What struck us after the show recording was how far the world has come with technology since that shows debut in 1960…in black & white. Rotary dial phones, cooking only on stoves (what, no microwave?), and a community isolated due to the slow movement of communications (huh? no internet?), we’ve come a long way.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson as “Floyd the Barber” (Graeme Thickins is off this week).

Discussed during the show:

• Bing deepens Facebook integration, connecting searchers with friends and New Bing calls on Facebook and Twitter to beat Google’s Search Plus Your World and Head-To-Head: Bing’s Social Search Vs. Google’s Search Plus Your World
• Apple reportedly dropping Google Maps, launching new 3D mapping service in iOS 6 and Apple’s Coming Map App Will “Blow Your Head Off”
• Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History? and Samsung Galaxy S III and The Samsung Galaxy S III: The First Smartphone Designed Entirely By Lawyers and HTC One X & S and HTC EVO 4G LTE
• Pebble smart watch sells out and The Vergecast 030 (Pebble founder interview)
• Apple making a $799 Air in fear of ultrabooks? Nope
• OpenStreetMap
• Confirmed: European mobile data roaming costs to fall 
• Bluetooth 4 

Upcoming Events:

• May 18-19: DrupalCamp Twin Cities
• May 21st: Predictive Analytics Forum, Medtronic’s Mounds View Campus
• May 22nd: Collaborative tech.2012 
• May 24th: MSP WordPress User Group Meeting at 7pm, The Nerdery
• June 1-2: Duluth Android BarCamp, Duluth Convention Center
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center
• Weekly: TechMasters is a new Toastmasters chapter in Twin Cities for tech professionals

Press to Play Podcast:	Link to Podcast (mp3)

Minnov8 Gang 168 – Goober says “Hey!” is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

This is a brilliant move on the part of the University, especially when you consider the accelerating cost of a higher education as well as the increasing demand to for students to have textbooks they can view on multiple digital devices. With this payment motivator for professors, the University is clearly working to align the incentives of professors with those of a concerted effort on the part of higher education institutions to move toward an open textbook and open courseware.

Below is an infographic from OnlineSchools.org that will give you a glimpse in to the drivers behind the open textbook and open source books movement.

Via: Online Schools

U of MN Paying Professors $500 to Review Open Textbooks is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

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

Discussed during the show:

• Target, Unhappy With Being an Amazon Showroom, Will Stop Selling Kindles and Apple expected to expand store-within-store presence at Walmart, Target and iPad Renews Tablet Dominance as Kindle Fire Sales Drop Like a Rock 
• With 8.8% market share, Apple has 73% of cell phone profits and The phone market in 2012: a tale of two disruptions
• Tablet market: NPD says Apple will lose quarter of tablet market by 2017
• Microsoft Makes $300M Investment In New Barnes & Noble Subsidiary
• Best Buy Deathwatch: Best Buy marketing exec Barry Judge resigns and Executive in charge of China becomes latest to leave Best Buy and Best Buy to Expand Bloomington Facility, Add Workers
• 93% of in-store app users make purchase in physical location
• The $399 iPad 2 boasts better battery life, says report  
• Tokyo “virtual” shopping and Near Field Communication
• Michael Arrington, CEO of Yahoo? 
• Pocket 

Upcoming Events:

• May 18-19: DrupalCamp Twin Cities
• May 21st: Predictive Analytics Forum, Medtronic’s Mounds View Campus
• May 22nd: Collaborative tech.2012 
• May 24th: MSP WordPress User Group Meeting at 7pm, The Nerdery
• June 1-2: Duluth Android BarCamp, Duluth Convention Center
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center
• Weekly: TechMasters is a new Toastmasters chapter in Twin Cities for tech professionals

Press to Play Podcast:	Link to Podcast (mp3)

Minnov8 Gang 167 – The Mod Squad is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

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

Discussed during the show:

