From Hong Kong, to Los Angeles, to the Vatican. How running three very different startup accelerators over five years changed the way I think about entrepreneurship. Multiple program formats, 100+ companies, tens of millions in funding, lots of customers, exits, all across three continents. The talk will focus on: • Commonalities growing companies face across locations. • Getting results: How I try to trick people into learning. • Next steps in thinking about the future of company growth. Bio Paul Orlando enables companies to grow. He is Incubator Director and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at USC. Paul has founded and operated successful startup accelerator programs in Hong Kong (focused on mobile development), Los Angeles (focused on growing a wide range of companies with founders affiliated with USC), and Rome (the Laudato Si accelerator, partnered with the Vatican and focused on environmental technology). Companies Paul has worked with have raised tens of millions in capital, served millions of customers, and have been acquired. He has authored several related academic case studies available on Harvard Business Publishing. Paul also helps larger institutions innovate, develop, and grow, especially in lowering the risk of innovation projects, speeding up learning cycles, and transitioning past legacy business models and products. Paul has been featured in media including Forbes, TechCrunch, Fast Company, and the Wall Street Journal. He was a winner at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. Paul has a BA from Cornell, an MBA from Columbia, and speaks Mandarin. Twitter handle: @porlando Speaker email: paul.orlando@gmail.com Date: Friday, February 23, 2018 from 8:15 AM to 9:30 AM Location: Cross Campus, 85 N. Raymond Avenue · Pasadena, CA Venue is located on the 2nd floor. Free street parking until 11:00 am; except where valet signs are posted. 90 minutes free parking is also available at nearby parking lots.
Category: Events
Recap of Los Angeles Area Homebrew Website Club February 21, 2018
After a relatively quiet quiet writing hour where I worked on acquisition posts a bit, people began arriving just before the 6:30 pm official start time.
I kicked off the meeting with a quick overview of IndieWeb’s concepts and principles for newcomers. As a mini-case study I talked a bit about some of my work and conversations earlier today about thinking about adding acquisition posts to my website and the way in which I’m approaching the problem.
Asher Silberman was glad to be back at a meeting. He has recently been working on more content over functionality.
Micah Cambre showed off a gorgeous development version of the new theme he’s building for his site which is a super clean and pared down theme based on the Sage platform using WordPress. He’s hoping to finish it shortly so he can relaunch his personal site at http://asuh.com. He spent some time talking about the process of using David Shanske’s IndieWebified version of the Twenty Sixteen theme as a template for adding microformats and functionality to the Sage set up.
Richard Hopp, a gen2/gen3 user who is completely new to the community and interested in learning, has a personal domain at http://www.ricahardhopp.com/ on which he’s installed WordPress. He’s currently considering whether he’d like to begin blogging soon and what other functionality he’d like to have on his site. He’s relatively new to Facebook, having only joined about six months ago. On the professional side, he does some governmental related work and has some large collections of documents that he’s also doing some research for in consideration of how to best put them on the web for ease of search and use.
I wrapped up the demo portion with a quick showing of how I leveraged the power of the Post Kinds Plugin to facetiously add chicken posts to my site as a prelude to doing a tad more work to begin adding explicit follow posts.
We took a short break to take a photo of the group.
In the end of the evening we talked over a handful of broad ideas including user interface, webactions, and Twitter interactions.
We wrapped things up with a demo of how I use the URL Forwarder app on Android to post to my website via mobile. We then used some of this documentation to try to help Asher fix his previously broken browser bookmarklets to hopefully work better with the Post Kinds Plugin. I spent a few minutes to create a similar bookmarklet to add the ability to more easily add follow posts to my website since I hadn’t done it after adding them last week.
Homebrew Website Club Meetup on February 21, 2018
Are you building your own website? Indie reader? Personal publishing web app? Or some other digital magic-cloud proxy? If so, come on by and join a gathering of people with likeminded interests. Bring your friends who want to start a personal web site. Exchange information, swap ideas, talk shop, help work on a project…
Everyone of every level is welcome to participate! Don’t have a domain yet? Come along and someone can help you get started and provide resources for creating the site you’ve always wanted.
