Here at Xconomy we may not be on the absolute bleeding edge of media technology—usually we’re too busy writing about the latest stuff to adopt it right away ourselves—but when there’s a cool new way to get our content out, we try to take advantage of it as soon as we can. In that spirit, we wanted to call your attention to a few of the features we’ve introduced lately to make Xconomy easier to use.

1. Social Media Sharing—including Twitter and Facebook

If you’re reading this story on our website and you glance at the upper right corner of the story area, just above the “Related Posts” section, you’ll see a new collection of widgets from ShareThis that make it easy to share Xconomy stories with your Twitter followers, your Facebook friends, and users of many other social bookmarking and sharing services. It’s also a snap to e-mail stories to your friends (or yourself). Just mouse over one of the widget icons and the ShareThis window will pop up.

We’re especially excited about the new Twitter button, which makes it really simple to tweet any story you like and was one of the most-requested features from our readers. Speaking of Twitter, you can sign up to follow us there at twitter.com/xconomy, twitter.com/bbuderi, twitter.com/ldtimmerman, twitter.com/ryan_mcbride, and twitter.com/wroush.

2. Single-Page View

Many Web users feel overwhelmed by long rivers of text, so we insert page breaks into our stories every 500 words or so. But we also realize that other readers dislike having to click the “next” link several times to get through our longer stories. So we’ve added a “Single Page View” option. You’ll find it at the bottom of each page of multi-page stories, near the “Page” link and the little orange arrow. Click on that link once, and you’ll be able to view even our longest columns and interviews with no further hassle. This is also a useful feature if you want to print out our longer stories.

3. Xconomy Kindle Edition

These days, there are as many ways to read digital content as there are digital devices. For readers who’ve joined the e-book revolution, we now offer a Kindle Edition of Xconomy, available through Amazon’s Kindle Store. To sign up, go to the Xconomy page on Amazon and click on the Subscribe Now button. Or, on your Kindle, click Menu > Shop Kindle Store > Blogs, then type in Xconomy and click Search Store. The Kindle version includes the full text of all Xconomy stories delivered to your device wirelessly and automatically, every weekday.

4. Xconomy Mobile

This one isn’t quite as new—we actually launched it back in August—but we thought we’d remind you about it. If you open a browser on your mobile phone and go to www.xconomy.com, you’ll automatically be redirected to the mobile version of our site, which is optimized by Mofuse for viewing on a small screen. (You can also get to the mobile site directly at m.xconomy.com.) If you click on the “All Stories” link on the main page of the mobile site, you can then click through to full-text versions of all of our stories (just like you’d get on the Kindle). You can also browse by city and topic.

5. E-mail and RSS

These really aren’t new—we’ve offered them since we launched Xconomy in 2007. But while our e-mail newsletters and RSS feeds are extremely popular (we reach at least as many people through these mechanisms as we do through the website), we still talk to many readers who aren’t aware of them. To sign up for daily e-mails with Xconomy headlines and stories, or to add Xconomy to your RSS readers such as Netvibes or Google Reader, just go to our Email – RSS page. You can choose newsletters and RSS feeds specific to our cities (Boston, San Diego, or Seattle) or key topics (life sciences, information technology, nanotechnology, energy, people, venture capital, and my World Wide Wade column) that most interest you. Or you can just sign up to get all of our stories. (That’s our favorite option!)

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It’s day 6 of our 7-day auction to raise funds for two of our favorite causes, Science Club for Girls and Technology Underwriting Greater Good. So hurry to eBay, because as of this writing you’ve only got about 20 hours left to bid on the amazing Lord of the Rings Online Collector’s Edition boxed set, autographed by the game’s developers at Westwood, MA-based Turbine.

I explained the whole back story to the auction last week. In a nutshell, Turbine gave Xconomy the autographed set back in July as a memento of our visit, and we decided (with Turbine’s blessing) to auction it off and donate the proceeds.

Lord of the Rings Online is Turbine’s award-winning massively multiplayer game world based on the famous J.R.R. Tolkien novels. The boxed set includes two Windows program discs, a Music & Art Collection bound volume including “The Music of Mines of Moria” soundtrack CD, a premium cloth map of the game world, a Middle Earth poster, the Collector’s Edition Starter Guide manual, a product key and three free 14-day buddy keys, a quick reference card, and—perhaps coolest of all—a gold-plated replica of the One Ring (evil powers not included).

