Hi there, I'm Richard Kastelein - A former 'grottie yottie' who spent his younger years living aboard small sailboats down Caribbean way... Currently a bona-fide land mammal planted in the Netherlands and working as a social TV and Media strategist with a number of startups in Groningen, London, NY, and Brussels.. Read more here.
4grandma2
Atlantic Free Press

Expathos Tweets from 2010-08-22 to 2010-08-28

  • It's gone over huge in Brazil's oddball but huge market – which is interesting, as the Brazilians are also strangely f…http://lnkd.in/Dqpvxr 11:52:28, 2010-08-24
  • I had the opportunity to view this highly innovative Dutch Companies' fine work when visiting Kjeld Beijer at the Lowl…http://lnkd.in/6if7py 12:59:34, 2010-08-24
  • Back in Groningen, working on some cool new stuff for WTS that landed on my desk! 13:44:27, 2010-08-24
  • #IBC10 “How Smart Is Your TV?” Metrological and Dutch Partners to Unveil Internet Television Experience at IBC 2010 http://bit.ly/akkLLC 13:57:40, 2010-08-24
  • And the report suggests that the younger age groups reveal where there may be the greatest synergy between social netw…http://lnkd.in/GtvsNY 07:19:26, 2010-08-26
  • Google has recently met with officials of TV networks including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to tease them into buying into G…http://lnkd.in/iKhCMT 16:29:32, 2010-08-26
  • The conclusion is, According to UK research from YouGov commissioned by social media agency Diffusion, that a majority…http://lnkd.in/2hk3AB 09:39:39, 2010-08-27
  • @twitfeest050 ik kom ook naar de #050Aftertweet 15:54:13, 2010-08-27
  • Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top flat-screen TV maker, said Friday it will hold a TV developer conference in t…http://lnkd.in/YUD-AY 07:41:08, 2010-08-28

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 28 August 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-08-15 to 2010-08-21

  • Posts from Agora Media Group Innovation Blog for 08/16/2010 – http://eepurl.com/P-hD 10:12:02, 2010-08-16
  • Design-House Notion have pieced together a puzzle that they believe is the next wave in Social TV. The Meta Mirror is …http://lnkd.in/ESs6_a 22:46:56, 2010-08-16
  • TV Guide Digital, with over 1.3 million iPhone app installations, announced today that its TV Guide App for iPad, spon…http://lnkd.in/32DUNM 14:29:50, 2010-08-20

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 21 August 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-08-08 to 2010-08-14

  • Sailing near Bowen island! – http://moby.to/skmidi 01:38:58, 2010-08-09
  • Posts from Agora Media Group Innovation Blog for 08/09/2010 – http://eepurl.com/N8J5 10:10:43, 2010-08-09
  • ReadWriteWeb has written on the rise of Event-based social networks (EBSNs) and we related EBSNs to the diffusion of S…http://lnkd.in/Rfy2Hu 20:06:03, 2010-08-11
  • Sofanatics’ “You'll Never Watch Alone” – Event-based Social TV – Interview with CEO Toni Laturi http://shar.es/00HkJ 21:59:48, 2010-08-11
  • Samsung has kicked off its Free the TV Challenge to find the most innovative applications for IPTVs, Blu-ray players a…http://lnkd.in/q6BMKd 22:34:15, 2010-08-11
  • The team at Relay is planning to tackle connected TV but for now – it'll only be available on iPhone, iPad, Android an…http://lnkd.in/YJ_8eP 20:53:16, 2010-08-12
  • Popular women’s network, WE tv (www.WEtv.com), and Miso, (www. gomiso.com) an interactive social media platform dedica…http://lnkd.in/b3NY4Y 20:55:20, 2010-08-12
  • by Paul Johnson

    Virgin Media, the largest cable TV operator in the UK has entered the dual screen Social TV market, b…http://lnkd.in/DNC8vq 20:24:14, 2010-08-13

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 14 August 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-08-01 to 2010-08-07

  • Posts from Agora Media Group Innovation Blog for 08/02/2010 – http://eepurl.com/MCR7 10:10:39, 2010-08-02
  • With 45M internet-ready TVs shipping this year, there’s a minor land rush in process adapting the building blocks for …http://lnkd.in/jcAbjT 06:43:40, 2010-08-04
  • Some interesting stats on Internet-Enabled TVs from a new iSuppli survey published on July 28 has shown that Connected…http://lnkd.in/CVPGb2 07:34:42, 2010-08-04
  • Getting ready to take the kids to Vancouver's awesome Chinatown – planned lunch at Hans… for some yummy potstickers. Been AGES since I ha… 20:07:21, 2010-08-04
  • But the question is… how can Tunerfish further diffuse Social TV due to television becoming less and less linear, as…http://lnkd.in/Pnjinx 21:07:51, 2010-08-05
  • Clicker has announced that they are going social with Clicker Social. The innovative TV search engine, was featured at…http://lnkd.in/xtth8Y 21:07:36, 2010-08-06

