San Francisco’s Jaman.com has just demoed its new site, calling it “the best place to discover and share world-class films.” CEO Gaurav Dhillon said that less than 1% of the world’s films get distribution in the U.S. Jaman is “bringing ‘social’ into cinema,” since it’s also a community site. It has a fully resizable window to view the film, and a window at the right that contains community comments, which facilitate lively discussion. “It’s a film festival that never ends,” he said, and noted his firm is “not limited by DVD licensing.” Still in beta, he said Jaman already has 200 films available. Pricing is $1.99 to rent or $4.99 to buy. Its technology offers “better than DVD quality for both Mac and PC users.”
Tag: startups (Page 15 of 19)
For those who thought Adobe would be announcing availability today for its Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform, called Apollo — sorry. It’s still a “couple of months” till the developer version will be ready. So said presenter Mike Downey, who apparently was substituted at the last minute, because Chris Shipley introduced Kevin Lynch, the company’s Chief Software Architect (where’d he go?). Guess they’re just here to keep the buzz going about it. I’ll find out more later.
Lots of video stuff here at DEMO. Eyejot is the first and is about “video messaging in a blink.” It uses Flash and is client free. It works with any web browser, including mobile phones. Here’s a screen shot from the demo, showing a message David Geller, CEO, quickly created before our eyes. And it has business applications, too, he said. 
Chris Shipley is giving her introduction right now. There’s an exciting shift going on in IT, she says. Tech is no longer the central focus. “We’re deeply into the age of Age of the Power of the Individual.” 
We have the power to choose the technologies we use and how we use them. “We’re all becoming designers and producers. We’re ‘creating consumers’,” Shipley says. It’s not just about consumer applications, however — personal preferences of enterprise buyers drive their IT choices, too. And the 68 companies here exemplify both areas, she says. “One person’s office app is another’s home-based business app in the making.”
The first demo presenter was the Kauffman Innovation Network, showing its new iBridge network, which is designed to help universities get their technologies off the shelves so they can be commercialized.
[UPDATE: I must apologize for blanking on Hany Nada’s name the other night. These receptions can do that to one… š He didn’t have his name badge on, and being a visual person, guess it didn’t get filed away in my semi-solid-state memory. Hany’s the former Piper Jaffray Minneapolis guy I mentioned, and is now Managing Director of Granite Global Ventures in Menlo Park. Also ran into yet another former Twin Cities dude (during the sessions on Wednesday) who worked with Hany at Piper: Charles Beeler, General Partner at Eldorado Ventures in Menlo Park. It’s like a Minnesota reunion!]
The DEMO 07 conference kicked off at 6:00 pm Tuesday with about 700 people crowding into an indoor reception in the beautiful Desert Springs JW Marriott Resort lobby. It had been scheduled to be outdoors, but the weather was a bit cool, shall we say? And it had actually been raining lightly when most people were arriving in the late afternoon. So much for the warm, sunny California desert… š Thought I’d post some random shots as I wandered about schmoozing. Coolest thing was I ran into a lot of former Minnesota people! It was like old-home week…
A view of the very crowded lobby area. The rest of the guests must have been really ticked that this mob took over the place! (Especially at the rates they’re paying.) It was really hard to move around, so creative ways had to be used to work the crowd. The key: strategically timed perimeter moves!
Robert Scoble from PodTech (and of course his own Scobleizer blog) was in the middle of things with his now ever-present video camera. That’s Stewart Alsop at the right, the original founder of the DEMO conference, which has quite a history: this is the 17th annual winter DEMO, and the 25th DEMO conference, since a fall event was added in 1999. Chris Shipley, who’s been the producer for many years, was just off to the right, but I wasn’t able to get a shot of her. (Plenty of opportunities to shoot some on stage.)
John Furrier (right), the founder and CEO of pioneering new media firm PodTech, which cosponsored the great Bloghaus at CES. He’s with Brian Solis, founder of social-media PR agency FutureWorks, which has offices in Silicon Valley and Orange County and is working with many hot, new startups.
Here’s where the Minnesota people start showing up. Charles Wilson (left), longtime Internet guru who started his career in the Twin Cities, working with such success stories as the Allaire brothers, and now consulting with DEMO presenter Mission Research…Steve Larsen, now spending most of his time in Menlo Park as CEO of Krugle, a hot site for tech geeks (Scoble says Microsoft should buy Krugle to solve its search woes!)…and Shel Israel (not from MN), co-author with Scoble of “Naked Conversations”, who’s so popular, I couldn’t get him to stay still enough to pose for this shot! He’s also known as a coach of many successful DEMO presenting firms.
Steve Larsen with Christine Herron, director of investments at the Omidyar Network, which I learned was his first investor at Krugle. She’s also on the board of advisors at Mission Research, the DEMO presenter mentioned above.
Another shot of the (former) Minnesota folks: Charles Wilson again at left…joined by Beth Temple, now CMO at DEMO presenter Magnify.net in NYC…Shel Israel (we let him stay even though he’s not from MN!)…a guy whose name I didn’t quite get, who was with Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis until he moved to the Bay Area eight years ago…and Steve Larsen at right.
Finally, I snapped a pic of David Goldfarb, CTO of Vringo, and his colleague Benjamin Levy, VP of Marketing — here to present their new video ringtone technology. I told them they have the coolest looking business cards and web site I’ve seen so far.
Afterwards, it was off to dinner with Steve Larsen, Beth Temple, Charles Wilson, Shel Israel, and four of the good folks from Mission Research, known for its “GiftWorks” fundraising software, and here to introduce its new “SalesWorks” solution for small and SOHO businesses.
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