Today I was pleased to see that Worth 1000 the New York based startup has launched Aviary the suite of online design tools I previously previewed into public beta. Aviary's public launch offers a refreshed look from that of the private beta and currently consists of Peacock (visual laboratory), Phoenix (image editor) and Toucan (color swatches). Aviary also offers an upgraded version which includes Raven (vector editor) and Talon (screen capture) for only $9.99 a month. This is a pretty powerful set of online tools for designers and artists.
Google Friend Connect debuted this past spring as it rolled out to a few different sites as part of a private beta program. The idea is pretty simple as it offers an easy way to connect with people on your site via a Google Gadget thus bringing community to a previously community-less site. I like to call it adding a party to a page. Wait a minute this seems like deja vu! Back in November 2006 MyBlogLog offered a similar widget that could be added to your site to help connect everyone in the blogosphere. MyBlogLog was quickly scooped up by Yahoo and has been slowly rolling out new features.
With Facebook starting to allow sites to add Facebook Connect which allows Facebook users to sign in on 3rd party sites and post comments which are then published back to Facebook, Google finally launched Friend Connect publicly just a few weeks ago. I just added Google Friend Connect to SOMEWHAT FRANK. So now SOMEWHAT FRANK readers can connect on the site (see the right rail).
Yesterday I kicked off the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) in Vegas conference with a keynote discussing social media and my somewhat obsession with the shiny new objects of the Web. I shared my thoughts, antidotes and social media stories in hopes to help both explain and motivate the crowd into taking action. I also mentioned a number of products that I like to use and refer to as "shiny objects of the Web."
After barely sleeping at all last night due to the Vegas oxygen rich air and just sheer excitement about the speaking event I was pretty pumped up and tried to wake up the crowd with a number of little ditties including singing Wheels on the Bus go round and round, sharing some fun stories and having everyone scream OPRAH at the top of their lungs! It was a BLAST! Below is some instant feedback I got via Twitter from one of the attendees.
Be sure to check out the video (below) for clips from the address. Finally, you might find the extensive list of "shiny objects" in the lower portion of this post to be extremely useful. Bookmark it, share it or print it out and put it on the refrigerator or make it into a paper airplane but most importantly have fun while doing it. Social media is life.
Today I am posing you with a challenge. Social media has made it possible for me to share my life online. Therefore I feel my life is social media. Or, social media is life. But I am only one person or cog in this social media wheel and in true social media fashion I wanted to find out your take on social media. What does social media mean to you? I have posted a very quick video above sharing my take on social media, now it is your turn. Watch the video then go to the video on YouTube and drop a video (or text comment) response finishing the sentence:
Social media is _________.
I hope that this video thread can become the most comprehensive definition of social media we have seen to date so join the conversation and post your video response today.
I recently visited Chicago and got a chance to visit the office of CrowdSpring a crowdsourcing design marketplace startup I reviewed previously and put to the test for a logo redesign. I got a chance to chat with CrowdSpring co-founder Ross Kimbarovsky (the other co-founder is Mike Samson) as he explains their progress and even hints at upcoming features in episode 58 on SOMEWHAT FRANK (above).
Monday night I attended the Intel Core i7 Processor launch event at DogPatch Studios in San Francisco which was decked out with LCD monitors powered by some of the new Dell and Gateway machines leveraging the new Core i7 Processor. Experts gamers, developers and video and photo editors were all on hand to show off the power of this new micro-chip architecture. Intel Senor VP, Pat Gelsinger made some announcements at the event which I captured on video and there was a developer code-off putting the new processor to the test at the event.
What if you could get embed video into a printed product like a business card? This is exactly what Snapily, an Israeli based startup, looks to do with its recent launch. Snapily uses depth illusion digital imaging to create printed experiences that appear to be moving like a video. I got a chance to chat with Snapily CEO, Duby Hodd a few months ago at a conference and gave me a preview of some of their products that launched this past week. So I would like to share my video conversation Snapily CEO with Duby Hodd as episode 57 on SOMEWHAT FRANK.
Last Thursday night I co-hosted our last TECH cocktail of 2008. This wrapped up a 2008 TECH cocktail season that included 8 mixer events spread across Chicago, DC, Boston, Boulder and Champaign and one full day conference. We were pleased at the consistent growth of TECH cocktail and TECH cocktail Chicago 9 pulled in our largest crowd of the year with over 700 attendees. The event showcased six startups. Check out the photos from TECH cocktail Chicago 9.
