Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang 360 – Kickin’ It Old School

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When talking about GlitchCon, The Gang kicks it old school (or is it, ‘skool’?) and reminisces about MECC’s classic ‘Oregon Trail’ game. More trips down memory lane are in the show, such as a mention of our beloved Treo 650/750 smartphones, but we also review the Minnesota tech news of the week and further debrief last weeks’ Minnebar.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 35:34 — 21.1MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week

Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 359 – Minnebar: The Superbowl for Geeks

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This week’s show is from Minnebar, the “Superbowl for Geeks” held once per year at Best Buy’s headquarters in Richfield, MN. We take a moment to remember Prince who passed away this week, and the music selection is a ‘cover’ of a Prince tune as homage to this great musician.

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Justin Porter

Our special guest is one of the board members from Minne* (the organization that puts on Minnebar). He’s also Kipsu VP of Operations, Minnov8 podcast listener and friend of the show, and an all around great guy: Justin Porter. We talk Minnebar, what he’s been up to, and a bit about Kipsu on this podcast.

Hosts: Steve Borsch and Phil Wilson (Tim Elliott is off this week).
Music: Purple Rain (cover) by Per Christian Lilleby under a CC 3.0 License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 37:56 — 21.9MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week

Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 358 – It’s an Eyesore

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ugly-building_mainThe StarTribune had an article about how as Code 42 heads downtown, 100 Washington Square becomes tech center. The good news? Growing tech companies have a large square-footage building that is catering to their needs. The bad news? Phil is NOT happy about it as he thinks the building is basically butt-ugly.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.
Music: Giorgio By Moroder by Elektro-Tek under a CC 3.0 License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 43:48 — 26.1MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week

Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 357 – De Plane! De Plane!

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fantasy-island_mainWe’re all serious at the outset of the show talking about Spy planes overhead still watching Minneapolis and the article it’s based on (Spies in the Skies) when Phil pipes up. He exclaims, “De plane! De plane!” referring to a reference that became a meme in the late 1970s from a show called Fantasy Island.

Here is a video on YouTube of the opening of this (at the time) wildly popular show and, at about 37 seconds in, comes de plane reference seemingly everyone used at the time (and some living in the past still do!).  😉

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.
Music: Everyday I Have the Blues by Ike Rock and Blues under a CC 3.0 License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 47:02 — 28.2MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week

Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 356 – Light Up the Night

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flarean-mainOur guest host this week is our good friend Julio Ojeda-Zapata. Besides enjoying his guest-hosting on the podcast, we were particularly interested in an article he wrote on Flarean, a St. Paul-based startup (see St. Paul tech startup’s mission is to light the way – literally ).

This post title about “light up the night” is a bit of a misnomer since they’ve been out testing stuff at night since they’re in stealth startup mode. Flarean’s vision is, “…to have every street, every home in America and the world connected by beautiful products that save lives and inform people about public safety.” It’s a big vision with a strong purpose and some cool technology to back it up.

Joining us as our guest this week is the founder and CEO of Flarean, Jason Barnett. Find out what they do, how he started it, his team, and where they’re headed next (and it’s much more than lights at night!).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda-Zapata
Photo credit of downtown St. Paul: Tony Webster via VisualHunt.com / CC BY

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:02 — 35.8MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
This Week’s Guest… Jason Barnett

jason-barnettKnown as an Innovator, Leader, and Disruptor, Jason Barnett – Founder and CEO of Flarean takes pride in founding companies that will change the world and improve people’s lives.

His background in the arts, technology, media and social organizing along with his expertise in forging new paths and opportunities have previously lead to the founding of TheUpTake.org, a nonprofit online video news gathering and broadcasting organization.

His passion for finding and building new concepts lead him to establish Flarean.

Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 355 – Greg Swan on SXSW, Dark Social & More

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greg-swan-emoji_mainOur guest this week is Greg Swan, VP of PR and Emerging Media at Space 150. At this top agency Greg leads a team devoted to influencing consumer behavior online, creating authentic engagement and uncovering the “what’s next” in emerging media that will impact brands in the near future. He is a nationally recognized thought-leader whose teams have helped some of the world’s largest companies build brands, launch new products, and change audience mindsets. (More about Greg below).

We talk to Greg about his experience at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival that just ended, as well as some of the deeper meanings behind what happened there and the trends in marketing and emerging media. He has much to say on these topics and we covered these, and more, on this show.

