SOMEWHAT FRANK

Video: BrickFair LEGO Fest 2008

LEGOs could be considered the building the blocks of your childhood war chest, as the tiny pronged bricks offer the ability to create just about anything you put you mind to.  I have not played with LEGOs in years but age is no barrier as both kids and adults alike can share a creative moment with LEGOs. I recently attended the 2008 DC BrickFair LEGO Fest to see some of the creative innovations being constructed with LEGOs. Also it is worth noting the event offers up a charity contribution to the SladeChild Foundation.

This weekend edition and episode 41 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV, explores the LEGO Universe at the DC BrickFair LEGO Fest. Check out BrickFair video below as I chat with Todd Webb who organized the event for the first time. LEGO fans of all ages share their creations, films and knowledge with the rest of LEGO Land. Also you can check out these photos from the event.

Video: Foodzie Web Gourmet Food Marketplace

Are you a foodie? If you love food you might want to watch episode 40 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV as it explores the new gourmet food marketplace called Foodzie. Foodzie looks to make it easy for gourmet food producers to sell their products online similar to how Etsy creates a marketplace for handmade goods. Foodies should love it as it offers a brand new channel for buying gourmet food. Foodzie is based in Boulder and was founded as part of the 2008 TechStars incubator program by Emily Olson, Nik Bauman and Rob LaFave.

I had a chance to meetup with the Foodzie team recently and talk with them about their new food product marketplace. Check out the video with Foodzie (below).

Me.dium Social Search Shows Off What's Hot

Ever wonder what sites and services are hot on the Web at any given time? I do. Me.dium, a Boulder, Colorado-based search startup, also has had that question on its mind as it recently launched a social search product called Me.dium Social Search. Me.dium has been known for its social toolbar products for the past few years but taken its learnings and social data and created an social search product based on real-time social activity on the Web.

MyDropBin: Gives Online Storage Control

Online storage has been something that I have been a little skeptical of over the past few years as certain storage sites have come and gone leaving users without access to their stuff. With solving this problem in mind, DC area blogger Jimmy Gardner decided to write up some specs and financed the creation of a new set of online tools. MyDropBin was launched to help users save and share stuff online. 

Video: JamLegend Offers An Online Guitar Hero

It seems like just yesterday that I talked to Andrew Lee at the Lijit breakfast that followed the last TECH cocktail DC event. Andrew explained how he was looking to create a free online alternative to the popular music video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero as part of the 2008 LaunchBox Digital incubator program. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of that becoming reality in just a summer. But Andrew and his team made me eat my words a few weeks ago when they demonstrated JamLegend at LaunchBox Digital.

I was able to capture a few video clips with JamLegend and have compiled them into an episode 39 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV. Check out the video (below) which shows off JamLegend and stars myself, Andrew Lee and the JamLegend team of Ryan Wilson and Arjun Lall, as well as well as cameos from Jimmy Gardner and Nick O'Neill.

JamLegend LaunchBox Digital Preview from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

Video: Talking Blogs & Book Writing With "Blog Mother" Amanda Watlington

A "blog mother" is a person that inspired you to start a blog. For me, it is was a session which covered blogging led by Amanda Watlington and Jeremy Zawondny which inspired me to start Somewhat Frank, and the rest is history. I ran into Amanda while hosting TECH cocktail Boston 2 a few weeks ago who I had not seen since ad:tech Chicago back in the summer of 2006.

I was able to sit down with Amanda Watlington and chat with her for a bit about search,blogging and the book writing process for episode 38 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV. Check out the video (below) as I chat with my "blog mother" Amanda Watlington.

Thanks to David Dalka for filming the episode.

Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Event In Woodstock

Peace and love. That is what most people probably think when they hear about Woodstock. Or maybe the little yellow bird that was Snoopy's companion for all those comical episodes is the first thing that comes to mind. Those are all valid Woodstock examples but are not the Woodstock I am referring to in this title. Woodstock means something a little different to me as it is my hometown in Illinois and I am pleased that my friend and wine expert turned Wine Library TV video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk and I will be visiting on September 20th. Tickets are now available online for An Evening with Gary Vaynerchuk which is a benefit for the Creative Living After Dark Series of the Woodstock Fine Arts Association.

If you are in the Chicago area you should definitely buy your ticket now because this is going to be a very special evening with Gary as he talks wine and does a intimate wine and cheese reception and book signing on the Woodstock Square. I will be there as well as I introduce him in the historic Woodstock Opera House which was the building Bill Murray does a tower jump in the movie Groundhog Day and is also the place Orson Welles and Paul Newman got their start.

GET YOUR TICKET NOW as Gary Vaynerchuk brings the wine thunder to Woodstock!

