Author Archives: Michelle Lentz

by Michelle Lentz

It’s another conference. But I’ve already found countless sessions at this one I’d like to attend. I’m already trying to figure out how I could possibly get a media pass.

Graphing Social Patterns East is held June 9–11 in Washington, DC.

GSP is the premier conference for developers and marketers building and distributing apps for MySpace, Facebook, OpenSocial and other social networking platforms. Happening June 9-11, 2008 in the Washington, DC area, this event is for both business executives and technical developers who want to learn more about the evolving environment, and how to reach online communities using new and established social networking platforms and applications.

I’m intrigued by the tutorials, as well as the smaller sessions. I like that they are gearing several of the tutorials for marketing executives who are entry-level when it comes to social media. It looks like they’re covering everything the executive might want – from feeds to LinkedIn to “Advertising vs App-vertising.” GSP East has the developers amongst us covered as well, with sessions on developing for FaceBook and MySpace to “Turning Apps into Dollars” and using AppEngine and OpenSocial. Keynotes include Adam Nash from LinkedIn, Adam Bain from MySpace/Fox, and Patrick Chanezon from Google’s OpenSocial.

There are also Birds of a Feather sessions in the evening, run by you (the participants) and an AppNite. AppNite sounds almost like a Pecha Kucha nite, with 10 app developers giving speedy 5–minute demos and a prize for the top two.

You can find out more about GSP East by clicking on the ad to the top right here on bub.blicio.us. If you have ads turned off or we’re just a feed, click here. Bub.blicio.us readers can save 15% by using the code gspe08bbu.

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What do you want to hear about? Name that app, trend, or tech news you want to know more about and send it my way. Email me at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net or via Twitter.

by Michelle Lentz

With the move to web-based apps and 2.0, the Internet infrastructure is changing. The GigaOm Structure 08 conference addresses this need and brings together several though leaders in the industry, including Werner Vogels (Amazon.com, CTO), Greg Papadopoulos (Sun Microsystems, CTO), and Jonathan Heiliger (Facebook, VP of Technical Operations), among others.  

Structure 08 will gather the most innovative and influential industry leaders together to explore the latest Internet infrastructure buildout. It will sort through the emerging and disruptive computing technologies and inform businesses on how best to leverage them. And it will provide insight to investors and executives on the best implementations, ideas and startups out there today — and what to look for tomorrow.

Structure 08 marks the change from one era of technology to the new technologies that are creating the new platform. During times of change opportunity is created and elements of the old guard are taken away. With Structure 08 we will create a unique forum for ideas and information exchange and we invite you to participate, contribute and take away knowledge.

The event is geared towards entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives, planners, project managers, telecom management, lead technologists, and networking professionals. 

Structure 08 takes place June 25, 2008, at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.

Updated: Register here. Use the code BUBBLES for a 10% discount.

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If you have any tips or news you’d like to hear about, shoot me an email at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net or let me know via Twitter.  

by Michelle Lentz

Duncan Riley has written for TechCrunch for exactly a year. After posting 7 days a week for the last year, he’s tired. Brian is a huge fan of Duncan’s and will miss working with him. He’s not the only one – Michael Arrington has a complimentary post about Duncan’s departure, and Duncan’s own final post is here.

I listened to an interview with Duncan on The Blog Herald, a site he founded. The interview covers some great points, including how Duncan landed at TechCrunch (Michael Arrington called him out of the blue) and dealing with the deluge of email that comes with working at TechCrunch. The hardest part, he says, is “dealing with the noise” in order to sift through and find the right story. Duncan has really enjoyed his time at TechCrunch and is leaving with no drama – he just wants his weekends back, misses running his own blogging business, and is really just tired. It happens.

Perhaps the bigger news is Duncan’s new venture, The Inquisitr. Using the Huffington Post as one of his models, Duncan is going for a mix of topics he loves, including pop culture, technology, and just plain odd and funny stuff. The Inquisitr has been soft-launched, considering Duncan just got his time back today, but he’s acquiring a team of writers and the site stands to grow and change in the next few weeks.

We’d also like to welcome Jason Kincaid, who has been with TechCrunch about a month now. Jason is already cranking out great posts!

Best wishes to Duncan in his new venture!

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If you have any tips or news you’d like to hear about, shoot me an email at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net or let me know via Twitter.

by Michelle Lentz

It sounds like a new startup or a cool new gadget (or just a scientific phenomenon). But it’s a conference! June 16-18 some really brilliant people will gather together in San Francisco for the 2008 Supernova conference. According to the founder, Kevin Werbach, ” At Supernova, we bring together business, government, and technology thought leaders to understand how decentralization and pervasive connectivity are changing our world.” Supernova attempts to answer the “what’s next” after everything is digitally connected.

 The speakers list is impressive, including Joi Ito, Michael Arrington, Elizabeth Churchill, Esther Dyson, Hugh MacLeod, Loic Le Meur, Bret Taylor, Kevin Marks, and more, running the gamut from Web 2.0 consultants to entrepreneurs to academics.

Session topics include

The Theory and Practice of Networks • Does Telecom Have a Future? • Networked Business Models • Whose Social Graph? • The Internet is People: What We Know, and What it Means • Cyberspace Constitutional Moments • The Meaning of Openness • All the World’s a Game: What the Web can Learn from Virtual Worlds • Liquid Conversations and Distributed Content • Going Green: Toward a More Sustainable Technology Industry • Who is Driving Marketing Innovation? • Monetization for Today’s Internet… and Tomorrow’s • Wireless Disruption • Privacy and Security in the Network Age • Does the Media Get the Message?

Other interesting features include the Open Flow, which sounds very much like an unconference, and the TechCrunch-sponsored Mobile Connections, which showcases great mobile ideas.

Today is the last day to register before the early bird rates expire. So go convince your boss you need to attend this conference.

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Dont’ forget! If you know of any cool upcoming Web 2.0-related events, news, trends, or gadgets, send the information my way. Email me at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net or via Twitter.

by Michelle Lentz 

It’s conference season and you, the savvy & intelligent readers of bub.blicio.us, are quite sought after.

Under the Radar, brought to you by Dealmaker Media, is offering readers of bub.blicio.us a $100 discount on admission to their Under the Radar event on June 3. This particular event focuses on upcoming players in Social Media and Entertainment. Under the Radar showcases 32 different up-and-coming startups who will each give a short presentation about their business. This is a nifty opportunity to learn what’s coming down the track and be ahead of the game. A couple of them jump out at me, including

Jygy: A mobile social networking site. I’m convinced mobile is where it’s all headed, so this one intrigues me.

PutPlace: An off-site storage location. The intriguing thing is what I call a “vault” feature, which keeps master copies of your originals no matter what you do to the file after that.

CrowdSpring: As a freelancer, I often need things like press releases, logos, and brochures for my business and I go begging to my friends who are good at those things. CrowdSpring basically lets me go beg to the world. Creative folks can take the opportunity to grow their profile and submit their work to paying clients. It’s an intriguing concept, and while I see a few holes in the idea, it has a lot of potential.

Each company and presentation will also be judged, and the line-up includes folks from Google, the Wall Street Journal, MySpace, several venture capital firms, and Robert Scoble.

You can learn more here and register to attend with the discount here.

Under the Radar
Tuesday, June 3
8 am – 6 pm
Microsoft, Conference Center, Bldg 1
1065 La Avenida Street
Mountain View, CA 94043

Dont’ forget! If you know of any cool upcoming Web 2.0-related events, news, trends, or gadgets, send the information my way. Email me at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net or via Twitter.