History:
Advogato is an online community and social networking site dedicated to free software development, and was created by Raph Levien. It describes itself as "the free software developer's advocate." Advogato was an early pioneer of blogs, formerly known as "online diaries", and one of the earliest social networking websites. Advogato combined the most recent entries from each user's diary together into a single continuous feed called the recentlog, directly inspiring the creation of the Planet aggregator somewhat later.
Several high profile members of the free software and open source software movements are or have been users of the site including Richard M. Stallman, Eric Raymond, Alan Cox, Bruce Perens, and Jamie Zawinski.
Because Advogato was the first website to use a robust, attack-resistant trust metric and to release the underlying code for that trust mechanism under a free software license, it has been the basis of numerous research papers on trust metrics and social networking (see the list below for specific examples). Advogato's early adoption of an XML-RPC interface led to its use as an example of how such interfaces could be used by web programmers.
Advogato is still used as a testbed for social networking and semantic web technologies. Tim Berners-Lee, who is an Advogato user himself, included Advogato in a short list of sites that should be noted for their early adoption of the FOAF as a method of exporting user RDF URIs.
Creator / Developer:Raph Levien
Features: content in Wikipedia
2. Academia edu
History:
Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. It was launched in September 2008 and currently has over 1 million registered users. The platform can be used to share papers, monitor their impact, and follow the research in a particular field. Academia.edu was founded by Richard Price, who raised $600,000 from Spark Ventures, Brent Hoberman, and others, to build Academia.edu.
In November 2011, Academia.edu raised $4.5 million from Spark Capital and True Ventures. Prior to that, it had raised $2.2 million from Spark Ventures, and a range of angel investors including Mark Shuttleworth, Thomas Lehrman, and Rupert Pennant-Rea. Academia.edu is a participant in the Open Science movement, responding to a perceived need in science for instant distribution of research and the need for a peer-review system that occurs alongside distribution, instead of occurring before it. The company has also stated its opposition to the Research Works Act.
Academia.edu has been described as a "huge deal" by The Singularity Hub, because academics "get quick and easy access to their colleague’s work, and they get quantifiable proof that their own research matters." remarked that Academia.edu gives academics a "powerful, efficient way to distribute their research" and that it will let researchers keep tabs on how many people are reading their articles with specialized analytics tools", and "also does very well in Google search results."
Platform: Corporate Strategy
Features: add privacy
3. aNobii
History:
Anobii is a social networking site aimed at readers. It was acquired by a new venture backed by HMV Group, Harper Collins, Penguin and Random House in 2010 from a private company owned by Greg Sung, based in Hong Kong.
The service allows individuals to catalogue their books and rate, review and discuss them with other readers. The service is available via the Anobii website and iPhone and Android apps. The apps allow individuals to barcode scan books and read both community and expert reviews.
Anobii has readers in over 20 countries, but is most popular in Italy.
On March 2, 2011 it was announced that in 2010 Anobii had been acquired by a UK startup led by HMV Group and supported by HarperCollins, Penguin and The Random House Group and that the company is working on a new version of the website with possibility to buy books and most of all ebooks.
Creator / Developer:Greg Sung
Platform: Anobii is a book discovery platform that wants to provide a social environment for readers to engage with and discuss the books that they love, much like a virtual book club.
Features:Related features
4.Asian Avenue
History:
Platform: to express,” Faustino said. “You're not as scared
Features:Asian Avenue Magazine. Home · Features · Spotlight ... “It's definitely more of a
5. aSmallWorld
History: here has been a lot of controversy surrounding some reported upcoming changes to the sentimentally popular Disneyland attraction, “it’s a small world.” The attraction has always been one of my favorites. I even enjoy the infamous song … in small doses. However, in all the uproar, I haven’t seen any historical discussion of the attraction so I thought I might try and give some historical perspective.
The New York World’s Fair of 1964-1965 was an opportunity for Walt Disney to show that his style of theme park entertainment was not just a California accident, but something that appealed even to the supposedly more sophisticated folks of the East Coast.
It turned out that 91 percent of the fair’s guests attended at least one of the Disney shows: Ford’s Magic Skyway, Carousel of Progress, Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln, and of course, "it’s a small world."
“It’s a small world” opened April 22, 1964 and during its two years of operation it was determined that more than 10 million people rode it, which means it had a higher ridership than any of the other Disney shows at the fair. Amazingly, this was even though there was a special admission ticket (with funds going to UNICEF: United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) for this happiest cruise that was not charged at the other Disney shows.
While the entrance to the pavilion itself and the other exhibits were free, the 12-minute “boat ride” cost a $1 for adults and 60 cents for children. According to the official guidebook for the fair: “Inside, visitors glide by such scenes as France’s Eiffel Tower, a Dutch windmill and India’s Taj Mahal. Animated figures of children dance, play with droll animals and sing, ‘It’s a Small World.’ The twelve minute ride is conceived as a ‘salute to UNICEF.’”
