Posts tagged as: geek_dinner

There's something happening here

David Beisel is right, there is definitely something happening in Boston. Last night's RSS Alley Geek Dinner was a big step up in energy from last month. There were about 30 to 40 people, and the energy level was awesomely high. I can't remember the last time I saw such an animated set of conversations. It wasn't the "we're all going to be rich" vibe of the Dotcom, it was more like a group of people who are really into what they are doing. On the money side, there were several people announcing that they were hiring, and one guy said he just got funded and was looking to hire 10 people right away. The funniest thing was that this announcement actually was viewed as a negative sign of a bubble by some people. I'm afraid that there is an entire generation for whom the Dotcom crash was their Great Depression. They will never be able to get over it. I just don't see what is happening now as the same thing as the Nineties, but I can safely predict that by this fall there will be a hiring boom for Web people in the Boston area.

RSS Alley Geek Dinner reminder, March 29th

The next Geek Dinner is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29th at 6:30. You can find all the details on the Evite RSVP page. If you plan on coming, please add yourself to this page, so we can be sure to order enough pizza and beer.

RSS Alley Geek Dinner on March 29th

The next Boston area Geek Dinner will be held on March 29th, from 6:30 to 9:30. Since the last dinner, a lot of us have started calling this region RSS Alley, so this event has been renamed as the RSS Alley Geek Dinner. Pito Salas created a page on Evite to handle the RSVPs, and Bela Labovitch is offering the TopTenSources office space at 66 Church Street in Harvard Square again. The last dinner was a lot of fun. I hope you can join us. Everyone is welcome for free pizza and beer.

Geek Dinner was great

The Geek Dinner last night was a lot of fun. We had about 30 people, way too much food from Border Cafe, and lots of great conversations about incredibly geeky things. Thanks to RSS Labs and Bela Labovitch for providing the space and paying for the food and drinks. Thanks also to Pito Salas, and Mark Doerschlag for helping to organize this. Brian Del Vecchio took some great photos. We hope to repeat this once a month.

Geek Dinner Reminder

Just a reminder that we are holding a Geek Dinner in Harvard Square on Wednesday the 15th. Everyone is invited, just drop me an email to RSVP.

Location: 66 Church Street, Cambridge. (Near Fire and Ice)
Time: 6:30 to 9:00pm
Topics of discussion: Web 2.0, RSS, OPML, AJAX, Ruby, Mashups, Web Services, Startups, etc.
RSVP: dinner at darwinianweb dot com

Geek Dinner in Harvard Square, Feb. 15th

Pito Salas, Mark Doerschlag and I have been talking about putting together a Geek Dinner in Harvard Square on February 15th. I mentioned this to Bela Labovitch of RSS Labs, and she kindly offered the offices of TopTenSources as a venue. (You'll have to attend to discover the myriad connections between RSSLabs and TTS.) This should be a great location, because there is plenty of room to walk around and schmooze. We'll bring in food and drinks, so please RSVP (dinner at darwinianweb dot com) to give us a rough head count.

Location: 66 Church Street, Cambridge. (Near Fire and Ice)
Time: 6:30 to 9:00pm
Topics of discussion: Web 2.0, RSS, OPML, AJAX, Ruby, Mashups, Web Services, Startups, etc.
RSVP: dinner at darwinianweb dot com

Why does the younger generation have to look so damn young?

I've sworn off discussions of gender in technology (scroll to comments), and I don't believe race exists, so what form of discrimination can I write about next? I've got it, age. Age discrimination is one form of prejudice I will admit to, although I'm not proud of it. In fact, I find it troubling. When I meet a twenty-something techie who looks about 13 years old, I can't help thinking "What the hell could he know about starting a business?" Yet I remember what I was like running my first software company at 24. I was fearless and did some amazing things. Sure I crashed and burned that first time, but I picked myself up and got right back in the game. In the end, some of my most interesting work was done before I was 30, and I can name lots of software people who did the same.

I think a major difference between then and now was that the early Eighties really was a children's crusade. The old guys over 40 were still in the real computer industry, and they left the toy microcomputers to us kids. There were a few greybeards, but they were a small minority. Today my generation dominates so much of technology that a tech gathering looks like an ad for Rogaine and Grecian Formula. Another contributing factor is the disillusionment of Gen X during the .bomb era. They got a chance to watch their elders make total fools of themselves, and many of them are still too scared to come out and play. This leaves a strangely bifurcated demographic of Boomers who made enough to hang out and see what's coming next, and fresh-faced college graduates who were in high school during the late Nineties, and never received stock options that drowned before they could be exercised.

Despite my visceral reaction to software entrepreneurs who look younger than my own kids (which may be one source of my problem), I'm pleased to find that my "stardar" is still in operation, despite the future star's age. I've always been good at picking out future software stars, and enjoyed befriending them. My son once noticed this by asking "Why are all your friends rich?" Of course, rich is a relative term. Neither I nor any of my friends own jets or private islands, but my son could see that we were able to meet for long lunches during the day, and didn't seem to be holding down 9 to 5 jobs. My response, seeking to motivate him to become an entrepreneur, was "I guess that is because I picked out very bright people twenty years ago, who were willing to start their own companies, and work very hard."

Last night I spotted another potential star at a dinner for Boston startups. I won't embarass him by giving his name, but my gut tells me he has star quality, whatever that is. I plan on looking for more rising stars in the Boston area, which is one reason why I want to get geek dinners started here. I think this next round of technology innovation could be built on an interesting collaboration between us old farts and young'uns who don't know enough to be scared of failure.

Geek dinner will have to wait until February

I knew that my first geek dinner would probably be small, but so far I only have one solid RSVP, so it makes sense to push it back to next month. I think I'll adopt Dave Winer's suggestion, and get a few friends together and then see if anyone wants to join us.

Harvard Square geek dinner: Thursday the 12th at 7:00pm

I haven't tried reserving a restaurant yet, but the dinner will definitely be somewhere in the Harvard Square area at 7:00pm on Thursday the 12th. From the emails I've gotten so far there is some confusion about this being a bloggers dinner. That wasn't my original intention, so non-bloggers are certainly welcome. I'm mostly interested in talking about new Internet and software technologies, but we'll play it by ear and see who arrives and what they are interested in. If you want to join us, RSVP by email (adam*at*darwinianweb.com) so I can reserve enough spaces.

Is Dave becoming a statesman?

I took a gratuitous shot at Dave in my last post, at least partly to see how he would respond. To my amazement he was gracious and offered some good advice on starting geek dinners in the Boston area. He even made a self-deprecating joke. Now I feel guilty. Could he be mellowing? Keep it up Dave and maybe we can have lunch at Bartleys again someday.

It's time to get a Boston geek scene going

I'm getting really tired of reading about all the Silicon Valley geek dinners, and parties. How come we never have these in the Boston area? MIT is here, we invented mini-computers, and we have Dan Bricklin. Boston is one of the world's centers for venture capital. So where are the geek dinners? They even have them in Sussex, England. I'm sure the Highlands in Uckfield is delightful, but it doesn't sound like a hotbed of technology innovation.

Come on guys, we can do better. How about a geek dinner in Harvard Square next Thursday night? Let me know if you are interested at adam*at*darwinianweb.com, and I'll arrange a location. I'm a huge fan of Border Cafe, but it can get awfully crowded. Upstairs at Charley's Kitchen may be easier, but greasier.

BTW, don't bother emailing me about Dave's geek dinner tonight. I've been to one of these events, and lets just say it was basically a Dave dinner. If you want to kiss Dave's ring you can meet him here.