Digital Dumbo

Digital Dumbo Holiday Party

NYTM After Party: Is It A Holiday Parteeeey!

Movies, Dude

So I met this guy at Digital Dumbo last week, and we exchanged cards, and we exchanged emails later. And we are talking and he is like, how would you like to come to this event I am co-organizing? I forget precisely what, but it was nothing to do with movies.

Digital Dumbo 18: The Dumbo Loft

Image of Reshma Saujani

I was at Digital Dumbo last night. It is a go to event. Yesterday was special. They had a job fair. There was a large crowd. Beer was free. Water you had to get from the vending machine for 50 cents, which I did.

I so love this venue. I wish they had the event the same place every month. The Dumbo Loft is a great space.

I was wearing a Reshma 2010 shirt (Phone Calls, Dress Code) - Reshma For Congress - and that attracted a few political types, including a Clinton 92 veteran who now lives on the Upper East Side. He had not heard of her yet.

"How many people are running?" he asked.

"Two. Her and Maloney."

"Then you are winning," he said.

You just started a small fire on the Upper East Side, he added. I guess he is now a strong supporter. Maloney declared she was going to run for the US Senate, he said. That's right when she loses this race. She said she was too good to keep representing the people in this district.

Nobody I met had heard of Reshma before.

But I also talked plenty of tech, and blogging, and jobs. Made some new contacts.

"Great event," I said to Kaitlin, (@kaitvillanova) the key organizer. I believe Andrew Zarick is currently in Spain. The first time I was at the Dumbo Loft, I was like, this is such a healthy male female ration for a tech event. This time too there were a lot of women there. I guess Kaitlin might be responsible.

If you can go to only two tech events each month, those would be the NY Tech MeetUp and Digital Dumbo.

I also have to give a shoutout to DigitalFlashNYC. NY Tech MeetUp is 10 bucks, Digital Dumbo is free with free beer on top of that. DigitalFlashNYC is also paid. Sara and Laura run DigitalFlashNYC, got to meet them again last night. I went to their Popular Science event a while back and it was just great. The talk was great. I met some great people including one potential business partner I had been trying to track other ways, and he just showed up there on his own. I met another dude who seriously considered investing in a venture of mine. You pay for a DigitalFlashNYC event but the drinks are free.

How Many Bottles of Beer Does it Take to Host An Event
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Brazil: The Overconfidence Of A Soccer Superpower

Image via Wikipedia

Brazil has a special place in the soccer universe. It still is my favorite country to root for. Pele still is the best soccer player the world ever saw, the most famous athlete the world will ever know.

Brazil

But Brazil lost today. It was going to treat this game like it were the finals. I did not see much evidence of that.

Coach Dunga made two obvious mistakes even before the games began. He refused to put on the team some very obvious names, some star players. Why? Because Brazil was too big, there were too many good players to choose from. The coach is not the most important person on a soccer team, a VC is not the most important person on a tech startup team.

And he picked a wrong guy for team captain. I still do not know his name. His personal game was mediocre. But that can not be a deal breaker as long as you can exhibit leadership qualities. The dude got himself a yello card in a previous game, today he earned himself a red card. The yellow card rang alarm bells in my mind. The guy has a character flaw.

Instead of saying, we now have 20 minutes to even it out and still go win this game, let's go do it, the guy reduced the team size to 10 and brought the morale down for the team. 20 minutes were enough time. Kaka alone made two good attempts in those 20 minutes.

Brazil, great soccer country, lousy team captain, a coach lacking humility.

There was this pervasive overconfidence on the Brazilian side that prevented them from going for the small opportunities, learning the small lessons, treating the other side with sufficient respect when they had a one goal lead, and succumbing to frustration when that other side evened that out, and finally ended with a one goal lead.

Maybe the goalkeeper should have been the captain of the team on the Brazilian side.

Okay, so I am still rooting for Argentina. I am nervous the way I was not today. I was expecting to see Brazil win. But between Germany and Argentina, that is a hard one.

Soccer And Latin America
Lionel Messi (2)
Lionel Messi

Last night at Digital Dumbo I had an Argentina shirt on. One of the organizers invited me to the Dumbo Breakfast. Invite me for Dumbo Dumplings instead. (My Secret Sauce) Breakfast is a little too early. And, sorry, but today was Brazil's day, not Dumbo's, much as I love that place. I walked over there! Took me only a little more time than a train ride would have taken. But I hear flying is even faster.

