(Photo: wikipedia.org)

Game Over? There seems to be a mass exodus at Zynga. It was reported yesterday that Wilson Kriegel, the former chief revenue officer of Omgpop, has now left the company. In the last 30 days, the company has lost its COO, CCO, and two vice presidents. Maybe it's time for them to "draw something" different, like a new management plan.

A New Hope? In much better Zynga news, the company has partnered with Food Network's Robert Irvine to help beef up its Chefville game. Mr. Irvine has introduced a series of challenges to help improve the game where you run your own restaurant. "I couldn't be more honored to have an avatar of myself and Restaurant: Impossible be a part of ChefVille," Robert Irvine said in a press release. "As we lend insight to players on what it takes to create their dream restaurant while earning my approval."

Do It Live Livestream, the live video streaming service, announced full access to its suite of live video and live blogging tools. The suite includes encoding software for Mac and PC, ad-free event pages and mobile broadcasting to the web from their Livestream for Producers iPhone app. No ads during a broadcast? Perhaps they've been inspired by Occupy Wall Street's Ustream'er Tim Pool.

Oh You Fancy Huh? Just in time for Christmas shoppers who like to get stuff done early, Fancy has just launched a group gifting platform that allows users to create a gift, invite others to contribute to it, then sends the gift to the recipient. They've also announced a partnership with American Express to help designers like Prabal Gurung sell their goods on Fancy, while giving buyers rewards like cash back for big purchases.

Droid BFF's Sonar, the friend-finding app with the cute submarine mascot, just launched a version for Android. Along with the Android release, Sonar is adding six more language options to the app. The startup also slipped in a version of the android mascot (Andy Roid) into their app to chat with new users.

Tha Envelope Plz The Webby Awards have announced some new judges for this year's ceremony including Rachel Sterne and David Karp. Other new influencers on the panel include OK Go's lead singer Damien Kulash and Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale. Sounds viral enough to us.

Not Soup In case you weren't subscribed to enough luxury-lifestyle magazines, now there's DuJour. They already have three million subscribers through a glitzy partnership with Gilt Groupe. Their site is pretty glamorous and should trigger a consumerist impulse or two.

Get The Artists Rich Louis C.K.'s novel idea of independently selling tickets to his comedy shows has sparked a new venture called Artful.ly Open Source. It allows creators to sell tickets or accept donations without going through the big ticket companies or any expensive vendors. Quick, test it out before Dane Cook makes it uncool.

Ride or Die The team from Dwolla, the app that lets you send and receive money to other users, captured their ride in a special 1920's vehicle that was part of a promotion for HBO's Boardwalk Empire. The group told a passerby to download Uber in order to book his own ride in the car. We hope there was some sort of commission?

Bach To Relevance 92nd Street Y is attempting to rebrand Johann Sebastian Bach through an interactive keyboard website. Each key has a different video that shows you something about Bach you've never thought of before, like Lady Gaga's connection to the classical man, and cats enjoying Bach.

Our Two Favorite Adjectives Quirky and Fab have teamed up to sell a slew of custom designed iPhone 5 accessories. They have some shiny colorful cases, as well as this wallet/phone case that we're really digging.

Mr. Lodwick, Mr. Watts, and Ms. Cantrell (Photo: Instagram/Mike Bodge)

Love must be in the sticky, humid, sweltering air this season. After three Facebook mafia nuptials in a succession, New York techies are taking their turn at the altar.

The New York Times covered Rachel Sterne's East Hamptons wedding to LiveStream founder and CEO Maxime Haot twice in the past two months, once in a trend story about live-streaming your special day. (Yes, they live-streamed it. No, you couldn't watch without a password.)

However, Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick, perhaps burned by the public's response to previous displays of affection, avoided the paper of record's carefully combed-over Wedding section.

(Photo: Facebook)

Besides, isn't that what Instagram is for?

Earlier this week, Mr. Lodwick used the app to document the wedding ring tattoo he got at Three Kings in Greenpoint, noting that "It felt like they were sawing my finger off with a steak knife." On Saturday, guests tweeted photos of Mr. Lodwick's wedding to dancer and choreographer Robin Cantrell, director of the Indelible Dance Company. Mr. Lodwick directed a number of videos of comedian Reggie Watts, who officiated the ceremony by asking the bride, "Do you promise to accept his eccentricities and reject his bullshit?"