I recently spoke on a panel about social networking & the 2008 election and at the time I went out on a limb and predicted that Barack Obama would win the election. He was not projected to win by anyone at the time but he was leveraging technology to communicate with people through a number of different mediums. He was using text messaging to contact his army of follower anywhere and at anytime. He was using social network sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to reach people on the Web. Through the use of these tools the feedback loop is nearly instantaneous. He also used more conventional methods like email to send important messages in the final days before the election. I felt he was out campaigning John McCain in a grassroots fashion similar to how a number of startups have leveraged it to spread the word. Interestingly, John McCain used the Internet in similar ways in prior elections but it seems he was out done in this election.
John McCain is a great man and a great American. He has served this country for a long time and I respect him deeply for it. But in this Election 2.0, one that will be the subject of a number of case studies, he was battling the tight social connections that technology has brought to this world and so I think Barack Obama has rightfully earned not only the title of President Elect but also the first Tech President. I just hope he continues to connect and listen to the people through these various modes of communications as he tries to bring change to the United States of America.
Last week I got a chance to attend a dinner and demo night for the new startup called Thummit. Thummit is a new service that looks to offer simple, social and portable recommendations. It is currently focused on the restaurant scene and offers a way to send recommendations via text message or Twitter. You can simply text thumbs up, down or maybe to Thummit and the service does the rest.Thummit can also send restaurant recommendations back to you via text message. If you are trying to make a dining decision between a couple of different restaurants Thummit can help by enabling you to setup a poll among friends and then send it out via text message.
You may notice something looks a little different on SOMEWHAT FRANK these days. I decided after over three years of designing my own logos to have the design community take a shot at it. I had an idea of what I really wanted so I was just looking for a logo
to be used with an photograph header taken by Washington, D.C.
photographer Dakota Fine. If you are like me, you probably want to see a lot of design options and then pick the design you like the best. This is exactly what Chicago-based startup CrowdSpring offers by creating a crowdsourcing design marketplace. I first reviewed CrowdSpring when they launched back in May and showed off at TECH cocktail Chicago 8.
In this article I want to share my CrowdSpring experience as I launched a new SOMEWHAT FRANK design based on a logo design (in the up left corner of the site) received using the design community site.
iList is aiming to be like the popular online classified site craigslist but with a social twist. It offers users the ability to post an item on iList that look better than your typical craigslist listing but that is not all. iList's strength lies in the ability to easily share that listing with a number of social sites like Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. This distribution strategy is one that craigslist currently does not employ as it acts as a destination waiting for people to sift through and find items. iList's distribution approach could help it to grow virally though existing social communication channels.
Blip.fm is "Twitter for music" as it offers a microblog platform for users with the ability to search, upload and share music. Your blip.fm stream is then playable. You can also discover music from other Blip.fm users and give them props if you like a song they played.
GeoEye, is a satellite imagery company that has been in the news quite a bit lately, as they launched GeoEye-1 on September 6, 2008 via a rocket into space. GeoEye-1 is the first commercial satellite offering high resolution imagery. GeoEye-1 is also the exclusive provider of imagery for Google Earth and Google Maps.
I recently got a chance to visit the GeoEye headquarters in Dulles/Sterling, Virginia to speak with Mark Brender, VP of Communications and Marketing at GeoEye. He showed me around the office as we discussed their recent successes and future objectives. This is episode 55 on SOMEWHAT FRANK in HD adventures in a personal technology lifestyle, this time looking down from space thru GeoEye.
I have been co-hosting TECH cocktail events in local technology communities for over two and a half years now. In that time I have hosted events in Boulder, Boston, D.C. and Chicago. Recently, we hosted our first event on a college campus by hitting the road and heading down to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for a "Big Ten Conference" style event which I mentioned previously. It was a lot of fun but it was a LONG day.
I captured our 21 hour day on video and you can follow us along as we woke up at 3:30 a.m. in the morning in Chicago and returned some 21 hours later. Follow along as episode 54 on SOMEWHAT FRANK shares our adventures in the video (above).
I recently spoke on a 
