Month: March 2011

Three startup veterans, Geoff Ralston, Tim Brady, and Alan Louie are the brains (or wallets) behind Imagine K12. This new startup is modeled closely after Y Combinator, except that they will focus on education. Their prime directive is “to effect positive change in the K-12 education space.”

Rather than speculate, share opinions, or dump money into the school system, Imagine K12 will connect with early stage startups and give them some breathing room to grow. In addition to providing $15-$20,000 in funding, each startup will get valuable mentoring from startup experts.

Ralston sold his music startup LaLa to Apple in 2009, Tim Brady previously served as CEO of education startup QuestBridge, and Alan Louie helped create Google.org. In exchange for the cash and mentoring, each startup will give up around %6 of its equity. This model has worked very well for Y Combinator, who are “big supporters” of the project. In an email to TechCrunch, Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham said:

We’re big supporters of this project and have been talking to them about it since the beginning. We’ve told them everything about how YC works and brought them in to observe what we do. After they launch we’re going to publish a blog post encouraging startups working on software for schools to apply to them instead of us.

I’m pretty excited to be able to do anything to help schools, even indirectly. After I watched Waiting for Superman I felt a bit bummed that I was spending all my time working on startups instead of trying to help schools. So I was delighted when an opportunity to help schools by working on startups dropped into my lap.

Another benefit for education startups working with Imagine K12 will be their commitment to building close liaisons with charter schools, charter school organizations, and forwarding-thinking public schools. These relationships will provide an easy way for Imagine K12 startups to test their products, as well as help them avoid mistakes. If you have an education startup, you can apply at imaginek12.com.

via TechCrunch

A group of intelligent folks at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival were having a conversation over dinner. The discussion eventually moved to the fact that there isn’t really a customizable platform that an author, athlete, journalist/writer, publisher, PR firm or other brand could use to create an online identity kit. From this dinner conversation, gokit evolved to fill that niche.

“We realized that there is not an easy way for individuals to create a virtual ‘press kit’ about themselves,” said Hajj Flemings, founder and CEO of gokit. “Our site gokit helps people to tell their story and to share it easily.”

gokit allows users to pick from a set of custom themes. From there, they can integrate their talent, text, and images into a simple and friendly identity “kit” in just a few easy steps. The end result is a beautiful digital site that tells a story about the user.

As of this writing, gokit is still under heavy development and is in private beta. If you want early access, go to gokit.me to sign up and follow @gokitme on Twitter and the gokit blog for updates. To increase your chances of getting in on the ground floor, gokit gives you the option to invite 3 friends when you sign up.

Finally, a way to figure out who the black tech entrepreneurs are. Black Founders will provide a way to “connect black entrepreneurs and technology startup professionals in Silicon Valley and around the world.” The mission is simple: to empower entrepreneurs and provide founders with access to advice, mentorship, and funding. It is the brain child of Chris Bennett, Hadiyah Mujhid, Nnena Ukuku, and Monique Woodard.

While there has been discussion around women in tech, there has not been much focus on racial diversity in tech. There are various conferences and events focused on minorities, but no real rally point for black entrepreneurs. As of this writing, Black Founders is set to launch in 8 days, 17 hours, and 9 minutes.

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Initially, there will be events in San Francisco, Oakland, and Palo Alto. From there, they hope to expand beyond “cocktail mixers” into things like Hackathons and Speaker Panels. The goal is to help turn ideas into reality and provide support for the entrepreneurial community. Long term, Black Founders aims to “change the idea of what a tech entrepreneur looks like” and help these startups connect with VC money.

While the current focus is on events, Black Founders plans to look to the community to figure out what is needed to succeed. There are currently no specific plans for an online community or social network and this is one of the areas where Black Founders will rely on feedback from the existing tech community. A strong online presence will be key in connecting with entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley.

Follow @BlackFounders on Twitter and follow the countdown at BlackFounders.com for updates. There is also a Meetup group.

