I got a chance to talk with Peter LaMotte of Washington, DC based startup GeniusRocket this past March right after the much debated "Is Spec Work Is Evil?" panel session at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas. We discussed GeniusRocket's mission and take on crowdsourcing. GeniusRocket also has an interesting crowdsourcing story about the creative video that SXSW used this year which Peter will also share.
This video interview with Peter LaMotte got lost in the SOMEWHAT FRANK video queue but I just found it and wanted to share the video as episode 76 on SOMEWHAT FRANK. I hope you enjoy our pre-coffee talk at the Crepery in Austin, Texas about crowdsourcing.
Have you recently updated your Twitter or Facebook status, posted a photo on Flickr or posted a video on YouTube or Vimeo? I have. This kind of lifestreaming online behavior has become mainstream as the Web 2.0 movement empowered anyone to become an online content creator, trading privacy for a little taste of online fame and a connection with people.
While I was down in Austin, Texas for South By Southwest (SXSW), I got a chance to see the film screening of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC which took home the Grand Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film focuses on the adventures of early dot-comer Josh Harris as he experiments to predict the effects of the Web on society. Ondi Timoner directed the film which documents what happens when the Web takes a stronger hold of our everyday life. The movie takes place mostly in New York and includes appearances by Jason Calacanis, Julia Allison and Meghan Asha (who appears on SOMEWHAT FRANK videos here and here). WE LIVE IN PUBLIC is a must see as we all become more tied to our devices and the Web.
Check out episode 73 on SOMEWHAT FRANK adventures in personal technology as I recorded a couple of short clips from the Q&A session with Director Ondi
Timoner after the film and even got to meet her afterward. Also be sure to see the film WE LIVE IN PUBLIC when it is released as it really makes you think how we all live our lives and share so much online. Oh and you can follow Director Ondi Timoner on Twitter too.
Photo of Director Ondi Timoner and I by Jen Consalvo.
Last weekend I was down in Austin, Texas at South by Southwest Interactive and I was feeling creative and wanted to create a new experience like one I have never had at the event. I believe that my happiness is derived from my experiences so I decided to create a new holiday called Johnny Cash Blackout Sunday.
Keeping track of all of your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and MySpace is sometimes difficult but there are a number of sites and services that have been working on making it easier with varying levels of success. PeopleBrowsr is a Web-based application that launched last winter to offer a visual interface for interacting with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and more. It was created by a distributed team in San Francisco and Australia of about ten and took around two years to complete.
I got a chance to talk with PeopleBrowsr CEO and Founder Jodee Rich a few months ago in San Francisco about the basic service and thought it was the ideal time to showcase PeopleBrowsr. Thought PeopleBrowsr has already change a lot since its initail launch you should still check out episode #66 on SOMEWHAT FRANK as it offers a quick demo the PeopleBrowsr dashboard. With South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) going on in Austin, Texas this weekend it is timely to mention that PeopleBrowsr recently launched a SXSW version of the product designed for the folks who will be attending the event. With the customized application now available at: sxsw.peoplebrowsr.com, you can track parties, SXSW-related hash tags, and you can even see where people are tweeting - that is, if you can find an Internet connect at SXSW. Good luck.
I just wanted to take one more moment to look back at 2008 in pictures (above) as we look forward to more adventures in 2009. From DEMO08 to FOWA Miami to rockin' SXSW to TechCrunch50 and more, 2008 was super. Thanks to everyone that made 2008 so great (you know who you are). Happy New Year!
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.
Photo of the Week: This photo was taken while recording this Blog Talk Radio episode with Kris "Croncast" Smith and Rox from BeachWalks.tv at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas. Photo thanks to Roxanne Darling.
Kathy Sierra spoke yesterday at South by Southwest Interactive and shared some wonderful tidbits on how to "woo" users. I took some notes from the session and compiled them below. Kathy started out by saying creating a product:
"Think about ways to make your users really good at something."
She went on to explain by saying you need to work on creating a hi-res user experience. No one is passionate about something they suck at so making it easy to be awesome is a key to creating passionate users.
Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed today at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. This is the second time I have seen Mark Zuckerberg speak in person as I recorded at TechCrunch40. Unfortunately, this time though I was not able to get a seat in the main room where Mark spoke. Bummer. Sarah Lacey the author of a Business Week cover article as well as a book on Mark Zuckerberg interviewed him.
Last night at SXSW in Austin, Texas I waited in line for about an hour to get into the 16 Bit event at Scoot Inn. After nearly getting to the front door, I ran into Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV. Gary was fed up of waiting in line and jumped out and proposed we head to our hotel and drink some wine he brought in. I thought it was a super idea. So I jumped on a pedicab with Kristen Nicole from Mashable and Brian Solis from Bub.blicio.us. What happened next was epic...
Kathy Sierra spoke yesterday at South by Southwest Interactive and shared some wonderful tidbits on how to "woo" users. I took some notes from the session and compiled them below. Kathy started out by saying creating a product:
Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed today at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. This is the second time I have seen Mark Zuckerberg speak in person as I 
Last night at 
