Kurt Roots

Help me in welcoming a new Minnov8 author: Kurt Roots.

Kurt started his first company, which was devoted to web analytics, in high school at the age of sixteen. He went on to college and then graduate school where he did research in machine learning and data mining along with completing an MBA. After spending five years at Oracle, he landed at Quantum Retail in Minneapolis, a firm devoted to predictive retail optimization solutions.

He has a penchant for writing code, blogs, and research papers. You can also find him in the trenches at customer sites, understanding what they really want.

Kurt will be covering both startups and entrepreneurs in Minnesota and also organizations innovating in web and internet technologies. Welcome on board Kurt!

Welcome a New Author: Kurt Roots is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Several items hit the radar today worthy of posting and a few from discussion at this morning’s enjoyable and informative Social Media Breakfast:

• Brandweek had an interesting article about an initiative at General Mills called MyBlogSpark (from @garykoelling):

Bloggers, particularly moms, are an audience of such growing importance to General Mills that the consumer-goods company has built a formal network to feed them free products and enable them to run giveaways for their audiences.

MyBlogSpark has recruited more than 900 bloggers — over 80 percent are moms — to register to be eligible for everything from sampling campaigns to product coupons to news of a new ad campaign. General Mills plans to use the network to promote its wide portfolio of products in the food and beverage, beauty, home, electronics, health and automotive categories.

• Social Media Return on Investment (ROI) with spreadsheet (from @sbendt)

• Social Media: The Five Year Forecast from CRM.com

• Jason DeRusha from WCCO TV continues to explore ways to connect with viewers using his JasonCam

• @timelliott enjoyed watching Twitter in Real Life (the video from CollegeHumor) below:

On Minnov8′s Radar… is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Minnov8′s Phil Wilson Heads to SXSW is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Minnedemo is being held for a second time at Intermedia Arts in Uptown’s Lyn-Lake neighborhood, and will kick off about 6:00 p.m. this Friday, February 6, with demos starting about 7:00. (Intermedia Arts is located at 2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408.) According to Minnedemo organizer Luke Francl, “All are welcome, just please remember to RSVP online.” The web site for registering (again, it’s free) is http://minnedemo.eventbrite.com/.  This quarter’s event will feature ten demos — five, then a break, then five more. Most demonstrators will be launching their products or showing off their creations for the very first time. Here they are alphabetically:

Action Chess is a game app for the iPhone, described as a cross between Tetris Attack, Tetris, and the classic board game Chess. The developer claims it “makes your brain work in interesting ways.” It will be released for the iPhone in the coming weeks and will be demoed on stage. (Martin Grider will present.)

Association Manager Online (AMO) is a new web application from local development shop ArcStone that let members, staff, and administrators of associations and non-profits manage tasks (such as sending emails, posting documents, collecting payments, etc) in a secure manner from any internet browser, whether at home or work. (David Carnes will present)

BevPost is a site that lets consumers select coupons for their favorite adult beverages and have them delivered directly to their cell phones, so they can redeem them at their local liquor store and save cash. (John Ballatine will present)

enStratus is a brand-new startup that’s addressing the “confidence” questions businesses naturally have as they move their systems into Amazon EC2 and other “cloud computing” environments. The company, recently launched by the founders of successful local software firm Valtira, provides a suite of cloud infrastructure management tools that enable companies to automate the secure deployment, scaling, monitoring, and disaster recovery of their cloud computing infrastructure. (George Reese will present.)

LoudClick is a free website builder program that people can use to build web sites around their interests together, all without the need of a techie. (Alex Huff will present.)

Nabbit lets you identify a song you hear on the radio using your mobile phone. Just text Nabb and include the call letters of the station you’re listening to. The service will fetch the song information for you and deliver it to your account page on its web site. The company also recently introduced a native iPhone app. (Norton Lam will present.)

re-searchr is a social search app that lets you “find stuff easier” online. It helps you get search results from people you trust, using data from your friends to influence the re-searchr score presented on top of your search results. Another feature pushes your questions out to your social networks, where your friends can then answer or comment; the app then lets you push back their answers or comments for others to see.  (James Ostheimer will present.)

SendOnCue is a browser plugin that lets you schedule email delivery for later. It integrates directly into your email or webmail client. Send an email reminder at a later date and time. Slow down a conversation by delaying when your reply is sent. If you work odd hours, you can adjust the time your email is sent. (Aaron Kardell will present.)

