The Story Beyond The Still - first ever user-generated HD Video Contest where photographers become filmmakers

The Story Beyond The Still

It's the first ever user-generated HD Video Contest where photographers become filmmakers, and we all see beyond the still. Last month M. Keegan Uhl was chosen as the winner of Chapter 3 for his film "The Beach," based on his interpretation of a still photograph left at the end of the previous winning chapter. M Keegan's film was the third chapter of seven, ending with a still photograph of its own for the Vimeo community to once again interpret. After a wave of entries, Jeff Turick's "Allison" was chosen as the winner for Chapter 4, and now, once again the question is posed to you, what do you see beyond this still?

The Chapter 5 submission period will close Thursday, June 10th at 11:59:59PM EST

Facebook Shopping: Payvment Snares $1.5 Million Investment - app allows you to set up 'store' for free

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Promises Big Brands Will Soon Join Mom-and-Pops in Social Commerce

by Kunur Patel
Published: May 19, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- More than 20,000 mom-and-pops and small retailers have started hawking real goods on Facebook in the past five months, thanks to an e-commerce platform called Payvment. And with a $1.5 million investment the big brands are coming soon, said the startup's CEO, Christian Taylor.

Through Payvment, retailers have sold 125,000 products on Facebook.
Payvment is a Facebook e-commerce app that lets any user -- businesses and individuals alike -- download a storefront and set up shop for free. Since it launched in November, small and midsize retailers have taken notice and put 125,000 products up for sale and 500,000 Facebook users (out of nearly 500 million total) have shopped with the app, which transacts "tens of thousands" of dollars per day, said Mr. Taylor, who declined to provide specific sales figures.
Today, the e-commerce provider announced $1.5 million in new funding led by Blue Run Ventures, the venture-capital firm that originally funded PayPal. What's more, Mr. Taylor said a beta program with well-known retail brands is under way, and the startup plans to launch tools for larger brands in June.

"All these brands are giving budgets to launch Facebook pages," said Mr. Taylor. "But what's the value of fans? Couldn't they be converted into paying customers?"

cont......

Is This the Dawn of the Facebook Credit Economy? - Facebook Credits to be the global mobile payment platform?

Is This the Dawn of the Facebook Credit Economy?

What You Need to Know About Social-Media Website's Virtual Currency

Posted by Ian Schafer on 05.20.10 @ 11:12 AM

Ian Schafer

Ian Schafer
If you start looking closely, there have been a series of developments that are pointing to Facebook Credits, Facebook's "virtual" currency, becoming something much bigger than what it is today.

One way to explain what Facebook Credits are and how they work is by hearkening back to the arcades we used to visit as kids, where they would re-interpret the classic "change" machines into "token" machines. We'd put dollars into them that we could spend anywhere, and get tokens out that were only good at that arcade. It's brilliant. They get your money, even if you don't spend it all there.

Well, that's pretty much how Facebook Credits work. Today, they are only good at existing merchants (mostly those that sell virtual items, such as Zynga, who have just signed a five-year deal with Facebook to keep this going). But that list is expected to continue to grow, and as usage increases, online merchants may eventually have no choice but to accept Facebook Credits at checkout. If we get to that point, the business of e-commerce and m-commerce may get a huge jolt, and the discussion around Facebook and privacy may just be getting started. Here's what it may look like in the very near future:

Facebook Credits are backed by actual national currencies and will render exchange rates at points-of-sale moot.
Facebook Credits have the potential to be one of the strongest standardized debit systems in the world, because each credit used has actually already been spent by a consumer in a transaction. This isn't Facebook extending "credit"; it's actually creating its own currency that can be bought at a particular exchange rate.

You may be already familiar with the "Gold Standard," where each unit of currency has a value that corresponds with a certain unit of gold. You may be less familiar with the "Gold Exchange Standard," which, as defined by Wikipedia, "may involve only the circulation of silver coins, or coins made of other metals, but the authorities will have guaranteed a fixed exchange rate with another country that is on the gold standard, hence creating a de facto gold standard, in that the value of the silver coins has a fixed external value in terms of gold that is independent of the inherent silver value." In other words, countries get together and agree on a fixed exchange rate for gold, allowing the same gold standard to apply everywhere, regardless of paper currency. The same applies to Facebook.

