Hey all, another solid lineup for tonight, can't wait to see everybody.

Thanks goes to DLA for being a great host and Gundlach Bundschu (www.gunbun.com) for providing another fabulous selection of wine tonight.

----
The lineup:

kwiry.com - See it?  Hear it?  Text it before you forget it with mobile txt message reminders to your computer. [Ron Feldman]

 

websketch.com - Impressive interface for sketching up your own websites.  Drag and drop your new website into reality. [Scott Tse]

 

LaunchSplash.com - Fills a need of 100% of web startups - drop dead simple launch pages for your upcoming site - build community before you even have one. [Jacques Crocker]

 

ZoomProspector.com - Whether you're looking for your new office across the city or across the country, find the right location by a number of factors: cost, labor market, education level, job growth, incomes, etc. [Chad Catacchio & Anatalio Ubalde]


Also, there's been great success in our LinkedIn group (http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/40014/3E27233BFA02), with over 1,100 members to date.  It provides a great networking opportunity when searching for resources or trying to connect with people.

Want to do more for the group?
1.  Are you a designer?  I'm looking for new designs for our group's logo (100x50 & 60x30) on LinkedIn, please submit them (or any design questions) to my email addr below.

2. I'm looking for success stories of how you've benefited from the meetup or LinkedIn group.  Please send them to my email addr below.  Alternatively, if I've been a direct help to you, feel free to share this as a testimonial on my LinkedIn profile.

When: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 7:00 PM
Where: DLA Piper, 2000 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94303
More: http://newtechmeetup.org

cheers,
vinnie
vincent -dot- lauria -at- gmail -dot- com

 

Reading an article on the NYT, 'To Save Fuel, Airlines Find No Speck to Small' I realized shit doesn't happen unless it hits your wallet.  Airplanes have been notorious C02 emission machines, no big deal, we all knew it.  But now, with a keg of oil costing so much, airlines need to get creative in making their planes more efficent, from replacing all the seats with one's that are 5 lbs lighter, to tray carts that are 17lbs less, to hosing down the blades as in the photo above.

How much do these little changes add up to?  Well $1/2 million per year for every 25 lbs shed from a plane! How many gallons is that, well about 100,000 gallons of fuel saved per year by shedding 25lbs!

 

So why didn't we swap out our plane seats in 2007 for the 5lb lighter ones, and save what,  1 million gallons of petro a year per plane?

 

 

My fiancee is training for a marathon (26.2mi.) at the end of the month.  She joined Team In Training which is a great program that 1) helps people prepare for a marathon with coaches and a support community, and 2) is a non-profit org. that raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

So to cover the cost of training in combination with raising money for efforts to the Leukemia Society, Kristine, and other participants, have to raise $4,000 ea.  Yesterday, June 5th, was the last day to raise funds, so I sent out an email, a call for help, to about 280 friends.  These were friends from all parts of my life, from high school, to college, to IBM, to my tech & non-tech friends out here in San Francisco.

We needed to raise slightly more then $1,500 in 24 hours and we achieved that amazing goal, with a single day call for help - what the politicians like to call a 'money bomb'.  We raised a whopping 49.9% of all funds in the last 24 hours, that's pretty amazing to see how well people responded to a 'please help us for the last mile'

I asked that if 2/3 of all friends on the email just gave $10 each, we'd hit our goal, instead 1/6 gave more then three times as much.  Thank you!

Some stats:

• $1,846 raised in 24 hours
• Donations from 47 people, 17% of friends responded with a donation
  
• Avg. of $39.28 per donation
• 49.9% of all funds raised in the last 24 hours
• Min donation for the day: $10, Max: $350, and one donation that didn't have a round number at $26.22
  

So, just comparing to previous emails that went out over the past few months, people really showed their support when the last few hours were counting down.  It weighs in on our the decision to help out.  Just like saving your energy to sprint for that last mile in a race, there's a mental mindset that comes into play when you can see the goal ahead and need to kick it into gear.

