joe6pack

I run a large meetup (SVNewTech), and agree with a lot of the points this article makes. I've tried to apply the email marketing concepts to my startups, and have seen others do so, as well (Convore & Quora come to mind).

One interesting aspect of Meetup's email strategy that the author doesn't mention (because it's only tangentially related): Meetup.com doesn't give organizers access to their community members' email addresses. The only way for the organizer to contact the community is through Meetup - this creates lock-in to the service (and much frustration). It's probably a wise business policy for Meetup, but becomes a point of contention for the organizers of larger groups.

On a related note, Meetup seems to succeed in spite of itself. They recent released sweeping changes to the design & functionality of the site without notifying organizers, resulting it this epic thread of discontent: http://www.meetup.com/boards/thread/10376961/0/

I think there's a great opportunity to create a service like Meetup that addresses some of these downfalls. If anyone is interested in building something like that, let me know: joe (AT) svnewtech [DOT] com

At surface value, sure - although if you want a table at one of these places, it's fairly useful.

The backstory is that we used this mini-project to see how we work together as a team. We're working longer-term on NivNav.com, but wanted a short, isolated project where we could feel out our collaboration style. HackerTable.com was born.

I'd recommend this approach to any early-stage startups that are looking for co-founders. Obviously don't distract yourself with side-projects if the timing isn't right, but seek out short, isolated projects where you can get a sense of how you'll work together.

Indeed it is - that was the point of the site.

I've lived in both for at least 3 years, and can attest that there are wonderful resources & communities in each available to startups. So why do we keep filling HN with these posts?

Get them made, paid, or laid, that is.

Absolutely. I'd also recommend the tutorials at Lynda.com for really in-depth overviews - they have a whole set of tutorials focused on web design with CS5: http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk0=116

That said, Lynda.com is subscription-based and tends to be lengthy. A short set of tutorials on key techniques would be a great resource.

My flow is Balsamiq for rough mocks / usability testing, Fireworks for design comps, and Photoshop only for actual image processing (mainly as a hobby). Balsamiq is awesome once you learn some of the hotkeys, and many of the commands overlap with those provided by Fireworks. The founder of Balsamiq was a Sr. Software Engineer at Adobe, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I'm not naturally a sports fan, but I always find it good for social purposes to stay at least marginally aware of them (at least the major events). So, hacking in front of the TV for a change.

That said, football brings to mind a great PG quote: "Kids are sent off to spend six years memorizing meaningless facts in a world ruled by a caste of giants who run after an oblong brown ball, as if this were the most natural thing in the world."

Perhaps the tech industry is just the most difficult to judge?

I finished this recently and could not agree more. I've just started the 1980's miniseries via Netflix (no streaming, unfortunately) - I'm only two hours in, but so far it is a great retelling.

"Daemon" and "Freedom" by Daniel Saurez. Very enjoyable reads, and chock full of not-too-distant futurism. They display an enormous amount of thinking about how social networks and the massively increased availability of data about our lives are changing the ways we interact with each other. Sprinkle in mysteries that play out in both reality and MMORPGs, lots of interesting devices, and a terrifying peek at what a technology-driven global economic meltdown could look like, and you have the basis for these books.

Agree with Ben on #2 - Twitter is far from a being a satisfactory solution for spontaneous group organization. As it has evolved to be increasing about sharing news, tweets are quick to slip below the fold unless you've limited your following to only your closest friends (and they aren't heavy users). The feed simply isn't conducive to organizing events that are tied to a specific time and only involve a subset of your social network.

I get a sneaking sense that there are a lot of #2's on the not-so-distant horizon. Makes sense that social, mobile & location would converge in this manner.

I'll add my alpha to the list: http://poig.com - I love this space and am curious to hear what people think.