Socialbrowse is a YCombinator-funded startup that provides social bookmarking with discussions in the browser. It lets you share and discuss the web in real time, and see what’s good on every page. It  combines your social network with your everyday web browsing. You can share and discuss any page with a single click. Pages you share or comments you make are automatically sent to other users in your network. You receive real-time updates of cool links shared by people you like. (Zack Garbow and Dave Fowler will present.)

ZippyStat (no web site yet) is a simple online service to record and monitor nearly any type of information such as your gas mileage, business cards collected, “poops by your newborn,” books read, miles run, etc. (Kelly Heikkila will present.)

This Minnedemo event is sponsored by:
• New Counsel
• Split Rock Partners
• Sierra Bravo
• Tightrope Media Systems
• The Foundation
• VISI

In a first for Minnedemo, this entire event will be video recorded, courtesy of TJ Kudalis from Internet Broadcasting. And, I’m told, monitors will be located in the networking area for those that can’t squeeze into the limited seating in the auditorium. In addition, Minnov8 will be recording interviews throughout the networking portion of the evening, with the help of 612Authentic, also a first.  For more information, see the Minnedemo web site.

Emerging Minnesota Software and Internet Technologies to Take the Stage on February 6 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

The continued growth of social networks is the strongest indicator of that trend, but the explosion of microblogging is another that bears watching, is worthy of your participation sooner-rather-than-later, as it’s already beginning to shift how early adopters in Minnesota are connecting with one another.

If you’re reading this blog post — whether directly on Minnov8, through an aggregated feed like the one at CentralStandardTech, or a publication we support with our content, MinnPost — you’re already familiar with blogging.

Though blogging is still one of the best ways to connect with people, inexpensively self-publish, create search engine friendly frequently updated content, or be a ‘container’ in which one can place value and position oneself as a a thought leader, good blogging requires significant time and effort in order to build and maintain an audience.

Microblogging, on the other hand, is a method to quickly publish small snippets of commentary or value — usually 140 characters or less that is somewhat like a persistent instant message, public in nature — and is therefore much easier to update when the mood strikes. Add to that the ability to make a brief comment and include a web link URL if so desired (so people can go out and read or view what you’re pointing them to on the Web) allows anyone publishing in this way to have their “followers” or audience quickly read that snippet, comment on it, forward it on, or let it stream by as other content appears from other followed microbloggers.

Minnesotans have embraced microblogging and its promise is that it will help to shift the way we all connect with one another, are alerted to items of interest, and even to collectively be engaged in running commentary like what has been exhibited during the various presidential or vice presidential debates where people were making real-time comments sent over Twitter.

The first mover in the microblogging space was Twitter. During the 2007 South by Southwest conference in Austin, TX, Twitter setup up 51″ displays that showed the ongoing stream of “tweets” as they’re called, alerting attendees to parties, bands and other must-attend venues. In a short time, many of the top bloggers attending were gushing about Twitter, and many of us following those bloggers signed up and starting using Twitter to see what all the fuss was about with this new service.

Unfortunately, as Twitter exploded in use it had scalability issues. The site and service was often down, updates didn’t refresh properly, and the outcry from the tech community was relentless. One reason its use grew so quickly was not just the number of people signing up and using it, but also because Twitter (perhaps too early) released an application programming interface (API) that enabled developers to create new applications that used the underlying Twitter architecture.

If you’d care to view a dizzying array of applications making use of the Twitter infrastructure, you can do so here.

This didn’t stop people from using it, but the pressure made them address it quickly. It also helped other microblogging services obtain new users such as FriendFeed (an aggregrator of all your digital breadcrumbs left around the internet); Pownce; the open source identi.ca; and even a recently introduced private, enterprise-class version called Yammer.

Uses of microblogging are numerous and include everything from instant notifications of earthquakes, grassfires and other events, to live updates from news organizations, political campaigns and even auto-microblog-postings when a blog post or article is published by a microblogging person or organization.

This is one way Minnesotans are using microblogging. Here’s a random list of microbloggers to give you a sense of what’s out there and whom you could follow:

+ PoliticsMN

+ Minnesota Historical Society

+ MN Headhunter

+ KARE 11

+ UofMN Golden Gophers

+ MinneMom

+ Minnov8

+ ComicTwit

+ Finally, here’s a Twitter search for tweets within 100 miles of Minneapolis, which will give you a sense of the volume of people actively engaged in this service within Minnesota.