You can currently acquire Facebook Credits by using several different currencies. But each has its own de facto exchange rate; so three Facebook Credits for someone in the U.S. have the same value as three Facebook Credits for someone in Italy. No more complicated calculations at checkout; the exchange rate was already applied upon purchase of the Facebook Credits. Anything that can make the checkout process easier may result in increased sales.

Facebook Credits may become the one global mobile payment platform.
If Facebook continues its growth on mobile platforms, then Facebook Credits will have the opportunity to become the default mobile payment currency accepted worldwide. Half a billion people would not have to sign up for an account to use them, because they already have the account. And anyone with a mobile phone could potentially use Facebook Credits at points-of-sale in physical locations. The data, learning, market research, and point-of-sale advertising implications are potentially limitless.

It may spell the end for PayPal and Google Checkout, or they may become re-energized as the Facebook alternatives.
PayPal is the leading non-credit card third-party way of processing online payments via e-mail or electronic account. Google Checkout has aimed to compete in this space as well. But a widely-accepted Facebook Credit economy has the potential to severely limit the usage of these other services out of convenience. But for those looking to still spend money the old-fashioned way (which may still ultimately be the way people choose to spend their money), these could earn renewed support and usage as payment (and Facebook) alternatives.

Purchases can be shared as part of the Facebook experience. But will people want to that?
When not only the information about the transaction, but the transaction itself happens via Facebook, it gives Facebook access to much more user data that can be used to deliver more targeted advertising. It can also lead to more information about transaction being shared by people as well.

But you don't have to look further than Blippy or Facebook's old "Beacon" strategy to know that people have been burned or are iffy when it comes to automatically sharing purchase behavior with others, even their friends. Much of that has to do with there not being enough reward for doing so. The opportunity for Facebook Credits is to reward people for engaging with brands and retailers. If using Facebook Credits more often, or sharing information about their purchases results in discounts or even the earning of more Facebook Credits, you can count on consumers to reveal more to their friends and Facebook, as long as the value exchange is clearly identified.

This kind of access to purchase habits and behaviors may finally be able to help justify using Facebook as a true CRM tool for brands, allowing for the tracking of sales back to influence and relationships, making them better marketers in the process.

The foundation is being laid for Facebook Credits to potentially be one of Facebook's biggest revenue opportunities, and its extension into social gaming is made even more obvious with the recent Zynga deal. It will be difficult for merchants to decline accepting Facebook Credits if adopted en masse by consumers. Incentives will ensure that they will at least be a heavily considered option for brands looking to reward engagement.

This will all present a new privacy hurdle for Facebook to overcome, as even more data will be attached to Facebook accounts, and more security will need to be added to a platform that has had its share of challenges in that area.

But any way you look at it, the implications for brands is tremendous as a new way of buying, selling, measuring, and rewarding is born.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ian Schafer is the CEO of Deep Focus, and can be stalked on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ischafer.

very interesting - especially given the dissatisfaction with Facebook on privacy issues

June 26 -The Creators Project Launch Event, NYC | Spike Jonz' I'm Here to be 'performed' live

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The Creators Project event series—a roving global celebration—launches this summer on June 26, when The Creators rolls into 80,000-square-feet of display and performance space honeycombed throughout the legendary Milk Studios in New York’s Meatpacking District.

The event is going to be a groundbreaking combination of interactive art and installations, panels, workshops, screenings, and live performances. As much as The Creators Project is a digital archive of our digital world, it is also a testament to the enduring appeal of the Real. Many of the artists within the program explore the way that digitally manipulated images, sounds, and motions converge in real time, in real spaces.

Some things at the New York event you should watch out for…

• London’s UVA (United Visual Artists) will be installing several works including their truly awe-inspiring and rarely viewed Triptych. Stay tuned to the Creators Blog for some exciting news around a customized installation of the piece.

• Nick Zinner, guitarist of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, will also be installing a major image and sound composition—new creative territory for Zinner, who has been obsessed with a particular style of documentary photography for well over a decade. The piece also features a collaboration with Martyn Ware, music producer and founding member of The Human League.

• There will also be several screenings and “performances” of Spike Jonze’s newest film, the robot love-story I’m Here, complete with a special interactive video booth where viewers will be given the chance to record messages about the film directly to Spike.

