Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 25th January 2009
9 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Twitter is getting more mainstream, that’s a fact. With hundreds of celebrities, politicians and tv hosts promoting the service, it’s only a matter of months till your most non-web-savy friends use it. While you’re now still surprised to hear somebody mentioning Twitter in a random bar, it will become as normal as talking about emails.
With the first thousands realizing this, a new trend seems to appear: the need to create a community feeling. It will be a short hype, as people will soon realize the service is too big for it already, but for now it’s fun.
The most salient example is #myfirstjob. Thousands of Twitter users share the experiences of their first job. The stream of stories in Twitter search is fascinating to read and gives you some sort of community feeling. We, Twitter users, can share this with folks all over the world.
Maybe one or two similar initiatives will pop up, but I’m pretty sure these are the last community-like experiences you’ll have on Twitter. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Written on 20th January 2009
5 COMMENTS
Mircea Goia, Next Web US Webtipr
So far, we have been used to watching movies to see how they were made. But that was it! Paying the bucks and watching them (enjoying or not – that’s another story).
What if you, as regular folk, could participate in making a movie? Have a say in what movie would YOU like to see? What is in the script? Or what actors should play certain roles?
Now you can!
Because I’m passionate about filmmaking and its aspects… Sooner or later I had to find out about Massify.com. This is filmmaking meeting Web 2.0 type of service. Rather than starting to make movies from top to bottom this service has the reverse approach: start from bottom to top.
The community built around the site have a say in what movie gets made, what actors should be cast, and script changes. If you have a movie script or music video idea, for example, you can submit it to the site and the community will vote. If it gathers enough votes your script might turn into a movie (or a video clip).
That was the story of Perkins 14, the first ever fan-created horror flick using Massify community in partneship with After Dark Films (the organizer of After Dark Horrorfest).
Many filmmakers are aspiring filmmakers who pitched the idea of an ultimate horror film. The winner voted by the community was Jeremy Donaldson, an young aspiring filmmaker (read his interview and see the pitch). After the idea was approved, the community also approved the casting of actors. The winners were flown to Los Angeles for screen tests. However the filming was done mostly in Romania (because of a good infrastructure for moviemaking and saving on cost). The film is now in theaters but it seems that only some are running it.
Massify is seen as a possible partner by some music labels (like Epic) and some film production companies (like RSA Films – Ridley Scott’s production company). It is located in New York City and has about 10 employees. One of the founders is Brett Icahn and, yes, he is the son of Carl Icahn, the well-known financier (which is also one of Yahoo’s major investors and backs Massify as well).
The new age of online collaboration entered in the filmmaking world too. It was expected because, like building an Internet company, filmmaking has became much less expensive now (better digital cameras, editing and compositing software, more powerful computers, 3D software, Internet, etc…). Anyone remember Blair Witch Project or Open Water (two successful very low budget independent movies)?
How successful Massify will be remains yet to be seen…but it has a good start.
Written on 10th September 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Every once in a while we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views.
This time we’re interviewing Asmo Halinen from Playray, a social minigames community from Helsinki, Finland. People from sixteen different countries can log in to the site and enjoy games in their own language, while staying in touch with their gaming buddy’s. 
The service raised €1.75 million from Estonia-based venture capital fund Martinson Trigon Venture Partners about a year ago. That’s not the last part of company history that you’ll readm, as Asmo told us quite a lot about how Playray started.
How did you come up with the idea of Playray?
“Actually we started as a B2B service company, producing sites, web commercials and other stuff like that. But since all the three founders (Pasi Laaksonen, Janne Matilainen and me) had some background on online gaming, we started building our own online casual gaming service during 2002. At the beginning it was only a hobby, but as that side in our company grew, we later (in 2004) split the original company in two: I recruited a new CEO for the B2B side and all we three founders continued in the “new” gaming company.
Since that we’ve focused 100% on the development and internationalization of our Playray service. During the early days it was only about browser based online games; nowadays it’s much more about the active player community around the casual gaming experience.” (more…)
Written on 18th July 2008
0 COMMENTS
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer
E-MERGE, a Belgian venture capital firm, made waves a couple of years ago investing in a couple of early-stage companies that took off significantly after receiving initial funding (Ogone, BlueBackup, DVDPost, etc.). I almost forgot about their existence, until a short news snippet on Express.be taught me that the company took an undisclosed minority stake in Akamusic, formerly known as Yakamusic.
In essence, Akamusic is an online music community network where artists can hook up with producers to show off their production skills in hopes of getting the often much needed investment to get the ball rolling in the direction of fame and fortune.
Akamusic, unfortunately, doesn’t bring a lot of new stuff to the table and I have no idea why the service is only available in French so far. The basic premise sounds familiar in a space that is quickly getting crowded with startups: artists can register and upload demos, videos and pictures in order to show off their wares. Registered producers in turn can invest small amounts of cash in artists in which they spot potential.
If and when the artist in question raises a certain amount (50 000 € for an album, 15 000 € for a single), Akamusic handles the professional production of the music, and takes 20 % on sales profits going forward. The artist and the investor-producer both get 40 % of the profits of all sales (including through third-party platforms e.g. iTunes). There’s also a bit of a community behind Akamusic, with a social networking platform carrying contextual advertising units.
