i-Lights

Stay tuned..for now

I haven't posted for some time and realized that I should update our users on what's going on. We have been working for months on a new approach, one that will give our users total control on how to share and use their i-Lighted content, web notes and more. We experimented with Wiki-Lights but realized we needed to truly rethink our approach. With the incalculable guidance from our advisory board, feedback from our users and a brilliant development team, we are putting the finishing touches on a totally redesigned or more accurately, a re-thought i-Lighter.
So, we are turning over control of how you use i-Lighter to .....you! Our users will be able to design how they view, use and share information- and not only your i-lighted information. We have been working with our partners in building a business ap for their user base which will become available to businesses and organizations from i-Lighter as well.

Our mission to build easy, intuitive products is still the driving force behind all that we do
We'll keep you updated on our progress.
Stay tuned.

Balance

No this is not about the balance between work and family. I have raised my kids and still haven't figured that one out. In today's world, we are supposed to be on line or reached via mobile 24/7, be tweeting at 2am, staying in touch with twitterville ( Shel Israel  is writing a book about twitter. I hope he includes a map of this growing village), multiple RSS feeds, stay on top of FriendFeed, check out every new start-up (possible competitor, partner, mashup?) while those of us involved with Start-Ups need to stay focused on running the business, managing people, finding, managing and making money; the list goes on.

And I still like to read my 3 papers in the morning and stay in touch with the world's events. Regardless of our political persuasion, we all need to head our Presidents call to social action. In South Florida, the local  Food Bank cannot keep up with the demand and a few of use run monthly food drives to try to keep it stocked.

So how do I keep it together? There are a number of great tools to connect to the mass but I rely on i-Lighter to organize my life and share what is important to me with selected groups, some personal (my family, cooking pals and a not-for-profit board) and others for business (development, my advisory board, etc). 

Every travel confirmation and purchase gets i-Lighted, making it simple to find when I need it. I i-Light whatever I find that I want to read or deal with when I have some time. I i-Light books and gifts for kids that I email to their parents for their OK. I i-light recipes and post them to my cookbook wiki-light and i-Light vacation deals that gets posted to our family's summer wikilight. i-Lighter is my personal file cabinet where everything gets stored, posted or shared.

We are working around the clock to add some new features and functionality including a user-controlled personal Notebook, public posts, universal search, iPhone and Blackberry aps, integration into more aps and always, striving to improve our core functionality.

And as always, we welcome your ideas, suggestions, comments and thoughts to feedback@i-lighter.com.

I use twitter,  Facebook,  LinkedIn and other social networking tools for business and sometimes for fun. twitter is a great resource and I have made some great connections but it can be overwhelming. I am a newbie and when I started twittering, I was advised to bide my time because it takes a while to get the hang. twitter is a portal to a vast network of people and ideas. For some this is exhilarating, for others, this can be overwhelming and it might be more productive to be able to create groups to control it all. I agree with  Louis Grey  "I am a big believer in niche communities and networks. People gathering together with similar interests can quickly form a passionate community." But this desire isnt limited to social networks. There is so much information that we seek and are fed.......help!

Maybe it is because I am a type A personality and I have many facets to my life, but I like to create order in my life. I want to organize my life and have 'a place for everything and everything in its place'. Corny but when life is a fragmented as mine, it helps.  A number of of companies are experimenting with different solutions and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Our goal when Dan Goodman and I first conceived of i-Lighter was to build a utility that would appeal to anyone who works, shops or plays online, irrespective of their technical prowess. As we developed, we would bring in temp workers from agencies to beta test; if they couldn't figure out how to use a tool we designed without asking for help, we scrapped it. Our users are amazingly diverse yet we receive very few ' How Do I' questions. i-Lighters use i-Lighter to save information, research, recipes, confirmations, purchases...the list is endless. And i-Lighters have one place to go to to organize and retrieve all this disparate information.

Wiki-Lights is a natural extension of our core directive; a simple, accessible and straightforward tool that allows i-Lighters to build a group and share their i-Lights, comments etc as simply as they i-Light. Just in testing mode, I belong to 8 different wiki-lights. I have one for our internal development, another to share recipes with my 'ladies', a third for a not-for-profit board and one to plan our summer vacation with our extended family.
 

