Marty Wetherall

Social media ‘chatter’ seems to be growing exponentially and the services capitalizing upon it are being launched, or accelerated, by the week. Marty Wetherall, Director of Innovation at Fallon and co-founder of Fanchatter, joins us to talk about what’s happening with his startup and about the growth of social chatter overall.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Mario Tomic & the song “Blue Note” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Project Skyway’s new class of entrepreneurs
• Google: I’m Being Followed and Keeping Google From Watching Your Searches
• Mobile World Congress
• Introducing Windows 8 Consumer Preview 
• Facebook introduces Premium: A marketer’s dream, a user’s nightmare?
• iPad: New, faster Apple iPad expected next week and Apple expected to unveil 16GB and 32GB iPad 3 as well as 8GB iPad 2 and Apple likely to begin production of 7.85-inch iPads in 3Q12 and Channels as apps? How Apple could reinvent television
• Fanchatter has ‘chat’ at the Lady Gaga & Oprah event at Harvard 
• Bruce Springsteen Online Listening Party
• Startup Bus to SXSW and CNN on Tech Trends at SXSW
• MN Council of Non-Profits Tech & Comm event (PDF) 

Upcoming Events:

• March 16-17: MobileMarchTC; Mobile March (Mobile 3D); NEW! The Agenda
• March 24-25: Overnight Website Challenge by The Nerdery
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 159 – Social Chatter is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda Zapata
Music: “Even Meaner” by “Mean Gene Kelton & the Diehards“ via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Steve Jobs’ passing (Julio’s excellent post; New Yorker article: “Steve Jobs at the Pearly Gates”; Wall Street Journal about: Who Will Be the ‘Next Steve Jobs’?; Mike Evangelist’s blog, Writer’s Block 
• Apple iPhone 4S; Why iPhone screen is 3.5 inches 
• Samsung/Google postpone Nexus Prime with IceCreamSandwich out of respect for Steve
• Minnedemo & Edutech & TECHCocktail
• Sprint betting the farm on iPhone?
• Best Buy unloads Napster. Sells to Rhapsody. (“Napsody”?)
• MN’s 365,000 VC-backed jobs. 8th largest innovator: “Putting Money and Ventures Together“
• Paradox of Choice 

Minnov8 Gang 140 – Heaven is no Apple Store is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

This week we talk with Rob Weber, VP and co-founder of the St. Cloud-based W3i. Rob spearheaded the setup of Minnesota’s premiere tech showcase event, Minnedemo, which will be held in St. Cloud on Tuesday, April 12th. He details the startups who will show their value propositions and it’s looking to be a very, very strong lineup!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: W.C. Clark is the artist & the song is “Cold Blooded Lover” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

Minnov8 Gang 118 – The Cloud gets Sainthood is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

While the Gang could discuss the “why” and “what it means for developers” at length with each other when it comes to the newest entrant in the app store shift the Mac App Store, our frequent contributor, Julio Ojeda Zapata, was kind enough to recommend and invite in this episode’s guest, Michael Wray.

Michael is the president of Mariner Software, a very impressive, two decade old Mac, PC, iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad software firm here in Minneapolis. Besides the groundbreaking Mac apps they’re known for, this company had apps early on in the iPhone App Store and five (with one pending approval as you’ll hear about on the podcast) in the Mac App Store. Listen to what Michael has to say about his experiences with this new model of software distribution.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson with Julio Ojeda Zapata.
Music: Guitar Jack is the artist and the song is, “Roadhouse.“
Music made possible by the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Cox Digital Solutions Acquires Internet Broadcasting’s Local Network Business
• Mac App Store:
  • Which iPhone flavor? Factors for Minnesotans to weigh (Julio’s article)
  • Local software developers hope new Mac App Store clicks (Julio’s article)
  • Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales: App stores a clear and present danger
  • Mac OSX Lion Sneak Peek
• Why You Should Never Search For Free WordPress Themes in Google or Anywhere Else
• Bloomberg Game Changers documentary: Steve Jobs

Minnov8 Gang 107 – Is the MacAppStore Good or Bad? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

As for the presenters and demos at the event, the evening highlighted applications, services, and hardware that catered to a wide range of interests. From gamers to writers, security to slap shots the evening moved along at a brisk pace leaving plenty of time for socializing and networking out side the presentation space at the St. Thomas’ Schultz Hall.

