Ajax Girl

We covered the social activist community Change.org when they first launched back in February. The site is one of a few philanthropic startups tailoring the latest web features for non-profits and politics. It is a social networking site that serves as a resource for researching and organizing groups around social and political causes, called “Changes”. Changes are a place for members to post related images, videos, blog posts, and donate time or money to the relevant nonprofits.

Tonight, Change.org is launching an ambitious version 2.0 that expands beyond nonprofits and into political fundraising and lobbying. Founder Ben Rattray says politicians are expected to raise over $3 billion in this election cycle, with about half of that spent on fund raising (running total here). He says nonprofits receive donations upwards of $250 billion a year, with $50 billion of that money spent on chasing down a donors. Change.org wants to lower those fund raising costs, counteract large donor’s “special interest” money, and help give a voice to the average Joe who can’t afford a $2,500 a plate dinner.

To accomplish this, Change.org has effectively turned each “Change” group into a political action committee (PAC) by adding a database of politician profiles and some extra features to the “Change” groups. Now each group has the power to pool together a pot of money to donate to relevant charities or political candidates, as well as the power to lobby your representatives.

Instead of only nominating one charity per group, members can now vote on who which charities or politicians can best enact the change they want. Any member of the group will be able to submit a candidate for the donation, but only people who donate to the group’s “piggy bank” ($10 min by credit) will be able to vote the candidates up or down the list. Donations can be raised through the main site or an embeddable widget.

At the end of the month, all the money in the piggy bank will be divided between the top “n” donation candidate(s) (3 by default), minus a 1% management fee to sustain Change.org. If the money is raised for a political candidate, that candidate will get a check for the amount and their opponent will get slapped with a novelty check for the negative amount, just to let the competition know you mean business. Donations can also be conditional, such as donations to whoever wins the Democratic or Republican primary. Change.org will distribute the money when a winner is determined.

If putting your money where you mouth is isn’t your deal, you can also try lobbying on behalf of the group. Lobbying campaigns are dead simple. It just requires you to check off which representatives you want to lobby (state/federal, house/senate, governor/president), enter your address, and then type out a short message about your cause. The system automatically sends the message off to the appropriate representatives based on your address. The announcement of the campaign is then posted to the group and the politicians profile along with a copy of you message. If the representative responds, members can post the response to the campaign page.

In exchange for your good will, Change.org will dish back some warm fuzzies in the form of a scoreboard listing the total money you raised for change and virtual award medals of your contributions. Awards and posting a scoreboard will help generate some social pressure for friends to take action. We have yet to see how it will stack up against Sean Parker’s viral monster for good will, Project Agape, however.

In a time where nearly every presidential candidate has a MySpace page, it’s evident that the web is has developed some formidable political muscle. Today’s activists are co-opting new media sites like YouTube to get their messages out (see “Vote Different“). Change.org places yet another arrow in their quiver.

Activists should also check out idealist.org, dotherightthing.com, six degrees, tree nation, and essembly.com.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/118603103/

Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, has announced the acquisition of graphics technology from Windward Mark Interactive. Linden Lab will acquire WindLight, an advanced atmospheric rendering technology; Nimble, a realistic 3D cloud simulator; and associated intellectual property and interests.

Once the acquisition is complete, Linden Lab plans to open source the technology and integrate it into Second Life, bringing a new level of realism to the Second Life metaverse.

WindLight uses algorithms that imitate the ways in which light is affected by real-world atmospheric factors like dust and moisture, enabling the nuances of sunlight, clouds, water and weather to be accurately simulated in real-time. Nimble uses advanced physics models to realistically simulate clouds.

Alliance, an online game developed by Windward Mark Interactive does not form part of the acquisition.

original image credit Tim Bray

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We’ve re-embedded MyBlogLog onto TechCrunch - we removed it a few months ago due to spam and reliability concerns. After repeated promises by founder Eric Marcoullier and Yahoo (which acquired the company) that the service was stable and spam was under control, we’ve decided to give it another try.

I like the widget, which shows recent visitors to the site and builds out a social network based on who’s visiting what blogs. We’re glad to have it back, and look forward to the upcoming redesign.

The widget is on the right sidebar and is also embedded below.

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Zooomr has launched its latest version, Zooomr Mark III today with over 250 additional features, enhancements and upgrades.

The photo sharing company headed by the just turned 19 Kristopher Tate provides a range of appealing features including unlimited storage. Previous TechCrunch coverage here.

