Preview of DEMOfall Lineup Points to All Things Digital

Glance at the just-released list of companies scheduled to demonstrate products and services at DEMOfall 2006, and it’s clear that all things digital will be a persistent theme at the event next week in San Diego. Digital products and services ranging from content distribution to video moviemaking are among the featured attractions.According to conference details released Wednesday, among those presenting are Eyespot Corp., Cascada Mobile Corp., MindTouch Inc., and ZING Systems Inc.

Creating and sharing video content is too complicated, so the San Diego company, which launched in April, aims to change that with Web-based video editing tools.

Eyespot tries to make it easy for people to upload videos from laptops or phones and create mashups to post segments on blogs or Web sites, or even send videos back to their mobile phone. “We would like to see a collaborative ecosystem between our site and others to remix video,” say the co-founders Jim Kaskade and David Dudas. “We’ve been innovative and looking around the corner to identify helpful tools.”

Find it difficult to locate content on a Web site through a mobile phone? Cascada Mobile at DEMOfall 2006 plans to launch a content delivery portal for mobile marketing similar to the application the FX Network, a cable channel from Fox, will use to drive viewer messages about its new television season. Branded as the FX Mobile Portal, the application aims to boost awareness of FX’s series by providing viewers with access to the latest show information, cast details, summaries, images and downloadable, programming-related mobile content from mobile phones.

“We’re building our core referral technology into a new application that will allow for enhanced service offerings,” Closner said. “Stay tuned for next week.”

The Cascada TAG referral distribution service enables friends to refer video games, music, and more by sending a link leading to the digital content. The “intelligent” technology identifies the mobile phone number and can send a referral cross cellular carriers. The Java platform also is being ported to BREW and Symbian operating systems.

Those companies focusing on digital content aren’t limited to referrals. ZING Systems Inc., which works with SIRIUS Satellite Radio to stream live digital programming over mobile devices, will showoff its software engine and wireless features. The technology combines discovery, playback, management and purchase in a portable media device.

Zing founder Tim Bucher has played major roles in technology and product development at Apple (NSDQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT), WebTV and 3DO, and founded personal server company Mirra, acquired by Seagate in 2005. Others on the team have experience at TiVo, Napster, Palm, and Sun.

Others presenting include 3jam, Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.; adaptiveblue LLC., Livingston, NJ; ThinkFree Inc., San Jose, Calif.; Tribeca Labs Inc.”, New York, NY; uControl Inc., Austin, Texas; Wallop, Inc., San Francisco; Widgetbox, San Francisco; and ZING Systems Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., Mountain View, Calif. Those presenting are selected from hundred of candidates screened by the event’s Executive Producer Chris Shipley. Each of the 67 companies next week will have six minutes on stage to shine.

DEMO conferences have earned the reputation for identifying companies and solutions that transform the technology industry. Past successes like Internet video-on-demand vendor Akimbo, which presented at DEMO 2004, recently closed a Series C financing round oversubscribed at $15.5 million. Investors includeCisco (NSDQ: CSCO), AT&T (NYSE:T), and Blueprint Ventures, the company said.

Jim Kaskade

Jim Kaskade is a serial entrepreneur & enterprise software executive of over 36 years. He is the CEO of Conversica, a leader in Augmented Workforce solutions that help clients attract, acquire, and grow end-customers. He most recently successfully exited a PE-backed SaaS company, Janrain, in the digital identity security space. Prior to identity, he led a digital application business of over 7,000 people ($1B). Prior to that he led a big data & analytics business of over 1,000 ($250M). He was the CEO of a Big Data Cloud company ($50M); was an EIR at PARC (the Bell Labs of Silicon Valley) which resulted in a spinout of an AML AI company; led two separate private cloud software startups; founded of one of the most advanced digital video SaaS companies delivering online and wireless solutions to over 10,000 enterprises; and was involved with three semiconductor startups (two of which he founded, one of which he sold). He started his career engineering massively parallel processing datacenter applications. Jim has an Electrical and Computer Science Engineering degree from University of California, Santa Barbara, with an emphasis in semiconductor design and computer science; and an MBA from the University of San Diego with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and finance.