Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Archives for July 2009

Minnov8 Gang 45 @ Social Media Breakfast #17

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smbmsp17This month’s Social Media Breakfast-Minneapolis/St. Paul #17 was held at Vic’s restaurant in St. Anthony Main and the topic was Non-Profits and Social Media and was the typically well done event and even more so with the leadership of Meg Canada and the great panelists.

Afterwards, we headed out to the deck to record our M8 Gang podcast and were joined by Meg and then Bryan Person, the founder of the national Social Media Breakfast group. Added to this podcast were three interviews at the end which Graeme Thickins had recorded before the event began. Your hosts for this podcast are the typical cast of characters: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 22:32 — 13.0MB)

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Show Notes:

+ Minneapolis/St. Paul WordPress Users Group

It’s the NGIN that will make TST Media go

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tstmediaA company started in Eau Claire WI, TSTMedia, has moved to the Twin Cities in order to capitalize upon the talent pool, venture capital and (I assume) the balmy winter weather and to get faster access to Minnov8.

Seriously, this company has a uniquely strong value proposition that has already put them on the map in Eau Claire and in several markets where organizations have adopted TSTMedia’s offerings for mission-critical sports websites.

Founded in 2004, TSTMedia started off as a web development shop but focused their efforts around the sports passions of college buddies and co-founders Justin Kaufenberg (CEO) and Carson Kipfer (COO). Quickly they identified that the sports niche was woefully underserved and filled with group and collaboration needs not being addressed in the marketplace.

They quickly began moving forward with Team Sport Technologies, building out sports-specific web applications. The applications enabled amateur sports organizations to efficiently manage a website with little or no previous technical knowledge. TST Media, under the Team Sport Technologies brand, then released a complete roster of sports specific products for hockey, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, softball, football, volleyball, swimming and others.

The websites they built and delivered for sports clients included a combination of online tools (online registration, interactive multi-team calendars, highly sophisticated statistic engines, etc.) that made publishing website content, sharing information and communicating with members extremely easy.

In 2009, they combined their Ruby on Rails experience, knowledge of the sports domain, and the engine they’d already created to make it brain-dead-simple for non-technical users to deliver a great team or organization website, and consolidated their various organization products and features into a single platform called NGIN.  …  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 44: Tech Stuff & Mobile Trends

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mobile-n-stuffFor half of the show, the Gang discusses several tech topics and then welcomes Lisa Foote, CEO/cofounder of Kwingo.net, the mobile solutions company here in the Twin Cities, to talk about “Mobile Trends to Watch“, a key trend since the I.T. consulting and analyst firm, Gartner, predicts that in 2012, smartphone sales will reach over 700 million units, accounting for 65% of all handset sales. This rate will represent a nearly $200 billion market.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson. (Note: I apologize for the unfortunate ‘clicks’ heard in Lisa’s audio which were indeterminate)

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:54 — 29.1MB)

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Discussed During the Show Notes:

+ The music was provided by the Podsafe Music Network, the song is PJ style Blues by artist AjT, a 39 year old french geek and Apple lover.

+ Crunchpad and Mike Arrington on Charlie Rose

+ Twitter 101 and how Ashton Kutcher has come out about the fact that “Twitter Will Change Media”

+ Best Buy:

  • Twelpforce: the Twitter account and a Techcrunch article
  • The Twitter fight between Doug Beacham & Best Buy CMO, Barry Judge (and social media thought leader, Chris Brogan, has his own take on it here)
  • Best Buy Social Media Director job that was crowdsourced and an update #2 on it here

+ The iPod as a multi-function device (can tie Touch to local app devs)

+  BlogWell on August 13th at General Mills (get Minnov8 discount code in this post)

+ Our guest, Lisa Foote, sent over these links for our show notes:

+ Finally, as a special tribute to Phil Wilson’s curious and instant recognition that the bumper music for this week’s show was, in fact, very “Cialis commercial-like,” I offer up this Cialis spoof video starring the actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. (possibly NSFW) in honor of Mr. Wilson.

Gary Koelling Gets Personal With Radio

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I’ve written before about my involvement with the Conclave , an organization that seeks to educate radio broadcasters. This year I had the pleasure of heading up the planning of the Tech/Interactive Track at this year’s Learning Conference (#clave09), underway right now in Minneapolis. I’m thrilled that I have been able to include many of Minnesota’s tech, interactive and social media “stars” as part of the agenda.

One of those “stars” is Gary Koelling, Best Buy’s Social Media guru and founder of Blueshirt Nation, Giftag and IdeaX. I asked Gary to talk with my broadcast brethren about increasing radio’s ‘signal strength’, a phrase Gary coined during a conversation we had some time back that refers to reaching customers through social media.

I met with Gary about an hour before his presentation because he wanted to show me what he came up with. I trust Gary implicitly to put together a great presentation on this topic…and he did. No surprise! I had expected to politely preview his slides, say “Cool!” and move on.

What I experienced, and what the attendees saw was a deeply personal story reflecting Gary’s passion for this medium and what it has meant to him over the years. He told me that every time he sat down to build his presentation he found himself “yelling” at radio for what it has become. He told me, “That’s not helpful to anyone.” So what he did was take everyone through the emotional relationship he has, and I bet all of have had, with radio.

“Other stations can steal your listeners, they can’t steal your friends.”  …  [Read More…]

BlogWell Coming to the Twin Cities

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blogwellThere’s an event coming up next month called “BlogWell: How big brands use social media” being hosted by General Mills on August 13th and you can go!

