May 18, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending May 18, 2008.
Sphere It
May 16, 2008
I just spoke at the Social Rockstar Workshop at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. about Social Media & Blogging. It was a great conversation and thank you to everyone that attended. I have uploaded to docstoc the online document sharing site for anyone that would like to take a look at the presentation.
Sphere It
May 16, 2008
Saturday... Saturday ... Saturday! Start your engines as Threadless.com, a Chicago-based skinnyCorp operated company, will be hosting a Pine Wood Derby race called the THREADLEMANSS. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to get SOMEWHAT FRANK car ready for the race but I did get my friend Carlos Pero, whose son was undefeated this year in the Cub Scouts Pine Wood Derby, to lead the TECH cocktail RACING effort which is powered by coloring.com.
Carlos is featured this week on episode 25 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV as he previews the TECH cocktail car and shares some Pine Wood Derby knowledge. Thank you Carlos for your help. You can cheer on the TECH cocktail car this Saturday, May 17, 2008 as Threadless will be streaming the derby live.
Sphere It
May 13, 2008
I will be speaking about social media and blogging in May and June at the following events:
Social Rockstar Workshop - May 16. 2008 - Washington, D.C.
I will be speaking about social media and blogging and making some references to its use in the corporate environment of AOL, Tribune and Classified Ventures where he has lead blogging & social media initiatives. There are a number of local D.C. area social media experts which will be offering perspective followed by workshops.
TECH cocktail CONFERENCE TECH cocktail CONFERENCE - May 29, 2008 - Chicago, IL
I am co-hosting our first TECH cocktail CONFERENCE bringing attendees access to a day full of amazing speakers, great perspectives and advice in an intimate environment where speakers are approachable. The goal of the conference is to assist attendees by bringing them essential business startup tips, advice and knowledge from a super-cast of successful founders, developers and entrepreneurs. It should be a super day followed by our popular TECH cocktail Chicago 8 mixer event. Use the discount code: somewhatfrank to save on your ticket!
BlogPotomac BlogPotomac - June 13, 2008 - Falls Church, VA
I am giving the lunch keynote on social media Friday the 13th for the first BlogPotomac event. BlogPotomac seeks to provide a local “un-conference” on best marketing practices for the social media community in the D.C. metro area.
Sphere It
May 11, 2008
Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day as it acts as the foundation of your day. A few weeks ago Lijit Networks hosted a breakfast the morning after TECH cocktail DC 2. It at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. and was a lot of fun. I got a chance to capture episode 24 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV.
Sphere It
April 29, 2008
Docstoc, the online document community offering, which I have covered a number of times, has raised $3.25 million in a series B round of funding. I got a call from founder and CEO Jason Nazar yesterday to inform me of the news. Congratulations to Docstoc on getting some additional funding and good luck on building the product out in the next couple years.
Additionally, Docstoc announced the creation of the Content Partnership Program which allows content partners to generate revenue off of a content they are sharing through Docstoc. This should help motivate more people to add and share documents on Docstoc.
Sphere It
April 28, 2008
TECH cocktail DC 2 the community builder event that took place last Thursday evening in Washington, D.C. showcased six startups from the local area. The event united over four hundred guests for an evening of conversations, showing off and fun.
This is the last event before the upcoming TECH cocktail CONFERENCE which will unite all the various TECH cocktail cities for a full day conference in Chicago on May 29th. The list of speakers is pretty amazing and the focus of the conference is to help anyone in business to take a more "no nonsense" approach by leveraging technology and the Web (i.e. running a "real" business rather than one setup to simply attract as many users as possible with no real monetization strategy in mind).
Sphere It
April 27, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending April 27, 2008.
Sphere It
April 22, 2008
"The environment is where we all meet; where all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become."
—Lady Bird Johnson
Sphere It
April 20, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending April 20, 2008.
Sphere It
April 19, 2008
You have probably seen the Lijit search widget on a number of sites around the Web. It has been the search option for SOMEWHAT FRANK and TECH cocktail for sometime as it offers some great site search analytics in a manageable and easy to digest format. I even get a weekly statistics email from Lijit keeping me updated as to how search is performing every week and what people are searching for.
Frank Gruber as a lijit search widget When I visited Boulder, Colorado back in March 2008 for our first TECH cocktail Boulder I got a chance to visit the Lijit Networks headquarters and I captured it on video. Thanks to Tara "Tarable" Anderson for the impromptu guided tour and for turning me into a Lijit search widget (shown to the right).
Sphere It
April 15, 2008
Do you have a particular home video showing off a skill that you think you might be better than anyone at? Strutta, a Vancouver-based startup, has launched into beta to allow you to prove you are the best. Whether your skill is break dancing, playing the harmonica or doing fast food rapping - Strutta creates an avenue for competing on the Web via online video contests.
