On April 16, 2010, the Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program will be hosting TEDx Seattle at the Pacific Science Center. This regional event, independent from but endorsed by TED, aims to “bring together great minds in creativity, scholarship, and entrepreneurship to discuss the possibilities and prospects of social development enhanced through information technologies.” The theme of the conference is “Convening Community Through Social Technologies: Stories from Puget Sound to Cape Town.”

A limited number of tickets are now available. To apply for one, go to http://tedxseattle.com/attend/. Attendees will be selected by lottery and notified on or about March 24.

Confirmed speakers at TEDx Seattle include award-winning science fiction author Greg Bear, Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh, acclaimed photographer Amanda Koster, and Fiona Lee, the Africa Project Manager for Google.

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MCDM’s Emerging series continues with an interview with Michele Myers, Producer of KEXP documentaries. KEXP’s current ten-part radio documentary, Blues For Hard Times, features UW Music History professor Larry Starr. Past documentary series, from Portraits of Post-Punk to Pop Goes Electronic to Civil Rights Songs, have covered a wide range of musical genres.

The interview with Michele Myers will be streamed on the MCDM Livestream Channel. Tune in on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 12:00 P.M. (PST).

About KEXP

KEXP Documentaries

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Free Press’ mobile phone campaigns fly under a “Free My Phone” banner and feature a cell phone angelically equipped with white wings. For this specific campaign, though, the phone has been retouched with an angry facial expression and the indecorous exclamation “ETF, WTF?” The ETF stands for the “early termination fees” charged by cell phone carriers. And you know what the WTF stands for.

Free Press is fuming that “carriers still force us to pay outrageous penalties — up to $350 — if we cancel our phone service or switch carriers. There’s one question on everyone’s mind: WTF?” (Not everyone may phrase it that way, but it’s certainly a good question why termination fees are so high. After all, if you want to cancel your cable service, providers don’t hit you with exorbitant fees.)

Apparently, the FCC is asking the same question (though, perhaps, without the “WTF?”): “After Washington threatened to investigate its activity, Verizon began pro-rating its ETF (so you would owe less for every month of your contract). Google and T-Mobile also lowered the combined ETF on the Google phone from a whopping $550 to $350 — still obscene — after a FCC letter of inquiry about their behavior.”

In their letter appealing to the FCC, Free Press makes it case by saying that “for millions of Americans, mobile devices represent the future of the Internet. Mass adoption of new ‘smart’ phones is sparking online innovation and blurring the lines separating the wired and wireless Web.”

More and more consumers are certainly starting to use mobile phones to access the Web, and early termination fees are unreasonably high. This is all true enough. But do early termination fees really block access to information? Do they have any impact on the quality of the media broadcast through mobile platforms?

I sympathize with the urge to reduce termination fees and applaud Free Press for lobbying the FCC. But what remains unmentioned in this campaign is that these fees are symptoms of a monopolistic power play by carriers and device makers like Apple. What really will “free my phone” is to take players vying for dominance in the smartphone market to task when they create closed platforms with consumers locked into services and subscriptions, whether they want to or not. Even if AT&T would let iPhone users walk away from their service, they still can’t take their iPhone and use it on a different network, or sell it to a friend for use without voice or data services (as an iPod touch).

Perhaps this is beyond the scope of the current Free Press campaign, but the focus on early termination fees seems like a populist cheap shot, narrowly missing the real target: open platforms and full consumer ownership of smartphones.

This post was first published, in slightly longer form, on the blog @peterlux.

Peter Luyckx is the Managing Editor at Flip the Media. Recently, he worked as a Web Producer and Editor at Microsoft’s MSN Health & Fitness and MSN Shopping (now Bing). He co-founded and published the environmental newsletter The Frugal Environmentalist. He is a graduate student in the MCDM program and can be followed on Twitter @ peterlux.

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• July 19, 2010 — On Media and AntennaGate (11)
• January 21, 2010 — The Next Nintendo? The Rise of Smart Phone Gaming (5)
• December 9, 2009 — Media. Power. Panic. Monopoly. (5)
• July 16, 2009 — Inspired iPhone Storytelling (1)

Text the word “CHILE” to 25383 to donate $10 (Habitat for Humanity)

Text the word “CHILE”  to 20222 to donate $10 (World Vision)

Text the word “CHILE” to 52000 to donate $10 (Salvation Army)

Text the word “YOUTH” to 20222 to donate $10 (UNICEF)

100% of your donation goes to the recipient charity, and the donation appears as a charge on your carrier bill, standard rates may apply. Additional campaigns will be announced here.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/todosnuestrosmuertos/

Related on Flipthemedia.com: Startup City: Mobile Giving Foundation

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Why do you think the appeal to donate to Haiti by texting has been so successful?