It was sponsored by the Pepsi-Cola Company that was working with the United Nations agency devoted to children’s welfare to have a pavilion that would provide a “salute to UNICEF and the world’s children.” I always wondered why Pepsi did not sponsor the attraction when it moved to Disneyland, especially since Pepsi was already sponsoring one of my all-time favorite Disneyland shows, the Golden Horseshoe Revue in Frontierland. Bank of America became the original sponsor for the attraction at Disneyland.
It turns out that the executives of the Pepsi Company hated the final attraction. In the 1980 book called “The Pavilion” which was published to publicize the Pepsi exhibit for EXPO ’70 in Japan, the company describes the “small world” show as an “embarrassment.”
The Pepsi Company had trouble coming up with a concept that they liked and finally at almost the last moment, they approached the Disney Company. One of the Pepsi board members, film actress Joan Crawford, had heard exciting things about the other three pavilions Disney was doing for the fair and suggested that with the Disney connection with children that Walt could come up with something amazing.
Pepsi executives went to California in February 1963 and met with Disneyland’s construction boss, Admiral Joe “Can Do” Fowler who had to sadly inform the executives that Disney “couldn’t do” the project since it was less than a year before the fair opening and that Disney was experiencing challenges with all the innovative things they were working on for the other three pavilions and needed to focus all their resources on those projects.
When Walt found out, he was incensed. According to one Disney executive, Walt said, “I’ll make those decisions. Tell Pepsi I’ll do it!” So on February 15, 1963, Walt agreed to do a “Planning Design Feasibility Study” for the pavilion .
It was Walt himself who came up with the concept of a boat ride. (Arrow Manufacturing, responsible for innovations like Disneyland’s Matterhorn, was already working on a boat ride system based on some ideas by Imagineer Bob Gurr). Walt also came up with the name for the attraction: “The Children of the World.” He also wanted all the children to sing their national anthems. Walt wanted it to be a pleasant experience for “children of all ages” showcasing a “wonderland where all the world’s children live and play.”
Because time was of the essence, a simple L-shaped building was quickly designed and construction started in New York in late March even though Disney had no clue what the ride would eventually look like. There were several meetings with the show designers and Imagineer Marc Davis came up with a sketch that really stood out.
However, Walt wasn’t satisfied and decided to get artist Mary Blair involved. Blair had left the Disney Studios after contributing as an art supervior or color stylist to many Disney animated films including Song of the South, Cinderella and Melody Time.
In particular, Walt enjoyed the “Los Posada” segment in the film The Three Caballeros designed by Blair where Mexican children in a small village celebrate Christmas. In addition, since leaving Disney, Blair had gained prominence for her work on children’s books. Blair started work on the show in June 1963.
Fowler took the preliminary ideas to the Pepsi headquarters in New York for a presentation and buy-off, since there was roughly nine months until the opening of the fair. The Pepsi executives hated it. Supposedly, one executive disdainfully complained, “Why do we need this Mickey Mouse thing?”
Once again, Crawford exercised her authority and firmly told her fellow Pepsi executives that they were going to go with the Disney concept.
There was a special press announcement banquet held at the Waldorf Hotel in New York on August 1963. Walt Disney was there with Robert Moses, who was in charge of the World’s Fair, and Herbert Barnett, the president of Pepsi-Cola. Moses told the press that he predicted “small world” would be one of the fair’s three or four most popular attractions.
(The training manual for the pavilion features not only the Disney characters like Tinker Bell and Jiminy Cricket but also a Pepsi advertising mascot I have never seen anywhere else, the "Pepsi Maiden,” a blonde young woman who seems to be in a traditional German maiden outfit of puffy white sleeves, a black laced corset and a knee length striped dress.)
While it has been popular to think of "small world" as all Blair’s creation, many other talented Disney artists contributed significantly to the final version. Besides the basic design of the children, Blair’s major contribution was the color styling helping to create instant mood changes as guests sailed around the world. All the colors in the scenes combine into an all-white finale.
The Audio-Animatronic doll figures were known as “rubber heads,” based on a notation that appeared on Marc Davis’ drawings. Davis was supplying gags for the scenes and the flow of action of the figures including the dancing. The dolls were sculpted by Blaine Gibson and costumed by Alice Davis, Marc Davis' talented and often underappreciated wife. It was estimated that a singing figure might open and close its mouth more than 1million times in one month.
Imagineer Claude Coats laid out the pattern for the river. Imagineers Rolly Crump and Jack Ferges created all the “toys,” the term that referred to everything that wasn’t an animated children doll from props in the scene to skating penquins. Working with approximately 30 people, Crump used styrofoam and paper-mache, often gluing on Chem Wipes for additional support, to build more than 250 “toys.”
