Local Focus: Ryan Spahn - Sleep.FM

One of the great things about the meetups we have are the new people that continue to join us and hearing about the new things they are working on.

Last week at our CXCC, I met with Ryan Spahn of Sleep.FM.  Ryan is a Baltimore resident who is working on pursuing bringing Sleep.FM to the masses.  Check out the featured video on the Home page here to see a bit about his project. Ryan reminded me a bit of myself, in the fact that we both had an idea and went about desiging it and finding people to help him build it.  We have talked here previously about one person startups and as I continue to meet people, I find that it is not as rare as one may think.

I thought Ryan would be a great addition to our Local Focus feature here at East Coast Blogging.  Here is his take on our questions.

1.  Whats is your name and line of business ?

I hope everyone will stop by and check out sleep.FM and welcome Ryan to our little community here.

Anyone you think the Focus should be on ?  Let us know.

 

Mission Statement: Building a Community

I am no Jerry McGuire, but I have a mission statement in mind.  Not one that a company is based on, rather one to base a community.

Our little community is really starting to gather some momentum here in the DC area.  There has been much talk recently, on this blog and others, as to the state of affairs with regards to the growing tech community.  Even though everyone has somewhat differing opinions, one things is clear, the common thread is that the community here in DC is on the cusp of special things, it may just take a little time.

We are a community in our infancy here in the DC area.  We try to compare ourselves to the likes of Silicon Valley, Boston, and Seattle, but there is really no comparison.  However, that should not make us upset or jealous, we should accept what we have and move to make it grow and mold it into our own special.  The DC area is unique, as are all of you and we should embrace that, embrace our culture and learn to thrive from it.

And as an infant, so to speak, we depend on each other as we did our parents for support and guidance.  There are many among us who are bringing their ideas to fruition and working hard to bring their thoughts to reality.  It is a hard process along a bumpy road and everyone can use a little help.  Our mission right now should be to all pitch in and help.  Help to place more and more stones on the foundation we quickly see forming around us.  We are not competitors, rather complimentors.

Here is my proposition to all of you within reading distance of this statement.  If we hope for this area to one day grow into the community I know we all envision, we have to stick together.  I keep going back in my head to a statement I have read a thousand times over at WashingtonVC:

grows companies through the exchange of complementary technologies and marketing services.

The exchange of complimentary services … We all have talents that we can share and exchange.  Maybe we are not all web designers or php developers or marketing mavens, but we all have something we can offer.  So go out and share them.  Maybe its testing a new feature, maybe its help with a bug someone just cant figure out or a social media/pr question.  We all have something we can offer I am sure.  Offer them. We are the ones who will build it.  Nobody else.  We can't expect VC/angel $$ to just come our way, so let's show them why it should.  If we build it, they will come. 

Now I know there are some out there who may be saying, "Why should I give my time and may not receive anything in return?"  I can only tell you that you will receive satisfaction of helping good people succeed and you will be helping to continue to build the foundation.  I saw this update on twitter from our friend Keith Casey of WhyGoSolo just yesterday, and it fit so well with the thoughts I have been pulling together:

 I love kicking around good ideas with good people.. especially when I can help make the idea better. The success of friends is always good

In the end, it will benefit us all.  It is kind of like that "Pay It Forward" movie I once saw, or the karma in "My Name is Earl".  Kind of cliche, I know, nonetheless most likely true. If you help one person "make it", do you not think that you have ally that may come in handy one day.  Someone you will be able to reach out to and say "Heh I need some help". 

There are those out there doing this already I know, and this is not groundbreaking stuff.  I just wanted to put it in black and white, in simple terms.  Not so long ago our friend Aaron Brazell (Technosailor) took his time and worked to make a group, @dctwits, that the community here could use to get the word out to the community at large.  Now as we all know, there are no groups within Twitter as of yet, but Aaron took his time and made it work.  What did he get out of it ?  He got our thanks and the knowledge that should he need help, we stand ready for him.  It are these types of acts and people that will make us stand apart from the noise and the crowd.

My door is open.  If I can help any of you, please let me know.  Need the word put out, I will write about it.  Need a new facebook app you are working on tested late one Friday night, I will test it.  Need some help with a technical issue, I will work it.  Have an ad, I will place it on the site.  I trust many of you would do the same.  And in doing so we will only work to make the community grow cohesive and stronger and make people from those "other places" take notice.  Soon it no longer will be "Why did you start your business in DC?", it will be "Look at that community there in DC, thats the place to be".

