There may now be myriad ways to take online content and repackage it attractively for offline presentation, such as through the News from YOUs Facebook application. Those reading online, however, are typically still stuck with the same, dispersed set of online feeds they always have been. Flipboard is a new iPad app that aims to integrate and spruce up all those tweets and updates in a single, personalized online magazine.

Just launched this week, Flipboard for iPad bills itself as “a social magazine that brings to life the stories, photos, news and updates being shared across Twitter and Facebook.” The free app automatically creates a magazine from the user's social content. Sections devoted to Facebook and Twitter, for example, let readers quickly flip through the latest stories, photos and updates from friends and trusted sources. Links and images are rendered right in the digital magazine, so users no longer have to scan long lists of posts and click on link after link; instead, they instantly see all the stories, comments and images in one place. Flipboard also lets readers easily create sections around topics or people they care about. Suggested sections include sports, news, tech and style, all featuring content hand-curated from popular and interesting Twitter feeds; alternatively, users can create their own. Ultimately, material from sites including Flickr, Foursquare and Yelp will also be included, according to a report in the New York Times.

Mike McCue, Flipboardʼs CEO, explains: “With over one billion messages posted every day, social networks are quickly becoming the primary way people discover and share content on the Web. The result is a huge influx of incoming messages and links people must sort through across multiple web sites just to stay up to date. We believe the timeless principles of print can make social media less noisy, more visually compelling and ultimately more mainstream.” California-based Flipboard just acquired semantic analysis company Ellerdale, with an eye toward helping future versions of Flipboard extract, categorize and feature highly relevant and hot trending content from across a variety of social networks, it says. Eventually, it aims to accept advertising and to charge for certain content, the NYT reported. App-minded entrepreneurs: one to get involved in... or emulate with an offering of your own?

Website: www.flipboard.com
Contact: info@flipboard.com

Spotted by: nytimes

It may now be possible to add digital data to a traditional cemetery marker, but that's not necessarily the same as creating a full-fledged online memorial. Aiming to enable the latter, 1000Memories provides a place for friends and family to gather and remember deceased loved ones.

To create an online memorial, users of 1000Memories begin by customizing a homepage for the deceased, including a full-screen photo. They then invite family and friends to the site, where a dedicated page allows everyone to see all the activity there so far. Stories and memories about the deceased are easily shared on the site, as are photos from a variety of sources. An online guestbook, meanwhile, lets all visitors leave a brief note to share their thoughts and feelings. 1000Memories even allows users to start a project in someone's honour or direct donations to a favorite charitable cause.

While the field of online memorial services is a crowded one, many of those sites were clearly created in the early days of the web. With its fresh design and more current feature set, 1000Memories sets itself apart and could attract a sizeable audience. Using 1000Memories is currently free, and it appears that's not likely to change: ultimately, San Francisco-based Hampshire St. Experiment—the startup behind the site—is considering creating and selling print books of the content on individual sites, according to a report on TechCrunch. Who will step up as partner to help make that happen...? (Related: From online baby blogs to printed baby books.)

Website: www.1000memories.com
Contact: contact@1000memories.com

Spotted by: Margarita Barry

The failings of survey panels are nothing if not well-known to market-researchers and clients alike, but still they remain widely used—albeit expensive and slow—tools for collecting data. Aiming to provide higher-quality results at a lower price, Chicago-based Lab42 conducts its clients' surveys not in artificially assembled panels but in the social networks where target respondents naturally spend their time.

Clients begin by telling Lab42 about their products and their target consumers. Lab42 then helps to craft a survey, with the option of focusing it based on gender, age, location, lifestyle and interests. Next, Lab42 takes the resulting survey to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and smaller niche social networks, using highly targeted incentives to garner attention and responses while consumers go about their day-to-day activities. Two packages are available from Lab42: a premium one for USD 500, with results in three days or less; and a preliminary one for USD 300, with results in 5 days or less. Custom arrangements are also possible.

It's always refreshing to see services that have traditionally been performed slowly and expensively rethought and remade to reflect new technologies and new societal shifts. One to try out when researching your next big thing...? (Related: Advice from the crowds, with a market-research twist — Open polls gauge popular opinion in minutes — Brainstorming service uses Twitter to crowdsource ideas overnight.)

Website: www.lab42.com
Contact: info@lab42.com

Spotted by: Sara Robinson

Thanks to GPS-enabled mobile technologies, neighbours are communicating as never before. Where BlockChalk facilitates geo-tagged messaging in general, Anttenna focuses on creating a new, location-aware alternative to the traditional classifieds.

Using a free iPhone application, Anttenna enables real-time, location-based, person-to-person exchanges by turning traditional classified listings into geo-tagged, Twitter-sized “microlistings,” as it calls them. With a platform that's actually built on top of Twitter, Anttenna lets users quickly connect with people nearby to buy things, sell things or just reach out. Things for sale get posted to the site's “supply chain,” while wanted goods go to its demand side; either way, posting takes less than a minute, the company says. Listings can be sorted by keyword, category, location and proximity; examples might include finding a concert ticket on location at a music festival, helping a lost pet reunite with her owner, or finding a free sofa right down the street. Following pilot tests in San Diego, Seattle and Austin, Anttenna is now available in most major metropolitan areas across the United States and Canada.

Marcus Wandell, Anttenna's cofounder and CEO, explains: “With the exception of posting ads online and making them searchable, classified ads really haven't evolved all that much since they were introduced 300 years ago. Anttenna fully leverages the smartphone platforms and new communications standards to give people a whole new way to use classified advertising. Anttenna delivers a constant stream of hyperlocal, real-time listings, always relevant given the moment and location in which they are seen.”

For businesses, of course, the advertising potential is at least as compelling. Mobile-minded entrepreneurs: time to grease the location-based buying-and-selling wheels near you...?

Website: www.anttenna.com
Contact: info@anttenna.com

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

We've already seen a variety of open education initiatives—including, recently, Betterfly and the University of the People—but we couldn't resist sharing news of one more. Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short, university-level courses.

Aiming to enable “learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything,” P2PU creates small groups of motivated learners and supports the design and facilitation of free courses. Currently, the project is in a pilot phase, and offers scheduled courses that run for six weeks and cover university-level topics. Each course package—organized by a volunteer—contains the syllabus, study materials and a schedule; learning takes place in small groups of between eight and 14 students. Peers in each course assess each other's work, and online certificates are granted upon completion of a course; P2PU is working towards gaining format credit as well. Ultimately, the goal is to become more of a platform so anyone can use P2PU to organize, design and offer courses. In the meantime, signup for the next round of courses will begin in September.

P2PU is supported in part by the Hewlett Foundation, the Shuttleworth Foundation and the University of California at Irvine. Social entrepreneurs: another one to be inspired by! (Related: Platform lets anyone create and monetize an online school — Five new business ideas focused on education & learning.)

Website: www.p2pu.org
Contact: www.p2pu.org/contact-us

Spotted by: Diricia De Wet

P.S. And be sure to check out the Khan Academy, too! Different set-up (one-man faculty), but also free and definitely worth sharing.