Ruhani Rabin - the man to know online Malaysia

My guest for this week’s interview has a dream of harnessing the power of the web to help make the world a better place. His name is Ruhani Rabin and he’s an Asian tech blogger whose life story seems at times to border on the fairytale realms of the Arabian Nights.
Rabin lives in Petaling Jaya, the bustling city that serves as a commercial hub for the kingdom of Selangor, one of the 13 federated states that compose modern Malaysia.
Originally born in Dhaka he moved to Malaysia eight years ago after leaving Bangladesh to seek his fame and fortune. So far he’s well on his way to both – last summer Archanid, the independent agency where Ruhani works as Chief Technology Architect, won the award for “Digital Agency of the Year” from Malaysia’s prestigious “Advertising + Marketing” magazine. His next position is even more impressive (but you’ll have to read this interview to learn more about it).
I got to speak to Ruhani about his blogging career just as he’d moved into a new apartment and the only thing he’d unpacked was his PC.

Mike:
Hiya Ruhani, how’s the move coming along?

Ruhani:
I barely have my setup ready yet. Relocation is a mess.

Mike:
I’d have thought that for someone whose shifted countries such as yourself, a move between apartments shouldn’t be a big deal.

Ruhani:
When moving it’s not the distance that counts as much as the number of boxes you need to pack and unpack.

Mike:
Good answer… I’ll remember that one
So tell me Ruhani, how has your relationship with the web shaped your career?

Ruhani:
My relationship with the web IS in many ways my career. Over the years I’ve been involved in software, hardware, design, construction, data warehousing and other internet related industries but these past 5 years I’ve been very active on the social media scene.
It granted me the ability to create my personal brand simply by building honest relationships with my audience. My write-ups and blogs have provided me with enough exposure to keep me busy. In fact the last 3 positions I’ve filled were all opportunities that came my way thanks to my social networking activities. I didn’t apply for any of them – they just found their way to me.

Mike:
That’s an amazing testimonial you’ve just given to the power of social media but since I know you’re going to be leading Friendster soon you certainly have some pretty solid proof to back you up. Talking about Friendster, I’m really curious as to any details you can share about the plans you have for the site?

Ruhani:
Yes, Friendster has recently been bought by MOL Global/MOL Access portal (Malaysia). MOL is an online gaming, points system, prepaid and money transaction platform. I’ve been assigned to be Vice President of MOL in charge of integrating social engineering ideas for Friendster. Friendster, as I’m sure you know, is one of the oldest social media platforms around. I feel that what it needs is an injection of fresh and creative ideas integrated into the existing platform.

Mike:
I’m sure we’ll all be hearing more about that in the near future and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Friendster returning to center stage of the social media scene, but I’d actually like to look back for a moment and ask you about your original motivation for blogging

Ruhani:
I blog in order to share the advantages of the technologies I’m exposed to with as many people as I can. I’ve always felt that it’s best to share the knowledge you have.

Mike:
Very true!
How and when did you start?

Ruhani:
I first started with Tech2all.com in 2006, around the same time TechCrunch launched. Sadly I lack the location benefits that TC’s team has…
The name tech2all reflected my sole purpose for blogging which is, as I mentioned earlier, to empower people through technology.
I began RuhaniRabin.com as part of my self-branding and I use it to give my personal perspective on topics I find to be of interest or value. I only wish I had more time to dedicate to my writing.

Mike:
How do you decide what topics to cover on your blogs?

Ruhani:
Tech2all covers and reviews “Web 2.0” topics, products and insights.
RuhaniRabin is more personal and therefore a little more eclectic. The main topics revolve around Social Media, Wordpress, Photography and Open Source tools. Lately Twitter has become a hot topic that influences my writing too as well.

Mike:
It seems that between the two blogs you really cover a lot of topics. I’ve also noticed, and you stated yourself earlier, that you’re heavily involved with social media. How did you first get involved?

Ruhani:
Actually my perspective on Social Media is that it’s all about getting to know, and being able to reach REAL people. The reason being that the knowledge you earn from people is knowledge you can’t find written in any book.
I originally started out on Myspace soon after they were launched. My first experiences were pretty unpleasant – I discovered a lot of dishonesty and deception. Rather than let this initial experience daunt me I moved on to Friendster, Multiply, Facebook, Twitter and a multitude of other social networks, some you’ve probably heard of and others too esoteric to mention. It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had.

Mike:
Quite a journey you’ve had. I think that in light of your experiences it’s especially interesting to hear what your perception of Headup is?

