I recently visited my hometown of Woodstock, Illinois where I lived from birth till about age twenty as I welcomed wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. It was a super wine event sponsored by the Woodstock Fine Arts Association as part of the Creative Living After Dark series. I was happy to introduce him to the crowd at the historic Woodstock Opera House which has been around since 1886 and housed a number of popular acts including the movie Groundhog Day, Orson Welles and Paul Newman. Follow along as I captured the days festivities as episode 52 on SOMEWHAT FRANK.

Social media is life. I lifecast my photos, videos, thoughts, music and more to share with the rest of the world via the Web and mobile devices. Yesterday, I sat on a super panel moderated by Jesse Thomas of Jess3 at the Interact2008 conference with: Ken Kaplan of Intel, Jim Long a cameraman for NBC, Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy PR, Debbie Weil a corporate blogging expert and Nick O'Neill of Social Times. The panel anchored the first annual two day digital media and marketing conference. It was a lot of fun as we all shared our social media perspectives, advice and stories. We even had Q&A via Twitter by monitoring this Twitter Leaderboard. It doesn't get more "social media" powered than that.

I chatted with the Gyminee team as they demoed at TECH cocktail Boulder 2. Check out episode 51 on SOMEWHAT FRANK as I chat with Andy Smith and Steven Blankenship from Gyminee.

I love startups. I love social media. And I love "shiny new objects" as I refer to the new products on the Web. I am in Orlando, Florida today and spoke at BlogOrlando this morning all these "shiny objects" of the Web. I have share some of the shiny new objects I mentioned today in my session - because sharing is caring. :) You can watch the session as it was recorded and streamed live. 

Communications
Gmail - For email that allows away messages
AOL Mail - For email with a personalized domain
Remember the Milk - Enables me to create to-do lists that can be pulled into Gmail or accessed on the iPhone with a pro account
AIM Instant Messenger - For instant messaging using AIM client and within Gmail
AwayFind - Enables people to connect with me quickly via a form that sends a message to my mobile device - more AwayFind details
Facebook - This social utility offers an opportunity to communicate with some of my friends and family
Twitter - This microblogging platform is great for communicating to a larger group of friends like a broadcast instant message both online or via text message
Plurk - a unique timeline interface on a lifestreaming product which encourages sharing - more on Plurk

Photos
Flickr - I have a pro account and over 7500 photos uploaded... like this one of my breakfast yesterday. :)
Fotonauts -A well done photo site for photographers

Video
TubeMogul - For easy distribution of my video podcast videos onto as many platforms as possible in only a few simple steps - more TubeMogul details
Viddler - A video platform I use which offers a slick video player with inline comments and player widgets, I use it for SOMEWHAT FRANK.
Blip.tv - A video platform I use for formulating my SOMEWHAT FRANK video podcast feed
Vimeo - A video platform I use for embedding SOMEWHAT FRANK videos
YouTube - For online videos shorter than 10 minutes
eyespot - I don't use this one as much but it is still the only online video product that allows you to edit video and then download the edited video in multiple formats
Animoto - offers an easy interface for creating slick videos of photos put to music that resemble movie trailers - more on Animoto

Text Messaging
MyDropCard - an SMS text message business card and contact management solution that sends contact info emails - more MyDropCard details
Contxts - an easy to use electronic business card solution for sending your contact info via text message - more details on Contxts

Blogging or Microblogging
Typepad - A hosted blog platform - SOMEWHAT FRANK, is powered by Typepad
WordPress - An open source blog platform - the TECH cocktail site is powered by WordPress
Tumblr - A microblogging platform - I use it for SOMEWHAT FRANK tidbits - more Tumblr details

Storage
Evernote - A digital dropbox with a desktop, Web and mobile component - more Evernote details
MyDropBin - A digital storage interface for Amazon S3 Storage - more MyDropBin details

Content Discovery & Sharing
Mixx - Social news - more Mixx details
Digg - Social news
Delicious - Social bookmarking
StumbleUpon - Content discovery
Shareaholic - A consolidated sharing extension for Firefox - more Shareaholic details