Homebrew Website Club Meetup – Los Angeles Area
Time: to
Location: Pasadena Central Library, 285 East Walnut Street (at Garfield), 4th floor Conference Room, Pasadena, CA
- Parking at the library is at a premium, so please park on the street or use one of these nearby lots: Parking details
- 5:30 – 6:30 pm (Optional) Quiet writing hour at your favorite location within the library for those interested. Use this time to work on your project or do some writing before the meeting.
- 6:30 – 8:00 pm Meetup in 4th floor Conference Room
More Details
Join a community of like-minded people building and improving their personal websites. Invite friends that want a personal site.
- Work with others to help motivate yourself to create the site you’ve always wanted to have.
- Ask questions about things you may be stuck on–don’t let stumbling blocks get in the way of having the site you’d like to have.
- Finish that website feature or blog post you’ve been working on
- Burn down that old website and build something from scratch
- Share what you’ve gotten working
- Demos of recent breakthroughs
Skill levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Any questions? Need help? Need more information? Ask in chat: http://indiewebcamp.com/irc/today#bottom
RSVP
Our space within the library is somewhat limited, so please RSVP prior to attending so we can ensure that we can accomodate as many people as possible.
Add your optional RSVP in the comments below; by adding your indie RSVP via webmention to this post; or by RSVPing yes to one of the syndicated posts below:
Indieweb.org event: https://indieweb.org/events/2018-02-21-homebrew-website-club#Los_Angeles_Area
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1841008432590283/
Meetup.com: https://www.meetup.com/IndieWeb-Homebrew-Website-Club-Los-Angeles/events/247817484/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/963911115271938048
RSVP to Pasadena Startups: Past, Present and Future
Talk a walk down memory lane with Gene as he tells stories of Pasadena Startups Past, Present and Future. I am the Forrest Gump of Internet - I have worked in the worked with some of the pioneers and innovators all with origin stories to Pasadena: GoTo, Overture, Yahoo, YP, Chegg, WhatsApp, Tinder, Google Adword/AdSense/Photos, Sellbrite. So come take a seat on the bench and listen to my story. Pasadena tech is like a box of chocolates - you'll never know what you're gonna get. Bio: Gene is a software veteran and Internet executive known for his expertise in mobile, social, cloud, Big Data, search marketing and eCommerce. He is currently VP of Engineering at Sellbrite.com a eCommerce SaaS startup in Pasadena. Before that he was CTO of Synctree.com a Ruby/Node and DevOps-as-a-Service boutique development shop. He was the CTO of Oversee.net a $100M Consumer Mobile and Domain Monetization company. Before that he was Director of Engineering at Chegg, an online network for college students that offers assistance with homework, course selection and textbook rentals. He was also Executive Director of AT&T Interactive, building and leading teams for YP Mobile, Data Systems and Buzz.com. He also served as Director of Engineering at Yahoo Search Marketing/Overture where he built large-scale search marketing platforms. Gene is currently a on Board of Directors for Innovate Pasadena, a mentor for Mucker Labs, as well as advisor to mobile startups. Gene is a frequent speaker at tech industry events and has received numerous industry awards. He graduated Magna cum Laude with a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles and lives in San Marino with a very supportive wife Jacki and 3 kids.
📅 Domain of One’s Own Workshop for Admins
After hearing from a number of schools running Domain of One’s Own, we thought it might be useful to host an in-person workshop that focuses specifically on implementing this project on your campus. Workshop of One’s Own is a two-day, geared towards the instructional technologist who assists with managing DoOO on an administrator level, but also focuses on project conceptualization, instructional uses, and empowering their community from a teaching/learning standpoint. You’ll not only be receiving the in-person, focused attention from the entire Reclaim Hosting team, but you’ll also get a chance to brainstorm with folks from other schools who are running their own Domain of One’s Own projects. We’ll work through common troubleshooting tips, SPLOTs with Alan Levine, cPanel application case studies, and more.
