Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the two former hackers that went on to create Napster, have collaborated once again. This time, however, rather than potentially attracting the wrath of an entire industry, Fanning and Parker have conspired to create a new social video network that “won’t make the entire record industry mad at them, and even Lars Ulrich can use it.”
The new social video network is called Airtime and, according to Billboard, will be integrated with Facebook and allow users to share visual content, speak via video, and also offer the possibility of chatting to other users at random.
Fanning and Parker concede that such technology is already in common use, most notably Skype, but the two entrepreneurs hope to break into what they see as a still relatively untapped market, with the goal of making online social networking more of a personal interactive experience as opposed to stilled processing of data and content.
The unveiling of Airtime involved celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and Jim Carrey, who were contacted via the new social network, but the online video service apparently crashed several times during its debut.
Airtime is being launched with almost $35 million in funding coming from multiple sources, including actors such as will.i.am and Ashton Kutcher, along with Silicon Valley VC big-shots (whoever they are).
Billboard also reported on an upcoming documentary about the rise and fall of Napster, titled Downloaded.
