Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Ruddin & their song “Cover the Distance” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

Carrier IQ scandal:

• Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on Millions of Phones Logging Everything
• Phone ‘Rootkit’ Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases
• Carrier IQ references discovered in Apple’s iOS
• Apple: We Stopped Supporting Carrier IQ With iOS 5
• Senator Al Franken Demands Carrier IQ Explain Mobile Tracking

Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales strong:

• The Kindle Fire Is Beating The iPad At Best Buy
• Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart Lead Online Sales
• Target November sales miss analysts’ expectations
• Friday’s Deals May Not Be the Best

Guest: Don Ball:

• Google Chairman Praises Mpls Entrepreneurship at CoCo 
• Where Don Ball is speaking on Dec 8th
• Important New Research to be Unveiled at GigaOM Net:Work 
• Net:Work agenda (Don Ball’s panel at 2:50 pm)

Other: Julian Assange: iPhone, Blackberry and Gmail users are ‘screwed’ – video

Upcoming Events

• Friday, December 9th: Gadgets and Gifts from Geeks to Grandmas
• Wednesday, December 7th: MOJO Mixer 2 – Speed Mentoring for Startups
• Thursday, December 15th: 1st Annual Minnesota Tech Holiday Bash
• December 10th – 13th: TIES 2011 EduTech Conference

Direct link to the show

Minnov8 Gang 147 – Wanna Buy Some Wheat? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins (Phil Wilson is off).
Music: “Give Blues a Chance” by “Mean Gene Kelton & the Diehards“ via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Apple iPhone event announced for next Tuesday 
• Amazon Kindle “Fire”
• Chris Espinosa, Apple employee #8 (and still at Apple) personally blogged about the troubling nature of the Kindle Fire “Silk” web browser and the security implications
• Amazon has Palm in its shopping cart — will it click Buy?
• Microsoft Shores up Samsung & HTC with Android patents
• Kris Layon will be speaking at MIMA Summit
• Capella’s iPhone app (there is also an Android version)
• English Books for Thai School – Can You Help? 
• “Facebook Won’t Like This Apple-Twitter Union” (FastCompany)
• “Amazon’s ‘Silk’ Browser Is Revolutionary: Here’s Why It’s So Important” (Business Insider)
• “The One Huge Reason Amazon Will Not Beat Apple” (Business Insider)

M8 Gang Podcast 139 – Capella U Mobile’s Kristofer Layon is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

I’ve known of the Center for quite some time and been interested in what they describes as their mission to, “…enhance health and well-being by educating health professionals, empowering consumers, and fundamentally transforming the delivery of health care through the creation of interdisciplinary academic, research, clinical care, and outreach programs that advance integrative health and healing.”

Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD RN

No question that new models of integrative healthcare are accelerating and what the Center is exploring is proving to be the right path. But an iOS app?

In order to understand a little more about the Center and to understand more about why they delivered an app, I talked with Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer, the founder and director of the Center and someone who brings more than 20 years of leadership and expertise to the field of integrative health and medicine.

I started off asking Dr. Kreitzer to give me some background on the Center and we took it from there…

U of MN Center for Spirituality & Healing’s Mobile App is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

New Counsel, PLC are business attorneys serving the needs of entrepreneurs and companies that market technology or rely on it for strategic advantage. They cater to the needs of the technology industry through broad and deep experience, their diligence, and what they term their “competitive fees”. Many of you know them as a firm likely to be a sponsor of Minnesota technology events like Minnedemo, Mobile March and many others.

