Minnov8 Posts — Page 38

Startup Visa Bill Introduced

February 25, 2010 By Mitchell Hislop

Early Wednesday morning, Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Richard Luger introduced the “Startup Visa Act”, aimed to change the EB-5 visa to allow immigrant entrepreneurs to obtain a visa, if there is funding from a sponsoring VC or angel. This should fuel job growth, as one of the requirements to get the visa is adding 5 jobs a year. The plan has garnered the support of over 100 VC’s and angels, and is now an official bill before the Senate.

It is very interesting to see the support that this bill is getting. In a time of healthcare, economy, recalls, and scandals, over 1200 messages were sent to 164 different congressmen from 33 different states about the StartupVisa bill.

What does this mean for the MN startup culture? For now, not much. The bill is fairly down on the docket, so it may be awhile until it gets voted on. However, with our state having a rich startup culture, several VC’s and angels, and a history as a destination for people looking to make a new home, I would not be surprised if we started seeing new faces on the scene once this gets passed.

You can get the full text of the bill HERE, and the website for the group/bill is HERE.

Pew Internet’s “Future of the Internet IV”

February 20, 2010 By Steve Borsch

If you rely upon the internet in any way for your startup, business, learning or to feed your addiction to World of Warcraft, you’ll be interested that Pew Internet has released their fourth report on the internet’s future entitled, “Future of the Internet IV“.

It’s a survey of nearly 900 Internet stakeholders which reveals fascinating new perspectives on the way the Internet is affecting human intelligence and the ways that information is being shared and rendered.

The web-based survey gathered opinions from prominent scientists, business leaders, consultants, writers and technology developers. It is the fourth in a series of Internet expert studies conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. In this report, Pew covers experts’ thoughts on the following issues:

Will Google make us stupid?
Will the internet enhance or detract from reading, writing, and rendering of knowledge?
Is the next wave of innovation in technology, gadgets, and applications pretty clear now, or will the most interesting developments between now and 2020 come “out of the blue”?
Will the end-to-end principle of the internet still prevail in 10 years, or will there be more control of access to information?
Will it be possible to be anonymous online or not by the end of the decade?

“Three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing and rendering of knowledge,” said Janna Anderson, study co-author and director of the Imagining the Internet Center. “There are still many people, however, who are critics of the impact of Google, Wikipedia and other online tools.”

Yeah…like my former boss (now 69 years old) who insists that the internet is just a fad and that we’re destroying civilization with it. Or a former teacher I know who still believes that all relevant information we need must be stuffed in to our brains vs. looking it up via Google.

Comcast Rolls Out Bandwidth Metering in MN

February 17, 2010 By Steve Borsch

I just received this email and went to check my usage. Since it started today I’ve used none, but will see how much I use on a monthly basis especially since my household streams a lot of video, does online gaming, and heavily uses the ‘net. This is, of course, nothing but a precursor to Comcast gearing up to attempt to meter broadband and get you to pay more as their cable TV revenues inevitably downtrend:

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer,

We are pleased to announce the pilot launch of the Comcast Usage Meter in your area. This new feature is available to Comcast High-Speed Internet customers and provides an easy way to check total monthly household high-speed Internet data usage at any time. Monthly data usage is the amount of data, such as images, movies, photos, videos, and other files that customers send, receive, download or upload each month. Comcast measures total data usage and does not monitor specific customer activities to determine data usage.

The current data usage allowance for the Comcast High-Speed Internet service is 250GB per month. This means that the vast majority of our customers – around 99% currently – will not come close to using 250GB of data in a month, and do not need to check the usage meter.

To view your current data usage, please visit http://customer.comcast.com and sign in to customerCentral (as shown at http://media2.comcast.net/anon.comcastonline2/support/Outbound_email/usage/cCentral-Login2.jpg).

After signing in, click on the “User & Settings” tab and click again on “View details” under “My devices”. The usage meter shows the current calendar month’s data usage for your account starting on the 1st of the month. Over time, you will be able to see the previous three months’ data usage as shown in the sample image at http://media2.comcast.net/anon.comcastonline2/support/Outbound_email/usage/Usage-Meter.jpg.

The usage meter is only available to Primary user accounts and Unrestricted Secondary user accounts with billing access.

If you would like to learn more about the usage meter and how it works, please visit http://networkmanagement.comcast.net/datausagemeter.htm for more information. Please visit our customer support forums at http://forums.comcast.net if you would like to ask us more questions or post comments. You can also visit http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat to chat with a customer service representative, or call 1-800-COMCAST for assistance.

