DailySplice: social media vocalized

Victoria's DailySplice has rolled out a new pricing structure for its podcast service. As co-founder Rian Bowden explained, DailySplice now lets users choose from a menu of service options: try it out for free, or sign up for packages ranging in price from $9 to $99 per month. In addition, DailySplice continues to offer its original "unlimited" plan.

One of the many really cool features that DailySplice offers is FieldCast, which lets users upload podcasts via telephone:

The FieldCast system allows authorized personnel to create audio podcasts by simply leaving a voicemail. FieldCast is perfect for quick on-scene distribution of information (for media, citizens, other stakeholders, etc.) without the need for a computer or an Internet connection.

Coupled with the Multiple Users feature, this one seems like a no-brainer for citizen journalists and bloggers who need to get information out quickly. See the info page for details on DailySplice's other features.

So who uses DailySplice? Individual bloggers like Michael Vallez, whose website examines "social media's impact on law enforcement and national security," as well as actual law enforcers - like the Saanich Police Department.

(Note, for non-Victoria readers: Canada Post will tell you that Victoria is one place, but politically, it's comprised of 13 municipalities. Saanich is the largest, population-wise, and it has its own police department. ...And so does Victoria, Oak Bay, the municipalities to the West, and so on. Only Victoria and Esquimalt Police are sort-of amalgamated. Vancouverites can picture what this looks like if they imagined that Kitsilano had its own police force, in addition to a separate one for the West End, Kerrisdale, and so on... Seattlites might picture separate police forces for Ballard and Queen Anne, and Downtown and SoDo, and so on...)

Another early adopter of podcast-as-custom-radio-channel is Victoria-based Abebooks, which uses DailySplice's podcast functionality to power Shelfsound - a daily round-up of book podcasts:

 

What is Shelfsound? Basically, it is a customized podcast player that has been built especially for AbeBooks by a company called DailySplice.com. It gives visitors to AbeBooks the chance to listen to and view the most fascinating book-related podcasts from around the globe. No other book-related website offers anything remotely similar to this unique podcast system. (more...)

It seems the human voice continues to bind imaginations to content, including over at the Rainbow Podsquad Network - GLBT Podcasts, which is one of DailySplice's biggest networks. (Their tagline: "Gay...Queer...Homo's...and a Straight! Doing Things Our Way..and Given Y'all some FABULOUS...FAGTABULOUS Podcast & Vidcast!")

So who is DailySplice 's competition? Denmark's Podcast Machine comes to mind, but Rian Bowden explains that DailySplice offers two major advantages, which the competitors don't: DailySplice 1) gives users the ability to have a full professional podcast system that has the appearance of being integrated into the user's website; and 2) requires no technical knowledge on the part of the user: all the infrastructure (hosting, bandwidth, etc.) is built right into the service.

Hey, if it's as easy as calling a podcast in by telephone, then it really is user-friendly.

Triton Logging and AXYS Technologies recognized as Innovation Leaders

The Federal Government recently recognized Victoria-based companies Triton Logging and AXYS Technologies as Canadian Innovation Leaders. The work of both companies links scientific research to commercialization, jobs, and economic growth.

The Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of State for Sport, made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology). (National Research Council of Canada's press release here.)

According to the press release, a Canadian Innovation Leader is "a small- or medium-sized enterprise (SME) that demonstrates specific advances in research and development within its industrial sector. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) created the Canadian Innovation Leader Certificate Program to recognize Canadian firms that have successfully developed and applied innovative technologies."

Further details about Triton and AXYS:

Triton Logging researches, develops, and commercializes innovative technologies to recover millions of trees flooded by hydro dams around the world. It is a world leader in the design and manufacturing of underwater logging equipment, management of large-scale reservoir harvest projects and marketing of certified eco-wood products.

AXYS Technologies designs, manufactures, and maintains remote environmental monitoring systems capable of measuring weather, water quality, renewable energy assessments, and other environmental data. It is currently developing an offshore wind-resource assessment buoy capable of gathering accurate data to determine the best places for constructing wind farms. (source)

See also the page for Canada's Economic Action Plan to learn more about NRC-IRAP support for innovative Canadian firms.

Funding: What's in it for me?

On Tuesday, some members of Victoria's tech community had their turn to experience a boot-camp style introduction to venture capital, courtesy of the California Market Access Program for Canadian Technology Companies (via the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service). See this PDF brochure for additional info, as well as previous posts on Techvibes announcing the program. Calgary already checked in how that city's Sept.11 event went.

Victoria was the last stop on the program's five-city tour. Although I didn't attend this boot-camp myself, I caught up yesterday with Rian Bowden of Daily Splice, who did attend.

