Monday, June 11, 2007

Finally back to blog again

Finally, back again at the office!

The past two weeks were crazy, lots of seminars, trip to NY and busy with new projects.

In the next few days I'll catch up with the stories about this crazy weeks!

Check it out!

Friday, May 25, 2007

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheWebForward

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Web3 with Shimon Peres

We were on the web3 conference in December , on one of the days Shimon Peres was the quest speaker and spoke about technology and future.
A great session, very impressive.

Check it out here

Where does the internet goes to

What will be the future of internet

Check these video's to see wich one will be the future of how we use the internet:



Some more Powerpoint

How about powerpoint

Every session you go to, almost everybody uses the known and famous powerpoint slides.
And recognize the too crowded sheets, the over colorfull sheets, the too small sheets or fonts and of course the one with too much text and/or graphs!!! And of course the boring ones that make you fall a sleep.

Comic Don McMillan takes you of the how and what of powerpoint presentations

Watch it here!

Life After Death by PowerPoint

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Monday, May 14, 2007

The Next Web


Here's some info about the Next Web Conference!



A one day conference with a focus on the near future of the web and how new technology, business models, innovation and culture-changes affect the direction of the web and the way we do business. The Conference for web industry thought leaders, leading companies, innovative Startups, visionaries, seed funders and real Web savvies.

the next web on tour in San Francisco

Boris, Patrick and Arjen are the organizing the Next Web conference in Amsterdam the 1st of June.
A great initiative with many internet entrepeneurs, great speakers and interesting topics.
To promote the event a little more and of course their own company Fleck.com they took the plane to San Francisco and promoted their event.
In white suits they went to the parties, had meetings with the Internet companies, entrepeneurs and all kinds of interesting people!

The whole story you can find here >

But a quick preview with some pictures can be nice!!!





NIKE COMMERCIALS

There are so many cool Nike commercials , I picked some of them of You Tube!

In my opinion Nike hits the experience button with their tv commercials, but also with the internet strategy!

Just Go On!















Unfortunately this one can't be embedded, so just click the link to go back in time a little with Andre Agassi
Here

If you like to send me more video's, please do and I will post them!
Let's build a collection!!!

3rd of June Webby Cocktail party

Just a couple of weeks and we will be in New York and throw our big Webby party together with Jake Blok ( www.ilovethewebbys.com) , the Dutch Ambassy and the Webby organisation.

I am very sure this is going to be an amazing party!!

Of course we will also be around for the other events. Together with some of the guys from Blue Symbols.

We are really looking forward!!!

Here's is a little preview for the party and the event!!












Sunday, May 13, 2007

How to build your own TAC ( The amazing content)

One of the great things about the swoot project and the TAC platform is that everyone can build their own TAC online application.

How difficult is it?

Let’s take a look:

You have to be able to draw/design in Photoshop (or another drawing programm).
You can also use pictures or shapes or something. So you don’t need to draw it yourself.

After that you have to follow the script instructions from our tutorial ( a.k.a swootorial)


















And after trying for yourself you’ll find out it’s pretty easy.

Go to http://www.swoot.com/swootorial/ to check all the tutorial material to build your own!

When you compare it to other platforms the differences appear:

What are the Differences with other platforms?

-On Apollo or widget platforms you’ll need to have more experience developer skills
-You’ll bounce against limits in design or functionality
-One of the great diffences, we are server-based and you don’t have to people download your application > it’s just there and they have to open it.
-Widgets are limited to their platform and don’t communicate together

And of course , as a designer/developer we give you total freedom in shape, content and functionality. Everything you can imagine and design, you can build as TAC ( Amazing content).

So try it out for yourself!

There is even a contest on www.swoot.com , you can win the new PSP3 console

Friday, May 4, 2007

Swoot official Honoree for the Webby awards and other winners!

We feel like a true winner, for our first entry we became a Webby Honoree in the category Apllications and Games!

We are very happy with this result!
This is a great thanks to all people involved in our swoot project, we’ve only been around since September 2006 and already officially honoured for having a great internet service/project. This is absolutely a great compliment and a motivation to get on with our great company and deliver our “giving internet a new face” philosophy!!

