Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

U of MN Center for Spirituality & Healing’s Mobile App

By

The U of MN Center for Spirituality and Healing, a world-renowned resource, recently released an iPhone and iPad app called “Wellscapes” (iTunes link).

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…

Podcast (m8-audio): Download (Duration: 22:00 — 20.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Podcast: Download (Duration: 22:00 — 12.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

English Books for Thai School – Can You Help?

By

A few weeks ago I received a contact from the Minnov8 site. The woman who wrote it (Lynn Brown) teaches at a school in Thailand in a program featuring English as a second language. They desperately need books in English for their tiny library and they have no funds for the books or for shipping.

Can you help with books?

I’ve never been to Thailand, but because my wife has put on workshops for Thailand’s Department of Export Promotion three different times, I’ve met many of her contacts from Thailand (and their kids) and they are incredibly delightful people. My bride has also told me so many stories about the country, its people, and how she loves them so much she’d move there, I was very receptive to Lynn’s request to help gather books for her students.

Map of Thailand showing Roi Et (click image for larger view)

The Thailand school Strisuksa (Stree-suk-sah) is located in a province called Roi Et. It is relatively far from Bangkok—which means they are internet-challenged as you’ll read about below—but they have a student group who will be visiting MN in October (arriving late in the week of October 3rd) and will be at Cambridge-Isanti High School in Cambridge, MN . Each student will be allowed 2 pieces of checked luggage. They hope to make the most of that luggage allowance by returning with books for their library.

If you have any ideas (or books!) that might help them gather up English books suitable for 7-9th graders and then upper secondary (10th-12th grade)—and let me know where we can pick them up—that would be terrific! Contact me, Steve Borsch, by email or by phone at 952.232.5040. I will compile a list of those who have helped and publish it here on Minnov8.

Below I go through more information about the school, student learning in English there, and what Minnov8 is doing to help.

…  [Read More…]

Why You Need to Secure Your Devices…NOW

By

If this story motivates you take action immediately, then this post was worth writing. I’ll explain why it is so critical (and easy, frankly) to backup, secure and ensure that your laptop, smartphone or tablet devices are locked down so you are protected. I’ll also tell you why it is easier than ever—and critical to police recovery efforts—to make certain your devices are able to be tracked.

Last Wednesday evening my daughter was in a good area of St. Paul, parked on a busy street, and hanging out with friends in a popular cafe nearby. Coming out to her car around 10:30pm, she discovered her driver side rear window was smashed in and her backpack—containing her 11″ Macbook Air, iPod nano, two of her college textbooks, her medications and much more—had been stolen.

Ironically, two St. Paul police officers were eating in that same cafe so she immediately filed a report. With thousands of these sorts of thefts each year, it’s probably understandable that TWO DAYS went by with no contact and zero action on the part of the St. Paul Police Department, even after my daughter called numerous times.

But because my daughter smartly installed tracking software on her Macbook Air, as soon as the suspected thief got online with her laptop it began “phoning home” EVERY 8 MINUTES.

As a consequence, we had webcam photos of the suspect, screenshots of his activities (e.g., Facebook, Wells Fargo banking, and his general surfing) along with a log of the dynamically issued IP address of his DSL connection.

After she told me Friday afternoon (after her third inquiry to St. Paul Police) that she’d been informed that, “…an investigator hasn’t been assigned to the case yet so why don’t you call back on Monday“, I became very upset. As such I started working on this issue when my workday was done on Friday about 4:30pm which, unbeknownst to me, would consume the next five hours and several additional hours the next day.

The results were amazing, disconcerting, but ultimately fulfilling. …  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 137 – Major Mojo Baby!

By

MOJO Minnesota is an innovation advocacy force comprised of like-minded business leaders working to fuel entrepreneurship and reignite Minnesota’s culture of innovation. These folks describe themselves as, “…business advisors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and attorneys passionate about creating jobs and economic growth through the power of Minnesota based technology companies” and we were pleased to have two of them on this week’s podcast: Ernest Grumbles, a “strategic IP” attorney and advisor to startups and entrepreneurs at Adams Monahan, LLP and Mary Meehan, renowned futurist and trend forecaster with her firm, Panoramix Global.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: “The Favourite” by Dig via the podsafe Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:06:04 — 38.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

DEMO: Me & My Money

By

Our buddy, Graeme Thickins, is once again live-blogging from DEMO Fall. He seems to cover everything and is the best liveblogger I’ve ever followed, mainly because he is so diligent about placing links within his liveblog as well as within his tweets so it’s easy to go see what and whom he’s talking about in his info.

One he made certain to focus on is a new Minnesota-based offering that includes a guy who also gave us a heads-up on their DEMO debut: serial entrepreneur, Alex Huff, who is with this new Minneapolis headquartered startup as Chief Technology Officer. Me&MyMoney launched this week at DEMO and it promises to let you live the life you want and have money left over.

As many of us know when it comes to launching a startup, timing is everything. Borne in a time of incredible global economic flux and uncertainty, Me&MyMoney is certain to get attention, especially when the U.S. Census Bureau releases data like this that, “…in 2010, median household income declined, the poverty rate increased and the percentage without health insurance coverage was not statistically different from the previous year.”

Alongside that historical data is an ongoing bleak jobs outlook, fears of a double-dip recession and deep concerns about the future of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. As such, there is NO question that the masses are ready for a tool they can use to get a handle on where they are financially, where they’re headed, how to get out (and stay out) of debt, and to ensure they have money around in their old age (even more important now that we’re all living longer as well). Me&MyMoney couldn’t ask for more perfect timing, but there’s no question getting the word out and building buzz will be the key to adoption and gaining traction with the millions of potential users for their web application.

