For the last two years I’ve been trying to find a way to get UMPCPortal to Intel’s Developer Forum. It’s Intel’s premier event and comprises conferences, speeches and training sessions. It also includes product demonstrations and a chance to ask questions and get hands on. For our beloved UMPC’s and MIDs its a hotbed of activity with a lot of focus recently on Menlow and Moorestown. The next one is in about 4 weeks and I am desperately trying to get UMPCPortal over there to cover it and bring you all the new and detailed info right from the horses mouth. Unfortunately, its not a free event and for a small Euro-concern like UMPCPortal, its just not achievable without sponsorship.
Intel have been very responsive to my pleas though and last week they offered us a full press pass and free entry for the event. I’m honoured and now doing everything I can to raise the money to get over there. I’ve secured free accommodation with a friend who lives in San Francisco but now I need to raise the money for the flight and other expenses. For the first time ever I’m laying a cap down in front of UMPCPortal. Can you help with a donation?
What you get
I’ll personally attend as much of the conference as possible to bring you 100% high quality UMPC and MID focused news, analysis, hands-on reports, photos and, I’m sure, a few bits of insider info. I’ll attend the mobile-focused keynotes and as many of the sessions and give you the latest on subjects like “Extending Battery Life of Mobile PCs Using Intel’s Solid State Drive Solutions”, “User Perception of Mobile PC Battery Life”, “The Real Story About NAND Flash and Solid-State Drive Reliability” and a large number of MID and Moblin sessions. also attend the open ‘Chalk Talk’ session on Mobile Internet devices to give feedback and I might even have something to say in the Open Mike session. At the end of the day, your donation will help to improve the quality of UMPCPortal both now and in the future.
All donators will get a linked thank-you on a front-page article. It’s Page Rank 6 for anyone that needs a bit of link love 
If you donate, $5 or more you’ll also get:
- Special, unpublished IDF overview Report and photo pack by email after the event.
- Email alerts about important news as they are published on the portal.
- Have your say. Send me an email on your thoughts about the UMPC and MID sector and i’ll personally hand them over to one of the senior members of the Ultra Mobile Group. I’ll try and pick out a few important ones to present in the open sessions.
- 2007-2008 report pack. I’ll send you PDF copies of the reports from 2007 and 2008. This includes articles on battery, technology, CPU reports and the 2007 buyers guide.
Anyone that donates $50 or more gets all the above plus the next 12 months reports emailed as PDF, 1-week before general availability. (estimated 5-10 reports including the 3rd edition of the UMPC Buyers Guide which is due to be published in September.)
Donations of $150 or more get all the above plus a 120×120 ad button on the news section for August and September. Expect 250,000 people’s eyes over this period!
If you want to sponsor the whole event, I’ll be happy to work out an advertising package. Contact me for details as soon as possible.
If we don’t raise enough money to get to the IDF, i’ll put what we raised it in a holding area to support a project to attend the next event. If we raise more than needed, I’ll also put the extra in a holding area to support the next event.
Thanks in advance for your support.
Notes:
- As a guest of Intel, I may be shown or told things under a non-disclosure agreement.
- The conference is three days long and runs in many ‘tracks.’ It will be impossible to bring you news from all sessions.
- Donators details will be kept private by default. If you wish to have a ‘thank you’ link or button, please say so in your donation comments.
- Your email address will only be used to send IDF-related information in 2008 and 2009 and will not be passed on to third parties.
July 28th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Can’t you just trade an ad with an airline? Also, these pdf reports that you are sending… are they already free to the public? If not, are you sure you aren’t violating someone’s copyright and distribution rules by offering to send something to someone who isn’t eligible to get it directly from the source? I say they aren’t eligible because if they were, couldn’t they just get them without the donation?
Happy fund raising! Asking for money sucks, so hopefully it will pay off for you. You could setup an account at chipin.com so others could see how much you’ve gotten. This can help them decide how much to give to help you get your goal. People love to see the little temperature line on the goal meter rise. It also helps people know when you’ve got enough so they don’t send more if they aren’t interested in supporting and unnamed future event. Pretty sure it’s free. Good luck! I’ve got more than a poor attitude, but am also poor in general.
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July 28th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Hi Michael.
Yes, asking for money sucks. I laboured over the thought for most of the weekend but i’m hoping some will see the value in the IDF project. It’s up to the people to decide.
Regards
Steve.
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July 28th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
You don’t have the funds needed “tied down” in UMPCs on your desk?
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July 28th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I use the site a lot, so happy to chip in a few bucks to help.