We’re pleased to have one of the principals of New Counsel on this week’s show, John Roberts, who brings with him an incredible background in high technology counsel. We discuss the startup scene in Minnesota, what they offer and more.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Katie Webster is the artist & the song is “C.Q. Boogie” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Storify; Colorware; CiviCRM; DoApp; Minnesota Cup
• MN Startups mentioned by John:
  • 8th Bridge
  • Zencoder
  • Amcom Software
  • Vital Images, acquired by Toshiba
• Upcoming Events:
  • May 2: MIMA “CATFOA” (ad agencies are getting into the software business?)
  • May 6th: U of MN Mobile Technology: Adoption, Design and Sustainability Lessons
  • May 7th: Minnebar (tickets)
  • May 13: MIMA “iOS Strategy, Design, and Development Workshops” (SOLD OUT)

Minnov8 Gang 121 – Starting the Startup is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: David Bennett Cohen playing “Cookin’ with Cohen” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• New Macbooks and iFixit tears down the new 15” Macbook Pro
• Daring Fireball’s take on iPad2
• Motorola’s Xoom Starts Tablet Wars With iPad (Walt Mossberg review)
• AllThingsD: Q3 4.5M tablets sold, 4.3M of them were iPads
• Android Book Market and Google Apps Marketplace
• Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSPWordpress) WordPress user group has a new site
• According to a white paper and video from Deloitte, Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2011, which says there will be a significant consumer and enterprise shift away from the desktop and laptop PC in favor of mobile devices like smartphones, tablets and netbooks in 2011
• Google on mobile commerce. Square…and an article about how they’re now in a mobile payments war with Intuit
• Michael Robertson Launches Cloud-Based Radio DVR
• UPCOMING EVENTS:
  • Sunday, February 27th: DEMO (Graeme will be liveblogging it starting Monday morning, and is also using Fanchatter on his blog to aggregate all the DEMO conversation). Also, DEMO has partnered with FORA.tv to bring DEMO LIVE to audiences around the world.  The full program will be available starting Monday, February 28th at 9:00am Pacific Time, and later on-demand.
  • Saturday, March 19th: MOBILE MARCH New part of this years mobile event…Mobile 3D
  • Wednesday, March 23rd: Cloudcamp MSP
  • Thursday, March 24th: MSP WordPress User Group meeting
  • Saturday, March 26th: Overnight Website Challenge
  • Monday, April 11th: MinneWebCon

Minnov8 Gang 112 – Even Monkeys are Mobile is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Senator Klobuchar also used the occasion to outline what was termed as a comprehensive package of legislation she will introduce to strengthen America’s ability to innovate and compete for long-term economic growth and job creation. (As of this writing, no specifics of that package have been provided by the Senator’s office.)

In the short term, Klobuchar said, “We need to deliver a series of targeted tax breaks and regulatory reforms designed to galvanize the private sector and unleash a fresh wave of invention, entrepreneurship, and exports.”

In the long term, she added, “We need to help secure our standing in the global economy, lay the groundwork for future innovation by improving science, technology, engineering, and math education; cut red tape; and increase the ability of our businesses to attract and retain the world’s brightest scientists, engineers, and researchers.”

We look forward to hearing more specifics from the Senator and applaud her efforts to re-energize innovation nationally and can think of no better place than Minnesota from which to start.

Summit Showcases Senator’s Innovation Agenda is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Minnesota faces a crisis of competitiveness in attracting high-tech industries, and needs a comprehensive science and technology initiative to remedy the problem. A 16 member committee of experts from the public, academic and private sectors have been assembled to assess the challenge and make recommendations to the legislature, and on February 16th, Co-Chairman Dan Mallin (@danmallin, partner in Magnet360 and co-founder of the Minnesota Cup) presented the findings of the committee to the state legislature.

The full report is available on the DEED (Department of Employment and Economic Development) website here. Watch these videos in two parts and listen to the end for the recommendations the committee makes around incentives for investors to accelerate funding for startups and growth of companies in Minnesota:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxQ_-dLcKFg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DDzQJXW6Kw

Dan Mallin Presents MN Science & Tech Committee Findings is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Held on Friday, September 18th at the Coffman Union, though not standing room only, this year’s program was presented to an interested group and included information on projects addressing journalism, social media, gaming and art, to name a few. It also showcased the institutes facilities including focus group rooms and eye-tracking software used in site design and usability studies, as part of it’s quest to provide the ability to do more applied research.

