Web Two Oh Chronicles - November SF NewTech Meetup
Organized by Joel Sacks, CNET and Marketing Strategist at BuzzShout, and Myles Weissleder, SF NewTech Meetup celebrated yet another new milestone of over 600 members.
The November SF NewTech seemed to come up pretty quickly this time. And, it rained again (October’s event greeted us with rain as well) – let’s hope this isn’t a pattern!
As usual Myles kicked things off to what had to be the largest turnout yet. The event attracted the usual faces, with some new additions as well, including CEOs, founders, VCs, programmers, bloggers, and a reporter (Rafe Needleman of course.) Quick tangent here, I think it’s very cool that Rafe takes the time to stay tapped into the community.
The only thing that I would like to see improved for the next meetup is the removal of all PowerPoint decks. Demos are cool and. I'm there to see new tech. Slides are boring and very 1.0.
First up...iStumbler.com
Alf Watt, iStumbler.com
Myles described it in advance, “Alf is one of my oldest friends in San Francisco. He has been working on his revolutionary wireless discovery tool for Mac for a long time and he's excited to share it with us. It's called iStumbler and it's pretty damn cool.
iStumbler is a wireless discovery tool for Mac OS X, providing plugins for finding AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices and Bonjour services with your Mac.
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Bart Myers, GUBA, the grand daddy of online video
Sort of a cross between Bittorrent and YouTube, GUBA is an online entertainment destination where users can browse, download, share and buy user-generated content, as well as hundreds of movies and TV shows. Their site advertises movies for $0.99 and TV shows for $0.49.
Using, GUBA, GUB’ers (just made that up) can download content to their PC, iPod, PSP, and other portable devices. Users can watch videos in Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media formats, and can stream videos in their home network using Windows Media Center and Apple's Front Row technology.
Founded in 1998, GUBA is privately held company and headquartered in San Francisco.
When asked, Why GUBA, Myers replied, “We’re cooler. It’s not just a place to get a movie, it’s a place to find entrainment and watch it, when you want to, how you want to.”
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Veronica Belmont, Molly Wood, CNET TV
CNET TV is striving to become a popular destination wit its unique design and personalization features, which includes a virtual remote control, a “draggable” interface so users can move things around, full-screen playback, playlists, and customizable channels and backgrounds. With more than 30 original videos produced each week and a library of thousands of videos,
CNET TV gives people a single destination to easily find the latest videos on their favorite technology products and topics. Video features include the Buzz Report, Car Tech, Insider Secrets, Prize Fight and First Look from the Lab that help consumers figure out what gadgets to buy and how to get the most out them.
It also makes a selection of the site’s popular video content available for distribution on television.
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Mital Poddar, Swapthing.com
Based in Cupertino, SwapThing enables the swapping (trade and barter) of any combination of items and services between consumers and small businesses, as well as direct purchases. SwapThing is swap-based, as opposed to auction-based, allowing completely private, one-on-one negotiations. SwapThing offers free registration and listing for items, with a low transaction fee of $1.00 for each exchange of goods.
The company also introduced SwapServices, which allows small businesses, service providers, and independent professionals to advertise their business, swap services, and save money.Mital also mentioned that the company’s Swapcircles equals its secret sauce.
a SwapCircle is a community of individuals who identify with a particular activity, locality or other commonality. SwapCircles provide a new way to swap goods and services amongst trusted swappers with similar hobbies or interests. SwapCircles are customizable with a group's logo and mission, as well as displaying the items listed by the members under one umbrella, and also provide a private forum for members to talk, swap, and share ideas and stories.Currently, there are over 50,000 swappers using SwapThing, and over 3,000,000 items and services listed.
When asked about the biggest swap she knew about, Poddar replied, “A Maserati for two jet skis!”
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Joost shreve, Everytrail.com
A last minute addition to the line-up, Everytrail.com was created by a small group of passionate travel and outdoor enthusiasts, out of dissatisfaction with current solutions to share trips with friends and likeminded people.
EveryTrail is an online platform that enables hikers and adventurers to visualize their travel and outdoor activities and even share them with likeminded people all over the world. Users can easily upload GPS data recorded while out on the trail and even add photos and notes, to create a visual record of their outdoor activity.
I see this for having huge opportunities not just for hikes, but also boating (throughout the delta for example. What a way to chart a course, without having to buy an expensive chartplotter. Of course, mountain bikers, skiers, snowboarders, kayakers, etc. can benefit from this technology as well.
The service just needs the ability to provide a printed map service, which according to Joost, are on the way.
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Vic Podcaster, Joanne Wan, and Ben Wan
James Yu of BuzzShout 
Scott Beale of Laughing Squid and Vic Podcaster of HotfromSiliconValley 
In the shot, Stowe Boyd, Rafe Needleman, Niall Kennedy
For additional pictures, jump over to flickr.
This month’s event was sponsored byFutureWorks PR for emerging companies (Andrew Lane Wines)
The Forbin Group Infrastructure design solutions for business (pizza) Joel Sacks and CNET for the space!
Tags: everytrail sf newtech meetup scott+beale scottbeale niallkennedy niall+kennedy vic+podcaster vicpodcaster hotfromsiliconvalley cnet rafeneedleman rafe+needleman stoweboyd stowe+boyd ben+wan benwan joannewan joanne+wan swapthing istumbler futureworks cnettv cnet+tv guba buzzshout joel+sacks james+yu veronica+belmont
posted by Brian Solis at 6:59 AM
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