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Microsoft Slowly Pushing So.Cl Social Media Engine to Public

May 24, 2012 by

Microsoft has expanded the scope of who can use its So.Cl (pronounced social) social media search technology to everybody after a quiet beta push, as it seeks to establish it as a mainstream player in the social media environment.

So.Cl is a search engine that is designed to find and share social media, enabling you to connect with other users that have similar searches and interests and hopefully create an engagement between the participants. It enables users to take an assortment of media such as video, texts and photos, combine them into posts and then share them.

It is one of the many efforts under development at the company’s FUSE Labs and Microsoft has taken a low and cautious rollout for the product, quite the opposite of some of its efforts in the past. The company designed the technology for students and select schools were the first beta sites including University of Washington and New York University.

The student focus is intentional as the company has said that it believes that the features of the program reflect on how schools are teaching and how students are learning today, and not just computer science or technical students but for a range of scholastic focuses.

While focused on students I wonder how this will evolve, assuming that it does get off the ground. New sports blogs, apps for teaching players what to look for in an NFL defense, with commentary and past results listed in the frame? I have seen some pretty advanced sports pages and the ability to bring a large number of like minded fans, say baseball stat people, with live video examples etc.. could be compelling.

The effort was decidedly low key and that of course might have simply been because Microsoft did not want to try to be heard over all of the noise coming from the Facebook IPO or just because it is taking a different approach to establishing the technology.

So far it has had mixed reviews (I have not tried it yet) with Digital Trends decidedly unimpressed and with Cnet much more impressed with all of the features that the service provides.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Facebook, Fanatic Fans, Google, Microsoft, So.Cl, Social Media, Social Media Data, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data Tagged With: , , ,

Nike Unveils New Golfer Performance App, NG 360

May 23, 2012 by

The ever-elusive golfing social media market has a new entrant, from one of sport’s biggest names: Nike today unveiled its NG 360 app, which is designed to be a one-stop shop for golfers who want to improve their game, their golf fitness, and to connect with like-minded friends.

Available only for the iPhone (Nike golf’s Twitter stream said an Android version is due soon) the NG 360 app (for Nike Golf 360) is, according to Nike, a place to “Track your rounds, dig deep on stats, get feedback on your swing from pros and your friends, and access golf-specific workouts. NG360° is a clubhouse, practice tee, gym and pro shop — all in one, and always with you.” The app is free for download from the iTunes app store.

Though many have tried to tap the millions-strong market of golfers who clearly love to track, talk about and most importantly, buy things to improve their games, nobody yet has come up with a Facebook-type winner where everyone wants to be. Some of that, no doubt, is due to the fact that for many people, golf is an escape from work, which now means their phone. Sure it sounds great to have a cool golfing app right there in your pocket but it’s so close to email that it may get ignored by golfers who are instead enjoying the sunshine and a cold beverage.

Nike also seems to have a kind of badge/reward system in place to honor golfers who are getting better, but not having played with the app, I wonder if there is too much going on here. I for one would kill to have just a simple place to record scores, and perhaps to access them via the phone from the cloud whenever I am out on a course. It’s unclear how the NG 360 performs at simple things. Time and some user feedback will likely tell, quickly.

Where Nike may have an edge over past and current efforts to tap the golfer-social-media-stats market (like Callaway’s new gizmo) is in its innovative twists, one to let you record your swing in video and another to allow professional instructors to help you improve your game. Like many things, NG 360 sounds great as an idea. Now let’s see if Nike’s marketing can find success in a field where many have failed.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Golf, Nike, Outdoor Activities Tagged With: , , ,

NFL and NFLPA Headed to Court Again

May 23, 2012 by

The unhappy couple is once again heading to the legal system to settle their disagreements, and there is the chance that more legal issues will come to a head soon that might result in more court action in the near future.

It seems that the NFL’s uncapped season a year ago was actually capped, they just did not bother to tell the players. However the issue came to light with the Commissioner fining the Redskins and Cowboys a total of $42 million in cap space for having the audacity of treating an uncapped year as an uncapped year.

The big issue now is that the NFL Players Association is charging that the NFL owners engaged in collusion, however there seems to be an article in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement that gives the NFLPA’s approval of the move and so prohibits a lawsuit of this type.

So far the NFLPA disagrees and said that it has cost the players $1 billion and that it will see treble damages. (Can you say $1 billion without doing it in Dr Evil’s voice?) For a much more complete coverage of the issue I would recommend heading over to ProFootballTalk at NBC Sports, the site has been covering the issue vigorously from the start.

However there are other issues bubbling to the top as well between the two. The NFL has installed a new pads rule and will start requiring thigh and knee pads as mandatory equipment for all players starting with the 2013 season. The league has determined that since this is a playing rule it does not need to get the NFL’s Players Association’s permission.

The NFLPA has an entirely different take on the issue and believes that this is a change in work conditions and that is something that needs to be negotiated. Thigh and knee pads are already required in high school and college.

Then there is the bounty case, and all the fallout associated with it. ESPN has reported that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the NFL will make the evidence of the case public, but not until after all of the players’ appeals have been heard. The commissioner also mentioned that while he understood that current Cleveland Brown’s linebacker Scott Fujita, suspended for three games for his participation, was in a tough position but that suing the commissioner for defamation was the wrong way to go about it. But the courts seem like the place where much of the NFL’s hard hitting will take place, at least this summer.