IS TWITTER THE PERFECT COMMUNICATION MEDIUM?
Not by a long shot and some have even pointed out the uselessness of microblogging. But if you consider how the internet, web and access to it with desktop/laptop computers, smartphones and netbooks has made it even more important in all of our lives, then evolutionary communication mediums like microblogging are important stepping stones along the path toward richer, more robust and deeper human connections.

Some find microblogging a distraction, especially since real-time updating clients have emerged (e.g., Twhirl) that require fairly frequent attention be paid as messages keep appearing and then scrolling off the page into the ether.

Others point out that there is trouble with microblogging exacerbating the negative trend of a “sound bite” culture since too many people already focus only on the “headlines” and not the “article or story”. This headline-only nature is akin to how many people only skim newspaper headlines with disturbing assumptive results, “Carjacking in St. Paul by Two Teenage Males” with the article stating, “Today’s apparent carjacking victim realized she was completely unaware of any danger as two Roseville teenage boys pulled her out of her rear-engined car as flames began shooting out from under the hood.”

Even BusinessWeek has weighed in with several articles, most importantly this one from May of 2008 entitled, “Why Twitter Matters“:

Businesses such as H&R Block (HRB) and Zappos are now using Twitter to respond to customer queries. Market researchers look to it to scope out minute-by-minute trends. Media groups are focusing on Twitterers as first-to-the-scene reporters. (They were on top of the May 12 China earthquake within minutes.) Loads of new applications and services are growing around the Twitter platform, leading some to suggest that the microblogging service could become a powerhouse in social media.

More likely is that Twitter, Pownce, Yammer and other microblogging ‘platforms’ will continue to evolve and increasingly become personalized conduits within which alerts, notifications, links and even GPS-location based photos or updates will be sent to those following the person or organization sending the message.

One thing is clear, however, and that is Minnesotans have already embraced microblogging and are incorporating it into daily life.

+ Definition of microblogging

+ Microblogging News

+ The Microblogger: a blog about microblogging (is this paradoxical?)

Minnesota Microblogging is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

As you can see from Phil Wilson’s Unsummit post, there were those who ignored the hype and chose to do their own (free) concurrent event at a nearby pub, thank you very much. (Okay, many of them were too cheap to pay the big MIMA fee.) And the MIMA folks actually cheered them on (even from the stage the day of the two events), since they felt bad they couldn’t have accommodated more people. But the venue — the very nice Depot downtown — could literally take no more. (MIMA has vowed to find a bigger site next year though that won’t be easy — maybe the Convention Center?) This year’s attendance, I believe, was something north of 700. MIMA’s membership is now about 950, but the Summit’s attendees also included some non-members and invited speakers, of course.

So, how did the event go?  This was my first year attending (they have not given press passes to us lowly bloggers in the past), so I went courtesy of my employer, to do some serious working of the crowd.  My assessment: the hype didn’t quite meet the reality as far as the overall content, as quality conferences go. But this is an association, after all, not a professional conference producer. And don’t we all kinda forgive a certain percentage of marketing build-up most of the time?  Nonetheless, the logistics were handled quite well, and my hat’s off to the MIMA officers and their band of volunteers who pulled this thing off. (I’m sure they’ve worked out a lot of bugs over the several years they’ve sponsored this event.)

As with any event like this, I attend much more for the people, the networking, the connections, and that part was excellent. The chance to exchange notes and news with your peers, meet new folks in our amazing marketing and advertising community, and meet out-of-town speakers as well made the event very worthwhile. As they say, it’s what goes on in the hallways that matters, not in the meeting rooms. In the age of Conversational Marketing, this was indeed a blab fest of the highest order.

The highlight of the day for most everyone was surely the lunch speaker, Ze Frank. This guy is a polished, well coached and practiced speaker to large audiences (including the likes of the TED conference and other high-brow affairs), and he did not disappoint. The man is flat-out funny and entertaining. He’s a bona fide Internet celebrity since launching his first video (him dancing) several years ago, a video that went viral beyond all viral to that date. (He talked about getting a $30,000 bandwidth bill from his ISP after that experience.)  See more about the Ze Frank Show at this page of his archived links or visit his blog at www.ZeFrank.com. (By the way, if you want to be cool, you pronounce his first name “zay.”)