Bid now—click here to visit the auction page. To whet your appetite, here are a few pictures of the set and its contents:

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Where is “the cloud”? It’s everywhere and nowhere; it’s the power of algorithms distributed across entire networks but concentrated down to the screen of your wireless laptop; it’s the sum of all the world’s on-demand computing jobs, churning away in big data centers in secure, undisclosed locations, flinging their inputs and outputs across the electronic ether. But for one day, at least, the nucleus of the cloud will be in a definite place: Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, the venue for Xconomy’s December 10 Cloud³ Forum and its companion event, CloudCamp Boston.

That 3 in the title of our event is an exponent, as in “Cloud Cubed.” The first time Xconomy organized a cloud computing seminar, back in June 2008, the urgent questions in cloud computing still centered around the basics—was the cloud secure? private? reliable? Today, vendors are on their way to solving most these fundamental technological challenges. But in their place, there’s a new welter of implementation-related questions.

Which cloud service model would your company be best off using—Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service? Should you build a private cloud, tap a public one, or think about hybrid models? How much money can you really save by turning to the cloud—and how much will you have to spend? Which cloud services are startups and big enterprises really using today, and which are still hype? Which cloud players do entrepreneurs need to know about beyond the Big Seven (Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, Sun, and VMware)? And where is the cloud heading—what new services and opportunities are being opened up for entrepreneurs?

When we sat down to design the agenda for this year’s cloud forum, we realized that there are so many of these important questions on the table that we couldn’t just call the event Cloud²—so we jumped straight to Cloud³.

We’re assembling a crack crew of industry experts for Cloud³, including representatives of big cloud infrastructure providers such as Akamai, Microsoft, and Iron Mountain; startups making the cloud more useful to other companies, such as Cloudswitch; and companies leveraging the cloud to provide services to their own customers, such as Allurent, Litl, Pixily, and Sonian. The half-day session (from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) is designed especially for entrepreneurs, investors, and technologists, and our goal is to make sure that every attendee has a chance to learn from (and network with) the practitioners who are building and exploiting real cloud services.

We’ll release the detailed agenda for the event soon, but here’s the general picture:

• Keynote talks by Tom Leighteon, chief scientist at Akamai, and Yousef Khalidi, of the Windows Azure team at Microsoft.

• “Cloudbursts”—a series of presentations by six local startups offering innovative cloud services and/or making creative use of the cloud.

• An interactive “unpanel” exploring the nuts and bolts of how companies can best tap cloud services led by Sim Simeonov, a former partner at Polaris Venture Partners who now heads executive advisory service FastIgnite.

• A progress report from Eric Nakajima from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the Holyoke High Performance Computing Center in western Massachusetts.

You can see the full speaker list for Cloud³ here, and you can register for the event here. Early bird registration is available for $95—but we urge you to reserve your place now, because after November 23, the price goes up to $150. (We’ve also got a limited number of student tickets available for $30, and students can apply for event scholarships through the Stay in MA Program.)

We’re pleased to announce that we’re partnering with the CloudCamp organization to turn December 10 into a full day of cloud computing discussion and learning. CloudCamp Boston, an unconference for early adopters of cloud computing, will take place in the same space at Microsoft from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. People who sign up for CloudCamp (registration is free) not only get discounted admission to Cloud3, but are welcome at a joint networking lunch from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m., which is hosted by Xconomy and Microsoft.

If you have questions about the event, please feel free to contact me at wroush@xconomy.com.

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Do you love fantasy role-playing games? Do you enjoy collecting one-of-a-kind autographed artifacts? Do you like supporting good causes? Then this is your lucky week. Through the generosity of the good folks at Turbine, the Westwood, MA-based publisher of online fantasy games, Xconomy has obtained an amazing Collector’s Edition boxed set of Turbine’s most popular game ever, Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria. This version of the award-winning massively multiplayer game world—based, of course, on the famous J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy—is signed by the actual developers who created the game. And we’re auctioning it off on eBay, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting two of our favorite local non-profit groups.

Click here to see the auction listing at eBay. The auction begins today and will conclude at noon Eastern time on Tuesday, November 17. We hope this unique item brings a good price—because we’re going to donate half of the proceeds to Cambridge, MA-based Science Club for Girls and the other half to Boston-based Technology Underwriting Greater Good.

Here’s the back story about this remarkable item. I visited Turbine’s massive headquarters facility back in July, and shortly afterward wrote a big feature article about the company’s decision to make one of its other online properties, Dungeons & Dragons Online, free to play. As a memento of my visit, the team at Turbine offered me the aforementioned autographed boxed set. I explained that as journalists, we can’t accept gifts from sources—but that we’d love to take the set and sell it for charity. Turbine enthusiastically agreed. (But the game has been sitting around my office ever since; I guess, like Gollum, I couldn’t bear to part with “my precious.”)

