We've added two more judges to the panel of experts at the TechCrunch20 conference.

Marissa and Brad are two of strongest minds in the products space, and Google and Yahoo are obviously the two strongest brands in the Internet space--I'm just blown away that they are joining us.

So, here is where we are at with the conference:

1. We've established a panel of experts that I think is the best ever assembled.
2. We've got a date (September 17th and 18th), location (The Palace Hotel in San Francisco), and a website/blog (www.techcrunch20.com).
3. We've got two amazing supporting sponsors in Sequoia and Mayfield--and some really amazing ones coming online (if you're interested ping me at jason at calacanis dot com).
4. We've got a format: 20 company presentations with feedback from the expert judges, as well as some panels.
5. People are discussing the panels here.

Things we are going to get done over the next couple of weeks:

1. We need to invite the best bloggers, press, and vloggers to cover the companies at the event. If you're a press person and want to come you should visit the press page: http://techcrunch20.com/press-media/. If you know me personally feel free to email me and I will setup a ticket for you directly.
   
2. We need to select the 20 presenting companies. These can be startups that are stealth, it can be startups that are public but are coming out with a new, kick-ass version (think digg ver. 17, Twitter v. 2.0, etc), or even a new product from a huge company like AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, or Newscorp/MySpace. The key is that you show the product FOR THE FIRST TIME on the TechCrunch20 stage. Company presentations will be kept private under NDA until the event. If for someone reason you don't want me to know about it you can pitch Mike Arrington directly and I will stay out of it (I trust his judgement on these issues). If you are in Los Angeles and want to come by ProjectX and show me your project in person I'm open to that... jason at calacanis dot com. I really hope that we get some project out of left field--stuff that has never been seen before from outside the US market or from inside a school--or a basement, pool house, or garage.
   
3. We need a handful of media sponsors. If you're interested in that ping me.... basically you give us promotion we give you promotion.

the event is really coming together quickly and if you want to get involved let me know...

Today I'm proud to announce that Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and I (with the support of a great team) have launched the TechCrunch20 conference. A very special event taking place in September at which 20 companies will be given the ability to present their killer products at a conference filled with the press, VCs, investors, and bloggers.

Companies will pay exactly $0.

In fact, the companies will not only get to present for free they will attend the event for free. Compare that to the $10-20,000 conference organizers are demanding of startups to get 5-7minutes on stage these days.

Anyway, this really isn't about the other events--this is about the TechCrunch20. It's an event where the best and brightest are going to show their stuff and get immediate, honest feedback. It's not going to be easy, but I think that there is a very good chance that the next digg, YouTube, Iminlikewithyou.com, Stumbleupon, etc. will make a name for themselves at the event.

Some random notes:

• This is not going to be a huge event so I suggest buying a ticket earlier.
  
• Thanks to Sequoia Capital for helping us get this off the ground--you guys rock!
  
• Thanks to a whole group of sponsors who will be announced over the coming weeks for supporting this important event.
  
• Please do not ask me for a free ticket to the event if you are someone with a budget--buy a ticket and support the event please!
  
  
• If you're a blogger of note or a journalist there will be tickets available, but I can't promise anything. Please go to the site and follow the procedures there.
  
• If you're a startup company please follow the directions on the site.
  
• If you're a startup company getting to know one of our 20 advisory board members who are helping us select the companies is a really good idea. These experts include Marc Andreessen (Co-founder, Ning), Chris Anderson (Editor-In-Chief, Wired Magazine), Roelof Botha (Partner, Sequoia Capital), Mark Cuban (Founder, HDNet), Om Malik (Founder, GigaOm), Robert Scoble (Scobleizer), and Dave Winer (Scripting News).
  
• Thanks to my friends who have joined the advisory board already.

We will have other speakers and panels at the event as well as the 20 pitches--more on that soon.

Anyway, keep up with things over at www.techcrunch20.com. We will be announcing more details weekly up to the event.

I've always loved DEMO-style conferences (like the one going on in Palm Desert today) where entrepreneurs show off their creations for the first time to an audience of their peers, the press, and investors. In fact, in 1997 I did my first conference called "Meet the Alley" where entrepreneurs did 10 minutes presentations in the "demo-or-die" format (I gotta find the video tapes). We called it "Ready, Set, PITCH!" and it was a huge hit. The New York Times wrote it up... I gotta find that clip too!

