You may have heard of one Phil Campbell in your life but have you heard of all the Phil Campbells of this world reunited in one place: the town of Phil Campbell, Alabama? Phils United have one critical mission: help the tornado-stricken town in its hour of need and rebuild it!
The tornado sadly devastated the 1,000-person town on the afternoon of April 27th, taking hundreds of homes, two churches, gas stations and retail stores on its way.
Our local Phil Campbell will be hitting the road in 2 weeks time (14th of June that is), live streaming from his car on his way from Tampa to Phil Campbell. We managed to catch him today to take us through his preparations and expectations. Watch the video at Bambuser.
Having Phil involved in the initiative is a great opportunity for us to share the support of United Phil Campbell and the testimonials of inhabitants on the ground in real-time. Phil will document what they have been through and take us through how the event has affected the lives of the inhabitants and, more importantly, how they are now experiencing the re-building of their own town.
You don't need to be a Phil Campbell to help. You can show your support by giving whatever you can. To donate go to: http://imwithphil.bbnow.org/donate.php
Calling all Bambuser users with a bit of imagination! We were inspired by our friends at Sortedam Ventures who built a "crowd-sourcing" Bambuser robot that can receive remote orders. It looks like they're not the only ones. Check also Give Away Candy that lets you participate from your twitter account.
Do you think you can even do better and want a challenge
Build a Bambuser robot and get the chance to WIN a professional media campaign, and be featured in some of the world's biggest newspapers and TV shows.
To launch the competition Michael from Sortedam Ventures gives us an interview explaining how they built their robot and what you would need. Watch it embedded below, or at Bambuser.
How to participate
Build a Bambuser robot based on Bambuser broadcasting technology (using a smartphone or webcam/DV cam) with crowd-sourced functionality built-in to enable interaction with the audience. To enter the competition a team or individual should:
Broadcast the construction phase and finalized version of the robot using the hashtag #robot. (You can broadcast as many videos as you like)
Competition run time
The competition is running from the 24th of May until the 14th of June 2011.
Prize
The video generating the most views and the most appreciation from the Bambuser Crew (based on creativity, engagement and fun) all together, will win a professional media campaign and will be featured in some of the world's biggest newspapers and TV shows.
Competition Terms and Conditions
The competition is running from the 24th of May to the 14th of June 2011 (12:00am GMT). The winners must be aged 18 years or over. This promotion may be conducted over several different websites simultaneously. The broadcast of the robot needs to be publicly available on bambuser.com until at least the 30th of June 2011. Participants can broadcast as many videos as they like to participate, using the hashtag #robot in the broadcast title.
An email will be sent to the winner informing them of their win. Only persons registered with Bambuser are eligible. Prizes must be claimed within 14 days. Unclaimed prizes will be void. Bambuser reserves the right to withdraw this competition at any time. Winner must have a smartphone or web/DV-cam that is capable of live broadcasting.
Bambuser is launching a brand new suite of Premium packages to meet the needs of our premium users. We have listened to what people want and shaped our service offering accordingly.
Along with the new packages comes features highly requested from our Premium Community:
Ad-free player - The opportunity to broadcast without any ads in the player.
Monetization of your videos - we now offer opportunities to display a wide range of ads in the player. Pre- post-, mid-rolls and overlays. Simply plug in to our ad serving system and start monetizing you videos from day one.
Extensive statistics - Bambuser offers easy access to more detailed statistics that will help you to understand your viewers' behavior. You can see how many viewers are watching live and on-demand, for how long, from what country and more.
As part of our Premium range, we're offering three package levels in order to accommodate a wide range of use cases. You could be an event organiser, a blogger, a media production company or simply a commercial brand looking for a new way to engage with your audience. We'll be happy to advise you on the package that best suits your needs.
The Premium packages also include all the basic functions that Bambuser already offers today, such as the ability to broadcast from web/DV cams and from over 260 smart phone models, making the videos fully accessible on the viewers' mobiles and computers, both live and on-demand. On top of this comes the ability to easily share videos to a wide range of social media platforms, stream live video directly to your Facebook page and interact with your audience in real-time.
Visit http://bambuser.com/premium and pick the package that best suits you. If you're looking for a customized solution, we'll be more than happy to help out and make sure you get what you want.
Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf is coming up and the final takes place on the 14th of May.
Put this date in your calendar and in the meantime, enjoy some exciting Bambuser live footage, including exclusives behind the scenes thanks to two partners on site:
The British online magazine Popbitch, whose reporter on site will follow the rehearsals, press conferences and behind the scenes activities closely. Popbitch will put extra focus on coverage of UK's participant Blue. Make sure you keep an extra eye on the Popbitch site on Monday as there might be an exclusive interview with Blue.
Swedish celebrity TV profile, singer and international voice coach Kishti Tomita who works with Russian star Alex Sparrow and his team. There will be videos from rehearsals and behind the scenes. Check it out at http://www.kishti.se/video/livetv.html.
Why not regularly check both channels to ensure you don't miss anything important, fun or crazy.
If you are around Düsseldorf and want to do some cool Bambuser coverage, please let us know and we'll tell the world about you.
It's always fun and interesting to get to meet fellow entrepreneurs, VC's and potential partners from the UK. There's a really nice vibe over here in London and it seems like the start-up scene is really booming.
Lots of cool companies will be attending, as well as great VC's with extensive experience and knowledge and willingness to invest in the next European online Blockbuster. Among the companies presenting are cool ones like Moshi Monsters and Pora Ora.
