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ViKi Raises Millions for Web Video From Around the World

Peter Kafka — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:00:47 +0000

Problem: You want to watch foreign-language movies and TV shows on the Web.

But! You only know English.

Solution: ViKi, a site that shows videos from around the world and provides captions in 100 different languages.

Cool, right? And capital efficient, too: The two-year-old start-up gets all of its translation for free, courtesy of some 100,000 volunteers. Hence the name–”Vi” for video and “Ki” for Wiki.

ViKi has relatively modest traffic, and is just starting to ramp up revenue, via third-party ad network sales. The company says it’s looking at a $1 million run rate, but that’s a gross number that doesn’t account for the money it has to pay out to content owners as well as to distributors like Hulu. (The site also puts out some of its stuff on Google’s YouTube, but there’s no revenue in that relationship, for now.)

Still, the pitch has been compelling enough for the company to round up $4.3 million in funding in the past 18 months, from lots of bold-name investors like Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.

But now that the company is talking publicly about the money it’s raising, and the money it would like to make, won’t its army of volunteers start asking for a cut, too?

Probably not, argues CEO Razmig Hovaghimian, a veteran of GE’s NBC Universal. He says ViKi has already approached some of its most senior and prolific volunteers with offers to pay them, but they haven’t wanted cash–they’re doing it for fun.

“We are creating a playground for them,” he says. And if that works, great: ViKi needs the money to acquire online distribution rights. But I wonder what happens if its free workforce starts asking for a check.

Wikipedia Co-founder Bothered by WikiLeaks

Beth Callaghan — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:35:36 +0000

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is not a fan of WikiLeaks. At a conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, today, he referred to the whistleblowing site’s release of Afghan war documents as irresponsible and dangerous–and he also made it clear he disapproves of the use of the term “wiki” in its name, which implies that it’s a site that allows collaboration. “I wish they wouldn’t use the name; they are not a wiki. A big way that got famous in the first place was by using the word wiki, which was unfortunate in my view.”

Site Builder Wetpaint Makes One for Itself Using the Demand Media Playbook

Peter Kafka — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:00:45 +0000

Do we really need another pop-culture site? Sure, says Wetpaint CEO Ben Elowitz. His pitch: We’ll build a better mousetrap–one that covers every flickering detail about the likes of “Glee” and “The Jersey Shore”–using “data and science.”

Until now, Elowitz has been in the business of helping other publishers build sites with wiki-based tools. But now he’s opening up his own shop at Wetpaint.com, which should be working by the time you read this. (If not–take a look at the sample screenshot at the bottom of this post.)

Elowitz is presenting Wetpaint as a sort of upscale, thinkier version of content factories like Demand Media. Like Demand, Wetpaint uses technology to help it figure out which stories to assign–in Wetpaint’s case, via an “ingestion engine” that is supposed to crawl the Web looking for spiking stories on discussion boards, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

The difference is that Demand is primarily interested in finding lots and lots of stories that will appeal to a relatively small group of searchers, which is how it ends up with search bait like “How to Donate a Used Car in Dallas.”

But Wetpaint is trying to create a destination site for a large number of eyeballs, and says it will use its tech to get them more of what they want, produced by a core group of 10 editorial employees and a freelance squad of 20.

“We don’t care about Google,” Elowitz says. “We’re not trying to get long-tail, we’re not trying to get search traffic.”

Okay. So that’s a bit of hyperbole–Elowitz would like some Google (GOOG) juice as much as the next publisher, which is one of the reasons he’s using the existing Wetpaint name for his site.

But he’s clearly set on exploiting social networks, too. He says Wetpaint.com, via its focus on Facebook-friendly TV shows, has already garnered 500,000 fans on the social network.

Elowitz is also positioning himself as a competitor of pop/gossip Web sites published by old media brands, specifically Time Warner’s (TWX) People, TMZ and Entertainment Weekly sites. But the people who read that stuff online don’t limit themselves to a handful of brands, which is why big Web players like Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) are there, too.

Add in freelance upstarts like Perez Hilton and millions more you’ve never heard of, and it’s a very, very crowded field. Elowitz will need a very clever tech team to make this work.

Whiskey Media's (And Former CNET CEO) Shelby Bonnie Talks Content and More!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 20 May 2010 07:39:53 +0000

Yesterday, BoomTown caught up with Shelby Bonnie, the former CEO of CNET who is now running Whiskey Media, the social publishing start-up.

