Mark Koberlein

Mobile Web Developer at Code Paint, LLC
Mark Koberlein
Mark Koberlein

Consulting with companies and working on web and mobile applications at Code Paint, LLC.

I am also the founder of the Lehigh Valley Tech which is a local group for startups, entrepreneurs, hackers, and technology enthusiasts in the Lehigh Valley to share and demo what they are working on.

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2011 (11)
2010 (57)
2009 (8)

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Le Web 2009. Maybe I'll be able to cross the pond next year for @leweb 2010

The last tech conference I was at was Google IO in 2008. I wasn't able to go this year, but hopefully I will be able to go back in 2010. Another conference that I would like to go to is Le Web. Even though this conference is for Europe it brings together speakers from the top US tech companies.  

Usually, you don't go to a tech conference for the content because you can get that online. Most tech conferences live stream or post videos online after it's over. The real benefit to going to something like this is to network and meet people in your industry which is something you can't do by watching the videos.  Another reason to go to Le Web is because it is held in Paris, France. An expensive but possibly a very fun trip.

North America is currently the leader in web services but I have a feeling that Europe isn't too far behind.   I can say from personal experience that European companies can be a great resource to partner with and outsource to.

Platform Roundtable 
Michael Arrington, Editor, TechCrunch
Ethan Beard, Director, Facebook Developer Network, Facebook
Cristian Cussen, Director of Business Development, Ning
Brandon Duncan, Director of Platform Engineering, LinkedIn 
John Ham, Co-founder & CEO, Ustream
David Jacobs, Vice President, SixApart, Ltd.
Mike Jones, COO, MySpace
Ryan Sarver, Director of Platform, Twitter

Some of my other favorites:

 

 

 

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A great video blog about tech entrepreneurs: mixergy.com @andrewwarner #twist #in

Stepping away from the day job and into your own venture is difficult (especially with a mortgage and kids). One the resources that has helped to inspire me in my journey is This Week in Startups. I've been watching this show from the start and it's probably my favorite podcast on the subject.

However, while listening to the latest episode of This Week in Tech, one of the guest hosts (Andrew Warner) talked about his website mixergy.com. On mixergy, Andrew interviews entrepreneurs to see what made them succeed or fail.  He seems to have a real talent of finding the right entrepreneurs to interview and asking them the questions that we all have wondered about. If you are thinking about starting a technology business then you should check this out.

 

Links for Mixergy:
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I had my first Blue Screen of Death in Windows 7 today.

Bluescreen

It looks like Microsoft hasn't conquered death on the desktop yet because I received my first blue screen of death today on Windows 7.  I've been using Windows 7 since the beta and I never had this problem.  I thought once and for all Microsoft tamed the blue screen beast.  To Microsoft's credit the blue screen only flashed for a couple of seconds and the computer rebooted rather quickly.  I did think it was interesting that Microsoft's Problem Event Name is "BlueScreen".

Also, I should point out that this happened because I tried to open a Flash project file in CS4 while I had a youtube video playing in the browser.  So thanks Adobe!  I was also on a MacBook Pro so that might had something to do with it too because blue screens usually occurred in the past because of hardware driver issues.
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The Technium: 1,000 True Fans

The long tail is famously good news for two classes of people; a few lucky aggregators, such as Amazon and Netflix, and 6 billion consumers. Of those two, I think consumers earn the greater reward from the wealth hidden in infinite niches.

But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become a large aggregator of other artist's works, the long tail offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales.

via kk.org

Good article about web marketing. Read the rest of the article here: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php#

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Follow Up on the Crush It

Just a follow up on my review of Crush It.  This is one of the better interviews that I've seen of Gary talking about his book and his business philosophy.

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Just Finished Reading Crush It

Book-header-trans

I just finished reading Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk.  I really enjoyed it but I would have to say that it was more inspirational than informative.  That's not a bad thing.  If you are thinking about starting a business and you know what you have to do but you need a little kick to get you started than this book is for you. 

In his book, Gary walks us through his great personal story from his parents migrating from Russia to him taking over his father's wine business and growing it from a small discount liquor store to a $40+ million a year business.  He is truly gifted with a lot of charisma, drive, and determination.  You can see this by watching his videos on garyvaynerchuck.com and winelibrary.tv.  

Crush It! is all about building a business around your "personal brand" through "hustle" and utilizing social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. Actually, this book isn't as much about building a business but rather monetizing your "personal brand" which in turn could become a business. Don't expect this book to teach you how to write a blog on Wordpress or how to publish a video on Youtube.  Instead, Gary describes how he used those tools to build his "personal brand" empire and how anybody can replicate it.

If you are looking for a more how-to business book then I would suggest Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek. Tim blurbed the cover of Gary's book and I've seen him on one of Gary's wine library episodes.  Tim started an online retail business selling just one product and grew it into a million dollar lifestyle business.  He goes into detail about issues like how to start while you have a full time job, how to use virtual assistants, how to do market research to test a product before bringing it to market, and how to outsource almost everything so you can minimize the amount of work you actually do. 

If you are thinking about starting an online business and you are looking for a couple of books to get you started then I would suggest these books. I guarantee that you will be inspired and informed.   
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