The Daily Tongaler

Four Alternative Ways To Earn Money On Tongal

2011-03-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Chances are if you’re reading this blog post, you already know that Tongal provides writers and filmmakers with the opportunity to turn their creativity into cash by producing great content for amazing brands. What you may not know is that there are plenty of alternative ways you can make money by participating on Tongal.

This platform was built as a place where you can compete, contribute, and add value to the creative process, regardless of your skill-set. We firmly believe that the more people who collaborate on the project, the better the outcome, which is why we’re highlighting four ways (two new and two old) for people who may be creative in an alternative sense to get involved and start earning. Happy Tongaling!

1 - REFER WINNERS

WHO IT'S FOR: Anyone who knows creative people.
TIME COMMITMENT: 5 minutes
POTENTIAL EARNINGS : Up to $500 per referred creator.

Just launched, the Tongal Referral Program allows you to invite other creators to join Tongal and pays you if they win specific phases of certain projects. The best part is that your referral fee is not treated as a residual; in other words, it’s not subtracted from your friend’s earnings. All you have to do is click the “Invite Friends” button on the Tongal Navigation Bar and send the invitations via email or Facebook. We track their sign-up via your referral and pay you a percentage every time they win during certain campaigns. It’s that simple.

GET INVOLVED: http://tongal.com/invite

2 - IMPROVE SUBMISSIONS

WHO IT'S FOR: writers, editors, or anyone with a proclivity for improving preexisting content.
TIME COMMITMENT: 5 – 15 minutes
POTENTIAL EARNINGS : $20 per suggestion.

Our brand new Suggestion Phase gives you the opportunity to make some quick cash by improving upon winning material from the preceding phase. Once the winners of an Ideation Phase (anything written: Idea, Concept, Story, Tagline, etc.) are determined, a Suggestion Phase opens for exactly 24 hours allowing anyone to take a stab at improving any of the winning submissions. The Project Judges review the suggestions and, if they thing they add value, purchase them for a standard $20 fee.

GET INVOLVED: http://tongal.com/project/BMdoor

3 - RANK VIDEOS

WHO IT'S FOR: Anyone who watches videos online…in other words, everyone.
TIME COMMITMENT: 30 minutes – 1 hour.
POTENTIAL EARNINGS : Up to $500

Our Prediction Phase has been around since Tongal was first launched back in May 2009, but it’s often overlooked as a viable way of walking away with some decent cash for about an hour’s worth of work. Originally, we asked everyone to review every piece of content submitted, but with hundreds of submissions to comb through, it became rather tedious. As a result, the Prediction Phase has evolved to include only the Finalists (potential winners). The goal is to review the finalists (typically 15 to 40 pieces of content), then rank them in the order you think (predict) that the Judges will place them. Whoever gets closest to matching the Judges collective finishing order, wins.

4 - SHARE VIDEOS

WHO IT'S FOR: Anyone with a vast social network - bloggers, YouTube celebrities, SEOs, Tina Radel
TIME COMMITMENT: Variable
POTENTIAL EARNINGS : Variable (largest single prize ever awarded: $3,500)

Our Exhibition Phase has evolved from the days when only video creators could compete for views to allow everyone to share the winning videos. Aside from the standard Email, Embed or Linking capabilities, the Tongal Player also allows you to push to Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Del.icio.us, MySpace, Stumble and, most importantly, YouTube. The Exhibition can either be threshold based (hit 50,000 views and win) or based on finishing order (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc.) depending on the project.

GET INVOLVED: http://tongal.com/project/OutsideTheBox

Barry Diller on the future

2009-10-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Will be interesting to find out if Barry Diller is right or wrong. Nice to see a media mogul optimistic about the future however.

http://bit.ly/5T8Oj

surprise for our members from vineyard vines

2009-08-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of chatter happening online about crowdsourcing being either "good or evil," and that's an impossible question to answer. First of all I don't think it matters, I think crowdsourcing exists and that we have to live with it and learn to use it as a beneficial tool. I also am of the opinion that the determining factor of "good or evil" is the more important question of "whose doing the crowdsourcing?"

That's really why tongal was formed, and I promise, we're not Communists (despite the red theme), but we have spent a lot of time watching lots of people contribute creatively to films, tv shows, books, blogs, etc. and getting little recognition and less pay. This is why our platform was designed first and foremost to facilitate collaboration and to give credit where credit is due. We give out multiple prizes ALWAYS, we pay residuals for online work (better than the WGA) and soon we'll be announcing projects with more benefit to the winners than just cash. This is all being done out of a fundamental respect for our members. We exist solely to support and protect our members while providing them with the best opportunity to work in their pajamas.