Ruhani:
Headup is a wonderful utility, I started using it slightly over month ago and for me it’s like an on-the-spot jargon explainer. The truth is that as a tech blogger I sometimes use terms that aren’t necessarily easy to understand or explain. Headup is my rescue toolkit for these situations. All my readers need do is mouse-over the keyword, and Headup explains it clearly along with related contents from other blogs, videos and tweets.
I think there could be a good monetization option for the widget.
I’ve taken a peek in the light edition of the widget and loved it too (note: Ruhani has been kind enough to let us test a pilot of our snippet widget on his blog).

Mike:
I’m curious as to what suggestions you have for us.

Ruhani:
I think in future it would be great to give an option to select which widget the blog displays to end users. Adding usage stats to the publisher dashboard would be simply fabulous. I’d love to see the speed improve as well.

Mike:
I’m glad to say that all your suggestions are already well under development and should be released later this month.

Ruhani:
Great!
In my opinion, Headup is a must-have for blogs. It really helps readers understand terms and words without having to leave the blog. Before I had Headup installed readers were often required to Google these topics. Headup reduces this need while simultaneously providing contents such as videos, images and tweets that the reader might not even know exist.
Once the stats are available I think Headup will help authors understand which words and terms are popular on their blogs. I really would encourage bloggers to try it out.

Mike:
Thanks so much for this incredible testimonial and all the support you’ve shown us along the way. Congratulations on your new job and good luck! I’ll be talking to you again soon…

Manny Brown - co-founder of 7outof10, and a very lucky man

Those of you who follow my weekly ramblings will have noticed that last week I failed to post a blogger interview.

Truth be told I was holed up at home for most of the week with a nasty case of the flu. Besides making my near and dear ones miserable I wasn’t really up to much of anything.

In the time that passed however our last guest, David Sztypuljak the editor and founder of the HeyUGuys film blog, made good on his promise and referred me to his friend gaming blogger Manny Brown.

Given the circumstances it’s only fitting that Manny is the star of this week’s blogger interview.

Manny Brown is still in his 20’s (at least for a few more weeks until he turns 30).

He lives in Cheltenham with his girlfriend and started 7outof10 together with game designer James Thomas and close friend Phil Davies. Although the site is still in its infancy Manny is happy with the way traffic is improving from month to month and was kind enough to speak to me on very short notice (some people forgot they had a blogger interview to publish this week, but I’m not saying who…)

Mike:

Hi Manny, thanks for agreeing to speak to me on such short notice.

Manny:

It’s a huge sacrifice but you caught me in a giving mood today.

Mike:

Lucky me.

Manny:

Indeed fortune has smiled upon you today.

Mike:

Seriously Manny, you’ve only just started 7outof10.
Can you tell me how you get into the whole blogging scene?

Manny:

I have a background in freelance videogame journalism and a 6-month stint as an editor at a now-defunct startup. I think these experiences, together with some IT background and a false career start or two, all came together and led to the creation of the blog in the middle of last year. James and myself decided to amalgamate our personal sites, and 7outof10 was born as a direct result. We’re still in our infancy, the site needs tidying up a bit, but traffic is improving rapidly every month.

Mike:

I wish my false career starts would have translated into a cool gaming blog.
And there I was thinking I was the lucky one.
I’m curious as to your blog’s name. What does 7outof10 actually mean?

Manny:

The name comes from a long-standing joke in the videogame reviewing world that 7 is deemed as an ‘average’ score for many publications, since nobody seems to want to use the full reviewing scale. That and fine UK podcast One Life Left were the main sources of inspiration.

Mike:

Reminds me of my ill spent youth and the report cards I used to get from school.
One important difference – no one ever objected to using the full reviewing scale on those…

Tell me, besides yourself and James, who else writes for the blog?

Manny:

James is a prolific poster, as is our fellow shipmate Phil. The three of us basically sit and moan to each other via email all day like old women. Our larger family includes many others such as William, Mike, Stevie et al, all good friends and all passionate about making this thing a success.

Mike:

“Moan to each other all day like old women” – now there’s an image for you.
I assume this reflects on your editorial process?

Manny:

Editorial process? What’s that?
To be honest we’re probably a bit too lapse with the editorial side of things. We have a forum in which people bandy about ideas, then everybody gets on with their own thing.

When it’s time for submission, James and myself will give things the once-over and fix any glaring problems before putting them live.

We’re gradually tightening the style as we go, but I think it’s important for sites such as ours to be staffed by people with their own voice.

Mike:

I’m actually certain that especially when you’re writing about games that’s pretty much a must. I mean having fun is what it’s all about! (I hope…).

Truth be told from what I’ve learned on your blog’s about page all the authors have professional experience in the gaming industry so you can’t be too far off with your content.

