You know us as MyStrands, OpenStrands, MusicStrands and several other “strands”. Today we are doing what we believe is the next logical step for our organization: Rebranding Strands.

The word “strands” has a particular meaning for us: it represents the sequences of digital events that connect our lives. Strands’ mission is to help people discover new things. We do this by analyzing and understanding people’s tastes based on strands of sequences (links between digital items such as the songs found in a playlist, events in an activity stream or transactional data such as monthly purchases).

As we launch new services and expand our current offering, understanding taste strands will help us achieve our mission. It’s what powers our organization and is why we will now be known as Strands.

MyStrands is announcing today the “Strands $100,000 Call for Recommender Start-ups“.

We seek to identify the best early-stage project in the area of recommendation technologies, considering the technology, business opportunity and team behind the project (without limitations as to which field the technology is applied).

The Winner will be offered an investment of $100,000 from Strands, Inc. the parent company of MyStrands.

Candidates should submit a one-slide presentation in quad-chart format (example, more examples) by September 15th, 2008 to recommender-startups@strands.com, together with the team bios (in addition to this, an optional 2-minute video uploaded to YouTube describing the start-up enterprise would be highly appreciated).

Eligibility: The Call is open to individuals or sole proprietors and privately held businesses throughout the world.

Five Finalists will be invited to present their projects during the ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys08) next October 23rd to 25th, 2008 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Finalists will be announced on October 6th. All Proposals will be judged using the following judging criteria: (a) implementation and integration of recommendation technologies, (b) originality and creativity, (c) likelihood of long-term success and scalability, (d) effectiveness in addressing a need in the marketplace, and (e) team bios.

Five grants. Each Finalist will obtain a $1,500 travel grant to attend RecSys08; Strands, Inc. will also cover the registration fees for the Conference, for one person per Finalist.

The final selection process will include on-site presentations of each project during RecSys08. Finalists will make three presentations of 5 minutes each (focused on technology, business and the team respectively) in front of the Jury and the attendees of the Conference.

The Jury will be composed of renowned experts in the academic, industry and venture capital communities.

The Winner will be announced on October 25th, 2008 during the Gala Dinner at RecSys08. The Winner will receive a commemorative plaque and an offer of a $100,000 investment in the form of a convertible loan.

Proposal submission period begins on March 12th and ends on September 15th, 2008.

Further information: Please visit http://recommender-startups.strands.com or contact the Strands $100,000 Call for Recommender Start-ups organizers at recommender-startups@strands.com.

Important dates:
March 12th: Proposal submission period begins
September 15th: Proposal submission period ends
October 6th: Five Finalists are announced
October 23rd-25th: Presentations of Finalists at RecSys08
October 25th: Winner Announced

Contact and updates:
Email proposal to: recommender-startups@strands.com
http://recommender-startups.strands.com
http://blog.MyStrands.com
http://recsys.acm.org

On March 23, 2005, MyStrands was awarded a grant for $30,000 by the Benton, Linn, Lincoln, and Lane Regional Investment Board (BL3RIB). The funding was provided to assist MyStrands (a very young start-up) in filling ten new positions in its Corvallis office.

At the time the grant was awarded, MyStrands had only nine full-time employees in its downtown Corvallis headquarters, and the support was very much needed.

Today, with nearly 50 employees in Corvallis and over 100 employees worldwide, it is time again to thank BL3RIB for their support!

Yes, that is correct, already 3 years. MyStrands was introduced to the public on February 9th, 2005, 15 months after the project was started.

The announcement took place both in Barcelona and Madrid. On the morning of the 9th, we held a press conference at the Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid.

During the afternoon, at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC) in Barcelona, there was a public presentation of the project and a round table. With Maite as master of ceremony, the speakers at the event were Alvy, Francesc Godia y Francesc Esteva, Javier, Luis Calvo, Ramón, Revolver, Thomas and of course Francisco.

During the evening and very late into the night we went to celebrate at Café Belgrado with friends and family, along with two amazing bands: Second and Lluis‘ band Distant Voices.

Three years already and strongly committed to the same mission: help people discover new things.

Thanks to Alvy, Cristi, etc for letting us borrow their photos .

After more than 3 years of sharing space at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), our Barcelona team has found a home of their own. Plenty of space for working and playing, plus a breath-taking view of the sea just one minute away (no kidding).

Work hard, play hard, be a part of it all… Join the team!

Not only do they have the visual beauty of Barcelona but Freddie Mercury even wrote an album entitled “Barcelona” in honor of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Recorded by Mercury and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé, some opera fans thought the music was too pop influenced; similarly, some rock fans found it to be far too operatic. In any case, it is a great song.

Open protocols and standards help define the open web by enabling interoperability between sites. We’re big advocates of the concepts around the open web and the technologies that are making it a reality. OpenID is an important part of our strategy moving forward and as such we wanted to help the community by promoting it with an event.Myself, David Recordon and Chris Messina put together the OpenIDDevCamp this weekend. Six Apart hosted the event at their offices in San Francisco, CA and about 50 people showed up for an amazing time working on all-things-OpenID.We had a wide-range of people here. From novices looking to implement it on their site all the way up to folks like Brad Fitzpatrick the founder of OpenID.Some of the highlights included discussions about OpenID as end-points as well as how OpenID and OAuth could work together seamlessly.Some other links from the event:

• Fantastic re-cap at OpenID.net
• Flickr photos
• OpenIDDevCamp Sessions re-cap
• OpenID Mobile Experience
• Twitter chatter about OpenIDDevCamp

As you know MTV used partyStrands during New Year’s Eve to create the coolest interactive experience ever in Times Square. People used their cell phones to send text messages, vote to choose music videos and answer trivia and polling questions on MTV’s 20×40 foot giant HD screen in front of the MTV Studios.

Watch a video of that night:

A total of 470 people joined partyStrands to interact and sent 2,450 messages during the two hours partyStrands was running (in intervals of 30 minutes). Over 1,000 of the interactions were text messages displayed on the screen, that could also be seen in real-time at MyStrands website or mobile website.

The rest of the interactions were responses to polls or people selecting music videos. We also had to activate the system to filter out messages that included swears (yes, creating that list was fun ) and messages which included first+last names.

One of the polls asked people to “Go Green in 2008!” and we were happy to learn that recycling was their choice.

“Go Green in 2008! How will you?”
a) recycle
b) drive a hybrid car
c) use biodegradable cleaners
d) eat organic food

The session ended with partygoers choosing Paramore’s crushcrushcrush music video over Lupe Fiasco’s Superstar and Fergie’s Clumsy.

All in all, it was a great event for partyStrands, MTV and everyone in Times Square. This event and others clearly demonstrate that interactivity is becoming part of everyday life in this connected society. Yes, event promoters and nightclubs out there, people are now connected even when they are not in front of their laptop. Why should we expect this connected generation to party the same way their parents did 15 years ago?

Check out some more photos in our Flickr page.