In their press release they succinctly lay out their value proposition which is, “Me&MyMoney is not another budgeting tool – it is a transformational approach to forecast where your money and your life are going. It uses diverse data sources, proprietary algorithms, and an easy-to-use web application to give members real, instant insight into their money. Those insights will allow them to create, understand, and execute a projection of their money throughout their lifetime.”

Read the full release after the jump (click “more…”) and then check ’em out…

…  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 136 – Pedal to the Metal

By

This past summer amazed the Gang in how there has been a constant and continuing stream of new announcements, mergers and acquisitions, and major battles in the mobile space. We discuss this and much more in this week’s podcast.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off this week)
Music: “Kitchen Sink Boogie” by Big George Jackson Blues Band via Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 33:30 — 19.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Welcome a New Author: Kurt Roots

By

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!

Minnov8 Gang 135 – Take a Tablet

By

The Gang became aware of the introduction of the brand new WCCO iPad app and we just had to talk with the CEO of one of this State’s premiere mobile development organizations, DoApp, who built that app for WCCO. DoApp is much more than just an app developer (e.g., Mobile Local News strategy with: iPhone & Android apps; integrations to media company news systems; and now a mobile ad platform) and Wade Beavers talks about this as well as revealing his thoughts on building for Android tablets and what that’s like (which is worth listening to for its own sake!).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins (Phil Wilson is off).
Music: “Leave This Town” by Jake Lear via Music Alley.

m8-spacer

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:47 — 35.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

m8-spacer

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

The Minnov8 Gang will off the next two Friday’s and back on Friday, September 2nd with an all new show!

At the Crossroads Neandertals Hooked Up With Us

By

Neandertal man image created from a discovered skull

If you’ve paid any attention to the acceleration in human and animal genomics research, the revelations and scientific discoveries are amazing. As someone who has had his DNA analyzed at 23andMe (whose co-founder Anne Wojcicki is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin), I can tell you first-hand about the absolutely delightful discoveries I’ve made about my own DNA, its implications, how I’m connected geographically to other humans, and that it’s unlikely I’ll ever run a 4 minute mile (that last one is just my conjecture!).

Lynn Fellman

The most recent profound discovery was the identification of Neandertal DNA in modern humans! From reading the articles which have come out this month, it appears that modern humans heading out of Africa “co-mingled” with Neandertals in Eurasia and now humans with “1-4%” Neandertal DNA have been identified.

Fortunately we have an independent artist bridging science and the humanities through art and narrative right here in our midst in Minneapolis, Lynn Fellman, who does a beautiful job communicating what has taken place and its implications.

Give it a view and then head on over to her website. Sometimes the science of DNA can get pretty esoteric and boring. Having someone like Lynn—a woman who is steeped in the science but can see and interpret the beauty within it—deliver some of THE most beautiful interpretations of any science-related discipline I’ve ever been interested in is incredibly pleasing and useful. What I didn’t realize, until I saw this video, is how effectively (and beautifully with her own visuals) she can communicate an incredibly complex topic.

(As an aside, NPR’s Science Friday host, Ira Flatow, is a big fan of Lynn’s work and she’s been on the show. You can check one out in her “Stories/Podcasts” section of her website here).

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) commissioned Lynn to develop this presentation for their AAAS Member Central web site:

StarTribune Debuts iPad App

By

In this morning’s dead-trees edition of the StarTribune, a full page ad appeared announcing the availability of the StarTribune iPad app. Downloading and launching it presents you with a clean, easy to use interface, optimized for a tablet-sized device.

Offering a complimentary subscription until October 16th, the StarTribune iPad app joins many daily newspapers who are hoping that tablet access will shift people away from newsprint versions and bring in non-newspapers readers (i.e., the under-35 crowd). Ironically the current StarTribune website offers a great experience already on an iPad, so it will remain to be seen if people will choose a native iPad app over the website itself.

The app loads quickly, stories load fast, and there is little of the latency one expects with ad serving, a typical problem on many newspaper websites where page loads stall while ads are fetched from an ad server elsewhere. With its minimalistic and clean look, it’s a pleasure to read.

One startling and glaring omission is the lack of social sharing, especially if the StarTribune truly cares to go after those non-newspaper readers mentioned above. While most smartphone and tablet news apps enable the reader to send an article via email or to Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms, StarTribune has only enabled email. This makes the app significantly less useful for anyone using social media technologies.

The other aspect of using the app that was troublesome was how obvious it now is that the StarTribune — like most daily newspapers around the country — reprint articles from major dailies like the New York Times, Washington Post, LATimes and also from the major newswires like the Associated Press and Reuters. Unfortunately for the StarTribune, there are so many apps with which we can access these same stories, that it makes StarTribune reprinted ones far too obvious and redundant. (For more on this problem and others in the newspaper business, see my personal blog post, “How to Save Newspapers (But do we even care?)“).

StarTribune’s new iPad app is an acceptable first effort, but getting in to the game so late we expected more from this hometown paper. The good news is that they will be able to take feedback and iterate the app so new features will (hopefully) be added over time. We’d like to see more social features added, a larger emphasis on local vs. national news (especially “above the fold” on the first page after launch), video and audio (e.g., podcasts), ongoing reference material that would be “evergreen” and always available (e.g., directories, restaurant reviews, visitor information, guides) and other content that would make using this app (and paying for a subscription come October) a much richer, and more local, experience.