Thank you for choosing Comcast!

This is a service-related email. Comcast will occasionally send you service-related emails to inform you of service upgrades or new benefits to your Comcast High-Speed Internet service.

Visions of Tomorrow, Yesterday

February 17, 2010 By Steve Borsch

From Matt Novak's PaleoFuture blog (click on image to see Matt's post)

If you, like I, follow the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) Twitter feed (@MNHS) then you might already have stumbled across an interesting lecture which may also have led you to a delightful St. Paul blog.

Stumble indeed.

It was pure happenstance that I came across a compelling MNHS lecture called, “History of Hip: Yesterday’s Tomorrow” and features historian Brian Horrigan and blogger Matt Novak (the guy with that cool St. Paul blog called “Paleo-Future“). In it they highlighted some of their favorite trends in science fiction of the past while they shared their own thoughts about the future of this genre.

With only three lectures posted (on a WordPress blog in a new category called Minnesota History Lectures), the innovative thing is that MNHS, like many historical societies around the country, are exposing more of their content and compelling attractions digitally and online. Most of the MNHS efforts succeed — like my favorites Family Search and the great images of Minnesota digitized and available through the Collections — but I must admit feeling a profound sense of disappointment that this particular lecture was delivered in video as a 320 x 240 window in M4V format. Perfect for an iPod or iPhone, but unacceptable for how I usually watch long-form video (through my Mac mini on my HDTV).

I downloaded the 513MB file and watched it on my iPhone and now wish I’d known about the lecture in advance (it was that good) and also so I could scrub through it and see portions of it again. There is some great content in it and in particular some of the retro future videos Matt shows in his portion of the lecture in the second half are really fun.

The challenges MNHS faces delivering long lectures of this type (and doing so affordably) isn’t lost on someone like me who has analyzed the economics of video. But so many of us now are streaming video over our computers or connecting our Roku (or next month the Boxee Box) to our HDTV’s, the stepping up of the qualitative delivery of video is an imperative and, I believe, will be “table stakes” to be in the game of delivering long form video content going forward.

All that said, I so appreciate the efforts of MNHS and that more and more of the content they hold is available online. I’d heartily recommend you head over to their site and check out what’s going on there and this lecture in specific and, by the way, Matt Novak is launching a magazine in April, you can help him raise the initial dough by donating, and this retro future magazine ought to be a fun one!

Day-Long Conference Highlights Mobile’s March

February 11, 2010 By Tim Elliott

What organizers hope will be the first of an annual event dedicated to Mobile technology and it’s application, Mobile March is scheduled for March 27th at the Hilton Garden Inn in Minneapolis.

The two track conference will offer sessions that appeal to active software developers as well as mobile users including marketers, advertisers and enthusiasts. Attendees can choose a single track of learning and information or pick and choose from either track to maximize their experience.

According to event founder and organizer, Justin Grammens, “There are plenty of meetings focused on mobile development or mobile marketing and use. We wanted to bring the two groups together to better understand the overall mobile platform.” Grammens, President of mobile development firm Recursive Awesome and founder of Mobile Twin Cities noted, “We have assembled an agenda of mobile experts and users that will offer unique perspectives on the opportunities with the local, national and global mobile community.”

The agenda, available online at www.mobilemarchtc.com, includes technical sessions addressing the development of applications for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry mobile devices. These sessions will be presented by local developers Aaron Kardell, Robert Green and Shawn Butler respectively. The technical track also includes Beyond the Code: User Experience, Testing, and Support presented by Breon Nagy.

The non-technical mobile users track includes What Do They Want, providing results from a consumer study presented by Carlson Marketing’s Doug Rozen and On the Air and In the Papers, featuring a panel of representatives from local TV, Radio and Newspaper companies. Other sessions slated are Show Me the Money, discussing the future of mobile commerce with Farhan Muhammed, and Mobile Marketing: Watch That Step presented by a panel of marketers highlighting the process of initiating a mobile strategy.

Other agenda items including a keynote to start the day will be announced in the near future.

Registration is now open for Mobile March, Saturday July 27th at the Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown Minneapolis via the Mobile March website or directly through Eventbrite. The cost is $20 and includes lunch.

Minnov8 is pleased to be a sponsor of this event* and joins other event sponsors including: Verizon Wireless, Fusion Room, Best Buy, The Nerdery, Recursive Awesome, Focus Business Development, and RemainComm Media Strategies.

