This week’s show theme surrounds seeing opportunities for innovation. We explore many of the events, conferences, and moves made in web and internet technology and also dwell on all the collective energy being expended in Minnesota (e.g., MHTA; MNCup; MOJO MN; Minnedemo/Minnebar; Minnov8; tech.mn). driving toward one thing: sparking innovation in Minnesota. Is it working? What more can be done?
Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott & Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off dealing with his woody).
Music by Andre Bisson and the song, “I’m leavin’” from Music Alley.
Discussed During the Show:
- CrowdPitch at Dorsey Ewald Conference Center in St. Paul. A Rain Source Capital/Funding Universe collaboration
- WordPress Users Group on Thursday, July 22nd; Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul “Small Business Gets Social” on Friday, July 23rd; and Blandin’s Broadband Conference October 13-14 (Robert Stephens, Best Buy Company Geek Squad leader, is keynoting the event)
- Twitter’s business model article in Fortune magazine
- Eweek article on a Presidential Memorandum signed by President Obama would nearly double the amount of wireless broadband spectrum
- Clearwire wireless broadband coming to Minnesota; Article on mobile broadband; The Railroad and Minnesota Broadband
- Apple employee #1, Steve Wozniak, and his Segway polo
- Minnesota’s history of innovation arguably began with the explosion of companies in the business of milling grains (specifically wheat) along the Minneapolis riverfront at St. Anthony Falls. See this page at the Mill City Museum website for more and this Wikipedia page for the technologies entrepreneurs saw and the opportunities for innovation they seized. Image above from the Minnesota Historical Society Visual Resource Database located here.
- FUN FACTOID: One of the early milling companies, the Washburn-Crosby Company (which later merged with 26 mills to become General Mills) purchased a radio station in 1924 and renamed it WCCO, standing for “Washburn Crosby Company”.
NOTE: We’re having issues with the podcast plugin so just in case, here’s a direct link to the show.
July 13th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
1) To add to your conversation about how Twitter should monetize. At W3i, we have had a bit of success in terms of advertising with Ad.ly (http://www.ad.ly) lately. I’m not sure if a service like Ad.ly could scale to the kind of revenue Twitter would be looking for, but I like it better than many of the other monetization efforts out there.
2) I am pleased to inform you that W3i’s VP of Administration & Corporate Secretary Hayden Creque has volunteered his time to serve as a board member for the Blandin Foundation (see http://www.blandinfoundation.org/news/news-archive-detail.php?intResourceID=1256). Hayden’s day job at W3i, coupled with his extensive professional experience at the rural telco TDS Telecom and his law degree, make him an ideal board member for the Blandin Foundation. If you guys would ever be interested in having Hayden join you in a discussion on rural broadband, or perhaps to highlight the Blandin Foundation annual meeting in Brainerd which you mentioned, I’m sure he’d be happy to.
3) I loved Steve’s rant about the agriculture revolution being disrupted by the industrial revolution which in turn is being disrupted by the info tech revolution. I WANT MORE!!!
Yours biggest fan,
Rob Weber
Cofounder
W3i
July 14th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Thanks for the great comment Rob!
1) Didn’t know about Ad.ly at all…but am not laser focused on this space like you and your colleagues are today.
2) I care a lot about rural Minnesota. My Mom came from Moorhead, my Grandpa was born in Benson, and I’ve got family in several corners of our State and I fundamentally believe that broadband will be “table stakes” for any community (regardless of location) to play in 21st century business. Would love to have Hayden on the show.
3) Glad you want more….you could hear Tim scratch his head (“Huh?”) since I tossed this in as an afterthought and didn’t really flesh out the metaphor nor tied it together very well. I’d love to get a historian on the show to talk about it though.
Thanks for being a fan and listening!