Although it does hurt to fund a trip to SF as it’s the place I’d most like to be….
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July 28th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
How many UMPC’s do you have “laying around” that could be sold?
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July 28th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I’ve been trying to sell my old UMPCs for ages. The Q1P, Q1b, Tablet Kiosk i7210 are still sitting here. No-one wants them ;-(
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July 28th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Tried to sell them where? eBay?
I guess the most funds would come from the NEWER UMPCs, no?
You’ve showed us in every other live show how many there are of them there
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July 28th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Unfortunately, the others are test devices on long-term loan. Apart from the Akoya Mini which the wife wants to ‘buy’ from me!
Steve.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
How about putting one or more old UMPC up for a prize draw? Charge a certain amount for a ticket and a random winner gets one (or have a competition if you don’t like random selection).
I was thinking the Q1P might be the prime candidate as I assume then you wouldn’t have the VAT overhead you have when trying to sell it.
You might have to think up a clever ‘get out clause’ in the event of a not enough people taking part.
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July 28th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Hi Richard.
I think there are some legal issues with buying tickets for a draw. This was actually my original idea but I can’t clear the legal issues up without help. If anyone knows anything in that area, let me know as i’d love to offer a prize draw for people that donate.
Steve.
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July 28th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Just had a look and it does seem there are a few legal issues.
If you are running a competition where the winner doesnt depend on skill then it counts as a lottery (needing a licence) unless it is free to enter.
Free to enter can allow paid for entry as long as there is also a way to enter for free and there is no preference of the winner. Here you could end up with loads of people entering for free which wouldn’t be very useful.
Free to enter can also mean that you get entry free with the purchase of something else as long as it doesnt cost any more than an equivalent purchase without entry. Not sure if this could be cleverly applied to your reports service as an optional added incentive whilst keeping the price the same.
It looks like the best bet is to have a degree of skill involved. A tricky question or a puzzle along with an entrance fee should be legally quite simple.
Heres the page I was reading from (I know nothing about law myself) http://www.out-law.com/page-6780
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July 28th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Yeah. There it is. its a lottery that needs a license.
I’m not sure if the people donating would be happy to have to apply their skill to win a comp either.
I’ll have to think about this although I’m happy to say that there have been some amazingly generous people donating today.
Steve.
July 28th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Legal in regards to who/what? Germany? The UK? The EU?
Technically there are a few things to consider here, 1. What country you actually reside in (typically defined as where you spend more than 6 mos of the year) 2. What country you are operating from (if there is a legal entity “behind” your blog). 3. What country your Paypal is registered in, as that becomes the country the transaction actually takes place!
You can have multiple Paypal accounts in whatever country/countries Paypal allows you to!
For instance I am a EU citizen of one EU country and with legal/residential ties to another, but I do NOT reside in any of them. So for instance when I buy my Skype credits with my US Paypal account I do NOT pay any EU VAT, obviously, nor am I breaking any laws!
I am not giving directions or hints here how to break the law, rather the contrary how one can keep things WIHTIN the law
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July 28th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Always happy to donate to a worthy cause such as this one!
Since I just fly out of San Francisco on Friday I also have some recommendations when it comes to doing touristy-stuff there, plus if you want I can lend you my (German) guide-book.
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July 28th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
This is the first time I’ve been to this site (thanks to Sascha and his eeepcnews.de link) and I don’t really know you, but I know what it feels like to dream of these things and to hope that somehow you’ll be able to make it come true
Plus: You live in my home town
Plus: San Francisco is great (I’ll be happy to suggest some great breakfast places)
Hope the (small, I admit it) donation helps.
Add a widget somewhere that shows the current amount donated!
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July 28th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Thanks Jen.
I’ll try and get a widget up with the donation totals today. I don’t know if I can get it to auto-update but at the least, I can update it daily.
Steve.
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July 28th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Chipin.com has that widget… see, i told you people like to see those updates!
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July 28th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Yup. I’ll try and make my own now….
Steve.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Hope you appriciate my donation under the name icurafu. I’ve used the info on this site a lot and recommended it to many of my friends.
I would be interested to know how intel plan to take on ARM in the linux space for MID devices.
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July 29th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Hope my little donation could help.
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July 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
great website & information. Looking at these products for irish education market. hope my miniature donation gets your a relaxing drink in SF. Enjoy. Foxy
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July 29th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Hope mine counts…
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July 30th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Hope the money (31) helps, Steve. Love your work.
Greetz from Germany
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December 26th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
http://www.message_tataalc.com/
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