Monday, March 31, 2008

Chumby Gets $12.5M...Here's Why It's Taking Off


Chumby Industries, makers of the Wi-Fi video and widget displaying device, the Chumby, have just announced
$12.5 million in Series B funding today. The company notes that this
new financing is going to be used to "accelerate growth of the company,
and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based
Internet connected devices." How did this little gadget get so popular?
And why would you want one? Read on to find out.






What's a Chumby?



For
those of you who don't know, the Chumby Touchscreen Internet gadget is
a popular...and darned cute...gadget that can be customized with
various channels that feature widgets, videos, feeds, games, and more.



To use your Chumby, you plug it in and configure it to work with your Wi-Fi network. Once that's done, you log on to Chumby.com and customize yours with the widgets of your choosing.



These widgets can be anything - web clips, RSS feeds, games, videos,
Tweets, news, weather, a clock, photos, or a million other things. Some
of the widgets come from deals made with content providers, like the
widgets available from CBS, MTV Networks, MySpace, The Weather Channel
Interactive, AOL's SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks.



The Chumby also has speakers, so you can hook up the Chumby to your
iPod via the USB connector in the back and play your iTunes playlists
with it.



Made for Hackers



However, what's really great about the Chumby is that the device is
designed for customization. Want to hack, mod, extend, or improve
Chumby? Have at it!



The Chumby lets you upgrade your Chumby in four different ways:
developers customize the software, build Flash widgets, or even hack
the hardware. Arts-and-crafts types can also mess around with the
Chumby in their own way, decorating it or putting in a case of their
own design.



Software: The Chumby is a Linux-based,
open-source platform which means developers can do nearly anything with
it. A quick glance on the Chumby forum shows posts about Python & Ruby for Chumby, Java for Chumby, Perl for Chumby, MTASC for Chumby, and much more.



Widgets: For Flash animators,
the Chumby can be a showcase for your talents. Artists can upload
widgets to the Chumby site and share them with the community so others
can add them to their own Chumbys. These widgets are the
bread-and-butter of Chumby, bringing most of the cool stuff like news
feeds, videos, games, viewers, utilities, and other fun and/or useful
tools to the device.



Hardware: The Chumby is made for tinkerers. You can open up the Chumby, take it apart, upgrade it, add to it, and mod it. They even tell you how and provide extensive documentation.



Crafts: You don't have to be a computer nerd to enjoy modding your Chumby, though. Even artistic types
can enjoy making Chumby their own. The Chumby is designed so that the
core electronics can be easily removed from its casing, letting you
create your own look for Chumby without having to write code. See?



Modded Chumby on Chumby's flickr Group




Chumby Industries, makers of the Wi-Fi video and widget displaying device, the Chumby, have just announced
$12.5 million in Series B funding today. The company notes that this
new financing is going to be used to "accelerate growth of the company,
and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based
Internet connected devices." How did this little gadget get so popular?
And why would you want one? Read on to find out.






What's a Chumby?



For
those of you who don't know, the Chumby Touchscreen Internet gadget is
a popular...and darned cute...gadget that can be customized with
various channels that feature widgets, videos, feeds, games, and more.



To use your Chumby, you plug it in and configure it to work with your Wi-Fi network. Once that's done, you log on to Chumby.com and customize yours with the widgets of your choosing.



These widgets can be anything - web clips, RSS feeds, games, videos,
Tweets, news, weather, a clock, photos, or a million other things. Some
of the widgets come from deals made with content providers, like the
widgets available from CBS, MTV Networks, MySpace, The Weather Channel
Interactive, AOL's SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks.



The Chumby also has speakers, so you can hook up the Chumby to your
iPod via the USB connector in the back and play your iTunes playlists
with it.



Made for Hackers



However, what's really great about the Chumby is that the device is
designed for customization. Want to hack, mod, extend, or improve
Chumby? Have at it!



