Blogging live from the company pitching session during CS3216, NUS’ very on course on Software Development on Evolving Platforms, otherwise known as “the NUS Facebook Module”.
Now this is interesting because the lecturer, Professor Ben Leong, has invited people from various companies to come pitch their ideas to the students of the Facebook class. I’m not sure if other modules have had external parties come in to suggest ideas for the students to work on, but this is certainly a first for me =)
Starting off, we have..
Dr Calvin Xu, Assistant Professor
NUS School of Computing, Information Systems Dept.
He’s suggesting Facebook applications that will be able to draw information from a variety of sources. He lists Eopinion.com and Bizrate as two examples.
The idea is to enable users to “input products or events and watch for offers in the local marketplace or events in the social network”
Maybe it’s just me, but the way he’s proposing it sounds like a Honours Year Project.
The professor can provide the necessary resources like guidance and project hosting space, so if you like a project like this, Dr Xu is the man to look for.
ScanScout : Steven Lee
ScanScout is up next.
They’re based in the US though, so CTO Steven Lee has decided to present via a voice recording embedded in a Powerpoint presentation.
ScanScout is into online video advertising. Simply put, they analyse the content of videos online and then overlay an advertisement the video in various different formats. Steve says, overlay advertising is the way to go and prerolls have gone the way of the dodo.
Advertising in the online video market is booming. Up comes a graph with a steeply rising curve showing online video ad spending. The graph indicates that by 2010, online ad spending will reach a whopping USD 2.9 billion.
ScanScout’s technology looks pretty cool. They’ve developed a way to analyse videos using a “multi-dimensional approach”, extracting relevant information from various areas,
- Speech
- Audio
- Text
- Tags
- Visual
- and Semantic
And now, the the ideas:
Idea One: Video Syndication Widget
The app will allow users to embed a video from ScanScout’s library onto their Facebook profile. Choose your favourite video clip or movie trailer, and send it to your friends!
Users will also be able to embed ads from the ScanScout advertising network.
Now, I’m not sure whether the embedding of ads by anyone but Facebook is within the ToS of the site.. but I’m sure they’ve done more research than me in this area =)
Idea Two: Video Recommendation Widget
Similar to above, but the widget will be able to recommend videos to users based on their preferences instead. Naturally, users will be able to send their favourite clips to their friends as well.
Oh, and here’s the juicy bait:
ScanScout is willing to award up to $10k in return for the IP to the projects that best make use of their technology.
Facebook Funding Competition : Mak Kien Hui
Up next, a competition for Facebook applications for the local scene!
Budding IT entrepreneurs, TCP Sim and KH Mak are looking for developers to create applications that cater to the Singaporean market. They say that the first wave of over 12000 “pure interaction” apps are now over, and that more specialised and targetted apps are the way to go. Singapore-centric apps are an untapped market.
And with all competitions, there are terms of course:
- The apps will be based off ideas from the students
- There’ll be mentorship for business development
- .. and partnering with companies for funding and networking opportunities
- NDAs will be signed, of course. For your protection. [words in italics my own]
- Students will own the copyright to the app..
- … but as sponsors, they have the irrevocable option to buy over the copyrigh
There are 2 paths students can take:
Path No. 1: The no-further-involvement path
Basically, you develop your app, get recognised as the “Best Class Project” for this course, and they give you $1000. Plain and simple.
Path No. 2: The develop-first-see-if-we-can-commercialise path
If you take this path, you get $2000 in funding for business development. In addition, when the company is formed around the application, you’ll get up to a 20% stake in the company.
One of the best offers out there, we hear.
Next, a slide with various options for Singapore-centric applications.
- Singapore Weddings,
- Singapore Exams
- Singapore Sales
- Zhng My Car (Pimp My Ride, Singpore Style!)
Singapore Queues, anyone?
Match Making 2.0 : Marc Goh
Marc Goh from Design Prodigy is pitching Matching Making 2.0. Apparently the horrible worldwide statistics are that it’s harder and harder to find a match (1 in 10 won’t find their life mate, and the ladies fare slightly worse at 3 in 10).
The proposal (in my own words): A Facebook dating application based on [a] “basic collaborative filtering alogithm”.
Looks like it’s pretty big. The course is only about 3 months long, but he’s mentioned that plans actually stretch much longer than that. He’s of course hoping for as much student interest and participation as possible, “for the good of mankind” =P
Genometri
Next up, Dr Sivam Krish from Genometri
A lot of design is happening in the virtual world says Sivam. It’s an entire paradigm shift. And a lot of the focus is on customisation. “Whatever can be customised, will be customised.” People, young ones, especially, customise their shirts, their homes, their lives.. their faces even =P He lists companies like Zazzle and Cafepress as examples of the customisation boom.
Genometri has developed a genetic operating system for design. The apparent intention is to change the game. “DIY Design” looks like the way to go. Design is the basis of transactions in the business of the future.
Ok, so where does the Facebook bit come in?
Here’s a thought: Products themselves, like watches, tshirts.. are social applications. Why? If they’re good? They go viral.. everyone starts using the product. Heh, just that in the ‘real world’ we call it “fashion”.
And then there’s a plug for JuJups.com. It looks like a site that does some sort of design prototyping. Will really need to go check it out a little more later. Didn’t really catch the pitch that well.
MTV Networks Asia : Vincent Low
Whoo. MTV Asia’s here as well. Big names =)
Interesting stats.. MTV’s viewers rangefrom 15 to 45 years, split evenly between the sexes. Nevertheless, MTV is a “youth-oriented” channel.
More stats:
72% agree that MTV provides as entertaining and relaxing environment..
.. MTV users like sports.. like drinking.. and are likely to be early adopters..