• SaaS Camp Recap 
• MHTA Spring Conference
• Google Drive: Introducing Google Drive… yes, really and Google Set to Meld GDrive With Chrome OS
• Best Buy Deathwatch: Is Best Buy’s Future An Online Showroom? and 7 Reasons Best Buy Won’t Be Around in 7 Years
• Gang Tech Talk: Klout vs. Klouchebag and What Your Klout Score Really Means and Rohn Jay Miller’s The Myth of Digital Influence
• Etsy 3D Printed Products
• Co.lab opening doors for Duluth techies, and then some

Upcoming Events:

• May 18-19: DrupalCamp Twin Cities
• May 22nd: Collaborative tech.2012 
• May 24th: MSP WordPress User Group Meeting at 7pm, The Nerdery
• May 21st: Predictive Analytics Forum, Medtronic’s Mounds View Campus
• June 1-2: Duluth Android BarCamp, Duluth Convention Center
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center
• Weekly: TechMasters is a new Toastmasters chapter in Twin Cities for tech professionals

Press to Play Podcast:	Link to Podcast (MP3)

Minnov8 Gang 166 – Print Me Some Coffee is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

The event was conceived and conducted completely by Lief Larson, CEO and founder of Workface Inc., with assistance from a couple of his team members. Workface is a growing startup in Minneapolis that itself developed a SaaS offering it now markets widely, which it calls a “customer engagement platform.” I was extremely impressed with the breadth and depth of the content Lief pulled together for this event. It included a extensive look at market data for SaaS in the U.S. and globally, monetization strategies and practices, selling to the enterprise, negotiating contracts, increasing adoption and retention of your app, marketing your app, creating a channel to sell your app, financing and funding a SaaS business, training your SaaS customer, and ongoing monitoring of your SaaS business. On top of all this, Lief related some really excellent stories throughout the workshop about his journey in funding and building Workface.

I had a chance to follow up with Lief afterwards to get some further perspective on the story behind SaaSCamp… 

Q: Lief, why did you decide to do the event? 

Lief:  I’ve had a great group of mentors who have helped me during my entrepreneurial journey and I try to pay it forward by helping other young businesses and entrepreneurs to find success.  A few of my “mentees” are building applications that are software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings and asked that I consider putting on an event.  That’s why I created SaaSCamp 2012 — to bring together like-minded people working on SaaS.  I think the event is already bigger than me, and I’m hoping the community will take it and run with it. 

Q: In saying you’d like to turn SaaSCamp into a regular event, how often do you mean? 

Lief:  I think meeting up once a quarter or some greater level of frequency is important to stay current with new ideas and best practices in SaaS, but a larger annual event is a must.

Q: Why did you do it as a small, paid event, rather than use the barcamp or unconference model (sponsor-supported, with free attendance), like CloudCamp and so many others? 

Lief:  Whether you’re doing a sponsor-supported or attendee-supported model, the reality is that there are costs for hosting an event.  CoCo Minneapolis gave us a great deal, but they too needed to bring in people and security.  When you do a day-long event, people need to eat and drink.  Having a sponsored model takes some of the objectivity away, plus we don’t have a big list of providers who are focused on sponsoring the SaaS community (yet).  I think this will change over time. In any case, we analyzed the anticipated costs of the event, and used that to be the guide for what to charge for tickets.  Plus, having a cost/value relationship, in my humble opinion, ensures that you keep the event focused on the right type of attendees and preserve a focused and more intimate experience.  We’ve all been to those conferences that are a free-for-all and you often get a heavier mix of vendors that are simply coming to spend a day trying to sell to the attendees.  We had zero selling going on at our event, but rather a 100% focus on how to grow and improve your SaaS business.  SaaSCamp had a 100% money-back guarantee to ensure that the $200 ticket price was a non-consideration in the value received.  If/when the event has more attendees, I anticipate the ticket price will drop through economies of scale.

Q: You mentioned to me that you believe “we have the best place in the world to build a SaaS company here in Minnesota.”  Can’t it be done anywhere?

Lief:  Technically, a SaaS business can be built from anywhere. But I think for highly successful SaaS businesses to get off the ground, it is better positioned in a market where the cost of doing business is relatively low, and the technical talent base to execute against the opportunity is high.  Silicon Valley is well-positioned in terms of financing, but it’s also a very expensive place to build a business and the most competitive technology talent market in the world.  There’s no place in the world I’d rather be building my SaaS company than right here in Minneapolis.  We’ve found highly qualified engineers and programmers, incredible business support, affordable living and reasonable business overhead costs, and we’re well situated for travel to the east or west coasts.  Plus, we have more Fortune 500 companies per capita here than anywhere else in the U.S.  We’re well represented in terms of small, medium, and large companies to sell into. 