So these are my thoughts and I hope you find something of value here, I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions.  In addition, I am also going to make this a wiki page that we can all add our thoughts and ideas to as we move forward.  You can access it here.

CxCC - Another Great DC Meetup

SXSW took over Austin, TX last week and CXCC took over Austin Grill in Bethesda, MD last night ! It was a rousing success. It started out innocent enough. Many of us were quite depressed and jealous we were not down in Austin with everyoe else last week and decided to get together and wallow in our misery together. Originally we tried to shoot for Monday, still while SXSW was going on, but time got away from us and we held the innaugural CXCC (Central by Central Central .. a fun little one given to us by @batterista) last night appropriately at the Austin Grill in Bethesda, MD.

In the beginning it was going to be just a few of us, but by the end it had turned into a full blown meetup with somewhere near 25 of us gatehring. It was a great time and we met some new people and got a chance to catch up with some old ones as well. The list was long, I will add the attendee's list in later, but we got to catch up with @newmediajim fresh off his trip to the Middle East, Afghanistan, and of course SXSW. Some complanied about having to come WAY OUT to the suburbs and tales of their arduous trek from the far away land called …Washington, DC (the DC line cant be more than 1.5 miles from the Austin Grill ..). The will be no names but DC Concierge, I think you know who I mean :).

Anyway, I was happy to meet some new people working on some really cool stuff, look for a Local Focus on that soon. And it was again great to see the foundations of the local community continue to grow and add new people to the mix.

Local Focus: Chris Parandian

Well here is the first installment of the new feature here at East Coast Blogging called "Local Focus". 
I am happy that my first focus is going to be on none other than Chris Parandian, Founder of Tin Can Communications™.  Tin Can is a public affairs and new media focused communications firm based in Washington D.C. We assist companies with their communications strategy in the legislative and regulatory arena. We also collaborate with corporate communications to develop a social media strategy as well as help them navigate the interactive universe.

Chris is a great guy that I met online via Twitter and was lucky enough to meet him in person at the Jeff Pulver Social Media Breakfast.  I look forward to many more meetings with Chris and continuing to grow our relationship.

I asked Chris a few questions about the area and social media and here is what he has to say !

How are you using social media tools for your job / business?

Social technologies and wireless are a perfect marriage. I am a wireless guy and there are so many exciting applications available that it is really hard to keep up. Accordingly, I started mobilediner.com to hear from folks who are passionate about the industry. I wanted to hear their views about products and polices that will have an impact on the success of the industry and potential innovations going forward.

Mobilediner.com provides a place for conversations that were not happening a few years ago and that are critical today. On that note, I have learned so much from the dining community. For instance, Jonny Goldstein has been very helpful teaching us about video-blogging. Using all these different social technologies (such as, twitter, utterz and qik ) have helped me show-off these tools to the corporate executives and opinion leaders (who were not aware of them).

Are you from the DC area? Why did you stay / or move here?

I grew up in Howard County (Maryland) but came to Washington after college because my initial interest was politics. My former boss held a seat on the House Commerce Committee (the Committee that has jurisdiction on telecom and tech matters) and my passion for telecommunications policy developed rather quickly.

How have you found the local area with regards to support and tech adoption?

Social media adoption in DC is growing stronger everyday (with the exception of Capitol Hill). We are seeing many folks in traditional advocacy blogging and many associations have started blogging too. In many instances, the reasons why they are doing it are different.

The 2008 campaigns have been a blessing in this regard. For instance, we are witnessing the success that Obama is having utilizing social technologies for GOTV, events, and fundraising. The Obama campaign is also doing some amazing things in the mobile space and I believe you’ll see mobile becoming a key strategy on its own. Overall, you’ll see more of these tools used in advocacy next cycle and the companies who are building them on the front end will reap the benefits.

What are your thoughts and ideas to help grow and support the local tech community?

Engage the tremendous resources in the Nation’s Capitol. There are tons of social media meet-ups and those are great. However, in many cases, your customers are not there. Most Fortune 500 Companies and Associations have a presence in Washington. Find and reach out to those companies and associations of interest. They may be able to connect you to the right people or events that could help your start-up get some momentum.

On that note, I’m happy to try to help those who are interested in the mobile space and can be reached via email – chris(at)mobilediner.com.

