Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Comcast: Faster Services = More Control

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tv_guy_snowComcast’s recent launch of a 100Mbps business class service for $369.95 per month will provide a great option for small to midsize businesses, at the same time I’m troubled because the continued acceleration of broadband speeds at low prices equals even more Comcast control of our local internet broadband access. What happens when Comcast is the dominant provider in the Twin Cities of both consumer and small to midsize business internet?

I learned of this new Comcast service from my friend and Minnov8 buddy, Tim Elliott, since he’s engaged with Comcast on the marketing side for Comcast Business Services. He and I have had many spirited debates about net neutrality, speed tiers and charging for them, the profit motive, and much more.

While I’m a capitalist and strongly believe Comcast should be rewarded for their efforts delivering so many great services, I also know that they would never have been able to achieve their existing cable infrastructure footprint had it not been for governmental interventions enabling rights-of-way to be gained for Comcast (and other cable companies) back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Though Comcast’s new rollout is a business class service, the gap between what they’re offering and what telecom companies offer is so large, it’s clear to me that business-centric internet dominance in Minneapolis/St. Paul is a foregone conclusion (unless the telecom companies instantly react with cheap T1 or T3 lines, which I doubt they will).

This speed-for-a-great-price gap will continue to grow in both the consumer and business sectors, solidifying Comcast’s lead which threatens to severely restrict the emerging internet TV marketplace and your choices as a consumer.

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Pranah: Data Storage for SMB Wins Sprout Award

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pranahChances are that the computer you’re reading this post on contains a minimum of a 160GB hard drive. Like mine, it might be connected to a multi-TB backup device which, in turn, is connected to the cloud for online backup. Add to that all of the other computers and servers in our office and you can see that even a small firm like ours finds our needs for digital data storage is constantly outpacing whatever size drives or backup scheme we put in place for our network storage.

Pranah Storage Technologies, a company based in suburban Saint Paul, designs and manufactures data storage systems that “…bring simplicity and high efficiency to data-intensive environments in small to midsized businesses (SMBs)” and is a local company that should be on your radar.

Computer Reseller News (CRN), a trade rag I used to read faithfully when I was dealing with the reseller channel, has an offering called the “Everything Channel,” a sort of one-stop-shop online for I.T. value added resellers, system integrators and computer consulting groups. Because their readers look to them as seekers of the new and thought leaders when it comes to what they need strategically for their businesses and clients, the Everything Channel folks are always on the hunt for innovative and disruptive technologies.

Enter the Sprout Awards, a competition enabling them to discover all startups that fit within the innovative and disruptive category.  …  [Read More…]

MinneDemo Joins MIMA Summit For Tech Track

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mima_logo_4cThe folks at MIMA have struck a deal with our friends at MinneBar/MinneDemo to present a Technical Track at the upcoming MIMA Summit (Of which Minnov8 is a media partner.) The track will run in conjunction with an already full slate of speakers and presentations scheduled for Monday, October 5 at the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis. Fundamentals, Strategy, Tactical, Trend and the MinneDemo Technical tracks will allow attendees to tailor their experience at the Summit.

minnedemo-logoAccording to notices from both MIMA and MinneDemo the track will consist of “a curated slate of entrepreneurs who will showcase their internet and web innovations and demo real working software.” The ‘Best of’ slate from past MinneDemo presentations will be featured in groups of three with Q&A time allowed throughout the day.

While one might ask, taken as a whole, what do demos such as these have to do with MIMA’s interactive marketing focus, the ability to showcase our local innovators and startup community is always welcome. MIMA President Matt Wilson, echos that sentiment. “I think a lot of our members are going to be incredibly impressed by the technology talent here in town and hopefully this added exposure will mean more development work stays here.”

Of note is the mention in the MinneDemo communication of a fall MinneDemo event to be held in November. It’s the first mention of the follow-up to May’s MinneDemo at Intermedia Arts. We’re also still awaiting news of a MinneBar. We’ll let you know as soon we hear more…

ScribbleLive: An Amazing Liveblogging Engine

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scribbleliveLast Thursday at BlogWell held at General Mills headquarters, the Minnov8 Gang used a tool that I had stumbled across a couple of days earlier: ScribbleLive. While not a Minnesota startup, they’ve so nailed the sweet spot of what’s needed in today’s liveblogging–Twitter integration, turning http’s in to links, embed codes in to instant presenting of the video or whatever else is embedded, audio and video uploading–that the entire Gang was basically blown away with the tool.

So many of us either watch live events or, increasingly, participate in them, that the ability for the creator (i.e., admin) of the ScribbleLive liveblog to turn comments on or off; find tweets and choose ones to insert (in to a middle pane that, like a baseball manager queueing up those next at bat, the batter is now “on deck”) and then inserting them at the correct time. Check out all of their features here.

The best part?  …  [Read More…]

A Joint Podcast with Social Media Breakfast

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SMBMSP podcastFollowing the recent Social Media Breakfast on Friday Brad Bellaver gathered a group on the patio at Vic’s for a rather unique conversation and podcast. We had a chance to chat about the meeting and social media in general. Joining Brad and those of us from Minnov8 were founder of the Social Media Breakfast concept Bryan Person, SMBMSP founder Rick Mahn, and Marketing Edge podcast host and Provident Partners principal Albert Maruggi.