This was our contribution > HERE

Of course we like to congratulate all the other honoree’s , nominations and far most the winners of the Webby Awards. Well done everyone!!


All these companies show that the internet is heading in a great direction!!

To celebrate all this we decided to throw a partie with Jake Blok ( dutch jurymember and founder of www.ihaveawish.com and www.crossspring.com ) and other sponsors.
This will take place on the third of June in New York.
The second reason is that we will start our business within the next several months in the US. So everyone who likes our Swoot Project and like to partner up with us in the US is dared to email me your thoughts, or you’d like te celebrate with us on the 3rd , let me know!!

If you want to see what the webby's are all about> check out last years video

the history of widgets

Today I saw a comment in "marketingfacts" blog ( dutch blog)

The article was about the upcoming gadgets , as seen on the MIX'07 Disney case > see my post earlier.

He made a great comment about the idea of desktop applications, but then in 1981.
The story involves Steve Jobs, Bill Atkinson and others.

READ IT HERE!


Here's the next step, Steve Jobs introducing the MAC in 1984!

What "general" to buy for 10 million

What can you buy for 10 million!

I have something! How about the General Lee from legendary Dukes actor John Schneider!

It's for sale on Ebay for 10+
A couple of hours to go till closing time!

I loved that TV serie, so a little tribute here!





And A cool Photoswoot album about these Dukes!

Do you have more pics, email me and I'll add you on the album and you can put your pics in there too! The best dukes album online! How about it?

Click here for the Dukes photo album!

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Disney got it!

Disney’s new online experience for the Honk Kong market is amazing, build on the vista gadget platform!

Edward Kummer showed this on MIX’07.

Unfortunately I couldn’t be there, but the video impressed me!
Disney truly understands the idea of bringing experience to the web and the user.













They have used the new vista gadget technology.

I think in the near future a lot of brands will take the opportunities of new platforms to bring rich media experiences to the desktop.
I am very happy with this new branding focus.
This gives Swoot the opportunity to get their technology to the front of this new rich media focus.
As earlier stated, Swoot is the only company who can offer the uniqueness of bringing rich media to the desktop in a browser without the issues of limits on design, functionality or content. Beside this the unique factor is that the technology works server-sided and doesn’t need a platform. Just your OS will do the trick. Get an icon on the desktop, be on top of mind, your brand is there all the time and never worry about users needing to update your new material. It’s just there!!!

Look at our view on kids experience in the swoot kids environment!!


Apple goes green


Apple takes up on earlier notices to be more environment friendly and more aware of the issue of using friendly products.
Great step in the right direction!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

the great rocky story told by Anthony Robbins

Digg this

How far do you go when you are one of the leading websites on the world on free speech!!

Digg decided yesterday to follow up on a request to remove illegal content, meaning a link that to the decryption key for HD DVD's.
Within minutes after deleting the story came again and again and again! The users simply took over the site for hours! This is what you call "user generated content"!

After a while CEO Jay Adelson wrote a post about the commotion, he was complaining about why the users acted as they did and tried to explain why Digg deleted the files! http://blog.digg.com/?p=73

This got the fire started again and worse! 50.000+ users wrote or commented on the code issue!

Kevin Rose added his post after this and wrote they will respect the freedom of speech even if this will get Digg intp lawsuit problems.
Very heroic response, great compliments to Digg!!
So now we probably all have to support the Digg team with money for the upcoming lawsuit!
Don't worry, freedom of speech is worth a lot to many people and Digg makes this possible! So face the issue and I am sure everyone will make their donations!!!

http://blog.digg.com/?p=74

Keep up the Digg work!!

Back in Amsterdam

I'am still a little tired, but I am back in Amsterdam. Back on the daily routine!

The weather is great here, but I do already miss San Francisco. I hope to go back soon and maybe stay a little longer......

