On first look, Phreadz does appear to be aping Seesmic. Threaded video conversations and an invite-only Alpha are just two of the similarities. But you won’t find any of Seesmic’s code in this new UK-based “social multimedia conversation network,” reports TechCrunch UK.
Firstly, it is going further than Seesmic by pushing the envelope on the concept by interweaving video, images, text, audio and links all into these video conversations. Secondly Phreadz was built in entirety by “Kosso”, a British developer/entrepreneur who - as many players in the UK scene know - has been gestating the concept for some time. Phreadz is also sending media outwards. It’s capable of cross-posting your content to Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, Livejournal, Flickr account, Blip.tv and links via Twitter. It will also automatically encode recorded Flash to MPEG4 (and other formats). And you can also send it photos, audio or video via email from you mobile phone (Nokia N95 or iPhone) or embed widgets of threaded conversations, as below.
Whether all of these extra features means Phreadz moves away from the pure video experience offered by Seesmic, and therefore loses focus, remains to be seen. For now its early closed Alpha status means many of its features have been tested by only a small audience. Meantime, it’s one of the more originally-backed startups - being bootstrapped with the proceeds from a blogging system Kosso built for Second Life users. As an ex-BBC Online guy, Kosso previously built a mobile blogging system for the BBC News site’s coverage of CeBit in 2004, later leaving the BBC to become CTO/sole-lead architect at Podcast.com which he recently left.
There’s a longer review of Phreadz on TechCrunch UK.
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There’s way too many people staring at me on that site. Creepy.
Respect. Pulling this off single handedly shows what’s possible without millions of funding. I like seesmic, what puts me off though is that it becomes too many places to check what’s going on. I just can’t keep up if I also want to do some productive work. So if this guy pulls it off to integrate multiple media into the network it might be compelling to a lot of people simply because it’s ,re convenient. We always think of the network effect and how that makes the early successes almost ‘unbeatable’ but don’t forget what happened to MySpace and LinkedIn when Facebook came along.
The question is if this thing will be disruptive enough to make it’s mark.
Peter
do you follow me at http://twitter.com/peterurban
‘Candasse’ is GOLD!!!
She rules!! Heheh. Seriously.
Thanks so much for this post!
It’s a total labour of love!
I like Phreadz. I also like Seesmic. I’m impressed with the added functionality of Phreadz and am eager to see how they develop. Funny thing about these communities is that it’s tough to pinpoint what drives people to one or the other. Look at the whole Twitter/Pownce/Jaiku discussion. Twitter is proving itself to be an incredibly tedious platform right now, while Pownce and Jaiku offer far better stability and functionality. Yet for some reason, many (myself included) choose to endure the crappier platform. Likely because that’s where the people are. Strange, but worth thinking about if you’re the folks at Phreadz.. and Seesmic for that matter.
Love the energy, love the heart. I am a fan.
@Jim Thanks! Really, it’s a great point you make about the communities building around so many systems these days. Is it more than mojo?
@drew be a PHAN!
Just to also point out : I haven’t ‘left’ podcast.com (fulltime) yet. And I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve *all* done there - between here and the boys in Boston. (info at http://treedia.com )
http://seesmic.com/kosso
Kosso,
Congrats on the launch. Good luck man.
-Jeff
LOL
Candasse is pretty funny (in a good way). Kudos to them.
What am I missing about video? It takes 5-10x the time to produce and upload you idea/post/webcast and 10x the time to view it compared to reading words. Sure it’s neat for a few things, but this personal casting will never monetize well and will never hit mainstream users who are still years away from fully utilizing simple photo sharing.
Kosso is on Seesmic and find it funny that he came up with the same concept???? Maybe a copycat?
As a pre-alfalfa tester on Phreadz I am amazed at how the functionality has continually exceeded my expectations. It is quite different from Seesmic. In fact, because of the multi-media aspect, it is likely closer to Utterz - but infinitely easier to navigate! There is no other video platform out there that has the ability to integrate video, images, text, audio and links, via desktop or mobile, into a conversation thread. Add to that channels, and Kosso has created a true original. I wish him every success with Phreadz.
I agree, kinda weird to have all those people looking. It will be interesting to see how this service evolves.
Kosso lets combine forces, you have a great product but its limited contact me.
I am currnetly close to close 3.5 mil for my comapny and think we should really talk. I am serious have met with some massive investors from the UK. Would love to talk.