Sausalito, Calif.-based Whiskey is debuting its latest site today, called Screened, focused on video entertainment, which will combine both professional and user-generated content, much as its other four sites–Anime, Vice, Giant Bomb, Comic Vine and Tested–do.

Heaped on top of the niche content, aimed at passionate fans, is social networking, as well as gaming and wikis.

It’s yet another twist on the creation and distribution of content and another example of how quickly the publishing industry is changing and innovating sometimes too.

From pay walls at News Corp. (NWS) to the run on low-cost content outfits to the decline of traditional media outlets and the growth of others, it’s definitely a dynamic time.

Here’s the video of my interview with Bonnie, who has been through a lot of these shifts:

[ See post to watch video ]

And here is the press release from Whiskey on Screened:

Whiskey Media Debuts Screened for Passionate Fans of Film, TV and Online Video

Media company’s fifth web property delivers measureable brand engagement by combining original editorial content with social gaming mechanics

San Francisco CA, May 20, 2010–Social publisher Whiskey Media today announced the debut of its fifth property, Screened–a new online destination dedicated to video entertainment across all screened devices. Screened, created by former CNET executives, joins Whiskey’s four other category-leading properties–Anime Vice, Giant Bomb, Comic Vine and Tested–in combining original editorial content with social networking, game mechanics and wikis to create one of the most relevant and engaging film, TV and video destinations.

“We see our model as a new breed of media company, native to the Internet and not just an assimilation of content that many sites have done before. The Internet generation expects their media to be socialized and relevant to their lives,” says founder and CEO Shelby Bonnie. “Social publishing attracts highly loyal, knowledgeable and motivated audiences and provides brands the opportunity for even deeper integrated engagement than currently available elsewhere online.”

Screened is created by fans, for fans

Screened will simultaneously spark and settle debates, create and squash rumors, and stimulate engaging conversations. The site will also feature a comprehensive movie and TV database with detailed information about films, actors, directors and writers, as well as other content such as locations, characters, objects, clichés and more.

Screened is built for the savvy entertainment fan who will watch video content across multiple devices and different screens. For a generation who will consume video entertainment across phones, iPads and computers in addition to movie screens and TV screens, Screened will help people find the best in Hollywood blockbusters, independent and classic films, TV shows and online video entertainment that can be watched or streamed to screens both large and small.

“The beauty of Screened is that its content is governed by real people who are passionate about movies, TV and video, and want to share their enthusiasm and opinions with like-minded people,” said Alex Navarro, general editor, Screened. “We’re entertainment enthusiasts too, which is why we’re so excited to create a dynamic community that we believe will be worthy of a discriminating audience’s time.”

Screened entertains and rewards with Quests

Like Whiskey’s other properties, Screened will feature game mechanics, called Quests, incentivizing viewers to become active contributors and motivating communities to participate at the editorial-level of content creation. Quests incorporate features typical of online social games–badges, points and scavenger hunts–rewarding site users for creating new pages, starting a forum topic, cleaning up existing content or engaging with brand advertisers.

During a one-week preview of Screened for members of other Whiskey Media properties, the community completed more than 24,844 Quests that produced 20,000 movie entries, 200,000 actor and movie images and 1,500 genres. The average person who contributes content contributes 43 items to the community and spends more than 11 minutes on the Screened site.

Beyond Screened, the community across the other four Whiskey Media sites has started more than one million Quests that have produced more than 7,500 new product reviews and product description pages since launch. Quests have been shown to increase page views and time spent on the site by more than 53 percent, providing increased opportunities for brand marketers to interact with Whiskey’s loyal communities.

Quests work because they are a part of the community experience in each Whiskey Media brand. The ability to share and consume information about the topics people love creates a different type of online community where each member is rewarded more for their knowledge and contribution versus whom they know. Quests create a way to show their knowledge and passion to a like-minded community.

Because Quests are an integral part of the community experience and enjoyment, they also provide ways for brand marketers to reach an audience without disrupting the audience experience.

“Whiskey Media is in a unique position to deliver engagement for brands given its community-based approach and ability to integrate campaigns into its sites, enhancing the user experience, not disrupting it,” said Brian Monahan, SVP, global lead social media, Universal McCann.