Last December, we broke the news that Mr. Lodwick had raised around $1.5 million from prominent New York investors like Chris Dixon, Lerer Ventures, David Karp, Bre Pettis and David Tisch without an idea for a product. Earlier this month, Mr. Lodwick offered some details about the company's two projects: Debris, which he describes as an IRC with images, and Elevision, a platform that lets users discover and watch films and boasts a rather stunning logo.

Skeptics of Mr. Lodwick's funding-before-idea concept take note. Elepath has already used its "Darwinian framework" model to axe development on an iPhone app called Cult that was supposed to help users make social plans. "It sort of worked, but while we were building it, we saw 30 other apps come out that did the same thing, and not get much traction. And even though Cult was different, it wasn’t different enough to stand out (or even to make US happy)." AMEN.

Ms. Sterne's ceremony concluded with fireworks on the water. Mr. Lodwick offered guests a parting gift of Mast Brothers chocolates wrapped in what appears to be an illustration of the couple naked. Artisanal Brooklyn's version of a tiger-monkey photo booth?

Aol's Andrea Hong, GroupMe/Skype's Steve Cheney, TechStars' Justin Overdorff, Shelby.tv's Chris Kurdziel and Lauren Appelwick, American Express' Meghan Paul, Acquaintable's Joel Rodriguez and Greycroft Partners' Alisa Richter posing at the always epic Webutante Ball @ Internet Week 2012. (Photo: Nick McGlynn / Random Night Out)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), Founder & CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary@garysguide.com.

"I think I just ran into Michael Stipe!"
"Get outta here. Srsly?"
"Well it looked like him."
"Wait, who's Michael Stipe?"
"The lead vocalist for R.E.M."
"Hmmm, are you sure you saw Michael Stipe?"
"Well he was bald and looked familiar."
"Maybe you saw Moby. You sure it wasn't Moby?"
(We all peered into the crowd gathered at the Hard Candy Shell party scanning intently to see if we could spot a familiar, bald rockstar.)

Welcome to Internet Week 2012, y'all! Where the young & the restless mingle with the bold & the beautiful mingle with the rich & the famous all brought together by the seductive beauty and power of this thing we call the Internets! :)

With over 500 companies and 40,000 attendees, Internet Week (now in its 5th year) is billed as a celebration of the city's thriving Internet industry and community. As festival co-chair David-Michel Davies (a.k.a. dmd) pointed out, it's the web, not TV, that is driving the conversation today and is the hub of all things pop culture. And New York is very much a big part of where innovation on the web is happening. "New York is an exceptionally entrepreneurial city," Mr Davies pointed out. "People come here for opportunity, and it’s been like that since the city was founded."

Well, you know what they say. Mo' innovation = Mo' Companies = Mo' Money = Mo' Jobs! :) Yes, I can get behind that. (Also it's been two months since all the partying + boozing + schmoozing + debauchery of SXSW and things have been a tad slow lately. Internet Week, you've arrived just in time!)

Tumblr Founder & CEO David Karp outside the Internet Week 2012 HQ

Demand Media's Oxygen Bar at Internet Week 2012 HQ

My journey began outside the aptly named Internet Week HQ, a 50,000-square-foot space at 82 Mercer. As I patiently waited in line to get in, a couple of girls behind me were chatting excitedly about their startup. "So what's it about?" I asked, unable to resist poking my nose in their bidness. "It's called Picksie! It's an awesome-new-iphone-app-for-location-and-proximity-based-discovery-service-for-things-to-do-near-you!" Their enthusiasm was charming and infectious and I agreed to check it out.

There were a ton of panels and keynotes all through Internet Week. Here are some highlights:

Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore sat down for a fireside chat with Mr. Davies and reminisced about starting Mashable at age 19 back in Scotland in 2005 out of his bedroom and bootstrapping it all the way through. (Interesting factoid: Mashable was hosted on WordPress instead of TypePad because it was too expensive at $10 a month!) Mr. Cashmore pointed out how the lines between consumer and producer are rapidly blurring as users are not just passively consuming but also activately creating and publishing content. Mr. Cashmore also noted that the value of social media is how it becomes our personal filter to the world around us helping make sense of it and making it more personal and relevant. (Personally, I'd have loved it if Mr. Cashmore shed some light on when/how he stumbled upon the goldmine that is Top 10 Lists ;))

In an hour-long conversation, the New York Times' David Carr and Brian Stelter explored the fast-changing world of media consumption, discovery, reporting and business models. "It was scary when it was first announced with all of us there in the newsroom," noted Mr. Carr, regarding the Times' decision to erect a subscription paywall. "We all held hands and jumped through the wall!" "Nobody should ever break news on Twitter," continued Mr. Carr. "There is certainly value to breaking news, but not to kidnapping it." Both Mr. Stelter and Mr. Carr cautioned against getting sucked into the Twitter echo-chamber. "Don’t mistake Twitter heat for real heat!" (Okay, I get it ... Mr. Carr looks at Twitter the way a mouse looks at a rattlesnake ;)

New York's CEO Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiling the Mapped in NY initiative to help connect job seekers with startups looking to hire.

