New Media Picks Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 43

Here is a new basket full of new media delicacies for your Sharewood Picnic.

Once again I have gotten a great bunch of interesting new media tools, resources and pointers I have run into during my daily research and explorations. All these new media gems can enable and fuel anyone's ability to inform oneself and to communicate more effectively with others in new and innovative ways.

Photo credit: Ronen

Here is what I have found:

1. Online collaboration space integrates best groupware features, IM and file sharing while turning filing approach on its head


2. Web hub supporting mobiles and PC users allows for groups creation and easy content sharing service


3. Podcasting service to record video and audio online directly from your browser


4. Global, dynamic social listing service that allows members to find and sell items in multiple ways


5. Clearinghouse to broker your paid voice - or email-based services to the marketplace


6. Web-based multimedia toolbar enables any web page or blog post to receive, collect and archive multiple voice-based comments


7. Visual tag cloud generator


8. Web courier service allows to send physical packages by connecting you with independent traveling individuals willing to act as couriers


9. Natural language search engine


10. All-in-one presentation-to-podcast tool for the Mac

1. Foldera
   
   
   Foldera is the new way to organize and access your work and its related applications. By using Foldera, you invert the sorting and filing paradigm that happens daily on your computer. To make Foldera work you create a dedicated Activity Folder for each distinct project or activity that you have. Email, instant messaging, and all your other applications are now accessed from within this folder instead of their original disconnected and unstructured state and Foldera instantly sorts and files your sent and received email, instant message dialogs, tasks, documents, and calendar events into Activity Folders on a project by project basis while you work. This organizational structure also keeps everything in context; for example, all your email conversations and instant message dialogs stay right inside their assigned Activity Folder, so everything related to that project always stays together. Foldera provides effective document management for the individual user including file sharing with secure storage, version control and locking of individual docs and also integrates task management, a shared calendar, a contact manager. As a matter of fact Foldera captures each email, instant message, document, task or event as a unique digital object within its associated folder. The great thing is that all such objects can be easily reopened, shared, edited, copied, moved and saved at will.
   Foldera also supports alerts (for instant notifications of changes to selected documents or project folders) as well as comments and instant messaging too, by integrating its own Foldera's Instant Messenger capable of providing you immediate access to MSN Messenger, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), iChat, and Yahoo Messenger contacts, all from one interface and no matter on which type of computer or perating system you are working from. Foldera encrypts all data exchanges, provides 250 MB of free storage to all users and allows you to customize the branding of your login page. Free sign-up to Beta pre-release.
   http://www.foldera.com/





2. Netomat
   
   
   Phone to PC, PC to Phone, Phone to Phone, PC to PC - On mobile phones and the web, Netomat hub is a free service to easily create, get and share content with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Netomat hub allows mobile phone and PC users to easily share multiple content resources in a private virtual space. Netomat hub seamlessly integrates picture and text messaging with presence, trusted social networking, RSS syndication, digital photo storage and update alerts. On Netomat you can easily set up groups (hubs) of interest, accessible from any mobile phone or PC and in which members you have invited can immediately begin sharing, messaging, adding camera phone photos as much as they want. Hubs can be set to be public or private. Personal accounts can hold up to 50 MB of content. Netomat also supports RSS syndication and feed-sharing inside hubs as well as direct publication of hub content to specified blogs. Most browsers and popular mobole phines are supported. Free. (For mobile users, operator data charges apply.)
   www.netomat.net
3. Podomatic
   
   
   Podomatic is a new online podcasting service which allows you to record video and audio online directly from your browser as well as receiving in line calls from listeners wanting to leave specific voice comments. Podomatic also takes care of submitting your podcast feed to iTunes Yahoo! and to many of the other podcasting directories. Finally Podomatic provides you with listening statistics to your podcast episodes as well as 7.5 GB of monthly downloads (enough for a 30 mins. weekly show) and 250 MB of storage. Podomatic is free to use.
   http://www.podomatic.com/





4. Live Expo
   
   
   Microsoft Live Expo is a dynamic social listing service that allows members to find and sell items, discover information, and meet other parties in their geographical area. With Live Expo you have a global classified free listing service which allows you to post your listings either only to those you trust, like your buddies, co-workers and your fellow students, or, globally to all Live Expo visitors. Live Expo is well complemented by MSN Virtual Earth allowing satellite-precise pinpointing of locations and geo-areas you want to work on. On Live Expo you can post a free listing in less than a minute and can use instant messages to communicate quickly with other members.
   http://expo.live.com/





