How to Change the World

Vyew Update

In 2006 I wrote about Vyew and asked the obvious question: “Does the world need another web conferencing product?” I guess the answer is "yes" because the company is now profitable and has 100,000 registered users.

Vyew combines real-time (synchronous) conferencing and desktop sharing with always-on (asynchronous) collaboration such as highlighting, drawing, text and sidebar comments and sticky notes. This allows groups to have a live meeting and also carry on a contextual forum discussion over time at their convenience. It's a browser-only cross-platform tool without the need for any client installation. You can upload any form of digital content (files, images, audio, video, etc.) into the Vyew space for collaboration and learning. Also, Flash learning objects that were originally for individual use can be turned into collaborative learning objects inside Vyew.

Vyew is useful in situations that requires collaboration, review and approval. For example, graphic and industrial designers, architects, marketing, PR and legal professionals, event planners, etc. can upload drawings, brochures, news releases, contracts, audio, and video files to Vyew where the content can be accessed and annotated from anywhere with no need to install Vyew or the software that created the content. If you need such a tool, check it out here because this is a Reality Check success story.

The Art of the Business Card

A few weeks ago I was in Charlotte to make a speech for Network Solutions, and I met Justin Ruckman. He handed me his business card--which I just loved. For once, a business card that cuts to the chase and is readable. Hallelujah! So I asked him to make business cards for me. Take a look at your business card: Can people really read the 8 point type? If you want Justin to make business cards for you, his site is here.

Maker Faire: Stuff Geeks Like

I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo this weekend. I had no idea these things are so popular--so much so that I gave up the first time and returned in the early evening when there was more parking and a shorter ticket line. Think: Macworld Expo meets Burning Man meets MythBusters meets Woodstock. Here are a mere fifty pictures to show you what you missed. One thing is for sure, the Faire could keep Stuff White People Like busy for a month or two.

There was lots of bikes made up of various other vehicle parts. For example, this is a lawnmower bike.

A skateboard/bike hybrid.

And a steering-behind-your-back bike.

A tiger bike.

This is the Unwheeldy tandem bike. The wheels are nine feet in diameter.

Yes, these are cupcake vehicles.

Perhaps venture capital firms can use this to replace their Mercedes, Porsches, and Ferraris.

My favorite vehicle was the motorized Barcalounger.

This is your basic 1956 Ford 100 converted to run on bio-diesel. The fuel tank is a 150-gallon drum.

Our buddies from TechShop were there in full force.

This is VW amphibious "car." That's Jim Newton from TechShop standing to the right of it--a safe distance from the propeller.

This is a van with metal wings.

Everyone should have one Lego Jeep for when you need to express yourself.

This is the "Lift Ass It." It helps people get off the toilet--kind of a vertical market if you ask me.

This is an algae machine from theshipyard.org.

This is the dinosaur-theme mini golf course.

Geeks love to make huge statues of women--at least I think they were women. There's some deep psychological meaning in this.

This was some kind of robotic razor-looking ball called a Swarm.

This is the "Robotic Warship Combat Arena."

Miniature boats do battle with each other by shooting BBs.

The Loch Ness monster made an appearance too.

This is the Savonius wind-power home generator.

This is a table covered with sand on which a boll rolls and makes pretty designs.

Ball in action using high-speed photography.

And of course what's a weekend without Powertool drag racing?

These things were used to destroy mannequins.

There is a large fascination with fire. This is the setup to create a bunch of large flames.

This apparatus created hydrogen bubbles.

Then people with electric prods exploded the bubbles.

This is someone photographing the exploding hydrogen bubble exhibit from behind protection.

No geek faire is complete without a Diet Coke and Mentos kit.

This is the BlubberBot Blimp kit.

Now this is an intriguing book title.

If you want more coverage of gadgets, check out this Alltop site

Q and A with Roger von Oech

Roger von Oech is the author a classic book about innovation called A Whack on the Side of the Head. Believe it or not, this is the twenty-fifth anniversay of the book. When I was young(er), this book was the rage for the personal-computer generation in Silicon Valley. Join me on Sun's site for an interview of Roger. In it he discusses twenty-five years of innovation and provides advice to today's newfangled Web 2.0 companies. Click here for the interview.

Launch: Silicon Valley 2008

Launch: Silicon Valley 2008 is now accepting executive summaries. The deadline is May 9th. This conference is a very inexpensive way to get your startup in front of a highly-qualified audience of venture capitalists and journalists. It takes place on June 10th at the Microsoft campus in Mountain View, California. For more information, click here.

The Art of the Introduction

Just got back from Houston where I spoke for the Houston Technology Center. Houston has, by far, the funniest Web 2.0 babes in the world: Jenny Lawson of Good Mom/Bad Mom and The Bloggess; Laura Mayes of Digg for Chicks, aka Sk*rt; Erica O'Grady of Reinventing Erica; Tracey Lee Wallace of True Light Resources; and Carrie Pacini of OpMom. This is what Jenny was going to use to introduce me until she chickened out. (This is a picture of her getting ready for the event, by the way.)

