Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Archives for March 2011

TST Media Takes Top Honors at Web Challenge

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After 24 hours of meeting, planning coding, creating, and general all around geeky fun, TST Media was selected as the winner of the Nerdery’s annual Overnight Website Challenge. Built on their NGIN platform, currently finding great success with organizations big and small, the Bloomington United for Youth (BUY) site is already live.

We’re also happy to report that our very own Tim Elliott and his band of WordPress fanatics on the Full Court WordPress team brought in a site that made it to the final four. The site for Project 515 should be live later this week.

The judges for the event, represented by their obvious well-rested appearance in a see of sleepy, were Christine Durand, communication director, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Christian Erickson, principal, Zeus Jones, Dan Grigsby, founder, Drivetrain, and Dana Nelson, executive director, GiveMN.org

As noted by the Nerdery, “No team lost anything but sleep while 18 nonprofit organizations won free websites that will better carry their mission forward.” We’re sure that none of the teams in the multiple rooms that house the now ginormous Challenge, would disagree.

Minnov8 Gang 116 – Pulling an All-Nighter

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The Overnight Website Challenge, an all night event organized by interactive development firm The Nerdery, sees dozens of volunteers form teams of ten web pros that show up not knowing what nonprofit they’ll serve, pro bono, for 24 hours. In the first three years of The Nerdery’s nonprofit nerdathon, volunteers have freely given over a million dollars worth of professional web development services to 39 nonprofit organizations. The Nerdery considers this a good start, but as long as there are good nonprofits with bad (or no) websites we will rally our staff and community to deliver nerdy deeds done dirt-cheap.

Senator Al Franken provided some levity and encouraging remarks

We talk with Mark Hurlburt, VP of Marketing at The Nerdery (wait…marketing nerds? Isn’t that an oxymoron?) and he tells us all about the event. We then chat with Tim Elliott’s team (Full Court WordPress) client non-profit executive director, Ann Kaner-Roth, about her organization Project 515.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off this week).

We were delighted to meet and talk with Senator Al Franken (though his remarks were not recorded by us because yours truly forgot to hit the record button on my recorder!) and he kicked off the event with some encouraging words about the importance of the event and the collective energy of the volunteers. He also interspersed it with some humorous remarks which shows he hasn’t lost his comedic touch.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 28:14 — 16.3MB)

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Minnov8 Gang 115 – Mobile March Marchers Marching

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Due to the overwhelming success of the Mobile March Twin Cities event this past Saturday with 250 attendees—and the surprisingly excellent previous evening’s Mobile 3D event—very strong evidence now exists that Minnesota has both world-class mobile developers and business users embracing mobile development and mobile use. (Note: photo on the right was modified from this TwitPic taken at the event by Stewy1000).

That old black and white photo above of the woman holding some sort of portable videophone is from this surprisingly prescient Modern Mechanix article from 1956 that starts out with this:

“ON SOME night in the future a young man walking along Market Street in San Francisco may suddenly think of a friend in Rome. Reaching into his pocket, he will pull out a watch-size disc with a set of buttons on one side. He will punch ten times. Turning the device over, he will hear his friend’s voice and see his face on a tiny screen, in color and 3-D. At the same moment his friend in Rome will see and hear him.“

We can now laugh at how quaint this seems coming from a 1956 perspective, but when you think of the collision of technologies available to us today (e.g., GPS; fast wireless networks; Wifi; voice apps w/video; tools to develop and create apps) and the huge numbers of people rapidly acquiring mobile devices that are ‘always on and always connected’, you can understand why so many ‘marchers’ were marching forward at Mobile March. See the full 1956 Modern Mechanix article, scanned and on their blog, here.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: David Bennett Cohen is the artist & the song is “Blues for a Summer’s Dream” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 36:24 — 20.9MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Minnesota ‘Brand Storyteller’ Changes Name to Brandpoint

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Hopkins-based ARAcontent, which has been a leader in content-based marketing solutions for more than 15 years, announced today it has changed its name to Brandpoint, underscoring the organization’s evolution from a provider of traditional PR brand storytelling into a comprehensive, content-based digital marketing platform.

Brandpoint offers three core product channels, each enhanced by accurate, real-time reporting of results:

• Media creation and distribution: Consumer-focused feature articles help clients tell their brand stories, and provide high-quality content to a network of online publishers. Brandpoint guarantees clients online placement of their articles through its powerful, cost-effective media creation and distribution service.

• Search engine optimization (SEO): Brandpoint provides full SEO consulting services that range from website audits to keyword analysis. Placement of quality content on trusted media websites is an effective way for brands to increase their SEO relevancy.

• Social media: Brandpoint supports clients’ social media strategies with outreach tools and writing services that help brands maintain and grow their social media presence.

“Changing our name to Brandpoint reflects how our business has evolved from a heritage of print article distribution into a comprehensive content-based digital marketing platform,” said David Olson, SVP and general manager of Brandpoint, in the company’s news announcemnet.  “As the online marketing landscape becomes more dynamic, consumers are connecting with each other and the companies they patronize in new and exciting ways. By following consumer trends and continually integrating new services such as social media and SEO, Brandpoint is nicely positioned to serve as our clients’ strategic partner today and in the future.”

The parent company of Brandpoint, and another product called Adfusion, is ARAnet. It is an article-based digital media company that educates consumers, builds brands, and drives sales through product offerings that focus on digital advertising, SEO, and public relations, and leverage content and technology to achieve clients’ specific campaign goals. The company began life 15 years ago as Article Resource Association, providing copyright-free content to print media across the country. As the digital marketing world evolved, the company maintained its front-runner position by developing new content-based marketing tools and utilizing emerging technologies for a broad portfolio of public relations industry, corporate, and interactive agency clients.

Today, Brandpoint is recognized as a pioneer in content-based digital marketing and real-time reporting of measurable, effective results. For more information, call (866) 287-9168 or visit the company’s web site at www.brandpoint.com, where you can also click on an online demo.

Minnov8 Gang 114 – Racing Toward Our Mobile Future

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If you pay any attention to technology news you know that we’re racing toward a mobile future that is already changing how we interact with one another, figure out where to eat, how to get the best deal and, in short, how to effectively be connected to the world.

Joining us on this episode of the Minnov8 Gang is Justin Grammens, co-Founder at Recursive Awesome, LLC, owner of Localtone, LLC founder of the Mobile Twin Cities User’s Group, and co-founder of Mobile March. Justin covers the startups that will be demonstrating their mobile apps next Friday evening (the night before Saturday’s MobileMarchTC) during the Mobile 3D event.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: John Gilliat is the artist & the song is “Nylon Heat” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:22 — 32.7MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 113 – Facetime Fever Flabbergasts?

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If you own a tablet (e.g., iPad, Xoom) or are considering one, this is the show to listen to now. We cover Graeme’s trip to DEMO and then immediately move in to a discussion of the iPad2 launch. Probing deeper in to some of the intrinsic value of the iPad and Android-based devices (e.g., pent-up demand to publish to these devices) with guest host Julio Ojeda-Zapata, we have a lively discussion about these and other mobile devices.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Graeme Thickins and Tim Elliott (Phil is off this week).
Guest Host: Julio Ojeda-Zapata
Music by: Charlie Crowe and the song, “Vegas Hard Rock Shuffle” from the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:45 — 33.6MB)

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Discussed during the show: