Archive for February, 2011

Cashmere Tech Wrap-Up

Friday, February 11th, 2011

AOL TO BUY HUFFINGTON POST FOR $315 MILLION

In a bid to make itself relevant again, struggling Internet pioneer AOL Inc. announced late Sunday that it would buy the Huffington Post, the well-known news and opinion site, for $315 million in cash and stock.

As part of the deal, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington will oversee a new group responsible for bringing together all editorial content from both companies including news, technology, music and local media websites.

The deal, which was signed Sunday with approval from the boards of both companies, is something of a gamble for AOL, which is looking to reignite growth in advertising revenue.

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BASECAMP IS NOW ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE

Access all of your Basecamp projects. Post new messages for your team and clients to see. Read and add comments to project messages and milestones. Create and check off project to-do items. View all of your Writeboards, image attachments, and files such as Microsoft Office documents or PDFs in their original format.

Click to see full list of compatible phones and more details

SKYGRID UNLEASHES SOCIAL MESSAGING AND AGGREGATION PLATFORM FOR BRANDS, GROUPS AND CELEBRITIES

SkyGrid, a startup that offers a powerful business news aggregator, is deviating slightly from the content model into social today. SkyGrid is launching Groups, a social messaging platform that connects conversations people are having all over the web – on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others, by topic or ‘group.’

SkyGrid Groups are pipelines of real-time, public information about a topic, sourced from news sites, Twitter, Facebook, brands and more. Using SkyGrid’s patented “stream-browsing” technology, Groups will aggregate mentions, photos, news, videos and more from hundreds of services. A group’s creator can filter which videos, Tweets, status updates, or other content they want to include in the group. Users can join groups to follow the real-time conversation around certain topics (but have to be approved by the Group’s creator).

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5 WAYS ARTISTS CAN USE FOURSQUARE TO ENGAGE FANS AND MORE

In an interview at MIDEM, Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai said the location-based social network is now valued at more than $250 million with over 6 million users, potentially increasing to 10 million by June. Though Foursquare is now seeing increased competition from Facebook and Twitter which have both recently integrated their own location-based services, Foursquare’s staggering growth in 2010 looks like it will continue to flourish into 2011.

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MARKETERS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT FINDING SOCIAL MEDIA ROI

Marketers are hopeful that this will be the year that they finally link social media marketing to ROI, a new survey says.

According to the report from Bazaarvoice, 74% of CMOs predict they will finally tie social efforts to hard ROI this year. The survey polled 175 CMOs from The CMO Club, including those from B2C and B2B companies in various industries.

In 2009, 84% of companies did not measure social media ROI — in 2011, that’s not an option. Business decisions are best made when they are based on hard numbers that measure success, and social media efforts are no longer an exception.

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Egypt Took $90 Million Hit From Internet Blackout

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

It was estimated that the recent digital blackout cost Egypt’s economy about $90 million during the political turmoil when Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak’s government ordered all forms of internet access, mobile networks, SMS to be blocked. Based on a  figure released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, that comes out to $18 million per day.

Chief scientist at Arbor Networks, Craig Labovitz, believes the Egyptian blackout “represents a new Internet milestone. “We have never seen a country as connected as Egypt completely lose Internet connectivity for such an extended period.”

He predicts that the blackout would have long-term repercussions for the country. “Today, the Internet is as an integral part of the Egyptian economy and society. Unlike periods as recent as a decade ago, governments of technically developed countries cannot disrupt telecommunication without incurring significant economic cost and social/political pressures.”

While Egypt has enjoyed a great degree of freedom in the telecommunication arena during the past decade, the Egyptian government’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s actions in the past week reflect how the government still has a long way to go.

Click here to read the full story from InformationWeek.com

Snoop Dogg Gives Some Advice to Up and Coming Producers

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

In an interview with Taj Mahal, Snoop Dogg discusses how he helps new producers make a name for themselves by rapping on their tracks.  The Boss Dogg states, “I always give people a chance, people that ain’t got no name.  I love giving them a chance by rapping on they beats.”

One example is producer Soopafly who Snoop helped to launch his career in the 90′s when Soopafly produced the beat for “Who Got Some Gangsta Shit” off of the Murder Was The Case soundtrack. At the time, Soopafly had never produced a track for a major artist so Suge Knight told Snoop to “give Soopafly $500 and tell him to kick rocks”.  Snoop felt Soopafly “might be good with our crew” and paid him $5,000 for the beat “and look where he at”.

Snoop points out that “when I do that, don’t rob me, rob the next person.  ’Cause I’m the guy you tell people: ‘Yeah, Snoop gave me $20,000 for the beat’. Nah I ain’t gave you anything, but you tell a person I gave you $20,000, that’s how you leverage the game.”

To read more, head over to HipHopDX.com for the full story and check out the video below for more from Snoop.

Tinie Tempah talks Fight Night Champion, Challenges Murs

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

After announcing the full roster of songs that will be on the soundtrack for their upcoming Fight Night Champion game last week, EA was able to sit down with one of the artists featured on the in-game soundtrack, UK superstar, Tinie Tempah.

Check out the video below as he discusses the newest Fight Night game, what he thinks about his song being in the game, and witness him throw out a challenge to Murs to see who has the best skills in Fight Night Champion. Will Murs accept? Stay tuned.

EA Sports Fight Night Champion hits stores March 1st for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Snoop Dogg All-Stars win 9th Annual Snoop Bowl

Monday, February 7th, 2011

For the 9th Annual Snoop Bowl, Snoop took his all-star team to Dallas to take on Deion “Primetime” Sanders’ TRUTH All Stars.  Both celebrities are active with youth football so it was only right they put something together like this.

“In conjunction with Xbox and Kinect, it’s a beautiful thing to have the kids interact and put the football game and football feeling back into the streets,” shared Snoop in an interview on site at the game.

The event went down the day before the Super Bowl and was sponsored by Kinect for Xbox 360.  The TRUTH All Stars were gathered from all over the nation while Snoop Dogg’s squad consisted of All Stars from California.  All in good fun, Snoop’s team beat Deion’s team 57-12.

“This is the 9th annual Snoop Bowl and I’m excited to just be a part of it,” Sanders said. “When we mentioned that Xbox would be involved, these kids eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. They were so excited, they were elated. I think some of them were more excited about Xbox Kinect being here instead of the football game.”

Besides the lopsided victory it was a good event that allowed some youth to travel, compete and get up close and personal with Snoop and Deion.

Cashmere Tech Wrap-Up

Friday, February 4th, 2011

SKYGRID UNLEASHES SOCIAL MESSAGING AND AGGREGATION PLATFORM FOR BRANDS, GROUPS AND CELEBRITIES

SkyGrid, a startup that offers a powerful business news aggregator, is deviating slightly from the content model into social today. SkyGrid is launching Groups, a social messaging platform that connects conversations people are having all over the web – on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others, by topic or ‘group.’

SkyGrid Groups are pipelines of real-time, public information about a topic, sourced from news sites, Twitter, Facebook, brands and more. Using SkyGrid’s patented “stream-browsing” technology, Groups will aggregate mentions, photos, news, videos and more from hundreds of services. A group’s creator can filter which videos, Tweets, status updates, or other content they want to include in the group. Users can join groups to follow the real-time conversation around certain topics (but have to be approved by the Group’s creator).

While anyone can create a Group, it seems to be catered towards public figures, brands, celebrities, artists, and news and entertainment organizations, who want to create a centralized hub for all real-time social information about a specific topic. For example, Lady Gaga could create a group for her new album that features not only her status updates, videos, photos Tweets and news but also includes her fans commentary as well.

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BILLBOARD LAUNCHES UNCHARTED, THE FIRST-EVER RANKING OF UNDISCIVERED ARTISTS

In an unprecedented move to recognize new and developing artists who do not have the volume of sales or airplay that have traditionally defined success, the all-new Billboard Uncharted ranking brings undiscovered talent to the revered Billboard charts for the first time.

Launched today on Billboard.com, Uncharted gives a vast market of emerging talent the opportunity to be ranked and discovered. Billboard’s Uncharted is part of its new Dreamseekers initiative that will include not only the Uncharted ranking but also Billboard Pro, a comprehensive tool to help artists manage and grow their online fan base.

Occupying the No. 1 slot on the inaugural Uncharted ranking is hip-hop solo artist Traphik, a Long Beach, California-based Thai-American rapper known for his comedic YouTube videos and rhymes.  Other artists in the top five include DJ BL3ND, Colette Carr, Javier Jofre and the Deadlies.

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Click to view the Uncharted List

LETSLUNCH LAUNCHES AND WE’VE GOT 100 INVITES

Earlier I wrote about an interesting new wave of companies trying to one-up LinkedIn, by using recommendation engines to help navigate your professional life. While LinkedIn made sense of your off-line social graph and how it intersects with friends’ social graphs, these new companies are essentially trying to rank your social graph and let you use that information to get ahead. Earlier I wrote about Mixtent, which is trying to solve inefficiencies in the labor market. Another site launching tomorrow at the Founder Institute’s Founder Showcase is LetsLunch.