Which is why I was so happy to hear that the team at vineyard vines had generously decided to give everyone who created a Video a $150 gift card to use on their merchandise. They could have only given out the 5 prizes, or purchased only the videos that they wanted as determined by the contest rules, but they knew that everyone spent a lot of time, and in some cases, money to create their videos, so they made a gracious gesture of thanks. Much appreciated guys. I'd say you were on the side of crowdsourcing "good."

You can see all the winners here and all the Video submissions here. And the winner is...

Monetising social networks: Tweeting all the way to the bank | The Economist

2009-08-03T16:45:00.001-07:00

Monetising social networks: Tweeting all the way to the bank | The Economist

Shared via AddThis

vineyard vines videos

2009-08-03T16:38:00.001-07:00

On Friday, the Tongal Community took a big step forward. Our members created more than 40 videos for the vineyard vines "How Do You Tie on a Vineyard Vine" Contest.

This was, in our opinions, a great application for Tongal. We took a common question "How Do I Tie a Tie?" and a company that makes great ties and found a way to create a solution using crowdsourcing and social marketing. vineyard vines can now provide an answer to this question by sponsoring Google search results with these videos and on their site, driving traffic to their site and keeping people engaged with their brand and products. The benefit to the company to have over 40 people and their friends (and one bulldog) spend so much time thinking about their brand, product and what they represent is the true value proposition.

Now the Prediction Round has commenced and vineyard vines will engage even more people who will provide meaningful feedback as to what videos are really the best. This is open to anyone and all it takes is a little time to watch the videos and try to predict which videos will win. There's a $500 prize for the most accurate prediction, $150 for 2nd place and some great vineyard vines gift cards as well.

All the videos can be seen here. Below are some of the staff favorites.

Fishing, by Clint Gage: The effect at the end is just great and really funny. Clint really did a nice job of capturing the brand and having some fun with it:

The Yuppities, To Tie a Tie, by Logan Sekulow: I love how catchy this song is and the whale as the bouncing ball was a great creative choice. "Are you going to the Ice Cream Social" and "Chateau d'Murray" have made the office vernacular.

Master Your Tie, by Patrick Renton: If only David Carradine had lived to see this...one question though was the sweat intentional, or is it just that hot in New Jersey? Either way, we're sold.

All the videos were truly great and we're excited to see who wins. Thanks to everyone who participated. Winners will be announced August 14th.

Re YouTube Profitability

2009-07-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Blodget weighs in. http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-youtube-can-be-very-profitable-in-the-near-future-2009-7

Chris Anderson interview

2009-07-23T15:35:00.001-07:00

Really interesting piece on Charlie Rose discussing the future of the internet. http://valueinvestingworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/chris-anderson-on-charlie-rose.html

Crowdsourcing

2009-07-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Now being blogged about everywhere. http://ow.ly/h0Ec

14.5 Billion Videos a Month

2009-07-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

These numbers are staggering. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/business/media/06video.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Whale of a Tale?

2009-06-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

We're thrilled to be working with vineyard vines on Tongal's first Instructional Video Contest: "How Do You Tie on a Vineyard Vine?" Vineyard vines is doing a great job of promoting this on their site and in their retail stores.

If you think this is a bizarre concept for a Video contest, try this: Google "how do I tie a tie?" and you'll see over 20 million results. I guess that means that most of the world needs the menacing threat of a Jesuit, like I had, to master this task that some of us take for granted.

We hope to answer this question for everyone and drive a ton knotless traffic to vineyard vines' site in the future. From some Tongalers' early responses to this contest, I am anticipating some really creative and educational Videos. The contest is open now and will run until July 31st, so what are you waiting for? Go tie one on!

Free Resources For Tongalers

2009-06-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

A lot of you have been asking about where to find music for your submissions, help with editing and other free resources on the Web. We've compiled a list for you. Let us know if you have any questions. The rules for each contest are different, but it is always safe to use non copyrighted material in your submissions.

YouTube's has video editing and Photoshop tutorials:

Editing 101, Part One

Editing 101, Part Two

Photoshop tutorials.

