Imagine a day without access to your computer? The One Laptop per Child San Francisco Bay Area community (olpcsf.org) sees to it that no child goes without a computer in under-developed countries and even shows them how to use and fix them.  This is a community of volunteer educators, technologists, anthropologists, enthusiasts, champions and others. Monthly meetings are held at the SFSU downtown campus where they share stories, exchange ideas, solve problems, foster community and build collaborations around the One Laptop per Child project.

Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Professor of the Information System at San Francisco State University is the force behind the grassroots group that has organized the OLPC SF Community Summit 2011. The Summit is a combination of panel discussions, “Birds of a Feather” sessions, speed-geeking and much more. A few of the topics that will be covered include Education, Technology and Outreach & Deployments of OLPC programs. Last year it was a local meeting, this year the Summit is open to an audience worldwide.

Verma, who is passionate about the cause due to growing up in India where many children still lack educational opportunities.  says, “The Summit will bring together people who want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. They share the belief that the One Laptop per Child is one of the most revolutionary endeavors going on in the world today.”

WHEN: Oct. 21st to  23rd.

WHERE: SFSU Downtown Campus in San Francsico

COST: General $40 and Students $25

REGISTER:  Eventbrite: bit.ly/plMJnH

July 22nd, San Francisco welcome’s the PR Summit Boot Camp.

Time to get your butt in gear and learn all there is to know with PR.

PR Summit Boot Camp is a 1 day conference that will be focused on providing tools for all professionals working in media and those starting to utilize different media to reach their target audience.

The conference will focus on the changing media and public relations landscape. Industry professionals who work with a variety of markets will provide attendees insights, tools and fresh ideas to be applied to your every day work set.

One of the great highlights of the conference will be the keynote given by Akilah Bolden-Monifa, who is the director of communications for CBS 5, The CW 44 Cable 12 and CBS Radio. She will be talking about “Combining Generation 1.0 media wiht 2.0 Media”. And to top it off, Dan Martell (co-founder of Flowtown) will give a talk focused on “Social Media Part II: Monetizing Popularity on Facebook, Twitter, etc.”

EVENT DETAILS:
Where:
San Francisco LGBT Community Center
1800 Market Street, 2nd Floor | Rainbow Room
San Francisco, CA 94102

When:
Thursday, July 22, 2010 | 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Conference Tickets:
http://prconferencebootcamp-sf.eventbrite.com

Cost:
$145.00 (For a full day pass)

Event URL:
www.prsummit.org

Running around trying to keep up with everyone on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and the rest of the Social Web?

Pull over at the next stop. Take a break. Vemma is setting up a new station to fuel you and the rest of the TechSet at Affiliate Summit in New York.

It’s time for another TechSet Blogger Lounge…

Join hosts Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis as we collaborate and celebrate how far we’ve traveled and navigate where we’re going next.  Veema has outfitted the lounge with everything we need to work and play, and along with Stephanie and Brian, there will be more than enough energy to keep bloggers and affiliates techsetting around the Web.

For those looking for a great example of Social Media in action, make sure to connect with the Vemma team. They’ll share everything they’re doing to build buzz, stay top of mind, and spark conversations without having to maintain a retail presence for their awesome energy drinks.

Vemma is a privately-owned business in Scottsdale, Arizona that manufactures and distributes Verve, Shot and the newly released Vemma NEXT.

Connect with me on:

Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, or Facebook

—

Now available! (click to purchase):

by Brian Solis

Al Gore closed the Web 2.0 Summit with a powerful, inspiring, and uniting keynote that earned two standing ovations and honorary residence in the hearts and minds of Silicon Valley’s catalysts for innovation and change.

He opened the session in response to the first of two standing ovations with a sense of humor, but also a reaffirmation of what brought us together dating back to his Presidential bid in 2000, “Wow, what a week.” The room erupted into applause.

“It couldn’t have happened without the World Wide Web, without the Internet,” Gore acknowledged.

Al Gore documented this election as nothing short of, “the electrifying redemption of America’s revolutionary declaration that all human beings are created equal.”

“It would not have been possible without the additional empowerment of individuals to use knowledge as a source of power that has come with the Internet,” he proclaimed.

His vision for the Web is its sense of “purpose,” which is how we can take the evolution of not only the technology that defines it, but also the people who use it to communicate with one another. “I believe Web 2.0 has to have a purpose,” Gore observed.

Gore envisions a sense of purpose and promise in what he called “World 2.0:” Web 2.0 used for social betterment.

