SOMEWHAT FRANK

The New New Internet Is Coming Soon

What's new new on the Internet?  If you are looking for a conference to help you find out you might want to check out this years The New New Internet Conference on November 1, 2007 in Reston, Virginia (northwest of Washington, DC).

I am pleased to be among the a solid list of speakers for the sessions which include (in no particular order) Om Malik, Ted Leonsis, Brad Feld, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk and Ryan Carson among others. The speaker list continues to grow everyday as additional sessions are locked down. As a preview to speaking at this years conference on a panel about "Blogging for Business," I was recently interviewed by ExecutiveBiz.com, check out the Executive Spotlight Interview here.

Cappex To Connect Schools With Students

It has been awhile since I was looking for the right college experience. However, I do recall it being a rather daunting task as there are so many schools to examine in such a short period of time. A Chicago-based startup, Cappex aims to try give students some relief by helping students connect with colleges and universities that are interested in recruiting them. The site aims to help students, guidance counselors and school administrators by connecting them all via the web.

Students simply fill out a profile and schools can look for students through Cappex based on profile criteria. Similar to LinkedIn, Cappex enables schools to attempt to connect with students but students can chose which schools they are interested in connecting with. School administrators can leverage Cappex as a recruiting tool to search for prospective students. Guidance counselors can also get involved with Cappex by registering to assist student throughout the school selection process. Guidance counselors receive tips and tools that are highlighted in this tour.

Bottom-line: Cappex aims to connect students with schools that are interested in recruiting them.

Koonji Guides You Through "How To"

Search engines are often the first place we start when trying to determine "how to" do something we don't know much about. Searching the web does not always return the best results as there are often a number of steps involved in learning "how to" do something. We then have to figure out the proper "how to" steps and piece them together. Koonji, a community-driven site, is on a mission to change this by providing users with easy to follow, step-by-step guides to the most common activities. The Koonji community helps generate these guides by contributing the appropriate steps, recommended links and tips. Koonji is like Cliff Notes on the web.

Like Topix, Digg and many other web 2.0 sites, Koonji appears to be positioning itself to generate revenue from contextual advertising on its niche landing pages and help some people find just what they are looking for along the way. Whether you are looking to Make Money from Blogs or Make a Turkish Coffee, Koonji could become a valuable resource if the community continues to grow and contribute to bulk up the number of rich wiki-like pages.

Quiz School A Digg-like Quiz Resource

I have reviewed a number of education 2.0 products like Chalksite, GradeFix, Mindpicnic and Quizlet on Somewhat Frank in the past.  I truly believe the trend towards online education  is going to continue to grow and the number of tools will continue to multiply. ProProfs, an online resource site for educators, recently contacted me to check out their latest creation called Quiz School. They even went through ReviewMe to ensure I was paid for taking a look at it - so this a sponsored reviewed of Quiz School but expect an objective opinion.

Quiz School is a new section of the ProProfs educator resource site which aims at leveraging the educational community on the web to help aggregate a healthy number of quizzes. With the goal of being both an educator and student resource for quizzes, Quiz School enables anyone to easily create quizzes on any range of topics. If education is your thing then I could see Quiz School being a handy resource as professors can use Quiz School to for quizzes that students can access without having to log-in.

Quiz School has implemented a number of web 2.0 features which include a Digg-like voting system so users can rate the quizzes that they like the best, a tagging infrastructure for categorizing quizzes for easier find-ability and comments. For additional details on the product be sure to check out this quick Quiz School video which highlights some of the features.

My only concerns about ProProfs are in the current visual design - it is not easy on the eyes. In my opinion, the site design is too text heavy and looks very "web 1.0." It reminds me of "portal in a box" solution. However that is something that can be remedied by updating the overall visual design which could vastly improve a user's first impression of the site.

This is a sponsored article.

AudioSnacks: Bring Voice To Your Travels

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 as you tour Edinburgh which could add some insight to your experience. Also if you are a Scotland expert with tour guide aspirations you can create an audio tour and add it to the AudioSnacks library for others to enjoy plus make money doing it.