 

I wanted to THANK everybody, the support was overwhelming and we greatly appreciate it.

http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/krissymo

^{Note: You may not see the full $4k in the link above as some are mailed in pledges or matching donations by companies.} 

 

 

Some very cool services will be demo'd tonight.  I've been using two of them for the past few weeks and think they're great sites.

And for wine tonight, I met the owner of Gundlach Bundschu a few weeks back, and he's sent our group some wine for the next few events - straight from sonoma - www.gunbun.com

---

The lineup:

loud3r.com - Creating community portals around topics.  Both human and semantic powered to filter out that 'not so good' content in the long tail.  [Lowell Goss]

 

tipjoy.com - 'tip' the sites you love.  A super simple micropayment system, that moves 'tipping' onto the web.  [Ivan Kirigin]

oosah.com - Drag and drop your photos from flickr to picasa to facebook, just like you were on your desktop.  Simple drag and drop sharing for photos, videos, and music.  [Mike Duggan, Dan Khasis]

 

chacha.com - 'true' people powered search in the palm of your hand.  Outwit you friends or find your flight status with a simple text message. [Brad Mays]

When: Tuesday, June 3, 2008, 7:00 PM
Where: DLA Piper, 2000 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94303
More: http://newtechmeetup.org

Thanks again to DLA for being such a generous host each month.

Vinnie

p.s.  Don't forget our new meetup forum over at: http://forum.newtechmeetup.org

why?  because i'm using ChaCha.

Normally I don't blog about presenters before my meetup, but this one has really impressed me.  ChaCha 'is' answers to all of your questions at your fingertips.

It's a mobile (text or call) service that allows you to ask any question.  A diligent outsourced human will research the answer and reply within seconds/minutes. 

How'd it win my affection?

Well, I wasn't sure if it was human powered or yet another crappy machine intelligence.  I couldn't find info on their website, so I rang 1-800.2.ChaCha and asked "How does ChaCha work?" and hung-up.  They got my number via caller id, within a minute I had an answer txt'd to me - "ChaCha provides answers on the go, with human guides who search the web to answer your questions.  We make money from advertising.

A follow-up question of "What time is it in Paris" quickly returned with "It is currently 4:23:00am on Thursday, May 29th in Paris France."

Finally, a problem a friend was working involving the average age of presidents - ChaCha got within the ballpark under a minute. 

Who's on deck for a little post cinco de mayo celebration?



TradeVibes.com - Discover and share information about web startups.  See who's  invested in who, key people on the team, and what the community thinks of a startup's prospects. [David Li]




a.viary.com - What do you want to create?  Online 'editing' from photos to videos, from music to 3D.  A full suite of apps that will impress you. [Michael Galpert]




PlayCafe.com - Remember watching the Price Is Right and wanting to be a contestant?  Well, 'come on down' and join the first online game show network! [Mark Goldenson]




lefora.com - Like blogger, but for forums.  A free forum hosting provider.  Now it's my turn to get pressed with questions by you! [Vinnie Lauria].

 

I've created a forum for the Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup, http://forums.newtechmeetup.com.  Feel free to give it a play and leave comments if you think it would be a good addition to the group.

 

Free give-away for NewTechr's:  If you want your own free custom domain forum on lefora, like the subdomain I set up for newtechmeetup.org, just drop me an email and I'll send you more info.  'vincent.lauria -at- gmail.com'

When: Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 7:00 PM
Where: DLA Piper, 2000 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94303
More: http://newtechmeetup.org
 

 

If you're attending the web2.0 expo this week, there will be a set of 'lightning talks' at the DNA Lounge on Tuesday night, starting at 8pm.  I'll be giving a talk on How to "Use" your Users.  The talks are fast, just 5min, but are definitely filled with useful and interesting information, check out this popular one on how to buy a car:

 

 

When: Tue, Apr. 22 @ 8pm (i'm up in the first set)
Where: DNA Lounge, 375 11th St btwn folsom & harrison
p.s. You'll need a web expo pass, or come in with somebody that has one, or give me a ring.