Analytics
SiteMeter - Offers a snapshot view of daily site traffic and activity
FeedBurner - Analytics for my feeds including number of subscribers - more FeedBurner details
Google Analytics - For deeper site traffic metrics

News & Information Management
myAOL - A personalized startpage and feed reader experience
FeedHub - Creates a personalized feed list based on your reading habits - more FeedHub details
AideRSS - Ranks items in a feed by popularity - more AideRSS details

Search & Alerts
Google Alerts - Alerts for monitoring the Web
Filtrbox - New more sophisticated alerts product for monitoring the Web - more Filtrbox details
Lijit - Blog search engine which offers search analytics - more Lijit details

Lifestream Aggregators
SocialThing - Aggregates all your profile updates and your friends into one lifestream - more SocialThing details
MyBlogLog - Creates a community and lifestream around your blog community contacts - more MyBlogLog details
FriendFeed - Creates a conversation around your lifestream
TwitterFeed - Aggregates my items and places them into my Twitter updates automatically - more TwitterFeed details

Travel
Dopplr - Share your travels with others online - more Dopplr details
Tripit - Organizes your travel plans for you - more Tripit details

Project Management
Basecamp - A project management tool created by 37signals

Finance
Quicken Online - I tried to use Quicken for Mac and it was way too complicated so I gave Quicken Online a shot for managing my financial picture easily in one place.

iPhone Apps
Shazam - finds music by listening to a tune
AirMe - location enabled Flickr photo uploading application
urbanspoon - offers a way to randomly find restaurants in your neighborhood
Pandora Radio - Stream a constant flow of music personalized to your liking
AOL Radio - Stream radio stations for a number of regions anywhere

Thanks to Josh Hallett for pulling together BlogOrlando and inviting me to speak.

Today I traveled to Champaign, Illinois to host our first ever campus TECH cocktail event at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).  With the support of the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation and Fox/Atkins Development, LLC we are pleased to be hosting TECH cocktail Champaign. For those who don’t know UIUC, is arguably the birthplace of the modern Web.  Mosaic (later called Netscape), TCP/IP, apache and various other internet technologies we take for granted were pioneered at UIUC.  Also, the founders of PayPal, YouTube and other top web companies are UIUC alums.

This morning we were on the CBS Network affiliate WCIA 3 Morning Show with Amber Jenne, Jennifer Ketchmark and Rob Collins as we looked to preview the event.

The event will show off six local Champaign-Urbana startups which will be demoing in an expo-style at the event. The six startups demoing include:

Autonomic Materials Inc. (AMI) - created self-healing polymer coatings for anticorrosion applications.

Cazoodle - offers “deepen” search on the Web–to access the vast amount of data beyond the reach of current search engines.

ISS - the overall goal of ISS is the commercialization of the instrument for clinical applications, specifically in Cardiovascular/Cerebrovascular and Sleep Medicine.

Network Geographics - creating tools to simplify and automate the analysis of changes to an enterprises security stance.

NPL Associates, Inc. - solving tomorrow’s energy problems NPL pioneered the NaBH4/H2O2 fuel cell technology in the United States.  NPL Associates, under a DARPA SBIR contract, has demonstrated for the first time the feasibility and excellent performance of peroxide-based fuel cells.

Snap and Buy - an intuitive and social mobile service that enables users to receive immediate access to price-comparison, reviews and other product information simply by taking a picture of the barcode of a product using their cell phone. Additionally, Snap and Buy will instantly poll the users’ Facebook friends to get their opinion on “Should I Buy?

Special thanks to Tony Millenbine for helping to organize our first Big Ten-style TECH cocktail event. And don’t forget to join the TECH cocktail COMMUNITY at: iam.techcocktail.com. Cheers!

Check out episode 50 on SOMEWHAT FRANK an interview with Andrew Hyde (shown below) and help Andrew decide what to do for the next six months as he appears to be a crossroads.

Come along as I venture from DC to NYC about the blazing red Bolt Bus for episode 49 on SOMEWHAT FRANK and offer up some perspective and tips on making your Bolt Bus experience a good one.