I’m almost painfully tempted to attend this workshop on March 15-16 with the idea of and setting up a side business to specialize in hosting WordPress and Known sites for IndieWeb use. While it could be a generic non-institutional instance for academics, researchers, post docs, graduate and undergraduate students who don’t have a “home” DoOO service, it could also be a potential landing pad for those leaving other DoOO projects upon graduation or moving. Naturally I wouldn’t turn down individuals who wanted specific IndieWeb capable personal websites either.
Either way it’s an itch (at an almost poison ivy level) that I’ve been having for a long time, but haven’t written down until now. It would certainly be an interesting platform for continuing to evangelize the overlap of IndieWeb and Educational applications on the internet.
I think there are almost enough IndieWeb friendly WordPress themes to make it a worthwhile idea to have a multi-site WordPress install that has a handful of microformats performant themes in conjunction with tools like webmentions and micropub that allows easy interaction with most of the major social silos.
I think the community might almost be ready for such a platform that would allow an integrated turnkey IndieWeb experience. (Though I’d still want to offer some type of integrated feed reader experience bundled in with it.) Perhaps I could model it a little bit after edublogs and micro.blog?
Who wants to help goad me into it?
h/t:
Workshop of One’s Own: March 15 & 16 // Attendees will not only receive focused training from the entire Reclaim Hosting team, but also join in on discussion with members from other institutions running their own unique instances of Domain of One's Own // https://t.co/31NIQIRvQg pic.twitter.com/HvU8qKhQXA
— Reclaim Hosting (@ReclaimHosting) January 22, 2018
Virtual Homebrew Website Club Meetup on December 27, 2017
I was going to take the week off for the holidays, but seeing a group of people rally around the hashtag #newwwyear to get excited about building and updating their personal websites has inspired me to host an online Homebrew Website Club meetup during the holidays.
This is a virtual/online HWC meetup for website builders who either can’t make a regular in-person meeting in their city or don’t yet have critical mass to host one in their area. Everyone of every level is welcome to participate remotely! Don’t have a domain yet? Come along and someone can help you get started and provide resources for creating the site you’d like to have.
Virtual Homebrew Website Club Meetup
Time: to
Location: Online via Google Hangouts (a link will be posted here or on syndicated copies of this post prior to the meetup: https://hangouts.google.com/call/8XGkwtEjxg2oH07pyOD_AAEE)
More Details
Join a community of like-minded people building and improving their personal websites. Invite friends that want a personal site.
- Work on your #newwwyear Resolution or IndieWeb Resolutions for 2018
- Work with others to help motivate yourself to create the site you’ve always wanted to have.
- Ask questions about things you may be stuck on–don’t let stumbling blocks get in the way of having the site you’d like to have.
- Finish that website feature or blog post you’ve been working on
- Burn down that old website and build something from scratch
- Share what you’ve gotten working
- Demos of recent breakthroughs
A link to the virtual meetup on Google Hangouts will be posted on the day of the event. Check back before the quiet writing hours/meeting to get the link.
Optional quiet writing hour: 19:30–20:30 ET (16:30-17:30 PT) Use this time to work on your project (or get some help) before the meeting.
Meetup: 20:30–21:30 ET (17:30-18:30 PT)
Skill levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Keep in mind that there is often a European virtual meetup if those times work better for your schedule.
