The First NYTM of 2010

Last night, I went to the first New York Tech Meetup of the decade, and it looks like all my favorite NYC geeks survived the holidays. Here are some highlights:

• SpeakerText was the clear standout of the night, judging by the spontaneous applause and number of audience questions. The site aims to provide searchable text transcripts of online videos, and even allows you to link to a specific point in the video with a “quotelink.” Wouldn’t this sort of magic make all of our lives so much easier? Yes, yes it would.
• I was pretty excited about PressLift, since it’s designed for communications professionals. It’s basically like drop.io for PR folks, allowing you to create an online pressroom with analytics. I definitely need to sign up and check out the beta site when I get a second…which will probably be around March, at this rate.
• I was also really excited that WNYC came out to present. Even though they didn’t have a cool new app to offer, they wanted to appeal to the New York tech community for help in marrying journalism and technology, two of my favorite things! It warmed the cockles.
• Taxi Hack is an app that allows people to review and provide information about various taxi drivers and companies. I really liked this idea when I first heard about it a while ago, but then I realized that if a taxi pulled up and the driver got a bad review on Taxi Hack, I would probably still jump in. Beggars, choosers, you know the deal.
• I was excited to finally see a lady presenter for Yogoer, since girls are usually the ones moving the mouse onstage at NYTM…or not on stage at all. And we can all use a little more girl power in our technology-filled lives.
• Lastly, I wanted to let all you New Yorkers know about NYClothingDrive.org. In order to give back to the community, TechiesGiveBack and some other charitable souls will come pick up your unwanted clothing on February 6 and deliver it to charity. They only ask that you make a small donation, which all goes to New York Cares.

—Alyssa