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Hacking the Day Away in the Twin Cities

October 19, 2014 By Phil Wilson

LogoThe first ever IoT Hackday on Saturday October 18th proved to be a winner for more than just one team. Though team Subconscious Behavior Alert walked away as the crowd favorite, and scored a box of goodies any IoT hacker would love, the Twin Cities was really the biggest winner. It saw a relatively new community, the Internet of Things community, make it’s public debut.

The inaugural event, brought to life by Justin Grammens and Varun Bhartia, gathered teams together at Minnetronix for a day dedicated to connecting “things” to the internet. Those things included Christmas lights, bikes, blinds, pet feeders and trackers, a unique use for a play kitchen and more. Many on these teams have toiled away hacking devices at home and in various user groups around the city for the past few years. This day was different. This day was all about the IoT community…and what a crowd was there. Sure there were the 20-30 year old guys that anyone might imagine being at a tech event. But, there were also older adults, seniors, women and kids! All of them armed with laptops, sensors, wires, soldering irons and plenty of ideas.

After a day of hanging together and working on their projects, Saturday night saw the showcase of their hard work… the public demo. Most, if not all, of the projects demoed without a hitch in front of the 50 or so guests who came out to see the fruits of their labor. While not always the prettiest, with their wires and sensors hanging off boards and gathered in cardboard boxes, Christmas lights were lit, stuffed dogs were fed, bikes received onboard directions and clocks spun on play kitchens, all via the internet.

Founders      hackerspace      Kristina      kids

I was especially taken with the kids who had spent the day working on coding flexible light strips and boxes to display arrays of light and color that would make them the hit of any party. They said they had a great time and seemed more than happy to hangout with adults on a Saturday.

With the success of firms like SmartThings, Exosite and Spark rooted here, the Twin Cities has the potential to be a true IoT hotbed. The first ever IoT Hackday proved beyond any doubt that there is the energy and enthusiasm to keep stoking it.

Filed Under: Events, Innovate, Internet of Things - #IoT

Da Vinci Fest – Science, Art & Technology

November 28, 2012 By Steve Borsch

Exciting our kids about the world they will inherit — not just the future but their future — means that getting them engaged and excited about science, art and technology will enable them to invent it. A unique festival in Stillwater on January 5, 2013 is one that sets up a venue for kids to showcase and demonstrate what fills them with passion and motivating them to think about, and work toward, the possibilities of what they can create.

For a long time Minnesota has been a leader in educational uses of technology and has a high degree of focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and many, like the US News and World Report tout that STEM Education Is the Key to the U.S.’s Economic Future and even have this dedicated site about STEM.

The Stillwater school district has a unique, community-driven non-profit called The Partnership Plan whose focus “…is to be a catalyst for exciting and innovative learning for students of Stillwater Area Public Schools by forging community partnerships of time, talent and resources.” Driven by parent and community volunteers, they are the ones who put on the event alongside the teachers and school administrators engaging our kids.

Click to view the Da Vinci Fest poster

Click to view the Da Vinci Fest poster

The DaVinci Fest, named after Leonardo Da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance genius who was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer, is an annual educational fair highlighting art, science and technology projects by the Stillwater District’s students in grades 4 through 12. Last year, over 700 student projects and 60+ interactive exhibits and demonstrations by businesses, clubs and organization were on display for more than 3,000 attendees!

But did you also notice the word “art” in their event’s title? Let’s face it: without deep design thinking — and the depth and texture an artist brings to our human perceptions of just about everything we see, hear and touch in the world — even the best science and technology functionality falls flat. One of the reasons Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave for purchasing Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘codex’ for $30M was that this genius Da Vinci not only invented, engineered and analyzed, he could articulate his vision and communicate it in a beautiful and highly useable way. It’s one reason why having art within this event seems both logical and insightful.

The best part? You can attend on Saturday, January 5, 2013 held at Stillwater High School (map) and also participate as an exhibitor by contacting Paula Thrall by email. Take a peek at some of 2012’s exhibitors here and see that you would be in good company as an exhibitor, support this cause, and help build a future smart population that will keep Minnesota and the U.S. great.

Take a peek at their 2012 promotional video which will give you a good overview:

[youtube=”http://youtu.be/qnF4gD12vpQ”]

Filed Under: Edutech, Innovate

Minnesota, the Arts and Innovation

November 1, 2011 By Steve Borsch

All the talk about Steve Jobs passing has included much discussion about the essence of his innovative genius: that it was due to him living at the “intersection of technology and humanism” or technology and the arts. As a consequence, in the last week or so there have been numerous articles out examining the imperative that any company interested in innovation better have one foot in tech and the other in the arts…and ensure artists and technologists collaborate as equals.

