NewHive was both a social network and a creation engine for Web 2.0 content. It was a web platform that encouraged users to develop their own creative content that had been coined by NewHive as, expressions.[1] Many members of the NewHive community were productive artists with established practices, creating, “A critical framework around post-internet art practices by engaging with the art world and contemporary society".[2]
Type of site | Social network and Publishing platform |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| URL | newhive |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Required to post, follow, or be followed |
| Launched | February 2014 |
| Current status | Suspended |
Features
editThe NewHive site used Python, MongoDB, and JavaScript in a user-friendly interface. The site was hosted by Amazon's cloud services.[3] Though simple but powerful on-line tools that could be learned quickly, NewHive allowed text, links, photos, videos, drawings, music, GIFs, and more to be composed into website collages. It also allowed embedding of material from YouTube, Spotify, and so on.[4] GIFs could be combined into single scrolling pages, which NewHive called GIF walls. When you saved a page on the site, you could add tags or allow others to remix them to help them reach a broader audience or you could leave it private.[5]
NewHive was involved with new practices in contemporary art since its launch, fostering trends and allowing for the creation of thousands of art works. In addition to working with curators and promoting works created by users, it regularly commissioned multimedia mixtapes, singles, zines, ebooks, curated exhibitions, and solo projects by emerging and established artists engaged with the Internet. NewHive also worked in partnership with organizations like Asylum Arts, the Goethe-Institut and the Museum of the Moving Image.[6]
Revenue model
editNewHive was backed by private investors and was free to use, and ads were never placed on expressions but NewHive hoped to eventually sell new tools to the creators who used them as one of their means to raise revenue. CEO Zach Verdin said, “In addition to a marketplace that will allow third-party developers to create applications, extensions and widgets; the New Hive will provide services...such as customized URLs and personally branded hives...[7]
History
editThe concept behind NewHive was developed in 2008 by cofounders Zach Verdin, Cara Bucciferro, Abram Clark, and Andrew Sorkin and was on-line in private beta in November 2011. Seed funding of $100,000 was obtained from private donors including SV Angel[8] in 2012 allowing the platform to be launched in beta followed by a public launch on February 18, 2014. Visual artists, like Molly Soda and Labanna Babalon, were among the first people to appear on NewHive.[9] NewHive ceased active operations in 2018.
References
edit- ^ "NewHive: A Social Place for Expression". 23 January 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "Why New Hive is Democratizing Post-Internet Art Widewalls". Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "NewHive: A Social Place for Expression Make Tech Easier". 23 January 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "NewHive Lets You Hack Together Any Media Into A Website Collage. 10M Views Let It Raise Funding Tech Crunch". 17 January 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "Beautiful disasters: NewHive is making the web weird again The Verge". 18 February 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "Why New Hive is Democratizing Post-Internet Art Widewalls". Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "The New Hive Launches Online Tool for Creative Expressions Betakit". 3 May 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "NewHive Lets You Hack Together Any Media Into A Website Collage. 10M Views Let It Raise Funding Tech Crunch". 17 January 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- ^ "The Weird, Wonderful Social Network That Puts Your Creativity First Fast Company". Retrieved 20 October 2017.