event

QuickVite takes Evite on the go

Evite added mobile capabilities yesterday to speed up the party-planning process. Its QuickVite features let you send invitations in one step from an e-mail account or mobile phone, and handle RSVPs the same way. Of course, you can also juggle the details at Evite.com.

This could help to make managing a party less exhausting. Even picking a design for an online invitation can waste time, especially for a last-minute get together. For instance, Evite offers 57 templates for cocktail parties alone, not to mention options for dozens of events from anniversaries to weddings.

The painless sign-up process requires adding … Read more

How green are green conferences?

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the vast waste of materials at the gargantuan Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Mobile phones frozen into buffet ice sculptures just scratch the surface of the showcase of an industry that thrives on planned obsolescence.

Three years ago, I'd asked the planners of CES about its waste management, receiving befuddled looks in return. But then I stopped worrying and learned to love my free CES vinyl laptop bag, stuffed with plasticky swag that will outlast the bones of any great-grandchildren I may ever have.

Sure, there were e-waste recycling awards back … Read more

Big Open Source panel in Santa Clara on November 27

I am low-man on the totem pole at this panel next week: Open Source Software - Can't We All Just Get Along? which features something very unique to most similar discussions--big dogs OSS users from E*Trade and JP Morgan. In just a few years, open source has fully established itself as a part of the software ecosystem. It is no longer a question of if, but how open source affects enterprises. There is now enough open source running through enterprises such that interoperability and management are forefront issues. And as open source moves up from infrastructure to applications, … Read more

Going.com's CEO explains new ticketing initiative

Urban events site Going.com, which targets party-friendly 20-somethings with a hipster slant, announced earlier this week that it has expanded into local event ticketing. This means that promoters and event hosts on Going can now sell tickets for their concerts, benefits, parties, and other social get-togethers through the site.

The structure is much like a standard ticket site's "will-call" option; no paper tickets are mailed. "You go to the venue or the place of the event," Going CEO Evan Schumacher explained in an interview with CNET News.com, "and we tell (you) to … Read more

Dealing with software crashes, Part 2

The first part of this posting on dealing with software crashes covered preventing the leakage of personal information, portable applications, and controlling the programs that run automatically when Windows starts up. Here we look at dumps, event logs, and disk checking, but first, we pick up on the topic of drivers.

Driver Verifier

In Windows, the term "driver" refers to software used by the operating system to control the hardware in the computer. Each piece of hardware (sound, video, printer) has an associated driver program.

The last topic in the previous posting was an airplane analogy to illustrate … Read more

Conference overload! But in a good way

This week I'll be at two Bay Area Web 2.0-ish conferences run by friends.

First up, on Wednesday, November 14, NewTeeVee Live, a GigaOm production. This conference is about online video, which means it's really about the future of television. Webware readers in the area can get a 15 percent discount for conference admission.

Then on Thursday, November 15, I'll be at the Under the Radar: Mobility conference. As with other UTR events, it will be an orgy of startups. I'll be moderating two morning sessions. In the first, four mobile search companies will be … Read more

Making Money from Free Software Panel 11/14/07 in Menlo Park

I am on a breakfast panel on November 14 down in Mountain View at the Orrick offices down in Menlo Park. Being that I get back from Japan the day before with the requisite jetlag I should be in rare form.

Here are just a few of the exciting topics: What does "commercial open source" mean and how is it different from "open source"? What benefits can I expect from releasing my product as open source? What are the costs? Does my choice of open source license matter? What do VCs think of the open source … Read more

Open source events in 2008

Here's a good, reasonably comprehensive list of open source events in 2008. It's missing some (like OSCON) but is intended to get better through community input. So, if you don't see your favorite conference there (Ubuntu Live, anyone?), let the site author know.

By the way, if you're a commercial open-source company, you may have already discovered what Alfresco has discovered: the open source events aren't very useful as lead generation tools. People don't go to Linuxworld looking for a content management system, for example.… Read more

Set up tickets, payment processing, and more with Eventsbot

If you're an event planner, there's a new Web service called Eventsbot that's set up to help you with some of the logistics of promoting, and selling tickets online. If you're familiar with EventBrite, Eventsbot isn't too far off: just set up your event, set ticket prices, promote it, and Eventsbot takes a small cut of the sales as its fee. The service is aimed mainly at event planners, but if you're looking to host a small event with controlled price ticketing, services like this can be a little more extensive than basic party … Read more