Ad tech 4

Session

The last session of the third day, and for that also the last session of Ad Tech.
This one was interesting , it was called "The state of the agencies".
On the panel board we had Tom Bedecarre the CEO of AKQA , Ralph Folz, the president of Molecul and Martin Reidy the CEO of Modem Media.
A great discussion took place, the state of the agencies against the traditional agencies, but also the struggle for being constantly inventive for the brands you work for.
Also they discussed the matter of technology and creative departments at the same company , how do you make those two work together and even better, help the clients.
At last the panel went into the problem of being global and growing globally. They all recognize the issue of getting to Asia and Akqa just opened their company in Amsterdam, a great win for Amsterdam.
The agencies were clearly not afraid of the other competitors around, but where taking a shot at eachother form time to time. It spices up the discussion , a good thing. There must be a healthy form of competing.Specially Tom from AKQA made a great impression. Humor and a fantastic way with words. And of course all three of theme know more about the subject than any.

Ad tech 3

Session Hyper targeting

On the panel discussion the guys from the large agencies were represented, like AKQA with Scott Symonds ,Adidas with Simon Atkins and Fox Interactive with Heidi Browning.
An interesting discussion came along the session about how to use the power of social networks in comparison to getting into the interest of the users of those sites.Especially the part about how to address the carriers of thoses sites, the girls and boys with great amount of friends, You want them to adopt the brand or the brand experience. And of course tell their friends.The session came out good, even though both of the agencies were involved in the Adidas project. Thanks to moderator Rex Briggs the discussion went the right way.Rex is also the author of the best selling book What Sticks!
I talked to him after the session, He is going to sent me some info whether the book will be translated in dutch., otherwise I have to read it in the English version.

Ad tech 3

Session Hyper targeting

On the panel discussion the guys from the large agencies were represented, like AKQA with Scott Symonds ,Adidas with Simon Atkins and Fox Interactive with Heidi Browning.
An interesting discussion came along the session about how to use the power of social networks in comparison to getting into the interest of the users of those sites.Especially the part about how to address the carriers of thoses sites, the girls and boys with great amount of friends, You want them to adopt the brand or the brand experience. And of course tell their friends.The session came out good, even though both of the agencies were involved in the Adidas project. Thanks to moderator Rex Briggs the discussion went the right way.Rex is also the author of the best selling book What Sticks!
I talked to him after the session, He is going to sent me some info whether the book will be translated in dutch., otherwise I have to read it in the English version.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Ad tech 2

Yesterday on Ad tech we heard some good news for the Netherlands, It seems like Ad tech is coming to Amsterdam also. That's a great thing.
The sooner the better.

Today is the last day of Ad tech with some interesting sessions. First we kick off with the key note session about the guys from Joost. David Clark is going to fill us in on the details and model of Joost.

On AdTech there are multiple session , so I have to decide where I will go to!

Keep you informed on the blog!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Ad tech

First day at Ad tech!

The convention is well organized, lots of people from the industry.

First session was with Brian MCAndrews from AQauntive. interviewed by Lynne Johnson from fastcompany.com.
A good interview with good insights from the advertising point of view where the market is heading according to Brian.

Major issues are the increasing growth of video online and the combination with TV for the future.
On the other hand Brian mentioned some interesting things about the search for new technologies for branding and advertising purposes.
That's out game at swoot!!

By the way, Ad tech did well with the internet connection, other conventions can take an example out of this!

Some more meetings and presentations to look forward to!
So also more posts from Adtech will come soon!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

reading up

Saturday morning in the netherlands, amsterdam! the 14th of april and it's 20 degrees and sunny.
I'm outside on a wifi connection and decided I'd read up on the articles of last week. What happened this week!

We're second runner up on the killerstartup > www.killerstartups.com > help us get the votes to win
Webby award nominees are announced. ( what happened to the swoot webby sign up, next week more info about that)
Skype for the mac!
Joost made a deal with Fabchannel
Facebook launched new site design
Swoot launched the DJ Luna Browser > www.djluna.nl
Google buys doubleclick for an amazing 3.1 billion, now they control the whole advertising market........!!
Swoot doubles their users and downloads this week! We're on a role! Within some weeks we'll come out with some user stats!!
I had an interesting meetup coffeemeeting last week in the Utrechtsestraat in Amsterdam ( every week on thusday at 0900 hour). The guys from Fleck will attend next Londen Meetup and I will attend the San Franciscop meetup the week after..! So everybody in our lovely industrie who is in Amsterdam . do attend the meetup! http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1068/?gj=sj7

Our new swoot engine is being tested at this moment, and I am impressed. The amazing things we can do now, are unlimited!

