Stritar's chronolog

Cool Slovenian brands, part 3: The rise of the Slovenian hardware startup

Tue, 07 Oct 2014 08:55:53 GMT

I've been writing about Slovenian startups for years now. In a post I published in the beginning of 2012, I've highlighted a few Slovenian companies there were able to gain global traction, and as you can see, all of them are focused on software. About a year later, I wrote on the topic again, and this time, the spotlight was on a new generation of companies, which were fueled by Kickstarter and the crowdfunding movement. These businesses were able to find their market with niche products that were interesting to the public mostly because of their innovative design. This year, I'll focus on the third generation of Slovenian technology startups, represented by companies that were able establish something that actually seems so logical today: the rise of the Slovenian hardware startup.

This is basic evolution. Slovenians know how to make great software. We were always known to have had exceptional designers. Besides, there are plenty of outstanding engineers from previous and current generations that were able to produce global success stories with high-tech products such as exhaust systems, ultra-light planes, solar panels and even sailing yachts. Put the three together, and what you get, is a modern hardware startup. Because most hardware startups that want to compete globally, require these three components:

awesome software (1st generation)
awesome design (2nd generation)
awesome hardware (3rd generation)

Currently, there are at least 16 hot Slovenian hardware startups, who managed to reach global audience, receive funding via Kickstarter or investors, or have great potential to disrupt specific industries. Most are focused on uprising technologies, such as the Internet of Things and Quantified Self. Others are simple gadgets that help fuel the mobile revolution. All of them are focused on niche markets that did not exist five years ago.

I'm really glad Slovenian entrepreneurs were able to focus on these new fields, because the modern hardware market is not something anyone can compete in. You need specific skills from many fields, especially software, design and engineering. And Slovenians are exceptional in all of them. This is why this third generation of Slovenian startups perhaps has the biggest potential of them all. The community is strong as ever, heck, some are already joining forces in making cool mashups. And they need your help as well: know them, like them, support them, buy them!

Here they are, the hottest Slovenian hardware startups, together with a few highligths of their stories so far:

Beezinga

Beezinga is an early warning analytical system about events in remote apiaries. Beezinga - Google analytics for beekeepers.
Highlights: Wins ImagineCup 2013 (Apr '13), gets covered by TechCrunch (Jul '13) and others (Jul '13).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~500
Links: beezinga.com, @beezingahive, FB: BeezingaHive

Bellabeat

Hear, visualize and share your unborn baby's heartbeat with our pocket size heart rate monitor and a mobile app.
Highlights: Joins Y Combinator (Feb '14), gets covered by ABC News (Mar '14), raises additional $4.5M (May '14), introduces 3 new products (Sep '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~9.700
Links: bellabeat.com, @GetBellaBeat, FB: bellabeat

CarLock

CarLock is an affordable and easy to use solution for monitoring your car's location.
Highlights: Joins StartLabs (Jan '14), gets featured in Auto Express Magazine (Apr '14) and Top Gear Magazine (Jun '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~6.150
Links: carlock.co, @Carlock6, FB: carlock

Chipolo

Chipolo™ is a Bluetooth item finder for iPhone & Android. And it comes in 9 gorgeous colors.
Highlights: Raises almost $300k on Kickstarter (Nov '13), appears on TechCrunch (Nov '13) and TheNextWeb (Dec '13), is available on Amazon UK (Jun '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~4.300
Links: chipolo.net, @Chipolo, FB: ChipoloTM

CubeSensors

CubeSensors are small, cordless and connected devices that help you maintain a healthy and productive indoor environment.
Highlights: Wins TechCrunch hardware battlefield (Jan '14), raises $700k (Jun '14), appears on HardWired (Jul '14), is shipping from stock (Sep '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~2.000
Links: cubesensors.com, @CubeSensors, FB: cubesensors

Daisy.si

Daisy.si is an amazing new independent portable all-in-one design smart plant watering device.
Highlights: Raises $26k on Indiegogo (Jun '14), gets covered by multiple sources (Apr '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): N/A
Links: daisy.si

enolyse

Platform for family winemakers to improve fermentation and save time.
Highlights: Wins start:Cloud 2013 (Oct '13), becomes Slovenian start-up 2014 finalist (May '14), Joins LAUNCHhub (May '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~650
Links: enolyse.com, @enolyse, FB: enolyse

FlyKly

FlyKly Street Smart. Smart tools for smarter urban transportation.
Highlights: Gets covered by Engadget (Oct '13), CNET (Oct '13) and others, Raises $700k on Kickstarter (Oct '13), appears on PopSci (Feb '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~23.500
Links: flykly.com, @flykly, FB: flyklybike

H2O-Pal

The Hydration Tracker That Works Perfectly With Your Smartphone.
Highlights: Gets covered by TechCrunch (Oct '13), appears on CES (Jan '14), becomes Slovenian start-up of 2014 (May '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~5.300
Links: h2opal.com, @H2OPal, FB: h2opal

Lumu

Lumu is a light meter for your smartphone. It helps you create powerful memories anytime, anywhere.
Highlights: Gets covered by The Verge (May '13) and TheNextWeb (Jun '14), Raises $244k on Kickstarter (Jul '13).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~6.250
Links: lu.mu, @Lumu, FB: lumu.meter

MESI (Qualcomm Tricoder XPRIZE)

Our solution is to bring the doctor into your home. It consists of a wristband, wearable shield, mobile app and 4 modules.
Highlights: Becomes finalist of XPRIZE (Aug '14), appears on TheNextWeb (Aug '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~800
Homepage: mesimedical.com, @MESImedical, FB: MESIdoo

Monolyth

Monolyth is internet connected device for your AC unit, optimizing air temperature & quality for your comfort and energy savings.
Highlights: Gets covered by Digital trends (Jul '14) and others (Jul '14), tries with Indiegogo (Aug '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~650
Homepage: monolyth.co, @MonolythCo, FB: monolyth.co

OIVO

Oivo is the smallest charger on the go for iPhone. No cables, no AC power, no fuss. Just add AA batteries.
Highlights: Gets covered by TheNextWeb (Sep '14), starts great on Kickstarter (Sep '14) but cancels campaign to reiterate (Sep '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~1.300
Links: oivo.pw, @OivoPW, FB: oivo.pw

Red Pitaya

Red Pitaya turns your smartphone, tablet or PC into many amazing instruments.
Highlights: Gets covered by TechCrunch (Jul '14), raises $256k on Kickstarter (Sep '13), appears elsewhere (Dec '13).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~1.900
Links: redpitaya.com, @red_pitaya_, FB: redpitayaspark

Swich

A unique Smartphone Wireless Charger. Sophisticated energy transmission and elegant design in sustainable materials.
Highlights: Raises $45k on Kickstarter (Jul '14), appears on GigaOm (Jul '14), FastCo (Jul '14) and ZDNet (Jul '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~1.600
Links: swichwicharger.com, @swichwicharger, FB: Swich.wireless

Visionect

We're deploying the next generation of digital signage by applying electronic paper where glaring, energy consuming and heavily wired LCDs can't do the job.
Highlights: Raises $1,5m (Sep '12), gets covered by TechCrunch (Feb '14), launches development kit (Feb '14).
Total fans (TW + FB): ~2.000
Links: visionect.com, @visionect, FB: visionect

Interested in more stories about Slovenian startups? Check out this magazine.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Check out the complete Cool Slovenian brands series.

The end of recession or the coolest Slovenian billboard of 2014?

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 07:41:51 GMT

A few days ago, a billboard captured my attention. Actually, we're talking about many billboards, since this metallurgy company called Bučar put them all over Ljubljana. The weird thing is, they are using them to recruit new employees. Wait a minute, there's something wrong with this picture! While everybody is aggressively trying to sell us stuff we don't really need, these guys are actually looking for new workers with billboards? In a country with an unemployment rate of 13%? Is this thing for real?

Let's try to understand what just happened here... The company itself seems to be the development of a capable entrepreneur Drago Bučar, whose business is growing like mad. Judging the billboard's design, I would guess the campaign is not a professional act, but rather something done internally, without much involvement from a marketing agency. But that doesn't change the fact the effect of the billboard is brilliant. While trying to find 10 new workers (as posted on their website), I believe Bučar actually managed to produce one of the most effective branding campaigns of this year in Slovenia, which already granted them an apperance on the national radio. Everybody wants to know who these guys are, and they were targeting somebody completely different. Can you believe the irony?

Of course, there is always the possibility that this billboard is a work of a mastermind genius, whose plan was to capture attention with false pretense, but I don't think so. This thing looks legit, and it's always nice to hear about prosperous companies from Slovenia. Good luck, kick ass!

Please help me curate a magazine about Slovenian startups

Sat, 01 Mar 2014 12:07:41 GMT

I don't know if you've heard, but the past year has been very generous to Slovenian startups. A new generation of companies like Layer, CubeSensors, Databox and Povio introduced innovative services in the technology sector, while products like FlyKly, Lumu, Musguard and Chipolo rocked Kickstarter with their fashionably designed solutions. If you take into account the veterans that have been around for years, you can see are slowly reaching a point where it's becoming hard to mention everybody worth mentioning. The scale of the Slovenian startup ecosystem can be understood by checking out this infographic provided by Yougo.

The supporting infrastructure and community that's emerged around these startups is thriving as well, and I'm proud to be a part of it. Even though I've started working on new things, I still don't have a huge success story of my own to tell, but I'm doing my best to support those who do. By spreading the word, blogging about it here and on other blogs (Whiteboard, Inventures), by collecting news about great solutions and people. And this is where I need your help.

Magazine

You've probably heard about Flipboard. Their new service offers anyone to create his/her own magazine, which combines articles from various sources into a single journal, and the results are pretty neat. By now, I've managed to collect more that 150 articles about Slovenian startups, which cover the following companies (some have already ceased existing, and some have pivoted into a different brand): Azumio, BabyWatch, Beezinga, CallWith.me, CarLock, Celtra, Chipolo, CubeSensors, Databox / Zeppelin, Dawn of Play (Dream of Pixels), DORA, DoubleRecall, eBeat, Equaleyes / 2ndsight, Fieldoo, Flaviar, Flowr, H20-Pal, Iddiction, Iptvbeat, Layer, LLStol, Lumu, Lyst, Koofr, JollyDeck, Mediately, Motiviti, Musguard, Ondu, Oust.me, Outfit7, Peekster, Povio, Red Pitaya, Toonia, Toshl, Vert, Visionect, Vox.io, Xvida, Zemanta. Check it out.

While I'm trying to make this magazine as relevant as possible, there are surely many others I have missed, and here's where you can come in. What I am looking for are other interesting articles about Slovenian startups in English (so non-Slovenians can understand them as well), preferably published by foreign media. I am also looking for other successful startups and go-getting people which I've missed, so I can put them on this list. All of this will help me keep the magazine fresh and up-to-date, creating an online news hub accessible to anyone.

So, if you know something, ping me on Twitter, contact me or make a comment below. Become a part of the ecosystem, our startups surely need all the exposure they can get. Thanks.

https://flipboard.com/section/startup-slovenia-bt6WAR

Uporabniška izkušnja kot uporabniško doživetje [In Slovene]

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 18:09:23 GMT

Med prebiranjem biografije Steva Jobsa sem naletel na dokaj nenavaden slovenski prevod pojma "user experience", “uporabniško doživetje”. Zadevi nisem namenil veliko pozornosti, saj sem v knjigi zasledil tudi nekaj manj posrečenih strokovnih prevodov, kot sta npr. “brezšivno integriran” ali “predkupna večopravilnost”. Klub temu pa se nisem mogel izogniti občutku, da ima ta besedna zveza potencial, da dobro zveni. Nekaj dni pozneje sem ugotovil, da je “uporabniško doživetje” morda celó bolj primeren izraz od sicer uporabljenega, “uporabniška izkušnja”, katerega razumevanje pozroča preglavice marsikomu.

