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Final thoughts on a packed DemoFall

For the 122 companies that were featured presenters at DemoFall and TechCrunch50 this week, the pressure of making their cases onstage to the audiences of press, venture capitalists, and analysts is now over.

To be sure, those companies now have to make good on the products they introduced, and the market will soon make it very clear who the winners and losers are.

But as the dust settles from DemoFall, where I and my colleague Elinor Mills spent Sunday through Tuesday watching dozens of companies' presentations and talking to many of the people behind those products, I have a few … Read more

Paidinterviews adds social networking, ratings systems to the online job search

SAN DIEGO--What would happen if you mashed up LinkedIn and Monster.com and threw in a dose of steroids?

A company called Paidinterviews that presented at DemoFall here Tuesday morning thinks it has the answer.

And that, the company said, is its Paidinterviews new job site and candidate recruitment site.

The first side of it is designed for job candidates trying to find a new position.

Initially, they would upload pictures of themselves, previous employment references, examples of their work and other information employers might want to know about them.

Then, they can deploy a series of widgets that allow … Read more

Xumii puts all of people's social networks in their pockets

SAN DIEGO--Who needs a computer to access the many social networks people are members of these days?

While thousands, or even millions, of people regularly switch between services like Facebook, imeem, MySpace, and others, it can be cumbersome to do all that switching.

That's what Xumii, which presented at DemoFall Monday afternoon, has set out to obviate.

The idea is that users will be able to access their various social networks through their mobile phones on a single application, rather than having to rely on computers and full browsers.

In the demonstration, the company showed how users can access … Read more

MixMatchMusic makes it easy for musicians to collaborate, get paid

SAN DIEGO--There are millions of musicians in the world who are talented but haven't gotten lucky enough to get a record contract.

These days, the Internet makes it easier for these artists to find an audience, but there are still countless numbers of musicians who have some skills, but perhaps not all the ones--such as drumming--that might be necessary to finish a song that could make them money.

That's where a company called MixMatchMusic comes into play. It has built a system that it thinks will help these artists find the collaborators and the audience that will result … Read more

Invision.TV gives users a dashboard for Web-based video content

SAN DIEGO--There's so much video content on the Web today--YouTube, ESPN, news sites, and so forth--that it can be difficult to find what you want to watch.

That's the premise behind Invision.TV, a company that has created a dashboard for aggregating and sharing Web-based video content.

The idea is based on interactive TV program guides that many of us are familiar with through our subscription TV services, for example. But instead of giving you selections of content from TV services, the video all comes from the Web.

The service embeds many Web video sources' players into its … Read more

Serious games for serious people

In a paper titled "It's Time To Take Games Seriously," Forrester analysts TJ Keitt and Paul Jackson came up with a new phrase to describe video games:

"The phrase the industry should rally around is 'serious games' to bring together the numerous disciplines. However, Forrester recommends identifying individual games with the underlying goal of the game, for example, calling Volvo Car UK's game an immersive learning simulation. We don't see this being an issue in a few years, as the old guard in the workforce is replaced by younger colleagues. As this happens, doubts … Read more

Sarah Lacy takes on Gnomedex

SEATTLE--Since there is significant attendee crossover between the Gnomedex conference here and the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, it's safe to say that when Sarah Lacy took the stage Saturday, a lot of the audience had some pretty strong memories of the last time they'd seen her.

Last March, it was Lacy whose SXSW keynote interview of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ended up in a Twitter-fueled mutiny by the audience. Many on hand in Austin had felt she conducted that session in an overtly flirty and self-promotional style that left little room for participation from a crowd eager to interact with the young billionaire.

With that recent history, then, the packed house on hand for Lacy's Gnomedex talk Saturday, "What happens when you get what you want: The growing blogosphere angst," was keyed up and wondering what kind of fireworks might erupt this time around.

And fireworks there were, though they came from uber-blogger Robert Scoble, who at one point during the session oddly got up out of his seat near the front of the auditorium and marched toward the back of the room to tensely confront author and entrepreneur Geoff Livingston.

But more on that later. … Read more

Cat fight! Arrington calls attention to Demo-related plagiarism claim

In a move guaranteed to stoke the fire of confrontation between the upcoming TechCrunch 50 and DemoFall conferences, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has decided to publicly air a bit of dirty laundry involving some plagiarism charges against his conference partner, Jason Calacanis.

On Saturday, Arrington posted Calacanis' suggestions for how start-up companies presenting at TechCrunch 50 can best present themselves and their products or services.

But on Sunday, after a blogger named Alexander Muse republished Calacanis' e-mail on his own site, Muse got an e-mail from a former Demo PR woman named Deb McAlister, alleging that much of what Calacanis … Read more

Looking for Orlando, Disney World tips for Road Trip 2008

Next Tuesday, I officially begin Road Trip 2008, my reporting journey through the U.S. South.

As I've written here, I'll be doing stories and photo packages from some of the most interesting destinations and attractions in the region, many of which I've already planned. But I am also very keen on seeing what you might suggest for various locations along the way.

My first stop when the trip begins on June 10 will be Orlando, Fla. As you can imagine, that means I'll be stopping in on Disney World.

But I've never been there … Read more