“it is going further than Seesmic by pushing the envelope on the concept by interweaving video, images, text, audio and links all into these video conversations”
I think this is exactly what Seesmic needs.
Awesome that Kosso did this all himself. Can’t wait to see it myself.
It’s a good question though, how many social networks can a person keep up with and still 1) keep a job, 2) look after a family, and 3) have a real-life social life. I’m on about 7 and it’s just too many especially when some of the same people are on different networks. But which ones to cut out?
I expect some contraction in the growth of new social networks by the end of the summer. Put that in your calendar!
@Kino Sure, I’ve played on Seesmic.
I’ve been involved in creative R&D in multimedia for many years. But a copycat? Not at all. No more a copycat than any site which uses Flash Communication/Media Server to record video in the browser could be accused of. Is Seesmic a copycat of YouTube video comments? No.
Odeo were very successful in implementing just audio recording (to start with) in order to create mp3 files as a podcast. Phreadz also has this feature too - with audio or video.
The feature set, the presentation and ‘available angles’ are quite different from Seesmic. (And certainly the money behind it)
Oddly enough, Phreadz has a YouTube, Qik & Seesmic channel experiment running - where people can pull in a post from these places (and more to come) and start a multimedia conversation around that post (Seesmic does this with YouTube video, for example) - but people could reply using audio or a photo, for example. The a lot of opportunity for ‘mashups’ like this here.
Every user, channel and even *post* has its own full RSS feed (with media and enclosures)
Phreadz will also be letting the users apply Creative Commons licensing to *their* content/posts - rather like Flickr does with photos (and now video)
Phreadz is also a tool to distribute your posts to other places which you might have an account - even Seesmic! eg: I record a video to start a conversation and I can check a box to send a copy of that video to my blip.tv account, embed it in my blog and send a link to my Twitter account - and even send the video to my Seesmic account - all from one place. (Though I will be going through everyone’s ToS to see what implications / limitations there might be there)
I use all these sites and systems all the time. I just wanted a way to make it easier and save time. So I decided to build it - because I could. I have talked about the concept of Phreadz long before Seesmic appeared on the scene - and arguably since Macromedia first released Flash Communication Server in 2002 (or at least the Flash video aspect).
I have been waiting a very long time for people to catch up and *want* to post this sort of choice and mix of content.
I’ll be doing a full explanation of all this and a lot more on my blog very soon!
- Sorry for the *braindump* here 
thanks EVERYONE!
BTW: I have just updated a blog post to help the ‘naysayers’ and ‘yaysayers’ duke it out
http://kosso.wordpress.com/200.....-and-cats/
This “battle” between various social net. app. is a very positive thing. It remind me of the cubist period in Paris when Artist like Picasso and Braque used to compete and copy each other in order to create a new style, a new way to re-present reality on a flat surface. This time is long gone… but maybe the art of today is occurring on our screens and the brush has been re-placed by the code!
So keep coding!
Christ, hire a freakin’ designer. That looks terrible.
Never mind, just one dude. Respect.
“Kosso is on Seesmic and find it funny that he came up with the same concept???? Maybe a copycat?”
There are other players in this market already - http://www.poodz.com are French, and so is Loic - maybe they are a copycat also ? I think not.
The concept of video chat / comments / interaction has been around a long while.
What makes one system work and another not work is the quality of the userbase, and what attracts users is 1. features and 2. whether their friends are there (or not).
Why Twitter and not Pownce? Just because Twitter for some reason pulled them in and Pownce as yet did not.
I agree with Tiil above - this kind of competition will cause the players to lift their game and that is a good thing.
I was WOWed with Seesmic and I am blow away by Phreadz. I agree with Peter and have to add how Sony took over the Video Gaming industry with its Playstation. Do you even remember the Atari Jaguar or that Sega had its own gaming console before it got out of the hardware market and went strictly software. I am so looking forward to the next wave.
Bring it ON!
All the best
JB
KOSSO JB
I was just pointed to this site by a friend. I created socialsaga.com two years ago and is much in the same vein as phreadz, threaded multimedia conversations. I had good luck at 2007 sxsw awards winning the people’s choice award and have now implemented the technology at H & R Block. digits.hrblock.com I’m currently working on version two and really believe the product is going to blow away the first version I created. Maybe there could be a joint effort to combine technologies and turn it open source, especially considering both products have been created by just one person a piece. Not a lot of B.S to deal with in situations like that.