It’s a good thing Ze was so well received, because the earlier keynote, to open the event, was horrid. Note to planners: one hour is too long, and editors may write well, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they know how to speak. (I live-Twittered the event: here’s my archive page, which is six screen shots of my tweets, starting with the beginning of the event on top.)

So, what else did I pick up about the event, what was the overall buzz?  Well, there were those who said it wasn’t “interactive enough,” which is an interesting take for a gathering of interactive marketers. But it can be hard to have participatory discussions with such a large group (impossible?), even in the breakout sessions — some of which easily drew 150+ in packed rooms with many standing.  Choosing breakout sessions is always a challenge, and I missed some very good ones because, well, I had to make one choice each session. I’m sure many went away feeling the same.  There were just too many not-to-miss talks scheduled concurrently (not good planning on the part of MIMA) — six each in two particular sessions! Way too difficult to choose, and jumping from one to another, to catch two concurrent sessions you like, just never really works.

Funny thing was, two other breakout sessions had four choices each and were largely duds — none of the choices had much appeal to me at all.  So, I left feeling I missed what could have been some really good content.  Example: I just had to attend “Mobile…2009 and Beyond” (which was good), but missed the concurrent session with the Zappos guy talking about “Making the Customer Connection in 140 Characters or Less” (that would be Twitter). But I made up for it by chatting with him at the cocktail reception later.

I was only able to catch two other breakout sessions: one on ad exchanges vs. networks (by Google), which was only mildly interesting to anyone except a media buyer, and another called “Marketing Mix Challenge,” which had four panelists describe how they would spend “only” $500k on a fictitious consumer product launch. I heard criticism later from people on that one who just don’t relate to the large agency world, which thinks $500k is a small budget.

But, all in all, it was as successful an event as each individual made it to be. And I made it a good one — lots of great new connections with whom I look forward to following up.

MIMA Summit Packs The Depot is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

After vacations and business travel this summer, we carve out time on a Saturday morning for another Minnov8 Gang podcast with Episode 3.

In it we talk about several Minnesota startups and companies (including our own, with some admittedly self-serving comments!):

- PartnerUp Being Acquired by Deluxe Check

- Former HighJump CTO, Steve Kickert’s new company Riverock and his first product launch OnePlace

- Watching for new companies in stealth mode like BeWiki

- DoApp, Cullect, ComicTwit, Localtone Radio

- Social Media Breakfast, Twin Cities group

- Julio Ojeda-Zapata of the Pioneer Press (personal blog; TwinCities.com) is writing a book being released shortly, “twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your business” (book jacket here)

- Minnesota Ultra-High_Speed Broadband Task Force (Minnov8 posts about this initiative here and here).

Thanks for listening!

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 3 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Nabbit was born some two years ago as Freund and his team at Jump Technologies were discussing the eBay purchase of Skype. “I remember saying how great it would be to have 50 million subscribers to anything.” The discussion included colleague (and radio fan) Norton Lam’s thoughts about tagging radio content. So was the birth of Nabbit. According to Freund, “The first year we dedicated about 10% of Jump Technologies resources to Nabbit.” That has clearly grown as Nabbit has evolved, indicating a great deal of confidence in the potential of the business.

At first, it truly was a “content play” offering listeners of radio the ability to tag songs and advertisements via internet enabled cell phones. Those tagged pieces of content are placed into the Nabbit user’s account for later action including purchase or artist and advertiser info.

“We found that while users were tagging music they were actually tagging more advertising and the calls to action that they provided.” This led to what Nabbit describes as the first service that allows marketers to combine broadcast, mobile, direct response, and online advertising into one integrated consumer marketing campaign.

Here’s how it works.

Once a consumer downloads the free application to their internet enabled mobile phone they assign stations to the buttons on the phone. When they hear something they want to “nabb” they press the button for that station. If it’s an ad, the Nabbit Ad engine springs into action. Not only is a copy of the ad placed in the listener’s account, it can also send a text coupon or place a call to their phone though the Nabbit Callback feature (and it should be noted that all the features are opt-in via the user’s Nabbit account).

This is where Nabbit’s media relationships come in. Freund and Nabbit have been working with radio station KTTB (B96) here in the Twin Cities (CBS isn’t the first). Freund says that the desire for exclusivity by stations was a barrier to getting deals going with the bigger companies. It took plenty of proof, and persuading, the likes of CBS that Nabbit truly needs to be on as many stations as possible in order to be successful.

