Comixology: Digital Interaction with a Traditional Medium

As Alyssa mentioned in her post earlier this week about the New York Tech Meetup, she and I saw a presentation from ComiXology, a company that digitally replicates the experience of reading comics. Seeing the app made me very sad that I wasn’t attending San Diego Comic-Con, as I’ve done for the past two years, but I think I will survive.

It got me thinking about the Comixology iPhone and iPad app and how the app emphasizes the need to further the comic book art form, not destroy it. Using the app is very close second to the experience of reading an actual comic book, and according to CEO David Steinberger, there is a lot to come from the app in terms of partnering with retailers and comic book companies, like Archie Comics and DC.

The video below shows how the app looks and works on the iPad. Very cool if you ask me.

- Rob

Return to NYTM

Last night, I attended my first NY Tech Meetup since February — I can’t believe it’s been that long, but things have been crazy. I brought along our new FWD member, Rob, who had never been to NYTM before! This was the first one I’d been to at NYU’s Skirball Center, which brought back college flashbacks for me, even though I don’t think I’d been in there since freshman orientation, when I watched a very entertaining hypnotist turn people into chickens.

This month’s shindig was hosted by Dina Kaplan, who did a great job of engaging the audience and keeping things running smoothly. I was also pleasantly surprised by all the girl power on stage tonight. I was especially excited that the event featured a brief keynote by Clay Shirky (who wore his Three Wolf Moon T-shirt again!), because I really enjoyed the interview with him in the June issue of Wired and I’m looking forward to reading his new book. It was a great presentation and I only wish it could have been a bit longer!

In terms of the app demos, I was most intrigued by Foodspotting, which is sort of like FourSquare, but allows you to share photos of the food at the restaurants. I love the idea, since my family always makes fun of me for taking pictures of my food, but I don’t have an iPhone, so I hope they develop a BlackBerry app, too. I also wonder how they’ll deal with chefs who prohibit photography in their restaurants.

I feel like this month’s demos were less exciting than usual, probably because I had heard of most of them before — Jetsetter, HowAboutWe and Hot Potato have already been around for a while and gotten a ton of buzz. The audience seemed most blown away by ComiXology, where you can download online versions of comic books. They even have Archies!

—Alyssa

A Very Special NYTM

In honor of Social Media Week, February’s NY Tech Meetup was extra special…and extra long. It was $20 this time and all the proceeds ($14,000) went to Partners in Health for Haiti relief, which was nice. Although most of the presentations focused on the somewhat vague theme the “future of tech” rather than app demos, I thought it was a nice change of pace. Some of my favorite presentations included:

• SeeClickFix, a site that allows people to report local issues in their communities — basically, like 311, but online (and better)
• Our old friend Tony Bacigalupo (remember our interview with him?), who talked about the future of coworking
• Clay Shirky, who looked exactly like Tom Hanks with a shaved head and a Three Wolf Moon shirt, and talked about the power of social networks
• Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund, who briefly discussed entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty
• Dr. Jay Parkinson, who wants to change the health care industry through his organization The Future Well (you may have previously heard about his very intriguing work with Hello Health)

Oh, and then Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping showed up to do a gospel performance and confuse the heck out of everyone (see photo above). True story.

—Alyssa

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