Blake Burris
Check out my post on Cleanweb “Big Issues” as a key track of New York City’s Big Apps competition.
It’s exciting to have Mayor Mike and NYC’s EDC popularizing Cleanweb with a broad base of innovators in the City and reaching people far beyond.
I first met Chris George at the Cleanweb Hackathon at Rice University back in August 2012 where he’d volunteered to help organize some details of that event. In casual conversation, we discovered a mutual interest at the intersection of nutrition and technology (a bit of quantified self). As we talked more over the weekend, I learned of his experience in organizing running events and community (barefoot running and paleo lifestyle) meet ups along with raising of sponsorships. His skills and interests were fairly adjacent to what’s required of local teams producing hackathons. So, I figured that with his outgoing and personable style and flexible schedule, he might be a fit (and interested) for working with me to support the burgeoning cleanweb community.
Over lunch at a nearby Chinese vegan joint, we made a bargain that I’d train him up on the cleanweb space along with relevant technology and take him to the events happening the remainder of the year where he could get first-hand experience and meet scads of new people. If things worked out, I suggested, he could create an opportunity (and paying job) for himself. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind tour of the cleanweb communities; where he’s traveled (in couch surfing style) representing cleanweb in San Francisco, Austin, NYC, Los Angeles, Rome and most recently, Chicago.
Chris’s work scope (as much as it can be constrained in a startup) is working with self-selecting leaders internationally to building the global cleanweb community (mostly in the mega cities) where Cleanweb takes root. The ultimate goal of creating the next web-scalable companies addressing resource issues.
Chris, It’s great have you in the cleanweb family and it has been encouraging to watch you find your footing and apply your creativity to accelerate the Cleanweb. You’ve been a critical part of building the momentum towards the launch phase of the Cleanweb Initiative. We could use another four of you so get busy!
As I return from yet another trip evangelizing the Cleanweb Gospel, I find myself imagining a few things: where will Cleanweb pop up next? Which cities will rival Rome and London as primo innovative-Cleanweb community icons in 2013 and beyond? I believe I have an answer that may cause you…
After spending time with Matt Reisman (@mattreisman) a Boston native and his business partner, Duer Reeves a former SUN executive, in Boulder a few months back, I left excited by their plan to focus their accelerator on #Cleanweb. While no one would claim it’s easy starting and funding an accelerator, they do have a few advantages working in their favor:
- Genuine interest in helping early stage entrepreneurs
- Techstars affiliation
- Boulder location with 300+ days of sunshine with a rich startup history community
I’ve also joined their advisory board and look forward to getting more involved and recruiting for the first class begins. Godspeed!
It seems like just yesterday that we were in the final stretch of planning the second Cleanweb Hackathon in New York. It was a great event that brought people together from the Cleantech community along with investors, city officials, entrepreneurs and a spattering of students. It exceeded my expectations and has led to follow up discussions and spurred the city’s own hackathon, Reinvent Green.
During the two weeks following NYC, I had some great follow up chats with people interested in doing hackathons all over (Tel Aviv, Houston, Paris, L.A., Singapore, Berlin, and Philadelphia). Wow, this thing has legs I thought.
Luckily, Sunil Paul and Nick Allen (of Spring Ventures) shared my enthusiasm for doing something beyond the first two events that would catalyze local leaders who could in turn continue the momentum. While we could have just let Cleanweb spread organically, my opinion was that Cleanweb, as an evolutionary mantra for continued innovation, deserved some focused execution. If we could identify leaders interested in spreading the meme, real community could be formed for create some major impact and disruptive new companies. We quickly agreed on a plan and they agreed to invest funds and to help raise sponsors interest in a Cleanweb 10-city tour.
So, after several months of planning, it’s time to kick off the first spate of hackathons:
- Boston, May 4-6
- Boulder, May 17-20
- Santa Clara, May 22-24 (in conjunction with Connectivity Week)
- Oakland*, June 8-11
- Paris*, June 17-21 (in conjunction with Futur en Seine)
I hope you can join us at one of these if you’re nearby or can get there. If you’re one of those wondering “when cleanweb is coming to my city,” consider recruiting some compatriots who would make good organizers and complete the facilitator application to get the ball rolling.
It might go without saying, but producing a great event for 150-200 people is a big commitment. It takes about 90-days of planning, a great team, raising $10-20K, securing sponsors, and then making sure you do everything in your power to get people to bring their creative guns on game day.
Join the #Cleanweb conversation on Twitter or for some serious dev chat: ##Cleanweb on irc.freenode.net
Almost forgot to share this on Tumblr. Lots of opportunities coming up to get involved in Cleanweb. Check out our new site for updates and tour schedule. (via Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech)