Začnimo na začetku, pri razlagi besede “experience”. V angleščini ima dve definiciji (vir):

-the process of doing and seeing things and of having things happen to you
-skill or knowledge that you get by doing something

Vidimo lahko, da “experience” pomeni dve zelo različni stvari, ki bi jih po naše lahko imenovali “doživljanje” in “izkušnja”. Po eni strani opisuje nekaj, kar se človeku dogaja (process), pod drugi pa označuje tisto, kar se človek ob temu nauči (knowledge). Čeprav slovenščina pozna obe rabi besede “izkušnja”, ne moremo mimo dejstva, da običajno pomeni predvsem drugo, torej spoznanje ali ugotovitev. Nekdo ima izkušnje z nečim. V prvem primeru pa bi bilo morda bolj smiselno govoriti o doživetju ali doživljaju.

izkúšnja tudi skúšnja -e ž (ȗ) kar kdo ob dogodkih, doživetjih spozna, ugotovi (vir)
doživétje -a s (ẹ̑) 1. kar kdo doživi, s čustvi dojame (vir)
doživljáj -a m (ȃ) 1. kar kdo doživi (vir)
dožívljanje -a s (í) glagolnik od doživljati (vir)

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“User experience” (UX) je:

"a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service". (vir)

UX predstavlja dojemanje in odzive človeka, ki uporablja nek produkt. Gre torej za proces, ki poteka ob interakciji uporabnika in stroja, proces, ki ga skuša optimizirati načrtovalec UX. Uporabniška izkušnja torej ni obstojna, ne moreš je imeti, enostavno je in se dogaja. Podobno ne moreš imeti doživljajev, po drugi strani pa izkušnje lahko imaš.

Tako kot pri analognih “izkušnjah” (npr. customer experience, content experience) je pri UX jasno, da imamo opravka s prvim angleškim pomenom besede “experience”, ki govori o procesu doživljanja. Povezava besede “izkušnja” z “uporabniška” pa lahko to razumevanje popači, saj nakazuje na nekaj, kar se uporabnik nauči (z uporabo produkta).

Mar ni “uporabniško doživetje” veliko bolj nedvoumen in razumljiv izraz?

He loved to control all aspects of his life, and the only way to do that with computers was to take responsibility for the user experience from end to end.

Rad je obvladoval vse vidike svojega življenja, pri računalnikih pa je to lahko dosegel le tako, da je prevzel odgovornost za prav vse podrobnosti uporabniškega doživetja. (Steve Jobs, stran 347)

----

Seveda ima beseda “doživetje” tudi slabe lastnosti. Z geeki na Facebooku smo imeli debato predvsem o tem, ali predstavlja nekaj preveč subjektivnega in čustvenega za uporabo v kontekstu “user experience”. Izkazalo pa se je, da imata ti dve zadevi pomembno vlogo v samem uporabniškem doživetju.

“User experience (UX) involves a person's behaviors, attitudes, and emotions about using a particular product, system or service.” (vir)

Uporabniško doživetje. Morda se sliši čudno, vendar je s tem izrazom mogoče veliko lažje laiku razložiti, kaj pomeni user experience. Izkušnje so v oblakih, če jih nimaš, jih enostavno nimaš, omemba te besede nakazuje na nekaj nepredstavljivega in abstraktnega. V resnici pa uporabniška izkušnja pomeni nekaj veliko bolj preprostega, doživljanje človeka, s čustvi vred, ki se zgodi ob uporabi sistema/produkta. Uporabniško doživetje.

Cool Slovenian brands, part 2: The stars of Kickstarter

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 22:25:28 GMT

Kickstarter got my attention back in 2010, when Diaspora successfully raised $50k. This is the amount they required to develop an open source alternative to Facebook, where people would have full control over their posts and multimedia. It was a good idea, but too complex to easily implement, and the guys never managed to make it fully work. But there are other projects who did manage go big, making Kickstarter and crowd-founding an everyday thing. Today, numerous ideas, products, and even movies are financed this way, while statistics tell an amazing story: in 2012, Kickstarter pledges topped $300 million.

Besides getting financial resources which help people to build their products, crowd-funding has many other interesting benefits. For young entrepreneurs, this platform provides an option to validate their ideas which can help them reach product / market fit. They can start selling their prototype or MVP before they have a fully developed product. The (viral) marketing component is important as well, great Kickstarter projects spread around the (social) Web in minutes. People who get involved in something, have a strong tendency to become advocates and share information about it. These are just a few reasons why there are so many individuals and startups who are choosing such approaches to enter new markets.

I'm very glad to see crowd-funding being used in Slovenia as well. Since 2012, when LLSTOL managed to raise $18k+ on Kickstarter, other projects used the same strategy. In the last month alone, we've seen two new superstars emerge, bringing the total number of successfully funded Slovenian Kickstarter projects to 4 (two of those are still ongoing, the third hasn't reached the goal yet). We must mention two other projects (My name is Janez Janša and Namazi na mizo) which managed to find funding elsewhere.

LLSTOL

Time: Aug-Sep 2012
Received: $21,956 ($18,000 goal)
The LLSTOL (LL Chair) is a modular piece of furniture you can use in many ways; as a chair, a table, shelving or a drawing board. These multi-functional properties make it a very interesting product, which enabled LLSTOL to get featured in many local and international blogs. Thumbs up for paving the way for other Slovenian projects on Kickstarter!

XVIDA Boomerang

Time: Nov-Dec 2012
Received: $50,667 ($40,000 goal)
The all-in-one iPad stand went a step further, with a funding goal of $40k. Again, we are seeing a product with a modular structure, with a variety of beautifully designed holders for different occasions. Boomerang managed to turn quite a few heads, and is already shipping.

ONDU

Time: May-Jun 12th 2013 - STILL ACTIVE
Received: $92,876 ($10,000 goal)
Currently the most successful Slovenian Kickstarter project, ONDU pinhole cameras already raised more than $90k, out of $10k required. I like this project a lot as well, since it offers a beautiful, simple and unique product, made from local materials, by an enthusiast who likes to work with wood.

Marko B.'s story

Time: May-Jun 20th 2013 - STILL ACTIVE
Received: $1,843 ($20,000 goal)
Marko Baloh is an ultra-marathon cyclist, who he has written an autobiography about training for one of the hardest races ever, RAAM. With the help of Kickstarter, he will try to translate and publish that book in English as well. Hopefully, he can get a bit more exposure that will help him reach that goal.

Musguard

Time: May-Jun 22th 2013 - STILL ACTIVE
Received: $25,323 ($10,000 goal)
The foldable rear bycicle fender is simply awesome, and it weighs only 35 grams. The hipsters will probably take this product for their own, and thanks to Kickstarter, we will be seeing it in many colors. Musguard is one of the few projects who made it to Gizmodo.

Other projects

There are other Slovenian projects who were financed or marketed with the help of crowd-funding as well:

My name is Janez Janša: A documentary movie about three artists who changed their names to Janez Janša managed to raise more than €7k on Verkami back in April 2012, which makes this film the first successfully crowd-founded project in Slovenia!
Pelicon Beer: While Pelicon beer didn't manage to raise $100,000 to expand their production line, their Kickstarter campaign was successful anyways; they gained so much exposure, they will be opening the brewery on their own anyways.
Namazi na mizo: The cook book about different spreads managed to raise enough money to be actually published in real life. This was achieved locally, by accepting donations.

Your turn

I admit I gave the projects that used Kickstarter a bit more weight than others. I strongly feel that such cool ideas should try to aim for global markets, and Kickstarter is the platform that can help them achieve just that. Besides, there are three Slovenian projects who are still active on Kickstarter at the time of writing, and I think they need any help they can get.

It's fascinating that pretty much all internationally successful Slovenian crowd-founded campaigns are about real-life products with unique and creative designs. Slovenia definitely has to start actively developing this industry, I know so many talented designers around here, and there is a lot of legacy from the previous ages. These projects deserve to join other Slovenian success stories, don't you agree? What are you waiting for, become a part of the story, apply with your project or back someone up!

(Special thanks to alivea for compiling the list which helped me write this.)

UPDATE (23.6.2013): In the mean time, Lumu Light Meter managed to set a new standard, reaching its $20k goal in hours, and is already at $140k+ after six days. This is already the fourth Kickstarter project in cooperation with Niko Klanšek (after LLSTOL, Ondu and Musguard), and Lumu is so cool it got TechCrunched!

Check out the complete Cool Slovenian brands series.

How Facebook and Twitter are messing up Slovenian journalism

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:56:08 GMT

Before I proceed with this rant, I would like to point out that I strongly believe in social media. I think it can do magical things, hell, we've already seen it has the potential to change the world. But that's just me, a person consuming information, deciding what's real and what not, riding those waves that I like. The media - they should try harder - it's their job to report the truth. In the past few weeks, we've encountered a few slips from the mainstream media here in Slovenia, feeding us with bogus information they've copied from the (social) web. I know it can be hard to track everything that's going on, but still, double-checking a few things and sources wouldn't hurt that much. And since Slovenia is in a quite critical stage at this point, with a fucked up financial situation, austerity measures, protests and everything, this makes it even more important for journalists to do their job properly.

Case 1: the major mayor situation

Those that are acquainted with the current situation in Slovenia, know that we currently have two major protest venues. Maribor, who started it all, and whose protesters have already succeeded in persuading their mayor Franc Kangler to step down (and they aren't stopping there), and Ljubljana, whose activists are protesting more against the Slovenian right-winged government lead by Janez Janša, and no so much against the capital's mayor. You should know that Ljubljana's mayor Zoran Janković is an interesting person, one of those guys that's a bit shady, but since he has done so much for the development of the city, the general public still likes him (but not for much longer it seems).

In a similar fashion as the other protests (who are currently happening on a weekly basis), there was one protest in Ljubljana organized using Facebook and other social media channels, targeted specifically against the mayor. This event had hidden attendees, and their wall was covered with posts such as "10.000 confirmed guests", "15.000 confirmed guests" etc. There were a few of us that laughed at this, but this didn't stop the radio and television from reporting an expected record amount of protesters on that day, based solely on that Facebook event's wall posts! The result: a few hundred people, and some of them had a transparent "Thief, we love you".

The cached version of the event against Zoran Janković - with 15k hidden attendees. The event is no longer available. Spotted by @loudandwicked.

Case 2: the bogus response to the anti-corruption commission report

Today, another interesting thing has happened, and we still need to see how it will turn out. The national Commission for the Prevention of Corruption released a report saying both prime minister Janez Janša and Ljubljana's mayor Zoran Janković have more money that they were supposed to have (in hundred thousand euros). When this happened, Janša's SDS party's parody Twitter account with 30 followers at that time tweeted that this report proved the commission has finally dug into the corrupt communist hole.

The tweet that got mistaken for an official statement.

When I saw this tweet, I instantly checked the profile, since the tweet seemed very unbelievable, concerning the fact their leader is also inside the report. I instantly knew it's a bogus account, but this didn't prevent the Slovenian Press Agency from putting this tweet as a quote inside one of their news (no longer available), and from there on it was instantly picked up by other media as well. We are talking about one of the most important Slovenian news sources!

The citation of the tweet, copied by demokracija.si from STA. Spotted by @miharejc, amplified by @multikultivator, read the the thread.

Time for real journalists to shine

There are probably more cases like this, and it needs to stop! Social media is a wonderful tool for providing additional information about something specific, but as we've seen in the two cases, it often can't be the primary source for the news. Journalism needs to go a step back, and provide credible information from trustworthy sources. Otherwise, there won't be much truth left for our descendants, since too many people will simply have the power to make things up. But everything's not bad - situations like this could provide clear distinction between real journalists with original sources, and those who do nothing else but copy others. Something we critically need in this age of data abundance.

Thinking about Silicon Valley? Did you hear about the Slovenian / Slavic startup house?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:41:17 GMT

I can't believe it's been more than half a year since I went to the Valley. Good times, a lot has happened there, even more has happened since. San Francisco and Silicon Valley are a place every developer and / or entrepreneur should visit at least once, to get the idea about how things work on a larger scale. To receive another orientation point, to think outside the box. All roads in technology lead there, and if you are planning on ever doing something major, this is definitely the place to be. Startups, developers, investors, enthusiasts, geeks, technology corporations, everybody's there. Good news: it's easier than ever for you to be a part of it too.

At the time of my trip, I stayed at vox.io's Bay Area HQ, which has evolved to a full-blown startup house since then. The loft was simply calling for this expansion, since there's room for at least 10 people to stay there at once. It was packed with entrepreneurs at that time as well, but financing such a place is simply too much for a single startup to bear. And since there are so many disruptive technology companies in Slovenia, some of them decided to help, recently transforming vox.io's into a real Slovenian / Slavic Startup house. Slavic, because the initiative is also supported by a startup from Croatia, which means that the Slovenian startup ecosystem is connecting even stronger with other startup communities from the Adriatic region. Respect to the guys from ShoutEm, Toshl, Zemanta, vox.io and Hekovnik, who are partners in the project!

Work hard, party harder, networking included. More pictures here and here.

I'm not fully acquainted with the criteria and terms for staying in the Startup house, but this is surely the easiest, most inexpensive and welcoming way for Slovenian technology freaks to discover San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Don't worry, these guys are really nice and helpful, so don't be afraid to contact them for more information.

The Slovenian / Slavic startup house. More pictures here and here.