Sphere It
April 12, 2008
I am a taggaholic. I love to tag items in Flickr and across the Web. I even find myself sometimes tagging other peoples photos and online content. This would not be possible without "folksonomy" and recently got to watch Thomas Vander Wal present at AOL as part of the AOL Developer Network Speaker Series. Thomas Vander Wal invented the word "folksonomy" and knows a thing or two about the social web. It's more than just today's social networks - it's layers of interactivity, circles of sociability, reputation and identity. He also shared his thoughts on the spheres of sociability, social objects, and the path to get users to fully embrace creating and sharing social objects.
I got a chance to talk with Thomas after his presentation and it is episode 20 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV.
Sphere It
April 7, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Question: Stanford University recently launched on on-campus venture fund called SSE Ventures. I think this is a great idea but I do not thing Stanford University is the only school that is doing this. So I thought I would ask SOMEWHAT FRANK readers to try and come up with other schools that might have similar programs. Here is a SOMEWHAT FRANK question for you:
What Schools Offer On-Campus Venture Funding?
Leave the school name, fund or program in the comments section below.
Sphere It
April 6, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending April 6, 2008.
Sphere It
April 5, 2008
The Illinois I.T. Association CityLIGHTS 2008 Awards Gala took place in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, April 3, 2008. The event was held at Union Station which you might recognize from the epic scene from the movie The Untouchables where Kevin Costner saves a baby carriage while also shooting up the Al Capone gangsters on its marble steps. While did not save any babies TECH cocktail, the community building startup that I co-founded with Eric Olson, was nominated for the CityLIGHTS Award for its positive impact in connecting the Illinois technology community. I am please to report, that TECH cocktail took home the hardware. I was deeply humbled by winning the award as it serves as validation that all the long hours and hard work is truly helping to sculpt a better connected local technology community while helping to amplify that same community to the world.
Sphere It
April 3, 2008
I am pleased and somewhat humbled that TECH cocktail, a little events startup which I co-founded with Eric Olson back in May 2006, has been nominated as a finalist for the Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS Award. Over 700 great entrepreneurs, startups and established companies will be in attendance tonight as the awards are presented.
TECH cocktail is nominated for the CityLIGHTS Award which is given to an individual or individuals that have made a significant impact on the Illinois technology community. The list of finalists include:
* Ron and Jeff Galowich, co-Founders, Initiate Systems
* Bob Geras, president, LaSalle Investments
* Brian Knudson, CEO, NogginLabs, Inc.
* Eric Olson and Frank Gruber, founders, TECH cocktail
* Brad Spirrison, president, MidwestBusiness.com
TECH cocktail was started as a way to better connect and amplify the local technology community and being a finalist for this award validates that all our hard work has been paying off. Our first TECH cocktail CONFERENCE in May should further along this mission - don't forget to sign up now. Cheers!
Sphere It
April 1, 2008
It is time for a Web 2.0 pondering checkpoint poll. In the past there have been a number of videos and such that I have referred to that try and define Web 2.0 which included this basic definition video to this inventive video. But I wanted to see what you think about Web 2.0. What would you say if you had to fill in the blank to complete the following sentence:
Web 2.0 is ______?
Leave it in the comments section below and be sure to pass this post on to your friends and colleagues as we look to create a list potential Web 2.0 definitions.
Sphere It
March 29, 2008
The adoption of Twitter, which I covered previously a number of times , appears to be acceleratingly since March 6th, as I have seen my followers double in that three week period. My friend Gary Vaynerchuk recently started to do a daily "thoughts on life" video podcast and gave his thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook...kinda. So in response to his video I wanted to make a quick SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode 18 with my thoughts on Twitter (mainly) as well as a few comments about Facebook.
Sphere It
March 27, 2008
Looking for free licensed content to be able to use on your own blog or website? Voxant Newsroom looks to help by distributing and promoting content from licensed content sources for free. Voxant offers publishers a place to find and embed licensed video, text, and photos from over two hundred news sources from a variety of providers. Voxant places advertising in the its embeddable content to monetize the content making it possible to keep the content available for free to users.
Sphere It
March 27, 2008
If you are in the Washington, D.C. area, mark your calendars for BlogPotomac, a one day event aimed at providing advanced marketing insights beyond the average social media 101. BlogPotomac will be held on Friday, June 13, 2008 at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia. BlogPotomac seeks to provide a local “un-conference” on best marketing practices for the social media community in the D.C. metro area.
Sphere It
March 22, 2008
I was walking down the street in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month and was intrigued by a storefront symbol. I looked into the storefront windows and my eyes were met with colorful graffiti-like artwork, handmade toys and lots of tees. I had bumped into JoyEngine.
