Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang 120 – Is the Cloud our Idol?

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Now that Amazon’s cloud computing infrastructure had a catastrophic failure this week and Apple was revealed to be storing location data on iPhones and iPads (see: Apple collecting, sharing iPhone users’ precise locations and our Sen Al Franken asking Steve Jobs what’s up), how can we bet our businesses on the cloud and trust that companies aren’t stomping on our privacy? Or is neither one of these any big deal?

At the same time the cloud is stumbling toward its future like a toddler trying to walk in daddy’s shoes, there is no question that toddler is going to grow in to an adult and is doing so very rapidly. One area accelerating is in education and finding ways to leverage the cloud (and an explosion in internet connectivity globally) in new and exciting ways. One such organization is Sophia and our show guest is Taylor Pettis, Manager of marketing communications at Sophia Learning. Taylor talks about their non and for profit adventure, how they’re redefining education, and leveraging the ‘net for crowdsourced course development in fundamentally new and innovative ways.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil “Philly Idol” Wilson.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 47:52 — 27.9MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnov8 Gang 84: Seeing Opportunities for Innovation

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This week’s show theme surrounds seeing opportunities for innovation. We explore many of the events, conferences, and moves made in web and internet technology and also dwell on all the collective energy being expended in Minnesota (e.g., MHTA; MNCup; MOJO MN; Minnedemo/Minnebar; Minnov8; tech.mn). driving toward one thing: sparking innovation in Minnesota. Is it working? What more can be done?

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott & Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off dealing with his woody).
Music by Andre Bisson and the song, “I’m leavin’” from Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:22 — 34.5MB)

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Discussed During the Show:

Minnov8 Gang 80: Minne-this, Minne-that

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This week’s show comes to you from Minnebar 2010 held at the headquarters of Best Buy. We talk about Thursday’s MOJO MN event, Friday’s Social Media Breakfast and Saturday’s Minnebar. Huge turnout (no final count but at least 500 were there) and big thanks to Best Buy’s Geek Squad Chief Inspector, Robert Stephens, who made this such a smashing success and, of course, to the herculean efforts of event visionaries and organizers Ben Edwards and Luke Francl.

Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson, and our guest Erik Blakkestad.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 26:29 — 16.4MB)

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Minnov8 Gang 79: The Facebookers

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The Facebook privacy controversy continues to heat up. In fact, as of May 2010, the Better Business Bureau gave Facebook a D rating, stating “We have enough concerns about this company (for example, their offer, customer complaints, advertising, etc.) that we recommend caution in doing business with it.” To bring another perspective in to the podcast, our guest this week is Tom Borgerding, CEO of Campus Media Group, an organization that assists brands with leveraging Facebook and other new media.

Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music by Kahuna Kawentzmann w/tune, “Late Bird” from podsafe Music Alley.
Modified image based on the James Bond 007 knockoff from the 1960s, the Matt Helm movies series starring Dean Martin.

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The Podcast

Podcast (m8-audio): Download (Duration: 1:07:49 — 41.2MB)

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:07:49 — 41.2MB)

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Links discussed during the show:

MinneSpark Has $1,000 (Potentially) For You

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MinneSpark is an initiative from the team that brings you MinneDemo and MinneBar

What could you do with $1,000 for your best idea? Could you turn it into a scalable business? Let’s find out!

MinneSpark will award 1 to n grants of $1,000 to Minnesota-based teams who demonstrate to their trustees the ability to take that money and turn it into something real. This is about doing more with less, and building a profitable business from day one.

Winners will get some help along the way in the form of mentoring from the trustees and services from sponsors.

Applications are due by April 30, 2010. Winner(s) will be announced at MinneBar on May 22, 2010. Find the FAQ, application and more here.

Minnov8 Gang 60: Staying Ahead of the Storm in 2010

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MainThis week’s show is about possibilities with tablets, predictions made by an analyst firm, and a hodge-podge of stuff discussed by the Minnov8 Gang.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Endlouz and the tune is, “Bad Advice” (Disclaimer: This was NOT chosen as an indictment on the commentary by the Gang!)

