When it was first introduced, the iPhone immediately intrigued us as a potential platform for collaborating on rich media. With its larger screen size, support for Safari (the “real web” as Apple puts it) and touch screen interface, it seemed like it would be the ideal convenience for creative people on the move. Now with faster Internet access of the new version, the device is even more compelling.

Unfortunately, our initial enthusiasm for the iPhone was somewhat dampened by the lack of Flash support which forms an important component of our collaborative interface (not quite the “real web”). Depending on who you listen to, this omission is simply a temporary limitation of the platform/software (the party line) or else it’s a strategic move on the part of Steve Jobs to thwart the wide adoption of the Flash format as mobile standard in favor of their own solutions.

In any event, we’ve always made the effort with Cozimo to be technology agnostic and so we continue undeterred with our efforts to develop a unique collaborative mobile solution. We only use Flash to collaborate and for multi-file upload so most of Cozimo worked out of the box. As a second step, it is now possible to review images together with their annotations and notes (which are displayed in a format better suited to the smaller screen size). This means that you can now review the feedback you receive while on the go and also respond using the built in messaging system. Moving forward we will next introduce functionality for uploading images from the iPhone (perfect for dealing with on-site problems) as well as provide basic annotation tools so you can collaborate in real-time with your team members.

Last week was our chance to get out from behind our computers for a while and get in front of customers by attending not one – but two back-to-back conferences in Boston.

The big event of the week was the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This major conference and tradeshow attracted over 15,000 architects from around the US who came to participate in continuing education and learn about the latest products and services. The theme this year was “We the People” with the focus on the responsibilities of architects to engage the public in designing for a more sustainable world. This is a theme close to our hearts and over the course of the three-day event we had the opportunity to speak with many participants about the benefits – both in productivity and sustainability – of using Cozimo for online review and collaboration. Most of the architects were extremely receptive with many expressing how they’ve been looking for exactly the type of service that Cozimo offers. For a profession as traditionally entrenched in paper as architecture, it’s an encouraging sign of progress.

In conjunction with AIA convention was VisMasters Design Modeling and Visualization Conference. This event was a far more intimate affair, attracting 350 specialists involved in design visualization for the architecture and building community. This group is ahead of the curve when it comes to using fully digital workflows and Cozimo is, in fact, already used by many of the leading firms who were present. In the more informal setting of this conference, we had a good opportunity to engage current and prospective customers in discussions regarding their needs and our priorities for future development. Kudos to Jeff Mottle and the crew at VisMasters for organizing a great event.

This year’s VisMasters Design Modeling and Visualization Conference is being held in Boston, May 12-13, and we’re very pleased to be one of the sponsors this year. In fact, it was at DMVC two years ago that Randal Stevens and Jeff Mottle of VisMasters and CGarchitect.com generously gave us the opportunity to preview our alpha version of Cozimo to the attendees and many of our current customers go back to that event. So it will be great to get back and show everyone how far we’ve come since those early days.

DMVC is really the only conference of its kind in North America to specifically address the needs of architects, designers, artists and CG producers who are involved in 3D design visualization. It brings together some of the best speakers and instructors from around the world for two intensive days of sessions dealing with the latest technologies and techniques. Speaking from experience, it’s also a great informal event to meet and learn from a very passionate group of interesting people doing some incredible CG work. If you’re in the field, it’s well worth attending. And as sponsors we can save you $50 on the registration if you use the promo code - dmvc08cozimo - when registering. See you there!

Last week we were back in California, presenting Cozimo at Under The Radar. This is one of the better run conferences in the valley where new companies get to make their pitch in front of a panel industry experts – what Kara Swisher (a tech journalist for the Wall Street Journal) calls a “geek version of American Idol”. The theme for this event was “The Business of Web Apps”. There were 40 companies invited and we were part of the track called “Working Together”.

With only 6 minutes to present we decide to try something different this time – running the whole presentation as a live collaborative session. So in addition to image and video examples we also presented our slides within Cozimo and collaborated on them in real-time as the presentation proceeded. It did add some fun improvisation and in the end did a great job of illustrating what we’re all about. In the discussion that followed we garnered high points from the panel for the quality of our technology.

After the high pressure of DEMO, one of the nicer aspects of UTR was the more relaxed atmosphere with plenty of opportunity to mingle and speak with the VCs, journalists and other companies who attended. While it does help generate some buzz for our efforts, probably the most valuable aspect is learning about what other companies are up to, meeting the principals, and (in keeping with the theme) finding some promising opportunities to work together.

Today we are happy to announce the public beta release of our latest collaborative experiment: a Cozimo WordPress plugin! That’s right – now rather than just displaying an image or a video as a static participant in your blog posts, you can use the plugin to enable a dynamic media experience where readers can chat, draw and comment directly on your images and videos. You can even use the plugin to collaborate in real-time with others and to synchronize the playback of a video so that everyone is watching the same frame at the same time.

We hope this functionality will open new opportunities for how blogs can be used in professional, educational, creative or just plain fun applications. Try it out for yourself! The beta plugin is available free of charge for installed versions of WordPress.org. You can get all the information you need to download and install it here.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!