Twango - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Twango was an online media sharing site that supported multiple file types such as photos, video, audio, and documents. It provided users a means of repurposing their media, including sharing, editing, organizing and categorizing. In addition, Twango saved all the original media and its metadata

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

(this includes, but is not limited to, IPTC

IPTC Information Interchange Model

The Information Interchange Model is a file structure and set of metadata attributes that can be applied to text, images and other media types...

and Exif). Non-members were free to browse the site, however only members could upload media to the site. Sign up for a basic account was free, and provided 250 megabytes of upload bandwidth a month. Twango was acquired by Nokia

Nokia

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...

in July 2007. In February 2008, Nokia rebranded Twango as Share on Ovi

OVI

OVI may refer to:* Ohio Volunteer Infantry, volunteer regiment during the American Civil War* Operating a Vehicle under the Influence * Optically Variable Ink, anti-counterfeiting measure in currencyOvi may refer to:...

. With the rebranding, the 250 megabyte upload limit was removed. Subsequently, Share on Ovi was rebranded to Ovi Share to conform with the other Ovi services, such as Ovi Mail, Ovi Maps and Ovi Music.

Channels

Twango users organize their media in containers known as channels. A user's entire media collection is stored in what is known as "My Media". Channels represent a cross-section of "My Media". The same piece of media can appear in multiple channels, giving a different context to said media. For example, a picture of friends at a party could appear in a user's "friends" channel as well as in the user's "party" channel.
Twango members can subscribe to a channel, receiving notifications when new media has been uploaded to a channel or when new comments have been added. Each channel can also be specified as public or private. If it is specified as private it can only be accessed by invitation. Users can also create open channels which allow other users to upload their own content.

Upload methods

Twango members can upload their media in a variety of ways. Users can upload via the website, either through a basic upload interface where the user browses for files to upload one at a time, or through a web based drag and drop uploader which enables them to upload multiple files at once by dragging them from a folder on their machine and onto the browser (this requires ActiveX

ActiveX

ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....

or Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

).

In addition to browser based uploading, Twango also supports uploading through email, mobile phone, and the Windows web publishing wizard.

Twidgets

A twango twidget is an embedded snippet of code (currently Flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

or Javascript

JavaScript

JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

) that can be added to a user's blog. For example, a user can embed a Flash ticker on his or her blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

which will display all the media from a channel. Twango also has a webcam widget which can be embedded in blogs and provides in-place webcam comments from viewers.

Feeds

Movies and audio are condensed and played back via a Flash based media player, but media can also be downloaded in the format it was originally uploaded in. In addition, Twango does not implement any technology to block copyrighted material, but instead relies on the community to "flag" inappropriate media. Media that has reached a certain flagging threshold is then automatically removed.

Twango supports various feeds

Web feed

A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an aggregator...

, including channel feeds, most recent media feeds, and most popular feeds. It supports RSS 2.0, ATOM 0.3, and ATOM 1.0

Twango Mobile

Twango Mobile provides an XHTML web site for people with compatible mobile browsers. This mobile site gives access to photos, videos, audio and other media on Twango, as well as some interactivity including the ability to add comments and share media to mobile numbers and email addresses.

Acquisition by Nokia

In July 2007, Nokia and Twango announced that Nokia was acquiring substantially all of the assets of Twango. Shortly after the acquisition, Nokia announced that it was moving into the services field with the introduction of Ovi. The Twango software was one of the first elements of the Ovi platform introduced by Nokia.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.