It was a powerful message replicated across all communication platforms for the benefit of major charities. Texting provides an immediate way for a person to respond. It’s a powerful medium to take action.

Its success builds on a few factors. Mobile giving reaches an addressable audience of 260 million cell phone users. As a country, we send billions of text messages a year. The technology has become ubiquitous. Because of the work we’ve been doing, the infrastructure and technology were in place when the earthquake struck Haiti, and agreements were pre-negotiated with the carriers. And the billing aspect is appealing because it doesn’t require the use of a credit card.

Hasn’t this technology been around for a while? What has changed since the tsunami in 2004?

When the Asian tsunami hit, two things were relatively new:Shortcodes only emerged at the end of 2002 and started as a way for brands to interact with customers; premium billing capability is even newer and came about in early 2004.

The vision for the Mobile Giving Foundation came through the initial response to the Asian tsunami. People at various wireless companies got together by phone at 11 a.m. one morning and by 5 p.m. we had a campaign across carriers. For those working in the industry, this feels better than trying to sell text alert packages.

After selling my company m-Qube, I wanted to establish an infrastructure for every day charitable giving.

Do you think mobile giving appeals to a younger generation of donors?

No doubt about that. One of the reasons nonprofits are interested in mobile giving is that it gives them access to a younger demographic that they have a hard time reaching. The demographic profile of mobile donors is assumed to skew heavily to the 18 to 21 crowd, which is valuable to nonprofits. They may give small today, but over a period of time may grow into more substantial donors. We’re currently putting research around that, trying to establish hard metrics.

Younger people like mobile giving because it’s a technology that’s familiar and it provides immediate satisfaction. In our research, one phrase we heard over and over was that “they felt empowered.”

What’s been the impact of social media on the success of text giving?

Social media had a strong impact, especially in the first 24 hours after the Haitian earthquake. There’s a period of huge emotional pull, which social media accelerates. We were able to go live with our mobile giving campaigns within two hours. Facebook and Twitter helped the campaigns go viral.

Does this success represent a sea change for mobile giving?

Yes, it has had an accelerating effect on making consumers more comfortable with text giving and on generating more interest from nonprofits. Before the earthquake, we were servicing more than 400 organizations. Since the disaster, we have added more than 23 charities specific to Haiti relief.

Mobile giving is attractive to nonprofits because of three elements: acquisition of new donors, fundraising and donor engagement—nonprofits can ask donors if they want more information, and, for instance, send them a link to their Web site.

What types of campaigns are most successful?

In our experience, mobile giving doesn’t work equally well for everybody. Response rates vary. The type of cause makes a difference. Campaigns that try to raise funds for capital construction, for instance, may only get a 1.5 percent participation rate, whereas campaigns that have a service element are a lot more successful. Text giving has a very immediate response, so it’s perhaps not surprising that more emotional appeals work best.

What are the costs to the nonprofit?

One-hundred percent of donations are given to the nonprofit. The only direct charge from the Mobile Giving Foundation to the charity is a $350 application fee.

Fees charged by the mobile marketing companies we work with vary. It depends on what the nonprofit needs. Do they want a sophisticated campaign that’s integrated with an online campaign, requires technology acquisition, database management or Web widgets? That adds to the cost. On average, the total fee structure is 6 to 7 percent. In emergencies, some mobile marketing companies will waive the fees.

What have been the biggest challenges to establishing the Mobile Giving Foundation?

Like any startup working toward a vision, everything can be a challenge. We had to resolve technical issues with the carriers and eliminate their typical 50 percent revenue share. We had to raise awareness among nonprofits and needed to explain how to use this as a fundraising tool. We had to reassure consumers worried about security and breach of confidentiality. Organizationally, we had to figure out how to raise enough money for the services we provide.

Why did you choose to locate the company in Bellevue?

I live in Redmond, so it was a matter of convenience. Some of the benefits to being in the area are that it is close to many wireless assets including AT&T and T-Mobile. There are many leaders and pioneers in the wireless and nonprofit industries in this area as well.

For more on the Mobile Giving Foundation, visit http://www.mobilegiving.org

Read all Startup City profiles.

