This is a blog about Clearspring, it's development and syndication platform, and the user community around it. It is written by some folks who work there.
Here at Clearspring, we are big fans of drinking on the job… drinking caffeinated beverages like coffee, espresso, Red Bull, etc.
Earlier this week there was a definite buzz in the office (pun intended). Our shiny new espresso machine had finally arrived. The original was a gift from our CTO Stewart Allen and it was starting to get old and break down, from so much use.
For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of the machine and our Web project manager Tony Via trying it out:
The espresso nozzle has headlights. How cool is that?!?
Whenever I see a movie trailer that gets me excited, the first thing that pops into my head is “Oh I know six people who’d LOVE to see this. I need to share it with them.” This is why it makes SOOO much sense to stick a movie trailer in a widget. You can actually send the movie trailer to all of your friends.
Being a big nerd, as most of us are at Clearspring, this definitely has me excited. Both of Frank Miller’s earlier movies Sin City and 300 were beautiful and this one seems to live up to the same standard and with the contest, how could you ask for a better prize?
So… go and share the widget with all of your friends!!! What are you waiting for?!?
Back in early March, we had the pleasure of John Schillaci joining Clearspring as the Director of Product Management for Launchpad. Over the last month, he’s immersed himself in the product. In addition to leading its development, he’s championed the effort of making it as understandable and as well-documented as possible. Go John!!!
This is definitely an on-going effort. We’ll be publishing many more guides and additions to our documentation to make Launchpad and all our products as understandable as possible.
As always, if you have any feedback on the new guides, documentation, or any of our products, don’t hesitate to drop me an e-mail at justin@clearspring.com. I’m happy to relay any feedback to John.
I’m excited because this weekend, April 18-20th, is PodCamp DC. It’s a “a free UnConference that helps connect you to other people interested in blogging, podcasting, video on the web, social networks and new media to learn, share and grow your new media skills.”
I’ll be speaking to podcasters on Saturday about the importance of “Making Your Video Shareable.” Should be a fun talk and discussion. Clearspring also has the pleasure of being a sponsor of the event. We’re psyched to be associated with it.
Unconferences are so much fun. They’re a great way to meet and collaborate with some of the smartest people in the industry. I’ve never been disappointed.
So… if you’ll be attending the event, drop me a note or find me and say hi. I’d love to meet-up.
I can now say that if you love the environment, you need to use widgets. ABC and the Arbor Day Foundation have teamed up for a sweet campaign.
ABC has picked nine of their television show widgets that use Clearspring Launchpad. The widgets contain video trailers for upcoming episodes of their shows.
Every 10 times a video is watched in the widget, a tree sapling will be planted. This is all tracked using our analytics & reporting functionality via the widget console.
Use the ABC widgets, watch the videos, and trees will be planted. It’s that easy.
At Clearspring (right outside Washington D.C.) there’s not a tremendous amount of woodland, yet many of us have lived in places where trees are far more abundant. When you experience this difference you really start to appreciate trees even more. Thus, we’re all really excited about this campaign.
So what are you waiting for? Watch the videos, share the widget, put it on your blog, personalized start page, and social networking profile, and let’s get some trees planted.
Here at Clearspring, if we participate in a space in the industry, we work hard to be both the thought and performance leaders. A shining example is Jodi McDermott our Director of Product Management for Analytics.
Jodi writes a monthly column for the email newsletter published by MediaPost.com called The Metrics Insider. This month it’s entitled “Tools, Vendors, Methodologies GALORE!” It gives a break down of the different tools in a Web analyst’s toolbox. While the different tools may give differing results, they each serve a different purpose. The column is based on a discussion that Jodi had while serving on a panel at the E-Metrics Summit in Toronto.
Everyday we’re working to make sure that our widget analytics tools are superior to any other analytics product that you may come across. It’s incredibly important to us that we give a detailed and accurate picture about how people are using the widgets on our platform. We’re committed to leading the way.
“Our single most important message to consumers, particularly to parents, is that they should always check a game’s ESRB rating when considering a purchase or rental for their children,” said ESRB president Patricia Vance. “Parents are hungry for this information, and research shows that three-quarters of parents regularly check ESRB ratings when making purchase or rental decisions about which games to bring home. Our ratings search widget makes checking the rating that much more convenient. We’re very excited to be offering this widget with the help of Clearspring.”
You can also customize the ESRB Rating widget based on where you want to put it. From the Web site, you can decide the background color of the widget, the language, and the widget’s size.
It’s really cool that the ESRB is doing this. They recognized that the video game rating search was a popular piece of functionality. Instead of forcing a user to continue to go to their Web site, they put the search functionality into a widget to allow parents to better integrate the search into their lives via something like a start page, make it more accessible, and ultimately drive more usage.
The widget has also gotten a bit of press. Both Ars Technica and Kotaku have reviews.
, I’m a big fan of the TV show