Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

MPR, iPhone and a Codemorphic App

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mpr-iphone1Listening to Minnesota Public Radio last week after my first meeting of the day, I caught most of a fascinating program on Midmorning called “Discovering China“, a discussion about Simon Winchester‘s latest book and his experiences which chronicle, “…the story of an Englishman’s adventures in China, and his determination to prove to the rest of the world that the Chinese were the first to create technological marvels.”

As I left my car and embarked upon a 15 minute walk from a parking lot to a building in downtown Minneapolis, I was pleased to have remembered my headphones as I fired up the iPhone MPR application developed by Minnesota-based Codemorphic (get the free app here for your iPhone from the iTunes store) and continued listening.

What I didn’t expect was the two minute story about a breakdown of Winchester’s car in the middle of nowhere in China, his iPhone, and what happened next.

After hearing this story and a bit more, I was so intrigued by the program that I wanted to hear it in its entirety, so the next day I went to iTunes and downloaded the 5/4/09 show and, for good measure, subscribed to the MPR Midmorning podcast. Either can be done here on iTunes if you’re interested in hearing the whole show.

  Click this link to listen to the story…

Podcast: Download (3.7MB)

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The Enthusiasm at Minnedemo

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Minnedemo happened last Thursday, May 7th, and the hundreds of people there, the startups and innovators showcasing their wares, was absolutely invigorating. To give you a flavor of the event along with some snippets of a few select interviews by Minnov8, take a peek at this short video:

Hats off to both Luke Francl and Ben Edwards for the outstanding job done setting up Minnedemo and putting on such a great event for the community! The sponsors of the event deserve a resounding “Thank You!” as well since it wouldn’t have been possible without them: Split Rock Partners; New Counsel PLC; LiveFront; IP House; Magnet360; StartupShoppe.

This video was shot and delivered by the talented folks at the award-winning 612Authentic (see their ad in our sidebar…small thanks for all their efforts!). Setup by Gabe Chiefetz, this video was shot by Jed Smentek and as you can see as you watch this one, if you have a need to deliver video that captures the essence of what you’re trying to say, contact 612Authentic.

Sharpen Up Those Business Plans! The ‘Minnesota Cup’ Deadline Is May 22

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mncup-logo1Attention all Minnesota startups and would-be startups: only a short time remains to enter the statewide business-plan competition known as The Minnesota Cup — applications are due Friday, May 22, 2009.

Now in its fifth year, the competition is bigger and better in 2009, with more prizes and more opportunities to win.  The total amount of winnings this year was upped to more than $130,000.  And the competition was expanded to now include six divisions — Clean & Green, BioSciences, High Tech, Social Entrepreneur, General, and Student. The first-place winner stands to win as much as $40,000.  But I submit the money isn’t everything — the publicity and connections the winners get from this competition are worth far more.

The MN Cup, in more than doubling its prize money, stands in sharp contrast to a national study that recently reported angel investment dollars were down 26% in 2008.  Yes, Minnesota entrepreneurs should take heart — seed funding is actually on the rise in this case!  And many more founders can now participate in this competition with its newly added business categories.

Twin Cities Business magazine did a story on the 2008 MN Cup winners.  …  [Read More…]

Author of “Viral Spiral” in Minneapolis

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coverIf you’re interested in open source, public knowledge or observations on the power of the commons in a digital age, you’ll want to know about a new book, Viral Spiral: How commonors built a digital republic of their own, since the author, David Bollier, will be in Minneapolis next Wednesday May 13th discussing it.

From free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses, Wikipedia, remix music and video mashups. peer production, open science, open education, and open business. the world of digital media has spawned a new “sharing economy” that increasingly competes with entrenched media giants.

Reporting from the heart of this “free culture” movement, journalist and activist David Bollier provides the first comprehensive history of the attempt by a global brigade of techies, lawyers, artists, musicians, scientists. businesspeople, innovators, and geeks of all stripes to create a digital republic committed to freedom and innovation. Viral Spiral—the term Bollier coins to describe the almost magical process by which Internet users can come together to build online commons and tools-brilliantly interweaves the disparate strands of this eclectic movement. The story describes major technological developments and pivotal legal struggles, as well as fascinating profiles of hacker Richard Stallman, copyright scholar Lawrence Lessig, and other colorful figures.

Here are the deets:
Book event & reception
Wednesday, May 13th at 7:30 pm
Magers & Quinn Book Store
3038 Hennepin Av S, Minneapolis
RSVP office@onthecommons.org

Missouri School of Journalism Live Today

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mizzouIf you have any interest in the future of journalism in a day when newspapers are going bankrupt and traditional media losing their grip on our attention — all while citizen journalism and new models are emerging — then you’ll want to be aware that former Best Buy VC and now “Innovation Accelerator”, Kim Garretson (a Missouri School of Journalism or “Mizzou” alumnus) has been actively engaged for some time at the school.

