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A couple of months ago, we asked whether MySpace could make a comeback . Since that time, they've become #1 on Android and jumped into bulk user data sales . Today, MySpace has unveiled a new events plaform . Called MySpace Events , it presumes to be "a global events and calendar platform providing users with new tools to create, discover, share, and manage events across MySpace and multiple social networks." Sponsor Key features include the following. A new social and pop culture calendar that "combines your friends' events, your events, events from your favorite artists, with pop culture events and sponsored events." Ability to buy concert tickets directly from an artist's profile. "Social advertising," wherein advertisers can purchase ad space inside users' social calendars. Cross-plaform event viewing in which a user's MySpace calendar includes Facebook events. "We're providing features to share events on MySpace via the Stream and across the web including on Facebook, Twitter, and tiny url." The announcement focuses on the benefits to both the Myspace users and the individual, up-and-coming "artists" who have used the service to promote themselves. It will be interesting to see how bigger companies use the platform. Discuss
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MySpace Launches Events Platform
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Trumba , the shared calendar and events communications software company has added the ability for users to attach "custom objects" to their Web calendars and other websites. These "objects" are in essence tables that unfold graphically, keyed to links, or can stand on their own as pages. Trumba's customers use the company's software to publish interlinked calendars and provide other modular features to their websites. Clients include media companies like the New York Times and Ottaway Newspapers, academic institutions like Kansas State and Emory Universities, and groups like the City of Seattle and the New Orleans Saints. Sponsor The custom objects advance the inherent modularity of Trumba's offerings. From Trumba : "To quickly grasp the idea of an Object, think of it as a table. Each record is represented by a row. Each attribute is represented by a column. Because Objects are tables, you can use them to store any collection of data that you might want to publish on your website." Dan Hickman, Trumba's president, wrote us: "Some of our competitors offer a canned venue or performer features that let you track and publish that information along with your calendar but our custom objects feature lets you create any type of content that might be associated with your events. The feature can even be used to publish a connected database of information that's not even related to your calendar." Examples include attaching venue descriptions and pictures to events, to provide detailed listings of departments in a sleekly retrievable fashion and the ability to solicit and utilize user-generated content. Disclosure: The author helped Trumba start their first blog many years ago. Discuss
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Trumba Offers Custom Objects to Calendars
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It's Monday and that means that the Interactive portion of SXSW is drawing closer and closer to its close tomorrow after a weekend of great talks, panels, parties and overall hoopla. While some of the most fun parts of SXSW may be behind us, there are still a lot of great things to go see in Austin, especially for those in the startup and entrepreneurship communities. So if you're looking for some interesting panels to attend before you catch your flight home later this week, here's a run down of some of the remaining startup-related talks and events. Sponsor This afternoon, a keynote interview with Twitter's Evan Williams will surely provide any striving entrepreneur with some intriguing insights into his tactics for success. Williams will be joined in Exhibit Hall 1 by Umair Haque of Havas Media Lab at 2pm. Later on in the afternoon, author Clara Shih, whose book The Facebook Era was one of our Weekend Reading suggestions, will be signing copies of her book at the South by Bookstore. The signing starts at 3:20, so get their early and on time because 10 minutes later there is a trio of interesting panels to choose from. At 3:30 in the Radisson Travis, Jason Oberfest of ngmoco and Eroc Eldon of Inside Network will be presenting on how online games can take advantage of social media. We've seen a lot of interesting developments in web-based gaming lately, especially with the success of Zynga on Facebook. New technologies are making in-browser games much more powerful than anything we've seen before, and the opportunities to tie social networking into the experience make the possibilities for startups in this genre very promising. If gaming isn't your cup of tea, head on over to the Courtyard Rio Grande A to see Elizabeth Hallmark and Drew Scherz of Texas Comptroller speak on " Building Happy and High Performing Teams ." This is similar to a topic discussed by David Russo in his book 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent , which we also profiled in our Weekend Reading series. But stealing the 3:30 time-slot might be a discussion of the future of incubators with some startup super-stars. Naval Ravikant of Venture Hacks, David Cohen of TechStars and Paul Graham of Y Combinator will join a few others to discuss what they call the "Seed Combinator," but really startups and entrepreneurs could glean value from anything these guys chose to talk about, so don't miss it. After those panels, pick up and walk over to the Hilton at 5pm for what should be a fascinating discussion about customer service in