It's that time of year again, time for the Shop.org Annual Summit. Last year had us waking up in Vegas and this year it's going to be bigger and better in Dallas, Texas! We have been working hard since last year's Summit and have some amazing client projects to show off including Armani Exchange, Tory Burch (see below) and JCPenney to name but a few. Stop by our booth #223 for a product demonstration and the lowdown on how clickable video can change your video from a passive viewing experience into an interactive one.  At our booth you can also enter to win a Smart Car from friends at Demandware! See you in Texas!

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Sometimes we forget how easily video on retail sites can influence both our buying decisions and life. Periodically the Overlay Team will be looking at how video on eCommerce sites have influenced events in our own lives.

The Makeup Solution

I've been shopping around for some new beauty products for some formal events I have on my schedule. Perhaps unsurprisingly my search led me to Sephora.com. Now I'm pretty minimalist when it comes to makeup, which is really a polite way of saying I'm lazy. If I had to pick a look that summed up my approach to make up it would be "natural" but  a girl likes to glam it up every now and then. Cat's eyes, smokey eyes, sometimes we just need something with a bit of oomph. The problem is that I'm not really sure how to do it.

A bit of clicking around brought me to Sephora's Beauty Central page. It seems like the type of place where someone like me might be able to pick up a few points and indeed it was. I was thrilled to find that Sephora had a nice selection of how-to videos. I've found lots of instructions for how to do looks online but finding video in the same spot I could buy the products was gold. Sephora combines their videos with written instruction and recommend products. Watch + read + product suggestions = win for me.

I do wish that there also user-generated videos them trying the techniques. I'd love to see what colors and products people at home are using and what techniques they had the most success with. Makeup artists make it look so easy too. Some of the videos have looks that are probably too glam for my personal use but I found there's a practical take-away for me in all of them - a technique for liquid eyeliner even if I don't extend the line quite so far, how to apply false eyelashes even if the ones I try aren't going to be an inch long.

Thank you Sephora, for helping me glam up my night life. Now if I could just figure out what colors to use...

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We are looking for a talented Systems Administrator with commercial experience managing web applications and database servers. The ideal candidate has experience configuring, administering and hardening common Linux distributions, deploying and managing web applications, troubleshooting network problems, configuring firewalls, implementing extensive monitoring and is highly proficient in at least one scripting language. He or she should also be comfortable working in a small team, collaborating and presenting ideas.

Required Skills
Expert with Linux, specifically Ubuntu
Experience configuring Tomcat, Apache2, and MySQL
Experience with CDN’s
Version control systems

Desired Skills
Experience with Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3, EBS)
Deployment with Capistrano
Experience configuring Solr
Ruby experience highly desirable

Contact Information

Email: careers@overlay.tv

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Overlay.TV is expanding and so is our team. We are currently looking for a talented Flash developer with experience developing interactive user interfaces using object-oriented ActionScript. The ideal candidate has experience creating or using UI frameworks, delivering video using Flash, working with the camera and mic, publishing live video to media servers, integrating with web services, working with CDN’s, handling cross-domain issues and using various skinning techniques.

A solid grasp of object-oriented programming, unit testing, debuggers, source control systems, build management, HTTP and web development, code profiling and performance tuning is expected.

The candidate will be passionate about creating robust designs that perform well, look great and are easy to use. He or she should also be comfortable working in a small team, collaborating and presenting ideas.

Required Skills

Flash AS3

AJAX, JSON, XHTML, JavaScript

XML, Regular expressions, text manipulation

Photoshop, Illustrator

Desired Skills

Flash Media Server or Red5

Experience specifically building AS3 video players

Adobe Flex

Ruby-on-Rails

Contact Information:

 If you think this sounds like the perfect job for you please contact us at careers@overlay.tv.

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Backbone Magazine, a Canadian IT magazine that itself has had remarkable growth and staying power, establishing itself as a trusted source of IT information in the frosty nether regions has recently published its second annual Top 25 Up and Comers, a list that recognizes the leaders of tomorrow within the Canadian ICT industry. To make the list, companies had to be established no earlier than 2005 and were selected for their innovation, uniqueness and long-term potential.

The list is from Canadian ICT companies appearing on the 2009 Branham300 Edition and their combined force surpassed $70 billion in revenue for the first time in Branham300 history! Overcoming increasing economic pressures, these Canadian companies experienced a whopping 18 per cent growth - collectively generating $75.97 billion in revenue.

The envelope(s) please...(in alphabetical order, not ranked): (more...)

backbone · branham 300 · canada · ict · new technology · revenue · top 25 · up and comers

Today we are taking the wraps off what promises to be our most widely adopted technology to date - Overlay.TV for Interaction.  This breakthrough technology has been in the works for some time now and we are proud to be delivering it as a first-time extension for interactive overlays that transcend online video.  Already this morning we have seen thousands of examples of it in use.