Kim has had the students working on two of his startups, LikeMe as well as one founded in Minnesota, BackstageGallery, which we’ve covered before at Minnov8.

kim-garretsonIf have any free moments today between 3:30pm and 7:30pm, please tune in the live video stream and you’ll be able to watch five teams of Mizzou seniors in Strategic Communications & Convergence Journalism presenting the results of their semester-long social media campaigns & execution for those two of Kim’s startups.

Having done this several times, Kim said that the students “…are guaranteed to KILL IT with their creativity and enthusiasm.” If you’re watching and tweet, use hashtag #mizzou09 as there will be a live Twitter stream screen in the presentation room. On-site judges are CEOs of digital agencies, the head of Social Media for H&R Block, and several others.

Compellent Sure Knows How to Throw a Customer/Partner Event

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I’m impressed. Compellent is hosting one helluva gig this week.  If you don’t know this company — well, you should. It’s one of our state’s best technology-industry success stories in recent years. compellent_c-drive09 Compellent is all about data storage, which is very much still a growth industry, despite the recession. Yes, your company should be so lucky to be in a sector like this.

Specifically, Compellent’s product is a simple SAN, or storage area network. The company, which IPOed in October 2007 (NYSE stock symbol: CML), turned in some pretty impressive numbers a few days ago. It announced record revenue in its first quarter of $28.1 million, up 53% from a year earlier, and $1.0 million in net income. The revenue figure was even up 4% from Q4 2008, and it was the company’s fourteenth consecutive quarterly revenue increase. If an emerging Minnesota tech company in this economic environment could be said to be on a tear, Compellent would be it.

The company’s annual business partner and customer event, called C-Drive, is being held this week at the Bloomington Sheraton, and this is clearly the biggest one yet. The business partner portion of the event is May 4-5 (agenda), followed by a networking reception Tuesday evening May 5 for both partners and customers, while the customer portion of the event runs May 6-7 (agenda).  Existing or potential business partners and existing or potential customers may still register for the event, which starts today.  (Media and analysts may also register at the same page.)  It’s obvious that a lot of planning went into this year’s version of the event, which draws attendees nationally and features speakers from partner firms, from Compellent itself, and from some major technology vendors. In addition, industry analysts are among the attendees, and members of the technology press are moderating two panels.

Innovation in a Time of Accelerating Change

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booksAsk people what the word “innovation” means to them and you’ll hear such phrases as, “…it’s all about making processes more efficient” or “…brainstorming new ideas and implementing them” or “…ways in which we can disrupt and leapfrog our competitors.” Clearly there are many ways to think about the process of innovation, but almost never do you hear entrepreneurs, business analysts or corporate strategists openly discussing the rate of change that’s occurring…

…and how that rate of change is accelerating exponentially….  [Read More…]

On Minnov8’s Radar…

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radar

Several items hit the radar today worthy of posting and a few from discussion at this morning’s enjoyable and informative Social Media Breakfast:

Bloggers, particularly moms, are an audience of such growing importance to General Mills that the consumer-goods company has built a formal network to feed them free products and enable them to run giveaways for their audiences.

MyBlogSpark has recruited more than 900 bloggers — over 80 percent are moms — to register to be eligible for everything from sampling campaigns to product coupons to news of a new ad campaign. General Mills plans to use the network to promote its wide portfolio of products in the food and beverage, beauty, home, electronics, health and automotive categories.

Ideas Project: A Resource for Innovators

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ideasprojectOn our respective journeys heading toward a world where the internet is at the heart of connection, communication, commerce, work, play, education, healthcare and so much more, it’s an incredible delight to come across a site like the Ideas Project, described by them as, “…an entirely new way to connect with some of the most visionary and influential thought leaders in communications technology and their disruptive ideas. A project of Nokia, hosted at www.ideasproject.com, IdeasProject brings together these important big thinkers to contemplate the big ideas that matter most to the future of communications, joining them up through video clips, links, articles, podcasts and dynamic maps to push the boundaries of Web navigation and the thought process itself.”

Top thought leaders in a variety of spaces are brought together — aggregated, really, since it appears most media is hosted elsewhere — and there are big ideas for you whether you’re in a Fortune 100 corporation or are a startup.

At Minnov8, we’re constantly hunting for internet and web-centric resources that will help you persuade and motivate your colleagues, investors, bosses, (or spouses if need be), that this ‘internet thingy’ is actually the greatest shift any of us will live through in our lifetime. To get a taste of what the Ideas Project is offering with innovation ideas, here are two videos you might find as interesting as I did…   …  [Read More…]