blogstring.com

I’ve never done the “liveblogging” thing before, but I’m going to give it a shot. It’s 8:34 am here in San Diego, and the crowd is filing in for the keynote and the first wave of presentations. I am planning to give a brief description of each of the presentations as they happen, and I’d also like to point to other media coverage of the event.

8:36 am- It begins. Chris Shipley is on stage thanking sponsors.

“this DEMO is about everything 2.0″

8:43- We’re going to start by looking at video technologies. The first demonstrator is Digital Fountain Digital Fountain is launching something called “splash”. They are making sure that all video and audio runs smoothly despite packet loss (even at 20%). Even with a high loss percentage, the video still looks great.

They’re showing video live over the internet right now (girls in bikinis), it starts up immediately, and it really does look amazing. It’s streaming from Virginia.

I have to admit….this certainly doesn’t look like internet streaming video.

They’re using Amazon web services to deploy splash.

8:51- Global Communications- 2 technologies leveraging copper cable. They’re showing a “legacy” video camera and a digi camcorder to demonstrate full videoconferencing capabilities with zero latency. They’re switching between a DVD player, the cameras, etc. to show how any technology can be broadcast over copper using their tech.

They’re transferring movies using a 9 foot wide beam of light and they’re talking about free space optics. The idea: making video stream without disruption….a bird flying through the beam would not disrupt the stream.

8:58 am- ClipBlast!

The leading video web search engine. Introducing their video search widget allowing access to the video web from the desktop. They’re showing the Scoble Show playing from the desktop. They’re playing the Colbert Report from the desktop. Laughs from the crowd.

They’re organizing the video web, and they’ve been crawling since 2004.

Showtime used clipblast to show snippets from their shows. They’re now showing a clip from Weeds. Mary Kate Olsen is apparently joining the cast of Weeds. Who knew?

They’re now browsing by topics and show that you can save video to watch later.

9:04 am- metaradar

“the most remarkable web navigation system you’ve ever seen.” “an exciting new interface, the likes of which people have never seen.” Technical glitches abound, and no one can see what they’re trying to show onstage. The presenter is ad libbing.

They’re unable to show their technology right now. The presenter is doing a great job describing something entirely visual.

And now it’s on! The screen is working. The crowd starts clapping.

The world’s first “media masher.” Running video, doing searches, hitting YouTube, all from one slick looking interface. Through the interface, you can search many different sites, showing just the content within Radar rather than having to go to multiple sites. You’re also able to post to many different sites simultaneously.

It also includes what is basically video RSS. Neat.

They’ve also opened up their API to the Radar platform. Works on mobile, home entertainment, etc. Very cool stuff.

Now they’re showing the Ironman trailer. Sweeeet.

Awesome presentation despite the early glitches.

9:12 am

MotionDSP

Making mobile phone video better using “Fixmymovie.com” Color correction, better contrast, etc.
One of their main investors is the CIA.

Fix my movie is a flash based video site. You can upload your rough looking mobile phone videos, enhance them, and save them. You can then embed the movie in your site, myspace, etc. The difference really is huge, and you can also save high res jpgs from the site. Cool stuff. I’m going to try the site using my flipvideo to see how it works (I may take some video from here, and I can try out their technology immediately).

9:18 am- proxure

an automated, private, secure video distribution product: filmaroo. An interface allowing people to watch and share their videos. You take videos, upload them, and select friends to share it with (looks like you’ll have to invite and friend these people).

SDK- Soap based API.

Private, high quality video sharing right to the desktop.

9:23 am- yourtrumanshow

They’re showing their video link mapping interface. They’re unveiling their “video map widget” showing your friends and their collection of videos. You can go through networks and see friends, friends of friends, and their videos. You can play these vids directly from the widget.

The widget also connects people by video, showing people that are sharing the same videos. So, if I have a “fitzy” video in my collection, I can also see who else has the video in common with me. Very cool.

“A google map of video.”

“Youtube meets facebook.”

9:29 am- diigo

Drag and drop bookmarklets. Sticky notes that are persistent. Annotating the web. Mark and write on any site you want.

New version that adds a new layer ontop of the web. You can tag and share pages and info to a group or forward them to people right from the browser. All your annotations can be seen by your friends without any software installed.

