Ignite SF and Portland

On October 16th we are going to have Ignite SF at the DNA Lounge. There have been twelve speakers selected to give us five minute talks on the geek topic of their choosing. Chicken John the SF mayorial candidate is going to discuss Art and Innovation, Susan Wu is going to explain how being a VC is like an RPG, AnnaLee Newitz is going to explore what sci-fi spaceships say about our culture, and Bryan Sullivan is going to do a look at functional programming.

RSVP at Upcoming. Submit now if you are gunning for one of the final slots. Ping me if you want to sponsor. We are looking for videographers, ping me if you would be interested in filming the talks. The full set of talks are after the jump.

If you can't make it to SF then you should come to Portland's first Ignite. It happens on Thursday, October 25, 2007, at Wieden & Kennedy. They are the first non-O'Reilly group to use our new Ignite community tools. They are still looking for speakers if you want to submit. RSVP at Upcoming.

The SF Ignite Speakers (so far)

1. Bryan O'Sullivan - Functional programming: from buzz to products
   You've heard about Haskell and Erlang, but why care? Ten ways you can ship better products faster using FP languages.
2. Kyle Machulis - Biometric Porn: Sexy Graphs
   Track a value over time. Turn it into a graph. Now what if it's a biometric value? During sex? SFW porn! Descarte FTW!
3. Ian Kallen - Understand The Web Spam Ecosystem In 5 Minutes
   Grok how PPC ads, the search utilities and link based ranking have created an ecosystem of web spam.
4. Mikel Maron - OpenStreetMap WikiProject:UnitedStates
   US Geohackers rejoice! OpenStreetMap, the free editable map of the world, has started up US activity.
5. dan farmer - faster than the bear
   why strategic computer security has failed and has no hope of succeeding.
6. Toby Segaran - Social Data Mining
   I'll show how one can take the tastes, hopes and ideas on the internet and use data mining to better understand people
7. Brooke Blumenstein - Web 2.0 Outside the Tech Scene
   Web 2.0 technologies are usually geared towards tech-y consumers, I'll show where they're appearing in non-tech orgs
8. susan wu - VC as RPG: leveling up and collecting phat loot
   What are the game mechanics that govern the VC world? What skills do you need to pump EXP points into?
9. Chicken John - Art and Innovation
   I'm running for mayor on an art platform. My truck runs on walnut shells.
10. Tara hunt - Forget Venture Capital, Raise Social Capital!
    So many startups are doing it wrong. They need to raise social capital BEFORE they even think of raising venture capital
11. Annalee Newitz - Spaceships (and a few dragons)
    Galactica. The Enterprise. Serenity. What do our favorite spaceships say about us? A quick and dirty culture analysis.