Images: Startup City logo by Michelle Walls. Photograph of Jim Manis courtesy of the Mobile Giving Foundation.

Peter Luyckx is the Managing Editor at Flip the Media. Recently, he worked as a Web Producer and Editor at Microsoft’s MSN Health & Fitness and MSN Shopping (now Bing). He co-founded and published the environmental newsletter The Frugal Environmentalist. He is a graduate student in the MCDM program and can be followed on Twitter @ peterlux.

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• April 3, 2010 — 3 “E’s” and 1 TED “X” (0)
• October 21, 2009 — Startup City: Serra Media (2)
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• June 8, 2010 — Old Business for New Times (2)

The second installment of Town Hall’s new series with University of Washington Department of Communication, The Revolution is Here: How Digital Media and Awakened Citizens Are Changing the World, will feature Hanson Hosein, director of UW’s Master of Communication in Digital Media.

Formerly a foreign correspondent for NBC News, Hosein will discuss how people under authoritarian regimes, such as Iran, are using new technologies to communicate, and seizing back some of the concentrated power formerly exerted through a tightly controlled state media. UW Political Scientist Lance Bennett responds to Professor Hosein’s case, and moderates the audience discussion.

Tickets are $5 at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street (directions). Town Hall members receive priority seating. Presented by the Town Hall Center for Civic Life, with the University of Washington Department of Communication.

Cross-posted from http://mcdm.washington.edu/news.shtml

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• November 21, 2008 — Crowdsourcing: Name the New MCDM Center! (37)
• November 9, 2009 — An Ode to Contemplation (32)
• February 25, 2008 — Flip Video Vlog: Codecs and You! (25)
• November 29, 2009 — Foursquare, the next big social media thing? (17)
• November 17, 2009 — Social Networks and Video Games (16)

Note: We didn’t include posts by current Flip the Media editorial board members in this list or posts by MCDM professors. (You can find some of our favorite contributions by teachers and editorial board members at the end of this post.)

#1 Every Company is a Media Company

Not that long ago, media companies were easy to define. A media company could be a movie studio, television network, newspaper or magazine publisher, radio station or really any company that controlled a means of distributing content. But technology has brought about an enormous shift that many companies don’t yet recognize. Most companies are now enormously invested in media as a part of their everyday business, but few of them realize it. Read more…

#2 Twitter, Latino Style

Twitter has become a useful tool in Latin America in areas such as media, retail, and politics. Read more…

#3 Netflix ‘Culture’ Guidelines Get Two Thumbs Up

In this era of social media, companies have made headlines (for better or worse) by way of their social media policies. With respect to this trend, I say Netflix should take Best in Show. Read more…

#4 FTC Plans to Monitor ‘Blogger Payola’

To combat deceptive sponsored posts, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced last year that it plans to revise its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (“the Guides”) to regulate how bloggers and other social media users endorse products. Read more…

Also read Helen Pitlick’s followup post: Bloggers Beware – The FTC is Watching for Blogger Payola.

#5 Social Media Survives Budget Slashing at Many Companies… Why?

The 2009 Tribalization of Business Study by Deloitte, Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research revealed that 94 percent of the 400 companies surveyed intend to maintain or increase investment in their communities. Read more…

#6 The Voter Engagement Success of Obama ‘08

During the 2008 Presidential election, the Obama campaign pushed the envelope in two significant ways: they set out to change the face of the electoral map by mobilizing new and young voters; and they took the guesswork out of their resource allocation strategy to achieve that goal. Read more…

#7 Chris Anderson on the Future of “Free”

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Somehow, someway, you’re paying for that sandwich. Just maybe not in the way you’d think. Read more…

#8 What Social Media Companies Need to Know about China

Most Western media coverage of Internet usage in China focuses on the narrative of censorship and control, missing the vibrant social nature of the largest internet market in the world. Read more…

#9 Facebook Ads: Creepy or Amazing?

I’m going to say it – I really like the ads on Facebook. This is a significant statement because my traditional attitude toward advertisement consumption has been rather adversarial. Read more…

Favorite Posts By MCDM Professors and Board Members:

Blending Personal and Professional Brands

#swineflu or #swinefail?

Google, the Platform

Doing the Wave: Comments and Questions About Google Wave

My First 10 Days With the Kindle 2

What Do We Really Know About Iran’s Election?