Thinking about going? Here's the deal: going there is really easy, you just need to decide to go. Making something out of your visit is really hard, but you can get prepared, besides, you can learn a bit from my adventures. Bottom line, if you feel the need to go, you should go, also because you've never had a better opportunity, and it's not perfectly clear for how long this opportunity will stay available.

So here's what you can do: think about what you have and what you are trying to achieve. Prepare your pitch, pimp your sites and Linkedin profile, plan your visits and schedule your meetings. Open your mind. And just simply go. San Francisco is a crazy place, and even if things turn out totally different than expected (which they probably will), I promise you, visiting the Valley will be an unforgettable experience. Don't miss it.

http://ssh.si

Sempl 14 key takeaways: top trends in (digital) marketing

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:35:00 GMT

The 14th media trends seminar Sempl took place last week in Portorož. This year, I had an opportunity to attend the conference, since Neolab provided the official Twitter wall. And I was glad I could, because Sempl proved itself as an event worth visiting, packed with high profile speakers and marketers not only from Slovenia, but from the entire region. Most lectures were very interesting, and the fascinating fact is that they all went into the same direction. It seems mobile, social and local are so mainstream, they are not even put into the spotlight anymore. But here are the things that were.

Content

Forget classic marketing, it doesn't work (online) anymore. Ads don't work with social, and they don't work with mobile. Advertisers now have to go beyond "YeDiLi" (Yell Disrupt Lie) concept and deliver better, more complete experiences wrapper around their brands. Content marketing within the right context is the what keeps the consumers engaged and loyal, and some brands are already removing their products from their web pages, replacing them with editorial and social content.

Storytelling

Content is crucial, but so is the experience for consumers, which can be delivered using storytelling. People want to be seduced, they need to have the feeling they are a part of a bigger picture, specially if they have the chance join the conversation and the ability to co-create the experience. Storytelling is what helps to keep them engaged with a brand and share their loyalty with their peers.

Futurist Gerd Leonhard delivering his lecture "The total reset of marketing, branding and media"

Second screen

While television still rules the media budgets, more and more people stick to their phones while watch it. Enter the age of the second screen, provided by tablets and smartphones. This is probably one of the biggest opportunities for marketers to deliver all of the above, since these little capable devices support so many things. The ads of the future will be multi-channel interactive experiences, watched on many screens at once. Transmedia FTW.

bonus: the new Shazam is awesome

The platform that fully embraces all of the mentioned concepts has to be the new Shazam. You know that app that recognizes the song you are listening to? Now it can also understand which TV show you are watching, and delivers additional content that comes with it. Cast, trivia, products on screen, etc. One of the best cases that were presented was by Red Bull, which enables watching a snowboard movie with multiple cameras. Crazy shit!

These are the most significant digital marketing trends presented on the conference. Are you already thinking about your next move? Here are the slides from the conference to help you on your way.

Targeting non-vegetarians with veggie food? Well played, Spar, well played.

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 20:04:44 GMT

I'm not vegetarian, and apparently I share this habit with more than 95% of other people. I generally don't buy vegetarian food, a steak works fine with me. I didn't even know I could/should buy vegetarian food - after all, vegetarian food is designated for vegetarians, which I'm not. I don't have anything agains them, but we're a different breed you know, like wolves and butterflies. To be honest, I wouldn't mind eating a vegetarian meal, if only I would feel it's something intended also for me. That's why I don't. But Spar told me I could and I should. And I think they might be on to something.

Spar's new Veggie products have an interesting twist. It's a vegetarian line, targeting non-vegetarians. When the lovely Gwyneth Paltrow, who is not a vegetarian, but likes veggie, tells you that, you might as well think, hmm, she might be right. Why should I be a vegetarian to eat a meatless meal? I like my vegetables, so eating vegetarian on few occasions actually isn't such a bad idea. Which is fucking genius. Spar just made their potential client pool 20x bigger than it was, and their original target group probably doesn't mind it at all. There's a chance they will actually feel proud that meat-eaters will be copying their lifestyle.

"I'm not a vegetarian, but I like veggie." Why haven't I thought of that?

I love to comment on simple and effective campaigns like this, even though I'm not a marketing expert. That's why I'm not sure if this type of approach has been used before or if it even has its own name from the Mad Men times. Anyways, I think it's brilliant, and I will definitely be thinking about how to use it in other scenarios. Taking a minor group with specific requirements, creating a product for them, and then selling it to a larger group with the "why not" approach. Infinite possibilities, while the one presented probably has the most potential of them all. Well played, Spar, well played.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Discover what's happening in Ljubljana in real-time

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:37:29 GMT

I've always been a big fan of the power of the crowds. When a mass of people can achieve much more than a few skilled individuals can. And ever since we've started playing with Twitter's API, I've been think about the possibilities of this magnificent data source. Besides Twenity, we've done a few other Twitter mashups like Twitter walls, but this wasn't enough. We wanted something more - geolocation. Displaying information on a map in real-time. But since there aren't that many tweets equipped with GPS coordinates, we needed to include other services for more diversity as well. Which we did, and Ljubljana Realtime, a social event discovery application, was born.

Launch

Data and services

Ljubljana Realtime currently feeds on four different services: Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram and Flickr. It would be great if we could add other services as well, but Facebook doesn't allow public geo search, Google+ doesn't support geo search at all, and other services either aren't appropriate or don't offer an API which would allow us to get their data.

These four services are visited once a minute, and all posts in a radius of around 5km from Ljubljana city center are found: tweets, Foursquare trending venues, pictures from Instagram and Flickr. A variety of information created with different purposes on different occasions.

The area covered by Ljubljana Realtime. Different services require different searches, based on maximum allowed radius.

The application

These posts are displayed on a map, which was the original idea for the prototype. The last hours of posts on Google Maps, which can be zoomed and filtered at will. But the whole display felt a bit chaotic (still does), since there are many posts in vicinity of one another. That's why we knew we need to group similar posts, and we did this by the post's nearest Foursquare venue. Then a funny thing happened: this simple solution enabled something magnificent, something that could be much bigger than the whole posts-on-a-map application.

Anyways, since geo location is heavily connected with mobile devices, the application is responsive and fully compatible with most smartphones. Perhaps there will be native apps as well at one point.

The stream

Back to the magnificent. Originally, a Twitter bot was intended to come with the application (I love making those), which would tweet all trending foursquare venues to promote the application. But this seemed a bit lame, we needed to add something cooler. Something that would add more value and detect an event before a 4sq trending venue would happen. This is where the mentioned grouping of posts by venue came in handy, and the logic is as follows: if two or more people publish form the same venue in a single hour, this could very well mean something's happening there. And in most occasions, this turned out to be true. Read further for more details.

Discovering an event before a trending venue on Foursquare.

The event discovery stream is available on Twitter and Facebook.

The problems

Besides unstable APIs, the biggest problem we are currently facing is the geolocation itself. GPS chips in mobile phones are often not accurate enough, so people are located tens or hundreds of meters from their actual location. Combine that with the amount of Foursquare venues out there (imagine tall buildings), and you can understand Ljubljana Realtime sometimes has problems with connecting a post to a venue. Not to mention duplicated venues. We've eliminated some of this effect by only using venues with a certain amount of checkins and different users, but this will surely be the greatest challenge the project is facing in the future.

An event which is not.

The results

Problems aside, in most cases, Ljubljana Realtime event discovery works great. In a week or so since it's online, it discovered many events that were happening in Ljubljana (night run to the Castle, an athletic meeting, one of the first iPhones 5 in Slovenia, a public garage sale in park Tabor, etc.), and on many occasions, it discovered these events before a trending venue happened on Foursquare. Which is great. The potential is obviously there, and newer, improved versions and algorithms will surely behave even better.

A few of the great discoveries Ljubljana Realtime made.

The plans

This project is being developed in an agile way, where the application's behavior is constantly being monitored and changes deployed rapidly according to discovered strengths and weaknesses. The MVP (minimum viable product) is there, and with a few minor modifications, Ljubljana Realtime will soon be ready to expand to other cities and regions. Now it's up to you to help us, and it's pretty simple. When something magical is happening on and you are tweeting about it anyways, be a sport and click the arrow to include your geolocation in the tweet. By doing this, you will help others to discover what's going on in our beautiful city.

That's it for now, party on.

p.s. for all the Slovenians out there: the coordinates embedded in a tweet are pretty accurate even though Twitter will say you are in Italy. If you look at the picture of the map below the tweet, there's a polygon around Italy which sadly contains Slovenia as well. Hopefully, Twitter will remove bug someday.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 8: Lessons learned, time to reevaluate

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:01:36 GMT

It's been about month since I've returned from Silicon Valley, so I've had plenty of time to think about what happened there. This time I went out of curiosity, hoping to get the idea of how things work in the global center of technology. The next time I will be there for real business, approaching the situation more systematically. San Francisco and Silicon Valley are a great place to visit for profiles such as myself, so there surely will be a next time, when a wiser version of me will be able to do some serious shit. And I'll be wiser also because I've learned my lessons this time.

Ideas are worthless, but execution also isn't all it takes

When I started being an entrepreneur, I thought The idea was everything. While innovation may be important, it's mostly worthless by itself. No matter how good or revolutionary your idea is, hundreds of people probably have a similar idea at the same time. As Oren Michels puts it: "Stealth mode is stupid, execution is what matters.". Ideas are worth nothing if they're not executed properly. But wait, we've done a pretty good job with Twenity, but that still wasn't enough to make it abroad. It seems execution isn't enough as well.

At this point I think the hardest thing to do is the next step, putting the product on the market, making it recognized. At least that's where we are now, that's the obstacle we are currently facing. But I can already predict that the next hardest thing would be to find the investors, and the next to scale the business. Idea > Execution > Marketing > Financing > Scaling is a complex lifecycle, and you have to control every element before you can say you've made it. That's why you should try (and fail) as many times as possible. With every new project you do, it will be easier to dominate the prior steps, allowing you to focus more energy on the next ones.

Competition is fierce, but the market is big

The (Seedcamp) startups I've met on my trip really do some seriously crazy shit. Some of the things were so awesome I've almost lost faith in being able to do something similar. But I managed to somehow get back in the game. Neolab may not be cutting edge (yet) on the emerging fields such as mobile, HTML 5 or responsive design, but that's really not that big of an issue, since we make things that do what they're supposed to. That's the Execution phase, but luckily, the Market has the capacity to absorb many things, if approached properly. Face it - there will always be companies who do a better job than you, but it's the Market who'll decide who makes it or not.

I attended a Salesforce conference for a few hours (thanks Davorin!), which attracted thousands of visitors. In case you don't know them, they are the leading provider of Software as a Service CRM solutions, offering a service and a platform for other developers. Their product is really awesome, but that doesn't mean similar products can't find their own market. Researching on this issue, I found a review of the 10 best known SaaS CRM solutions, all of them obviously able to survive, even though Salesforce dominates this segment. And I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands more that are able to coexist at the same time on the huge global markets. Which brings me to my next point:

Highlights from a massive Salesforce conference

User experience is the new competitive advantage

You need to find your Unique selling proposition and competitive advantage. Most of the above mentioned Seedcamp startups found it in superior user experience. Take something that works, and make it work even better. Today's users are quite willing to migrate to a new product / service if it turns out to be better than the current one. A great example of this philosophy is vox.io, which offers a similar service than Skype (online calls and chat), but simply does it better. And by better I mean using new innovative approaches to make something more simple and intuitive to use. The user experience segment will only become more important and challenging in the future, since new ways of interactions with software are emerging (touch, voice, thought?).

vox.io's chat with embeddable content proves chat can be reinvented

Selling and pitching is ok

When you mention Sales, many people get the impression of a door-to-door salesperson trying to sell you books. Or company phones ringing with people who make it hard to say no to. These things give sales a negative connotation. But it seems that's a cultural thing. In San Francisco, everybody is trying to sell you stuff, everybody's pitching all the time. When you ask somebody "What do you do?", the person is already showing you their product on his/her iPhone. Maybe not for the actual sell, but just to get some decent feedback. You shouldn't feel bad about trying to sell something, that how the system works. Just make sure that something is worth selling.

One of the parties at vox.io's. Everybody was pitching.

You're nothing without the contacts

I admit I was a bit naive this time. I hoped the fact me being a blogger and a representative of two startups would open a few doors, but this turned out to be wishful thinking. It's true I did manage to find a few contacts on the spot, which enabled me to do great things (such as visiting the technology bluechips and the Internet archive), but my way to the influential blogs was closed. I heard that they receive a few hundred submissions a day, so you need to make sure your pitch is awesome and you have backdoors to deploy it. Do your homework, the next time I take on a similar adventure, I'll try to schedule as many meeting as possible in advance. I've finally found a reason to pimp up my LinkedIn profile, and I was lucky enough that:

The Slovenian (startup) scene is alive and kicking

One of the most fascinating things that happened to me was the chance to meet the Slovenian diaspora in Bay Area, and the startup scene around it. Thanks to a few individuals, such as Jure, Tomaž and Andraž, a lot of things are happening around Stanford University and vox.io's San Francisco headquarters, and everybody is very welcoming to the new generation of Slovenian immigrants and other startups, trying to make it abroad. Thank you for your kindness, I feel Slovenia!