I had a chance to talk with Nora Paul, Director of New Media Studies about the goals of the gathering. “I think we’re kind of the ‘Yenta’ (referring to the matchmaking character in Fiddler on the Roof.) for the campus when it comes to new media. We try to make matches.”  she goes on to say that the event “brings together seasoned researchers with students.”

She adds that the Institute doesn’t want students, or others for that matter, to get “caught in silos” when comes to new media thinking. In line with that desire comes the offer of the resources and facilities to not only the campus community, but to the community at large to some extent. The Institute appears more than willing to collaborate with the private and education industries.

To find out more about the institute, interested parties including University faculty, staff, and students as well as professionals in the twin cities community are encouraged to join the New Media Research Network as well as follow along on Twitter, Facebook, Delicio.us and Flickr.

U of M Showcases It’s New Media Research Resources is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Discussed during the show:

• Strib/WCCO comparison and Tim’s pointing out how the Pioneer Press also “gets it” and shows that at their TwinCities.com site which has an extensive set of capabilities to email and print as well as a “Bookmark & Share” link to sites and services like Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, Friendfeed, Delicious and more
• Alvenda: winner of the Minnesota Cup’s Breakthrough Business Idea
• Facebook Lite
• Twitter’s new Terms of Service
• UofMN New Media Research event Friday, Sept 18th
• Microsoft Office online and the new 2010 beta
• Carbonite and CrashPlan
• ComicTwit

Upcoming Events with Minnov8 Media Coverage:

• RAINMAKER CONFERENCE
• VISI Cloud Vision 2009 event
• MIMA Summit (which will include the fall MinneDemo).

Minnov8 Gang Podcast #51: Cloud and the Crowd is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

New ways to share, trade and aggregate information using Internet-based markets are exploding. These powerful Web 2.0 network knowledge markets help companies, schools, governments and individuals to acquire and master ever-growing bodies of knowledge. These prediction market capabilities achieve mastery knowledge management (KM) and collective intelligence with stunning speed, efficiency and accuracy.

Collective Intelligence Summit: Leading Enterprise Prediction Markets
I happened upon this press release about a summit event at the U of MN about prediction markets. Though the marketing of this event is so laughingly bad that I had to go BACK to the press release to figure out how much it costs ($399) — since this event page is confusing, poorly laid out and appears to be targeted at a group of people already in-the-know — the potential of receiving benefit from attending it makes slogging through this inadequate communication worthwhile.

While this summit might seem a bit esoteric or academic (which it just might be), if you’re working on collaboration, enterprise social media or connected innovation, this is something you might find invaluable.

From their site:

What are Prediction Markets? Also known as information markets (PM), decision markets, idea futures, and virtual markets, prediction markets are speculative markets created for the purpose of making predictions. Assets are created whose final cash value is tied to a particular event, outcome or parameter (e.g., total sales next quarter). The current market prices can then be interpreted as predictions of the probability of the event or the expected value of the parameter.

People who buy low and sell high are rewarded for improving the market prediction, while those who buy high and sell low are punished for degrading the market prediction. Evidence so far suggests that prediction markets are at least as accurate as other institutions predicting the same events with a similar pool of participants.

One of the oldest and most famous is the University of Iowa’s Iowa Electronic Market. It has been predicting the results of American presidential elections since 1988 with greater accuracy than polling companies.

DETAILS:

Where: Carlson School of Management, Executive Center Room 2-206 (Directions)

When: Thursday 18 June  2009, 8:00am – 5:00pm

Registration is here (Secure, online registration is required and includes meals, refreshments, materials and Wi-Fi)

Questions?: Please Contact Sarah V. Jones, sarah.jones@pmclusters.com, Tel: 978-468-0267, Fax: 206-984-2429



Predicting the Future at the U of MN is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Here are the details:

2009 Tech Tune-Up will expose professionals to breakthroughs and innovations coupled with insights and commentaries from internationally renowned researchers and practitioners. It will hone the competitive edge of participants and help them stay ahead of market and technology changes in today’s competitive environment.

