Monday, February 05, 2007
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Video Wrapplet
My good friend Scott Lemon has been working with a startup called mediaForge. MediaForge just released two new products: VideoWrapplet and CinemaForgeLite. In addition, mediaForge opened a social network website called Nume.
mediaForge
MediaForge looks like a company that is biting off a lot. For a company specializing in marketing and marketing products, it sends a lot of mixed messages. I would recommend it narrow its focus and clean up the product and property naming mishmash.
VideoWrapplet
Once you figure out how it works, VideoWrapplet looks like a pretty cool little app. As soon as I figure out how to include it in Wordpress, I will post it below the calendar. Maybe I can even make it work in Manila. Very few people use Manila anymore, and none of the Manila forums have been updated for a long time.
You have to post your video on the web somewhere and then point to it with VideoWrapplet.
CinemaForgeLite
CinemaForgeLite is an interesting program. But it seems like redundant to a lot of really good conversion tools that are already out there. Zamzar is my favorite conversion site. No need to download anything, it's fast and free.
Nume.com
This site is the most confusing thing from mediaForge. It's a poorly thought out social networking site. You are supposed to be able to host your videos on Nume and then point to them from VideoWrapplet. Currently there is no way to upload a video to Nume.
Conclusion
Lots of stuff, rolled out wily nilly. No beta that I know about. VideoForge has a lot of work to do to make these products and services usable. It will be interesting to see if VideoForge can right itself and communicate clearly its core competence and business model.