Manny:

Thanks. We do try

Mike:

I’m curious about that line in the “about” page – how did you all get involved in the field originally?

Manny:

Well, James is easily the most qualified among us, being a developer for a prominent company here in the UK.
Phil has worked in games retail for many years.
My own attraction simply stems from a passion for writing about the games I love. My aspirations started many moons ago writing lengthy posts and reader reviews on the Eurogamer forums, which then blossomed into curiosity and eventually a career in Freelance and as a full-time editor in 2008.

We all spend far too much time reading/playing and discussing videogames, so it just feels like a natural extension.

Mike:

I sooooo envy you guys.
What’s your most notable blog related experience?

Manny:

On a purely personal level, I’d have to say it was getting a chunk of my text published on renowned videogame blog Kotaku a few months back. I have a huge respect for those guys, so for them to highlight a paragraph of my Modern Warfare 2 review was fantastic.

In terms of more silly stuff, the one event that springs to mind was a ‘field trip’ organised by the PR company Koch media last year. Myself and nine other journalists were bundled into a van, taken to the Isle of Wight by ferry, put up in a hotel and treated to a beach party with stupendous amounts of alcohol, a massive fire and all sorts of food. The catch was, there was absolutely nothing to promote. Nothing to see. No game to play. I still have no idea what that was actually about.

Mike:

A certain scene from Monthy Python’s Life of Brian comes to mind…

Right, now that we’ve established you’re living a dream, what are your plans for 7outof10 for 2010?

Manny:

Grow, grow, grow! At the moment, we need as much content as possible, so I’m scouring the internet to find people that would like to become a part of the family as we take off from ground level, so to speak. We’re improving our traffic by at least 1-200% a month (sometimes a lot more), so I’m aiming to continue that trend and lift us higher as the year progresses.

Mike:

How do you monetize the blog if at all?

Manny:

We’re just experimenting with advertising at the moment and finding what suits us. It’s difficult, though. I don’t think we’ll be in the position to pay for anybody going full-time for at least another year or so, but I’m positive we can make it work. Alternative methods of funding are also being researched.

Mike:

I’m not sure there’s much of a market for gamer organs but I might know a guy who knows a guy. I’d be happy to hook you up.
Now tat I think about it I guess your beach party story made me bitter after all ; )

Back on track thought – What’s your prime motivation for using Headup widgets?

Manny:

My good friend Dave at heyuguys.co.uk introduced us to the concept, and it just sounds like a fantastic idea to lower our bounce rate and get people clicking around contributing. From the feedback thus far, everybody loves it.

Mike:

What features do you feel are missing from the widget?

Manny:

Not a great deal to be honest. The personalisation options are fairly extensive, so I think if you take the time to tailor it to your site, it’ll work well. I’m intrigued to see what you guys come up with though!

Mike:

I doubt we can beat a boozy beach party but I’m sure it’ll be loads of fun seeing our development team try!

Thanks very much for speaking to me Manny and lot’s of luck with the blog. I can honestly say it’s been a blast speaking to you!

Manny:

Cheers!

This week’s guest blogger is a child of the 80’s, self proclaimed geek, and avid Goonies fan. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Dave Sztypuljak – founder and editor extraordinaire of HeyUGuys.co.uk – England’s most popular independent resource for all things film

Mike:

Hi Dave – it’s marvelous speaking to you.

Dave:

Hi Mike!

Mike:

Dave who are the guys at HeyUGuys?

Dave:

The blog was founded by Jon Lyus and myself in November 2008 and is now entering its 2nd year. The name is a reference to “The Goonies” because we both love the film and originally thought we’d be posting only about 80’s movies. About two days after we started I think we realized the scope was too narrow and we wanted to write about film in general. BTW we nearly called the blog 88MPH – probably a less esoteric reference…

Mike:

I’ll admit the “Hey you guys!” eluded me but I’d have caught on to the 88MPH. How did Jon and you connect?

Dave:

Mike:

You know Dave, in preparation for this interview I spent a fair amount of time researching film blogs.
It seems to me as if there are very few serious film blogs outside the US. Am I wrong?

Dave:

Actually, Mike you’re absolutely right. We’re pretty unique insofar as we’re a non-American, English language, film blog. Honestly I think it’s given us an advantage in terms of exclusive content and audience.

Mike:

Do you feel cutoff?

Dave:

On the contrary! I feel unique…
Seriously though, being situated in England as we are, has provided us with some amazing opportunities that were very important for building HeyUGuys as a brand.