About BlogWell: Walmart, McDonald’s, CME Group, H&R Block, Mayo Clinic, Progressive, Ford and General Mills share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250.

blogwell-cosBlogWell is all about how big brands use social media. No agencies, no startups — just big companies sharing what they’ve learned. Get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans.

You’ll ask questions, discover new ideas, and get answers from people who have been there, done that — and learn it all in four hours (and be home for dinner).

BlogWell is presented by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council.

Register here and use the coupon code “Minnov8Rocks” to snag a 10% discount.

BusinessCard2: “The Big Upgrade” Launch is Near

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bizcard2-newSince I’m a user of BusinessCard2 — and been following CEO Lief Larson’s journey to make it the killer app for your web identity — I’ve been staying close to what they’ve been up to as the next version, the “big upgrade”, looms near (disclaimer: they’re also an advertiser on Minnov8).

Though they’ve been playing it pretty close to the vest for months, and I’ve been bugging Lief the entire time, he did agree to a quote and my posting of the graphic above. From Lief, “For the last 24 months our team has been working hard behind closed doors to create something we think has transformative potential.  What we have up our sleeve, nevertheless, is not being released until August.  We want to under promise and over deliver.  The internet is changing rapidly and we intend to launch something leveraging the cutting-edge.  Think web container, meets social, meets cloud.  Best of all, it’s 100% made in Minnesota.”

Go sign up now so you’re in the queue to get “the big upgrade” when they launch.

Obama Administration’s Focus on Innovation

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Delighted techies and geeks throughout the U.S. agree: the Obama administration understands open source software, leveraging social media, and providing transparency in governmental activities wherever possible. Unfortunately, unless you’re paying very close attention, it’s easy to think most of this stuff is a wish-list and needs to be battled out in Congress so bills can be passed.

Fortunately most of these initiatives are policymaking in nature and therefore can, and are, able to be developed and delivered quickly.

To that end, on July 1st, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra sat down with White House director of new media, Macon Phillips, to answer questions from Facebook and WhiteHouse.gov on technology, information, and transparency. Kundra discussed the new IT Dashboard, which enables everybody to look at how the government is spending money for information technology, and allows us to analyze and evaluate these investments.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HZ-BESVVck&feature=player_embedded

With respect to innovation and its impact on Minnesota, there are three key parts to the Administration’s initiatives (which go beyond Kundra’s sphere of influence):

  • Innovation in the Economy: Drive Economic Growth and Solve National Problems By Deploying a 21st Century Information Infrastructure
    This includes everything from a comprehensive national broadband plan, to new health care information technology, to a modernized electrical grid, along with a focus on cybersecurity.
  • Innovation in Science: Invest in Science and Science Education
    Climate change, energy and other initiatives are key as is a focus on education.
  • Innovation in Public Administration: Creating an Open and Secure Government
    Strategic federal IT investments will make Government more transparent and accountable. At the same time, Americans will know that these investments by their Government are being leveraged to produce maximum value, and that the security of information systems nationally, and the privacy of Americans, are being protected. Strategic investments in IT are at the heart of the efforts to make Government services more effective, accessible, and transparent.

Minnov8 Gang 43: Lifestreaming, Backup & Conclaves

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43

This week we talk about lifestreaming, smartphones, online backup, Microsoft Office Online, the Conclave and much more.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson and our new monthly host, Julio Ojeda Zapata.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:39 — 37.5MB)

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Discussed during the show notes:

Microsoft Launches Expression 3 & Sketchflow

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silverexpressSaw a tweet yesterday from my buddy, Microsoft’s Doug Olson, that said, “Getting ready for a very exciting day tomorrow — the culmination of why I am working at Microsoft.” He was either finally getting a free Zune, he’d completed that Redmond, WA to White Bear Lake, MN fun run, or his group was going to ship a major release. I suspected the latter so pinged him right away and he emailed me a bit ago since he’s in the midst of launching now.

douglaskolsonDoug is the Product Unit GM of the Expression group (who recently put in place a Microsoft engineering office in St. Paul), is today launching Silverlight and Expression 3 at a press event in San Francisco. It’s a big day for his main product, Expression Blend 3, which finally gets to the point where is it very competitive with Flash & Flex. Not only that, but Microsoft is including a major innovation with it called SketchFlow (here is a good overview of it) which is getting tons of buzz and changing the way folks think about conceptual design (prototyping).

One other note: SketchFlow, and another big-deal feature (fully enabled Photoshop file format support, apparently done better than even Adobe’s Flash CS4 does it) have both come out of the team based right here in St. Paul lead by Bob Pappas and Rick Keeney.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 42 from Savage Depot

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depotWe talk Google Chrome OS, Best Buy’s Sr. Director of Emerging Media job posting now on their IdeaX site, and much more. Recorded at the Savage Depot coffee shop, a fabulous coffee, wine and food spot (with *really* fast wifi, fun historical photos and an aesthetically pleasing spot) alongside Hwy 13 in Savage, MN (Note: the photo above is not the Savage Depot, but rather the town of PHILSON, the site of unfortunate genetic permutations in the citizenry whose deformities were passed down to subsequent generations, some of whom live in our midst to this day).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 34:27 — 19.9MB)

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Discussed during the show notes:

+ Crunchpad

+ Hootsuite and CoTweet

+ Ubuntu Linux and G OS

+ Parallels, VMWare Fusion and Sun’s VirtualBox

+ Best Buy’s Reward Zone

The music on this week’s show is in the public domain and the name of the track is The Railroad Stomp by Jolly Two.