Any questions? Need help? Need more information? Ask in chat: http://indiewebcamp.com/irc/today#bottom
RSVP
Add your optional RSVP in the comments below; by adding your indie RSVP via webmention to this post; or by RSVPing yes to one of the syndicated posts below:
Indieweb.org event: https://indieweb.org/events/2017-12-27-homebrew-website-club#Virtual_Americas
Facebook.com: https://www.facebook.com/events/801364280044020/
Meetup.com: https://www.meetup.com/IndieWeb-Homebrew-Website-Club-Los-Angeles/events/246071606/
📅 RSVP for IndieWebCamp Baltimore – Jan 20-21, 2018 – Baltimore, Maryland
IndieWebCamp Baltimore 2018 is a gathering for independent web creators of all kinds, from graphic artists, to designers, UX engineers, coders, hackers, to share ideas, actively work on creating for their own personal websites, and build upon each others creations.
I really want to go to IndieWebCamp Baltimore not only for the IndieWeb portion, but it’s in one of my favorite cities!
If you’re interested in some of the most interesting things happening at the bleeding edge of what the web has to offer, this is the place, and these are the people. Bring your ideas and creativity for an excellent Bar Camp style weekend of fun!
RSVP to Impromptu IndieWeb Meetup
Join us for dinner, drinks, and IndieWeb conversation.
I’m definitely in! See you all in a few hours. I hope others might be able to join us as well.
Checkin Cross Campus Old Pasadena
Speed networking at Friday Morning Coffee Meetup
Walking to Cross Campus Pasadena from the South
Getting ready for some speed networking
Virtual Homebrew Website Club Meetup on December 13, 2017
This is a Virtual HWC for IndieWebbers who either can’t make a regular meeting or don’t yet have critical mass to host one in their area. Everyone is welcome to participate remotely!
Virtual Homebrew Website Club Meetup on December 13, 2017
Time: to
Location: Online via Google Hangouts (link is posted and live)
Details
Join a community with like-minded interests. Invite friends that want a personal site.
- Work on your IndieWeb Resolutions for 2018
- Finish that blog post you’ve been working on
- Demos of recent IndieWeb breakthroughs
- Share what you’ve gotten working
- Ask the experts questions
A link to virtual meetup on Google Hangouts will be posted on the day of the event. Check back before the meeting to get the link: https://hangouts.google.com/call/0JCH5b875C2UNseSnfkxAAEE
Optional quiet writing hour: 19:30–20:30 ET (16:30-17:30 PT)
Meetup: 20:30–21:30 ET (17:30-18:30 PT)
The IndieWeb is a growing people-focused alternative to the ‘corporate web’.
Skill levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Keep in mind that there is often a European virtual meetup if those times work better for your schedule.
Any questions? Need help? Ask in chat: http://indiewebcamp.com/irc/today#bottom
RSVP
Add your RSVP in the comments below; by adding your indie RSVP via webmention to this post; or by RSVPing yes to one of the syndicated posts below
Indieweb.org event: https://indieweb.org/events/2017-12-13-homebrew-website-club#Virtual_Americas
Facebook.com: https://www.facebook.com/events/169650146961455/
Meetup.com: https://www.meetup.com/IndieWeb-Homebrew-Website-Club-Los-Angeles/events/245539015/
If your site doesn’t support sending webmentions yet, you should be able to create a post on your website with the following HTML:
<div class="h-entry">
RSVP <span class="p-rsvp">yes</span>
to <a href="http://boffosocko.com/2017/11/30/virtual-homebrew-website-club-meetup-on-december-13-2017/" class="u-in-reply-to">Virtual Homebrew Website Club Meetup on December 13, 2017</a>
</div>
Then put the permalink URL for your post into the webmentions box in the comments section. My site should be able to parse your URL and display the response. (Naturally, you can also change your response to “no” or “maybe” depending on your ability to attend.)
(I think this may be my first indie event that I’ve posted to my WordPress site.)
