LiveOn named SXSW Awards finalist for ‘technical achievement’

LiveOn, a site enabling users to capture memories and share with loved ones, is a finalist for the South by Southwest Interactive Awards, an event recognizing the year’s best new digital work. Based in Kansas City, LiveOn was named one of five finalists in the …

LiveOn, a site enabling users to capture memories and share with loved ones, is a finalist for the South by Southwest Interactive Awards, an event recognizing the year’s best new digital work. Based in Kansas City, Mo., LiveOn was named one of five finalists in the “technical achievement” category, along with work by Eye-FiIBMGoogle and Tourism New Zealand.

Described as an award celebrating “those who are building tomorrow’s online trends,” this recognition comes three months after LiveOn launched its public beta and four months after LiveOn was named a Global Entrepreneurship Week 50 company of 2011, “a list of the world’s 50 most innovative new companies.”

According to a LiveOn press release, SXSW selected LiveOn for enabling users to connect across generations, creating Time Capsules and other features that promise to help users protect their digital legacy.

The awards, established in 1997, take place on March 13 in Austin, Texas, coinciding with the annual South by Southwest Interactive festival.

Version 2.0

LiveOn recently completed its public beta, one that founder and CEO Jonathan Whistman said had thousands of users building thousands of individual memories and Time Capsules, and announced it would be rolling out its second version soon.

“We are implementing some expanded capabilities in the ability to create accounts for your children or elderly that may not be able to create their own account,” Whistman said in an interview on Monday, “as well as iterating on the great feedback received from our beta users that will make the site even more user friendly.”

Though Whistman declined to release the number of total users, he said LiveOn plans to announce when it hits 50,000 users. “You won’t have to wait long,” Whistman said.

Speedy

LiveOn’s progress might look fast, but it won’t compare to the speed of Jon Pew’s race car (left) on Saturday. LiveOn joins other sponsors, such as Target, Motorola and SunTrust, in sponsoring a car in this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. The startup is the sole sponsor for Michael Shank Racing.

“Our site fits in well with the world of racing,” Whistman said in a press release. “Racing has had a long American history and part of the fun of racing is telling stories from the past. Anybody who takes up racing does it because its fun, but also because it’s a big part of American culture.”

LiveOn has public example of John Pew’s LiveOn page at liveon.com/johnpew.

The basics

Here’s a recent video posted by LiveOn showing off the site’s basic features.

 

Photo and video credit: John Pew racecar from liveon.com. Video from LiveOn on Vimeo.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

Get the latest news and events from Nebraska’s entrepreneurship and innovation community delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday.