I’ll be going offline for medical reasons starting this week.  In my absence, I’m leaving the reins to Dominic so hopefully you’ll see something here every now and then.  If you feel like checking out my new art site in the meantime, please click here: Kathy’s Studio.

See you later,

Kathy

I just read this piece by Chris Morrison at VentureBeat entitled How big an opportunity is the external memory?  I think he’s on to something as there certainly is a need - (business) - in helping us remember all the bits of information that come our way these days… Where did I file that document?  Where’s that email I got a month ago from the prospective new customer?  Holy cow- it’s my anniversary tomorrow and I forgot to buy a gift!  You get my drift.  Good news - there are smart people like Sunil Vemuri, co-founder of reQall, who are addressing this subject today and providing solutions.  Don’t forget to check out reQall… hint, hint

There is clearly a demand for an alternative to eBay.  Young Wigix has already achieved a major milestone with over 1 million unique products being uploaded into its catalog.  While eBay offers sweeteners and deals to major corporations with millions of products to sell (like Buy.com), Wigix doesn’t discriminate between the individual seller and the “big businesses” by offering a clean and easy-t0-navigate buying experience and a simple, straight-forward selling offer:  no listing fees (ever) and a small percentage transaction fee.  That’s it.  I’ve already bought my Flip camcorder from Wigix and had a great experience.  I’ve also uploaded some items into my portfolio on Wigix so I’m ready to sell at any moment’s notice, should I choose.  Check out my profile here:  Kathy’s Wigix Profile

Yesterday I moderated the King.com panel at the Casual Games Association conference in Seattle, entitled “The Games Women Play.”  We had five women on stage between the ages of 34 and 71 that talked candidly about the reasons they play and what gets them excited.  The reason we wanted to give these women a voice is because the casual games industry is dominated by women.  Indeed, of the 150 million women that play casual games every day, over 2/3rds are over 35 years old.  Instead of simply being a statistics, these gals gladly shared insider perspectives on what happens when they turn on their PC and begin playing…

• While statistics state women typically spend 7.4 hours per week playing games, the panelists cited they play between 5 and 10 hours per day
• Playing casual games is often the first thing women do when they wake up. They check their ranking and play for between 2-3 hours every morning
• Trivia games are played with the family while action games are played alone
• Women are increasingly playing to compete against each other and not simply to relax. All panelists cited “competition” as their driving motivation
• While community was an important aspect of their online playing experience, none of the panelists had a Facebook profile and two had a MySpace profile

You can read the press release we issued immediately after the panel here:  King Reveals the Games Women Play During First Consumer Industry Panel

Wellington Partners entered the US with a splash with a soiree at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on July 9th. In attendance were entrepreneurs, executives and media from Europe and the US, as well as the general partners from the firm. In today’s New York Times, Claire Miller summarizes some of the sentiments of European venture capital vs the Silicon Valley tendencies, which can be found here: European V.C. Firm Arrives Stateside

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Long dismissed as the sanctuary of the adolescent fanboy, online games - or more specifically, online casual games - are becoming the domain of a new demographic:  WOMEN!  According to the Casual Games Association, over 150 million women love to play online casual games every day, and of those millions of women, over 2/3rds are over 35 years of age.

On Wednesday, July 23rd, Kathy will lead a focus group panel of six Seattle-area women over 35 who love to play games.  They’ll be on stage to share the reasons they play, what they play, who they play with, and what they’re looking for.  Check back for more insights after our panel.

The Games Women Play will be on stage at 11AM as Casual Connect Seattle, Triple Door Auditorium, Benaroya Hall.

It’s a busy news day for us here. Today, Graspr announced their Series A funding from DFJ as well as the unveiling of their syndication platform. ReQall has developed the only online native application in the Apple store that combines both voice and data. By simply shaking your iPhone, reQall will jog your memory. And King has launched an online skill game version of Cake Mania 2. Check out our News section for coverage.

Dimdim, a free, open-source web meeting service, today announced they have raised $6 million from existing investors Index Capital, Draper Richards, and Nexus India Capital.  Not only have they successfully attracted more money, but they have also attracted more than 500,000 users in more than 180 countries, in the 10 months they’ve existed.  Sounds like there are a lot of people fed-up with the inconvenient download required for costly services like WebEx.  As DD Ganguly, CEO and Dimdim proclaimed when he first unveiled Dimdim at DEMO, “WebEx is history!”  Looks like that prediction is gaining some traction.

I just couldn’t help but share this news as I’m so excited… I’ve just been informed that this painting has won me a spot in the Tiburon Arts Festival this year, which was juried by the curator at the SF MOMA and the curator of the Oakland Museum of California. I tried submitting a painting to the festival last year, but didn’t make it in so I’m truly elated that I made it through this year. The event will take place August 23-24 in Tiburon. Between now and then we’ll have to figure out our own PR plan to get the word out about my portfolio at the festival. I’ll also have to get back to the drawing board, literally, and produce a few more paintings in preparation for my first showing.

The reason I did this painting is because my friend Vic Keegan and I decided we should be more artistic and given he’s a journalist, he thought we should set a deadline for ourselves so we wouldn’t miss our assignment. For two years now, we’ve regularly met or Flickr’d our paintings which revolve around a theme we choose. You can see the evolution of our Deadline Painting Group here. You can also see my paintings here.

This particular painting was inspired by a photo taken by Thomas Hawk. It’s a wonderful story that is inspiring and motivating. Please check it out… http://thomashawk.com/2008/04/story-behind-photograph.html