Media

[photo by OZinOH] I wanted to share a list of cool, free multimedia tools from a talk I presented last night at Florida International University during a meeting of the fledgling Hacks/Hackers chapter in Miami. I also got to help with some “TOOL tools,” as local journohacker and Hacks/Hackers co-organizer Rebekah Monson put it, during an impromptu tire change in a rainstorm. So without further ado, here’s a PDF of the handout, as well as a list below. It’s not an exhaustive list but just a sampling of my favorites: CHARTS/DATA VISUALIZATION Datawrapper– datawrapper.de Embeddable, easy to make charts (line, pie, etc.) that are also downloadable for print. (NOTE: Non-modern browsers display a static image version of the chart) Infogr.am – infogr.am Gorgeous data charts with a cool layout tool to add photos, text, multiple charts and more. Pro account lets you download files. Tableizer – tableizer.journalistopia.com Quickly turns spreadsheets into HTML tables you can put online. Built by yours truly! Google MyMaps – maps.google.com (Click “My Places>Create Map”) Google has beefed up its map creation tool with shapes, custom points and more. Google Fusion Tables – drive.google.com (Go to Create>Connect More Apps) Create interactive maps using shapefiles and robust data sets. Google Forms – drive.google.com (Go to Create>Form) Create forms to get from users and collect it in an organized spreadsheet. PHOTO & VIDEO Zeega – zeega.com Animated GIFs meet funky photo galleries. Includes audio, video and text editing. Pixlr – pixlr.com Excellent in-browser photo editor, perfect for wide newsroom use. Has advanced and easy modes, layers and more. GIMP – gimp.org The leading free, open-source photo editing tool similar to Photoshop. TubeChop – tubechop.com Point readers to a specific chunk of a YouTube video. ThingLink – thinglink.com Post photos with tags containg text, other photos, videos, music and more. PhotoPeach – photopeach.com A quick and free way to make photo slideshows to music. $3/month lets you upload audio. ClipConverter or Easy YouTube Downloader – clipconverter.cc, http://is.gd/xK5MDs Used to grab YouTube video source files. Useful for transmitting video from the field via YouTube. ClipConverter can also be used as a general purpose file conversion tool. Live streaming: UStream.TV, Livestream.com, YouTube.com Excellent live streaming services that have embeddable players. Each have different revenue models and setups.  Qik – qik.com A service that allows you to easily stream live video from many mobile devices. TIMELINES TimelineJS – timeline.verite.co An embeddable timeline app with a slideshow-like presentation. VuVox – vuvox.com The collage tool creates stunning multimedia timelines that let you embed slideshows, video and more. Dipity – dipity.com An embeddable timeline app great for lots of detailed data points. OTHER TOOLS RebelMouse – rebelmouse.com Display a variety of live social feeds in an attractive layout. Great for breaking news. Storify – storify.com Embed all sorts of content: social posts, photos, videos and much more in a vertical timeline. Great for breaking news or topical coverage. AutoHotKey – autohotkey.com End dumb, repetitive typing by creating macros that will run in any program. I have a tutorial posted here on how to use this in a newsroom. Audacity – audacity.sourceforge.net A powerful, free audio-editing suite used by many multimedia producers. Spotify Embeds – developer.spotify.com/technologies/spotify-play-button/ Embed commercial songs and playlists. Use the smaller iframe for a compact display. EasyPolls & MicroPoll– easypolls.net, micropoll.com Create embeddable polls for your site with no hassle. Inkscape – inkscape.org A nice, open-source vector editing tool similar to Adobe Illustrator. FireShot - addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648 Lets you easily create, edit and add notes to scre

When BitTorrent Inc. announced its plan to make uTorrent ad-supported there was a small user revolt. The people complaining were mostly annoyed that there would be no option to disable the ads. Luckily, BitTorrent listened to the feedback and quickly decided that users would indeed get a chance to opt-out. However, new stats revealed by the San Francisco company show that there are plenty of users who do not disable the ads displayed in the top bar. In fact, billions of ad impressions have been served since the change was introduced late last year. According to BitTorrent Inc. the uTorrent and BitTorrent mainline clients are currently good for six billion ad displays a month. Most of these come from uTorrent, which has by far the largest user base of the two. uTorrent Ad Based on the stats reported by BitTorrent, the uTorrent client serves more than five billion ads every month. This is quite an impressive figure and more than most smaller advertising companies serve on their entire network. A quick inspection of the type of ads run on the network reveals that poker software and PC performance ‘enhancing’ apps are the most advertised products. This may of course differ based on the country people download from. Some of the advertised products are downloaded by thousands of people a day. A product called “SpeedUpMyComputer” has more than 45,000 seeders and hundreds of active downloaders at the time of writing. Thus far we haven’t been able to spot any ads for premium brands, or plugs for entertainment industry companies. This might be the next challenge for BitTorrent, because there’s certainly an audience to cater to. As we reported earlier not all ads are allowed on the network. For example, BitTorrent does not accept ads for torrent-friendly VPN providers as these are considered to be “high risk” for some reason. All in all, it is safe to assume that the ads are providing a healthy new revenue stream for the company. Over the past years the bulk of the revenue came from toolbar installs but with the current numbers the ads have the potential to add a few million to that each year. TorrentFreak asked BitTorrent to comment on the dazzling numbers and the company’s outlook for the future, but we received no response. Source: uTorrent Serves Over 5 Billion Ads Per Month

