InvisiblePeople.tv Begins Road Trip U.S.A Tour
InvisiblePeople.tv Brings a Voice to the Homeless Through Road Trip U.S.A Tour
Mark Horvath will use the power of social media to tell personal stories about America’s forgotten nation
Whrrl is honored to be working with homeless advocate Mark Horvath on his InvisiblePeople.tv Road Trip starting today. Mark will be visiting 25 cities throughout the nation to bring a voice to the voiceless and share personal stories about homelessness. You can follow Mark along his journey at: http://pages.whrrl.com/invisiblepeople/.
Recently, the LA Times wrote a story about Mark’s trip. The article also describes how we here at Pelago met Mark, and why we’ve decided to support him in his endeavor. Read the full article here.
LOS ANGELES, CA – July 15, 2009 – The plight of the homeless is one that many people are aware of, but few choose to act on. While three million people sleep on the streets of America every night, most of us go about our daily business with our eyes and ears closed to the issue at hand. It’s this lack of knowledge and based on a personal experience of homelessness that Mark Horvath is setting out to enact change through the InvisiblePeople.tv Road Trip U.S.A.
Mark Horvath
Starting today, Horvath will visit over 25 cities across the nation in order to help bring understanding and knowledge to the growing homeless crisis. Because he knows homelessness does not discriminate, Horvath will visit a mix of rural areas, larger cities, shelters and youth facilities to bring a voice to the voiceless through the power of social media. Videos will be posted on Horvath’s vlog as well as YouTube and Vimeo, and shared through social networks including Twitter and Facebook. In addition, he will share real-time stories of the homeless through stories on Whrrl and live streaming via UStream.
“Social media, with its instant reach and impact, is the perfect information hub for InvisiblePeople.tv and the stories I want to share,” said Horvath. “For example, most people won’t know that the average age of a homeless person in America today is nine years old. People don’t choose to be homeless, yet this is the view that much of America has. This needs to change, and the stories that InvisiblePeople.tv have shared and will share will hopefully be the first step in this change happening.”
Horvath’s Hollywood executive background is in stark contrast to the role he finds himself in now. Once responsible for the worldwide distribution of some of America’s best-loved TV shows, Horvath became homeless – not once, but twice. Now, with just $45, a laptop, a camera and social media, Horvath wants to show that knowing homelessness exists is just half the problem – the other half is showing how we can help.
Pelago Announces Whrrl v2.1 Update Now Available for iPhone
Pelago today announced the latest version of Whrrl is now available for the iPhone and ready to download in the Apple App store. Whrrl v2.1 incorporates customer feedback and includes dozens of new features and hundreds of updates to make the application faster, easier to use and more collaborative, including:
- Add people into your stories: Add friends and family into a story in just seconds from networks on Whrrl, Facebook and Twitter, and through email or text messaging. Those added into a story can immediately begin posting photos and updates to the shared story.
- View previous stories from your location: When a story is created from a specific location, past stories from that place will also appear. These stories can help users discover fun, interesting information about places they frequent and new places they’re visiting.
- More control from the iPhone: Stories can now be customized by adding a story title and photo captions. In addition, users can delete slides and stories right from their iPhone, giving them more control on the go.
“Since launch, we’ve received excellent feedback from our users about Whrrl and are excited to respond with a release that implements many of the top requested features,” said John Kim, VP of Product Management and Marketing at Pelago. “Whrrl v2.1 makes it even easier and more intuitive for users to capture the stories of their lives – as they happen – and share them with those who matter most.”
In addition to product updates, Whrrl is now offering single-story and recent-stories widgets to enable users to share their stories through blogs and websites. The single-story widget lets storytellers share any public story – whether it’s theirs or that of another Whrrl user. The recent-stories widget shows the last five public stories a Whrrl user has created. Both widgets are free, easy to use, and available at Whrrl.com.
Whrrl is a new iPhone and mobile application that enables people to capture and share the stories of their lives, one moment at a time, through streamed location, photo and text updates. Whrrl stories are collaborative, enabling people to join a story and contribute, or view and comment on stories if they’re not present. Stories can be private, shared with friends or made public, and can be broadcast through Facebook and Twitter. For more information, please visit: www.whrrl.com
About Pelago
Pelago is committed to developing innovative products that bring the power of online information to everyday life in the physical world. Their flagship product, Whrrl v2.1, lets people share their real-world experiences as they happen from the web and mobile phone, and connects people in the real world in an entirely new way.
The company is based in Seattle, founded in 2006, and led by an executive team from companies including Amazon, RealNetworks and Yahoo. Pelago is backed by pioneering Internet and mobile investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bezos Expeditions, T-Venture, Trilogy Equity Partners, and Reliance.
CONTACTS:
Heather Meeker
Pelago
310.435.3535
heather@pelago.com
Whrrl v2.0 Adds SMS and Digital Camera Support
Anyone Can Participate in Whrrl Stories Through SMS and Eye-Fi Enabled Digital Cameras
SEATTLE, Wash. – March 26, 2009 – Pelago today announced that their recently launched product, Whrrl v2.0, has expanded to enable virtually anyone with a mobile phone or digital camera to participate. In addition to the recently launched iPhone application, users will now be able to capture and share their real-world stories, as they happen, in the following ways:
• SMS and Email: By sending simple SMS text messages, mobile phone users can join the service, create or join an existing story, and update their stories with text and photos. Photos are sent via email or MMS. See a tutorial here.
• Digital Cameras: Through a partnership with Eye-Fi, digital camera owners can now snap, upload and share their high-quality photos directly from their camera to Whrrl v2.0 via an Eye-Fi wireless memory card. Pictures are uploaded in real-time and automatically appear in the user’s current story. Learn more here.
“Starting now, anyone with a Motorola RAZR or any other mobile phone can create Whrrl v2.0 stories in real-time,” said Jeff Holden, Founder and CEO of Pelago. “And if you’re in a dark environment or want to capture higher quality photos than the phone provides, you can use your digital camera and still have your photos appear in your Whrrl story instantly. Ultimately, these two new offerings allow almost everyone to share stories with Whrrl v2.0.”
“Whrrl users are fanatical about sharing their real-world experiences and now they can quickly and easily add in pictures taken with their digital camera,” said Ziv Gillat, Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development at Eye-Fi. “With Eye-Fi, all they have to do is snap a photo and it will upload automatically through their wireless network to Whrrl.”
Whrrl v2.0 enables people to capture and share their real-world experiences as they happen.
Through location, photos and text updates, people can easily turn everyday life moments into collaborative stories that can be remembered, organized and shared. Users have complete control over who can view their story and are given the option to broadcast each story’s unique URL as a status update on Facebook and Twitter. Whrrl v2.0 recently launched as an iPhone application on the Apple App Store and is also integrated with Facebook Connect. In addition, anyone can visit the Whrrl v2.0 Web site (whrrl.com) to view, edit, share and comment on stories.
About Pelago
Pelago is committed to developing innovative products that remove all barriers to information, inspiration and human connection. Their flagship storytelling product, Whrrl v2.0, enables people to capture and share the moments of their lives, as they happen. The company is based in Seattle, founded in 2006, and led by an executive team from companies including Amazon, RealNetworks and Yahoo. Pelago is backed by pioneering Internet and mobile investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, T-Venture, Bezos Expeditions, Trilogy Equity Partners, and Reliance Technology Ventures. For more information, please visit www.pelago.com and whrrl.com.
About Eye-Fi
Founded in 2005, Eye-Fi is dedicated to building products and services that help consumers navigate, nurture and share their visual memories. Eye-Fi’s patent-pending technology works with Wi-Fi networks to automatically send photos and videos from a digital camera to online, in-home and retail destinations. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., the company’s investors include LMS Capital, Opus Capital, Shasta Ventures and TransLink Capital. For more information, visit www.eye.fi.
CONTACTS:
Heather Meeker
Pelago
310.435.3535
heather@pelago.com
Gina Weakley
Red Consultancy for Eye Fi
415.618.8809
gina.weakley@redconsultancy.com
Pelago Launches Whrrl v2.0
Our official press release, announcing Whrrl v2.0:
Pelago today announced the release of Whrrl v2.0, an application for iPhone and iPod touch that enables people to capture and share the moments of their lives, as they happen, in story form. Through location, photos and text updates, users can easily turn everyday life experiences into lasting stories that can be remembered, organized and shared. Each user controls exactly who can view their story, ranging from public to private, and includes the option to broadcast status updates on Facebook and Twitter.
“The story format for sharing life experiences is very exciting, because stories are the source of so much inspiration,” said Jeff Holden, Founder and CEO of Pelago. “We deeply believe that people will, through the stories of others, find new and diverse opportunities for adventure and human connection in their lives that they otherwise would have missed. Whrrl v2.0 for the revolutionary iPhone and iPod touch makes it incredibly simple for people to capture and share the moments of their lives – fun, silly, crazy or otherwise – with anyone they choose, from any location, at any time.”
Whrrl v2.0 stories are collaborative: two or more people who are physically together can “join” and contribute to the same story from their own iPhone or iPod touch, allowing a single experience to be expressed from multiple points of view. In addition, each story has its own unique URL that can be easily shared. After the real-world experience ends, the story may be edited by the participants via the Whrrl website and shared with others through Facebook, Twitter and email.
Whrrl v2.0 is now available for free from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/
About Pelago
Pelago is committed to developing innovative products that remove all barriers to information, inspiration and human connection. Their flagship product, Whrrl v2.0, enables people to capture and share the moments of their lives, as they happen, in story form. The company is based in Seattle, was founded in 2006, and led by an executive team from companies including Amazon, RealNetworks and Yahoo. Pelago is backed by pioneering Internet and mobile investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, T-Venture, Bezos Expeditions, Trilogy Equity Partners, and Reliance Technology Ventures. For more information visit whrrl.com.
Other Buzz:
“Whrrl Brings Collective Location-Based Storytelling to Your iPhone”
“Whrrl revamps its iPhone app just in time for SXSW”
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