The premise is very similar to the Overlay.TV technology we have been working with in the past with one major difference - it does not require an online video and targets.  Instead real objects are placed in the path or line-of-sight for a user and they are able to fully interact with the objects.

To illustrate the difference, take a look at the two examples below, courtesy of our new user, charlesandmarie.com and their creation, Fab5TV.  In the first model, we see the person enabling interaction with the object through the use of an Overlay.TV product widget that allows viewers to get more information on, or even purchase, the product in hand.

In the second example this powerful technology takes over, and we see the person actually interacting with an object themselves - a fully tactile experience that perfectly replicates how we interact with objects in real life.

We expect to see massive adoption for this in a short time, and are already working on cases such as:

• being able to actually drive the car you see in an advertisement or movie
• shopping in physical stores for objects you see online, or interacting with them after shipping from e-commerce
• meeting people in person and shaking their hand or hugging them

This also opens up new possibilities in word-of-mouth or viral marketing, wherein people will describe the experience they have with these objects to other people.
Overlay.TV for Interaction will continue development over the course of the year, and we will keep you informed as we uncover new and exciting use cases for everyday interaction with objects new and old.

(please bear in mind that this was originally posted on April 1st)

fab5 · interaction · objects · overlay · Overlay.TV · technology

Just a quick note to say thank you to all our amazing, innovative users and customers for making 2008 a great year for everyone here at Overlay.TV.  We have had many successes this year including:

• Beta launch in February
• Building an amazing team
• GA launch in September
• Our weekly show with Amber Mac, The OverView
• First customers including Nettwerk Records, Transcontinental Media, Hollywood Records, KidzBop and more.
• Launch of several custom players
• First API users
• Second round financing in December

We have been working hard on the next generation products for Overlay.TV and we plan on making 2009 a banner year for interactive video.  We will be speaking and showing our stuff at several tradeshows including:

• ITVT - TV of Tomorrow
• Shop Online 2009
• SXSW - big presence here for both the music and interactive 
• AdTech

So be sure to catch up with us here or there and find out what's in store for interactive video in '09.  Happy New Year and best wishes in 2009! 

2008 · 2009 · customers · Interactive Video · new year · Overlay.TV

Contribution. Sharing. Interests. Passion. Talent

The new faces of social media are sharing their passion and talent in forums that make the seemingly impossible possible. How do you go beyond words to express your love of something? How do you connect your contributions to those from people in over 100 countries simultaneously? How do we obfuscate technology and deliver community experiences that create engagement levels never before seen and at the same time give people a reason to stay up late, practice their potential and ultimately share this with the world?

We do it by delivering an experience that resists the urge to describe itself, and instead offer a single point of entry and action (similar to the iPod 'wheel' or the Google Search button) that allows for a common and shared experience that is immediately accessible - in this case "Create Your Own".

I give you first exhibit A - the new faces of social media - and if you click on any one of them (below) you will see what they shared just minutes or hours ago at the Jonas Brothers Vocal Booth. Forget the technology for a minute and focus on what was going through the minds of these very passionate community members from all around the world as they sang along with their favorite boy band, crush in, and hearts out.

Consider a few things as you ponder this - this wall of faces represents a very small 1-2% of the actual tens of thousands of participants who engaged in the experience. Beyond the bravery to share their version of a song sung by their heroes with their heroes and thousands of fans who are tuning in to watch the versions (many visitors now watch as many as 20 or more of the videos) they also overcame network, technology, bandwidth and hardware issues that would daunt most of the leaders in this space that are more than twice the age of our contributors here. It is one thing to soapbox, but it is indeed quite another level of sharing to sing when you are up on it.

These days we too often focus on the why or the how and not the what of social media. And when we think about the who, it would be great to focus on who really benefits from all the work, theory, technology and effort that goes into building great experiences.

These are a few of the new faces of social media. As a parent we can be proud of our children safely sharing their talent and passion with the world at large, and in my very humbled opinion they are worthy of nothing less than a standing ovation of heartfelt applause for their considerable effort and passion.

(reposted from http://bitpakkit.com )

experiences · faces · Jonas Brothers · Overlay.TV · sing · social media · technology · Video · youth

We are pleased to announce to the hundred million plus users of MySpace that you can now showcase Overlay.TV on your MySpace profile, using the Overlay.TV MySpace application.  Host one Overlay, or create a list of Overlays that have been individually selected by you. You don’t even have to be an Overlay.TV member to use the application. Simply add the application and then add the URLs of any of Overlays you like found on Overlay.TV.If you would like to make a more personal connection to your MySpace community, then sign-up to Overlay.TV to create and post your own Overlays on your MySpace page. You know your community better than anyone else. Let your inner producer out, and soon you’ll find Overlay.TV fast becoming your favorite MySpace application. Only Overlay.TV gives you the flexibility to add rich interactive online video content to your profile just the way you want it. (more...)

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Just wanted to get one of my fave spokespeople on the blog today for Blog Action Day.  We will be posting more throughout the day.  Together we can all make poverty history.

blog action day · bono · poverty