Mike:

Do tell…

Dave:

About seven months ago we realized Ridley Scott was filming the new Robin Hood movie, with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, in a wood near Farnham in Surrey. Farnham is only about 20 minutes drive from where I live, so one day we headed down there to visit and film the set. We didn’t quite realize it at the time but we’d created an amazing asset for ourselves – original and exclusive content that none of the “big” channels had. The post achieved popularity quickly and was linked to from everywhere.

The Tron poster we posted before anyone else is another example of a scoop that got us a fair deal of attention:

Dave Sztypuljak posted this Tron poster originally on December 9, 2009

Mike:

How has the success of HeyUguys affected your lives?

Dave:

Its funny really. The first time we received validation we were being picked up by the mainstream media it was such a surprise I thought it was a hoax!

We got invited to the Star Trek premier by Sky News. One day I opened my inbox and the invitation was just waiting there for me. We got full VIP treatment. Throughout the premier I was waiting for someone to grab me, tell me the whole thing was a mistake, and kick me out the door.

Mike:

From my experience as long as you keep a smooth face and act as if you belong these things go smoothly. Seems you can even gate crash the Whitehouse nowadays as long as you keep your cool.

Dave:

Believe me, when the second premier invitation came in both Jon and I were already far more suave about the whole thing, although we still get very excited!

Mike:

So now that you’re all cool with being a film blogger what are the plans for the future?

Dave:

I’ve recently quit my “day job” to work for HeyUguys full time. The plan for 2010 is to make the blog profitable enough to sustain itself and us. I’d be happy to live my life watching films, mingling with celebrities and writing about it.

Mike:

Sounds like a plan to me. Good luck Dave and thanks for talking to me and for supporting Headup!

Dave:

It’s my pleasure. I actually like what Headup is doing quite a bit, so much so that I’ve been chatting to some blogger friends getting them to try it out.

Apples, Yoda and NLP – introducing how we understand Language

One of our missions as a company has always been providing our users with the most useful, accurate and interesting content the web has to offer.
Early on in our existence we realized that in order to do this we’d need the ability to understand the web in a way that closely mimics the way humans do. In techno-babble this is often referred to as NLP, which stands for “Natural Language Processing“, and even more specifically as NLU, which stands for “Natural Language Understanding”
As trivial as this may, it’s far from being a simple task.

Here’s why:

Language is deceptive, especially if you’re an Apple

Ambiguous Apple

Language, as we encounter it on the web and use it in our daily exchanges, is often ambiguous, and therefore deceptive, tricky and difficult to understand. So much so that often enough understanding it is challenging even for a human.
Consider for example the following sentence:

“Apple, answered Steve, is my favorite”

The possibilities for interpreting it vary widely depending on which “Apple” and which “Steve” we’re talking about.

If you happen to follow technology news, you’re likely to infer that the “Apple” in question is in fact the company, and therefore “Steve”, is in fact Steve Jobs, its founder.

If however you lack this knowledge your interpretation of the sentence must be limited to the understanding that someone named Steve is making commentary about his preferences in fruits.

Understanding language – How do we humans do it?

Humans, even very young ones, understand ambiguous usage of language almost effortlessly thanks to an innate ability to infer an ambiguous term’s context by using a wide range of cues and clues:

• We refer to the identity of the person speaking – And therefore don’t necessarily treat every person who calls us “Bro” like family.
• We take cues from the intonation used - It helps us differentiate between “what?” and “WHAT?!”
• We depend on sentences’ grammatical structure - Now you know why Master Yoda is so hard to understand (and annoying – or is that just me?)
• We refer to our knowledge of the world – As in the example above – knowing a certain “Steve” is closely related to a company called “Apple” allows us to infer that this is a possible meaning for the sentence.
• We refer to the context in which an ambiguous term is used - In the example above it’s precisely the lack of context that leaves the ambiguity unresolved.

“Ok”, you might say, “People can understand the languages they use. So what?”.

The answer is that understanding how people understand language provides the clues necessary to teach computers to do the same.

Understanding how people do stuff is the key to teaching machines to do it too

Once we’d analyzed in depth the various cues humans utilize to understand language we examined which of them could be accomplished in real-time by using an affordably scalable system. The cues we chose to use are the bottom three from the list above: grammatical structure, knowledge of the world and context.

How do you teach a computer about the world?

In order to grant our platform the ability to understand language we set out to teach it about the world. We accomplished this by equipping it with a graph mapping out the billions of connections that exist between over 30 million nouns, topics, terms and things.

One might well ask: “What do you define as a connection?”

The answer is we defined any possible relationship between two things as a “connection”. For example:

The person “Steve” is connected to the company “Apple” because he “founded” it.

As I showed above, merely knowing that a possible connection may exist between two things goes a long way to assisting one in understanding the context in which they’re mentioned.
The more one’s aware of possible connections between the things mentioned in any given text the greater one’s confidence in selecting the correct context for each.