Q: What’s the latest with Workface, and what can you tell us about your upcoming plans?

Lief:  Like many SaaS companies, we’ve found a way to scale the business without dramatic headcount additions to the company.  That’s why SaaS businesses can become highly profitable when they scale.  Workface has only 7 full-time employees, 2 part-time, and the rest of our business is accomplished through our contingent force, which includes 16 contractors.  We currently service more than 110,000 users and count companies like Intuit and AAA as customers.  Though our revenues are scaling and we’ve seen double-digit month over month growth, we’re continuing to bring private and institutional capital into Workface for growing our market penetration.  The visibility to ROI with SaaS is usually spread out over a longer time horizon (incremental monthly recurring revenue vs. selling on premise all in one big chunk).  As such, we anticipate taking on outside capital for some time to come.

——–

Disclosure:  Lief Larson is a former client and, I fully admit, one of my favorite serial tech entrepreneurs in this town.

Funny story:  Lief and I traveled to Palo Alto a couple years ago for a conference where Lief was pitching to the Silicon Valley VC community, along with a bunch of other hot startups, and sharing the stage with speakers like the founders of Salesforce and SuccessFactors. We stayed in a funky old, ’60s-vintage Travelodge motel — about as low-priced as we could find in Palo Alto. After we checked in to our respective rooms, we both went online to work. First thing I see is an email from Lief with a photo attached of this gorgeous, expansive hotel room, saying, “Wow, I hope your room is as nice as mine.” I never laughed so hard, because I could hardly turn around in my dinky little room.

Minnesota: A Great Place to Be for SaaS Companies is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Question:

Answer: All have formally or through their employees been recruiting in Minnesota in the past year. There are at least another half dozen well funded Silicon Valley startups doing the same.

(hold on… I am waiting for that to sink in for a moment)

With IT unemployment less than 2%, companies of all sizes from the Fortune 500 to the smallest of startups are recognizing that recruiting in Minnesota has been challenging.

For some the challenge has been a nuisance but not an impossible task.

For others… not having appropriate staff levels is costing business.

To set the stage a little bit, it is important to know that for many in IT, the “Great Recession” was a non-event. 

Most .Net and Java developers were aware of what was going on but were not impacted by the economy. If their company was in trouble and let some folks go, most found jobs within days or weeks.

Around March of 2010, the Minnesota IT job market came off the bottom and, since then, we have experienced a series of upticks and plateaus in hiring.

Has this gradual but persistent increase in hiring created a “war for talent” in Minnesota?

I think “war” is too extreme. Skirmish might be better, and I have seen a few “battles” the past weeks.

Paul DeBettignies

Will we get to a “war”… yeah, I think so. We are essentially back to peak employment levels of November 2007. For those who remember, hiring back then it was very competitive.

In recent months we have seen a number of tech companies, funded startups, and web development shops hiring full-time internal recruiters. Others are bringing in contract recruiters to help ramp up projects and build talent pools.

Many are taking to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Most, however, are doing nothing more than they did two years ago, and it will not surprise you that I think that is a losing strategy.

Som take a step back… think about how your company is doing in recruiting new team members and ask yourself this question… how are you doing?

Are you competing and being aggressive?  Or are you sitting back, waiting for folks to come to you?

If the former, congratulations and keep it up.

If the latter, good luck. You will need it.

Paul DeBettignies is Vice President of Recruiting for HireCast Consulting and can be reached at paul (at) hirecastconsulting (dot) com.

