Xeni Jardin on BoingBoing

Xeni Jardin from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Xeni Jardin, one of the hosts of the hugely successful site BoingBoing.net ("a directory of wonderful things"), talks about boingboing.tv and the evolution from the site's early days to its push into online video in this 6-minute interview conducted at the Web 2.0 Summit.

For those who don't know Xeni, her site offers this nickel tour: "Xeni Jardin is a tech culture journalist. She is co-editor of the award winning blog Boing Boing, and executive producer + host of the daily internet video program Boing Boing tv.  She contributes to television, radio, and print venues including Wired and NPR, and likes to float in spaceships."

I've long admired Xeni, her colleagues Cory, Mark, David and John, and her correspondent/citizen journalism dispatches on NPR, so I couldn't pass up the chance at lunchtime to pull her aside and get a quick update on BoingBoing's commercial success (seven- (or eight-?) figure online revenues in this economy? wow). Don't miss the Starbucks product placement at the end.

The noise throughout the hallway was loud, and outside was not a better option, so I hope to lobby for some quieter quarters at next year's event. Meantime, I hope to get through my backlog of videos by Jan. 3.

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Cross-posted to Socialmedia.biz.

Von Iva

The Von Iva interview from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

At the last Macworld Expo Culture Catch Salon, I bumped into the drummer of Von Iva, a San Francisco band that hit the big time this weekend with the release of Jim Carrey's new movie, Yes Man.

I hadn't heard of Von Iva until then, but Kelly Harris was down-to-earth and sweet and I stuck around for the group's set — great stuff! Here's one of their music videos on YouTube, with Jillian Iva singing "Not Hot to Trot."

In this  5 1/2-minute video interview, Kelly talks about the four songs they wrote for the film. (I don't know if they all made it into the final cut; I believe the group makes a couple of appearances under a fictitious name.) She also discusses the band's plans to tour.

Great to see the group heading toward even greater success. (You can see band members Jillian Iva Meador, Becky Kupersmith and Kelly Harris credited in the movie's cast here.)

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A chat with the founders of JibJab

The creators of JibJab from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

You know JibJab, right? The wildly popular online animation site has been around since 1999 but became a global phenomenon with their 2004 animated hit This Land, which spoofed the campaigns of John Kerry and George W. Bush. The short has been streamed more than 80 million times. 

The brothers Spiridellis — Evan, the head art guy, and Gregg, CEO guy — spoke at The Conversation, a gathering of filmmakers and new media types at the Pacific Film Institute in Berkeley in October. I snagged them for 5 minutes afterward before they had to run off for another appointment (which is why we had no choice but to live with the noise in the background).

In the clip, Gregg and Evan talk about how their business has evolved over the past nine years, what business models are working for them, and how their use of social media propels the site forward.

After trying about 20 business models, Gregg said, they found that their best business model was "working around social expression content," with a mix of subscriber-based premium content and some free, ad-supported digital content.

Web 1.0 was about ecards, Gregg says, but now it's about personalized cards that you become a character in and that you can share or post to your own site. "We've had 13 million heads loaded and put into our movies. People will pay for content that they can use to express themselves in their digital lives. They won't pay to watch a 2-minute funny video."

This holiday season you can upload your image to JibJab and put the image onto gifts, holiday e-cards, mouse pads, mugs and knickknacks.

But the most interesting thing about JibJab we'll be watching in the years ahead is how they use the power of social media to create relationships with their users and empower them to become co-creators. 

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Cross-posted to socialmedia.biz .

A chat with the founder of Samasource

Samasource from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

I finally have time to get to my backlog of video interviews, after changing jobs earlier this month.

Here's a 4-minute interview with Leila Chirayath, founder and CEO of Samasource, a nonprofit social enterprise in Silicon Valley that that connects small and mid-size businesses with individuals and firms in the developing world that can perform outsourcing work (such as data entry) in a socially responsible way.

They now have pilot programs in Kenya, Nepal and rural India, and their goal, as their website says, is "to catalyze sustainable economic development and poverty alleviation by creating a thriving, active market for socially responsible outsourcing to developing regions."

The interview was conducted on a very windy day at the recent Craigslist Nonprofit Bootcamp in San Mateo, Calif. (though I do need to get a fabric microphone cover). I caught up with Leila a few minutes before her jam-packed talk. As Leila says, there's a lot of misinformation in the media about outsourcing, and Samasource can help you sort through the best options.

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Cross-posted to socialmedia.biz .

Interview with president of micro-lender Kiva

Kiva from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Here's a 4 1/2-minute interview with Premal Shah, president of the nonprofit microfinance lender Kiva.org, conducted at the Craigslist Nonprofit Bootcamp in San Mateo, Calif.

Premal discusses not just Kiva but other online services that are of great help to nonprofits, including myc4, microplace, prosper.com, Google Checkout, techsoup and Salesforce's program for nonprofits.

Kiva has become one of my favorite sites, performing a spectacularly valuable service on a global scale. Check them out and consider supporting a small business or entrepreneur in the developing world with a $25 loan.

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Ideablob awards monthly $10,000 prizes

Ideablob from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Here's a 4-minute interview I did with Darren Sudman, VP of Innovation for Advanta Bank Corp., who oversees its Ideablob program. The project gives out $10,000 a month to the best business ideas.