Here's a nutshell recap: Eighteen Victoria companies participated. Some of the companies Rian recalled included start-ups like Oprius and Projjex, as well as Dark Matter Labs, and I believe Rian also mentioned EDS Advanced Solutions, a more established company. Each company was represented by several people, which brought total attendance to around sixty.

After an initial hour or so of presentations from the boot camp hosts, the day unfolded: the eighteen companies divided into two groups of nine, as eight judges (four local, four from California) listened to their pitches. Each company had ten minutes to present - with an additional five minutes allocated for feedback, mostly couched as potential investor questions.

Along with the expected, "What's the business model?" question, another key question - which apparently had the most potential for throwing people off-balance - was the forthright investor question, "What's in it for me?" That is, how much do I (as a potential investor) get of your company, if I invest in you? Most of the companies in the room had a clear idea of what the dollar amount was that they were looking for (it varied from between $300K to $1M), but answering what might be called the equity grant math question was harder to pin down.

Overall, it seems Victoria participants made a good impression at this event. In turn, the companies also came away with lessons on when and how to pitch, and that VC money isn't the only source of funding. There are angel investors, family, and friends, small loans, boot-strapping, personal money, and - in Canada - government incentives (see the SR&ED, pronounced "shred," program, for example).

But regardless of the source, proper funding remains an issue for any business. If you're growing a company into that next level, it's hard to compete when you're underfunded, and hard to grow to that next level without burning out (or starving) first.

A well-designed response from Zappos's Brian Kalma

Here's a quick follow up on last Friday's post about Andrew Wilkinson's letter to Zappos:

Brian Kalma (Director of User Experience/Web Strategy at Zappos) posted a gracious and very instructive response on Inside Zappos, the company blog. See An open letter response to "You're Killing Me, Zappos".

Gracious, because Brian acknowledges the positive affordances of Andrew's design; instructive, because he also concisely conveys the constraints faced by Zappos when it makes design decisions.

Douchebag from Victoria? Or a smart step in the right direction...

Two days ago, Victoria-based designer Andrew Wilkinson posted this Twitter update:

The @Zappos design has driven me crazy for ages. I finally hit my breaking point and redesigned it. http://metalabdesign.com/zappos/

His link goes to a letter, You're killing me, Zappos, which Andrew sent to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. In that missive, he details the deficiencies of Zappos's recent Zeta redesign. Via Twitter, Andrew also directly "@-ed" two Zappos execs (here and here), but perhaps most importantly (or most strategically), he posted the link for his Zappos redesign to Hacker News.

...Which is where the OMFG factor started kicking in.

In his letter, Andrew is blunt in his assessment of the Zappos design:

Your new “Zeta” design is definitely an improvement, but you’re taking the site from 1999 to 2003. You constantly stress your focus on the customer, yet create web experiences that are so unsightly and confusing that they border on sadism.

But he didn't leave it at haughty generalities, he cut to the chase by constructively critiquing specific aspects:

  • Clear iconography
  • Visual hierarchy
  • Unified Link Styles
  • Blurry Images
  • Who, What, Why

Then he added, "To help illustrate my points, I've mocked up my own take on the Zappos homepage." You can check it out here.

I think it's a damn good design. But on Hacker News, people went nuts (hence the OMFG factor).

Mostly, Andrew Wilkinson was taken to task for being uppity. He had done everything he could to make sure his redesign would get noticed, ...and it seems the folks on Hacker News resented that:

This redesign actually makes me angry - it's rare that a redesign has this ability to do that. So, designer, if the aim of your redesign was to create customer rage, then feel free to touch your nipples in ecstasy, because you succeeded.

And:

I must say I don't like these sort of open letters. They make the sender seem like a giant douchebag, which I'm in no way stating he that is, but it just doesn't seem fair.

Andrew's response was to mock up reblog a new "About me" on his Tumblog:

Hi. My name is Andrew Wilkinson and I'm a douchebag based in Victoria, Canada.

...Touche.

So... do you prefer Zappos's design or Andrew's redesign? Or are you caught up in the brouhaha over his alleged lack of humility in approaching Zappos? Do you think Zappos cares?

Reading through the comments that attack Andrew for not being respectful enough toward Zappos, I was reminded of a recent Harvard Business blog post by David Silverman, titled How to Ask a (Near) Stranger for a Favor, where Silverman emphasizes the importance of showing respect. It all sort of makes sense, but in the comments to that post several people point out that the line between respect and toadying can get pretty blurry.

Let's face it: we're social creatures and we're all networking all the time. You can look at Andrew Wilkinson's redesign of the Zappos site as either a sincere attempt to produce a better design or as a clever strategic networking and marketing move, and then argue about whether it lacked the appropriate level of respect.

Just don't expect humble pie on this designer's menu.

Postscript: Good follow-up post by Amy Huang, here.

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