Our Portal site is ( www.swoot.com) is almost finished. This week we added the rating. Within a couple of weeks we go out of beta!

Time to end up now and enjoy the sunny weather!!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Flecked

Swoot is flecked!

Fleck.com puts a layer over the internet.
With this service you can put comments on your site or sites from others!
This is cool stuff and fun to do!

Try it out

swoot is flecked on > http://extension.fleck.com/?sh=7a481a0c07bcb0af035af67c57dcc6611acd3256

Or put a comment on my blog


http://extension.fleck.com/?sh=0436015523d457cd7ddb7845f52ed986aca53808

It's fun!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Ad tech here we come!

AdTEch!

We will be at Ad-Tech San Francisco!
Today I booked the tickets!

I think it will be an amazing event again!

I am still looking for interesting companies and people to meet there! Are you there, let me know and let's hook up!

rogier@swoot.com

Photoswoot Browser

We added a Hotmail function to our photoswoot browser!

Now you can upload your photo's in the flash uploader and send your album to all your Hotmail friends at once!
Easy and fast!!

try it now > www.photoswoot.com

Update of the TAC engine

We have great news!! Our TAC engine is being updated.
What kind of new features will we have , awesome ones!
A short list:

- Anti Alias scripting
- Transparancy
- On top functions

To go short, everything you can design in Photoshop, now you can transform it into a browser and all functionalities or blends etc will work!


The new engine will release within several weeks.

Do you like to have a preview, mail me and I'll send you a first release!

DJ LUNA is live in a browser

One of the top DJ's in the house/dance scene now has it's own browser. A super cool swoot browser made by the guys of Blue Symbols ( the first browser design bureau).
Within a couple of days it already reached more than 500 enthousiastics!
Here you see a screenshot!














We wish DJ Luna great succes and i'll keep you informed!!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

We are a killerstartup

Vote for us!


Monday, March 26, 2007

Cool Twitter Apollo app.

Today I saw this great apollo app. A twitter desktop application.
I downloaded it and was impressed. The semi transparent skin is cool! Well done guys.












I always look to these things from a Swoot perspective. Can we do this to! Of course we can and we can even add some more functionalities. So we're gonna try to build a cool twitter app. also.


See what happens. I'll keep you informed when it's ready to use.

in the meantime take a look at a similar one for Pandora!


Monday, March 19, 2007

Swoot photobrowser live in Beta and the new site launches today!

We are proud to announce that today we are launching in Beta our Photoswoot ( browser/album) and the new portal site on www.swoot.com



















Creating your own online album is fun, sharing this with your friends or family is even more fun!

This is the reason Swoot launches the Photoswoot browser. This is an online album which looks completely new, fresh and cool. It has a diversity of functions like start and share your own album with friends or family, add photo’s, send a friend and it provides accesss to all other kind of cool Swoot browsers

This is by far the most cool and easy way to share photo’s on the internet and to share them. The album itself acts like internet, but opens outside the traditional browser like Internet explorer of Firefox. It opens “stand alone “ on your desktop ( see example). It is even possible to put it on your desktop as an icon so you can open it with one easy click ( you never have to go to a website)

Swoot launches a website in addition to the Photoswoot album where viewers can see and search all public albums by category.

On the website http://www.photoswoot.com/ you can easily start and create your own album.

We are also launching the new swoot website today.
Our site is now setup as a browser portal. Here you'll find any browser ever made, by anyone , anywhere!
You can search for the browsers, but even better upload the browser you've created.

We think we have a great new design and will rock on with all the new swoot features that will come in the next month. i.e. The Personal Browser and The swoot browser community!

keep reading this blog and you'll find out!

Swoot in the news

Great to start this week with some press attention.

One of the leading newspapers in Holland wrote a great story about the swoot project and published it in the saturday issue.


Several hours later the dutch marketing/weblog wrote about swoot
http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/reacties.php/9749















We'd like to thank both of the authors for their effort in writing a story for us.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

cartoons and mytoons

Finally I got time to check the mytoons.com website. It went into beta this week. What will this bring to the joy of watching cartoons on the net. And don't we all love them.

