RSS feeds are great for consuming a lot of news in a short amount of time, but when I come across a more lengthy post I usually star it so I will look at it later.  There is one problem, I RARELY if ever go back later and read those posts, leaving my starred items stacking up unread …  However, on my Kindle, without the distractions of other browser tabs, etc, I usually am able to more focus on just reading what is in front of me.  I read books, the NY Times, magazines.  It seems to much better suit me for reading longer pieces.  I thought, if only I could read these interesting items I find in Google Reader on my Kindle.  Well after about 2 minutes of Googleing and configuring I found the solution.  Instapaper.

Instapaper is a great lightweight way to save articles for reading later.

Instapaper facilitates easy reading of long text content.

We discover web content throughout the day, and sometimes, we don’t have time to read long articles right when we find them.

Instapaper allows you to easily save them for later, when you do have time, so you don’t just forget about them or skim through them.

And the great thing is Google Reader already has a hook to allow you to send a post to Instapaper right form their interface.  When you see a post you want to save for later reading, simply click the Send To button and send it to Instapaper.  Ok, so you are probably thinking, this is great Jimmy but where does the Kindle come into play …  Right now.

One great feature of Instapaper is it has a way to integrate with your Kindle !  You can simply have Instapaper send you a digest of your unread articles every day or every week.  Instapaper combines all the posts into one digest and send it to your Kindle email address, which processes the document and sends it to your Kindle wirelessly.  Now one note, Amazon charges a small fee for this, $0.15 per megabyte, basically nothing because the digest is simply small text.  You can even set the number of articles the digest must contain before it sends it to your Kindle.  This way you do not get a digest every day with one article if you have it set higher

Now when I am perusing my feeds and I find a longer post I want to send to my Kindle for reading later, I simply hit the Send To -> Instapaper and depending on how I have my schedule set up I will receive that digest and be able to read those articles right on the Kindle.

I hope this helps some of my fellow Kindle readers out there and would love to hear of any other workflow tips that you all might have to combine some of these technologies with our Kindle.

Obviously the climate has changed a lot in the startup area, hand in hand with the economy.  Funding is few and far between, money is tight.

Things are different today: it cost less to build a startup, but venture funding is harder to come by. It’s possible to accomplish “ramen profitability”, but it’s challenging to achieve hockey-stick growth.

Learn from two skilled entrepreneurs who have invested their own money, taken outside funding, and had opportunities to sell in more than one business. To keep the talk relevant and offer more nuanced perspective, a venture capitalist and attorney, both with experience working with hundreds of startups, will round out the panel.

Be prepared to learn what you really need in terms of funding or financing…and also how to structure your business so that, should you change your mind, you’ll still have a business.

The Panelists for the evening are

• Jay Virdy is the CEO and Founder of Summize, which recently sold to Twitter. Prior to that he had launched a venture-backed business that he sold to AOL in 2000. Read more…
• Paul Singh is Founder of Philtro, a real-time relevancy search for Twitter. He has spent the last several years commuting between DC and Silicon Valley, where he served as a Director for PBWiki (now PBWorks). Read more…
• John Burke is a Partner at True Ventures, a venture capital firm based out of Silicon Valley with an office in Northern Virginia. Some of True’s investments include Automattic, KISSmetrics, and Meebo. Read more…
• Matt Swartz is a Partner at Pillsbury Law with focus on M&A and venture capital. He has represented a diversity of technology companies from Microsoft to Voxant and has experience both in Washington and Silicon Valley. Read more…

The location is a central DC location so it should be easy for all to find and to get to, so no excuses

WHEN:  Thursday, October 29th, 2009

WHERE:  Pillbury Law 2300 N St, NW, Washington, DC

REGISTER HERE to attend and hope to see many of you there.

Some time back Network Solutions launched the Grow Smart Business blog and ever since has been providing great information for the small business owner on a variety of topics.  Well now they are taking the blog to the people so to speak and are looking to put on a really cool event in DC coming up on September 29th 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel.

According to their web page

Small business owners and entrepreneurs should attend to learn how to overcome challenges that all small businesses face. Attendees will hear from an outstanding group of panelists for concrete takeaways including:

• Proven strategies for business growth despite the current economy
• Executable, cost-effective ways to market and promote their businesses
• Knowledge of what banks believe is the key to securing small business financing
• Actionable ideas for integrating and leveraging social media into existing marketing and communications efforts

What is really exciting to me is the keynote speaker they have lined up, Chris Anderson. Chris is editor of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail and his newest effort, Free.  I just started to read Free recently and it is very interesting.  The Long Tail has been a book that has been talked about for years as it pertains to the new internet “industry” we find ourselves in and I do not go a day without hearing a reference to it in some fashion.

So make sure to get over to the site and REGISTER for what is sure to be a great event. Here are the details of the event. Also make sure to follow event news on twitter HERE.

When : Tuesday, September 29, 2009 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Where

As it has grown the Technology Corridor Community was born .

The Technology Corridor Community is a social networking organization dedicated to bringing together the professionals of America’s largest technology corridor area, the I-270 Technology Corridor. The community is open to all and dedicated to helping members of the area meet each other, network, and do business. We hold events monthly which are open to the public.

One way they organization gets everyone together are cocktail parties where the community can come together and network with old friends and new as well.  They are having one this week and I wanted to pass along the details for anyone that had the opportunity to get out and meet a great group.  Here are the details

WHEN:  Tuesday  July 29th, 2009

WHERE:  Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge

TIME:  5Pm – 9Pm

Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. Purchase your tickets now to guarantee your reservation and save! Click HERE to purchase discount tickets for the event.

