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Past Projects


Alexander and his team at Big in Japan team have been building applications written using the Ruby on Rails framework even before Version 1.0 or RoR was released. More than four million people in thirty-two countries have used one or more of their programs. They have released most of our public work using the GPL open source license. Take a look at a few of their past projects:

 Fancast, was originally developed by the Big in Japan team for FX Network to help promote various television programs including Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Rescue Me, Damages, Dirt, The Riches as well as several other original series by the network.  In 2006 we sold Fancast to Comcast Interactive Media LLC.  To check it out visit Fancast.com.
egorcast™, written using Ruby on Rails, is a unique mashup that combines the transcription service Jott and the popular social mo-blogging service called Twitter. Sign up for egorcast, call Jott and your message will be sent to Twitter. Try it out for yourself here.
elfURL™, initially written in PHP and ultimately converted to Rails, shortens URLs. Just enter a long URL and elfURL will make it smaller. The tool also provides click-through statistics. Feel free to extend, modify or remix the sourcecode yourself. Learn more about the project here.
FrankenFeed™, written using Ruby on Rails, was built to merge multiple RSS feed into a single ‘monster feed’. Initially released as a free web service, we released the source code in 2006 using the General Public License (GPL). Learn more here.
FeedVault™, written using Ruby on Rails, provides a safe way to share and store OMPL reading files. Feel free to extend, modify or remix the sourcecode yourself. Initially released as a free web service, we released the source code in 2006 using the GPL. Learn more here.
InstantFeed™, written using Ruby on Rails, allows users to receive RSS feed via various IM clients. Initially released as a free web service, we released the source code in 2006 using the General Public License (GPL). Learn more here.
QwikPing™, written using Ruby on Rails, allows blog users to ping multiple news services when they update their blogs. Initially released as a free web service, we released the source code in 2006 using the General Public License (GPL). Feel free to extend, modify or remix the sourcecode yourself. Learn more here.
SocialMail™, written using Ruby on rails, allows users to receive email via an RSS feed. Initially released as a free web service, we released the source code in 2006 using the General Public License (GPL). Learn more here.
PodServe™, written using Ruby on rails, allows users to create and host regular or social podcasts. We released the podcasting platform as a free web service and have based several other initiatives, including FanPodCast on the system. Check it out here.
FanPodCast™, written using Ruby on rails, the system is based on PodServe. The system is currently used by more than six television series to manage social podcasts created by their viewers. Learn more here.
43 Best™, was our anwer to the proliferation of ‘best blog sites’. We created a simple wiki that allowed anyone to nominate themselves or someone else as one of the 43 best blogs. It was a joke. Check it out here.
hResume, is a WordPress plugin, written using PHP, that allows a WordPress blog user to create a resume page on their blog that utilizes the hResume microformat. We built the plugin to help spread the idea of microformats. Learn more here.
SimpleTicket™, was the first application we wrote using the Ruby on Rails framework. The application was built for Architel, Big in Japan’s parent company, and provides a simple solution for tracking issues. We released the source code in 2005 using the GPL. Learn more here.
MotorSport Ranch, is a reality television show we created and produced. The pilot aired on INHD and the first season (yet to air) was sold to VOOM (owned by DISH Network). The series was filmed in 1080i HD and profiled the members of a country club designed around a race track. Learn more here.
Gahbunga™, was a simple application that created a community around the ‘hot or not’ concept. Very briefly the application allowed someone to take a picture of their date with their camera phone and have their friends or the community rate those dates 1-10. The system would provide a real-time evaluation of the date. Learn more here.