• We’re also preparing a global installation with the LA-based directorial duo Radical Friend. Stay tuned for more information on their epic vision as we near the New York launch date in June.

• One last note: we will be inviting thousands to the New York launch. Stay tuned to this page for ticket information. The event is FREE to the Creator community.

That means you.

via thecreatorsproject.com.

Gamasutra - News - GDC Europe Debuts Sony, Playdom, Crytek Talks, Transmedia Focus

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GDC Europe organizers have announced major new speakers for the August event taking place in Cologne alongside Gamescom, with notables from Sony, Playdom, Crytek and Playfish speaking on social games, budget balancing, game metrics controversy and beyond.

Following the recent announcement of a keynote from browser game giant and Battlestar Galactica MMO creator Bigpoint, the new sessions reveal significant breadth to the leading European video game conference, which takes place on August 16th-18th in Cologne, Germany.

Some of the notable new speakers for the conference (which is created by the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website) include the following:

- In 'Intuition vs. Metrics: The Big Debate', Playfish's Jeferson Valardes will explore the controversy about the social game space's metrics-driven approach to design and development. Valardes, at the Electronic Arts-owned leading social network game firm (Restaurant City, Pet Society), promises "take this controversial subject by the neck and leave no stone unturned" in discussing it.

- Crytek producer Bernd Diemer (Crysis) is presenting a thought-provoking design lecture from the leading German firm, 'Imaginary Places, Strange Maps, and How Pop Culture Resonates Past Media Borders', discussing how inspiration for games can be taken from the strange, compelling miasma of pop culture through our earliest experiences.

- In a key production track lecture from Seb Canniff of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, 'Budgets - The Bermudan Part of the Production Triangle', the SCEE manager will provide hands-on advice on how to build, track and stick to a video game project budget, looking at "what most often goes wrong, and providing tools and tips on how to avoid these pitfalls".

- Discussing 'The Year in Social Games', Playdom's Steve Meretzky & Dave Rohrl -- both recognized creators recently moved to the social game space -- point out the most interesting social games of the year – both the popular and hidden gems, while making "bold predictions about what to expect in social gaming during the coming year."

- Finally, industry veteran Don Daglow, formerly of Stormfront Studios (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) presents a notable business talk, 'All These Platforms and Business Models: How do I Target My Game?' In it, he will use his decades of industry experience share "how to look at platforms, distribution methods, business models and audiences and answer the critical question, 'Where will people play my next game, and how will they buy it?'"

In addition to these major announcements, GDC Europe organizers have announced a focus on 'Games & Movies/TV' for a track taking place on the first day of the event (Monday, August 16), in partnership with IHK Koln, the City of Cologne and Mediencluster NRW.

The first announced speaker for this track is BreakThru Films' Jorg Tittel, who is working for the Oscar-winning UK based film company (Peter And The Wolf) on several transmedia projects, including an animated and live action feature, The Flying Machine, with a simultaneously created game. In addition, he'll be discussing an anticipated major new sci-fi TV series which is planned to have multiple associated video games.

Overall, the GDC Europe conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

Hand Made Hobbit Hole "absorbed, immersed, obsessed"

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Since attending the FITC panel "Storytelling: Absorbed, Immersed, Obsessed" on immersive design, that title has been rumbling around in my thoughts as the perfect expression of the kind of creative engagement digital storytelling requires. Yet, as someone whose background is literary, I am also very aware that that kind of attention is also something that has existed in the epic tales of storytellers going back millenia. And having just found this site (props Hive Media), the current attention on world building is beautifully paralled in this recreation of Bilbo Baggins' Bag End.

I love this with a full-on nostalgic return to childhood and the multiple times I read Tolkien's Middle Earth series.

Playstation 3 Owners Get a New Service MUBI for Great Films

Today at the Cannes Film Festival, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced that MUBI — formerly known as The Auteurs — will be coming to the PlayStation 3 this fall. Think of MUBI as Netflix programmed by Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael and Martin Scorsese.

Although the larger MUBI service remains available throughout the world, the PlayStation 3 partnership will only be available in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia, New Zealand and the other countries where SCEE has dominion.

The MUBI PS3 app will be very much like the Netflix app. Once downloaded, users will be able to browse available films and then watch them either à la carte or pay for an unlimited monthly subscription. Some films will also be available to watch for free. Individual rentals are available for seven days....