Shindig (video chat platform)

Shindig is a patented technology platform for large scale online video chat events.

Fueled described Shindig as "a new online video chat platform, (which) aims to make talking online more natural by imitating real-life events; users can freely mingle, moving between conversations with the same ease as you might move through a dinner party."^[1]

In a Shindig event, participants can use webcams to see each other in a shared space.^[2] A featured presenter can give a talk, be interviewed, share a multimedia presentation, give a live performance, teach a course and much more to a live online audience of thousands.^[1][3][4][5] Meanwhile, audience members can move freely in and out of private video conversations with whomever they choose, and selected guests can be brought up to "share the stage" and directly interact with hosts "face-to-face" before the entire group.^[1][5] The speaker can also share PDF, MP3, and MP4 multimedia files with the group.^[6]

Notable pioneers and institutions who have used the platform include Bill Gates, TED.com, Sheryl Sandberg, Guy Kawasaki, Jim Cramer, Michael Saylor, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, Random House, Ernst & Young, Simon & Schuster, Folio, Los Angeles Review of Books, Lucky Magazine, TEDx, BookTalk Nation and many more.

The platform was first introduced as a means of enabling author talks and Q&A's. Among the many hundreds of notable authors who have used the platform: Tom Angleberger, Dan Ariely, Edward Jay Epstein, Richard Paul Evans, Jackson "Cat Daddy" Galaxy, Carla Hall, Hugh Howey, A. J. Jacobs, Jerry B. Jenkins, Kevin Kelly, Jill Lepore, Wendy Lower, Marissa Meyer, Jo Nesbø, Susan Orlean, George Packer, Michael Pollan, Diane Ravitch and Lori Wilde.

Shindig has also been looked at as a potential solution for online education. As cited in Campus Technology, "Shindig's proprietary technology may enable online faculty members to facilitate rich media interactive video and audio with large numbers of students in an online course...these students can also see each other, and they can, with only a click, self aggregate into their own collaborative groups and speak with each other in real time during the course."^[7] University Business says "Shindig enables the real-life dynamics of a face-to-face course with all its interaction and participatory features at internet scale."^[8]

Shindig enables a hybrid MOOC, which has the potential to reduce the cost of higher education without radically diminishing its quality, as many feel other MOOCs and platforms threaten to do. As of October 2013, some 20 institutions had commenced pilots using the platform for online e-courses including Caltech, Duke, NYU, Cooper Union, Texas A&M, Manhattanville, University of the Sciences and University of Crete. Shindig was the recipient of SIAA's 2013 Innovation Incubator Award as the Educator's Choice Runner-Up for Education Technology Product or Service.^[9]

History

Shindig was created by serial entrepreneur, angel tech investor, music industry pioneer and technology executive Steve Gottlieb in 2009. His past career highlights include founding and running one of the largest independent music companies in the US with 30 Gold, Platinum, and Multi-platinum releases to its credit.

In 2009, Gottlieb filed a number of patents for self-aggregated chat and other innovations that would become the underlying basis for the Shindig platform.^[1] Gottlieb identified a basic flaw that was common to all video chat technology: each platform used a similar basic architecture which locked users into a single conversation. The result was an unnatural interaction, and it created the unrealistic expectation that participants would give their undivided attention to one another.^[1] Gottlieb sought to create a new architecture that replicated the ease of conversing in an actual physical space where one could freely chose with whom one spoke.^[10]

Beta of the platform began in June 2012. November 26, 2012 marked the occasion of Shindig's 200th online video chat book tour event with best-selling author Hugh Howey (Wool). Howey stated, "As an author who loves to connect with his readers across the globe, my one wish is that I could be everywhere at once. Shindig makes that happen."^[11]

In April 2013, Shindig hosted Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates' interactive presentation and Q&A session with students at Concordia College.

In May 2013, over 50 prominent authors participated in Shindig's presentation of Live from BookExpo America, a marathon of live author talks. Authors who participated included Chuck Palahniuk, Sylvia Day, Ruth Westheimer, Slash Coleman, Hugh Howey, Lauren Weisberger, A.J. Jacobs, Jill Shalvis, Mary Higgins Clark, Trista Sutter and Rob Sheffield, amongst others.^[12]

In October 2013, Shindig was used to host the Capital E-xchange education summit featuring some of the foremost thought leaders in education, including former White House tech advisor Aneesh Chopra, Michael Saylor, John Katzman and more. The Shindig platform was also enlisted by the organizers of World Book Night, allowing thousands of passionate readers to experience the announcement of 2014's selected books. The platform will be utilized in daily author-reader events in the 30 days leading up to World Book Night on April 23, 2014.

In 2010, the company raised $5MM in financing from the Pritzker/Vlock family office.^[6] An additional $5 million was raised in 2013.