Getting a presentation slot at a demo conference can really help launch a company, but the fact is that demo-style conferences have turned into cash cows for big conference companies and the small entrepreneur is now being forced to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to buy their space.

It's wrong on so many levels (as a lot of folks have pointed out).

First, the best companies would never be able to afford that fee. This means the most prommissing companies who need the exposure the most--and who the audience would most want to see--never make it to the stage. When Kevin Rose started digg he was broke--he could NEVER have afforded demo. When I started Weblogs, Inc. with Brian we were really broke (in fact Brian had taken a second mortgage to build the company!)--we could never have afforded demo. I suspect that most of the great and up-and-coming Web 2.0 companies wouldn't have been able to cut that $20,000 check (or $12,000 as the case may be). I don't think a YouTube, TechMeme, Blogger, StumbleUpon, or CastFire could afford the ticket when they were starting up.

Second, even the good companies that make it to the stage have to spend around $20,000 to pay for their six minutes! What a rip-off.

Back in December I was kicking it on Sand Hill road trying to get my groove back after leaving AOL. After a day of meeting with VCs I called my friends Steve Gillmor and Mike Arrington to see if they were up for a steak dinner.

Over dinner Mike and I talked about our equal disdain of the payola model, and I encouraged Mike to start a conference series. I explained to him the things I'd learned about doing conference from back in my Silicon Alley Reporter days. Our biggest conference did $2.6M and cost $600,000 to run--and we never asked anyone to pay to get their speaking slot. Of course, those numbers were during the crazy boom years.

After dinner we went for a long walk and smoked some amazing (NOT) Cuban cigars :-). Mike asked me if I would help with the conference and I figured what the heck--I loved running conferences, I love Mike, and our industry needs a conference that isn't in on the take.

So, it's with great pride that I announce that Mike and I are partnering on a conference series called "The TechCrunch 20." The concept is simple: 20 companies will present over two days to their peers, the press, VCs, and the industry.

All companies will be selected by a committee of expert entrepreneurs, journalists and analysts on THE QUALITY OF THEIR PRODUCT not their ability to write a check.

If two guys in school show us the next digg, stumbleupon, or YouTube they're getting a slot and their going to pay $0 for it.

If the folks over at StumbleUpon, digg, PodShow, or Odeo show us some amazing new product they're planning on launching they get a slot--and they pay us $0 for it.

We really want the audience to get 20 presentations that are just amazing. No duds is the goal. To ensure that we have no duds the selected companies are going to show us their final products and presentations 10 days
before the event, and in the case that their demo is not ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT we are going to replace them (we'll have 2-3 alternates waiting in the wings for this purpose).

How will we make money off the event? Well, frankly we don't need to make too much money, and we think the ticket sales and a couple of top level sponsors (i.e. one law firm, one tech firm, one VC firm, and one accounting firm) will cover things.

The details are being worked out as we speak. Here is what we know so far:

1. It will be in the San Francisco area.
2. We will have around 250 people at the event.
3. 20 companies will present over two days.
4. The event will take place in the fall.
5. We are looking for a location that can fit 250-500 people. We arehoping we can find a a University that would host the event, or an affordable conference center. Any ideas please let me know.
6. We hope to put together an advisory board of people we really respect to suggest companies.

How can you help?

a) We need a great location.
b) We need top level sponsors who believe in giving the little companies a chance to shine.
c) We need suggestions for companies who will want to break big news in the fall.

I can't tell you how excited I am about getting back into the conference business, and I really honored to be doing it with Mike and his team at TechCrunch.

If you want to email the "20 conference" team the email is 20 at techcrunch.com.

all the best,

Jason

I've continued my research on top designers from my blog to LinkedIn Answers. Looks like I got better answers on my post at LinkedIn in half the time. Hmmmm...

I'm going to put all this info into an Excel file and share with everyone. If you have more suggestions put them below or on LinkedIn.

best j

I'm looking for a designer to work on redoing my blog and some work on the CalacanisCast logos. I'm building a list of the best designers I can find....

In no order so far...

• silverorange - digg and firefox
  
  
  
  
• hicksdesign - firefox and thunderbird logos (niiiiiiiice!)
  
  
  
  
• stamen design - cool interface stuff like root markets, digg, flickr
  
  
  
  
  
• happcog.com - Magnolia is soooo nice
  
  
  
  
  
  
• stopdesign -- the blogger redesign was niiiiiice
  
  
  
• simplebits -- odeo's clean design
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You guys have any other thoughts?!?!?
  