JoyEngine is a brand created by the boutique design firm cypher13 and offers a place for artists and designers to unite and share their work. The JoyEngine store doubles as an art gallery for local artists and toymakers. JoyEngine also has its own line of apparel. At JoyEngine, cypher13 promotes and sells artwork created by the cypher13 team, other local artists, and provides access to ultra-limited designer art toys, offers apparel by independent designers, and supplies the local street art scene with spraypaint, paint markers, and other art supplies. Online JoyEngine offers an blogging community for designers and artists where they can exchange ideas and showcase their work. They also offers some cool artist desktop backgrounds for download.
Sphere It
March 21, 2008
I am pleased to announce TECH cocktail DC 2 will be Thursday, April 24, 2008 in Washington, DC. The social mixer event will look to unite the DC, Maryland and Virginia bloggers, technology enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and other business professionals interested in the technology arena for an evening of fun as we showcase and amplify the local tech scene.
Here are the details:
Date: Thursday, April 24, 2008
Time: 6:30pm - 9pm
Venue: MCCXXIII: 1223 Connecticut Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20036 (Map)
Cost: $0 - It’s free!
RSVP: techcocktaildc2.eventbrite.com
The event is sponsored by AOL and Viget Labs - and there are a few sponsorship spots open so reach out if you are interested in supporting the movement. Startups will be showing off their stuff at the event and there are still a few demo spots open so let me know if you are interested. It should be a great time.
Also don't forget...we are hosting a TECH CONFERENCE on May 29th - SIGN UP TODAY!
Sphere It
March 20, 2008
I have been to a number of industry events and I don't know how many times I either run out of cards are find myself cardless but technology has made it a lot easier to connect. LinkedIn recently joined Facebook and a number of other sites that have created iPhone experiences which makes it pretty easy to contact people and connect immediately thus online identity has replaced one of the features of offline identity - the business card.
Sphere It
March 17, 2008
If you are startup looking for a little funding and guidance you might want to check into one of the incubator program like TechStars. Nestled just outside of Denver in Boulder, Colorado the TechStars program is in its second year and still accepting hungry startup founders for this years applicants. Throughout the summer program, founders can get up to $15,000 in seed funding, are surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs, work in great space downtown Boulder, and are given access to learn from an line-up of fabulous mentors.
Sphere It
March 16, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending March 16, 2008.
Sphere It
March 13, 2008
Creating flashy multimedia pieces of content for the Web might have just gotten a little easier as Sprout Builder opened its doors to the public today. This Hawaii-based startup first popped up on my radar at DEMO 08 as they first reveled Sprout Builder. The Flash toolkit makes it easy for anyone to create a rich interactive page, widget or part of a page without knowing how to write a line of code.
Sphere It
March 10, 2008
Kathy Sierra spoke yesterday at South by Southwest Interactive and shared some wonderful tidbits on how to "woo" users. I took some notes from the session and compiled them below. Kathy started out by saying creating a product:
"Think about ways to make your users really good at something."
She went on to explain by saying you need to work on creating a hi-res user experience. No one is passionate about something they suck at so making it easy to be awesome is a key to creating passionate users.
Sphere It
March 9, 2008
Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed today at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. This is the second time I have seen Mark Zuckerberg speak in person as the first I recorded at TechCrunch40. Unfortunately, this time though I am press I was not able to get a seat in the main room where Mark spoke. Bummer. Sarah Lacey the author of a Business Week cover article as well as a book on Mark Zuckerberg interviewed Mark.
Sphere It
March 9, 2008
Last night at SXSW in Austin, Texas I waited in line for about an hour to get into the 16 Bit event at Scoot Inn. After nearly getting to the front door, I ran into Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV. Gary was fed up of waiting in line and jumped out and proposed we head to our hotel and drink some wine he brought in. I thought it was a super idea. So I jumped on a pedicab with Kristen Nicole from Mashable and Brian Solis from Bub.blicio.us. What happened next was epic...
Sphere It
March 8, 2008
On a clear, crisp evening in Boulder, Colorado over two hundred technology enthusiasts piled into The Foundry Billiards Club to better connect and amplify the technology signal of the region. The event, TECH cocktail Boulder in partnership with DEMO, showcased five startups from the local area. The event was sponsored by Boulder-based Lijit and Chicago and soon to be also Boulder-based skinnyCorp - thank you both!
Since TECH cocktail is one of my own creations with co-founder Eric Olson, we were really enjoyed the evening getting to hangout with some of the technology "movers and shakers" in the Denver/Boulder area. For more details check out the official TECH cocktail Boulder 1 photos and event wrap-up article. Read on for more on the startups that demoed at TECH cocktail Boulder.
