Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

UnSummit ’08…More Than a Summit Alternative

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As noted on it’s website, “UnSummit 2008 is an technology+marketing conference created to serve those unable to get tickets to the the MIMA Summit on Oct. 1, 2008.” Though maybe not the intent of organizer Don Ball, it was also for those who didn’t want to pop for the rather spendy registration fee for said MIMA Summit, simply didn’t want to go, or were drawn to a more intimate setting. Whatever the motivation, the daylong event held at the Local Pub in Minneapolis was quite the success.

The day was set in the increasingly popular “unconference” format where the agenda naturally evolves around a given topic or question. Some fifty interactive and social media enthusiasts spent the day addressing a wide range of topics. Three separate “spaces” played host to discussion and presentations on How Traditional Agencies Can Move to Digital, Social Media Reality Check, New Possibilities in Video, Marketing Heresies, Community Management 101,The Future of PR, and a  session addressing the lofty goal of Measuring ROI of Social Media…nope, we didn’t quite figure that one out. Dang!

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Innovation 2008

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Here’s an announcement of a conference that’s not specifically focused on internet and web technology, but instead is one that undoubtedly would be of interest to Minnov8 readers, people who compete and participate in areas in which policy and thought leadership set the course.

This conference, held on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota, will bring together academicians, policy makers, business leaders, scientists, educators, artists, students and the public to discuss solutions to the major challenges facing the United States revolving around science and technology policy, including innovation, energy security and sustainability, health sciences policy, and our ongoing economic competitiveness in a high-tech, highly-educated global marketplace.  

The goal of Innovation 2008 is to bring scientists together with policymakers and the public, to help move the United States toward policies that are better informed by scientific realities, and to help scientists, engineers and the scientific community as a whole become more engaged in the political process.  The conference will also explore ways to bridge the divide between science and the broader culture as a way to broaden public appreciation of science.

Learn more and register here.

Visi: A Minnesota Provider Growing to Meet Demand

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Visi logoVisi, a company many of us are familiar with since their founding in 1994, is Minnesota’s largest locally-owned managed hosting and connectivity provider (11,000 business and residential customers which includes thousands of DSL customers). What most don’t know is that they’re expanding right here in Eden Prairie, with a Tier III data center, in order to meet growing demand.

A Tier III data center has 99.982% uptime, backup power, and other infrastructure that ensure mission-critical serving continues with only minor downtime (To learn more about data center tiers, view this article or this PDF from Minnesota telecom company, ADC).

As the awareness and creation of composite applications (i.e., mashups), Software as a Service (SaaS), web applications, mobile smartphone delivery and other internet-connected accelerates here in Minnesota and anywhere else an internet connection is found, it’s a business imperative to have access to world-class infrastructure as well as the service and support necessary to meet our hosting needs.

Beyond that imperative lies something that few understand, let alone have created strategies to meet and exceed expectations: performance and user experience.

When more and more of us either use or deliver applications that have connections to multiple served applications (e.g., your website also serves a forum, wiki, blog, and applications), performance is always critical. But in a Web 2.0 day when data resides in multiple locations; web applications have functionality delivered by multiple providers in different geographies; and people’s expectations are for immediate access to the cloud with snappy performance; a provider that understands the entire chain from you to the cloud and back is a choice to consider relying on.

Fortunately we have a key provider right here in Minnesota that “gets it” and they’re growing and expanding to meet demand, performance expectations and the increasing online emphasis by Minnesotans.

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Mashup Best Buy

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Best Buy has released Remix at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City, allowing anyone to create a mashup with Best Buy online catalog content. An application programming interface (API) — documented though light on code or examples — allows queries into Best Buy’s online catalog and results to be returned from those queries.

As they say on their site, “Remix is an API that gives you access to BestBuy.com’s product catalog data. What you do with it is up to you.”

Really? I’d assume that some sort of terms of service would be forthcoming. 

Joshua Michele Ross over at O’Reilly Radar (O’Reilly is the brain trust behind the Expo), has this excellent post about the import of Best Buy doing this:

“Best Buy is thinking much more strategically about the value of the Internet by allowing anyone to reinvent their entire online store. With “access to all the data that feeds Bestbuy.com” imagine the potential of creating your own, curated site on top of Best Buy’s catalog and supply chain. Imagine top Blue Shirts running their own online stores with select merchandise that they stand behind or imagine a thousand home-theater geeks and “go-to-guys” (and girls) extending their expertise and word-of-mouth via their own online stores.” 

