mtvU and Cisco Launch Groundbreaking Digital Applications Developed by College Students

mtvU and Cisco Launch Groundbreaking Digital Applications Developed by College Students

Online Hip Hop Battle, Social Networking Party Game, and Other 'Digital Incubator' Projects Unveiled on DigitalIncubator.net

NEW YORK and SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Offering college students an escape as they settle into a new school year, mtvU and Cisco(R) today launched five groundbreaking online applications conceived, developed and run by digital pioneers from within the college audience. To counter the hassle of buying books and adding classes, the new Digital Incubator projects give students a chance to crush opposing nerdcore rappers on campuses across the country or join in a mysterious game of mobile-phone-based espionage. Five new interactive projects from mtvU and Cisco's Digital Incubator program, which each year offers students up to $250,000 in grants and a national platform to shine, launched today on www.digitalincubator.net. The applications include:

   RapHappy - New York University   www.RapHappy.com  

This new online and mobile-phone-based hip-hop community enables members to easily record, collaborate on, search and listen to freestyle or written raps, without any need for software or file uploading. RapHappy can be used as a self-promotion tool for aspiring musicians, a communication tool for recording private audio messages for friends, or simply as an artistic medium. Members can dynamically collaborate with other artists, rate and comment on submissions, and participate in battles for a chance to collect cash and other prizes.

   Osiris - Brown University   www.Launchosiris.com  

From the phonograph to the PC, technology is constantly revolutionizing the way music is distributed and enjoyed, but very few technologies have ever tackled the visualization of music. That all changes with the launch of Osiris: a first-of-its-kind MP3 visualizer using song lyrics to dynamically generate music videos, using images pulled from Flickr and a user's own hard disk. This free application gives users a whole new way to enjoy their music, using each song's lyrical narrative to tell a visual story.

   Casablanca - New York University   http://casablancathegame.com/  

This free online and mobile-phone-based ice-breaker party game combines elements of social networking, espionage and alternative-reality gaming. In Casablanca, two teams square off, with members messaging each other online and off, making friends and forming alliances as they vie for control of a virtual city. Players begin with connections to four other people - whom they've never met - and use these contacts to create a social network that grows as the game unfolds. Members of the Resistance are trying to liberate the city by finding each other and organizing networks to identify the Occupation agents hidden in their midst; while the Occupation must infiltrate and undermine the Resistance networks. The game is played online, through text messaging and email. Anyone can start their own game at http://casablancathegame.com/.

   Selectricity - M.I.T.   www.selectricity.org  

An online communal ranking technology, Selectricity focuses on preferential decision-making, shifting away from a winner-take-all paradigm to a more democratic standard. Using a drag-and-drop mechanism, users rank choices in order of preference and the Selectricity application generates a winner that is most acceptable to the group as a whole. Anyone can set up a Selectricity question in under 30 seconds and tap their friends to help settle daily dilemmas such as, "which restaurant should we eat at tonight?" "what bar does everybody most want to go to?" and, "who are the best indie rock bands out right now?"

   How Do I Say This? - UCLA   www.HowDoISayThis.com  

Building on a breakout pilot year, the award-winning "How Do I Say This?" re-launches better than ever today. The site is an interactive Web-based advice wiki, where users help script and create video messages for people with problems that have left them at a loss for words. A new topic is selected every month and members weigh in with advice and suggestions, in the form of user-generated videos, illustrations, photos, prose, poetry and cartoons. The feedback accumulates and inspires a final video, which is created by the student-led production team, and can then be sent to friends from the site (anonymously or not). Past episodes have addressed quandaries such as a user wanting to tell a friend he's a terrible actor, a smitten student with a Valentine's Day crush, and an ex still in love with an old flame. HowDoISayThis.com was so successful last year it has been greenlighted as an mtvU series, and short-form content from the first season - "How Do I Say This? I'm Gay" - is scheduled to start appearing on the channel in October.

Each of this year's Digital Incubator teams has already received upwards of $30,000 in funding from mtvU and Cisco to get their projects off the ground. The teams have also submitted detailed business plans and are in the process of competing for a supplemental Digital Incubator grant of up to $100,000. The field will be narrowed to two in the coming weeks, and the finalists will be invited to pitch their projects and business plans to senior executives from MTV and Cisco. The $100,000 grant winner will be selected and announced in mid-October.

The Digital Incubator initiative was developed jointly by mtvU and Cisco. Digital Incubator 2.0 programs represent the most innovative ideas received in response to a call issued last year for new media games, applications, programming or any other original content that would thrive in the digital world. More info on the program is available at www.digitalincubator.net.

About Cisco

Cisco, (NASDAQ:CSCO) , is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco Media Solutions Group (CMSG) is a Cisco business unit launched in December 2006 to develop infrastructure products that help digital-media content owners improve consumers' experience by making it easier for them to connect with relevant content. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com/. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/.

About mtvU

Broadcast to more than 750 colleges across the country, with a combined enrollment of nearly 7.5 million, mtvU is the largest, most comprehensive television network just for college students. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, mtvU can be seen in the dining areas, fitness centers, student lounges and dorm rooms of campuses throughout the U.S. mtvU is dedicated to every aspect of college life, reaching students everywhere they are, through a three pronged approach - on-air, online and on campus. mtvU focuses on content including music videos from emerging artists which can't be seen anywhere else, news, student life features, events and pro-social initiatives. mtvU is always on campus, with more than 500 events per year, including exclusive concerts, giveaways, shooting mtvU series and more. For more information about mtvU, and for a complete programming schedule, visit www.mtvU.com.

In September 2005, mtvU became the first MTV Networks channel to also be distributed in its entirety online. The network is simulcast and available on demand at mtvU.com 24/7, featuring all of network's on-air content plus exclusive new music, original series and student-produced programming for college students and music fans everywhere.

mtvU also owns and operates the College Media Network, the largest interactive network of online college newspapers in the US, and RateMyProfessors.com, the Internet's largest listing of collegiate professor ratings. The College Media Network comprises 514 campus publications that serve institutions including Brown University, the University of Illinois, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and Duke University, with a combined enrollment of over 5.5 million students, reaching an average of 5 million unique users each month. RateMyProfessors.com reaches approximately 1.5 million college students each month, via the site's more than 6.6 million student-generated ratings of over 1,000,000 college professors.

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) , is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. MTV Networks, with more than 120 channels worldwide, owns and operates the following television programming services - MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN, VH1 CLASSIC, LOGO, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, with all of these networks trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its audiences through its robust consumer products businesses and its more than 100 interactive properties worldwide, including online, broadband, wireless and interactive television services and also has licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its programming services can be seen worldwide.

Copyright (C) 2007, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco, the Cisco logo, and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document or Website are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

Source: MTV

CONTACT: Jason Rzepka of mtvU, +1-212-654-7198, or
jason.rzepka@mtvstaff.com; or David French of MTV, +1-212-846-6406, or
david.french@mtvstaff.com; or Tara O'Donnell of Text100, +1-212-871-4079, or
tarao@text100.com, for Cisco; or INVESTOR RELATIONS, Liz Lemon of Cisco,
+1-408-527-8452, or lemon@cisco.com

Web site: http://www.mtv.com/
http://www.mtvu.com/
http://www.digitalincubator.net/
http://www.cisco.com/
http://newsroom.cisco.com/
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment