In what can only be described as a grand experiment, Fujifilm has teamed up with Ning.com to create a social network, ZSpotNow.com, based around a single digital camera. The Z20fd is a 10-megapixel point and shoot that comes in multiple fun colors and a special blog mode that reduces and resizes images for upload to blogs and email lists. It also records MPEG4 video and can upload directly to YouTube.
Do all of these attributes make for good social network fodder? Fujifilm’s concept - to wrap a series of events inside a social network - is quite interesting. Using Ning’s new event feature they’ve scheduled three concerts in Miami, NYC, and Los Angeles. The bands and DJs associated with each event will be encouraged to drop content into the social network and various widgets will spread the good word virally. Users will be able to chat and upload pictures and video from the event.
Any reviews of the camera? I don’t think this would make them the first at anything … haven’t there been camcorders and cameras that do this for over a year?
Indeed, how is the camera?
ah, the power of the internet. Review is fun features, poor image quality.
We didn’t get one in yet, sadly. I’ll let you guys know if it shows up.
Can fujifilm move from Ning to a different platform if they want. I don’t think so. They are locked to one platform for ever. Who cares about the fine points in terms and conditions. I think it is time for a Wordpress equivalent for Social Network ( like we have pligg for Digg clones). Drupal may be a good option but it is bloated and too abstract to be used for social networks. Something should be ready out of the box for rolling out a social network on your own server.
You can move platforms if you choose Ning. As a Network Creator, your member data, content, and even the application code is yours to do with it what you’d like.
We’re not looking to “lock” people in through anything other than a fantastic service.
Thanks!
Gina
Gina:
If I decide to sign up for ning, and utilize your platform as my website, but decide to leave Ning and build a new site upon another platform (think Drupal, Ruby on Rails, WordPress), can I transfer all my new members, content, source code to the new platform. Basically, if I start with Ning, find success, and build a separate platform, can my data and members come with me. Thanks.
Mike H.
This has FAIL written all over it…
If this is a good or bad community - just let’s don’t care too much about it - it is much more important to see that multinational brand are going that step taking advantage of all the nings’s and facebook’s of the world - all the internal and political trouble about how to use social media is probably the reason why some of the communities and apps. out there are not perfect from our point of view. It definitely took them months to build this! Poor industry!!!
Not a bad idea.
A pretty good idea, I guess. Though is a social network really necessary? Couldn’t they just tack a forum section onto their website and all the happy and frustrated users could meet there?
the coolest feature to me is to have a camera that automatically resizes pics for blogs etc. and that can (hopefully) directly upload them to your flickr account, blog etc. I just never have the time to edit pictures from camera to get them web ready.
How unnecessary, why would I want to be a part of a limited social network based on what camera I own when I can join Flickr and potentially be connected to every photographer in the world. Sounds like someone decided that “We need to do something social”
Build an FB app and OpenSocial gadget, and give me a choice where to interact. I’m not joining another network, especially around a single electronic good.
Oops, I fell into comment string idiocy.
Duh, this is a marketing campaign to sell more cameras and all they want is a glorified product page showcasing what can be done with the device.
Probably pretty cheap even if ephemeral for the participant. I like it afterall.
A camera social network…just another one that wasn’t invented yet. http://blabtech.blogspot.com
It Just Might Work But It Seems Somewhat Self-Referential!
Product driven social networking is something that we are going to be seeing more and more and more. Imagine a store where community and products are integrated into one dynamic user experience. Two places I’d suggest to look to learn more about this:
http://www.gothamtechminute.blogspot.com
http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
If it works, great, if it doesn’t, it’s an experiment that probably isn’t costing them that much to setup and run. It’s worth a shot to see if they can get something off the ground and I think this is a decent way to get people involved with a single product.
It would seem that the rpoduct can be made better, but you never know, maybe that feedback will be worth more if management sees the users of the community as a focus group of sorts and tailors the product accordingly.
It’s not bad, even if it fails, it can’t hurt to try.
I think it is useless, i wont buy a camera because of this special feature
But all brands make good qualities camera now
http://www.themostpowerfulcompany.com
This is getting just pathetic. I’m making money from developing internet sites but people get real.
Why does everyone need their own social network? Vanila ice social network, Rebelde social network, pineapple juggling transsexual midget social network. GET A LIFE.
Those billion dolar price tags on Facebook, Myspace, Youtube etc. are complete bulls**t. If you would ask me a year ago I would say that there is no way internet bubble burst will repeat anytime soon. But hey… I actually hope it does. I feel like I’m the only one thinking that VC’s should stop giving out money. Why would anyone invest millions in 1423534534th flash game site or “social network that will connect black bowlers all across Mississippi”.
If there were more self-funded garage start-ups there would be less crap on internet and maybe someone would actually think before starting business and launching new product.