Returning to the example above, had the sentence been:

“Apple’s iPhone, answered Steve, is my favorite accomplishment”

We’d have little doubt as to which “Steve” and which “Apple” the sentence refers to. The mention of the iPhone grants the context we were missing before.

One of our platform’s greatest assets is that it approaches text holistically.

Rather than examine every word or sentence separately, we look at much larger segments of text in order to search for the clues that will enable us to find the correct context for all the ambiguous terms encountered.

Grammar is a powerful tool for understanding meaning

“Grammar, Yoda teaches, a powerful tool for obscuring meaning is.”

Conversely, when used correctly (i.e. not in Star Wars), it’s a very helpful tool in helping us understand context and meaning.

By incorporating a model of the English language’s grammar into our platform we were able to improve its understanding of context even further.

Content matching

We use our ability to accurately understand what a “thing”, not only to choose its appropriate meaning in the context of the text in which it’s mentioned but also, to help us retrieve matching and useful content accurately. To date we’ve already mapped hundreds of sources for:

• News
• Articles
• Images
• Videos
• Realtime data
• Facts
• Events
• Geo-data
• Product specs

We use all these sources to retrieve the content we match for every entity. Our platform enables to extend this content repository easily, and we continue to add more data to it on a regular basis. We’re even capable of utilizing content provided by our publishers as a source (see the screenshot below for an example of how this is implemented on film review blog HeyUGuys).

What’s next?

It’s our intention to develop our content syndication abilities further in future so as to assist our bloggers and publishers in achieving distribution and getting more traffic to their sites.

As more sites and blogs install our widget we believe that the content they hold will gradually become one of the most interesting content assets we have access to, but that’s already material for another post…

The editors of the HeyUGuys blog use Headup as a "related post" widget to drive traffic internally to other posts on their blog

Image Credits: Spencer E Holtaway, johannes pape

A chat with Dennis Amith - The J-ent blogger who's career precedes the web

With all the excitement involved in ensuring our new platform support was working ok, I hardly noticed how quickly this week went by.

Anyway…

It’s Thursday again and I’m still committed to my New Year’s resolution to interview one cool blogger using our widget every week.

This week’s guest is one of the greatest experts on Japanese and Asian entertainment online today and his involvement with the web dates back to 1993 and the pioneering days of BBS.

It is my great pleasure to have as our guest on the Headup blog today Mr. Dennis Amith – founder and Editor-in-Chief of
J-Entonline.com

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Mike:
Hi Dennis, it’s an honor having you as our guest.

Dennis:
It’s my pleasure.

Mike:
While preparing for this interview I learned that J-Ent refers to:

“…popular forms of Japanese entertainment but more specifically a shortened term to encompass popular Japanese television dramas, variety shows and music shows from Japan”

Wikipedia

I’m curious as to your initial attraction to the field and how you got involved in it.

Dennis:
As I was finishing my high school education in the early 90’s, I was really into videogames and comics.
A friend introduced me to Anime (Japanese animation) and from there on I was hooked.

I first became proactive when I created the nt2099 BBS back in 1993, which was basically dedicated to featuring the things I was interested in at the time. It was mainly about Japanese animation, entertainment, pop culture and Euro Demos. Because there were so few of us at the time, it was amazing to see the demand for our content.

In 1996, J!-ENT went online. Since then we’ve been focused on covering entertainment and pop culture worldwide.

Mike:
I was wondering about that. I know the NT2099 comes from “Neo-Tokyo” but I have no clue as to what the name refers to.

Dennis:
“Neo-Tokyo” is a reference to the classic Japanese animation film “Akira”. I added the “2099” because I wanted the name of my BBS to pop out from the crowd of sci-fi and tech BBSs that existed at the time.
I guess it just stuck and eventually it became the name of my business.

Mike:
You’ve been at the online content game pretty much from the very beginning. What got you started way back then?

Dennis:
For me it was the need to find and spread information.
Back in the BBS years, getting information wasn’t easy, especially on a 2400-baud modem. When I think back at how we did things then, it’s hard to believe that obtaining information was so difficult. Especially when I think how easy it’s all become now.
I remember scanning magazine pages from Japan, waiting forever for files to upload and delete. My phone was constantly busy with people looking for data. I imagine the phone bills for those people who were calling me long distance were probably sky high.

Obtaining information today is much easier in comparison. All the exclusive content we were busy chasing back then is easily accessible from YouTube, Wikipedia and other sites and applications as well.

It’s an exciting time as more and more people are exposed to entertainment and pop culture from countries outside their own.

