(internetweekny.com)

Unless you've gone off the grid, you probably already know that Internet Week 2012 launches on Monday. But with a dizzying number of events to attend, it's hard to figure out which ones are worth the time, effort and subway fare. Betabeat guest blogger Gary Sharma, something of an events truffle hound, already penned his personal list of recommendations. But consider this Betabeat's official to-do list: blogger tested, Betabeat approved.

The Art of Apps Gallery Opening
Monday, May 14th, 10am-6pm
138 Sullivan St.

Expect a lot of rounded edges and pixel talk at this gallery opening, featuring the designs of tech types like Path's Dave Morin, Jon Slimak of Piictu and Matias Corea of Behance. The exhibit will feature some of the best UI designs for apps on iPhone and iPad.

NYU ITP Spring 2012 Show
Monday, May 14th, 5pm-8pm
721 Broadway, 4th Floor

We write about ITP a lot (see the Listserve, the Descriptive Camera, and Kickstriker for some recent examples), mostly because the majority of projects produced by the students at NYU's interactive telecommunications program are actually really, really cool. ITP will unveil its best projects to the public in a two-day spring show on Monday 5/14 and Tuesday 5/15, and we think it's worth attending if only for the chance to see most of the most nimble young minds in the city at work.

Choosey Netizens Choose GIF: Analyzing an Animated Cultural Lexicon
Tuesday, May 15, 12pm-12:45pm
82 Mercer St.

We are huge fans of animated GIFs. In fact, we would probably devolve into communicating entirely through tiny moving pictures, if we could. Motherboard deputy editor Sean Yeaton will discuss how the GIF became its own cultural phenomenon.

Why Being a Good CEO has Nothing to Do With Being a Woman
Tuesday, May 15, 1pm-1:45pm
82 Mercer St.

If you haven't noticed, all of the full-time staff writers here at Betabeat possess two X chromosomes, so we're never ones to turn down a good panel about our fellow XX in tech. Featuring Birchbox cofounder Hayley Barna and Nestio CEO Caren Maio, in addition to some other talented lady founders, the discussion should offer some helpful advice on leading as a woman in the tech community.

TIME Inc.’s 10 Startups to Watch
Wednesday, May 16, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Top Secret

The list of TIME's 10 startups to watch reads like a week in Betabeat posts: NYC tech scene favs Code Academy, Art.sy, Fab.com and Side Tour are among the honorees. But the event is invite-only so be sure to get on the guest list if you want to attend.

WeWorkLabs Happy Hour
Wednesday, May 16, 5pm-8pm
175 Varick St., 4th Floor

First off: there will be free beer at this event. Plus, you'll get to check out the coworking space of WeWorkLabs, a NYC tech staple that seeks to foster collaboration between up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Check out some of the pitches from WeWorkLabs members and network with other like-minded techies.

hackNY Fundraiser
Wednesday, May 16, 7pm-9pm
foursquare HQ: 568 Broadway, 10th Floor

10gen will be providing drinks for a celebration of the hackNY community, an event to help raise funds "for the future tech innovators of New York City," and keep kids off Wall Street as the slogan goes. We had a pretty great time at the last hackNY fundraiser. But if nothing else, it's a chance to peep Foursquare's sweet office digs.

The Webutante Ball
Wednesday, May 16th, 8pm-11:55pm
Marquee

Don't pretend like you don't want to see the digerati all dolled up. The Webutante Ball is in its 4th year, and it's not really getting any cooler, but there will be lots of drinks. The "prom committee" is packed with NYC tech allstars, like Ben Lerer, Dave Tisch, plus old school fameball Julia Allison.

Walkabout NYC
Friday, May 18th, 1pm-6pm
187 Lafayette St. 6th Floor

If you're a fan of the Roger Mag, or just an interior design nut, you'll probably want to take some time to hit up Walkabout NYC, an open house of startup offices around the city. The lineup includes Betaworks, Gilt Groupe, Tumblr and Facebook, among many others.

Future of Media Panel
Friday, May 18th, 1pm-2pm
20 Cooper Sq. at 5th st. (NYU's journalism HQ)

Oh look, another panel to discuss the future of an industry about which no one has the slightest clue. Yay. But! The lineup is packed with A-list names in both media and tech, including Buzzfeed's Jonah Peretti, Thrillist's Ben Lerer and Jezebel's Jessica Coen. As long as everyone's candid about the real state of things, we think it should prove pretty entertaining.

Walt Mossberg with Steve Jobs in 2007. (Source: Wikipedia)

DIA DE TECNOLOGIA. New York Tech Day was full of NYC based startups—from the established to the unfunded—all stages in the NYC tech lifestyle were represented. The companies that follow really stuck out to NY Tech Day Judges. Best use of Location - BiteHunter, Best Design - Chartbeat, Best Educational Startups - Three Ring, Best Social Startup - GiftSimple, Best Booth Design - Cannonball, NY Tech Day Staff Choice - Snakblox, Best use of Data - Hoppit, Best Mobile App - Uber, Best Business Model - Temboo, Best Enterprise Startup - SendGrid, Best Unfunded Startup - Unroll.me.

KICK BUTT. Everything Butt Art, the adorable drawing app for iPad, just launched a Kickstarter campaign. As of this writing, the founders have raised just over $1,000 and still have a ways to go towards that $20,000 goal.

SMELLS LIKE... "Inside the Internet Garage," a new series from NYU Steinhardt with thoughts on early Internet history from technology's leaders will kick off  tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at NYU's Courant Institute. AllThingsD cofounders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg will be interviewed by professor Aaron Cohen for the series' first event. More information and registration is available here.

