Aug 15
Second Life Dispute Spills into "First Life"
In July, a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla., was filed alleging an individual broke a software program’s copy protection and sold unauthorized copies. What makes the case so unusual is the accused is a Second Life avatar named “Volkov Catteneo.”
The suit was filed by Kevin Alderman, a 46-year-old entrepreneur whose business, Eros LLC, designs and develops sexual enhancements for Second Life avatars. His $45 SexGen animates avatars in erotic positions, as well as adding accurate looking genitalia to the otherwise “featureless” avatars.
“We confronted him about it and his basic response was, ‘What are you going to do? Sue me?’” Alderman said. “I guess the mentality is that because you’re an avatar … that you are untouchable. The purpose of this suit is not only to protect our income and our product, but also to show, yes, you can be prosecuted and brought to justice.”
According to the Salon.com article:
“Linden Lab grants its users broad rights to create and sell content with few restrictions. Users can install copy protection and seek U.S. copyright and trademark protections, all of which Alderman did for the SexGen software.”
Jun 28
DesignHammer Launches Website for Nationally Acclaimed Medical Tourism Guide
DURHAM, NC — DesignHammer Media Group is pleased to announce the completion of a new project website for Healthy Travel Media. The website was developed to promote the publisher’s new book by Josef Woodman titled, Patients Beyond Borders: Everybody’s Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medical Tourism and can be viewed at patientsbeyondborders.com.
Patients Beyond Borders is the first comprehensive guide for Americans considering medical tourism. Less about travel and all about healthcare choices, this consumer guidebook provides practical answers for the increasing numbers of Americans facing long-term financial insecurity due to challenging medical conditions.
“In building the Patients Beyond Borders website, DesignHammer created a compelling blend of both form and function, which greatly aided the promotion of the book,” stated author Josef Woodman. “Their ability to help mold our ideas for the site into a great finished product is commendable, and we appreciate their ongoing attention to detail in updating the pages.”
“We were pleased to be selected to have been selected for this project, by Healthy Travel Media — both the site and book offer interesting insight into the growing Medical Tourism industry,” said David Minton, Managing Partner for DesignHammer Media Group. “With the new website, Healthy Travel Media is able to harness the media buzz generated by interviews by the book’s author is leading publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago tribune, the Financial Times, and the Economist.”
Founded in 2001, DesignHammer Media Group LLC is an award-winning, Durham, North Carolina-based web design and development company. Featuring advanced planning, repeatable processes, refined aesthetics, solid technology, and personalized service; DesignHammer empowers clients by building smarter websites.
Jun 18
DesignHammer Redesigns Website For Orange County Habitat for Humanity
DURHAM, NC — DesignHammer Media Group announces the launch of the redesigned website for Chapel Hill based, Orange County Habitat for Humanity. The new website, which can be viewed at <www.orangehabitat.org>, features expanded content, and a construction inspired user interface.
Orange County Habitat for Humanity is an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide. Serving Orange County, North Carolina, the Orange County Habitat for Humanity, is based in Chapel Hill, NC.
“DesignHammer delivered the look and feel we were looking for in our new site”, stated Sarah Washburn, Development Coordinator for Orange County Habitat for Humanity. “They did an exemplary job and I appreciate the high level of customer service and support we received from each member of their team.”
“We were happy to be selected to work with Habitat on their website” said David Minton, Managing Partner for DesignHammer Media Group ” this redesigned site will assist Orange County Habitat in promoting both their message, and support the important work they do in providing affordable housing for members of our community” Minton added.
The new website builds upon previous work done for Orange County Habitat for Humanity by DesignHammer. The two organizations began their collaboration in August of 2006, to enable the nonprofit to easily accept charitable donations through its website.
Founded in 2001, DesignHammer Media Group LLC is an award-winning, Durham, North Carolina-based web design and development company. Featuring advanced planning, repeatable processes, refined aesthetics, solid technology, and personalized service; DesignHammer empowers clients by building smarter websites.
Jun 15
IDEA Fund Partners Chooses DesignHammer
DURHAM, NC — DesignHammer Media Group announces the acquisition of IDEA Fund Partners as a new client. DesignHammer will be providing consulting, design, development, and hosting services, culminating in the launch of IDEA Fund Partner’s initial company website. The new site will be launched in July, 2007. IDEA Fund Partners assists new technology companies and is based in Durham, NC. The website will be at www.ideafundpartners.com.
IDEA Fund Partners provides seed and early stage equity funding as well as company building expertise to technology startups in North Carolina as well as the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, seeking to serve as a bridge between angel and institutional investors. They are located in the Research Triangle Park area of Durham, NC.
“We were looking for a web development firm with both extensive web design experience and the ability to help cultivate our ideas into a fully functioning and great looking website to promote our company.” said W. Merrette Moore, Partner with IDEA Fund Partners. “With its creative approach, planning, and award-winning websites, DesignHammmer is clearly the right choice for us.”