“Just as Barack Obama’s election would’ve been impossible without the new dialogue and new ways of interacting, the only way climate change is going to be solved is by addressing the democracy crisis, and the country hit a great blow for victory this week, but we have to take this issue and raise it in the awareness of everyone,” Gore said.

Gore continued later during his interview with conference organizers Tim O’Reilly and John Batelle, “I think that it is very much in its infancy, barely beginning, and I think that we are not many years away from television sort of sinking into the digital world and becoming a part of it.”

His continued “purpose” is to advance the democratization of media, where people are in control of not only what they consume, but are also empowered to create, distribute, and influence through media.

Al Gore

More at PR 2.0.

For more pictures from Al Gore’s presentation at Web 2.0 Summit, please visit my album on flickr.

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by Brian Solis

MySpace Music threw an exclusive party during the Web 2.0 Summit that fused Los Angeles style with San Francisco architecture. Contrary to other reports, this party was not only one of the highlights of the Summit, but one of the more memorable parties associated with any tech conference in recent history.

Thrown at the old mint in San Francisco, MySpace invited Lionel Richie and DJ AM to entertain the anxious and excited crowd. Not only were the invigorating conversations and connections abundant throughout the entire mint, laughter and fun filled the air while the geeks also danced the night away until the early hours of the morning.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Lionel Richie

DJ AM

DJ AM

Chris DeWolfe and Tom Foremski

Bryan Thatcher of Empressr and Michael Birch, Co-Founder of Bebo

iJustine – Justine Ezarik

Ellen McGirt of Fast Company

Caroline McCarthy of CNET

Gabe Rivera of Techmeme

Cathy Brooks of Seesmic and Gregarious Greg Narain of BlueWhaleLabs

Irina Slutsky of GETV and Nick O’Neill

Brady Forrest of O’Reilly

Dave McClure

Hammer, Ron Conway, Dave Morin

Tara Hunt, Jennifer Hussein Pahlka

Joseph Smarr and John McCrea of Plaxo

MC Hammer of DanceJam

Janetti Chon

Cupcakes!

Ben Metcalfe and Cathy Brooks

Brandee Barker of Facebook

Jacob Mullins & Team VentureBeat: Anthony Ha, Dean Takahashi and MG Siegler

Dean Takahashi and Brian Solis

John Furrier

Brandee Barker, Heather Harde, Mike Maser

MG Siegler and Leah Culver

Peter Pham and Mike Morin

Debbie Landa, Kristen O’Brien (Dealmaker Media) and Shay Nowick

Sarah Delman Brown and Cathy Brooks

For more pictures from the MySpace Music party, please visit my album on flickr.

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by Brian Solis

At the Web 2.0 Summit, Microsoft announced its new BizSpark program to help transform today’s most promising startups into tomorrow’s most successful businesses. Microsoft and the BizSpark team celebrated with an official launch party at Ozumo in San Francisco. The event was one of the highlights of the week. The ambiance was a conductor for incredibly enthusiastic conversations fortified by positive spirits.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Karen Hartline of Mashable

Dave McClure and Heather Harde

Gregarious Greg Narain

100 hundred bottles of beer on the wall…

Michael Sheehan of GoGrid

Jacob Mullins of BizSpark

Gabe Rivera and Nick O’Neill

Larry Chiang

Cynthia Johanson, Yahoo Brickhouse

Brian Solis

Barney Pell of Powerset, Larry Chiang and Sarah Austin

Ozumo

Karen Hartline, Marianne Masculino, Tara Hunt, Aubrey Sabala (Jeff Clavier in the background)

Magician

Microsoft’s BizSpark will continue the action.

If you’re in NY on 11/11, join us (RSVP Below)!

Microsoft BizSpark and The TechSet, present “Ignition” an event for entrepreneurs, investors and those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem for helping startups flourish.

Join Stephanie Agresta, Brian Solis, Microsoft staff and partners at One Little West NYC from 8-10pm. Free hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and valuable networking will be served. Plus, you will have the opportunity to meet some of the most influential technologists around. All attendees can participate in a “twitter raffle” to win an XBox 360 Elite.

RSVP on Eventbrite.

For more pictures from the Microsoft BizSpark launch party, please visit my album on flickr.

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Our guest writer, Larry Chiang, is at times a tortured blogger. If you have seen his GigaOm post, “9 VC’s You’re Gonna Want To Avoid” to, then you read his ONE Techmeme hit.

