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Source:Mashable!

Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed several new names and a lot of cool new feature articles at Mashable. That’s because we’re actively looking for new and interesting voices in the social media space to contribute to our growing site! Here are a few recent example posts from our contributors:

Twitter Client Head-to-Head: Twhirl vs Tweetdeck – Chris Miller compares leading Twitter desktop client Twhirl with the recently launched Tweetdeck.

How to Develop a Social Media Plan for your Business in 5 Steps – Social media stratetigist Aaron Urmacher outlines the key steps for jump starting your company’s strategy.

Wish List: 8 Ways to Improve Google Maps – Doug Hamlin offers up some great ideas about how to make Google Maps more useful and social.

As opposed to news and reviews, feature articles take a more in-depth look at a given subject and can take a variety of formats, including a head-to-head comparison of competitive products, a how-to/tutorial, and lists of similar services (see Sean P. Aune’s author page for hundreds of examples). Our contributors work virtually, will be expected to produce between 1-4 posts per week, and are primarily paid on a per-post basis.

If you’re interested in becoming a contributor, please send several examples of your online work to me at adamo [at] mashable [dot] com. I’ll follow up with additional questions and details.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Steve Jobs Subpoenaed For Backdated Options CaseWill the Real Steve Jobs Please Stand Up?The Daily Poll: How Did You Follow the Steve Jobs Keynote?Writing Room is Just Another Network, So FarMySpace Jobs UK LaunchesCareerBuilder’s Facebook App Searches Personal DataeBay Cuts 125 Jobs Worldwide

Source:Mashable!

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: DashGo

20-word Description: DashGo provides digital distribution and social networking analytics for bands and content owners.

CEO’s Pitch: DashGo.com enables bands to easily manage new releases and publish them to digital music services like iTunes.

For each of our clients we track performance across the top 9 social media networks. We standardize the data into the categories of “Profile Views,” “Streams,” “Friends” and “Comments” for timeline analysis. We are rapidly rolling out new features - next up is to lay benchmarking and sales data on top of this to help artists identify which sites and spikes in activity generate sales. In the future we plan to offer distribution directly to the social media networks as well, in addition to the digital music stores and ad-partners we currently serve including Last.FM, Meebo and YouTube.

Mashable’s Take: If you’re a solo act or a band of music makers (or studio), chances are you want to get your music out to as many listeners as possible through various channels on the Web. Santa Monica-based DashGo serves to help accomplish this.

Presented as a music label of next-generation making, DashGo connects with virtually all the top sales outlets - plus some lesser-known joints. The list includes iTunes (worldwide), Rhapsody, eMusic, Amazon MP3, Napster, MediaNet, Snocap-Imeem, YouTube, Juno, Turntable Lab, Blast My Music, Amie Street, Songslide, Beatport, Audio Lunchbox, etc. DashGo tracks activity on social sites as well: MySpace, YouTube, iLike, Bebo, Facebook, Purevolume, Virb, Imeem and Last.FM.

Such coverage gives DashGo both a thorough sales spread as well as a comprehensive look at what occurs where on the Web, allowing the company to direct energy where necessary based on a good amount of information. Which can ideally lessen waste and boost marketing potency.

As an intermediary exclusively fixated to the digital space, DashGo’s pursuit is naturally the independent crowd. Artists in the sector are in a continuous race to rise above the fold, and are clearly seeking to raise their profile through online campaigns. DashGo’s purpose is essentially to buoy that desired objective with substantive logistical experience. How successful has it been thus far?

It’s list of partners is a literal potpourri of names. Content producers include: Delicious Vinyl, Krofft Pictures, Downtown Records, CBS Records, and GMG Entertainment (DashGo’s founder, Ben Patterson was an executive). And one of the more high-profile arrangements with a music group Patterson touts is Weezer. Patterson reportedly had a hand in digital marketing effort for the viral hit “Pork & Beans” video.

Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials

Source:Mashable!

Custom fabrication can be fun. Especially when it gets three-dimensional. Enter, Shapeways, a new startup molded by Philips Incubator Project and currently tagged as a private beta service. (We have lots of invites to share. Click the link at the bottom.)

For inspired originalists, there’s really nothing one can buy that satisfies that ever-present craving for uniqueness. This drives many to paddle the river of DIY (do-it-yourself) fabrication, where everything from knitting to t-shirt screening is accomplished for that one-of-a-kind look (with the hard work done by you or a much more resourceful processor).

Shapeways is made to perform much the same role as those outfits, albeit with 3D designs. The promise of Shapeways is to enable consumers to make stuff, virtually anything of reasonable size and detail, and have it in hand in 10 days or less for an average cost of $50-150.

Mind you, Shapeways requires its users to submit a little more effort in the design of products than, say, t-shirt graphics. Compressed JPEG photos won’t do. Users are asked to import files from 3D modeling software in STL, Collada, or X3D formats. At that point, one is able to specify material and size. Shapeways describes current options as “White Strong & Flexible (SLS), Cream Robust (FDM), White Detail and Transparent Detail (Object). Additional choices will come soon.

If you’re to consider only the intriguing and largely inexpensive inventiveness that might be realized through Shapeways, it seems quite worthwhile. But perhaps its designation as a “consumer co-creation community” is a bit far-fetched. Consumers, for one, have little interest or even reasonable aptitude when it comes to 3D modeling software. It’s simply too complex for the casual user to effectively grapple with. Also, some designer utilities tend to carry with them considerable cost. The very good ones, anyhow. So I don’t imagine Shapeways becoming something akin to Minted, Threadless, or Spreadshirt.

Besides, the tasks commissioned of Shapeways by its users would typically have too many design variables in play to enable a kind of streamlined efficiency as far as a production schedule is concerned.

This leads me to think that the primary role for Shapeways will be one of serving experimentalists, artists, and various organizational or corporate doodad manufacturing. Which is fine enough, really. It need not be hugely popular. Regular output for a portion of its membership will likely suffice.

Invites: If you’d like to get yourself early entry into Shapeways, you only have to do two simple things. Click here, and where required, enter the code: MashThis. We have 500 invites to give away. Take ‘em while they’re available!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm and is filed under News, web 2.0, web, Web2.0 Startups, Fashion, diy, 3D modeling, fabrication, philips incubator, shapeways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.