There are still barriers that Nabbit will face from a revenue generation standpoint. The service is free to consumers so the business model is based on advertising revenue sharing with media partners. According to a quote from the press release on the Nabbit/CBS partnership, CBS VP/GM of CBS Radio in Minneapolis explained, “Nabbit offers our advertisers a unique ability to leverage multiple advertising platforms while at the same time benefiting our listeners by making our stations interactive.” Of course, there is no mention of whether radio will be be successful at selling this new platform in addition to all of the other products they must sell, but at least for CBS, there is a commitment to new platforms and to making this partnership work.

From a consumer/user’s standpoint, one might say (and I’m one) the need to download and access an application — which is how Nabbit is currently delivered — is a bit of a challenge for some mobile users. Nabbit seems to be on top of this issue. They will address it by providing an SMS process for tagging content within the next few months, according to Freund, and removing the need for an application download and a configuration on ones mobile phone. (Update: Nabbit also provides access via mobile browser at http://m.nabbit.com.)

John Freund is well aware of the marketing and education process that lies ahead. In addition to targeting the tech community and other PR initiatives, there is much they expect from those radio stations that participate. Introducing the Nabbit technology and trademarked words like “nabb” mean there are high expectations for those media partners to clearly explain and provide benefit to listeners and creating demand for using Nabbit. The advertiser side is bit easier. When you can supply multiple marketing channels and deliver — not only consumers to the advertiser’s doorsteps but can deliver proof of performance with metrics based on actual use — you go a long way in addressing advertiser resistance.

According to Freund there are currently 1,500 Nabbit users in the Twin Cities. Projections call for 20,000 in the next 2 months and 1.7 million in the first year. After a planned national rollout in two months, Nabbit hopes to have 10 million users by the end of 3 years. With deals pending that may or may not include Clear Channel here in the Twin Cities Nabbit, self funded by the employees and 2 additional partners, hopes to be profitable within one year. Freund explains, “The goal is to keep the company small. The largest area of employee growth will come from sales and marketing but we are certainly adding staff in all areas.”

Nabbit is one a many technology driven companies that are looking at and acting on ways to merge traditional media with new media to increase the share of advertising dollars for both sides.

Nabbit Moves Beyond Tagging is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Upon their launch, it was clear to me that MinnPost really was serious about their mission and I’ve been a loyal reader since they went live and recently donated as well. While scanning stories in competing publications about puppies, gossip about celebs at the Mall of America, the annual “Get Ready for Summer!” article or the provocative teaser at Digg is interesting when our minds need a cotton-candy-content fix, but more of us crave deep thought, analysis and perspective which those contributing to MinnPost deliver.

Minnov8′s vision and mission is to be the hub for showcasing Minnesota Innovation in Internet and Web Technology. We’ll achieve it through posts, videos, audio podcasts, great photos, while striving to be a must-read for anyone who wants to be connected with others holding similar interests, and are truly motivated to be exposed to the innovators and events we cover. Of course, we’ll continue to create and deliver our content with care, transparency, careful analysis and the shared technical expertise on our team — coupled with the wide-ranging, varied perspectives our individual experiences provide — which I believe philosophically aligns us with MinnPost’s approach.

Accomplishing Minnov8′s mission in a day when unconferences rule, the wisdom of the crowd truly molds and shapes discourse, and the culture of participation (PDF) means we all demand a voice and input, is top-of-mind for all of us contributing to Minnov8 (and those we’ll invite in to contribute or partner with us) and means we need to be more discerning for the readers we serve. It’s also why we’ll shortly launch features such as a community forum and yes, encourage commenting (please comment!), since you, your voice, your opinion and your input matter. MinnPost’s trust in us to filter, process and package our content in a way that’s appealing to a wider Minnesota thought leading audience is significant validation of our approach.

Today is our first MinnPost article (modified slightly from its original Minnov8 post) for the MinnPost readership and written by Minnov8 co-founder and author, Graeme Thickins.

Look for an article on MinnPost once per week going forward and we’d like to extend a public “Thank You” to editor and publisher, Joel Kramer, for inviting us to participate in the MinnPost adventure.

Minnov8 at MinnPost is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

If one had any doubt about the intensity of our state’s information technology and Internet community, one only had to be anywhere inside the U’s Coffman Union on Saturday for the third annual Minnebar “unconference” (part of an international phenomenon called Barcamp). To say the joint was a-jumpin’ simply does not suffice. And numbers alone don’t tell the story (though attendance was an event record at 430). Rather, it was the intensity of energy through the entire day that could only impress one about this somewhat quiet, and definitely underrated, sector of Minnesota’s economy.