Brad graciously billed at as a joint podcast wiht the SMBMSP. But like most things, 80% of success if just showing up. Thanks for inviting us to join Brad. Catch a bit of video from the impromptu gathering at http://www.qik.com/video/2364510.

Gary Koelling Gets Personal With Radio

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I’ve written before about my involvement with the Conclave , an organization that seeks to educate radio broadcasters. This year I had the pleasure of heading up the planning of the Tech/Interactive Track at this year’s Learning Conference (#clave09), underway right now in Minneapolis. I’m thrilled that I have been able to include many of Minnesota’s tech, interactive and social media “stars” as part of the agenda.

One of those “stars” is Gary Koelling, Best Buy’s Social Media guru and founder of Blueshirt Nation, Giftag and IdeaX. I asked Gary to talk with my broadcast brethren about increasing radio’s ‘signal strength’, a phrase Gary coined during a conversation we had some time back that refers to reaching customers through social media.

I met with Gary about an hour before his presentation because he wanted to show me what he came up with. I trust Gary implicitly to put together a great presentation on this topic…and he did. No surprise! I had expected to politely preview his slides, say “Cool!” and move on.

What I experienced, and what the attendees saw was a deeply personal story reflecting Gary’s passion for this medium and what it has meant to him over the years. He told me that every time he sat down to build his presentation he found himself “yelling” at radio for what it has become. He told me, “That’s not helpful to anyone.” So what he did was take everyone through the emotional relationship he has, and I bet all of have had, with radio.

“Other stations can steal your listeners, they can’t steal your friends.”  …  [Read More…]

BusinessCard2: “The Big Upgrade” Launch is Near

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bizcard2-newSince I’m a user of BusinessCard2 — and been following CEO Lief Larson’s journey to make it the killer app for your web identity — I’ve been staying close to what they’ve been up to as the next version, the “big upgrade”, looms near (disclaimer: they’re also an advertiser on Minnov8).

Though they’ve been playing it pretty close to the vest for months, and I’ve been bugging Lief the entire time, he did agree to a quote and my posting of the graphic above. From Lief, “For the last 24 months our team has been working hard behind closed doors to create something we think has transformative potential.  What we have up our sleeve, nevertheless, is not being released until August.  We want to under promise and over deliver.  The internet is changing rapidly and we intend to launch something leveraging the cutting-edge.  Think web container, meets social, meets cloud.  Best of all, it’s 100% made in Minnesota.”

Go sign up now so you’re in the queue to get “the big upgrade” when they launch.

Obama Administration’s Focus on Innovation

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Delighted techies and geeks throughout the U.S. agree: the Obama administration understands open source software, leveraging social media, and providing transparency in governmental activities wherever possible. Unfortunately, unless you’re paying very close attention, it’s easy to think most of this stuff is a wish-list and needs to be battled out in Congress so bills can be passed.

Fortunately most of these initiatives are policymaking in nature and therefore can, and are, able to be developed and delivered quickly.

To that end, on July 1st, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra sat down with White House director of new media, Macon Phillips, to answer questions from Facebook and WhiteHouse.gov on technology, information, and transparency. Kundra discussed the new IT Dashboard, which enables everybody to look at how the government is spending money for information technology, and allows us to analyze and evaluate these investments.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HZ-BESVVck&feature=player_embedded

With respect to innovation and its impact on Minnesota, there are three key parts to the Administration’s initiatives (which go beyond Kundra’s sphere of influence):

  • Innovation in the Economy: Drive Economic Growth and Solve National Problems By Deploying a 21st Century Information Infrastructure
    This includes everything from a comprehensive national broadband plan, to new health care information technology, to a modernized electrical grid, along with a focus on cybersecurity.
  • Innovation in Science: Invest in Science and Science Education
    Climate change, energy and other initiatives are key as is a focus on education.
  • Innovation in Public Administration: Creating an Open and Secure Government
    Strategic federal IT investments will make Government more transparent and accountable. At the same time, Americans will know that these investments by their Government are being leveraged to produce maximum value, and that the security of information systems nationally, and the privacy of Americans, are being protected. Strategic investments in IT are at the heart of the efforts to make Government services more effective, accessible, and transparent.

Event in Edina July 13 to Explore ‘PR 2.0’

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Kane-logoConference organizer Kane Consulting says that it’s now a “brave new world” in public relations.  And to help managers of local businesses and PR practitioners alike better understand how “new hybrid media forms” are changing the game, it’s organized an event that includes a national speaker who’s an expert on the subject.

Called “PR 2.0: The New Tools of the Trade,” the event will be held Monday July 13 from 8:00 am till 4:00 pm at the Westin Galleria, 3201 Galleria, in Edina, MN 55435.  JasonKintzlerPitchEngine-logo The keynote presenter is Jason Kintzler, founder and CEO of PitchEngine, “a social media release service” that enables PR professionals to package stories and share them with journalists, bloggers, and influencers via the social web.

Jennifer Kane, founder of Kane Consulting (pictured here at left with colleague Kary Delaria), said in announcing the event, “If you’re in the business of sharing facts, telling stories, starting conversations, and monitoring dialogue about your company or client, this is stuff you need to know.” JenKaneKaryDelaria

The conference will also feature eight breakout sessions reflecting the most cutting edge and innovative thinking on how to navigate this rapidly changing industry.

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