Archive for August, 2007
Maintenance
During the night of Tuesday to Wednesday we will be carrying out short-term maintenance work to sevenload from approx. 3am. During this time period it will not be possible to use sevenload.
This work will serve to ensure that sevenload is fast and efficient in the future. We would like to thank you in advance for your understanding and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We expect to be back online again as soon as possible.
Player Preview
We would like to show you a little taster of the future Flash player of sevenload. The player is already in use on the video page and will also be used in the special for Molotov TV.
The player has already been in place for several days now but is still in its early Beta version stages- it still requires some small improvements and a little fine tuning until we will replace the other video players on the entire site with the new system.
If you have any constructive ideas or suggestions of how the player can be improved or which features are required for your optimum video enjoyment – simply make a comment here in the Blog! We are looking forward to your feedback!
Cooking Up A Story Special
It’s the newest sevenload Special: Cooking Up A Story! Not only is it the first Special in the Food Channel, but it’s also the first Special coming from the Pacific Northwest region of the US. If you’re interested in learning more about sustainable living and lifestyles, this is definitely a Special to keep an eye on. Cooking Up A Story has been online for quite some time and in fact, they have many more episodes available on their site- but many of them will also be available on sevenload in the upcoming weeks.
The show is produced/edited by Fred and Rebecca Gerendasy, and as they describe Cooking Up A Story, the show is:
A show about real people and their passionate connections with food and sustainable living. No on-air talent, no scripted programming, and no studio environments, just authentic stories filmed in their native surroundings.
We’re very proud to welcome this new Special to our growing English site and are looking forward to the next installments of Cooking Up A Story! 
sevenload Summer Special (Party!!)
Last weekend sevenload’s entire team as well as numerous invited guests got together above the rooftops in Cologne (well not ALL rooftops, but we were really high up!). We celebrated in the hot sun at the Sky Beach Bar until the wee hours of the morning. There were so many guests, that it’d take forever to list them all… but it was a great mix of sevenload employees, sevenload Stars, our personal friends and business partners!
Rather than actually listing off everyone who was there, these photos might be able to provide better insight as to who all turned up. We hope that they’ll will serve to remind everyone who was there of what a spectacular evening it was. In addition, iFranz shot a short video about the sevenload Summer Special (party). Thanks to everyone for coming out – it was great and we’ll have to do it again!
sevenload and Twitter
As Blognation put it, the sevenload Twitter account is currently in 3rd place for the most read Twitter accounts in comparison to many other German Web 2.0 companies. We’re really happy to know that a lot of Twitterers use this social chatting system to see what’s going on in the world and also on sevenload. Because of this, we’ve decided to install the WordPress Plugin for all of the sevenload Blogs- this means that a twitter will be sent out every time we add a new blog entry to the sevenload Blog.
We’re not quite sure yet how the Twitterers are going to react to being informed about what’s new/going on on sevenload in several languages (German, English and Turkish) and all of this on only one account, but we’re looking at this as an experiment in broadcasting our relevant updates and information along with a little random “funness” from our every day office life. If you’ve got your own Twitter account, it’d be great if you’d follow sevenload !
New Slide Show Widget!
As previously announced we have a new widget: the Slideshow also shows all pictures from an album on request and alongside the Photo Stack, the Photo Wall and the Photo Slider is the fourth sevenload widget you can install. Here is a screenshotexample:
A scaling down to smaller sizes is currently not possible as with the other widgets, so that with a width of 750 pixels one either has to select a very wide layout or build one’s own small page, which is accessed via popup for example or a new target in HTML. For the integration into classic weblogs, the most of which do not offer more space than 500 pixels in the width, an update of all widgets will be taking place soon, so that the width or height all widgets can be individually adjusted.
Update: As Töpferschnecke commented here, the sizes can be altered manually. I meant however the option of generating the code on the widget page depending on the desired size! But the main thing is that it works and it’s fun 
Ad Spots in the sevenload Channels
This month we have started commercialising the videos on sevenload together with our marketers. This will involve the placement of different forms of advertising such as classic banner formats in the sevenload community; however, the form of advertising attracting the most attention will be the advertising videos shown before the actual videos on the sevenload channels.
There is a simple explanation as to why the marketing of the content is actually done at all: we wish to involve the content producers in the advertising revenue generated. We wish to develop the necessary revenue share model for this together with you, so that you can participate in the advertising revenue as previously announced.
