Yesterday, I knocked Kandice Melonakos, a 17-year old singer/songwriter, and made fun of the fact that she put out a press release stating she was launching her own VoIP client called KanTalk. Well, technically, it isn't her VoIP client, but an OEM'ed version of WhitePhone from Voice Commerce Group, as I was pointed out by Peter Grant, Chief Executive for Voice Commerce Group. He also suggested I check out www.jersey-talks.com for another example of a website "branding" his company's VoIP client software. He was catching a plane but he wanted to share some more info on his company and their business model, so I plan on talking to him next week for more details.
In the meantime, this morning I was checking out the newswires and came across something that caught me eye. Before reading the press release, I just happened to notice on webpage some accompanying screenshots. I opened one of them up and saw Kandice Melonakos face under Featured Artist! AHHHH! She's everywhere and she's not even famous yet! She's haunting me! (click image below for full-screen - she's in the lower-left corner)
In any event, the press release was pretty interesting and worth sharing. This is another website leveraging VoIP to build an online "community" with voice and video capabilities. John Draper, a.k.a. Captain Crunch, and my childhood hacking hero first became famous for "phone phreaking," is actually the developer of the VoIP client.
The release is worth a look...
Christmas is the time people make home videos, send Christmas cards and call loved ones on the phone. Now they can do it free through a new family-oriented VoIP and video software called SweetTalk from Gingerbread TV. "The SweetTalk VoicePod is our gift to the families around the world," says Christine Marie, also known as Mrs. Gingerbread. "And it's just in time for the holidays."
Christmas is the time people make home videos, send Christmas cards and call loved ones on the phone. Now they can do it free through a new family-oriented VoIP and video software called SweetTalk from Gingerbread TV. "The SweetTalk VoicePod is our gift to the families around the world," says Christine Marie, also known as Mrs. Gingerbread. "And it's just in time for the holidays."
It started out as a humble TV show called The Gingerbread House in Palmdale, California. Christine Marie would bring her gingerbread cookie puppets to life through ventriloquism while sharing fun, enriching ideas for mothers and children to do together. "We had no money. We had no set, no music, no director, no script --nothing but love when we started," she says. "I would leave my job teaching kindergarten, go down to the station, and the guys would yell, ‘You're live!' and that was it. The puppets and I just started talking."
"The phones started ringing, and she's been talking ever since," says producer Tolga Katas. Katas, who is also a MAC developer and president of Appian Inc., introduced Marie to John Draper, a.k.a. Captain Crunch, who first became famous for "phone phreaking," or outsmarting the telco's with a bluebox tone generator in the 1970's. Draper, now a MAC developer for the WhitePhone brandable VoIP software, taught Marie about VoIP. VoIP, or Voice Over IP, he explained, enables users to bypass long-distance charges and call anywhere in the world, computer-to-computer, for free. Marie got it. She saw the WhitePhone plan as a way to not only connect with the $1.6 trillion mom market, but also as a portal to host enriching video clips (vlogs) and make a difference in the world. Mrs. Gingerbread, the "Beloved Operator" on this VoIP service, rebranded the software in pink, cookies and roses, and named her brand of Voice Over IP, appropriately, SweetTalk.
"What Christine Marie has done with the WhitePhone software is the most creative use of VoIP I have ever seen," says John Draper. "She's not competing with Skype. She's not competing with Vonage. With SweetTalk, she has essentially used VoIP technology to create an interactive community for mothers and children, and she's done it as a single mom, right from her home studio. It's ingenious."
Nick Ogden, the president of Voice Commerce, Ltd. which has developed the brandable WhitePhone, explains, "WhitePhone is designed to build and strengthen on-line communities and has natural applications throughout the whole media industry. The SweetTalk VoicePod demonstrates this by providing users with a rich interactive experience, far more than has been possible until now - including with video messaging. With SweetTalk, you can even talk to a gingerbread puppet or send video Christmas cards to friends and family."
"She's like Martha Stewart, Shari Lewis, and Disney combined," says Tolga Katas, "She's adorable and silly, but don't underestimate her. She has the brain of a marketing genius, and she might just surprise the male-oriented technology world with an unexpected recipe for success. And it isn't IBM blue."
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