Crump studied Blair’s children’s books for ideas and to help understand her style. The idea for the ice skating penquins came from a toy on Imagineer Yale Gracey’s desk where a little ice skater would skate thanks to a hidden magnet underneath.
One day, Walt visited Crump and gave him a gift that Walt had picked up in Europe: a little bicycle rider on a thin wire. Crump built a larger version and in the mock up had a bucket of sand holding the cable tight. Moving the bucket would cause the cable to loosen and the rider would go back and forth. Crump still remembers fearfully Walt coming over and picking up the bucket and shaking it violently to make sure the toy wouldn’t come off the cable and hit a guest.
Crump was also responsible for the 120-foot high Tower of the Four Winds that was installed in front of the pavilion. Walt realized that the building that was so quickly constructed for “small world” would seem very plain and unappealing, so a more distinctive marquee was necessary to attract the attention of the visitors to the fair. The 52 different mobiles “represented the constant energy of the young.” At the end of the fair when Walt found out it would take nearly $80,000 to move it back to Disneyland, it was cut up and dumped in the nearby river.
That famous song that some people find tortuous had an interesting creation. Originally, Walt had wanted the children to sing their national anthems. However, when it was attempted, it was a cacophony that was insufferable. Walt called in songwriters the Sherman Brothers who were hard at work on “Mary Poppins.” He told them he wanted a song like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” that would be melodious and was simple enough that it could be repeated over and over in different languages.
Imagineer Harriet Burns remembered Walt talking to the Sherman Brothers at WED and using the phrase “it’s a small world after all” to describe the feeling he wanted. Walt never meant the phrase to be a title or even a lyric but was just making a casual remark to try and capture the spirit of song that talked about the children of the world.
The brothers quickly came up with the famous song but worried that it came so quickly, so they worked on two more songs trying to top it. However, with time running out, Walt was anxious to hear what they written at that point and they played the simple song first. They never got a chance to share the other two songs when Walt said, “That will work” which most Disney employees knew was high praise from Walt. Those who knew Walt have said that Walt really loved the song.
To install the attraction, crews worked seven days a week to make the deadline. Crump told Disney historian Paul Anderson, “We were living off black coffee in the morning, and martinis for lunch. Mary [Blair] and I were kind of kidding, that if it hadn’t been for gin, we never would have opened Small World on time.”
Costumed Disney characters were there for the opening of the attraction. It was one of the few times that the characters had appeared outside of Disneyland and proved to be so popular that they became permanent additions to the pavilion for the duration of the Fair. The nearby Kodak pavilion encouraged many photos of guests with the characters.
In June 1965, as the New York World’s Fair was preparing to close, construction had begun on the show building at Disneyland for the attraction. Construction ran from June 9, 1965 to May 28, 1966.
When the attraction moved to Disneyland, it changed significantly from the New York presentation since the show building was one-third larger.
“The New York sets were placed in the same order at Disneyland (although some were different, right or left side) but we added quite a lot. The European section was built at least a third larger than the World’s Fair, so I had to ‘piece’ the sets to fill the space. We never had a North Pole area at the Fair, which I designed for Disneyland along with the Islands of the Pacific. We had to completely rebuild every set that was at the Fair…re-canvas them, re-paint them, re-flitter them, and then add another third to the ride,” Crump said.
It was Crump who designed the façade for the Disneyland attraction after Blair’s initial design was rejected by Walt. Crump worked with Blair to get her style in the final façade. It was Walt himself who came up with the idea of the clock and the idea of having 24 characters since there are 24 hours in the day. It was Crump who came up with the idea of the façade being white with gold accents to help with maintenance. (Blair’s rendering for the façade was so colorful it would have been a maintenance nightmare requiring constant repainting as the colors faded in the California sun.)
“Small World” opened at Disneyland on May 28,1966 and was sponsored by Bank of America. Besides the Disney and Bank of America dignitaries, there were 36 foreign consular officials, more than 800 members of the press, and the Interntaional Children’s Choir of Long Beach. In addition, a parade of local folk dancing groups and marching bands also participated. Walt Disney joined “children from sixteen ethnic groups” to pour flasks of water from the “seven seas and nine major lagoons” into the waterway for the attraction. The water was authentic and had been flown in at a significant expense from different countries. The gentleman shown with Walt in most of the publicity photos for the event was Louis Lundborg, Bank of America board chair.
This event, known as “Operation Water” was created by Disneyland publicist Jack Linquist, who has never gotten enough credit for his imaginative marketing for Disneyland. He was named a Disney Legend in 1994.
There have been changes in the attraction over the years but they were so subtle that most guests were completely unaware. For instance some figures, like the children in India have undergone costume changes. China was not officially recognized by the United States so was not represented in the attraction until the 1970s when it was added to both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World version.
