WEbook.com is an online publishing platform that allows writers, editors, reviewers, illustrators and others to work together and create great works of fiction and non-fiction, thrillers and essays, short stories, children's books and more.
The WEbook.com website gives writers a great interactive platform on which to write and through which to share their works with friends and readers around the world. Users' projects, submissions, reviews, groups, and friends list are collected and updated on a personalised WEbook profile and homepage. Whenever your project has a new submission or your work gets new feedback, you'll get notified via a live feed. There are more: on WEbook you'll find live forum and research tools available to use within all projects to help you interact with other writers, contributors and readers.
Guardian: If you fancy being a journalist, there has never been a better time – provided you don't mind giving your services for free.
Dozens of websites now want you to report for them, especially if you have been involved in an earthquake or flood, or been on site during a campus massacre. Train and helicopter crashes, forest fires, robberies and countless other events can at least make local news.
Among these websites is CNN's iReport. All you have to do is upload your story, photo or video. Last month, CNN featured 915 user reports drawn from more than 10,000 submissions. Both numbers are expected to grow. What's often called "user-generated news" is mainly the result of the mobile phone revolution. People have always been around newsworthy events, but only now do they have the means to report them to hand – literally.
While the trades rank who’s who in discovering ways around the norm, Boston takes time to pay homage to pranksters disobeying the status-quo completely.
In true copycat behavior, city artists replicated events that had once shut down the city. An act in remembrance of trouble-making comrades, Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky. One year ago, the two twenty-somethings riled up city law enforcement by placing LED light boxes in public arenas. What turned out to be an ad campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force was, at first, a bomb scare.
This year, supporters scoured the city for eye-catching spots to position throwback LED panels. Instead of the ATHF ‘moonite’ character, this ’08 edition uses George Bush, Osama Bin Laden, Jesus and others to give life to the irreverent art. Bringing back the homeland security controversy between media shock value and uncouth terrorism.
And the controversy isn’t contained to the States. Czech rabble-rouser, Ztohoven’s, is currently pending trial on ‘attempted scaremongering’ charges. 6 members face up to 3 years in jail and/or a fine for streaming video of a fake nuclear blast on the morning weather channel. Surprisingly, residents didn’t seem to react. Nonetheless, the deed re-evoked the question; is media-manipulation art or tampering?
Katie Sherman is a NY-based freelance writer. After years of multi-tasking at downtown ad agencies, she's recently returned from a European backpacking sabbatical. During the day she works as a Copywriter in Soho. In the off-hours she concentrates on analyzing social/ cultural trends, business innovation and local entertainment. Her work has been published on PSFK.com, CoolBusinessIdeas.com, EatDrinkSleepny.com, and Glamourite.com. Email her at katie_sherman@hotmail.com
Iconoculture: Recently debuted Organize Magazine gives consumers a guide to regaining control of their lives by eliminating clutter. Covering an array of topics, from neat-freak products to the question of letting go (knowing when to say "when" when it comes to orderliness), the rag doesn't shy away from any issue. The mission? "Organization projects for real people with real lives." Think Real Simple meets Container Store.
Springwise: Think consumers can predict the next big book, CD, television show or movie better than top producers and publishing houses can? Media Predict challenges users to put their virtual money where their mouths are with an online prediction market game, where players buy and sell shares based on how well they think new entertainment ventures might do in the real marketplace.
Here's how it works: when users register, they get 5,000 virtual dollars to begin investing. They can scan the markets for book proposals, up-and-coming musical acts, script treatments and TV pilots. Each is valued in virtual dollars per share based on perceived potential. If shares of a particular book proposal are going for 55 dollars, for instance, the book has about a 55% chance of being published. If a project seems like it might take off, a wise investor can put his or her money behind it. Or, conversely, he or she can sell if stock seems like it might plummet. In doing so, players drive the market value—and those who have a keen eye for the next big blockbuster get rewarded for it. When a deal goes through—for instance, if a book proposal gets signed to a publisher—shares pay off at USD 100 each. And on the flipside, when a venture doesn't succeed, share value bottoms out at USD 0.
Springwise: Coca-Cola Belgium will be the first soft drink company to use the Magazine on a Bottle concept. On Product Publishing, which created the innovative labelling technology, worked closely with Coca-Cola Belgium to adapt the labels to Coke's iconic curvy bottle.
The first bottles of Coca-Cola Light (chilled 500 ml PET) with GLAM*IT mini-mag attached will be on the shelves in April 2007. Published by Sanoma, GLAM*IT is a Belgian fashion and beauty magazine targeted to a young, female audience. Which makes for a good fit with Light/Diet Coke buyers. As stated by Mie Van der Auwera, editor of GLAM*IT: "Adapting editorial content for another brand is only credible if brand values mutually match. In the case of Coca-Cola Light and GLAM*IT that was no problem. That's why it results in a powerful communication tool for both brands." The removable 24-page magazine is a 'light' version of GLAM*IT, featuring typical content for the mag, but reduced to fit the bottle.