C-SPAN Launching Site To Track Election 2008

I am in Boulder this week and it is buzzing as it prepares for the the Democratic National Convention which is taking place just a few miles away in Denver starting next week. With the Republican National Conventions also right around the corner and the election only a few months away C-SPAN has launched some new sites to accent the C-SPAN Politics to ensure we are all kept up to speed with all social media related conversations surrounding politics and the 2008 election.

Designed by Washington, D.C. interactive agency Jess3 the site acts as a up for the upcoming election. It also has specific hubs for both the DNC08 and RNC08. The site pulls in social media content from Twitter, YouTube and Qik and even highlights certain items. The new C-SPAN Convention Hubs do a great job aggregating up to the minute coverage by leveraging user-generated content to offer a social angle on the 2008 election.

Screen-shots can be found here. TechCrunch also offers some additional commentary.

TechStars 2008 Demo Day & TECH cocktail

Think you want to start a new company and need a little funding and guidance? You might want to check into an incubator program. I recently covered Y Combinator and LaunchBox Digital as they each launched a dozen startup. Today I was in Boulder, Colorado as TechStars 2008 Investor and Demo day as it launched its second years worth of startups.

TechStars was founded last year by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown and Jared Polis and helped produce some great new startups in its first year. I previously visited the TechStars office last time I was in Boulder. Today I wanted to give you a preview of the startups that presented.

Business Week Launches Social News Exchange

There are number of social news offerings on the Web these days with sites like Mixx, Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. They offer a great way to discover new content from across the Web. Business Week has just rolled out its own social news offering called Business Exchange. Though Business Exchange is still very much an alpha it already appears to offer a number of topics and links to content contributed by the community. The articles are then linked back to the original source.

Y Combinator 2008 Startups I Like

There are a number of incubator programs out there and I have been lucky enough to get invited to attend some of them in person. I attended LaunchBox Digital a few weeks ago and I plan on attending TechStars and DreamIt Ventures soon too. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to attand the Y Combinator demo day last week but I did get a chance to look at a few of the startups that launched. TechCrunch covered the 14 startups that launched and I was surprised to see I already knew the names of some of them.

Mint Redesigns, Adds More Tools & Services

Mint, the online personal finance dashboard, which I covered previously when it made a big splash by launching at TechCrunch40 last fall has launched a redesign. The past design won a Webby Award for its design but the new site adds some additional features. The new features include educational “how to” guides on managing critical money management issues, enhanced budgeting tools and the addition of investment and brokerage accounts, mortgage, student and auto loans.

Check out the new Mint if you are looking to try an online personal finance site. Other solid options also include Geezeo and Quicken Online.

Make Money Selling Your Photos With Photrade

When design firms are looking for images for projects, they typically go to Getty or other more traditional stock photo sites. When bloggers need an image, they use their own  or likely go straight to Google or Flickr.  If all goes well, they find an image they can use legally.  In other cases.... well, let's just say there are a lot of pictures being used today that violate the owner's copyright. Photrade, a new site still in private beta, is set on protecting photographer's rights while changing the way bloggers and online publishers find images in hopes of creating a win-win environment for the publishers and photographers alike.

Yep, It's True, AOL To Acquire SocialThing

A few weeks ago Mike Arrington gave me a call asking me if, my employer, AOL, had acquired SocialThing. Though it struck very close to home, I had to bite my tongue since the deal had not yet closed and did not comment on the matter. Now that is has been officially released, I can. It is true, AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire SocialThing, the Boulder, Colorado based social aggregating lifestream startup. The terms are not disclosed and the acquisition is still subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

I met founders Matt "indiekid" Galligan, Ben Brightwell and the team as they demo'ed at TECH cocktail Boulder on March 6th. Matt is originally from Illinois, like I am, and moved to Boulder to create SocialThing as part of the TechStars incubator program. I got a preview of the SocialThing private beta at TECH cocktail (shown in the video below) which was a few days before they launched at SXSW Interactive and were written up favorably on TechCrunch as being easier to use than FriendFeed. I was impressed by what this startup had created as it offered a wrapper for all your social activities making it easy to post to multiple networks at once. SocialThing is integrated with 13 social media properties including Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Flickr and is currently still in private beta.

I Want To Capture Video On My iPhone!

Video streaming via mobile devices can now be done thanks to services like Flixwagon, Kyte and Qik. These services have come out with a number of ways to use the services on Nokia and Samsung phones and stream video content live to the Web. It is pretty amazing technology. Flixwagon and Qik have both come out with ways to use its services on "hacked" or "unlocked" iPhones but currently there is not a way for these services to create a legitimate  iPhone  application with video capturing capabilities as TechCrunch explains. This is a total bummer.

I want video capture capabilities on the iPhone!

I want to be able use my iPhone to capture video while on the go. I would even go as far to say I would be ok with just the capturing functionality to start with and could hold out a bit on the streaming capability. Come on Apple what gives?