Mike:
How did you get into publishing and blogging?

Dennis:
I think it all began with my college experience as editor-in-chief for the Asian newspaper. That position was my first serious experience at managing a publication. It helped me focus and hone my professional skills and turned out to be a great opportunity for expanding my network.

I figured, since I already had entertainment contacts on the Asian side, that by focusing on developing my US contacts I’d be in a position to make connections between both communities. That’s how I began interviewing celebrities.

Over the years I gradually became known in this respect and started getting requests from individuals and media companies all over the world. Gradually the range of topics I was covering expanded from my original Asian niche into global entertainment and pop culture.

As far as the blogging itself is concerned my motivation was efficiency driven. You simply can’t meet peoples’ expectations any other way in terms of the content they’re looking for. The restrictions we had on how much content we could provide via print no longer apply to our online articles. The evolution of SEO and RSS subscriptions have had a crucial impact as well.

Mike:
Do you feel you’ve contributed to the growing awareness of Japanese and Asian entertainment?

Dennis:
Absolutely, but it’s not just me. It’s a global collaboration of a community of people that brought it about. Personally, it’s gratifying to see how our work on J!-ENT has been acknowledged at music conferences, as well as in books and publications.

Today Anime, Manga and other forms of Japanese entertainment are considered a part of mainstream culture all over the world. Our focus has shifted to showcasing entertainment and pop culture from other countries.

Mike:
As a veteran you have a truly unique perspective. What insight can you share with novice bloggers?

Dennis:
If there’s one tip I can give it’s that if you’re passionate about something…do it. It’s all about being proactive and persistent.

Mike:
You’ve been doing this for a long time. Do you know if you’ll keep it up?

Dennis:
Tomorrow never knows. We’ll see (laughing).

Mike:
I’m curious as to how you found us

Dennis:
I saw your website while looking for ways to further syndicate the public information featured on J-entonline. Since your widget compliments what we have on J!-ENT, I decided it would make a nice addition.

Mike:
What’s your prime motivation for using Headup widgets?

Dennis:
I like your widgets because they enable my readers to familiarize themselves with the entertainers I write about and their work. People might not know who a specific talent is but thanks to Headup they can read the information, catch a video, hear a song and tweet about it all at once without ever leaving my site.

Mike:
What features do you feel are missing from the widget?

Dennis:
I guess I’d like to have control over the color of the markings. Access to stats would be nice too.

Mike:
I think you’ll be pleased to hear that both your requests are scheduled for release in the next few weeks.

Dennis:
Cool!

Mike:
Thanks for everything Dennis.
It’s been a pleasure speaking to you. For what it’s worth, insofar as promoting awareness to global entertainment is one of your goals, I’m glad to confess I definitely feel I’ve been enlightened.

A new Year – A new Headup

If you’ve been using our widget for a while, or if you frequent our website regularly, you may have noticed that recently we’ve been making quite a few changes.

These first two weeks of 2010 mark the culmination of a series of developments we’ve been working on under wraps for quite some time in response to the feedback we got from you. Thankfully these developments have finally reached a level of maturity we feel comfortable with and we’re making  more and more of them accessible to you almost daily.

Before I proceed to tell y’all what’s new I’d first like to take the opportunity and say THANK YOU to all the great people* who’ve been supportive of our efforts all this time and gave us the feedback we needed in order to improve.

5 reasons why your Headup experience just improved:

1. The quality of our markings has improved significantly due a massive overhaul the system underwent. I’ll be writing more about our new marking system in the days ahead so if you’re into Semantic Web, NLP and all that jazz stay tuned…
2. We’ve added new types of content to the mix of complementary content we provide and the quality of the existing ones has been improved.
3. Widgets now display a feedback button that enables users to report whether the widget is useful in their opinion. The feedback gathered this way helps us improve the quality of our markings.
4. Access to the publisher dashboard allows registered users to customize and tweak their widgets’ performance.
5. Support for all major platforms is now available. Regardless of what platform you’re using you can now add Headup to your site easily and quickly.

*  Thanks great people for all your support:
AreYouScreening.com
JeffPulver.com
Jewlicious.com
InsideGossip.co.uk
RuhaniRabin.com
OfficialTwitters.com
OffTrackPlanet.com
EarthyReport.com
FamilyInsights.net
HeyUGuys.co.uk
J-Entonline.com

Image credit: Optical illusion

One of the ideas we’ve been kicking around for quite some time is to publish a series of interviews with the good bloggers that have been kind enough to help us out as we develop our product. The start of a new year seems like a fitting occasion to start this tradition.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of Skyping one of our staunchest and earliest supporters, blogger Marc Eastman, the man responsible for the excellent AreYouScreening film blog. In all honesty I’d be hard pressed to think of anyone I’d rather honor with the first interview in this series.