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 07 August 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-07-18 to 2010-07-24

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 24 July 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-07-11 to 2010-07-17

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 17 July 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-07-04 to 2010-07-10

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 10 July 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-06-27 to 2010-07-03

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 03 July 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Expathos Tweets from 2010-06-20 to 2010-06-26

Tags: Connected TV, convergent media, Smart TV, Social TV, TV Apps, TV Widgets, Tweets, Twitter, www.appmarket.tv

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Posted on 26 June 2010 by admin Comments: 0
Category: Twitters

Social TV — Convergence is Coming

(Originally published at Atlantic Free Press)

by Richard G. Kastelein

If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until Social TV hits your screens.

And it’s not as far away as you think — not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. I recently attended the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, which bills itself as ’The content creation management delivery experience’. IBC2008 attracted 49,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries. This year is expected to be bigger. Last year, I was part of a team exhibiting at MIPTV in Cannes, and was expecting something a bit similar… but this was almost all about hardware and software and less about the actual formats and programs. However, this was not a disappointment. For embedded in the show there were some jewels… which have profoundly altered my view of Social Media, the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.

One diamond-in-the-rough was Israeli-based Orca Interactive (link), who was pitching their Social TV product, which was still in Proof of Concept (POC) and this was their first showing to the general public. Orca specializes in IPTV middleware and applications. But they are aggressively moving into social TV. I spoke to CTO Ofer Weintraub (Ph.D.) on their strategy and the nuts and bolts of the technology on offer.

“This is truly social TV — there is nobody on the market with similar offerings,” said Weintraub. He added there is an SDK (Software Development Kit) available now for select partners, but they certainly would not rule out an open API in the future.

And there is tight integration at the database level with website Trustedopinion.com. I discussed the integration with TO founder and CEO Shahar Smirin — whose site topped a million users recently.

“It’s a natural fit,” said Smirin, who then went on to show his web product and how he’s built a viral invite and social ’consolidation’ framework focussed on opinion where one can pile everyone (all your friends, imported/invited) from most major social media sites and really focus on what your friends think about entertainment (mainly movies and theatre for now).

There is synergy between Orca and TO, but let’s now look at Orca. And why this marriage could take social media truly to the masses via IPTV.

One thing to note… Orca Interactive is owned by France Telecom and the 2008 M&A has positioned this duo to take Social TV to a mass global audience. The acquisition last year means that they are well positioned near the ear of one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and proprietor of the multinational Orange brand. Orange has a base of almost 200 million customers in 30 countries.

There’s nothing overly extraordinary in the makeup of the product — it’s nothing that Internet social media buffs have not seen before. But for TV users, this is going to revolutionize the way they watch TV… from being a passive, solitary, experience into an active, community one.

Here below, you can see recommendations from your friends on a particular movie or program. You can see related VOD products. You can rate it yourself, you can recommend it to a friend, you can see further information and you can send it as a gift to another person (purchased shows are good for 48 hours).

Recommendations_drill_down_friends.png

Here you can see your friends’ profiles, chat with them, send them a gift, see their recommends or send them a message.

Friends_drill_down_message.png

Here you can send a gift to one or more friends.

Recommendations_drill_down_send_gift.png

And remember, this will all be integrated with your monthly billing. There will be no need for pulling out a credit card and security issues, there will be no need for digging deep to remember your Paypal password. No, the bill arrives like any other or is likely debited from your bank account automatically these days.

One can also set their mood — and then recommendations will be laid out according to complex algorithms and data mining based on your friends and your own data and viewing habits.
As Facebook revolutionized the way advertisers can niche-target their online demographics, Social TV will profoundly change the ad agencies and marketing departments will offer their wares in the television realm. Neilson ratings seem vague, less targetable and will likely become obsolete in TV 2.0.

Equally as interesting, but taking a different tack, is another gem called NDS (link), partially owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which has a reach to over 107 million pay-TV subscribers worldwide. Their latest product, Social TV was also in POC stage and looks a lot more like ’widgetized’ TV rather than a singular network.

NDS1.jpg

Their model is quite different, but also appealing and unique for a number of reasons. One being it lends itself more to an iPhone app store scenario, with plans for an open API, which positions it well for social media developers and long tail monetization of the social TV landscape. But monetization or not will be decided by the operators not NDS. It also has impeccable design with a beautiful interface.

NDS2.jpg

Obtaining details was a bit sketchy due to their PR person being in meetings and there was, understandably, some hesitancy in getting anyone to go on the record.

