Our mission is “To support and advance the New York tech community for its people and the world”.

To that end, NYTM believes it is our duty to inform you about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which we believe poses a direct threat to our community of coders, creators, makers, builders, founders, investors, and leaders of tech in New York.

We believe SOPA threatens to undermine the very nature of the open internet and will expose you and your companies to significant legal liabilities.

SOPA is slated for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee on THURSDAY. We urge you to take action TODAY to help stop SOPA.

Here’s The Most Important Thing You Can Do:

Step 1:

CALL CONGRESS – you can use the simple, automated service at http://americancensorship.org/ – Tell your Representative that you want them to vote NO on SOPA.

Step 2:

SHARE THAT YOU CALLED – share that you called on Twitter, Facebook and whatever other platforms you use – encourage others to call as well

Need More Information?

If you want more information about SOPA, check out these resources:

1. General overview and ways to take action: http://americancensorship.org/
2. SOPA infographic from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/12/07/sopa-business-infographic/
3. Letter submitted to Congress by Mozilla, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and others: http://www.protectinnovation.com/downloads/letter.pdf
4. Blog post from Albert Wenger at USV: http://www.usv.com/2011/11/help-protect-internet-innovation.php
5. Blog post from Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter cofounder: http://yancey.tumblr.com/post/14144797713/defeat-the-stop-online-piracy-act
6. NY Times opinion piece by Rebecca McKinnon: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/opinion/firewall-law-could-infringe-on-free-speech.html?_r=2

Other Ways You Can Take Action

1. Tell the world you work for the internet by adding yourself at: http://iworkfortheinternet.org/
2. Sign the petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet
3. Send a letter to Congress: http://www.engineadvocacy.org/voice/about.html

Thank you for stepping up to take action to support the tech community!

Sincerely,
Andrew Rasiej, Board Chair, NYTM and the NYTM team

The presenters will be:
BodyJam — How to solve your fashion crisis in seconds. Presenters: Otavio Braga and Davi Geiger.
Commons — A mobile game for civic activism. Presenter: Suzanne Kirkpatrick.
Grafighters — An online fighting game for hand drawn characters. Presenters: Eric Cleckner and Dave Chenell.
Codecademy — The easiest way to learn to code. Presenters: Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski.
Lewis Dots — Making and breaking chemical bonds with your fingers. Presenters: Jin Montclare, Carlo Yuvienco, Liz Zhao, and Ben Esner.
Hacker League — A platform for easily throwing hackathons and a way to connect hackers and participants. Presenters: Abe Stanway, Mike Swift, and Ian Jennings.
LoCreep — A suite of creep-mitigation tools, providing users with special phone numbers that may be handed to undesirables in place of their own. Presenters: Andres Campanella, Misha Ponizil, and Rebeccah Zhou.
AdRunner — Dodge the ads… or face the consequences! Presenters: Joey Dong and Grant Kot.
MIDIphon — Interactive music for the masses. Presenters: Michael Bartnett and David Coss.
Bluefin Labs — A social TV analytics company providing solutions to brand advertisers, advertising agencies, and TV networks. Presenter: Deb Roy.
Upod — True automation of household appliances (research project from Rutgers University). Presenters: Michael Littman, Sameen Jalal, Phillip Quiza, and Pratik Ringsha.
Imaginary Marching Band — Open-source wearable instruments that make digital music through pantomime. Presenter: Scott Peterman.

Video of the event will be available on November 3.

As announced last year, the NY Tech Meetup will be opening 4 of the 13 positions on our Board of Directors (the “Board”) to community members elected by our members. Two of those spots were filled last year when Anil Dash and Evan Korth were elected by members of the NY Tech Meetup community to join the Board.

As you may know, NY Tech Meetup was incorporated in the State of New York in July 2010 and is now a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization. The Bylaws are always available for community review here.

We focus on having a high level of member participation on our Board. Not only will four Board members be directly elected by the broader membership (referred to as “Class B Members” in the Bylaws), but we’ve also decided that the Programming Committee, which governs our monthly Meetup and other programming, will always be Chaired by one of the member-elected Board members.

NY Tech Meetup is and always has been an organization for the members and by the members. So, how does one become a member-elected Board member? This December, we’ll conduct our second election, cycling in a third member-elected Board member (a 4th new member-elected Board member will be elected next year as well). Below, find all of the information you need between now and the annual meeting at which we will hold the election.

Nominations
Nominations may occur through this online form anytime between today, October 21, 2011 (our Notice Date) and 11:59 pm NYC time on November 30, 2011. Nominations may be made only by “Class B Members,” which are people who have RSVPed for a NY Tech Meetup event via the Meetup.com platform by 11:59 pm NYC time on November 1 (the “Record Date”). Class B Members may nominate anyone as a director (though that person will have to accept the nomination) and may also nominate themselves. Nominations through this form by people who are not Class B Members as of the Record Date will be disregarded.

