NYConvergence ORIGINAL

(Dressing Room, Lower East Side)

Fashism hosted its launch party last night at Dressing Room in Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood.  In addition to a complimentary drink, attendees could also try on clothes in the store/bar, have their photo taken, and have their outfit rated by other Fashism users.

For Your Imagination teams up with the New York Digital Community to announce the New York Television Festival Digital Day on Wednesday, September 23 of a FREE day of panels and a night of the best in Web Television!

Speakers include Ileana Douglas (“Easy to Assemble”), Douglas Sarine (“Ask a Ninja”), Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried (“LonelyGirl15”), Joe Michaels and Niko Chauls (MSN) and Sean Tice (“Wallstrip”). Digital Day will feature the season 3 premiere of the Streamy award-winning “You Suck at Photoshop,” with creators Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe; a sneak peek at season 2 of “Easy to Assemble;” a special showing of “Channel 101: NY”; and a showcase of Streamy-nominated Web series including "All's Faire" and "Jake and Amir".

Digital after Dark refreshments courtesy of Stella Artois and Chipotle. NYTVF Digital Day is presented by MSN. For the full schedule visit http://www.nytvf.com/tixSYS/2009/progguide/Title/AZ/DIGIT/ALL/ALL/

In addition, friends of For Your Imagination are invited to attend our invitation-only development chats with Jordan Levin of Generate, Craig Parks of IFC.com and Reed Price of MSN starting at 11:30 AM on Wednesday the 23rd. To RSVP for these panels, please email Mary@nytvf.com and mention that you are with For Your Imagination.

Centrl is proud to announce the release of its new web client. With the goal of improving user experience, adding functionality, and increasing its availability, this release marks a major milestone for Centrl and sets the stage for things to come.

Centrl’s latest release includes a number of new features:

• A Redesigned Search Interface makes it easier to locate friends, discover new things, and find out what’s going on in your neighborhood.
• New Profile Pages, automatically created for everything in the Centrl network! Now anything and everything can have its own web page.  Check one out here.
• Exciting New Map Layers make it easy to find anything. Check out our ‘Recommendations’ layer to see what’s popular with other Centrl users or the ‘From Friends’ layer to see what your friends think.
• A Dashboard for quickly accessing Centrl’s most used features.
• Enhanced Privacy Settings let you share your location with everyone, only your contacts, or become invisible.

Image by jurvetson via Flickr

I’m currently advising two startup businesses, and on their behalf my colleague Corentin Roux dit Buisson and I set out looking for a detailed template project plan for starting a new company.  However, we haven’t yet succeeded.  Do any readers have ideas?

Whilst the ideas and business models differ wildly, most start-ups follow the same basic series of operational steps, from registering a domain name to setting up an accounting system.  Ideally, we’re seeking a project plan with some decision trees, e.g., if your business is B2B, here are the marketing steps you need to take; if it is B2C, here are the steps to take.

Here are a few of the resources we have found on the subject:

- Forbes has published an overview of what is required.

- The US Government’s Small Business Planner is a well-structured and very detailed source, similar to a Windows help file, giving you both an overview and a place to look for specific issues.

- A more fluid if briefer guide can be found here, and includes both what to do and where to get more information on each step.

- In the same vein, Tanned Feet provides a perspective on various aspects of starting-up and running your business.

Serkan Toto has reviewed Centrl at TechCrunch. Here is his article:

Location-Based Mobile Social Network Centrl Integrates Web App, Adds First Real-Time Location-Based Messaging System

NY City Council Member Gale A. Brewer has asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to publish up-to-date schedules and standardize their public data, noting that information currently available on the Web to commuters is in PDF format.  Standardizing and making this data public would, in her opinion,  allow software developers to create applications for mobile devices which could then be accessed by commuters. 

In her letter reviewed by NYConvergence to Helena E. Williams, the MTA's interim executive director and CEO, where she makes this request, Brewer adds that MTA Chief of Marketing & Advertising Mark Heavey has informed her office that the only current MTA policy is preventing the creation of an online feed.

Join us for the September showcase of web video productions at the BigScreen LittleScreen Meetup on Thursday 9/10 at 6:30pm at For Your Imagination in New York City. Created to help support and encourage the growth of the web TV community, we will screen some of the newest web series, discuss development, production, and overall business issues with the creators and the attendees. A great array of producers will screen their latest web video works. Come hang with us as we sit on comfy couches, drink beer, and have good discussions about web video. See you there!