The War for Talent: Are Minnesota Tech Companies and Startups Ready? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: “Sugar Rush” by Beau Hall from the podsafe Music Alley

Discussed during the show:

• Is Kickstarter the new VC? Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android and Forget the money: Kickstarter turns Pebble into a platform
• Is it becoming TOO easy to be tracked online and, especially, with our smartphones? If You Have a Smart Phone, Anyone Can Now Track Your Every Move and 2006 AOL data search results leak and NYTimes: A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749
• Will It Blend
• StarTribune: Lean Times for Venture Capitalists 
• Indiegogo
• Kickstarter technology projects already funded 
• Bluetooth 4.0 
• Graffiti for Android
• Project Glass
• Naked TSA Protests Lead to Arrests, Mental Evaluations and Oregon Man Strips Down to Protest TSA 

Upcoming Events:

• April 21st: SaaS Class: Software-as-a-Service Smarts (SaaS Camp 2012) at CoCo Mpls
• April 25th: MSP WordPress User Group Meeting at 7pm, The Nerdery
• April 25th: MHTA Spring Conference, Minneapolis Convention Center
• May 21st: Predictive Analytics Forum, Medtronic’s Mounds View Campus
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center
• Weekly: TechMasters is a new Toastmasters chapter in Twin Cities for tech professionals

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 165 – So, Lumia 900, why is your software half-baked? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: “Johnnys Deathray Boogie” by Johnny Nicholas from the podsafe Music Alley

Guest Segment: We were pleased to have on the always delightful and incredibly mobile knowledgeable Lisa Foote, CEO and Co-Founder of MixMobi (Twitter)

Discussed during the show:

• Best Buy’s Brian Dunn out: Best Buy: Dunn Is Done; Is The Retailer Doomed, Too? and Why Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn Had To Quit and Best Buy: CEO Brian Dunn resigns over ‘personal conduct’ issue and Cringley’s article on why Best Buy is Doomed
• Is Instagram Really Worth $1B? Really? Facebook and Instagram: Made for Each Other and Insta-rich: How Instagram became a $1-billion company in 18 months and Instagram and Facebook: the next tech bubble?
• Does Windows Phone Have Any Chance Of Market Traction? Nokia, AT&T launch the Lumia 900 amid few lines, strong buzz and Windows Phone will only account for 2% of app downloads in 2012, firm says
• 11 Startups That Could Get Bought For $1 Billion Tomorrow
• Apple’s New WYSIWYG App Development Tool for iOS? Will Apple’s patent granted Thursday enable app development for the masses? 
• Minnebar 2012 sessions
• Jason Calcanis post about Apple as trillion dollar company due to payments
• Tim Elliott’s team (Full Court WordPress) non-profit site built during the Overnight Website Challenge: New site; Old site

Upcoming Events:

• April (various dates): dSchool at CoCo 
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• April 21st: SaaS Class: Software-as-a-Service Smarts (SaaS Camp 2012) at CoCo Mpls
• April 25th: MSP WordPress User Group Meeting at 7pm, The Nerdery
• April 25th: MHTA Spring Conference, Minneapolis Convention Center
• May 21st: Predictive Analytics Forum, Medtronic’s Mounds View Campus
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center
• Weekly: TechMasters is a new Toastmasters chapter in Twin Cities for tech professionals

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 164 – One BILLION dollars!?! is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Do you know why some people are 1 to 4% Neandertal?

The discovery of modern day humans with some neandertal DNA came as a surprise to many in the scientific community (especially when you consider that most depictions of neandertals show them as very ugly and that “mixing DNA” meant modern-looking humans back then were having sex with these knuckle-draggers!).

It came as a surprise to me too, not because some other people have this DNA within them, but because I have had my DNA profile created by 23andMe and recently discovered that my genetics contain an estimated 2.5% neandertal DNA. Maybe that’s why I have a thick protruding forehead and think about living in a cave!  ;-)

“Your Inner Neandertal” is a 30 minute presentation showing how art can uniquely express science concepts and why some of us may find a little “Neander” in our genes. With examples from “At the Crossroads” video and her very cool DNA Portrait traveling show, Lynn will explain how some genes may be a surprising and generous gift from our ancient and now extinct cousins (and this I gotta hear).

Saturday, April 28th at 11 am
Minneapolis Downtown Hennepin Library
This keynote talk for Minneapolis DNA Days
is free and open to the public. Please register (go here).
For more information, parking and directions (go here).

