My visit to Hacker Dojo

Hacker Dojo is a living example of the computer culture of Silicon Valley. For a modest monthly fee, entrepreneurial-minded software developers can get workspace, high speed Internet access, a place to mingle with like-minded folks and share ideas, and perhaps even start new companies. But even though I'm a veteran software developer myself, my reason for visiting had nothing to do with this. Rather, I was there because I've gotten involved with something called "Startup Idol", which will be a series of live webcasts similar to the "American Idol" TV show, except that all the contestants will be founders of startup companies and all the judges will be venture capitalists, and the Hacker Dojo will be the venue for the webcasts. It's a shoestring production that's underfunded and understaffed, and it's not quite certain that the webcasts will even happen on schedule. Still, it seems to have some interesting possibilities, so I've offered to lend them a hand.