“With businesses increasingly using the Internet to both sell products and provide services and promote themselves online, a company’s website has become an critical piece of most companies business model”, said David Minton, Managing Partner for DesignHammer Media Group. “DesignHammer is very pleased to be selected to fulfill the web development needs of IDEA Fund Partners, and will look forward to working with them in the coming weeks”, Minton added.
Founded in 2001, DesignHammer Media Group LLC is an award-winning, Durham, North Carolina-based web design and development company. Featuring advanced planning, repeatable processes, refined aesthetics, solid technology, and personalized service; DesignHammer empowers clients by building smarter websites.
Jun 5
DesignHammer Redesigns Film Festival Website
DesignHammer Media Group announces the launch of a redesigned website for the Triangle Jewish Film Festival (TJFF). The website was released in conjunction with the 2007 festival, to be held on June 10th 2007 at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary. The new website can be viewed at
The Triangle Jewish Film Festival Committee (formerly the NC Jewish Film Festival Steering Committee) has presented films and cultural events to the Triangle since 1999. The Festival is produced by the Durham-Chapel Hill and Raleigh-Cary Jewish Federations and takes place annually at the Cary Galaxy Cinema.
Sydney Miller, Chairman of the TJFF Steering Committee declared, “We needed a well-designed, elegant web site that would provide a professional and distinctive look for us. The new Triangle Jewish Film Festival web site provides us with an effective means to market our events and broadcast important information. Working closely with DesignHammer has created a dynamic and productive relationship that will enhance the future of the Triangle Jewish Film Festival.”
“We are pleased to continue our relationship and serving the TJFF’s web development needs,” said David Minton, Managing Partner for DesignHammer Media Group. “We hope Triangle residents take advantage of this wonderful local resource,” Minton added.
Founded in 2001, DesignHammer Media Group LLC is an award-winning, Durham, North Carolina-based web design and development company. Featuring advanced planning, repeatable processes, refined aesthetics, solid technology, and personalized service; DesignHammer empowers clients by building smarter websites.
Jun 4
Google Gobbles up FededBurner
On friday, Google announced that it had purchased Chicago based FeedBurner, a provider of services for RSS feed developers (such as bloggers or website owners) to modify, publish, and track traffic on their Feeds.
FeedBurner “delivers feeds to millions of users around the world and offers unique and useful tools for publishers to analyze, optimize, and monetize their content,” wrote Susan Wojcicki, Google’s vice president of product management, in announcing the deal on Google’s official blog.
FeedBurner offer both free (hosting feeds on the feedburner.com URL), and paid services (monthly fees unlocked additional services, such as more details stats, and domain masking). How this deal will affect the services, and pricing offered is unknown.
Jun 4
DesignHammer Sponsors DCampSouth Usability Conference
DesignHammer was happy to help sponsor DCampSouth, on June 2nd. The conference, held at the School of Communication Arts in Raleigh, attracted more than sixty user experience professionals and students from across the state.
DCampSouth, a conference for anyone interested in design and user experience, was inspired by DCamp, held in May 2006 in Palo Alto, CA. The goal of DCampSouth was to bring together people of all professions interested in user experience and design, to help foster communication between professions, and help foster community.
Other than a a keynote session by Thomas Vander Wal, DCampSouth utilized an unconference format, in which participants pitch their session ideas, rather than having scheduled speakers, and topics.
The conference was organized by TriUPA (Triangle-area chapter of the Usability Professionals Association). DesignHammer’s sponsorship covered the purchase of lunch for all conference guests and participants.
Apr 17
New Royalty Fees to Kill Internet Radio?
According to an AP report, an appeal of a new royalty structure for music played through non-terrestrial radio, such as webcasting, was rejected by a panel of copyright judges. The new royalty structure, which will affect broadcast listened to by 50 around million people on major online sites such as Yahoo!, AOL, and National Public Radio
For the last five years, a federal law had allowed smaller Internet broadcasters to pay 12% of their revenue instead of having to calculate per-song, per-hour rates like larger companies had to.
Apr 12
Orange County Habitat for Humanity Hires DesignHammer
DesignHammer Media Group announces the acquisition of Orange County Habitat for Humanity as a new client. DesignHammer will be providing consulting and web development services for Habitat’s redesigned web site. The new site is expected to be launched in May, 2007.
Orange County Habitat for Humanity is an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide. Serving Orange county, the Orange County Habitat for Humanity, based in Chapel Hill, NC.
Founded in 2001, DesignHammer Media Group LLC is an award-winning, Durham, North Carolina-based web design and development company. Featuring advanced planning, repeatable processes, refined aesthetics, solid technology, and personalized service; DesignHammer empowers clients by building smarter websites.
Mar 17
New study suggests effective design and content
A new article published by the USC Annenberg School for Communication, Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design, suggests effective use of text for maximum user retention by users of online communications. In addition to text, they also looked as the effectiveness of graphics in the online layouts.
Some suggestions for writing include changing the story presentation to text with bulleted items, subheadlines, and tighter writing. Using a controlled study, the researches found a the reformatted text led to a 12% increase in comprehension, as well readers reporting a “more satisfied with the experience.”
The article included sample of the original and redesigned layouts with “heat overlays” created by monitoring the test users with eyetracking hardware.