Join Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and Councilman W. Wilson Goode, Jr. for a City Council public hearing on Philadelphia’s non-profit and for-profit Creative Economy and how it impacts entrepreneurism, business development and the attraction and retention of young, educated professionals.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Philadelphia City Hall, Room 400
The hearing will explore methods and strategies for how the City of Philadelphia can enhance the development of the creative industries and attract the young professional talent that will fuel Philadelphia’s economic growth. For more information, call (215) 686-3438.
If the Online Video Market were a movie about a boxing match in Moscow on Christmas Day and I was casting, the overwhelming character of Ivan Drago would have to be played by YouTube and the underdog role of Mr. Balboa would be played by Philly’s own Viddler.com; the hardworking blue collar fighter that refuses to take short cuts and ultimately proves to the world he’s a force to reckon with. Aaadddriiiiiiiaaaaannnnnnn!!! (Sorry, I get carried away when I talk about the best of the Rocky series).
According to Viddler.com “Viddler is a fresh, creative web application that lets you upload, enhance, and share digital video quickly and easily inside your web browser.” What makes Viddler different than the thousands of other online video sites that appear every day? Viddler is targeting the ‘Long Video’ niche, essentially removing limitations on length and file sizes (file limitation is 500Mb) for it’s video producers. Compare that to the ’short video’ approach of YouTube where the average video is under 2 minutes and file sizes are capped at 100Mb, you immediately see the niche differentiation.
Viddler is able to take this unorthodox approach because of their unique and robust commenting and tagging technology which allows users and producers to leave notes, links, and video-responses embedded right in the original video. The ‘Long Video’ format lends itself to syndication episodes and has already seen some break out stars show the online-video community the potential for this new approach.
I was fortunate enough to get in touch with Rob Sandie, President of Viddler.com, and ask him a couple questions:(to see Rob’s responses to my questions just expand the embedded comments by clicking on the blue triangle button)
Though the fight for survival is far from over for the Viddler crew, they can be confident that their hard work will pay off in success even if that doesn’t mean the death of the ‘Siberian Express’.If YouTube is Drago and Viddler is Rocky, then who is Bridgette Nielson’s character hiding in the corner pumping the real star full of ‘juice’ to ensure a Soviet Victory? My money’s on Google Video.
Attention Investors: Act fast and you might still be able to get in on the ground floor before Viddler shoots into international spotlight.
Attention Phillypreneurs: Viddler is a great example of a top notch online start up that didn’t come out of Silicon Valley. The proliferation of technology and web access makes it possible to start an on-line company from anywhere in the world and more specifically right here in entrepreneurial bread basket known as Philly.
No, Ben Franklin never made it to Australia in his life time.(in fact during BF’s day it was known as New South Whales and had only been visited by a handful of bold/slightly-insane explorers). However, almost 250 years later he has once again proven his power as America’s most effective diplomat in a glowing article by Australia’s own Daily Reckoning.
Our favorite tidbit:
“Finally, Franklin was ahead of his time in financing good causes with his business profits. He was civil minded early in his career, helping to finance the first fire company, the nation’s oldest property insurance company, and Philadelphia’s own hospital, library and militia. “America’s first entrepreneur may well be our finest one,” concludes John Bogle.
Business executives would do well to live up to the epitaph Benjamin Franklin once described to a friend: ‘The years roll round and the last will come; when I would rather have it said, He lived usefully, than he died rich.’”
Read the entire article on BF from an Aussie perspective .
Philadelphia has long been the home of innovation in America. While Philadelphia is known for being the first capital of the United States, it is the home of many firsts in the US. Here is a list of national firsts that have happened right here in Philly:
“While many of America’s founding fathers were business owners, one in particular stood out as one of history’s greatest entrepreneurs: Benjamin Franklin. His many useful inventions include bifocals, an odometer, the lightning rod, swim fins, watertight bulkheads for ships, and the wood stove.” courtesy of Ben Franklin 300
3 Franklin Facts:
- Franklin didn’t patent any of his inventions or scientific discoveries, since he believed that everyone should be able to freely benefit from scientific progress. In this way, he was sort of an eighteenth century open-source advocate.
- Franklin organized weekly meetings of a small group of other tradesmen and artisans, called a Junto. At their weekly meetings they asked how they “may be serviceable to mankind? Junto is still meeting to this day. (link to Junto)
- Franklin noticed that almost a third of his fellow settlers in Pennsylvania were German-speakers, and promptly launched the Philadelphische Zeitung – the first newspaper printed in German in the colonies.