#iranelection

Digital Love

Digital Love, Real Love

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From such viral hits as I Can Has Cheezburger to helpful tools like Walk Score, hundreds of startup companies have their roots in Seattle’s thriving entrepreneurial community. This Q&A is the third in a series of interviews with Seattle-area startups.

Shane Brinkman-Davis, Co-Founder and CTO of Imikimi

When was Imikimi founded?

Development began in July 2006. The site went live in May 2007.

What does Imikimi do? What makes your company unique?

Imikimi.com is an online community where people create, re-mix and collaborate on digital images in a fun and easy way. Imikimi artists have created more than 1.7 million original photo-frame templates. A digital photo frame is an image with one or more sections—drop-ins—where photos can be placed. On our site these frames range from e-cards (Thank You, Happy Birthday, etc.) to basic frames (both fancy and plain) to silly (face drop-ins).

Other users can customize these templates with their own photos and share them with their friends. Users have uploaded a quarter-billion photos into Imikimi photo frames.

So you have thousands of users creating templates that millions of other users customize and share. Everyone gets to be an artist whether they have only a little or a lot of skill.

How and why did Imikimi get started?

I’ve always had a passion for good UI, and I love using graphics programs. It was a joy to create Imikimi’s easy and powerful editor, and it’s gratifying that it has now been installed by millions of users.

But, to be honest, my original goal was to create a business that could become a platform for testing and supporting my research into core computing technologies such as parallel processing, programming and runtime environments.

What was your initial target audience? How did Imikimi change in response to users?

Originally I thought our site would attract artists and website creators, which turned out to be only partially accurate. There are thousands of artists using our site, but they comprise less than 1 percent of our users. The other 99 percent was completely unexpected.

The digital photo-framing space that we now occupy totally took us by surprise. In fact, I’m still trying to grok the implications.

Our current demographic is primarily women, ages 13-30, using social networks.

What’s been the biggest challenge for Imikimi?

Keeping a large site operational while trying to continue development on a shoestring budget.

How do you make money? How has your business model evolved?

Our plan was to make money with advertising. We still get the majority of our revenue this way, but it is only about one-tenth of the revenue we expected to generate. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why.

We also attempted to get our customers interested in purchasing physical prints (on everything from mugs to calendars to hats, etc.) of their creations, but that didn’t take off.

Last summer we added premium features for a nominal subscription ($3/month with discounts for signing up for a year).

What do you predict will be the next big thing in digital media?

That’s not easy to answer. I could list many things that will happen sometime in the next 20 years, but which one will hit in the next 1-3?

One interesting thing that I think is just around the corner is virtual actors. Very soon it will be possible for computer graphics to convincingly create photorealistic humans. I’d expect to see actors licensing their face in the future.

Another thing that might radically change our computer-interfacing in the near future is SixthSense technology. SixthSense is a wearable device that enables new ways for the real world to interact with data. As everything becomes digital, this technology has the potential to tie the digital back into the physical.

What’s your favorite gadget or application right now?

I’m still in love with my iPhone. It is such a pleasure to use. It is good-to-excellent at most of its core tasks, and with all the apps, its functionality keeps expanding. For example, Imikimi just launched its own iPhone app.

What’s your advice for wannabe entrepreneurs?

You are going to make mistakes both big and small. There is going to be too much to do by a factor of 10. Just remember to cut your losses as quickly as you identify them. Don’t dwell on the past. Just stay focused on the core things (3-5 max) for making your business a success.

The next time I start a business, the most important thing I would do differently is to get funded. We were self-funded for way too long. We struggled to keep up with our initial crazy growth curve. We then struggled to keep up with all the operational maintenance issues. The result is that we have very little time and money left to put into forward development and providing value to the customer.

I’ve read that most successful startups are founded by people with at least 5-10 years of experience in their industry. This gives them the contacts and operational experience that you don’t have time to acquire while running a startup.

Peter Luyckx is the Managing Editor at Flip the Media. Recently, he worked as a Web Producer and Editor at Microsoft’s MSN Health and MSN Shopping (now Bing). He co-founded and published the environmental newsletter The Frugal Environmentalist. He is a graduate student in the MCDM program and can be followed on Twitter @peterlux.

Most Commented Posts

• November 21, 2008 — Crowdsourcing: Name the New MCDM Center! (37)
• November 9, 2009 — An Ode to Contemplation (32)
• February 25, 2008 — Flip Video Vlog: Codecs and You! (25)
• November 29, 2009 — Foursquare, the next big social media thing? (17)
• November 17, 2009 — Social Networks and Video Games (16)