5. Ether
   
   
   If you want to sell voice-based advice over the phone or via email, there is now an additional and easy-way to get paid for it. Whether you're an accountant, a computer expert, a blogger, or a good gossiper, you can earn money selling what you say to others over the phone or through email. To do so, you need to sign up for your Ether Phone Number: 1-888-MY-ETHER with an 8-digit extension that is unique to YOU. Once done, you will set that number to forward calls to your actual phone number. It takes 2 minutes to set up and it's free. You also decide what your consulting work is worth: $75 an hour? $15 for 15 minutes? $30 per call? Whatever you like is doable. Ether will make sure that people who want your expert advice, pay first and then get access to your expertise. Ether can also control and protect your privacy. You simply set your preferred times for receiving calls and from then on your phone will never ring when you don't want it to. Ether automatically bills your customer credit cards and sends you your money via a direct deposit or a check while keeping a 15% commission is (10% for Beta sign-ups).
   http://www.ether.com/





6. Bar of voices
   
   
   Barofvoices is a new online service allowing anyone to speak their minds out in a way that is both vocal and accessible to everyone on the Web. You can call by phone or with Skype to give your opinion about any issue or content and leave your message for others to hear and comment on. Barofvoices makes use of a small multimedia player which needs to be inserted inside your site web pages where you want this functionality to be active. The mini-player allows everyone visiting that page to listen to and to record their own voices as comments to any article. You, as a web administrator of your site maintain a moderating system to delete or substitute unacceptable comments with an official recording explaining why certain comments needed to be censored. Free.
   http://www.barradevoces.com/
   





7. ZoomClouds
   
   
   Tag clouds are cool, informative, appealing representations about what's happening in your blog, or anywhere else. With ZoomClouds you can generate a visual tag cloud for your site in a matter of minutes. You select the RSS feeds to be used to generate the tag cloud and ZoomClouds does the rest. To achieve its magic ZoomClouds uses both the Yahoo! Content Analysis API as well as a custom ZoomCloud content analysis tool. When you create your cloud, ZoomClouds will go and fetch your RSS feed, and the cloud that you get at that moment is based only on whatever content is in your feed at that time, which usually is the last 10-15 posts. You as a user can control this variable and extend it to a larger time frame. Free.
   http://www.zoomclouds.com/





8. The Casual Courier
   
   
   The Casual Courier is a new web service which allows you to send physical packages by connecting you with independent traveling individuals willing to act as couriers. You are the one to select your human courier and you are the one setting the fee you are willing to pay. With casualcourier.com you can send a package for the cost of post, with the reliability of hand delivery, and at the speed of overnight service. Casual Courier extends its smart assisting hand also to complementary services like the so-called AirSitter Assistance, which allows you to find help for special-needs passengers as well as with another service called Container Sharing and which makes it easy for you to find space in existing large cargo containers which have unused space. 99 cents is the cost of accessing an identified matching courier plus whatever price you have set to offer for the service.
   http://www.casualcourier.com/





9. Lexxe
   
   
   While Google and Yahoo refer you normally to endless list of links for any query you submit to them Lexxe has been exploring more intelligent ways to find information for users in a more meaningful way. The Lexxe search engine is built upon the foundation of advanced Natural Language Processing technology, which answers directly and simply to users' queries. Like a human discussant, it analyses the question, tries to understand the intention of the user and provides a short answer in a few words. Lexxe knows how to answer questions such as "Where is Osama Bin Laden hiding?" (in Afghanistan), "How many amino acids are available?" (20), or "Who was the soloist of the Queen Group?" (Freddy Mercury). In addition to the answer, it presents the Internet pages that are directly connected to the question and suggestions for additional search terms that are more focused.
   http://www.lexxe.com/





10. ProfCast
    
    
    http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/06/01/09/profcast.for.presentations/
    ProfCast is the first all-in-one presentation-to-podcast tool for the Mac that provides lecturers what they need to create podcasts from their lectures. ProfCast offers an integrated workflow that makes creating, recording, and publishing podcasts simple. In essence, ProfCast lets users record their presentations as they are delivered while making it extremely easy to convert them into standard podcasts including slides, audio and supporting RSS feed. All elements of the presentation, including slide timing, animations and voice narration, are recorded. ProfCast works with both with PowerPoint and Keynote. Use si extremely simple: Simply launch ProfCast, add the presentation that you want to deliver, and press the "Start Recording" button. Then give your presentation they way you normally would. When you are finished with the presentation, simply end it, click the "Stop Recording" button, and click the "Publish". ProfCast will walk you through a series of dialogs to help you publish your podcast. With ProfCast you can choose to publish to your web server via ftp, webdav, or to your .Mac account or even to a local folder on your computer. Not only. ProfCast makes it easy to turn the lecture you are already giving into an enhanced podcast. The result will be complete with slides, chapters, and audio, all synchronized as in your original presentation delivery. Specific ProfCast features include:
    • Live Presentation Recording
    
    
    • Synchronized Slides with Audio
    
    
    • RSS Generation for Podcasting
    
    
    • Publishing support
    
    ProfCast costs USD $35.
    http://www.profcast.com/public/index.php