Startups: Free Law Seminar for Entrepreneurs

I came across a pretty cool event for the local entrepeneur and startup community, a free Law Seminar.  It is being put on by Andrew Flushce, a local attorney who specializes in helping small businesses and entrepreneurs with their legal needs.

Andrew is holding a free seminar in Fredericksburg (I know its a bit far …).  Here are a few of the topics he will cover

• Do you need to incorporate?
• How can you protect yourself in contracts?
• What tax deductions should you take?
• Do you need to register a trademark?

So if you need a little advice and have some time head out and check it out.

LA Fire Department Twittters, Don’t You ?

So it would seem our “little secret” in the series of tubes, Twitter, has been getting a lot of mainstream press lately.  They were featured in USA Today last week and then just today I came across an article in the LA Times about the LA Fire Department’s use of Twitter and some of the city’s other Web 2.0 initiatives.

Turns out our city fire department is on the cutting edge of Web 2.0, the new wave of innovation that has moved the internet away from the static screen and helped turn it into a dynamic, world-wide community. Exhibit A for the LAFD - the Twitter feed. Every time fire trucks roll or rescue helicopters fly in the city, details of the emergency go out on Twitter.

This is pretty cool.  It is always nice to see government agencies at any level, embrace and use the tools available to us in new and innovative ways.

Adding to the department’s Web 2.0 cred: a Flickr group, a YouTube channel, a blog, Gabcast and Jaiku. Under consideration right now is a Twitter disaster feed for LA residents, not a bad idea where cataclysmic earthquakes, fires, rains and mudslides are part of the SoCal life.

We have seen web services like Twitter used in a variety of ways.  Last year while battling wildfires in and around San Diego, fire crews used Twitter to send updates and also to relay their locations.  Imagine how useful these tools can be to these agencies when combined with a phone like the iPhone and an auto updating geo coordinates of your location sent to Twitter.  As consumers we have been so impressed with the recent release of location aware applications for the iPhone.  Imagine if the power of these type applications could be harnessed to aide in emergency or disaster situations?

CrossMine, DC’s Directory of Technology Ventures

At the Twin Tech event a couple of weeks back, I met a lot of new people doing some interesting things in the technology space here in the DC region.  One of them was Bob Nelson of CrossMine.

I got a chance to look at CrossMine to see what it is all about and I will say, I am pretty impressed.  CrossMine is a fairly extensive database of technology ventures in the local DC region.  It also has listings of local Venture firms and their holdings, as well as a nice listing of jobs the companies participating have listed.  According to CrossMine

The Washington, D.C. region is home to 500+ venture capital funded companies as well as 5000+ angel funded and 20,000+ privately held technology ventures. DC, Maryland, and Virginia are also home to 472,000 technology workers, 8.5% of the private sector workforce, one of the highest concentrations of tech employees in the U.S.

We hope you find our directory useful for finding tech jobs, products and services, and business partners and will share your thoughts with us. To improve our regional directory, please encourage technology ventures you know to register.

As you can see form the map, it is a great resource to get a good overview of the local companies.  They have similar maps showing the job listings and also the Venture firms across the region.  They even have one for Upcoming Events in the area.  It is a one stop shop for the local tech people to see whats going on and with who, or maybe even find a job.

The site also has a bit of a social network aspect to it as well.  People can register and friend others and join various groups also.  Add your company and any job listings you might have and you will be all set.  I think it is a great start to becoming a fairly deep resource for the local tech scene.  We will definitely be using it and watching it grow hopefully.

Wordpress and the iPhone

So like every other wordpress blogger with an iPhone, I went to the App Store and installed the new iPhone wordpress app. So this is my first attempt at using it, and I must say it is pretty damned cool.

It will really allow people to blog from almost anywhere. One cool feature us that it will let you save local drafts. So if you are on a plane or don’t otherwise have a connection, you can still write posts that you can publish later when you do have the connection.

The only thing I can’t do as if right now is to put links in my post. I would assume this would be in a future release, but I am overall truly happy and impressed with it.

How Smart is Apple ? ….

They are sooo smart …

On one hand I am always amazed at the sheer marketing “genius” and reach of Apple and how it never ceases to amaze me that one company can drum up such fierce loyalty and drama for their products.  And on the other hand I am constantly amazed that as smart as one company can be in certain areas, they can be so damned stupid in others.

One only had to read the mountain of blog posts and news stories to understand that their would be great demand for the 3g iPhone.  I am sure Apple knew this was coming, yet the seemed utterly unprepared.  now I understand their are supply chain logistics that I probably dont totally grasp, but it seems to me fairly obsurd that there are STILL lines to buy the iPhone nearly three weeks after its initial launch.

I will admit I made 2 trips to the mall over the last couple of weeks to pick up a 16GB black iPhone, only to find long, extremely long lines.  My thought was always, “How the hell do I know if I wait in this long ass line, that I will get the model that I want?”  That alone kept me away.

So I was shocked to see this post over at iPod Observer about how Apple is now using a voucher system at the stores !! Brilliant.  It took the company who made $1 billion in profit last quarter 3 weeks to noodle this system out ?  They all must have been busy trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with their MobileMe fiasco ….

According to the post

The vouchers are handed out to customers starting at the beginning of the line and note which iPhone 3G capacity and color each customer wants. If the day’s inventory of a specific model is already sold out or accounted for through vouchers, potential customers will know before they get in the store, making it easier for shoppers to decide if waiting in a potentially hours-long line is worth their time.

