Black Web 2.0

Are you overworked and under paid? Is your boss tap dancing on your last good nerve? Or maybe you’re just looking for a new challenge. Well, dust off the resume, press the suit, and check out the Black Web 2.0 Job Board.

DBA Lead (Oracle 10G)
Delray Beach, FL

DBA Lead (Oracle Applications)
Delray Beach, FL

If you are interested in posting a job feel free to contact us at jobs (at) blackweb20 (dot) com. Here are the first few of we hope to be many more!

In the fourth episode of the Black Web 2.0 Show we sit down with Denmark West, President of Digital Media, BET Ad Network. Denmark’s bio includes degrees from Harvard, and experiences in a wide range of positions with companies such as MTV Networks, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs.

We used our time with Denmark to discuss BET Ad Network’s mission, publishers and publishing criteria. We also discussed the value of the African-American conversation.
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Who said the housing slump couldn’t be overcome with a new coat of paint? Well the same theory applies to your favorite professional networking site. The jury may still be out on this, but the LinkedIn home page is in Beta test with a completely new coat of paint, with one or two new upgrades as well.

The redesigned page boasts a much better information architecture, particularly as it relates to navigating to core functionality like the inbox, profile, contacts, and groups. Additionally it provides a nice and concise snapshot view of the user’s profile with profile photo, # of contacts, and a summary of the number of views in a given week. (more…)

One of my favorite online publications, Clutch Magazine, released some nifty social bookmarking upgrades to their site on Valentines Day. While this is just a quick post about this upgrade I think what is notably a larger trend is the attempt publications (online and offline) are making at integrating (more…)

The battle has been won. To the victors, in this case Sony, go the spoils. Toshiba this week announced it was pulling the plug on it’s HD DVD format which had been embattled against Sony’s Blu-Ray HD format.

The tipping point seems to have been last month’s abandonment of the HD format by Warner Bros. Entertainment, the top DVD publisher, followed by Wal-mart’s decision to no longer carry DVDs in the HD format in their stores.

Toshiba’s decision to no longer develop, manufacture, or market HD DVD players and recorders at one point had bolstered the company’s stock, although what lies ahead for the company and the consumers who invested in the technology is unclear. (more…)

We got an exclusive set of beta user accounts for you guys to checkout from Musana, a new music portal set to launch later this year. The portal is built on ASP.NET, and uses the ASP AJAX toolkit for the Javascript UI features. Not sure if they are using Silverlight, but it would be the way to go for bowser based cross platform media streaming compatibility. (more…)

The New York based Community Connect, parent company of Black Planet, the 5th highest trafficked social-networking site according to Hitwise, may be for sale. Sources close to the deal report that Radio One and Viacom are both possible suitors. With over 16.5 million registered members and close to 80 million page views on Black Planet alone, we’re expecting a high price tag.

This story may be confirmation of an exploding trend in the Urban/African-American web space. With the launch of sites like The Root, IAC’s launch of Black Web Enterprises, BET’s Advertising Network, and others, are companies finally seeing the value in African-American niche market?

If you have been watching whats going on with Microsoft and Yahoo, the Danger acquisition may have slid by you without notice. This is a substantial asset for Microsoft, and its media partner ecosystem. Let me explain a little further, besides grabbing one of the best media portals (Yahoo), a deal with MTV, and now Walmart via Real Networks, they now have DANGER. The most popular youth culture device on the market, and hands down more units shipped than the popular iPhone. (more…)

Krista Summit who currently blogs at http://kristasphere.blogspot.com/ and http://gigamedia.blogspot.com/
Toby Morning aka Urbantech who currently blogs at http://urbantech.bluemonitor.com/

Kevin McFall aka Mega who currently blogs at http://mediamafiatt.blogspot.com/

Jason Tompkins aka jbyrdhaslanded will be producing and hosting a new podcast series here at BW2.0, “The Open Source” so stay tuned for that.

I can’t express how excited and happy we are to have these additional writers on board, Welcome!

The IFPI released its annual report on digital music, and it’s just the same old (played out) song with some new numbers:

Global Revenue from digital music sales rose 40 percent to $2.9 billion over the past year, but that was more than offset by the drop in CD sales.

*30 per cent of all recorded music is sold digitally online or mobile * The biggest threat to the music industry continues to be piracy, with illegal downloads outstripping legal ones by 20-1. * Digital now represents 15 percent of the global music market — up from just two percent in 2004. In the U.S., its 30 percent; in South Korea, 60 percent (more…)