Join our internationally renowned researchers and practi tioners for insights and informati on about University of Minnesota’s successful economic collaborations, energy technology solutions and bio-related advancements.

• What: Lectures and panels will be given by experts from industry and the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology (full schedule on lower half of this page)
• When: Friday, June 12
• Time: 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m
• Where: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building (full directions here)
• Cost: $250 per person (includes course materials, lunch and breaks)
• Register here
• Additional information: 612-625-2855

Innovation to Ride Out the Economic Downturn 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.

Wired for 2020 is the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota’s year long engagement campaign to get more mentors involved with youth in the state of Minnesota. Their mission is to interest caring adults in becoming mentors to youth. Caring adults who are willing to help young people spark their future career interests and expand their possibilities.

Sponsors included names such as General Electric, Best Buy, Target, Federated Insurance, MN Dept of Education, Minnesota Interactive Media Association, Qwest, Science Museum of Minnesota, 3M, Thomson Reuters and many more.

With a daughter in college and a son in high school, you bet I care deeply about the future of education and work, the world they’ll inherit from us, and the value we can add to kids if we can help them locate their own, personal spark within and help them to see possibilites and opportunities that match their dreams.

In a world where high paying, yet low value jobs can be done elsewhere at a fraction of the cost of labor onshore, the challenge is in coaching our youth on how they can each strive and focus on higher value work and that they can, in fact, invent the future. It won’t be easy as global competition continues to grow. 

When it came out, I immediately devoured Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat.” There was one concept that leapt off the pages at me: that even PhD-level, linear and serial processes could (and are) being outsourced because they are defined and understood. I thought about the profundity of that reality and realized that once a process is identified and mapped out — regardless of how sophisticated — it can be handed off to people elsewhere in the world who are willing to do it less expensively.

So do we want to focus our youth as innovators of tomorrow — and mentor them as such — to be more efficient linear, serial thinkers and laborers? I don’t think so and neither do others.

A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel Pink accelerated my thinking along these lines about creativity and innovation with his premise: “The era of “left brain” dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which “right brain” qualities — inventiveness, empathy, meaning — predominate.” In this book Pink describes a new era beginning to take shape in the global economy. This new economy calls for skills and talents that, historically, have been largely discounted in the workplace – creativity, empathy, intuition, and the ability to link seemingly unrelated objects and events into something new and different.

Seeing in parallel, making associations (i.e., connecting the dots), is a skill our kids must have for the future. While they will certainly need to understand how to link seemingly unrelated objects and events, that’s pretty useless if they lack the skills to communicate the idea, the innovation or the vision they have for an outcome. Our youth will need to understand how to grab all the relevant pieces coming at them in parallel, package them up and communicate them to people whom they may never meet in person but rather only virtually through some online venue.

Talk to anyone spending any time on the internet — looking at news, information, Twitter, or just trying to keep up with their friends in Facebook — and you’ll hear things like “river of news” or “I’m drowning in a tsunami of digital stuff” or “everything is getting a lot more complex” as we struggle to keep up with the flow of data that comes with online participation. Dealing with all of this in parallel, and drawing associative inferences from it or finding nuggets of gold within it, is already a skill most need but few possess.

Though my session was entitled, “Creating Online Content: Why You Need a Blog,” it really wasn’t solely about either content creation or blogging. Instead, the themes that ran through it was the imperative that mentors get their heads around the concept of dealing with the online world in parallel, engaging in social participation, why all of it is so potentially empowering for them and a must, and especially how we all are experiencing online media, news and information at different times of the day or night (vs. the old “watercooler talk” from pre-internet days when we walked in to work the next morning after seeing some live show broadcast, and we commiserated with our colleagues about that shared experience).

My overall point was that the only real way to understand this new realm of streams of information and social connection online and to have consistent and ongoing shared experiences today — especially between a mentor and mentee — would be if each was participating online within a social network, uploading photos to Flickr or videos to YouTube (or their equivalents), and sharing experiences while having them at different times of the day or night or even within a week or two.