July 1 Digital Dumbo: Do Not Miss

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July 1 Digital Dumbo: Do Not Miss

I discovered Digital Dumbo a few months back after signing up for Charlie (@ceonyc) O'Donnell's events mailing list, the best thing Charlie ever did.

I have hinted at it before, but today I am going to spell it out. Digital Dumbo is the best tech party in town. There, I said it. And Dumbo is the only locale of its kind in town. New York City is too big, there is too much happening, there are too many big, established industries - there is finance, there is media, there is Queens ... okay, so Queens is not an industry, Africa is not a country - for all of this city to turn into some kind of a tech haven. But Dumbo has carved it out. Dumbo is tech Mecca. And it is an amazing location. You see the bridge, the belly of the bridge nonetheless, the water, and you see Manhattan. That is too many good things at once. It feels urban, it feels tech. Dumbo is the go to place in town if you are a techie or someone obsessed with tech.

I was a little blase about Internet Week, I figured I got a little too excited about Social Media Week back in February, so I would take this one a little easy. But I might have missed out. And the July 1 Digital Dumbo might let me do some catching up. The July 1 Digital Dumbo is presenting itself as the wrap up party for Internet Week. That right there tells most of the movers and shakers of Internet Week are camped out in Dumbo.

Digital DUMBO #17 IWNY Wrap Up
Thursday, July 01, 2010 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM (ET)
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Did you miss out on Internet Week NY? Or maybe you had so much fun networking and crashing parties that you want to re-live it all over again?

Join us for a summary & wrap party Digital DUMBO style where we will showcase some of the work done for the event by Dumbo's finest. We're heading back to Galapagos and we hope to see you there to toast to another Internet Week NY event gone by!

LiveStream: Internet Week NY

Yes, I did miss out. I was able to go to only four events during Internet Week, and I missed the biggest one: IgniteNYC, after having given word to the chief organizer, emcee person Tikva Morawati only the evening before that I will be there. Ugh. (Ignite, Set It On Fire) Something came up that had me tied.

Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever

But I have not missed out on the World Cup, and I am going to show up wearing a shirt that screams ARGENTINA! So help me God. (Walking On The Moon)

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The Dumbo Loft Digital Dumbo

Image via CrunchBase

So last night I was at my second Digital Dumbo. I even got to say hello to Andrew Zarick, (@a2z) the guy who got me started with Digital Dumbo last month, the organizer. Andrew is from Louisville originally. I have spent a few years in Kentucky. But Louisville is like Kentucky's own New York City. I was in a small town. He might not relate.

The evening was as fabulous as I expected it to be, although the next time I think I am going to pull a Miko Mercer (@mikomercer) and not drink any beer. Only a few days back I learned Ann Curry is half Japanese like Miko. (Ann Curry Commencement)

All beer drinking is obligatory drinking for me. I don't enjoy the process. I enjoy the effect even less. I far more enjoy working the crowd, hopping from one puddle to the next and next.

I paid my compliments, first at my blog in the morning, and then in person to Andrew in the evening. I was 15 minutes late, and still one of the first to show. Digital Dumbo is what the NY Tech MeetUp after party should be, I said.

"I am friends with Nate," he said. If Andrew Zarick is a Louisville guy, Nate Westheimer is a Cincinnati guy. Between them they have all the bases covered. Nate organizes the NY Tech MeetUp. Of course I am familiar with Cincy too. And I am friends with Nate. His is a delightful presence on the local tech scene.

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AnyClip Is Live Now



I really like the Dumbo name, and it can't be all technology, although it is the only geographical locale of its kind in the city. The name Dumbo reminds me of Appu, the mascot for the Asian games in Delhi in 1982.

My family and relatives call me Pappu, not Paramendra. Paramendra is the name they came up with when it was time for me to go to school. And a good name too, totally Google friendly. Elephants and mangoes are so India.

One day a high school friend showed up at our house - my grandfather was out on the verandah - and he made the mistake of asking for Paramendra. He was promptly asked to keep walking down the street. My grandfather did not recognize the name off the bat.