I was there for at least 12 hours of the event — yes, it went on that long, and no one was complaining — and I can surely say that even the most skeptical of attendees who sacrificed part of their spring weekend were impressed with what they experienced, and left beaming with an elevated sense of pride in the industry they’re a part of. One needs only to scan the voluminous talk that went on in real-time — thanks to the magic of Twitter, and all archived here — to see that something big was happening in the Gopher state on this rainy fishing-opener Saturday. (In fact, Minnebar was ranked during the day as one of the top-five conversations going on in the entire, global “Twitterverse.”)

Speaking of Gopher, that’s when the Internet industry really started here — back in the early ’90s with the invention of the browser by that name. It flourished for a few years, but, alas, was disrupted by a little thing called Netscape (first called Mosaic), and soon was relegated to just a note in history. But our state’s involvement in Internet development began thriving in the ’90s and has continued in many ways ever since.

The industry has some notable local companies, who collectively employ thousands, such as Digital River, Internet Broadcasting, and Dow Jones’ local operations (which began life as BigCharts and was soon acquired by MarketWatch), not to speak of Minnesota being home to top-50 ecommerce destinations like BestBuy.com, Target.com, and ShopNBC. But the core of Minnesota’s Internet industry are the developers, designers, engineers and other technologists, marketers, and entrepreneurs who gathered on Saturday at Minnebar, and the many hundreds of smaller entities many of them work for, not to speak of the countless new startups and products they’re building, or just beginning to plot in their minds.

What did the attendees do all day, throughout the many meeting rooms of the wonderful new Coffman Union? Well, the event was organized by two volunteer developers named Ben Edwards and Luke Francl (and anyone they could get to help them), and it featured no less than 40 sessions, all proposed and led by attendees themselves, on a wide variety of technical, design, business, and marketing topics, as we identified in this blog last week here. Several sponsors, who picked up the tab for everything, included the U of M’s Software Engineering Center (the venue sponsor), Split Rock Partners, SwarmCast, FindLaw, SierraBravo, and ipHouse. Probably the biggest highlight of the day was the noon panel on The State of Technology in Minnesota (see our previous post for the audio link). But it became apparent as the day progressed that it was really the networking — the interchange between the attendees — that was surpassing even knowledge-sharing as most valuable benefit for most of the attendees.

Some Key Takeaways

As someone who attends many of these local gatherings, and reports on several national Internet industry events as well each year, I can truly say I was impressed with the impact this event had — on so many levels. As I thought about it over the weekend, I realized I left with not only a much-renewed excitement for Minnesota’s Internet technology and software community, but many great takeaways. Here are some of them:

• Networking is something our community needs more of, getting out from behind the keyboard and meeting people, mixing it up. One panelist talked about the need for more “dense networks” as something Minnesota’s tech community can learn from Silicon Valley. (And I say that means local, national, and social networking — everything.)

• We may focus too much here in Minnesota on our own state/region. We must remember we’re really in a global market, and must constantly strive to be world class — not just to emulate other, better known tech regions in the U.S. We need to benchmark against the best, wherever they may be, and that can be anywhere, to build great companies here in our state.

• There’s a real pride here in Minnesota. Techies love it here, and don’t want to leave! Many who did previously have returned. This is a strength that we can very definitely build on.

• We need to do more to connect the outstanding technology students on the East Bank with the great business students at the Carlson School on the West Bank.

Minnesota’s Internet Tech Crowd Flexes Its Muscle is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

As we talked about what was going on in Minnesota, we realized there was something missing: although there was a tremendous amount of Internet and Web-centric development, interest, passion and excitement right here in Minnesota, there wasn’t any single, online spot to read about what was happening right here in our State.

A vision emerged of an online venue where we (and, at some point, other trusted contributors) could file reports, podcast and video interviews, screencasts and other high value content that would focus on Minnesota technology innovation and provide a news and information showcase surrounding Internet-as-a-platform, application innovation on the Web, and other technology happenings we think will be worthy of coverage.

So sit back, relax and enjoy the trip as we paddle on and provide you with stories, profiles, news and information about the Internet and Web shifts occurring and how Minnesotans are innovating in this time of accelerating change.

Welcome to Minnov8! is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.