Kratchman, who most recently was chief strategy officer of Schematic, and a co-founder of Blast Radius, calls the Black Box a "second level application" giving online users the "visual display of television" with the control and connectivity of the Internet.
Black Box, which has quietly been powering ASB.TV, a community-based site for followers of aeronautical air shows that he is also a managing partner of, can be accessed and downloaded at www.asb.tv/blackbox (user name: asb; password: blackbox).
The platform provides a new kind of viewer experience, enabling users to easily adjust and customize the elements of content, video, commerce, and community in a modular format, all without leaving the Web page.
Kratchman developed the platform as a means of rendering those components of ASB.TV, which promotes and connects hundreds of thousands of air show enthusiasts.
He says he stumbled upon Air Show Buzz after simultaneously selling Schematic and Blast Radius to WPP and was looking for a new challenge.
"I used aviation as the subject matter, air shows as my Disney park, and airplanes as my sports teams," Kratchman explained, striking an analogy to other big, multiplatform media and content companies that might also tap a rich, dynamic interface like Black Box.
Kratchman says he and his ASB.TV partners turned the Black Box engine on ASB.TV, and have quietly amassed a community of more than 100,000 users, and is already expanding it into a multimedia enterprise, including a pilot (no pun intended) of a new computer animated kids TV show being developed in conjunction with a major studio.
Checked out the new "Black Box"... I think it does without saying that I've never seen anything like this before. Kinda reminds me of "Spaces" on my Mac which keeps me organized when I'm working on a ton of things at once; jumping around so I have clean access to whatever I'm doing. FINALLY, a web application that actually makes MY life easier.
- Ryan
This is incredible! I can have all sorts of content open at the same time and arrange it how I want it. This is going to make my life and work a lot easier. I recommend checking this out!
Wow! This application has streaming video, photos, forums, stores and a web browser. I have those things now, they're called streaming video, photos, forums, stores and internet explorer. With my application (the internet) you don't have to download anyhting from Adobe. I'll sell you some code to make the background black. Can I have some venture capitol please?
@Jonathan ~ I think you're missing the point. AIR applications are about creating a parallel web experience that focuses the user on specific content and features. This is why Hulu, YouTube, and Ebay have created AIR applications, not to compete with their own websites, but rather to supplement them.
I've downloaded Blackbox and tried it out, and its definitely the type of thing that can only by done in AIR, and not in browsers with a black background. Will John Q Public want to just use AIR applications to access the content they want, instead of browsers? They already do! (e.g. Desktop Widgets).
At any rate, time will tell where Blackbox and similar products will live in the interactive space, but I for one think its the direction things are going.