Very cool interface, and you’re able to create instant web slide shows based on your annotations and bookmarks. Their browser extensions can show any annotations on a page. For instance, if you have the extension installed and go to blogstring, you’d be able to see anyone else that has made an annotation on this page (as long as they want their annotation to be public).

9:37 am- cocomment

Wow. Thy came out swinging. The CEO walked out and shouted “Barry Bonds is a disgrace to American sports!” Then the VP marketing came out and shouted “The troops should get out of Iraq now!”

cocomment allows you to track and share conversations. If you read and comment on a lot of blogs, it’s virtually impossible to track what conversations ensue based on your comment. cocomment allows you to follow conversations.

Track millions of conversations from hundreds of thousands of sites.

You can also form private or public groups. You can search cocomment to see where conversations are happening. cocomment can drive traffic to blogs (time to check to see if they’re hitting ole blogstring). hmmmm.

9:43 am- attendi

“the battle for seo is officially over.”

“attendi- a search engine of a different color.” they want to index you.

You run a search, and when you do so, there are people on the other end that are available to chat with you to answer your question. You raise your hand if you’re available to chat. So, it’s basically a search engine that looks through a system of people available to give you their expertise.

Search + IM + presence based system= attendi

“by talking to experienced people, we get answers that no web page can.” Businesses can benefit through attendi by having a brand rep available for a chat session. Cool idea. I want to check this out and see what you get from being an attendi.

9:49- RelevantMind

Community based site trying to answer the “what to buy” question. Product research based on social networking. Subject matter experts give product recommendations. For instance: roadbikes.relevantmind.com.

They pull in conversations about specific products to see what people are saying. For instance, looking at a specific heart rate monitor will bring up listings of conversations, and would link to a forum where a conversation is happening.

If you decide the product is right for you, the relevantmind product page links to ebay auctions and other places where you can buy it. So relevant mind also has a built in product price comparison tool.

9:56 virtual ventures

web based community of virtual VCs. Basically a game letting you predict which technologies will take off. Adam Ostrow of mashable wrote about it here. Due diligence, deal sheets, etc. Fantasy football of emerging tech.

10:01 am- ideablob-

what do ideas look like?

slick video playing onscreen.

I’ve been seeing the ideablobbers around, as they are easily identifiable by their matching shirts.

They’re giving away 10K a month for business ideas. Feedback from the community on business ideas. A network of people giving advice and feedback on business ideas.

For instance, I have an idea. I want to start a business where I create rainbows for weddings and other events. I go to ideablob and enter that, and people will give me advice on it. In fact, I’m going to go do that now.

But right now there’s a great idea: mechanical bull riding karaoke. Check it out.

10:06 am- spigit-

The wisdom of crowds. A social collaboration platform that sifts through a company’s ideas to determine what will work. Spigit uses company-based social networking to predict what ideas will take off within the company. Applying reputation and rewards to foster innovation with all the other expected social goodies.

10:12 am- glam media

The problem: the long tail.

How they’re solving it: a distributed media platform bringing together multiple content types (video, blogs, etc). 200K posts in the network.

Open API platform.

Is this thing about fashion only? I don’t get it. I think this is about beauty and fashion, but they’re talking about their content platform. Lots of models on the site.

They’re launching a widget called a story box. You can “curate” the web. I am completely lost, but I think I just need more coffee.

10:22 am vyro-games

A company that has handheld monitors called pips for stress, but they’ve turned it into a game with green and purple dragons. The more you relax, the faster your dragon goes.

They have several games, all focused on making you calm. The more you relax, the better you do in these games. The less you stress, the better you do.

10:28 am- ncursion

mmorpg for facebook. an in-depth game for facebook called mygladiator, in which facebook users vote for whether gladiators (players) should live or die. If you’re voted down, you get your head cut off.

I promise to look at this more closely, but I need to run to the pavilion now.

Morning Session Summary:

A good start to DEMOfall. The one idea that really stands out to me from the morning’s presentation: the fixmyvideo.com site. Gotta check that out! Time to go to the pavillion. I will continue liveblogging and hope to even get some video.

Filed under: DEMO, Uncategorized