CNN Money reporter Laurie Segall, LearnVest CEO Alexa von Tobel, ArtSpace CEO Catherine Levene, Birchbox Co-Founder Hayley Barna, Mashable COO Sharon Feder and Nestio CEO Caren Maio at the 'Why being a good executive has nothing to do with being a woman' panel

Then there was the "Future of Media" panel, where folks from the media industry gathered to discuss--you guessed it--the future of media. Reuters social media editor Anthony De Rosa and recently elected Yahoo board member Michael Wolf opined on the continued relevance of smaller local newspapers and Warren Buffett's recent purchase of 63 newspapers. Jezebel's Jessica Coen gave a thumbs up to the tactile feel of glossy magazines that just can't be replicated digitally quite yet. And Buzzfeed's Jonah Peretti noted how Facebook was by far their biggest traffic referrer, surpassing Google.

IAC chief Barry Diller announced at the Federated Media CM Summit that they will be launching an offline component to Match.com. So what does that mean exactly? Well, it means Match.com will be organizing more face-to-face, curated, in-person events. This seems to have disaster written all over it, but I do give Mr. Diller points for trying!

There was video blogger Shira Lazar chatting with new age spiritual guru Deepak Chopra, who has a new YouTube channel The Chopra Well and is working on his 65th book, Spiritual Solutions (talk about prolific!). We waited breathlessly for Mr Chopra to impart one of his trademark enlightening comments and he didn't disappoint. "We are but a speck of dust in a huge infinite void somewhere in the junkyard of infinity." Yes we are!

Video blogger Shira Lazar interviewing new age spiritual guru Deepak Chopra in the Whats Trending section

But as we all know, while panels are great, Internet Week (like SXSW) is really all about the parties, right?!!

There was the opening day party at Internet Week HQ followed by the after-party at Tribeca Grand, where I ran into a bunch of people including the lovely Jennifer Laxmi from Picksie, Stylemusee's Karen Moon, Laughing Squid's Scott Beale, DotGo's Michelle DeForest, Interference's Jessica Randazza and others. The founders of a new startup launching soon called Klooff (it's Instagram for pets!) gave me an impromptu demo in the lobby downstairs. OMGPOP founder Charles Forman offered us strange orange tablets and encouraged us to mix them into our drinks. Which we promptly did. And that's pretty much the last thing I remember from that evening. I kid, I kid! It turned about to be just some tangy, Vitamin C stuff that Charles had picked up somewhere. This wasn't that kind of party, y'know! ;)

There was the Time Inc. party to celebrate the magazine's 10 NYC Startups to watch (ahhh top 10 lists again). The theme of the conversation was very much about 'Why NYC' as a place to start a company. Adaptly cofounder & CEO Nikhil Sethi mentioned how 99 percent of their customers were within a one-block radius of their offices. Sidetour cofounder & CEO Vipin Goyal talked about the breadth of amazing experiences available in the city including one of their more popular tours, "dinner with an investment banker-turned-monk in an East Village monastery." Only in NY! Art.sy founder & CEO Carter Cleveland reiterated what we all know, that New York is pretty much the center of the art world. And Fab.com CMO Scott Ballantyne talked about trying to replicate online that experience of walking down SoHo on Greene Street with one's friends on Sunday and discovering something in the shop window.

Mary Beth, Taylor Bennett and Kaki Read of Warby Parker at the Refinery 29 / Warby Parker party during Internet Week 2012

There was, of course, the much-anticipated Webutante ball (a.k.a. Nerd Prom a.k.a. Everyone Gets Laid Tonight) hosted by Richard Blakeley (Managing Editor at Thrillist) at Marquee, which had lines snaking around the block. I made a beeline to the bar where a young 20-something mentioned to me how excited she was to get away from her corporate cubicle world and finally dip her toes into the "NY tech scene cesspool." Uh-huh. Another pretty young thing whispered in my ear how she loved my curls and proceeded to slide her fingers through them. I closed my eyes, downed the remainder of my drink and signaled to the bartender for an encore. Yes, this was going to be a fun night!