Quite a bit of stats.. but 5 minutes into the presentation, it still looks like an MTV promotional pitch..lists of products, associations and brands..
Ok he’s just shown a roadmap for various media angles MTV Asia is trying to cover.. ranging from mobile media to widgets. They’re not new to Facebook he says.. they already have applications in the scene.
So why are they here? They want people who think innovatively.
Idea One:
Young Travelers to Southeast Asia
The goal is to “increase interactivity between MTV and target audience, and position MTV Asia as a source for info on the hippest places around Asia”. Basically, if you want to visit the hippest places in the Asian region, they want you to use MTV Asia’s applications.
Idea Two:
Contest prizes and Trip Giveaways
Extend MTV Asia’s contest into Facebook.
In the form of a game perhaps, something users can add in exchange for chances to win prizes, trips and such.
Hey, why not? Add an app and get a chance to win a free trip? Why not? That’s a pretty excellent way to make sure people rush to add the application to their profile though =)
Rate My Turban: Ash Singh
First slide up: Looks like a Hot or Not, but for turbans.
I absolutely love the tagline: Turbanize yourself.
The story of the site’s birth? Social responsibility. Plain and simple.
Apparently after 9/11, many people mistook the turban-wearing Sikhs for terrorists. (Bad, bad, stereotypes!) So as part of his education campaign, the Canadian-born Ash Singh created RateMyTurban.com to tell people that there’s really nothing to worry about Sikhs.
And the results?
- Over 2 million ratings
- Thousands of turban uploads
- Over 400,000 visitors a year from 110 countries.
- Featured on BBC, Yahoo! Picks and the New York Post
Impressive.
Haha and he does admit it’s HotOrNot for turbans =)
Bring on the Turbanizer. It’s a Flash-based tool that allows you to drag and drop turban templates onto your own photos..you know.. just to see how you look like in a turban.
And now, the Turbanizer is heading to Facebook. Turbanize yourself, take a snapshot, post it on your Facebook profile, send it to Cafepress.. for the memories =) Not only that, the creator of the successful RateMyTurban app gets to tap Ash’s experience with web development, television show creation and other really fun stuff.
So what are you waiting for? Turbanize yourself!
Immanuel Beauty School : Hazel Menon
Social enterprise takes the stage.
“We do free charitable work for a certain group of people, and charge another group for the work.”
Hazel is appealing to students in the course to step up and create a Facebook application to benefit the social enterprise. Help the people she says. It’s really quite difficult to get people to commit to the social enterprise, and it’s hard to get people to study beauty in the School.
The prize? Hazel’s the guru in the beauty world. She’s so well connected, she can get into all sorts of spas. Facials, body scrubs, toe scubs, massages.. you name it.
Definitely a worthwhile project, to help the social enterprise. But what to do?
GAT: Give and Take : Lance
Social Enterprise has NOT left the building.
Their “Soul Mission”?
“..to market products handcrafted by the disabled, disadvantaged and impoverished in this world.”
Talk about “socially conscious” products. They get the most underprivileged that they can find and commission them to create more products to sell, ensuring that the disadvantaged actually end up with a livelihood.
The “GAT Pitch”
“If you need to buy a Gift and are unsure of what to buy, do buy something practical, beautiful, but most importantly, something socially conscious.”
The Facebook angle?
- Develop a Facebook application to send GAT virtual gifts designed by the GAT patients (?), eg. recently recovered mental patients.
- List GAT various GAT designs that users can order painted onto a little mug.
- Self help community management platform for VWOs, individuals who want to develop socially conscious products.
Facebook Collaborative Learning System: The Co-Wiki
Elizabeth Koh : diskre [at] nus.edu.sg
Organising events is troublesome, says Elizabeth. People don’t respond to calls, emails, SMSs.. it’s really not easy to get things done quickly.
What if you’re in an international project team? How will you collaborate amongst the members? The usual suspects are various wiki software, Google docs, email threads and such.
The solution? A co-wiki.
“A collaborative learning system that integrates a wiki, and an instant messanger all within the Facebook environment”
Now users can collaborative on their projects, network with their Facebook friends and chat all at the same time! Within Facebook!
She’s plugging the first mover advantage of the co-wiki now. It’s also unique, practical and easy to use.
Pretty cool idea.. but to be honest, if there was such a system, I’d rather do this outside of Facebook. Yes, I know you can embed Facebook apps outside of Facebook now, but that’s really not the issue.
Thymos Capital
And wow, a surprise! Gwen, from Thymos Capital is here!
They’re helping manage the MDA Interactive Digital Media fund and are looking for startups to fund in the IDM scene. So if anyone has a great idea they’d like funded, Gwen is free to help =)
The Singapore Shawl: Shelley Siu
The Singapore Shawl was born out of the economic crash of 2003. People were getting retrenched left, right and center. Men lost their jobs at 47, and women at 37. It was a bad time.
The Singapore Shawl is meant to be a national costume of sorts, to show of the flora and fauna in Singapore through designs on the Shawl. “Uniquely Singapore” goes the tagline.
Check out their existing shops at CK Tangs, The Ritz Carlton and Singapore Botanic Gardens. Apparently the Singapore Eye has also contacted them as part of the promotional efforts too.
There’s a social mission to this too - Singapore Shawl has raised funds for the Society for the Physically Disabled too.
The ideas!
- Drape a shawl
- Let users drape shawls over themselves. Pretty similar to Turbanize yourself, no?
- Design a shawl
- Yup, as the name suggests, users can design shawls of their own
- 3D virtual model with choices of shawls
- Try out a shawl with a 3D model!
That’s what I have for now. I have some photos that I’ll try to add to the post later on.
