For the last three months my meetup.com members lists have been plagued by trolls or ghost members. I wanted to keep this problem to myself, but it’s getting ridiculous. Am I imagining things? Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

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Are you a solo entreprenuer, freelancer, or member of a small team? If so, what are you doing next week?

… heading to cooperBricolage, I hope.

Sanford is throwing open the doors to cooperBricolage early next week, and it would be great to see you there.

What’s cooperBricolage? Well, you’ve heard me talk about cafeBricolage a whole lot, but Sanford has actually gone and done.

According to its site,

cooperBricolage is a private cafe space for entrepreneurs, interactive designers, programmers and technologists leveraging the concept of the “Inventors Institute” originated in the late 1870s by inventor Peter Cooper.

cooperBircolage is where you can use “free” wifi and get a coffee and/or sandwich for your entry fee. Only people allowed in the cafe workspace are people working to build businesses or doing software or artisic design - no off-the-street coffee drinkers or students are allowed in the workspace.

The goal is to create a community of entrepreneurs to work together instead of at our homes and alone - sharing (when others are receptive) and respecting (when others ask for their space). While sounding utopian, the goal is to spaun new ideas and create a fertile environment for startups to migrate to more professional spaces for their corporate growth.

Pricing will end up somewhere between $10 - $20 per day with discounts to folks who buy multi-day passes. While that may seem like a lot at first glance, you get so much out of it: a great work environment around fellow netrepreneurs, wifi and cafe amenities, a hip and easy to get to location, and access to the growing phenomenon of coworking.

• For directions to Cafe Fuego, at 9 St. Marks Place (near the 6 train at Astor Place), click here.
• To get on the cooperBricolage email list, click here.
• To contact Sanford for more information, email sdickert at Google’s email service.
• And again, the cooperBricolage wiki is found here.

See you there!

The focus in Tuesday’s Web2NewYork meetup at Gallery Bar was mostly on media. Andrew Boer presented AssociatedContent.

Bill Hildebolt and Thi Luu presented ExpoTV. Allen Stern and his team launched Revlayer - under a different name. Techcrunch wrote about them here.

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The Social Media Club (New York) is holding an event tomorrow, Wednesday July 18th, at PR Newswire’s air conditioned space. The event kicks off at 6:00pm at the following address:

PR Newswire
810 7th Avenue
New York, NY

The format for the evening can be found here. The event costs $5 for SMC members and $10 for non-SMC attendees. To RSVP, please click here.

* Food and drinks will be served.

The super cool poster of "The Patrice Oneal Show - Coming Soon!" Click here to enlarge. For Your Imagination announced today that it is producing and distributing a complete 24-episode season of the online comedy series, “The Patrice Oneal Show – Coming Soon!” The exclusive New York City production features weekly behind-the-scenes looks at a fictitous TV show starring popular comedian Patrice Oneal and is available only via the Web. Unlike other new-media companies, For Your Imagination handles all aspects of its original series including in-house studio production and marketing, and the management of the show’s primary site www.patriceoneal.com.

“Online programming has created an uninhibited arena for talent to showcase their abilities,” said Paul Kontonis, co-founder and CEO of For Your Imagination. “Our role is to provide the talent with everything they need from development to distribution, while keeping their vision for their shows intact. For Patrice, the Web is a perfect outlet and we’re thrilled to partner with him on a full season of ‘The Patrice Oneal Show – Coming Soon!’ and help him bring his comedy to an even larger audience.”

Oneal is known for his cringe-inducing humor, often making his audience uncomfortable to get laughs. He has performed stand-up comedy for HBO, Showtime and Comedy Central specials, hosted VH1’s Web Junk, and he frequently performs at popular comedy clubs such as Caroline’s and Comedy Cellar in New York. He has been a part of Opie and Anthony’s Traveling Virus Comedy Tour for the past two years and has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman. Oneal is a regular guest on XM Satellite Radio’s Opie and Anthony program and was recently named “Comedian of the Week” by MySpace.

“My first impression of doing an online series was that these Internet guys were going to be telling me what to do,” said Oneal. “I am not interested in giving up creative control or changing my style of comedy. By working with For Your Imagination, I get to do my show without censoring myself to fit the limitations of traditional broadcast. The For Your Imagination team manages the production, marketing and distribution, while I bring my comedy.”

Along with Patrice, “The Patrice Oneal Show – Coming Soon!” series features an ensemble cast of seasoned comedians and actors: Vondecarlo Brown, Bryan Kennedy, Dante Nero, Harris Stanton and Wil Sylvince. While each episode has a theme, the cast relies on improvisational comedy rather than a set script.

Since the weekly episodic Web show premiered seven weeks ago, it has more than 90,000 views while the video podcast has been downloaded approximately 60,000 times. As the show continues its rapid growth, For Your Imagination will consider additional media outlets for the show including broadcast television. The episodes are available at www.patriceoneal.com or via video podcast on iTunes and are syndicated on YouTube, Veoh, blip.tv and Funnyordie.com. Web show merchandise is available through Cafepress.

One cool last minute addition to the line-up for tonight’s Web2NewYork networking party. Allen Stern will unveil Prerollr, ‘an innovative way to generate revenue or share content on the videos you embed’.

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Don’t miss Tuesday’s Web2NewYork networking party at air-conditioned Gallery Bar. Join us for cold drinks, presentations and networking.

ExpoTV, a site focused on user-generated reviews and product demonstrations, has been added as second presenter next to AssociatedContent.

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The Web 2.0 Meetup w/ Howard Greenstein’s Social Media Club is around the corner. Here are the details:

Tuesday July 24, 2007 - 6:45pm
Slate Plus
54 West 21st Street (bet. 5th and Broadway)
New York, NY 10010
(Google Map)

Slate Plus is conveniently located near the following subways: 6, F, R, V, and W.

Presenting are Confabb, who were just featured at the NY Tech Meetup, Revlayer, and TrustFX. Presentations will begin at 7:15pm and conclude at 8:15pm. To RSVP to this event, please click here.

The July 2007 Web 2.0 Meetup w/ Howard Greenstein’s Social Media Club is approaching. Here are details for the event:

Tuesday July 24, 2007 - 6:45 - 9:45pm

Slate Plus
54 West 21st Street (bet. 5th and Broadway)
New York, NY 10010
http://www.slate-ny.com

The venue is conveniently located next to/near the 6, F, R, V, and W trains. For more information, here’s a link to Google Maps.

Presentations/Speakers:

- Jason Rozenblat, ConFabb.com
- Allen Ward, TrustFX.com

Please click here to RSVP to this event.

The BigScreen LittleScreen - The Creative Side of Video 2.0 Meetup is a forum for online video and interactive content creators and enthusiasts in NYC focusing on using technology creatively rather than just the technology itself. The meetup is organized by Matthew Semel from 10ton.tv and Paul Kontonis, CEO of For Your Imagination. So whether you're a content creator or someone interested in seeing some of the best online video that NYC has to offer, we'd like to invite you to the first Big Screen Little Screen Monthly Meetup on Wednesday, August 1, 6:30 pm hosted by For Your Imagination, 22 West 27th Street, 6th Floor, between 6th Ave and Broadway, New York City. There will be screenings and discussions by producers from 10ton, The Patrice Oneal Show - Coming Soon!, and others. We'll watch short online video works and then discuss creative, production, and technical issues. Doors open at 6:30pm for networking and the presentations begin at 7:30pm. Click here to RSVP, space is limited.