Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang 43: Lifestreaming, Backup & Conclaves

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This week we talk about lifestreaming, smartphones, online backup, Microsoft Office Online, the Conclave and much more.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson and our new monthly host, Julio Ojeda Zapata.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:39 — 37.5MB)

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Discussed during the show notes:

Microsoft Launches Expression 3 & Sketchflow

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silverexpressSaw a tweet yesterday from my buddy, Microsoft’s Doug Olson, that said, “Getting ready for a very exciting day tomorrow — the culmination of why I am working at Microsoft.” He was either finally getting a free Zune, he’d completed that Redmond, WA to White Bear Lake, MN fun run, or his group was going to ship a major release. I suspected the latter so pinged him right away and he emailed me a bit ago since he’s in the midst of launching now.

douglaskolsonDoug is the Product Unit GM of the Expression group (who recently put in place a Microsoft engineering office in St. Paul), is today launching Silverlight and Expression 3 at a press event in San Francisco. It’s a big day for his main product, Expression Blend 3, which finally gets to the point where is it very competitive with Flash & Flex. Not only that, but Microsoft is including a major innovation with it called SketchFlow (here is a good overview of it) which is getting tons of buzz and changing the way folks think about conceptual design (prototyping).

One other note: SketchFlow, and another big-deal feature (fully enabled Photoshop file format support, apparently done better than even Adobe’s Flash CS4 does it) have both come out of the team based right here in St. Paul lead by Bob Pappas and Rick Keeney.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 42 from Savage Depot

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depotWe talk Google Chrome OS, Best Buy’s Sr. Director of Emerging Media job posting now on their IdeaX site, and much more. Recorded at the Savage Depot coffee shop, a fabulous coffee, wine and food spot (with *really* fast wifi, fun historical photos and an aesthetically pleasing spot) alongside Hwy 13 in Savage, MN (Note: the photo above is not the Savage Depot, but rather the town of PHILSON, the site of unfortunate genetic permutations in the citizenry whose deformities were passed down to subsequent generations, some of whom live in our midst to this day).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 34:27 — 19.9MB)

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Discussed during the show notes:

+ Crunchpad

+ Hootsuite and CoTweet

+ Ubuntu Linux and G OS

+ Parallels, VMWare Fusion and Sun’s VirtualBox

+ Best Buy’s Reward Zone

The music on this week’s show is in the public domain and the name of the track is The Railroad Stomp by Jolly Two.

FCC Launches Broadband Site

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fccsiteThe Federal Communications Commission has launched Broadband.gov, a website that’s focused on all of the data and initiatives being gathered as the Federal government marches toward a National Broadband Plan 225 days from now (via BlandinOnBroadband).

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law on February 17, 2009. The Broadband Initiatives funded in the Act are intended to accelerate broadband deployment across the United States. The Recovery Act authorizes the FCC to create the National Broadband Plan, that “shall seek to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal.” This website contains information on the FCC National Broadband Plan. Please visit www.fcc.gov for more information about other FCC efforts, or browse the “Initiatives” section of this web site to learn what exciting efforts other agencies are pursuing to support the goals of the Recovery Act.

Check it out. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that there is a serious effort underway with this important infrastructure that is, in my opinion, more important going forward than the interstate highway system.

Minnov8 Gang 41: What if George had an iPhone?

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georgeOn this week’s show — done one day before our usual Saturday recording due to the 4th of July — we talk about the Social Media Breakfast event and a host of other interesting tech topics.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 34:28 — 20.0MB)

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Discussed during the show notes:

+ Social Media Breakfast-Minneapolis/St. Paul (SMBMSP) last week

+ Best Buy’s new Twitter initiative

+ MagentoCommerce

+ Upcoming WordPress meetup/unconference on Thursday, July 30th at 6:30pm

+ GDGT.com

+ Vendor Relationship Management

+ Posterous

OK. Internet Video for You…But With CONTROL

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no-video-for-you1It happened today. Time Warner and Comcast had a press conference to announce that they’ve teamed up to protect their cable TV franchises by controlling what is delivered over the internet connections they deliver to your home, effectively keeping out any pesky competitors or disruptors.

“Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) announced today that it has partnered with Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK) to develop broad principles for the TV Everywhere model to guide the distribution of its television content online.  The agreement between the companies will make it possible for Comcast customers to access programming from Turner Broadcasting’s award-winning entertainment networks free online and on demand.  In addition, Comcast announced it will begin a national technical trial of its “On Demand Online” service in July carrying programming from Time Warner’s Turner networks TNT and TBS.“

For our take on this issue, read “Sorry. No Internet Video for You.” In a nutshell, the cable companies are making all sorts of moves (e.g., bandwidth caps; caching infrastructure at the cable head-end; so-called “authentication” schemes) in order to control internet video distribution over their cable internet connections. If you don’t think this will harm any competing providers or innovators — whether major network initiatives like Hulu or upstarts like Revision3 — then you’re not paying attention.

The only possible option to counter the dominant, monopolistic footprint Comcast and Time Warner enjoy and to keep the internet conduit from becoming a toll-road benefitting a few — and that those few are clearly capitalizing upon in a way sure to fail (think “authentication” won’t be hacked in a nanosecond?) — appears to be the Federal Communications Commission and Congress.

