Saturday 24 March 2007

SPAMALOT - we loved it SO much, we went to see it again!


Harry and I went to see Monty Python's Spamalot a few months ago as a birthday treat for me. We loved it so much, we went to see it again last night (23 March 2007) as a birthday treat for Harry, together with 2 of his friends, Chiara and Robin.

Robin, Chiara (chewing bubble gum, blowing a bubble) and Harry standing in front of the main entrance of the Palace Theatre, London before the show.

Harry, Robin and Chiara in the Grand Circle (3rd level up) - dead centre. Great view!

After the show, we waited in the cold at the stage door to meet as many of the cast as possible. We even missed the last train home but it was well worth it!

With David Birrell who plays King Arthur's trusty servant Patsy (and several other characters)With Simon Russell Beale who plays King ArthurWith Tom Goodman-Hill who plays Sir Lancelot, French Taunter, The Knight who says 'Ni!' and Tim the Enchanter. Here, he is saying to Harry, "I fart in your general direction and your mother was a hampster and your father [pointing to me!] smelt of elderberries!"
With the make-up and costume girls. They never get the praise and attention they deserve!


With Hannah Waddingham (see also www.hannahwaddingham.com) with water bottle in hand at all times, the Lady of the Lake, who spent so much time with the kids and was SO friendly. She is really lovely and a true diva with THE most fantastic voice!
Guess what? We are bound to go and see Spamalot again before too long because it is such a blast!


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Wednesday 21 March 2007

izimi gets superb launch reviews

The Web 2.0 internet publisher/social network start-up called izimi, which went live 5 March 2007, has managed to get itself some great post-launch reviews. The service turns your PC into a personal web server and gives a persistent URL to every file you decide to publish - that's any file of any type and size!

Here's an idea of the reaction it's getting from the media and bloggers:

FT.com: 'izimi in PC file sharing advance' by Chris Nuttall
"An internet service that allows users to bypass social networking sites and host their own videos, pictures and other files launches on Monday. izimi takes to its logical conclusion the Web 2.0 trend of users having more control of their internet content. It allows them to serve material from their own computers instead of uploading it to a website, such as MySpace, or Flickr, the photo-sharing site."

The Social Networking weblog: 'No More Uploading Music and Videos'
"izimi is a new kind of social networking site. On your izimi profile page you can have as many music, video and picture files as you want. Unlimited content of anything you want!"

Computer Active: 'New website turns your PC into a file sharing server'
"Uploading of any type of file visible to all on website - A new website called izimi has launched that allows you to upload any kind of file for sharing with the world. Files are hosted on your PC and made visible on izimi's website."

internetnews.com: 'A New Angle, Peer-to-Web Publishing'
"If YouTube and reality television haven't already given most folks the 15 minutes of fame predicted by Andy Warhol, perhaps izimi will do the trick."

TechNewsWorld: 'The Next YouTube' by Rob Enderle
"Every once in a while, I run into a product that gets me to stop, pause and rethink things, and last week I had such an experience. izimi, which launches today, is such a product....It's worth checking out. As we think about what happens when we move to the next generation of broadband, instead of going the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Latest News about Google direction where everything is hosted, things could come back to everything being local. Peer architectures could rule, pushing the pendulum back to where Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Latest News about Intel and Microsoft would like it to be -- in the home and closer to the client. I actually think this would be a really cool part of the new Home Server platform, since that product is designed specifically to do things like this......."

Memex 1.1: 'izimi - self-hosted user generated content'

"izimi places the power right in your hands, where it should be - it’s a truly democratic web. With izimi there’s no need to upload your content to any server: you decide what you’ll publish, there are no limits on quantity or quality ([it] won’t degrade your videos, photos or music), and you retain ownership and control."

The Web Pitch: 'The Top 25 Web 2.0 Start Ups from the UK'
"izimi - Self-publishing, being able to serve files, photos, music and videos up from your computer to friends through their web browsers."

North River: 'izimi'
"One company we will discuss is izimi, the new file sharing software. Basically, izimi obsoletes YouTube. This is a phenomenon I advised customers about over a decade ago when I demonstrated that when information costs fall far enough, strange things happen."

I'm only blogging to be trendy: 'Middleware players'
"Today Ive come across izimi. This thing rocks for many reasons. Primary among which is that its another Web20 UK start up.. we cant have enough..really. At the moment, it allows you to upload anything to a social environment... yes... anything.. so you tag it and push it out and send the links to your mates..nifty."

Indian Inside - Technology, Entertainment and Me: 'Turn Your PC into a Media Server with izimi'
"izimi allows you to serve files, photos, music and videos straight from your PC to anyone with a browser …Full Control of your media and that too totally FREE of cost ! isn't that interesting ? No uploading business and no hosting hassles too.. You can just publish and serve any file type, any size, any quantity to anyone – all [they] need is a web browser."