I really appreciated the space. The Dumbo Loft is special. I hope they stick to the venue. They might not have anything better in Dumbo. To a few people I said, this space, and this floor, makes me want to practice my kicks, throw around my lower limbs, try out some basic martial arts.

You had to enter your name on a computer when you got there, and the computer would generate a name for you. Mine was DJ something Dog.

The guy serving beer remembered me from last time. Why not? I was the guy who asked for water.

I liked working the room. I would go from one group of two people to another group of three people, until I was tipsy and no longer effective. I left around 9 PM. Most people had formed small groups around people they worked with, people they showed up with. I'd show up and stir the water a bit.

This event had the healthiest male female ratio of any tech event I have ever been to. How did this happen? I think it was pretty much half and half. That sure was not the case at the last Digital Dumbo. And that sure does not happen at the NY Tech MeetUp. I was impressed but also perplexed. I got into a lengthy conversation with this one woman coder. I asked her why she thought most coders were men. She said, beats me, your guess is as good as mine.

You gotta ask, what is Andrew Zarick's secret sauce?

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Indaba Music: NY Tech Talks MeetUp

Image via CrunchBase

Tuesday evening I showed up at the MeetUp offices for a great MeetUp run by the MeetUp CTO Greg Whalin. This was my second time at the MeetUp. The last time I went Dropio was presenting. Sam Lessin and Jacob Robbins showed up. Jacob showed up also for this one.

Ends up I am also going to the Digital Dumbo event later this evening. I think I am figuring it out. Digital Dumbo is like the NY Tech MeetUp after party ought to feel like. The beer is free, although one is usually more than enough for me. At last month's Digital Dumbo, I found myself drinking water. When I wanted my second cup and turned around, there was this guy standing between me and the water. He was busy talking. So I decided to not interrupt. He was leaning right against the water stand.

The beer is free. The venue is a tech company's office. The area is like no other in town: Dumbo. All those who show up are in the industry.

At Greg's MeetUp, this time it was the turn of Indaba Music. I guess they have been around a few years. They are a Ruby shop: Jesse Chan-Norris was the key presenter. One of Jesse's parents had last name Chan as in Jackie Chan, another had last name Norris as in Chuck Norris. It was a tech heavy talk that lasted for an hour and a half. And then about 10 of us just hung around for another hour. Etsy dude Christopher Munns did some juicy story telling, tech style.

Ruby On Rails
Ruby On Rails - Wikipedia
Ruby On Rails 3.0 Moves Nearer Release Rails 3.0 features the merger of Rails with the Merb framework .... an Action Rails 3.0 API and an Active Record chainable query language based on relational algebra

His events mailing list is the best thing Charlie O'Donnell ever did. That mailing list is the reason I have forgiven him for having blocked me from leaving comments at his blog. The only problem is by the time you find out about a great event through Charlie's email, it is sold out already. So you try your luck next month, or you talk to Andrew Zarick.

7PM Digital DUMBO #16 Sponsored by Invoke @ The Dumbo Loft

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

The DUMBO Loft
155 Water Street
Corner of Pearl and Water
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Date: May 27th, 2010
Time: 6:30-9pm

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The Far Future Of Databases At The Dropio Offices

I just received my third email in as many weeks asking me to show up for Sam Lessin's sci-fi MeetUp called Y+30. That is not spamming, that is bombardment. I was sold with the very first email though, even though I was not as impressed with the last event they had, the one on food. Most speakers at that event tried to venture out about five years at best; or I was not able to follow much of what they said. And food as a topic does not excite me. When I think food, I think hunger. I am a Third World guy. I consider myself a great cook, but I cook a very limited number of items. I have never used any recipe or cookbook for anything. The whole recipe talk is designed to make believe anyone can cook anything. I don't buy into that. On food my thought is I like to stay thin.

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The next MeetUp in queue is called The Future Of Porn. Sam Lessin, visionary? Or a visual guy? There is a clip in the movie Minority Report that he might want to show at that one.

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But the one tonight is called The Future Of Databases. Now this is really something.

Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:00 PM
Drop.io World HQ
68 Jay Street Suite # 413
Brooklyn NY 11201

Like most things, the long-term future of databases is best discussed over beer... With the help of our friends at Basho Technologies we've assembled a cutting edge panel of experts to tackle what databases will look like +30 years.

Our panelists represent the full range of high volume storage engines from the document store avant-garde to the RDBMS old guard and everything in between. You can expect thorough coverage of what "database" means today and what it will mean in the future.

Panelists:
- Ken Ross - Professor in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University
- Dwight Merriman - CEO, 10Gen (commercial sponsors of MongoDB)
- Jonathan Blessing - Managing Partner, 3Thirds Software (NYC-based DB consultancy)
- Justin Sheehy - CTO, Basho Technologies (commercial sponsors of Riak)

Moderator:
- Mark Uhrmacher - Founder, CTO of ideeli.com

In case you have not visited the site recently, Drop.io has gone through a major revamp. The main page is much more minimalist now. That is a good thing. Don't make people scroll. Every milli second counts. Fast is good.

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This is going to be my third time at the Dropio offices. The first time was during Social Media Week early in February, the second time was only a few weeks back at a Digital Dumbo party. Two days before that I got to meet Dropio Dude Jacob Robbins for the first time. At the party Jacob told me about the new look of Dropio. In this blog post - Digital Dumbo: Here I Come - I talk about Jacob and something hack. All Jacob ever did was he spoke to me the web address for the page that tells you how to get to the Dropio offices, fancifully called the Dropio World Headquarters.

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And then, after porn, it is going to be gaming's turn.

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Having this event at the Dropio offices is a smart move on the part of Lessin. Dropio is one of the top 20 dot coms in town. It is a startup that has crossed that threshold of whether it will survive and do well or what. But even FourSquare, the dot com in town with the most buzz, is scheduled to lose most of its buzz by the year end when it will be in a much better shape as a company - measured by the fundamentals - than it is today. But it is good for team morale to have some buzz. And hosting a get together like this one gives you some buzz in the NY tech ecosystem. And it is not just Dropio, but Dumbo, that unique locale like none other in the city when it comes to tech. The mystique is fast building.

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Could 2011 Be Venmo's Year?

2010: Location, Random Connections, The Inbox, Frictionless Payments

2009 was Twitter's year. 2010 is looking to be FourSquare's year. Twitter is in a better shape today than ever before, but it no longer has the buzz it had last year around this time. FourSquare's buzz will also subside. That is the nature of the innovation market. If they don't make the mistake of selling the company, (FourSquare Must Cut A Deal With Yahoo) I think FourSquare will go on to be a viable business that is no longer always in the headlines. Some company will take the space that FourSquare will at some point exit. Which company will that be? I might be proven wrong, but if I had to take a guess, if I were forced to come up with one name, the horse I am betting on is Venmo.

2011 could very well be Venmo's year. Venmo is a hot possibility that some venture capitalist wanting to strike gold needs to lap it up fast. The Venmo team deserves to go work full time on their beautiful product. They are onto something big.

Granted 2009 was 2009, the year of the Great Recession, but plenty of companies were getting funded despite that, and FourSquare was not one of them. They landed at South By Southwest last year with a thud. They were not going anywhere trying to raise money. They approached Yelp. Yelp would not invest. FourSquare's fortunes started picking up only later in the year. Location became a buzz word, and by now all that pain from early last year must feel like a distant memory.

Venmo does frictionless payments. Venmo is in the mobile web space. But it can do the old web good too.

I don't think Venmo will get called the next FourSquare like FourSquare is being called the next Twitter, and I don't think the buzz will be with any one company in 2011, likely it will be fractured and distributed among a few different names, and we might not even have to wait for 2011 to roll around; it might happen earlier. But Venmo sure is in sweet space.

When I said to Iqram (@iqram) last night at the Digital Dumbo party (Digital Dumbo: Here I Come) that 2011 could very well be Venmo's year, he immediately sent $10 to my Venmo account for my "kind words." That's what the email says. At the after party of the NY Tech MeetUp when they presented, Kortina (@kortina) sent me 40 cents, and that is how I got started on Venmo. That was a few months back.

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Frictionless - and Almost Free - Payments?

@iqram, @kortina, @venmo

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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.

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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

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