As Rolly Crump told “E Ticket” magazine, “Walt’s intended audience with 'it’s a small world' was everybody. He was always saying that there should be something in Disneyland for everybody. I used to sit outside the ride and watch people come out of 'small world.' They’d be smiling, and they’d be laughing, and there really wasn’t another attraction where people came out and were happy like that.”
How do I feel about the rumored changes for “it’s a small world”? Well, I’ve always liked the show as it is, especially when the Walt Disney World version got “cleaned up” with new paint and lighting that helped remind many guests how good the show was when it first premiered.
However, a friend that I trust who has seen the concept art told me that the new additions really captures the “spirit” of Mary Blair so I guess I will withhold judgment, especially since I know that unlike Walt, the current Disney Company is not interested in the concerns of its audience, nor, despite the pronouncements from Bob Iger and John Lasseter, is it interested in preserving its history. Perhaps when I am in a grumpy mood, I will give some more specific examples but for right now, I am filled with the good feelings from “it’s a small world.”
Platform: Platform Attendees Fashion Parade and Doors Open for first performers,Performance Schedule (Estimated times)
Features: Features: with other social network services, such as profiles, an event calendar, and private messaging.
1.Blot.com
History:Blog of Dr. Miland Brown that features different aspects of world history. Not everything can be covered but sites dealing with any historical issue or topic are possible future posts. Also includes sites which discuss teaching history. Dr. Brown is an academic in North America.
Creator / Developer:This chat application was developed with live customer support in mind, but works well in other contexts.
Platform:Whether you are using Typepad, Blogger or WordPress, Meebo.me is just ideal for any of these platforms.
Features:The Pop Culture podcast featuring in-depth 1 on 1 interviews from the entertainment worlds of Genre Fiction-Comic Books, Novels,Television,Film,Video Games and more.
2. Busuu
History:Madrid-based Busuu.com was founded in January 2008 by Adrian Hilti and Bernhard Niesner. It was an entirely free service at first, but has since added a premium membership level. The site has undergone steady growth since launch, and currently serves thousands of monthly visitors. The site has an Alexa page rank near the 60,000 mark.
Creator / Developer:busuu's site left its beta-stage in February 2009. Since then, a premium membership with access to advanced features has been added. This premium offer starts at 11.69€ a month and includes podcasts and PDFs of the lessons as well as detailed grammar units. However, a majority of busuu's website and its features remain free of cost.
Platform:Well it seems to me that you are having some actual fun and learning Spanish too! If you publish images of people you are interacting with make sure not to disclose their user names or personal information unless they explicitly authorize you to do so. If you become a regular user you could also develop a list of personal suggestions on how to improve this platform.
Features: including the social element of instant chat and video chat.
3. Buzznet
History:With Jonathan Cook of FTSK
Creator / Developer:Participate in communities.
Platform:Favorite thing I made: Insane colorful platform boots.
Features: JadeyKayk's Featured Posts
4.Cafe Mon
History:
When using public computers, whether in the University of Calgary computer labs or abroad, it is important to protect yourself. Confidential data about yourself and your accounts may be logged in a variety of ways. If your private information is stolen you may become the victim of Identity Theft, or someone may have access to your bank accounts.
There are a number of precautions that can be taken to ensure that you are protected and that no one can accidentally or purposefully access your data. The following instructions explain safety practices for using and finding public computers of any kind.
Beware that even though you may follow the guidelines below using any computer under someone else's administrative control is fraught with danger.
Creator / Developer:When you use Google Maps, you can do more than just look at satellite images or scout out local business.Use the service to create your own custom maps, complete with your own images and text.
Platform: More: problem is browser platform transparent; no access on either IE or Opera and DuneCanid, before morning eyedrops
Features: In-browser message - a Patronsoft innovation that shows message within the active browsing session. The following formats are currently supported : message broadcast, disconnect reminder, always-on InfoBox, Internet surfing break, top banner mode. Click here for a screenshot
5. Cafe Financial
History:Our company has packed a lot in to a relatively young life.
.
Creator / Developer: Operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property.
Platform: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Unveils New Keurig Brewing Platform
Features: Fully programmable color touchscreen featuring auto on/off, temperature and strength control, energy saver mode and size selection
2. Academia edu
History:
Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. It was launched in September 2008 and currently has over 1 million registered users. The platform can be used to share papers, monitor their impact, and follow the research in a particular field. Academia.edu was founded by Richard Price, who raised $600,000 from Spark Ventures, Brent Hoberman, and others, to build Academia.edu.
In November 2011, Academia.edu raised $4.5 million from Spark Capital and True Ventures. Prior to that, it had raised $2.2 million from Spark Ventures, and a range of angel investors including Mark Shuttleworth, Thomas Lehrman, and Rupert Pennant-Rea. Academia.edu is a participant in the Open Science movement, responding to a perceived need in science for instant distribution of research and the need for a peer-review system that occurs alongside distribution, instead of occurring before it. The company has also stated its opposition to the Research Works Act.
Academia.edu has been described as a "huge deal" by The Singularity Hub, because academics "get quick and easy access to their colleague’s work, and they get quantifiable proof that their own research matters." remarked that Academia.edu gives academics a "powerful, efficient way to distribute their research" and that it will let researchers keep tabs on how many people are reading their articles with specialized analytics tools", and "also does very well in Google search results."
Creator / Developer: Richard Price
Platform: Corporate Strategy
3. aNobii
History:
Anobii is a social networking site aimed at readers. It was acquired by a new venture backed by HMV Group, Harper Collins, Penguin and Random House in 2010 from a private company owned by Greg Sung, based in Hong Kong.
The service allows individuals to catalogue their books and rate, review and discuss them with other readers. The service is available via the Anobii website and iPhone and Android apps. The apps allow individuals to barcode scan books and read both community and expert reviews.
Anobii has readers in over 20 countries, but is most popular in Italy.
On March 2, 2011 it was announced that in 2010 Anobii had been acquired by a UK startup led by HMV Group and supported by HarperCollins, Penguin and The Random House Group and that the company is working on a new version of the website with possibility to buy books and most of all ebooks.
Creator / Developer:Greg Sung
Platform: Anobii is a book discovery platform that wants to provide a social environment for readers to engage with and discuss the books that they love, much like a virtual book club.
4.Asian Avenue
History:
Originally named AsianAvenue (or Asian Avenue), the site was launched on July 21, 1997 by co-founders Benjamin Sun, Peter Chen, Grace Chang, Michael Montero, and Calvin Wong. By 1998, The New York Times described it as "unusually successful" despite being "run out of an apartment", having hit five million page views from 50,000 users.
Members were politically active, protesting an MSNBC headline for the 1998 Winter Olympics reading "American beats out Kwan", referring to U.S. Olympic teammates Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan. In 1999, members protested an ad for SKYY vodka showing a partly dressed white woman being served by a woman in a Mandarin dress and chopsticks in her hair, which the protesters said perpetuated racial stereotypes. After some 300 postings on Asian Avenue were forwarded to SKYY, the company agreed to stop using the ad.
The site received over 70,000 unique visitor hits in August 2000. At its peak, there were over 2 million users with more than 5000 online at any time. Robert X. Cringely claimed in 2000 that Asian Avenue had more members than BlackPlanet, a Community Connect sister site.
Fine Line Features chose the site for an exclusive interview with Chinese NBA star Yao Ming to promote its documentary The Year of the Yao. One writer characterized it "mainly an Internet dating site" In 2003, Darrell Hamamoto used an interview on the site to attract male talent for his adult film Skin to Skin, using the "unheard of" pairing of an Asian-American male performer with Asian-American woman.
At one point the site made various previously free features available only to premium users, which hurt the site's popularity. On October 31, 2005 the website relaunched the social network features. As of April 2007, there were 1.4 million registered users with fewer than 100 online at any given time.
Partners include party promoters (Synergy), film festivals (Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival), media (AngryAsianMan.com, AZN TV) and many more. Music artists, such as Notorious MSG, Far*East Movement, and Magnetic North have gained popularity from their exposure on AsianAve.com. In 2010 Monster.com announced a co-branded partnership with Asian Avenue. Based on a small questionnaire members filled out when signing up for a membership Monster generates a list of potential job openings and interests. This list is the first thing members see when signing into their AsianAvenue page.
In October 2007, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama created profiles on AsianAve as well as sister sites BlackPlanet, MiGente.com and Glee.com.
Something that is unique to AsianAvenue is the ability to see members who have come to look at your page. Unlike Facebook where browsing is entirely private, AsianAvenue is not. Members can view a list of members that have looked at their site on their main profile page.
Creator / Developer:
Platform: to express,” Faustino said. “You're not as scared
5. aSmallWorld
History: here has been a lot of controversy surrounding some reported upcoming changes to the sentimentally popular Disneyland attraction, “it’s a small world.” The attraction has always been one of my favorites. I even enjoy the infamous song … in small doses. However, in all the uproar, I haven’t seen any historical discussion of the attraction so I thought I might try and give some historical perspective.
The New York World’s Fair of 1964-1965 was an opportunity for Walt Disney to show that his style of theme park entertainment was not just a California accident, but something that appealed even to the supposedly more sophisticated folks of the East Coast.
It turned out that 91 percent of the fair’s guests attended at least one of the Disney shows: Ford’s Magic Skyway, Carousel of Progress, Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln, and of course, "it’s a small world."
“It’s a small world” opened April 22, 1964 and during its two years of operation it was determined that more than 10 million people rode it, which means it had a higher ridership than any of the other Disney shows at the fair. Amazingly, this was even though there was a special admission ticket (with funds going to UNICEF: United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) for this happiest cruise that was not charged at the other Disney shows.
While the entrance to the pavilion itself and the other exhibits were free, the 12-minute “boat ride” cost a $1 for adults and 60 cents for children. According to the official guidebook for the fair: “Inside, visitors glide by such scenes as France’s Eiffel Tower, a Dutch windmill and India’s Taj Mahal. Animated figures of children dance, play with droll animals and sing, ‘It’s a Small World.’ The twelve minute ride is conceived as a ‘salute to UNICEF.’”
It was sponsored by the Pepsi-Cola Company that was working with the United Nations agency devoted to children’s welfare to have a pavilion that would provide a “salute to UNICEF and the world’s children.” I always wondered why Pepsi did not sponsor the attraction when it moved to Disneyland, especially since Pepsi was already sponsoring one of my all-time favorite Disneyland shows, the Golden Horseshoe Revue in Frontierland. Bank of America became the original sponsor for the attraction at Disneyland.
It turns out that the executives of the Pepsi Company hated the final attraction. In the 1980 book called “The Pavilion” which was published to publicize the Pepsi exhibit for EXPO ’70 in Japan, the company describes the “small world” show as an “embarrassment.”
The Pepsi Company had trouble coming up with a concept that they liked and finally at almost the last moment, they approached the Disney Company. One of the Pepsi board members, film actress Joan Crawford, had heard exciting things about the other three pavilions Disney was doing for the fair and suggested that with the Disney connection with children that Walt could come up with something amazing.
Pepsi executives went to California in February 1963 and met with Disneyland’s construction boss, Admiral Joe “Can Do” Fowler who had to sadly inform the executives that Disney “couldn’t do” the project since it was less than a year before the fair opening and that Disney was experiencing challenges with all the innovative things they were working on for the other three pavilions and needed to focus all their resources on those projects.
When Walt found out, he was incensed. According to one Disney executive, Walt said, “I’ll make those decisions. Tell Pepsi I’ll do it!” So on February 15, 1963, Walt agreed to do a “Planning Design Feasibility Study” for the pavilion .
It was Walt himself who came up with the concept of a boat ride. (Arrow Manufacturing, responsible for innovations like Disneyland’s Matterhorn, was already working on a boat ride system based on some ideas by Imagineer Bob Gurr). Walt also came up with the name for the attraction: “The Children of the World.” He also wanted all the children to sing their national anthems. Walt wanted it to be a pleasant experience for “children of all ages” showcasing a “wonderland where all the world’s children live and play.”
Because time was of the essence, a simple L-shaped building was quickly designed and construction started in New York in late March even though Disney had no clue what the ride would eventually look like. There were several meetings with the show designers and Imagineer Marc Davis came up with a sketch that really stood out.
However, Walt wasn’t satisfied and decided to get artist Mary Blair involved. Blair had left the Disney Studios after contributing as an art supervior or color stylist to many Disney animated films including Song of the South, Cinderella and Melody Time.
In particular, Walt enjoyed the “Los Posada” segment in the film The Three Caballeros designed by Blair where Mexican children in a small village celebrate Christmas. In addition, since leaving Disney, Blair had gained prominence for her work on children’s books. Blair started work on the show in June 1963.
Fowler took the preliminary ideas to the Pepsi headquarters in New York for a presentation and buy-off, since there was roughly nine months until the opening of the fair. The Pepsi executives hated it. Supposedly, one executive disdainfully complained, “Why do we need this Mickey Mouse thing?”
Once again, Crawford exercised her authority and firmly told her fellow Pepsi executives that they were going to go with the Disney concept.
There was a special press announcement banquet held at the Waldorf Hotel in New York on August 1963. Walt Disney was there with Robert Moses, who was in charge of the World’s Fair, and Herbert Barnett, the president of Pepsi-Cola. Moses told the press that he predicted “small world” would be one of the fair’s three or four most popular attractions.
(The training manual for the pavilion features not only the Disney characters like Tinker Bell and Jiminy Cricket but also a Pepsi advertising mascot I have never seen anywhere else, the "Pepsi Maiden,” a blonde young woman who seems to be in a traditional German maiden outfit of puffy white sleeves, a black laced corset and a knee length striped dress.)
While it has been popular to think of "small world" as all Blair’s creation, many other talented Disney artists contributed significantly to the final version. Besides the basic design of the children, Blair’s major contribution was the color styling helping to create instant mood changes as guests sailed around the world. All the colors in the scenes combine into an all-white finale.