The Slovenian diaspora meeting at the Stanford University

Foursquare is the ultimate travel guide, so get a local data plan

Forget maps, Foursquare has become the ultimate travel guide if you're looking for companies, tourist attractions or happening. That's why you'll need a local data plan, which costs a few bucks a day. Pretty much everything is on Foursquare (besides, physical addresses are often very hard to find online), and trending venues can point you to the events worth visiting. I've never used Foursquare in such a way, and the critical mass of users reached around here surely provides massive value beyond the game.

What now?

That pretty much sums it up. This trip was a great experience, but it's time to get back to the drawing board. Rethink my strategies. Redesign Twenity's user experience. Reinvent Neolab's business model. Stay in touch with the people I've met. Find new contacts for the next visit. Adopt new technologies. Research new markets. Think global.

Well, at least I won't get bored.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 3: The magnificent Stanford University

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:21:33 GMT

There probably aren't many institutions associated with Silicon Valley the way Stanford University is. Its affiliates and graduates played a major role in the development of the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, which would later on become known as the Silicon Valley. The spirit of entrepreneurship, technology, science and research is felt everywhere, and Stanford University will surely be one of the most fascinating stops on my Silicon Valley trip.

Stanford University can only be described as the American educational dream. At least the way Europeans imagine it, thanks of pop culture and television shows such as Beverly Hills 90210. The perfect mixture of easiness and seriousness is manifested in the campus itself, which is filled with amazing parks and glorious squares and buildings. It's beautiful, but also tempting for a person like me, who is still playing around with the idea of being a student for a few more years.

We managed to spend some time with Jure Leskovec from Slovenia, who is an assistant professor there. His research is focused mostly on data mining and network analysis, very fascinating fields that I'm very interested in too. He gave as a tour of the campus and took us to the Institute of Design, an inspiring place where all sort of crazy things are researched and developed. Later on he proudly presented his lab, which was sponsored by Google. A great-looking place indeed, I hope he didn't notice me drooling all over it.

Stanford University - the mother of all knowledge, located right in the heart of Silicon Valley. Seeing it helps you understand why this region is miles ahead of anyone else in technology, and definitely makes you want to study there. It's simply magnificent.

The Oval: a beautiful park, located in front of the main entrance from Palo Alto

The view on the campus from the Hoover tower

One of the beautiful streets

Arches are practically everywhere

The Institute of design: some students programming robots

The Institute of design: results from a few intense brainstorming sessions

Jure Leskovec's lab, where he and his students do their magic

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 2: vox.io's San Francisco HQ aka the Slovenian hall of tech

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:19:06 GMT

There's this very cool place in San Francisco, a place where I'm staying while I'm on my Silicon Valley tour. vox.io's Bay Area headquarters, where not only people from Slovenia, but also from a few other countries currently live, work and play. This giant loft now gathers individuals from technology startups into a giant hub of solutions, people and ideas. Filled with hopes and expectations, this is definitely something I'm proud to be a part of.

There are currently 8 people living here, from vox.io, Zemanta, Oust.me, the Austrian startup blossom and me, representing Twenity and Neolab. A pretty wicked bunch of people having both productive and fun sessions.

The place is huge, with a giant living room, kitchen, dining area, working tables everywhere, and a very cool chill-out zone on what used to be a stage. There's a separate bar and a DJ area, besides a few rooms for sleeping. An awesome hackspace, probably few times better than my flat.

I can't describe how important this place is. Besides giving me and others shelter, the opportunity to hang out here and share knowledge and ideas with other people from the industry is crucial, I've learned so much in a few days, it's unbelievable.

These kinds of things should be subsidized by the government. In our case, vox.io is doing more for the Slovenian technology startup scene than most other public projects are, for a much smaller investment. By allowing people to be here in Silicon Valley, trying to find investors, exploring new ways of doing business, or just learning about the culture around here, the reach of Slovenian startups has widened by miles. All thanks to a few individuals with great ideas.

A huge living room, the center of our everyday lives

The kitchen and the dining area

The chill-out zone, where you can work or relax

The bar and DJ area

Highlight from the Slovenian party, to which we've invited everybody from Slovenia that lives around here

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

The Silicon Valley tour, part 1: Seedcamp America Trip visiting the Googleplex

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 02:05:21 GMT

When I decided to travel to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I didn't expect things will be happening so fast. But thanks to Andraž from Zemanta, I managed to do two awesome things already on the first day after I've arrived - visit Google's headquarters in Mountain View and talk with the Seedcamp teams, currently on their tour of the United States. They came here to present their projects to potential investors, and Google was nice enough to accommodate one of the mentoring sessions in the Googleplex.

The Googleplex experience

Googleplex is huge, it seems that there's a whole town that exists only because of Google. When you get here, you really get the idea about the size of the corporation - it's a corporation by all of its meaning. Infinite buildings and office for various Google products, hundreds of people going back and forth.

What was said about Google is still true. You do want to work there. The place looks great and there's a feeling of extreme brain power everywhere you look. We got fed for free and even met Žiga, who is one of the few Slovenians working for Google. He's been doing it for a few years now, working on Google search, and he says he loves it. Who wouldn't?

Google's park and restaurant, located in the 1950 Mountain View building

Cafeteria and chill-out zone inside

The slide in the main lobby - sadly out of order. The screen displays Google search queries.

The Seedcamp experience

The mentoring sessions for Seedcamp teams took place in the afternoon in one of the buildings (Mountain View 1950 to be exact), where the companies currently in the Seedcamp program presented their solutions. I was honored to be one of the mentors, trying to help the projects with my experience in enterprise IT, business intelligence and Twitter integrations. Hopefully I was able to give the teams I was associated with some decent feedback. Here is the list of all 19 Seedcamp teams on the tour (including Oust.me from Slovenia), and these are the six I managed to get to know a bit more:

Zingl, a dating service that uses the social, interest and location graphs to match people
24symbols, a solution for e-books based on a subscription model
AppExtras, a plugin for mobile apps that allows publishers to promote other apps
archivme, a service for managing invoices and other business documents in the cloud
Bilbus, which works as a broker between businesses and lenders
blossom, a project management tool for lean companies

Pretty much all of these 19 companies managed to create some very impressive business models and innovative new services.

Alex presenting Oust.me, a location-based conquering game

Mentoring sessions happened in various rooms

A bit of food and drinks after an exhausting day

What now?

So far, so good. The Seedcamp experience in the Googleplex was amazing, and I learned more in one day than I did before in months. I truly hope these teams will be able to get what they came looking for, and I hope I will too. I just need to find out what that is, because I'm not even sure anymore.

Check out the complete The Silicon Valley tour series.

Zakaj blogam v angleščini [In Slovene]

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:14:26 GMT

Dragi prijatelj, znanec, bralec, naj se ti najprej opravičim. Pred leti, ko sem se loteval tega projekta, sem se soočil z eno izmed težjih odločitev v svoji spletni karieri: ali naj svoj spletni dnevnik pišem v slovenščini ali v angleščni.

Takrat sem se odločil za slednje, kljub temu da sem vedel, da bo na ta način težje začeti. Podobno, kot na Twitterju, se mi zdi, da je na kratek rok v materinem jeziku lažje dobiti tisto osnovno občinstvo, vprašanje pa je, kaj je bolj učinkovito na dolgi rok. Z angleščino je enostavneje doseči več ljudi, kar sem tudi pričakoval, da se bo enkrat zgodilo. Danes, skoraj tri leta kasneje, lahko rečem, da mi je kar uspelo.

Čeprav imam zelo rad Slovenijo, se ne čutim dolžan delovati v smeri ohranjanja materinega jezika - za to obstajajo drugi profili ljudi. Morda se sliši ignorantsko, vendar ni. Svojo misijo vidim drugje.

Glede na trenutno gospodarsko situacijo je zame bistveno, da skušam v tujini predstavljati lastne projekte, kot sta Neolab in Twenity, ter zagotoviti zaposlitev čim večjemu številu ljudi. To ni edini razlog za angleščino, veliko delujem tudi v smeri splošne promocije Slovenije, njenih dosežkov, uspešnih podjetij in ljudi ter kulturnih posebnosti. Nekdo mora povedati svetu, da obstajamo. Tako imajo tudi drugi nekaj od mojih naprezanj. In morda je takšen pristop celo bolj učinkovit za ohranjanje naše kulture kot uporaba slovenskega jezika.

Eden izmed večjih problemov Slovenije je, da so država in njeni sateliti pogosto edine stranke, ki si sploh lahko privoščijo projekte večjega obsega. Delati za državo pa ni ravno najbolj spodbudno. Zasebna podjetja imajo jasen cilj, ko kupujejo programsko opremo: racionalizirati poslovanje, zniževati stroške in/ali povečati prihodke. V državnih ustanovah pa se rado zgodi, da so vpleteni še drugi interesi, kar ne vodi v najbolj optimalno izvedbo posla. Zaradi tega je še toliko bolj bistveno, da se mala podjetja usmerjajo navzven. Ob tem lahko ponosno povem, da je Neolab v svoji zgodovini uspel izvoziti storitve v več "zahodnih" držav: Nizozemsko, Veliko Britanijo in Južnoafriško republiko.

Ne skušam trditi, da je mednarodno profiliranje našega podjetja posledica mojega pisanja. Morda ne povsem, je pa pisanje verjetno pripomoglo v določeni meri. Ko smo že pri pisanju - to je moj stoti zapis, zato sem si tudi privoščil tale jezikovni preobrat.

Dalje pa spet naprej po starem. Razglabljanja o tehnologiji na vse možne načine. Nekoč bo že nekdo prisluhnil mojim razmišljanjem in me potegnil s seboj, jaz pa bom s seboj potegnil ostale. In takrat bo v Silicijevi dolini še več ljudi govorilo slovensko, pisatelji in novinarji pa bodo skrbeli, da ne bomo pozabili na slovenščino. Mar ni to super plan?

Upam, da sedaj razumeš, zakaj blogam v angleščini.

Cool Slovenian brands, part 1: Technology startups making it big

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:23:10 GMT

Slovenia has a surprisingly high level of technology companies that made a global impact. These startups are an inspiration to everybody, and we hope more of us will be joining them soon. Some made it with the support of different incubators, such as Seedcamp or Y Combinator, others made it on their own. They all share an innovative and outstanding product or service, proving that Slovenia is a place of very talented and ambitious people. While there are probably even more successful startups I haven't heard of or mentioned, I think these eight Slovenian technology organizations created the most hype in the recent few years.

Celtra

With the recent domination of smartphones and tablets, mobile advertising is sky-rocketing. And we are not talking only about ads inside apps, we are talking about multi-platform mobile rich-media ads. These ads go beyond the direct effect of clicking, they enable mobile branding, attracting top-level multinational companies. Celtra has developed a platform for publishing and tracking such ads, and it is so hot they've received 5 millions in investor funding.
http://celtra.com

DoubleRecall

DoubleRecall is a company that might as well save the printing industry. The internet made information more accessible, and people are willing to pay less and less for it. Banner ads don't generate enough revenue for online editions, so newspapers are trying other options, specially content paywalls and tablet editions. In the mean time, DoubleRecall "invented" a new type of ad, where you have to type-in in a few words to access the article. High recollection of something you read and type make this type of ad very effective, and advertisers are willing to pay a lot for it. DoubleRecall got picked by YCombinator.
http://doublerecall.com

Flowr

Even though Enterprise 2.0 has been around for a while, we haven't seen it penetrating business on a large scale. Flowr addresses this issue, offering a simple and effective service for online collaboration between coworkers and teams. Call it Facebook for the enterprise if you like, these types of applications surely are the future of work. The Flowr managed to become a finalist in the Enterprise 2.0 conference.
http://theflowr.com

Oust.me

The latest Slovenian Seedcamp winner, Oust.me, combines two fascinating and trendy technologies: location based networking and gamification. The game supports Foursquare and other geo platforms, and its main objective is to conquer as much territory as possible by checking-in to places, becoming an ouster. Recently, they've also introduced a risk-type game that you play in teams. Your life should be a game? Can't agree more.
http://oust.me

Outfit7

Thanks to a series of talking friends available on most smartphone platforms, Outfit7 has become one of the most successful mobile development companies, and its founder one of the wealthiest Slovenians. At this point, more than 200 million downloads of Talking Tom, Talking Santa and other characters have been made. One of the most fascinating facts about Outfit 7 is that they have identified a totally new target group - children on (parents') smartphones and tablets, which is shown by their vision: we compete against Mattel and Disney. Ingenious.
http://outfit7.com

Toshl

Toshl is a fun app that helps you track expenses on your smartphone. With more than $250.000.000 expenses tracked on different mobile platforms, Toshl managed to became a finalist on SeedCamp New York in 2011. The competition there was fierce, so they didn't receive any funding, but that didn't stop them from moving to Silicon Valley, where the real magic happens. We are standing by to hear about the results.
http://toshl.com

Vox.io

Vox.io is one of the hottest Slovenian startups at this point. After winning Seedcamp London in 2011, this company is on it's way up, being covered by influential magazines / blogs Wired and TechCrunch in the past weeks. What is it about? It's VoIP (Skype) in your browser, without installation. Besides being cool, Vox.io also introduced a few interesting new concepts, such as using an URL instead of a phone number.
http://vox.io

Zemanta

Zemanta is the original Slovenian startup success story, the winner of Seedcamp in 2007. It offers a service that allows bloggers to enrich their writing by adding pictures, links and related content to their posts. Zemanta is very important because it showed other companies they can think big, and since then, they have been paving the way for other Slovenian and East European startups. A few days ago they've announced a strategic partnership with Federated Media Publishing.
http://www.zemanta.com

The impact

These companies are not only successful, they are also very important for other Slovenian startups trying to make a difference. They've become the foundation and mentors of a new mentality that's coming to this part of Europe, and they deserve all the respect. We are trying too, with Neolab and Twenity, and hopefully someday we will become members of similar lists. Until then, it's only fair we support them, by using their services, helping them, or just spreading the word about their awesomeness. We should be proud some of us have actually made it this far.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. Martin Strel image courtesy of Martin Strel Swimming Adventure.

Check out the complete Cool Slovenian brands series.

I feel sLOVEnia. I really do.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:25:27 GMT

Not that it's the best slogan ever. I always preferred "Slovenia, on the sunny side of the Alps", which was somehow forgotten / lost / stolen in the mean time, but "I feel" it's still much better than the previous "Slovenia invigorates" we've been seeing. Each slogan tells a story, but together they tell another, wider story, a story of a nation looking for its identity in these confusing times of globalization and recession. But we may not be as confused as it seems, these past weeks have shown there is much determination around. Much love, displayed in the huge amount of support and sincere wishes I received after we've launched Twenity. I felt sLOVEnia, finally!

Even in the making of Twenity, people were helping us, commenting, blogging about it and lending us their Twitter accounts for testing. The launch went great, the whole wwwh community and others took Twenity for its own. We've made contact with successful Slovenian startups (more on them some other time) and exceptional individuals, all prepared to help and support us in any way they can. Everybody's curious about what's happening and where we are going. And quite a few think Twenity could be it.

But why the surprise? Well, even though Slovenians are very capable, they are traditionally also a bit protective and envious, not really wishing their neighbor would succeed with something or have a bigger car. We often lack the ability to find unity (as displayed by the current political crisis in the worst time possible), but at the same time wish we could stand united the way some other cultures can. But it seems new values have finally come around, backed up by ideas that Slovenia could truly be the next Silicon Valley. Ideas brought by a new generation of technology entrepreneurs, experiencing them on their own skin in San Francisco.

Tomaž Štolfa from vox.io said that the entire IT sector in Slovenia couldn't form a corporation as big as Apple or Google, and he is more than right. We shouldn't compete between ourselves, 5 mobile operators are more than enough for 2 million people. We should think big, and technology is where I FEEL we can make it, it's where i recognized LOVE and wider thoughts. I see capable people everywhere, and it's overwhelming. Together, we could do something special, bypassing the current political and economical fuckup. And I know you feel it to. Thank you for that.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Occupy Wall Street – why it won’t go away and why it matters [guest blogger Nick Taylor]

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:27:26 GMT

This is part of a special two part series transatlantic blog post about Occupy Wall Street. Come check out my cross-branded blog post on Nick Taylor’s thetwohalves.com*.

The Occupy movement has gone global ever since it’s fiery start on September 17, 2011, in New York City's Zuccotti Park. Strangely enough, the phenomenon was initiated by Canadians, the founders of Adbusters magazine, not Americans, lending further credibility to South Park’s famous "Blame Canada" motto. But I digress.

Why should you care? It’s just a bunch of stupid hippies and jobless freaks expressing their angst because they can’t get a job with their smelly dreadlocks, right? Well, maybe not. This movement is tapping into the very core of the reasons underpinning the Great Recession, tapping into ancient history and even potentially changing the course of the political debate in the United States and around the world through its grass roots and social media approach. Click here for a global map of protest locations around the world. More interesting than the countries on the map IMHO are the glaring exceptions: quasi-communist China, formerly communist Russia and most of Africa. Freedom of expression is a wonderful thing.

The drivers of the movement are many, however one of the more powerful statistics (click here for a primer) is that the top 1 percent of Americans possess a greater net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent. What’s making people angrier still is the drop in lower and middle class income against this top 1 percent. While no one is really talking about the reasons, it’s pretty simple. While the middle class in America grew wealthy primarily due to rising home values tied to mortgages, the wealthiest decile was predominantly invested in their own businesses and didn’t rely on loans for their wealth, so when the bottom fell out of the housing market worldwide, they were immune.

But enough about money. What this post is about is recognizing the political impetus for change evident in OWS. Some have called it the left leaning version of the Tea Party movement. And it is. In fact, I have great respect for both movements, as impossible as that may sound to Europeans. And I am not one to shy away from controversial positions, as evidenced by my post on WikiLeaks. Both organic movements were born out of a frustration with the current self-serving political structure that is willing to change absolutely nothing. So much for Obama! But what the OWS is sorely lacking is a well-defined set of goals and more importantly, a charismatic spokesperson. From my strategic marketing perspective, what they need to ultimately succeed is a leftist version of Sarah Palin. And much like the billionaire Koch brothers (whom the only viable Republican candidate for President of the US, Mitt Romney has been courting) were soon outed as the financial engine of the Tea Party, it’s only a matter of time before the people financing the Occupy movement are exposed.

The grassroots model which OWS champions, based loosely on the Egyptian protests which made effective use of social media to spread discontent with an unpopular and autocratic government worldwide is the closest the modern world has seen to a direct democracy since ancient Greece. Could this be the way forward? Say what you will, but the Occupy movement is absolutely right about one thing. Money should not equal political influence. The will of the people should. If it weren’t for the crack rock habit corporate money represents to US politicians, Congress would have changed legislation to outlaw the dubious financial instruments which nearly sunk the global economy years ago. Shame on you, elected representatives.

Sadly, while most Americans still want to believe in the Dream and many will tell you that hard work is the key to success, the stats offer a much starker reality. Income inequality in the US now ranks in the bottom third of the world, is greater than in most of the developed world (including Europe) and is in fact very close to Russia’s. Not exactly the comparison Americans aspire to. Slovenians reading this post can take comfort in knowing their country is best in the world when it comes to income equality, even if it could be doing a much better job in attracting FDI, reforming its 3rd world judicial system and job creation.

Way forward? You tell me, but change is in the making, and if history has taught us anything, it’s that revolutions can be sudden, unpredictable and harsh. France’s Marie Antoinette learned that the hard way. America was forged through a revolution. Will it be re-born through one? Or will the OWS movement simply fade into oblivion? Only time will tell, but the clock of political change is ticking, many people are fed up and the younger generations are the ones with a future to lose… Not to mention the whole world is watching.

Nick Taylor is a social media, PR and marketing consultant, blogger, politico and wannabe geek based in Scottsdale, Arizona (US). He shares his thoughts on thetwohalves.com.

Check out the complete Occupy Wall Street series.

Supporting events on Twitter: how Pop TV and Soočenje owned the Slovenian Twitterverse

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:13:58 GMT

Supporting events on Twitter is becoming very popular, and it's a perfect case study of what Twitter can do. After all, this channel allows an additional layer for following things that are going on in real-life, in real-time. Coverage sometimes happens accidentally, if there are enough Twitterers around, but more and more often, it happens as a result of a carefully planned tactic of those behind the event. Only then it can fully work, enabling organizers, participants and observers a totally new type of involvement. Crowdsourcing event support can produce a better overview of what's happening than any well-trained team of journalists can provide, offering an experience that is broad, objective and subjective, interactive. And like using Twitter itself, some know how to do it, and some don't.

My experience

When I tried it out it myself, it was fun and rewarding, In May, Trkaj, Jacuzzy and our neighborhood Savska held a festival Blok Party, which attracted a lot of people. We were there, live-tweeting about it. We've also asked other Twitterers (thanks @loudandwicked!), who attended the festival, to use and amplify the same hashtag #savska, and in the end, more than 10 people tweeted about the event, producing over 50 tweets, most of them with pictures. Which isn't that bad on the Slovenian scale. My friend @jakasibicekaka did something similar, asking Trbovlje town councillors to tweet about a meeting with the #sejaOStrb hashtag, which attracted other people to participate as well (here's his blog post about it, in Slovene). Great results enabled by collaboration of many users.

It can work on a small scale. What about the major league, it should be even better? Let's analyze two nation-wide events that happened this week in Slovenia.

How to do it wrong

The first case mentioned was the Slovenia vs. USA friendly soccer match. At the stadium, the National soccer association (@nzs_si) promoted their Twitter account which does live coverage of matches. Which they did. But that doesn't mean they did the whole Twitter thing right. They forgot about the extremely witty journalist @IEBergant also tweeting about the match. They forgot about me, and they forgot about you and 8 other thousand people watching the game live, probably quite a few geeks included. While NZS used the hashtag #fuzbal (slang for soccer), some used the hashtag #nogomet (soccer), #slovenia, #slovenija, and the mentioned Igor Evgen Bergant used #soccerSI-US. The results: a scattered pool of tweets which didn't really offer users the complete picture. The event went mostly unnoticed on Twitter.

The Slovenian soccer association promoting their Twitter account on the match

How to do it right

On the other hand, Pop TV (@24ur), the biggest commercial television network in Slovenia, did it more than right. Their show "Predvolilna soočenja", which does political confrontations before the upcoming elections, won big time. And while using Twitter to support television has been done for ages abroad, this actually happened for the first time in Slovenia (at least so I think). And they did at least three smart things:

they've promoted the hashtag #soocenje, not minding about their Twitter profile
they've invited five influential Twitterers (@alivea, @had, @Lacn, @madpixel, @tamejhna) to the studio audience to generate the initial buzz on Twitter, besides live-tweeting from the studio. Here they are, appearing with @miharejc, who tweets for @24ur
they've broadcasted a selection of tweets with this hashtag live on television, and encouraged people to participate and ask questions on Twitter

The results were amazing. Hundreds, if not thousands of tweets all over place. Local trending topic. They owned the Slovenian Twitterverse like no one else before them. It worked like a charm. You can check out the partial report (which only displays 100 of #soocenje tweets, happening in 5 minutes!) on the following link or use the #soocenje Twitter search, if tweets are still available. Epic stuff, moving the Slovenian media sphere a few years forward.

Pop TV displaying and promoting #soocenje tweets live on television

#soocenje (besides various politicians and the show host) became a local trending topic in Slovenia according to sitweet.com

Conclusion

I'm only a level 26 27 social media ninja, but I know a few things. If you're organizing an event, the most important thing is: promote Twitter hashtags, not profiles. Even if they are nothing more than just clickable search queries, they simply work. Search Twitter in real-time and look for people who are talking about the event. Ask them and other people attending to amplify and use the same hashtag. Thank them if they do. Most of them will join you, since it'll make it more interesting for them too. Offer something more if you can (like displaying tweets on a website). Use multiple accounts (official, personal) with different wibes. Upload pictures. Retweet. Interact. Have fun.

Twitter, a funny service proving that a collective effort of many people will always provide a way more interesting picture than a single person can. More objective, more diversified, more everything. Perhaps even better than the original event itself. Real players are fully aware of that. Don't worry, even if you don't have the same power, publicity and followers, you can compensate with additional energy, time and mobile bandwidth. The results can be surprising. And if it does work, I promise you'll enjoy every little bit of it.

UPDATE (22.11.2011): I got contacted by @24ur, who told me this was already their second Soočenje show (I missed the first one - the irony - playing soccer), and the first one generated over 1800 #soocenje tweets. I also got feedback from @nzs_si and @IEBergant, they've agreed we should make a joint effort the next time Slovenia plays soccer, also involving the biggest Slovenian soccer portal Nogomania. Awesome stuff.