Newspapers that generally support the Tory party have never been wildly enthusiastic about David Cameron. Now, on the evidence of today's leading articles and commentaries, they appear wholly hostile.The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph carry extremely critical editorials, as does The Sun. And the Daily Express weighs in with a short rebuff. The Times, more measured as always, advises the prime minister to show greater leadership.To make matters worse for Cameron, there is yet more favourable press publicity for Ukip, the upstart party now apparently attracting support from disaffected Tories.I was amused by the Mail's reference to "press baron Lord Beaverbrook" in the intro of its leading article.It recalls one of his regular opening questions in his phone calls to his editors: "Who's in charge of the clattering train?"But, naturally enough, it fails to mention that Beaverbrook was the owner of the rival Express. No matter. The quote is certainly relevant to an editorial that amounts to a full-frontal attack on Cameron.The Mail: Cameron is guilty of 'sublime incompetence' Accusing him of "sublime incompetence" for turning "his pledge of an EU referendum, which ought to have been an electoral asset, into a fiasco," the Mail continues:"His gay marriage legislation, for which there is no public clamour whatever, has been an embarrassment. And now one of his inner circle is said to have dismissed party activists as 'mad, swivel-eyed loons'.Yesterday saw an extraordinary milestone in Tory history, when Ukip – the party Mr Cameron called 'fruitcakes and loonies', and which is now lagging only two points behind him in the polls – took out a full-page advertisement in the Daily Telegraph, house journal of the Conservative party.The irony is that, while written in saloon-bar language normally disdained by the Telegraph, every word was bang on target."Though it concedes that Nigel Farage's jibes were "a trifle unfair" it agrees with "the main thrust" of his attack, about Cameron's circle looking down on the party's natural supporters.Then it pointedly questions whether Cameron has any political convictions, contrasting that with the passionate views of "grassroots Tories" (which is a euphemism for the Mail's passionate views). They are "curbing mass immigration, standing up against the EU, reforming the NHS, cutting red tape, recognising marriage in the tax system or protecting children from internet porn." Worse, says the Mail, is that on the few matters that appear important to Cameron – such as gay marriage, wind farms and overseas aid – "he is utterly at odds with traditional Tories."And so "he is driving them into the arms of an engaging, pint-guzzling eccentric [Farage] whose natural place is on the Tory back benches."The Telegraph: Cameron's fight drove Tories to UkipThe Telegraph also suggests that Cameron is responsible for "the latest poll putting Ukip just two percentage points behind the Tories."Noting that "the campaign for gay marriage… prompted an ugly battle with the party's grassroots", the paper argues:"The subsequent revolt of the back benches has amplified rather than dampened the image of Tory traditionalism… while the insensitive way in which the prime minister tried to confront his party's social conservatives fuelled that impression that he is part of a privileged clique that looks upon ordinary members as 'swivel-eyed loons.'"According to the Telegraph, the fight that he picked (over gay marriage) "did not strengthen his leadership: it has fractured the British right, driving many Tories into Ukip's arms."After a reference to last week's rebellion by 116 Tory MPs over the EU referendum it says the current situation is "alarmingly reminiscent of the mid-1990s, when John Major struggled to hold his party together" over Europe:"The result then was that the government failed to win credit for its handling of the economy and was instead judged by the voters on its chaotic internal politics. Likewise, today's Conservat

