So, never a boring time at VON.

The day started out at 9:30 am with a pretty free-wheeling discussion let by Chris Brogan..

the topic - "Future Visions of Internet TV"

Dan Dubno - who's been the tech genius behind much of what CBS has done in the past years around tech - is now out on his own. He's running a company called Blowing Things Up. So I think Dan wanted to blow up the conversation a bit (in a good way). He got in to a bit of thing about the amount of 'crap' on the web and the need for 'quality' and 'premium' content.

I sat quielty for second or two - then, decided to wade in. I proclaimed that everyone in the hall would be successful in their video on the web endeavors... and that made Dan even crazyier (*grin*). Colin Decker from Yahoo jumped in and defended curation and the need to give users the tools to find the best content to meet their needs. But then, just as i was sure that I was going to have to challage Dan to a wrestling match to calm the crowd's growing chants "fight! fight! fight!" Fred McIntyre was in the ring. He and Dan went three rounds - with Fred ending with a great big comment about Magnify and how on the web, quality is defined by its context and by pages like th... [More]

We're on our way to Boston to exhibit, speak, and hang out with the Pulver Media gang at VON.

Why do we do this - you ask? Is it because VON is cool? (yes). Is it because Chris Brogan is my hero - (yes again). But most importantly, it's because Jeff Pulver is the king of Rock and Roll - and one of the most driven and entertaining entreprenuers in the web video space.

He calls - we show up. And what a cool panel we're on!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 9:30am 10:30am

Future Visions of Internet TV- a What-If for the Near Future
• Chris Brogan, Community Developer, Pulvermedia
• Dan Dubno, Blowing Things Up, LLC
• Colin Decker, Director, Content & Programming for Yahoo! Video, Yahoo, Inc.
• Blake Lewin, Vice President of Product Development and Innovation, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.)
• Fred Mc Intyre, Vice President, AOL Video, AOL
• Steve Rosenbaum, CEO and Founder, Magnify.net

Where?
The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, 415 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210

The team at VON 2007 is me (Steve R) Ari Greenberg, and Tamar Kornblum... who is our honorary booth presenter. So, if you're in Boston -- make sure you stop b... [More]

Greetings from Boston!

Just finished setting up the booth for the Video on the Net conference. The energy here is great and I’m excited to be at my first conference with Magnify.net. If you’re around, stop by and introduce yourself.

P.S. we’ll also have some Halloween treats in Magnify colors.

So, I've been to maybe 250 conferences. The come in all shapes and sizes. Some are pretty mundane, with panels debating the various tech issues or monetization strategies. For those, the really connections come on the panels or - yes - in the Lobby. There are others - more high minded - where the discourse is certainly more thoughtful. But all of them have an agenda, a purpose, and they are clearly work.

The Lobby is unlike anything i've ever attended before. Part summer camp. Part family reunion. Part salon.



Because David Hornik curated the attendees - there was not a person who wasn't interesting to talk to. Perhaps most fascinating, then number of people who've had 'good exits' (that means that they made a bunch of money on selling their last company) who were deep in start up mode on some new dream or scheme. It seems this entrepreneurial bug isn't cure by a healthy bank balance.

Without revealing anything - since The Lobby is in fact off the record - let me see if I can share some high level observations. As a group - the folks at the Lobby are thinking hard about a few areas. First... [More]

There are very few opportunities to show up at an event and have no idea what to expect.

But for the next 3 days in Hawaii - that's what I'm looking forward to.

I've been invited to the inaugural three day conference of internet exploration called The Lobby.

The Lobby is the brainchild of David Hornick, a Venture Capitalist and Partner at the fabled August Capital. But David and I know each other through a whole bunch of mutual friends. He's been a lawyer for a number of start ups that i've know (disclosure, i was an angel investor in Ofoto - which David was council for). And now as a Venture investor, he's been one of the critical supporters and funders of Video Egg, one of the leaders in the video space an Magnify.net early upload and storage partner. So David is reason alone to trek to Hawaii.

But there's more. The guest list is over 200 invitees, and it reads like a who's who of social media and internet ventures. The gang from Digg, Automatic - creators of Word Press, MySpace, Dogster, Mozilla and Video Egg are coming. Legends like Mitch Kapor and MC hammer are on the list. And a bunch of my friends from the venture community including folks from First Round Capital, Polaris, Greylock are al... [More]

So, there's been some exciting changes in the past few weeks... and along the way we know that some of you have gotten a bit surprised when a feature or a behavior has changed on the platform.

So, first of all -- if we caught you by surprise we apologize. We're going to try and do a better job of announcing changes as they take place, or even in advance, so you will always get what you expect from the platform.

That said -- there have been some pretty nice improvements (many of them suggested features from you) so I thought it would be a good time to share them with you.

New Magnify.net Uploader. This is one of those things that we've always felt could be better. Most video sites just have you click the upload button and then cross your fingers, so you wait, hold your breath, and hope your file transfer is a success. Feels icky. So we've added a swell new Flash-based uploader with a progress bar... so you know if you have time to get a cup of coffee or whether your upload is just a few seconds away from completion..



We've updated our widget code with two important fixes, the ability to make your widget "MySpace Friendly" becau... [More]

We're burning up the web today - check it out!

• Profy.com:

  "How can anyone not like something so logical, creativity based and simple? Magnify has added much greater control and value for Magnify network owner/curators with this upgrade. The upcoming ad sharing scheme and the initial vision of this service are solid plusses for anyone into video. Magnify is a cool development with the right focus - allowing users to create and actually add value to their work."

• Technically Speaking
• TechCrunch

Fall 2007 Curation and Customization Features

New Widgets and Engagment Elements:

- The "Magnify This" video grabber browser bookmarklet transforms channel admins and visitors into content curation deputies by allowing them to embed a video from any of the most popular video sites into a magnify channel with a single click. (Or you can just put this on your browser, and have a one click admin tool). To check it out, go to yourchannel.magnify.net/tools/bookmarklet or feature this on your channel's home page by going to yourchannel.magnify.net/admin/design/home_page and clicking on "tools" then use one of the new "bookmarklet" modules.

- The home page mini-player module allows channels to show a pre-selected video when visitors arrive. You can set this mini-player to start as soon as the page is loaded, or let people play it on demand. To check it out, go to yourchannel.magnify.net/admin/design/home_page and click on "list" then drag the new "mini-player" module to your home page.

- Video counters can display view counts in thumbnail displays for all to see. To check it out, go to yourchannel.magnify.net/admin/integration/listings and choose the "Show number of views" option.

New Admin Customization Features: ... [More]