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur (and Google Exec) Joe Kraus Moves to Google Ventures

Kara Swisher — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:14:31 +0000

Joe Kraus–the longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur who sold his most recent start-up, JotSpot, to Google in 2006 and has been a director of product management since–has moved to its Google Ventures unit as a partner, said several sources.

Sources added that Kraus (pictured above) is likely to be the first of several well-known appointments at the relatively new venture arm of the search giant.

Google (GOOG) announced its VC play in March and said the fund will invest $100 million in “exceptional” start-ups over the next year.

“We’ll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven’t thought of yet,” Managing Partners Rich Miner and Bill Maris explained in a blog post when Google Ventures debuted. “Central to our effort will be our fellow Googlers, whom we view as a critically important resource to help educate us about potential investments areas and evaluate specific companies.”

Well, that now apparently means Kraus, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded the Web 1.0-era Excite portal and, in Web 2.0, JotSpot, which made wiki-style software for online collaboration.

Currently, only Miner and Maris are listed on the bios page of Google Venture’s online site.

Since the acquisition, Kraus has been leading Google’s OpenSocial efforts to develop standards for social networking platforms.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

The Real News of Wetpaint's $25 Million Funding: Fidelity Kicked In

Kara Swisher — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:56:49 +0000

While Wetpaint‘s $25 million new round of funding was leaked to one and all under embargo until 12:01 am EST today–including BoomTown, so don’t assume any of us report our little hearts out on all these bits of news–what the press release did not disclose, sources said, was an intriguing new investor: Fidelity Investments.

What’s interesting about this wrinkle is that it is yet another validation in the Web 2.0 world from a large traditional institutional investor.

Fidelity, with T. Rowe Price, already plunked down big bucks to invest in widget king Slide in January.

Seattle-based Wetpaint, which allows users to make wikis and social-networking sites easily, has raised about $40 million in total so far. New investor DAG Ventures led the current round, which included investors from two previous rounds (Frazier Technology Ventures, Trinity Ventures and Accel Partners).

BoomTown could not determine exactly how much Fidelity kicked in to Wetpaint in this round, although it did pony up almost half the new $50 million Slide investment.

Wetpaint, which also announced a new embeddable product called Wetpaint Injected today that sounds cool, says it will use the additional funds to goose its collaborative–or as we like to call it: wikified–social publishing platform.

Google 'Not-Office' Finally Completed

John Paczkowski — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:01:16 +0000

We don’t think it’s a competitor to Microsoft Office. It’s casual and sharing, and a better fit to how people use the Web.”

–Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Google Docs and Spreadsheets, April 2007

We are not in this to get Microsoft. We are in this to offer more compelling choices for consumers and businesses.”

–Dave Girouard, general manager of Google’s business software division, April 2007

Soldiering on in its quest not to compete with Microsoft’s (MSFT) core office-productivity software business, Google (GOOG) last night added another component to its Web-based productivity suite–Google Sites. Created from JotSpot, the hosted wiki platform Google acquired back in 2006, Sites is essentially a lightweight version of Microsoft’s business-collaboration program SharePoint. It offers organizations a means of instantly creating a wiki-style group workspace, in which employees can collaborate.

It’s another powerful addition to the Google Apps suite, which already includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Spreadsheets and Page Creator. And it’s free. And if you think of “free” as a euphemism for “not robust enough for enterprise use,” you best think again. At least that’s what Google says, anyway. “The so-called lightweight cloud application isn’t for the non-power user,” Matt Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise, told News.com’s Dan Farber. “It’s actually for the power user. Today’s power users aren’t writing macros. They are ‘power collaborators,’ grabbing content from six different places in the cloud and putting [it] on a site and sharing it.”

What was that Schmidt said about casual users again?

Google 'Not-Office' Finally Completed

John Paczkowski — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:01:16 +0000

We don’t think it’s a competitor to Microsoft Office. It’s casual and sharing, and a better fit to how people use the Web.”

–Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Google Docs and Spreadsheets, April 2007

We are not in this to get Microsoft. We are in this to offer more compelling choices for consumers and businesses.”

–Dave Girouard, general manager of Google’s business software division, April 2007

What was that Schmidt said about casual users again?

Creating Your Own 'Wiki' Web Site

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:01:00 +0000

Wikipedia.com, the encyclopedia Web site created and operated with contributions from online users around the world, is a resourceful tool. Though accuracy isn’t guaranteed, it reflects a collection of knowledge contributed and edited by many users.

