Whenever/Wherever! (really...W Hotel)

Another milestone for our little company PeerPong - public Beta launch. Please sign-up at http://www.peerpong.com.

Here’s the VentureBeat write-up - http://bit.ly/b1w0i5

June 1, 2010 | Kim-Mai Cutler

The field of startups taking on questions and answers is about to get a little more crowded.

PeerPong, a San Francisco-based startup that helps people find experts to answer their questions, launched its beta today. PeerPong scours peoples’ social media profiles on sites like Twitter to determine their interests and talents. If you log on, it will sift through your status updates on Facebook to figure out what you’re knowledgeable at. Then it creates an online directory of experts across 12 major categories and routes them the right questions that match their skills.

“You want to be able to find an answer from someone who has actually dealt with the problem, as opposed to a general consensus kind of answer,” said cofounder Ro Choy, who was previously chief revenue officer for RockYou, the social-gaming company.

PeerPong uses natural-language processing to analyze what you talk about most influentially on Twitter. It looks at different keywords in your tweets, and compares how often you mention them to other Twitter users. Interestingly enough, Choy says Twitter can be a better gauge of interests than Facebook, because people are projecting very publicly what’s compelling to them. He said he probably wouldn’t share as much content about technology, startups and venture capital with friends and family members on Facebook as he would on Twitter, for example.

PeerPong is a slightly different approach from other startups like Quora, Hunch, and Aardvark, as well as Facebook’s forthcoming Questions feature, which are all part of a broad trend to organize informal knowledge through questions and answers. Aardvark, a question-and-answer service recently acquired by Google, may offer the closest comparison. But it generally routes questions to friends and friends of friends, instead of subject-matter experts across the entire Web.

The company has raised about $2.8 million from investors including First Round Capital, Charles River Ventures, Partech and DCM.

Posted via email from jaichoi’s posterous | Comment »

I’m a big fan of Jack Johnson. So, I posed a question to PeerPong for recommendations to similar artists like Jack Johnson. Here’s a compiled list. Check out the rest of the answers here.

Who’s your favorite from the list?

1. A dying animal in the forest

2. Charity

3. John Mayer

4. Donavon Frankenreiter and Matt Costa.

5. Andrew Bird

6. David Gray,

7. Ben Harper

8. Mat Kearney

9. Jason Mraz,

10. Mat Kearney

11. Morning Benders

11. Israel kamakawiwo’ole,

12. M. Ward,

13. Iron & Wine

14. Jason Reeves

15. Pete Murray

16. Alexi Murdoch

17. Ben Howard.

18. Matt Costa

19. Matt Wertz

20. Nick Drake

Posted via email from jaichoi’s posterous | Comment »

Recent answers from a few PeerPong Experts. Check it out:

mchwang

We own a Nikon D90 and for the bang for the bucks, it’s a good balance between price and quality. It’s easy enough for a beginner yet support most of the features of a professional photographer. (It was even used in our wedding by our wedding photographer!) If this is your first DSLR, be aware you will be spending a lot more on getting good lenses than the camera itself.

We own a Nikon D90 and for the bang for the bucks, it’s a good balance between price and quality. It’s easy enough for a beginner yet support most of the features of a professional photographer. (It was even used in our wedding by our wedding photographer!) If this is your first DSLR, be aware you will be spending a lot more on getting good lenses than the camera itself.

3 people recommended this

mpegcto

the new canon T2 is incredible and shoots 1080p 24/25 ( $850)… has most of the features of it big brother the d7 ($1800) which was just used to shoot the final episode of “house”….. to have a dslr tht can take great pictures and double as a great video camera is very nice

the new canon T2 is incredible and shoots 1080p 24/25 ( $850)… has most of the features of it big brother the d7 ($1800) which was just used to shoot the final episode of “house”….. to have a dslr tht can take great pictures and double as a great video camera is very nice

3 people recommended this

Paul

I posed the same question to my friend Eugene P. recently, and his response was awesome. Basically, there are two contending camps (Nikon vs. Canon). Both are great, but Eugene just happens to prefer Nikon. I’m going to post his email reply here:

Bodies:

Amateur to Semi Pro status -

D90

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d90.htm

This is the one I would recommend. It’s about $800 body only. Can be a good starter camera if you’re serious about it and will let you grow and learn and allow you to use the “pro” lenses. Any of the entry level Nikons D40, D60, etc, will not allow you to use the “pro” lenses (we’ll get to those later).

