It’s been a long time and I hope everyone is doing well — making the world a better place, one piece of technology at a time.

I’m sending this quick note to you in hopes that you will take 10 seconds and help a few of our Twiistup alumni take the next step in their success. Please take a moment to vote for these Twiistup affiliated companies in TieCon 2009’s Hottest Emerging Companies:

Wireless: RoboDynamics (Twiistup 5)
Internet Infrastructure: Rubicon Project (Twiistup 3)
Software: Mint (Twiistup 1)
Consumer Web: Kiva.org

Vote here:
http://www.tie50.net/polling/

Thanks everyone!

Jeremiah
http://www.twitter.com/jerpoop

Attention designers and creatives! Yoono, a Firefox Add-on has just added 5 colorful skins to their sidebar and they’re looking to you for a little creative inspiration. Their skins consist of a few colors for now but they’re asking you to get creative and you could win some cool prizes. Head over to blog.yoono.com/contest and download a PSD file. Customize it using Photoshop and submit it on the same page. Prizes include a gigantic Wacom Tablet and an array of iPods. Skin submissions are also eligible to be included in their next version of Yoono. Download, have fun, win prizes.

Enter to win

Enter to win

Enter to win

Our judges reviewed more than 100 companies, the majority early-stage start-ups, all vying for the opportunity to hold one of ten coveted Showoff spots at Twiistup 5.  Here are their picks.

Causecast

Causecast, dubbed “a one stop philanthropy shop” by TechCrunch, is a platform where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose.

Cogi

Cogi set out with a simple goal – give professionals a way to effortlessly recall and track everything in their important conversations through the use of an intuitive, browser-based service that seamlessly transcribes the important parts of conversation – the ‘COGent Ideas’ or Cogi.

eHow

More than 27 million people visit eHow.com each month to search more than 300,000 articles that are professionally written with clear and concise directions on how to do things. It also has a rapidly-growing library of articles created by eHow’s members and a large library of professional instructional videos.

FixYa 

FixYa empowers individuals to repair and improve upon their already-purchased possessions. The company also offers business services to manufacturers and retail businesses through its custom partnership opportunities.

GoGreenSolar

GoGreenSolar is global group of professionals dedicated to improve the distribution of renewable energy products, services and financing for people everywhere.

Meebo  

Meebo is a new communications and media company that’s re-writing the way people have conversations and communicate on the Web.

RoboDynamics

RoboDynamics is built by passionate people who want to use technology to shift the status quo and leverage state-of-the-art technology in robotics to change the way people live and work.

TheScene

The Scene connects individuals to the hottest places, people and events in their area. The Scene’s trendsetting community is on the pulse of nightlife and entertainment in various cities throughout the world.

Viewdle 

Viewdle is a facial-recognition powered digital media platform for indexing, searching and monetizing video assets.

Yammer

Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’  

Each of these companies will demo their offerings at Twiistup 5 and are eligible for the Fan Favorite and Judge’s Choice awards.

Another huge thanks to our esteemed panel that devoted their time to select this awesome group of Showoffs.

Judges that will attend Twiistup 5:

Sarah Lacy, Jackie Peters, Peter Pham, Andrew Warner, Richard Wolpert, Will Jessup, Frank Gruber, Devlyn Steele and Brian Solis. 

Twiistup 4 featured 11 Internet start-ups, chosen by a panel of judges, to demonstrate their products and services. The Twiistup ‘fan favorite’ was ToolsToLife.com, a Web site and online community focused on self-improvement programs. Attendees voted for their favorite showoff at the event and Twiistup readers were able to text in their votes through Mozes.com.

“Twiistup is an amazing event that gives new tech companies an opportunity to gain exposure. It was an honor to be amongst great new tech companies and a highlight to be selected as fan favorite,” said Devlyn Steele, life coach and founder of ToolsToLife.com. “This accolade will motivate the team at ToolsToLife.com to use Web 2.0 technology to bring people together and support each other to create real change in their lives.”

Congratulations to Devlyn and the entire ToolsToLife team for winning Twiistup 4.

The generous prize package for ToolsToLife was provided by: IPEVO, (mt), FreshBooks and Growthink.

Also a huge thanks to Mozes for providing the SMS voting engine.

Big thanks to FreshBooks, Growthink, IPEVO and (mt) Media Temple for providing a sweet prize package.

IPEVO creates devices that enhance the internet experience. Renowned for its iconic line of Skype certified hardware, IPEVO has established a reputation for award-winning designs and innovating products for seamless web integration.

Twiistup 4 is sold out with 650 people attending, and a waiting list of over 500 folks. BUT, Docstoc has two extra tickets and they’re giving you the opportunity to win them in their Twiistup Ticket Contest.

Twiistup Ticket Contest Overview

Docstoc has 2 extra tickets to this week’s event. To enter the contest and have the opportunity to win one of the two give-away tickets simply start uploading documents to docstoc. The deadline is Wednesday July 16th at 11:59pm.

How to Enter

1.) Create an Account
2.) Start Uploading Documents – there is no limit to the number of documents you can upload; the more documents you upload the more chances you have to win.
3.) Tag each document you upload with “twiistup4″ so they can find it

Their staff will review ALL document submissions and we’ll pick two winners, who upload the best two documents, by 11:59pm PST Wednesday July 16th. The winners will be notified by email. The winners will also be featured on the home page of docstoc and their documents will be featured in our next blog post. Judging will be based following criteria.

Judging Criteria

1.) Best Quality Document – we’re looking for high value content that our users will find valuable and interesting. The documents can fall into any of our categories (Legal, Business, Financial, Educational, Technology, Creative, BUZZ) and you can upload any file type (word, excel, powerpoint, pdf, rtf).
2.) There is NO limit to the number of documents you can upload, the more docs you upload the more chances you have to win.
3.) BONUS: they’ll give you extra consideration if the documents you upload get embeded, blogged, and shared with friends (we’ll check the view/download count)
4.) Here are some examples of what they consider pretty cool documents

Business – The Essential Guide to Social Media
Creative – What People Thought the Future Would Look Like…100 Years Ago
Financial – Sample Due Diligence Accounting Checklist
Legal – Web Development Contract
BUZZ – FISA Amendments Act of 2008
Educational – Human Reproductive System
Technology – Web Widgets, Mash-Ups, and Platforms Explained

Additional Rules

1.) No Copyright Materials – Do not upload copyrighted documents for which you do not own the rights or have permission from the owner to share. Any copyright submission will automatically be disqualified.
2.) No Adult Content: All documents should be consider “safe for work” or PG-13.
3.) No Duplicate Content: We can not accept submissions of documents that have previously been uploaded to docstoc. Duplicate documents typically (but not always) have a bracket and number at the end of the title [1].

Contact Information
For additional questions, or clarification, contact our content manager Sean at seanp at docstoc