Sven's Blog

Joined FON community - finally!

I just signed up as # 68,163 to Martin Varsavsky's FON community. I waited for a long time as the router seemed with EUR 25.00 plus transportation /VAT not that cheap. With the new pricing of EUR 5.00 plus transportation / VAT - thanks to FON's incredible EUR 18m funding - also I am convinced. Not that I think that the business model will work out to be extremely succesful because for this the FON hotspots so far, such as the 572 in Switzerland, are by far too decentralized - only a few being in city centers -, not easily to detect without a Wifi connection and worldwide too many own city Wifi projects are on their way - without FON. I am still waiting for the big deals with ISPs here in Europe, such as T-Mobile or Swisscom - after FON already announced some in France, Spain and Sweden.

However, I am excited how FON will develop and if they will reach their goal of 1m active hotspots end of 2007. Hopefully, these get more traffic than ours at the office and enough Bills will come up to make the business model work.

Technorati tags: FON Martin Varsavsky Wifi

Switching incrementally to Zooomr from Flickr

I started online photo sharing in 2001 with Pixum, a German photo service site, after I bought my first digital camera. Missing more contemporary features beyond albums and unlimited storage - as long as you have a look at every album once in a while -, I switched to Flickr mid of last year. From the beginning I tried to avoid the pro account, and thus struggled with limited monthly upload capacity (20 MB) and many other limitations. Of these I did not bore in mind that only the 200 most recent ones are shown in the photostream - hope they do not delete the others after 90 days of inactivity.

However, after recognizing this today I took the decision to look at Zooomr a bit closer again. The team around the 18-year-old Kristopher Tate took the basic ideas of Flickr and all its clones further with many enhancements, such as geotagging, trackbacks for single pictures, etc. They combined these in a very easy to use multilingual user interface. So, my decision to move over to Zooomr was even made easier after having read that they give all bloggers a free pro account.

But beyond all the praise for Zooomr, the site still needs some development when it comes to more user-friendly upload possibilities beside the web-based one, easier to understand geotagging - I still have to figure it out for my pics (too bad it is not yet integrated in Plazes ;) -, and albums. Therefore, I am really looking forward to Zooomr 2.0.

Find below a picture two weeks ago, when my university colleagues Harald and Thomas visited me here in St.Gallen.

Technorati tags: Flickr, Zooomr, web2.0

Plazes Relaunch - enroll now!

Technorati tags: Plazes, MoSoSo, web2.0

Update on the German Web 2.0 scene

Over a month ago since my last post about German web 2.0 applications a bunch of new ones popped up. Lots of them deal with photo and video sharing and try to find the best way to imitate the success of YouTube and others on the German market and beyond. The same applies to social networking platforms addressing students from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, i.e. at the moment Studiverzeichnis and Studylounge. The German weekly newspaper ZEIT has a current insight on this. However, find below in alphabetical order the new ones - and older ones I missed in the last post.

dialo.de - yellow book with local reviews
DVDSwop - exchange platform for DVDs, etc.
Imagelooop - kind of Slide clone
MyVideo - video sharing platform
lovento - event platform with social networking component
Studylounge - another Facebook imitation
teamslide presentation sharing tool, also featured on TechCrunch
Vloop - video sharing platform (alpha)
zeec - photo and video sharing platofrm

Technorati tags: web2.0

Web 2.0 applications in Germany

In addition to Valerie Thompson's list of web 2.0 services in Germany (see below) with input from Klaas Bollhoefer, I have compiled a few other projects and companies, which have some characterizing elements in their applications. Of course, one could also add all the blog hosting services around, such as blogg.de or myblog.de, but all these would make the list a bit too lengthy.

Though I rather see the term "web 2.0" more as a marketing term, it is interesting to see that many new ideas evolve also in Germany trying to involve the user more. However, what is obvious when looking at the list below is that still too many just imitate successful ones from overseas instead of being innovative. Nevertheless, I am excited about other web 2.0 applications to come from Germany and there are definitely much more to come...

