Tech News From 2013: Zennie Abraham Joins Israel-Based Startup Vidoco Advisory Board
ONN – Tech News From 2013: Zennie Abraham Joins Israel-Based Startup Vidoco Advisory Board
I happened to find this little press release item in a search for possible past Ask.com content items I may have left around the Internet. Anyway, it’s a news item put out by an Israel-based startup called Vidoco, and about my joining the firm’s board of directors. It all came about because I was approached by my friend Yael Tamar, who was one of the founders of the micro-video-blogging company. I met Yael at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco in 2011, and because I interviewed her and her then-co-founder and also friend Alisha Outridge about their startup called “TapTank.”
Anyway, Yael and her co-founders wanted to jump into the then-new microvlogging space, and I was all too eager to help them. While it didn’t last long, and because it didn’t gain traction, I was and still am proud to have played a small role in it. This is the press release:
Tech News From 2013: Zennie Abraham Joins Israel-Based Startup Vidoco Advisory Board
Tech News: Zennie Abraham Joins Vidoco Advisory Board
Zennie Abraham, the blogger who covers politics, news, sports, and tech, has joined the advisory board of a new startup called “Vidoco.”
Press Release – Feb 21, 2013
February 21, 2013 (Newswire.com) – Zennie Abraham, a recognized blogger and video-blogger who was one of the first generation of YouTube partners, and has an active channel at Zennie62 on Youtube, and a blog network at Zennie62.com , has agreed to join the advisory board of a new startup company called Vidoco.
“Vidoco is an exciting, new approach to what I call ‘microvideoblogging,’ and with its eye toward providing a template for storytelling, Vidoco will become a must-use and must-have app.
Zennie says that the field of ‘microvideoblogging’ “Has become crowded. Consider that we have Vidoco, Tout, Socialcam, Viddy, Shoutz, Vine, YouTube Capture, Ptch, Cinemagram, Threadlife, Klip, Lightt, Lumify, Strum, Qwiki,
Powercam, and even something called ‘the 1 Second Everyday app.’ That’s 15 different platforms, and frankly, while they all have Facebook connectivity, I’m suprised Facebook hasn’t taken YouTube’s strategy of having its own microvlogging app.
What about Tout? Zennie has been long recognized as a Tout advocate. “I love Tout, and I use it alot, as it’s different from Vidoco – both have their advantages. But the Vidoco opportunity presented itself and that has never been offered to me before.”
Abraham continued “I’m speaking frankly, but too often bloggers are asked to provide input on startup tech products and at an in-depth level. So much so, that one of that blogger’s ideas may be the one that propels the startup to a valuation of billions. Asking the blogger to provide in-depth input but not giving the blogger a chance to reap the benefits of what idea they come up with, or observations they make while using a product in the field is not just right at all. This is not to trash any specific company, and certainly not Tout, but this does go on.
The best action is to do what Vidoco has done – allow me to be an advisory board member, and for me to disclose the relationship.
“All I can say at this point is to download Vidoco and give it a spin. I think you’ll like the speed of video upload, and also the feel of the product. Also, be careful with the location map, because it’s the most accurate in the field. Whereever you’re making a Vidoco video, it will pin-point your exact location. That feature opens up some incredible possibilities for location-based-vlogging,” Zennie says.
Oh, and what is “microvlogging?” Abraham says that it’s “just making a video of yourself saying something and showing something in 6 seconds to 1 minute. You can’t just point the camcorder, you have to look into it and talk, too.”
Zennie has a lot to say about video sharing, and especially YouTube. Watch this video on YouTube and its current problems: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WeMfrCo4qg
Has my view changed at all? Well, in a word, no.
Stay tuned.
Note from Oakland News Now Technical: this video-blog post shows the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. The main system is a major part of Zennie62Media’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. There, an uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-owned social media pages. This part allows rapid conversion of YouTube videos from any source channel (with permission and from Zennie62 on YouTube) to Oakland News Now blog posts. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.