VC Ann Winblad on Cloud Computing

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annwinbladAnn Winblad, a well-known and respected software industry entrepreneur and technology leader (and Minnesota bred entrepreneur!), is the co-founder and a Managing Director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. In 1976, following a stint as a systems programmer at the Federal Reserve Bank, Ann co-founded Open Systems, Inc. with a $500 investment, and turned it into a top selling accounting software company; eventually sold for over $15 million.

As a sidenote, I worked for a company called Clothier-Herold Co in the early 1980’s on the side of the firm that represented this little company called “Apple Computer.” The other side of the rep business sold Visicorp (Visicalc, etc.), Microsoft (which, upon going public, I thought would never make it) and a bunch of PC-oriented lines of product. In addition, our firm represented Open Systems, though none of us ever met Ann at the time.

A strategy consultant for prestigious clients such as IBM, Microsoft, Price Waterhouse, and numerous start-ups, Ann has co-authored the book Object-Oriented Software and has written articles for numerous publications. Ann received a BA in mathematics and in business administration from the College of St. Catherine, and an MA in education and international economics from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), which also subsequently awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Laws. She currently serves as a director of Voltage Security, Krillion, Mulesource and Star Analytics, a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Thomas www.stthomas.edu, and co-chair of SD Forum www.sdforum.org.

In this Idea Projects video, Ann talks about cloud computing and how by moving technology from location-based servers to a virtual environment, with expanded if not universal access, the opportunities for innovation increase exponentially. As a software funder she sees a trend towards 100% presence on any device at any time.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip3kgMKvyIw

Yugma Struggles

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yugmaIn a time when the global economy is still in a relative holding pattern, gas prices remain high and more of us are turning to internet-based products and services to meet our needs less expensively and with more power, I assumed that Yugma‘s strong value proposition and rock-solid technology would be ones that would carry them quickly toward profitability.

Turns out that’s not the case.

Though I consulted with Yugma in 2006 and learned first-hand how many competitive offerings there are in the screensharing and web conferencing space, I still was enamored by Yugma and its cross-platform support, along with the ease of use they built in to using it. I’ve kept tabs on their progress for the last couple of years, taking great pains to not write about challenges and difficulties they were facing which I’d learned previously from founder Lingaraj Mishra, since confidences are a key part of my value system and an obvious imperative for the management consulting work I do with clients (i.e., I keep my mouth shut).

An unfortunate turn of events occurred recently when a letter to shareholders was publicly outed by WebConferencingTest and they did this press release stating why they were removing Yugma from their rankings (which I learned about today via this post at SkypeJournal and then learned more from this article at TMCNet).

I reached out to Lingaraj today to get the straight skinny from him about what’s occurring, what’s next, and whether Yugma really does have one foot in the dead pool with the other one poised to step in.  …  [Read More…]

U.S. Home Broadband Adoption Hits 63%

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pewReaders of Minnov8 are skewed toward those highly interested or involved in internet and web-centric technology and services. As such, the latest findings of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project will be of significant interest.

These findings illustrate a departure from the stagnation in home high-speed adoption rates that had prevailed from December, 2007 through December, 2008. During that period, Project surveys found that home broadband penetration remained in a narrow range between 54% and 57%.

The greatest growth in broadband adoption in the past year has taken place among population subgroups which have below average usage rates. Among them:

  • Senior citizens: Broadband usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May, 2008 to 30% in April, 2009.
  • Low-income Americans: Two groups of low-income Americans saw strong broadband growth from 2008 to 2009.
    • Respondents living in households whose annual household income is $20,000 or less, saw broadband adoption grow from 25% in 2008 to 35% in 2009.
    • Respondents living in households whose annual incomes are between $20,000 and $30,000 annually experienced a growth in broadband penetration from 42% to 53%.

Overall, respondents reporting that they live in homes with annual household incomes below $30,000 experienced a 34% growth in home broadband adoption from 2008 to 2009.

  • High-school graduates: Among adults whose highest level of educational attainment is a high school degree, broadband adoption grew from 40% in 2008 to 52% in 2009.
  • Older baby boomers: Among adults ages 50-64, broadband usage increased from 50% in 2008 to 61% in 2009.
  • Rural Americans: Adults living in rural America had home high-speed usage grow from 38% in 2008 to 46% in 2009.

The Pew Internet Project’s April 2009 survey interviewed 2,253 Americans, with 561 interviewed on their cell phones.

As I read the report, it was clear that this acceleration in broadband adoption is, in my view, being driven by a number of variables: economic downturn causing a seeking of alternatives, efficiency and cost savings; friends, family and colleagues online (many using social media) creating compelling reasons for others to connect; and a continuing growth of online services in news, information, entertainment and more.

All that said, the important thing to Minnesota innovators is that people are increasingly online at home and participating, and that’s important to all of us in the internet and web innovation space!

Minnov8 Gang 40: Jobs, iPhone, Pre & Cory

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ernie-burnsAnother spirited discussion about Steve Jobs and his liver transplant, the iPhone 3Gs, Palm Pre, Cory Doctorow and much more.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off today).

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 39:38 — 23.1MB)

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Discussed during the show notes: