Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

Red Carpet Recaps with Hosts: Althea, Vanessa, & Sarah Evans

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

MyShape and Watchitoo’s Red Carpet Oscar Show was a real success offering real-time commentary on the fashions that were coming down the Red Carpet before the Oscars began.  http://www.watchitoo.com/pro/oscars/.

Althea Harper, Project Runway’s Season 6 runner-up, and Vanessa Rae, an online host for the Today Show/MSNBC.com, and Sarah Evans, recently named by Vanity Fair as one of “America’s Tweethearts,” provided an interactive discussion with the online audience about the red carpet styles and provided commentary on how real-time video platforms , such as Watchitoo, and real-time conversations like the twitter oscar commentary enabled people around the world  viewing the oscars to experience and enjoy such live events in a new way.

Part of the Watchitoo Team was viewing the Live Red Carpet Watchitoo Show on a large flat screen television in seattle- truly bringing the PC experience to the TV. Viewing the red carpet in such a new and innovative way brought a fresh new experience to Oscar viewing. Even some of the real-time predictions they made ended up happening, like Althea’s favorite Versace Dress pick, ended up being worn by JLo as she came down the Red Carpet.

Here are photos capturing some of the show highlights, feature Althea, Vanessa, and Sarah discussing their favorite dress picks:

Watchitoo Oscars TV

Here is the Watchitoo Myshape Live show being screened on a 50 inch LG flatscreen- now that’s a new online viewing experience!

Oscar Dress Highlight

Oscars Live Red Carpet Fashion Commentary

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

MyShape and Watchitoo partner up

to Offer Exclusive

Oscars 2010 Fashion Coverage:  

Live Streaming Commentary on Oscar Fashions

OscarBannerImageUpdate

MyShape and Watchitoo, a real-time social collaboration platform, are partnering to provide live streaming online commentary of the Academy Awards®’ red carpet fashion. Coverage will start at 4 p.m. (PST) on March 7, 2010, and will be available at http://www.watchitoo.com/pro/oscars/.

Althea Harper, Project Runway’s Season 6 runner-up, and Vanessa Rae, an online host for the Today Show/MSNBC.com, will offer live critiques of the night’s fashions worn by the hottest stars. Sarah Evans, recently named by Vanity Fair as one of “America’s Tweethearts,” will join the discussion about the red carpet styles and also will discuss how new online platforms, such as Watchitoo, allow people around the world to experience live events in a new way.

“Oscar night is one of fashion’s biggest nights,” said Althea Harper, fashion designer and Project Runway Season 6 runner-up. “I am very excited to be partnering with MyShape to show women how they can translate these red carpet looks and trends into their own wardrobes. And what’s great about MyShape is that you don’t have to be a certain size or shape to find great clothes that flatter you.”

MyShape pioneered Personal Shopping as a solution for women of all shapes to select from only the clothes that fit and flatter™. MyShape lets its members build a Personal Shop™ by submitting their specific measurements and their taste and style preferences.

“We’re thrilled to have Althea, Vanessa and Sarah as hosts for our coverage of the Oscar red carpet,” said Mercedes De Luca, president of MyShape. “This is a great opportunity for women to hear from the experts about what’s hot this year, ask questions and learn more about how they can wear the trends of the red carpet in their daily lives.”

Users joining this Watchitoo Live Event will have the option to simply watch the hosts report live or to use video chat and instant messaging in order to pose questions for the hosts and engage in discussions about the evening’s fashions. During the event users will receive an exclusive promo code for a special deal on www.myshape.com.

“The Oscars has always brought people together and started discussions about fashion,” said Rony Zarom (@Ronywatchitoo), founder and CEO of Watchitoo. “With the Watchitoo Live Event platform, people will be able to connect and comment with others outside of their living rooms and with our expert hosts.”

For more information, please visit http://www.watchitoo.com/pro/oscars/. *A recording of the livestream broadcast will be available for playback* connect with us on twitter @watchitoo!

For more information on Althea Harper, visit http://www.altheaharper.com/ or follow her on Twitter at @altheaharper.

For more information on Vanessa Rae, visit http://www.vanessarae.net/content/home or follow her on Twitter @vrageous.

For more information on Sarah Evans, visit http://prsarahevans.com/ or follow her on Twitter at @prsarahevans.

Living News

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

You remember the day when Walter Cronkite removed his thick black rimmed glasses as he read from a sheet, put them back on and then removed them again, only to confirm to the world that President John F. Kennedy was dead?  I don’t.  Then again, I was still among the clouds waiting for that stork to bring me down.  I only had to wait another two decades.  The point is, there used to be a time when news was a rare commodity, 6pm or the morning papers.  Can you imagine rejoicing when they started releasing an evening edition?

News has come a long way.  Just fifteen years ago I had to go to the neighbor’s house to enjoy cable and good luck finding a channel airing any programming after 11pm!  Now it goes beyond 50 channels of network news running 24 hours of worldly updates 7 days a week- generating the 24/7 news cyclone.  Simply the Internet has created a new monster while slaying the behemoth, that were once newspaper men.  We’ve gotten to the point where news anchors read blogs for the most up to date information.

With user generated news content promoting the world’s population current events to news makers, it’s hardly the time to keep ruffling those tattered ink stained papers or even bothering surfing between Beck and Olbermann. With programs like CNN’s iReport and Current TV, the trend of user generated news proves the power of access.  Just this summer, Twitter and other social media networks such as Facebook, became the tool of what seemed to be an Iranian revolution.  Have you heard them crying “Neda”?  The news is the people’s realm.

Sam Blogpost ScoldingNEWS

Watchitoo’s live content collaboration gives the ability to bring news to the world in a new way.  In creating my show “Living News,” news isn’t just live it is alive, I have set the stage for reporting stories that are not rigid but breathing and open to modifications by any user in real-time.   Watchitoo provides an interactive forum for the public to: report their news, stream live if activating webcams, upload video of events, pictures, and other relevant content. Plus the news engagement also encompasses an open forum of discussion with video and text chat. On Watchitoo, news isn’t just broadcast and consumed, participants add a fresh layer to the news, enhancing coverage by becoming reporters and commentators.

The fact is that the public has been consuming and contributing to news for decades yet only now does technology provide them the arena to report and disseminate it. New technologies allow the public to consume news through various distribution channels and at times interact around news in a collaborative environment such as Watchitoo. The 24/7 news cyclone continues to grow but the News Hierarchy dissolves over time as more consumers become news creators and distributors. Real-time news coverage is more widely embracing social media, visible by occurrences like facebook connect integration with Huffington Post. Give the collaborative experience a try see what it’s like living news.

~Sam

Ride the Wave

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

After our recent coverage in the San Jose Mercury news and eWeek , earlier this week in conjunction with the Google rollout of their private beta testers for the new Google Wave platform, it’s apparent that collaboration is no longer just a trend but is rather being adapted by the big players of the industry, Google and others alike.

CEO & Founder Rony Zarom was quoted in the Mercury News: “Real-time collaboration on the Web “is a natural evolution” for how people use the Internet. “It started as e-mail being the major platform for communication, moved on to instant messaging, and you can see social networking taking those broad approaches as the major communication platform. I think the next trend is basically collaboration,” Zarom said. “I think more and more companies see that as the next trend on the Internet.”

Over the past few months we’ve seen various social media companies trying forge partnerships to offer more collaborative environments and features to their services. Examples of such included the introduction of live chat box on Facebook, and since Ustream & Hulu have introduced live chatting functionalities merged with the facebook-twitter platforms.

The recent NY Video Meet-up (@NYV2 ) that took place at NYU’s Tishman Hall on Sept. 30th, featuring CEO & Founder of Brightcove: Jeremy Allaire gave an overview of what Allaire described as video online integration becoming an industry standard and how he has seen online video evolve since pioneering the development of the Flash platform when he was CTO at Macromedia. The presentation discussed in what directions web video development is heading, what are foreseeable hurdles, how mobile platforms will play a role amongst other things and the event was of course live streamed- would you expect anything else at a NY Tech Video Meet-up?

