The topic is: Betting Your Company On An Internet Platform? A very interesting topic, especially for those of us involved in developing for start-ups. The basic conclusion was that it was a bit premature if you were talking about a serious, funded start-up. Interesting term used in a ZD Net article - Platform as a Service (PaaS) Unfortunately, Peter sells the promise and ignores the I'm blogging from the CalTech Enterprise Forum . At the CTO Group that I organize in Santa Monica, we've had lots of discussions around this.

Individuals use social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo as career-advancing tools, even more useful in a down economy. Yammer was launched on stage at TechCrunch 50 on September 8, 2008 and won Best in Show. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. Just a quick note that I'll be moderating a Technology Council Event : Social Networking as a Business Strategy May 19, 2009 - Culver City Social networking media are used on a daily basis to grow businesses and expand career opportunities. Corporations increasingly see

In March 2007,  when Pownce launched, Twitter didn't have much of a head start. Leah Culver was a co-founder and the lead developer of the social network and micro-blogging website Pownce, which was acquired by blog juggernaut Six Apart in November 2008. think, if I were to do a new start up or a different company, I would pick it in an area where there wasn’t such good competition, determined competition. We talked about more than Pownce and Twitter in this interview. Leah Culver is a developer who launched many projects.

People are using email, IM, soc nets like LinkedIn and Facebook, SMS, and video chat -- all of these are really places to communicate. Video chat is one of the next things and is starting to take off, since almost every computer you buy now either has a camera on a laptop or desktop. People are on GTalk, Yahoo, AOL--and to keep up with them all you need an interoperable solution. There are a lot of users, with lots of different email and instant messaging accounts, who are finding that there are too many ways to communicate with their friends and associates. Los Angeles-based

Our interview this morning is with David Sacks, CEO of Geni.com, an online family tree and social networking site, as well as Yammer, the instant messaging startup spun out of Geni.com at TechCrunch50. We sat down with David to catch up on what Geni and Yammer are doing, plus got his insights into entrepreneurship and the Paypal mystique. Thanks We're up to around 2 million David has a unique perspective on the Southern California technology environment, having been the COO of PayPal before its acquisition by EBay, and having had the full Silicon Valley experience. Thanks

gid=1775486 Self-description: "80% of jobs (or more) are found through networking, so as a group of professionals from many different industries, we started our own local networking group in 2008. gid=1326117 Self-description: "This group is for local and area residents of Pasadena, CA who are LinkedIn and would like to expand their professional network." Frequency: Up This is will be a continually updating post. I'll be creating additional lists for educational, chamber of commerce, etc. Organizational representatives: please contact me directly for updates, etc.

On Wednesday, September 10 2008 we had our first 8 by 8 dinner - and by most accounts it rocked.  The audience represented a diverse group of talents: RFID engineering, owner of a web startup, recent MBA grads, a PhD student in chemical engineering, and IP law.  It is my personal mission to draw forth the best techniques from successful startups and disseminate them to a wide audience.  We had an evening filled with great discussion from a really diverse group, along with great food and wine provided by Tanino’s Restaurant in Westwood village (the lasagna is killer, BTW). 

Los Angeles-based Causecast, a new startup focused on promoting causes and non-profits, launched this week at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco. The founder, Ryan Scott, was co-founder and CTO of email marketing firm NetCreations, which had an IPO in 1999; Scott is also an angel investor, and lists himself on LinkedIn as an investor in Tesla Motors, Mahalo, Dipity, and a number of other startups. The firm said will "harness the power of pop culture" to help social causes and non-profits. The firm said it is working with celebrity and corporate leaders, including

San Diego-based OpenCandy , a new startup focused on software recommendations and downloads, said this morning that it has raised $3.5M According to OpenCandy, the funding round came from Bessemer Venture Partners, O'Reilly Alphatech Ventures, and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Jordan Greenhall of DivX. The firm said it was started by early founders and members of DivX, and is looking to help users discover great software applications. in a venture capital funding. OpenCandy said it is developing technology which allows developers to recommend other software products.

If you will be there, please look me up!  Not a member? Just join us on LinkedIn or Facebook . Second, let’s make sure the SoCal tech and startup community can get together for some drinks before the year is up.  for an informal meetup to talk about tech, politics, and the economy in the LA startup world. We have a double header for everyone this week: First, I will be attending Dealmaker Media’s VC Outlook discussion and mixer next Tuesday Dec.