I’ve recently been advising the social media marketing efforts of Cucupons, a Guatemalan daily deals site that launched today. When I first met with the team I asked them if they had considered creating a video, such as the “How it Works” video by Groupon.

I quickly discovered that Groupon has inspired not only tons of daily group deal companies, but also lots of marketing videos in all kinds of languages from all over the world.

Alas, Cucupons launched without a video of its own, focusing on more cost-effective and differentiating tactics based on how Guatemalans actually shop offline and online.

You can find 100 Groupon “clone” videos that I’ve curated at www.curated.by/socialnerdia/groupon-clones.

The Galaxy Tab  is very real. I’ve personally played with this amazing device and it blew me away. Yes, I work for Samsung so I’m a bit biased, but as a geek and Android fan I can tell you that I’m extremely excited. And based on today’s hundreds of awesome tweets to @SamsungTweets, it is obvious that there are many out there who share the excitement.

Here’s a glimpse of the awesomeness that’s soon to come… Get ready.

http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com

David Kaiser is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Coincident TV, a software suite that allows content creators and distributors to design, manage and measure interactive video engagements across digital platforms. Kaiser is a serial entrepreneur behind seven startup companies, including RespondTV and Navisoft, and was also the first VP of engineering at Macromedia (acquired by Adobe).

Check out our interview with David below and connect with @coincident_tv on Twitter.

1. As experiences become more immersive in the social web, Coincident TV has created an interesting platform that intertwines content, social media, and ecommerce. Please tell me more about how the company came about and what your vision is.

I thought of the idea behind Coincident TV (CTV) in 2008 while at home watching the news with my laptop beside me. After a story caught my attention, I went online to look up more information but found myself frustrated with the disconnected experience. Although simple, it sparked the idea to build a technology that enables hypervideo, the merging of online video, social media, weblinks and commercial transactions.

My vision is to change the way we watch TV by transforming how we view and interact with online video. The goal of hypervideo is to create an interactive experience for the audience, enabling greater engagement between fans, programs, brands, businesses and content owners.

2. What would the ideal implementation of Coincident TV look like?

The great thing about Coincident TV is that it’s flexible and scalable, so the ideal implementation of CTV technology is whatever the author wants it to be. The software suite, both an editor and a player, enhances the video production and viewing experience. Whether it’s a content creator wanting to add real-time social media access to their video or a content producer looking to create revenue-building solutions through increased brand integration, the sequence and combinations of possibilities is only limited by what the author develops. (more…)

Some videos from 140Conf NYC in April 2010, including Best Buy’s Twelforce team, Tim Ferriss, Ivanka Trump, Donnie Deutsch, Gary Vee and more.  Use the arrows to scroll or check out the YouTube playlist.

Touchscreens have been around for a while now. We’ve become used to them thanks to the wide array of small and personal mobile devices we carry on our pockets, manipulating them to open and close windows, zoom in and out on maps, and bring data to life as we move, swipe, hold, and press pixels. No longer do we have to think about interacting with computing devices with one single point of interaction. And no longer are we limited by a stylus, a mouse, or even a keyboard. Today, our fingers give us access to a wealth of digital information that we could only imagine decades ago.

While the mouse is still the main way in which we talk to the desktop, but that is certainly starting to change. I’m not saying the mouse is going away, but it’s starting to feel old, tired, and full of limitations. Its only a matter of time before all screens are controlled by our touch, and new and exciting applications that are manipulated by two, three, four or more points of interaction become the norm, not the exception.

Watch the various videos in this post to see the Microsoft Surface and Windows Phone 7 Series in action, as well as parts of the SXSW Interactive 2010 presentation “That Game Feels Nice: Tomorrow’s Touch Interaces” about Win7 touch games by Microsoft’s Amish Patel and Fuel Industries’ Philip Glofcheskie.

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Elli Grace is a fashion brand that was launched in February of 2009 by designer duo Sojung “Sue” Yang and Lamarr Nanton. Earlier this month, I spoke with Lamarr, who has 19 years of experience in apparel design and development with companies like Giorgio Armani and JC Penney, at the first Elli Grace retail location in Plano, TX.

See the three videos below to learn more about Elli Grace, Lamarr’s personal story, and some of the geeky stuff they’re doing to differentiate themselves in the fashion world (including blogging and tweeting):

Lamarr shows how to use a mobile device to charge customers from virtually anywhere that has a cell signal or Wi-Fi, after the jump..

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Jonathan Crowley is the co-founder of Black20, a multi-platform digital studio that operates out of Long Island City, Queens. There’s a good chance that you’ve seen or at least heard of one of their viral videos or award-winning web series, which have been viewed by over 60 million people. A recent partnership with 15 Gigs means their entertaining content is going to reach even more people. Prior to co-founding Black20 in 2007, J. Crowley was a part of NBC Digital Studios developing comedy programming for the network’s digital initiatives. You can check out more of their programming at Hulu and Black20.com.

1. Black20 recently partnered with Fox TV Studios’ 15 Gigs to produce Web-based pilots like “Heart Felt.” What kind of relationship do you have with FTVS and how has it been working with them?

We partnered up with FTVS to create innovative and cheap-to-produce content for the web, and always with an eye towards its extension to other platforms like television.  We view it as both an opportunity to develop stories and formats that can really speak to a Web-video-consuming audience and also as a chance to play around with a much more cost-efficient development model.

“Heart Felt” is merely one example of a digital pilot we produced to gauge our audience’s appetite.  In this case we wanted to test whether people wanted to watch a comedy about relationships between people and puppets. The viewership and feedback were very strong, so we now look at how to shape this series for both online and television platforms.

2. Black20 seems to focus on the content instead of spending money on marketing. What are some of things you need to do when creating content that is meant to be spread by the online masses?

We’ve never paid a single cent for marketing or promotion. We’ve relied on our content to virally spread itself. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s tricky predicting what videos will go viral, but we’ve realized content focused on nostalgia or topical events tend to spread much faster. Oh yeah, or anything related to Star Wars. (more…)