Having a pet can be a lot of responsibility and time. For jettsetters like myself I have had to go the low maintenance route the last few years as I had a pet fish. Unfortunately, my pet fish just passed away yesterday after 3 years - R.I.P. Art the Beta Fish. :(  So I may be in the market for a new pet and I have been looking for other alternatives to having a pet which have included pet rocks, chia pets and other options. I recently visited the office my friend Micah Baldwin at Lijit and met his office pet, Kyle, a lovable green PLEO robotic pet dinosaur by UGOBE.

Check out my visit with Kyle the PLEO dinosaur in episode 48 on SOMEWHAT FRANK - adventures into a personal technology lifestyle, in the video below.

This video with Kyle the PLEO is also available on: YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, AOL Video, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Crackle, Viddler and Vimeo.

We took a walk in the park and got to chatting about startups, technology, electric cars, pets and even encountered a rather distracting making out session. Check out video episode 46 on SOMEWHAT FRANK with Meghan Asha (below).

You can also find this video on: YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Crackle, Viddler and Vimeo.

With the 2008 Presidential election only 48 days away it has been a rather unique one as no other election that I can recall has gone on this long or leveraged mobile and web technology so resoundingly. I previously called this Election 2.0 as it is leveraging the new Web 2.0 technologies as they race for the White House. Today I participated on a super panel discussion at the NVTC Cool Tech event focused on the effects of social networking sites on the election 2008 and I was joined by:

Ben Adler, Staff Writer, Politico.com
Joel Cherkis, General Manager, Government Solutions, Microsoft
Ed O'Keefe, Multimedia Journalist, Washingtonpost.com

MODERATOR: Wyatt Andrews, CBS News

The panel was moderated by the very polished, Wyatt Andrews, a veteran CBS News reporter. It was a pleasure to meet Wyatt and to learn of his experiences, including, his experience serving as White House correspondent for George Bush Sr.

My focus points during the discussion were about how social mobile technology has:

• Engaged more people in the election by keeping up with videos online or just by following my trusted friends on Twitter or Facebook.
• Created a real-time feedback loop for monitoring feedback. Twitter and Facebook status message are great for getting up the minute updates and feedback.
• Enabled candidates to connect on a more personal level through the channel of their choice. Whether it be on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Email or via text message candidates can personalize their messages and meet followers and supporters on a number of different channels.

Overally, it was a very interesting discussion.  We all felt this election will be a case study for years to come, but it is not one hundred percent clear how much of an impact social media and networking will have come election day. It is pretty clear that Barack Obama has been winning the online social media race but it is not clear as to how it will translate to voters on election day. It is also worth noting that many voters are not on social networking sites to begin with so the use of social media and networking statistics to determine a clear victor is very difficult. Every vote counts so I hope you can make it out to polls in November. 

Aside from following candidates on Facebook or Twitter, here are a couple of additional political "shiny objects" or products you might also want to check out: TechPresident, Politics4All and C-SPAN's Convention Hub.

I am excited to announce TECH cocktail DC 3! We hosted our last TECH cocktail DC in the spring and since then have hosted a conference in Chicago, as well as mixer events in Chicago, Boulder and Boston. In case you missed these events you can check out the TECH cocktail photos.

Here are the important upcoming event details:

___

Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008

Time: 6:30pm - 9pm

Venue: MCCXXIII: 1223 Connecticut Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20036  (Map)

RSVP: tech-cocktail-dc-3.eventbrite.com

____

If you are interested in sponsoring TECH cocktail DC 3 you can purchase a sponsorship online. Also if you are interested in demoing your startup product or service please contact me. See you there!