Checkin Cross Campus Pasadena
Introduction to Algebraic Geometry | UCLA Extension in Fall 2017
Algebraic geometry is the study, using algebraic tools, of geometric objects defined as the solution sets to systems of polynomial equations in several variables. This introductory course, the first in a two-quarter sequence, develops the basic theory of the subject, beginning with seminal theorems—the Hilbert Basis Theorem and Hilbert’s Nullstellensatz—that establish the dual relationship between so-called varieties—both affine and projective—and certain ideals of the polynomial ring in some number of variables. Topics covered in this first quarter include: algebraic sets, projective spaces, Zariski topology, coordinate rings, the Grassmannian, irreducibility and dimension, morphisms, sheaves, and prevarieties. The theoretical discussion will be supported by a large number of examples and exercises. The course should appeal to those with an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the mathematical interplay among algebra, geometry, and topology. Prerequisites: Some exposure to advanced mathematical methods, particularly those pertaining to ring theory, fields extensions, and point-set topology.
Dr. Michael Miller has announced the topic for his Fall math class at UCLA Extension: Algebraic Geometry!!
Yes math fans, as previously hinted at in prior conversations, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the overlap of algebra and geometry. Be sure to line up expeditiously as registration for the class won’t happen until July 31, 2017.
While it’s not yet confirmed, some sources have indicated that this may be the first part of a two quarter sequence on the topic. As soon as we have more details, we’ll post them here first. As of this writing, there is no officially announced textbook for the course, but we’ve got some initial guesses and the best are as follows (roughly in decreasing order):
- Ideals, Varieties, and Algorithms: An Introduction to Computational Algebraic Geometry and Commutative Algebra (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) 4th ed. by David A. Cox, John Little, and Donal O’Shea
- Algebraic Geometry: An Introduction (Universitext) by Daniel Perrin
- An Invitation to Algebraic Geometry (Universitext) by Karen E. Smith, Lauri Kahanpää, Pekka Kekäläinen, William Traves
- Algebraic Geometry (Dover Books on Mathematics) by Solomon Lefschetz (Less likely based on level and age, but Dr. Miller does love inexpensive Dover editions)
For those who are new to Dr. Miller’s awesome lectures, I’ve written some hints and tips on what to expect.
Most of his classes range from about 20-30 people, many of them lifelong regulars. (Yes, there are dozens of people like me who will take almost everything he teaches–he’s that good. This class, my 22nd, will be the start of my second decade of math with him.)
📅 WordPress Pasadena General July N Fly Meetup Edition
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM; Cross Campus, 85 N. Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA (map) Howdy everyone! Welcome to our July general WordPress user group! We discuss all the things WordPress here. If any of you would like to do a presentation post your idea in the comments. Bring your curiosity, your questions, your swell attitude and lots of potatoes. J/k, just bring your smiling faces.
Interested in using WordPress to create an online presence? Got questions? Come join us tonight in learning together.
📅 Entropy 2018: From Physics to Information Sciences and Geometry
14-16 May 2018; Auditorium Enric Casassas, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
One of the most frequently used scientific words, is the word “Entropy”. The reason is that it is related to two main scientific domains: physics and information theory. Its origin goes back to the start of physics (thermodynamics), but since Shannon, it has become related to information theory. This conference is an opportunity to bring researchers of these two communities together and create a synergy. The main topics and sessions of the conference cover:
- Physics: classical Thermodynamics and Quantum
- Statistical physics and Bayesian computation
- Geometrical science of information, topology and metrics
- Maximum entropy principle and inference
- Kullback and Bayes or information theory and Bayesian inference
- Entropy in action (applications)
The inter-disciplinary nature of contributions from both theoretical and applied perspectives are very welcome, including papers addressing conceptual and methodological developments, as well as new applications of entropy and information theory.
All accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of the conference. A selection of invited and contributed talks presented during the conference will be invited to submit an extended version of their paper for a special issue of the open access Journal Entropy.
A two-day event filled with sessions, networking, and social events covering a variety of topics, all dedicated to the confluence of WordPress in higher education. The second annual WPCampus conference will take place July 14-15, 2017 at Canisius College in lovely Buffalo, New York.
How did I manage to miss this? I know they livestreamed the sessions, but did they manage to record them?