As I made my way thru the crowd familiar faces popped up everywhere. There was The Next Web's Courtney Boyd Myers alongwith Storyful's Erica Berger. RecordSetter's Emily Meithener was there, as was Folio's Niamh Hughes and Sailthru's Aubrey Sabala. Thrillist founders Ben Lerer and Adam Rich and their posse were staked out in a corner. There was the hot (and poachable) Andrea Hong, who does bizdev for AOL, hanging with fellow bizdev cohort Steve Cheney of GroupMe/Skype. I got a hug from Perks Consulting's Lauren Perkins, who'd just arrived with Zelkova Ventures' Jay Levy in tow.

I ran into 360i social strategist Rosie Siman and MDC Partners' Faris Yakob. Mr. Yakob's dreadlocks are getting to be almost as crazy as my curls, if not crazier! I caught up with the lovely ladies of Morris+King - Chi Zhao and Elisabeth Maria. There was WeWork Labs' Matt Shampine, excited about their recent expansion into SF and even more excited about a recent excursion to wine country in Sausalito. Next to him was our very own Betabeater Adrianne Jeffries chatting with frenemy Dick Talens of Fitocracy. Eventually, as all parties do, this one had to end and we all headed over to the after-party thrown by Charming Robot at Destination Bar. The crowd grew drunker, the voices grew louder, the night grew warmer and the party grew crazier.

Gary's Famous (and Sponsored) Red Tie at Webutante Ball at Internet Week 2012

Shelby TV's Reece Pacheco and Lauren Appelwick crowned King and Queen of Webutante Ball at Internet Week 2012. (Photo: Nick McGlynn / Random Night Out)

There was TapRoot's Make It Happen party at a sexy private loft + rooftop apartment in Soho. Taproot's trying to connect folks who are interested in doing pro bono work with charities who could use their help. A worthy cause if there was one. I bumped into a bunch of people including TapRoot's Wendi Sturgis & Robert Acton, Morris+King's Andy Morris, DBG's Chris Young (our gracious host), Social Innovators Collective's Shana Dressler, NY Tech Meetup's Dawn Barber, OMGPop's Charles Forman and others. Inc.'s Howard Greenstein regaled us with stores about the early, early days of Silicon Alley, of Mac User Groups and BBSs.

There was Nick McGlynn's always-happening Obliterati party at Sweet & Vicious, where we all downed copious amounts of margaritas in jars (a.k.a. jargaritas!).

There was The Art of Apps show at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art, which showcased the art and design behind some of the coolest apps such as Path, Mixel, Cameo, Paper and others. As event host (and gdgt founder) Peter Rojas noted: "Creating an amazing user experience for an app – one where the device itself almost melts away – requires a thoughtfulness and cleverness that can be hard to find." Amen, brother.

There was the Stylecaster party, bringing a dash of fashion & style to Internet Week and attended by Fueled founder & CEO (& 50 Most Stylish New Yorkers honoree) Ramit Chawla (who I hadn't seen since SXSW), Foodspotting's Soraya Darabi, Chloe+Isabel's Lindsay Kaplan, Hearst's Head of Digital Marketing (and StyleCaster Co-Founder) Brandon Perlman, The Next Web's Courtney Boyd Myers, Intermix's Dani Axelrod and many more.

Stylecaster's Ari Goldberg, David Goldberg & Meghan Cross and Everyday Health's Mike Keriakos

There was, of course, our very own Betabeat's one-year anniversary party (they grow up so fast!) co-hosted with the Barbarian Group on their awesome Tribeca rooftop with a view to die for. As I arrived, I got a warm hug from Betabeat editor Adrianne Jeffries. Later I ran into Observer Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Spiers, who told me she loved my column. High praise indeed from the founding editor of Gawker and the high priestess of blogging! There was ex-Betabeater Ben Popper who recently jumped ship to VentureBeat and blink-and-you-missed-it jumped again to The Verge.

