify that same community to the world.

YouMail Converts Voicemail to Text For Free

If you are on the go or in lots of meetings (like I find myself) you might want to get your voice mail converted to text message or email. YouMail, an Aliso Viejo, California based startup has just added this feature to its private beta which already is a feature rich mobile voice mail solution which offers personalized voice mails based on caller ID, smart greetings and the ability to manage voice mails over the Web.