Aside from the program discs for Lord of the Rings Online (which spare you a lengthy download), the Collector’s Edition contains a variety of extras guaranteed to appeal to any fan of the genre. What makes this copy special, of course, is that the box cover has been signed in metallic-silver magic marker by about 20 of the developers involved in creating the game (see the photo below). But the stuff inside the box is pretty cool too.

The neatest item, to my mind, is the CD with the soundtrack music from the game. But Tolkien fans will also appreciate items such as the gold-plated reproduction of the One Ring, complete with Black Speech inscription, which, as everyone knows, reads “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” (I tried it on, and for better or worse, I did not become invisible, see a fiery eye in the sky, or have delusions of ultimate power.)

Here’s the full rundown of the loot inside the Collector’s Edition:

• Two Windows program discs
• Music & Art Collection bound volume including “The Music of Mines of Moria” Soundtrack CD
• The aforementioned replica of the One Ring in velvet pouch
• Premium cloth map of the game world
• Middle Earth poster
• Collector’s Edition Starter Guide manual
• Product Key and three free 14-day Buddy Keys
• Quick Reference Card

Note that LOTRO is playable only from Windows PCs with broadband Internet connections, and that the game itself requires a subscription of $14.99 per month, separate from the cost of this Collector’s Edition.

A word about the two non-profit groups that will benefit from the auction: Science Club for Girls, founded in 1994, offers free after-school science literacy programs to K-12 girls in several cities around Massachusetts. Technology Underwriting Greater Good, founded this year by Jeff Fagnan and Dana Samuels of Atlas Venture and Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst Partners, promotes entrepreneurship and innovation programs for young people in New England. Bob profiled the organization last month.

They’re both great groups—so go and bid on the LOTRO Collector’s Edition now. You’ve only got until next Tuesday!

Here are a few photos of the Collector’s Edition. You can click on each photo to see a larger version.

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The Fifth Conference on Clean Energy, one of the biggest events of the year for New England energy and cleantech entrepreneurs, is coming up November 12 and 13 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. For the second year in a row, I worked with the organizers of the conference—the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center and the Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition—to produce a podcast previewing some of the themes that will be featured prominently at the event, ranging from the state of energy investing to the role of stimulus funding for energy startups, the Obama Administration’s performance so far on energy policy, and the significance of A123Systems’ recent IPO for other energy startups hoping to go public.

My guests for the podcast were Jon Karlen, a general partner at venture firm Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston, and Russ Landon, a managing director in the Boston office of Canaccord Adams, a research and investing firm.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button on the widget below, or you can download it and listen to it on your computer or mobile player.

I’d like to thank Jon and Russ for taking the time to speak with me, as well as the conference organizers for inviting me to host the podcast once again. Thanks also to Suzanne Moran and her crew at Lois Paul & Partners for setting up the recording session and producing and hosting the podcast. You can see Lois Paul’s blog post about the podcast here.

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Last Wednesday, October 21, it was our privilege at Xconomy to provide a stage for a conversation between two legends of the investing world. The guest of honor was Peter Brooke, the founder of Advent International and TA Associates and the man most widely credited with spreading the idea of venture capital and private equity investing to the world outside the United States. Interviewing Brooke was Terry McGuire, the co-founder and general manager of Polaris Venture Partners and chair of the National Venture Capital Association.

The discussion, which ranged from inside stories from Brooke’s investing career to the health of the VC and PE industries amidst global economic uncertainty, drew a packed audience to the 26th-floor conference room at event host WilmerHale. We plan to bring you a full writeup of the event, as well as a video, a bit later—but we thought we’d tide you over with a few pictures from the event.

All of the photographs here were taken by Kevin Vogelsang, a 2009 MIT engineering graduate who volunteered to handle the camera for the evening. You can click on the photos to see larger versions.

Peter Brooke (left) and Terry McGuire

Left to right: Peter Brooke, Bob Buderi (Xconomy), John Chory (WilmerHale)

A full house of listeners.

Left to right: Richard Kane (Advent International), Peter Brooke, Michael Ristaino (Advent), Alex Earp (Bank of America)

Left to right: Linda Hellstrom (Halloran Consulting Group), Laurie Halloran (Halloran Consulting Group), Vijay Chandra (Babson College)

Left to right: Chris Sheehan (Common Angels), Doug Moon (JP Morgan), Greg Calkins (Xconomy)

Terry McGuire (left) speaking on stage with Peter Brooke

The audience at WilmerHale listens raptly.

Peter Brooke (right) answers a question from Terry McGuire.

Howard Anderson (Sloan School of Management, MIT) engages Brooke from the floor.

Audience member Wei Yong puts a question to Brooke.

Left to right: Terry McGuire (Polaris Venture Partners), Howard Anderson (MIT), Ruzwana Bashir (Harvard), Pat McGovern (IDG)

Left to right: Noubar Afeyan (Flagship Ventures), Bob Buderi (Xconomy), Vinit Nijhawan (Boston University)

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Search is hot again. Just when you thought Google had it all figured out, the Internet landscape has changed. Microsoft’s Bing has debuted to a generally positive reception, and signaled that the search war is far from over. The rise of Twitter and social media has spawned intense competition in the emerging field of “real-time search.” Advances in semantic understanding of the Web have led to new opportunities in Internet search for startups and big companies alike. Indeed, the world of online information discovery is being transformed dramatically—and much of the action is happening here in Seattle.

So I’m pleased to announce that Xconomy’s next Seattle event, on November 30, will tackle some of the most compelling questions in this exciting field. What are the most disruptive new technologies, interfaces, and business models in Web search? How is the proliferation of social media and smart mobile devices influencing companies’ strategies in information discovery? How should entrepreneurs and investors discern the real problems—and the most promising opportunities—in this industry? What lies beyond the current state of the art in search, and how will the field evolve in the next five to 10 years?

For one evening, we are bringing together some of the world’s experts in search and information discovery—and some of the deepest thinkers in computing, software, and entrepreneurship. This group includes Brian Bershad, Google’s Seattle site director; Harry Shum, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of search product development (Bing); Oren Etzioni, professor of computer science at the University of Washington, the founder of Farecast, and a venture partner at Madrona Venture Group; and Steve Hall, managing director of Vulcan Capital, who has put seed capital to work in a number of intriguing search-related startups, including Evri and Gist.

The moderator of the discussion will be Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the UW. We will also be adding to the program in the coming weeks with short presentations (“bursts”) from startups working in the search and information discovery space.

This star-studded event will take place on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle. We’re still finalizing the exact room location, but will keep you updated. I’ll be the emcee, and will be passing around the microphone to elicit a bunch of good questions from the audience, for what we intend to be a highly interactive conversation. We’re looking forward to having a great crowd on Nov. 30.

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Demo conference executive producer (and VentureBeat founder) Matt Marshall and his posse will be in town next Thursday scouting out startups interested in unveiling their companies or products at the spring edition of the semi-annual tech event.

We’re planning on knocking back a beer or two (or maybe something stronger) with Matt and the Demo gang—and hope to see you there. It all takes place at Vox Populi at 755 Boylston Street, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Matt came to town this summer in a scouting trip for Demo’s fall event, which just took place last month in San Diego (one of Xconomy’s cities). It was a great evening and this one looks to be even better. There will be cool startups, Demo vets, and other great folks. At Demo, if you aren’t aware, selected startups do six-minute onstage demonstrations of their newest products or concepts.

Not only is it free (registration is required, though), the first 38 folks through the door get a coupon for a free drink. (It’s supposed to be 40, but Wade and I plan to be there first). Register here.

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Those of us who are lucky enough to work as journalists (and who get to write the first draft of history) often remember the dates when the important and even not-so-important events went down. After 30 years in the news business, it’s become almost second nature for me. Today marks a special day, both personally and professionally, because it’s been exactly one year since we officially launched Xconomy’s San Diego website.

My Xconomy debut began with “San Diego 92037,” a curtain-raiser that sought to explain why the prestigious La Jolla zip code that encompasses Torrey Pines Mesa represents the epicenter of technology innovation here—and it’s been more-or-less non-stop ever since. In the past year, we’ve published close to 1,415 news stories, briefs, and commentaries about the innovation leaders, businesses, technologies, and trends that make up the “exponential” part of the San Diego economy.

With the launch of our San Diego website last year, Xconomy founder and editor-in-chief Bob Buderi wrote: “Smart, in-depth local coverage of an innovation community is, we think, central to the health and vitality of that community. But we also believe that good local stories—the ones we aim to tell in each of the three cities we now cover—can yield important insights into national and global trends.” Bob likes to say that the focus of our coverage is on local stories that have a global impact.

Hindsight isn’t always 20-20, but looking back over the past year certainly can add some perspective to the stories where the impact has become more apparent.

This week, for example, the Algal Biomass Association will convene in San Diego for its annual biomass summit at least partly because this region has become a global hub for algae-based research, technologies, and industries. For Xconomy readers, this became clear as we got an exclusive interview with the CEO of San Diego’s Sapphire Energy, charted the formation of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, and chronicled the partnership that San Diego’s Synthetic Genomics struck with ExxonMobil, which plans to spend $600 million to develop algae biofuels.

