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OpenACircle is a new collaboration tool for teams which includes innovative screen-sharing and video conferencing features for instant collaboration with co-workers. This makes OpenACircle somewhat unique in the web-based project/task management space where most competitors have just designed a lightweight version of SharePoint and offer it up as a service. Instead, OpenACircle acknowledges the fact that distributed teams need better tools for collaboration and real-time interaction than just a simple file repository and meeting workspace.

There was a time when managing finances from your computer meant you had to use desktop software. Today, that's no longer the case. There are now a number of applications that let you do your banking in the cloud, a trend we've dubbed "banking 2.0."

These sites aren't just simplified versions of our former desktop apps, either. Instead, they offer a number of features that take advantage of their "always on" status. Forget downloading updates and typing in your transactions line-by-line, these new banking 2.0 sites can offer you better insight into your financial situation with no additional effort on your part beyond just logging in.

SemantiFind is a newly launched semantic search tool which made its debut at the recent DEMO conference. Unlike other semantic search engines such as Hakia and the recently acquired Powerset, SemantiFind isn't looking to create a whole new search engine from scratch. Instead, they decided to improve upon the one engine we already use: Google.

Having owned Xcreative, a web development company that specialized in websites and marketing for the movie industry, the founders of MeDeploy (Christian Taylor, Joelle Musante, and Abe Lettelleir) were very familiar with the film industry. But for every filmmaker they helped, several more were turned away. Why? Cost. So many of the filmmakers simply couldn't afford the services the company provided.

Not too long ago, there were some grumblings about the state of the tech blogosphere and the industry in general. By spending so much time reading Techmeme, Twitter, FriendFeed, and the like it's easy to get the impression that some of the most influential people in our industry today were less interested in the technology they were reviewing than they were in making a name for themselves as some sort of navel-gazing superstar. Not only that, the apps that people were fawning over were often not the kind of apps that had mainstream appeal or were solving real problems. It was as if the whole crowd was shouting at each other, trying to be heard over the noise and patting each other on the back for being so hip with all our shiny, social media-flavored toys.

Was this what the tech industry had come to, I wondered? No, that was just what the tech blogosphere had come to. This year's DEMO conference proved to me that technology innovation is still alive and well.

As early adopters and technology enthusiasts, we're known for signing up for every new service presented to us. Due to the sheer number of web sites out there, most of us have devised a system for remembering all those passwords: we make them all the same. (Nod sheepishly if this is you). This system, although easy, is dangerously insecure. A hacker would only need to comprise your password one time in order to gain access to all your accounts. But what alternatives do we have?

MixMatchMusic is a new music community whose goal is to cater to the long tail of content creators. Although the concept of an online community for musicians is not new - we've covered several here in the past including Imeem, The Filter, and Rifflet - MixMatchMusic is different because it's trying to solve the biggest problem facing the music industry today: helping artists, especially indie artists, get paid for the music they create.

Are you tired of reading non-objective articles written by what are supposed to be credible journalists? You're not alone. According to Pew Research, 66% of Americans say they consider the press "one-sided." (Wonder what side that is?) At SpinSpotter, they believe the mission of the press is supposed to be to inform us of the news, not persuade. However, that's not always the case these days.

With so many Americans getting their news online instead of in a daily newspaper, SpinSpotter decided to use the power of the web and all its many users to combat the growing trend of media bias. How? Simple: by making you the editor. With the new browser plugin from SpinSpotter, you can edit and share any sign of bias on the web.

After the DEMO presentations yesterday, a lot of people were discussing favorites sites and services from the day's sessions. Based on buzz alone, one of the more popular applications appears to be the new service Alerts.com. With this service, instead of visiting multiple sites to stay up-to-date with the latest news and and information, you can have the news come to you. You can configure alerts that are relevant to your interests and then have them arrive in the method you choose: SMS, voice, email, IM, or on your desktop via an Adobe Air app.

Directly after Invision.tv's demo, another startup with a similar goal presented: ffwd (pronounced "fast forward"). Like Invision.tv, their web app also offers you a way to browse through internet video from one portal - the site at ffwd.com. However, their take on how this browsing should look and feel is a bit different. Which one will you like better?