Some of the standouts included…

Inveni-I’ve followed the development of Aaron Weber’s discovery and recommendation engine for quite some time and it didn’t fail to impress. Entertainment (Movies, TV) is the sweet spot for Inveni right now and offers the ability to share your highly personalized Inveni picks with your network. Now if Aaron could only get Netflix to secure a better class of streaming selections…

Zipnosis-With the promise of a diagnosis in minutes for just $25, Zipnosis was perhaps the most polished demo of the evening. We’ve showcased Zipnosis and are big fans. I also found the theme of the demo, providing low-cost healthcare, interesting. Zipnosis clearly wants to move past the tech and on to the benefits.

LitLift-This demo was the darling of the event. Providing tools to help writers in the areas of character, settings, and plot, LitLift helps authors organize their literary efforts. Presenter Brad Marsh, a writer himself won over the crowd with his humor as well as his assertion that he has invested all of $10 in LitLift and already has hundreds of authors using it. Showing off the character name generator didn’t hurt either.

Passy-Pass-I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight sigflup and her password generator. This piece of hardware does away with the need to constantly think of, and remember, new passwords. Paraphrasing sigflup’s words, humans shouldn’t have to deal with such things. Her demo and the incredibly raw nature of her working prototype really drove home the essence of what demos are all about.

The complete list of presenters, compliment of Minnedemo, is below.

One last word, while the surroundings for Minnedemo were really top-shelf (I believe this is the first time with actual carpeting.), the real standout of the evening was the caliber of presenters. The passion, enthusiasm and polish of most of the demos was exceptional. There is no doubt we have much of which to be proud from our tech community.

Presenters

• Inveni: a discovery engine where users receive highly personalized recommendations based on their custom taste profile and facilitates effortless sharing and socializing with friends (Aaron Weber).
• Qonqr: an augmented reality combat game, winner of Startup Weekend Twin Cities (Scott Davis, Justin Peck)
• Passy-Pass: a is password generator and storage device, written up by the Make blog (sigflup).
• Zipnosis: Doctor e-diagnosis tool with mobile component. Winner of Minnesota Cup Student Division in 2008. (Ben Peirce & Jon Pearce)
• Daybreak Heroes: a new social game for the iPhone, integrating some revolutionary ideas into the blossoming social game genre (Evan McMahon)
• Evolve-Stop playing with yourself. A social network catering to gamers.
• Event Burn: an online service that makes social media more useful by finding and summarizing the good stuff (Dan Frankowski)
• LitLift.com: a free novel writing application that’s helping hundreds of authors make the most of their limited writing time (Brad Marsh)
• Sophia: makes knowledge easier to share, easier to find, and easier to organize. Sophia lets you teach what you know and learn what you don’t (Steve Anastasi).
• Minnesota Hockey Hub: Bringing pro level functionality to the masses via the SPORT NGIN platform (Carson Kipfer)

Minnedemo Screams Diverse Developer Community is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

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.

Minnov8 Gang 84: Seeing Opportunities for Innovation is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

MinneSpark is an initiative from the team that brings you MinneDemo and MinneBar

What could you do with $1,000 for your best idea? Could you turn it into a scalable business? Let’s find out!

MinneSpark will award 1 to n grants of $1,000 to Minnesota-based teams who demonstrate to their trustees the ability to take that money and turn it into something real. This is about doing more with less, and building a profitable business from day one.

Winners will get some help along the way in the form of mentoring from the trustees and services from sponsors.

Applications are due by April 30, 2010. Winner(s) will be announced at MinneBar on May 22, 2010. Find the FAQ, application and more here.

MinneSpark Has $1,000 (Potentially) For You is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

W3i was marketing apps when apps weren’t even cool and their founding is a great story. In 2000, the three Weber brothers (Ryan, Aaron and Rob) discovered the power of free and launched Freeze.com. Along with their team, they developed applications to satisfy users’ pent up demand for free content while pioneering new revenue models to spread the development and marketing costs across millions of installations — over 250 million to date.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson (and thanks to Phil for tossing out the meme “flat is the new up” on the podcast!)
Music by Josh Woodward and the tune is “Stickybee”. From the podsafe music network Music Alley.