Campaigning and a “Meet the Candidates” Event
In regards to campaigning, we hope our community has a vigorous and public conversation about the future of the NY Tech Meetup on blogs, via Twitter, in private and at events. We hope and expect that conversation starts as soon as now, and continues through the voting process and beyond. With that in mind, we’ve decided to host an event on December 5, 2011 for the community to meet the candidates (more information and timing to come). In addition, candidates will be encouraged to submit short videos or written statements for inclusion on the NY Tech Meetup election page of our website, which is available at nytm.org/election.

The Election and Our Annual Meeting
At midnight following the presentations of candidates at the December 5 mixer, we will open the polls (using the same platform used in the 2010 election), allowing all members to vote for the candidates online. The polls will be held open to receive “proxy” votes between such time and the start of the NY Tech Meetup’s Annual Meeting, which will be held at 3pm on December 20, 2011 at Meetup HQ. The sole purpose of the Annual Meeting will be to tabulate and validate the vote count and determine the election results.

Qualifications to Vote and Vote Count*
As we just alluded to, not every proxy vote recorded by the voting platform may end up being a qualified vote in our final tally. As our Bylaws state, only the proxy votes by Class B members — people who have RSVPed for a NY Tech Meetup event via the Meetup.com platform by 11:59 pm NYC time on the Record Date (November 1) — will be counted in our final tally (despite the fact that the voting platform will allow proxy votes to be submitted by all registered users of their system). At the annual meeting, we will work with the Meetup.com team to produce the final vote-count of Class B members, which we will then make public to our membership via our blog and an email blast.

*Procedural clarification: students who have RSVP’d to attend a NYTM through the NYTM Student Group are also qualified to vote.

Questions
If you have any questions or need anything clarified, please use the public comment system below this post so that your question may be answered and then useful for everyone to benefit from.

Election Schedule

• October 21 – Notice of Meeting Date & Announcement of Election via electronic method
• October 21– Nominations open
• November 1 – Record Date for determining class B members for nominations and voting
• November 30 – Nominations close at 11:59 pm NYC time
• December 5 – Meet the Candidates Event (voting begins at 12:00 am on December 6)
• December 20 – 3pm  – Meeting to elect Class B member (polls close right before meeting)

Mayor Bloomberg with Scott Heiferman and Dawn Barber

Mayor Bloomberg Delivers Remarks at NY Tech Meetup

Mayor Bloomberg

Mayor Bloomberg on the NYTM Stage

See more photos of the October 11 NYTM at http://www.meetup.com/ny-tech/

Video by: David Levitsky, DPL ONE, Inc. www.dpl-one.com

Chaptering provided by: Framesocket

Here’s the list:

Amicus – http://www.amicushq.com/ – @AmicusHQ

Artsicle – http://www.artsicle.com/ – @Artsicle

Aurasma – http://aurasma.com/ – @aurasma

bit.ly – https://bitly.com/ – @bitly

Fiesta.cc - https://fiesta.cc/ – @fiesta

Framesocket – http://framesocket.com/ – @framesocket

Goodsie – http://goodsie.com/ – @goodsiesupport

Gust - http://gust.com/ – @gustly

LayerVault - http://layervault.com – @LayerVault

Twilio – http://www.twilio.com/ – @twilio

Drynks – Journals your experiences with wine, beers, and your favorite liquors, and allows you to share them with friends via Facebook. Presenters: Fernando Garza and Chevon Christie. http://drynksapp.com Twitter: @binaryred

Framey – Framey makes it offensively simple to integrate video recording into your site. Presenter: Chris Danzig. http://framey.com/

Gojee - Curates recipes from top food bloggers around the world and lets you browse them in a gorgeous visual interface.  Presenters: Tian He and Mike LaValle. http://www.gojee.com/ Twitter: @gojee

Ingenuitas – Ingenuitas distributes an open-source framework called SimpleCV for creating machine vision appliances. Presenters: Katherine Scott & Nate Oostendorp http://ingenuitas.com/ Twitter: @ingenuitasinc

Kikin – Touch browsing..the way it should be! Presenter: Brian Rogers http://kikin.com/ Twitter: @kikin_inc

Moveable Feast Mobile Media - Empowers storytellers to craft richly illustrated, location-specific narratives, and easily publish them to the Moveable app. Presenters: Steve Schultz and Brad Heintz.  http://mvabl.com/ Twitter: @moveable_steve

Onepager – The easiest way for a small business to create and manage their website. Presenters: Matthew Moore and Matthew Shampine. http://onepagerapp.com/ Twitter: @OnepagerApp

StoryDesk – An outrageously simple web-based authoring tool for creating and maintaining elegant iPad catalog, presentation and story apps.Presenters: Jordan Stolper. www.storydesk.com @StoryDesk

TaskRabbit – A web and mobile marketplace that safely and reliably connects people and businesses with others in their community to get everyday and skilled Tasks done.  Presenters: Leah Busque, Kevin Cruz. Jamie Viggiano. http://www.taskrabbit.com/ Twitter: @taskrabbit

Hack of the Month: CalorieCount - An award-winning health and wellness website with more than 2.9 million users that provides members with healthy-living advice, innovative tools and free mobile applications. Presenter: Igor Lebovic.

