Social networking sites and microblogs are used not only to build company brands, but to foster productivity; social media tools help build communities around the question, "What are you working on?" Top officers of some of the leading social media websites and tools (including Facebook, MySpace and Yammer) will be on the Panel, and there will be panelists from the worlds of media sharing platforms (Pringo), online advertising (Stun Media) and law (Greenberg Glusker), the latter to highlight risks relating to such issues as corporate blogging and privacy. Speakers: * Jason

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 One, is we plan on having 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 for

Central Desktop runs a software-as-a-service product which allows business teams to share documents, track schedules, and collaborate on other team activities. The new microblogging feature puts Central Desktop in competition with another local startup, Yammer, which has created its own enterprise and business focused take on Twitter. Tags: twitter microblogging desktop central saas software yamme Pasadena-based Central Desktop has jumped into the enterprise micro-blogging area, saying Monday that it has launched a new tool which allows companies to use Twitter-style updates within the firm's project management software.

But then your customes start using your products, your competitors come out with new offerings and your business partners decide to launch a similar product rather than working with you.  Did you know that their original product wasn’t a video camera?  What Geni.com beget Yammer.  I This is part of my new series on  what makes an entrepreneur successful .  I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.

GoGreenSolar - GoGreenSolar is global group of professionals dedicated to improve the distribution of renewable energy products, services and financing for people everywhere. Yammer - Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’ [Thank This video will show you the sartups that will show off at the next Twiistup , an event which highlights promising startups. I

Twiistup 5 –the brainchild of Mike Macadaan–lets startups show off their products to the crowd in a very non-conference setting (this time, a private hangar at the Santa Monica airport). Cogi , a service which helps you capture meetings and phone calls in text transcripts, scored the judge’s award (I was one of the judges);  the other firms were Causecast , eHow , FixYa , GoGreenSolar , Meebo , RoboDynamics , TheScene , Totspot , Viewdle , and Yammer . ...Tags: In what was a remarkable turnout–given the horrible economy we’re in–there were more than a thousand people at last night’s Twiistup 5 event.

Sacks, Yammer Product Development 101: The DNA of Market Disruption, Mark Jeffrey, Mahalo Build it and they will come, right? Everybody is going to love this, won’t they? It is really about the core technology — that’s where our value is.

and David Sacks of Geni/Yammer , who were saying “maybe/no”. The issue, highlighted by Sacks’ announcement that he was moving Yammer to Silicon Valley, was the perception that Southern California firms don’t get the attention and lavish praises, particularly from the press/Silicon Valley blogs/etc., Or, more likely, you’d be successful no matter what you are if you have the right products, people, and market. Last week, one of those never-ending topics of discussion came up at Twiistup on a panel about whether or not Southern California was a good place to put your startup.

The late night didn’t make for a productive start to the morning but by the time Sean Percival got on stage to host the panel with Chris Brogan, Micah Baldwin (who started #FollowFriday) and Ben Huh (ICanHazCheeseburger) there was a great discussion on what it takes to be an Uber-blogger and social networker.  After this was my panel (co-hosted by Christian Gammill who had to leave mid-way to race off to Hawaii to get engaged and by Tony Adam), with Mike Jones (COO of MySpace), David Sacks (founder of Geni and Yammer) and Jamie Montgomery (CEO of tech investment bank Montgomery & Co).