The Audio-Animatronic doll figures were known as “rubber heads,” based on a notation that appeared on Marc Davis’ drawings. Davis was supplying gags for the scenes and the flow of action of the figures including the dancing. The dolls were sculpted by Blaine Gibson and costumed by Alice Davis, Marc Davis' talented and often underappreciated wife. It was estimated that a singing figure might open and close its mouth more than 1million times in one month.
Imagineer Claude Coats laid out the pattern for the river. Imagineers Rolly Crump and Jack Ferges created all the “toys,” the term that referred to everything that wasn’t an animated children doll from props in the scene to skating penquins. Working with approximately 30 people, Crump used styrofoam and paper-mache, often gluing on Chem Wipes for additional support, to build more than 250 “toys.”
Crump studied Blair’s children’s books for ideas and to help understand her style. The idea for the ice skating penquins came from a toy on Imagineer Yale Gracey’s desk where a little ice skater would skate thanks to a hidden magnet underneath.
One day, Walt visited Crump and gave him a gift that Walt had picked up in Europe: a little bicycle rider on a thin wire. Crump built a larger version and in the mock up had a bucket of sand holding the cable tight. Moving the bucket would cause the cable to loosen and the rider would go back and forth. Crump still remembers fearfully Walt coming over and picking up the bucket and shaking it violently to make sure the toy wouldn’t come off the cable and hit a guest.
Crump was also responsible for the 120-foot high Tower of the Four Winds that was installed in front of the pavilion. Walt realized that the building that was so quickly constructed for “small world” would seem very plain and unappealing, so a more distinctive marquee was necessary to attract the attention of the visitors to the fair. The 52 different mobiles “represented the constant energy of the young.” At the end of the fair when Walt found out it would take nearly $80,000 to move it back to Disneyland, it was cut up and dumped in the nearby river.
That famous song that some people find tortuous had an interesting creation. Originally, Walt had wanted the children to sing their national anthems. However, when it was attempted, it was a cacophony that was insufferable. Walt called in songwriters the Sherman Brothers who were hard at work on “Mary Poppins.” He told them he wanted a song like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” that would be melodious and was simple enough that it could be repeated over and over in different languages.
Imagineer Harriet Burns remembered Walt talking to the Sherman Brothers at WED and using the phrase “it’s a small world after all” to describe the feeling he wanted. Walt never meant the phrase to be a title or even a lyric but was just making a casual remark to try and capture the spirit of song that talked about the children of the world.
The brothers quickly came up with the famous song but worried that it came so quickly, so they worked on two more songs trying to top it. However, with time running out, Walt was anxious to hear what they written at that point and they played the simple song first. They never got a chance to share the other two songs when Walt said, “That will work” which most Disney employees knew was high praise from Walt. Those who knew Walt have said that Walt really loved the song.
To install the attraction, crews worked seven days a week to make the deadline. Crump told Disney historian Paul Anderson, “We were living off black coffee in the morning, and martinis for lunch. Mary [Blair] and I were kind of kidding, that if it hadn’t been for gin, we never would have opened Small World on time.”
Costumed Disney characters were there for the opening of the attraction. It was one of the few times that the characters had appeared outside of Disneyland and proved to be so popular that they became permanent additions to the pavilion for the duration of the Fair. The nearby Kodak pavilion encouraged many photos of guests with the characters.
In June 1965, as the New York World’s Fair was preparing to close, construction had begun on the show building at Disneyland for the attraction. Construction ran from June 9, 1965 to May 28, 1966.
When the attraction moved to Disneyland, it changed significantly from the New York presentation since the show building was one-third larger.
“The New York sets were placed in the same order at Disneyland (although some were different, right or left side) but we added quite a lot. The European section was built at least a third larger than the World’s Fair, so I had to ‘piece’ the sets to fill the space. We never had a North Pole area at the Fair, which I designed for Disneyland along with the Islands of the Pacific. We had to completely rebuild every set that was at the Fair…re-canvas them, re-paint them, re-flitter them, and then add another third to the ride,” Crump said.
It was Crump who designed the façade for the Disneyland attraction after Blair’s initial design was rejected by Walt. Crump worked with Blair to get her style in the final façade. It was Walt himself who came up with the idea of the clock and the idea of having 24 characters since there are 24 hours in the day. It was Crump who came up with the idea of the façade being white with gold accents to help with maintenance. (Blair’s rendering for the façade was so colorful it would have been a maintenance nightmare requiring constant repainting as the colors faded in the California sun.)
“Small World” opened at Disneyland on May 28,1966 and was sponsored by Bank of America. Besides the Disney and Bank of America dignitaries, there were 36 foreign consular officials, more than 800 members of the press, and the Interntaional Children’s Choir of Long Beach. In addition, a parade of local folk dancing groups and marching bands also participated. Walt Disney joined “children from sixteen ethnic groups” to pour flasks of water from the “seven seas and nine major lagoons” into the waterway for the attraction. The water was authentic and had been flown in at a significant expense from different countries. The gentleman shown with Walt in most of the publicity photos for the event was Louis Lundborg, Bank of America board chair.
