Category: Content Delivery
One of the DEMO presenters I had on my must-see list was PhotoRocket. It was one of the first companies I noticed last week tweeting they'd be here, so I immediately downloaded their iPhone app (alpha, now beta) and started using it. I loved it, and have shared several photos over the past few days. After they pitched on the first morning of DEMO (video), I stopped to chat with the cofounders, Scott Lipsky and Gary Roshak, at their Pavilion stand. These guys have done a really excellent job with this launch. Everything is just, well…clicking! Here's the news release. 
And here's a brief description: PhotoRocket lets you share any number of photos to any number of people in an instant. Share with family and friends, post to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or other favorite sites and archive your photos for safekeeping, all in one breathtakingly simple step. When you share with PhotoRocket, you give your family and friends instant gratification. PhotoRocket requires no registration and has no restrictions on downloading full resolution images. PhotoRocket is available now for Windows, iPhone, and Mac, with iPad and Android to come.
People who've been reading this blog for a while may know I started it in 2005. That's a long time in blog years, and it's resulted in a monstrous archive of what people now call "long-form blogging" — at least it is for me, as one, lone writer. My quick tally is about 400,000-500,000 words (several books' worth), and I can't even begin to guess the *time* I have into it. Let's just say it's been countless thousands of hours that I've spent filling this space — planning, thinking, writing, editing, covering events, managing comments, and, not the least, all the time spent in the behind-the-scenes (pain in the ass) administration of the site. That last part is especially a challenge with Typepad, the platform I chose way back when. Unfortunately, it hasn't kept up with bloggers' needs, especially from a UI/ease-of-use standpoint. (But the time to convert my blog to WordPress, as I might like, has just been way too much of a time hurdle to consider if I want to keep paying the bills with the income I have to generate in the non-blogging part of my business life.)
The whole notion of "micro" blogging wasn't even in our minds back in 2005. But, of course, those of you who follow me regularly know I've been posting the majority of my online content for the past few years on a certain site that starts with a "T". 
With 11,000+ tweets there, at 140 characters each, that works out to some 200,000 words. And to say that's cut into my long-form blogging frequency here on this blog would be a gross understatement. Twitter, as it turned out, opened the floodgates on short-form, real-time blogging. But "blogging" almost seems like the wrong word these days, doesn't it? Seems like it's really just about "content sharing" anymore, in the age we're in of never-ending "status updates." Speaking of which, yes, I'm of course on Facebook, too — here and here. Friend me at the first (my personal page) and fan me at the second (my company page). Or is it all about "Likes"? Whatever! Just click something there, will ya, and I'll be happy… :-) [Note you can also now hit the little "Like" icon at the bottom of each of my blog posts here, as well as "Like" my blog overall in the sidebar to the right. We all *so* need to be liked these days…]
Where does it all end? Well, it doesn't. Which is the reason for this post. It's not to bore you with stats about my huge trove of blog content (which, along with $3.00, will get me a nice cup of coffee anywhere), but to tell you about other places where I'm now doing even more of that shorter-form blogging thing, in case you haven't run into me there yet. 
At least I'm having fun (I think). Just gotta keep sharing! These other domains of mine are more for my personal, random thoughts — and for sharing photos when I have some text to go along with them. Sure, I can share photos on Twitter (and I do, often, from my iPhone, with various Twitter apps) — but there are times when 140 characters just won't do. And then I have my Flickr account, which I think I've had about as long as this blog, where I can share anything I shoot — and I've done that with some 4500+ images, all neatly organized into sets.
Medium-Form Blogging?
But I like to say these other blogging places I'm about to tell you about are "somewhere in the vast expanse between my long-form and short-form blogging." Here's one of them: my Posterous blog, which I've actually had for several months now. 
On a site like this, I put up all kinds of stuff — I don't think much about it (unlike this site, which is really all about my serious, professional life). I can even email something to Posterous that instantly becomes a post. So, you'll see a whole array of…stuff. And maybe you've heard of PicPlz? It has an iPhone app I've started to use to share photos. Well, I've set those pix to also show up on my Posterous blog as individual posts.
As opposed to Instagram, another iPhone photo-sharing app (which I like even more). I have the pix I shoot with that app set to show up on my Tumblr blog, where I also post…other stuff. Just kinda started that one. Actually, there's no telling what posts will show up where, really. They just kinda happen, I guess, which I 'spose is the whole idea of real-time content sharing, right? I even did a kind of long post there recently (at least for Tumblr), a rarety — most people on it are just blogging a single photo, or maybe a video. But what is blogging, I say, without a little text, huh? Words, baby! They make the world go round, don't they? (But, hey, that's a blogger talking.)
Like I say, blogging — it's gone wild.
You say you want unrivaled access to movies, music, television, and educational programming at a price you can afford? Well, Twin Cities-based CRAM™ Worldwide is taking you up on that. I recently interviewed CEO and cofounder Daren Klum (see MP3 link below) to try to learn more about what he’s up to. His new startup is out to prove it’s possible to unlock the largest content catalogs in the world so you get true, unlimited content anyplace, anytime — free of tethered connections. Hey, does that get your juices flowing?
CRAM™ plans to do that with a next-generation digital content delivery device and platform that provides 
consumers with a unique, simple, and interactive approach to accessing digital content. The company has been quietly developing its patent-pending technology and simultaneously planning the launch of a content network that will position it against some of the largest content distributors in the world, such as Comcast, Redbox, and even Netflix. The key is this: the CRAM™ device will provide content in real, actual HD. My colleague Steve Borsch did an interview of Daren a couple of months ago on Minnov8.com that delves further into the company’s technology.
CRAM™ says its content delivery system not only gives customers a far better user experience, but it’s “a fun way to interact with content.” And Daren tells me it will be available for a very affordable monthly subscription. I sat down with him yesterday to talk about his background, how he came to cofound CRAM™, and what the current status is of his startup, as well as his plans for next few months. (For more on Daren and his team, check out the firm’s About page. It is one impressive assemblage of talent.)
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