Discussed during the show notes:

Minnov8 Gang 66: Flat Is The New Up? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hats off to both Luke Francl and Ben Edwards for the outstanding job done setting up Minnedemo and putting on such a great event for the community! The sponsors of the event deserve a resounding “Thank You!” as well since it wouldn’t have been possible without them: Split Rock Partners; New Counsel PLC; LiveFront; IP House; Magnet360; StartupShoppe.

This video was shot and delivered by the talented folks at the award-winning 612Authentic (see their ad in our sidebar…small thanks for all their efforts!). Setup by Gabe Chiefetz, this video was shot by Jed Smentek and as you can see as you watch this one, if you have a need to deliver video that captures the essence of what you’re trying to say, contact 612Authentic.

The Enthusiasm at Minnedemo is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

We also talk at length about Minnedemo, the event itself as well as people we met there and reactions we had (Note: we’ll have a video up shortly of a few interviews we did at Minnedemo) and get into a discussion about URL shortening services.

Today’s hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

Discussed During the Show Notes:

• Best Buy Idea Exchange (Best Buy is on a tear. Makes one wonder: are these guys going to single-handedly showcase ‘net and web innovation in Minnesota?)
• Shorpy.com; Fieldnation.com; CentralStandardTech.com; StartupShoppe; Magnet360 (MNCup); Reside, LLC
• Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Events
• Fallon’s Skimmer app, coded by SierraBravo (& led by Chris Black who did an awesome job demo’ing it!)
• Glue Conference
• Garrick Van Buren & Cullect
• Steve Gillmor’s “Rest in Peace RSS” post on Techcrunch (note he also wrote about “The Death of Podcasting” in July of 2005….oops)
• Steve Borsch’s post, “It’s the Value, Stupid” in the mention of the disheveled and disorganized late William F. Buckley
• The bit.ly win over tinyurl; Mashable’s post on “90+ URL Shortening Services“

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 36 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Completely out of the blue a few days after MinneDemo, I stumbled across something ArcStone had created for a client called the Interactive Roof Designer, a Flash piece for Trimline Building Products (more here) that allows color changes for roofing tiles. Since half my business focuses on trends for the home furnishings industry (The Trend Curve™), I was immediately interested in what they’d created since this is the sort of thing our customers would be interested in. Though there have been many similiar types of Flash-based “changing colors on the fly” web offerings like this, I must admit being pleasantly surprised by how good an implementation they’d done and that it was visually stunning and worked flawlessly.

I immediately thought, “Who are these guys and why haven’t I heard much more about them?” As a consequence, I called CEO David Carnes and went over to chat with him last week to find out more about what this Minnesota firm is creating and what’s at the heart of their innovation.  One of the things I always look for in any company is some sign or articulation of their vision and values. How do they see themselves? What do they care about and are they aligning their work around their core values…and do they even know what their values are? David talked about their values and just being there, seeing their offices and getting a sense of the environment, made it clear that yes, they’re living their values.

At the outset of our discussion, David and I talked about his vision about the company, its direction and the spaces they’re in (e.g., Wonderfile, AMP, eBrochure) and the important work they do creating web strategies and web “assets” for their clientele.

They’ve been at this internet/web game since 2000 and have a couple of dozen people in their company now — some of whom are aligned with specific properties like Wonderfile or AMP — and have approximately 400 clients. They’re in the former carriage house of the historic Semple Mansion on Franklin in Minneapolis which, as they describe it on their website, “…has housed a bank, an architectural firm, and now houses our unique blend of web developers, consultants, and guppies.” You’ll have to poke around their website to discover more about their fixation on guppies.

What I found particularly interesting is that ArcStone is doing what many startups and emerging companies are increasingly relying upon as their core infrastructure to deliver their applications: Amazon Web Services and specifically their S3 storage service.

One aspect of our conversation, and my contemplating our interview afterwards, was that many smaller firms and companies (not just in Minnesota but everywhere) have one fundamental problem that ArcStone exhibits: getting the word out. Why is it, for example, that I’d not known they’d embraced the leading open source ecommerce package I’m particularly hot on, MagentoCommerce? Or that they’d delivered that Interactive Roof Designer product? Or that Wonderfile is as robust and mature as it is?

No question marketing and sales is always a trade-off between resources and time; energy devoted to clients or to one’s own company; managed growth vs. an unmanageable spike if buzz makes a product like Wonderfile take off too fast and beyond the ability for ArcStone to scale. Still, it’s the one thing that troubles me whenever I am exposed to a company like ArcStone that has strong products, client base, team and core values driving it all and yet aware of how few people with checkbooks (i.e., prospective customers) have any clue about who they are and what they do.