More DNA Days events at area libraries (info here) will cover topics like genetic testing and screening, capturing family health history and tools for collecting the information.

To learn more about multimedia artist Lynn Fellman, someone focused on “illuminating the human genome through art, design and narrative,” check our her site at: FellmanStudio.com

“Your Inner Neandertal” DNA Day Talk is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

It just keeps getting bigger and bigger — and better!  A pre-party the night before was a new, fun twist this year, held at Vic’s, across the river from Downtown Minneapolis.  On Saturday, some 60 breakout sessions provided a wide array of learning and sharing experiences, along with awesome hallway discussions that were in full swing all day long — from 8:00 am all the way through the closing reception well after 6:00 pm.

Kudos to organizers Ben Edwards, Luke Francl, and Adrienne Peirce of Minnestar.org, and their many volunteers who work so hard to make this event successful. And thanks to all the great sponsors: Code42 Software, Fredrikson & Byron, 8th Bridge, W3i, ipHouse, August Ash, Bloom Health, Barcamp Tour, Split Rock Partners, ChowGirls, and Ech03.

It seems I say this every year, but it’s true (I’ve attended the last six annual events in their entirety):  the level of energy and enthusiasm about Minnesota Tech was more than I’ve ever experienced!  You can just sense the growth and excitement in our tech community. And, if you’re like me, you keep meeting so many more new and amazing people — technology and business professionals who are contributing to great new startups here in Minnesota, as well as to the broader technology industry in our state.  It was a pleasure to behold.  I had so many excellent conversations, trust me — there isn’t enough room in this blog post to tell you about them all <haha>.

But I can show you pics I shot Friday night and all day Saturday, which I posted on Instagram. Here’s a selection of those pics that I put into a Minnebar 2012 Flickr set.

Minnebar 2012: Tech Geek-Out Extraordinaire! is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

“We’re coming into this space early, and already we are seeing amazing traction,” said Scott
Litman, Magnet 360 founder and managing partner (photo), in the company’s news release.  “Our clients – executive leaders – are recognizing that social is the next big thing that will transform the way we do business and engage with customers and other audiences.  They are looking to us to help build and manage programs that will deliver meaningful and measurable outcomes.”

The news release said the new entity’s offerings will include CRM, social, mobile, user experience, agile application development, insights and analytics, marketing automation, and channel marketing – “all key components of an enterprise social strategy.”

The company said its social focus, paired with its deep technical capabilities, is “what will make Magnet 360 unique among agencies.” It quoted Jim Schroer, Magnet 360 investor and former EVP Global Sales, Marketing, and Service for Chrysler:  “The demand for this kind of integrated offering is huge. Companies need to embrace social to stay competitive.  That doesn’t mean that existing marketing programs go away – but it does mean that they need to integrate to an overall social strategy.  Today’s big agencies were built for a TV-centric marketing world; Magnet 360 is shaping itself around the new integrated, social world.”

The company said the combined forces of Magnet 360 and Reside are already working with several leading brands to plan and implement social business programs.  Active clients include General Mills, Ecolab, Medtronic, 3M, Honeywell, Toro, AMC Theaters, and Carnival Cruise Lines.  It said the new Magnet 360 organization is planning for market expansion and rapid growth.

“We’ve worked with hundreds of clients to help them implement cloud solutions with social elements,” said Matt Meents (photo), Reside founder and now Magnet 360 Managing Partner, in the news announcement.  ”But that was just the tip of the iceberg.  This combination allows us to enable the social business holistically, with total integration between marketing and IT and with exponentially greater bandwidth.  It’s a very opportunistic time for our clients – both B2B and B2C – and we’re excited to help them gain huge competitive advantage in this space.”

Update 4/5/12:  The “new” Magnet 360 has more than 60 employees in total, the majority in Minneapolis. It also has a New York office.  The company said “all Reside and Magnet 360 employees have been retained in this transaction.” It also stated it is currently on a $15M annual run rate, with plans to grow revenue to $20M total in 2012.

