NYConvergence ORIGINALAt the third annual NY:MIEG holiday breakfast this morning, NBC Universal Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff participated in a Q&A session with Limor Schafman, president of The KeystoneTech Group. The conversation centered around media's digital past and future. Among...

NYConvergence ORIGINALProducer Rex Sorgatz and the hosts of Web-based television show, iCrossing Social Media Strategist Alisa Leonard-Hansen, Pronto.com Social Media Manager Jackie Johnson, and Social Media Strategist Kristen Vang, took over both floors of the Lower East Side bar Barramundi...

NYConvergence ORIGINALTo celebrate their sixth "birthday", Creative Commons held a "salon" at the For Your Imagination (FYI) studio last night in NYC. Four presenters talked about having their work shared using Creative Commons, including the musical guest. The presenters included:...

Creative Commons, the nonprofit  dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright, turns 6 in mid-December, and will be celebrating at For Your Imagination on Tuesday, December 16th. December’s Salon celebration will feature presentations by Michael Galpert from Aviary.com, LimeBits’ Jonathan Marshall and Ted Metcalfe, Spot from the Electric Sheep, and a special musical performance from Sarah Elizabeth Foster. You can register for the Salon on Facebook.

A little while ago, I gave a speech at NYU Stern Business School on “How to Squeeze Maximum Value from Business School: Leverage Your Education to Accelerate Your Career”. How can you maximize the benefits of all the years and all the money that you invested in your business education?

I prepared the Powerpoint for my personal reference, for my friends starting school, and for any of my future children who may go to business school. My main focus is business students, but the principles I discuss are relevant regardless of the exact subject you are studying.

To prepare this paper I interviewed many of my MBA classmates on what were the most effective uses of their time during school. I also probed to learn about what were the least effective uses of their time.

I thought that you might find the slides, below, of interest.

Yesterday the NY Tech Meetup elected Innonate (Nate Westheimer) to be its new organizer.  There is no doubt that the NY region is lucky to have Nate offer to contribute so much of his time to our collective cause.  As many know he has been an active part of our community both as an entrepreneur and a contributor to both one of the City's most prominent incubation spaces and to our national political process. 

While none of us can affect change in isolation, I am optimistic that Nate's fresh ideas will inspire many in our community to contribute more than they already do.  I suspect that he will not have to look far for any help that he needs - many of us are be ready to support him along the way.

I also wanted to highlight how important it was to see so many people express a willingness to give their time to take a leadership role in this group. The people who came forward are truly very special. 

Many of us play roles in the venture ecosystem that are part of a bigger machine, one that drives toward a better standard of living, a cleaner earth and the creation of more transparent information.  Whether entrepreneur, employee or financier we play a role in creating a better legacy; we move society forward.  Most of us, however, do so with aligned incentives; we get to do well by doing good. 

Many of the people who ran to be the organizer organizer of the NY Tech Meetup transcend that standard; they invest their time without a clear path to personal financial reward.  What is most inspiring is that the people on this list (and many others in our community) are motivated by the pursuit of greater ideals:  the vision of making this little patch of the world a better society where creativity is supported, passions can be pursued and new jobs can be created almost as quickly as new ideas.  These people are the lifeblood or our community and the fact that so many ran for this position reminded me of how many people in our region are willing to give more than they take. 

In sum, I suppose that I have two messages here: 

First, thank you to everyone who offered to help lead.  Stay involved, drive forward, you will continue to make a difference. 

Second, to Nate - go get 'em.

Last night, I “won” (results) Organizer responsibilities of the NY Tech Meetup, taking the reins from Scott Heiferman and Dawn Barber in running the monthly Meetup of 7,500 members.

The election for the role was about doing more than just meeting once a month and was about building, in Scott’s words, a real “21st Century organization.”

My platform was different from the other candidates in that it was a plan for the entire ecosystem of NY tech organizations and community organizers — not just the NYTM. In fact, I was pretty open about the fact my plan could happen with our without the NYTM; nonetheless, when asked to take that plan to the NYTM election, I became confident that we, as a NYTM community, can rally to get the good work done that needs to be done on behalf of all.

So what needs to be done? Here are the next steps, in my mind. Comment below if you have any others to add:

1. Transition. I’m meeting with Scott and Dawn first thing next week to get caught up to speed on the organization’s books, logistics for next month’s Meetup, and how to proceed forming an advisory board.
2. Advisory Board formation. Working with Dawn and Scott, these positions should be settled before the January 6th Meetup.
3. January 6th Meetup! I want this one to be great! Get ready to see some super cool technology and for a super cool guest MC.
4. At the Meetup, I’ll announce the formation of the Organizer Board. This is where I see the hard work getting done and the community truly benefiting. Are you ready for it? If you saw my pitch, you get the idea of what this means, but essentially I’m calling on self-identified community organizers to step up to the plate and be the inward and outward evangelist of their niche and the NY tech community at large. More details to come.
5. Work with the Advisory Board on basic format changes for the Meetup, securing financial well being of the organization, and confirming the Organizer Board.
6. Finalize Organizer Board and start working together on behalf of the broader NY tech community!
7. Work with Organizer Board, with guidance from Advisory Board, to determine metrics of organizing success and technology to help us organize better!
8. Organize!
9. Organize!
10. Organize!

Of course there’s more here, but you get the idea: Your Meetup is going to remain mostly the same with a few enhancements, while, in the background, folks are given a platform to amplify their community organizing effort through coordination and collaboration with the the other great work that’s going on out there.

As a result of these new responsibilities, I’m also pleased to announce that David S. Rose and Rose Tech Ventures have extended my position as Entrepreneur in Residence through Q1′09. This will allow me to dedicate a very large portion of my time to achieving these goals set for the New York Tech Meetup, and to front load my term with the resources needed to build the organizational infrastructure my plan requires.

Finally, there are a billion people to thank. While I won’t manage to thank everyone that deserves it on this blog, I must recognize Charlie O’Donnell for first calling for me to do this; David S. Rose for his ongoing support of the NY tech community; my nextNY community for introducing me on the wonderful world of NY tech; my roommate Michael Galpert for the awesome Shepard Fairey-esk campaign logo you see above (which was created in Aviary, I must add); Girls in Tech, the Web 2.0 Expo team, and GroundReport.com for their endorsements; the list goes on but I’m late to an interview!

And, most importantly, thank you to Scott and Dawn for building this great organization and getting us this far. You two are the reason this amazing opportunity exists.

Now it’s time to get to work.

NYConvergence ORIGINALNate Westheimer, currently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at RoseTech Ventures, was declared the winner of the election for NY Tech Meetup organizer in an e-mail distributed to meetup members at 12:03 AM this morning by co-organizer Dawn Barber. Barber's e-mail also...