Gawker: valleywag, upcoming.org

Upcoming.org creator leaves Yahoo

Owen Thomas — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:39:40 EST

Andy Baio, the entrepreneur who created group calendar site Upcoming.org and sold it to Yahoo two years ago, is leaving the company. Not surprising that a company founder would leave after an acquisition, especially after two years, since that's a typical length of time for shares to vest under a deal's earnout provision. But Baio was part of a generation of startuppers brought in to transform Yahoo in the wake of that company's groundbreaking acquisition of Flickr — like, for example, Del.icio.us founder Joshua Schachter, shown here rocking out with Baio. Schachter is still a presence at Yahoo. But what's most notable about the list of people Baio thanks in his farewell post are the ones who are no longer there — or are on their way out.

Paul Levine, the GM of Yahoo Local, the group in which Upcoming found a home, left earlier this year for AdBrite. Cameron Marlow, a much-respected thinker in Yahoo Research, is also leaving, we hear. And Flickr cofounder Stewart Butterfield, who played a large role in Upcoming's acquisition, is not leaving Yahoo, as we previously reported. Sources familiar with Butterfield's thinking now say he doesn't plan to go back to running Flickr after his current paternity leave, instead finding another role within Yahoo.

(Photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

Rip, mix, burn: Three hot theft-based dot-coms

Nick Douglas — Tue, 23 May 2006 18:03:40 EDT

From Napster to YouTube, Valley history proves: Theft is a business plan! And these three hot picks are headed to the top of the Theft Economy.

SpotBit hosts scans of popular magazines — a virtually cost-free business. Look ma, no clearances! Last week, media blog FishBowlNY was tracking SpotBit's survival with some incredulity. And sure, the old main page may now just show an error message, but that's just a minor setback, right?
Feedpass isn't exactly stealing, but it's sure borrowing on loose terms. And, says tech blogger Michael Arrington, the feed parsing site is pretty useless — it's basically a poor man's Feedburner.
The cream of today's crop must be Chinese event site Boubo.com, which supports its perfect simulacrum of Yahoo's Upcoming.org with Google ads (OMG scandal!). Check out the Boubo screenshot on (Yahoo's) Flickr, where one Yahoo employee has tagged the listings with translations like "NEW STARBUCKS, 50% OFF ALL FRAPPUCINO'S - Forbidden Palace, West Hall." Heehee.

Remainders: Holy Fark, Ted

ndouglas — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 01:44:01 EST

Sacred Cow Dung runs a list of All Things Web 2.0, including over 1100 web sites. Pretty loose definition of Web 2.0, though — if any old coolhunting blog can be Web 2.0, who can't?
SCD's list is compiled from the Everything 2.0 list, posted in chunks at the openBC forum. There's even a German list.
Dogster founder Ted Rheingold (pictured) gets Farked when a photo of him at Etech becomes Photoshop fodder at Fark.com. Poor guy — he just finished getting respectable at SXSW. [Laughing Squid]
Dell picks up Alienware (inevitable, after their "no comment" denial). Don't worry, gamers, the big dorky PC maker will run its new gaming-box subsidiary separately. And there's no risk of the Dell Guy making a "Dude! You got an Alienware!" comeback. [Mercury News]
Dot-coms keep playing it loose: Wordpress.com has no terms of service — because "laywers suck," jokes owner Matt Mullenweg. They're working on the issue, because yes, lawyers do suck when they're working for disgruntled users.
Yahoo's Upcoming has a user agreement, but one Valleywag reader was happy to find it's editable. So they selected the agreement, typed "I agree to nothing," and joined Upcoming. Because there are so many terrible things one can do with an agreement-free event site account...

SXSW: Bloggerati swarm the Yahoo sellout party

ndouglas — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:19:21 EST

On Sunday, Yahoo's "got bought and loving it" group — Upcoming, del.icio.us, and Flickr — threw the most star-studded SXSW party after the official Interactive Finishing bash. Among the sparkling attendees: Craig Newmark, the San Fran developer crowd, and a gaggle of Internet-famous folks. Beer, margaritas, and t-shirts flowed freely. Here are the people worth jokin' about, with photos from Scott Beale's SXSW gallery.

Flickr community wrangler Heather Champ. So cool, even her margarita is too hot to hold.

CSS Zen Garden tender Dave Shea: "My preferred Flickr tag, of course."

After the jump, Dooce flips a double-bird.

Rubyred Labs UE guy Thor Muller isn't sure what he's eating, but that shirt will hide any spills.

A rare and mysterious photo of Valleywag's outsourced photographer: The ruling tentacle of Laughing Squid, Scott Beale.

Heather Champ (another meme photographer), Heather Armstrong (Dooce to you), and Mighty Girl Maggie Mason do a stunning, if seated, Charlie's Angels Blogger Edition.

Jimmy Wales and Craig Newmark: Mr. Wikipedia and Mr. Craigslist show off matching facial hair and balding patterns.

"Just some last-minute changes...like adding that guy to the acknowledgements. That should earn me another free beer, right?"

Bryght's Kris Krug: "Get Hammer on the phone! Yeah, it's an Interactive party, but I'm dressed like a SXSW Music attendee!"

New York superblogger Jason Kottke likes being out with people. He really likes it. PLEASE DON'T MAKE HIM GO BACK TO THE BAD BLOGGING PLACE.

The Rocketboom team: OMG Amanda Congdon! (Oh, hi Andy.) (No, seriously, Andrew Baron also rocks.) (Bonus story: Amanda wasn't sure she could wear the GETV "I was Internet famous once" shirt. Amanda, you will ALWAYS be Internet famous — wear that shirt with proud irony.)

Photos: SXSW Interactive 2006 Photos [Laughing Squid]