I have always believed Valve was one of the most forward thinking gaming companies. This talk by Valve CEO Gabe Newell confirms my suspicions.

Gabe’s outlook on the future of the living room isn’t too unexpected (maybe that’s because I’ve been thinking a lot about it for my work at Shelby) but his take on the economic possibility that Steam unlocks is one of the most interesting things I’ve seen lately.  I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise since Valve hired economist Yanis Varoufakis last June, but the second half of Gabe’s talk makes it clear that Valve isn’t just trying to understand their own in-game economies: they’re thinking about how these economies affect and change the real world.

For anyone interested in virtual economies, economic theory and ideas like peak employment and collaborative creation/consumption, this is required weekend viewing.

#Sandy Coverage and Relief

shelbytv:

To all of our Shelby viewers and fans

What a week it was in NYC. We hope you are safe and well. For those affected by the hurricane, we send you our best wishes towards a speedy recovery.

This past week, Shelby viewers shared some incredible video of the storm, the aftermath, and the inspiring relief efforts. It’s pretty eye-opening to see.

So, we created a Hashtag Roll of video for #Sandy. It aggregates all the videos about Sandy that have been shared by viewers this past week. It also offers an easy way to help - we include a link to donate to Red Cross disaster relief right within Shelby.

We’re donating and we hope you do, too. 

Sincerely, 

Team Shelby

I can’t think of any place on earth that I’d rather be in than NYC. There’s some really inspiring and powerful video on this roll we created - check it out and please donate to help relief efforts in and around areas affected by the hurricane.  

Here are a few really powerful videos if you’re interested (there are a ton more on the roll):

Wishing everyone affected by the hurricane a speedy recovery.

<3 you, NYC.

A Second Round of Funding

shelbytv:

“Your people are your most important asset.”

“Business is about people.”

“Invest in people.”

We’ve all heard it 1000 times. With that in mind, we only want to work with great people, be it our team, our partners, or our investors.

At Shelby, our investors — Rich Levandov and Brady Bohrmann of Avalon Ventures, along with a great group of angels — have been exactly the right guys to have on our side, which is why we are very happy to announce that we have closed a second round of funding with them totaling $2.2M.

While much of what we have accomplished is not yet public-facing, we have made a ton of technical progress in the past year and this round allows us to stay focused and continue to build upon our vision for video discovery.

We could not be more excited about the team we have put together, the product we are developing, and the opportunity ahead of us. For now, we will still expect nothing, earn everything, and get back to building… 

Thanks to our friends, family, and investors who have supported us over the past year and a half. Most of all, thanks to Reece and Dan for leading the kind of company that I’m proud to be associated with.  Excited to keep building with such a fantastic group of people.  

First Comes The Dream

Last Thursday night I had the incredible opportunity to see Neil DeGrasse Tyson speak at the Hayden planetarium here in New York about brining STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) to more people and making it a deeper part of our culture. The theme of the event was “First Comes the Dream.” 


One of my favorite comments of the night was when Neil remarked:

“the extent to which entertainment reaches for the lowest mental acuity is an indication we are not reaching high enough.”  

I agree completely.

Neil went on to advocate for pop culture as an effective tool to bring people into real education and I got to thinking about how this dovetails pretty nicely with some of our goals at Shelby.  

We strongly believe in the power of the internet to surface content that does reach high enough (in part because discovery driven by the user). While a video of a wolf playing with a bear might just be written off as cute to some, it can also act as inspiration for those that want to understand more than they see in the video. When such a video is presented in a collection of video about nature and science, it acts as an entry point that then engages the viewer in something more meaningful for the rest of their viewing session.  In addition, the experience of Internet video is not just about the content itself - it’s also about the community and discussion that happens around this video and engages people even more (I’m looking at you, Reddit).

Though the team at Shelby is not (yet) building a spacecraft that will take us on manned missions to Mars, we are really focused on helping everyone (not just the tech enabled) find and engage with the video that tickles the brain more than the average bit of network TV.  I’m excited to keep after that vision with Reece and Dan and I’m looking forward to seeing the new Shelby unleashed upon the world.

For a full video of Neil’s talk, check out the embed at the top of this post. Thanks to the awesome crew at Brew PR and Gizmodo for helping put this event together!

I’ve been pretty hooked on Battles lately.  I never really paid much attention to these guys until I saw one of their videos come through Shelby a week or two ago.  Pretty much all of the videos are awesome, but this one led me to check out more of their stuff.  Great example of how video can introduce you to something that your ears can’t hear right away.  

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