9 months in the making, we can’t possibly list all the changes, but we can focus on the big ones.

Zooomr Zipline

The new Zooomr sees the photo sharing site embrace social media. New feature Zooomr Zipline can only be described as a multimedia version of Twitter, complete with SMS and Widget support. More than TXT, Zipline naturally supports photo sharing as well.

It’s surprising to see a photo sharing site looking to compete with Twitter. The combination of photos and IM don’t immediately seem like a natural combination, but then again many people never thought services like Twitter would take off either.

Zooomr Groups

Zooomr Groups will allow users to play games and share photos. Groups can be password protected to restrict access and can be user defined to allow access to non-registered users.

Upgrades/ Changes

The new version of Zooomr will support what Zooomr calls “Infowidgets” that allows users to interact with tags in a visual way. An example is the marketplace slider in the screenshot below, instead of typing a price and saving it, users can slide their price from $1 to $1000.

Zooomr also adds its own login/ account functionality for the first time. Whilst running to date on OpenID, user feedback indicated that a significant number of people would prefer a site specific login. The new login does not come in place OpenID, both types of logins will be supported.

People Tags have been upgraded and now allow people who are not Zooomr account holders to be tagged. Tags will be tied to email addresses and are fully searchable. Non-users are emailed by Zooomr informing them of their inclusion in photo(s) on the site.

Zooomr API support will now be available to the public.

Aesthetics have also been improved with a new cleaner interface

Coming Soon: Zooomr Marketplace

Zooomr Marketplace will allow users to make money from the photos they shoot. Prices can be set to between $1 to $1000 and will be indexed in the marketplace for others to purchase.

Photos will be offered for sale royalty-free and can not depict a copyrighted image, slogan or face. Revenue from sales will be split 90/10 in favor of the publisher. Zooomr Marketplace will be launched later in the year; however as at Mark III users are able to price their photos in readiness for Zooomr Marketplace’s later launch. The entire Marketplace system is being developed in-house by Zooomr and is not being outsourced or provided by a 3rd party.

No Flickr Migration

The one feature still lacking in Mark III is the ability to transfer images from Flickr to Zooomr. Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote in June 2006 that Flickr may be afraid of Zooomr, and it would appear that they still are. Despite Yahoo providing export support for a range of external sites as part of the migration away from Yahoo Photos, Zooomr remains blocked from gaining access to the Flickr API to provide such as tool for its users, according to founder Kristopher Tate.

Zooomr Mark III Launch Demo! from Kristopher on Vimeo

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eVite has been a target of several startups over the past year. Sites like Skobee or Renkoo have differentiated themselves by helping plan the casual outings for drinks or dinner. Socializr is taking a social networking approach.

MyPunchbowl is a later entrant that focuses on the details of planning your soirée. They’ve been building out tools for each step of planning a party: finding supplies, inviting friends, setting a date, and the after party. Today, MyPunchbowl has made setting a date that much easier through the help of an algorithm that recommends the best date for your party.

Previously, MyPunchbowl members picked a date by building consensus by talking on the invite’s bulletin board. The process is similar for the other event planning sites, except for Renkoo, which uses IM instead of bulletin boards. Now, with MyPunchbowl, you can avoid the bulletin board mess and find a date using the new “Pick-A-Date” feature, which recommends the best date from a set of dates supplied by the host. “Pick-A-Date” does this all in real time, giving greater importance to the schedules for the host and important guests. It’s best illustrated by checking out the video embedded below.

Now when you make an event, you can select multiple dates and times that work, specifying whether they are either “better” dates, or just “ok”. Since some events need key guests, MyPunchbowl also lets you pick VIPs, who have a greater effect on which date the algorithm recommends.

As RSVPs roll in, guests choose which dates don’t work, are ok, or are the best for themselves. After each RSVP the algorithm recalculates which date is best for the majority of the group, giving the greatest weight to VIPs. Real time feedback encourages the remaining guests to reschedule their calendars around the date that works the best for the majority of the group or the guest of honor. At any time, the host can choose a date for the event, using the recommended date as a guide without the hassle of long email or bulletin board threads.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/118494712/

Your Broadcaster is a social networking site with a specific goal; to build and create five feature length films through collaborative user generated input.

The film projects fall into five categories: Bollywood, horror, thriller, drama and comedy. Members participate through the submission of scripts, auditions, characters, cartoons and stunts. Submissions are then voted upon by other members. Uploads from the most popular members will then be used as the basis for the final films.