Links for copyright free music and sound effects:

Links to royalty free photos and graphic design:

GreatStartUps.com

2009-06-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

Tongal got some great coverage from GreatStartups.com yesterday. I have to say the Editor did a better job of summing up Tongal then we have been able to. We are hoping that this encourages more members to sign up for the site. One thing we've noticed is that the site is getting very high volume in visits, however, we're not able to convert a high percentage of those visits to members.

We think this may be because we're letting visitors do too much without logging in/registering. We like that. We don't want to jam registration down your throats, so, you'll see that on Monday, that if you're not registered, you'll be greeted by a new feature that will suggest that you sign up. This will be easy to decline and let you get on with your business if you have no interest in registering. The main reason for this isn't so we can try to hype up how many members we have and all that nonsense. We actually are at a stage where our pipeline is so full with Contests (and only filling up more rapidly) that we want to make sure we have the workforce to handle all the work. We're noticing that the marketplace is responding. Companies seem to want or need Tongal.

Anyway, we'll let you know how it goes.

Some Recent Press

2009-06-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Below are two articles written recently about Tongal. Not sure how they found us but happy they did.

Front Page of GreatStartups.com: http://bit.ly/info/12ZDe6

PC Magazine: http://bit.ly/On8HY

Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Videos

2009-05-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

These are so great. "Come on down to Cleveland...Buy a house for the price of a V.C.R"

Jon Hamm's John Ham!

2009-05-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

We can't get enough of this for some reason

Interesting article from WIRED

2009-05-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

Interesting article about collective action. http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism

Comedy.com

2009-05-26T15:57:00.001-07:00

Our sponsor for contest #1 has posted the following link. Nice, clean summation. http://www.thelaughtrack.com/2009/05/comedycom-is-giving-away-2500-in.html

BETA LAUNCH TOMORROW!

2009-05-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow invitations will be sent out to join the Beta. If you haven't joined the Facebook Group, signed up on the site, or contacted us directly, you need to do so to participate.

For the invitees, there will be a $1,000 prize given to whoever refers the most members to us by July 1st. To do this, forward the code you get to people you know who should join Tongal, or invite them directly from your profile.

More to come....

CareerBuilder Offers Ad Bounty

2009-05-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

Another company, CareerBuilder, going the route of firing expensive Madison Avenue agency and hiring Average Joe. Interesting thing here is the fact that price came down from Frito Lay's "bounty." Writer seemed to think the prize amount made a big difference, will be interesting to see if she is correct. Article attached here.

David vs. Goliath

2009-05-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Great article by the talented Malcolm Gladwell showing that David's win alot more often than you'd imagine. The reason...because they defy conventional wisdom. Here it is.

Bright Ideas, Big Margins

2009-05-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

A link below to a great article by Emma Johnson from Entrepreneur.com about tapping the masses for better ideas and improved margins. Of particular interest was the discussion of Jonathan Mervis, of Mervis Diamond Importers, and his recent experience using crowdsourcing to generate a series of newspaper ads for his business.

"This doesn't even compare with working with my usual ad agency," Mervis says. "If I just sit down with my agency to discuss an ad, it costs me $1,000 and it doesn't get me 500 options, it only gets me two or three. Often I don't really love those two or three, but I don't want to pay for more so I just go for it."

This is exactly the premise that Tongal was founded on. For the same price it'll cost you to get a traditional ad agency to just think about your company, you can have hundreds of ads, in less time, at a higher quality, via a more engaging and fulfilling process.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29549600/

Enjoy,
Rob

Hanging Tough

2009-04-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is not a reference to New Kids on the Block but the title of James Surowiecki's recent article in The New Yorker. He explains in a more concise manner than we ever could why being bold in a down economy can actually make a lot of sense. The article is attached here.

A Challenge to Users

2009-04-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

It seems You Tube has been aggressively seeking partnerships with established content providers as a way to attract more ad dollars.

Conventional wisdom tells us that adult supervision is necessary for providing quality content and that the only "real" interest in online video is in repurposed content. There is no doubt that there is an argument to be made for trusting media conglomerates, as it is their business, but I find it insulting to write off the millions of amateur filmmakers creating video as a distraction. True, much of what is made in a vacuum online is awful but not all of it is cats on skateboards. Tongal believes that in controlled, collaborative environment in which people are given a purpose, we'll be able to produce quality content, identify new talent and do it a MUCH lower cost.

We're Getting Close...