 

The full lineup:

First Set

1. Vanessa Fox - 5 Things Developers Should Know About Search Engines
   750 million people search. Ensure your infrastructure lets search engines turn those searchers into your customers.
2. James Levy - Medill Eats Its Own Dog Food
   In the aftermath of a serious trust scandal, a journalism school asks tough questions about its future. Transparently.
3. David Calkins - Robots Everywhere!
   Robots are finally here. Brains, bodies, sensors, and actuators - building, using, and buying robots. Where's your bot?
4. Christy Canida - How to Build Online Community Using the 7 Deadly Sins
   Building online community doesn't have to be complicated -- just give people what they REALLY want.
5. Vinnie Lauria - How to "Use" your Users
   From new features, to bug testing, to driving new traffic - how to get the most out of the community using your product.
6. Christian Crumlish - Grasping Social Patterns
   I will discuss a set of social design patterns I am framing out as Yahoo!'s pattern detective.
7. Annalee Newitz - Why Giant Monsters Rule
   Giant Monsters 101 -- an intro to the greatest giant monsters, what they mean, and how to appreciate their mega-charms.
8. Kathy Sierra - Kicking Ass
   How to make your users kick ass.

Second Set

1. Lane Becker - By the time I finish this talk, everyone in this room will want to run a marathon
   Why every person who spends their day in front of a computer should get up from the chair and run a marathon.
2. Gregory Dicum - Asking Questions
   Conducting interviews for bloggers and podcasters -- techniques, tricks, and pitfalls from offline journalism
3. John Adams - Snarkatron
   Discusses Snarkatron,a social experiment which allowed audience members to interact with performers using SMS/RSS/WWW
4. Salim Ismail - The Metaphysics of Growth
   There are core processes that govern how growth/evolution happens. We'll drill into them and how it affects technology
5. Jim Edlin - Can the web become America's next polling place?
   Do we really need expensive, specialty machines from dubious companies to run elections, or can the Web do it better?
6. John Adams - You Aren't From Around Here, Are You?
   What technical end users mean when they talk about Web 2.0, as observed in the field well away from Silicon Valley.
7. Dan Shapiro - Make Money Fast: Where the dough is in mobile
   Overview of how to make money building software for mobile phones
8. Ted Rheingold - Dogs on the Web
   Let's follow Ted into Dogster
9. Sean Bonner - How to cause global chaos with a checkbox
   Riot inducing feedback and fun times when redesigning a global blog network.

 

 

 

Check out the salary's and overall stock performance of the CEO's of 200 public companies: 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/04/05/business/20080405_EXECCOMP_GRAPHIC.html

Steve Jobs obviously loves his job, just $1 in compensation last year.  Larry Ellison?  We'll he has to get paid $11 million to show up to work (and another $50m in options.)  Though at least his stock performed well, unlike the CEO of American Express who lost 13% of shareholder value with a 95% payraise (total compensation) to a tune of $50mil.

What other geeks lead the bottom for yearly salary?   Eric Schmidt ($480k), and Steve Ballmer ($1.28m).

 

P.S.  Warren Buffet had a total compensation of just $175,000, that's just $74/hour more than your average In-N-Out server!

Who's on deck?

 * http://footnote.com - New service that lets you put post it notes on your feet [Brian Hansen]
 * http://evernote.com - Beats out footnotes by using 'forever' ink - permanent tattoos - never forget to pick up the milk again! [Phil Libin]
 * http://fluidapp.com - Turns water into a social networking service.  Chat, share video, and create a splash, all while in the pool.  [Todd Ditchendorf]
 * http://yourtrumanshow.com - New facebook app to befriend our lovely 33rd president, Harry S. Truman.  [Matteo Fabiano]

APRIL FOOLS!!!  Well, all those companies will be presenting, but with much cooler offerings.