Prior Uses

The Shindig platform included subsets such as Games (chess) and the social site Shindig Mingle.^[13] At a video conferencing expo in 2010, founder Steve Gottlieb described Mingle as "the savior of random video chat encounters online", claiming it would "revolutionize the way we think of meeting people online."

Applications

Shindig has been used to power a variety of events in the following categories:

• Video Chat Book Tour Events: as of May 2013, over 300 authors have promoted their books and interacted with fans and readers on the Shindig platform.^[14]
• Online Teaching Platform and Webinars: informative and educational series by hosts such as Sean Carroll, Dr. Charles Parker, Paul Mladjenovic, Gabriela Pereira, Keith Frankish, William M. Ramsey, Steven W. Anderson, Mitch Weisburgh and Tom Whitby.^[14][15]
• Exclusive programming: novelist/celebrity ghostwriter/editor Alan Goldsher was the host of Book It, the Internet's first-ever interactive writing and publishing-oriented talk show, which was presented on Shindig. Featured guests include Joel Stein, Ileana Douglas, Jonathan Maberry, and Kevin Pollak.^[16] The Romance Writers of America also used Shindig to power their first ever online RITA Award Nominees Showcase that presented the finalists of each award genre in a weekly series of events.^[17]
• Corporate events: Shindig Events powered an online 4th Birthday Celebration for TEDx, as well as the TEDx Organizers Global Summit that allowed the global TEDx community to interact and share their experiences and best practices for organizing conferences.^[18] Shindig events allow organizations of all sizes to leverage the Shindig video chat platform for presentations, meet and greets, press conferences, sales meetings, product launches, team/department meetings, online offsite retreats, and earnings calls.^[19]
• Video Chat Music Listening Parties: Shindig powered backstage interviews with bands that performed 2012's Warped Tour. Canadian Music Week also partnered with Shindig to host live meet-and-greets with artists, bands, and prominent figures from their 2013 festival.^[4] Hip-hop legend Big Daddy Kane made multiple appearances on Shindig to promote his latest album, "The Las Supper", through interactive meet-and-greets.^[20] Other music figures who appeared on Shindig include Tyler Ward, Mieka Pauley,^[21] Free Dominguez, and Moses Stone and Adley Stump from season 2 of NBC's The Voice.^[14]
• Conventions: including BookExpo America,^[5] where Shindig powered over 50 online author talks live from the floor of the show, and New Music Seminar, where key panelists who were appearing at the Seminar were featured in Shindig events in an effort to generate Seminar interest and attendance.^[22] Shindig also hosted the Lucky FABB Fashion and Beauty Blog Conference in October 2013 featuring actress Kate Bosworth.
• Entrepreneurs and Prominent Figures: including Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Guy Kawasaki, Tom Silverman, Ron Fair, Jim Cramer, and George Packer have led topic-specific presentations and interacted with press/fans/followers/attendees, as well as sold their offerings.^[22][23]
• Video Chat Gaming Events: including a chess competition in 2011, which featured 15 Grand Masters competing in locations from around the world on a 3D interactive chessboard.^[13]
• Video Chat Nightclubs: DJ Epitone started his very own series of interactive virtual nightclub experiences, using Shindig bimonthly to stream himself mixing his favorite tunes while taking requests from audience members in real time.^[24] DJ Raffael De Luca also started his own weekly DJ show called, "Weekly Mix Down with Raffael De Luca" featuring a different DJ every Friday.^[25]
• Celebrity Q&A's, including a December 2014 event at Skylight Books in Los Angeles, CA in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt and hitRECord.org celebrated the DVD release of their television show, "HitRecord on TV: Season 1".

Some uniquely captivating interactions have taken place on Shindig. During a live series of book tour events featuring National Book Award finalists and editors from The Atlantic,^[26][27] a Holocaust survivor shared her incredible story and coping techniques to author Wendy Lower and the audience.^[28] In August 2013, Americans without healthcare engaged in a heated debate over Obamacare with healthcare experts from Forbes.^[29] Author Tom Angleberger hosted a pair of interactive events that were highlighted by 7-year old children presenting their "Jabba the Puppett" and "Art2-D2" puppets.

Shindig has also targeted magazines, distance learning companies, sales executives, industry events and conventions, and charitable organizations (for fundraisers) to deliver their messages and leverage their brands using its patented online video chat platform.^[5]

In 2015, Shindig hosted, for their second year, a three-day online event of interactive talks with thought leaders direct from the convention floor of SXSW. This year's presenting partner General Assembly (GA) helped to assemble a stellar panel of thought leaders, digital influencers and startup entrepreneurs to share their experiences with an online audience in video chat sessions that ran from Sunday, March 15th through Tuesday, March 17th.

See also

• Spreecast

References