Magnet 360 Acquires Reside, Rebrands as ‘Social Enterprise Agency’ is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off this week)
Music: “Universal Domain” by Dreamline from the podsafe Music Alley

Discussed during the show:

• Overnight Website Challenge: huge lineup of news here
• The Nerdery releases JSON Accelerator
• Best Buy reorg stories: Forbes here and here; Marketwatch; CNET; CNBC; and Inside Best Buy, an anonymous store manager’s take on the Best Buy announcement
• Is Google stoking up the tablet wars? and Why Google’s Tablet Store Isn’t the Nexus One All Over Again
• JAMF Software’s “Everything Apple…managed“

Upcoming Events:

• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• April 10th: enStratus Cloud Meetup – 5:00-8:00 PM, The Local, Minneapolis
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• April 21st: SaaS Class: Software-as-a-Service Smarts (SaaS Camp 2012) at CoCo Mpls
• April 25: MHTA Spring Conference, Minneapolis Convention Center
• May 21st: Predictive Analytics Forum, Medtronic’s Mounds View Campus
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center
• Weekly: TechMasters is a new Toastmasters chapter in Twin Cities for tech professionals

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 163 – Is Retail Dead? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

This is Minnesota’s premiere entrepreneural event and past ones have seen stiff competition in every category since there are so many great startups here in our State. To familiarize yourself with this year’s competition, please find several resources below in the embedded document (we compiled the press release, “fast facts” and a good article on the MN Cup for you to review in one place which, if you want, you can also download using the download button in the toolbar below).

Use the “Full Screen” button for the best way to view this embedded doc:

Minnesota Cup Entry Starts Today is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Why this ‘camp’ and why now? Over the last few years, Lief has said he’s had the incredible opportunity to travel to, attend, and speak at numerous SaaS-specific events. Most of what he has learned has been locked away in his head as tacit knowledge. Since “the cloud” and software as services online has become so hot, Lief has been asked by several companies to share some of this information. Like all of us, Lief’s weekday priorities to Workface means that a weekend event would probably be the best forum for the SaaS community.

Lief Larson, CEO of Workface

SaaS Camp 2012 is being tightly packed into a single session-intense Saturday and has been created for SaaS practitioners and businesses embarking on SaaS models.  It will be held at CoCo MSP in the Minneapolis Grain Exchange on Saturday, April 21st, from 9am-4pm.

Thirteen major areas of SaaS will be covered, ranging from pricing models to channel development.  The price is $199, which is being used to cover the facilities costs, catering/lunch, and materials.  It will be limited attendance because Lief is hoping to keep it manageable and more intimate.  Registration info available at: http://saasclass.com/events or http://saascamp2012.eventbrite.com.

SaaS Camp 2012 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

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

Discussed during the show:

• Make An iPhone, Android App Without Knowing A Line Of Code 
• TheAppBuilder 
• Best Buy Is Selling Nearly as Many iPhones as Apple Itself

Upcoming Events:

• March 28: JAMF Software’s “Everything Apple…managed“
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• April 25: MHTA Spring Conference, Minneapolis Convention Center
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 162 – N-N-N-Nerds! is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Justin Grammens

Also joining us on the ‘cast is Justin Grammens with Code 42 Software, one of the cofounders of Mobile March along with Phil Wilson and Linda Cummings in 2010. Mobile March offered two tracks of learning this year: Mobile Development and Mobile Business. By offering content that appealed to mobile developers, business people, these co-founders hoped to facilitate a greater understanding between all constituencies that make mobile happen. We think it worked well and was a great event!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off)

Upcoming Events:

• March 24-25: Overnight Website Challenge by The Nerdery
• March 28: JAMF Software’s “Everything Apple…managed“
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• April 25: MHTA Spring Conference, Minneapolis Convention Center
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 161 – Mobilecise! is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Lisa Grimm

Our second guest is none other than Chief Technology Officer of Best Buy, Robert Stephens, and his just-announced departure and the likelihood his adventure will be heading west to San Francisco. As always, Robert demonstrates how he is an incredibly accessible leader and so willing to connect with those of us in the technology trenches. He has been such a supporter and asset to the Minnesota tech community and will be sorely missed (though we suspect he’ll stay close to Minnesota tech regardless of where he lives)!