You’ll notice that the dates don’t all line up with the consistent schedule we used to try to keep (i.e. first Tuesdays) and there are even a couple of months when we are doing two meetups in a month. Why? Because our scheduling depends on the availability of the Skirball Center at NYU which often has to accommodate somewhat long runs of shows. We love NYU because they’re great partners and we think it’s worth it to continue to work with them even if we can’t have a perfect schedule. Can’t wait for another year of great meetups!

When tickets become available, you’ll be able to get them at: http://www.meetup.com/ny-tech

All events are at the Skirball Center at NYU at 7 pm unless noted otherwise

September NYTM Complete!
Event: Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Ticket Release Dates: August 3, August 29, September 2 (all at 1 pm)

October NYTM Complete!
Event: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Ticket Release Dates: September 7, October 3, October 7 (all at 1 pm)

November NYTM Complete!
Event: Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Note: For this date only, event will be at 92^nd Street Y
Ticket Release Dates: October 12, October 24, October 28 (all at 1 pm)

“December” NYTM - Complete!
Event: Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Ticket Release Dates: November 3, November 18, November 21 (all at 1 pm)

January NYTM - Complete!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Ticket Release Dates: November 30, December 26, December 30 (all at 1 pm)

February NYTM
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Ticket Release Dates: January 5, January 30, February 3 (all at 1 pm)

“March” NYTM
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Ticket Release Dates: February 9, February 20, February 24 (all at 1 pm)

“April” NYTM
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Ticket Release Dates: February 29, March 19, March 23 (all at 1 pm)

May NYTM
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Ticket Release Dates: March 28, April 30, May 4

June NYTM
Event: Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Ticket Release Dates: May 10, May 29, June 1 (all at 1 pm)

Brom.ly – @Bromly – Helps you decide what to do tonight by providing personalized event recommendations based on your interests and social profiles. Presenter: Chad Gallagher.

Voyurl – @voyurl – The first truly ‘feedback-free’ discovery engine that recycles your data exhaust to make it powerful–via personalized content recommendation–and insightful–via vibrant personal analytics. Presenter: Adam Leibsohn

StockTouch – @stocktouch – A visual high performance iPad app for looking at stocks and companies combining a game engine platform, multi-touch interface, and custom high-speed data protocol to let users easily spot trends, relationships, movement, and outliers in the markets. Presenters: Jennifer Johnson, Steve de Brun.

Dibsie – @dibsie – an interactive shopping site designed to help you find amazing deals that appeal to your interests and budget with self-serve deal uploading for businesses. Presenters: Garren Givens, Dylan Fareed and Scott Poniewaz

want! – @WANTapp – A new mobile app that allows you to playfully express yourself by capturing, sharing and remembering things that you want. Presenter: Gene DeRose

KnowAboutIt – @knwbt – The best way to find relevant and engaging content lost in your social streams. Presenters: Kevin Marshall and Will Cole

Zaarly – @zaarly @ZaarlyNYC-Buy and sell anything with people nearby. Presenter: Bo Fishback.

Idea Flight – @ideaflight – A productivity app that allows a user to share presentations across a room of other devices, and control the experience easily from their iPad. Presenters: Juliana Stock, Melanie Rivera, Dan Wells

110 Stories – @brianaugust @110stories – An augmented reality Twin Towers iphone app that enables you to orient your phone towards the former location of the towers, augment in the image of the towers, comment and share your story with the world. Presenter: Brian August.

NYTM Afterparty
9:00-11:00 pm
Eisner/Lubin Auditorium on the 4th Floor of Kimmel Hall
(the same building as the Skirball Theater)

Need a ride to NYTM tonight? @Uber_NYC (an NYTM alum)  is discounting all rides by 10% to/from tonight’s @NYTM at Skirball Ctr btwn 6-10pm Code: NYTMAUG

Here’s the list of demoers:

Sonar – Uncovers the hidden connections you share with people nearby, in real time, in the palm of your hand. Presenters: Brett Martin & Brent Hargrave. Twitter: @sonarme

Skillslate – We find great people for anything you need done.  Presenter: Bartek Ringwelski Twitter: @SkillSlate

Local Bonus - Automatically earn rewards for shopping at local businesses. Presenter: Derek Webster. Twitter: @LocalBonus

VivaLaPlaylist - Listen and Watch with your friends. Presenters: Brian Schneider and Josh Ostrow. Twitter: @VivaLaPlaylist

Watchlr.com - Discover, save and share video.  Presenter: Gregory Schnese Twitter: @watchlr

Taap.it – Mobile-to-mobile marketplace that lets you buy and sell with locals instantly from your phone.  Presenters: Duy Huynh and Ha Tran. Twitter: @TaapItApp

SnapGoods (now w/ Knod.es) – Find people in your network to hook you up with what you need. Presenters: Ron J. Williams and John Goodwin. Twitter: @SnapGoods

CityPockets – Keep track of all your daily deal vouchers in one spot and resell those you can’t use in a secondary marketplace. Presenter: Cheryl Yeoh Twitter: @CityPockets

BioDigital Human - A 3D platform to explore the body: www.biodigitalhuman.com. Presenters Frank Sculli and John Qualter. Twitter: @biodigitalhuman