Peter Chun

A new project I’ve been working on with Darrell Silver, Erin Sparling, and Lee Semel launches today: CommandShift3.

It’s like Hot or Not, but for websites.

Started on a lark during a NYC Jelly session with Adam Varga, Darrell Silver, Dan Lurie, Erin Sparling, and Lee Semel, we’re really proud to open it up to the world today.

Much thanks to everyone who’s given us advice and support, including the celeb designers who recorded short videos we’ve hidden in the site for you to find. (Khoi Vinh, Matt Linderman, Taylor McKnight, Derek Powazek, Brad Smith, Ryan Sims, Dan Cederholm, Chris Messina, Ben Brown)

In an industry shaking move, four of the most influential new media organizations in New York - SobelMedia, NY:MIEG, The Producers Guild of America/New Media Council and For Your Imagination - are teaming up to bring you a Holiday Get-Together on Wednesday, December 12th starting at 7pm at For Your Imagination, 22 West 27th Street, 6th Floor. You can RSVP at the Facebook group or email bash@foryourimagination.com. For Your Imagination has been at the center of the most influential and industry shaping events in new media and online video events in New York City in 2007 ranging from Video 2.0, BigScreen LittleScreen, nextMadisonAve, CenterNetworks, nextNYers, Revver Content Creators and OneWebDay and this event is no exception.

Holiday parties, you know - the parties that can be really fun or be reaaally awkward and uncomfortable.   You feel you can start with a mixed drink and nurse it, then next thing you know you’re double fisting, laughing really hard and your face is all red with veins popping out because the quietest guy in the office is yapping about how someone’s tits are enormous.

You get my point.  Well, we’re in full holiday swing here and holiday parties are going down in the next few weeks.  Our holiday party doesn’t tee off until the new year but I will be sure to update.  In the mean time, check out the 10 rules of company holiday parties from lifehack.org

• Don’t be the drunk.
• Don’t bring the drunk.
• Don’t dress like an idiot.
• Don’t stuff your face.
• Don’t talk business all night.
• Don’t tip badly.
• Don’t tell inappropriate jokes.
• Don’t hit on your co-workers or bosses.
• Don’t drink and drive.
• Leave extra clothes in your car.

You should always keep extra clothes in your car and should always hit on your co-workers.

A collection of patchwork Blazers and Court Force Low and High will be dropping in ladies and mens colors this coming Spring. We had a preview of the Blazer two weeks back, this is the mens Court Force Low from that collection. The infrared like lining is pretty dope and the little snakeskin in the heel area adds additional flavor to this Court Force. Expect these in February ‘08.

Check out the Patchwork Blazer below…
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ALIFE just dropped their Holiday Footwear collection at their stores in NYC, Los Angeles and Vancouver along with American Rag, Barneys, Bloomingdales, Fred Segal, Conveyor and Commonwealth. The five holiday shoes are styled for the winter with plaids and sweater materials applied to their signature Everybody Low, Everybody High and Everybody Flood models. Via Freshness

Check out more photos below…
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For all the junior lady ballers out there these are pretty tough, minus the Tweety image the colors of this EQT is pretty fresh with bright yellow, orange, blue and white on the top and a fresh clear icy outsole. These are currently available at Major DC.

Major DC
1426 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20007

More images below…
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Is this really going to be the Zoom LeBron V NYC edition? After the very successful Zoom LeBron IV NYC Edition, see this pair leaves much to be desired. The abstract pattern of messages and numbers does not have the same tasteful affect of the very cool ZLIV NYC. Hopefully these early rumors of this being the NYC edition is false. Via HK-Kicks

More photos below…
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Last week, as many are aware, the Silicon Alley Insider released the much awaited Alley 100 list.

I say much “awaited” because (I feel no shame in pointing out) leading up to the release of the official list there was a large amount of activity on, and buzz around, a site I put up (using BricaBox) called the “Silicon Alley 100: People’s Choice.”

This was a place for “the people” to nominate and vote on folks to be recognized for their influence in the NY tech scene.

It was this list which stirred up quite a controversy within the nextNY community and greater NY tech scene, garnering scathing posts from folks like my friend Charlie O’Donnell along with mostly excited and engaging posts from folks like Greg Verdino and Darren Herman, to name a few (here are a few others).