LetsLunch tackles another awkward and inefficient necessity of the business world: Networking. It was first pitched by Syed Shuttari at the Founders Institute, and Alain Raynaud, a mentor for the Founder Institute, was excited enough about the idea he decided to join the company as a co-founder.

Here’s how it works: People give LetsLunch a lunch slot, and its algorithms match you with people you should have lunch with and a nearby location. It grades people on a level of 1 to 10, and matches people based on similar rankings.

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FORGETTING FACEBOOK: HOW TAGGED.COM FOUND SPACE IN SOCIAL NETWORKING

Tagged.com, the social network whose Android app soft-launched last week, was founded in 2004, back when most of us hadn’t even heard of a little Harvard startup called Facebook. “We spent three years fighting to be king,” recalls Greg Tseng, Tagged’s founder and CEO. “By 2007, it became clear that we weren’t going to win. So we decided to pivot, to become a site for meeting new people,” he explains. “Thank God we did that. The other sites,” ones like Hi5 and MySpace, “are getting crushed, are declining, whereas we’ve built our business over the last three years.” Tagged, meanwhile, has over 100 million registered users, and on Monday, announced it had brought in $32 million in revenue last year, its third consecutive profitable year.

The idea behind Tagged is that the Internet should enable you to meet new people, to forge new connections, rather than simply replicating an existing social structure online. “There are literally quadrillions of possible connections, pairs of people,” out of the 2 billion people who are online,” notes Tseng. “But most aren’t viable, won’t work, or aren’t mutually interesting connections.” Tagged uses algorithms to foster interesting connections. It supports three “use cases,” in Tseng’s terminology: romance, social games, and common interests.

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13 CREATIVE WAYS TO USE QR CODES FOR MARKETING

In the same way that websites, then Myspace URLs, and more recently Facebook pages started appearing in TV, magazine and newspapers ads, we’re starting to see more QR codes appear in traditional advertisements.

QR codes have been spotted on direct mail pieces, movie posters, business cards and in Times Square. Whether they’ll have the staying power of your website or of your Myspace page has yet to be determined, but while they still enjoy the buzz of the “next big thing,” you can take advantage of QR codes in marketing your small business.

What is a QR code?

A QR code is a 2-D barcode that can be scanned by a smart phone’s camera and transfer information. Based on the type of code it is, it might direct the viewer to a website, make a phone call, deliver a vCard or more.

Because of this, you need to determine if QR codes are a good fit for your business and your audience. If you feel there’s a place for QR codes in your marketing toolbox, here are some creative suggestions on how you can take advantage of QR codes.

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Cashmere Event Announcement: Abstract Vision Female Perspective Opening Reception

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Abstract Vision Female Perspective is a new photo exhibition featuring the works of seven Los Angeles female photographers. The show is holding its opening reception Friday, February 11, 2011 running till March 6, 2011 at Urban Sanctuary Gallery, a community art space involved in leading the current artistic renaissance in Boyle Heights.

On display will be works from artists Bekka Melino, Carrie Camacho, Grace Oh, Janine Lim, Kerry Sawyers, Kyla Wright and Rosalinda Kooyman. “Abstract” the show’s theme, is an attempt to free the photographer of current working day assignments without the restrictions or pressure of creating images for profit.

Curating the show is artivist Azul 213, who by day juggles a dual career in broadcast network television and as a freelance photographer; and by night, has been a familiar face over the last thirteen years hosting and DJ’ing some of Los Angeles’ most popular night club spots. Azul had his first hand of curating while co-owner of UponShop Record Store in Silverlake, hosting shows that showcased his art peers like Mear One, Doug Murphy “Plastic God”, Frohawk Two Feathers, Hotchkiss, Augustine “Kofie”, & Jim Mahfood. Since then the focus on his own visual art path has taken him in many art directions.

This wll be the first in a three part series of shows curated by Azul. In March, the incredible work by Mochilla capturing the Zapatistas March on Mexico City ten years ago will be displayed. The third installment of this series in April will feature the work of Azul’s mentor, renowned cinematographer, Johnny Simmons, who despite his busy film career continues to take still photographs and inventive portraits today.