The Chumby lets you upgrade your Chumby in four different ways:
developers customize the software, build Flash widgets, or even hack
the hardware. Arts-and-crafts types can also mess around with the
Chumby in their own way, decorating it or putting in a case of their
own design.



Software: The Chumby is a Linux-based,
open-source platform which means developers can do nearly anything with
it. A quick glance on the Chumby forum shows posts about Python & Ruby for Chumby, Java for Chumby, Perl for Chumby, MTASC for Chumby, and much more.



Widgets: For Flash animators,
the Chumby can be a showcase for your talents. Artists can upload
widgets to the Chumby site and share them with the community so others
can add them to their own Chumbys. These widgets are the
bread-and-butter of Chumby, bringing most of the cool stuff like news
feeds, videos, games, viewers, utilities, and other fun and/or useful
tools to the device.



Hardware: The Chumby is made for tinkerers. You can open up the Chumby, take it apart, upgrade it, add to it, and mod it. They even tell you how and provide extensive documentation.



Crafts: You don't have to be a computer nerd to enjoy modding your Chumby, though. Even artistic types
can enjoy making Chumby their own. The Chumby is designed so that the
core electronics can be easily removed from its casing, letting you
create your own look for Chumby without having to write code. See?



Modded Chumby on Chumby's flickr Group



Thursday, March 27, 2008

Zementa Brings a Semantic Layer to Your Blog

The articles Zemanta suggests come from 300 or so "top media
sources" as well as the other blogs of Zemanta users. The images
suggested come from Wikimedia Commons, flickr, and stock photo
providers like Shutterstock and Fotolia. Zemanta also pays close
attention to copyright, making sure that suggested content is licensed
as Creative Commons or approved by stock providers, so you won't get
into trouble by using Zemanta's service.



As a blogger, to get your content "Zemified," you'll need to install the Firefox extension,
as the only supported browser at this time is Firefox. Once installed,
you only need to visit one of the supported blogging platforms and
begin to write your post.



While you write, you will notice a new Zemanta sidebar added to your
post editing page, which will fill with related content as you type out
your entry. The more you write, the better the Zemanta recommendations
will be, but each entry should be at least 300 words for Zemanta to
work properly. Zemanta is English-only for now, but you may have luck
if writing in another language if the content you're writing about
involves trademarked items or well-known buzzwords.

Article Link

Sunday, March 23, 2008

The US Common Short Code WHOIS Directory

Find out who owns a mobile short code in the United
States. On June 6, 2007, Neustar announced that it has published the
Common Short Code (CSC) Campaign Directory at www.usshortcodes.com.
The only problem with the
official directory is that participation by short code owners is
voluntary. As a result, they will never have as many US common short
codes in their directory as we do.


Article Link

10 Things to Know About Short Codes


Most likely you’ve seen cell phone “short codes” when advertisers slap them on candy wrappers or big media brands like American Idol
create text message-based voting campaigns. You know, text a message to
this 5 or so digit mobile code and get some free stuff you don’t really
want. But more smaller organizations and communities are turning to
short codes with the help of startups like Mozes and TextMarks. And mobile companies like 3Jam and Embrace Mobile are using short codes to power their services.



Do you need one? If you want to market or promote something to
mobile users, manage mobile communications to members of a group or
organization, or get cell phone users to access your mobile application
or service — then, maybe. How much are you willing to spend and what
kind do you need? Here’s 10 things to know about short codes, how to
get them and what to avoid:





1). There are two kinds of short codes, shared and
dedicated. Dedicated short codes are dedicated for one customer, and
are costly and take awhile to set up – in the U.S. it can cost anywhere
from $15,000 to $30,000 per year and take two months to get it ready.



2). Shared short codes are shared among customers
and use keywords to identify their traffic. The cost of these is pretty
small, and you can access these services from companies like Mozes and
TextMarks. Mozes has been actively signing up bands while TextMarks has
been working on organizations and local communities.