According to “a person familiar with the decision,” Microsoft will no longer produce the Zune media player. The reasoning boils down to supply and demand. Not enough people demand to own the device.

The Zune was probably the one device that had a chance to challenge the iPod. Obviously, it still wasn’t enough. It’s not that it wasn’t a good device, but the iPod was too far ahead with no signs of slowing down. iPod led the market in media players last year while Zune wasn’t even in the top five. Microsoft neither confirmed nor denied the rumor, but offered the following statement.

“We have nothing to announce about another Zune device — but most recently have introduced Zune HD to Canada via the Zune Originals store and remain committed to supporting our devices in North America,” the company said in an e-mailed statement. “We are thrilled by the consumer excitement for Zune across many new platforms, including Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360. Our long-term strategy focuses on the strength of the entire Zune ecosystem across Microsoft platforms.”

Instead of trying to compete with the iPod, Zune software will be incorporated into Windows Phone 7. The Zune software, which lets customers buy songs and movies and stream unlimited music for a monthly fee, should help them compete against Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone in the smartphone market. Microsoft and others have lost significant mobile market share to both competitors and, having teamed up with Nokia, are looking to make a comeback.

As the Zune goes the way of the Kin, IE 9 appears on the horizon, and Microsoft tries desperately to kill it’s own IE6, it will be interesting to see what other changes will come from Redmond.

via Bloomberg.

MyCulture.tv features high-quality and culturally diverse web content. The focus is on content for people of color and aims to bring the highest standards by judging each piece on subject matter and quality. They will serve as a hub to showcase the best videos across the web, as well as a home for original web series produced by the parent company Tyler New Media.

More than just a web destination, MyCulture.tv is an Internet Broadcast Network which will serve as a central distribution platform for MyCulture.tv. Through partnerships, they aim to “reach millions via multiple Web access portals, blogs and set-top Web TV devices.”

This is actually a hot market for people of color. According to a recent study by Horowitz Associates, Inc., black people are actually more likely to watch tv on alternate platforms. This includes stuff like Apple TV, Smartphones, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu Box, Xbox, Wii, and some Blu-Ray DVD players.

The site features a light-weight web design that loads quickly and doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles. The home page features a grid of videos from various categories and channels. You can dig into these channels using the main menu to find videos on Faith, Relationships, Music, and more. You can find everything from 4Evermore by Anthony David to the man himself, Lamar Tyler, in his “The Gatekeepers are Gone” series. The Featured Shows section gives you a detailed view of some of the available content, including full size images and longer descriptions.

There are a couple of small design glitches with the menus, but the site is still in Beta at this time. Definitely a site I’ll be keeping an eye on as it develops and it would be awesome to have access to MyCulture.tv from a set-top box or gaming console.

MyCulture.tv does consider submissions based on the needs of the network. If your video content and quality are on point and you want in, check the site for details. Categories include: Lifestyle, Sports, Film, Music, Faith, Business and Motivation.

via MyCulture.tv

Foursquare is definitely doing big things for SXSW this year. Their launch of Foursquare 3.0 is extremely important in the evolution of the service, bringing automated recommendations. This means that, instead of just letting you tell people where you are, Foursquare now tells you where to go. This is a pretty big deal and something both Google and Facebook are interested in getting into. RWW even calls this Foursquare’s Google moment.

Recommendations is big, but that’s not all Foursquare has added. They’ve integrated a new Specials management system that makes it easier for merchants to manage and monitor their Specials right from the mobile app. You can add multiple specials for all your venues and view analytics about the special using the new analytics dashboard. There is a whole new world of Specials out there, from swarms to mayorships, and they can now all be managed from the palm of your hand.