The skills that both the mentor and mentee learn by participating online by creating and delivering their own content are invaluable (and there is no question that the mentee may become the technology mentor!). I can’t tell you how often I sit with 40+ people who want to know “the process of how to Twitter” or “what’s the workflow in publishing to a blog” or “if I do this participation thing, what’s my return?” as if they were still living in a linear, serial world where Step 1 leads to Step 10. Most savvy online participants are involved with the social web and online pursuits in a highly parallel way, connecting dots on the fly and being very fluid with their creation and delivery and connections to other people. Which is precisely the sort of behaviors that come naturally to youth today and will be a skill set necessary as a worker going forward.

What struck me about Wired for 2020 was how many of the people associated with the event, the organizers, volunteers, speakers and workshop creators (i.e., TEL.A.VISION and see this post on the Wiredfor2020 blog) down to those responsible for the Interactive Lab in which I participated (Mark Kurtz VP of New Media, Gage Marketing Group and someone with more energy than a bagful of bobcats, Wendy Meadley, from WM Consulting LLC), completely understood that there is a shift going on in the world and that they are completely geared toward ensuring our youth are ready to confront the challenges and opportunities facing them in a connected world with ideas and information moving around it at the speed of electrons.

Wired for 2020: Mentoring Our Youth is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Though this is a bit off-topic for Minnov8′s mission around innovation in internet and web technology, energy specifically is so intertwined with what we do — and this conference looks so fascinating — that it seemed like something you might be interested in. As they say on the E3 conference site, “If you’ve ever wondered about the potential for algae to cure our oil addiction, the future of solar power or the role the media plays in environmental awareness—join us at E3 2008!”

As this year’s keynote speakers, Manitoba Premier Gary Doer and Terje Gjengedal, vice president of Statkraft in Oslo, Norway, will set a world-class tone. The conference will also feature compelling research posters and breakout sessions along five different tracks:

Renewable and Sustainable Fuels and Products: Catch the buzz on algae to biofuels, catalysis and bioproducts; featuring experts from the Energy & Environmental Research Center, Ever Cat Fuels, Iowa State University, Stoel Rives, Fish and Richardson, and more.

Renewable and Sustainable Electricity: Learn the latest in wind expansion, solar energy and nanotechnology; featuring experts from Xcel Energy, Windustry, Cymbet Corporation and more.

The Nexus of Energy, the Environment and the Economy: Get the facts on fuel standards, green marketing and the state’s renewable energy portfolio; featuring experts from the Great Plains Institute, GE Capital Solutions, the Minnesota Legislature, Fresh Energy and more.

Conservation and Energy Efficiency: Expand your knowledge of sustainable cities and next-gen energy systems; featuring experts from Volvo, 3M, Faegre and Benson, Xcel Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute and more.

Special Topics: Explore the issues surrounding technology commercialization, research investment and environmental news reporting; featuring experts from Cargill Ventures, Fredrikson & Byron, WCCO (Don Shelby), Minnesota Public Radio and more.

At $80 for those of us in business, this is an inexpensive conference and is sure to spark ideas on, perhaps, applications that could streamline some of these areas? I’ll wager you’d come away with at least one idea on something that needs fixing and you’d be just the person to do it. More about registering can be found here.

E3: Energy, Economic & Environmental Conference is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

According to the U’s own business development people (see link to Powerpoint presentation at bottom), the 20-year success record of the U’s technology company spinoffs is only half the university average nationally — and less than one-fourth the success record of the nation’s premier schools. What’s more, in one recent year (2004), for example, the U of MN spun off only one company compared to 14 at the University of Michigan and 16 at the University of Illinois. Why I am focusing here on spinoffs? Well, because, according the U’s own business development people, creating university spinoffs is “much more profitable than licensing (revenues)” to the school.

