Well NYC and Hamburg are done.
Hamburg launch a beta and NYC did not.
I think the difference was the process they used... Hamburg organized in their own way and NYC followed the Startup Weekend Bill of Rights. I don't know that was the the killer for NYC as Facebook apps are hard to write -- NYC would have been hampered by that fact, but I can't help but wonder if all that pre-weekend organization actually helped Hamburg. Only a few more run under Andrew's Bill of Rights will tell the tail.
For those that read German, or for those that are willing to run the site through a translator, it's well worth reading about how they organized. They did a much better job of organizing than we did in Toronto and I have high hopes for Birmingham as well, because they are also well organized.
One other thing I would love to hear more about was NYC's attendance and energy. The videos shot there on the second day looked very subdued and there looked to be only about 20 people actually in the building and working. Thats a bit more attrition than we experienced -- if thats the case it may be that attrition is inevitable regardless of the format of the weekend. Attrition is something most people complaining about Toronto have pointed to as evidence of failure (most people who attended don't think we failed at all). I guess that's one more thing we'll have to wait on more weekends for, to get any sort of answer.
Also, I'm planning to write up a summary of our weekend in Toronto. We had intended to do it as a group but it's been very hard to get people communicating at all. So, I'll write it up from my perspective so that other weekend cities can see what we did and my opinion on what worked and what didn't. How soon I can't tell you but I'd like to get it out there right now... it all depends on how much time I have (which is not much now that LobbyThem is preparing to launch the first release).
I must say, I'm becoming a startup junky... I love this stuff!
It's a freaky-geeky sport!
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Well, Hamburg launched a placeholder website. I don't see noble pictures of yet at least.
But their idea is better in theory. If this becomes a market for hooking up those needing and those offering photo retouching and enhancement, it could be lucrative.
The best eats in NYC as a Facebook App if expanded could be leveraged to support polls for the Village Voice and the like I suppose. OK idea, but not much market value, really. Sounds like something the Voice can slap together themselves - or perhaps acquire, which might be the point there.
Remains to be seen - but also remains to be seen what the BoR did or did not do. By the sounds of it, he slammed it together after SWT1, so as a constitution to a movement, it needs work.
Good to see you still have the enthusiasm after what was a rocky start though. I do as well, and I hope SWT2 is founded on more open and transparent principles so we can build things together vs. engage in silly blog comment wars.
@Michael Jones
Funny enough... I actually don't consider it a "rocky start".
Very disappointed in Andrew but we did what we set out to do, which was experiment with the format and see what worked and what didn't. We also managed to actually get a product up (although beta, and I don't think anyone could get something non beta up in a weekend).
As for "open" and "transparent", they are pretty much buzz words.
I do get their point though, and I assure you nobody organizing SW1 intended to fool the masses or anything. We worked it as we could and we argued a lot over what we should and shouldn't do. We all felt that we needed to communicate more although I would have no problem closing it off to only participants (I have new reasons for that of late which I am not going to publish here but you will hear about if I get to speak to the sw2 organizing team).
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