The Next Web

TheNextWeb2008 Update: Vote for Last Two Demos

Written on April 1, 2008 – 9:05 am
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

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In only 2 days The Next Web Conference 2008 will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We will post short daily updates about speakers, initiatives and events here.

Earlier we announced the 24 start-ups that would present on stage at The Next Web Conference in two days. We announced the first 22 and we thought it would be a good idea to let you decide who you want to see in the last two 5 minute presentations.

So now YOU can decide which 2 companies will present on stage on Friday. The two companies who have the most votes on Wednesday April 2nd at noon will be presenting on The Next Web.

We played around with a couple of widgets and Poll PHP Scripts but decided it would be more fun to simply count comments.

Here are the companies:

	Up2date.net Navigation by Meaning: Easy navigation from daily mail, documents & search to related information by a semantic navigation map.
	VIDDIX.com VIDDIX is a new video platform that allows users to add all kinds of webcontent to their video timeline. This new video platform will enrich the online video experience in ways never before seen on the web.
	Locle.com Locle is the hottest mobile geo-social networking app, showing your location and if friends are near, without a need for GPS or operator LBS.
	Soocial.com Hassle-free contacts for people with friends. The same addressbook on your phone, Macs, webapps like GMail and Highrise and access via API.
	Wuzzon.com Wuzzon stops the ringtone mafia! Celebrating their 1st anniversary & ready to conquer the world. Vote for this female dynamic duo on stage!

So go ahead, leave a comment here with the name of the company you would like to see on stage! The company wih the most comments will win!

Haven’t registered yet? Do it now before we are sold out…

Locle, soocial, thenextweb2008, Up2date, viddix, vote

227 Comments »

SXSW: Where were the Europeans?

Written on March 16, 2008 – 12:43 pm
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web

This is a guest post by Stefan Fountain from Dutch start-up Soocial.

By now most will have read about the Zuckerberg revolt (video here, and more), the release of Clickpass, and all the other big news. Yet I noticed something equally remarkable at the SXSW conference in Texas last week.

Building Portable Social Networks Panel - with Jeremy Keith, Chris Messina, Leslie Chicoine, Joseph Smarr, David Recordon

My impression of SXSW has been generally very good, the quality of the panels outstanding, yet the most important part of visiting this conference was - surprise! - meeting people. Walking around and having conversations with the likes of JavaScript heroes John Resig (jQuery), Thomas Fuchs (script.aculo.us), Sam Stephenson (Prototype), Chris Messina (OAuth evangelist), Simon Willison (OpenID evangelist). At parties I met people from Google, Microsoft or Yahoo! in various stages of intoxication. I even got some quick peeks at Billy Bob Thornton and Moby.

It wasn’t until the last day at the closing party when I was talking to a hard-to-understand German that I realized something. This was the first European I had spoken to. We met the great guys from Brighton-based Clearleft and quite a few other British guys, but where were the main-land Europeans? Perhaps I missed them, yet I’m judging from the panels, parties we went to and after speaking to over a hundred people. The statistics support my theory. My contact at SXSW confirms that 3 percent of the attendees came from the European mainland. Although the statistics on traffics to sxsw.com probably don’t say much, cumulative European visits is around 16 percent.

For what is arguably the most important tech event of the year, is the lack of European involvement a sign of something greater? Is it the current political climate, lack of European startups, overkill of our collective chauvinism or <enter any far-fetched reason here>? I don’t know, but what I do think it’s important to be present either to influence someone’s views, or to be influenced and inspired yourself.

So I would encourage European startups and established companies to head over to SXSW next year as it is well worth the money, jet lag, the occasional loud Americans, fat food and other pre-conceptions largely encountered on this trip. I think it’s time we head over the pond to learn, meet and share our own wealth of knowledge.

conference, europeans, lacy, Opinion, soocial, swsx, us, zuckerberg

13 Comments »