Did a quick podcast last night to talk about how I'm feeling. I've got a bad cold, so excuse my coughing/hacking.

CalacanisCast Beta Four... MP3 file.

If you want to subscribe go into iTunes and hit "Advanced -- Subscribe to Podcast" add this feed:

http://podcast.calacanis.com/rss.xml

You asked for interviews... you get interviews.

CalacanisCast is up... episode three

if you want to subscribe go into iTunes and hit "Advanced -- Subscribe to Podcast" add this feed:

http://podcast.calacanis.com/rss.xml



Question 1: Show Name
What do you guys think of Brian's suggestion for the name of the show?


Update1: Audio Comments
Thanks for the 10+ audio comments people sent in... I have them ready for CalacanisCast Beta 4.


Update2: Show Notes
I don't want to do show notes... in fact, I'm banning anyone else from doing show notes. You either listen to the show or you don't. You want to know what's on the show you listen, not scan the notes. Either you commit to the show just as I'm committing to do the show or you don't. Please stop asking for show notes--it's not gonna happen.

Update3: Jersey Todd
I love this guys Jersey Todd song that Adam Curry plays... I can't stop singing it. I wish someone would do a promo like this with Brian's new show name that he mentions in this weeks show. It's such an amazing name for the show i can't believe I didn't think of it. I can just hear it in a dozen different contexts, and I can't wait to see the reaction to Brian's show name--people are gonna freak out.

Question2: Marantz Compact Flash Recorder
We recorder the show on one of these.... should I get one? Crazy expensive at like $500+ right? Maybe there is a $200 version of this (if not someone get on it!)

In case you didn't notice we just added a bunch of basic syndicated video features to Netscape (a la YouTube).

If you see the Netscape video link (in yellow in the first image below) and you click it the list of stories will expand (image two circled in red below) to show you the cool new Netscape Flash-based media player (same at YouTube, Uncut, or Revver). What's nice about this is you don't have to leave the page and you don't have to click through to the permalink page. Sure, we're gonna lose a ton of page views, but we're helping the users consumer more content quicker--and that will make them love us more. As we all know, f you show more love to your users you're gonna win in the long-run. [ Note: hat tip to Ted who is all about the love. ]

Note: A couple of weeks ago we added the best feature of MySpace--site mail--to Netscape. This week we added the best feature of YouTube--a syndicated, Flash player--to Netscape. What feature do you think we should/will add next and why? The comments are open. :-)

Here is a sample.




... here is what happens after you click watch video... the player opens up without a page refresh!


... and of course you can take videos from Netscape and syndicate thm to your own blog. Upload tools are not opn to the public yet, but will be shortly.

Let me start off by saying that, as most folks already know, Tim and John and I are not BFF--we've had our own little run ins over the years. Second, sending lawyers to attack a non-profit is just straight-up dumb. Especially when you've made tens of millions of dollars being the proponent of the open source and Web 2.0 memes like Tim has.

However, Tim clearly has some rights to the Web 2.0 mark in the *title* of a conference name. Battelle points this out, and that it makes business sense to defend your brand.

Regardless of who made up the Web 2.0 term (Tim didn't invent--I heard people say Web 2.0 back in 98.. it was one of the terms that was just out there for a long time), it's pretty well established that Tim made the Web 2.0 term *stick* and he certainly was the first to do an event based on the Web 2.0 name.

If someone comes along and does a "Web 2.0" event that is dilutive of the brand that Tim and John have built (i.e. confusing to users) that's is just not fair. Now, I'm not saying that in *this* case folks wouldn't know the difference, but we all know that our legal systems is designed so that you have defend yourself consistently if you want protection. Every time you let something slide the evil folks can use that as ammunition for you to lose your rights. Our trademark system isn't perfect--we all know that. Of course, a call to the IT@Cork folks would have solved the problem I think (and so does JBAT).

Now, if someone uses Web 2.0 in the tag line, or is really, really clear that it's not an O'Reilly event with the naming of the event, then I think that's fine. For example, if someone does the Web 2.0 Summit or The Web 2.0 Expo I think that's OK. However, if they just do a "Web 2.0" conference that's not cool because some folks might actually think it is Tim or John's event.