This is why in August, for testing purposes, we are integrating different advertising campaigns into the sevenload Channels via our marketing partners. After the end of this month we will analyse the results of the test phase together with our marketing partners. As required, the advertising videos will then be shown for one more month so that we can survey additional data in comparison. During these initial months, due to the testing phase there will, however, be no share of the revenues allocated to the content producers. We ask for your understanding during this period. With this, we would much rather precisely determine the advertising relevant scope of the individual Specials and Channels, so we can offer both the advertising companies and the content producers at sevenload a fair revenue share model. In addition we also monitor the delivered advertising as well as the individual clicks on the advertising media, in order to, in a further step, be able to transparently show the allocation of the revenues for both sides. To allow the standardised collection of this data, the adverts are currently also being faded in before the normal videos on sevenload. As a rule, during the test phase, these adverts are faded in for every user just once per hour.
As the only Web 2.0 platform for user-generated content, sevenload offers advertising clients differentiated premium settings on the one hand and on the other hand can allow other copyright owners to transparently be allocated a share of the revenues. The technology of sevenload is able to determine exactly how much advertising revenue has been generated per video stream. In just a few weeks we will honour our promise and be able to thank you for your continued support by involving you in the advertising revenue.
Top7- All Song and Dance!
Hello sevenloaders! Welcome to the all-singing, all-dancing Top7 blog entry of the week! Yes, you’ve guessed it: this time I’ll be digging out my favourite entertaining videos (although not always for the right reasons!!), featuring all sorts of singers and dancers. The internet is flooded with people trying to find fame with their so-called talents. And we are also bombarded with these “wannabes” in other media too, not to mention all of the “Pop Idol” and “Superstar” talent shows on TV. But sevenload is also a platform for those aspiring stars and their fans who do not take the fame game so seriously. And it’s thanks to them that I can bring you this round up of fun clips. Be inspired!
1. Jump Style from BamBam8
Link: sevenload.com
Have you heard about the new craze that everyone is making a song and dance (pardon the pun!) about? Having originated in Belgium and Holland, ‘jump style’ mania is now currently sweeping over Europe. It is a new type of dance which comes from the hardcore rave scene and which involves a lot of jumping around to bouncy dance music. Can you feel it?!
2. Groove Girl from Sitzplatz
Link: sevenload.com
A really cool video, even if it has been “digitally manipulated!” This girl can really throw the shapes, whilst managing to make it look effortless – the epitome of a real “groove girl,” who’s always sure to be the last one on the dancefloor at the end of the night!
3. Der Beatbox Koch (Chef) from WaszumLachen
Link: sevenload.com
Take one chef, add some sound effects, stir and serve! Be amazed by this chef cooking up a storm in his kitchen!
4. Andrew singing Akon from paula1981
Link: sevenload.com
Here’s a real find! It seems cutey Andrew is fast achieving fame through the medium of internet. And it’s well-deserved! Just how does he know all of those lyrics off by heart?
5. 4-jähriger Drummer – Wahnsinn from Sitzplatz
Link: sevenload.com
Another child protégé, this mini drummer is excellent. Wonder if his parents and neighbours are as impressed as we are here at sevenload!!
6. Stop Motion Dance from Videocam
Link: sevenload.com
One of the more professional offerings in the video world of the web. A lot of work was involved in this clip. Why don’t you follow their lead and make your own version?!
7. Pineapple Princess from xokatie491
Link: sevenload.com
These kids are the stars of the future! A real little princess!! Just hope she doesn’t go down the same road of the other big stars….not mentioning any names Britney!!
So, that was my round up of the Top7 for this week! Next time I’ll be looking at the Top7 architecture/ landscape photos so get snapping, wherever you are!
New Widget: Are you a Fan?
You’ve already had the ability to call yourself a “Fan” of a particular sevenload Special for a couple of weeks now. And starting today, you also have the ability to show this off on your homepage or blog through a new widget- are you a Fan?
I added this new widget to this blog entry (see below) which I got from my own profile (the embed code is located in the right hand column below the map of where you’re from). The embed code can always be found under your personal widget.
Of course, this is only a fun little extra, but we had to offer it to you! All of the other Widgets can also be embedded in your blogs!
sevenload on HeySpread!
After a brief period of astonishment at the fact that sevenload was obviously missing from the list, we’re happy to announce that sevenload is now listed as one of Hey!Spread’s best video networks.
By using external service providers such as HeySpread! it’s worth mentioning that file information such as the title, description and/or tags as well as the video itself are sent to sevenload via our API. It is possible though, that the service provider separates tags with spaces and not with commas.
Ultimately, will still suggest that you use our own uploader in order to consistently transfer all files.