Changes at the top at eBay India: Latif Nathani will join the company as its Managing Director, taking over responsibilities from Muralikrishnan B, who will leave the company by the end of the quarter, looking at entrepreneurial opportunities. Nathani, according to his LinkedIn profile, has been a product strategy consultant as the CEO of a firm called Mr LMN, and based in the San Francisco. In the past, he has worked with Microsoft (until July 2010) and Symantec. The fact that eBay might be looking for a new country manager for India was reported by TechCircle last month, and the company had declined to comment then. A statement from eBay India points towards the company looking at things from a mobile first perspective, pointing towards Nathani’s experience in mobile and in India. Muralikrishnan B had been made Country Manager in May 2011, after his predecessor Ambareesh Murty left the company. He had joined EBay India in 2005 as Director- Category and Product Management and has worked with VSNL, Sify and Asian Paints. The statement from eBay India points towards Murali exploring entrepreneurial opportunities outside of eBay, and it remains to be seen whether he follows Murty in starting up. Murty’s venture, Pepperfry, is among the few ecommerce companies to raise money in the current market situation, wherein most ecommerce ventures are struggling to stay afloat, and many are shutting down. Do read:Ambareesh Murty: You Don’t Need Much Money To Build A Good Ecommerce Biz In India. The statement from eBay India: LEADERSHIP CHANGES AT EBAY Dear Members Today we announced a transition in Leadership at eBay India. eBay India (www.ebay.in), India’s leading eCommerce Marketplace, today announced a transition in leadership. Mr. Latif Nathani, a senior executive with deep experience in the technology space in both India and the US will join eBay India as Managing Director. Mr. Nathani is taking over from Mr. Muralikrishnan B, who will be transitioning his responsibilities by the end of the quarter and then will be exploring entrepreneurial opportunities outside of eBay. Mr. Nathani has 22 years of experience including a 15 year career at Microsoft and Symantec and most recently served as CEO of product strategy consulting firm. He has extensive expertise in building and leading high performance global business, engineering and marketing teams. He also led a consumer incubator for Microsoft India (including equity investments in mobile payments), headed Global Product Marketing for Symantec’s Norton business and was cofounder of eMemories.com Mr. Nathani said, “I am excited about leading the thriving eBay India business, a market leader in India, that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs make a livelihood as well as provide vast selection and great deals to millions of consumers. The marketplaces business model fascinates me and I look forward to steering the talented India team to even greater heights.” eBay Senior Vice President and Managing Director APAC Mr. Jay Lee said, “India will be a mobile first market with the vast majority of Indian consumers having their first online transaction on a smartphone or tablet. Mr. Nathani’s deep experience in mobile, combined with his solid professional track record in India and the US make him an ideal candidate to lead eBay’s Indian business through the exciting changes ahead.” “I also want to thank Mr. Muralikrishnan for driving our efforts in strengthening eBay’s position in an increasingly competitive market over the past two years.” Mr. Muralikrishan said, “It has been my proud privilege to lead the India team and business through two of the most exciting years the industry has seen. We have set new benchmarks improving the customer experience along with building a stronger brand and reputation among government, industry, entrepreneurs and consumers. Regards Team eBay

Police in Uganda have raided two newspapers and two radio stations in a bid to discover the source of a story embarrassing to the government of President Yoweri Museveni.On 7 May, the Daily Monitor published an article about the so-called "Muhoozi project". It claimed that there was a conspiracy to frame, or eliminate, high-ranking members of the government who do not support a plan for Museveni's son, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to assume power when his father steps down.The story was based on a leaked letter written on 29 April by the head of Uganda's intelligence service, General David Sejjusa, and sent to the director of the internal security organisation, in which he called for the plot to be investigated.Soon after publication, police turned up at the Monitor's offices to question the article's authors, Risdel Kasasira and Richard Wanambwa, and managing editor, Don Wanyama. They refused to reveal the source of the letter.Police then obtained a court order demanding a copy of the Sejjusa letter and disclosure of the paper's source. The Monitor refused to comply with the order, and on 20 May some 50 officers raided the paper, which shares its Kampala headquarters with other outlets owned by the Nation Media Group, including two radio stations.According to a statement by the group, police disabled the printing press, computer servers and radio transmission equipment, and informed the staff that the offices were a crime scene. Police also raided a tabloid newspaper, the Red Pepper, in another suburb of Kampala while searching for a source of the leaked letter.Since the raids, the radio stations, KFM and Dembe FM, have been off the air. The Monitor's printing press remains down Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said: "Police should resolve legal disputes before the courts without resorting to abusive tactics to scare journalists away from politically sensitive stories. Muzzling the media is a bad way to address Uganda's political debates."She pointed out that the Ugandan authorities have a history of shutting down broadcasts without due process in times of political controversy. Source: HRWPress freedomUgandaYoweri MuseveniAfricaHuman rightsCensorshipRoy Greensladeguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

