Web Tools

Video Twitter (?): Seesmic

marco Leave a comment

Only a short post as they are still in alpha. Check out : Seesmic – “The dashboard for your videos”. You find a longer review on techcrunch: “Loic Le Meur’s New Startup Launches: Seesmic“.

The service can be described as a video based Twitter, although it is also much more than that. The grand vision behind Seesmic is for it to become a very open online video/television service where people are constantly interacting around both user generated and professional content.

The startup is co-founded by Loïc Le Meur (Organizer of LeWeb3 – Dec 11-12 ’07, in Paris, France) who recently re-located to San Francisco. Stay tuned!

Read More

Tubemogul: Upload to all major video sites and audience statistics

marco Leave a comment

Do you make online video? Always go through the hassle of uploading/submitting your video to sever sites? Or gave up and only focused on one (the best?) video site?

Oh, and…. how many users watch my videos on all these platforms? How big was my audience for that specific episode again?

Tubemogul Logo Tubemogul to the rescue!

Everybody how makes web video and/or vlogs will find this site extremely helpful. I have not yet checked it out but heard very positive things about it. Let me know if you have used it and want to share your experience. Leave a comment! Thanks!

Read More

Utilizing a corporate blog for company communication

marco Leave a comment

More and more companies are using corporate blogs as part of their (marketing) communication.
But a blog should be a way to open up to your customers. Another example is the new corporate blog of Dell like Micropersuation writes:

Dell Starts Corporate Blog, But Fails to Address Critical Issues
More importantly, Dell really failed to get the blog going the way that they could have. This was a golden opportunity for the company. They could use the blog to engage the community in a genuine conversation on the critical issues that have dogged them for years now as well as the good things they are doing.

Is your company using or planning to use a corporate blog? What are your experiences with corporate blogs?

Read More

ION media player for podcasts and the Web

marco Leave a comment

This time i would like to introduce ION: a java based player for media on the Web. A few days ago a new version ha come out that is really great! Use it!

From the Site comes the following description. Experience the Media Web:

A Media Console: ION makes it easy for you to find, manage and experience rich media content on the web. Once you have ION installed, you can subscribe to your favorite content, search multiple media search engines at once, create playlists, and share your favorite content with your friends.

An Open Media Player: When you find the content you want, ION will playback the media for you. It supports most media file formats, so you can sit back and enjoy videos from Yahoo! Video, YouTube, Grouper, Revver or anywhere, in one player. You an also enjoy audio podcasts and songs by indy artists.

ION also provides photocasting technology so that you can subscribe to photo feeds from Flickr (say that really fast!) and other photo-sharing sites that support Syndication.

Media Delivered Automatically

Subscribe to Content Feeds: ION allows you to subscribe to media feeds such as podcasts and video blogs. You can set ION to auto-download the content so that it is waiting for you and ready to play. Every day ION will go out and retrieve new content from your subscribed feeds.

Read More

Ever wanted to teach?

marco 2 Comments

There are many new sites coming up. This one is really trying to change another field: teaching. You can create own courses at: nuvvo. Give it a try!

eLearning is something that will rapidly develop in the coming years. Now everybody can do the teaching. Is this giving us better material to learn from? Let’s find out!

Read More

Web 2.0 Germany

marco 3 Comments

I would like to list some of the start-ups coming from Germany and review them on a regular basis. I am thinking of giving them a permanent page soon.

Some of them are already well established like:

Some are upcoming and going fast:

  • QYPE (reviews of places) and
  • Plazes (where do I find what, being Swiss based(!), integrates now with GoogleMaps, Skype and a mobile version is coming up)

Further upcoming sites:

Feel invited to add further sites and information about them.

Read More

How to approach VoIP

marco Leave a comment

Lately nearly everybody tries to get into the VoIP arena. Some take the same route as Skype (like Yahoo, MS, Google etc.) and some try to find other ways to make VoIP happen.

Yahoo works together with at&t in the U.S. What i find let’s say interesting due to the fact that at&t has it’s service CallVantage. But they provide DSL together so they provide VoIP… I think. Basically they try to make call to traditional phone cheap. Having better prices than the at&t service. But the prices seem to change quickly in these days…

Next we have Lycos. They call it Lycos Phone and focus on calls and payed video content (?). The trick for them is that they work together globe7.com. Through this services you are able to watch advertising or participate somewhere and get free minutes voucher for it. What could virtually make your calls free then… But looking into all the ads all the time to save the 1-2 cents / min.? Decide yourself…
Great feature is that you get your own VoIP Number reachable from e.g. land line phones, a voice box and fax receiving once you have become a Gold Member.

Than we have a totally different approach to VoIP: Jajah. Like a combination of VoIP over the Internet and a land line phone. You simply type in your number and the number you do like to call. Jajah is then connecting the two and you simply pick up your own landline phone. The connection is established to the destination number and you have a cheap call AND use your existing phone. No headphone and mic needed! Nice!
And there is the recent attempt of Skype to get all of the market in making all calls free to any land line or mobile phone in the U.S. Beat this!

Read More

1st Radio Interview ever using VoIP on an Airplane

marco Leave a comment

Do you still think that big equipment is needed to make a live radio interview? And let’s further add the fact that you are traveling on a plane from Europe to the U.S.?

Than have a look: Insert (WS_in_LH_456_3.jpg) and Insert (LH_Skype_2.jpg)

Wolf Siegert is claiming to be the first (again) this time doing a radio interview via VoIP while traveling on an air plane. You can read more of it on his page (in German) at DayByDay. Including the radio interviews.

If you still wander what the radio interviews are about: Wolf Siegert is on his way to the NAB Show 2006 in Las Vegas and talking about the change of technology (Availability of IP/Internet while traveling in trains and (now) planes) and his expectations of the show.

The connection is working this way:
Lufthansa has installed WiFi (W-Lan) on their planes. So the connection from the Laptop is established using WiFi available for everyone on the plane. The signal is than transmitted via satellite to the ground being “normal” Internet communication than…

Let me know what stunts you have done while up in the air and what you think this can enable!

Read More

VoIP Testrun

marco Leave a comment

For some days now I very intensely tested different VoIP Programs and Services. And while there is still for sure some way to go to be really mainstream… You get already a lot out of the Services offered today!

Sure there is Skype (you can make free calls over the Internet and buy credits to make calls to normal land lines…) and now Gizmo. But many VoIP Service-Provider are coming up.

I even started to use different Provider depending on which country I am calling in.

A great and free prgram to combine different providers is x-Lite. I used it to connect two German (Web.de FreePhone & GMX NetPhone) and a US (Gizmo) provider. I was able to receive calls on my VoIP Phone number and make calls in both countries.

The big advantage is that you are able to dial 0800- (free call) and 0900- (toll call) numbers with some of these services not reachable through traditional land line calls from abroad! Additionally every service offers different prices for calls to different counties and you can make the cheapest call depending on where the call terminates.
I will add more to this topic as I work with these services.

Read More