Check out episode 46 on SOMEWHAT FRANK which was actually shot in the back of a car driving in San Francisco.

fotonauts - images for humanity

videosurf - innovate video search product that can "see" inside videos and index them

bojam - unites musicians across the globe to make music.

atmosphir - free gaming platform which is like legos for game creation

playce - amazing looking 3D Web games

birdpost - very niche social network for bird watchers

closet couture - solid fashion social network - looks like a lot of work though which could be an issue with adoption

footnote - though a little gloomy this is a bit of a social network for the deceased - it will be interesting to see how social the dead really are

causecast - create a set of tools for raising money for non-profit causes

goplanit - auto suggesting travel planner online toolset

goodguide - an impressive presentation of the world's largest and reliable source of information for products you found in your home

iamnews.com - creates collaboration newsroom which open sources or crowdsourcing news reporting through syndication (won the demo pit opportunity to present)

TechCrunch50 was an exhausting three days. We saw a lot of new startups and saw some bad ones too. I got a chance to meet some great people and learned a few things along the way from the various panels at the event. Congrats to every company that particapted in TechCrunch50 from the main stage to the demo pit.

Check out video episode 45 on SOMEWHAT FRANK (below) as we talk fantasy football.

OpenTrace - Trace products back through the supply chain
OtherInbox - takes a new approach to helping combat email inbox overload
Popego - social aggregator with sliders to determine most interesting items
Fitbit - sensor product for tracking your personal health stats
Tonchidot - location based mobile tagging application
me-trics - health stat aggregator
Emerginvest - finance news meets emerging markets.
iCharts - searchable easy create web charts
Swype - innovative data entry tool for mobile devices
Postbox - inbox reorganization tool

Overall, the question for many of the startups launching is:

Are these really products - or just features that could be added to existing products?

Tomorrow is the final day of startup demos and I hope to chat with a few more startups in the demo pit and in the hallways of the conference.

I am currently at TechCrunch50 sitting in the second row behind the panel judges which has included the likes of Marisa Mayer, Chad Hurley, Marc Andreesen, Yossi Vardi and Ron Conway among others.  It has been a rather busy day I am taking photos and tweeting out every so often.

I am on the lookout for some awesome new products, gadgets and such to showcase in a video episode of SOMEWHAT FRANK which covers adventures in a personal technology lifestyle.

If you have a product that fits the mission I just explained and you think I might like, please comment on this post with a tip.

With the melting of the polar ice caps due to global warming, raising awareness of actionable items to combat the problem has become a top priority. Technology has played a role in this global warming and we all can do little things to help make sure the planet stays just a little cooler. Cool Globes is a non-profit organization that aims to help raise awareness by rallying local, national and international artists to create "cool" globes depicting potential ways to cool the planet. 

I recently visited the Cool Globes exhibit as it traveled to Washington, DC and created video episode 44 for SOMEWHAT FRANK. Check out the video (below) showcasing the Cool Globes project. Also check out these photos from my Cool Globes visit.

This video can also be found on: YouTube, Metacafe, Google, AOL Video, DailyMotion, Blip.tv and Crackle.

I have previously questioned if technology will replace business cards as well as explored some printers taking fresh approaches to keep business cards alive. Recently a couple of text or sms message business card providers like  TextMarks and a few others have emerged to help you ping your information to anyone by text message. Just this week a new product emerged called MyDropCard which offers users the ability to send a nicely formatted email of your contact information all with a simple text message as the initiator. It just takes about 30 seconds to create an account online and then you can start sending dropcards to new contacts you meet. It also keeps track of all your contacts for you too.

MyDropCard was a product of the most recent incubator DreamIt Ventures which had its investor and demo day this week in Philadelphia. Check out video episode 43 on SOMEWHAT FRANK as I explain MyDropCard.

Chris describes Mixx as:

"The face and body of a site like My Yahoo, Netvibes or PageFlakes, a social media heart like a Digg or Reddit and LinkedIn limbs so you can hold hands if you like. And inspired by Marvin Gaye because we are all sensitive people with so much to give."

I have attempted to diagram the anatomy of Mixx. Also check out the video which is episode 42 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV as I explore and get personal with Mixx at the "mixxing bowl" headquarters in McLean, Virginia.

This video is also available on: YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, AOL Video, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Crackle and Vimeo.

Angelsoft recently launched a new version of the site and released the video (below) which explains the entrire concept and their mission.

I think Angelsoft is a great idea, especially if AngelSoft can truly aggregate all the angel investors into one place. I deifnitely curious to hear what traditional venture captialists think of the new Angelsoft launch.