Bebo for Open Media?

Bebo, a large social network that is especially opular in the UK, has launched a sevice dubbed "Open Media" for media companies (that's you and me too, if you create some spiffy videos) to deliver their content directly within the site.

Do you want "The Truth?" Looks like Bebo users do ... at least the U.K. media outfit by that name. I'm not surprised! Here is a VERY original piece from the, appropriately titled "Melting Moms." These people have social conscience.



They allow media companies to use their own video player technology to present videos to Bebo's millions of users, AND let them keep all the revenue from ads within their videos. COOL!

Open Media includes a recommendation feature that shows users what videos their friends like. It also has "channels" where companies can offer only their own videos, with forums, blogs, photos and other features for Bebo users to talk about what they're watching. It already offers a book authors section and a music section.

Video syndication brings in lots of compelling material that keeps people on the site, letting them sell ads that are relevant to what people are already interacting with see.

Bebo claims to have more than 40 million users worldwide, although nobody knows how many of them are active per month. Users spend 40 minutes on the site each day, according to Comscore.

The San Francisco-based company has already signed up a long list of big name partners, including MTV, ESPN, BBC, CBS, Yahoo! and others as well as startup video sites such as Crackle and Ustream.

Notably, Bebo, along with Myspace and many other social networks is a member of the Google-led Open Social project, lets developers build applications that can be implemented easily across social networks. This means video applications for OpenSocial may be introduced to the site which compete with the media companies that are offering videos through Open Media.

Media partners can join Open Media on their own. For partners that don't have a video player or video advertising sales team, Bebo offers its own services.

Cybercast credit: Bebo

And Now Miro 1.0...from the Painter's Apprentices

Update, update to my post of August 16, 2007!!!

For a open source project, the Miro folks have been doing an amazing job. Here are the main features of Player 1.0, now officially off the beta threadmill:

* Watch Full Screen
Since Miro works so well for HD content, you'll find lots of video that looks beautiful in fullscreen on even the largest displays.

* Resume from Where You Stopped
Miro will remember where you stopped watching a video and will start at that point when you play it again.

* Play Almost Anything
Forget about the format wars. Miro can play MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H.264, Divx, Windows Media, Flash Video, and almost every other major video format.

* One After Another
Set your Miro preferences to either play videos one after another (in the order they appear) or to play a video then stop. If you have Miro set to play videos one after another, you can always right-click on an individual video and have it play then stop.

Congrats and lots of luck!

VMIX, You Once Sought To Be YouTube

VMIX, a company that once sought to be YouTube, changed direction to provide software to large web sites that provide video sharing. They join a host of companies doing much the same thing, including Brightcove, Reality Digital, Vsocial, and VideoEgg, to name a few.

These now serve third-party sites with video technology, that isn't as sexy as viral user-generated video sharing sites like YouTube.

VMIX had original planned to be such a site (the destination site is still at VMIX.com). But providing quality software to media organizations has turned out to be a bigger business for VMIX: Client companies don't want to put the time and money into building their own online video software.

The San Diego based company offers a video player and a content management system that includes social networking features. Visitors to a company site using VMIX can do things like upload their own videos, share videos with other users and vote top videos. The site owner can customize the VMIX player to match the site's overall design, control the sorts of videos appearing on the site, and upload their own videos.

One of these third party sites is Entertainment Intelligence, although flipping through their videos and movie trailers does call into question their "intelligence:"

Videos by EI_branded_content | More VMIX videos
View more videos | Embed this video

VMIX claims to have 190 web sites using its software, including movie studios like Universal, Paramount, Lyon's Gate, Fox Searchlight, MGM as well as newspapers like the Chicago Tribune. Through its partners, VMIX reaches over 60 million unique monthly visitors.

Cybercast credit: VMIX

The Apple of NBC's Eye

NBC has launched NBC Direct where most shows can be watched online and some shows are available for full episode downloads. This comes after NBC decided to pull out of iTunes. For now it's Windows only, XP or Vista, IE 6 or 7. No love lost here...!

Make YOUR Celebrity Video Widget with Gydget

A fan widget, or "Gydget," by a company of the same name, is a stand-alone viral promotions tool perfect for bands, sports teams, or anyone to get the word out to their fans across ALL social networking sites about news and events.

You can create a customized widget and fill it with a video, events, news and more. Making your widget is, according to the site, fast and easy. Will try it as soon as I get the right project and give you the heads-up, I promise.

Celebrities already using the widgets include Henry Rollins, Paul Oakenfold and Unkle, as well as the whole artist catalog of Curb Records. Two larger labels, EMI and Universal Records, are also preparing to roll out the widgets, according to the company.

Gydget is a good example of a company that seems to have found a viable business plan in the course of an unsuccessful first try. Attendio never gained much traction, but the company tells us that its Gydget widgets are in active use. If they work "as advertised," they will be by me too!

How YOU Can Travel to the Stars with NASA

Sign up, create your own page, and add any NASA iTV channel, plus other content that interests you.



Here is what you first on the MyNASA page:

“Register for MyNASA and get the NASA information you want. As a member you can customize your MyNASA page with the NASA channels and content that interests you. Members can also bookmark articles and features throughout the NASA.gov portal for quick access during future visits.”

Do register. The live webcasts are truly awe-inspiring!

Ustream.tv Live: Covering the 2008 Presidential Candidates

Video streaming site Ustream.tv (see my previous post) seems to have connected with politically savvy viewers and soldiers. Facing competition from Kyte, Justin.tv, and others, it has done a great job of carving out a niche for itself. A number of presidential candidates have used it to hold live question-and-answer sessions with the public. Here is a stream (if it's "on air"), captured from Mitt Romney's New Hampshire's primary election night coverage...



Ustream has made it easy for soldiers serving overseas to connect with their families. This must have been a pet project of the company’s co-founders, who were cadets at West Point together and served in the army for a  number of years. Former four-star general and presidential hopeful Wesley Clark also joined advisory board too, and "coincidentally," they received funding from Frank Caulfield, co-founder of Kleiner Perkins , the Silicon Valley VC powerhouse.

They say more than 115,000  people have joined Ustream since it launched in March, spending over one million hours on the site per month. Not bad!

Cybercast credit: Ustream