I’ll throw in one more: imagine you run a price comparison site that allows an online shopper to instantly compare pricing to another (though this can be done with screen scraping, but this API makes it much easier).

I must say that with BlueShirtNation, their prediction markets, what we experienced over at the Social Media Breakfast (specifically with this video), I grow more impressed by the week with the calculated risk, openness and forward-thinking this retailer is pursuing. Kudos Best Buy.

Moodle Makes Its Mark

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Moodle at the UofMN graphicToday’s accelerating adoption of open source software (OSS), and the shift from desktop to web applications increasingly built on top of OSS, is being embraced by individuals, the non-profit sector, small, midsize, and even enterprise businesses.

As more of us get connected via the internet and through web applications, seek ways to make our collaboration more powerful, shift our old serial and linear processes to ones that are parallel and associative, OSS is a key building block of internet and web technologies and applications. OSS is also gaining momentum globally and affecting all industries and institutions, even educational ones. 

That said, educational institutions often lag the private sector in adopting new technologies until proven, especially the Kindergarten through senior high school (K-12) levels. K-12 is often seen as risk-averse and needing clarity about the efficacy and pedagogy of using any particular technology. It must be proven and the benefits to learning and student achievement crystal clear before any technology is implemented, especially OSS. 

On the flip side, higher education is a hotbed of OSS use and many projects have origins in colleges and universities. One could argue that our public institutions taking risks, researching new possibilities, and pushing against the membrane of the future is at least as important as their educational mission and has contributed code and thought leadership in OSS. 

Though I’ve been aware of the OSS learning management system called “Moodle” (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) for some time, I was both delighted at what I discovered at the U of MN and surprised (stunned might be the better word) by its adoption within Eden Prairie schools where my son attends high school.

There are lessons in this story for all of us about how two very different educational organizations recognized that collaboration, human connection, and the move to parallel and associative learning is at the core of education going forward, and took calculated risk with the OSS Moodle to meet new needs.

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Social Media Breakfast at Best Buy

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The Twin Cities Social Media Breakfast group met today at Best Buy Headquarters to connect about social media and to hear from our hosts who’ve created Blueshirtnation, Giftag and something we hadn’t heard about before, Spy (video of Best Buy’s Spy in the lobby of Best Buy HQ is after the jump).

Social Media Breakfast’s Rick Mahn was the emcee and did a great job keeping it moving. While you can read many of the tweets from today here and draw some conclusions, suffice to say that Best Buy is doing one thing in social media and doing it well: they’re on the field and playing the game.

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MN’s Own CodeWeavers Releases ‘CrossOver’ Version of Chrome Browser for Mac and Linux

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Talk about a brilliant move to get some attention. St. Paul-MN based CodeWeavers has extended the Google Chromium browser launch beyond Windows by announcing the release of “CrossOver Chromium” for Mac and Linux, available immediately as a free download.   Here’s the press release. (Note: To date, Google has only made the new browser available in a Windows beta version, which was announced on September 2, 2008.)

CodeWeavers says it is offering its version as a proof-of-concept “so Mac and Linux users can try firsthand the power and flexibility of the new Chromium open source browser.”  CrossOver Chromium also showcases the power of Wine, which allows CodeWeavers to rapidly migrate technology from Windows to alternate platforms. (Here’s more about The Wine Project.)

“We did this to prove a point,” said Jeremy White, CodeWeavers CEO, in the press release. “The message is very simply this: if you are a Windows software vendor, and you want to get your product into new markets, you should pay attention to Wine. Wine is a very powerful tool for bringing your product to new audiences in the Mac and Linux spaces. And in many cases Wine is faster and more economical than doing a native port.”

You have to love White’s latest blog post, Fire Drills and Proving a Point, which tells the story of how they pulled off their Chrome version.  An excerpt: “So in a CodeWeavers management meeting one day, we were looking for a way to show off Wine’s new maturity, particularly for porting applications.  What we needed was a freely redistributable application; one that didn’t exist on Mac or Linux, but one that was readily understandable….And then a little bird flew in the Window and chirped ‘Chromium’, and we knew we had it.”

CodeWeavers is no upstart. Founded in 1996, it brings expanded market opportunities for Windows software developers by making it easier, faster, and more painless to port Windows software to Linux. The firm is recognized as a leader in open-source Windows porting technology, and maintains development offices in Minnesota, the UK, and elsewhere around the world.

