SnagFilms brings documentaries to widgets

Written on 17th July 2008                                                                                                              1 COMMENT
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent

Serial entrepreneurs Ted Leonsis (AOL) and Rick Allen (National Geographic Society) started producing documentaries and launched SnagFilms.com earlier today to distribute them, SnagFilms also acquired IndieWire, a online resource and community for independent filmmakers from GMD studios to facilitate the site’s content.

Also supports good-causes and artists

Snagfilms.com is a combination of documentaries and widgets, making it easier to distribute full-length documentaries. Leonsis hopes to generate millions of virtual movie theaters with SnagFilms, simply by combing high-quality streaming with easy ways to distribute them. The user grabs the free widget and supports a good cause and the artist. Some artists pick their cause, others are selected by Global Giving.

Acquiring IndieWIRE

12-year-old IndieWIRE released a press release, announcing the acquirement. They explain to supply archival and news content for SnagFilms.com and the company’s virtual movie theater widgets, including breaking news from the indie sector, blogs and comprehensive film reviews. SnagFilms will provide new resources to extend indieWIRE’s coverage, and claims to continue to operate as an independent site for now.

A billion video streams

Three former top executives of Time Warner Inc’s AOL invested less than $10 million dollar in Snagfilms, with Leonsis as a majority owner and Case and VC miles Gilburne. Revenue streams would include web advertisements, pre-roll video advertisements and 8.5% from the DVD sales. Leonsis: “If we get a billion streams, we’re probably going to need another investor.” And with AOL video as the backbone for video-streams, they probably don’t have to worry about that as well. Snagfilms to has a good shot in becoming the preferred video site for documentaries, a category that has struggled to gain mainstream attention on the web.

documentary, IndieWIRE, SnagFilms

1 Comment »

Video: The Truth According To Wikipedia

Written on 8th April 2008                                                                                                              13 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

On Friday April 4, in the afternoon the audience of The Next Web Conference watched the world premiere of the documentary The truth according to Wikipedia from IJsbrand van Veelen.

The video led to heated debate between the maker of the documentary and some of the audience members and even during the party afterwards people where still discussing the video. Tessa Sterkenburg posted a follow-up post here on Sunday which received 17 comments (so far) and even Larry Sanger (from Citizendium), one of the people interviewed in the documentary, pitches in.

Last night it was shown on Dutch television (VPRO Backlight) and a few minutes ago it has been uploaded to YouTube too. This is one video that everyone who has anything to do with the Internet should see. The questions it raises are far from answered so I look forward to your ideas about it in the comments here. Some of the leading questions in the documentary were: Should we let just anyone state his or her opinion or should we leave the publishing of information to the experts? Could the openness of the web be dangerous? Who has the right to establish truth?

But first, the movie:

UPDATE: here is an older 50 minutes documentary from IJsbrand van Veelen which he made in 2006 which gives an in-depth look in the world of Google. Some of the questions addressed here are: “What if all the world’s information would be available and easy to find? What if all the news, all books, all texts, photographs and videos would be collected in one place, and made available, always and everywhere?”.
(more…)

documentary, IJsbrand van Veelen, Larry Sanger, truth, VPRO tegenlicht, wikipedia

13 Comments »

MacHeads the movie

Written on 22nd January 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

There are lots of books about Apple, the Macintosh and the community around it. As a devoted apple user I own a bunch of them. And it seems only logical that someone would make a documentary about Apple Fanboys, or Macheads. And now it is here: Macheads, the movie.

I must admit that this is not about the Next Web at all but I just couldn’t ignore it. If only your company could attract such a devoted community. Watch, weep and pray.

Apple, documentary, macheads the movie

2 Comments »