And, besides, the largest source of the U’s licensing revenues will run out soon. That was the focus of a recent Sunday feature in the StarTribune by my friend Thomas Lee, entitled U’s Transfer Problem: The University of Minnesota needs more eggs … and more baskets. With time running out on its royalty income stream, the U is scrambling to find the next Medtronic. An excerpt:

Judging from the university’s recent track record of converting its vast reservoir of research into cash, the U faces an uphill climb. The school that’s known for inventing the pacemaker, the heart valve and one of the Web’s first Internet browsers is desperate for a hit.

At a time when the state’s economy is slowing and its medical device sector is maturing, the U’s long commercialization slump has attracted the urgent attention of lawmakers, venture capitalists and others concerned about where Minnesota’s next Medtronic or St. Jude will come from.

The next day, we find this look at innovation at the U is a two-part series in the StarTribune, with another article appearing by Thomas Lee, this one entitled: His Job: Magician – The University of Minnesota’s research VP brings his experience honed in Madison to jump-start innovation in the Gopher state. In this piece, we hear about specific programs the U has undertaken since 2005 in an attempt to make up for the expected drop off in licensing revenues, starting next year.

One of Mulcahy’s first priorities when he arrived in Minnesota was to recruit industry professionals like former Honeywell executive Jay Schrankler to run the Office of Technology Commercialization. The office traditionally had been staffed with academics who had little or no business experience.

In the past, many of the university’s start-ups failed because the school lacked the business talent to fully develop the ideas before it sought outside capital, experts say.

The school hired a half dozen “strategy managers” with experience in fields like software, pharmaceuticals and medical devices to determine if faculty research or technology can be licensed or spun out into new companies. The Venture Center, under former investment banker Doug Johnson, launched a “CEO in Residence Program” in which outside entrepreneurs and business people regularly examine potential start-ups, mentor MBA students and help structure deals.

The article says the U has set some lofty goals compared to the numbers I cite in my first paragraph above. To wit:

Schrankler and Johnson say their goal is to spin off three companies a year, including one that has the potential to go public in five years with at least a $250 million market value. They also hope to generate $50 million to $60 million in royalty income annually.

Johnson said, “There is plenty of world-class technology at the U.” He cited a company called Orasi Medical, which the U recently spun out, and another university medical startup that several VC firms are interested in. He also cited the work of a medical researcher at the U, Dr. Doris Taylor, which recently received wide attention:

• Here’s the story as published by UMNnews: Researchers Create a New Heart in the Lab: Work Opens a New Path to Replacement of Hearts and Other Organs.

• The day before, the doctor’s work was published by the journal Nature Medicine: Technical Report abstract – Nature Medicine 14, 213 – 221 (2008).

• And here’s how the New York Times reported the breakthrough that same day: Researchers Create New Rat Heart in Lab.

Dr. Taylor will be the keynote speaker May 29 at the U of M Alumni Association’s 2008 Annual Celebration, being billed as “The Heart of Discovery,” and the featured guest is Earl Bakken, the founder of Medtronic. Tickets are available to the general public at the alumni association web site.

What’s the take of the investment community to the U’s latest initiatives in technology commercialization? Well, one VC gives the U a big thumbs-up. David Spreng is a Minnesota native (and U of M grad), and is now based in Palo Alto, CA, as Managing General Partner of Crescendo Ventures. On his blog, called “Lightbulb,” he wrote an upbeat blog post citing Doug Johnson’s CEO-in-residence program: The University of Minnesota May Have Cracked the Code.

(By the way, here’s a link to the Powerpoint presentation I mentioned at the beginning of this post, actually a PDF: A Presentation on Industry/Academic Partnerships, by Doug Johnson, Office of Business Development, University of Minnesota, which is dated May 2006.)

What’s your take on the U of M as a source of technology innovation? What about the Institute of Technology — are you aware of any promising new technologies coming out of the computer science and EE programs? Is medical technology sucking all the oxygen away from IT and Internet startups in Minnesota? And do the innovations that really matter happen outside the walls of academia, anyway?

Speak your piece in the comments.

The Latest on U of M Technology Innovation and Commercialization is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.