Sorry no pictures this time, I didn’t arrive early enough for a front row seat.

Scott welcomed everyone to the first tech meetup of 2007 in New York. He said with evident pride that there are now about twenty tech meetups in various cities, following in the spirit of the original here in New York. And with that it was off to the demos:

One of the original tech meetup participants, Robert Tolmach, was up first. His company is WellGood LLC and their current project is Changing the Present, a non-profit, philanthropreneur play to shift some of the reported $250 billion in annual US gift expenditures into charitable donations rather than Movado watches, socks and sweaters, or bottles of bubbly. He threw out the hefty (but accurate) tagline “Do something to make the world a better place in your friend’s name.”

The site presents you with the main focus points at the top of its homepage. You can choose a cause, check out what celebrities and experts are endorsing, and get viral flare for your blog. You can favorite the nonprofits and/or causes where you would like to see contributions, and create registries for weddings, baby showers, etc. I like the wedding registry idea, although I’m sure it would rub some guests the wrong way. Concentrating material acquisition around a celebration of a couple’s commitment has always seemed a bit odd to me, and I like the idea of putting guests’ obligatory gifts to work for people who really need stuff.

Changing the Present is itself run by a non-profit, for-profit WellGood is the steward, but legal ownership seems to lie with the non-profit. All donations are tax deductible for the donor, and the site takes a 3% + $0.30 commission, which Robert said is just the credit card processing fee. The non-profit’s operations are supported entirely by foundation grants. Donations transfer to the target agencies/organizations at the end of the month following the donation, however, so Changing the Present must be getting something off the float. Robert said they plan to shorten that time period going forward. Listings on the site for charitable agencies or organizations are free through 2007.

Asked about plans for social-networking/community apps on the site, Robert said “It’s coming.” He also told us the site was built with Ruby on Rails, to which he received applause from 3 people in the room. Oh and Robert also related that the Great Hall had seen a speech from Abraham Lincoln back in 1860, and the proceeded to demo a donation for his “friend” using an Abe Lincoln dummy account, complete with a wedding registry for Mary Todd… nice touch.

Alon Cohen was up next with BitWine, an answers service that’s tightly integrated with Skype and has a very full featureset. He positioned BitWine as a “knowledge market,” where users can search for experts and buy advice on a per minute, or per deliverable rate.

Experts and users each have profiles, and Alon demoed a typical interaction with a search on the keyword for “running.” He selected a user, showed us his profile — which included a “presence” indicator — and initiated a skype call with one click. He got a live video chat going in-demo, showing off the site’s tight integration with Skype.

When the expert answers the call he is not automatically on the clock, you can make an introduction and get a sense of whether or not this person has the goods. Once the buyer is sold on the expert, he can introduce a “start payment” interrupt prior to dispensing his wisdom. It comes up like a file transfer request you see with instant messaging clients. If you are not buying timed advice, for example you are getting an email or a digital document, you (the buyer) can initiate a lump-sum payment for the service. In this case, the site takes you through a Paypal interface and then transmits funds to the expert with your approval.

After the presentation Alon was asked how long he thought it would take for his service be used for porn? To which he noted that unfortunately it wasn’t his business model. Alon was also asked what tools experts have to prevent “spam”, requests that are just sales pitches. He said that you can block users, it was unclear whether or not this merely entailed blocking their skype account or if it was a site-wide block. Either way, it seems Bitwine’s spam will likely scale with its traction. He also positioned Bitwine relative to his chief competitor Ingenio . The Bitwine advantages according to Alon are:

• Skype-based rich media interface
• No pre-pay from buyers
• Advisors paid instantly

He said the site is free for all involved parties at the moment, but that eventually there will be a commision of “ten to twenty percent.” He also gave usage stats: the site was launched eight weeks ago and has over 10,000 users and over 3,000 advisors. He disclosed future plans to sell the platform as a white label which can be branded and implemented by other companies.

Di-Ann Eisnor of Platial, launched about 1 year ago, came all the way from Portland to demo her site. (Not really, she was in town for a real estate convention.) The People’s Atlas allows you to put stuff (photos, video, comments, stories) onto a map. Users can use their custom API know as MAPKIT (Which is based off of the Google Maps API) to embed custom themed maps into their own websites. Typepad users can get a widget to embed the MAPKIT in their blog. The idea is to be connected anywhere.  Diane mentioned that Platial has been very popular with independent store owners as well as activists. Diane showed a map where she charted the specific dress habits of Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East, for reference as a travel guide or internet research. To date Platial has survived on funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Platial’s short term revenue stream is based on building mapkits for companies, and their long term goal is based on a direct advertising model towards localized places on a map.

Platial has over 15,000 user-generated maps. When asked if she felt that Google or Yahoo would just implement the same business model, Diane didnt hesitate to answer no.  She began to  explain herself when Scott interjected and said that Google hasn’t done anything right except search and advertising so there is no need to worry.  Diane concurred, saying that she wasn’t worried about Google and thought that Yahoo had other things to deal with at the moment.

Michael Galpert coauthored this post. Jonah Keegan is an entrepreneur with a business, a blog and a few other things.