DEMOfall: Express Yourself!
Automated web site creation tool. Targeted at small businesses. Starts at $15 per month including hosting and support.
Initial Reaction: Looks pretty slick. Appears to create high quality sites with minimal fuss.
Makes creating online curriculum very easy using a simple interface. Flash-based games can be created easily.
Initial Reaction: Looks easy to use and could have potential with larger organizations needing to distribute information and learning materials across a large workforce. Interesting, but I'd need to hear more about the business model and how they see growth building.
Founder is making his 4th DEMO appearance. This company has gotten a lot of attention lately. It is a company built around something originally done at Microsoft and subsequently spun out, with Microsoft retaining an equity stake. A Flash application. Reminiscent of MySpace but more as an application than as a web site. Creates much more of a multimedia experience than MySpace. Not advertising based. Instead sells modifications to the system created by their developer community. Developers keep 70% of revenue.
Initial Reaction: I don't know the youth market well, but this looks much flashier to me than MySpace, so it may well have appeal.
Interactive scrapbook that builds on the notion of the paper-based scrapbook. Scrapbooking is a major industry right now -- currently estimated at $3 billion annually. Allows printing the scrapbooks into paper bound books or simply viewed online. Can be integrated with blogs and incorporate multimedia content.
Initial Reaction: I'm skeptical that this takes advantage of the existing scrapbook craze. It lacks the personal feel of handcrafted scrapbooks that I think is much of the appeal. It also overlooks the social aspect of scrapbooking -- women frequently get together to work on their scrapbooks together. I don't see a bunch of girlfriends getting together to use scrapblog over a bottle or two of wine.
PhotoShow is the product. Wide availability through major retailers and consumer companies like HP, Walgreens, Ritz Camera, etc. Allows creation of slide shows including music, captions, transitions, etc. Can put photo shows on MySpace, email them, burn them to DVD, and even broadcast them to TV channels. The TV bit works by creating video on demand content available on select Time Warner cable systems.
Initial Reaction: They seem to have a lot of strategic partnerships in place that should give them some momentum. One would have to imagine that there might be a video play here too beyond just slide shows. Imagine YouTube available through video on demand on cable providers. (If I recall correctly, some TV shows already regularly show YouTube content, but a VOD channel could show the "best of" based on popularity.)
A system for users to create "multimedia entertainment experiences." Sort of a cross between videos and powerpoints.
Initial Reaction: Seems like YouTube with a tool set. I'm skeptical.
Allows editing of copyrighted video. Example they gave was the ability to strip out scary scenes in movies (like the mother fish being eaten by a shark in Finding Nemo). Allows you to add commentary to movies as well as snipping out scenes. Custom cuts are available for others to watch.
Initial Reaction: I don't recall whether it was Cuts that was in the story I read, but there was a recent story expressing the obvious copyright concerns of the original content producers. They say they address this by simple sharing the cuts (the edits). Each individual has to have the original copyrighted content to go with it. I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect they may technically be right. But it could be a costly fight.
Tags: DEMOfall, DEMO, SiteKreator, NanoLearning, Wallop, Scrapblog, Simple Star, iBloks, Cuts
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