Black Web 2.0

T-Pain’s digital record label Nappy Boy Digital officially launched its social networking features and I must say I am pleasantly surprised. Powered by Ground(Ctrl) (not Ning), NBD utilizes some very cool features while controlling the social graph surrounding their artist. Read the rest of this entry »

As a web professional, having a testing environment is a must. Yeah, I could spend additional money and time trying to configure a leased virtual private server (VPS), but these days, I’m on a tighter budget. Can’t I just use what I already have to create an online space that my clients can access when I’m building their site?

Of course I can, with the help of port-forwarding.

Port-forwarding is a simple concept with your router. We all know that in order to connect to the internet, our cable supplier provides us a cable-modem that communicates to their service and provides us a high-speed connection and an IP address. If you have multiple computers in the house, in order to share that internet connection, you need a router, preferably a wireless router. That router is bundled with web-based software that allows you to manipulate how your computers not only connect to the internet, but how the internet connects to your computers. Port-forwarding is the management of this incoming connection.

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Source Washington Post

Maybe Radio One’s spending habits are starting to catch up with them, as they reported an $11.7 million second-quarter loss. The company stated losses were due to a weaker radio advertising market, and their expanded Internet efforts. Average radio ad prices were down 5 percent as budget-conscious companies have tightened up and shifted spending to the Web. Radio One officials said they expect the market to continue to soften and have been concentrating on the company’s web presence. Read the rest of this entry »

We talk a lot on here about “big sites” or “big brands” and what they are doing on the web.  We do keep an eye out for smaller start-ups that are doing their thing, and there have been quite a few popping up lately (or that we have been taking notice of lately), so we decided make a quick list of the ones that we think are “ones to watch”.

5.  BlackBottom.com

BlackBottom.com could easily be called a “Black YouTube.”  While the site upgrades continuously one feature that I particularly like (outside of the funny videos I often find there) is their mash-up with Google Maps.

4.  BrokenCurve

While I just came across this company recently I would liken it to an “Urban” Brightcove.  The company as a whole offers a variety of service though the most interesting and impressive is their video platform.  Not only do they have their own destination, BrokenCurve.tv, they are responsible for powering video on sites like Bossip’s LiveSteez.

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Time Warner Inc., announced that they will be splitting AOL’s dial-up Internet and advertising business into separate divisions by early 2009. This announcement follows major budget cuts to AOL’s blogging properties as well as complete cuts of some of AOL’s products including; Bluestring, Xdrive and AOL Pictures, according to an internal memo from Kevin Conroy, AOL’s EVP.

The split is said to ease Time Warner’s ability to offload AOL to some interested parties. According to some reports Earthlink may be a possible suitor for AOL’s dialup segment, and Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google, may be interested in the advertising business.

Starts tomorrow, August 6th, and lasts through August 9th.  It will be in Atlanta @ the Hyatt Regency, more info on that here.  If you will be in ATL or feel like jet-setting there in the near future registration is still open.  We recently chatted with Wayne Hicks who is the Executive Director of the BDPA Foundation.  He talks about what he does there, his blog (which many of you already read) Electronic Village, and on being the next Black Huffington Post :): Read the rest of this entry »

The Black Weblog Awards has officially opened up for nominations. The Black Weblog Awards enters its 4^th year recognizing the best and brightest in the Black blogosphere. Nominations will last until the 16^th of August, and finalist voting will be August 17^th -31^st . The winning blogs are expected to be announced on September 4.

Black Web 2.0 was a sure favorite to compete for this year’s Best Technology Blog Award, but due to our level of participation in the development and coordination of the awards, we cannot be nominated. For those who don’t know, Black Web 2.0 has been diligently working behind the scenes of the BWA for quite some time. Our goal is to ensure that the best black blogs continue to gain the recognition and the respect they deserve for their work throughout each year, and even though our work takes us out of the running, we thought that a successful Black Weblog Awards was worth more than any individual accolade.

Please support the Black Weblog Awards, by nominating and voting for you favorite black blogs. Good luck to all the blogs.

Maurice Cherry left a comment on Death of the Microsite with a link to the new Toyota Microsite to promote the  The 5th Door and it’s nooka companion site (I wasn’t familiar with Nooka before this.  They make watches).

Now it is pretty obvious, that “Urban” is a euphemism for black, but not just any type of black person, a trendsetter.  Despite this, my first thought was:  It sure is flashy… in a good way.

So, people are blogging.   The line-up (a.k.a. the proof that urban = black): Read the rest of this entry »

We got a chance to speak with Jason Walker this week.  Jason is a Senior Designer at Digitas in Detroit.  He talks with us about the role designers have at Digitas, the type of projects he works on, and his favorite sneakers among other things.  Check it out: Read the rest of this entry »

On the verge of our country picking its next President of the United States, one candidate has truly taken advantage of how he uses the internet to spread his message of change.  Closely watching this revolutionary online movement is Barack20.com, a Web 2.0 marketing concept created by Social CRM Expert Brent Leary and Online Business Development Expert David Bullock. The concept was formed out of the positive reaction Leary received from his Black Enterprise article, Barack Obama’s Lesson in Social Media. Leary then joined forces with Bullock in producing a webinar of the same name. The webinar was not promoted to many but the response from those fortunate to catch it was significant.

Leary and Bullock propose that Barack Obama’s success with social media provides best practice strategies that can be employed by small businesses. Leary states: Read the rest of this entry »