Phanfare
Encyclopedia
Phanfare is an online subscription-based photo sharing
and video sharing service. It was introduced in November 2004 by Phanfare, Inc, a company founded by Andrew Erlichson and Mark Heinrich.
s and serious amateurs who desire archival photo and video sharing. Consumers can upload their digital photos and videos to Phanfare. Phanfare provides each customer with a destination URL where they can direct viewers. Phanfare integrates address book and invitation tools to allow the consumer to efficiently send out invitations to view albums. It backs up and holds original fullsize images using Amazon S3
, allowing the consumer to retrieve their original digital assets in the event that they lose their local copy. Aside from providing consumers a destination web site of their digital photos, free of advertising, Phanfare aims to significantly improve the consumer workflow
behind digital photography
and video. Phanfare was acquired by Carbonite on 6/2/11.
, Adobe Photoshop
PSD images as well as AVI
, QuickTime
, WMV
and MPEG-2
movies.
Phanfare also provides an Apple iPhone
app, Phanfare Photon, for uploading and viewing photos and videos as well as plugins for major photo and video organizing programs.
Phanfare has been noted by the Wall Street Journal for its novel approach to video sharing and its media retention policies .
The ideas for cache-coherent synchronization of photos and videos to a local application cache can be traced back to work in Cache Coherence
in shared memory Multiprocessing
.
Until the 2.0 upgrade in January 2008, Phanfare customers could buy a lifetime plan for $299.95. This would include unlimited storage for life for the purchaser.
In January 2008, Phanfare introduced social networking features to the Phanfare system, de-emphasized the desktop clients, and began offering a freemium
level of service (initially 1GB free, and later reduced to 256MB free).
In 2008, Phanfare introduced printed products including silver halide prints, digitally printed books and cards.
In June 2009, in response to customer feedback, Phanfare deprecated the social networking features introduced in January 2008 and instead substituted conduits for facebook and flickr.
At the same time, Phanfare eliminated their freemium business model, instead offering a 14-day free trial and then only paid accounts. Advertising never materialized as a revenue stream. Phanfare's revenues come only from subscription fees and selling merchandise to subscribers.
On June 6, 2011, Carbonite
acquired Phanfare. Carbonite declined to honor Phanfare lifetime memberships, instead granted lifetime members $299 in Phanfare credit which would expire after three years if unused. Two days later, Phanfare founder and CEO, Andrew Erlichson notified lifetime subscribers that customers requesting a refund will be paid not by Carbonite, but what remains of Phanfare, Inc.
or Mac OS X
. Other operating systems such as Linux
are not supported.
Phanfare provides a full suite of web-based tools as well as plugins for Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, Google Picasa, and Apple iPhoto.
Photo sharing
Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others . This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images...
and video sharing service. It was introduced in November 2004 by Phanfare, Inc, a company founded by Andrew Erlichson and Mark Heinrich.
Overview
Phanfare is targeted at prosumerProsumer
Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or less often, producer with the word consumer. For example, a prosumer grade digital camera is a "cross" between consumer grade and professional grade...
s and serious amateurs who desire archival photo and video sharing. Consumers can upload their digital photos and videos to Phanfare. Phanfare provides each customer with a destination URL where they can direct viewers. Phanfare integrates address book and invitation tools to allow the consumer to efficiently send out invitations to view albums. It backs up and holds original fullsize images using Amazon S3
Amazon S3
Amazon S3 is an online storage web service offered by Amazon Web Services. Amazon S3 provides storage through web services interfaces...
, allowing the consumer to retrieve their original digital assets in the event that they lose their local copy. Aside from providing consumers a destination web site of their digital photos, free of advertising, Phanfare aims to significantly improve the consumer workflow
Workflow
A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
behind digital photography
Digital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
and video. Phanfare was acquired by Carbonite on 6/2/11.
Uploading of photos and videos
Phanfare distributes a photo and video organizing program called Phanfare Photo (Windows and Mac compatible) that uploads photos and video in the background while the consumer adds captions, edits and organizes the content. Phanfare Photo converts images to smaller sizes well-suited for web browsing, and uploads these images first, before full-sized images and videos get sent. As a result, albums appear on the web with the smaller-sized images very quickly. Phanfare overlaps productive user work with network latency, giving users the perception of faster uploads. Phanfare can import JPEGJPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
PSD images as well as AVI
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
, QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
, WMV
Windows Media Video
'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater...
and MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
movies.
Phanfare also provides an Apple iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
app, Phanfare Photon, for uploading and viewing photos and videos as well as plugins for major photo and video organizing programs.
Phanfare has been noted by the Wall Street Journal for its novel approach to video sharing and its media retention policies .
The ideas for cache-coherent synchronization of photos and videos to a local application cache can be traced back to work in Cache Coherence
Cache coherence
In computing, cache coherence refers to the consistency of data stored in local caches of a shared resource.When clients in a system maintain caches of a common memory resource, problems may arise with inconsistent data. This is particularly true of CPUs in a multiprocessing system...
in shared memory Multiprocessing
Multiprocessing
Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor and/or the ability to allocate tasks between them...
.
History of Phanfare
First released in November 2004, Phanfare initially provided simple web hosting of photos and videos at short URLs in the Phanfare domain. Phanfare provided viewing and sharing without requiring that viewers register with Phanfare. Phanfare sites were optionally protected with site passwords.Until the 2.0 upgrade in January 2008, Phanfare customers could buy a lifetime plan for $299.95. This would include unlimited storage for life for the purchaser.
In January 2008, Phanfare introduced social networking features to the Phanfare system, de-emphasized the desktop clients, and began offering a freemium
Freemium
Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services...
level of service (initially 1GB free, and later reduced to 256MB free).
In 2008, Phanfare introduced printed products including silver halide prints, digitally printed books and cards.
In June 2009, in response to customer feedback, Phanfare deprecated the social networking features introduced in January 2008 and instead substituted conduits for facebook and flickr.
At the same time, Phanfare eliminated their freemium business model, instead offering a 14-day free trial and then only paid accounts. Advertising never materialized as a revenue stream. Phanfare's revenues come only from subscription fees and selling merchandise to subscribers.
On June 6, 2011, Carbonite
Carbonite (online backup)
Carbonite is an online backup service, available to Windows and Mac users, that backs up documents, e-mails, music, photos, and settings. It is named after carbonite, the fictional substance used to freeze Han Solo in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The generic purple color used on the...
acquired Phanfare. Carbonite declined to honor Phanfare lifetime memberships, instead granted lifetime members $299 in Phanfare credit which would expire after three years if unused. Two days later, Phanfare founder and CEO, Andrew Erlichson notified lifetime subscribers that customers requesting a refund will be paid not by Carbonite, but what remains of Phanfare, Inc.
Licensing
Phanfare is licensed for consumer use. As of July 2006, there are no storage limits but consumers are limited to 10GB of upstream and 15GB of downstream network traffic per month.Revenue model
Phanfare is a subscription-based service. Phanfare offers two subscription plans: Phanfare Premium for $99/year and Phanfare Pro for $199/year. Phanfare also sells photo books, cards and prints.System requirements
, the optional desktop software requires either Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
or Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. Other operating systems such as Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
are not supported.
Phanfare provides a full suite of web-based tools as well as plugins for Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, Google Picasa, and Apple iPhoto.
External links
- http://www.phanfare.com
- pyphanfare Project Tracking