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Userplane, JS-Kit to offer widgets to 900,000 communities

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Userplane announced that it will offer JS-Kit’s Ratings service through Userplane’s distribution channels. JS-Kit will add Userplane’s Webchat application to its product suite, which includes; Comments, Reviews, Ratings, and Polls.

Webchat and Ratings are both incredibly light weight, simple to install, easy to customize, and provided free with advertising or under a low cost ASP model.

Webchat from Userplane is a turnkey chat solution that enables real-time text messaging and voice/video communication for community, dating, corporate and collaborative websites. Easily integrated and fully scalable, JS-Kit will be using the Userplane Minichat, a complementary component of Webchat, configured to display a single line of text or an entire conversation block. The clickable Minichat pane can be embedded on virtually any website, providing a window into the current action in the chat room.

JS-Kit’s Ratings widget uncovers and displays a site’s top content by allowing visitors to rate merchandise items, services, pictures, blog entries or any other objects on the site. It enables publishers to use their best content to keep visitors engaged and collect data about the audiences’ tastes and preferences.

“Both Userplane and JS-Kit bring interaction to websites and, incredibly, our product offerings are 100% complementary,” said Sam Wick, GM of Userplane and VP of AOL. “This cross distribution strategy allows our respective teams to expand the features of our core suite and focus on more cutting-edge work.”

“As IT budgets tighten in 2009, web publishers will be able to turn to our low cost, yet feature rich product suite, to achieve their objectives,” said Khris Loux, Chief Executive Officer, JS-Kit. “With this collaboration, publishers will also benefit by working with companies they know will be around. They can enjoy one-stop shopping with either of us, and they’ll get familiar with how our technologies work and can leverage that experience with any of our apps. It’s a great solution for everyone.”

Ads from Userplane’s social media ad network will flow through the Minichat product, providing monetization for both companies on any ads distributed through their use of the apps.

About Userplane

www.userplane.com

Userplane™ is the world’s premier social software provider for online communities. The company’s leading-edge applications enable instant communication, content and functionality for social networks – and support millions of users daily. Recently ranked as one of the 30 largest ad networks, Userplane offers a revenue-sharing solution that serves up half a billion impressions daily and reaches nearly 50M users monthly. A pioneer of the social web, Userplane was founded in 2001. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL based in Santa Monica, California.

About JS-Kit

www.js-kit.com

JS-Kit provides ultra-lightweight, feature-specific content and community services for any site via a hosted platform. The company’s services offer unparalleled ease of implementation and a compelling combination of power and affordability. JS-Kit empowers publishers by delivering must-have features, promoting rich interactivity and building community and customer knowledge.

Originally posted on October 20, 2008 @ 6:08 am

Meebo reaches over 70 million with new partnerships

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Meebo announced an additional round of partners who signed up to use Meebo Community IM for their own users, making Meebo the largest open IM network on the web. In combination with the eight launch partners announced in July, the network of partners signed up to use Meebo now has a total unduplicated global reach of 72.9 million and an unduplicated reach in the US of 26.2 million.

Meebo’s latest offering, Meebo Community IM, integrates open instant messaging into online communities, enabling live communication and real-time notifications between members of social media, entertainment, gaming, and blog networks. Users are also able to communicate with each other at meebo.com, resulting in an open and federated instant messaging network based on the collective social graphs of some of the Web’s largest community sites and instant messaging services. Meebo Community IM partners signed to date include Bleacher Report, DanceJam, Dhingana, Fanpop, Flixster, Global Grind, IBeatYou, myYearbook, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group’s AddictingGames, OrangeShark, Piczo, PerfSpot, SparkArt, Sugar Publishing, Tagged, UGAME.net, Yaari, Zinch, and Zorpia.

Originally posted on October 14, 2008 @ 9:10 am

Online community to solve world’s toughest challenges launched

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Clean Action Network, an online community for people to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges, was recently unveiled at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York City.

Founded by William Loiry, president of Equity International, and designed and developed by Jennings Public Relations & Advertising in Kansas City, Mo., the Clean Action Network was created to facilitate and empower people interested in creating a clean future. Members on the site range from consumers and entrepreneurs to business leaders and government officials from across the globe. The community is committed to providing educational tools for its members to address solutions and solving top environmental issues ranging from clean air and drinking water to the health and safety of children.

Valerie Jennings, CEO & president of Jennings Public Relations & Advertising, Inc., said the new online community gives people a voice in the preservation of the world’s future. “Solutions to global challenges no longer lie in the hands of the powerful; anyone can contribute to solving our world’s challenges. The Clean Action Network provides a forum for people to share and discuss ideas and insights,” Jennings said.

The announcement is part of Loiry’s commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative for a clean future.

Originally posted on September 29, 2008 @ 1:58 pm

US Presidential conversation goes global with LiveJournal

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The coming presidential elections in the US is not only important for Americans. The election also has significant repercussions outside of the US. With this, LiveJournal announced a uniquely global community, US Election 2008, dedicated to the discussion of the Presidential campaign.

The community is for journalists from newspapers outside of the US to gather the views and opinions of Americans regarding the pending Presidential election. The community is intended to facilitate wide-ranging public discussion of important political issues, including reactions of people in the U.S. and abroad to the issues faced by the U.S. Presidential candidates. Participating newspapers include The Independent from the United Kingdom, Gazeta.ru from Russia, and Mint from India. New topics are presented by journalists posting questions or articles for review in this community. Participants then respond to those questions and their views, when necessary, are translated into the language of the publication to represent the views of those living within the United States.

During the October 7 (9:00 pm EDT) ”Town Hall” style Presidential debate in Nashville, community moderators will follow the debate on the US Election 2008 community, seeding questions to the community in real time. The conversation will directly follow the twists and turns of the debate, creating a virtual Town Hall to mirror the debate.

Originally posted on October 6, 2008 @ 10:54 am

Wazoo Sports to broadcast Army Bowl

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If you can’t have enough of football, here’s another one for you. Wazoo Sports, a high school sports broadcast network, will air online the 33rd Annual Army High School Football Bowl live from McAdams Field in Fort Knox, KY. The Fort Knox Eagles will host the Fort Campbell Falcons Friday, October 3, 2008 at 8:00PM ET.

Wazoo Sports will kick off pregame coverage at 7:45PM ET. Pregame will feature special messages from players whose families are deployed around the world.

Wazoo Sports aired 120 basketball games during the 2007–2008 basketball seasons and will broadcast approximately 50 high school football games during the 2008 Football season. Wazoo Sports also provides unlimited ON DEMAND viewing of all their content.

Originally posted on September 29, 2008 @ 1:43 pm