I bumped into Mr. Webutante Ball himself Richard Blakeley and girlfriend Lindsay Kaplan of Chloe+Isabel. They mentioned they were planning to take a much-needed vacation to Italy. Right on! VYou cofounder and man-about-town Rex Sorgatz was there with the Wall Street Journal's Monica Vosough. Mr. Sorgatz complained that people had been lately confusing him for Barbarian Group cofounder and angel investor Rick Webb. I looked at Mr. Sorgatz, then looked at Mr. Webb and then back again at Mr. Sorgatz. No, I didn't see it--but then again, I was only on my second drink!

I ran into General Assembly's Matt O' Brimer and Jake Schwartz. GA has been on an expansion tear lately, first with London and then Berlin, and the pair were excited about their new online initiative, as well. Mr. Schwartz promised to connect me to their guy in London, where I'll be headed to later this month to explore Tech City. I caught up with Alli Mooney, who I hadn't seen a long, long time. Alli heads trends and insights marketing at Google. I met the lovely Nikki Durkin, the recent Y-Combinator graduate and 99Dresses founder, who bootstrapped her startup down under in Australia. We chatted about her experience at YC, the grueling interview process and the secret to acing it. (Yes, there is one. It's called showing traction. PG loves traction! :))

As the evening progressed, I ran into a whole bunch of acquaintances including Union Square Ventures' Christina Cacioppo, Aviary's Michael Galpert, Barbarian Group cofounder Benjamin Palmer, ABC's Maya Baratz, NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne and many more. Yes, this was definitely a happening party!

Betabeat's One-Year Anniversary Party on the Barbarian Group Rooftop (Photo: Zarah Burstein)

McGarryBowen's Taylor Lorenz and Adotube's Bitsy Metcalf at the BetaBeat 1 Year Anniversary Party on the Barbarian Group Rooftop

Later, a bunch of us headed over to the party at Hard Candy Shell's new offices. Retro was very much the theme, with audio cassette tapes sprinkled everywhere and Mr. Webb snapping and sharing Polaroids all around whilst puffing on an electric cigarette. We ran into foursquare tech guru Harry Heymann at the entrance. He invited us in and encouraged us to make ourselves at home, which we did. The lovely Brooke Moreland from Fashism (there with her beau Joe Wiesenthal of The Business Insider) waved at us. I bumped into former Hard Candy Shell chief and now Charming Robot founder Dan Machharone. (Mr Machharone incidentally is also a co-owner of the aforementioned Destination Bar)

The lovely Bitsy Metcalf and I put on our sunglasses and hammed it up for the camera. A screen on the wall was playing YouTube videos of impossibly cute cats & dogs. I chatted with foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, Laughing Squid's Scott Beale 'n Rusty Blazenhoff and designer Emma Welles. We all got excited at what seemed to be a whisky cabinet but upon closer inspection it turned out to be just a whiteboard inside. No hard candy for us :(

foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley on realizing the whisky cabinet was really just a hidden whiteboard (Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

And finally there was the Internet Week closing party at IAC's snazzy Gehry-designed west side digs and hosted by hot new streaming-TV startup Aereo. The event was teeming to the brim with celebrities and the city's movers 'n shakers, including actors Wilmer Valderrama, Tyrese Gibson, Carrie Keagan and Allison Williams, IAC honcho Barry Diller, Match.com president Mandy Ginsberg and others. Actor and Comedian Will Arnett was manning the DJ booth.

Actors Will Arnett, Carrie Keagan and Tyrese Gibson at the IAC / Aereo Internet Week Closing Party

The two Rachels: Rachel Sterne and Rachel Sklar at the IAC / Aereo Internet Week Closing Party

Actor and comedian Will Arnett manning the DJ booth at the IAC / Aereo Internet Week Closing Party

The final crowning moment of Internet Week 2012 came as Mr Davies, alongwith the city's Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne and a bunch of others, rang the NASDAQ closing bell on a day that saw the exchange host the historic debut of the IPO of Facebook, arguably the most important Internet company of our lifetime.

Internet Week Co-Chair David-Michel Davies and NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ

“I’d love to get a time machine and go back to 2004 and invest in Facebook,” quipped Mr Arnett.

So would I, Mr Arnett. So would I.

Mr. Pinsky and Ms. Sterne

Yesterday morning, Betabeat popped out of the subway a little further downtown than normal for an Internet Week breakfast panel at Eventi. The four speakers, assembled to discuss the city's role as a leader in the new tech economy included Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Rachel Sterne, the city's chief digital officer, Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of Cornell NYC Tech, and Craig Gotsman, director of the Cornell-Technion Innovation Institute.