If you are looking for audio tours to download and take with you on your next trip you can search or browse the various options as explained in this AudioSnack demo. If you are interesting in contributing an AudioSnack tour to the community there are a few different levels at which you can contribute. They include simply writing out the tour for AudioSnacks to produce to actually producing the AudioSnack yourself. Which ever method you choose to contribute you can set the price of the download and get paid for your efforts. To find out more information about how to start contributing be sure to check out the AudioSnack tour creation guide.

I am not sure if I would ever take the time to contribute an AudioSnack myself, but I did find a number of tour options while searching the extensive AudioSnack catalog. I also think it is worth mentioning that AudioSnacks offers College Campus Tours as well - which would have come in handy this weekend at Stanford if it weren't for the rain. If you are a college student and well-versed in campus history you might look to make some extra money by creating an AudioSnack of your school. I would think educational establishments would also look to create their own "official" campus AudioSnack to represent their school.

Bottom-line: AudioSnacks offers user-contributed audio tours. Users can download or contribute an audio tour to bring a guiding voice and organization to your next tour.

Gradefix Helps Students Plan Study Time

Gradefix is an online tool that aims to help students with getting better grades by auto-generating an appropriate study schedule based on a student's availability.  A student simply enters all of their homework, readings, quizzes or exams and Gradefix does the rest. Gradefix uses a set of patented algorithms to look at how much time the student has available and then Gradefix calculates the optimal schedule for completing the tasks. Gradefix color-codes each class automatically as well as categorizes each task by task type with the letters "R" is for reading, "H" is for homework, "Q" is for quiz study, and "E" is for exam study. For more details on how to use Gradefix check out this instructional video.

In testing Gradefix, I found the application simple to use with a clean user interface as shown below. Gradefix makes it easy to print out a set study schedule as well as enables users to set up email reminders. Recently Gradefix also offered the ability to receive tasks list in RSS format. Currently Gradefix does not appear to offer a mobile component. It might be nice to start by offering the ability to send SMS text message task reminders.

Gradefix is free for up to 10 tasks and $5 per month for unlimited tasks. For more information on the product check out the Gradefix soapbox.

Bottom-line: Gradefix gives students a hand with task management by creating a study schedule for them based on their availability.

An Inventive Video Journey To Web 2.0

What is web 2.0? Time Magazine recently tagged it "You 2.0" with its mirrored magazine cover naming "You" the person of the year. However, the question has been pondered and explained in a number of video attempts including one by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington which I highlighted previously on Somewhat Frank. A new video recently emerged to take viewers on an extremely creative journey from the beginning of the web to what we are now calling "web 2.0."

The video titled, "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" was created by Michael Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. All I can say is, Michael Wesch thank you for producing this video, I found viewing it extremely enjoyable - well done! 

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. 

Improve Your Vocabulary With Quizlet

Remember having vocabulary lists in elementary school and your parents drilling you every day for the big end-of-the-week quiz?  And then middle school – as if English wasn’t bad enough - enter vocabulary in another language altogether.

Thankfully, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to brave those terrors.  But soon students will be able to leverage a fantastic new resource: Quizlet.  Created by Andrew Sutherland, a high school student and self-proclaimed boy genius, Quizlet takes the tedium out of vocabulary.

Operating under the premise that a) students need to better retain their knowledge and b) there has to be a better way to study for those tests, Quizlet takes on many roles so that students can get those words memorized for good:

• Instead of your mom, Quizlet keeps track of the words you know and only retests you on the ones you don't.
• Quizlet lets students share their word lists and facilitates interactive studying.
• It’s free (and thus perfect for the demographic).

Quizlet’s functionality is pretty simple: you enter or import words and definitions, and then Quizlet tests you through various mediums including flashcards, specialized tests and collaboration with friends until the list is mastered.  A screen shot of the application is shown below. Additional features include foreign language capabilities and discussion capabilities so students can vent about the merciless teachers that assign vocabulary.