Marc Eastman - the blogger behind film review blog AreYouScreening.com

Headup:
Hi Marc!

It’s great talking to you again.
How are things out in Bangor Maine?

Marc:
Things are great. Cold and snowy, but the internet works.

Headup:
AreYouScreening seems like a huge undertaking – what’s your motivation for doing this?

Marc:
A few years back I found myself a stay-at-home dad and I think I drifted into writing originally to fend off the boredom, keep myself busy.
I didn’t start off initially writing for my own blog.
When I first began writing it was on Epinions, after which came a few other stations en- route .
I would ghost write for a few sites here and there, and for others where I actually got credit.

Slowly I came to the realization that I had enough of a following to quit writing for others and begin focusing on enjoying the fruits of my own labors. I also decided that if I was putting in the effort on what was basically just something to do for the fun of it, I wasn’t going to be edited. That was when AreYouScreening was born.

Headup:
So you’re in it for the money?

Marc: (laughter) I wish, but this hasn’t been the case so far. Blogging is a great pastime, one that I’m passionate about and provides me with little monthly fun-money, but I’m afraid AreYouScreening still has a fair way to go before I can kick back and subsist exclusively from the income it generates.
As far as material gains go it’s the perks that come with being a film blogger that have the real allure for me. Its nice getting invited to see all the newest releases before they become available to the public, getting to giveaway DVDs, and trips to set visits for television shows. The conventions are cool too.

Headup:
Speaking of conventions. It seems like bloggers do tend to gravitate into little rings, networks, covens and whatnot. Do you have a bunch of film-blogging cronies you hang out with on a regular basis or are you more of the lone-wolf type?

Marc:
It’s true, bloggers tend to be so niche that naturally alliances are formed, friendships are forged and occasionally, even animosities flourish…
I know groups of film bloggers that are really tight with each other.
They’ll all go to the same conventions and share hotel rooms and what have you.
Personally I’m not really into that scene that much.
I don’t think it’s intentional – more like simply the way things have turned out so far.
I do have a blogroll of sorts on AreYouScreening – it’s called “What I Read”*, and some of the bloggers there are acquaintances, but not much beyond.

Headup:
As I’m sure you noticed the new dashboard we just released allows you to select your own sources for the related articles your widget shows. Have you included any one of these guys in your widget?

Marc:
Nope, I only use my own blog and the default sources you guys provide in my widget. I’m sure I’ll get around to that though.
I think as a rule I make very limited use of what your widget allows. For me it’s just a cool easy way to give my readers extra tidbits of information and content about the actors, directors and films I review. Since the widget identifies these things automatically, using it is even easier for me than having to link back to IMDB not to mention that I get to keep my readers on my site, as opposed to sending them off via a hyperlink.

Headup:
I actually really like the definition you just gave for what we do.
I might start using it in our own materials in future. I guess that’ll be another thing we owe you Marc.

Marc:
My pleasure

Headup:
I’d like to thank you again for all the support you’ve shown us and for this interview. For a guy that spends way too many hours with a bunch of geeks, speaking to you has been a rare and special treat : )

* What Marc reads: /Film | CinemaBlend | Collider | Film.com | Filmstalker | Geeks Are Sexy | Lair of the Green Knight | SciFiWire | ScreenRant | The Bloggess | The Fien Print

Last week we made our website widget available as a WordPress plugin. Since then it’s been downloaded over 500 times by bloggers from all over the world and our servers are having a tough time keeping up with the steadily growing load. In light of these good tidings I thought chatting with Mike Darnell, who’s responsible for the widget, was a good idea…

Dana:
Michael, Mikey, Mike! Hows it hanging bro!?

Mike:
It’s been an interesting week… but I sure as hell ain’t complaining!

Dana:
Good to hear. So what’s up with our new WorldPress plugin? How did this come about?

Mike:
It’s a funny story:
I was visiting my friend David Abitbol (founder of Jewlicious), to interview him about our widget and hear ideas he might have for improving it. David is a long time supporter of our efforts, the first person to install our site widget AND one of the savviest web people I know.

David had moved into his new apartment only a few hours earlier, and his stuff was jumbled in boxes all over the place but despite having spent the morning lugging crates and the fact he had no home to speak of yet, David was happy to share his insights with me and spent hours giving us a thorough review.

His parting shot, as I was getting ready to leave, was:

“Dude offer it as a WordPress plugin. Bloggers are always on the lookout for cool stuff to add to their blogs”.

