Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Archives for June 2009

Flyspy Launches

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flyspyMost plugged in technologists in Minnesota know Robert Metcalf and many of us have been observing his adventure building Flyspy. Today he officially launches it in beta, with a new interface, a rock-solid integration with the leading provider of data to the airline industry, and at a perfect time when we’re all looking for bargains where ever we can find them! His positioning of the value proposition is, “Flyspy isn’t just about finding cheap airline tickets, which you can easily do, it’s about understanding the “marketplace for airfares” so you can make an informed decision.”

Metcalf tells the story on his “about” page on the site:

Years ago I flew from Minneapolis to Williamsport, PA to visit my brother. It took me 8+ hours to search for flights and figure out various travel dates and airport combinations. I thought…

“Why are travel sites so difficult to use (and understand), when I can find anything on Amazon or Google in a few seconds?”

I wanted to see the big picture, I wanted to know all of my options at once. My frustration with the whole process of understanding flights and airfares led me on a seven-year journey to create Flyspy.

If you would like to know why this took so long and why it’s so difficult, read the blog.

Check it out and put some intelligence on your side before you buy that next airline ticket.

Google I/O Conference Videos & Presentations

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googioIf you weren’t able to make it to the Google I/O conference in May, they offered 80+ sessions featuring technical content on Google Wave, Android, App Engine, Chrome, Google Web Toolkit, AJAX APIs, and many more.

The available session videos and slides from each track are listed on this page and they’ll be updating this session list with all the sessions for Google I/O so check back frequently.

The categories are:

  • AJAX + Data APIs
  • Social
  • App Engine
  • Enterprise
  • Google Web Toolkit
  • Tech Talks
  • Wave
  • Mobile
  • Client

FCC & Broadband: Tell ’em What You Think

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boy_internet

If you’re a Minnov8 reader, your lifeblood is probably internet-centric. Heck…if you have a PULSE you’re probably an internet user and would care deeply if any internet service provider was allowed to be in control over what you can-and-cannot-do over your internet connection.

Well, don’t just sit there….

Friend of technology, the internet, Minnesota and Minnov8, Mike O’Connor, is on the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force representing the metropolitan area user base and had this on his blog today and I urge you to take action:

Just got this note from Dennis Fazio.  I think it’s perfect so I’m just passing it along to you.  Time to speak out peepul!

Mike, You might want to encourage everyone to enter their comments to the FCC. A large number of citizen comments can help to counter the “everything’s just fine” mantra from the big telecom carriers. Here’s the Ars Technica article  with a nice background summary:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/reformers-isps-clash-on-national-broadband-plan.ars

The Notice of Inquiry is here for those who want to read through it:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-31A1.pdf

But really all you need to do is submit your comments about what you think the future of broadband networks should be by going here:

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi

It’s easy and quick You can upload a file, or more simply, type or paste a comment into the field provided.

You will need the proceeding number for field #1 and that would be:  09-51

A large number of knowledgeable citizen comments on the necessity of changing public policy to recognize broadband packet data networks as an essential public utility requiring active government investment, intervention and regulation might have some good effect.

Just so you know that I’m not asking you to do anything I wouldn’t do, peek at the letter I just submitted via the FCC website using Dennis’ link and the 09-51 code:  …  [Read More…]

Whip It Out: Your Smartphone Extends Your Mind

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smartphones

Competition in the mobile phone space is heating up and the smartphone — a mobile phone with computer-like functionality — coupled with ever faster wireless network speeds are changing the way we access news, information, connections with our friends and family, and so much more.

A quick story illustrates one amusing (though not to my wife) use of my iPhone when I first got it. We were at a dinner party when the conversation came around to a particular song, but no one could recall who sang it. As the conversation continued I quickly used the web browser to Google the song name and roughly 30 seconds later blurted out, “Woody Guthrie!”

“Yes!,” everyone cried out simultaneously. “How did you know that,” one woman asked and I whipped out my iPhone to show how I’d quickly and almost instantly found the answer and we then had an interesting conversation about how the world was shifting toward one where we all could have instant access just like that.

A few years ago smartphones were few in number and came from manufacturer’s like Palm (e.g., Treo) and Nokia — and devices powered by Windows Mobile — were robust but somewhat limited in functionality and required an (arguably) geeky nature to use fully. The Blackberry device by Research in Motion (RIM) was a more limited one as far as applications go, but its external keyboard (to many the most important feature) and easy access to email (which was “pushed” to the device automatically) made it the perfect communication appliance for daily business use.

When Apple demonstrated and delivered the game-changing iPhone in June of 2007, its surprising ease of use and simple way to manipulate applications (e.g., pinching and zooming in on a photo or webpage) made a device like this easily accessible to the masses. Because of quick sales of the iPhone and a developer kit to build applications, Apple quickly saw a huge array of applications delivered on the device (more than 25,000 to date). Because of the simplicity of the device and the base of applications already available, sales accelerated to the now installed base of 21.2 million units and the announcement Monday, June 8th of a third generation model (and the second generation lower price point of $99) has caused most observers to see those numbers doubling within a year or so.  …  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang Podcast Update

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whereWe’re going to have to skip this week’s show since Phil Wilson is out-of-pocket as is Graeme Thickins (he’s at the Coldwater Surf Fest in Duluth) and I’m heading out now to pick up my bride at the airport (no…she’s not a new, mail order one…we’ve been married for almost 22 years) and Tim Elliott would’ve been quite lonely doing a podcast all by himself!

Look for us next Saturday with an all new show (by the way, I just noticed that those are a man’s hands holding the binoculars up to that young woman and seems sort of creepy!).

MIMA Presents Obama Online

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There has been much discussion about the new emphasis on the online and social media policies of our new administration. As Minnov8’s Steve Borsch noted back in November, “The Obama campaign’s effectiveness in delivering their messages and calls to action will be hyper-analyzed over the next several months.” Well our friends over at the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association are giving us some of that analysis by presenting an “Integrated Campaign Case Study: Obama Online” On June 17th.

The event will be held at Nicollet Island Pavilion and feature Scott Thomas (aka SimpleScott). According ot MIMA you’re invited to “take a look at how the Obama campaign looked before (Scott) and other designers, joined the team for the last election season.” and promises “You’ll see how it was, how it evolved, and the lessons learned along the way. ”

Scott Thomas, aka SimpleScott, was invited to join the New Media team at Obama for America during the campaign and it led to him becoming the Design Director of the historic Obama Presidential campaign.

Best Buy at Google I/O

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Best Buy’s Ben Hedrington and Curtis Thompson were out at Google I/O (Google’s developer conference held May 27 – 28, 2009 at Moscone Center in San Francisco) and were grabbed on the floor at “The Developer Sandbox” to briefly describe how Best Buy is leveraging the Google App Engine.

Google describes the Sandbox: “The Developer Sandbox is a new addition to Google I/O. Comprised of “pods” – demo station areas grouped by product theme – the Sandbox featured a wide range of developers who have built applications based on technologies and products featured at Google I/O. Representing large and small companies, individual developers, and a diverse group of apps, these developers were on hand at the Sandbox to demo their apps, answer questions, exchange ideas, and meet attendees in person. We interviewed many of the Sandbox developers on the ground at Google I/O to pick their brains on their applications, challenges, and best practices.”

View and listen to Ben and Curtis’ descriptions:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MlEJC9ZbA

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyIh9ncmiN0

Predicting the Future at the U of MN

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carlsonschoolIn 2004 James Surowiecki published his now-famous book, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. For many this milestone introduced the era of collective intelligence for people, business, institutions, the environment and civil society.

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