Photo Attribution: density quiz 11/17 taken by Jack Lyons

2007 Web 2.0 & Tech Conference Outlook

It is time to start planning which conferences are going to attend in 2007. To make it easier  I have compiled a list of some of the best web 2.0, technology, design, marketing and innovation conferences and events scheduled in 2007. This is meant to be a working list, so if you think I have missed a conference or event please feel free to comment on this article or send me an email and I can update the list.

JANUARY
Consumer Electronics Show
January 8-11 ~ Las Vegas, NV
With four decades of history, the International CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables CE innovations to grow and thrive. This show is filled with innovations in technology, gadgets and lots of big TV's!

MacWorld Conference & Expo
January 8-12 ~ San Francisco, CA
Immerse yourself in five revitalizing day’s worth of the largest gathering of Mac industry experts, pundits, and enthusiasts. Cultivate fresh skills, nurture new acquaintances, and harvest indispensable tools in which to further feed your imagination and fuel your Mac soul.

DLD
January 21-23 ~ Munich, Germany
DLD (Digital, Life, Design) is one of Europe's freshest conferences covering digital innovation, gaming, arts and science, bringing together thought leaders from Europe, the Middle-East, America and Asia.

Search Engine Watch LIVE!
January 25 ~ Dallas, TX
This informal, half-day event offers attendees the opportunity to meet editorial staff, Search Engine Strategies speakers, and members of the Search Engine Watch community in person, network with local peers, and discuss the hottest topics and latest news in the search industry.

DEMO
January 30 - February 1 ~ Palm Desert, CA
The premier launch venue for new products, technologies and companies. DEMO has established a reputation for identifying and presenting to an elite audience the products most likely to have a significant impact on the marketplace and market trends in the coming year.

FEBRUARY
Brave New Web
February 7 ~ Boston, MA
Designed to bridge the gap between the current practitioners and the business and financial communities that are crucial for innovation and new business creation. Innovation happens at the intersections of different industries and disciplines.

Digital Hollywood Media Summit
February 7-8 ~ New York, NY
The Premier International Conference on Motion Pictures, Television, Cable & Satellite, Broadband, Wireless, Publishing, Radio, Magazines, News & Print Media, Advertising and Marketing.

CommunityNext
February 10 ~ Palo Alto, CA
The premier conference on how successful online communities and social networks build, grow and monetize.

Adaptive Path San Francisco: MX
February 12-13 ~ San Francisco, CA
Design has emerged as a strategic force in business. Managers building the next generation of digital products are confronted with an increasingly demanding set of challenges. MX San Francisco brings together thought-leaders in design & business to address these challenges.

Search Engine Strategies UK
February 13-15 ~ London, UK
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Future of Web Apps
February 20-22 ~ London, UK
Three days of inspiration and insight where speakers will be discussing the future of the web industry, Web 2.0, emerging technologies and standards, and how it will change the way you build applications. 

MARCH
South By Southwest Interactive
March 9-13 ~ Austin, TX
Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the SXSW Interactive Festival enables you to connect, discover and inspire your link to the cutting edge.

VON (Voice, Video and Vision)
March 19-22 ~ San Jose, CA
A conference founded by Jeff Pulver, VON has built a community on the evolution and convergence of IP communication technologies. Find out the latest industry news about VoIP, IPTV, Fixed Mobile Convergence, IMS and much more.

AJAXWorld
March 19-21 ~ New York, NY
The most comprehensive meeting on the most significant technology subjects of recent times: AJAX, Rich Internet Apps & Web 2.0.

Information Architecture Summit 2007
March 22-26 ~ Las Vegas, NV
A premier gathering place for information architects and for discussion about information architecture. Everyone who touches on IA is welcome to share and learn. Last year's IA Summit attracted over 500 attendees, including beginners, experienced IAs, and people in a range of related fields.