This event, known as “Operation Water” was created by Disneyland publicist Jack Linquist, who has never gotten enough credit for his imaginative marketing for Disneyland. He was named a Disney Legend in 1994.
There have been changes in the attraction over the years but they were so subtle that most guests were completely unaware. For instance some figures, like the children in India have undergone costume changes. China was not officially recognized by the United States so was not represented in the attraction until the 1970s when it was added to both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World version.
As Rolly Crump told “E Ticket” magazine, “Walt’s intended audience with 'it’s a small world' was everybody. He was always saying that there should be something in Disneyland for everybody. I used to sit outside the ride and watch people come out of 'small world.' They’d be smiling, and they’d be laughing, and there really wasn’t another attraction where people came out and were happy like that.”
How do I feel about the rumored changes for “it’s a small world”? Well, I’ve always liked the show as it is, especially when the Walt Disney World version got “cleaned up” with new paint and lighting that helped remind many guests how good the show was when it first premiered.
However, a friend that I trust who has seen the concept art told me that the new additions really captures the “spirit” of Mary Blair so I guess I will withhold judgment, especially since I know that unlike Walt, the current Disney Company is not interested in the concerns of its audience, nor, despite the pronouncements from Bob Iger and John Lasseter, is it interested in preserving its history. Perhaps when I am in a grumpy mood, I will give some more specific examples but for right now, I am filled with the good feelings from “it’s a small world.”
Creator / Developer: Qt Creator Git Tricks and Developer Network
Platform: Platform Attendees Fashion Parade and Doors Open for first performers,Performance Schedule (Estimated times)
1.Blot.com
History:Blog of Dr. Miland Brown that features different aspects of world history. Not everything can be covered but sites dealing with any historical issue or topic are possible future posts. Also includes sites which discuss teaching history. Dr. Brown is an academic in North America.
Creator / Developer:This chat application was developed with live customer support in mind, but works well in other contexts.
Platform:Whether you are using Typepad, Blogger or WordPress, Meebo.me is just ideal for any of these platforms.
Features:The Pop Culture podcast featuring in-depth 1 on 1 interviews from the entertainment worlds of Genre Fiction-Comic Books, Novels,Television,Film,Video Games and more.
2. Busuu
History:Madrid-based Busuu.com was founded in January 2008 by Adrian Hilti and Bernhard Niesner. It was an entirely free service at first, but has since added a premium membership level. The site has undergone steady growth since launch, and currently serves thousands of monthly visitors. The site has an Alexa page rank near the 60,000 mark.
Creator / Developer:busuu's site left its beta-stage in February 2009. Since then, a premium membership with access to advanced features has been added. This premium offer starts at 11.69€ a month and includes podcasts and PDFs of the lessons as well as detailed grammar units. However, a majority of busuu's website and its features remain free of cost.
Platform:Well it seems to me that you are having some actual fun and learning Spanish too! If you publish images of people you are interacting with make sure not to disclose their user names or personal information unless they explicitly authorize you to do so. If you become a regular user you could also develop a list of personal suggestions on how to improve this platform.
Features: including the social element of instant chat and video chat.
3. Buzznet
History:With Jonathan Cook of FTSK
Creator / Developer:Participate in communities.
Platform:Favorite thing I made: Insane colorful platform boots.
Features: JadeyKayk's Featured Posts
4.Cafe Mon
History:
When using public computers, whether in the University of Calgary computer labs or abroad, it is important to protect yourself. Confidential data about yourself and your accounts may be logged in a variety of ways. If your private information is stolen you may become the victim of Identity Theft, or someone may have access to your bank accounts.
There are a number of precautions that can be taken to ensure that you are protected and that no one can accidentally or purposefully access your data. The following instructions explain safety practices for using and finding public computers of any kind.
Beware that even though you may follow the guidelines below using any computer under someone else's administrative control is fraught with danger.
Creator / Developer:When you use Google Maps, you can do more than just look at satellite images or scout out local business.Use the service to create your own custom maps, complete with your own images and text.
Platform: More: problem is browser platform transparent; no access on either IE or Opera and DuneCanid, before morning eyedrops
Features: In-browser message - a Patronsoft innovation that shows message within the active browsing session. The following formats are currently supported : message broadcast, disconnect reminder, always-on InfoBox, Internet surfing break, top banner mode. Click here for a screenshot
5. Cafe Financial
History:Our company has packed a lot in to a relatively young life.
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Creator / Developer: Operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property.
Platform: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Unveils New Keurig Brewing Platform
Features: Fully programmable color touchscreen featuring auto on/off, temperature and strength control, energy saver mode and size selection
