Get your dork on in Pittsburgh March 20th, 2008.

What is “dorkbot”?

dorkbot is a regular meeting of people who like to do strange things with electricity. It’s all volunteer and non-profit — meetings are held in donated space and no admission fee is charged. dorkbot pittsburgh meetings are smoke-free / non-smoking events, even when we hold them in a place where smoking is normally allowed.

dorkbot meeting frequency, format and content varies by city: San Francisco meets monthly and has everything from political talks to virtual reality. NYC has had electronic art installations, theatre, and presentations on new software development environment. Madrid has had robots that draw and Japan has had electronic music. Most dorkbots have a couple of primary speakers with 20-40 minute presentations and an “open dorkbot” session where anyone can show off for 3-5 minutes.

dorkbot pittsburgh will reflect what people in this area are interested in. Since we’re new, we don’t know what that means just yet. Maybe it’s military robot prototypes reborn as art projects. Maybe it’s el-wire costumes, neon art, and backlit stained glass by local arists. Or perhaps it’s cutting edge animation from local students and hackers or a local pneumatics expert showing off technology that artists might use.

We don’t know. You do.

Participate.

The March speakers are:

Jia Ji, Touchtown. Jia is the Director of Product Management for Dancetown, a dance-based digital fitness system developed for seniors. Using a computer and dance pads, people of all ages are able to participate in healthy intergenerational play through the Dancetown system. Jia is a Stanford University alumnus and actively supports grassroots technology efforts in the Pittsburgh area. He currently serves as Technology Director for NAAAP Pittsburgh, volunteers on the local game developers board, and helps organize the Pittsburgh PodCamp conference series. Prior to joining Touchtown, Jia was president and founder of Flying Fish Media. He has also worked for a variety of technology companies and startups such as Guru.com, Pittsburgh.com, Dreamwork Soft, Inecom Entertainment, Interactive Media Systems, Ripple Effects Interactive, and eGenesis.

Jim Jen, AlphaLab. Jim is the Executive in Residence at AlphaLab, a six month program for software startups that provides companies with funding, free office space, services, and access to investors and advisors. Jim works closely with the management teams of startup technology companies to identify and address critical business issues facing those companies. Previously, Jim built and managed software businesses at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Agile Software (acquired by Oracle), and Instill Corporation (Mayfield-funded, privately held). As a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, Jim advised executive management of Fortune 500 companies on marketing, strategic planning, and organizational issues. Jim holds a BA and MA in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

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