UPDATE (25.11.2011): Pop TV is on fire. Today, they've added another medium to support Soočenje on Twitter, their news portal 24ur.com, which is the most visited site in Slovenia.

Twitfluence received some media attention. And almost went to Seedcamp.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:05:04 GMT

Lately, a lot has been happening with Twitfluence. We've finally decided it's time to go out of prototype mode and make Twitfluence a fully working solution, a joint venture between Neolab and IlovarStritar. A fine combination of great technical expertise and amazing visual experience. We've even applied for Seedcamp Ljubljana, but only made it as runners-up (which is actually not that bad for the first try). But that won't stop us – we are more certain than ever to make Twitfluence a complete product, and we'll try even harder the next time.

There are quite a few challenges on our way, the biggest one being the technical difficulties the calculation is having when analyzing large accounts. We had to rewrite it pretty much from scratch. Besides other small upgrades and patches, we will also be doing another major thing: rebranding it. Twitfluence sounds too generic, and most service built on top of Twitter are Twit-something. You will see what we have in mind, and we're sure you'll like it.

This will probably be the last post about Twitfluence on stritar.net, since we'll be moving to the official blog. It was fun while it lasted, but Twitfluence will be retired soon, to make way for something even greater. Hopefully you will be able to see the results in about a month.

What made us pursue the idea further, to think beyond the current ugly mode? A lot has had to do with bloggers that were covering us, which gave us amazing moral support (and a kick in the ass). This coverage went way beyond Slovenia and we are proud to have made it so far. It has also shown us we are on the right track – if we were able to get noticed with the current version, the broad potential of such a service must be great. See for yourselves, here are a few great articles that we've seen floating on the internets:

My Community Manager: Different authority measurement applications review (in French)
had blog: Twitfluence review (in Slovene), by @had
SocialEast: About Slovene Twitter tracking software solutions
Toronto Star Blog: Politicians on Twitter, and how to determine their influence and social capital

Thank you for your support and patience, we'll be seeing you around. Bigger, better, prettier and of course, more playable. Stay tuned.

Forget Facebook. Šport TV and their billboards found Twitter, with style.

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:59:14 GMT

About two months ago I was super fascinated about the fact that a variety of Slovene marketers started to promote their Facebook presence on billboards. Guess what: that's so two months ago. Šport TV, one of the biggest sports television networks in Slovenia went a step further, designing their billboard(s) specifically for promoting their coverage of The European basketball championships on Twitter. Which is a bit surprising, since there are supposedly only around 10k people on Twitter in Slovenia (compared to 650k on Facebook), but still, Twitter is much more suited for media coverage than Facebook for various reasons.

The massive billboard I spotted is located on one of the biggest intersections in Ljubljana, and it's made out of three pieces. The main piece contains three celebrity basketball commentators, each one represented with his own Twitter account and a "Follow me" call to action. Until now, these profiles managed to attract around 150 followers each, which isn't bad at all. Their Twitter backgrounds are well designed and their streams almost updated, which will hopefully continue even after the championship:

Sašo Filipovski: SportTV_Saso
Zoran Martič: SportTV_Zoran
Zmago Sagadin: SportTV_Zmago

Šport TV continued the campaign on their website, where they presented the same three commentators, besides promoting the hashtag #Litva2011, which is quite popular these days for Slovene standards. Pretty advanced and coherent marketing indeed. Great job.

The championship will be over today, Slovenia did well and managed to finish 7th, but we also went a step further in digital. Yes, Twitter is finally becoming a player and some people obviously know how to use it. Exposing the actual faces behind the corporations is effective (specially if you are in showbiz), and something that is nearly impossible to do well on Facebook. So this campaign is actually a double win. Just don't forget to update.

Šport TV's Eurobasket billboard

Šport TV billboard: Follow us

Šport TV billboard: Facebook and Twitter

Šport TV website highlight

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Looks like Slovene marketers and their billboards finally found Facebook

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:58:44 GMT

Lately I've been noticing an interesting trend in local advertising. Billboards all across Slovenia started to display Facebook icons or even links to Facebook pages. Since Slovenia is a few years behind in adopting new marketing approaches, this came as a bit of a surprise, it may have even produced a bit of patriotic pride. Look at that, advertisers have finally started to see the potential in digital and social, looks like we are not that out after all.

This proves Facebook is very much in the game in Slovenia. Out of 1.3 million people online, 650 thousand are on Facebook, which is around half of the wired population. Comparing the figures local statistics, Facebook is among the top sites, which is a potential goldmine for marketers. And they are not sleeping – quite a few local brands already have more than 100k followers (top global brands have tens of millions). And since spamming people's timelines is free after they become fans, no further explaination is needed.

Supporters on social networks are getting more and more important, so thumbs up for this one. But don't forget two important things. A Facebook page is not a replacement, but rather an addition to your regular web page (some of you don't even provide URLs to your sites any more). Secondly, Facebook fans are worth nothing if you don't know what to do with them. So don't stop here, set your social goals, publish and interact.

The billboard photos are available in the gallery below. At this point, only Facebook is used by advertisers, but other social services will surely follow soon. What do you think will be next major online marketing frontier in Slovenia? YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn or even FourSquare?

Zavarovalnica Maribor, Glej na cesto

UPDATE (4.9.2011): Looks like Ford went over the top with the offline Facebook Like button included on their summer edition billboards.

Ford Fiesta

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

What's hot on the web - Part 6: The most amazing unique music acts

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:32:17 GMT

Welcome to the next episode of the fantastic What's hot on the web series. It's been a while since we did this, and since one of the previous posts was focused on fails, I think it's only fair to give memes with a positive attitude a chance too. This part of What's hot on the web cover various unique music acts, each amazing in it's own way. I've been gathering these videos for years and these are the greatest I've noticed so far. You've probably already seen a few, but hopefully missed a few too, so enjoy the show.

11-year-old boy covering Lady Gaga's Paparazzi

When I heard this boy play his interpretation of the hit song from Lady Gaga, I was simply speechless. Greyson Chance become the hottest stuff in an instant, his performance taking him to as far as the Ellen Show. See for yourself, and while you're at it, observe the girls' faces in the background. It's obvious that something magical just happened.

Dude plays trance on an acoustic guitar

It's safe to say that Ewan Dobson is a guitar god, and his song Time 2 fit for any local dance party. This video clearly proves his fingers have a life of their own, making this act one of the most awesome things ever. Prepare to be amazed.

Blue Man Group and Drumbone

Blue Man Group are well known for their amazing (and interactive) out of this world acts, ranging from music to theater (if you have the chance, go see them!). One of their famous performances features their cover of The Who's Baba O'Riley, but at this point, we will rather focus on an act of their own, the Drumbone.

Pale kid raps fast

Busta Rhymes probably felt a bit awkward if he ever saw this video. One dorky kid. White and pale. Kicking everybody's ass in speed rapping. Priceless.

Bobby McFerrin doing his thing

Meet the original beatboxer. Yup, this is the guy that sings all the vocals in Don't worry be happy, and this is one of his solo acts.

Axis of Awesome - The ultimate four chord song

This one was quite a hit some time ago. An awesome band with and awesome name proving that all the hits songs in pop history are actually the same. Four chords is all you need for being a rock star. Or an internet star.

Hang drum solo

You may not find this video as fascinating as I do, but take a closer look. This guy is actually producing magical sounds on a barrel of some sort. Ok, two barrels to be exact. Which is pretty cool if you think about it.

Obadiah Parker putting emotions into Outkast's Hey Ya

I've always though that Hey Ya from Outkast was this funny song (the video probably had me fooled). But then I saw this guy. And it made me feel happy and sad at the same time. Beautiful.

The iPhone band

When the band Atomic Tom got their instruments stolen, they got this amazing idea. They performed one of their songs called Take Me Out live on a NYC subway, using only iPhones. The performance is not technically perfect, but we can still wonder if this the start of a new trend.

local: Perpetuum Jazzile - Avsenik Medley

Perpetuum Jazzile's Africa should've been here, but I've already included that one in one of my previous posts. But this other one is pretty cool too, and very Slovenian. Polka kicks ass.

This is it for now. Did you find anything you like in my selection? Do you have any other favorites I may have missed?

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

Can you believe Watson got the question about Slovenia wrong on Jeopardy?

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:33:12 GMT

Slovenia made it to the spotlight again, for the first time after the soccer world cup (when Slovenia was trending topic on Twitter and top search on Google). This time, it happened because IBM's supercomputer Watson competed against human champions in the famous TV show Jeopardy. IBM's computers are known to destroy people in various challenges, Deep Blue beat the world champion Garry Kasparov in a chess tournament in 1997. But chess is simple for computers to play, because it is pure logic and mathematics – the capability of a player is determined by the number of operations and actions it can calculate in advance. But a quiz is a totally different story, where the biggest challenge is semantics – understanding the meaning of words.

In 1950, Alan Turing, one of the greatest pioneers of computing introduced the Turing test, a methodology that could separate humans from computers using a set of questions, some of them formed in such a way computer wouldn't be able to understand and answer them. There are many questions which can't be answered with pure logic, the one I remember from high school goes something like this:

"Jack attended Sally's party, bring a doll. What was the present?"

The catch is in the connection between party – (birthday) – present – doll, which can't be noticed without abstract thinking humans are capable of. And today's computers still face the same problem - even though Watson dominated Jeopardy, it failed miserably on the following question about Slovenia:

"As of 2010, Croatia & Macedonia are candidates but this is the only former Yugoslav republic in the EU"

Watson's computing capabilities and knowledge banks are huge, but a question and an answer so obvious to humans presented a huge problem. Watson surely knows which countries are EU members, but it obviously didn't understand the question, thinking it was asked about which country would be next to start negotiating for EU membership, answering Serbia. The right answer was, of course, Slovenia.

The video is also fascinating from the cultural point of view – and extremely creepy. Those who have watched (or read) "2001: A Space Odyssey" may have experienced a slight shiver and carefully waited if Watson would say it: "Hello Dave". Others might have enjoyed this science fiction presentation, but besides Watson's obvious advantage in being the fastest to answer the question, it's clear that computers are still far away from being intelligent. And hopefully they will stay that way.

Are we on the verge of a full-scale cyber war?

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:15:15 GMT

The whole world is talking about WikiLeaks, and the drama has reached its peak with the arrest of Julian Assange. The leaked diplomatic documents are obviously a major thing, something that could change the world as we know it. The main battleground of this conflict is cyberspace, where troops of different armies are already fully ready for combat. WikiLeaks.org is currently offline, being a constant target of attacks of all sorts. But the civil initiative is striking back, putting hundreds of mirrors online (even Slovenia has one!), and hacking the bank that closed Julian's account. Even the good boy Twitter is behaving weirdly, denying accusations of censoring #wikileaks as trending topic.

We've seen similar cyber battles before. The Anonymous (who are also defending WikiLeaks) had their fun with the Church of Scientology and Google had its showdown with China. But WikiLeaks is a probably a few levels higher. I always said that internet could be the main tool of the next revolutions, because information travels really fast and it's almost impossible to prevent it from spreading once it's out. But the problem with the Wikileaks situation is that it may be too much for our society to handle. Diplomacy was exposed, which means the current political situation, already in a weak equilibrium because of the upcoming shift in global power, will struggle to digest the information presented by WikiLeaks. And there's more to come.

All of this is probably history in the making, because we have never seen an event of this sort going so mainstream. And while we wondered if the blind woman's prophecy about World War 3 starting in November 2010 was about the Koreas, we might have missed the point. This could be the start of a civil revolution or even a real war, in which governments would surely have problems identifying hackers and double agents inside their ranks. I have mixed feeling about it myself, it's simply too overwhelming. But the general reaction of people, now matter how dangerous and foolish the revelation may be, clearly shows disappointment and lack of belief in the current "democratic" system. Are you ready for a new world?

Apple has enough money to buy Slovenia's entire yearly production

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:00:34 GMT

Apple is currently hot like a chili pepper. Its products are well accepted, their sales and revenues are growing, and their stocks are going sky-high. A few months ago Apple even managed to dethrone Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world and ~~second~~ third largest according to market capitalization (behind Exxon and PetroChina). Their yearly revenues are currently around $65 billion, which is a lot, and that figure is even more interesting if put into perspective.

Slovenia is a small country in Europe. It has around 2 million inhabitants who almost manage to live in peace. Its GDP in 2009 was around $24k per capita or $49b in total. We are so small that our neighbors are making jokes about it, but we are still a proud nation of capable people, who try hard to make it. Speaking of small - nowadays it's not that unusual for large corporations to have bigger revenues than a small country's GDP, but if a company has more money than a country's GDP, well, that's simply ridiculous. But Apple now sits on more than $50 billion (11 billion in cash + 14 billion in short-term marketable securities + 25 billion in long-term marketable securities), which means that it's actually capable of buying the whole yearly gross domestic product of Slovenia.