Questions raised during the Q&A touched upon the issues of the future development of the flash platform (upon which Watchitoo is based), media interactivity and collaboration, the video application in various industries especially in publishing, advertising, and music business. Watch the Allaire Interview on Livestream.

What will be the included in the realm of interactivity: communication & collaboration? As video consumption on personal broadcasting sites like Youtube or major network websites such as CBS, NBC syndicating TV programming with pre-rolled ads, increases exponentially, consumer behavior is quickly shifting. We are no longer just consumers, we are frequently producers and the market clearly demands it- overly apparent by the rapid growth of real-time twitter journalism in the past few months.

Watchitoo already provides instant messaging, video chats, live streaming, video consumption and social networking all in one platform but there’s room for many additional functions. What more can be added one might ask?  The truth is many things, especially in a synchronized web environment. Allusions to the Wave have referenced abilities to do document sharing, group editing and provide eventual conferencing solutions, when there’s a collaborative service the options are endless.

~Hila Raz

Building Community: Will Scott DJs LIVE

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

DJ banner

Recent online trends have revealed a societal need to build community around content. The Watchitoo experience is a perfect way to foster community and leverage engagement with personal connections, users, and fans that belong to any network. The ability to do so has been extremely beneficial to our users and can be adopted by any website or company. We as media consumers no longer want to be passive bystanders; we want to partake in a dialogue and provide communication input through heightened engagement.

The Watchitoo Platform enables just that- A few months ago Watchitoo started a live DJ show  that takes place on the website three nights a week hosted by DJ Will Scott. Users join the show through the homepage and interact with Will who created fun shows such as “Jazz-Funk-Fusion” such as the one displayed below displaying great music clips and good beats.

Will Scott streams himself directly talking to individuals joining the show throughvideo chatting and instant messaging, who make musical requests and comment on what is being played. Just as Will Scott hosts a live music show, other musicians, and entertainment companies can use Watchitoo to reach fans and draw in users to build community around content. The musical host of a show can interact with all followers through live chat and video functions and leverage the social networking tools and features the Watchitoo Media Player provides, such as Facebook /Twitter connection, along with the ability to add/invite friends not already part of the network, further expanding any existing community.  Returning users come back weekly to see what new music Will puts up, demonstrating how building community on Watchitoo keeps an audience coming back for new engagements and content experiences.

Below is one of Will’s shows, he is usually visible live chatting in the top right corner.

DJWillScottShow

DJ Will Scott, has brought in upto a couple hundred views for some of hisshows such as “Super-Funk” or “Jazz Funk Fusion,” shared his experience on the platform with the team stating:

“I’ve gotten a good amount of feedback about the show as well as the site in general. I have noticed that by interacting and conversing with the viewers, the experience on the site is enhanced. When I am live streaming myself it always encourages/influences others to live stream as well and to explore the site. Of course, with the DJ show the music is the focus, and it has been my goal to not only provide good music but also a deeper look into the history of music. The Watchitoo interface is great for this- through the use of the chat I am able to strike up conversations about anything from genres of music and bands, to a viewer’s favorite musician, to which I can respond by pulling a YouTube video that shows the viewer something they’ve never seen/heard before. I’ve turned people on to new music and bands that they would never have heard of unless they watched my show. 

I feel like finding new music these days is a chore, especially since MTV doesn’t play many music videos anymore. I try to provide viewers with interesting and quirky videos that will hold their attention and provide worthwhile entertainment. It is actually very fun to hang out on watchitoo and watch music videos with friends- and I definitely love when other people feed off of a video or theme I am going for and add their own twist to it by adding a few music videos and talking about them.” ~Will Scott

With all of the engaging features the Watchitoo experience provides in one fully integrated social collaboration platform, building community is a natural progression. It is the evolution of social networking, content sharing and online communication. Through varied forms of interaction such as chat, video conferencing, and live streaming, entertainers can use the medium to build a community of devoted fans eager to consume and engage over their content in real-time.

 

Join DJ will Scott by clicking on the homepage banner: Sundays, Monday, & Thursdays 9-11 pm!

~Hila