We go live this weekend and invite you to try it out. Just go to i-Lighter tomorrow and keep i-Lighting!

2009

What a year 2008 was. Think about the words that will shape our memory: Bailout, Joe the Plumber,  Inevitability, Lipstick on a Pig, Mumbai, Credit Swaps and Derivatives, Madoff, Change, Yes We Can. Our industry has seen the explosion of Twitter, Facebook, iPhones, web based programs along with a reduction in on line advertising revenues.
The Chinese have a well known curse :"May you live in interesting times". I think 08 qualifies.

But this is a blog about i-Lighting so what does 2009 have in store for i-Lighters? 2008 saw i-Lighting for MAC and Vista and Twitterlights; 2009 promises to be our breakout year. Lots of new features, integrations and enhancements for our free i-Lighter. Our partnership program is adding a third partner this quarter and we are introducing our Affiliate program which will offer organizations with unique branding and revenue opportunities.

To start off the year, i-Lighter 2.5 launches this weekend with a newly designed Firefox toolbar, a new web viewer, faster and more stable service, tons of bug patches and Wiki-Lights, our new sharing platform.  We all belong to a number of on line groups but really how often do we visit. I belong to 3 recipe sharing groups, 2 family groups, 2 photography groups,1 for each not-for-profit I am active in and a few more I can't remember. I start off each group with a determination to participate but I don't. I don't remember each URL and my bookmarks are miles long,it is too much of a hassle to log in and posting information is a pain. Wiki-Lights combines all these functions into one simple click.

What is the common denominator to the most used sites? Simplicity. See it, sign up for it and use it. i-Lighter makes saving, organizing, using and sharing web content as easy as using a yellow highlighter (you really need to check out our new toolbar!). Wiki-Lights now makes building a group and sharing your information just as easy. Look for the release next week and tell us what you think by sending us an email to feedback@i-Lighter.com.

 

New year and new ideas

What a year 2008 has been- and we still have 2 weeks to go! Being the perpetual optimist, I am looking forward a fresh start in 2009 for our country, our families and of course, i-Lighter.

I spend a great part of my day experimenting with many of the new releases or upgrades that I can get my hands on. Some are so easy to grasp and make life easier that I will continue to use them. A couple that I use include speeddial  and wrapmail. But so many that I try are either too difficult to understand or simply pointless. I tried a new release for a company that is similar to i-Lighter; after 3 trips to the How It Works, I gave up. Perhaps it works for serious researchers but for the rest of us, too much. I tried 3 new releases this morning and couldn't figure out why? Why would anyone use these and why did someone take the time and effort to build them? And perhaps someone could explain why so many 2.0 companies only develop for Firefox? I understand that many early adapters and reviewers are Firefox devotees but what about the 80% of the market that still uses Internet Explorer? Ignoring this substantial market base simply does not make economic sense. 

2009 will be an exciting time for i-Lighter. We are excited about our new partnership with, Jim Turner of OneByOnemedia. We are creating a customized program for Jim and his clients that will provide them with a new revenue stream. And, we are preparing to go live with two of our partner programs next month. Our development team has been busy putting the finishing touches on these white label, customized versions of i-lighter that have been fully integrated into our partner's systems.
Most excitedly, we are finishing our Wiki-Lights beta trials and can't wait to release it after the holidays. Sharing content will be as easy as i-Lighting. More on that tomorrow.

Stay positive and stay tuned!

i-Lighting and cruising

I was making a presentation about our new launch (have a little patience but it will be worth the wait) and one of the attendees asked me how i-Lighter could help him get his life under control- a point I had made. I logged into my personal web viewer and after seeing the wealth of information I had saved and organized, everything from work research, my travel confirmations, articles I want to read at some point to recipes, gifts I want to buy, books  I want to read and plans for my upcoming cruise, he 'got it'.