When: Tonight, Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 7:00 PM
Where: DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, 2000 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94303
More: http://newtechmeetup.org


cheers,
vinnie

Netsquared.org (bringing web tools to social good organizations) is having a mashup challenge to reward $100k to apps created at their conference on May 27th, everyone from Google, to Cisco, to Microsoft is joining in.  Non-profits presented their problems and how a web mashup could help.  Now's your chance to vote on the top mashups, you have until Monday, may 24th.

VOTE NOW in the NetSquared Mashup Challenge. You can choose up to 10, you just need to sign up for an account on the side.

What do the mashup's look like?  Well I think this is a great example. 

Well, we've officially have become stock footage...  Over the weekend, two friends sent links to two articles, a WSJ article using a photo of ours 'bootstrapping' our old Palo Alto digs, and an NBC clip that uses some footage of our San Fran office as background video for a startup piece. 

I think that's a fun thing...

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/03/07/are-start-ups-bad-for-your-family/

 

and

 

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=6004770 

How do i sum up the weekend in words?

Well the whole festival gave me that feeling of when that small band you likes gets really big and you kinda get annoyed at all the new fans...

By Sunday evening I was saying this was probably my last year, SXSW had jumped the shark.   The most 'fun' night had been Friday night when we just hit up the local Austin scene and not everybody had bombarded the city yet.  By Saturday, parties were too packed to be any fun.

However, last night turned that around.  I caught up with people I haven't seen in over a year (some at the last sxsw) and got to actually 'enjoy' the parties - more parties on the same night, meant less crowding.

Some highlights from sxsw 2008:

• Irina's techie cab confessions - always there when you needed a ride, and well worth the double dog fare.
• Stubbs and Iron Works - texan bbq
• The people
• Megan's breathalyser that kept appearing from that medical case after midnight...
• Pure Volume's after-hour partys.  But not cause it was even that fun, I think just as something to do pass 2am.  Because overhearing a girl say "Hey I like your trucker hat" generally is not a fun time.
• The random parties that would breakout in hotel lobbys.
• Knowing David Kadavy works just as well to get into a bar as being a co-founder of secondlife.
  
• Ordering 5 Flaming Dr. Peppers - The bartender stacked them up next to each other like dominos, with the shot glasses resting on top, between the pint glasses.  Then he drank some 151, lit his index and ring ringer on fire and blew flames from his mouth while making the devil symbol and igniting 5 Flaming Dr. Peppers in one massive fireball.  Then he dinked the first glass and they all fell in like dominos - fucking amazing, thanks Mellisa.

 

10 Tips for Managing a Creative Environment

• Bryan Mason   Chief Operating Officer,   Adaptive Path
• Sarah Nelson   Design Strategist,   Adaptive Path 

1. Cross-train the entire team.  The Neo-Futurists (small theater co) distributes resonabilities through the team, hires ppl that can fill every roll (From actor, director, writer, to technician)

2. Rotate Creative Leadership. (with a clear sense of ownership.  In the neo-futurists example, director/writer of one play may be an actor in somebody else's play.

3. Actively Turn a Corner. (Convergence vs. Divergence) Basically, at times a team may be in the more 'creative thinking team process but somebody is putting constraints, such as, "no can't do this...", "no that can't be done by thursday, ..."  But on the flip side, during the narrowing down/production time phase, somebody may be throwing out ideas that create rolling deadlines.  So know which phase your in and when it's time to turn the corner into the other phase.

4. Know your roles. 

5. Practice, practice, practice.  You wanna know in crunch time (stress), exactly what needs to happen.

6. Make your mission explicit to the whole team.  Avenue Q took 2 years to write the whole show.  The mission was that the 'lead character had to find his purpose in life' which really helped to shape the songs of the musical.  Before that, the songs didn't have any coherence and the sum of them wasn't stronger (better experience) then the parts.