Regardless of opinion, it was clear that with the People’s Choice version of the list everyone had an opinion. Either it was the best thing ever that “the people” had their own version of the list, or it was an example of how “the people” are ineffective at measuring influence and power.

So, when the Insider finally released their list last week, my first questions was, “How close were We?”

The answer:
Pretty darn close.
Minus some pretty big holes.
Plus some holes filled in by big misses on the Insider list.

Today I finally got around to posting a quantitative analysis comparing the list up on Google Spreadsheets. Check it out. I think it tells an interesting story.

What the list shows is that the “people’s” list had about 20 of the 100 people on the SAI list, under-weighting the average person by 13 places. This under-weighting was due, in part, to the fact that the “People’s Choice” list included 6 of the 21 unranked “Up and Comers” that the Insider recognized. (Full Disclosure: SAI put me in this list, which I can only attribute to a “typo,” as Caroline McCarthy did for herself.)

Now, there are several ways to interpret the difference in weighting of the lists, but I think it has to do with community and entrepreneurship versus power and the establishment. To illustrate this point, consider the folks who were most under-weighted and most over-weighted by the People’s Choice list.

Most under-weighted by “the people”:

1. Quincy Smith
2. David Rosenblatt
3. John Borthwick

Must over-weighted by “the people”:

1. Allen Stern
2. Andrew Rasiej
3. Charlie O’Donnell

What makes the first three folks “power and the establishment” is that their influence in exerted on the exiting and king-making side of “influence” (supposedly the measurement we were going by). Quincy buys “new media” companies; David sold DoubleClick; John sold Fotolog. It’s not a knock on them or SAI: It’s an observation of one way to measure influence.

The “over-weighted” folks, however, are the foot-soldiers, the folks changing (read: influencing) the face of NY tech literally from its grassroots.

Perhaps it’s a chicken and egg question, but I’m not surprised the “the people” sided with the grassroots side of influence (the egg?).

Anyway, I think the type of influence each list weighted is an important way to analyze what went on. Another way to analyze the two lists is by omissions.

Looking down the SAI list, it’s clear to me that “the people” missed some pretty important people altogether. Consider these “holes” (in order of measured importance):

1. Michael Bloomberg
2. Alan Patricof
3. Tim Armstrong
4. Jim Cramer

Then look at these omissions from SAI’s list (in order of measured importance):

1. David Rose
2. Stephen Colbert
3. Arriana Huffington
4. Clay Shirkey

Once again it seems to the a “people have spoken” vs a “powers have spoken” thing. Again, not that “power” is a bad way of measuring “influence,” it just shows you from what mindset a “people’s choice” list comes from and from what mindset a curated “kind-maker” list comes from.

So, I’m interested in what *you* read into these two lists. I personally believe that each has its place and each is important in its own right. I wouldn’t want the “official” list to have many of the folks who made it into the top of the People’s Choice list, but I also think a people’s choice version keeps the “official” guys honest.

Besides from the usually cries of “lists are stupid,” what are your opinions? I’d love to see a blog post or a few comments of your reaction.

Tonight was the last NY Video Meetup of 2007. There were major technical issues throughout the evening which forced one presenter to next month and kept us focused on the Wiffiti board for half of the time and doing individual intros for another piece of the evening. Frankly I was bored so my recaps below are short and blunt. Below are the videos for each presentation. I will allow this as normally the Video Meetups are quite good.

ModMyLife

I could swear I've seen this demo for ModMyLife before. The basic idea. They have actors who they don't pay act out stunts in NYC that the audience decides on. It's cute, not sure if it's the next killer idea but it's a good time waster. They won't let the actors do anything illegal or "dumb" so not sure how far they will go. But they do have "digg-like" voting.

 

Redlasso

Redlasso lets you take clips from other sources and put them together and then save or upload the final clip. They also monitor stats on where the files are stored. Questions around copyright and monetization came up - he had no concrete answers on either.

 

OriginDigital

The sponsor of the event - they showed off their Odaptor product. You upload videos, it converts them, makes an xml, makes various formats and can send them to various providers. Didn't really see anything unique or new - though it seemed very smooth in interface.

 

Sportsbone.tv

The only content creator of the evening, Sportsbone.tv creates video shows about football with a "funny" twist using lots of props it seems. A couple bits were funny. A woman in the audience suggested they do the shows live as the football game is in progress, I thought that was a nifty idea. Ten friends from college create this - each one focuses on another aspect of the business.