Considering our profile of Mr. Pinsky and multiple features about the battle between Stanford and Cornell to win a chance to build on Roosevelt Island, it was not unlike seeing the pages of Betabeat on stage--only with free pastries and a lot more suits.

The event, which was sponsored in part by the Observer Media Group, was moderated by New York Observer editor-in-chief Elizabeth Spiers and former New York City Council member Kenneth Fisher from Cozen O'Connor, another sponsor.

We were hoping the panel would touch on the often-overlooked subject of failure rates among startups, which surfaced recently in a report about the state of Startupland, New York. And the topic did indeed arise, by way of an anecdote from Mr. Gotsman, who said one of the key traits of a good entrepreneur is willingness to take a risk. "If he's not willing to take a risk, he's dead before he starts, he's just not going to start," said Mr. Gotsman, before launching into what he called "a really bizarre example."

"I was recently sitting in McKinsey--the McKinsey here in New York, the management consultants. They were helping us to do some research behind offerings on the new campus," said Mr. Gotsman. They had assembled a team of 15 "techies" from within McKinsey, that included recent graduates from Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Berkeley and the like who had studied computer science and engineering, even up into the post-doc level. "Literally I could see the sparkle in their eye," when he talked about the mission of the applied sciences campus, said Mr. Gotsman. "I asked them, why are you guys not out there making startups?" he said, "Why are you sitting here in McKinsey giving me advice about how to do it? They answered, 'We didn't want to take the risk.'"

Mr. Gotsman said the city needs to figure out a way to educate and help the best and brightest to become less risk averse.

Mr. Pinsky chimed in that the issue of risk was tied to the ability to build critical mass in the startup sector, which he called, "the biggest challenge that we face."

"Once you have that critical mass it becomes self-sustaining," said Mr. Pinsky. "So you have to have a number of people who have succeeded as well as a number of people who have failed and you can use those lessons for themselves and teach them to others."

Dean Huttenlocher put a finer point on it. "The reason critical mass is important in the tech sector is because 90 percent of startup companies go belly up," he said, adding that employees are well-aware of that. "Until you have a critical mass where there's a really good community not just in scale but also in strength of the networks of people across the corporate boundaries, it's very hard to attract the best talent. Because they need to know that they know somebody at ten other startups so that when this one blows up, they can jump to another one seamlessly. They don't have to spend six months unemployed. And that's something that other areas of the country have that we're just starting to build here."

The Made in NY Digital Map

It was sticky and rainy outside, but scores of people showed up to see Mayor Bloomberg shake his tech pom-poms today at Internet Week HQ. The Mayor trudged to 82 Mercer to announce a new initiative alongside chief digital officer Rachel Sterne, NYCEDC president Seth Pinsky and--surprisingly--Josh Miller, the cofounder of Branch.

So what exactly did Mr. Mayor have up his sleeve? Turns out it was a new interactive map that displays the locations of tech companies around New York City. A sidebar also displays which of these companies are currently hiring.

The map "also locates the offices of investors, making it an excellent tool for entrepreneurs in search of capital, and includes over 30 tech incubators," he said. "We expect this map to be another tool that helps propel our tech industry forward."

Ms. Sterne elaborated, "Right now, there are over 600 startups, investors and incubators listed on the map, and we invite others to submit their company because this is an interactive resource."

Ms. Sterne also said that over 320 companies on the map are hiring, equating to "more than 1,000 open jobs in New York. The message is loud and clear: New York City is open for business."

So much rah-rahing was starting to make us nauseous. After Mr. Pinsky spoke, Mr. Miller then took the podium and briefly listed three reasons why he decided to move Branch back to NYC, the last of which was, "I much prefer a slice of New York pizza to a San Francisco burrito."

Finally it was the press's turn to ask questions. We were dying to ask the Mayor if he's keeping to his New Year's resolution to learn how to code.

Unfortunately, we never got called on. Maybe next time, Mr. Mayor.

via Morning Joe

New York City's chief digital officer Rachel Sterne has already graced the pages of Vogue magazine. But this morning, fresh off of waving the Made in NYC™ pom-poms at SXSW, she stopped by MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to announce NYCgov's new Facebook photo contest to get your pic on the big screen in Times Square.

Joe Scarborough and his guests took the opportunity to shout out their personal digital requests, such as Wifi in the subway and shower.

"You know, I'm a small government conservative," said Mr. Scarborough. "But you know just—

"—Free wifi for all," interrupted one of his guests.