A “wiki” is a Web site or similar online resource that allows anyone to add and edit content collectively. But while the idea behind Wikipedia.com and other collaborative sites is a good one, the process of contributing content can be intimidating for nontechies. Instead, many people opt to publish their writing and digital media on personal blogs or Web sites. Yet these don’t do much to encourage online communities and interaction.

This week, I tested a free program from Wetpaint.com Inc. that helps regular users create wikis, which encourage interaction because they’re constantly changed by contributors. Wetpaint’s wikis ease the process of adding Web links, digital images, digital videos and additional text to sites made with Wetpaint. Likewise, your site can easily be adjusted and enhanced by anyone who views it. Compared with blogs or normal Web sites, my Wetpaint wiki felt much more alive and exciting.

Wetpaint has room for improvement. Nothing created on its site can be kept private from random viewers. Some of its functions — like adding content at the same time as someone else — can be a bit confusing. And it has advertisements because it’s free, but these aren’t overly intrusive. The Seattle-based company has plans for upgrades, including introducing more privacy options this summer. But most of its features are overwhelmingly simple to use, and built-in tutorial videos demonstrate steps.

In less than five minutes, my own wiki — a site devoted to discussing television programs, compiling digital photos and video clips from shows, all of which could be added to or deleted by anyone at any time — was up and running. I noticed other Wetpaint wikis for organizing sports teams, assisting with dog rescues and discussing favorite books. Setup was divided into three steps playfully termed The Easy Part, The Fun Part and The Other Part.

I named my wiki and its URL, and considered the options for who I wanted to contribute to it: everyone (even anonymously); anyone with a Wetpaint.com account; or only those whom I invited. I chose to allow everyone’s contributions in order to get the full feel of a wiki. Twenty-four style templates provide a starting point for the color and overall look.

I invited others to see my site so that they, too, could contribute their ruminations. When inviting others, you must designate how much authority you’ll give each invitee. Whoever creates the wiki is an administrator with the ability to change everything, including the template and permission settings. You can give others the same ranking, or you might opt to make them moderators, letting them move and delete pages but not change settings. The least amount of power is given to registered users; they can’t move or delete pages, but they, like everyone else, can still delete, change or add content on each page, by default.

Every change made to the site is tracked in detail, letting everyone see which page was altered and by whom, the time and date of the change and the scope of each adjustment. Special views can compare how a page looked before and after changes, so you know whether you liked the way you had it or the new version. These details are important in the world of wikis, where changes can be slight, frequent and barely noticeable.

The home page of your wiki allows space for explaining what you’d like to do. I used mine to say how much I like chatting about recent TV show episodes, and encouraged others to contribute anything relevant to the discussion, including write-in opinions, photos of show characters and clips from favorite scenes.

Each page has a section for navigation in the top left, showing which page is currently in view and how it relates to Home — as a subcategory of Home, or a subcategory within a category and so on. A toolbox on the far right offers one-click help for editing, adding attachments, inviting others and emailing a page. At the top of each page, an Easy Edit tool can be expanded to help you add digital photos from your PC or from specific URLs, hyperlinks or short video clips from sites like YouTube.com.

I never saw any confusing jargon while adding content to my wiki. I just followed suggested links, searched for the right content online or on my computer and pasted that information into the right spot.

Within a few hours, the friends I invited to my wiki caught on and added content to my pages or created pages of their own to be listed under my wiki. In addition to my pages for “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Amazing Race” and “Friday Night Lights,” others added pages for “American Idol” and “Battlestar Galactica.” I even got into a fun back-and-forth battle with a friend as he and I each posted pictures of our favorite doctors on “Grey’s Anatomy.” Each of us had the ability to delete the other’s posting or to add our own.

I ran into some trouble when I tried to save a post and was told that someone else was simultaneously changing content on the same page. I chose to manually merge my content with the other person’s content, but couldn’t figure out how to do so and lost my entire post. This problem isn’t likely to crop up often, but it’s worth noting.

When I had questions about other sections, a help section walked me through the wiki-building steps. I also watched how-to videos that demonstrated the way certain aspects of Wetpaint worked.

If you’re tired of reading blogs that only let you post comments in an obscure section of the page, the interactive community aspect of Wetpaint’s wikis will appeal to you. Just be sure you’re aware that until later this summer, nothing on your wiki can be made private.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com.