Posts tagged new york

So last night we had the opportunity to go to the New York Tech Meetup - which was awesome.  My tweets may have been snarky at times, but its actually really great to feel like we are part of a community.  Coming from Wall Street, which can feel very much like a small town community - we’ve spent the past few weeks kind of blowing in the wind - feeling like we didn’t have any real ties to anyone else who does anything like we are doing.  So it’s been nice to find out about these events, and to go last night and feel like there are other people out there, trying new things online, and succeeding and failing right along with us.  

There is power in knowing you are not alone. :)

The room was just about SRO.  And it was easy to spot the VC analytsts there to scout (showered) from the developers (scruffy) and the mix seemed to be about 20% VC/60% developers/20% tech media/bloggers.  That was what my untrained eye picked up on at least. 

Quick word.  I’m an NYU alum (Tisch) and that Skirball facility was just lovely.  What an amazing place to hold these events (except the November one which will be temporarily at the 92nd street Y - see? I was listening!)

Last night’s NYTM kicked off with a speech by Mayor Bloomberg that was really great and quite inspiring as he spoke about his own entrepreneurism and the hurdles and challenges he faced.  Really made me feel like wow - we have it easy.  I mean, there were NO PCs when he started.  Heck the internet didn’t even exist.  He was buying cable into cities in order to deliver the information there.  It was really forward thinking.  And it took him three years to really grab hold.  So - while I hope to the gods that we can turn a profit in a year - just so I can feed my kid mind you - if you believe in something you have to maintain faith. 

The demos were interesting.  My favorite part was “coding onstage” which actually sounds much better in articles after the fact - or in movies like Social Network.  In reality it is kind of dull.  Especially if you have no idea how to code.  I felt like I was back on a field trip of the United Nations listening to people speak a foreign language.  Cool if you speak it.  But kind of detached from reality if you don’t.  But brains were definitely on display both on the stage and in the crowd when people shouted out answers/help to code fails as they occurred.  

But for me, most impressive last night was the bit.ly presentation.  I use bit.ly all the time when Tweeting.  Its a link shortener and you pop in a link to something and bit.ly comes back with just a little link that will not take up your 140 characters.  Now - that’s a great idea - so long as Twitter doesn’t do something like make attachments or links “meta data” as someone suggested (on Twitter) to Jack Dorsey a few days ago.  

HOWEVER, so long as bit.ly is the go to place for link shortening they possess insane data on the information flow into and across multiple social media platforms.  

Truthfully, I’ve never actually signed up for bit.ly - I’ve just always used the quick link shortener on the front landing page.  I had NO IDEA that I could go in and as a registered user, shorten links and then track them across the web.  Maybe I’m an idiot.  Maybe everyone else knows this?  I dunno. 

Not only that - but you can do a search - just like you would on Google - to see how different topics are trending on content being shared across social media. They showed a little bit of the possibilities last night at the NYTM and I’ll have to go back in and poke around some more. But for my money, this is the company to watch.  

On a funny note: I think one developer learned you never give the audience the chance to comment in real time on a giant screen behind you with no ability to screen what they are going to say  :)

Funny moment of the night.  Wondering who was the first person to text in the word “boobies” to appear on the screen.  lol.