IN THE APP STORE. MyCityWay, an app that users can personalize to get the information they need, is now available on iOS. From theatre tickets to fuel, users can find deals on the things that matter to them with real time updates.

JOB HUNT. The Daily Muse, a website devoted to women and their careers, has been featuring cool employers with job openings on its company board. Busy bees seeking a new hive can search by company type, size and location among the likes of StumbleUpon, Airbnb, Giorgio Armani, Tumblr and Mashable, to name a few.

HELLOOO, NURSE. Thanks to ZocDoc, Detroit residents no longer have to pull out hair or fight dangerously high blood-pressure when scheduling doctor's visits. The Motor City is the startup's 17th market.

FUNDS. AdSafe Media just locked down $10 million in funding from Pelion Venture Partners, Atlas Venture and Coriolis Ventures. AdSafe helps protect brand identity by determining, at the page level, whether or not the content is appropriate for that particular ad.

PARTY. Another entrant to the party planning space, imbookin.com seeks to make throwing a party at one of New York City's main attractions easily and of course, below full price. Partners with over $1,000 New York venues, imbookin.com allows users to customize all the details online. Open bar? Check. Light appetizers? Check to that one too. Eventup, another party planning and event booking site, also popped up recently in New York.

JOBS FOUND. Work Market is looking for a community manager with "STRONG ENTREPRENEURIAL desires" to work on email marketing campaigns and viral marketing initiatives. Apply here. DerbyJackpot needs a lead Rails developer slash chief gambling officer for the first gambling game to be launched on Facebook (coming in June). If you have Rails, CoffeeScript, Redis and Jasmine chops, email Tom. Vimeo is looking for backend, PHP application, cloud system, Java data, junior video encoding and entry-level web application engineers. Apply here.

Me. and Mr. Jones (minus me)

In the past couple weeks, two startups from Science (the Betaworks of Los Angeles!) have tried to break into the New York City market, so it seemed like high time we gave Mike Jones, the CEO of Science and former CEO of MySpace, a call.

The Betaworks comparison refers to the fact that Science, which raised $10 million last November, uses its capital to "take deeper equity relationships" in startups than a typical VC firm, Mr. Jones said over the phone, noting similarities to Obvious Corp. and Idealab as well.

Science both launches its own companies and is intimately involved with the operations of the businesses it invests in. Like Betaworks, Science also eschews the i-word—i.e. "incubator"—opting for the more Hollywood-appropriate "studio."

The incubator studio has added a number of companies to its portfolio already, including monthly subscription services Dollar Shave Club (razors), Whittlebee (kid's clothes), and MeUndies (self-explanatory), as well as peer-to-peer marketplaces Dog Vacay (an Airbnb for dogs) and Eventup (an Airbnb for spaces) and Uncovet, which TechCrunch likened to a fancier Fab.

Indeed, it's hard not to look at the Science club and see its startup influences. "There's certainly new business models being created and in certain cases we like to apply those business models to segments of the market that they haven’t necessarily been applied to," said Mr. Jones. "We don't shy away from that by any means. We obviously really like subscription commerce, but we were not the first people to do subscription commerce."

However, he noted, in many cases the subscription service pioneers that come to mind--like Shoedazzle and Birchbox—weren't first-to-market either. "We all fail to talk about Columbia House and people that really understood this model—even Guthy-Renker for instance, the master of this stuff."

Mr. Jones said Science gravitates towards, "businesses that have really high user-value, which typically means they’re in a role of facilitating transactions between users. Generally, we’re not focused on content-only business, like it’s just not part of our DNA."

What about Los Angeles overall? If New York startups are characterized as being too lightweight on the tech side, what do people say about L.A. companies? "One of the general stereotypes for L.A. that you might hear is that L.A. startups are typically very revenue-focused," said Mr. Jones. "I think that’s fairly true and I think one of the reasons for that is that in L.A. not a lot of large technology companies have big technology teams. [So] there’s not a lot of acqui-hire ability. Because of that, a lot of the companies that get built in LA. are focused on revenue and building sustainable businesses."

Mr. Jones's answer sounded a little like responding "I work too hard," when an interviewer asks about your weakness. After all, isn't the inability to monetize the worry about of companies coming out of the current boom? He insisted that's not the case. "You could easily take the opposite view and say Instagram was not focused on revenue, it was focused on audience. Facebook built a fantastic business with a lot of revenue, but one could argue that if Facebook had focused on revenue in the early days, it would have diminished their ability to become the big audience business they are today."

How does a tech scene function in a town fixated on the entertainment industry above all? According to Mr. Jones, it's a unique opportunity. "I think when you look at companies like BeachMint and Shoedazzle and Honest Company where you have celebrity talent that’s really spending time and leveraging their audiences into launching new companies that’s certainly interesting and can be a strategic advantage for L.A.-based businesses, so I love that."

In this case, the "talent," Mr. Jones is referring to is Kim Kardashian for Shoedazzle, Jessica Alba for Honest Company, and everyone from the Olsen twins to Jessica Simpson for BeachMint.

But Mr. Jones swears it's not just about the fame game. "We’re also seeing a lot of ecommerce companies coming out of L.A. and I wouldn’t have said previously," he said. "Being in L.A. for a long time and doing a lot of investing in L.A., I’m seeing higher-quality businesses and concepts coming out of L.A. than I’ve seen in the past."

So is everyone there sick of reading Alley vs. Valley headlines? "No, not at all. At the end of the day, I think each market has things that make it competitive. I love the financial services companies coming out of New York. Silicon Valley is a monster. We don’t compete against Silicon Valley. There’s no one that’s the next Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is the next Silicon Valley. It’s fantastic and we should all love it."