I think, however, that you’re going to be hearing a lot more about ArcStone in the months and years to come as they continue to deliver on their vision and create momentum around their products and services.

ArcStone: Vision, Values, Products & Services is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

This was a bit of an experiment to go along with the innovator demo videos shot by TJ Kudalis (and that I edited/posted this weekend) in order to provide those who couldn’t make MinneDemo with a bit of the flavor of it, the ability of those sucking the beer kegs dry with the ability to watch the demos after-the-fact, and to ensure that the next MinneDemo is even bigger by showing people what they missed. Thanks and great job Gabe!

The Spirit of MinneDemo is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

A few points before you view the videos:

• Each innovator was given seven minutes to present with the ground rules being, “No Powerpoint. Real working software only.”
• The videos below were graciously shot (and streamed live via uStream.tv) by TJ Kudalis of Internet Broadcasting
• Editing of that video by TJ, opening graphics, uploading and posting by Minnov8′s Steve Borsch
• Listen to the Minnov8 Gang podcast with Graeme Thickins interviewing several attendees (editing by Tim Elliott)
• Look for interviews done by Steve Borsch (shot by Gabe Cheifitz of 612 Authentic) to be available here at Minnov8 by end of day Monday
• Another excellent event by Ben Edwards and Luke Francl and the terrific sponsors willing to support this event and make it happen. Thanks guys!

Now on to the videos (in alphabetical order vs. order of demo’ing) each 7-8 minutes in length:

Action Chess

Association Management Portal

enStratus

Loudclick

Nabbit

researchr

sendoncue

Socialbrowse

ZippyStat

MinneDemo 2009 Innovator Demos is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

No gang podcast this week, but several interviews recorded with attendees of Minnedemo last night. Graeme Thickins talks with several attendees as best he can in an incredibly crowded venue with a lot of socializing going on!

Today’s hosts: Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 24 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.

One favorite meme about our current situation discussed is, “the world is undergoing an economic reboot”. In a nutshell, here’s our choice: Focus on the bad news, continued negative reports on poor economic indicators, and sit and do nothing (or continue on with business-as-usual as if nothing has happened). Or…look at this as an opportunity to grab market share, reinvent your business, or accelerate your startup.

Today’s hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
+ MinneDemo will be live-streamed over uStream…and Minnov8 will be conducting video interviews there and we’ll then be delivering both the recorded live stream and our interviews here at Minnov8 as quickly as we can post-production done and them posted.

LINKS
+ That user generated YouTube Trader Joe’s ad mentioned by Tim Elliott is here

+ The group Phil is involved with as their new Director, The Association for Downloadable Media, whose mission surrounds providing standards for advertising and audience measurement for episodic and downloadable media. If you’re an individual podcaster, media company, publisher, syndication company, distributor offering downloadable media, advertising agency, marketer, technology supplier, hardware and software manufacturer of portable media products and services, market research firm or audience and advertising effectiveness measurement company, you’ll undoubtedly want to join.

+ Sprout, iWidgets, TubeMogul and Vimeo.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 23 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Today’s hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson. (Photo credit: Lee Odden (TopRankBlog; Flickr).

Joining us on the podcast is a brand new Minnov8 contributor and participant, Gary Koelling, who is Senior Manager, Social Technology at Best Buy Inc. After interactions with Graeme Thickins — who isn’t bashful about promoting Minnov8 — Gary decided he’d like to create for Minnov8 and completed the form (hint: you could too!).

Gary is the founder of BlueShirtNation.com, Giftag.com and leads several social technology projects within Best Buy. He describes himself as a tinkerer, gadfly (and an aspiring iconoclast), reader, tryer (someone who tries), teacher and listener (with a fairly tuned bullshit meter). Due to the success of the efforts he’s involved in, and the high profile of our hometown consumer electronics retailing giant, Gary has been able to talk to lots of people and companies around the country about social media and social technology.

Our favorite quote about his speaking around the country from his LinkedIn profile? “I don’t know if it’s helping, but I enjoy it.” We sure think so since he’s in-the-game, taking risks, experimenting and driving towards high value outcomes for his employer.