A few other stories from our first year also exemplify Xconomy’s mission of pursuing local stories with global impact:

—The ouster last week of Sequenom (NASDAQ: SQNM) CEO Harry Stylli, along with several other top executives and employees, followed a five-month internal inquiry that has left …Next Page »

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[Updated, 3:15 pm Sept. 11 with added "burst" from Immune Design.]

Seattle biotech has taken its share of lumps lately, but beyond the next quarter or next year, what kind of life sciences potential really exists here in the Northwest? Over the next 20 years, will this area have grown as a world leader in university and corporate research, venture financing, and entrepreneurial activity in the life sciences—and, if so, in what fields? Those are the questions Xconomy is seeking to answer at our next event here in Seattle on Oct. 19.

I’m excited to announce today that we have assembled a panel of some of the most accomplished life sciences entrepreneurs and visionaries in the world, all of whom happen to live here in Seattle. They are: Leroy Hood, president of the Institute for Systems Biology; Steve Gillis of Arch Venture Partners; Ben Shapiro, former executive vice president at Merck and now a partner with Boston-based PureTech Ventures; and Stephen Friend, co-founder and CEO of Sage Bionetworks and formerly of both Merck and Rosetta Inpharmatics.

It’s hard to imagine a group more qualified to speak on the region’s future. Hood is a legendary entrepreneur who has co-founded 13 companies, including Amgen, and is best known for inventing high-speed gene sequencing machines that made the Human Genome Project possible. Gillis co-founded Seattle-based Immunex, where he led the team that created a breakthrough for autoimmune disease that now generates more than $7 billion a year in worldwide sales. Shapiro, a former chairman of the University of Washington’s biochemistry department, was executive vice president of basic research at Merck during its 1990s heyday when it did the early development of Gardasil, the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. And Friend was co-founder and CEO of Rosetta Inpharmatics before that company was sold to Merck for $620 million, and he stayed with Merck for eight years to integrate its personalized medicine approach through the company’s global operations.

Chris Rivera, the president of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association, will lead off with introductory remarks about the WBBA’s effort to secure more support for the local biotech cluster. The star-studded panel will be moderated by Carl Weissman, CEO of Accelerator and a managing director of OVP Venture Partners.

After that discussion, Bob Nelsen, co-founder of Arch Venture Partners, will introduce startups from the Seattle area with the potential to transform their respective fields of biotech—Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, VLST, and Immune Design. Executives from those companies will deliver “bursts,” or brief introductions of their work, before the networking portion of the evening.

The event will be held from 5:30 pm to 8 pm on Oct. 19 at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute in the heart of Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. You can get more information on how to register here. We expect this to be a highly interactive conversation with the audience, with yours truly running around with a microphone—so be ready with your questions. We look forward to seeing you there on Oct. 19.

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Fingers crossed—it looks like we finally have our site back up and running. Most stories reposted, most lost comments restored.

It has been a long, not-so-fun day here at Xconomy. Our site crashed around 11:30 am EDT and we didn’t get things back up and running until some eight or nine hours later. We have spent the last couple hours testing things, reposting things, and, well, in my case anyway, having a beer.

We greatly appreciate all the e-mails and phone calls from concerned readers. Definitely let us know if you spot any more problems. But keep an eye out for our usual stream of stories, as we have some good ones ready to go for tomorrow.

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San Diego wind turbine maker Helix Wind made some more acquisitions, and out-of-business chipmaker Sequoia Communications arranged to sell its equipment in an online auction tomorrow. So it was a good news, bad news week for technology here.

—San Diego’s Sequoia Communications, which gained attention in the wireless chip industry when it introduced a multimode transceiver, has ceased operations. The nine-year-old chipmaker, which raised about $64 million from at least eight venture investors, was unable to secure additional capital.

—San Diego-based Helix Wind (OTC: HLXW), which is developing vertical-axis wind turbines, has agreed to buy the assets of two Oregon wind turbine companies in a bankruptcy case. The non-binding contracts for Abundant Renewable Energy and Renewable Engineering, which have the same owners, could be worth as much as $6.5 million. Helix has been moving to expand its product line of small-scale turbines.

—San Diego video codec developer DivX (NASDAQ: DIVX) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) settled a lawsuit that DivX filed after Yahoo backed out of an Internet advertising agreement.

—San Diego-based Platformic, which makes Web development and content management technology, introduced a new mobile blogging tool, which the company says is ideal for journalists and professional bloggers.

—In a two-part “state of venture” quiz that Xconomy’s Bob Buderi put together with help from the Boston office of the Cooley Godward Kronish law firm, contestants learned that company valuations have been rising in the past quarter. The quiz, which is based on nationwide data, also shows that more than half of the Q2 deals were “flat” or “down” rounds. Check out the quiz here. The answers are here.