However, one of the demo managers did talk to me about some interesting API integration potential with Flickr for instance. If you see something interesting on TV you can be simply one click away from viewing images of that place, object or person. Conceivably the same could be done with the Youtube API in the video space or even Lastfm for music for that matter.

Social networking is also alive and well on Verizon’s FiOS TV and new features are being added such as Facebook and Twitter Widgets.  The new Widget Bazaar applications marketplace is located within FiOS TV’s Interactive Media Guide.

Verizon has worked with social media innovators Facebook Connect, Twitter, ESPN, Veoh, blip.tv, and Dailymotion to create a converged Internet-to-television experience that lets FiOS TV subscribers connect with others while watching TV, plus search and view a variety of online, personal PC-based videos on their television screens. Verizon also plans an open development platform (SDK) to permit developers to write interactive FiOS TV applications that will be available through the Widget Bazaar.

Customers are saying they love the new “social TV” Widgets, but they want more.  They want to send Tweets, not just look at them.  They want to create their own unique Facebook status messages.

According to Shawn Strickland, vice president, marketing for Verizon Telecom, Verizon is working with some popular companies on the Web to create the foundation for a high-quality, engaging Internet-to-TV experience.

A recent report by The Nielsen Company found that there are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to social media sites. Also, the number of American users frequenting online video destinations has also increased by 339 percent since 2003.

Subscribers can Tweet about the TV show they are watching or search and follow their friends’ Tweets. Viewers can also update their Facebook status with their own messages. All of this is simply done via the FiOS TV remote control and an onscreen keyboard.

A Belgian company called Zappware also launched social networking features for its “iView Core” services suite at IBC09. And they had a demo showing how the add-on allows the viewer to connect with friends and family to:

  • see what they are watching on their TVs
  • exchange favourite lists of TV programmes and VOD movies
  • recommend TV programmes or VOD movies to one another
  • send VOD movie gifts to their friends
  • lock their TV screens onto one another and watch the same content

Koen Swings, CTO & Managing Partner Zappware:

“Social networking has been a buzz word in the past few years, in particular on the internet. With these extensions to our EPG, VOD and PVR products, we now extend social networking from the PC domain to the TV domain, because we are convinced that there is no better environment for sharing TV experiences than the TV itself. In a world, in which people are continuously seeking to connect and in which consumers are willing to embrace new technologies that allow them to connect better and more often, these social networking features on TV will be highly appreciated by viewers. Operators that include these features in their iDTV offering, will be able to offer their subscribers a cross-platform social networking experience, hence adding value to their triple or quadruple play offer and resulting in increased subscriber loyalty.”

So at the end of the day, this is a win, win, win for all — TV stations get better data on their viewers and offer convergence with web ideas and sites, viewers get interactive community-oriented, social television and can make interesting viewing choices based on mood and network of friends, web-based community and social media sites can make more headway into IPTV and broadcast TV, still the Tour de Force of media, and entrepreneurs and developers find a new medium to develop and monetize via new, open-source-philosophy-driven API and SDK environs.

Richard Kastelein, a social media strategist and publisher, is CEO of new startup, Agora Media Group LLC (link), a new creative and innovation agency based in London, UK. Kastelein has been building online communities for over a decade and is an Open Source evangelist. He’s an adept team player – a publisher, writer, photographer, marketing director, web developer and graphic designer with more than 20 years experience in the development and operation of newspapers, magazines, web media and marketing of multinational, companies in international settings.

Tags: Agora Media Group LLC, Amsterdam, API, bank account, Broadband, Cannes, CEO, converged Internet-to-television experience, CTO, CTO & Managing Partner, data mining, Digital television, Facebook, Facebook Inc, FiOS TV, founder and CEO, France Telecom, France Telecom S.A., innovation agency, Internet-to-TV experience, iPhone, IPTV, Koen Swings, LinkedIN, London, marketing, marketing director, Ofer Weintraub, online communities;, online demographics, Online social networking, photographer, proprietor, Richard G. Kastelein, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Shahar Smirin, Shawn Strickland, singular network, Social information processing, Social Media, social media buffs, social media developers, social media innovators, social media sites, social media strategist, social media users, Social network service, social networking, social networking experience, social networking features, Social TV, Technology_Internet, telecommunications operators, The Nielsen Company, The Nielsen Company BV, Twitter, United Kingdom, Verizon, Verizon Communications Inc., Verizon FiOS, Verizon Telecom, vice president, Video on demand, web developer, web developer and graphic designer, web ideas, web media, web product, writer, Youtube, YouTube Inc

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Posted on 15 September 2009 by Richard Comments: 0
Category: General, Moments in Vitalization, Social Media
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