When I reviewed the site I see a great design, with all the web2.0 elements involved. sharing, rating, tags etc. When I look at the content site, you see mostly animated amateur movies. The users need to have copyrights of the shared clips. Very cool ones I have to say. There is a lot of talent in this matter. Of course the question will be if and when users will upload copyrighted content from others or will it stay in this mode. I am curious how it will evolve in time.

As some may have seen on Swoot earlier, we have a cartoon browser. This became one of the most popular browsers over time. As I said, Everybody loves cartoons. In this browser we don't let users share their favourite cartoons on the swoot server, but just use the existing sites like You Tube or Daily motion. And we deeplink them in a very cool new environment. The most favourite button is the "random click" This will just take off with a cartoon and keeps on showing a new one....!












We will keep on making the cartoon browser better and more fun. Who knows in the future we will choose to change the concept and make deals with cartoon makers, tv stations or broadcasters directly. everything is possible!!

I hope in the meantime that the Mytoons.com site will bring even more funny cartoons and animations where viewers can experience cool and funny online time.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

A safer web

I read an article from Om Malik today about the creation of a safer web. An important issue if you ask me. Every initiative in this matter is worth to try. This new one is called GBrowser and made by Glaxstar. This safe web is build upon the mozilla firefox platform. Glaxstar is an idea of Ian Hayward, also a father with probably enough bad experiences of kids surfing on the net and the ugly things they run into! The idea of the GBrowser is set up to be simple without the problems of downloads and technical support. A very well appreciated initiative. The surfing information is stored for the parents to revieuw, sites can be white listed and within the area of kids under 7 years the surf bar, menu's and navigation are disabled. I saw on their website that they also have an office in Amsterdam, so I will try to meet with them on short notice. See what they are up to. I am looking forward to try the Glubble Web.
One the main reasons I am writing this at this point is because an ugly message in the news the last couple of days. The site for kids > www.spelletjes.nl is for kids only. They initiated a chat place for the kids to chat about the games they play. But what happens, adults are on the chat place as well disturbing the kids and pretending to be kids as well with purposes we don't want to think about. So waht happens, as a result , the chat app. is removed. Too bad, because the kids among their friends really liked it. What do we do with this subject at our swoot project. We developed a save kids environment with a special kids icon. In this area kids can safely surf to white listed web sites.



















It will even be possible to take over the whole desktop so that the kids only experience while surfing the safe environment and have to use the unlock password to get out of there ( which of course the parents have)We have created the first environment and will go on with this development to make the web safer for kids. We are also developing together with some Brands which will launch their own safe environment to the kids.
As I wrote, a very important subject to protect the kids and let them on the other hand enjoy the great possibilities of the web.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Trillian web browser

How a website can become a carrier of web applications is shown by Kevin Kurtz from Cerulean Studios ( trillian). Trillian brings together all your online logins to one. Now they are planning to go one step further. By opening a basic website in flash will enable a carrier that provides access to the trillian app without installing it first. Very promising if it will continue to work as easy as Kevin shows on the demo video.
After accessing the trillian aplication it can float free over the desktop and even light up ( like msn messenger) when a new message comes in.

It looks promising in combining web apps and services as well as online as offline.

Unfortunately there is no promise to make when it will come in beta or better for real.

We keep our alerts on and inform you when the release will be planned!

check the video of Kevin here

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Even better........... TED.com

Unfortunately we are not one of the lucky ones to have received an invitation (only) for the TED event. The event will take place from up wednesday 7th till 10th.

On TED event all the important world's and leaders come together to talk about, technology, entertainment, design, business, science,arts and world issues. The theme for this year "Icons. Geniuses. Mavericks"

As always the names from the speakers will be great ( remember the apple MAC intro in '84 or in 2005 Bono for "one"?). One of the major presentations last year was Al Gore with his famous "global warming powerpoint". This year a few names of the speakers are; Paul Simon, Tracy chapman, Richard Branson, Kareem abdul Jabbar and others!!