Sphere It
March 1, 2008
MetroProper, a Chicago-based company, that recently demoed at TECH cocktail Chicago 7 just relaunched their site to offer a totally fresh design. Deemed as "Digg for local businesses" MetroProper offers an number of social sharing and bookmarking features.
I got a chance to chat with Philip Tadros founder of MetroProper and he talked to some of the design changes prior to their official launch.
Sphere It
February 26, 2008
I returned to may hometown last week to co-host TECH cocktail Chicago 7. The event pulled in about five hundred technology enthusiasts, founders, startups, bloggers and VC's. As a facilitator of the event is it gratifying to see the community come out in such numbers.
The evening was kicked off with some TECH cocktail news which included the release of the newly revamped TECH cocktail website and the announcement of the first annual TECH cocktail CONFERENCE. Both of which were conversations points throughout the event but the real focus was on six fresh new Midwest startups that showed off their stuff at the event.
Sphere It
February 25, 2008
I got word this morning that TheMarker, Israel’s prominent business magazine and Haaretz, one of Israel’s largest newspapers, featured SOMEWHAT FRANK in a spread titled "The Blogs That Every Israeli Startup Should Know."
Sphere It
February 24, 2008
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending February 24, 2008.
Sphere It
February 23, 2008
If you are a hip t-shirt junkie you probably have found something on community driven t-shirt site threadless. skinnyCorp is a Chicago-based startup that offers some great community driven websites. Some of the sites that they are responsible for include:
threadless a popular t-shirt design community driven e-commerce site.
Naked & Angry a high quality clothing from fabric patterns submitted and chosen by the brand’s audience.
Extra Tasty a community driven drink recipe site.
Yay Hooray a forum that we made to help us learn how to make community-driven sites on the Web.
They have also have a few others as well. Read on to find out how they this creative shop works as I visit their Chicago-based headquarters.
Sphere It
February 18, 2008
My friend Noah Kagan is hosting another CommunityNext conference called CommunityNext: Next Generation Media. I attended the first CommunityNext early last year at Stanford. This time CN will be in West Hollywood on March 29, 2008 and will be focusing on the new and social media that has been popping up across the Web. Speakers include Robert Scoble, Veronica Belmont, Brian Sugar and many others.
If you are interested in attending the event it pays to be a SOMEWHAT FRANK reader because I can offer you a discounted ticket. Just visit the CommunityNext website and when asked for a promo code tell them that "frankrules" and you should see a nice little ten percent discount in price.
If you have not already check out the 2008 web and technology conference calendar.
Sphere It
February 13, 2008
Techmeme, the popular news aggregator, just released a new feature today which will allow anyone to keep up with the news as it flows into Techmeme called the Firehose. In the past Techmeme has only released feeds for items that were above the fold on the site (maybe 20 to 30 most popular items from a day). With firehose, Techmeme and all its vertical brands, WeSmirch for celebrity gossip, ballbug for baseball news and memeorandum for political news, will offer a constant stream of news from every headline and discussion link that ever appears on the site. As explained by Gabe Rivera on his blog:
"Any story attaining headline status on Techmeme (which exclude "Discussion" links) will appear in the feed within 5 minutes. This means well over 100 headlines per day for Techmeme Firehose, so casual news readers will want to use the Main feed (i.e. the previous, standard feed) instead."
Gabe has also put the firehose to Twitter so you can monitor the pulse of news on the go and as it comes in. This is great news for the tech, celebrity, baseball or politic news obsessed! TechCrunch also has more on the new Techmeme stream.
Sphere It
February 7, 2008
I am pleased to announce that TECH cocktail will be making its first appearance in Boulder, Colorado. TECH cocktail Boulder 1 is another big step forward for TECH cocktail for another reason besides the obvious one of expanding to a new area. TECH cocktail Boulder 1 will be the first event we are putting on in partnership with the DEMO conference. Yes, the DEMO that just attended last week near Palm Springs.
Sphere It
February 7, 2008
If you are looking for something funny to watch online you now have another place to look, thanks to launch this week of Independent Comedy Network TV. ICN.TV, a Santa Monica, California based startup, looks to offer unique comedy programming with 5 original scripted series.
ICN.TV is comedy but different than the Will Ferrell project, Funny or Die, as ICN.TV offers actual comedy series rather than just random shorts, skits and improvisations.
Sphere It
February 7, 2008
If you are a regular SOMEWHAT FRANK reader you probably noticed the recent redesign which included a color palette change, logo update and slight tweaks to the navigation. Along with that change SOMEWHAT FRANK also now has a video podcast called SOMEWHAT FRANK TV. It will offer in-the-field reports and video interviews with startup founders, authors and other social media and web technology related experts. You can subscribe on iTunes or favorite feed reader. Or you could just watch it on SOMEWHAT FRANK. I hope you enjoy it.
Sphere It