Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

Tubes Networks at DEMO 2007 announces Tubes

  Tubes Networks has announced a new version of Tubes, a P2P file sharing and synching application. There are lots of different file sharing utilities out there, but most of them don't synch files across your own devices, or synch files to other users. Tubes is a really simple and fast way to share files and keep changes synchronized.

“Tubes unleashes your content – making it simultaneously available both on your computer and on the web – just by putting your stuff in what we call a ’tube.’ Make a change to anything in any tube on your desktop and the web version instantly updates along with the copy on subscriber’s computers and vice versa.” said John Van Siclen, CEO of Tubes Networks. “Think of Tubes as synchronized media distribution and social sharing with a level of security, control and accessibility never available before.”

I have written about Tubes before, but there are lots of new features in the new version announced at DEMO 2007. The new features include;

TubeSites: Drag-and-Drop Web Site Creation: A tubeSite is a private website that Tubes creates automatically for each tube. Anytime anyone adds or removes files, Tubes automatically updates the tubeSite. Users can have as many tubeSites as they want – all with different users, structure and access privileges. These instant websites can host any type of files such as HD video, music, even Microsoft Office documents.

Social Network Creation: Users create their own networks simply by sending invitations via email. Invited users can be assigned different roles dictating their ability to edit or contribute content in the tube.

URL access to any file on the desktop: With Tubes, simply right-clicking on any file in any tube provides a unique URL to that file. Simply email that URL to a friend or colleague and that file – on your desktop – is accessible over the web. Make changes to that file – on your computer – and the URL still points to the updated version.Tubes provides privacy controls, allowing users to assign different access rights to anyone at any time, even authorizing them to contribute to a group tubeSite. TubeSites can be made private or public at any time.

Public/Private Content Sharing: Tubes provides privacy controls, allowing users to assign different access rights to anyone at any time, even authorizing them to contribute to a group tubeSite. TubeSites can be made private or public at any time.

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DEMO 2007 in San Diego

DEMO Fall 2007 is underway. About 800 people here, and 70 companies presenting. Each company gets 6 minutes on stage and a small booth in the demo area. The presentations are grouped around themes. These are slick, well rehearsed, demos with high quality production video. Chris Shipley does a nice job of introducing the companies and setting context.

Internet Video. - The companies presenting include; Digital Fountain, Global Communications, Clipblast!, MotionDSP, MetaRADAR, Proxure, and Your Truman Show. The presentations and demos are impressive...very impressive. These companies are focused on bringing very high quality video over the Internet with no buffering or jitter.  So, what is unique about each of these companies;

• DigitalFountain is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) with great compression and delivery.
• Global Communications delivers broadcast quality video over copper wire, again great compression technology.
• Clipblast! is a video search widget with a built in video player, no launchig a browser or separate video player. You can search for videos, and save videos for later viewing.
• MotionDSP (Fix My Movie) is focused on video tools for video from cell phones. It increases resolution, improves audio quality, and allows you to enhance any specific portion of the video. They showed a poor quality video and enhanced it to the point where you could read the license plate number on a moving car.
• MetaRadar is a media search, navigation and discovery platform that works on the desktop or phone. They deliver a really cool User Interface, as Apple has shown...design matters.
• Proxure (Filmaroo) automates the process of taking a video from the camera to publishing on the web, and sharing with friends. Proxure takes care of the video encoding and hosting. Actually, a CDN partner takes care of that for Proxure.
• Your Truman Show - allows you to organize, share, and discover videos across social networks. It is like a video blog that allows you to jump and link from video to video within a social network.

Social Networks - or the wisdom of the crowds. Companies include; Diigo, coComment, Attendi, RelevantMind, Fluid Innovation, Advanta, Spigit, and Glam Media.

• Diigo - Bookmarking, highlighting, clipping, and sharing of web content on blogs, web sites, and social networks. Diigo also provides search and retrieval tools.
• coComment - They focus on collecting all the relevant comments across blogs. From a single location you can collect track, and share blog comments and stitch them together into a coherent conversation. For example, if you leave a comment on a random blog, how do you stay in the conversation without remembering all the various sites and visiting them regularly to see if anyone else commented. coComment keeps track of your comments, and follow-on comments from other people. They have been out for 8 months and already have over 500,000 users.
• Attendi - a search engine powered by human experience. The search results are people, not web pages. People are ranked and classified so that you can find the best people. For example, do a search for "260 pound guy wants a harley, which bike is best for me?" Attendi finds someone who is a Harley enthusiast. The search result includes a link where you can have an instant IM / Chat session withthat person. Conversations and comments are stored for later search and review. Again they include an instant chat button to pick up the conversation.
• RelevantMind is a collaboration research tool focused on "What should I buy?". They find user community sources that provide rich details and experiences. They find user reviews, blog comments, web sites, and best prices for products you might want to buy. They also link to relevant eBay auctions for those products. They are rolling out new categories each month.
• Fluid Innovation - Virtual Ventures is a prediction community that identifies which startup ideas might be successful. Entrepreneurs post ideas and users vote on which ones they think will be successful. Each user has $1M of virtual currency. You not only vote but allocate some of your virtual currency to companies you like. Virtual Ventures keeps track of how the companies work out and tracks your performance against other users. Virtual Ventures includes a discussion group, a list of potential partners, and potential Angel investors.
• Advanta - IdeaBlob is a community where anyone can post a business idea and pull together the resources to make it happen. A lot like the previous presenter. Get feedback and advice from the community. User vote for the ideas they like. The best ideas can win $10,000 each month
• Spigit -  a simulation and analytics engine to qualify and measure interactions about "ideas" on social networks. Users start with 25,000 spigits, which is a virtual currency. Spigit provides a threaded discussion site where users can discuss and debate business ideas. Spigit has very specific tasks tha must be completed to evolve into a business. It is similar to the real life process of taking an idea through the business plan, finding supporters, and getting laser focused on successful innovation.
• Glam Media - Glam Media has been around for a while. They have about 35 million visitors per month. Today they are launching their Web 2.0 version of their platform. They include photos, blogs, articles, products, profiles, and channels...all focused on the fashion industry. Lots of contextual advertising and links. It looks like an online version of a fashion magazine that is interactive, with elements of community.

Fun outliers that defy categories - I guess this is a DEMO  thing. Every year they have a few fun things that include cool technology.

• Vyro Games - A stress management game. You win the game by relaxing. There is a bio feedback sensor that measures how relaxed you are. You compete against someone else or a computer generated character. Counterintuitively,the more relaxed you are the faster your game character moves across the screen. The game helps you get in touch with your inner self...and relax. Personally, I find a margarita or two work best, but when that isn't possible maybe this game is a good alternative.
• Ncursion - They build cool multi-player games for the Facebook platform. MyGladiator.com is an animated game that simulates an acient gladiator fight. The Facebook audience decides if the defeated gladiator lives or dies. You can build your own character, buy equipment and points, badges, etc. You start as a slave and move up to warrior, knights, generals, etc. by winning matches.
• WMS Gaming - A mashup of mechanical slot machines with 3D visuals...that of course includes a social network model. This is classic web 2.0. This company is a leader in real life casino games, mostly slot machines. Now they are moving onto the web.

Wow! This is exhausting. Trying to live blog each presentation and distill what they do is tough. They are up on stage for 6 minutes...and they talk really fast. I like to think a while and reflect on what is unique and different. That really isn't possible in this venue. Maybe I can go back and write something more insightful after the conference is over. Hang in there. There are 52 more companies to present over the next day and a half.

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