Logs from PalBee Team

We posted the official press release for the new version of Palbee.com on Sunday and Monday here in Seoul, which would be Saturday and Sunday in the States.  Here is the reprinting of the official release:

Palbee.com Launches Brave New World of Video Conferencing

Seoul, South Korea, July 11 – Palbee.com has released a new version of its free online video meeting and collaboration service.  The Palbee team has completed a total overhaul of the way people use the web site to start meetings with anyone at all, whether they are a registered Palbee user or not.  The team has made the process much more intuitive, easy, and transparent.  Additionally, new collaboration and video meeting tools in the meeting application itself give users a custom-tailored platform where they can emphasize the parts of the application that are important to the meeting.  Finally, in celebration of this new look and feel, Palbee.com has also launched a presentation contest, where users from all over the world can compete to win cutting edge electronics that are exclusively available in South Korea.  Palbee.com is produced by Zenitum Inc.

In the new design each user of Palbee.com has one personal Meetings page to coordinate a complex meeting schedule.  This page functions as a kind of collaborative MySpace or Facebook page.  A user’s currently opened meetings, those scheduled for later, and those to which the user has been invited are all listed.  Additionally, the user’s recordings and favorite recordings are also displayed so that visitors to the page can see them.

Most simply, users can create meetings immediately using their Meetings page interface.  These created meetings are then listed on their page, and any other user visiting their page can join with the click of just one button.  These publically listed meetings can also be password-protected for secure communications.

The personal Meetings page can also be used to schedule meetings for a later time.  With just a few clicks a Palbee user can schedule a meeting for any date in the future.  A user can also type in the usernames of any other Palbee user to invite them to the meeting.  After the information is submitted, the invitations show up instantly on the invited user’s personal page.  When the meeting is begun by the inviter, a join button appears next to the scheduled meeting on the invitee’s page, which they can use to join the meeting.

Palbee users can also invite anyone, whether they are a registered Palbee user or not, to a meeting currently in progress.  The host or any participant in a meeting can copy a URL from the meeting interface and give it to anyone, who can follow it to join the meeting.  Up to ten people can participate in a meeting at the same time.

The meeting interface can also be customized based on the purpose of the meeting.  The interface includes support for ten users to communicate with both video and audio, and a large white board area which can be used to show graphics, PowerPoint presentations, and to draw illustrations.  If meeting participants only want to see other participants’ video feeds, each participant can minimize the white board area and give more screen real estate to the video bank.  If meeting participants want to focus on the white board for a presentation or other collaborative activity, each participant can minimize the video area and maximize the white board.

The monthly Palbee Webcording Contest has also begun this month, and is running from now until the end of July.  Subsequent contests will be held each month, with a quarterly contest prize as well.  One of the features of the Palbee.com web site is the ability to record and play back online presentations using Palbee’s online meeting interface.  In much the same way as YouTube videos, users can create a library of presentations on any subject and display them on their personal pages.  The Palbee.com team is very interested in developing a quality selection of presentations on every conceivable subject.  “Creative, interesting content is at least as important as high quality service,” said Matthew Weigand, Project Manager at Palbee.com.  “On today’s Internet, interesting and original content is the one and only true resource.”  He hopes that Palbee.com will become a treasure trove of presentations on a large number of topics; a kind of audiovisual Wikipedia.  This contest is designed to stimulate the development of a large body of audiovisual knowledge and entertainment.

To participate in the contest, visitors must register at the Palbee.com web site and record a presentation in the English language using Palbee’s online presentation recording service.  Then, using the same email address that they used to register, users must submit the URL of the recorded presentation to the contest email.  Notable entries will be posted on the Palbee blog throughout each contest month.  First, second, and third place winners will be chosen at the end of each month from all of the entries received during the contest period.  For more information about the contest, check out the Palbee web site and the Palbee blog.

About Palbee.com

Palbee combines several features of mobile phones, email, and online messengers into one online application that requires only a copy and paste to use.  Anyone can use Palbee for work – in marketing, sales meetings and conferences.  Anyone can use it at school to present or view lectures, school projects, and online tutoring.  And anyone can use Palbee in personal life for contacting friends and family and sharing photos.  The applications of Palbee are endless.

The Palbee team is committed to developing the application to support our users in their communication and knowledge sharing.  They hope everyone enjoys the Palbee online service.