Filed Under: ESPN, Lawsuit, NBC Sports, NFL, NFLPA, ProFootballTalk, Yahoo Tagged With: , ,

New Crowd Funding site Fundable to Challenge Kickstarter

May 23, 2012 by

A new player has entered the crowd funding scene called Fundable and it will also seek to connect startup companies and developers with backers that are willing to provide funds in exchange for rewards such as early versions of products.

The model looks very familiar to others in this space such as Kickstarter in that it is an all or nothing funding model and that there is a time limit involved, and if the funding does not make it to the stated goal they get nothing. The main difference may be that Fundable will seek to fund for-profit companies, while Kickstarter is all about creative projects, like literature, movies and the like.

By that token Fundable is expected to go one step farther than its rivals. According to its downloadable fact sheet, but not mentioned at all on its general web page is the fact that the company will also enable startups to offer equity in return for investments.

It looks as if the difference for investors is that they can in most cases invest as little as $1 in the rewards section but significantly more, say $5,000 in the equity investment side of the equation.

I have been increasingly interested in the crowd funding phenomenon, and have wondered if it will have legs. It’s nice to get a first generation product from a company or some sort of reward for investing a few dollars in a startup, but it has seemed to me that after the initial fun, the appeal would wane.

At least one recent study seems to bear that out when it showed that the average investor in a crowd funding company invests in only two projects, but the whole environment is very new, only being allowed in the United States after a bill was passed last April that enabled a much wider pool of people to invest in startups.

Fundable’s approach, at least to me, has a lot more long term appeal. While getting a Pebble watch for instance would be nice, getting a check larger than my investment might be even nicer.

According to coverage in Mashable it looks like the company needs to get approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission as a broker in order to handle investments and I suspect that is why it is not touting its equity option strongly. I expect that once approval is gained that will change and it will be interesting to see how this move changes the market, if at all.

Filed Under: Apps, Crowdfunder, Fundable, Kickstarter, Startup Tagged With: , ,

Beyond the Hostage Video: Tiger Woods Schedules Google+ Hangout with Fans

May 23, 2012 by

Though we here at MSR thought a lot of the criticism was unfair, the now-infamous Tiger Woods hostage video is getting an upgrade. According to a tweet from Eldrick himself, Tiger Woods will invite some real people to join him in a Google+ hangout on May 29, ostensibly to talk about the upcoming Memorial and U.S. Open tournaments.

If you haven’t seen one, a Google+ hangout is basically a shared video chat, where up to 9 people can interact live via the comfort of their own webcam. The hangouts can also be broadcast live or archived to watch on YouTube, so non-participants can view the interchange. No word yet whether or not Tiger’s hangout will be broadcast live or taped, but you can be sure whatever happens that the mainstream golf media will rip it apart, bit by bit.

Here at MSR we are actually in great favor of moves like Woods’, which eliminate the bow-tied middlemen who still think of themselves as necessary “conduits” to the athletes. Don’t get us wrong — there is always going to remain a needed and necessary space for sports news coverage and opinions. But I also think that sports media are going to have to live with the fact that their value-added access to athletes is going to diminish in the future as more players, like Tiger, take their interactions directly to the fans.

The great upshot of all this is that the clowns who clutter up press conferences with questions like “how did you feel when you hit that great shot” will fall by the wayside, while true athlete-fan interactions and smart reporting and writing surface to the top. At least we can hope. And hangout in the meantime.

Filed Under: Golf, Google, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , ,

Vote For MLB All-Stars- And Triple-A All Stars as Well

May 23, 2012 by

Right after the MLB season started I was at the league’s site and noticed that you could already start voting for the All-Star game, and the one moment I gave it any thought was that it was way too early for me to even start considering voting.

I am in the ‘what have you done this year’ group of voters, one of a number of major groups I see voting. There is also fans I know that only vote for players on their team, ones that vote for last year’s performance, and a few rare ones that only vote for a player in either the NL or AL.

It is now getting to the point that I will vote and have really appreciated the fact that I can do it online for two reasons. I no longer live in a town with a major league team and the closest is a two hour drive. The second is IBM punch cards went out with the VAX.

What I have not realized until a MLB Advanced Media note came my way that you can also vote for Triple-A All Stars. I suspect the voting in this contest will be much more team-oriented since if you do not live in a town with a AAA team it is unlikely that you have watched any of the players perform, although games are shown on MLB’s network.

The fan voting will represent 1/3 of the total vote with other votes being cast by by members of the media and each club’s field manager, coaches, and general manager.

However this is a good move by MLB in trying to bring more attention to its minor leagues. It certainly looks like it is trying to make the Triple A All Star game, which will pit players from the Pacific Coast League against players from the International League, into a must see event. While I doubt it will ever reach the NFL’s minor league games’ popularity — i.e BCS college football, this is a good way to increase interest in baseball.

The Triple A All-Star game, which has been played for the last 24 years, will be played at Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo, N.Y., home of the Buffalo Bisons, on July 11 at 7:00 p.m. EDT

Filed Under: All Star Game, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Triple-A All Star Game Tagged With: , ,
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