NowPublic.com, a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover events around the world, has secured a landmark $10.6-million round of series-A venture capital funding and is expanding an agreement to provide content for Associated Press’ extensive string of bureaus across the U.S.

Though there are similar sites, NowPublic boasts of having 118,910 members who write and post news stories, including videos from 3,852 cities in 140 countries.

Logic Media has launched what it is a calling a hybrid tech deal Web site for using community members to find and rate shopping deals online. LogicBuy.com is designed to help shoppers find the lowest prices on electronics, video games and computers.

LogicBuy.com uses its community and a team of editors to rate submitted deals offered by popular online merchants. Editors look for the latest deals to post on the Web site while community members also shares potential great deals they have found in their Web explorations.

Deals, once posted, are voted upon in a “Hot” or “Not” style format. Those deals which get more positive feedback appear higher in the listings, while deals considered to be “Not” get buried because they are not considered as compelling.

DailyMotion, a video sharing Web site, and The Weinstein Company are running a new fanboy video contest announced today to find the ultimate Star Wars fan. The winner of this online contest will win a walk in role in the upcoming comedy Fanboys, as well as having his or her video promoted on the Fanboy Web site and included as a special feature when the feature film comes to DVD.

Contestants will need to submit their videos through the official contest Web site. The competition, which runs from July 25, 2007 to August 31, 2007, will find Dailymotion users voting for their favorites throughout the competition. The producers will choose the winner from the 10 finalists that received the most votes by the users.

Fanboys is described as a comedy which “follows a group of young friends on a cross-country quest to break into Skywalker Ranch and see Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace before it is released. The film stars Sam Huntington (Superman Returns), Chris Marquette (Joan of Arcadia), Dan Fogler (the upcoming Kung Fu Panda), Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) and Seth Rogan (Knocked Up).”

NowLive, a relatively new online service which combines social networking and user-generated broadcasting, announced a new widget today for making it easier to get a talk show noticed by the online masses. This widget can be plugged into a variety of Web sites.

The NowLive Talk Show widget lets anyone with a social networking profile on sites such as MySpace or blog sites like LiveJournal, Blogger and TypePad embed their own live talk show directly into their personal profile. NowLive in general works by letting one dial a local phone number to create voice streams for his or her new talk show. Talk show hosts can interact with listeners through a variety of tools and the shows are later made available as downloadable podcasts.

“Bloggers, podcasters and anyone who wants to be heard can be on the air in less than 60 seconds,” said NowLive Co-founder & CEO Kevin Bromber. “But unlike traditional radio, a social broadcast lets the audience actively participate in the show from their computers and cell phones.”

Peer to peer streaming technology firm RawFlow announced today the availability of a new online broadcasting portal for user generated content called Selfcast. Selfcast had initially been running a limited beta but is now open to all.

Selfcast requires users to download software with which to create broadcasts. This software allows anyone to broadcast live to the world for free using a Webcam, PC and Internet connection. Friends can then be invited to watch via built-in instant messaging tools such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and MSN. A user can also invite friends to watch via email.

Viewers are allows to interact with the broadcaster via submitted comments or particpation in a live chat feature. Next up for Selfcast will be developing widgets which allows users to implement their channels into other social networks and websites.

PeekYou, a people search engine, emerged from stealth mode today with the goal of being an open source directory of every individual online. The site seems to be off to a large start, claiming more than 50 million built profiles.

Each individual on PeekYou has their own personalized page and a PeekYou profile that will include bookmarked links to all information available about the target person. The site, as an open source directory, allows users the ability to edit, add or remove information, links, photos, and tags associated with their profile or other PeekYou user’s profiles. In addition, PeekYou provides human created search engine results, reducing nonspecific and incorrect matches.

“People searching is one of the most popular online exercises, but until now it has been a largely inefficient and often confusing experience,” said Michael Hussey, founder of PeekYou. “PeekYou is a true Web 2.0 ‘people search’ – we discover and map where people exist online, almost like writing a biography about your life on the net. In doing so, we are building the ideal engine for individuals to monitor their own online identity.”

HubPages has recently launched a Q&A feature to its site today, the HubPages Requests.

HubPages is an online publishing community where HubPage authors earn money by publishing content-rich Internet pages on topics they know and love. Members get recognized through a community-wide HubScore ranking system. To spruce it up a little, and to encourage more involvement among members, as well as create more ways to give information about specific questions through community effort, HubPages Requests come to existence.

This latest development in HubPages allows users to generate a page around a question, which can be answered by members in the form of a blog or an article. Much like Yahoo Answers, yes. HubPages Requests allows users to include images and videos into their “answers” as well.

Phonecasting.com launched its Web site today for the purpose of letting users create “phonecasting” episodes which can be listened to by others over the phone or as a download. Accounts are free for publishers.

The Phonecasting.com service works by having a publisher record a phonecast which can be made available in the Phonecasting directory by auto-generated RSS feeds. Subscriber options for dialup, download and streaming are available to web site members from a computer or mobile phone.

Phonecasting.com seems to have netted a few big name publishers already:

• National Geographic News – 1 (415) 223-4135

• “We’re Talking Elvis” with your host DJ Fontana 1 (650) 523-6817
• TalkCrunch – 1 (831) 480-3920
• Chicago Bites 1 (708) 543-3423
• iPhone News 1 (510) 495-6368 +1 (510) 495-6368
• Spanish Daily Word 1 (1 (718) 977-5932

It should be noted normal calling rates apply for calling any of these numbers.

Warner Brothers announced today a teaming with Bunchball, a provider of social gaming services for web sites, to unveil a new online trivia game that is partially created by the fans who play it. This game – Looney Tunes presents The Ultimate Cartoon Trivia Challenge – is now available for playing on the Looney Tunes Web site.

The Ultimate Cartoon Trivia Challenge, said Warner Brothers, incorporates media and lets gamers test their knowledge of Looney Tunes cartoons such as Bugs Bunny and submit questions about their favorite character. Submitted questions are reviewed and rated by other community members on a scale from poor to excellent. The highest-ranking questions make it into the game and are played by the community at large.

Up to eight players can play at one time. Questions are asked in multiple-choice format; some include embedded video from cartoons, reconnecting players with these classic moments. The person who answers the most questions accurately wins.

ExtendMedia Corporation and KickApps Corporation announced an integrated solution that lets digital media content distributors add user-generated content and social networking features to their online video businesses. The offering combines ExtendMedia’s leading digital content services platform, OpenCASE, with KickApps’ robust private-label social media platform. By using this integrated offering, digital content distributors and retailers can put the powerful viral effect of a complete social media experience to work within their online video storefront – while enabling the monetization of user-generated or “prosumer”-generated content.

“User-generated content is the single most democratizing force in the digital media landscape today – though models to monetize it have yet to be defined,” said Will Richmond, president of Broadband Directions, a market intelligence and consulting firm specializing in broadband video. “Solutions that address this fundamental challenge will be welcomed by players across the digital media spectrum who want to earn a return on high-quality UGC offerings.”