the world of today's social networks . This five-member panel including Jeremiah Owyang, CNET 's Caroline McCarthy, and executives from Microsoft, HP and Comcast should shed some light on how customer support has evolved "in a 140 character world." Tomorrow morning, as the Interactive portion closes out, entrepreneurs may want to stop by Ballroom A at 9:30 for a discussion on protyping web applications . Are wire-frames and mock-ups going the way of the Dodo? Darren Delave and Michael Leggett of Google think so, and will present on ways "make and present prototypes to improve all stages of the design and development cycle." But the real issue every startup and entrepreneur wants to know about is how to get money from investors. At 3:30 tomorrow in Hilton A/B, don't miss legendary investor Reid Hoffman and Justin Fishner-Wolfson of Founders Fund present on "Getting Your Company Funded ." The talk promises to debunk the myths and questions behind VC funding, term sheets, options, liquidation, "much much more." And finally, a good way to close out the festivities is to check out day 2 of the Microsoft BizSpark Accellerator competition at the Hilton. You can stop by and check out the companies which present throughout the day, but come back at 6pm to see which of the 12 finalists will be crowned this year's winners. And if you aren't in Austin, you can still watch for free online at the Accellerator homepage (granted you have Silverlight installed, of course). Also, remember that everyone at SXSW is tweeting like crazy at all of these events and discussions, so use Twitter search to find out more information if you can't make it to each event. Each event's description on the SXSW homepage also includes the official hashtag for the event so you can easily see what people are saying about it on Twitter. If you have any other suggestions for startups and entrepreneurs at SXSW, let us know in the comments. Photos by Flickr users toprankonlinemarketing , and magerleague . Discuss
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What's Left For Startups At SXSW?
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Plancast , the plan-sharing startup with big-name angel investors and " future as platform " aspirations, has just had its iPhone app accepted into the iTunes store. The app was built by contracted star developer Leah Culver. It's simple, functional, attractive and useful. It's going to be very good for SXSW and probably beyond, if the service continues to stick with users as it has so far. Here's the iTunes link and below you can see some screenshots. Sponsor I'm posting my plans at Plancast.com/marshallk . You can see who's coming to our SXSW party Sunday night with NPR, PBS and more here on Plancast . See also: Hot Potato also has a new iPhone app just released today ( iTunes link ) which may come in handy for discussing the events that you attend via Plancast and otherwise. Discuss
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Plancast iPhone App is Live & It is Good
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Steve Ballmer gave a live webcast today and said that Microsoft is betting its future on the cloud. He illustrated that by saying 70% of Microsoft's 40,000 employees are working on cloud related efforts. By next year, 90% of Microsoft employees will be working on cloud matters. Ballmer spoke at the Allen Center on the University of Washington campus. He outlined five ways Microsoft is embracing cloud computing. Sponsor These are broad, almost vague views on the market. But they do give some guidance to Microsoft's direction: The cloud creates opportunities and responsibilities. The cloud learns and helps you learn, decide and take action. The cloud enhances your social and professional interactions. The cloud wants smarter devices. The cloud drives server advances that drive the cloud. The discussion had its most interesting points in the last 30 minutes of the presentation when the talk turned to Microsoft's emphasis on software; maps and photos; Xbox and Windows Phone 7 Series. At one point, Ballmer said that all software will eventually be in the cloud. Is Microsoft taking risks? This statement would seem to show that perhaps the political base at Microsoft is shifting just a bit from the desktop. The maps, photos and Xbox demonstrations were captivating, showing the semantics of space in a cloud environment and how maps synthesize into 3D images. With Xbox, we were reminded of the Windows Phone 7 interface, with the use of what looks like hubs that are presented as tiles. In the demo, each tile represented a different live TV show that people can watch with their friends in a virtual, animated environment. The Cloud Wants Smart Devices: Not much in this except demonstrating Ballmer's belief in the "Internet of Things," where the cloud helps connect devices to undestand gestures, bringing together voice, touch, speech, all in one. It's the future of the smart device that appears to have had had such an influence on Windows Phone 7 Series. He pointed to the mistakes Microsoft made with Windows Mobile. It was too focused on voice. The future of Windows is in the cloud. That goes for the Windows operating system and Windows Phone 7 Series. A lot of people will say Microsoft is not in the game anymore. That notion can't be supported when you see Microsoft discussing realistic, intelligent views about the market and backing it with how the cloud applies to its products and services. Still, Microsoft is as guilty as anyone for hyping the cloud and further obfuscating what is meant by cloud computing. Really, Steve. Did you actually say "cloud in a box?" Discuss
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Steve Ballmer: Microsoft's Future Is in the Cloud
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