So now those poor idiots at the back of the line know that when they get to the front of the line, they actually have an iPhone to take home …

It is truly sad it took this long to come up with this tremendously complicated solution ! Great job Apple.

AOL takes a hit in DC

Last year the local AOL community, which has been such a large cornerstone of the technology companies on the Dulles Corridor, took a hit when the company announced it was moving their headquarters to New York.  It was a pretty huge blow to the local area in may ways.  But things seemed to settle out.

This week however, the local AOL’ers got some more bad news.  According to this article in the Washington Post, AOL announced the following:

AOL is slashing more products — including some that had been promoted as on the cutting edge of the company’s future — as part of its effort to cut costs and focus resources on what is working for the beleaguered Internet giant.

AOL said they are canceling several products in a cost saving move.  On the cut list are Bluestring, AOL Pictures, and Xdrive. Apparently these products have not gained enough momentum in the marketplace and pressure form Time Warner, AOL’s parent company, to cut costs have played a role in the moves.

Last year we had a post about the move to NY and it’a impact on the local area.  While it was true that the most visible of the losses were jobs form the local tech sector, another big hit was the local arts and other charities that AOL donated heavily to.

On a side note however, I have seen many many ex AOL’ers involved in the local startup community and contributing to the cool atmosphere growing here in DC.  The Loladex guys, Laurence and Dan both came from AOL.  And I also believe that the founders of Summize, who just recently got bought by Twitter were also former AOL employees.  So while these cuts are bad for what one may call “the old internet” they can and most times do move on to help the “new social media” and startup communities here in DC.

Searchles signs on with Washington Post

Searchles, the local DC startup that provides “social search, has made another big step.  Recently we reported that they received a $300k round of funding, bringing their total up to the $2 million mark.
Mashable is reporting that they have signed a deal with the Washington Post and their newsreaders social network called MyPost.  What Searchles is bring to the table is

Now, when browsing the profiles of other MyPost members, you will see Searchles’ “Related Users” widget, which shows you other people who have taken an interest in similar stories on washingtonpost.com, based primarily on comments.

This seems like a pretty interesting idea.  As we all know, old media is struggling with way to stay relevant in todays climate and I think the Post has been doing well to stay ahead of the curve.  This is another good step for them, especially since it is two local companies and would seem to be a good fit.  A look over at the offical Searchle’s blog gives us a little more insight into the deal.

The widget is part of our Searchles Discovery® technology - geared towards online publishers, bloggers, and social networking sites and priced based on set up fee and a revenue-share working scenario. Social Discovery tools offer a set of customizable solutions for boosting site-engagement, realizing full value of site content by using it as a foundation to build and utilize networks of trusted peers, as well as enhancing social search features and capabilities for targeted advertising.

In addition to the widget, a ‘searchle it!‘ bookmarklet will be added to teh Post stories, with the hope of getting more good content pushed to the Searchle user base.

It will be interesting to follow this deal and see how the integration works to help both companies.

Local News: Livingston Communications Acquired !

I guess the hot news today, on a very hot July day here in the nations capital, is the announcement by Geoff Livingston that his company, Livingston Communications, has been acquired by Canada’s Social Media Group.

I have enjoyed meeting Geoff over the last few months and learning about him and his team, Qui and Larissa.  They are all really great and we should all take a moment to wish them well in their new venture.

Geoff has a post up today, his Top Ten Resons He Sold Out.  Head over and chaeck it out to get a little insight into the move.

It is funny, because I was on the Aarron Brazell show Saturday night and at one point in the show Aaron asked me if I had heard any rumors of acquisition talks for Geoff’s company .. I had not and we laughed it off and moved on .. well Aaron really had the scoop !!

Anyway, we wish Geoff and his team well and congratulate them !  Make sure to stop by and wish them all well.

Startups: Check out Google’s Docs new templates

In a recent post I mentioned a great resource for everyone out there buidling a business on a budget and for anyone who needed a business document, it is a service called Docstoc.

This last week, Google has released a great repository for their Google Docs online documents.  There are templates for all types, Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations.  I took a quick look and they have a lot of great resources.  I saw templates for business cards, budgets, and great themes from presentations.  I am a huge fan of Google Doc’s as it allows me to write and have access to all of my stuff from everywhere I can get online.  I even use it as a research tool to keep a running documents for notes collection and as a blog writing tool.  With the ability to take the Docs offline now even gives you the flexibility to write on the go away from a conenction.

So if you are working on yor startup and need a quick template, head over and take a look.

Event Recap: DC Twin Tech

Well I can only say “Wow!”.  For all of those who were not in the know about this event, it was thought up and put on by Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs to bring together what some would label the “old school” and the “new media” communities of the DC area.

There was a lot of anticipation and it did not fail to deliver.  Peter did an amazing job of securing a great venue and gathering a lot of unique groups and people together.  I wish I could say I had video or pics to show you … I did take my Flip video to gather some interviews, but was having such a good time meeting and chatting with new folks an re connecing with old friends, I totally forgot about it.

There was such a wide variety of people, I was pretty amazed.  I saw everyone from Champ Mitchell, Chairman of Network Solutions to Sarah Lacy, author of “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good” to Craig Stoltz, author of a Time magazine Top 25 blog Web 2.Oh .. really? and everyone in between.

I was going through all the business cards I got and was amazed at the varied backgrounds of all the people.

There was some great coverage of the event by the local TechBisNow and also by Zack Goldfarb of the Washington Post.

This was the event of the summer so far and we hope it spawned great conversation and relationships that will carry over and produce some equally great working relationships between the two diverse ecosystems here in the area.

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