LINKS
Here are links to sites, products or other resources discussed during the podcast:

• Good economic news for MN tech firms in Q4 2008: MTS revs up 9%, EPS up 21% (view MTS “Test Suite“) and NVE up 24%, EPS up 44% (view NVE “Fun Facts” page)
• Mashable article on 40 Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them (Scroll down to the “Retail” section)
• Fortune Top 100 Best Places to Work: Mayo (24th) and General Mills (39th) as great places to work (via MNHeadhunter)
• Forbes listing America’s Top Most Wired Cities: Minneapolis is #7 on the list
• The (mostly mythological) “Osborne Effect” but is there some reality to it in an online world?
• Macintosh image editors increasingly used by Tim Elliott: Acorn and Pixelmator
• Gary headed to Etail in Phoenix and a Computerworld event (both he and his cohort and colleague, Steve Bendt)
• EVENTS: Social Media Breakfast 1/30/09; Minnedemo (RSVP if you want to get in!) 2/6/09; Unsummit 3/7/09.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 22 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Nearly 300 people attended MinneDemo last Wednesday held in Uptown’s Intermedia Arts which was the best venue in the series of “unconference” demo showcases. Ten Minnesota tech companies presented their products in 7 minute demos to a packed auditorium coordinated by MinneDemo co-founder Luke Francl.  After a brief introduction by Luke and MinneDemo co-organizer Ben Edwards, the demos began without the use of Powerpoint or any other presentation software.

The event got off to a fast start with Reactor, the first product from Rochester-based Hardcore Computer. An imposing beast of a computer at over 125 pounds, this is billed as the first personal supercomputer. Aside from being a wicked fast machine tuned for gaming, the first thing you notice is that the entire motherboard is encased in oil to cool the processor and other components. This fluid is highlighted with a blue light that makes a stunning first impression. After the demos were complete we were able to see Reactor put through it’s paces with a racing game which was most impressive. But it was clear from speaking with executives at the event that they have plans to target other processor intensive applications outside the gaming world such as architecture, video rendering and government applications.

The second demo was an interesting new iGoogle and Gmail gadget called Periscope. Developer Ivan Stegic from Ten Seven Interactive showed how Periscope brings the 37 Signals Basecamp application to a user’s iGoogle homepage or even into the sidebar of Gmail. This is the type of productivity application that a designer or advertising agency would develop for themselves to manage multiple projects without having to log into the Basecamp interface. Now in public beta, this free gadget is useful to any Basecamp user and there is also an iPhone version available that was not demonstrated at MinneDemo.

Next, Jon Dahl introduced the availability of Tumblon, a site designed for young families to share the development of their children with family and friends. Using an intuitive user interface, the site also provides parents with professionally written articles to advise them at each stage of their child’s development. The social networking aspects include photo and video sharing along with a personal blog. Granular permissions give the user the ability to control who has access to their posted content. Tumblon is free and available to all parents right now.

The fourth demo was from Sudden Deals, a location based mobile promotional service delivering coupons to mobile phones. After signing up and validating their mobile phone number, the user chooses dining, music events or both and sets the location they will be at and the site matches these with promotional offers. Merchants also use the website to post offers for which they pay a service charge. Sudden Deals now covers the Twin Cities metro area and is free for individuals to use.

Portage Interactive was next to take the stage to show their Team Treks interactive educational game, Glacier Bay. The web-based survival game is intended to promote teamwork for children in 4th thru 6th grade. Teachers are given the ability to set up groups, conditions and change questions in order to meet their learning objectives. Looking at the game during the demo it was clear this is from the same designer who brought teachers Amazon and Oregon Trail games back in the 1980′s and ’90′s.

Riverock Technologies was next with their OnePlace online team collaboration application. An accomplished and well designed web application, OnePlace gives small work teams a powerful environment to share tasks, files and project status online and on mobile devices including Apple’s iPhone. What was most interesting to see in the context of a groupware application was the use of Twitter-like micro-messaging built right into OnePlace. A 30-day free demo of OnePlace is available and presenter Steve Kickert also mentioned a MinneDemo coupon code for 25% off the first paid month.

The seventh demo was from Zanby, a social networking content management system that is used for sites such as theuptake.org. The system can be used at the Zanby website or deployed on any webserver and customized to meet the needs of the company on the internet or on their intranet. Zanby makes it easy for organizations of any size to build collaborative websites quickly and easily.