"Everybody!" Mr. Scarborough continued, gesticulating enthusiastically. "User name: USA. Password: Number1."

Our favorite part, however, had to be at 2:14 when Mr. Scarborough tried to explain Foursquare to his cohost Mika Brzezinski. "Foursquare is where you tell people where you are at any given time." Ms. Brzezinski response? "Why would you do that? What's wrong with you?"

We hope Denveen isn't too offended. After all, the hosts had a similar aversion to Facebook. "I don't do it. I tried once, did you try? It takes a lot of time out of the day," noted Ms. Brzezinski, inspiring Mr. Scarborough to offer this novel recommendation: "Can you block it in New York City?"

]]>

via Morning Joe

New York City's chief digital officer Rachel Sterne has already graced the pages of Vogue magazine. But this morning, fresh off of waving the Made in NYC™ pom-poms at SXSW, she stopped by MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to announce NYCgov's new Facebook photo contest to get your pic on the big screen in Times Square.

Joe Scarborough and his guests took the opportunity to shout out their personal digital requests, such as Wifi in the subway and shower.

"You know, I'm a small government conservative," said Mr. Scarborough. "But you know just—

"—Free wifi for all," interrupted one of his guests.

"Everybody!" Mr. Scarborough continued, gesticulating enthusiastically. "User name: USA. Password: Number1."

Our favorite part, however, had to be at 2:14 when Mr. Scarborough tried to explain Foursquare to his cohost Mika Brzezinski. "Foursquare is where you tell people where you are at any given time." Ms. Brzezinski response? "Why would you do that? What's wrong with you?"

We hope Denveen isn't too offended. After all, the hosts had a similar aversion to Facebook. "I don't do it. I tried once, did you try? It takes a lot of time out of the day," noted Ms. Brzezinski, inspiring Mr. Scarborough to offer this novel recommendation: "Can you block it in New York City?"

]]> http://betabeat.com/2012/03/watch-rachel-sterne-on-morning-joe-as-joe-scarborough-tries-to-explain-foursquare-to-his-cohost/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver Screen shot 2012-03-21 at 11.56.31 AM http://betabeat.com/2012/02/mayor-bloomberg-announces-official-nyc-facebook-twitter-tumblr-and-foursquare-page/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:22:09 -0400 http://betabeat.com/2012/02/mayor-bloomberg-announces-official-nyc-facebook-twitter-tumblr-and-foursquare-page/ Nitasha Tiku http://www.betabeat.com/?p=29601

NY ♥ Kelly Choi

Time to get serious about social media! And what better time than Social Media Week. New York City may be winning accolades for its sloppy, wet embrace of the local budding tech sector, but City Hall was still a step behind. Too that end, during Mayor Bloomberg's speech at Tumblr headquarters today, he announced that the city will be streamlining its efforts with four new central channels on Facebook and Twitter, and well as hometown heroes Tumblr and Foursquare all under the NYCGov handle.

Of course, because this is government we're talking about, links to said channels weren't embedded in the press release. But to get some idea of just how tangled and confusing the city's existing forays into social media are, take a look at this list, showing the manifold Twitter accounts and Facebook pages by agency, department, community board, etc.,  until it's practically just a dude on a street corner tumbling about his block.

In a press release, the Mayor, who stood before Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne, NYC EDC President Seth Pinsky, and Tumblr CEO David Karp while making the announcement, said:

“In this era of the information age, these social media platforms are where so many New Yorkers are increasingly getting their news, conducting their business, sharing their opinions, and living their lives. With these new channels, the City will be able to get New Yorkers the information they need in the way they want to get it.”

As Ms. Sterne added, it was all according to plan:

“When the Mayor and I outlined the Digital Road Map last May, we recognized that for the City of New York to realize its digital potential, we need to embrace new technologies. We also know that it is crucial that we use digital media in a way that is efficient, making life easier for New Yorkers and always meeting their needs,”  said Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne. “The NYCgov channels we are introducing today achieve the best of both worlds, and thanks to support from our partners, we know that we are able to go above and beyond in taking advantage of all that Bitly, Buddy Media, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr and Twitter have to offer New Yorkers.”