This year Bill Clinton,will be honored, along with war photographer James Nachtwey and evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson with the TED prize, an annual award given to remarkable individuals to recognize an outstanding contribution in their area. Prize winners are granted $100,000 and a wish to change the world, which TED attendees are asked to help them do. Last year's recipients will provide an update on where their wish projects currently stand. ( wired)












One of the interesting presentation will be from sims creator, Will Wright about his new game "Spore". I am also curious about the presentation of John Doerr, one of the worlds best-known VC's, on the other hand, most of them I wish I could have joined. But try again next year!

Friday, March 2, 2007

Webby Awards, better than the oscars

The underline is 'better than the oscars'! 650 jury members for more than 8.000 entries!!
We are one of those 8.000 entries, we have entered the webby awards under the category: Game or Application
Now we just have to wait and see if we will be nominated, this will be announces in April. You can view our entry on www.swoot.com/webby.

The webby gala will be held in New York ,this will be beginning of june ( the week of 3th of June). As always there will be held several networking parties. The Dutch ambassador member of the webby Awards ( www.ilovethewebbys.com , Jake Blok) will co-organize a cocktail party on behave of the webby organization to promote the Dutch Web companies and the dutch entries. New in this matter is that the party will include sponsoring. We will also be part of this sponsporing and helping in throwing the party THis will be great fun and a fantastic way to network around the Webby Gala.
We will also use this opportunity to make a Webby browser with all nominees and of course the winners. This will also include a Photobrowser with all great photo's from all the webby cocktail party's and the event.

Now I am curious, who is going to be in New York for the Webby gala ( maybe you've entered to , let me know) and who has taken notice of another cocktail or network party around the event. And of course who is interested in getting some tickets (invitation only) for our cocktail party ( send me an email and tell me why you want to be there , I'll give away some tickets)
I am also looking for some interesting contacts to meet there, we are expanding to the USA as we speak!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

from pull to push

The increasing popularity for desktop applications, webbrowsers, widgets and application platforms the question rises what will be the possibilities for the branding and Marketing issues of companies.

With Swoot this is an important part of our strategy.

How to use the rich internet solutions for brands in their strategy is providing uniqueness and experience for the brands end users.
i.e. Nike is trying hard with cool flash sites to get to the user and make them experience the Nike feeling, or Heineken beer is sponsoring the UEFA champions leaugue to get to the soccer fan with their brand. They even created a widget-like application wich runs on your desktop.

So user experience is the key factor. Gladly Swoot can deliver that. Within several weeks two branding concepts from Swoot will launch ( a cartoon tv company and a company for newsvideo distribution). And more brands which we are negotiating with as we speak ( of course I'll keep you up to date with that).
So what does Swoot add to that uniqueness and experience factor > the magic word is Push technology.

Because of the fact that our technology is server based , you don't have to download an application. It runs from a server adress and with that the browser can work like a website.

Because of the single plugin we use, we give brands the possibility to build their own branded plugin, which will install a branded icon on your desktop.

This technology also enables the possibility to create an interactive icon. This icon will blink, make a sound, change color or highlight every time the backend is changed. So every time the browser content or the webcontent inside the browser is changed the branded icon can interact with the desktop of the user and makes narrowcasting become possible.

With this feature the pull strategie ( scream to everyone "come to my website") can make place for push strategy ( don't scream , just push forward the change).

Underneath you'll see some examples




Swoot on Ning

Swoot on Ning! why?

I like the ning project.

On our Ning page we like to invite all of you who are interested in design and development and help you to try out the swoot software platform!
This will give an entry to everyone who can build cool stuff with our software!

check it out > http://designyourownbrowser.ning.com/

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

guestblogger

browsing through the internet yesterday, I didn't found something really interesting to
blog about ( exept for Ning , but everybody wrote about it, so I'll skip), then I just
had an idea.
I use some of my colleage's as guest writers, but I figured that worldwide their are
many guestwriters.
But no place to adress them or for the guestwriters to write and post.
A marketplace for writers and blogs to find eachother would be a great idea if you
ask me
Now I am curious if anyone knows if this exists and whether it's interesting or I
have to forget about it.
If it's interesting I'll set it up!