I read numerous articles, blogs, feeds daily and I am constantly impressed at the cutting edge companies that pop up every day. Too much for most, not enough for some. But how many do we use? And how many do we need? And how do they actually help us?

i-Lighter was designed to be a useful, practical tool that helps you save, organize, share, retrieve and actually use web content. A good friend is taking a well deserved cruise this summer. She will be traveling with her family  nd is the one (there's always one in a crowd) who is doing the planning. Having never cruised before , she sought information from  travel blogs and community forums including Cruise Critic, Trip Adviser and Kim's Cruise Tips. She i-Lighted cruise ships, potential destinations, ports of calls, etc, setting up folders for each. She assembled what she likes and sent them to her friends with iNotes explaining what she had found. And that was only the beginning. She set up folders for each Port of Call and saved her research on restaurants, special places of interest, where to find the best bargains and made sure the reservations and confirmations were there. Other family members emailed sent her their findings and after months of planning all their collective research was saved and neatly organized in her i-Lighter account.

Airlines lose luggage, travelers forget their lists and guidebooks can be outdated. My hard working friend has i-Lighter. Her reservations, confirmations, plans and tips are always a click away. That is an example of a tool that actually helps. 

i-Lighter continues to improve and expand. In the last few months, we have re-launched i-lighter 2.0, redesigned the web viewer, added 'send to blog', added a MAC version, went up as a Firefox extension, added twitterlights and kept working to improve speed and performance. And the most exciting extension since we launched i-Lighter is in final testing stages. Anyone who wants to help us beta test, please email us at feedback@i-Lighter.com. And remember- keep i-Lighting!

Finding My Way, Series Finale

This series was supposed to be a weekly Friday feature at The Light Stuff. But, like the short-lived Internet series, Quarter Life, this feature has been cancelled.

Well, that's a wrap. Thanks for tuning in.

But seriously, The Light Stuff is a blog for people who have made or are considering making i-Lighter a permanent part of their Internet experience. Those of you who already know what a great product i-Lighter is, I'm not going to waste my time preaching to the choir. I-Lighter is THE tool for teachers, librarians, journalists, hobbyists, researchers, cooks, why, i-Lighter is the perfect free tool for just about anyone who surfs the web and wants to save their online content to files that can be accessed from anywhere. End of story.

To those of you who are still on the fence about downloading i-Lighter...I don't understand your hesitation, but I respect your right to hesitate. And maybe, eventually, you'll come around.

New Niche Networks Include One for Beer Lovers

A trip to Venice Beach, California reveals some unusual sights. A man dancing to the beat of boardwalk bongos, eyes closed and cradling a new puppy. Another who talks to himself while rolling out a collection of brightly colored crystals. Palm readers, fortune tellers, and an "Ask Zoltan" carnival game add color and mystique.

People have a need to gather, to see and be seen. We can't all hop on a plane and journey to the Pacific Ocean. But we can use the Internet as a central meeting place, joining social networks to connect with like-minded people. As part of The Light Stuff's continuing niche social network series, here are some more sites with unusual social themes.

Free Beta Testing of Adobe Creative Suite and Photoshop

Investing in software is like putting a ring on the finger of technology you used to date. After a free download or testing on a friend's computer, an actual purchase or upgrade says you're ready to make a commitment. You're comfortable with its features and at some point you may walk down the aisle, using your new purchase to the exclusion of all others.

In return, the smart software doesn't rest on its laurels. Like i-Lighter, which continues to roll out new features and develop new partnerships, it periodically reinvents itself, adding new features and capabilities. It knows that growing stale in the face of brutal competition is like a kiss of  death. These days, competitors pop out of the woodwork like water bugs in a damp basement.

Attacking Google Becomes a National Past Time

Just as Google goes universal and boasts a respectable stock price, a pallor of gloom hangs over the Googleplex.

Let's start with litigation filed on March 13, 2007 by Viacom, Inc. and its related entities against Google and its subsidiary, YouTube. The suit charges Google with copyright infringement for broadcasting clips of Viacom cash cows such as SpongeBob Square Pants and South Park. It also requests more than $1 billion in damages.

In a Motion to Dismiss filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Google responded by claiming strict adherence to requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. According to Google's Motion, that provision allows hosting of copyrighted content originating elsewhere provided the host site responds properly to claims of infringement. Google claims it has. Although it may have successfully framed the argument as "chilling access to the Internet," serious intellectual property rights are at stake. Further erosion of copyright protections could have a chilling effect on creative expression. As seen from last year's Writers Strike, artists won't create new content without proper compensation.