STIRR - June 14th

Wednesday June 14th, STIRR Mixer

STIRR Mixers are a blend of tech-social mixer with a forum for entrepreneurs from in-progress and recently-launched startups to present new products and services to their peers in an innovative format (the 60 second spot). The mixers are open to everyone in the community (stealth-mode folk, startup-savvy engineers, journalists/bloggers, connectors and investors) to socialize, make contacts and share ideas. This is not a sit-down event.

60 Second Spots

There will be 5 early stage companies presenting on-stage at 7:30pm. The pitches are a compact 60 seconds or less. The speakers and their teams will be available to talk with right after the presentations.

Presenting:

• Loomia, David Marks, CEO
• Mozes, Dorrian Porter, CEO
• RadioHandi, Brian McConnell, Founder
• Sphere, Tony Conrad, CEO
  
• Swapthing, Jessica Hardwick, CEO

Have your company present at STIRR

Details

When: Wednesday June 14th. Gathering begins at 6:00pm, presentations at 7:30pm.
Where: Blue Chalk, 630 Ramona St, Palo Alto [map]. Cash bar.
Cost: Free with RSVP. (NOTE: No walk-ins accepted, you must RSVP to attend). Pre-printed nametags will be ready at the door.

Sponsors

This month's STIRR Mixer is sponsored by the great people at CommerceNet. CommerceNet invests in groundbreaking ideas that go beyond the scope of traditional venture investments. CommerceNet: From ideas to impact.

By Invite Only

Due to limited space, this month's event is by invitation only. Spaces usually free up before the event, so please join the waiting queue to get first priority.

One in a thousand!

I just bought #924. I'm a cheap-o, huh? When it arrives, I'll take a picture of it.

[Update: 924 - it arrived today! (August 16th)...time to hang it up now.]














Here's what wikipedia has to say about 924:

Events

• King Athelstan of England succeeds to the throne.

Births

• Fujiwara no Koretada, Japanese nobleman (died 972)
• Fujiwara no Yoritada, Japanese nobleman (died 989)

Deaths

• July 17 - Edward the Elder of England
• Ethelweard, son of Edward the Elder (born 904)
• Fruela II of León
• Ordoño II of León

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/924"

What will be the "summer song" this year?

My bet is "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. You can check it out on their MySpace page.

[Update: Oh I am soooo prescient! Today, July 20th, the SF Chronicle reviews Gnarls Barkley and calls "Crazy" the hottest hit of the summer. Good job Sean...let me pat me on the back.]

Time for a vacation!

Finally!!! Tonight, I leave for a week-long trip to Grand Cayman for a friend's wedding. A few of us decided to make a vacation out of it. My hotel is North of Georgetown, along Sevin Mile Beach. It is less than a year old and the pictures of it make it look quite inviting! While there, I plan on breaking in my new scuba certification (have signed up for four days of diving), snorkeling with the stingrays, drinking fine wine, listening to music and relaxing.

STIRR 2 ...a success!

STIRR mixer 2 wrapped up on Wednesday night...and it was another success. We had continued sponsorship interest, packed the house and only had one real snafu...the wireless microphone didn't work, so had a 25 minute delay before we were able to locate a replacement. There are a number of flickr pics being tagged 'stirr' now as well. Here is a group of 268 pics.

One of our presenters, Jumpcut, has provided some video and you can use their remix feature and edit away. I'm wandering around, lost, behind the speaker about 40% of the way through the video. Enjoy!

[Update: Here's the Valleywag update of the event.]

Tim O'Reilly drops by....

Tim O'Reilly (and crew) of O'Reilly & Associates dropped by the office today for a little chat with some of our researchers. My colleague, Mike Liebhold, is the keynote at Where 2.0 this year and a few others here (Paul Saffo & David Pescovitz, etc.) have interacted with O'Reilly (and Tim) over the years, so a nice friendship has developed between our two organizations.

Fun with Google Trends!

Google launched Google Trends yesterday and all my co-workers are having fun with it. Some things that we have learned:

1. Turkey is bad, bad, bad
2. DC is #2 on this list
3. Wall Street Bankers are greedy
4. Vietnam knows where the future is
5. Rockville? Who'd of know?
6. Aussies loves you know who...
7. ...and Chicago likes her as well
   
8. A phrase that peaked during the 2004 World Series
9. Look at who sucks during the last election
10. Portlanders are probably mellow people

Have fun & let me know if you find anything interesting.

Apheresis day...

Once a month (if I can find the time...which I usually do), I go to the Blood Centers of the Pacific (San Mateo) and make an apheresis donation. Spent my free time while on the chair watching Good Night, and Good Luck. The only downside is that you can't lift weights for a day, so my workout was a quick one today.

Wanna help out others (and watch a movie or surf the web while doing so)? Give apheresis a shot!

Reputation...who has it?