So if you are a blogger and also like to write for others, or if you have a blog and like to have other people write there too, let me know!

Monday, February 26, 2007

Cool sites

Cool links I found today:

http://hotspotr.com/wifi > a site where users can post their wifi connection for others to find and use

http://my.nba.com/index.jspa > being a fan of the NBA , let your voice be heard here

http://www.tree-nation.com/ > help save the world and plant a virtual and real tree at the same time

splashcast

In paris on Leweb3 I met Alex Williams of splashcast. A promising new site for user generated video content. At that time it was still in Beta. Of course I promised Alex to keep up with their developments on Splashcast.
I hounestly have to say it catched me in Paris, but was not yet convinced about the uniqueness of the site.
Since several weeks the site launched out of beta and are gaining users and the user-generated content. And I have to admit , it is a very cool enriching product.

To go short: The SplashCast service enables anyone to create streaming media ‘channels’ that combine video, music, photos, narration, text and RSS feeds. These user-generated channels can be played and easily syndicated on any web site, blog, or social network page. When channel owners modify their channel, their content is automatically updated across all the web pages ‘tuned’ to that channel.

And it looks really cool, Users can make their own slideshow and use video or text to let you enter their visual world and spread their message.

I can not find any info on the site about their growth in the last weeks, but I am sure it will grow rapidly. I will keep up with the site and let you know as soon as I find out!

Alex and your team , good luck to you! A cool web2.0 product!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

the web forward on digg.com

The web forward is on digg also

check is out : under the section technology > software you'll find the story on Dekoh
On the section entertainment > celebrity you'll find the elvis story.

Go to www.digg.com and digg the stories if you like them!

Swoot Highlight > Elvis browser




>On this forum I will show cool Swoot browsers and give them some extra attention: This time a browser made by huge Elvis fan. Everything you ever wanted to know about the king is represented in this browser.




This one let's you easy browse through 12 different sections like his music, movies, people around him and more. The funny thing is that you browse and explore all kind of subjects you never would have thought of when searching through i.e. google
A simple test learns that typing elvis in google wil get you more than 48 billion hits. A little too much I would say.





Suprisingly exploring around the browser gets you more than you could ask for. The cool thing about getting all this info in the browser is that everywhere you click on happens in the browser, you never leave the browser and so never leave the experience.

Try it yourself > elvis browser



Dekoh

Last friday I saw an interesting article on the techcrunch blog posted by Ryan Stewart.


Dekoh is another initiative for getting content and applications to the desktop. They created a desktop platform where users can browse on and offline content and applications, build their own and share applications. There are three parts in Dekoh:


- Desktop > you have to install this 4mb installation to get access to the services ( i presume, because it is not possible to view it yet)


- Applications > all rich content applications build by Dekoh-


- Network, Here you can share the applications you use with other Dekoh users, like photo's music etc.


If you already want to see the things they do, you can view the presentation here http://www.dekoh.org/presentations/DeveloperIntroToDekoh.pdf
http://www.dekoh.org/ .

Within a few weeks yo'can get access to the early access software

One of the things Dekoh tries to do is to let users stop uploading to all kind of sites but just share these items from up your own pc.

With all this the question rises what the difference between Dekoh and Appollo seems to be,Vijah Puller, CEO of Dekoh says;

1. Apollo apps don’t run on standard web browser (IE, Firefox) but inside their own UI. Dekoh applications run on any browser.
2. Dekoh consists of Dekoh Desktop (software) and Dekoh Network (your own portal like ryan.dekoh.net). You can share content from the desktop and viewers can go to your Dekoh network site and view your shares. I think Apollo does not offer sharing this way
3. Dekoh supports most popular web standards like JSP, Servlet, Flash and AJAX. I know Flash and AJAX is supported on Apollo, not sure of others
4. Dekoh is open source

There are some ideas on http://www.dekoh.com/build.jsp2. Some that dekoh ships are http://www.deko...com/explore.jsp.

Again a very interesting development on getting content and web applications to the desktop. When I receive my login for Dekoh within several weeks I will let you know what it really looks like


Friday, February 23, 2007

netvibes solves widget platform problem?