This article might be part of his book…

By Larry Chiang

San Francisco, Calif — November 7th — Web 2.0 Summit

I am sleep deprived and in creative mode at “Web 2.0 Summit” (as opposed to execution mode when I’m in Palo Alto CA). Here is what I learned at Web 2.0 Summit:

-1- New networking rules. It is who you know AND what you know. In the networked economy you can NOT fake-it-until-you-make-it. Web2.0 is about transparency. You might get your foot into the door but whether you stay is based on talent.

-2- Sweet and sour makes food really yummy. Question: what makes an egg roll taste oh-so, ah-so good? The sweet and sour sauce. The best food (and drink) combine both sweet and sour simultaneously.

Workplace community interaction is the same way.  Be really nice (sweet). Be really sour (mean).

For example:

***  SWEET TWEET #1  ***
@DanielBru  if u were here, I’d showcase u as the emerging entrepreneurial titan u will be #web2summit From @larryChiang

***  MEAN TWEET #1  ***
#web2summit Just hope google’s Matt Cutts stays in the SEO dark when people search “FreeCreditReport” Re: FTC violations  From @larryChiang

***  MEAN TWEET #2  ***
@ acEdge  maybe meetings/content @ #web2summit pale in comparisson to an FTC repeat violation site; FreeCreditReport.con From @larryChiang

-3- Fail right. Fail loudly. Fail publicly. At web2summit, I started a business charging iPhones. I charged $3 for a half charge and $5.50 for a full charge. My marketing plan was word of mouth, twitter and my personal sales effort. The AC chargers bulging from my pocket did not hurt either.

My first customer was Dave McClure. I failed miserably because Richard, the Palace Hotel front desk manager, took the phone into lost and found. The silver lining was publicity of being most entrepreneurial at an entrepreneurial conference.

A different type of fail was by dressing really, really, badly at a conference

PHOTO CREDIT BRIAN SOLIS

-4- Gain a zero, lose a zero… You’re still the same guy. Elon Musk is in deep with Tesla Motors. When he was a web 2.0 summit, he was fresh and fluffy. I did not see much entrepreneurial stress there because gain or lose a zero, Elon is the same guy.

-5- BizSpark from Microsoft springboards your company with servers and stuff if you
A) are less than 3 years old
B) have less than a million in revenue

-6- Facebook is HUGE in France. Claiming you are big in Europe, is a manuever normally reserved for tier-three bands. Facebook’s stagnation in the U.S. of A. coupled with low CPMs stimulated Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, to (over) extrapolate his current 7% into a mind-blowing 20+% market penetration in France.

“We might even open up an office in France,” quipped the 23 year-old paper billionaire. Mark, they pay you to increase sales and build shareholder value versus open up sexy offices in faraway lands.

-7- Di-worse-ification is another cautionary business tale. Elon Musk is starting a car company, Tesla on top of an existing space exploration company, spaceX. Fighting a war on multiple fronts causes you to di-worse-ify yourself.

Back when Mr Musk kicked back-to-back-to-back ass, he focused on ONE thing a time in sequence without overlap. Zip2. X.com, PayPal.com.

-8- People don’t read twitter. VIPs nearly never read Twitter. I did testing with TWITTER CONTESTS using giftcards, fleece jackets and even a $100 cash prize. CONCLUSION: people do not read twitter. If they do read and reply to your twitter, tip, bribe, comp and tip them.

I said ‘tip’ twice cuz it works the best

-9- Cash isn’t king here at web 2.0. 80% of your time as an entrepreneur should be spent bringing money in the door. There has been very little time spent talking about revenue and methods to generate sales. Me and Baxter love liquidity Fridays

Good luck out there and text/call me during my office hours of 11:11am (and pm) +/- 15 minutes. PDA to sms: 650-283-8008. Landline to call 650-566-9696.

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9 LINK “DUCK9: which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He has testified before Congress and World Bank on credit LINK “World Bank on credit“

by Brian Solis

Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) was interviewed by John Batelle during a premier session at The Web 2.0 Summit currently underway in San Francisco.

The conversation was interesting and entertaining, but not as revealing as his previous live discussions.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

John Batelle

Mark Zuckerberg

The Adidas sandals have been officially retired

The Audience

For the blow by blow action, see Michael Arrington’s post over at TechCrunch.

For pictures more pictures from Web 2.0 Summit visite my albums on Flickr: Day One and Day Two.

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