Liminal states

Update: the early-bird deadline has been pushed back to August 2.
Don’t delay! Apply today!

• If you’ve launched an innovative business with growth potential….
• And you’re looking for expert coaching and some exposure to the investment community….
• And you have not yet presented your plan to an angel group membership or VC partnership…
  

…then NWEN’s First Look Forum could be the perfect opportunity for you!

Indeed!  Dog food, e-forks and other ideas in TechFlash, Software Vs. Medical Startups: Online Travel Is the Winner in XConomy , Why We’re Shouting “Thank You” from the Rooftops, and For the Love of the Craft on Qworky’s blog tell the story of April’s finals, where Mikal’s awesome 5-minute presentation got Qworky to the top five.  We also participated last fall, when we made it to the round of 20 and got some great feedback, calibration, and connections.  It’s a great event, and was really worth the time and energy we invested.

The next FLF is fast approaching, and the application deadline is August 18.  Submitting by the early-bird deadline of August 2 gives an extra round of feedback and a bonus shmoozing opportunity at the “Early-bird reception”. If you’re potentially seeking for angel funding in the next six months or so,  it’s worth investing the time to put together a one-page executive summary.  The application form and the full schedule are on NWEN’s site.

Event chair Rochelle Whelan and NWEN executive director Rebecca Lovell asked me to be part of the volunteer organizing committee to represent the entrepeneurs’ perspective.  My pleasure!  And when I think back on my perspective back when Sally, Mikal, and I were first thinking about applying application, the word that springs to mind is “uncertain”: did it make sense for us to participate?   If we went for it, how to maximize the value we get from participating and our chances of doing well?  Presumably others are in the same boat.

So I’d like to pass on some excellent advice we got from our advisors and a learning from our own experience.  And if other past participants have suggestions, please drop them in the comments.

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Our last real vacation had been in June 2007, also on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Just a few weeks before we left Microsoft had told me that they planned to lay me off (although they didn’t give notice for three months) so I was somewhat stressed.  Since then, well, by the end of 2007 I was too exhausted to go anywhere.  2008 was an activism year and I put my life on hold for CFP, Get FISA Right, and Voter Suppression Wiki.  We had planned to climb Mount Kilimanjaro at the beginning of 2009, but didn’t manage to train for it and were busy with the remodeling so didn’t actually go anywhere.  And then there was CFP.  By last summer Qworky was in high gear: we decided to postpone our September vacation because we at a critical point if we were boing to get funding by the end of the year.  Then didn’t go anywhere in January vacation because engineering was on a role and we needed to build on the momentum in order to ship and close funding.  Then there was all the stuff related to my transitioning to an advisors role at Qworky — and CFP.

So by the time we got to Waikoloa on Hawaii at the end of June we were really really ready for a vacation.

It was great: sunsets, snorkeling, malasadas and Waimea tomotaos, driving around in a convertible listening to mix CDs, fireworks on the 4th, seeing John Keawe over dinner at Bamboo in Hawi, ziplining, being on a boat …  what’s not to like?  And I slept eight hours a night for the first time since 2003.  Yay!  Hmm, do you think the lack of stress might have something to do with it?

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D’s organization Privacy Activism is going to be debuting the graphic novel Networked: Carabella on the Run at ComiCon … how cool is that?  So I was making plane reservations for her.  We usually fly Alaska Airlines up and down the west coast — after a decade of doing the two-city thing, we’re “MVP golds” which means that if necessary they’ll kick off the co-pilot to give us a seat.  But since she needs to stop in San Francisco on the way it turned out to be a lot cheaper to do the SF/San Diego leg on another airline.  So I turned to Expedia.

After filling everything out, I hit the “pay for booking now” button.  It whirled around for quite a while and eventually told me

Drat.  I hate software.  I tried again; same result.   I switched to another credit card.  No dice.   So I called it a night and went to sleep.

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Should we have to give up our freedom and privacy in to reap the benefits of a constant connection to friends and information?  How do we take advantage of the power of computers to improve freedom and privacy online and off?

– From the CFP 2010 Call for Participation

Let’s find out, shall we?

I’ve got blog posts coming out today on the CFP blog, Pam’s House Blend, and hopefully Google’s Public Policy blog and a Microsoft blog as well … so I don’t have much to add to that.  On a more personal level,  here’s what I said a couple of years ago

If it seems like CFP means a lot to me, it does: I’ve been going there for over 10 years; my SO Deborah Pierce has been going even longer and chaired it in 2005. I’ve volunteered, asked questions, been on a panel, run a couple of BoFs, and taken photos of Deborah during the various sessions she’s appeared in or moderated. There are lots of friends and long-term acquaintances we only get to see in person at CFP — and every year we met a lot of new people.

Indeed.

Chairing a conference is a huge amount of work — even with all the help from co-chairs Sigurd Meldal and Dorothy Glancy, and the great work from the volunteers on the planning team and at San Jose State.  Deborah and I were having dinner last night looking forward to getting our lives back.    Still, it’s worth it.  It’s a great program and we’re webcasting a lot of the sessions.  And who knows, but the Social Network Users’ Bill of Rights (aka #BillOfRights) has a chance to take off.  Exciting times.

See you at http://cfp2010.org!

jon

DRAFT!  Work in progress!  Feedback welcome!

Final verison intended for Pam’s House Blend

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Draft!  Work in Progress!  Feedback welcome!

Final version intended for the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy blog.

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Draft! Work in Progress! Feedback welcome!

Revised version intended for Blog@CACM.

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It’s another Geomagnetic.tv party, this time at the Gingerbread House — which is open for business again, apparently having gotten its permits in order.  San Francisco’s “War on Fun” has even gotten coverage in Reason magazine; as Lois Beckett asks in SF Weekly, is it enforcement or harrassment? Hopefully it’ll all be copacetic tonight …

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Draft! Please do not link here!

Update, April 20: Rrevised version has been posted on Qworky’s blog, Better Software/Better World

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April 11, 1986, was our first date.  I had no idea what it would turn into.  Lucky me!

Happy Virtual Anniversary!

Okay, it might be stretching it a little to call it “underground” … still, Infinite Connections’ parties at the Pacific Science Center are always great fun.  Promoters Amanita and Osiris Indriya are also the guys behind Hotwired, Seattle’s psytrance monthly, and know how to create a great vibe.  The setting is amazing … Insect Trance, Dinosaur Downtempo, D&B in the Playground.  What’s not to like?

It’s such a different experience going out in Seattle than it is in San Francisco.  In SF, we usually cab; here, it’s driving — meaning hassles with parking, being careful not to drink too much, etc. etc.  In SF, we have bunches of friends who are into the darkwave and psytrance scene, so often are meeting up with people … here, well, let’s just say our friends tend to have different interests and schedules, so we’re usually on our own.   We’ve been semi-regulars at some of the SF clubs and parties for years and so always see a lot of familiar faces; in Seattle, we’re not really part of the scene, so it’s much more the two of us hanging out.  It’s all good, just in a very different way.

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