Marketer Media: The Eupinion (EUrope oPINION) is the innovated and unique newspaper (digital media concept software), based on real citizen journalism concept. The main goal is to build a community of top columnists, writing on any global issue (politics, business, fashion and trends, sports etc). We are based in Slovenia -- EU, but our services are available to news publishers and writers worldwide. As a business, Marketer Media generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective advertising that is based on new D2D or D2C concepts. Advertisers use our advertising program to promote their products and services with direct targeted advertising.
TrendCentral: Commuters and road trippers already know that satellite radio makes gridlock more tolerable, and Sirius is still continuing to spread their innovation wings. Their latest development, D.I.Y. Radio invites listeners to create and host their own customized national radio show — uncensored and commercial-free. A different listener will take the reins every week. If you’re still bummed that the local radio station failed to play your request for the Top 5 at 9 back in 5th grade (not that we’re bitter or anything), this is way better.
IHT: In Japan, cellphones have become a tool for writing and reading e-mail messages. Now, publishers in Japan want mobile subscribers to read more than simple text messages.
Publishers like Shinchosha and Kodansha and their distribution partner have been bolstering readership for novels and comics on cellphones. According to Shinchosha, cellphone users are gravitating to authors like Mika Naito, who writes romantic novels popular with women in their 20s and 30s. Naito's 2004 novel "Love Link" recorded 1.5 million paid accesses over a six- month period in which it was serially distributed. Another of her novels, "Love*," posted free on a mobile Web site, received 14 million accesses over six months.
Iconoculture: Step into liquid. Imbibe magazine covers everything from cocktails to wine to beer to juice to coffee to tea. The motto: All that's fit to drink.
The premiere issue of the bimonthly publication features hot chocolate and mezcal in Oaxaca, great hotel bars around the country, Trappist ales and organic wines.
A handy guide to every imbibing opportunity will whet whistles through inspiration and empowerment.
DailyCandy: Q. What do the following lyrics have in common?
a) I would walk 500 miles.
b) Who let the dogs out?
c) You oughtta know.
A. There’s a really good chance they are now going to be stuck in your head all day. (Sorry.) But you can use Earworms to get them out — and learn quelque chose while you’re at it. Like a catchy tune that you just can’t shake, Earworms Musical Brain Trainers layer basic foreign words and phrases over pleasant instrumental tracks. After listening to the songs a few times, you’ll find that you’ve picked up some useful lingo. Download 75-minute lessons in German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and French. (Chinese is offered only on CD.) Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, and Russian are coming soon. By July, volume two of all of the languages will be released.
BizReport.com: The news menu was stuffed with the dreadful and appalling yesterday. A massive hurricane bearing down on Texas. A bus fire killing 24 elderly people near Dallas. Floods ravaging New Orleans -- again. And that was before you even considered what's happening to the economy, or in Iraq or Afghanistan, or anywhere else in this sad, wicked world.
You see any happy news out there?
As it happens, the people who produce Happynews.com did. There it was, right at the top of their Web site, bordered by a sunny yellow frame and adorned with smiley faces: "Hurricane Rita still weakening."
And: "Majority to back Algerian peace plan."
And: "Indonesia takes steps to prevent bird flu."
Happynews.com, started three months ago, covers many of the international, national, sports and entertainment stories that the big guys do. But as the name implies, it doesn't cover them the same way. Happynews doesn't do bummers: no death, no destruction, no shocking Lindsay Lohan weight-loss updates. Which is to say, it doesn't do the kinds of stories that have come to define the contemporary concept of "news."
Unlike the media's bad news bearers, Happynews's glass is always at least half-full, and sometimes it bubbles right over. It is Prozac for the eyes: "India proposes free school for one-girl families," it declared brightly yesterday. A typical story from its international section might be "Food Aid to Niger Increases," while its sports section includes the likes of "Long-distance swimmer conquers Great Lakes."
SignOnSanDiego.com: Have a great photograph of yourself you'd like the world to see?
Maybe a picture that proves you really did reach the top of Mount Whitney, or catch a 50-pound King salmon in Alaska, or hang glide over a beach in Rio.
Wouldn't that photo make a perfect postage stamp?
Make it happen.
Now anyone can join the ranks of George Washington, Dr. Seuss and Elvis and get their images on a U.S. postage stamp.
A 50-day trial sale last summer of vanity postage generated 2.7 million personalized postage stamps. Now the Postal Service and Stamps.com have teamed again – this time, on a yearlong trial of customized postage stamps. More vendors are expected to be licensed as part of the test.
Picture it: Engaged couples can now send out wedding invitations stamped with photos of themselves snuggling. Newlyweds can mail thank-you notes posted with 37-cent stamps picturing themselves exchanging vows. Proud parents can mail birth announcements stamped with the image of junior's first photograph.
