Digital Dumbo: Here I Come

Dumbo. Directly under the Manhattan Brooklyn overpass. At first I did not know the full form name. But it was a great sound, like Yahoo, or Google, supposedly meaningless, but a great sounding name. I thought some of the techies in town came over to this semi vacated part of the city, drove away the rest of the inhabitants, mostly homeless people, and took over. That is what Dumbo feels like.

Dumbo is special in the NY tech ecosystem. I am not aware of another geographical locale quite like it. There are some very cool office spaces around town, some of which look like abandoned artist spaces. But Dumbo is the only place that is not one office, or even one street, but an entire neighborhood, although it is not that big of a neighborhood.

Ignite, Set It On Fire

Come to think of it I lived in Brooklyn for my first few years in the city. I lived south of Prospect Park. That is quite a distance from Dumbo. But a few times I walked from Times Square to where I lived. I'd start out around midnight, and be home by dawn. That is a great way to experience summer in town. It is much better than throwing up on a subway platform or inside the train: I have done both. And no, I was not drunk during those walks. The truth is I am not much of a drinker. One beer for one evening is as far as I prefer to go. Like last night, the MeetUp people had an entire refrigerator bulging with free beer - free for us, a bunch of money for them, but hey, they are a profit making dot com, who cares; yes they exist, profit making dot coms - but I took just one. (FourSquare Office, Dropio Technology)

A few days back I had an email from the First Round Capital guy Charlie; I am on his mailing list for cool tech events in town. Two events for the week looked at me. Sam Lessin was speaking at the MeetUp headquarters on Tuesday, and it was a MeetUp that sounded really, really cool, but I had never heard of. And there was this Digital Dumbo thing for Thursday that looked so great and fun, but there were no spots left. I shot a quick email to Sam. Can you get me in? Since it was taking place at the Dropio office.

Thursday, April 29th
7:30PM Digital DUMBO #15 Drop.io On In

While our application lives in the 'clouds', we set up people-world headquarters in DUMBO in ye-olden-days of 2008. Now in the spring of 2010 we are prepping to roll out the next generation of rich media file-sharing... Join us to celebrate

RSVP: http://digitaldumbo.eventbrite.com/

Drip.io HQ
68 Jay St #413
btw Water & Front
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Date: April 29th, 2010
Time: 7:30 - 10pm

When I brought that up with Jacob, the other Dropio speaker at the MeetUp, he taught me the secret way to get into the Dropio office. He casually mentioned it was like a cocktail for people who worked in Dumbo. I tried to unlearn the secret way and said, "In that case I will not come. I don't work in Dumbo." Hacking a site is one thing. But hacking a site's office, um, wait, I don't even hack sites. But thanks, Jake.

Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever

Charlie has blocked me from leaving comments at his blog. I retaliated by hyperlinking his name Charlie to the most famous Charlie video on YouTube: 2010: Location, Random Connections, The Inbox, Frictionless Payments. Charlie bit my finger, Charlie blocked me on his blog.

And today I have a Facebook email from none other than the guy who runs the show, the organizer of Digital Dumbo. How cool is that? And the guy read about my interest in Digital Dumbo at my blog. That is even cooler. People who read my blog are, by definition, cool. Andrew Zarick is now officially cool.

Not having read up on it, not having been to one event yet, this is what I have to say about Digital Dumbo. Everyone who works at any tech company in Dumbo should be able to attend. Heck, everyone who works for any tech company anywhere in the city should be able to attend. I guess what I am saying is turn Digital Dumbo into a block party in Dumbo. May would be a great month to start in that direction.

Digital Dumbo Block Party. Get the city involved. You want jobs? Buy me beer.

Digital DUMBO| Facebook
digitaldumbo on Twitter
Digital DUMBO #15 Drop.io On In - Marketing - Design- Eventbrite
Digital DUMBO
Digital Dumbo #12: One Year Anniversary Sponsored by Carrot...
Digital DUMBO Drinks
Dumbo NYC, Brooklyn » Archive » Digital Dumbo Drinks #2 (26Feb2009...
Dumbo NYC, Brooklyn » Archive » Event: Digital Dumbo #14 (DumboNYC..
Digital DUMBO Hosts Its First Event, Bringing Over 100 Digital...
» Twestival YVR to Digital DUMBO NYC – we've got you covered
Digital Dumbo - A Digitally-Anthropomorphic Social Elephant
Blood, Sweat and Fear: David Skokna at Digital DUMBO - HUGE
Digital Dumbo - Yöshi Sodeöka
Invoke: Twestival YVR to Digital DUMBO NYC – we've got you covered...
Twitter / @digitaldumbo/Digital Dumbo Agencies
MediaPost Publications Just An Online Minute...Digital DUMBO Gets...
Brooklyn Heights Blog » digital dumbo
HUSH | Backdoor » The After Party: Digital Dumbo, Lucky #13
Digital DUMBO #15 Drop.io On In Mixer
DUMBO Named New York's Digital District | NBC New York
Digital DUMBO| Andrew Zarick
Brooklyn Cupcakes at Digital DUMBO| Brooklyn Cake
Digital DUMBO Drop.io On In - NYC Calendar | Guest of a Guest< Digital DUMBO Drinks
Brooklyn's DUMBO Neighborhood Becoming The Home for New York's...
Anna Zach @Digital DUMBO on Vimeo
Digital Dumbo Stream Discussion
NYConvergence: Outside.In, Carrot Creative Host Digital DUMBO Drinks
Flickr: Digital DUMBO
Digital DUMBO #7 | The JAR Group
DUMBO Digital District of New York | AD60
Digital DUMBO #15 Drop.io On In: Thursday, 4/29 at 7:30pm at Drop...
space150 - space150 Sponsors Digital DUMBO #8
Why Digital DUMBO Matters? | Andrew Zarick
HUSH Studios vs. Digital Dumbo on Vimeo
Carrot Blog — Recap: Digital DUMBO Drinks #4
Digital Dumbo #15 - Drop.io On In | Small Business Complete
foursquare :: Digital Dumbo #14 #NYDD :: Brooklyn, NY
NYConvergence: Carrot's Germano: DUMBO is NYC's 'Digital District'
Digital DUMBO #14 « Christopher M Kennedy
Digital DUMBO #14 Sponsored by Invoke at The Dumbo Loft in...
HUSH | Backdoor » 365 Days of Digital Dumbo
Paint The Town Red - Hootsuite Creators Host Digital DUMBO #14
foursquare :: Digital Dumbo #14 #NYDD :: Brooklyn, NY
Digital Dumbo #11 Purple Sangria Digital Festivus - Society of...
Digital Dumbo #11 Purple Sangria Digital Festivus - Garysguide...
Cupcakes Take The Cake: Kumquat Cupcakery For Digital DUMBO
“How do you fit a mountain into a teacup?” -Digital Dumbo
Digital Dumbo | NBC New York

Related articles by Zemanta

• Linkage: The Value of a View in Dumbo; Weird Egyptian Apartment Sells (ny.curbed.com)
• Silicon Alley Insider: This Week In New York Tech: March 22 (businessinsider.com)
• Socialmediainthedigitalmediamix 090817151004-phpapp01 (slideshare.net)
• Edwardsville-Glen Carbon Chamber Presentation, 4-27-10 (slideshare.net)
• Complete List of 43 Twitter-derived APIs Unleased (taragana.com)
• 4:16 PM @ FourSquare (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Chris Dixon On Twitter: Not Impressive (technbiz.blogspot.com)