25 peeps - blog promoter
Amiamo - kind of 43 Things
aufeinander.de - flirt and dating service
BlogSearch - kind of Technorati clone
Dilemma5000 - decision making tool
Favoor - personal homepage
Fleavent - event calender with social elements (alpha)
Hitflip - exchange platform for DVDs, audio books, etc.
Magnoto - kind of personal homepage
MeinProf.de - rating professors
oneview 2.0 - social bookmarking (alpha)
Ormigo - performance marketing with social elements
Pageflakes - personal homepage
Spreadshirt - customized clothes, etc.
studivz.net - Facebook clone
WatchMeDoing - video sharing site (alpha)
WebMobs - chat on websites with avatars

[Update from April 11, 2006]
Just a few other services that appeared recently on my screen - I will add new ones here from time to time:

paguna - hotel booking on AJAX
sevenload - the German YouTube with photo albums
seconds11 - podcasting portal

List of Web 2.0 services in Germany [as posted on alarm:clock euro]
Audioclipping Search AV
Bagook News Aggregator
DerWunsch Share a wish.
Dopcast Podcast portal
Ehrensenf The German Rocketboom.
Eventicus Create & share events.
Icio Social bookmarking.
Kulando Blog service.
Largest Online Stadium Place your fan.
Laufrausch Share walks/runs
Leze Online Bookmarking.
Loudblog Manage & create your podcasts in a cms
Lycos IQ Expert Search.
Mabber Unified IM solution, web based.
Miaplaza Community building platform.
Mister Wong Online bookmarking.
Musiclens Music recommendation.
Openbc Business network.
Paguna Hotel reservation on one ajax page.
Photocase Manage & share photos.
Plazes Claim and share your locations.
Qype Find & recommend addresses and services. (alpha)
Read.io Podcast your blog.
Reliwa Manage & share your books.
Romso News search.
Sofortpreis Mobile shopping assistant
Sozeug Buy & sell handmade stuff
Supreme Auction A German Ebay service.
Swabba Online exchange
Taggle Online bookmarking
TVfeed Get TV as RSS.
Typolis Blog platform
Webmontag Web 2.0 meetings using a wik
Wikimatrix Wiki comparison.
Yigg The German digg.com

Technorati tags: web2.0

Designklicks

Just discovered Designklicks - a wonderful playground to discover extraordinary photos and other pieces of art from mostly unknown artists (at least to me...).Like the Red Lady above portraying a Chinese model in Shanghai from Irmy Wolz. The tagged photos are rated by users as well as experts, and can also be selected with a tag cloud - really smooth navigation.

Private Deal Conference

Last Friday 120 top-tier private investors from Europe, the US, China, and Russia met in Zurich at the SWX Swiss Exchange for the first global private investors' conference, privateDC. Besides discussing investment opportunities and inspiring panel discussion, probably the most notable contribution was the connections being established among the participants.

The numerous discussions initiated at privateDC will continue with the help of Private Deal Network (privateDN) - the invitation only network for global private investors focussing on their investment activities in high-growth companies.

After this exciting day, 40 participants explored the famous Jungfrau region in the heart of Switzerland. Despite challenging weather conditions everyone enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere to deepen personal connections.

In the end, everybody agreed that this will not have been the last Private Deal Conference and is looking forward to meeting the next time for privateDC 2007.

Read some other reviews on privateDC and about some participating investors here and here.

Technorati tags: privatedc privatedn venture capital

Webmonday in Munich

Yesterday I had the pleasure to meet some exciting persons of German's Internet scene on the first Webmonday in Munich. The well organized event comprised also presentations about current tools in the Internet, user participation by Michael Pütz, AJAX, and podcasting. Looking forward to the next event of this kind to get to know outstanding Internet entrepreneurs.

Read some other reviews here and here.

Technorati tags: webmontag web2.0

METRO's RFID Vision

Technorati tags: RFID CeBIT METRO

Skiing in Laax

Just made the entry in my 43 Places about Laax. Though I was not the first person being there, I was the first to describe the place.

Had a great time there last week Saturday and improved my skiing skills a lot - thanks to Christian. Looking forward to the next skiing opportunity!

Technorati tags: Laax skiing

Merry Christmas 2005!

"Sternennacht" by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Weihnacht

Ein Augenblick im Meer der Zeiten,
In dem die stillen Stimmen tönen,
Die sonst der Tag verdeckt mit seinem lauten schrei'n
Der Augenblick, indem die Kerzen brennen,
Die heiligen Kerzen, die der Liebe leuchten,
Da jedes Herz es ahnt was Friede sei. -

In dieser Stille zwischen heut und morgen,
In dieser Handvoll weniger Minuten,
Besinnt der Mensch sich auf sein tiefstes Glück
Lauscht auf die leise Melodie der Liebe -
Und geht dann neu zu seinem Tag zur�ck.

Elisabeth Dauthendey (1854-1943)

I wish you all a merry and relaxing christmas time with your family and friends.

meebo funded by Sequoia Capital

The web-based instant messenger application meebo has received first-round funding from Sequoia Capital, as meebo confirmed last Friday. The funding is rumored to be between USD 3.0m and USD 4.0m with USD 9.0m pre-money as sources reveal.

The young team (first-time entrepreneurs) - two IT girls from Stanford and one boy, who was with IBM and is a Yale graduate - only started with meebo 13 weeks ago and did manage to attrack major attention right from the start. With over 250,000 users daily using the in Ajax programmed application in order to chat over one or multiple IMs (MSN, AIM/ICQ, Jabber/GTalk and Yahoo! Messenger) simultaneously meebo is still in "alpha mode". All in all, quite ambitious plans Sequoia has with them in order to judge this high valuation. Will be interesting to see how their business model evolves.

Technorati tags: meebo Sequoia Capital VentureCapital IM Ajax web2.0

del.icio.us acquired by Yahoo!

Quite a buzz after Yahoo!'s recent web 2.0 acquistion has been announced last Friday - both by Yahoo! and del.icio.us.

With focus to one of the two VCs having been invested in del.icio.us this is just another trade sale to Yahoo!. BV Capital already sold eGroups to Yahoo! in 2000. However, for the leading VC Union Square Ventures it was definitely a time to celebrate after they held their investment only eight months.

Technorati tags: del.icio.us Yahoo! web2.0 VentureCapital

43 Places

After I have discovered the travel website 43 Places closer this week, I could not resist to enter as much places I went to in the past and those I would like to visit in the future. The degree of interaction among users is stunning. Others can cheer on your goals, subscribe to your travel activities and comment on these. Additionally, every location can be tagged and these tags are connected to del.icio.us or Technorati - pics are linked to Flickr tags. It's real fun exploring others opinions about places you wanna visit.

Currently, 43 Places has over 27,500 user - growing with about 1.5% per day - after its launch July 27, 2005. The team behind 43 Places is Robot Co-op, who already setup 43 Things and recently All Consuming - both more market research sites where user's can be targeted very precisely with ads. Read some background information about 43 Things here. I am curious how they will develop 43 Places further, not only in terms of technology used - so far only cumbersome manuel entry is possible - but more in terms of their implemented business model - hopefully it goes beyond just ads.

Technorati tags: 43Places 43Things MoSoSo

Pop-Art @ Zurich from Jörg Döring

Today we discovered Claudine Bandi's Foxx Galerie in the middle of Zurich's old town - definitely, the gallery to visit if you are looking for international pop-art in Switzerland and beyond. The artists most striking was Jörg Döring, a 40-year old German who was born in the Ruhrgebiet and now is working in Düsseldorf. For Foxx Galerie he also designed some great pieces with Swiss motives, such as Heidi below in "Hilife".

Technorati tags: Pop-Art Zurich