My name is Jenny Lawson and I write for The Bloggess and Good Mom/Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle. I was pretty shocked when they asked me to introduce Guy because most people know that I’m unable to talk for more than fifteen seconds without cursing inappropriately so it’ll be a pleasant surprise for all involved if I can manage not say the c word or start talking about "vaginas" up here.

Guy Kawasaki first came on my radar several months ago when our pseudo-editor, Dwight Silverman of the Chronicle, emailed to tell us that our parenting blog had been picked up by Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop site and that this was “very significant.” And actually it was very significant, both because the recognition was nice and also because it marked one of the first emails I got from Dwight that didn’t tell me to stop using the F word or posting inappropriate dildo videos on the Chronicle. So, being a typical southern gentlewoman, I decided to email Guy and thank him, which I did. It was an email which may have included a few curse words and ended with me telling Guy I had no idea who he was and asking if he was the guy who invented the motorcycle.

Unsurprisingly, Dwight was not pleased. But surprisingly, Guy actually wrote me back and thus began months of email correspondence between us. Granted, it was somewhat one-sided, with me sending long, rambling emails about lap dances and my paraplegic cat and Guy sending back short one-liners such as his most recent email to me which stated simply “Very funny dick story. Your bizarre business proposal needs work.” Which? He’s right on one part.

So I decided I should find out who this guy actually is and why when I tell people that he’s emailing me half of them stare at me blankly and the other half totally freak out and pee themselves in excitement. I decided to look on Wikipedia because that shit is always accurate and here’s what I found out:

Guy Kawasaki did not invent the motorcycle. He did, however, invent the Internet. Or maybe something to help the internet. I’m really not sure because I got bored and stopped reading. Then when he was thirty he killed a drifter and totally got away with it. I’m not entirely certain that’s true but it makes for an interesting story. And really? (*long stare at Guy*) Prove you didn’t kill a drifter. You can’t. I rest my case.

But none of that really matters (except to the drifter’s parents who were probably pretty broken up about the whole affair). What does matter though is that Guy Kawasaki kicks ass. That Guy Kawasaki is totally famous. That Guy Kawasaki is a genius who looks a little like Jackie Chan and could probably take you out with a roundhouse kick if he wanted to. And, most importantly, that Guy Kawasaki is here with us tonight.

So without further ado, I give you…Guy Kawasaki.

Now that is an introduction. You can see a video of the event here.

Creating Infectious Engagement

Just found out about a great conference at Stanford called "Creating Infectious Engagment." It's on May 1st from 3:30 to 6:00 pm. Learn more by clicking here. It features speakers such as Diego Rodriguez, Perry Klebhan (CEO of Timbuk2), and Debra Dunn (former SVP at HP). The conference is free--it can't get much better than this!

Search and Save the Planet

In honor of Earth Day, Flock released the "Eco-Edition" browser. You can download it here. This version of Flock has two compelling benefits for people who want to save the planet:

1. Flock is donating 10% of the revenue generated by searches to a green organization. At the end of the year, users will vote for the organization that will receive the money.

2. The browser comes pre-configured with green sites, blogs, and media feeds. In fact, Green.alltop.com is the default home page, so that you can truly follow "all the top" green stories.

Switching browsers is a non-trivial issue, but I recently made Flock my default browser. It readily imported my existing bookmarks, and its integration with social-networking sites such as Twitter and FaceBook as well as photo sites such Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube is quite impressive. You can also blog directly from it as well as manage RSS feeds. And, if switching makes you feel disloyal to Firefox, Flock is based on Firefox, so you can relax.

The quality of Flock as a browser plus the 10% donation and pre-loading of green topics means that the Flock Eco-Edition merits a try by people who are concerned about the environment. At least read more about it.

TicketLeap: The Democratization of Ticketing

If you ever have to sell tickets for an event, look into TicketLeap. This company provides a platform that democratizes the ticket selling process and makes it easy for event organizers to handle online ticketing and promote their event. Think of it as PayPal for tickets. The company handles ticketing for a wide variety of events from music festivals to small business events.

The website currently serves thousands of events and provides a strong assortment of tools to enable organizers to get started. For instance, you can use the Plaxo addressbook plugin to send out ticket invites to everyone you know via the TicketLeap interface.

The service is transaction-based which means it costs nothing to get started and organizers can pass the fees ($2/ticket + processing) on to the ticket buyer. TicketLeap was founded as a student project as part of the Wharton Venture Initiation Program.

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I am an advisor to TicketLeap.

See-Saw Power for Schools

I love ideas like this: Kids playing on a see-saw generate electrical power. Daniel Sheridan, a twenty-three year old student at Coventry University, created this design after working as a volunteer in Kenya. This fits right in with the PlayPump merry-go-round for pumping spring water and the Hippo Water Roller for delivering water. Dean Kamen's water distiller might also interest you. (Thanks to Thomas Kang for pointing these developments out.)