An Event Apart
March 26-27 ~ Boston, MA
Hear from the top people in the field as they discuss best practices in web design and development. Not only design and coding, but usability, accessibility, and more.

APRIL
Search Engine Strategies NY
April 10-13 ~ New York, NY
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Web 2.0 Expo 2007
April 15-18 ~ San Francisco, CA
A companion event to the Web 2.0 Summit, Web 2.0 Expo is the first event specifically designed to help teach Web 2.0 techniques and best practices to people in the trenches directly involved in the design, development, engineering, marketing, and business of second-generation internet technology.

Gel 2007
April 19-20 ~ New York, NY
Gel ("Good Experience Live") is a conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms -- in business, art, society, technology, and life.

CHI 2007 Reach Beyond
April 28 - May 3  ~  San Jose, CA
Computer/Human Interaction or CHI for short is the premiere conference in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Every year, it is a venue for 2000 HCI professionals, academics, and students to discuss HCI issues and research and make lasting connections in the HCI community. In addition, 40-50 industry exhibitors attend CHI to showcase their user experience products and departments and to recruit professionals to enhance their business.

MAY
World Wide Web Conference
May 8-12 ~ Banff, Alberta - CA
The World Wide Web Conference is the global event that brings together the key innovators, decision-makers, technologists, businesses, and standards bodies shaping the Web.

Streaming Media East
May 15-16 ~ New York, NY
Covers both the business of video on the net and the technology of streaming, downloading, IPTV and mobile video delivery. Covering both b2b and b2c business and technology issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast and education markets.

Where 2.0
May 29-30 ~ San Jose, CA
Brings together the people, projects, and issues building the new technological foundations and creating value in the location industry. A great place to meet the people behind the mash-ups and platforms, and the folks looking ahead to the future of geospace.

Mesh
May 30-31 ~ Toronto, Ontario - Canada
Hear from thought leaders, connect with peers, and get a better understanding of the impact of new developments online. mesh brings together people who are passionate about the potential of the Web to change how we live, work and play. Meet the next generation of Web ideas, leaders and companies at mesh.

JUNE

 The Next Web Conference
June 1 ~ Amsterdam, Netherlands
A must attend for every forward thinking CEO, Internet Entrepreneur, Strategy Planner, Top Notch Consultant and Venture Capitalist in Europe and a great networking opportunity. This event has an all-star cast of speakers as well.

Digital Hollywood Spring
June 11-14 ~ Santa Monica, CA
The Premier Event for Transforming Entertainment, Technology & the global communications network: TV, cable, telco, mobile, broadband, consumer electronics, search & email, VoIP, RSS, blogs and web sites.

Search Engine Strategies Latino
June 18-19 ~ Miami, FL
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Supernova 2007
June 20-22 ~ San Francisco, CA
Challenge your insights and predictions for the connected future with some of the top technology and business influencers, leading investors, visionary entrepreneurs, and provocative thinkers debating the major emerging trends in computing, communications, and media. Here is a sliver of coverage from Supernova 2006.

JULY

CommunityNext
July 14th ~ Palo Alto, CA
The premier conference on how successful online communities and social networks build, grow and monetize. Go viral!!!

AUGUST
Gnomedex 7.0
August 9-11 ~ Seattle, WA
Hosted by Chris Pirillo this technology conference pulls together the leading bloggers and social media industry leaders. Attendees from years past have grown accustomed to this experience - finding it refreshing and genuine. They created a conference that seemingly broke ALL the rules.

Search Engine Strategies San Jose
August 20-23 ~ San Jose, CA
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Adaptive Path Washington: UX
TBD ~ Washington, DC
User Experience Week 2007 with all new material full of indispensable training, stimulating discussion, and fantastic networking opportunities.

SEPTEMBER
euroGel 2007
September 6-7 ~ Copenhagen, Denmark
euroGel is a European version of Gel ("Good Experience Live") conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms -- in business, art, society, technology, and life.