eCommerce startups in India have been in dire situation this year for its inability to raise funds or turn profitable. Several eCommerce firms like Flipkart, Jabong and Zovi are supposedly laying off employees in a bid to cut its costs. Besides this, several ecommerce startups have shut down their shops: Bangalore based KoolKart.com has shut down its operations listing all of its products as sold out indicating no inventory to sell. This was first reported by NextBigWhat. KoolKart used to provide handpicked products in categories such as women & men apparels, jewellery, and bags. It also provided beauty and fashion products. * Mumbai based Rock.in, an online store offering high-end international clothing, has also shut down its  operations, reports NextBigWhat. At the time of writing this article, the website was not reachable. Last year in August, the company had raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round led by Partech International, with participation from 3 angels which are retail families of Europe. Founded in May 2012 by Aashish Puri and Suraj Sharma, Rock.in had claimed to obtain operational licenses from 120 international brands in the US and Europe including La Redoute, House of Dereon, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Marc Cain, FCUK, Fever London, Just Cavalli and more. * Bangalore based Aporv, an online portal for Indian handicrafts has shut shop, reports Techcircle. Launched in June 2010, Aporv had partnered with artists, NGO’s, Self help groups, and designers across India to brings their hand crafted products on its website. Last year, the company claimed that it had visitors from more than 90 countries and buyers from India, USA, UK, Singapore, among others. Do read our white paper explaining the Structuring of Foreign Direct Investments In eCommerce in India.

JustDial, the IPO-bound local information services business, reported a 50% subscription of its shares, with 6,837,225 shares of the 13.5 million shares offered to the public being subscribed to. JustDial is looking to sell 17.5 million shares priced between Rs 470-543 each, thereby raising between Rs 822 to 950 crores from its issue, but 3,936,925 shares have been subscribed to by 15 Anchor Investors at Rs 530 per equity share, for a total of around Rs 208.65 crore. JustDial has reserved 75% of its IPO for institutional investors, 15% for high net worth individuals (HNIs) and remaining 10% for retail investors. A majority of the bids at the end of day 1 came from Foreign Institutional Investors (6587275 shares), around 72% of total shares on offer for QIBs. Retail investor appetite was low, with only 14% (246,200) of shares on offer to them (1,749,745) bid for. HNIs bid for only 3750 shares of the 2,624,618 shares on offer for them. Anchor Investors Subscription Details Previous IPO Filing It is worth noting that in its August 2012 filing of DRHP, the company had mentioned plans to only sell 9.55 million (9,554,307) shares of face value Rs 10 each, in return for 13.53% stake in the company and not 17.5 million shares. The 9.5 million shares included 4.03 million shares (4,032,059 shares) held by SAIF Partners, 2.51 million shares (2,511,649 shares) held by Tiger Global Four JD Holdings, 1.55 million shares (1,557,252 shares) held by Tiger Global Five Indian Holdings, 1.04 million shares (1,041,426 shares) held by Sequoia Capital, 347,142 shares held by EGCS and 64,779 shares held by SAP Ventures. Just Dial has, until this offer, raised Rs 580 crore from Sequoia Capital, SAP Ventures, SAIF Partners, EGCS, and Tiger Global. These PE firms together hold close to 60% stake in the company. The company is said to be valued at Rs. 2,600 crore. During the filing, the company had informed that all the IPO proceeds would be going to its investors with the company not receiving any of the IPO proceeds. On March 20, 2013, Justdial had obtained approval from  Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its proposed Initial public offering (IPO) following which the company was required to redraft its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) for an IPO with SEBI. Justdial had originally filed its DRHP in August 2011 to raise  Rs 360 crores. However, due to steep fall in the markets, the company decided to shelve the idea in June 2012 and instead, raised Rs 327 crores from Sequoia Capital and SAP Ventures, its existing private equity investors with Sequoia Capital as the lead investor investing Rs 305 crores. The company decided to revive its IPO plans in August 2012. Founded in 1996 with initial investment of Rs. 50,000,  Just Dial provides a local search engine for merchants across restaurants and retail stores to plumbers and pest control units via the Internet, WAP, SMS, telephone and native mobile apps across Android, Blackberry and iOS platforms. The company claims that 60% of its queries come from internet. Based out of Mumbai, Justdial also has offices across India in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and Pune. Justdial claims to have addressed 267.2 million search requests from millions of users across platforms as of December 31, 2012 with database of approximately 9.1 million listings as of March 31, 2013.