Also, the community is always looking for good Sponsors to help with their events.  Sponsors are included in all of our advertising and promotions and are given space onsite at our events.

Click HERE for more information.

The Wegora platform has been licensed for the ARC Community because of its unique properties for sharing ideas, remixing, and altogether smooth user-based operations.  Coordinating a team to create and develop such a difficult undertaking, Gluecksmann said, We recognized the tremendous opportunity for both parties, National Peace Corps Association and Wegora, and have since been working in development for ARC. The Wegora platform meets the needs of the Association better than any other web networking program that we know of because of the ability for its users to edit content in this way.

The basic idea behind the ARC os to drive discussions of development challenges and solutions facing Sub Saharan Africa.  The site will help to aggregate the knowledge and at the same time turn those ideas into a plan.  To kick off the sites launch, they have come up with a competition to help get the ideas flowing.

Kick-starting the ARC Community, the NPCA has arranged a competition to collect the best practical solutions for African rural development. Starting in July, anyone can post their ideas to the platform and the ARC Community members will rate them, and remix them with input from each other. After 4 month-long rounds, the highest-rated submissions will be sent to a panel of judges.  In November, the winning plan will receive $20,000 to help implement the plan, as well as exposure to the international development community, creating possibilities for additional funding.

Its great to see some of our good local friends not only out there using their skills to develop new and exciting internet “applications”, but also ones that have such a long reaching global impact with the hopes of helping those in need.  So please stop by the site and help contribute your knowledge.

I have always enjoyed taking pictures, but sometimes as I have buried myself in other “business” endeavors I have lost sight of doing what I truly enjoy.  However, recently I have made a greater effort to immerse my self in photography, and I find myself gravitating more and more towards it.  That being said, I have been working hard to gather some of my better work for to share with others.  I am not looking for a photography business per se, maybe it would be great to sell a print here and there, but it dawned on me, as it has many others, combine a true passion and maybe that’s the best business to pursue ?  Below are some of my favorite pics that are featured on my new site JJG3 Photography.  Please stop by and check out some of my work and hopefully enjoy what you see.

So remember, don’t forget about those little things in your life that truly are a passion and make you happy and “take” you away. I know many preach finding that balance between work and play, but it is always worth repeating.

Love to hear from you all, what are your true passions and have you lost touch with them ?

…where East Coast entrepreneurs and startup professionals congregate, launch, stay informed, announce job openings, and connect. Participants include the who’s who of the startup community including company founders, developers, product managers, marketers, investors, advisors, attorneys, accountants and others involved in product oriented business ventures.

It is a great opportunity to get out and meet new people and catch up with old friends and at the same time get the word on new companies and what they are up to.  Its is a great place for those looking for a new opportunity to work with great local companies.

This iteration is coming downtown DC and with the great central location is sure to draw a huge crowd of the areas best and brightest.  Check out the details below and make sure you head over and register HERE.

WHEN:  August 13th 6:30 – 9:00 PM

WHERE: E Street Cinema
555 11th St Nw
Washington, DC 20004

Unfortunately I will be out of the country for this one, but I know you will all have a great time.  Enjoy and let us know how it all goes.

Since that time I have seen Andrew at events here and there around town and would hear that he was plugging away at his project, all the while keeping his day job and taking on other activities like playing in a band.  Well I was extremely happy and proud to see a blog post from him just the other day announcing the launch of Grasshopr.

Here is a look at what Grasshopr does and what it can do for you.

Organizations/groups can use Grasshopr to supercharge their most valuable asset: People.

Management & Communication

• Match your members to their federal and state legislative districts and local government
• Target your member communications by state or district in a secure, private environment
• Identify your champions and note activities by member

Grassroots Advocacy

• Target advocacy campaigns and membership polls based on state or legislative district
• Track advocacy efforts and see who’s taken action and who hasn’t
• Find other like-minded organizations and coordinate advocacy campaigns

Visibility and Marketing

• Enable your members to spread your messages and advocacy campaigns
• Make it easier for others to find you based on location or interest

I love to see someone work hard on something tey are passionate aboutand make it come to fruition.  It goes to show that even through working jobs, having hobbies, and a number of other things, you can still take time and make something you have an idea about come to life.

Congrats Andrew on your launch and we all wish you the best !

This is such a great opportunity for those startups out there that are utilizing the amazing array of the services that Amazon offers and pit their projects against the rest.

We’re looking for the hottest and coolest start-ups and start-up ideas. Developers and entrepreneurs in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Israel are encouraged to enter for a chance to win $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in AWS credits, mentoring sessions from AWS technical experts, and AWS Premium Support Gold for one year.

The finalists will be announced in October and a video product tour of each will be posted for the public to vote on and the winners will be flown out to Seattle to present to the panel.

It is totally worth the time so make sure to head over and fill out the application HERE.

Good Luck.

GovLoop is celebrating its 1 year anniversary and we need to honor the 14,000+ brilliant GovLoop innovators who are connecting, sharing ideas, and leading change across all levels of government in the U.S. and across the globe.

For those of you unawares GovLoop is Social Network connecting the government community.

Here are the details
When:
Thursday, July 16th, 2009, from 6:00pm-9pm
Where:
@ Local 16 – on U Street between 16th and 17th St. NW. Parking is available at The Reeves Center (MAP) two blocks away for $7. The U Street Metro stop is 4 blocks away (MAP).

Sounds like a great time.  The event is limited to the first 300 people so make sure to head over and register HERE.