Auren Hoffman's new company, RapLeaf is up and running. He writes about a book , Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, that I read/blogged about back in January. Yes! Now it looks like we have the start of a common plaform for a worldwide reputation system! (This is great for good people...not so much for the non-good.) You can display your own RapLeaf reputation in your blog (mine is over there on the right), in your Outlook signature (added that) and in auctions and Craigslist postings (damn...don't use those that much). Have a lot of friends that think the world of you? Well...they can add to your reputation as well. The underlying goal: that people will give you reputation (or take it away) when deserved.

My hope: that Cory's word for reputation--whuffie--is used in place of one's rapleaf reputation. "Nice whuffie" sounds so much nicer than "nice rap rep". Cory...you okay with that?

Merlin Mann drops by for a visit

On Thursday, Merlin Mann of 43 Folders dropped by the Institute to give us a talk over lunch. (We calls these LOTTs, "Lunch of the 'Tute's".) If you are the victim of information-overload (hundreds/thousands or emails in your inbox, anxiety about never being caught up, analysis paralysis, then you should check out his thoughts/ideas on making your life simpler.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Now...I wonder where Yahoo! got this idea? Do you think there will be a back-and-forth I-can-do-better-than-you DOODLE WAR between the Valley titans?

IFTF Conference--Science & Technology in Ten, Twenty & Fifty Years

I love my job...doesn't this look like a fun event!

...

We're hosting our semi-annual Technology Horizons Exchange this May 23-25. Clients, research affiliates, and a collection of noted scientists and researchers will get together to hear IFTF's latest research findings and exchange thoughts. Beyond the Horizon: Science & Technology in Ten, Twenty & Fifty Years will focus the evolution of science and technology, both in terms of research milestones and practice. The content is based on a large project we're working on with the British government's Office of Science and Innovation Centre for Horizon Scanning, which was started a couple years ago by the government's Chief Science Advisor, Sir David King. It also draws from a survey of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellows that we recently conducted.

Confirmed speakers/panelists include:

• Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology
• Kevin Kelly, author of Out Of Control and a founding editor of Wired
• Drew Endy, MIT professor and "open-source biologist"
• Fran Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center
• Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley robotics professor and IEEE Fellow
• Saul Griffith, co-founder of Squid Labs

winecamp

I am going to winecamp...May 26-28. Not sure what to expect, but I do LOVE wine and camping!

The details

Who: How about this: we're not going to host just the regular Bar Camp crowd -- no, we're also going to invite a bunch of interested and proactive non-profits to mix it up in order to explore how the new wave of social apps that are all so near and dear to us can help bring about an evolution in the tools that non-profits use. And ideally, many of these will be or become open source...!

We're already working with the preeminent tech provider in the non-profit world, CompuMentor, to reach out and connect with folks ready for something new. It's time to meet up directly and make the connection between Bar Camp, open source and the non-profit community.

What: Bar Camp goes upscale! Wine, wifi, good food and a bon fire. What more can you ask for?

...Well, there is one more thing. The WineCampFundraiser! Imagine buying excellent wine for yourself and having part of the proceeds being put towards a program that encourages underprivileged students to get into open source. Sound good? Details (and how to get involved) coming soon!

Where: This event will take place at the Ferriere vineyard in the Sierra foothills... Old Airola Road, Coyote Ridge Peninsula, between Murphy's and Columbia in Calaveras County.

Our first Founder's Table dinner is tomorrow

STIRR Founder's Table

At our Founder's Table dinners we host startup founders (and former founders) to discuss business challenges and forge relationships. This is a limited space event held once a month in both South Bay and San Francisco locations. If you are an entrepreneur and are interested in building a peer group of other entrepreneurs, then let us know.

[Update: GRAND SUCCESS!!! We have already received recommendations for the next class!]

The next STIRR event is May 10th

If you are an entrepreneur, join us on May 10th in Palo Alto.

STIRR Mixers are a blend of tech-social mixer with a forum for entrepreneurs from in-progress and recently-launched startups to present new products and services to their peers in an innovative format (the 60 second spot). The mixers are open to everyone in the community (stealth-mode folk, startup-savvy engineers, journalists/bloggers, connectors and investors) to socialize, make contacts and share ideas. This is not a sit-down event.

60 Second Spots

There will be 5 early stage companies presenting on-stage at 7:30pm. The pitches are a compact 60 seconds or less. The speakers and their teams will be available to speak with right after the presentations.

Presenting:

• 3Jam, Andy Jagoe, CEO
• Accomplice, Jason Feinsmith, CEO
• JumpCut, Stephen Weibel , Director
• LogSavvy, Mark Searle, CEO
• TheMintPages, Angie Chang, CEO

Details

When: Wednesday May 10th. Gathering begins at 6:00pm, presentations at 7:30pm.
Where: Blue Chalk, 630 Ramona St, Palo Alto [map]. Cash bar.
Cost: Free with RSVP. (NOTE: No walk-ins this time, you must RSVP to attend). Pre-printed nametags will be ready at the door.
Sponsors: The good people at CommerceNet are sponsoring the event (including food, yum!).

I'm in HEAVEN!

LOST (and other ABC shows) are free for streaming the day after they air!!! Check it out at their new site. Sorry iTunes...you won't dominate video like you thought you would...