—Amid the nationwide downturn in venture capital investment activity, I’ve written a fair amount about the evaporation of San Diego’s hometown VCs. Now Connect, the San Diego non-profit group that serves as a catalyst for technology innovation, has proposed a series of initiatives to help fill the gap—including the formation of a seed fund. Connect CEO Duane Roth has said the initiatives will require more than $10 million, which Connect has begun to raise from both private and public sources.

—Xconomy has made it easier for you to get our electronic missives on your mobile phone by going to http://m.xconomy.com for the new mobile-friendly version of our site. But it’s only one of many new developments at Xconomy. And as always, you can sign up for Xconomy’s e-mail newsletters, including specialized newsletters, and our RSS feeds here.

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Sometimes we’re so busy doing new stuff here at Xconomy that we don’t have time to actually let you know about it. So here’s a handy list of things that have been happening at the company this summer that you might have missed.

—We published our first premium product, Startup School: The Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators. Here on the site, there’s a free list of the 19 programs we canvassed where early-stage startups can obtain mentoring and seed funding. For $45 (going up to $60 on September 1), you can buy the full report, which contains details about the programs’ application deadlines and procedures, stipend and equity policies, notable graduates, and more.

—With help from Providence, RI-based Mofuse, we launched a mobile version of Xconomy at http://m.xconomy.com. It contains all the same great content as the full Xconomy site, but in a format that’s quick to load and easy to read on mobile devices.

—The first Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepeneurship drew a standing-room-only crowd on June 24. Ryan wrote a nice summary and Bob gave props to everyone who helped.

—We moved our Cambridge headquarters from a funky but tiny former dentist’s office at 10 Rogers Street to a funky and gigantic space in the venerable Foundry Works building at 101 Rogers Street.

—Our first Seattle Battle of the Tech Bands, co-hosted with the Washington Technology Industry Association, was a huge smash on July 30, garnering great reviews from The Seattle Times, TechFlash, and nPost. The winning bands: Indigo Soul (Audience Favorite) and Lions Ambition (Most Innovative).

—As always, we offer many ways to access Xconomy. You can sign up for e-mail newsletters, including newsletters pertaining specifically to subject areas like information technology or life sciences, or to news from Xconomy’s home cities of Boston, San Diego, and Seattle. Ditto for our RSS feeds.

—We’re very active on Twitter. Staffers tweet about a variety of Xconomy stories at @Xconomy. And several of us tweet regularly from our personal accounts: You can follow Bob at @bbuderi, Luke at @ldtimmerman, Ryan at @Ryan_McBride, and me at @wroush.

—If you want to distribute the full text of an Xconomy article to clients, customers, or colleagues, it’s easier than ever to buy a reprint.

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We’re happy to announce that there’s now an easier to way to read Xconomy on your mobile phone. Go to http://m.xconomy.com for the new mobile-friendly version of our site, which we’ve simplified for easy navigation on small screens.

All the usual content is there: our Boston, San Diego, and Seattle news stories, along with Xconomist Forum posts from all three cities, not to mention subject-specific pages for our infotech, life science, startups, energy, and deals stories. But it’s all designed to look super-clean and load quickly on a mobile device.

The truth is that no website designed with desktop browsing in mind fares well on the screen of a mobile phone. iPhone owners might demur, but even with the iPhone’s Safari browser, you have to do a bunch of zooming and panning to make your way around a regular Web page. If you’re on the go and you just want to catch a few blog posts, you don’t want to mess with all that, or with the nifty tabs, menus, and image maps that make many sites more functional in full Web browsers but just get in the way on mobile devices.

That’s why there’s a crop of companies—some of them in Xconomy’s own home towns—devoted to helping publishers optimize their content for mobile devices. We found a great one in Providence, RI, called Mofuse. Funded in part by the Slater Technology Fund, which uses money appropriated by the Rhode Island legislature to help promote technology entrepreneurship in the Ocean State, Mofuse is already helping thousands of organizations go mobile, including Fox News, Harvard Business School, Chicago Public Radio, as well as great blogs like Mashable and ReadWriteWeb. (See Mofuse’s press release about our partnership.)

We hope you enjoy the mobile site, and welcome your feedback, suggestions, and bug notes. Because our office mobile armory is limited to a few iPhones and Blackberrys, we’re especially eager to hear how the site looks and functions on other platforms. Please post a comment below, or write me at wroush@xconomy.com.

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The rock and roll moment of the night came when James Dixon broke a bass string during the first song from his hard-driving metal band Juda’s Wake. Let me tell you, it’s not that easy to break a bass string unless you really shred it. It’s also not easy to describe Juda’s Wake beyond killer metal chops, extreme volume, and tremendous hair (from a Microsoft band no less). “We’re here to piss some people off,” Dixon said, to the crowd’s delight.

