Originally posted on February 15, 2007
Nathan McNeill Continues His DEMO 2007 Commentary
SplashCast
Yet another video syndication mechanism which will, presumably, be driven by advertising. You never can never tell with products like these, and it could just be that I am out of touch with the “MySpace generation”, but it sure seems like the space is a little crowded for all of the players that have launched here at DEMO.
SharedBook
This product allows users to aggregate (presenters were paid $25 every time they used this word) content from the web and publish it as a physical book. The user can customize the book any way they want. Sort of interesting.
OurStory
The consumer products on the web (and those launched at DEMO) can be grouped loosely into two categories: 1. Products that enable users to create all sorts of new content and spew it all over the web (you can probably catch my bias already), and 2. Products that allow users to compile content into a cohesive end product…something that can actually be digested. Given the fact that most of the content on the web is junk and even if it was not, you would not be able to digest even a miniscule fraction of even a day’s worth of content, I generally favor products in the latter category. I believe that OurStory is in the latter category. This product allows families or groups to enter content and media into an interface that then organizes that content into a timeline. The users are then able to browse through the timeline of recorded events interactively, like an online scrapbook. You can even publish the timeline as a physical book to be used as a gift for grandma’s birthday or a wedding. Not necessarily revolutionary technology, but I believe a good example of how collaboration, aggregation, and other buzzwords can be used to create something meaningful vs. more junk.