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:32 — 32.8MB)

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Discussed during the show:

+ Clove (by Spice Apps)
+ Analyst Noise on the Apple Tablet
+ IDC predictions for 2010
+ Minnebar
+ Mary Meeker’s Internet presentation at Web 2.0 Summit (video)
+ Jolicloud, Google Chrome OS
+ Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul (SMBMSP)
+ Don Ball and his new collaboration workspace concept (announcement; pictures; pricing)
+ Overnight Website Challenge (please note the AWESOME faux dot matrix printer feed on the page…nice job nerds!)
+ Chuck Olsen (@Chuckumentary) in Copenhagen and here is TheUptake
+ 91st PGA Tournament at Hazeltine in Chaska and hundreds of Tiger Woods jokes.

Minnov8 Gang 59: Live from Minnebar

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minnebarTwo of the four Gang members made it to Minnebar at the headquarters of Best Buy this past Saturday. All feedback was it was a fabulous event and Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson recorded this week’s podcast live at the event.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 28:11 — 16.3MB)

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Minnov8 Gang 58: Defragging Defrag & Other ‘Net Stuff

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DeFrag-n-stuff After our week hiatus, the Minnov8 Gang is back at it with a podcast covering Graeme Thickins’ trip to the DeFrag conference and his liveblogging of it. After that we discuss local events (e.g., Minnebar), WCCO, WordPress and much more.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music by blues singer Candy Kayne and the tune is, “I’m a bad, bad girl.”

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:09 — 33.2MB)

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Discussed during the show notes:

+ WCCO‘s “The Wire” & their iPhone app by DoApp and Inergize Digital (iTunes link; search in Android store for “WCCO”; or use mobile website at m.wcco.com)

+ WordPress Users Group meeting on December 3rd at 6:30pm

+ Minnebar at Best Buy HQ (sold out) and the sessions

+ Google buys Gizmo5; Toktumi; Google page speed article; Newsy

+ Android and GoogleChromeOS which, by the way, rumor has it will launch within a week.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 23

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m8-silverliningsThis Gang podcast is called “Silver Linings,” and we focus on good news, where your possibilities reside, how to create a different mindset and attitude about your current situation…and what action we all can take to move forward!!

One favorite meme about our current situation discussed is, “the world is undergoing an economic reboot”. In a nutshell, here’s our choice: Focus on the bad news, continued negative reports on poor economic indicators, and sit and do nothing (or continue on with business-as-usual as if nothing has happened). Or…look at this as an opportunity to grab market share, reinvent your business, or accelerate your startup.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:54 — 24.3MB)

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ANNOUNCEMENTS
+ MinneDemo will be live-streamed over uStream…and Minnov8 will be conducting video interviews there and we’ll then be delivering both the recorded live stream and our interviews here at Minnov8 as quickly as we can post-production done and them posted.

LINKS

  • That user generated YouTube Trader Joe’s ad mentioned by Tim Elliott is here
  • The group Phil is involved with as their new Director, The Association for Downloadable Media, whose mission surrounds providing standards for advertising and audience measurement for episodic and downloadable media. If you’re an individual podcaster, media company, publisher, syndication company, distributor offering downloadable media, advertising agency, marketer, technology supplier, hardware and software manufacturer of portable media products and services, market research firm or audience and advertising effectiveness measurement company, you’ll undoubtedly want to join.
  • Sprout, iWidgets, TubeMogul and Vimeo.

Minnesota’s Internet Tech Crowd Flexes Its Muscle

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If one had any doubt about the intensity of our state’s information technology and Internet community, one only had to be anywhere inside the U’s Coffman Union on Saturday for the third annual Minnebar “unconference” (part of an international phenomenon called Barcamp). To say the joint was a-jumpin’ simply does not suffice. And numbers alone don’t tell the story (though attendance was an event record at 430). Rather, it was the intensity of energy through the entire day that could only impress one about this somewhat quiet, and definitely underrated, sector of Minnesota’s economy.

I was there for at least 12 hours of the event — yes, it went on that long, and no one was complaining — and I can surely say that even the most skeptical of attendees who sacrificed part of their spring weekend were impressed with what they experienced, and left beaming with an elevated sense of pride in the industry they’re a part of. One needs only to scan the voluminous talk that went on in real-time — thanks to the magic of Twitter, and all archived here — to see that something big was happening in the Gopher state on this rainy fishing-opener Saturday. (In fact, Minnebar was ranked during the day as one of the top-five conversations going on in the entire, global “Twitterverse.”)…  [Read More…]