In the growing interest for widgets, the need for a universal platform gets bigger by the day.
On fowa event Netvibes Tariq Krim announced a universal platform on the upcoming "coriander" release.
This is great , everyone who wants to build a widget first has to choose the single platform to build on, like yahoo, google, microsoft etc. Netvibes release of the universal platform can fix this problem.

And what we saw on the FOWA presentation looks promising.
This will solve the problem for the standards of vista, google and mac for now. The update later on will include yahoo and others.
Tariq also mentioned that netvibes will be open sourcing the platform so any widget platform can be included.

A big advantage for the widgets and well done by netvibes.

here are some screenshots:




great links from futureofwebapps

Here are some great links from the FOWA event

http://flickr.com/photos/tags/fowalondon07/
www.adobe.com/go/apollo
http://www.futureofwebapps.com/index-livecoverage.html

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Future of Web Apps

We just arrived back from the FOWA in Londen.
2 days without internet, tuesday we decided to buy internet from BTopenzone, expensive and pretty worthless. But we managed!
The FOWA was well set up, a big lounge and a large presentation room.
The first day started with an interesting presentation from Michael Arrington, he talked about new ventures, how to start your own and the highlighted some interesting developments like Adobe Apollo. Apollo is a new platform where designers and developers can create outside the browser boundaries. So you can make desktop applications, even the possibillity to use them on and offline.
Later there was a presentation from Mark Anders from Adobe. Unfortunately he did not show very much about the upcoming Apollo project. On the onther hand he showed some nice things about the possibilities of Flex and the new Flash9. The contribution of Digg was also an interesting one.
There were many designers and developers at the event, we had some nice conversations about the way the web is evolving. And we got to show Adobe, Aol and Chris from microsoft and we got a "wow" effect...!
It was fun, unfortunately the upcoming futureofwebdesign is sold out!

The Swoot Project

Here you will read the amazing story of the swoot project;

What is it:
Swoot developed a technology platform which enables you to view the web in a new rich way. The platform give designers and web builders the control over the browser instead just the content like websites, flash or widgets. So what does this mean, simple; You can create anything what is in your mind regarding design, functionality and content. You can let your browser design become content.
This sounds to good to be true, what is the catch. There's isn't any ( one, not yet available on apple, you need Microsoft OS). The platform and technology are freeware, there are no boundries.

How does it work;
For anyone who just wants to enjoy browsing > just download the plug in and click and enjoy!

For anyone who is interested in building;

First you have to install a plug-in from swoot.
A browser can be designed in i.e. Photoshop and used to create a so called .bdt file. This .bdt file is the carrier of the browser you develop. Then you get it on your server of ours and you'll get a url adress that ends on .bdt. This adress launches your browser. There is a great tutorial ( aka swootorial) online a www.swoot.com .

Examples:
We make browsers to show the world what you can do with the technology but we rather have anyone around the world use it to build their owns.
Beside that, we build browsers for brands. The technology gives a brand the possibility to get a branded environment where users can surf and enjoy content from that brand ( i.e. jetix, kids tv with a branded kids environment where kids can enjoy the Jetix cartoons and experience online >this will launch next april). Beside that brands can get their own branded plug-in, which will give them a solid place on the desktop > one click away from the user and top of mind!

So download the plug-in >" swoot plug-in" and try and experience the examples below;

- http://www.bluesymbols.com/ ( on the site you can click to the browsers they made)
- Spiderman
- Superman
- Mini Cooper
- Swoot for kids ( safe)
- Cartoon TV
- Guitarbrowser
- Marvel

So check these out, this says more than a thousand words!
When you installed the plug-in and click on the desktop icon you'll get access to much more browsers.....

In the near future you'll see much more about the swoot project on this blog!

A warm welcome

Today is the big day I start my blog.
Why? There is just so much to write about all the internet things I see and experience in my job getting the Swoot Project a worldwide browser player.
There are so many great developments taking place at this time that I see it as a great pleasure to blog about it.
On the other hand, in the case of the Swoot Project, I need to process all those new internet startups and projects to see where it meets the swoot technology.

So that's the why, see my next post on the swoot project. You'll like it for sure!