When I got back to our offices I shared David’s ideas with our founder and CTO Tal Muskal. Tal decided to handle this personally as an under-the-radar “commando” project. A couple of days later the plugin was ready. The rest is history…

Dana:
Cool story!
Now remind me, what does the plugin actually do?

Mike:
The plugin identifies the topics you write about in your posts and enriches your blog with Tweets, Facebook connectivity & cool content from popular online sources.

Dana:
What are the advantages this holds for bloggers?

Mike:
We believe bloggers  will see an increase in their time-on-site and a decrease in their bounce rates. The plugin has a “social” aspect to it as well – the” Friends” tab gives readers the opportunity to personalize their reading experience and see how the blog’s topics relate to their circle of friends. As far as I know our plugin is the only widget out there that enables this type of personalized reading experience.

Dana:
Why do you think bloggers stand to gain the advantages you mentioned?

Mike:
Easy – by letting readers browse all the related content they need on top of the blog’s pages their incentive to browse away is reduced. Simply put: Why go somewhere else when you have everything you need where you are?

Dana:
How does one install the plugin?

Mike:
It’s as simple as adding any WorldPress plugin:

1. Go to “Add New” in your plugin menu on the main menu of your WordPress dashboard.
2. In the search box enter “headup”. We’re the only plugin that comes up. Click the “Install” button on the far right.
3. Activate your plugin.
4. You’re done!

It will take about an hour before our signature dotted orange highlights appear on your blog.

Our URL in the WordPress plugin directory is: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/headup-bloggers-widget

Dana:
Anything else you’d care to add?

Mike:
I’m personally available for any support needed both on twitter @headup and via email – miked[at]semantinet[dot]com.

Don’t be shy… : )

Image credit: Titanas

Wall-e Makes a Wish...

Our illustrious CEO Tal Keinan and trusty advisor Dror Gil are fortunate enough to be among the participants of this years WPP Stream “unconvention”.

Besides drinking Ouzos eating Giros Tal will also be presenting some notions we have about the semantic web (see below). Here are a few words we exchanged about his feelings and expectations for this years Stream:

What is Steam and who goes to this conference?

Stream is an event organized by WPP, one of the largest advertising companies in the world. Stream brings together people from the creative, media and technology industries to discuss and debate ideas and opportunities in the areas of culture, innovation and the internet. Individuals like Sir Martin Sorrell and Yossi Vardi will be attending.

Why are you going, how were we invited?

Dror Gill and myself will be leading a discussion about the semantic web, how it’s used and how it can be leveraged in the future. As a portfolio company of Yossi Vardi we were given the opportunity to present this discussion as well as hear the latest in our industry in regards to internet advertising and media.

What are you excited about?

I am super excited! Looking forward to the extravaganza event, the chance to meet some of the most important executives in our industry that are not only heavy hitters but interesting and approachable people. This “unconventional” convention allows me the opportunity to meet these individuals in a casual, fun and beautiful setting.

Who are you looking forward to meeting this year?

You name it – the guys from Google, Facebook, Micorsoft, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and my fellow Israeli entrepreneurs!

What are you going to be participating in at the conference and are you going to be contributing to anything?

Dror and I will probably rock it out again this year at the Extravaganza. We form a band with out fellow Israelis. Last year we took 3rd place this year hoping to take the #1 slot! I rip it on the guitar and Dror belts it out on lead vocals

Tal’s presentation:

Image credit:
“Wall-e Makes a Wish…“

Recently a bunch of us went to GarageGeeks.  Yossi Vardi had Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post as a guest speaker for the evening. Arianna spoke about the creation of the Huffington Post and their addition of their Technology section, describing it as ” a [focus] on the intersection of technological advances and the way they impact our lives”.  She blogged it on  Huffington Post and mentioned the range and number of “passionate” Garagegeeks she had the opportunity to meet (is that us?). 

Arianna Huffington

In a nutshell the evening was a yet another case in favor of the whole Garagegeeks concept and we had a blast!

We had Beatles

Junk

Enthralled Crowds

Yossi Vardi

… ooh! and Shani Rosenfelder (editor for the Jerusalem Post) (AKA Jpost.com) was there too!

BTW for those of you who don’t know GarageGeeks is an Israeli based not-profit space for innovative and creative people to network create and brainstorm. The spirit of GarageGeeks is to promote the creation of non-commercial projects that would couldn’t exist otherwise.

Yossi Vardi makes a point of bringing his most distinguished guests (Sergey Brin and Tim Armstrong to name a few)…

…to a mildly dilapidated old garage in the middle of Holon’s Industrial zone for an evening full of geekish fun and booze. The presentations are usually pretty good too… ; )

You can see all Mike’s photos from the event below: