HTTP Echoes is about insightful blog posts and web related ventures. We echo these insights and offer our thoughts on how it relates to web culture.
Two days ago I went to the Video 2.0 Meetup group hosted at For Your Imagination Studio on 27th and Broadway NYC. It was the first time we met in that space something like 200+ members attended, a great turn out. As far as I can tell its the largest tech related meetup group in NYC. The topic of discussion was on Web 2.0 start up companies. This is great because I’m always looking for new web technologies to make my world a lil easier and efficient. Plus I love spreading the word about whats up and coming.
The first presenter Ben Weinberger CEO of Digitalsmiths in Durham, N.C. You can call them an ad insertion company or “digital deal makers,” but the goal of Digitalsmiths is to be the Google AdSense for video. I watched the presentation and thought it reminded me of those MTV pop up trivia videos. In theory pop up ad insertion is an interesting idea and I can see how it could be very useful in some niche markets. For mass video consumption I think it would be intrusive and annoy the hell out of people. I have a bunch of ideas on how they could proceed with this, but this is not consultant corner … Those of you looking to bring in advertising dollars its worth a look
Next up was Rami Rinot visionary of Chic.tv. The company was created to address the needs of the “chic and savvy consumer who wishes to access lifestyle information in a new form of media, primarily, video on the internet, iPod and cellphone.” Basically its a 24-7 lifestyle video magazine focused on recipe’s, dining, art, books … in New York City. The presentation was quite incoherent and I was having a hard time following; however, I did learn a lot by going to the site. It appears to have a bunch of content that will be interesting to the chic and hip minded individuals.
Max Haot, Founder and CEO of Mogulus gave one of the most outstanding and efficient 10 minute tech presentations I’ve ever seen. Mogulus provides users with the “power to create live, original television programming, all done on their own broadcasting channel.” Its like a virtual TV station based on the .flv video spec. You can do real-time collaborative remote video publishing or mashups using hard media (like DVD’s or tape), Youtube, or other video sources. I really thought the remote collaborative was an excellent feature, I can see a lot of potential with this.
The last presentation was by Yuxt, a video bookmarking widget based application. Yuxt is an indexing service like delicious but exclusively for video. You can call up Youtube, Metacafe, Crackle (formally known as Grouper) … videos by typing in the search field for whatever you are seeking and it will pull up the video files. From there you can drag the video files into a custom folder that you create and drag it to the specified folder. Actually, sites like delicious could learn a thing or two from Yuxt with regards to organization and ease of use. This site is primarily for people seeking a user friendly solution for video bookmarking.
HTTP Echoes is about insightful blog posts and web related ventures. We echo these insights and offer our thoughts on how it relates to web culture.
Earlier today I read a message in my Pownce account from my buddy Casey McKinnon. The post read, “My first published article EVER!” I was excited to hear the news but even more impressed that she was getting featured in The Gaurdian Unlimited, a prestigious UK newspaper. Cassey and Rudy Jahchan produce the hugely popular online show(s) Galacticast and A Comicbook Orange. For those of you who don’t know, Galacticast is a weekly comedy that parody’s sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comics, and video-games. Let me just say that the shows are hilarious and they do a great job green screening and making entertaining fun episodes. The shows have the professionalism and entertainment value of a short form television skit on Comedy Central or the Sci-Fi Channel, but the reality is that Rudy and Cassey do it all from their humble apartment.
Back to the article… Cassey eloquently touches on the topic of the television networks and media industry buying into and not providing credit to the new content produced online. She highlights the decrease in big budgets and the audience moving away from mainstream TV and how independent producers are being edged out of their intellectual properties. “Like any company, we need a lawyer to look over our contracts to make sure that we retain our rights,” says Cassey. I am not doing her article justice by taking pieces from it, I feel its an important read. I strongly suggest checking out this “Give us credit” article and pass it along to your colleagues and friends. I just had to create a del.icio.us bookmark for it. Keep doing your think Casey, you and Rudy are a true leaders.
HTTP Echoes is about insightful blog posts and web related ventures. We echo these insights and offer our thoughts on how it relates to web culture.
French Maid TV just posted a video clip on Youtube yesterday (6/26/07) and it was downloaded or viewed over 700,000+ times in less than 2 days. The clip titled “Sexy French Maid TV - How To Share Photos” is a 6:20 minute “provocammercial.” What I find utterly remarkable is how it was presented and how it craftily worked in a smart sales pitch for a new company called Tubes.
For those of you not familiar with French Maid TV, its a series of viral video “How To’s,” taught by sexy French maids. Its the type of entertainment that you pass along to friends and they to their friends’ friends. The video clips are reminiscent of Benny Hill skits minus the Benny and the lil old man. Tim Street the mastermind behind French Maid inspires the hell out of me; as a new media producer, I admire what he has done with his brand and his marketing tactics.
This particular clip was brilliant because the title “How To Share Photos” cleverly showed you how the photo feature of Tubes worked then went on to briefly mention how it was a personal sharing network “that lets you instantly and simply share photos, music, video and documents with everyone you know.”
There have been numerous advertising and marketing agencies that jump on the Youtube or Myspace bandwagon and believe that they are “in the know” with the online media space. They need to take notes because Tim and his team are leading the way and changing the rules of the game. I say give the man a Wikipedia slot already. Oh yeah… don’t tell anyone this, but its the first time that an online “video’mmercial” has actually convinced me to buy into its product… damn did I mention that its a PC product. It looks like a great lil filesharing app. Too bad because, there will be tons of mac users who would be interested in this product.
I’ve posted the clip on my blog so you can see for yourself.
May 1, 2007 Bendrix speaks at the Podcast Meetup. Its the New York City Podcasters monthly meetup hosted at Ariel Publicity 325 West 38 Street - Suite 505.
Its called “Using Video to Expand Your Audience!” This talk takes a look at the What, When, How and Where of video and portable media.
- Fun and effective uses.
- The various media outlets
- How to engage your audience read more…
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
Our show Beneath the Beat: hip hop joins forces with Rapstation, founded by Chuck D (frontman of legendary rap group Public Enemy). Rapstation.com has become one of the leading entertainment sites on the net, partnering with, RealNetworks, House of Blues Digital and TWOCOWS. Our team is honored to be part of this growing media network… come check out rapstation.com and be part of the movement.
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
Blog, Codedsignal | bendrix | 
August 30, 2007 5:06 pm | 
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