This announcement is just another example of the creativity and expertise in Minnesota’s developer community. Congratulations to CodeWeavers! I can hardy wait to hear how hard their site will get hit today with Mac and Linux users all trying to download the browser at the same time. Glad I got in early and got mine!  It will also be interesting to watch for Google’s reaction. I gathered that a Mac version was still quite a ways off, and here CodeWeavers does it in a week…   🙂

Best Buy Acquires Napster

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Best Buy and Napster logosBest Buy has entered into a definitive merger agreement to commence a tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of the troubled Napster for $121 million, or $2.65 per share.

According to the joint press release, “The proposed acquisition includes Napster’s approximately 700,000 digital entertainment subscribers, its Web-based customer service platform, and innovative mobile capabilities. In conjunction with the definitive merger agreement, Napster CEO Chris Gorog and key members of senior management of Napster have entered into employment agreements, effective at closing, pursuant to which they have agreed to continue as the Napster leadership post-acquisition.”

With Best Buy’s acquisition last year of Speakeasy, minority investment in, and partnership with, video sharing company Mydeo, along with the $2.1 billion stake in European mobile retail juggernaut Carphone Warehouse, the company is clearly and strategically positioning themselves to be a leader in digital distribution.

The press release is after the jump and the Napster SEC filing is here.

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3M Unveils Handheld Projector

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3M\'s new handheld projectorImagine you are expecting to present to an investor, a customer or a single client, and several people show up? You could have everyone crowd around your laptop and hope to see what you’re presenting, or instead you could pull this tiny 3M projector out of your briefcase or backpack and ensure everyone could see and make a much bigger impact.

I carry a small Panasonic Lumix camera with video capture capability with me at all times. Also in my briefcase is my M-Audio Microtrack recorder and I’ve frequently pulled it out for instant interviewing. Too often I’ve been in situations where a projector like this would’ve come in extremely handy and I’d definitely have one with me if something this small was available.

Popular Science (PopSci), having a pre-release version of this projector, agreed to wait until launch in the US, but 3M’s German subsidiary apparently beat their US counterparts to launch. PopSci does have the ‘official’ 3M press photograph on their site (the one above), and I’d encourage you to read their informative post here.

More intriguing to me, however, is that this projector appears to work in fairly bright ambient light. If you’d like to see a couple of videos of a pre-release prototype from January of this year (and it’s pretty tough to get a true feel for the quality with YouTube videos shot with a camcorder!), take a peek at this PopSci article.

At the stated price-point of $359, I predict this little gadget is going to sell like crazy.

Damn the Airfare: Pokeware Takes Global Approach

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At one of last years MinneDemo events I had the chance to see Founder and CEO, Maryse Thomas present Pokeware, a system for integrating “hot spots” in video that allows users to pause and “poke” around the screen. According to the company line, Pokeware is a unique online company that integrates video content and contextual advertising. See a car in the video, click on it, and you’ll instantly find out what it is. See a dress you like, click it and find out where you can buy it and for how much. It was one of the more compelling presentations of the evening and piqued the interest of many. I had a chance to speak with Maryse following her presentation last year, and at that time Pokeware had already launched a beta test with the National Basketball Association. I was anxious to catch up with her and see how Pokeware has progressed since.

Ms. Thomas, a hardcore road warrior and globetrotter, was not the easiest to person to catch up with for an interview. Though Pokeware is based in Edina, we traded emails and phone calls between here and London, a cab in New York and somewhere in LA. Why the constant travel? According to Thomas, all for relationship building.“We found that there were many who were interested in building a similar type of system and felt that we would be better off securing strong, long term relationships with content providers and partners.” says Thomas. The intention was to hold off on showcasing the technology.

To help them do it, Thomas dropped this: “The biggest news is that Tommy Mottola is joining our team,” not hiding her enthusiasm.

If you are not aware of him, Tommy Mottola‘s resume includes a solid and successful career in the music industry. Outside of that community, many will recognize him from the likes of Entertainment Tonight, as head of Sony Music Entertainment, and more glamorously as the former husband of Mariah Carey. Thomas noted that Tommy is “very excited about the prospects of Pokeware” and will focus on helping her shore up those all important relationships.

Who are some of those relationships she’s cultivating? To name a few: the TV, publishing, book, home icon, Martha Stewart; Channel 4 in London (and the reason for her trip to the UK), the firm known best for the Big Brother reality series and Outside Line who will be selling Pokeware in the UK. In addition, Pokeware recently signed an exclusive agreement with the German company St. Elmo’s as a partner in Europe.

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