When I was running Silicon Alley Reporter we had a similar issue. We had the double edge sword of having a buzzword in our brand name: Silicon Alley. Every time Silicon Alley was mentioned in the news or in a magazine got a bump in brand recognition. However, other folks would make Silicon Alley branded magazines and take a little of our thunder. We had conferences in addition to our magazine that used the format Silicon Alley YEARNAME (i.e. Silicon Alley 97, 98, 99, 2000, etc), and we had to defend those because some folks would come along and say "we're doing a 'Silicon Alley' conference too!" Our position was just don't call it Silicon Alley YEARNAME. Call it the Silicon Alley SOMETHING. People did, everyone got on with their life.

Tim *doesn't* seem to want it both ways. He understands he doesn't own the name. He just had some bonehead lawyer do what bonehead lawyers do--write bonehead letters. I wish lawyers would start thinking like humans, and I'm sure Tim would too. It's Tim's job to set the tone with his legal folks, and he's dropped the ball on this one. I'm sure he's fixed it and it won't happen again.

We all know Tim's a brilliant guy (and so is John), and they put on a good show--I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt here.

At the end of the day, if people want to leave this Web 2.0 meme behind they should just start a Web 3.0 Conference... no one's trademarked that already right

Update: Right after I hit publish on this post I went to clear out my RSS reader and noticed that Dave had come to similar conclusions and made the good point that people are forgetting that this is a business. One thing I thought was interesting: both Dave and I waited three or four days to comment on this. I think the longer you've blogged the more time you wait before commenting on something. The blogosphere is becoming more and more wild as the months and years progress. People are guilty-first, and everyone loves to pile-on.... yet you rarely see folks wait a couple of days to post about something. The take away for me is that waiting to hit the publish button is the new virtue.

Let me start by saying I love(d) the Economist and read it front-to-back on every flight I take. It's well written and I *assumed* well researched. However, after reading a bizarrely inaccurate story on AOL I posted a response to the facts.

It seems my comments on the Economist's highly inaccurate, AOL-bashing story have paid off. In the process of correcting the story I've uncovered exactly what I suspected: the author spun the facts to slam AOL. Check out this comment, in which the highly-respected Kevin Werbach says the reporter misused his quotes.

Note: One of the reporters on the story, Tamzin Booth, contacted me by email. I'd love to hear her defend the story in the comments below.

Kevin's comment:

It was interesting to read how that piece came out. I told the reporter I was a contrarian on the topic, and actually thought AOL was well-positioned. He used the one (backward-looking) negative sentence of my 3-paragraph email, and vaguely paraphrased the rest.

Anyway, my point was that "social network" does not equal "Friendster/MySpace". And that AOL actually has all the hard-to-acquire assets and experience it will take to monetize social software in the broad sense.

As you point out, no one expects much of AOL these days, which is a good place to be. Keep in mind that Yahoo! was seen as a dog 3 years ago, until Semel & Co. turned things around. Good luck....

-k-

I love the GMAIL (oh wait, I work for AOL... can I say that?), but what is going on with servers over there?

• RB beaks down the Web 2.0 meme: "The worst thing about all the Web 2.0 hype is the complete loss of business perspective. There's a few companies out there that seem to get it but just about every other new website I've seen lately is nothing but features parading as businesses. Sure, these guys get to be entered in the "Flip It Quick Acquisition Lottery", but beyond that, none seem to be creating anything of any real value." I gotta agree with Russ... there are a lot of folks out there burning through a lot of angel money thinking they are the "Flickr of..." or "Weblogs, Inc. of.." but they don't seem to have any focus on the bottom line. At this point I've officially upgraded my Bubble Indicator(TM) from "frothy" to "bubbly."
• Feel better buddy.
• Gotham Gal hit Sun Valley for the first time... and loved it. Spent some time there a couple of years ago and loved it. Hey Slashfood and Gadling... get her some link love!
• The Palace web 2.0 style--somewhere Mark Jeffrey is smiling (Hive7). I built something like this for AOL's Greenhouse/GNN called "Restaurant City" with Barry Wine. We used Udi Shapiro's Virtual Places software. VP was an amazing piece of technology... you could put 10 people in a bus and go surf the web together, taking turns driving. It was sick... AOL turned it off, Udi bought it back, and it was never seen again.

(PS - What do you guys think of these short, quick hit posts I've been doing. I'm enjoying doing them because it gives me the ability to touch on a lot of things without having to write a huge essay... and yes, I'm ripping off Dave Winer's style :-).

Good debate from down under about Web 2.0....

I'll be speaking at the VON conference tomorrow in San Jose. Details here.