The 2.D’oh! Weekly Round-Up: Vol. I
As we head into the weekend, let’s take a quick look at the lowlights, high points and general mischief around 2.0ville during the past week.
Talk About viral: The Online Video Contagion Spreads
The Center for Media Research reports that 132 million Americans viewed online video in the month of May. Average time spent during the month was 158 minutes. I’m bad at math that goes beyond nine figures, but I think that’s a total of 350 million hours never to be retrieved. I think if that time had been spent teaching poor kids to read, we could have in one swoop made American kids more literate than their French counterparts, or maybe even the Germans, just like that. Ah, well. There’s always June.
Lost, the 2.0 Version
Today the New York Times has an excellent article about the development of UGC maps, where Wikipedia meets Flickr meets MySpace and GoogleMaps [I think that meeting place is here, but I’m not sure].
Nobody Goes There Anymore, It’s Too Crowded
Wired has an excellent article on Second Life by Frank Rose, revealing how marketers have invested heavily in ad campaigns there, only to find the place virtually (har!) deserted. Too bad: We’ve been hoping to see a “Nigerian Bank Fund Transfer” pavilion in Second Life any day now. “Drop off your Social Security card to enter our free sweepstakes!”
And Finally, Our Friday ‘Noted Without Comment’ Item
Explore posts in the same categories: 2.D'oh! Round-Ups, Second Life, video
Web 2.Oh. . .really? 
30, July, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Hi Richard. I am the humble the founder of GlimpseBack.com and I am curious about your “noted without comment” item, and btw I also thank you for the mention. You’ve got me curious Richard. 🙂 Wondering if your missing comment is a compliment or is it the equivalent of a slurred word and a cough? Come on Richard – share your thoughts with me and the rest of the world. (I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’s alllll good.)
31, July, 2007 at 10:53 am
Hi Michele, thanks for writing.
My “noted without comment” comment really was designed to invite folks to take a look and see what they think themselves. I’ll be doing it each week.
But in the spirit of fairness, let me report what *I* think of glimpseback.com:
The concept is inherently controversial. Most online memorial services I’ve seen are individuals’ or non-profit. A for-profit memorial site, while not unique, is something that immediately causes people to think about its propriety. In some packages offered in your beta, for instance, resellers can run a banner ad at the bottom. Some folks may not be comfortable with this.
[Let me say that I’ve lived in a similar world myself. A former employer, Revolution Health, is working to build communities for support, among disease survivors, etc.–in a for-profit context. So are other for-profit health Web services. All such operations have to deal with questions of public perception and presentation–and the underlying business model.]
Having said all that, you seem to have gone to great lengths to make the service respectful and tasteful. It’s also well designed.
I also like the way you’ve integrated into the platform the ability for visitors to make donations to charity.
Like all Web ventures,the success of glimpseback will depend on execution and audience response. I hope having this discussion in a public place will invite others to take a look–and, if they like, leave comments here for all to see.
Hope that helps.
[One final FYI note: My name’s Craig, not Richard.]
31, July, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Hi Craig. Where in the world did I get Richard from? Sorry. Thank you for all of your feedback – it is the best tool to build upon the foundation of a business.
Let me share these personal and professional tidbits with you. (Here’s your “exclusive” Craig.) 🙂
When my brother died suddenly, I wanted to preserve the essence of who he was and encapsulate his legacy as a seed that would grow with entries. He had a plethora of friends and each of them had endless amazing stories they shared about him. In 2002, I was seeking an online service to create something as unique as my brother Joe. Back then there were very few options for memorializing and honoring a person. I exhausted my efforts and I put his name on a star (and paid about $50 for it.) All they sent me was a folder with a certificate that was probably purchased at Xpedx. If you asked me to point to star or even the area in the sky I’d laugh at myself for making such an emotional choice.
At the time of my brothers passing I owned and operated a small design company (for about 17 years at that point). A few months after his death, one of my clients came to me when her 16 yr old died from Leukemia. She commissioned us to created a gorgeous site using Macromedia Flash technology. Back then it cost her several thousands to create this custom memorial.
The dream of creating a place for internet users to customize (down to the very last detail) a memorial that was conceived and dedicated to the individual (by a family member or a friend) seemed like a dream. I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish that, especially for an affordable fee.
The focus became technology and programming, which allowed us to create interactive-automation as I call it. (Did I make that term up?) Because of interactive-automation the site reduces the cost from thousands to (in some packages) as low as $65.
Some blogger have said “GlimpseBack.com is well thought out”. We have taken every one of our ideas seriously — integrating everything we could think of. The ideas kept growing …and just before the BETA launch, it grew to include the “options” for advertising.
Users/Subscribers can choose WITH or WITHOUT ads. Obviously, the cost of the memorial package will be reduced if they choose the banner ad option. You may find it interesting to know that FREE 60 day listings are completely ad free!
We have spent a great deal of time building the site as “users”. We have accomplished the BETA site and network launch without influence, motivation or pressure from external forces like VC’s. Our goal is to bring together a unique network of various industries that will enrich the users experience and offer internet users a place to celebrate the life (rather than mourn the death). We’re all about “the dash”, that little mark between the dates denoting the lifetime. By the way, unlike every other web memorial site, GlimpseBack does not post birth and death dates.
Something else that is unique to GlimpseBack (besides the stuff we have patent pending) visitors are not required to sign up and join our network. We do NOT collect personal data/subscriber accounts to impress investors who often get excited at big numbers that saturate the typical social networking scene. We have a cool tool offered at a fair price (free during the BETA). Hopefully good things will come from it…and maybe someday we can pay the bills.
Steve, do you have any ideas for attracting participation of non-profit organizations (free), musicians (free) and developers (free)?
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share this information with you and your readers.
Michele Maltese
31, July, 2007 at 3:39 pm
hey michele, i have a lot of musician friends. cool site, i’ll send them your way.