Is it time to declare victory for Silicon Beach Australia, lock the forum, and wrap things up?

[Geoff Langdale]

So, the jobs board is full of insane spam, and this forum is 95% Dean wittering into the void. 

Perhaps it's time to edit the Silicon Beach landing page to reflect the current state of play with Australian startups (some links to the top incubators, coworking spaces, events, etc), pat ourselves on the back that startup concepts in 2008 are now way more mainstream in 2019, close down stuff that's not fit for purpose anymore (would you ask a question about startups or seek advice on SBA in 2019? I didn't think so), and declare victory?

[Dean Collins]

We have a similar issue here in New York with newtech on the meetup.com its ironic though as when I needed to reach out to people for a specific piece of information and had no idea how to collect it….a simple question to the list and I had 3-4 replies in 20 minutes from people in the specific vertical eg It’s a huge resource and no one is using it.

I for one will keep posting content to SBA that’s of interest to Australian startups until the power is turned off J

 

 

Cheers,

Dean

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[Steve Kelly]

As probably the last administrator of SBA left it isnt that much work for me (I don't do much with the job board, but sounds like I should look into it). 

- I think we might as well continue on - I wouldnt say its time to declare victory or any where near it yet. Australia still has a long way to go to being Startup friendly. 

- I still get value from the list (even if most of it comes from Dean) :) 

- I am happy to keep approving post's marked as spam, and removing spammers from the maililng list. 

I think the solution is that we need to spend more time on this group and make it more active again, this is also pretty well the only Australian Startu group, the rest are either city or state based.

thoughts ? 

Thanks

Stephen Kelly

On Thursday, 11 July 2019 15:48:56 UTC+10, Geoff Langdale wrote:

So, the jobs board is full of insane spam, and this forum is 95% Dean wittering into the void. 

Perhaps it's time to edit the Silicon Beach landing page to reflect the current state of play with Australian startups (some links to the top incubators, coworking spaces, events, etc), pat ourselves on the back that startup concepts in 2008 are now way more mainstream in 2019, close down stuff that's not fit for purpose anymore (would you ask a question about startups or seek advice on SBA in 2019? I didn't think so), and declare victory?A

[Paul F Fraser]

On 16/07/2019 9:18 am, Steve Kelly wrote:
> As probably the last administrator of SBA left it isnt that much work for me (I don't do much with
> the job board, but sounds like I should look into it).
>
> - I think we might as well continue on - I wouldnt say its time to declare victory or any where
> near it yet. Australia still has a long way to go to being Startup friendly.

+1

Paul Fraser

[Geoffrey Litman]

My 3 cents worth....

It's hard to predict when something might come in handy. We learn lots of things, meet lots of people, get lots of advice. We cannot tell at which moment it may be of use, but like tools in a tool box when some

event happens we look in our tool box for that long forgotten tool that may be fit for purpose. 

Perhaps the label for this forum, for many, may be outdated. Perhaps the forum should be rejuvenated and transformed rather than dropped. 

have a wonderful day,

Geoff 

www.qallity.com

Optima, Hotel Guest Relationship Oriented, 

This email is strictly private and confidential and only intended to be read by the recipients. 

www.keeptracksolutions.com

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[Geoff Langdale]

I'd be pro-rejuvenation if that could be done. However, if I wanted to follow a 'random stuff blog' there are plenty on the Internet already.

I suppose what I would like to see is some actual productive reference to things that are happening in Australian startups. To be frank, the board's incarnation as Dean's Daily Thoughts On Everything doesn't exactly fit that bill. There have been times I've opened up the forum and seen 23/25 of the most recent posts from Dean, almost all "1 post, <10 views".

Notably, very few events actually happening with Australian startups get written up here, and this has been a pattern for a while. If Dean or drlau has a thought about something very tangentially related to Australia or tech, we hear all about it, but a new Startmate crop can go by, or an Aussie startup can raise a significant Series A and there's ... crickets.

Clearly things have moved away (more or less naturally) to other fora or entirely different modes. I think if someone wanted to get this board going again, then at the very least having a regular news roundup and ensuring that organisations like Startmate and Fishburners and so on at least post their generic announcements here would be a start. Having nothing but random wibble here sends a message that the forum isn't worth bothering with, and note the "# of views" stats indicate this (often in the single digits). We used to have 100-200 view threads on topics that were, ahem, a bit more closely connected to actual Australian startup activity.

Geoff.

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[Dean Collins]

So post something interesting Geoff is my suggestion….. There are people that do and there are people that sit in the bleachers and say it cant be done.

I look forward to your post sometime in the next 7 days that is going to draw hundreds of comments.

Personally I thought the AI was very interesting to see how they were using it eg “analytics of real world teaching” where did a teacher lose their students in a class due to complexity/something not understood well.
But I guess…..i’m the only one.

 

 

Cheers,

Dean

 

From: silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Geoff Langdale

Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2019 4:28 AM
To: Silicon Beach Australia

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[Steve Kelly]

To me Silicon Beach isn't about this forum, and was not what it was started for. It started as, and I think should continue to be a place for startups to get together and discuss things, regardless of where we discuss them. For people who have been doing it for longer and have more 'battle wounds' to be able to help newer startups not fall into the same trap. A way for startups to share good and bad service providers - find staff - or have a coffee and chat with someone bouncing ideas around.