3). If you want to obtain a dedicated short code in
the U.S., you have to choose between vanity or select (hand-picked) and
random codes. It’s like picking a license plate. Vanity codes cost
around $1,000 per month just to register and random short codes cost
about half that.



4). Registration of dedicated short codes is only
part of the process if you want your own code. You’ll probably want to
go to one of the dozen or so SMS aggregator companies that have
relationships with different carriers like Clickatell, or VeriSign. Research prices and compare as they are all trying to undercut each other.



5). The method of obtaining and using short codes
is different in different countries — don’t assume it’s a global world
when it comes to carriers and use of short codes. Particularly the U.S.
is somewhat more difficult than many other countries.



6). It’s also not like the open Internet, and
carriers can shut you down any time they want if you do something they
don’t like. Often startups that have created mobile applications using
short codes find out they’ve been snubbed when the service goes dead
over one carrier or the other. Fun!



7). If you are a content provider you can’t have
any fun either. According to the CTIA site you generally have to:
“Agree not to transmit political marketing (news is acceptable),
religious, pornographic, prostitution/escort, gambling, hate, alcohol
or drug related content.” Wonder how FAITH and PLBOY (see below) are
working that out.



8). Carrier control is frustrating for a wireless
startup or a third-party application provider but sometimes a modicum
of control makes a better experience for the customer (only sometimes).
It’s good for a carrier to stall applications that can mess up systems
or wreak havoc on end users.



9). If you text HELP or STOP to a short code, the
service should respond. This is implemented to help users end or learn
more about the short code service, and is useful for managing and
finding these services.



10). Here’s a site that pulls together a lot of registered short codes.
I can’t verify the accuracy of all of them (some worked with HELP/STOP
and some didn’t), but some vanity codes on this list might inspire you:
COKE, 20FOX, FAITH, FBOOK (Facebook), GAWK (Gawker Media), MYSPC,
(MySpace) PLBOY (PlayBoy).

Article Link


80108, local content via SMS

Twitter is just the beginning. SMS is finally going mainstream in
the U.S. and start-ups are getting creative with this messaging
technology that is part of daily life across the planet. Venture
capitalists have been funding a lot of these startups that use the SMS
platform to create social networks, share content, organize groups, or
create promotions.



Mozes went out of beta in March and Frengo launched around the same time. The latest to join the ranks is 80108 Media that is officially announcing their localized SMS-based media and event info service on Monday.

80108’s idea is to create 70 different SMS channels in 15 cities that
send updates about events and local insider news from the company’s
hired “correspondents.” These citizen reporters are happening folks
with roots in industries like music and fashion. When I signed up I
chose indie rock in San Francisco, and I started getting info and news
about the local indie music scene. The indie rock correspondent Nicholas T
seemed like a fun enough guy. He’s a musician, hangs out in the Mission
and likes veggie burgers from Sparky’s — they have the SF indie rock
caricature pinned down pretty well.

3 things they need to excel at:

1). programming/content



2). user experience, so the mobile and web platform, and



3). marketing


Article Link

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sequoia’s Gospel of Startups More True Than Ever

Elements of Sustainable Companies

Start-ups with these characteristics often foretells the success of a
business and the likelihood of it becoming a sustainable, enduring
company. We like to partner with companies that have:



Clarity of Purpose


Summarize the company’s business on the back of a business card.



Large Markets


Address existing markets poised for rapid growth or change. A market on
the path to a $1B potential allows for error and time for real margins
to develop.



Rich Customers


Target customers who will move fast and pay a premium for a unique offering.



Focus


Customers will only buy a simple product with a singular value proposition.



Pain Killers


Pick the one thing that is of burning importance to the customer then delight them with a compelling solution.


Think Differently

Constantly challenge conventional wisdom. Take the contrarian route. Create novel solutions. Outwit the competition.


Team DNA

A company’s DNA is set in the first 90 days. All team members are the
smartest or most clever in their domain. “A” level founders attract an
“A” level team.