There is also a partnership with American Express which gives card holders an incentive to spend money with certain merchants:

The main idea, says Crowley, is to remove friction from redeeming merchant rewards. Foursquare users need only register their American Express cards and tap to unlock the special in the app. The “spend $5, save $5? credit is then automatically applied to the cardholder’s account when the credit card is swiped by the merchant. – via Mashable

Foursquare is also making 18 badges available for SXSW 11 this year, which mostly correspond to events going on durin the conference. Badges include everything from Karaoke RV to a SXSW Hangover. There is a Foursquare party on Saturday March 12th at the Cedar Street Courtyard and a concert featuring Big Boi on the 14th. If you follow Big Boi on Foursquare, you get a chance to get a Golden Ticket Badge, good for a free concert ticket.

via Foursquare

Results from Horowitz Associates, Inc.’s annual State of Cable and Digital Media – Multicultural Edition 2011 study have just been released and reveal some interesting facts about urban consumers. On a weekly basis, about a third (31%) of urban consumers watch TV content on a computer/laptop, a mobile device/tablet, or streamed directly from the Internet to the TV through devices like Apple TV, a Vudu Box, an Xbox, or a Blu-Ray DVD player.

Among those who consume media via alternative platforms, they spend 15% of their time on average watching TV on these alternative platforms. This is in addition to watching shows on demand or that have been recorded via DVR.

Compared to our white counterparts, black urban consumers use alternative platforms for TV at a much higher rate. While 25% non-Hispanic White consumers use alternative platforms, 36% of black urban consumers do the same.

Smartphones and other mobile gadgetry has increase from 35% in 2010 to 46% in 2011. Throw in a bunch of apps for accessing video content on-the-go and the black communities high mobile phone usage and you find that mobile TV viewing is highest among Black and Hispanic urban consumers: 14%, report at least weekly viewing, compared to 7% among White and 5% among Asian urban consumers.

More details from this research will be revealed at next week’s Multicultural Media Forum on Wednesday March 16th at The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City from 8am-1pm. You can also visit the Horowitz Associates website for more information.

Twitter’s #DickBar Debacle

Earlier this week, Twitter released an update to their official iPhone application which brought along a “feature” not well received by users of the application. It added a bar which overlaid your tweet stream, displaying trending topics and often Promoted Trends. While Twitter feels these trends add value for users, most users just don’t care about Justin Beiber’s hair or how much Charlie Sheen is #winning.

Those against the changes started tweeting with the hashtag #dickbar, which is a jab at Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo (get your minds out the gutter). John Gruber was so disgusted with the updates that he restored his iPhone to a previous backup to get the old version of the Twitter app. That’s deep. Twitter has since updated the app to make the bar less annoying, but this doesn’t actually solve the problem for most users, who just want the bar gone entirely.

via NewsGrange

Facebook Starts Renting Movies

Well, they made one movie available. The Dark Knight, which is about three years old and everyone interested in watching it has probably done so on numerous occasions, is available for rent on Facebook for $3, or 30 Facebook Credits. Of course, any time online video purchases are mentioned, Netflix is also mentioned. While Facebook does have about 600 million users and could probably compete in any online business, providing one movie on a single fan page run by one movie studio is just not compelling enough to trump Netflix’s subscription model. This has only been a test, but it will be interesting to see if Facebook continues down this path.

via NYT, AllThingsD

Kinect Grabs Guinness Record for Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device

I was surprised too. You’d think the title would be taken by some fancy mobile device or at least an entire gaming system, but the Kinect has taken the crown. The Kinect for XBox 360 sold an average of 133,333 units per day, for a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days on sale from 4 November 2010 to 3 January 2011. These numbers knock the iPhone and iPad completely out of the box.

“The sales figures here speak for themselves. We can confirm that no other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span, an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector.” — Gaz Deaves, Editor of Guinness World Records 2011

Not only does this illustrate the popularity of the Kinect, which lets you play games my moving your body instead of manipulating a controller, but it also shows how popular the XBox 360 itself is. Can’t Kinect without the gaming system behind it.

via Guinness World Records

Readability Goes HTML5 After Being Snubbed by Apple

Not long ago, Apple announced a new subscription layer for their Apps Store. It amounts to Apple getting a 30% cut of the action from users who use apps that require a subscription. One app, Readability, was booted from the App Store after they neglected to implement this new subscription layer. Understandably frustrated, the Readability folks posted an open letter on their blog.