Serious Amateur to Pro status -

D700

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d700.htm

This is a lot more expensive, but it has what photographers call a “full frame” sensor. Basically a sensor that is equivalent to 35mm film. (Also what the Canon 5D mark 3 that you were talking about the other time) More expensive ($2,300 body only), bulkier and heavier, but without a doubt a better camera than the D90. If you want to make us all drool, get this camera. But in my opinion, overkill.

read about full frame here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/full-frame-advantage.htm

Uber Pro status -

D3

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d3.htm

Basically for pros only. $5k

Lenses:

As I mentioned before, you want to spend your money on lenses instead of body if you have to decide on one. All the lenses I’m going to recommend are FX (full frame senor) lenses. They will work with the DX (non full frame sensor i.e. D90). You want to get the FX lenses because those are the ones that will be around still when the industry slowly becomes more FX oriented, but that is probably a long way down the road. Again though, I see lenses as an investment, but only the good lenses.

The Nikon trinity… if you have these three lenses, you will never need any other lenses ever again. (Although they are bulky and very very expensive)

Nikon 14-24mm AFS f/2.8 G ED

Your wide angle

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/14-24mm.htm

Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED

The standard lens (this is the one I would get first… a must!)

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/24-70mm.htm

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II

Longer zoom

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/70-200mm-ii.htm

For cheaper lenses, they are prime (non-zoom), but fast and super sharp at a fraction of the cost

Nikon 50mm 1.4 (a must!)

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f14-afs.htm

I have the older version http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/5014af.htm

but anyone who has an slr has to have this

Nikon 85mm 1.4 D AF

Awesome portrait lens. Pros use this all the time.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/8514AF.htm

I posed the same question to my friend Eugene P. recently, and his response was awesome. Basically, there are two contending camps (Nikon vs. Canon). Both are great, but Eugene just happens to prefer Nikon. I’m going to post his email reply here: Bodies: Amateur to Semi Pro status - D90 http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d90.htm This is the one I would recommend. It’s about $800 body only. Can be a good starter camera if you’re serious about it and will let you grow and learn and allow you to use the “pro” lenses. Any of the entry level Nikons D40, D60, etc, will not allow you to use the “pro” lenses (we’ll get to those later). Serious Amateur to Pro status - D700 http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d700.htm This is a lot more expensive, but it has what photographers call a “full frame” sensor. Basically a sensor that is equivalent to 35mm film. (Also what the Canon 5D mark 3 that you were talking about the other time) More expensive ($2,300 body only), bulkier and heavier, but without a doubt a better camera than the D90. If you want to make us all drool, get this camera. But in my opinion, overkill. read about full frame here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/full-frame-advantage.htm Uber Pro status - D3 http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d3.htm Basically for pros only. $5k Lenses: As I mentioned before, you want to spend your money on lenses instead of body if you have to decide on one. All the lenses I’m going to recommend are FX (full frame senor) lenses. They will work with the DX (non full frame sensor i.e. D90). You want to get the FX lenses because those are the ones that will be around still when the industry slowly becomes more FX oriented, but that is probably a long way down the road. Again though, I see lenses as an investment, but only the good lenses. The Nikon trinity… if you have these three lenses, you will never need any other lenses ever again. (Although they are bulky and very very expensive) Nikon 14-24mm AFS f/2.8 G ED Your wide angle http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/14-24mm.htm Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED The standard lens (this is the one I would get first… a must!) http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/24-70mm.htm Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II Longer zoom http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/70-200mm-ii.htm For cheaper lenses, they are prime (non-zoom), but fast and super sharp at a fraction of the cost Nikon 50mm 1.4 (a must!) http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f14-afs.htm I have the older version http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/5014af.htm but anyone who has an slr has to have this Nikon 85mm 1.4 D AF Awesome portrait lens. Pros use this all the time. http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/8514AF.htm

4 people recommended this

Posted via email from jaichoi’s posterous | Comment »