Apple obviously won't do that, but eventually it will have to do something. There are speculations about them wanting to buy Facebook (estimated value 33 billion), focusing on mobile payments, and many others. It will be interesting to see what happens, but I'm almost sure Steve will do the right thing. The company is very healthy, the demand is high, so it should be a piece of cake. Just take a look at these interesting facts or the figures below, which display the case of Apple vs. Slovenia. I guess we truly are small.

	Apple	Slovenia
Full name	Apple Inc.	Republic of Slovenia
Established	1976	1991
Capital	Cuppertino	Ljubljana
Government	~~Monarchy~~ Empire	Parliamentary republic
Leader	Steve Jobs	Danilo Türk
Population	49,400 (2010)	2,054,199 (2009)
GDP	$65.225 billion (2010)	$49.217 billion (2009)
GDP per capita	$1.320 million (2010)	$24,417 (2009)

Source: Wikipedia, Apple

Many colors and identities of different brands with the same name: Neolab

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:43:10 GMT

The company I work for is called Neolab. It's a name we obviously share with many other companies from all over the world, producing a little global identity crisis. We were aware of that fact when we picked the name, but nowadays it's becoming almost impossible to find a unique name for a brand. A few years later, I went on a quest to find as many Neolabs as possible online and stumbled upon 21 of them. While I was at it, I also took my time to try to find out which industries these companies are from and to understand why other people chose this brand. This post will bring you a diversified collection of different "Neolab" logos, so similar in name, but yet so different in corporate identity and design.

In the case of Neolab Slovenia, my partners and I decided to go for the name "Neolab" because we wanted something that would represent and communicate our focus on Research and Development (the Lab part) which has to be in tune with all the newest technologies available (the Neo part). Neo-Lab. Others were probably thinking in a similar way, and the interesting fact is that these "New Laboratories" don't come from many different industries. As the name already suggests, all Neolabs that exist (online) today focus on knowledge intensive fields.

Medical

"Neolab" is obviously a name which people instinctively connect with medical industries, and most of the Neolabs I was able to find are working on that field:

Neolab Chile
Industry: Clinic
URL: http://www.neolab.cl/
Design: 3 points

Neolab Germany
Industry: Medical Equipment
URL: http://www.neolab.de/
Design: 4 points

Neolab India
Industry: Medical Equipment
Design: 3 points

Neolab Russia
Industry: Medical Equipement
URL: http://neolab.ru/
Design: 2 points

Neolab Serbia
Industry: Clinic
URL: http://neolab.co.rs/
Design: 4 points

Neolab Switzerland
Industry: Medical Equipment
URL: http://neolab.ch/
Design: 5 points

Neolab Ukraine
Industry: Clinic
URL: http://neolab.kiev.ua/
Design: 6 points

Neolab United States
Industry: Medical Supplies
URL: http://www.neolab.com/
Design: 4 points

Average score for Medical: 3.9

Pharmaceutics & Biotechnology

The other similar industry the name "Neolab" is well suited for is definitely Pharmaceutical. Here are some of them:

Neolab Argentina
Industry: Biotechnology
URL: http://www.neolab.com.ar/
Design: 5 points

Neolab Canada
Industry: Pharmaceuticals
URL: http://www.neolab.ca/
Design: 3 points

Neolab Peru
Industry: Pharmaceuticals
URL: http://www.neolabperu.com/
Design: 6 points

Neolab United Kingdom
Industry: Pharmaceuticals
Design: 1 point

Average score for Pharmaceutics & Microbiology: 3.8

Marketing, Web and Design

The connection between Marketing, Web and Design is usually hard to distinguish, and the following Neolabs are focused on some or all of those fields:

Neolab Brazil
Industry: Web & Design
URL: http://www.neolab.com.br/
Design: 5 points

Neolab Denmark
Industry: Design
URL: http://neolab.dk/
Design: 4 points

Neolab Italy
Industry: Design
URL: http://www.neolab.it/
Design: 9 points

Neolab Japan
Industry: Web & Design
URL: http://www.neolab.co.jp/
Design: 8 points

Neolab Korea
Industry: Web & Design
URL: http://www.neolab.kr/
Design: 7 points

Neolab Norway
Industry: Advertising
URL: http://www.neolab.no/
Design: 8 points

Average score for Marketing & Design: 6.8

Technology & IT

IT companies also often see themselves as laboratories and here are a few of them, including our Neolab:

Neolab France
Industry: IT
URL: http://neolab-systems.com/
Design: 6 points

Neolab Poland
Industry: IT
URL: http://www.neolab.pl/
Design: 4 points

Neolab Slovenia
Industry: Web & IT
URL: http://www.neolab.si/
Design: 10 points

Average score for IT: 6.7

Other

The special case from Thailand is working on construction projects.

Neolab Thailand
Industry: Construction
URL: http://www.neolab.co.th/
Design: 4 points

Average score for Other: 4

While I was putting the list together, I decided to quickly rate each one of them to see if there are any significant differences in the quality of logos and websites between different industries. This score was made on my personal opinion and not on any scientific methodology. You can see for yourselves that those Neolabs, working in Marketing, Web and Design have the best corporate identities. IT is close, but mostly because our design is so unique and won many awards last year. The Medical and Pharmaceutics follow miles behind, and their websites and logos already look a lot out of date. These industries are maturer and the companies older, and they probably take their competition to other fields (research, quality, professionals), without giving so much on their image and marketing, at least online.

Applying the same calculation to Neolabs from different continents, we can see that Europe scored the highest score (average 5.5), followed by Asia (average 4.8) and Americas (average 4.3).

Neolab - the name behind so many different companies, brands and identities. It's interesting to see how specific industries, people and cultures are able to portray the same simple name in so many unique ways. Some our good, some our bad, and really trying to be unbiased, I still think ours is the best, followed by Italy, Norway and Japan. Or am I just too blinded and you have a different favorite?

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

What's hot on the web - Part 5: Cool and funny webcomics

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:52:32 GMT

There are probably millions of different webcomics online today. A few of them actually made it to the mainstream, with a bit of help from the social media and the cyber community. If you examine the most popular ones, you can see that they actually have a lot in common. They are short and to the point, providing great and funny content within usually simplistic drawings, with a focus mostly on geeky topics. After all, this geeky community is probably the driving force behind the World Wide Web and if they like it, the comic has a great chance to succeed. This part of What's hot on the web will display some of my favorites and help you spend a bit of your valuable time doing useless things.

Amazing Superpowers

This comics has a great sense of humor, covering themes based mostly on weird situations and self irony, usually with a great twist at the end. It's up to you to decide if you'll laugh or cry.
URL: http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/

Cyanide and Happiness

Another very popular webcomic feeds on dark humor, often focusing on offensive topics some could describe as insulting and tasteless. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop it from being one of the most well known and most praised by the cyber community and the social media.
URL: http://www.explosm.net/comics/

Dilbert

One of the most successful online and offline comics is Dilbert, a satyric office humor comic that made it everywhere – books, merchandise, cartoons, video game, etc. If you don't mind it being a bit commercial and if you work in an office, you'll probably be amused by witty portraits of real life situations.
URL: http://www.dilbert.com/

Penny Arcade

Focusing mostly on geeky themes, such as video games and technology, this comic has also gotten its fair share of fans on the web. Because of its success, the authors were able to make other projects connected with it, also because Penny Arcade is supposed to be the first gaming oriented comic.
URL: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

A bit twisted and dark, this comic mocks practically everything it can get its hands on, specially religion. A good and light reading if you don't have problems with that sort of things.
URL: http://www.smbc-comics.com/

The Perry Bible Fellowship

This amazing comic sadly stopped coming out back in 2008. Before that it was one of the most popular around, appearing also in newspapers and books. Because of it's great surreal humor and experimentation with different drawing techniques it definitely still deserves a mention.
URL: http://pbfcomics.com/

White Ninja

With a plot set around weird and funny everyday experiences of white ninja and more than 1,000 different parts already written, White ninja became an online success. Short and simple stories provide great casual reading.
URL: http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/comics.shtml

XKCD

This famous stick man is one of the most popular online comics, focusing mostly on geeky topics, such as computer sciences and mathematics. This webcomic became so popular that the author got a book deal in 2009. Yes, with a stick man.
URL: http://www.xkcd.com/

local: Paradise Misplaced

Written and drawn by one of Slovenia's most talented comic artists Izar Lunaček, this emerging webcomic puts Adam, Eve, God and other biblical characters in Eden, doing crazy things and getting acquainted with different sins. As the authors puts it, 'Every sin is original', so why shouldn't it also be funny.
URL: http://www.paradisemisplaced.si/

Hope you enjoyed this part's selection and had fun browsing the mentioned sites. These comics and artists can truly make your day, so they are worth checking out. Face it - comics are no longer considered to be just for geeks and children, so you might as well embrace them without having a guilty conscience.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

Slovenian grocers going for Web 2.0 design

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:12:48 GMT

It’s obvious that Slovenian grocers are using TV as their main advertising medium, the same as many others. Nothing wrong with that. Their commercials are typical for their industry, emphasizing actual promotions and discounts and going for direct sales mostly. Nothing wrong with that too. They finish off with their logo on the screen, so they do a bit of branding too. Reasonable, you have to use all marketing approaches. But wait a minute, why do their logos look Web 2.0?

Using a reflection under a logo, picture or icon was started by the king of design, Apple, and was later on embraced by the Web 2.0 architects and designers. Here is an overview of history of Web 2.0 design, from the times we didn't even know what Web 2.0 was. Today, this stylish feature can be seen anywhere and is already becoming a cliché, but who am I to tell...

After I started being more observant, I noticed that half of the commercials on Slovenian television are using some sorts of reflections, for which we don’t know if they supposedly communicate modern and web (2.0) approaches or are they used just for aesthetic reasons. So much for their creativity anyways. But there is something important they forgot – Web 2.0 is not design, Web 2.0 is a concept.

In our case, the two grocers mentioned are Mercator and Tuš who, interesting enough, don't use the same Web 2.0 logos on their websites. Mercator is ahead though, they have a Facebook page and an active Twitter account, while Tuš failed to recognize new types of media and new Web 2.0 approaches for marketing (and their web site looks like it's from 1995).

I wasn't able to find these advertisements online, so I had to do it old school - photographing the television. The quality is miserable, but enough to prove my point. Looks like Web 2.0 design is so in that it's already out.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

Neolab in 2009

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:38:32 GMT

2009 was a hard year for everybody, specially for start-ups such as Neolab. Greed and wrong decisions of global financial institutions and their leaders turned the world upside down. Luckily we were able to survive, to stand tall against all the challenges that await for us next year. Projects have been confirmed, so the biggest issue that we face now is consolidating our inner organization and finishing our software framework that we put so much time and energy into.

A few weeks ago, Neolab celebrated it’s second birthday. The first two years are supposedly decisive for the survival of start-ups, so if this unfriendly situation won’t last too long, looks like we’ll make it. To sum it up: for us, 2008 was the year of checking out the scene, where we were observing if it’s possible to make it on our own. The second year, 2009, was the year of marketing, where we presented ourselves to broader audience.

Our presentation was quite successful. After a few years of building and optimizing our design and marketing concept with IlovarStritar, we finally launched our web page, a thing we are very proud of. Until this post we (they) have already received two awards for Neolab’s broader corporate identity, Brumen award and Taiwan international award. This confirmed we made the right decision by doing something special with our image.

The whole story of our design identity is built around a fictional ecosystem of pixelized mutant animals, representing connectivity of people, organizations and processes using information technology. Different animals are used for different documents and people so the whole concept is scalable, artistic, interesting and fun. If you like, you can check out the whole showcase on the IlovarStritar website.

We are becoming one of the biggest slovenian experts in IT. In april we received an award on the Slovenian IT conference for best paper on the subject of IT 2.0. If that wasn’t enough, we were also named the Emerging web agency of 2009 on Slovenia's biggest web authority, Netko. The barriers between organization, marketing, IT and web are obviously getting thinner and thinner, and Neolab stands strong right in the middle of it.

We may look good on the outside, but we are also healthy on the inside. At this point we employ six people, which actually brought a bit of organizational confusion. By adopting stronger approaches in project management, things are turning for the better. Besides, our big investment into our framework, which now stands stable, scalable and promising, will soon be complete, so we are more than ready for all the projects that are coming upon us.