Interestingly the project is not free for those who wish to submit content for consideration. Your Broadcaster charges $10 per film project or $35 for participation in all 5. Free memberships give voting rights as well as your typical social networking tools of user blogs, discussion groups etc but do not allow submission of material for the film projects.

The pitch for the paid version includes a copyrighting facility to protect project members’ work. Subscribers to this service have their work protected in a “Seal file” which encrypts data and secures the information.

Your Broadcaster hails from the Isle of Man, an Island best known for its provision of off-shore banking accounts. Maybe it’s something in the water as unfortunately Your Broadcaster’s remuneration scheme looks something like an Amway presentation. Yet as an idea there might be something to it. Citizen generated media has been eating away at the foundations of Hollywood for years. Short film has been conquered so why not aim at the next obvious target, feature films. There are no certainties that Your Broadcaster is going to succeed, however it’s likely they’ll end up the first of many startups aiming to tap into collaborative media as a basis to build content that is more than just short film.

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Kevin Werbach and I are pleased to announce this year’s finalists to present at the Supernova 2007 Conference, on Thursday, June 21, 3:30pm – 5:30pm, at the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco.

We had a record number of submissions this year, which made it extremely difficult to select the finalists. Many of the selected companies will be showcasing new products for the first time at the conference. Here are the companies that made the final cut:

adap.tv
Adaptive Blue
Aggregate Knowledge
CastTV
CriticalMetrics
Jangl
Pando Networks
SodaHead
Spock
Wize
ZapMeals
ZenZui
Zing

Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit their company for consideration. I look forward to moderating the panel with Kevin and to seeing more great technology in action.

TechCrunch readers can take advantage of a $200 discount for Supernova registration using “crunch2″ for the 2-day registration and “crunch3″ for the full conference package.

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Interesting post in the TechCrunch Forums this morning about Zlio, a startup that lets people create their own shops and sell goods from Amazon and other ecommerce services. Jeremie Berrebi, the CEO of Zlio, emailed users to let them know that Amazon will no longer allow them to promote Amazon products on Zlio shops.

It also seems that Amazon stopped paying affiliate fees on sales a week ago. This is a highly unusual move since Amazon generally wants all the affiliates it can get. Chances are that one of two things happened - either Amazon is getting into this business directly, or Zlio was involved in some sort of fraud. We’ll see what Amazon has to say about this.

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Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/118474282/

RealEditor is a MySpace profile editor that was created by Jay Elaraj and Dave Maestri, two Freewebs developers, in their leisure time.

It caught the eye of MySpace President Tom Anderson, who wrote to the founders in March. He complimented RealEditor and asked them if they’d be willing to come work for and/or sell the software to MySpace.

The co-founders declined. But they had a bit of a surprise recently when MySpace released it’s new editor, incorporating many of the features from RealEditor and some of the look and feel. They created a video here which shows some of the similarities.

At the end of the video, they say:

I can keep going, but I think I’ve proven my point that MySpace’s ‘new and innovative profile editor’ was just completely ripped off RealEditor.com, and MySpace is taking all the credit — and making some nice cash, I bet.

I have no problem with borrowing ideas, a lot of real innovation comes from that, but blatantly ripping off someone’s product and taking all the credit is just super lame, disrespectful, and pretty pathetic.

Also Kind of funny.

- Jay & Dave
www.realeditor.com

If it were me, I would have sold the editor to MySpace when they offered to buy it. There isn’t a close enough case for this to be worth litigation, and the traffic bump from calling MySpace out on this will be short lived.

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Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/118464959/

Phozi is an image hosting service that offers a Japanese style photo booth experience to the online MySpace generation.

Online image hosting is far from new. It’s a crowded market place with not a lot differenting one service to another. Phozi hosted photos that can be displayed on MySpace and all the usual social networking and blogging services. Photos can be uploaded directly or can be taken via Webcam or Mobile Phone.

Phozi differs in what if offers in terms of editing the uploaded image. Phozi offers a variety of tools to customize each image. Users can add borders, stamps and free form text to an image, which from accounts is similar in functionality to a Japanese photo booth.

It’s not without competitors. Cameroid offers similar online functionality and WebCamGreetings offers it through software with a web cam focus. What I liked about Phozi was the simplicity of it. Choices are provided around the image and there is a zero learning curve. Registration is not required.

The best word I can find to describe Phozi is cute. It’s not going to appeal to everyone, but OMG lol 16 year old girls are going to love it.

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Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/118474283/