Hosts: Steve Borsch and Phil Wilson (Tim Elliott is off this week).
Music: L’inventore del Jazz by Alessandro Pellegrini under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:13:41 — 46.9MB)

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Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
This Week’s Guest: Greg Swan

greg-swan-circlePrior to Space150, Greg spent nearly a decade at global PR firm Weber Shandwick, where his teams helped clients like The Coca-Cola Company, U.S. Army, State Farm, Verizon, and Chevrolet drive award-winning programs tied to measurable results. Previously, he had stints with both advertising and marketing firms, working on brands like Dupont, John Deere, Gorilla Glue, and Naked Juice. Greg was named Social Media Professional of the Year by PR News, and he was listed on both PR Week and Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.

Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 354 – How to Survive the Apocalypse

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survive_mainPeople often joke about how we should be teaching our kids about the zombie and other potential apocalyptic events depicted in books, graphic novels, movies and TV. Thankfully there is an answer: Teach them by playing an incredibly fun board game that geeks and their families will love!

Our guest this week is Seppy Yoon, Chief Designer & Ogre at Fight In A Box who has made just such a game. Hear more from him about it, the nearly ended (and successful!) Kickstarter campaign, along with our usual tech story discussions on this week’s show.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.
Music: All Hoochie Coochied Up by DJ Ecklectic Mick under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:37 — 26.6MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
This Week’s Guest

seppy-yoonSeppy Yoon, Chief Designer & Ogre – Fight In A Box (LinkedIn). Currently wrapping up a Kickstarter campaign for his board game “End of the Line”. Check out this post and get involved now…before it’s too late!

Seppy’s escape from corporate america was more grueling than Snake Plissken and New York. He has been writing games longer than is polite to ask. Additionally, meetings with him are strictly prison rules: “Don’t make eye contact unless you’re challenging him.” We try and avoid him entirely keeping him chained to the game forge where he can hammer away at the imaginary people in his head instead of us.

Quotes:

  • “I kill more monsters before 6 am than some people do all day.”
  • “Monsters don’t kill themselves.”
  • “I’m just happy to be here.”
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 353 – A Conversation with Ashe Dryden

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ashe-dryden_mainLike always we cover the top Minnesota and other tech stories from the past week, but we are also pleased to introduce to you this week’s guest: Ashe Dryden. She has been a programmer for over 15 years and has become a diversity advocate and consultant, White House fellow, a prolific writer, and speaker. She is the founder of AlterConf and co-founder of Fund Club.  Ashe is also in the midst of writing two books: The Diverse Team and The Inclusive Event. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, Wired, NPR, and more.

We had Ashe on the podcast since AlterConf is coming to Minneapolis April 9th and the three of us felt this effort, and an overall conversation about diversity in tech, is long overdue and awareness needs to grow. Plus, who better than three older white guys to talk about diversity with someone on the forefront of inclusion in the tech industry?  😉

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.
Music: Kilkenny Blues by Papa Punk under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:47 — 35.4MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
This Week’s Guest

Ashe Dryden links: website  |  twitter  |  github

Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 352 – Facebook Emojis: How does that make you feel?

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fb-reactions-mainOn the darker side, we discuss more about the unfolding FBI vs. Apple controversy and Borsch’s response to a StarTribune editorial in last Sunday’s paper. On the lighter side we talk a bit about the new response-to-a-post emojis at Facebook and we, like many others, either don’t care or want to know more about how Facebook will be using them (hint: Facebook confirmed to Mic in this posting that it will use data gathered when you use the new emojis to alter your News Feed and learn more about what you like).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.
Music: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by VB and the Buzz under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 38:52 — 22.7MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 351 – Encrypt Me

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encrypt-me-mainTHE big story of the week has to be the Apple/FBI dust-up over the court-order demanding Apple decrypt the iPhone 5c of the San Bernadino shooter. The three of us stand by Apple, who is pushing-back to NOT build a tool to decrypt that phone, all while the Dept. of Justice is now shoving to get Apple to comply. It’s complicated, but we talk about that—and a whole lot more—on this week’s show.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson.
Music: Bonaparte’s Retreat by Walker Winn under a Creative Commons License

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:22 — 24.1MB)

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Story Links
Past Week’s Top Minnesota Stories
Other Top Tech Stories
Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
Cool Thing of the Week
Upcoming Events