I think we need an event once a month / once a quarter where people meet up in a pub, have a few drinks and get to know each other, very similar to the BTUB / STUB / MTUB days - I would be willing to organise and sponsor drinks ($1000) for an event (In Brisbane) maybe September 20 - at the Ship Inn at SouthBank. Maybe if we can get another startup or two to throw in some sponship dollars as well. 

The view counts on post are also not a true reflection of the number of people that read the posts, as many people would just read them in their email program and never visit the site. 

On Thursday, 11 July 2019 15:48:56 UTC+10, Geoff Langdale wrote:

[James Muraca]

I'm willing to sponsor a drinks event too for any Aussies in SoCal Orange County if there's any one on the list located here. Would be good to catchup on the state of startups in the US and happy to report it back to the list too.

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[Geoffrey Litman]

There are few places on the Internet these days like the people who are in this forum. Those that do not wish to participate are free not to or can choose to not receive msg. 

the topics posted however often or however relevant are from very intelligent well meaning people. 

They may not be 

specifically relevant to me but I may see some aspect that will give me a better perspective on how to improve or enlighten in an area that I find interesting.

Cheers

Have a great day ahead. Geoff

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[@iCentralCo @pc0]

Don’t kill it. This is part of the industry heritage and hence national history. The members list join dates alone tell a story.

The platforms have moved on e.g. SYDNEY Startups on book but there is still value here.

Refresh base content. Refresh governance. Community diligence on off-topic posts (and the humility to accept by the posters).

This forum can be great again.

[Geoff Langdale]

Again, I'd like to see it rejuvenated rather than killed if that could be made to happen. But here's an interesting search - go up to the search window and search for "Startmate" (which, I think, arguably must be the leading accelerator program in Australia, or at the very least, highly significant and well regarded even on a world stage).

No-one has even mentioned Startmate here in 3... whole... years....  and you have to go back to 2015 to see substantive posts about it.

You have to go back to 2014-2015 to get to the point where people posted announcements about new accelerator programs, demo days, etc, for any program (not just Startmate). 

The point that Dean seems to miss here is, if you don't have anything to say, don't say it.

It's also not a competition to try to build a personal brand by saying Interesting Things on The Internet. I've got about 1 marginally-interesting-to-a-tiny-set-of-people post about startups on my blog (from, ahem, actual experience with a startup) and that's pretty much one-and-done, and the relevance to Australian startups isn't huge. But posting my opinion on every goddamn thing isn't going to magnify that impact. I have some stuff I'm working on and if it turns into anything, people will know. 

In the mean-time, there are a goodly collection of Australian startups and incubators and accelerators constantly doing stuff that's absolutely core to the original purpose of this forum and for whatever reason, they don't post here anymore.

Geoff.

[drllau]

One post on putting the final stake into a dead heart has caused more traffic than the previous months. There are arguments either way ... let me put forward a proposition as stalking horse

A. That the digital assets of Silicon Beach (in the broadest sense) be curated into a living timeline (+various testamonials) along the lines of [Pirates of Silicon Valley] (or #insert your favorite meme like Truman Show or Reality TV]

B. This documentary/historifiction/retrospective] be funded by sale of the brand, website and other ancilliary items to a worthy successor (to be voted upon) ... I can name at least 1 VC group that wants to create a local platform for angels and crowd-funding who may be interested

C. Any residual to go to digital preservation of the 1990-2020 innovation wave in Australia, whether a museum, landing pad in SF, or some other living archive

We can debate the relative aspects of Preserve-Promote-Protect but I'd rather put forward a concrete action plan to debate rather go around in circles. My general observation is that technology (and their funding) goes in waves. With all the hype over ICOs/STO/etc ... the nexxus of activity has shifted. Much like how digital natives left spammy newsgroups, AOL got eclipsed by HotMail/Gmail, friendster by Facebook, SMS by Twitter etc ... people move on.

When the fire goes out, It's not the celebration of ashes, but the remembrance of heat/passion in the heady days when Big Shift started [see book].

PS. For b) as voluntary contribution towards funding the documentary, I offer to audit the IP of Silicon Beach (as community trademark) to package up for sale with a range of valuation backed by industry norms (normally I charge $5--20k for this). But people need to decided what they want preserved (track every potential founder and where they ended up?)

Lawrence

http://www.linkedin.com/in/drllau

[Elias Bizannes]

I currently maintain the website (and jobs board: spent a few hours just last night fixing an issue by the hacker who ruined it) and welcome anyone else that wants to help out. I’ve pretty much left it all on auto-pilot. I also feel this forum has died from its peak, which was brilliant when it was active but perhaps is not longer needed given the Facebook groups that now exist.

As far as I’m concerned, Silicon Beach has achieved more than I could ever have hoped for when I first created it. It brought people together and inspire things like Startmate. It impacted the politicians who tried to do things not aligned with what we wanted. It’s created community which now is replaced by other communities, including the Aussie Founders Network we created here in Silicon Valley.

That said, the Silicon Beach community in Melbourne led by Athula is very active, and I would say Silicon Beach nation wide is the largest grass roots community in Australia in tech, especially outside of the Sydney-centric view of the industry.

I say lock down the forum, its a different world these days for when I created it. But maybe we put out support around people like Athula Bogota who’s really driving the community these days, and try to spin up events around Australia to get people connected.

But maybe more usefully, here is a question we really should be asking, and which this forum used to answer. What’s lacking in the Australian tech industry these days?