At DEMO, a company called Cerego just launched a new adaptive learning system for English speakers who want to learn a new language: iKnow! Think Rosetta Stone, but online, with a brain, and mashed up with a social network. Using a specialized algorithm tailored to the individual learner, iKnow! can accelerate knowledge acquisition by having you review items at the optimum point in time - that moment right before you're likely to forget it. At launch time, iKnow features the English and Japanese languages, but it's not restricted to just those two - iKnow can support any language. That's because iKnow is an open learning platform, starting with languages and progressing to any content domain. Right now, third parties (including the U.S. government) are using the platform to train diplomats in the field. The content they produce will soon become available on the platform for anyone to freely use and remix.

At first glance, it seems like SkyData is trying to do too much. This mobile app mashes up data from your email contacts, your social network contacts, your business contacts, as well as business data from CRM applications like Salesforce.com, location-based info from sites like Yelp, travel info, news and RSS feeds, and even Google Maps. Is this a case of info overload or is this an app every business user will want to have?

To capitalize on the growing mobile market, a company called HeyCosmo is launching two new location-based service designed for use on both the web and the phone. The first service, HeyCosmo Concierge, wants to help you save time on everyday tasks like making dinner reservations or finding an affordable contractor. The second, HeyCosmo Blaster, is a social event planning tool.

With the recent caps put in place by ISPs like Comcast, some people are saying that the future of Internet video is not downloads, but streaming. If that comes to pass, a site like the newly launched Invision.tv could become an invaluable resource for searching through the wide variety of online video available on today's web.

We've done an analysis of the 72 start-ups launching at Demo Fall 08, to categorize them by both location and focus. The location story: 28% from Silicon Valley, but only 3% more than East Coast at 25%. It is still US centric at 40%, with Europe at 10% and Asia at 8%.

The focus: over 50% is broadly in the Business category. Without looking at past Demo years, that looks like a shift: less Valley, more Biz.

At DEMO08, a new type of job web site launches today: PaidInterviews. Unlike today's traditional (ahem, boring) job sites like Monster.com or HotJobs, PaidInterviews combines social networking with a more sophisticated job matching algorithm to deliver a Web 2.0-style web site that will appeal to today's youngest career-seekers: Generations X and Y.

Recently, Google's photo sharing app, Picasa, was updated to a new version that now does facial recognition and tagging. There are also rumors that the soon-to-launch next version of Windows Live Photo Gallery will do the same. Today at DEMO08, new Mac software, iLovePhotos, claims to do the same. Unfortunately, their interpretation of "automatic facial recognition" leaves a little something to be desired. However, some of their other features like automatic sharing and slideshows look pretty great.

We all know that when we're driving, we shouldn't be on our cell phones chatting away or, even worse, texting. Yet we do it anyway. The problem has become so bad that some states here in the U.S. passed legislation restricting cell phone use while driving or enforcing hands-free use only. California, for example, recently enacted a law prohibiting handheld use while driving (but strangely, texting is OK). Other states also have similar laws on the books. With numerous voice-dialing features and utilities for all sorts of handset models, going hands-free has been relatively easy. That is, unless you need to get directions.

For iPhone users, a new app called Say Where from Dial Directions can help you get directions and other location-based content just by speaking to your phone.

The new surge in Enterprise 2.0 technologies is giving companies, especially small-to-medium sized businesses, more alternatives when it comes to company intranet portals for team collaboration and project management. In fact, it has taken those portals, once only available behind the firewall, and put them online as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. One such SaaS portal for information sharing among company employees launches today at DEMO08: Qtask, a project-centric collaboration environment.

ReadWriteWeb is one of the media partners for DEMOfall 08, which starts this weekend September 7-9 in San Diego. Sarah Perez will be there to cover the event for RWW.

ReadWriteWeb readers can receive a discount rate of $2,395 ($600 off the standard rate of $2,995 and $400 lower than the July early bird rate of $2795) by clicking here for registration.