There’s quite some competitors in this space doing similar things at the very least: companies like SellABand, Amie Street, Snocap (Imeem), Calabash Music, Strayform, Music Arsenal and Indaba Music spring to mind.
Written on 5th May 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
“Keep fees at eBay“, with that catchphrase Wigix challenges eBay for an open fight. This new socially-driven marketplace wants to compete with the online trade giant by offering transparency and a Web 2.0 flavor. They managed to stir up the blogosphere last week with their bold statements, so let’s take a closer look on what this service offers. The transparency comes down to this:
Stop guessing your fees. Wigix doesn’t aim to gouge its members.
For items sold between $25 and $100, we ask for a buck and a half from both the seller and the buyer.
We ask for an additional 2% of the portion above $100 from the seller if the price goes over $100.
If the price goes over $1000, we ask for an additional 1% of that portion.
For items below $25, we charge nothing!
Stop letting other marketplaces chip away at your profits with multiple fees. Wigix asks for no listing fees, and has no hidden fees.
And for the Web 2.0 flavor, or maybe Web 3.0 – you name it, Wigix is giving users the opportunity to become a category expert. He or she has the responsibility to review, reject, approve submissions made to their category and update blogs and discussion boards several times a week. It pays one percent of the category’s revenue. After a while this can become an interesting source of income.
There’s a second way of contributing to the community for a financial reward: homesteading. Just like the US government gave away land to pioneers in the Wild Wild West, Wigix gives users money for adding items to the catalog. So imagine there are no Burberry umbrellas on Wigix yet. You can then add this item and earn 5 percent of all the fancy umbrellas that will be sold in the future. Nice, uh?
It’s obvious that Wigix wants to create a community of people who all feel their part of a revolution. That’s why they draw a line with the Wild west and speak of “like-minded collectors and traders”. Smart strategy, if you ask me. They might even approach active eBay users and lure them into the Wigix camp by addressing their conscious: “Wouldn’t you want to be part of this honest way of trading?”. Let’s see if Wigix can pull it of.
Written on 20th March 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views. Well, actually six questions, since we also ask the start-up to who he or she is passing the mic to.
This time we’re interviewing Rutger Docter from CreativeCrowds. That’s a Dutch startup that is fully committed to crowdsourcing. Their mission is to help companies and institutions engage the power of crowdsourcing. So they help companies embracing the social influence of their customer communities. Last week they received funding from the Dutch Creative Industry Fund, enough to keep the start-up going for another year.
How did you come up with the idea of CreativeCrowds?
“During our study at the Free University of Amsterdam co-founder Carl and I had some good discussions about the effect of the social web on companies. On the other hand we were extreme web enthusiasts with a lot of good ideas. During a Google chat (read our (Dutch) blog post about this chat) we discussed some initiatives of idea competitions. Then we had a little ‘eureka moment’: we should connect companies and crowds with good ideas! On a web platform! That will be great! Later on we got inspired by Cambrian House and Jeff Howe, who came with the term crowdsourcing. And that is what we are: a crowdsourcing startup.” (more…)
Written on 3rd March 2008
0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views. Well, actually six questions, since we also ask the start-up to who he or she is passing the mic to.
This week we’re interviewing Danny Bull, founder of My Neighbourhoods. A service that helps you to get to know your neighbours and find out more about your local area. My Neighbourhoods wants you to improve your local community by joining theirs. You can read local news, chat with neighbours and read reviews of restaurants and other facilitations in your area. They’ve already got some coverage in The Times and TechCrunch UK.
I like the idea of bringing people together offline by using an online service. Moreover, entrepreneurs who want to improve other’s people lives will always find a stage on The Next Web.
How did you come up with the idea of My Neigbourhoods?
“Myself and my girlfriend bought a flat for the first time in London almost 5 years ago. We didn’t know anyone in the area at the time and needed to get some renovation work done on the property. We spent 12 unsuccessful months looking for a builder and I started to think there must be a better way. That’s when I had the idea to create My Neighbourhoods as a place to use the collective knowledge of a local area and get to meet new people in the process. Now whenever I need something I ask my neighbours if they have any ideas first. It also turns out there are some very nice people where I live.” (more…)
Written on 2nd March 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Last week we gave away 250 private beta invites for Blippr, a service that allows you to collect, organize and share your books, games, music, movies and tv shows. It’s definitely a nice service for people with a broad range of interests. Yet not everybody is interested in books AND music AND movies. For those people, there are specialized services, and an example is social network for gamers Vigster.com.
The London-based start-up showed a demo during Minibar, chaired by Mike Butcher form TechCrunch UK – and launched this week in public beta. Users can build and catalogue their games, create virtual game shelves to show off their games collection and do the regular social network thing: connecting, sharing and having heated discussions about game characters, scenarios and whatnot.
The interface is rather sober – not what you would expect from a gaming service – and focused too much on selling games. For instance, if you go to the screenshots gallery and click on one you like, you end up on a page that puts the ‘buy this game’-line right in your face. You have to scroll down to find a thumbnail version of the screenshot, that opens on a new blank page. There are officiously some missed opportunities there.