Next was a demo of some Flash games from Nate Pacyga from Try Catch games. Presenting from a netbook, Pacyga outlined how Try Catch is targeting these casual games at companies looking to rebrand for promotional campaigns. These games can also be used as applications in social networks such as Facebook making these attractive marketing tools for online promotion.

Another online project management application, Enleiten, was demoed next by Doreen Hartzell. Similar to Riverock’s OnePlace, Enleiten targets small group project management but also provides a free personal edition. The clean and almost Google-like user interface makes Enleiten an easy tool to integrate into your workflow but it also supports the popular GTD methodology. A personal version of Enleiten is available for free and the professional edition for workgoups is $25 a month and includes extended features.

The final demo of the evening was BannerFlow an online client review application for banner ads. Clearly written after setting up one too many custom FTP servers for clients, BannerFlow gives agencies the ability to skin the service with their logo making it a value added service for their clients. The bare-bones feature set gets the job done and is very easy to use for both agencies and clients. BannerFlow is available now for free, $15 and $25 a month depending upon the number of clients needed.

This was my third MinneDemo and the best from a venue and content perspective. Each demo provided attendees with a glimpse of some of the most innovative hardware and software being created here in Minnesota. If this event is any indication, we are looking at a very good 2009 for Minnesota startups. I, for one, am looking forward to the return of MinneDemo next year.

Thanks to MinneDemo organizers Luke Francl and Ben Edwards along with all the sponsors who made this event possible.

Photo credits link: Manished via Flickr

MinneDemo Showcases MN Innovation is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

MinneDemo brings together entrepreneurs, investors, software developers, designers, and other techies for a night of short demos and long conversations. Founded in 2006, this is the fifth MinneDemo event. It will be held at Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S. in south Minneapolis (map). Pre-networking begins at 6:30 pm, and the demos start at 7:00.

The format of MinneDemo is similar to national conferences like DEMO. The rules are simple: seven minutes for each demo, only real/working software allowed, and NO POWERPOINT! However, MinneDemo is free, both for presenters and attendees. All costs for the event are paid for with sponsorship by local technology and services companies.

At November’s MinneDemo, the following companies will demo their products:

• Ten Seven Interactive (http://ten7i.net) will present Periscope, which allows users to control 37Signals’s Basecamp application from iGoogle. http://periscopegadget.com

• Tumblon will launch tumblon.com, a site for parents of young children that helps them track their children’s development and share it with family and friends. http://tumblon.com

• Portage Interactive (http://www.portageinteractive.com) will demo the TeamTreks Toolkit, a teacher toolkit for tracking student performance in Glacier Bay, an educational game that focuses on leadership and literacy skills for 4th through 7th graders. http://teamtreks.com

• SuddenDeals.com will demo their entertainment/discount network that connects shoppers and merchants using mobile SMS text messaging. http://www.suddendeals.com

• Riverock Tech  (http://www.riverocktech.com) will present OnePlace, a collaboration and work management app that provides team collaboration, project management, and personal productivity, in a single place online. http://info.oneplacehome.com

• Zanby will present their platform which consolidates and manages communication, content and activities across enterprises of all sizes through a unique group architecture. http://www.zanby.com

• Hardcore Computer will showcase their new liquid-cooled Reactor PC, a state of the art computer for high-end applications like gaming, medical imaging and CAD. http://www.hardcorecomputer.com

• Try Catch Games will be present its library of up and coming games for single and multiplayer games that appeal a broad audience of both genders. http://www.trycatchgames.com

• Enleiten will demo their application, where project management meets personal productivity. collect and organize your commitments and outstanding item lists to get more done. http://www.enleiten.com

• Bannerflow will show how their application is the best way for advertising agencies to show banner ads to their clients. http://www.bannerflow.com

About MinneDemo
MinneDemo is the Twin Cities’ premier tech demo and networking event. Founded in 2006, it was inspired by the “BarCamp” movement in the international tech community and has the goal of showcasing Minnesota’s technology startups and products. MinneDemo has grown into a “must attend” event for local techies. It is organized by Luke Francl and Ben Edwards and supported by the sponsorships of local technology and services companies, including (for the November event):

New Counsel, PLC

Split Rock Partners

Sierra Bravo

ipHouse

Slantwise Design

For information about MinneDemo, please visit http://minnedemo.org.

MinneDemo Contact:
Luke Francl
MinneDemo co-organizer
look@recursion.org
(612) 703-6122

10 Startups to Present at MinneDemo is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.