2009-04-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

I know we've delayed the launch a bit, but we're slated to go into Beta on May 1st. We have a diverse group of sponsors lined up and are excited to get everyone working together. Requests to join the Beta should come to info@tongal.com and include your name and email address.

Also, I've been getting a lot of flack regarding the "Daily-ness" of the Daily Tongaler. Very funny. Expect maximum bloggage from us in the coming weeks...

CrunchBase

2009-04-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

There's a listing for Tongal.

When times are good, advertise, when times are tough, advertise more.

2009-03-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

Some advertisers are taking a very aggressive approach to the bad economy including Cold Stone Creamery, Campbell Soup and General Mills. This article from today's New York Times describes how many companies are viewing the economic malaise as a way to gain market share and new customers with new products. How will they generate interest inexpensively?

Time to Throw Away...

2009-02-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

The Clif Bars

Two Nobodies From Nowhere

2009-02-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

Interesting article from USA Today. If this isn't an indicator that the game is changing, than nothing is. Two amateur filmmakers beat out all of the big budget Madison Avenue ad companies and created the highest rated commercial for the 2009 Superbowl.

Online Content Creators Making Real Money

2008-12-11T15:18:00.000-08:00

Interesting article talking about online content creators who are starting to make real money. It was only a matter of time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11youtube.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=you%20tube%20&st=cse

Star Wars A Capella...weird but wonderful

2008-12-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

This resonates (No pun intended) with an older post featuring Lawrence Lessig on Charlie Rose about the capability of the Internet to facilitate a two-way culture where people all over the world reinterpret existing media and create a new work of art.

"Star Wars" - an a Capella Tribute to John Williams - Watch more funny videos here

Cold Hard Flash

2008-12-09T12:01:00.000-08:00

Aaron Simpson found the Ghostbot video for Tongal on YouTube and posted it to his site, Cold Hard Flash. The piece and company received mixed reviews. Some seem to welcome the idea and others seem put off and defensive, worried that Tongal might cut into their work and rates. I tried to respond to people's queries...what do you think?

Plax's Tips for Gun Ownership

2008-12-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

Obama Keeps it Cool

2008-12-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

This is great, Fred Armisen has really nailed his Obama.

Dogspionage

2008-12-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

In lieu of Miles the Dog's impromptu solo missions to Allan's Aquarium when no one is home, Mark has brought to my attention the Pet's Eye View Camera. The gadget is designed to hang around your pooch's neck and take intermittent photos every 1,5 or 15 minutes. Needless to say, some out of focus digital pictures of fire hydrants, peanut butter and angry cats will be posted here in the short term. I'm thinking stocking stuffer...

The Rules of Improv

2008-11-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

One of the things we are trying to accomplish in Tongal is that of a shared experience. As we are enormous fans of improv i.e. Groundlings, UCB, 2nd City, The Harold etc. we thought to use some of the basic rules of improv and apply it to the creation of digital content.

If in improv, we begin with an audience suggestion to help get everyone involved and invested in the final result. We thought we should begin with an idea phase in which everyone/anyone can participate.

If in improv the number one rule is "yes and" i.e. if there is a suggestion from a fellow member don't impede progress by denying that suggestion and have to start over again, take it and run with it. We thought the pitch phase of Tongal should build upon some existing ideas. By doing this, like in improv, we feel we are constantly moving forward and progressing as opposed to constantly starting over with nothing to build upon.

Finally, if in improv the best thing a member can do is make his partner/s look good on stage we think that the best results here will be someone improving upon existing ideas and pitches in their video to make them better.

We reached out to plenty of comedy troupes and individuals and want to make sure they know we'll be listening. We know that with their help, the site can continually improve. Suggestions, thoughts and comments are welcome.

Gobble , gobble.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A6019102

Lawrence Lessig

2008-11-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Interesting interview with the last legit journalist out there, Charlie Rose. Sounds like he is describing Tongal no?

Ok, I had to plug this - Chuck Klosterman story

2008-11-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

From Variety today: Half Shell rocks Klosterman

In case you are wondering...

2008-11-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Why Michael Lewis didn't draft Drew Brees or use him in his analogy, Lewis and the Mannings both call the Isidore Newman School in New Orleans their alma mater.

Michael Lewis Says That It's Finally Over...

2008-11-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

"The End" and article I read today by Michael Lewis, author of the 1980's Wall Street classic Liar's Poker, offers some insight into the forces behind the financial crisis. Lewis makes an analogy between credit default swaps and fantasy football:

"When a fantasy player drafts Peyton Manning, he doesn’t create a second Peyton Manning to inflate the league’s stats. But when Eisman bought a credit-default swap, he enabled Deutsche Bank to create another bond identical in every respect but one to the original."

Another analogy, Merrill Lynch as the neighborhood fat kid...

“We have a simple thesis,” Eisman explained. “There is going to be a calamity, and whenever there is a calamity, Merrill is there.” When it came time to bankrupt Orange County with bad advice, Merrill was there. When the internet went bust, Merrill was there. Way back in the 1980s, when the first bond trader was let off his leash and lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Merrill was there to take the hit. That was Eisman’s logic—the logic of Wall Street’s pecking order. Goldman Sachs was the big kid who ran the games in this neighborhood. Merrill Lynch was the little fat kid assigned the least pleasant roles, just happy to be a part of things. The game, as Eisman saw it, was Crack the Whip. He assumed Merrill Lynch had taken its assigned place at the end of the chain."

TopCoder Newsletter

2008-11-12T17:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a quote from me in the TopCoder newsletter Novemeber 2008.

Schmitt's Gay

2008-11-12T11:56:00.001-08:00

This might be the funniest one ever. It's worth noting that they did a great job of toeing the line of not infringing on copyrights. Schmitt's sounds a lot like "Schlitz" and the Van Halen music isn't exactly Van Halen.
"you two look like you need to get wet..."

Mom Jeans

2008-11-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

Contest #1

2008-11-12T11:41:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, we're trying to figure out what our first contest out of the gates should be. We are leaning towards having you create a Saturday Night Live type spoof commercial along the lines of Mom Jeans, The Adobe, Big Red, or Schmitt's Gay. In the spirit of the season however, we are now thinking that the spoof commercial should have a holiday theme. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to email me.

Here's a list from Wikipedia of all the SNL commercials that have aired.

On the Side of Progress

2008-11-04T12:50:00.000-08:00

Although Tongal isn't endorsing one candidate today (James was pushing for Nader) I think the biggest difference in the election may not be the policies or character of the candidates but their ability to organize their campaign using technology (see this article from Today's NY Times) Thanks to "the other Facebook guy" (he's like the 3rd tenor) it seems, so far, that Obama was able to engage, raise money, and register millions of new voters all via online communication. It remains to be seen whether they show up or not... but if they do, it may put the Rove's and pollsters of the past out of business. (which would be good news for all sides) My question is what the winning side will do with those email addresses and donors after they win? Will they ask them to get engaged "in making a difference" "being mavericks" or "creating change" or will they sell the addresses to the makers of generic erectile dysfunction companies? Hope it's the former.

Mark Burrell, VP of Tongal

2008-11-03T17:08:00.001-08:00

Has been given blogging access today as of 5:02 PM PST. I apologize in advance for his spelling errors and run on sentences...

How Does Tongal Work?

2008-11-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Today we posted this video live on our Splash Page. We think that Tongal is a relatively straightforward idea and concept: People compete to make videos and have to utilize other people's ideas. But, there seems to be something getting lost in translation, so have a look and send it to any "Joe's" you might know.

Halloween Mix

2008-10-31T11:31:00.001-07:00

In the Spooky spirit of Halloween, here's a mix that we just put together.

1 Lil' Red Riding Hood Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
2 Sympathy For The Devil The Rolling Stones
3 The Munster's Theme Jack Marshall
4 Bad Moon Rising Creedence Clearwater Revival
5 Frankenstein Edgar Winter Group
6 Ghostbusters Ray Parker Jr
7 Spooky The Classics IV
8 I Put a Spell On You Screamin' Jay Hawkins
9 Witchy Woman The Eagles
10 Werewolves of London Warren Zevon
11 Season of the Witch Donovan
12 Monster Mash Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers
13 Dead Man's Party Oingo Boingo
14 Under Your Spell Again Buck Owens
15 People Are Strange The Doors
16 Black Moon Creeping The Black Crowes
17 Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein or Dracula The Diamonds
18 Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead Warren Zevon
19 Somebody's Watching Me (Single Version) Rockwell
20 Sailin' 'Cross the Devil's Sea The Allman Brothers Band
21 Whistlin' Past the Graveyard Screamin' Jay Hawkins
22 Love Potion No. 9 The Searchers
23 The Witch Queen of New Orleans Redbone
24 (Don't Fear) The Reaper Blue Öyster Cult
25 Thriller Michael Jackson
26 (You're The) Devil In Disguise Elvis Presley
27 Amityville Horror Robert Walsh
28 Time Warp The Rocky Horror Show Original Cast
29 Friend of the Devil Grateful Dead

Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy

2008-10-29T14:22:00.001-07:00

Paul Graham's take is worth reading. It's what the patient and smart people have always known, recessions are money making opportunities. Here at Tongal we're hoping that we can not only be recession proof, but recession complimentary. In tough times as the traditional style of employment begins to evolve, people all over the world will be looking for new ways to make a living AND companies will have to slash costs. Tongal offers an opportunity for both. We connect people in a new workforce and we offer companies a chance to change the way they approach their largest line item...Ad Spend.

Here's Kevin Rose, founder of Digg's response to the piece.

Today's NY Times

2008-10-28T16:51:00.001-07:00

Featured a front page story on Joel Moss Levinson, the world's most successful User Generated Ad Creator (he's won over $200,000) in contests, among them Klondike, Delta Airlines and Planet Smoothie.
Here's the article.
Here's a link to Joel's blog.

Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals

2008-10-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

For some reason, no one can stop laughing about this...

Q: Where the heck did the name "Tongal" come from anyway?

2008-10-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

A: An attempt to be clever... The introduction to Surowiecki's book tells the story of British scientist Sir Francis Galton who at a country fair outside of Plymouth discovered that a well diversified and informed group of people is typically smarter than the smartest person in the group.

At the fair, Galton stumbled upon a contest to guess the weight of an Ox. He decided to survey each individual's guess from within the "crowd" and average them. What he found was that average of the weights guessed by the crowd came exceptionally close to the actual weight of the animal. Thus changing the course of the research he did for the rest of his life.

Tongal is just an anagram for Galton (It worked for Kodak?). The logo is our wink at the old Ox that started this whole thing.

The Suro-Man

2008-10-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

James Surowiecki, Tongal inspirer and the author of the Financial Page of The New Yorker and The Wisdom of Crowds has looked away from CNBC and Maria Bartiromo long enough to publish his own blog about the tremendous Fear and Loathing within the financial markets. He calls it The Balance Sheet.

Jeff Howe's Blog

2008-10-24T14:35:00.001-07:00

If you have time, it's worth following Jeff Howe of Wired Magazine's blog. Jeff is also the author of "Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business." Jeff's posts feature insightful content on companies like Etsy and Threadless.

TopCoder

2008-10-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

In case you're wondering, all of our web design and architecture is being created by TopCoder, another crowdsourcing company that uses competitions to build software and graphic design. They've been tremendous in getting Tongal off the ground.

We've employed the TopCoder process to not only build out a logo, splash/welcome site and to design and build our entire site, complete with community functionality and video hosting.

What is Tongal?

2008-10-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Tongal is a web company I founded with Mark Burrell and Rob Salvatore to crowd source video content over the Internet. If you don't know what crowd sourcing is, it's like Wikipedia, where you take a job normally performed by an employee and "Source" it out to the world online. In a nutshell, we work with a company that needs a video, then design a contest on our website to get our members (think facebook) to work together to create it in different rounds of competition.

The idea is that it has been historically so ridiculously expensive to create video content because conventional wisdom says that only a handful of people are capable of doing this. We think that's a load of bs. There's a billion people connected over the internet and millions of them create video content for free. We're just looking to find a way to put them to work.

We're going to start running contests late next month. First were going to focus on commercials, then on instructional video (for example we'll "crowd source" a video that shows how to put together an Ikea table or something) then we want to experiment with music video. We're thinking that a la "Yacht Rock" we are going to go to big labels and get them to leverage their old libraries, kind of like "make a video for this song that was around before they had videos"

Tongal Animation

2008-10-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here's an early peek at the Tongal Animation.

Tongal Test Contests

2008-10-02T15:55:00.001-07:00

Coming this November...we've decided that we're going to test the site by running commercial parody contests along the lines of the old SNL commercials.

Ghostbot

2008-10-02T15:31:00.001-07:00

Just returned from San Francisco where I recorded the voice track for the forthcoming Tongal animation which should be live on the Tongal site in about two weeks. Corrine Wong, Alan Lau and Brad Rau of Ghostbot are doing a great job and we're all having a lot of fun producing this.