About Zenitum Inc

Zenitum Inc., the company producing Palbee.com, is an entertainment solutions developer focused on computer vision technologies headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. For three years, Zenitum has been developing unique services for both the mobile and web platforms including applications such as Facial Beauty Surgery and Facial Fortune Reading based on facial feature recognition technology.  Recently, Zenitum has launched several web services harnessing its proprietary technologies.

Palbee Video on YouTube

July 15th, 2008

We put the introduction video of Palbee on YouTube.  You can see it here:


YouTube Direkt

The animation style of the video is called Cutout Animation, one of the oldest forms of animation in existence.  It was put together by our own YoungDoo, the Designer here at Palbee.  Also, this video would not be possible without Monika’s lightning-quick reflexes.

Tell us what you think!

Well, we’re excited.  We’ve been working very hard on this new design for about two months, and now we finally have unveiled it.  What do you think?  We’re very interested in feedback.

The most significant change from the previous verison of Palbee is the elimination of the centralized Meetings page in favor of personalized Meetings pages.  Everything to do with meetings is now spread out into individual users’ pages.  The method of starting a meeting has also now been changed.  All that you need to do to start a meeting now is to enter a title and press Start.

Another major change to the way things work at Palbee is the way other people can join your meetings.  There are three different ways people can join a live Palbee meeting now.  The first is done when you schedule a meeting ahead of time.   You can schedule the meeting for any point in the future.  You can also include the Palbee usernames of anyone you’d like to invite, either by typing them in manually or selecting them from a list of your contacts.  When you complete scheduling a meeting, an entry is added to both the list of your meetings and the list of invited meetings of all the people you invited.  A Start button is listed next to your scheduled meeting, which you can press to begin the meeting.  When you do, a Join button is activated in the meeting list of all of the people you invited, which they can use to join the same meeting.

But sometimes plans change, and you need to add someone else into the meeting who did not receive an invitation.  The easiest way to do this is to use the invitation URL that is located on the meeting interface.  Simply start a meeting and look near the bottom of the window, underneath the whiteboard button icons.  The meeting URL is listed there.  You can use the button to copy the URL, and then paste it into an email or online messenger window to give it to anyone else.  They can follow the link by clicking on it or pasting it into their browser, and then they join the meeting too.

Your meetings are also listed on your profile page when they are active, and anyone who visits your profile page can see a Join button next to the meeting list.  These visitors can click on the Join button to enter the meeting.  If you would not like to have random visitors turn up, you can set a password on the meeting.

Give it a try, and then tell us what you think.  I hope you enjoy it!

I’m happy to announce the official beginning of the Palbee Webcording Contest!  I hope that this brings us interesting and valuable content, and I am eager to give away these cool gadgets.  Here’s the text of the official press release:

Win MP3 Players in Palbee’s Monthly Webcording Contest

Seoul, South Korea, June 27 - Palbee.com, a free online video meeting service, has announced a Webcording Contest with monthly and quarterly prizes on its web site. Winners can receive the latest in South Korean mp3 players. Entries are accepted from any Palbee user around the world.

To participate in the contest, visitors must register at the Palbee.com web site and record a presentation in the English language using Palbee’s online presentation recording service. Then, using the same email address that they used to register, users must submit the URL of the recorded presentation to the contest email. Notable entries will be posted on the Palbee blog throughout each contest month. First, second, and third place winner will be chosen at the end of each month from all of the entries received during the contest period. For more information about the contest, check out the Palbee web site and the Palbee blog.

“Creative, interesting content is at least as important as high quality service,” said Matthew Weigand, Project Manager at Palbee.com. “In today’s Internet, interesting and original content is the one and only true resource.” He hopes that Palbee.com will become a treasure trove of presentations on a large number of topics; a kind of audiovisual Wikipedia. This contest is designed to stimulate the development of a large body of audiovisual knowledge and entertainment.

Palbee.com is a kind of cross between a conference room and YouTube. It allows its users to record multimedia presentations with audio, video, graphics and PowerPoint slides. Its video area can record audio and video directly from a webcam or other video feed. The whiteboard area allows users to import and display pictures and PowerPoint slides, write text notes, draw, highlight, and resize them as well. It is an ideal way to present formalized information.

Moving Hosting

June 24th, 2008

Some of you may have noticed that palbee.com is currently not working.  We are moving our servers to a faster, more stable connection, and so they are unavoidably offline for a few days.  We should be back up and running by the 26th of June, so don’t worry.

If you have any questions about the move, I’ll be paying special attention to this post, and I’ll answer any questions in the comments section as soon as I can.

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