Go2Web2: The Future of Internet Publishing
"izimi is a new SUPER application that allows their users to share any file (type or size), right from their machine to the web in no time!"

That's not a bad start!

izimi - You control your own media

Tuesday 6 March 2007

izimi to Redefine the Future of the Internet with the World’s First Peer-to-Browser Self-Publishing Social Network

izimi allows users to easily serve text, photos, music and videos straight from their own PC to anyone, anywhere, without uploads


San Francisco and London, March 5th 2007izimi (pronounced i-zee-mee) today announced the launch of a desktop application that allows users to serve an unlimited number of files to the Internet directly from their own PC - with just a simple URL. The free izimi Internet self-publishing application is the first of its kind to place no restrictions on file type, size or quality that users can share without the need for recipients of the URL to register or download any client application. Just click on the link and access the file directly with just a web browser.

“The Internet is a rapidly changing space and izimi is the next logical step in the user-generated content, social media and social networking phenomenon taking place today by enabling users to easily share all types of content with anyone with a web browser,” says Marc Lyne, CEO of izimi. “Using izimi’s simple service, people are now able to completely control their own media without relying on external servers. izimi is right on the curve of this fundamental change of truly empowering users to self publish and self manage their own content.”

The main element of izimi, the self-publishing application, is supported by a social networking website, creating the choice for users to publish content on their own terms as well as connect with other users to promote and share content of their choice.

The izimi application
The izimi application (available for free download at www.izimi.com) enables users to easily publish and serve files (photos, documents, music, videos – in fact, anything they choose) straight from their PC to anyone with a web browser.

izimi’s smart technology gives users the ability to publish content with no restriction to blog pages, forum postings, social networking profiles, classifieds, or any website. izimi removes the need for users to upload their files to online content-sharing sites, instead using secure peer-to-browser techniques to connect other users directly to the files on the publisher’s own PC. Unlike normal peer-to-peer applications, recipients don’t need any client software to view published content - just a web browser - making content published with izimi universally available to anyone.

The izimi website
The web site (www.izimi.com) complements the izimi application and provides a social networking environment around users and their content. Anyone can use www.izimi.com without downloading any software and without having to sign in - even if they don’t actually publish anything.

Registered users get their own profile plus additional community features including comments, rating, adding friends, adding favorites and messaging. Any content published using the izimi application is also available to be searched and found on the website, making www.izimi.com the world’s first self-publishing social network with the widest variety of user generated content.

What does izimi mean to different people?
izimi can be used for a variety of tasks whether you are a consumer or professional. Typical examples include:
  • A budding photographer or artist can publish and publicise their art, and gain critique from the art community via izimi
  • A director or producer of small films can publish content using izimi, receive rave reviews and make it available to distributors and other interested parties
  • A musician can make available their latest songs and garner ratings from other users, in the hope of securing that big record deal
  • An academic can publish his/her latest whitepaper using izimi to share with their specific educational community
  • Any type of media user can use izimi as a single self-sufficient source, to publish all their content for their social networking and media services (e.g. social network profiles, blogs, web sites, etc)

“izimi simply lets anyone publish and serve content of their choice to anyone else on the Web, and without them needing any technical know-how,” continues Marc Lyne. “izimi is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to publish anything - it’s true democratization of the Web.”

For more information or to sign up for a free izimi download, please visit www.izimi.com

- ENDS -

About izimi
izimi is the future of Internet publishing, enabling users to freely serve any type of files (photos, documents, music, videos etc) direct from their PC to anyone with a web browser. The izimi website is a social networking site for publishers and consumers alike, allowing any Internet user to find, rate and comment on content.

izimi. No uploads. No limitations. All yours.


Further information
Press enquiries:
USA
Nathalie Welch
+1 415 248 3428
nwelch@webershandwick.com

UK
Ved Khan / Jonny Rosemont
+44 (0) 207 067 0509 / 0584
izimi@webershandwick.com

Thursday 1 March 2007

YouTube-killer uses P2P

So izimi is now live, in beta, awaiting launch date: Mon 5 March 2007.

The above article - probably the first of many - has appeared on the PC Advisor site, written by Paul Trotter, about izimi's enormous potential and its imminent launch.

Paul calls izimi P2P, but it's actually P2B (Peer to Browser) - a term coined by David Ingram I believe, izimi's VP of Product Marketing. It means that you can serve files, photos, music and videos straight from your PC to anyone with a browser. The izimi application (not available until 5 March) enables you to easily publish any form of electronic content to any other internet user with just a few mouse clicks and no technical know-how. You can publish and serve an unlimited number of files of any type or size to anyone – all they need to receive, view or download these files is a web browser since each file published (searchable on www.izimi.com) gets its own URL. How cool is that?



By the way, that izimi logo above is being served directly from my home PC!

If I turn my PC off by mistake, if I'm rebooting or if we've had a power cut, then it will simply say "This content is currently unavailable".