TechCrunch20 Conference 2007
September 17 - 18 ~ San Francisco, CA
Twenty of the hottest new startups will announce and demo their products over a two day period. And they don’t pay a cent to do this. They will be selected to participate based on merit alone.

Digital ID World 2007
September 23-26 ~ San Francisco, CA
A source for the straight talk, hard-won lessons, and practical insight derived from real-world deployments. Our focus is simple: putting enterprise IT professionals onstage to give you their unvarnished views on what it took to achieve success with their identity deployments. Digital ID World is the industry event for learning how to help manage your business with identity.

Podcast & New Media Expo
September 28-30 ~ Ontario, CA
Event that brings together influential audio and video podcasters, digital media creators, and bloggers to cover the complete range of creation techniques, business objectives and future trends.

OCTOBER
Web 2.0 Summit
October 17-19 ~ San Francisco, CA
Focuses on emerging business and technology developments that utilize the Web as a platform and defines how the Web will drive business in the future. 

NOVEMBER
Streaming Media West
November 6-8 ~ TBD
Covers both the business of video on the net and the technology of streaming, downloading, IPTV and mobile video delivery. Covering both b2b and b2c business and technology issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast and education markets.

DECEMBER
Search Engine Strategies 2007
December 3-6 ~ Chicago, IL
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.

Happy conferencing in 2007!

VideoJug: The Online 'How To' Video Site

There are a number of Q & A web sites, like Yahoo Answers, Yedda and Grupthink among others, that have recently emerged to embrace a large number of users looking to get their questions answered. VideoJug takes a slightly different approach to helping people to find answers online. VideoJug is a video web site with International, UK and US versions, focused on helping to explain life in 'how to' videos. VideoJug helps to answer questions like:

How to tie a full windsor knot?
How to perform the perfect golf swing?
How to conceal bags under your eyes?

VideoJug produces several of the videos itself but also offers users the ability to upload their own 'how to' videos. VideoJug 'how to' videos are accompanied by a transcribed version of the instructions which can be uploaded to an iPod 0r printed in text version. Videos are categorized into a number of different categories which all offer RSS feeds of the content. Registered users are offered the ability to save their favorite videos. VideoJug viral hooks include the ability to share videos via email and embed videos into other sites (as shown below in the How to Make a Mojito video).

Bottom-line: If you are trying to figure out 'how to' do something new you might want to search VideoJug for some visual directions.

Cogmap: Wiki For Company Org Charts

Looking for visibility into a company you are working with? Or just curious to see how a company is structured? Cogmap an online organizational chart wiki may be just what you are looking for. With Cogmap you can search for a company org chart, add people to the chart, drag and drop to update the organizational layout or start your own org chart. Cogmap provides a chart, outline and directory view for each organization.

I searched and found the AOL org chart and it appeared to have some inaccuracies due to its community managed wiki format. However, the org chart is close enough to get a general idea company organizational layout. Some other org charts I came across were as follows:

Amazon org chart
Google org chart
Microsoft org chart
Yahoo org chart

I found that though Cogmap offers an easy to use product for visability into organizations it lacks ample ability to zoom out of an organizational chart. Basically, you cannot fit large org charts into one web page or print out.  Adding a "one page view" for easier viewing and printing should be on Cogmap's immediate roadmap.

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.

Internet Addicts Can Now Get Help

It's official, the Internet can be an addictive force. It can be so addictive that a clinic has been opened in Shanghai to give Internet and gaming addicts a place to seek help. The clinic is geared at helping teens in China who are hooked on playing games and the Internet by providing a place to stay, counseling and books to curb the habit.

The clinic was a created as a result of a number of computer related deaths most notably a 13 year old who killed himself after playing a game for 36 hours straight. I expect to see similar clinics popping up in the United States soon.

With everything we do getting more tied to the Internet it is important to remember to take breaks. Get outside. Take a walk or go for a bike ride. Throw a football. Watch a ballgame. Celebrate your real life on Earth just as much as your virtual one because life is too short and sweet not to.

Related Article: Are you addicted to technology?