USATODAY.com: After getting a taste of the radio business in college, software designer Craig Patchett never lost his interest in broadcasting. But without a job in radio, it seemed likely to remain one of those unfulfilled passions — until something called "podcasting" came along.
Now, Patchett's creating shows and sending them out to the masses every day — not over the airwaves to radios but over the Internet, from his personal computer in Carlsbad, Calif.
His listeners download his shows to their iPods and other digital music players.
Patchett, 43, is among a growing number of people getting into podcasting, which is quickly becoming another of the Internet's equalizing technologies.
Small Business Trends: Here's an excellent resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs: BusinessTVchannel.com.
BusinessTVchannel.com is an Internet site where you can go to watch and listen to video on business topics of interest to small business owners. It's like a cross between broadcast TV and the Internet.
They offer a morning newscast. They also offer shows on topics such as managing cash flow, how to hire good people, and increasing your sales.
Anyone who sells for living can read true, often tragic, often side-splitting tales of sales-pitches-gone-bad in a new comic book that shows anyone who sells for a living what behaviors to adopt and what to avoid - in order to further their success in selling.
Published by Sales Autopsy Press, this colorful 24-page volume, The Sales Comic Book, contains the first edition of hilarious, most memorable moments from a collection of over 500 sales blunders. Targeted to 30 million U.S. sales professionals and entrepreneurs, the stories reveal how tough the selling life is. The book is a one-of-a-kind gift for anyone involved in selling, sales training or management.
"Corporate gifts tend to be fairly ordinary - shirts, hats, pens," says Dan Seidman, creator of The Sales Comic Book. "We wanted something that created 'Great idea!' comments and laughter from delighted gift givers and receivers."
Red Herring Blog: The media is self-organizing. Not the old fogies, such as daily newspapers, magazines, and television networks, but the legions of self-publishers and producers on the web.
In recent months, the rise of podcasting has sent a flare up over the trenches of old media, key figures have abandoned their posts in old media to set out into the new, and now Yahoo has announced a well-documented format for RSS media syndication that will support text, audio, and, now, video delivery. A new wiki-based news organization, WikiNews, will pioneer a form of news editing that, while it’s ripe with potential problems, is a provocative change from the passive consumption of news.
There’s something new coming, called "citizen advertising," that combines passionate advocacy and unsolicited evangelism on behalf of products. Some bloggers are working under new sponsorship models (disclosure: including me, your humble Red Herring blogger), and others are joining emerging blog publishing combines. BlogAds, AdBrite and Google AdSense, among others, are paving the bridge between existing and new advertising models.
Adrants: Acknowledging the decline of people's intelligence by saying, "People don't read anymore, and kids in particular don't read. This gives them content in a 5- to 7-minute package that matches their attention span," NEWgame Communications CEO Kathleen Hessert describes her company's online video magazine creation product, Vmag. That said, NEWgame is heading in the right direction as online video is relied upon more and more to create new and compelling online content.
NEWgame provides publishers and marketers with a bandwidth-friendly, full-screen video tool to easily create customized, DVD-quality "video magazines" along with analytics showing how the viewer maneuvered through the "publication." Costs to produce and distribute the video magazine range from under $2 to $10 each. Of course, advertising revenue can offset those costs just as it does in the print world.
Sick of blatant plagiarism of your content on the Internet? Fear not. Thanks to a new free service called Copyscape, you may be able to stop people from lifting content from your site and using it at their site.
How do you use the Copyscape service? Simply go to the Copyscape homepage, type in the address of your webpage that you want to check for possible copyright infringements, and Copyscape will throw up a list of webpages that seem to have content very similar to yours. Should you find out that plagiarism has indeed been committed, you can then act to have your content removed from the offender's webpage. Some useful tips on seeking legal assistance is also offered on the Copyscape website.
Copyscape is powered by Google Alert technology and uses the Google Web APIs. In the future, Copyscape may release a commercial version which allows you to set up automatic daily searches and have email reports delivered to you.
Ever wanted to be the CEO of your very own Starbucks or Amazon.com? Fire your boss and be your own boss? Now you can, with BIZNESS! - the free biweekly business newsletter about new business ideas, opportunities and innovations from around the world. More than just new business trends, BIZNESS! helps the aspiring entrepreneur (you!) with small business advice, business tips, and entrepreneur resources and opportunities.
Springwise: Think consumers can predict the next big book, CD, television show or movie better than top producers and publishing houses can? 
Springwise: Coca-Cola Belgium will be the first soft drink company to use the Magazine on a Bottle concept. On Product Publishing, which created the innovative labelling technology, worked closely with Coca-Cola Belgium to adapt the labels to Coke's iconic curvy bottle.
Iconoculture: Step into liquid. Imbibe magazine covers everything from cocktails to wine to beer to juice to coffee to tea. The motto: All that's fit to drink. 
SignOnSanDiego.com: Have a great photograph of yourself you'd like the world to see?