Five bands competed in the Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands, hosted at the Washington Technology Industry Association’s annual summer celebration at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. Five bands left as winners in my book. From the first act, the quirky and inimitable Afraid of Figs (representing MorphoTrak and Robert Half Technology), to the closers, the powerful alt-rockers Between These Lines (representing Hewlett-Packard), these performers left it all out on the stage. Check out the comprehensive review of the show from Gene Stout, the former Seattle P-I pop music critic, in TechFlash.

In the end, we gave out two official prizes. Melodic and laid-back rockers Indigo Soul (see photo below), led by Mark Protus of Caiman Consulting (the band also represented Microsoft), took home the Audience Favorite prize—a year of promotional services from Nimbit, a renowned Boston-area firm.

And the Most Innovative Band award, decided by our panel of judges, went to hip-hop rockers Lions Ambition (representing Boeing), for their inspired rhythms and stratospheric vocals—they received free studio time from The Hive Recording Studio in SeaTac.

But I would go see any of these bands again in a heartbeat. And in fact, three of them are playing shows in the area tonight. Afraid of Figs is at the Mix in Georgetown; Lions Ambition is at El Corazon in Seattle; and Between These Lines is at the Manette Saloon in Bremerton.

Great thanks to WTIA for co-organizing the event with us. And thanks to headliner sponsor Lionfish Creative, live-voting sponsor SinglePoint, drink-ticket sponsor Nyhus Communications, and supporting sponsors CCS Printing and ServerLogic, as well as all our raffle prize donors (proceeds went to Technology Access Foundation and Jack Straw Productions). Finally, the show would not have gone on without the hard work of CarToys, Stageworks Productions, and Pyramid to handle the logistics.

We had a great time, and hope you all did too. Drop us a line if you have any feedback on the event. See you next year!

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We’re all still running around covering the fine art of innovation this afternoon, but soon we’ll be heading over to the Pyramid Alehouse next to Safeco Field (see map here), where the stage is being put together for tonight’s big event, as we speak.

Xconomy and the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) are partners on this Battle of the Tech Bands in Seattle, which is happening at WTIA’s annual summer celebration. We’re expecting a fantastic crowd, and a rocking competition. Doors open at 5 pm, and the bands kick off at 6 pm (five groups, five different styles), with temperatures expected to be in the upper 80s. So dress accordingly, channel your inner rock geek, and don’t worry—there’ll be plenty of beer to cool you off as the night progresses.

Thanks to The Seattle Times, TechFlash, and nPost for the great event coverage. And former P-I pop music critic Gene Stout will be in the house—enough said. See you there!

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After a scorching week of 90-degree temperatures, what could be better than kicking back with a nice cold one, catching up with friends and colleagues—and seeing five of Seattle’s top rock bands with tech affiliations duke it out for prizes and the adulation of the crowd?

It’s all happening this Thursday evening at Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands, at WTIA’s summer celebration down at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. The Battle will take place from 6-9 pm. Get your tickets online here, by Tuesday 5 pm, as they are going fast…

The bands (listen to their songs here) will be competing for two prizes—Audience Favorite (voted on by the crowd via SMS), which wins one year of band promotional services from Nimbit, and Most Innovative Band (voted on by our judges), which wins free studio time from The Hive Recording Studio. Both winners will also receive free press releases to promote their shows, tours, and albums with traditional and online media outlets, courtesy of Marketwire.

We’ll also be giving out raffle prizes throughout the evening, including a Seattle harbor cruise for four from Argosy Cruises, museum passes and a gift certificate from the Experience Music Project, Guitar Hero III courtesy of Guitar Center, and Seattle Mariners gift packs (see the event site for a complete list). All raffle ticket proceeds are going to our charitable partners, Technology Access Foundation and Jack Straw Productions. Thanks to all for their generous donations.

And last, but not least, check out Paul Allen and Bill Gates in cartoon-land, as they prepare to compete in the Battle. I’m actually starting to believe they might be there, although I don’t know about the costume (that puts it over the top). It’s the latest installment of Protingent Man by David J. Locher, courtesy of Donn Harvey at Protingent Staffing:

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It’s all about the party. It’s all about the networking. No. For today, at least, it’s all about the rock.

Seattle’s first-ever Battle of the Tech Bands is happening one week from tonight, on July 30, at the Pyramid Alehouse. The music starts at 6 pm. Xconomy is teaming up with WTIA to bring this showcase of bands to our fair city, and it’s going to be one heck of a blast. Tickets are going fast, so be sure to get yours in advance here.

I even know what the prizes are going to be—for the winners of Audience Favorite and Most Innovative Band—but I’m not telling yet. All in good time. For now, I want all your attention on the bands. Why? Because they’re incredibly good, that’s why.

For your listening pleasure, I’ve included one track from each band below, as well as a brief bio from their websites. Enjoy!

Afraid of Figs is a band of talented musicians from previous bands. They share a serious work ethic, off the wall sense of humor, and love of performing. Influences include: Barenaked Ladies, Presidents of the USA, Cake, Ben Folds, and others.

Here’s their incomparable track, “I Ate A Vegan”:

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Between These Lines started rocking in late 2005 as a trio jamming on some of the most popular pop-punk rock songs of recent. In September 2008, Between These Lines began recording their debut EP, Familiar Places, with Producer Brandon Bee in Tacoma, Washington. This highly regarded album has been compared to artists such as Paramore, Acceptance, Jimmy Eat World, and Taking Back Sunday.

The rich and swirling “Confess To Impress”:

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Indigo Soul is the alter-ego of Seattle-based singer/songwriter Mark Protus. Music critics describe the Indigo Soul sound as “very melodic song-based rock that’s in no way enslaved to any current trends.” The band combines smart and thoughtful lyrics with “fresh sounds and catchy and soulful classic-rock styles.”

The haunting harmonies and melodic lines of “Waiting For You”:

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Juda’s Wake is a modern Seattle-based metal power trio. They pull together a penetrating mix of intricate guitar, heavy rhythmic hooks, and edged vocal melodies resulting in a convincing, hard hitting, and articulate noise. Juda’s Wake draws influence from such bands as Tool, Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Rush, Mudvayne, and Static-X, but has brewed a new take on the aggressive sound.

The awesome head-banging thrashiness of “Loggerhead”:

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Lions Ambition is a hip-hop/rock band based out of Seattle, WA. The band mixes together live instrumentation, soulful vocals, and conscious lyrics to blend together a truly unique sound. The band has played in parts of Canada, California, and Seattle at different venues, festivals, and college events.

The soulful and articulate goodness of “Dreams (Don’t Let Go)”:

That’s it for now. Get your tickets, and see you on the 30th!

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Posting will be light from Xconomy Boston today, as we’re busy hauling our stuff three blocks down Rogers Street to our new headquarters at 101 Rogers Street. That’s right, we’re moving form 10 Rogers St., Suite 101, to 101 Rogers St., Suite 402—let the confusion begin!

I can’t tell you how lucky we feel, particularly in this economic climate, to be outgrowing our first office and expanding not only our physical space but our reach online and via our events. Thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, sending us tips, and participating in our forums and other events. It’s been extremely gratifying to be welcomed into such a vibrant, fascinating innovation community as this one, and to feel like we’re doing our part to strengthen that community. Thanks also to our underwriters and sponsors, particularly Alexandria Real Estate Equities, which in addition to supporting us from day one will be our new landlord down in our (completely awesome) new space down the street.

And a special shout out to our friends and neighbors at 10 Rogers, aka River Court. As much as we’re looking forward to a conference room that comfortably seats more than four people and not having to all share one bathroom, we’ll miss seeing you guys every day. (Wade would like you to know he’ll also miss his nitrous oxide outlet and the little dentist’s hand-wash sink in his exceptionally quirky current office.) To our new neighbors (we’re talking to you, Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals and Learning Games Network), come on up to the fourth floor and say hi. I’m not promising we’ll have beer up here, but it’s a distinct possibility…

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With just under two weeks to go until Seattle’s first-ever Battle of the Tech Bands, I thought I’d give you a quick preview of the event. It’s all taking place on July 30 at the WTIA Summer Celebration, at the Pyramid Alehouse (registration and ticket info here). The music will start at 6pm, and we’ll stick to a pretty tight schedule.

Five bands will compete for two prizes—Audience Favorite (voted on by you, the attendees) and Most Innovative Band (voted on by the event judges). Each of the five finalists will get a 15-minute set. I’ll follow up next week with a more extensive preview of the bands, but for now you can check out their music on their respective sites:

Afraid of Figs
(representing MorphoTrak and Robert Half Technology)

Between These Lines
(representing Hewlett-Packard)

Indigo Soul
(representing Microsoft and Adobe)

Juda’s Wake
(representing Microsoft)

Lions Ambition
(representing Boeing)

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And last, but not least, we have an honorary sixth entrant that will be there in spirit—that is, unless Paul Allen and Bill Gates decide to drop in for an unannounced set (one can always hope…stranger things have happened. OK, maybe not). It’s the Protingent Man comic, the latest installment of which appears below, courtesy of David J. Locher and Donn Harvey of Protingent Staffing:
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