I think the way to build a strong community is to get users to love your service. Offer them the same features Vigster has now, but present them in a good-looking, game-like and usable interface. Show users that you love them as well by welcoming them in a warm way – learn from Flickr – and leave the Google Ads for later.
But most of all, let them know you love games too. I’m sure the guys from Vigster have a passion for games, but I can’t tell by looking at their service.
Written on 12th February 2008
6 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Elaine: So, basically what you’re saying is 95% of the population is undatable?
Jerry: UNDATABLE.
Elaine: So how are all these people gettin’ together?
Jerry: Alcohol. (Seinfeld)
Wine drinkers are a popular niche on the web. There are hundreds, probably even thousands, of services and sites dedicated to the high-scale drink. I’ve tried to select the best Web 2.0 wine services for you. You probably already know the bible for high-brow wine lovers: Wine Spectator. If you happen to be one of those elite lovers, head over there, otherwise these services might get you started.
Be sure to check out the video below about 30-year old wine merchant Gary Vaynerchuk from New Jersey. He tells an inspiring story about how he started his daily web video show Wine Library TV.
Winelog
International wine community with a database that contains over 10,000 wines from over 4,000 wineries, 1,100 regions. Users can comment and rate wines they have tried so that the service can provide personal recommendations. Winelog also has a team of editors that writes about wine books, cafes and wineries.
www.winelog.net
Snooth
When the guys from Snooth launched their service in June 2007, they just made up a random weird name so that we would remember it better. If that’s not enough, there are always millions of reviews and hundreds of thousands of wines that make the service memorable. Suitable for aspiring and casual wine drinkers, Snooth offers personal recommendations.
www.snooth.com
Vinoo
Vinoo is a Dutch wine community. Users can create their own profiles, on which they can rate and discusses wines. These wines all have their own profile as well, making it possible for you to find that wine that goes perfectly with your pasta tonight. The service is still in beta and expanding rapidly. Hopefully it will soon be available in English as well.
www.vinoo.nl
Vinorati
This well-designed service has the same functions as the other blogs, yet one stands out of the wine crowd. It allows you to create tasting groups. ‘Groups may be made up of members who actually taste wines together, or who want to share wines with each other, or simply members who share an interest in a region, winemaker, or wine style.’ Looking for a way to gather your drinking buddies? Vinorati is the one you should click on.
www.vinorati.com
Cork’d
Yet another wine community, with the basically the same options as the others. I recommend you just browse around all four recommendations (five if you speak Dutch) and select the one with the tone of voice and lay-out you like the most. Cork’d seems more suitable for the more experienced drinkers.
www.corkd.com
Wine Library TV
30-year old wine merchant Gary Vaynerchuk from New Jersey started a video show in which he tasted and reviewed the wines he sold in his store. It’s now a hugely popular show that has an enormous number of followers. Check out this interview he had with Beet.tv, and pay extra attention to his view on combining advertising and reviewing.
tv.winelibrary.com
[WebTipr: Yaniv Solnik, Israel]
Written on 2nd February 2008
7 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Issuu offers people the possibility to publish their own illustrated magazine. It’s just a matter of spending some time on a pdf file – so start working on your Indesign skills – and uploading it to their beta site. Issuu then publishes your magazine with a slick tool and makes it findable by archiving it in categories like fashion, architecture, arts and.. sex. Yeah sorry, I couldn’t help noticing that the founders aren’t afraid of really explicit sex magazines.
Users can then tell their friends about the magazine they’ve created and embed it on their blog or social network profile. Not that they necessarily need to, since the founders of Issuu also want their service to be a ‘creative community’.
Sounds all pretty publishing 2.0-like, but is it really?
- Yes, it is, because: Everybody can upload pdf-files and gets a really fancy tool to show it. I must admit, the interface looks awesome.
- No, it isn’t, because: Web 2.0 is also about finding stuff, just ask David Weinberger. And an online pdf file sounds a bit 1.0 to me. You can’t link to a particular article and people can’t tag a page on del.icio.us or Fleck, or comment wherever they want. And don’t even think of embedding a YouTube video. It reminds me of the newspapers in the early years of the Internet who just published their articles on-line and that was it.
Yet Issuu is a good stepping stone for everybody who wants to get used to on-line publishing. Think of the people who hardly know what a blog is. They might like the idea, since it reminds them of a ‘real’ magazine. After this getting-used-to-process, they can switch to Wordpress with a magazine-style theme. So they can experience the REAL benefits of publishing 2.0 style.
So imagine that this large group of people who wants to get used to the web starts using Issuu. Then the service might get really popular. However, I don’t think that it will ever become a successful community. Because, in the end, the sex magazines will flourish and frighten other visitors – that, for example, publish magazines about wine from Tuscany.
Not that the founders probably mind, since sex has never been bad for advertising revenues. Yet if they really want a lively community, a ’safe mode’ is a must. A 50-year old lady who uploaded a magazine about interior design, doesn’t want her tennis friends to stumble upon a porn magazine.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