The city's biggest accomplishment by far, in our view, is the plan for an applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island built by Cornell and Technion. The city has also been tweeting, Tumblring and Facebooking more, which may seem frivolous but in reality probably makes government more accountable, transparent and responsive than many of its other initiatives. The ReinventNYC.gov Hackathon stands out as the greatest example of wasted potential: an almost-great idea, city bureaucracy kept the event closed, low-impact and kinda corporate (hackers had to submit portfolios in advance and it helped if they had designed a website with over 1 million visitors a month). Also, nyc.gov, the city's retro website which has ballooned to more than a million pages, still hasn't relaunched.

All in all though, we'd say the city had a good digital year:

1. "Mayor Bloomberg created NYC Digital and we hit the ground running with a focus on improving the way we serve New Yorkers through digital technology."

2. "Publishing the Road Map for the Digital City, which gathered information about the state of the City’s technology initiatives and outlined our plans to realize New York City potential as the leading Digital City in the world."

3. "We hosted the City’s first-ever hackathon, Reinvent NYC.GOV... it was a great success and attracted developers from across the country who built innovative prototypes re-imagining the City’s website."

4. "With our Engage NYC initiative, we’ve developed workshops and training sessions for communications staff across City government."

5. "We unveiled NYC Open Data, a repository of over 850 government datasets, and an accompanying Tumblr for striking data visualizations to make our data more accessible to the broader NYC community."

6. "We grew to over 200 social media channels with more than 1.5 million followers across City government."

7. Opened new offices with Facebook, Twitter and Yelp.

8. "The Applied Sciences NYC Initiative which heralds the creation of a brand-new engineering campus in New York City."

9. "The Social Media Advisory and Research Taskforce, a group of digital pioneers from across City agencies, has been instrumental in embracing new technologies and evolving policies."

10."Our great @nycgov Twitter feed."

Where is the Grand Central Apple store on this list??

This happened.

You know that tiny little corner of Mayor Bloomberg's office occupied by those primarily concerned with making the future of New York City totally futuristic (better known as NYC Digital)? They're at it again!

Yesterday, NYC Digital launched their NYC Open Data site on Tumblr, which is basically a bunch of datasets obtained by the city, and posted on the internet for anyone to play with the API.

The NYC Open Data Tumblr aims its sights on those who wouldn't normally sift through said data sets, and post them to Tumblr in hopes of provoking interest among the whisperyblogging set, or ideally, the results of opening up their API to everyone, which has the potential to yield some amazing stuff. In the mean time: Greenmarkets! Firehouses! Park locations! Baby names! And so on. Per the Tumblr:

As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to transparency and innovation, over 800 (and counting!) City datasets are now online for anyone in New York or around the world to explore and access via an API, for deeper, real-time integration into apps and websites.

Nerdy! Service-y! And so on. Even more compelling is the recently-launched NYC Food Recipes Tumblr, which—note of criticism—is being sorely underused. It could be the digital epicenter of the most underground ethnic food recipes from some of the best ethnic neighborhoods in the country, and yet: Low Fat Pumpkin Cupcakes? Where are the dumpling recipes of Flushing, the jerk chicken secrets of Crown Heights, and the best Bulgolgi in Bedford Park? This thing could be so much cooler. If we wanted boring recipes for boring muffins, we could go pretty much anywhere else on the internet—let alone, the world—to find them. Just because a municipality is spending cash on digital infrastructure doesn't mean it has to be as boring as the bureaucrats who run it. Just sayin'.

Cat that swallowed the startup canary. (via Flickr)

If you haven't gotten the memo, Mayor Bloomberg is uber-amped about the tech scene. Look over here folks, nothing to see at Zuccotti Park!

Not only has El Bloombito been stopping by tech meetups and demo days, but he's also christening techie offices. After all, "We just want to change the world" is an easier industry to get behind than "Hey, thanks for that bailout."

This morning, Mayor Bloomberg and "head nerd" Rachel Sterne, fresh off her Vogue profile, swung by Yelp's new East Coast headquarters, stationed in Union Square (for maximum local tech cred). According to AM New York, Yelp's office will house 65 full-time employees, including 20 new ones, including local and brand sales execs plus marketing. (When Valley giants come out East, they tend to bring the sales and marketing side more than the engineers.)

NYC Digital proudly displayed the Mayor's statements on its Tumblr:

“Yelp’s new office is the latest proof that New York gets five stars as a home of growing and innovative tech companies,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “But we’re working hard to create jobs not only in the tech sector, but also among the small businesses - from restaurants to hardware stores to auto shops - that Yelp users review.”

Small and nimble. Someone's catching onto the feel good, anti-corporate rhetoric fast. He even left a review of Yelp...on Yelp.