We wish them both happy trails and listen for why Robert believes that, “…the Geek Squad is the de facto genius bar for Android.”

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Speed Limit 35 & the song “Throb” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Lisa Grimm: As SXSWers Get Desperate, Austinites Get Enterprising and SXSW Adding Great New Wrinkle for 2012: ‘Startup Village’
• Robert Stephens: A new frontier for Robert Stephens and  My Next Chapter and Best Buy’s Chief Geek Checks Out
• Former Starbucks exec to be Best Buy digital chief 
• New iPad launch day: specs, release date, price, and more! and Why the New iPad is So Huge for Apple 
• John Batelle’s event (Federated Media)
• Dollar Shave Club (you must watch the CEOs video…best launch video ever)

Upcoming Events:

• March 13: Entrepreneur’s Rally
• March 16-17: MobileMarchTC; Mobile March (Mobile 3D); NEW! The Agenda
• March 24-25: Overnight Website Challenge by The Nerdery
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• April 25: MHTA Spring Conference, Minneapolis Convention Center
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 160 – The de facto ‘Genius Bar’ for Android is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Details in the embedded PDF below or go directly to the registration page.

Entrepreneur’s Rally at CoCo Minneapolis is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Marty Wetherall

Social media ‘chatter’ seems to be growing exponentially and the services capitalizing upon it are being launched, or accelerated, by the week. Marty Wetherall, Director of Innovation at Fallon and co-founder of Fanchatter, joins us to talk about what’s happening with his startup and about the growth of social chatter overall.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Mario Tomic & the song “Blue Note” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Project Skyway’s new class of entrepreneurs
• Google: I’m Being Followed and Keeping Google From Watching Your Searches
• Mobile World Congress
• Introducing Windows 8 Consumer Preview 
• Facebook introduces Premium: A marketer’s dream, a user’s nightmare?
• iPad: New, faster Apple iPad expected next week and Apple expected to unveil 16GB and 32GB iPad 3 as well as 8GB iPad 2 and Apple likely to begin production of 7.85-inch iPads in 3Q12 and Channels as apps? How Apple could reinvent television
• Fanchatter has ‘chat’ at the Lady Gaga & Oprah event at Harvard 
• Bruce Springsteen Online Listening Party
• Startup Bus to SXSW and CNN on Tech Trends at SXSW
• MN Council of Non-Profits Tech & Comm event (PDF) 

Upcoming Events:

• March 16-17: MobileMarchTC; Mobile March (Mobile 3D); NEW! The Agenda
• March 24-25: Overnight Website Challenge by The Nerdery
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 159 – Social Chatter is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off today)
Music: Kaimoku & the song “Honolulu Shuffle” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Flashback Mac Trojan Horse Infections Increasing with New Variant 
• Apple getting ready to ditch the traditional iPhone, iPad, and iPod dock connector
• What we learned from the ‘Nightline’ report on Foxconn factories
• Nielsen: 66% of Americans ages 24-35 own a smartphone
• 2012 Mobile Future in Focus-comScore 
• Tablets, Tablets, Everywhere: The iPad 3 Rumor Roundup and Amazon said to be launching 10-inch Kindle Fire in coming months and  Nook Tablet 8GB official at $199, Nook Color price down to $169 and Google may enter tablet market with 7-inch design 
• Publishing tools for tablets: Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and  Apple posts gorgeous new ‘how to get started as an iOS developer’ guide and Publish Your Own Book With WordPress and the Anthologize Plugin and Baker Ebook Framework and 3D Issue and Booktype (open source publishing)
• App development for normal people?: 13 Tools for Building Your Own iPhone App and PhoneGap and Appcelerator
• Box bets on Android in business with new update, gives all users 50GB storage free
• Garrick Van Buren’s Typerighter

Upcoming Events:

• March 16-17: MobileMarchTC; Mobile March (Mobile 3D); NEW! The Agenda
• March 24-25: Overnight Website Challenge by The Nerdery
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• April 16-17: MinneWebCon at the U of MN
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center

Press to Play Podcast:	Direct Link to Podcast MP3

Minnov8 Gang 158 – Aloha Smartphones & Tablets is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.