Featured photographers:

Bekka Melino

Carrie Camacho

Grace Oh

Janine Lim

Kerry Sawyers

Kyla Wright

Rosalinda Kooyman aka “DesertFlower”/ “Roslinda Paz”

Opening Reception Soundscapes by:

DJ Shiva

“Abstract Vision Female Perspective”
February 11, 2011 – March 6, 2011

Opening Reception:
Friday, February 11, 2011
7 pm – 12 am
Soundscapes: DJ Shiva

Our Support Network:

Thank you Lee Boek for signing on as our wine sponsor for the evening. Providing only the finest premium organic wines from Frey Vineyards!!

Thank you Robert Castillo of 3 Wheel for providing the sound system for the evening.

For more information on the show and the photographers, please visit UrbanSanctuaryLA.com. To RVSP for the event, head over to the Facebook event page. 

Snoop Dogg Presents Snoop Bowl IX

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

This Saturday, February 5th, Snoop Doog will be getting you ready for the big game on Sunday by holding his 9th annual Snoop Bowl in Lancaster, Texas.

Snoop Bowl IX features teams from Fort Worth, Brownsville, Texas, St. Louis, NW Arkansas, Oklahoma City, and Memphis but the marquee matchup is between the Snoop Dogg All-Stars and Deion Sanders’ TRUTH Select National Champion football squad.

Past Snoop Bowls have included artists such as Flo-Rida, DJ Khaled, and Will.I.Am. No disrespect to Prime Time, but Cashmere will be rooting for you Snoop! Check out the Snoop Youth Football League website for more details.

It’s Lights Out with Fight Night Champion Soundtrack

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

In conjunction with the Fight Night Champion demo available now on Xbox Live and Playstation Network, EA Sports officially released the tracklisting for the Fight Night Champion soundtrack.

The newest edition in the long-time running boxing franchise boasts a diverse roster of hip-hop artists. The Fight Night Champion soundtrack is made up veteran artist and hot new acts, including: N.E.R.D. rappers Aloe Blacc and Murs & 9th Wonder;  hip-hop bands Chiddy Bang and The Roots; Japanese rapper Lyrics Born; and British MC’s Plan B and Tinie Tempah.

This eclectic mix of songs is sure to get gamers hyped to trade ‘boes, round after round. Check out the full tracklisting below:

1. “I Need A Dollar” – Aloe Blacc
2. “The Loser Wins” – Atmosphere
3. “Round Of Applause” – Black Milk
4. “Old Ways” – Chiddy Bang
5. “Meanstreak (In 3 Parts)” – El-P
6. “I’m The Best (Funky Fresh In The Flesh)” – Lyrics Born
7. “The Problem Is…” – Murs & 9th Wonder feat. Sick Jacken
& Uncle Chucc
8. “I Wanna Jam” – N.E.R.D.
9. “What You Gonna Do” – Plan B
10. “Keep Shining” – Shad
11. “Sinister Kid” – The Black Keys
12. “The Fire” – The Roots
13. “How I Got Over” – The Roots
14. “Make Your Move” – Thunderball feat. Mustafa Akbar
15. “Intro” – Tinie Tempah

And if you haven’t done so already, be sure to watch the Fight Night Champion trailer below. Fight Night Champion will be available for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 systems on March 1, 2011 . For more information, log onto easports.com/fightnight.

2011 NBA All-Star Jam Session Tickets Available Now

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

NBA Jam Session is kicking off the NBA All-Star festivities with their E-Waste Recycling Day.

Presented by Haier in  partnership with the City of Los Angeles and Electronic Recyclers International,  E-Waste Recycling Day will be taking place on Saturday, February 12th from 9am-3pm behind the LA Convention Center. Just drop off your old electronics and receive two FREE tickets to Family Day at NBA All-Star Jam Session presented by adidas on Monday, Presidents’ Day on February 21st.

NBA Jam Session also hooked with Los Angeles Laker star, Pau Gasol, to get fans pumped up about the 2011 NBA All-Star Jam Session. Click on the pic below to watch the full video!

Don’t forget, NBA All-Star Jam Session tickets are on sale NOW! Save $3.00 off Friday (2/18) and Monday (2/21) tickets online at Ticketmaster.com by using discount codes: Adult: FACEA; Kids: FACEC. Ticket prices are as follows:

Friday, Feb. 18 @ 4pm – 10 pm: $20 adults; $12 kids 12 & under; $12 seniors: children 2 & under are free

Saturday, Feb. 19 @ 9am – 10pm: $30 adults; $20 kids 12 & under; $20 seniors: children 2 & under are free

Sunday, Feb. 20 @ 9am – 5pm: $30 adults; $20 kids 12 & under; $20 seniors: children 2 & under are free

Monday, Feb. 21 @ 9am – 5pm: $20 adults; $12 kids 12 & under; $12 seniors: children 2 & under are free