Hopefully this year will be more welcoming. As we and our services mature, new challenges for our clients, suppliers, partners, supporters and ourselves are on the horizon, so you better be ready for all the things we have in store. To a successful 2010!

Made in Slovenia

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:57:42 GMT

Friends tell me I am usually too naive and romantic, but sometimes I just can't help myself being an optimist. Even though Slovenia is one of the most taxed nations in the world, I still envision Slovenia as an emerging country with one of the highest potentials around. Breakthroughs are possible, f.i. Ireland became one of the most successful countries in the EU (second highest GDP in EU!) even though their economic model was hit really hard by the recession. I'm sure Slovenia will do even better when her time comes, so be ready.

Perhaps the greatest competitive advantage of Slovenia is insight, intuition and understanding others. It started with Yugoslavia, probably the only country in the world fully embracing three major religions (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim). Sadly, that story ended in bloodshed, but some positive heritage remains. With great geographic location, bordering Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy, all the major cultures of Europe are influencing Slovenians. By being a post socialistic country with not too exploited capitalism adoption, Slovenia was the perfect playground for new era negotiations between Bush and Putin. Neutral ground between north and south, east and west, understanding motives and interests of many players, small enough not to be a threat.

Cultural diversity and high information flow made some Slovenians outstanding, and the Adriatic see being the window to Europe probably helped too. Quite a few companies were able to produce global success stories, specializing in high-tech products and services, such as IT, technology, aeronautics and alternative energies (more on cool Slovenian brands some other post). Not bad for a country the size of a large city, taxed to the maximum.

Taxes. They work really contra productive, but they're caused by our greatest flaw - our size. 2 million citizens. Everybody knows everybody and projects become political way too soon. Another thing that happens is that the government becomes the only buyer big enough to afford things. Our startup Neolab is developing innovative IT solutions and trying to make it abroad, with some success. Because I understand that building the Slovenia brand plays a really important part in achieving this, I'm blogging about it and doing everything in my power to promote Slovenia (and Neolab, I admit...). Hopefully others will follow and "Made in Slovenia" will have higher value soon. I think it deserves it and most of us probably need it.

Exporting high value-added specialized products and services is what we do best and what we will hopefully be able to continue on a larger scale. This is the strategy Slovenia has to keep and support. Our scientists are amongst the best in the world and can make innovative, creative, useful and modern goods of the highest quality for a fair price. Besides, people here are cool, most of them are faithful, fair, loyal and unconflicting. Come see for yourself, nice people, tasty wine, good beer and beautiful nature will do you well.

The world of the globalized tomorrow will be moderated by the neutral and objective. This is Slovenia's hidden expertise that still has to be recognized, even though we've already been doing it for ages. And because we are too naive, we won't even take advantage of it. We will rather work hard and wait for the indirect, long term benefits. It may sound irrational, but I fully support that approach.

My inspiration for this post is an online civil initiative about development and future of our country that's actual right now by taking full advantage of Web 2.0 (Facebook, Twitter, Noovo, LinkedIn). Thumbs up for that, but we will probably need more than just good ideas. This time my contribution goes for motivation and realization that we have the potential to make it big if we work together and cooperate. Made in Slovenia.

Slovenia vs. Slovakia - a (football) match made in heaven

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:57:58 GMT

Slovenia and Slovakia share a common problem. They are both victims of identity theft, because they, well, they look the same. They have a similar name, they have a similar national flag, they even have a similar post socialistic "my previous country is now ten countries" story. Luckily, they also share a similar newly appointed capitalistic EU success. Slovenia and Slovakia are the first two transitional countries to enter the European monetary union. We did it two years before. And we won the football match yesterday.

As a part of qualifications for the world cup 2010, a football match happened in Bratislava, Slovakia, between Slovenia and Slovakia. Some foreigners who were watching it, probably thought "what's wrong with these guys, why is a country competing against itself?". Because it's two countries, you idiot. Slovenia, Slovakia, don't you see the difference between an "n" and a "k"? Well, no. The truth is, that's understandable, Slovenia and Slovakia look the same. Or is it Slovekia and Slovania?

George W. Bush confused Slovenia and Slovakia once. Other great performances include playing the wrong anthem on political and sport events. Awkward and embarassing indeed.

The story of a country, trying not to be another country, is a bit sad. It influences people, identity and patriotism. Almost everybody I know feels this itch in the back of our country's recognition and branding in the global society. But it's too late (and not acceptable) to change the name or at least the national flag after so many years. Therefore we have nothing left but to make the most out of it. I wonder how Slovaks feel about it.

This unique situation could actually become a competitive advantage for both countries. Hey, we are the only two countries in the world that look the same. Who cares about the other 200 countries, they actually resemble each other even more - none of them have another country that's the same as theirs. Perhaps we are even some lost cousins that went separate ways sometime in history and will be reunited one day as the first same double country in Europe. Infinite possibilities.

After these thoughts I feel better and a bit proud to be a part of this funny situation. Go Slovakia (as long as it's not football)!

What's hot on the web - Part 3: A peek into obscurity

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:39:25 GMT

You know the drill. The world wide web is a beautiful thing filled with cool and funny stuff. A lot of that stuff gets unnoticed by most of the people, so consolidations are needed. I like weird and unexplainably attractive things, things that are differently funny and geeky. Because we've already went through the classic ones, this part of the series is a bit more obscure. Presenting What's hot on the web, part 3.

The Techno Viking

The Techno Viking is supposedly the only guy who could kill Chuck Norris. The story is happening on an open air party where this guy tries to pickpocket a visitor. Little does he know that around the block the Techno Viking is lurking. Once he get into his element, the dominance doesn't end until the end of the movie.

All your base are belong to us

This one is based on a lousy translation of a video game. The cyber community and gamers found this so hillarious that somebody actually made a song out of it, video included. All your base are belong to us!

local: reporter Andrej Stare drunk

The legend has it that all Slovenian TV reporters are a bit drunkards, because their job demands spending a lot of free time while on the set. One the funniest is a sports reporter Andrej Stare, who magnificently commented on a hockey match between Slovenia and Croatia. Totally drunk, of course.

Hope you had a good laugh. But beware, you don't want to piss off the Techno Viking.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

You should know about Dual

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:46:41 GMT

Two people are a pair and a pair deserves special treatment. Three or more people are a pack and a pack deserves special treatment. Two people act quite homogenic, as it is a natural form of a (sexual) pair who raises offspring and lives life together. Usually, one is dominant, but in some cases, harmony is possible too. When you add the third person, the story changes completely. Politics arise and people start influencing and manipulating each other, both consciously and subconsciously. I'm actually quite neutral on that, because it's probably the only possible way of human interaction. Many proverbs on the subject have been written and you have to admit it's one of the most interesting things going on.

Somewhere in Europe there is a small country called Slovenia. Most of the people don't even know it's there, but those who are a part of it, love it's nature, culture and people. Slovenians aren't obsessed with generals and war heroes, they rather worship their artists, writers and poets. For a country with 2 million people, that's not so hard to understand. Slovene language was only thing that held them together through different times, countries and governments. I think Slovene is beautiful and I'm very proud it's one of the few spoken languages left that still uses dual in grammar.

Dual (as opposed to singular and plural) has been used in different variations by many languages throughout the history, such as Greek, Hebrew and ancient Celtic and Germanic languages. It's still in use in some modern languages, f.i. Scottish Gaelic dialects, Welsh, Breton, but fully functioning as a paradigmatic category only in Sorbian and Slovene. That means that Slovene doesn't use dual only for shaping nouns, it uses dual for forming verbs too.

If you say "we went somewhere" in Slovene, you explicitly tell how many people were involved, because you use a different form of both "we" and "went" for dual and plural. English uses the same verb form for singular too (most cases), and the number can be distinguished either from the noun (using I or we) or with additional explanation. There is no grammatical difference between two or more, only singular and plural exist.

When I first started thinking about this phenomenon, I didn't have an opinion about it, dual seemed natural for me, even though not using dual appears less complicated. As I've grown mature and started noticing life, people and behavior, I also started appreciating dual. Today, I'm a fan.

I like to think Slovene uses dual because of politics. So you can easily express if there was politics involved or not without saying how many people were actually there. The truth is that's probably not the case, but it doesn't matter anyway. My only hope is that we will be able to keep this precious speciality as long as possible in this globalized society where English is the only way to go. Or is it Chinese?

What's hot on the web - Part 2: The classics

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:03:20 GMT

Wheee, the second part of the very cool and funny series What's hot on the web. This time I bring you three more viral things from the beatiful World Wide Web. Hopefully there is enough information in the post to get you up and running, in case you would like to see more.

Literal Versions

We have already noticed that a lot of people have too much time. Luckily a few of those people actually found something useful to do, and so came literal versions or literal music videos. Literal versions are edited versions of music videos where lyrics talk about what's going in the video. There are quite a few of them, but in my oppinion, Total eclipse of the heart is the best one.

Demotivators

Motivational posters are originally intended for schools and offices and work with a motivational punchline that helps people through the day. Well, the cyber community wouldn't be normal if it didn't abuse that to the maximum, thus demotivational posters were constructed. You can notice them by a picture with a thick black border, a punchline and an explanation under it. They are funny, cool and most importantly, there's thousands around the web.

local: Perpetuum Jazzile doing Africa

Perpetuum Jazzile is a Slovenian vocal band that is getting global publicity these days. One of the reasons is their interpretation of Toto's classic hit, Africa. It is just inspiring and awesome, with more than 5 million views already.

Hope you enjoyed the selection.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

What's hot on the web - Part 1: Know your meme

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:54:12 GMT

I am one of those geeky people who are always up to date with what's going on on the web. I surf a lot of recommendation sites, blogs, cool portals, etc. and collect useless knowledge. You could say I am one curious dude. Therefore I often get asked by friends about What's hot on the web.

Well people, there's a lot going on. A lot of bizzare and freaky stuff, online mocking between Diggers and Redditors, narwhal worshipping and girls playing with cups. Some are made epic, some are too boring to make it. The cyber community is making some things viral, and yes, Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird. Too bad that is so last decade...

Here is the first part of hopefully a series of cool internet memes I stumbled upon. Not actually so new, but still funny stuff to see.

Rickroll

It looks like Rick Astley's Never gonna give you up became one of the most popular music videos on the web. Why? Because it became the most important part of a really popular prank, called rickroll. The way it works is that you send somebody a link to a cool video, which turns out to be a really cheesy 80's music video. Backuped by radio, television, basketball games and the geek community, Rick Astley almost got the Best Act Ever award on MTV Awards. He likes it, but hopes his daughter won't get embarrased.

Btw, check out this hot video of drunk girls having a drinking contest.

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a plane is probably the most web hyped movie of all time. Even before it was shooted, there were already thousand of blogs, web pages and articles written about the movie. It wasn's a real success, but concerning it was a low budget film, did pretty good. The reason for it's buzz was mostly because of the expectation of main line in the movie, done by the cult actor Samuel L. Jackson. Pretty cool.

local: the Arsonist (Požigalec)

This is a local slovenian internet phenomenon. Some guys were supposed to make a citizen's arrest on an suspected arsonist and were later on interviewed by the news. Besides having a funny southern accent, the story begins with the guy explaining to the news that he tried to steal some guy's bike and noticed that he had a gasoline can. Therefore he got the idea he was the arsonist that did some fires in the area. The funniest thing about it is that he asked the guy "Why do you need a bag if bought a bike?". Well, the thing got so viral that some guys made a reconstruction of the story, a music video and also an online merchandise store. Pretty funny (and weird) stuff indeed.

Stay tuned for the next part of What's hot on the web.

Check out the complete What's hot on the web series.

Emoticons - a new form of art?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:12:13 GMT

Emoticons are becoming quite a serious form of enriching (web) communication, as picture can tell a thousand words. The truth is that a word can tell a thousand pictures, at least when emoticons and other "digital" forms of speaking are concerned. The way of using short and to-the-point statements, such as short messages, tweets and emoticons, is here to stay. Congratulating the internet, welcoming emoticons. \o/

I've heard about a trend between urban artists to make sketches using just one line. I think emoticons are acting upon a similar behaviour, as twenty years ago nobody could imagine what a few characters could portray. Design is about keeping it simple and clean. And you can't get much cleaner than using letters, numbers and other basic characters.

An interesting "artistic" application of this phenomena was designed for an advertisement for a weight loss programme. I don't like the overall look, but still it is a creative way of bringing modern techniques into classic advertising. Simple shape, a meaningful story. And the characters look like design, even though they are really just plain simple characters with ordinary typeface.

I can't imagine where this trend will end. I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the future newspapers, poetry and prose will get more emoticonal, as this approach is very simple for inserting drama-type essence into non-drama based art. Our youth is totally wired, will they wire the real world too as their time comes?