This week we're trying something new with the format of the Weekly Wrapup. Instead of listing all of the posts we published over the past week, we'll filter them so you just get the best posts. The idea is that this will make good weekend reading, because it'll be highlighting the best content of the week from Read/WriteWeb and our network blogs. Let us know if this format works for you.
Note that you can subscribe to the Weekly Wrapups, either via the special RSS feed or by email.
This week we focused on online video and here were our top posts:
In this post I will show you the tools you need to go from idea to finished film using as many web 2.0 products as possible. In June, I wrote about 8 online video editors that could be used to slice together your masterpiece. But there's more to being Kubrick than editing. You have to write your film, cast it, shoot it, edit it, and distribute it to the masses. Web 2.0 applications and services can help with (nearly) all of these phases.
The tool kit below will help you take your idea from start to finish and fulfill your dream of winning an Oscar (okay, maybe not, but you have to start somewhere). This is film making on a budget.
Lypp is a free conference calling service that will launch in September. It will not be the most feature-packed group calling service, but it may be the most simple. The app will utilize existing instant messaging networks (AIM, Google Talk, iChat, ICQ, MSN, Jabber and Yahoo! will be supported) to initialize group calls. To do so, users will send a message to the Lypp IM bot with a command like: call [phone number, phone number, phone number]. Lypp will then instantly call all the numbers on the list and set up a group telephone chat.
The service will be free at launch (and according to co-founder Daniel Gibbons it will even be air-time free for cell phone users since the incoming calls will originate from a toll-free 800 number). Users will be limited to 500 minutes of free calls per month, though they can earn more by inviting friends to the service.
Net radio broadcasters have reached a deal with SoundExchange, the group that collects royalty fees for record labels, that will put a $50,000 cap on royalties for individual broadcasters. The cap will apply to broadcasters as a whole. Individual channels will be subject to a $500 minimum, but services like Live365 and Last.fm that broadcast thousands of channels will only pay up to the $50,000 ceiling.
"We are encouraged by today’s announcement," said Jake Ward, a spokesperson for the SaveNetRadio coalition in a press release (PDF). "This agreement is a clear sign of progress in the ongoing negotiations between webcasters and SoundExchange and a very good first step toward a viable solution, but it is just the beginning. As the negotiation of recording royalty rates and terms continues, SaveNetRadio urges everyone involved to work in good faith toward a resolution." Ward's remarks indicate that this agreement is still not ideal for net radio companies.
In December 2005 Google announced a Labs project called Transit to help residents of Portland, Oregon plan local trips on the TriMet public transit system. The Transit app is essentially a Google Maps mashup that lets users plan local trips and navigate public transportation systems. Google Transit now covers 15 cities in the US, including Seattle, San Diego, and Dallas, and all of Japan.
This morning Bloomberg is reporting that Google is now working with the grand daddy of all transportation systems New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Along with the New Jersey Transit, which is also working with Google, the New York/New Jersey metro area transit systems transport 9 million people each day.
As a follow-up from our post earlier today - The Web 2.0 Election: Does the Internet Matter in Election Politics? - The Washington Post is reporting that online "friends" could be pivotal in the 2008 U.S. race. But it seems Democrats have a big advantage on popular social networks:
"Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 on Facebook and 3-to-1 on MySpace, said Bentley College professor Christine Williams, who studies online politics."
So far Barack Obama has 299,000 supporters on MySpace and Facebook, compared to 169,000 for Hillary Clinton. John Edwards ranks third among Democrats with 64,000 supporters, says the Washington Post - noting that Edwards is also using lesser-known social networks like Ning, Bebo and Care2.
Mefeedia was one of the online video aggregators that Josh Catone reviewed in his Guide to Video Aggregation Sites. It claims to aggregates video blogs and web shows from over 15,000 websites. Their index include 3.3 million episodes from over 24,000 different video feeds.
In a recent blog post, the Mefeedia team noted that YouTube (and Flash Video generally) has revolutionized online video, "making it easy to browse and view what you are looking for". The problem, says Mefeedia, is that quality suffers on 1st generation video sites such as YouTube. Mefeedia thinks it's time for the next generation of online video, which the company says will have the following attributes:
This week is Online Video Week at R/WW, so our network blog AltSearchEngines went out and found the leading video search engines on the Web. Following is the list that ASE editor Charles Knight came up with - he used Google Video as the benchmark. What is your favorite video search engine? Let us know in the comments.
Also over on AltSearchEngines there is a Great Debate on Video Search. It features Mary Hodder of Dabble and Gary Baker from ClipBlast!. My favorite bit was when Charles asked:
"What would be your unique goal for the next two years (2010)? Increased market share? #1 in your Vertical? Powering the video for other search engines? Acquiring or being acquired? Some combination of these?"
Gary from ClipBlast!'s answer: "Yes to all."
Today the NY Times announced its new personalized start page, called My Times. As with existing 'start pages', such as My Yahoo, Pageflakes and Netvibes, My Times is a way to create a personal homepage for news and mini web apps - by adding RSS feeds and other widgets. With My Times you can also receive recommendations from NY Times journalists, which seems to be the only thing differentiating this product from others. Like Dave Winer, I'm left with the impression of a fairly bland and not very innovative product. As Dave said, "a couple of generations behind Google Reader."
The First Look blog by Times staff explains somewhat their goal for My Times - at this point it's a fairly basic personalized start page for NY Times readers, but there's more advanced functionality in the pipeline.
"Lecterns are so 2004," says AP writer Jake Coyle. Not wanting to feel left out after all the CNN-YouTube debate hoopla, MySpace and MTV announced a series of one-on-one "candidate forums" yesterday. Rather than a debate format, candidates will appear individually to answer questions submitted by MySpace users specifically for them. "We very much want to take the Iowa or New Hampshire living room global," said GM of MySpaceTV, Jeff Berman, referring to the informal, small group meetings candidates often hold in those early primary states.
Much has been made of the web's increased role in these latest US presidential elections. But does it really matter? In 2004, there was a lot of attention given to Howard Dean's power house, grassroots Internet-fueled primary campaign -- he flamed out and was a footnote by February. Success on the web did not translate to success at the polls in Dean's case, and there is evidence that history may be repeating. So just what might it look like if web 2.0 picked the president?