MSLGROUP, Publicis Groupe’s strategic communications and engagement network, has now extended its global digital and social media offering Social Hive to India. The company informed that the Social Hive team will consist of more than 40 consultants across Mumbai and Delhi and will be led by Parveez Modak, Senior Vice President, MSL India and Narendra Nag, Vice President, MSL India. Services MSLGROUP said that Social Hive will offer seven different services - Research & Insights, wherein the company claims to offer social media monitoring through specialized tools, category analysis and social media analytics among others; Social Media Marketing, which includes Influencer marketing, contests and outreach programmes for clients; and Content creation, through which it plans to offer services like Branded content creation and community engagement. It also includes Digital Design & Build, through which the company will offer website and app building tools for Facebook apps, mobile apps, websites, microsites, social APIs and banner ads; Media Planning and buying to formulate digital media plans for specific audiences, releasing and monitoring the performance of ads, buying and managing Facebook ads and portal ads; Social Business which includes Social CRM (customer relationship management), social commerce and social enterprise initiatives; and People’s Lab, MSLGROUP’s proprietary crowd sourcing platform which allows businesses to build and manage hosted or white label public or private communities on the web or the mobile platform. Social Hive Index Coinciding with this launch, MSLGROUP has also extended its proprietary social influence measurement tool Social Hive Index to India. Social Hive Index allows companies to measure its social engagement around a specific topic and compare it against its competitors from the same region, industry or topic. A company presentation suggests that the index automatically pulls in daily updated social data from sources like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, SlideShare, Klout, Kred, Peerindex and SEOMoz and provides a single dynamic score between 1 and 100.

Just Dial promoters will sell shares in an Initial Public Offer from20th to 22nd May. They will sell 1.75 crore (17.5 million) shares at a price band of 470 to 543. The IPO size is Rs. 822 cr. to Rs. 950 cr. Retail investors get a discount of Rs. 47 from the discovered price. This means investors putting in less than Rs. 200,000. Let me cut through the bullshit. I’ll get to the points of importance. The Company Gets None of The Money IPOs are generally used to raise money for a company’s growth. (read: Of Shares, IPOs and Stocks Markets) Not this time. All the money raised in the IPO will go to pay existing shareholders, who will exit to the extent of 25% of the company’s shares. That means the company gets no money – only exiting shareholders do. The Red Herring Prospectus tells you that the shareholders selling at Sequoia, Tiger Global and some part the promoters themselves. You can get the details from Economic Times about how much etc., but most of them are wrong. SAIF for instance, in a complicated arrangement has paid over 68 cr. for its shares, but it’s mentioned as 9 cr. Undoubtedly they are making profits and that is good for them. (Disclosure: I was a silly idiot when Naukri’s IPO came about a few years back about how promoters had sold their shares to a fund at a lower price. This, I realize, was my immaturity – the outrage was misplaced. One learns and improves, so past non-performance doesn’t guarantee future results!) I won’t concentrate on things like “Sequioa 3 and Saif made 800% profit” etc. They took the risk and they deserve whatever profit they make, even if it is on part of their holding. For the record, Sequoia invested Rs. 250 cr in the company about a year back, and then bought some 50 cr. more from promoters at Rs. 488 per share. This falls within the price band, which means they would have made no real money in the year on that investment. Also we shouldn’t worry about profits that other investors make, just that the company should do better going forward. The company has 475 cr. of cash With the company getting no cash from this IPO, the fear is that the company won’t be able to expand. But it has around R.s 475 cr. of cash, with 22 cr. in their current account and over Rs. 450 cr. in fixed income mutual funds. It raised Rs. 250 cr. last year that it has not really been able to use, so that’s gone straight into funds. If they account for this right, they will make around Rs. 40 cr. in “other income”, and given it’s in funds, the taxability of these funds is low. This is huge considering their net profit is likely to be about Rs. 63 cr. in the whole year, and they’ve not recorded any intermediate gain in their books. They seem to generate about 100 cr. from operations every year. Bad news: The cash generation hasn’t substantially increased from 2012 (95 cr.), which means we have some potential stagnation. The US version of “Just Dial” is owned by promoters, not by Just Dial India This is really zany. The promoters and principal shareholders own shares in a company called JD Global, which has licensed the Just Dial brand from Just Dial India, the company that’s going public. This means all the growth outside India won’t reflect in the Indian entity, which will get just a license fee and nothing more. Eventually I expect that they will attempt to “merge” the foreign company and pay a HUGE valuation for it, so that the promoters and principal shareholders can get either cash compensation, an equity percentage or both. Promoters routinely attempt to do this in India, and with 75% control of the Indian entity, it is unlikely the Just Dial promoters and principal shareholders can be stopped. The P/E is High But So What? At Rs. 470 per share, the company, which is likely to earn Rs. 9.6 per share (9m data annualized), is valued at a P/E of 49 at the lower end of the pricing band. This may sound ridiculous. But we have seen worse. Naukri (Info Edge) continues to trade at a P/E of above 40, despite actually ma