Agility

Stealth and speed will usually help beat-out large companies.


Frugality

Focus spending on what’s critical. Spend only on the priorities and maximize profitability.


Inferno

Start with only a little money. It forces discipline and focus. A huge
market with customers yearning for a product developed by great
engineers requires very little firepower.

Article Link

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Hakia Licenses its Semantic Search Technology


Semantic search engine hakia
is announcing today, at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New
York, that it is licensing its proprietary OntoSem technology to other
companies. This will enable third parties to build semantic search
applications. The first such customer to be made public is RiverGlass, Inc, a provider of real-time analytics. RiverGlass will integrate hakia's OntoSem technology into its analysis software.






This is an interesting development by hakia - and has some parallels
to the young Google, which you'll recall started out by licensing its
search technology to the likes of Yahoo. But the parallels end there, because this move by hakia is more about licensing their underlying
search technology to power the proprietary applications of other
companies - whereas Google was a branded search app integrated into
Yahoo's front-end.


According to hakia, this is what their OntoSem technology does:



  • information retrieval, analysis, and distribution
  • text summarization
  • information assurance and security
  • machine translation
  • ontology support
  • terminology standardization
  • supply chain automation

Essentially, it will enable third parties to find and use "the
meaning of language" in their applications. Hakia's definition of
'semantic search' by the way differs from the traditional Semantic Web
definition, in that hakia search aims to automatically determine meaning from search queries using its algorithms - whereas Semantic Web is all about adding metadata to information to enable connections between data.


At this early stage there aren't any visuals from RiverGlass showing
how they're using hakia technology, but the company told us that "we
will see the biggest boon in increased relevancy of results".

Article Link

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Birth of a Sales Tool: LinkedIn Meets eBay


Serial
entrepreneur Evan Sohn believes that selling is a broken trade. He’s
here to fix it, and he’s attempting to do it with an intuitive venture
that is an experiment in sales all its own.















As
corporations swell and business moves Web-ward, it can be argued that
traditional sales practices -- done over a handshake or a phone call --
are going the way of the telegraph. New York-based entrepreneur Evan
Sohn has watched the transformation first hand, as an early stage
executive in leading-edge tech companies like OmniPod, ReefEdge, and
Logix. As an employee, decision-maker, and entrepreneur, he sensed an
inefficiency in the way sales is conducted in the Internet age. So he
embarked on a mission to turn the profession digital.


The product of his observations -- called Salesconx -- is an online
marketplace for sales contacts, where salespeople sell each other
contact information about the folks in their Rolodex. Let's say you're
a seasoned salesperson; other Salesconx users can pay you a small fee
(usually about $100) for an online "introduction" in which you
introduce them to one of your contacts. The idea is that every
introduction be mutually beneficial; a snowplow salesman, for example,
might connect a tire salesman and a truck salesman. Sohn hopes the
marketplace will be trustworthy enough that it will allow top
salespeople to leave inefficient practices like cold-calling or
mass-emailing behind. Think of it as LinkedIn meets eBay.

Article Link

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Mobile Web Use Growing Faster than Ever


Wireless
devices are everywhere these days. Wi-Fi hotspots are are popping up in
more places and aircards protrude from the laptops of the mobile
workforce. Computing is changing, too. Cloud computing will move
applications and storage away from the desktop to remote servers. If
anything, this drive to push data off the PC and onto the web has been
in some part driven by the increasing mobility of internet users.
Mobile access to the web is pushing internet adoption rates up while
also providing more people the opportunity to work away from a
stationary PC. So who is going mobile? Some new studies from PEW Internet & American Life Project and iPass shed some light on this topic.






Cell Phones are Still Pushing Internet Adoption Rates



Back in 1998, only one third of adults had online access and a
desktop PC cost around $1800. At this time, it was mainly upper income
Americans, and mostly men, using computers and the internet.