Thanks Chris, and good luck with mobilediner.com and Tin Can Communications™

 

New Feature: Local Focus

One of my goals in writing he blog here is to showcase local companies in the area.  However, it recently dawned on me that there are people, individuals out there in our area, using the tools of technology and social media to do their jobs and explore their passions.  Some of them are behind the up and coming companies and some are not, but all of them are a key ingredient that will make our community here prosper and grow.

So this is a new feature I am going to start here at East Coast Blogging, it is called Local Focus.  I plan to speak with and write about my talks with people I meet in the area while at some of the great events taking place.  It may be the CEO of a new company with a great new product or someone who just enjoys technology and the social media revolution we find ourselves in that are using these tools in their everyday jobs.

So stay tuned and let me know of anyone that you think the focus should be on.

One Step Forward DC, Two Back

It seems that the DC area cant get the monkey off its back, no matter how hard we try. As you have read here, as well as elsewhere, there is a groundswell of a pretty cool tech community building here in the DC area. Granted we are fighting many stigmas and preconceived notions about the area and its viability to produce solid startup ideas, nonetheless we continue to try. A little help would be nice though.

On the heels of a great Mashable event in DC the other night comes a not so glowing review. Those of us that were there had a great time chatting about the various projects everyone is working on, for profit or just for fun. It is continued evidence of a the great vibe here in the area. So to be honest I was more than a little disappointed to read an article from the Washington Post recapping the event. Dan Beyer’s started out with

Washington has been trying to build a Web 2.0 community for more than a year. A cluster of AOL alumni, local college graduates, and people in their 20s and early 30s are trying to show that D.C. can be, if not Silicon Valley, a major presence for social networking Web sites, user generated content and cutting-edge Web apps.

and I couldn’t agree more. It was how he finished off the article that took me a back a bit.

Therein lies one of the big issues facing the local Web scene. Local venture capitalists are pretty skeptical of these companies, many of which have big ideas for the Web but little idea about how to make money from those ideas.

…

Unclear what some, or all, of those companies do? Join the club. (Hey–I’m not a luddite–I use a bevy of Web 2.0 tools in my daily life and know what the programming framework Ruby on Rails is. I even like white boards, the method of choice for diagramming sites in meetings. But it’s not clear how all these ideas are going to turn into businesses.)

It is absolutely true that the VC business is just that, a business and they need to be assured of a promising return on their investment. But a little enthusiasm for the local team would not hurt would it. And while he is looking around to see what startups have viable money making business plans, he should look elsewhere. Is it only the local companies who need to find the holy grail to get funding ? I doubt it. Lets see, I am not sure even now, Twitter has a business model. They have a user base and that seems to be enough for them, because if you build it and the users come, money will follow some how or another. Has he seen some of the shitty products out there that have actually been funded … why do you think TechCrunch has a “Dead Pool”? and I don’t see too many DC startups on that list.

What kind of got me even more was his down tone on the local companies. We have an uphill battle we are fighting here to begin with and it does not help when the local mainstream media continues to question the locals attempts at success. Interestingly enough at the Mashable event I had a was chatting with Nick O’Neill and Aaron Brazell and Nick made mention he was happy to see some of the Post writers at the event, and how a lot of what is written in the local press is so negative about the community. So I was very happy to see this post the next day by Post writer Kim Hart. But then it was all tempered by this dash of negativism.

As a growing community, we need all the help we can get, especially from the mainstream media. Like it or not, that is how many get their news. Unless that news becomes a little more positive the road will be long and hard to show people the possibilities are here. A long road yes, an impossible drive, No.

2 Days of SXSW, Twitter Going Strong

Well I must admit, if I was a betting man, I would have bet we would have seen one of those “Something has gone technically wrong” screens as we tried to use Twitter by now. But much to my pleasant surprise, we have not. Actually it just dawned on me this morning as I was finishing up some final touches on the blog redesign. I thought “Heh Twitter has not crashed yet ..”

I mentioned previously about a post by Allen Stern over at CenterNetworks detailing the preparations by the Twitter team leading up to SXSW. The included increasing capacity, reducing API calls allowed, as well as some other measures. And apparently it has worked pretty well up until this point.

To be honest though, this is how it should be. We should not being using one of our favorite web services while in the back of our heads, we are just waiting for it to crash out from under us. But i am happy to see up until this point, I have been proven wrong. I figured we would all be running for the Pownce hills.

Maybe this is a corner turned for the Twitter folks. This will be a big feather in their cap if they can sustain the momentum and carry it out of SXSW into a bright future. Great job so far guys.