The Walker Art Center blog, one I recommend you follow if interested in any aspect of art and design, had this post which pointed to a highly interesting factoid about Minnesota:

“A new National Endowment for the Arts survey finds there are 2.1 million Americans employed as artists, including more than 42,000 right here in the Land o’ Lakes. Minnesota ranks fairly well: We’re among the top 14 states that have the highest percentage of the workforce employed in the arts: 1.5 percent, compared to the nation-leading New York, where 2.3 percent of the labor force is involved in arts industries. Minnesota leads the nation in the concentration of jobs in book publishing, with eight times more publishing jobs — largely in the Twin Cities — than the national average. Minneapolis’ concentration of theater jobs is twice the national average.“

Why should you care? If you are a technologist, startup or entrepreneur in tech than you know how great you are at engineering but (hopefully) are aware that your artistic and design skills most likely suck. If you want to ensure your products are embraced by the masses, then make certain you are engaged and collaborating with people whose artistic and design sense is equal to your engineering abilities.

You have A LOT of talent to choose from in our State.

Filed Under: Innovate

The Joy of Infiltration Champions Open Game Development

July 15, 2010 By Phil Wilson

The mind of Zach Johnson is an interesting place. While much of it remains unexplored it’s filled with plenty of ideas, projects and fun. We last talked with Zach about Scribbls, a great site where doodles can give birth to hilarious results that he and his Watermelon Sauce partner Paul Armstrong developed.

His most recent work comes from his own Zachstronaut, which he describes as a “web rocket-lab” site to showcase his love for the internet and gaming as well as his experiments. The result of that work is his internet game Infiltration.

Infiltration was built in response to blog Boing Boing‘s call for games to be developed that were inspired by “chip music“. (You can vote for Infiltration through today, 7/15). Most likely very familiar to gamer cycles but not far beyond, chip music is inspired by early video game soundtracks. Think Asteroids, Pac Man and a host of Nintendo games. Grab a Casio keyboard and hang on…

Johnson, a fan of this unique musical genre, has spent more than his fair share of time listening to chip music and envisioning the game activity that it might accompany. A User Experience developer at Worrell, he says, “Video games contributed to shaping my entire career in computers.” It was clearly a natural for him to develop a chip music inspired game.

Indie game developer game designs tend to be very simplistic, with an almost nostalgic look and feel. “Part of the design is a nod to the old school music but it’s probably more about the amount of time and money indie game developers have to spend on the games.” He goes on to note, “It took nine people a year to write Pac Man, I wrote this in about 30 hours.”

Johnson also saw an opportunity to advance his passion for open programming. “I wanted to make a game that didn’t need a plugin.” Hence the use of Javascript, allowing the ability to play the game directly from your browser. “Javascript and browser based games offer a very low barrier of entry.” notes Johnson.

The use of coding language like Javascript and HTML5 is on the rise as many see the use of Flash diminishing. “I don’t hate Flash, but it’s obvious it is going the way of the Dodo.” according to Johnson referencing the ownership and closed nature of the language. “I always bet on the openess of  web.” When developing the game and entering the Boing Boing contest (Did I mention you could vote for his game through 7/16.) Zach thought that the use of Javascript would allow him to be more unique and give him an upper hand. But “The use of Javascript was more prevalent than I thought…which is good.” Nearly half the games submitted use it.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhvupyRdR5I&feature=player_embedded

The design of the game and the participation in the contest serves Johnson in number of ways. First and foremost, it’s a hobby. It also clearly promotes his programming skills and many projects while allowing him to share his passion for open web design. In addition, while he could have spent much more time on the game he appreciates the short-term goal. “The competition set a deadline. Otherwise I can spend a lot of time on it. I need to make a game I need to get done.”

Where does he see this indie game developer movement going? “There are plenty of applications from entertainment to art to even civil engagement. Imagine someone demonstrating the need for better routing of traffic through a game.” He also notes a very basic result. “If I can make little tidbits of joy for someone, that’s great.”

Filed Under: Innovate, Internet & Web, MN Entrepreneurs, Open Source, Startups & Developers

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 82: Vicarious WWDC

June 12, 2010 By Tim Elliott

We revisit Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) through Julio Ojeda-Zapata’s experiences talking about the new iPhone 4 and his reliance on the iPad and HTC EVO 4G on his trip. Many other related subjects are explored to their logical conclusions.

Show Hosts: Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson (Steve Borsch was away this week).

Music by AjT “Apple Chunk Guitar” from Music Alley.

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The Podcast
https://media.blubrry.com/minnov8/minnov8.com/site/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/20100612_M8_Gang_82.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 53:42 — 31.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

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Discussed during the podcast:

  • iPhone 4 live blogs: Engadget | gdgt
  • Julio’s impressions of iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO 4G  on Your Tech Weblog
  • Simplenote app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
  • Reeder app for iPhone and iPod Touch
  • Read It Later
  • Instapaper
  • Pulse News Reader app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
  • Readability
  • Safari 5 Extensions blog
  • Xmarks extension for Firefox, Chrome and Safari
  • Apple TV Rumors at Engadget
  • Julio’s “Twitter Means Business” book website
  • Julio’s latest TWiT appearance

Events:

  • Social Media Breakfast, Twin Cities
  • fontconf
  • Unsummit 2010
  • MIMA “Crowd Source/User Generated Content with John Winsor” Event

Filed Under: Innovate, Minnov8 Gang Podcast Tagged With: Apple, iPad, iPhone, SMBMSP

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