Minic Rivera, an editor and blogger, today announced the launch of Short Movement.

Short Movement is a monthly online video festival based on themes. A new theme is open at the start of each month. Entries not longer than 1O minutes may be submitted and will be up for rating from website visitors. The video with the highest rating at the end of every month gets the theme prize. The site also recommends online videos under a section called Staff Picks. read more

Michael Eisner of The Tornante Company announced the formation of Vuguru, an independent studio that will produce and distribute original content for the Internet and emerging digital platforms.

“In the past few years, the development of exciting and innovative digital media platforms and technologies has outpaced the creation of truly great content,” said Michael Eisner. “Vuguru will produce and showcase original and third party content in all genres and formats to meet the new demands of the evolving media landscape.”

Vuguru’s first production, Prom Queen, is a scripted, serialized mystery told over 80 episodes – each running 90 seconds long. Set against the final two months of the school year, Prom Queen has a blend of love, gossip, and betrayal – all of the twists and turns of high school leading up to the biggest night of any senior’s life: prom night. Prom Queen will be distributed through YouTube and Veoh.

Pageflakes Ltd., the community-driven personalized homepage, announced the launch of the most comprehensive collection of universal video widgets available. These video Flakes, which are small, movable versions of all of your favorite video sites that you can arrange on your personal homepage, are now available to search and display videos from popular sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Revver, Metacafe, and others, including broadcast network sites. Pageflakes’ video Flake collection allows anyone to easily create customized web pages, within seconds, that display continuously updated videos from virtually all sources and can easily be shared publicly or with friends.

“The Pageflakes community of users is passionate about personalizing their homepages with videos. Now everyone can add, search, and watch the largest collection of videos on the web, all on their Pageflakes page,” said Dan Cohen, CEO of Pageflakes. “It’s never been easier to create a personal homepage that features videos from all over the web – even if you’re new to Pageflakes. Combined with the thousands of other available Flakes, the possibilities for personalized video pages are truly endless. You can even share your video ‘mashup masterpiece’ with your friends.”

VelvetPuffin announced the launching og the first integrated social networking service that allows its users to instantly communicate, create and share user-generated content of all types with friends and family through a mobile phone or desktop computer. Completely carrier independent and offered at no cost to the consumer, VelvetPuffin merges instant messaging and social networking to create truly mobile social networking. Taking a new approach to the desktop experience, it doesn’t require users to interact or obtain contact through a Web browser.

“VelvetPuffin breaks down the ‘walled garden’ experience that has traditionally characterized consumers’ mobile Web and community experiences,” said Jill Aldort, senior analyst at Yankee Group. “Better yet, the application provides a clean, user friendly and totally functional interface for IM, as well as sharing user-generated content across the PC and the mobile phone.”

YouTube announced the launch of YouTube You Choose ’08, a voter education initiative that enables political candidates to easily inform millions of potential voters about their campaigns through video.

YouTube You Choose ’08 is a centralized hub of candidate-created Channels that feature campaign videos, speeches, informal chats, behind-the-scenes footage and more. In addition, YouTube You Choose 2008 provides a platform for people to engage in dialogue with candidates and each other through the use of community features such as video responses, text comments and ratings. read more

Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the online publishing subsidiary of The Washington Post Company and Brightcove, announced a corporate-wide partnership that enables WPNI to launch ad-supported Internet video channels across its website properties.

Washingtonpost.com’s Internet video channels will feature daily newscasts from the Washington Post’s award winning journalists, exclusive news documentaries, and international coverage. Newsweek.com and the online magazine Slate already have launched ad-supported Internet video channels using the Brightcove Internet TV service. read more

Ning, the free service that gives you the power to create your own social network for anything, today unveiled Ning Version 2, which brings together powerful new features and levels of customization not before offered by any social networking service.

On Ning, you mix and match your choice of features (for example, videos, photos, music, forums, profiles, and blogs) from an ever-growing list of options, customize every aspect of how your social network looks, add a logo if you have one, make it public or private, and offer your members the ability to make their profile pages uniquely their own.

“Today’s social networking services are fantastic, but they are very similar in approach to AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy in the early nineties. They have a fixed and rigid view of what people can do,” says Marc Andreessen, co-founder and CTO of Ning. “The web is filled with people who want the freedom to create, to express themselves, and to connect with other people in new and interesting ways. Hopefully, Ning contributes in a small way to this growing freedom for everyone.”

Remember Lauren Elliott, author of the hugely successful “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” computer software series from way back?

He’s back and has launched Personal News Network (PNN), a new media network that allows anyone to share stories, photos, videos and opinions on the web. “All of us have stories and opinions,” said Elliott, CEO of PNN. “Sharing these ideas with each other is what matters; the tools shouldn’t be a barrier.”

Lauren had a personal reason for starting PNN. “A couple of years ago I helped my mother, Eleanor Roosevelt II, put together stories about growing up with her aunt and famous namesake — Eleanor Roosevelt. The stories she told about putting a pony in FDR’s elevator in the White House, or ER staying up until 3:00 am every evening to answer her mail, are wonderful, personal accounts that you don’t soon forget. I realized then that it’s these kinds of stories, told by all of us, that needed to be shared. In a way, PNN is a result of that feeling,” said Elliot.

The New York Times reported that Google is working with Dow Jones, Conde Nast, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other large content companies to syndicate their video content on other Web sites.

The videos appear inside Google ad boxes on sites that are relevant to the content of the videos and advertisements run during or after the content. There are already video ad networks that make similar deals, and NBC Universal is attempting something similar, the report said.

On the same note, Google and the NBA are currently conducting a test to syndicate NBA video content across Google’s AdSense network, adding to the growing list of content providers sharing engaging, relevant material with participating publishers. As part of this test publishers small and large, cutting across a variety of categories, will receive syndicated clips of top-flight NBA action.

YouTube and the National Basketball Association announced the launch of “Post Up the NBA” on the new “NBA Channel” on YouTube. The new channel will provide fans around the world and the entire YouTube community with the opportunity to submit video clips of their best basketball moves, and access original NBA content throughout the remainder of the 2006-07 NBA season.

Beginning today, NBA fans are encouraged to upload their “best moves” to the site and rate other videos posted by fans. The top “Post Up the NBA” videos submitted will be selected and compiled into a special weekly highlight reel “NBA Top 10 on YouTube” that will be featured on the “NBA Channel.” read more