InBerkeley

Are you technically oriented? A hacker? Are you thinking about one day starting your own company? Or maybe you’ve already started one?

How’d you like to get free advice from some of the tech industry’s most notable startup experts? People like Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus; Chris Anderson, Wired editor-in-chief; Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook; Paul Buchheit, founder of Friendfeed; Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos; and others.

The 2009 Startup School will be held on Saturday, October 24, at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium, and is sponsored by Berkeley CSUA, St@b, BASES, and Y Combinator.

The event is free, but because more people may want to attend than there room for, the organizers have asked that you fill out a brief application form if you want to attend.  The application deadline is noon, Pacific time, on October 1, and acceptance notices will be sent out by October 8.  Because the purpose of this event is to teach technical people about startups, they will get priority.

Where: Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley.
When: October 24, 2009, 9:00 a.m.
Application Deadline: October 1, 2009.

Business, Education, UC Berkeley

On May 16, 2009, Charles “CJ” Davis was murdered in Berkeley, and while the suspects were fleeing that crime, they crashed into a vehicle being driven by Todd Perea of Brentwood, killing him, too.  Two suspects were arrested at the crash scene, another was arrested later in Florida and brought back to the Bay Area, but one suspect still remains at large.

Crews from “America’s Most Wanted” were in Berkeley this weekend filming shots for a show that will focus on the May slaying of a 25-year-old Berkeley man and the ensuing police chase and crash that killed an uninvolved motorist and pedestrian in North Oakland.

Crews filmed in several West Berkeley locations. The show is slated to air at 8 p.m. Nov. 7 on Fox. Uniformed officers who will appear on the show are Berkeley police, said police spokesman Officer Andrew Frankel.

via San Jose Mercury News.

Crime

The second annual Downtown Berkeley MusicFest gets under way this week with a rich array of live, mostly free, kick-ass music performances at various venues throughout the downtown area.   Jazz, bluegrass, folk, country & western, reggae, world, tango, blues, Latin, klezmer and more.  While most of the action occurs between 5:00 and 11:00 p.m., performances begin at noon on Wednesday and Thursday, and 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.

The festivities begin at noon on Wednesday, August 26, and run through Sunday night.  Did we mention, most performances are FREE.

Get all the details at the Downtown Berkeley MusicFest web site.

Downtown, Events, Music

Last Sundays Fest on Telegraph is coming again this Sunday, August 30th. A professional stage on Haste at Telegraph will feature the East Bay’s best bands and DJ El Kool Kyle. The street will be closed for dining, walking, and exploration.

There will be festival-day specials from merchants and restaurants, as well as handicraft vendors, outreach exhibits and green presentations. Berkeley’s own Phenomenauts will be coming home to play after their 40-city American tour. Down the street, Chabot to Go will be on site with interactive demonstrations for children, focusing on astronauts and space. Lawrence Hall of Science will be here as well! Green Motors is again coming out to show off its electric vehicles. Buttons Ze Clown will be in the crowd.

Program:

1:00 Mister Loveless
2:00 Tragedy Andy
3:00 Matthew Hansen
4:00 Custard Pie (Zeppelin tribute band)
5:00 Amaya
6:00 Phenomenaut

For more information: Last Saturday Fest on Telegraph.

General

The Berkeley Center for New Media is planning a one-day symposium — “The Future of the Forum: Internet Communities and the Public Interest” — that will explore the questions: How are Internet communities re-configuring and re-constituting common conceptions of the public, the public good, the public interest, and civic responsibility? What new forms of dialogue are emerging with our new media? When do the pleasures of interacting with digital technologies coincide with, and facilitate, progressive social action?

Speakers include Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, among others.

The organizers of the symposium are inviting proposals for papers addressing novel aspects of online participation, the formation of new publics, and the public good. Papers may be specific, focusing on case studies of particular Internet groups, or more theoretical and general in their approach.

Potential speakers should send their 300-word abstract and a one-page C.V. to Professor Abigail De Kosnik by October 5, 2009.

For more information about the symposium: The Future of the Forum: Internet Communities and the Public Interest.

For more information about the call for papers: Call for papers.

General

Ashraf Ghani, who taught at Berkeley in 1983, finished fourth in the Afghan presidential elections with about 1 per cent of the vote.

Ghani had a distinguished academic career before joining the World Bank in 1991. He returned to Afghanistan after 24 years in December, 2001, and served in a variety of advisory and ministerial posts, including as finance minister in the Karzai government. His election manifesto was based on his comprehensive development plan for Afghanistan, Securing Afghanistan’s Future. He hired the “ragin’ Cajun”, James Carville, as a campaign advisor.

Photo from World Economic Forum on Flickr

Politics, UC Berkeley

If you missed the protests over John Yoo last Monday, there’s now a handy YouTube video of Code Pink’s mock arrest of law school professor Yoo.

Issues, UC Berkeley

BeyondChron reports that the UC Theater, on University Avenue, is being transformed into a live music venue by David Mayeri, formerly COO of Bill Graham Presents, and Dawn Holliday, who runs Slim’s and the Great American Music Hall. The planned 1,000 to 1,500-seat venue will add to the burgeoning concentration of arts venues in downtown Berkeley.

The UC Theater is one of three still-standing pre-1920 movie theaters in Berkeley. The other two, the Elmwood and the California, both opened in 1914, have been extensively remodelled. The UC Theater, opened in 1917, is largely intact since it was the only one not to be converted into a multiplex. The redevelopment plans call for the interior details to be preserved.

Photo from Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association

Arts, Downtown, Music