See the Flash Version Here.

I had a nice ‘jab’ at geeks staying away from the more ‘athletic’ sports…

The first half of the night was a position round for all the teams. The second half of the night had the top two teams dueling it out in front of a crowd of 60 people cheering on one of two teams. We even had a news station there capturing all this on video.

It was quite the upset, just a few weeks ago, Socialtext was hanging around 4th place. In the past 3 weeks, they’ve pulled out all the stops to bring their standing into 2nd with the start of the finals. it was a social network vs. wiki challenge, who would win?

Well, the wiki seems to have kicked ass and taken names. Socialtext came from behind to beat facebook and steal the bowling 2.0 title.

bowling 2.0 Final Rankings:
#1 - Socialtext
#2 - Facebook
#3 - Meetro

Here are current standings.

So facebook is holding strong in #1, meetro and veeceebo are tied, and women 2.0 still isn’t making the charts…

So Facebook is still holding tight on #1, Socialtext has inched their way to #2 and Meetro/Flock/and Veeceebo are tied (taking #3, #4, #5 respectively.)

We removed the handicap from the league, so the old rankings are OUTTA here!!! Click the pics below for a larger file.

Rankings as of week 4 [Aug 7, 2006]

• #1 - facebook.com [7 wins, 1 loss]
• #2 - meetro.com [5 wins, 3 losses] (currently tied with flock)
• #3 - flock.com [5 wins, 3 losses] (currently tied with meetro)
• #4 - socialtext.com [5 wins, 1 loss]
• #5 - VeeCeebo [5 wins, 3 losses]
• #6 - videoegg.com [4 wins, 4 losses]
• #7 - a9.com [4.5 wins, 3.5 losses] (how you get a half I have no idea)
• #8 - skype.com [3 wins, 5 losses]
• #9 - mymint.com [3 wins, 5 losses]
• #10 - pbwiki.com [2.5 wins, 5.5 losses] (what’s up with these 1/2 points???)
• #11 - 3bubbles.com & stirr.net [2 wins, 6 losses]
• #12 - women 2.0 [0 wins, 8 losses] (come on now, is the sterotype really being fulfilled?)

Files

If you would like to run some of your own stats, feel free to play around with this spreadsheet that Dan Bragiel put together:
* bowlinginfo.xls

Another fun night at Palo Alto Bowl! Video by Ryanne and Jay from RyanIsHungry.com. Enjoy!

There are too many events that are heavy on the professional and networking side, but not many events where people just hang out, drink a few beers, and trash talk the competition. We started tossing around ideas of competitive sports, but quickly threw that idea out as we figured most geeks aren’t too physical! Then a joke came out… “Why not bowling?” After we all had a few good laughs, we said, wait a minute, bowling would be kinda cool… After all, it’s a sport, it’s competitive, beer pitchers are of the plenty, and it’s completely ironic to have all these high tech companies hanging out in such a low-fi atmosphere. Half the bowling machines look like they were produced before the Atari was invented!

So we thought about the idea a little more and decided we needed to make this happen. We reached out to a few companies and ppl really bit into it. We started talking to bowling alleys to see what was required to start a league. Heck, most of us here at meetro hadn’t bowled more then a dozen times in our life. For some, the last time they bowled was at a friends 6th grade birthday party.

We sent out a few emails and everybody was really excited on the idea. So we reached out to a few more companies, and they were excited about the idea as well. Then it was picked up on valleywag and interest exploded, we had to start turning companies away!

Many thanks to Ryan Is Hungry who filmed another fun night at Palo Alto Bowl for Bowling 2.0. This is a great video of Team Skype and Team PB Wiki dualing it out on the lanes…

As part of a podcast segment on Tea Time, they asked me a few questions along the lines of “What’s happin’” in sunny palo alto, tune in to some details on how bowling 2.0 got started. Or just make fun of my stutter on the segment intro.

Download MP3.

a9 takes the lead and veeceebo is trailing in 12th, you would think we ranked the teams alphabetically…..

So we had a mention in the Mecury News today where a number of teams were profiled. However, at the time of publishing, they seemed to have made an error with my name, calling me Vinnie “Tortelano” which is pretty far off from “Lauria” but at least it still falls into the same ethnic pool

Another name mistake takes the cake though, pbwiki’s name is displayed on the alley boards. The alley mistook their company name for pbwili.com! There’s no domain there yet, but I have a few thoughts on an interesting web2.0 site that could fill pbwili with more then just P&B.

Ohh, and the stats from week #1 are up.

I swung by the alley last Thursday to see if they had scores tallied up yet, but they were having some computer issues (it’s that old pre 1.0 technology.) I’ll be able to pick up last weeks scores tonight and post them here.

Stayed tuned each week for another video featuring at least one of the 12 companies bowling in the league.

I’m really pumped about the enthusiasm everybody had last night. Now we all know how good the sounds of 10 pins smacking against each other sounds. It was great to hear teams cheering and high-fiving as their team mates mopped the floor (without Ajax

I’ll be getting team points and individuals scores from the alley soon and I’ll put that up on www.bowling20.net along with some pictures and videos from last night.

(In this web 2.0 space, many companies don’t even have 4 folks at them

7pm
Palo Alto Bowl
4329 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94306

Last week was the bowling2.0 kick off party. We had 10 of the 12 teams show up to mingle, drink, ask questions, knock down a few pins, and drink some more. We had a number of spectators show up, including some google interns.

Note: Photos courtesy of Joanne Wan of stirr.net.

On the web, trash talk is easy - leave a few nasty comments on techcrunch and move on. In the real-world, it’s a little more difficult. Try telling a9 they have no chance of picking up the 7-10 split and they’ll come back to you with a beer in one hand and a shakin’ fist in the other…

The league officially kicks off next Monday right here in the heart of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto Bowl. We’re throwing a kickoff party on Wednesday to introduce all the teams to each other. If you want to cheer a team on, come check out the first party.
Who’s gonna come out ahead in this league? I dunno, but we’ll be keeping stats, so check back often. Now it’s time for me to go practice my No Drive No Five’s.

Bowling 2.0

Welcome interested bowlers. Are you getting pumped to show yourself out there on the lanes? Have you been practicing hitting down that double wood? Are you ready to throw back a few cold ones while playing a nationally accredited ’sport!’

What better place to start the Bowling 2-dot-ohh phenomenon then in the heart of Silicon Valley at Palo Alto Bowl!

…

I’m following up with a few more companies, I’m looking to hit a 10 team league. So if you want to pass this along to other folks, let them know the list might be full, but they can check in with me.

The league will go for 8 weeks with each team bowling at least once a week (preferably on the same night.) If there are any blackout weekdays/dates, please let me know.

…

Best,
Vinnie ‘fast eights‘ Lauria

I think so… we’re starting a little web2.0/startup bowling league out here in the valley. We looking for some friendly competition, and who knows, maybe some cash prizes to go along with bragging rights.

So do you think your team has got what it takes? Meetro has been staffing bowling ringers for months now preparing for this moment. This would be a weekly league, with teams around 4 ppl (all teams should be the same size.) Typical leagues run 10 weeks, but that might be too much commitment for some (hell, startups live and die in that about of time.)

So if you think you’re company is interested, please send me a note. Details to follow.

Feel free to pass this on to other companies, but I may have to close off the invite list at some point.

I haven’t even mentioned the best part…. Bowling shirts with your name and company logo… Now you can finally fit in with that hip swingers crowd.