About two weeks later, Readability was back in the ring with a shiny new mobile interface. While they’ve submitted their app to be reconsidered for the Apple App Store, they’ve launched a slick HTML5 version of Readability which should work on any mobile device with a browser. Kudos to the Readability team for putting in the hard work and getting the HTML5 version done so fast. Other developers should take note.

At a press event Thursday at their headquarters in Mountain View, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and SVP of Product Deep Nishar discussed the company’s product strategy. They covered a few previously released products, including LinkedIn InMaps and LinkedIn Signal. They also covered their new LinkedIn Today product.

LinkedIn Today leverages the vast amount of professional and social data stored in the service to bring each user a personalized news experience. Similar to paper.li, LinkedIn Today shows you the top stories in your network and industry. It also allows you to break down the stories by industry, location, company, and more.

The company’s iPhone app will also gain access to LinkedIn Today. Saving an article on the app will show them under Saved on the website and vice versa. Most powerful in this tool is the ability to see stories shared by those outside of your network. You could, for example, see all the top stories for marketing professionals.

LinkedIn Today and LinkedIn’s other products are all part of a simply strategy. Weiner explains they want to first become the professional profile of record. Next, they want to be the primary source for professional insights. Finally, LinkedIn wants to become ubiquitous in the workplace.

via TechCrunch, Mashable, LinkedIn

AOL will cut 200 jobs in the U.S. and 700 in India said CEO Tim Armstrong Thursday at the Bloomberg Media Summit in New York City. Armstrong says that AOL’s staff is moving toward 70% editorial and other content divisions. They are also moving to having less freelancers and more full-time staff.

The Huffington Post acquisition costed AOL 40% of its cash. Arianna Huffington, now the president and editor-in-chief over all AOL media outlets, will be moving to New York Thursday. Armstrong believes the Huffington Post deal is “a signal” to competitors. While Armstrong remains positive, AOL stock has dropped 25% since its IPO.

“AOL will turn around. I have no doubt about that. The employees deserve a ton of credit,” he said. “To go from managing a decline to managing growth is physically getting up and doing something different every day.”

At this point in time, AOL still makes mosts of its money from dial-up customers. These customers account for 40% of its business, but the revenue there is shrinking. AOL’s annual yearly decline in that revenue stream is 25-29%. This year alone, AOL has spent $530 million on acquisitions in an effort to transition from an ancient dial-up Internet company into a content powerhouse. Last year, they acquired TechCrunch, online video distributor 5Min Media, and social media company Thing Labs.

It remains to be seen if these big moves will pan out in the end, but Armstrong has an interesting take on the transition:

“You have to reinvest in your content,” Armstrong said. “Access to cash can be like a rich uncle — you just get money and you never have to learn. It’s time for that to change.”

via CNN

Tomorrow, in Washington, the Obamas will host an anti-bullying conference at the White House. The US Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, students, parents, and teachers are invited to discuss how to stop this bullying epidemic. The video description states:

A special Facebook message from President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama about how preventing bullying is a responsibility we all share. Visit Facebook.com/StopBullying.gov and Facebook.com/FbSafety for more information.

In the video, President Obama touches on the fact that bullying has been an accepted part of growing up, but it’s now obvious that it is harmful to our society and must be stopped. Michelle touches on “the responsibility each of us has to teach our children to treat each other with respect.”

The video is featured on the Stop Bullying.gov Facebook Page, which includes information on what bullying is and how to recognize the warning signs. It also covers Cyberbullying and LGBT bullying. More importantly, the page links Kids, Teens, and Young Adults to help resources.

The White House Conference on Bullying Prevention begins Thursday, March 10th at 10:30am EST. RSVP for the event and watch the live stream tomorrow on Facebook.

via ZDNet