Konnects, Inc. Among 24 Leading Northwest Companies Selected to Present at WTIA Fast Pitch Forum Showcase

Things are really starting to move fast for the company now...it will be very interesting to see how this affects what we are doing. Exciting times!!!

Konnects, Inc. Among 24 Leading Northwest Companies Selected to Present at WTIA Fast Pitch Forum Showcase

Social Media Platform Company chosen for continuing innovation and leadership in local tech community

SEATTLE – May 05, 2009 – Konnects, Inc. today announced that the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) (http://www.washingtontechnology.org) has selected the company as a presenter for the 2009 Fast Pitch Forum and Technology Showcase. The event, taking place May 27 from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle, will give 24 of the Northwest’s most innovative start-ups the chance to showcase their companies to the local tech community and leading venture capitalists (VCs).

“Washington is home to some of the fastest growing and most innovative technology companies in the world, but until now we have not had a start-up technology showcase event to match those in the Silicon Valley or New York,” said Ken Myer, president and CEO of the WTIA. “This year, with the new format and new name, our Fast Pitch Forum and Technology Showcase will serve as the premier event for local rising stars.”

Konnects, Inc. (http://www.konnects.com) is a social media solutions and platform provider that integrates online communities and social media toolsets into local newspaper portals. The company’s tools are designed to assist newspapers in transitioning to the digital world and re-establishing themselves as the online information hub of their local community.

"It is an honor to share the stage with such high caliber companies and entrepreneurs. We are excited about the opportunity to share our story,” said Jim Crabbe, Chairman and CEO, Konnects.

The event will feature presentations from 24 of Washington state’s most interesting and promising companies. Attendees will hear presentations from our region’s leading entrepreneurs and watch as the next generation of Northwest start-ups gets direct input from leading VCs and angel investors about market strategy, business plans and products. Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Silicon Valley’s leading VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will keynote the event. More information about the Fast Pitch Forum and Technology Showcase is available on the WTIA’s Web site: http://www.washingtontechnology.org.

About Konnects, Inc.
Konnects, Inc. (http://www.konnects.com) provides a powerful social media platform designed to bring engagement and new revenue opportunities to the newspaper industry. By wrapping a social networking community and feature sets into the local newspaper portal, a compelling value proposition can be created for both readers and the newspaper. Integrating the Konnects solution into the newspaper world has the potential to reinvigorate an industry and once again place the local newspaper in the center of its community. The Konnects solution is perfectly positioned to grow, engage, and monetize the local newspaper’s online audience.


About the Washington Technology Industry Association
The Washington Technology Industry Association, founded in 1984, is the largest statewide association of technology companies, IT departments and individual technology professionals in North America. With more than 1,000 member companies representing more than 100,000 employees in Washington State, the association is a catalyst for sharing expertise, fostering collaboration, delivering key business services and advancing the value and global impact of technology companies doing business in Washington. The association’s global partners are Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Microsoft, Regence BlueShield, Sun Microsystems, Vertafore and Wells Fargo Insurance Services. The association’s funding partners are AH&T Insurance, F5 Networks, Moss Adams and RealNetworks. For more information, go to www.washingtontechnology.org.

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Media Contact:
Please visit www.konnects.com for more information
Call 253-572-5800 or email requests to press@konnects.com.

Jay Gallinatti officially joins Konnects as President & COO

I am very excited about the following press release that we sent out on the wires this morning. This is a big win for the company.

PRESS RELEASE

Konnects Announces Addition to Executive Team

Konnects adds Jay Gallinatti as President and Chief Operational Officer

Tacoma, WA- April 29, 2009 - Konnects, Inc., the social media solutions and platform provider for the newspaper industry, announced that Jay Gallinatti will join the Konnects executive team as President and Chief Operating Officer.

Gallinatti will manage all aspects of the Company's business on a day-to-day basis, and will work to further expand adoption of the Konnects social media platform and its service offerings. A seasoned executive, Gallinatti brings to Konnects more than 25 years of experience, and a track record of success. Gallinatti has been consulting with Konnects for over 18 months, and has served on the Board of Directors since April 2008. He also serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for Innocentive Inc, an internet company that is pioneering “Open Innovation.”

"We are excited to have such a seasoned internet professional join our team. Konnects will benefit from both his leadership and strategic input. His experience in growing a company like ours to scale will be invaluable as we proceed down our path. Jay is very talented and has had an immediate impact,” said Jim Crabbe, Chairman and CEO, Konnects.

Jay Gallinatti said, “I am thrilled to be leading us in our new strategic direction to deliver a social media solution to local newspapers. Our robust platform is ideal for local newspapers looking to adopt a social media solution that can provide real engagement with their on-line audience. I am extremely excited about the opportunity for Konnects to help local newspapers to once again be “the hub” of their local community, but it will be on-line, not in print.”

Prior to joining Konnects, Gallinatti served on the board of directors for Zango, Inc. from November 2004 until January of 2009. In March of 1998 Gallinatti joined Overture (previously GoTo.com) as one of the founding members of the executive management team responsible for advertising sales and customer service. Overture pioneered the concept of “sponsored listings” within search results, and the company grew to more than 600 employees generating over $600 million in revenue and $100 million in net profit. Overture was later acquired by Yahoo! in 2003 for $1.6 billion.

About Konnects
Konnects, Inc. provides a powerful social media platform designed to bring engagement and new revenue opportunities to the newspaper industry. Konnects believes that by wrapping the local news content into a social networking community, a compelling value proposition can be created for both readers and the newspaper. By partnering with newspapers Konnects has the potential to reinvigorate an industry and once again place the local newspaper in the center of its community. Konnects believes its solution is perfectly positioned to grow, engage, and monetize the local newspaper’s online audience.