Event: Fight the Maryland Tech Tax !

Some of my regular readers (all 12 of you … sheesh)  remember the post I wrote recently about the Maryland Tech Tax.  We got some good feedback on the issue.
Well apparently there are some hearings being held i the State legislature next week and the Tech Council MD is organizing a little rally.

As we said before, the tax is really bad for small tech businesses in Maryland

Why: This new tax, which takes effect July 2008, will put many Maryland businesses at a severe disadvantage. Small businesses — the least able to sidestep the tax — will be particularly affected. This tax will hurt the welfare of industries beyond the Tech sector and will also drive some businesses out of state! Imposing a 6% sales tax on computer services like computer facilities management, network maintenance and custom programming is bad policy.

It will truly put many local businesses at a disadvantage and I invite everyone who can make it to head out to Annapolis to join the fight.  Here are the details:

When: March 12, 9:00 AM

Where: Lawyer’s Mall Annapolis, MD (directly in front of the State House and next to the Governor’s Mansion)

There are a couple of event pages set up for it:

Meetup: http://taxreform.meetup.com/27/calendar/7472261
Facebook:  http://taxreform.meetup.com/27/calendar/7472261
And also please follow their Twitter stream as well: TCMMdBio

Please mark your calendar to SPEND THE MORNING IN ANNAPOLIS Wednesday, March 12. The rally will crescendo just before 10 a.m. as legislators walk past the rally to their floor sessions in the State House.

Later that afternoon, Tech Council of Maryland staff and volunteer leaders will testify in hearings on the six percent Computer Services Sales Tax issue in both the House and the Senate. If you care about this issue, please mark March 12 on your calendars. We will need a huge business presence in Annapolis for the hearings.

Fight Tech Tax Coalition members include Tech Council of Md, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Baltimore Tech Council, the Charles County Tech Council, Montgomery County Chamber and Howard County Chamber. Thank-you for your support!

Thanks so much and please let us know if you have any questions, Mitch <mitch@techcouncilmd.com>

All those who have an interest in this as well as our fellow tech workers who want to join forces, please help spread the word.  This is our chance to be heard and make a difference and show the politicians the error of their ways with this possible legislation.

So Didd It, Stumble It, just get it out there for us.

Event Recap: MashMeet DC Remix

I know this post is a little late, some of us have to work … LOL just teasing, but seriously.  Much of the local DC tech scene was out last night in advance of the mass exodus of SXSW’ers.  We were all at the MashMeet DC Remix event help at Ogilvy Public Relations in DC.  As usual it was great to see old friends and meet some new ones.

I will say the setup was a little difficult with demonstrations trying to go on with no sound system and much of the crowd being told to keep the noise down so the demonstrators could be heard … but otherwise it was a great event.  I did not get to see much of the demos, but I do know that our local favorite news sharing site, Mixx, presented and I heard some good talk about Kluster.com.

There was a good mix of people there.  I got to finally check off a few real world introductions to some fellow dc twitter’s like Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs and and Keith Casey programmer extraordinaire  of the WhyGoSolo Team.  I met up with the social media swami Shashi B and rode the metro into town to gather pre mashMeet with a group to include Aaron Brazell, Ann Bernbard, Andrew Wright, Keith Casey, and Jonathon Trenn.

It was an interesting event, I got to follow up on some chatter about the post I wrote about DC area startups developing a complex, my subsequent appearance on teh District of Corruption with Aaron and Geoff Livingston, and Aaron’s follow up post about it.  It generated a lot of talk and honestly that is a good thing.  People are weighing in on both sides of the fence, but in the end I think we all agree, we are onto something special here with a great group of people and I am happy to be able to call them my friends and be able to help them out as much as I can.

It is great to see these events continue to grow and grow in popularity here and we are totally looking forward to the ones in the near furture, like PodCampDC and BlogPotomac.  Events like these will continue to bring together all of the great people and make our little town here special.  There are so many poepl starting to attend, I always leave wishing I had talked to a few more people, but that is what the next one is for.  See you around town.

Event Reminder: MashMeet DC Remix

Just a friendly East Coast Blogging reminder about the MashMeet DC Remix event being help tomorrow night.

Registration is still open, so head to the eventbrite web page to purchase your tickets.

Here a the details for you

Date
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Time
7:00 pm ET - 10:00 pm ET
Location
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
1111 19th Street NW
10th Floor
Washington, DC 20036

If you are going and want to meet up, send us a twitter msg

Hope to see many of you there !

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