But now, it's mobile access that is bringing the internet to more
people. Building from the affordable and easy-to-use cell phone,
adoption patterns are different for mobile users than for those
accessing the web via traditional PC-based methods. Specially, cell
phone internet users include groups that had, before now, lagged in
internet adoption, like some minorities and senior citizens. For
example, as of December 2007, 50% of Americans age 65 and over had cell
phones compared with only 36% who used the internet.



Out of all the cell phone users, on an average day 58% of adults use
the devices, including PDAs, for at least one non-voice data
application like text, email, photos, looking up maps or directions, or
recording video.



The study groups these cell phone users into a demographic called
"Mobile Centrics," a diverse group that is more oriented to the cell
phone than to desktop internet access. The Mobile Centrics aren't into
blogging or idle web surfing, but they do love their mobile games.



If you combine this group of mobile device users (58%) with the 41%
of Americans that have logged onto the internet using a laptop or
mobile device when away from home, and you have a group of 62% of
Americans who have some experience with access to digital data and
tools.



Wi-Fi Hotspots Everywhere



Wi-Fi is still growing. The Mobile Broadband Index put out by iPass,
a global roaming service that forms relationship with ISPs around the
world, summarizes their internal data representing usage behavior
across its base of more than 3,000 enterprise customers, including more
than 400 of the Forbes Global 2000 and across more that 80,000 hotspots
in over 85 countries.



Users at a Wi-Fi Hotspot



Their most recent study showed that Wi-Fi hotspot usage by business
users increased 89% worldwide over the second half of 2006, with Europe
now overtaking the U.S. in usage. Business use of Wi-Fi nearly doubled.



2007 also showed a rapidly accelerating growth rate, with the number of sessions up 68 percent in the first half of 2007.



In the Wi-Fi hotspot analysis (period July 1-December 31, 2007),
Wi-Fi users were logging into their wireless sessions at the usual
places: cafes, restaurants, bookstores, transit stations, and office
services locations.



What's different now is the length of these sessions. The increase
from 2006 to 2007 had the typical café user logged in for 66 minutes,
up 35 percent from the previous year; restaurant users were logged in
for 44 minutes, up 217 percent; train stations, averaged 26 minutes per
user, up 238 percent; bookstores had users online for 79 minutes, up
26% from last year. Only office services (Kinko's et al) saw a lost in
number, losing 10% of users from 2006 to 2007. "Other" venues which
didn't fit into any of these categories saw growth up 103%.



Says Rick Bilodeau, senior director of marketing at iPass, "We were
very confident that there would be growth, but the fact that the growth
showed at these levels really came as a surprise."



Mobile Broadband



3G Mobile Broadband use also increased during 2007. From the first
quarter to the last saw an increase in overall data transfer, with the
average monthly data transfer rate up 25% over the course of the year.
(the iPhone effect?) Users transferred an average of 202.5 MB of data
over the course of the year. Monthly usage averaged 188 MB in Q1 and
225 MB in Q4, indicating that usage seems to rise with experience.



Over 2007, 62% of users required 2.5G at some point each month.
While only 3% of users relied solely on 2.5G during a given month,
iPass believes this low number may reflect some users abandoning mobile
data for Wi-Fi hotspots or home broadband when they can't get a
high-speed 3G connection



Conclusion



It's apparent that mobile web access is a trend that is growing fast
and will continue to grow. Breakthrough devices like the ultra-portable
PCs and the Macbook Air make it even easier to to take full computers,
and not just cell phones, anywhere and everywhere.



However, a lot of users are still using cell phones and for some
it's if not the only way, then the most common way, for them to use the
internet. For these users, I hope to see cloud computing initiatives
that given them access to the tools and resources PC users already have
such as mobile/web office suites, online RSS readers, and social
networking access. Although there are some applications that provide
these types of things to cell phone users today, none are truly
stellar. There is still a large, untapped market of potential cloud
computing customers who might stop texting and playing games for a
minute if given the tools to do more.

Article Link