Additional news and information is available at www.konnects.com.For press inquiries, please contact us at 253-572-5800 or at press@konnects.com.

Testing the ability to load an image via iPhone

I thought I would try to see how the formatting works for sending a photo from the iphone. When I submitted, it put my text far below the image behind my email signature. I could not get the text above the image until I went into the edit Html function. Once I effectively entered in text via html mode, I could then edit/format it. A little extra work for an iphone user, but worth it.....the image below is my daughter gardening for the first time.

Signing up for mobile blogging

I think this will be a great experiment.

Possible Speaking opportunity at SocComm/The Social Communications Summit ( http://www.soccomm.com ) will take place in New York from February 10-11.

I have filled out to potential topics for the chance to speak at this upcoming conference put on by Jeff Pulver. I hope I get the chance to present....not because I like to talk. :)

More because I really like where he is going with the conference. I would love to engage in deep discussion with some of the luminaries in the space. Hopefully I pass the cut... I thought it might be fun to post out the potential topics that I threw out there and see if anyone had a preference...what would you like to hear about. (It is ok if these are snoozers for you...:) let me know your HONEST feedback. lol.

On the future of Society and Social Presence (Individual):

For the most part, if you were born later than 1971, the Internet was a part of your life—you were part of, and had access to, the information grid. The Internet helped you navigate and identify some opportunities, but for the most part was a tool for informing yourself or seeking information versus a tool to guide your life direction. If you were born later than 2003, however, you have always lived in a world where everyone you knew had a robust virtual presence—everyone was connected. Not only is information readily available to you, introductions and opportunities are exposed through your social grid. You utilize this technology to navigate to exactly the person or resource you need to assist you with whatever opportunity you choose to pursue…whether it is professional or social. You are part of the global society. Geography means little. Culture is homogenized and becoming more so every decade.

In this presentation, I would address the following questions:

What are the repercussions of this new digital awareness?

How will you game the system?

What will you build/create to leverage this awareness?

What are the social repercussions of those born into a higher level of social connectivity by virtue of the class they are born into?

Will this new technology be an equalizer or will it further divide and fragment us?

How will AI and supercomputers process and capitalize on not only our mapped social hierarchy, but also upon our communication and information exchange patterns?


Another potential:

On the Future of the Business Space (Business Focus):

“We are currently in the infancy of a new industry wherein we try to map and leverage the connectivity and hierarchy of our species. Beyond the entertainment or social applications present today, there is a huge potential for directed thought and collective action through leveraging the social hierarchy or grid. Initiatives such as OpenID, Opensocial, FOF, etc., seek to enable closed networks to open up and allow users to cross pollinate across diverse platforms or applications. But do human beings truly want to exist in a completely open and homogenous community, or do we invariably self segment with others we perceive to be like ourselves?

I believe that we will continue to self cluster and slowly evolve to a more homogenous worldwide culture over time. To achieve this evolution rapidly we need a singular platform that is malleable to sub cultures. Fragmented platforms strung together with a patchwork of competing open standards do not create a singular user experience. Open standards adopted by all may be a great dream, but without ease of use and implementation for partners/publishers they are doomed. That being said, who will be the Microsoft of the social space that creates a base others can truly build upon for their own unique purposes?”

In addition to the above, in this presentation, I would address the following questions:

How will commercial interests weigh in on the development of social platforms?

How will this inhibit or enable the proliferation or development of our digital “presence” or self?

Let me know what you think of either topic! If you have thoughts, please throw them out there. Even if I dont get to speak, I still want to hear what people think....

Ethical Implications of Social Networking

Tacoma Community College's Center for Ethical Development asked me to take part in a panel discussion titled "Internet Privacy? Ethical Implications of Social Networking." Panelists joining me included Valerie Zeeck, a partner in the law firm of Gordon Thomas Honeywell Malanca and Dahiem, who specializes in employment law and litigation; Eva Frey Johnson, director of Student Involvement and Leadership/Diversity Center at Pacific Lutheran University; and Sean VanDommelen, a student leader at Tacoma Community College.

For the framework of the discussion, I wanted to make sure we focused on what I refer to as "social mapping" versus the marketing term "social networking." Social mapping in my mind is the ability to map the degrees of relationship between individuals existing within a network. Social networking covers a wide range of different technologies empowering folks to create content and share/interact with one another.

I believe this technology is not a fad and will profoundly change the way that future generations will interact. New social norms are already developing around both social networking and social mapping. My daughter (currently age 3) will grow up in a world where she knows exactly to whom she maps to in order to find resources, jobs, content, media, etc. In her lifetime she will live in a world where a vast majority of humanity is indexed.

This of course leads to the ethical questions of....

How will the ideas of privacy and individuality be shaped when we exist as publicly viewable individuals? Will we completely open up our lives, or close them down in reaction to exposure?

I tend to think we are witnessing a world homogenization wherein we all begin to finally tolerate and understand one another. This typically only happens with exposure. With a digital presence, we now can be exposed without physically traveling. This process started before the advent of this technology, but I think social networking/mapping will accelerate it and give it wings.

In a human existance where we are all mapped and communication is instantaneous, how will social structures evolve? Will this level the field or create those who are Linked"in" versus Konnected?

I certainly hope we accept the fact that we are all konnected, and that we need to be open to helping one another "surf the human web" that is evolving through this space.....

I am throwing these thoughts out there to create a dialogue....how do you feel on the subject? The future is what we make it. Collaboration and dialogue are key to making anything happen. Nothing great is ever accomplished alone.

I hope you join me in this discussion.....Are you excited about this technology, or do you have concerns? What do you like or dislike about the current technology players in the space? How do you think it will evolve over time?