*Minnov8 contributor Phil Wilson is a Mobile March organizer and is the founder of sponsor RemainComm.

Event: Grow Your Own IT Business

February 10, 2010 By Steve Borsch

With I.T. spending beginning to accelerate nicely, now is the time to look seriously at an entrepreneurial adventure in this area. Bill Coleman from Community Technology Advisors reached out to me this morning about an upcoming event that Minnov8 readers would likely have an interest in attending. With support from the Dakota/Scott County Workforce Investment Board, Minnesota Workforce Center, Dakota Future and the Dakota Scott IT Entrepreneur LinkedIn group, it’s shaping up to be a solid session.

A panel of successful IT entrepreneurs will talk about their startup success and will include: Kelly Schaefbauer of Danbury IT, a 14 year old I.T. services firm; Mike McBrady of ImageTrend, a 120 employee software firm; and Michelle Jennings of Netmajic, a web asset development shop; all people with solid companies and a wealth of experiences.

It will be held Thursday, February 18th from 4-6 pm at Old Chicago Pizza (map) in Apple Valley. Cost is $10 (appetizers are provided). If you’re interested, RSVP/register by contacting Cindy Johns (email).

Get in Their Shoes: 1:1 Interviews for You

February 8, 2010 By Steve Borsch

Wouldn’t it be great to have a chance for a 1:1 mentoring from former Apple evangelist and current VC Guy Kawasaki? Or time with the former CEO of GE, Jack Welch? Or a chance to ask Wired magazine’s Chris Anderson about all the things he sees that might be germane to your startup? Or talk about your social media startup with Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell?

Here’s your chance.

Patrick Tedjamulia, one of the founders of a non-profit in Utah called the International Mentoring Network Organization (IMNO.org) reached out to me about a “Mentorship Auction” they’re holding and their Get in Their Shoes Campaign to promote it (thanks to Doug Pollei for the connection). Thinking a post about it might be a bit of a stretch for Minnov8’s mission focused on internet and web innovation in our state, I reached out to Patrick by email and tossed the ball in his court to give me a call so we could kick it around.

Tedjamulia is a brand manager at General Mills and he grabbed a few minutes to launch a call to me this morning. As we talked I quickly realized that yes, this sort of thing would definitely be of interest to the Minnov8 readership!

The first auction is currently running and is a 1-on-1 mentoring opportunity with one of my favorite authors Daniel Pink, the NY Times Best Selling author of “A Whole New Mind”, and “Drive”. Daniel’s auction ends Feb. 11th so there is still time for you to bid. The winning bidder will get a thirty-minute phone conversation (mentorship) with Daniel Pink.

Today, Feb. 8th, the next auction is opening and will be a mentoring opportunity with Caterina Fake, the co-founder of Flickr and now Hunch. Coming up are auctions posted for mentoring opportunities with the following individuals:

Fernando Aguirre, CEO and Chairman of Chiquita brands: Feb 15- 24
Lawler Kang, author of Passion at Work: Feb 22-Mar.3
Dave Logan, author of Tribal Leadership and The Three Laws of Performance: Mar. 1 – 10
Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine and author of Free!: Mar. 8-17
Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and co-author of Groundswell: Mar. 15-24
Stephan Roche, CEO of Kapitall: Mar. 22 – 31
Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, author of The Culture Code: Mar. 29 – Apr. 7
Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor, FORTUNE and author of Talent is Overrated: Apr. 5 – 14
Robbie Vitrano, CEO of Trumpet Group: Apr. 12 – 21
Jeff Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak: Apr. 19 – 28
Jeffrey Veen, web design and development guru and co-founder of Adaptive Path: Apr. 26 – May. 5
Aaron Magness, Director of Brand Marketing, Zappos: May 3 – 12
Rafe Furst, entrepreneur, investor and business leader: May 10 – 19
Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures: May 17 – 26
…and more.

Proceeds from the campaign will go directly to the International Mentoring Network Organization (www.imno.org), a 501c3 non-profit organization aimed at making professional mentoring available to everyone and truly founders of what they term the “Open Source Mentoring Movement”. Also, stop by their site to listen to some recorded calls to get a sense of what these sorts of mentorship opportunities are like.

Don’t miss the chance to be mentored by Daniel Pink, Guy Kawasaki, and many others and bid today at Get in Their Shoes.

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