"brianstorms.com" is Brian Dear's web log.

I'm an entrepreneur trying to make the world a better place by building useful Internet-based tools that hopefully millions of people benefit from. Since 1995 I've operated Birdrock Ventures as my little incubator for startup ideas.

As of October 2010 I'm doing a new company, Nettle, Inc. It's a new internet start-up building a yet-unannounced product. Something I personally can't wait to use.

In January 2004 I founded Eventful, Inc., originally called EVDB, Inc. (EVDB stood for Events and Venues Database.) We launched Eventful.com in September 2005. The company has raised $20 million in investor funding. I served as CEO for the first two years and have transitioned out of day-to-day stuff in the past couple years. Main claims to fame include inventing Eventful's "Demand it!" service, and designing Eventful's iPhone app, one of the first apps released in the App Store on day one in July 2008. As of November 2010 I no longer have anything whatsoever to do with the company, having resigned from the Board of Directors.

As of Fall 2010, I'm also finishing up writing a book (see more below).

Please note: stuff written in the Brianstorms blog is my own opinion, no-one else's, and does not necessarily represent the opinion or policies of my company. This is a personal blog for random ideas. The original purpose was to share some "brainstorming" ideas I had that I knew I didn't have time to turn into actual products, but hoped by sharing them here, others might be inspired to go build things.

Some Background.
I like working on making the Net more worthwhile; it's been my whole career. I like helping people discover things through the Net, and then enabling them to share their discoveries with others. I'm a software/Internet entrepreneur interested in social networks, online communities, making computing personal (and interpersonal). Started on computers in 1976 on a Wang 2200A (BASIC language). Got started on the PLATO system in 1979; was hooked for several years, and ignored the micro revolution until the Mac came out. Currently writing a book about the history of PLATO (see www.friendlyorangeglow.com for details). I also run a site on the history of the PLATO system at platohistory.org.

Other stuff I've done: In 2001 I worked at eBay for a while, and was founding Director of eBay Design Labs. Prior to that I was at Eazel, a Linux startup, which unfortunately ran out of money and couldn't raise more thanks to the dot-com crash of 2000-2001. Prior to that I was part of the MP3.com team. Prior to that I was the founder and chief cook and bottle washer of FlatWorks. Prior to that I was at Progressive Networks in Seattle (later RealNetworks). Prior to that I was co-founder and CEO of Coconut Computing, Inc. During the early years of Coconut I also studied Cognitive Science at UCSD, taking every course I could take that Don Norman taught. Prior to UCSD and Coconut, I was involved with the computer-based training industry, doing design and development for the TICCIT system and the PLATO system. I've been involved fulltime with online computing and communications since 1979.

Other Activities and Interests.
The ocean, music, books, movies, architecture, experience design/strategy, product design, usability, figuring out why things are hard to use and what to do about improving them. Member of San Diego Venture Group (SDVG), Bay Area Startup Network (BASN), Silicon Valley Association of Software Entrepreneurs (SVASE), Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Usability Professionals Association, SIGCHI, BayCHI, SD UX SIG, San Diego TiE, BlogCritics, The WELL, and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In addition to the brianstorms blog, I used to run the old Nettle blog, a blog on user experience, branding, and customer experience. That domain has now been transitioned for my new startup company. I also run (although it's years out of date) the Coconut Blog, located at www.coconut.com/blog.

I also maintain an online collection of various articles, essays, and stories.

I'm also editor and publisher of Denounce Newswire, founded in 1980 on the PLATO system and brought to the web in 1996 as a satire site publishing parodies of press releases from the computer industry. It's way out of date too, but hopefully will get updated again in 2011.

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