SplashCast pulls plug on free user-generated channels
Portland-based SplashCast—which has gone through any number of interesting permutations as they worked to find a revenue model for their technology—has just announced that they will no longer be supporting free user-generated channels. The decision had to be a tough one, given that it was this community groundswell that brought the service to the attention of its current customer base: media companies and advertisers.
Over the past several months, we’ve been less and less focused on our “free” product, that is, the user generated channels. While we have well over 100,000 publishers, we simply haven’t been dedicating attention and resources to this part of the business.
All successful startup companies must focus. SplashCast is no different. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue our user generated content product as of February 11. We want to give our loyal (and brilliantly creative) users a chance to find other services that meet their needs.
While I’m sad to see this free service disappear—especially when it comes to rounding up Ignite Portland presentations—I can appreciate where SplashCast is trying to go. And while it would have been great to see them offer a pay version of the user-generated content service, there were likely some legal ramifications of SplashCast making money off of people repurposing other people’s intellectual property.
Suffice it to say, while this is a painful announcement for those early users and supporters of the service, this has been—obviously—a long time coming. Better to see SplashCast gnaw off a proverbial leg to escape the trap, then go down with the ship. To completely mix metaphors.
Things are tough all over. SplashCast isn’t alone in reducing its free offerings to the benefit of the business. A couple of little companies of which you may have heard, Google and Yahoo!, are among the thousands of companies that have been going through similar slimmings to deal with the current economy, as well.
Finding focus is terribly difficult for any company—especially when it comes at the expense of faithful users. But it would be nice to see SplashCast sticking around. And if they have to forego their free services to do it? So be it.
Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 28
Startup funding ideas for tough times
Thanks to everybody who attended Recked. Presentations are now available!
Master of 500 Hats: Great Entrepreneurs are PASSIONATE about Customers & Products, NOT about being Great Entrepreneurs.
OpenID Foundation: Portland people remain in leadership roles
Many of you know that in addition to serving as an OpenID proponent, a critical part of the Vidoop team, and a devout bacon—and bacn—geek, Scott Kveton has also served as the chair of the OpenID Foundation.
Today, the Foundation announced its new officers. And while Kveton has moved into the role of vice-chair, I’m happy to report that Brian Kissell of Portland-based JanRain has been elected chair of the organization.
It’s great to see Portland—the de facto hub of OpenID development—continuing to have a noted presence in the Foundation and its efforts.
In other news, a little company called PayPal—which is owned by another little company called eBay—became a sustaining member of the OpenID Foundation. But neither of them are from the Silicon Forest, so that’s secondary news.
Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 27
Will digital history simply disappear?
Test site fixed! | Oregon Blogs
86 IP5 Talk Ideas Submitted. Those Chosen Notified Soon. at Ignite Portland
Portland Data Plumbing User Group 1/27/2009
Group widgets & Facebook integration
Portland OpenID looking healthy: Vidoop authentication for Microsoft HealthVault
Portland-based Vidoop—the OpenID provider that allows users to login more securely without using a password—has just announced that their authentication will be used by Microsoft HealthVault, the online health information storage and Personal Health Record product from our neighbors to the north.
“Our objective is to give our customers choice and make their Web experience easier, while helping them safeguard their privacy,” said George Scriban, senior product manager, Health Solutions Group, Microsoft. “We’re happy to be working with Vidoop to give HealthVault users the option of using their log-in and authentication solutions with their HealthVault account.”
Not only is this good news for Vidoop, it’s good news for OpenID. What’s more (and near and dear to our hearts), it’s good for Portland, as Vidoop joins Portland’s other OpenID juggernaut, JanRain, as an option for HealthVault logins.
Microsoft HealthVault allows individuals to store health information from many sources in one location, so that it’s always organized and available. HealthVault is working with doctors, hospitals, employers, pharmacies, insurance providers and manufacturers of health devices—blood pressure monitors, heart rate monitors and more—to make it easy for consumers to add information electronically to HealthVault records.
Vidoop’s ImageShield—which allows users to login based on information contained in a series of images—will ensure that individuals have secure access to these records without the issues generally associated with password-based security.
“The weakest point in Internet security is the front line – where users log-in – but with strong authentication the front line can become the strongest point,” said Scott Kveton, Vidoop’s vice president of Engineering.
For more on Microsoft’s consumer health solution, visit Microsoft HealthVault. For details on OpenID and ImageShield, visit Vidoop.
Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 26
Online Community Manager: Yes, It’s Really A Job
Dawn Foster writes “I have also noticed that online community management positions tend to be weathering the current economic downturn better than some other jobs. Community managers are still being hired on a regular basis, and I’m still seeing openings on various job boards for companies looking to hire community managers. Here are just a couple of examples of companies who are currently looking for or have recently hired a community manager….”
Portland Twitter Storm Team #pdxtst – Explained
Aaron Hockley provides a quick history of the local Twitter #pdxtst meme.
SLL: beer & blog, oh and a podcast too | Our PDX Network
Cami Kaos writes “Friday night we had the distinct pleasure of chatting with Beer & Blog’s Justin Kistner for round about 4 hours. Now we didn’t record all of it but we went over time on both the tech edition and afterhours because we all had so much to say. Justin was an excellent guest and he’s welcome back anytime. We were also joined by his lovely wife Christine and Strange Love Live and Beer & Blog regular Verso.”
Versionista exposes wiki-like views of edits for any site
You may remember Portland-based Versionista from last year, when they stepped into the limelight as the McCain camp used the tool to highlight recent changes to the Obama campaign site.
Now, they’re allowing Web site owners to expose those changes, themselves, with a new service that provides the date of the last change and highlights the content that has been revised.
This feature is particularly useful for Webmasters who wish to offer full edit transparency to viewers. By inserting a simple JavaScript snippet, any tracked Web page will automatically include the date of the last edit, and a link to the revision history of that document.
Here’s an example using Silicon Florist’s recent changes.
It seems appropriate that the town known for its wikis—and home to the father of the wiki, Ward Cunningham—is home to a service inspired by the wiki view of recent changes. Even if you don’t let your readers edit your site, it’s always nice to let them know what you’ve changed.
To test drive this feature or to add it to your site, visit Versionista.
Beer and Blog says “Konnichiwa!” to Tokyo and “Hello!” to Houston and Phoenix
Beer and Blog, the weekly Portland get-together started by Justin Kistner, was been growing by leaps and bounds.
What kinds of leaps and bounds? I’m glad you asked.
Currently there is Beer and Blog Portland, Beer and Blog Corvallis, Beer and Blog Eugene, Beer and Blog St Louis, and Beer and Blog Las Vegas.
But does it stop there? Oh no, my friend. Not by a long shot.
Tonight on Strange Love Live, Justin announced the launch of Beer and Blog chapters in Houston, Phoenix, and—with its first international chapter—Tokyo.
Sniff sniff. Our little Beer and Blog is all growed up.
Congratulations to Justin, his Portland-based team, and all of the chapter leads! It’s great to see something that has so strengthened the Portland tech community getting the chance to work its magic in other towns.