Sidenote: at adaptive path, when hiring somebody, they count to three and throw their thumbs out (up, down, and neutral).  If all up/down, answer is done.  If it's mixed, then they talk about the candidate.  Rarely do they get a lot of mixed feelings. 

7.  Leadership is a service.  The role of artistic director in Neo-futurists is more of a facilitator instead of a dictator.

8. 

9. Generate projects around the groups creative interests.  At adpative path (consulting agency) in the past they would take work out of 'need' at times, that they didn't want to do.  And ultimately found that those projects never came out well and never made them much money in the long run, so now it has to fit their interests.

10. Remember your audience.  In Avenue Q, which was mostly written in diners and parks, they would frequently look up around the park/dinner to see "would this group find this funny or do we just find this funny?" (assuming that's as typical of their audience as it could be.)

11. Finding ways to celebrate Failure.  On failures, adaptive path, they throw 'post mortem after parties' and talk about what went well.  Failures are learning opportunities.  What worked?  What didn't?  And what did we learn?  There is very little blame going around.

 

The Supercollider: A Hero of the Social Network

Jen Bekman   Founder,   Jen Bekman Projects | 20x200
Ben Cerveny   Pres,   Playshaper
Souris Hong-Porretta   Vice President Interactive Media,   Entertainment Media Ventures
Matt Jones   Co-founder/Designer,   Dopplr 

Matt talked about the dunbar number (humans typically have a theoretically maximum of 150 meaningful connections.)  And the 'supper collider who busts through that.)  Not everybody is like that, but some are.  Also, traditional grooming (picking tics out of hair), has now moved to twittering and comments. 

Kathy Sierra - Tools for Enchantment: 20 Ways to Woo Users

Found her talk very interesting last year, another packed house, I'm sitting on the floor, surrounded by about 100 other ppl that didn't catch a seat either.


1. Use telepathy - mirror neurons.  You have to see poeple's faces when doing usability testing.  Facial expression can read peoples thoughts (frustration) that words/actions can not.  Mentioned a lab experiment that ppl just sat in a room imagining shooting free throws, and just had 'mental practice', and that it actually increased performance.

2. Serendipity - Add 'randomness' (different staff pics, different greetings, etc.) to help serendipity.

3.  

4. Joy - look up Amy Jo Kim who talks about how to apply game development to non gaming things.

5. Inspire First-Person Language - User's should talk about themselves and how the product helped them, not about the company. 

6. T-shirt first development - brand/identity that users would be proud to wear

7. Easter egssv - (fed ex simple arrow in logo). Inside references, etc.

8. Tools for evangelism - help users defend this "totally lame waste of time" (twitter as an example)

9. Tools to help your users manager stress.  Manage that fight/flight response.

10. Exercise the brain. 

11. Give them superpowers, quickly -

12. there was no 12 i think she put these slides together 10min before the presentation.  I saw at least one photo that i've seen in her presentation last year :) 

13. Speed their knowledge - giving people patterns (best practices is not motivation

14.

15. Help with "reinvestment of mental resources into new problems" The 'expert' never shrinks their list of things to be masters at.

Focus - Attention Offsets (partial)

16. Create a culture of support - Expert User's come back and help the community, they become mentors.  And you want to move that return early in the life cycle.  May not be a full expert on the site, but expert on 'new uses' to the site, so give back at an earlier stage.  Encourage community to answer questions - there are no dumb answers (i don't entirely agree, there's misinformed and flat out wrong answers.) 

17. Do NOT insist on "inclusivity" Passinite users talk different then new users (they use jargon)

19. Brains LOVE Mystery, Anticipation, Curiosity.  Michael Lpp, Apple quoted "It's not secrecy - it's theater" 

the package - think of smiling when you get that amazon book in the mail, even if it's some boring perl book ;)  Do you have an unboxing experience? 

19.5 Do what this guy does - special guest to walk up to the stage -  Gary something or another - from a wine tasting vlog.  Coolest thing about him, he's wearing a "Don't pitch me bro" t-shirt.  I want one.