HINDSIGHT - WRITE SOMETHING WORTH READING ABOUT OR DO SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
1871 and CISCO HOST HACKATHON AT 1871 IN ADVANCE OF CISCO IoT WORLD FORUM
hackathon.iotwf.com
Calling all developers, designers, and big thinkers: come play with some shiny new tools from Cisco!
We're holding this hackathon in conjunction with another special event in Chicago: this year's Internet of Things World Forum (IoTWF). They'll be cranking out some next level ideas centered around internet of things technology… and so will we.
Teams will have 24 hours to bring their most brilliant ideas to life using Cisco's developer tools, a group of brand new and beta stage technologies.
This isn't your average hackathon. We'll have 24 hours of delicious local food, yoga, and massages on site for you.
Most importantly, we'll have fabulous prizes:
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GRAND PRIZE:
$3,000 AND your idea will be presented at the exclusive, invite-only IoT World Forum.
1ST RUNNER UP:
$1,500
2ND RUNNER UP:
$500
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Need a team? Questions? Just want to say hi?
We're super friendly and we'd love to help you out. Reach out to us via:
twitter: @MonkeyBars_Chi
email: info@monkeybars.io
Facebook: MonkeyBars
Monday, September 29, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Friday, September 26, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
1871 Member Company Box Score Games Named “Most Unique” at 2014 CTIA Startup Lab
1871 Member Company Box Score Games Named “Most
Unique” at 2014 CTIA Startup Lab
Box Score Games wins honorable mention in inaugural
CTIA Startup Lab class at Super Mobility Week
CHICAGO (September 22, 2014)—1871 member company Box
Score Games was named “Most Unique” during this year’s 2014 CTIA Startup Lab, a
program for startups held at Super Mobility Week in Las Vegas. The company,
which creates interactive mobile applications around live sporting events, won
an honorable mention out of the forty finalists selected to attend Super
Mobility Week.
“We are beyond thrilled to win the award for the Most
Unique Business at the CTIA Startup Lab,” said Box Score Games Co-Founder Mike
Lynch. “We were honored to be nominated by 1871 to apply for the competition
and even more proud to be able to represent the Chicago tech community by
coming home with an award. We are excited to see some of our hard
work paying off and can't wait to continue building out the best mobile gaming
platform for all sports fans.”
The CTIA Startup Lab is an industry initiative to
accelerate progress of seed and growth-stages companies. Participating
companies were hand-selected by their local communities and investors based on
their potential to fuel the next wave of growth in mobile. Finalists were
chosen by the CTIA Investor Panel, which is comprised of venture and corporate
capital investors. The selected finalists traveled to Las Vegas last week,
where they showcased their products to a panel of industry experts and
investors.
During the two-day event, Box Score Games showcased its
real-time mobile gaming platform for sports fans to investors, brands, and
mobile leaders from all over the world. Box Score Games competed against some
of the top tech startups from eight different countries. At the conclusion of
Super Mobility Week, the CTIA Startup Lab recognized three overall winners,
three top investor picks and two honorable mentions, including Box Score Games.
“1871 is pleased to congratulate Box Score Games on its win
at the CTIA Startup Lab,” said 1871 CEO Howard A. Tullman. “The primary goal of
1871 is to help its members succeed, and, with that in mind, we are constantly
working to provide unparalleled access to the best mentors, educational resources,
partners and investors for our members. Successful new companies like Box Score
Games play a key role in fostering jobs and economic growth in the United
States, and 1871 is proud to support these companies.“
Companies that participated in this year’s CTIA Startup Lab
were nominated by CTIA and mobile community leaders from 1871, Apptual, Austin
Technology Incubator, BootstrapLabs, Hackers and Founders, LaunchHub, MoDev,
Mobile Monday, Momentum, Orange Labs, Rocketspace, Telecom Council and University
College London - DECIDE.
About CTIA
CTIA-The Wireless Association® (www.ctia.org) is an international organization
representing the wireless communications industry. Membership in the
association includes wireless carriers and their suppliers, as well as
providers and manufacturers of wireless data services and products. CTIA
advocates on behalf of its members at all levels of government. The association
also coordinates the industry’s voluntary best practices and initiatives, and
sponsors the industry’s leading wireless tradeshow. CTIA was founded in 1984
and is based in Washington, D.C
About
Box Score Games
Box
Score Games reaches sports fans in every bar, stadium, and couch in America.
Box Score Games is dedicated to creating the first ever real-time casual gaming
platform that enhances the sports fans' experience while watching live sporting
events. Fans socially compete against each other in real-time to win prizes
that are redeemable on their phone. Box Score Games is headquartered in
Chicago, IL.
About
1871
1871 is
an entrepreneurial hub for digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart,
the 75,000-square-foot facility provides Chicago startups with programming,
access to mentors, educational resources, potential investors and a community
of like-minded entrepreneurs that help them on their path to building
successful businesses. 1871 is the flagship project of the Chicagoland
Entrepreneurial Center.
Semester 'abroad' at 1871 could keep tech talent in Illinois
Semester 'abroad' at 1871 could keep tech talent in Illinois
During an appearance with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday, 1871 Chief Executive Howard Tullman floated one of the best solutions I've heard in a long time for stemming the exodus of technology talent to the coasts.
Tullman wants to create a semester "abroad" program in Chicago for junior year engineering and computer science students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"People down there don't get what's going on in Chicago right now," Tullman said.
And why is it so important that they do?
The University of Illinois has one of the finest computer science and computer engineering programs in the country.
Alumni from that school co-founded YouTube (Steve Chen), PayPal (Max Levchin), Netscape (Marc Andreessen) and Yelp (Jeremy Stoppelman).
Andreessen deserves special mention. With Eric Bina, he created the first easy-to-use web browser, called Mosaic, at the university.
Tullman proposes that Chicago recruit these innovators early by transferring their classes for a semester to 1871, the tech-focused co-working center in the Merchandise Mart. There, in addition to taking courses from U. of I. professors, they would be exposed to peers and funders, and receive additional mentoring.
"It's going to take a lot of work," Tullman said. "Dealing with faculty and changing the curriculum, it's roughly the same as moving a cemetery."
I called the dean of the engineering school.
"I'm aware that conversations have taken place, but I have not heard directly from 1871 about this idea," Andreas Cangellaris said. "But this is an exciting idea. Many of the students would be intrigued enough to consider it. ... And I think most of our faculty members would want to take advantage of this presence in Chicago to pursue their own interests.
Faculty such as Ranjitha Kumar, who has her Ph.D. from Stanford. She is the chief scientist of Apropose, a startup that recently announced nearly $1.9 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates and Andreessen Horowitz, co-founded by — you guessed it — Marc Andreessen.
They are two of the best venture capital firms in the country.
Kumar, 28, is new to U. of I., having arrived a month ago. She deferred her appointment for a year to launch Apropose with fellow Stanford Ph.D. student Arvind Satyanarayan, Stanford undergraduate Maxine Lim and Stanford Ph.D. Jerry Talton, Apropose's CEO.
Where did Talton get his undergraduate and master's degrees? U. of I.
And where is Apropose based? Mountain View, Calif.
Apropose's product is in development. Kumar says it will help people use data to design more-effective websites.
She had never heard of 1871. She Googled it while we were on the phone.
So what's it going to take to build connections between U. of I. and Chicago?
"What it takes is a commitment from all of the partners to accommodate the added costs," Cangellaris said. "As you know, we are a public institution. Our budget is constrained in ways that a private institution does not need to worry about. ... But I see no reason why we can't come together and figure out how to make this work out."
I noticed that U. of I.'s engineering school does not have a donor's name attached to it.
So for those with the means and will to make this program happen, please insert your name in the blank space:
The _____ College of Engineering. Now how does that sound?
Tullman wants to create a semester "abroad" program in Chicago for junior year engineering and computer science students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"People down there don't get what's going on in Chicago right now," Tullman said.
And why is it so important that they do?
The University of Illinois has one of the finest computer science and computer engineering programs in the country.
Alumni from that school co-founded YouTube (Steve Chen), PayPal (Max Levchin), Netscape (Marc Andreessen) and Yelp (Jeremy Stoppelman).
Andreessen deserves special mention. With Eric Bina, he created the first easy-to-use web browser, called Mosaic, at the university.
Then Andreessen moved to Silicon Valley — as did everyone else except Bina, who lives in Singapore.
Tullman proposes that Chicago recruit these innovators early by transferring their classes for a semester to 1871, the tech-focused co-working center in the Merchandise Mart. There, in addition to taking courses from U. of I. professors, they would be exposed to peers and funders, and receive additional mentoring.
I called the dean of the engineering school.
"I'm aware that conversations have taken place, but I have not heard directly from 1871 about this idea," Andreas Cangellaris said. "But this is an exciting idea. Many of the students would be intrigued enough to consider it. ... And I think most of our faculty members would want to take advantage of this presence in Chicago to pursue their own interests.
Faculty such as Ranjitha Kumar, who has her Ph.D. from Stanford. She is the chief scientist of Apropose, a startup that recently announced nearly $1.9 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates and Andreessen Horowitz, co-founded by — you guessed it — Marc Andreessen.
They are two of the best venture capital firms in the country.
Kumar, 28, is new to U. of I., having arrived a month ago. She deferred her appointment for a year to launch Apropose with fellow Stanford Ph.D. student Arvind Satyanarayan, Stanford undergraduate Maxine Lim and Stanford Ph.D. Jerry Talton, Apropose's CEO.
Where did Talton get his undergraduate and master's degrees? U. of I.
And where is Apropose based? Mountain View, Calif.
Apropose's product is in development. Kumar says it will help people use data to design more-effective websites.
She had never heard of 1871. She Googled it while we were on the phone.
So what's it going to take to build connections between U. of I. and Chicago?
"What it takes is a commitment from all of the partners to accommodate the added costs," Cangellaris said. "As you know, we are a public institution. Our budget is constrained in ways that a private institution does not need to worry about. ... But I see no reason why we can't come together and figure out how to make this work out."
I noticed that U. of I.'s engineering school does not have a donor's name attached to it.
So for those with the means and will to make this program happen, please insert your name in the blank space:
The _____ College of Engineering. Now how does that sound?
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN APPEARS ON "THE OPEN MIND" PROGRAM TALKING ABOUT THE PERSPIRATION PRINCIPLES
This summer, Alexander Heffner, a 24-year-old journalist just a couple of years out of Harvard, became the host of a talk show on public television. But a new media venture this is not.
Mr. Heffner has slipped comfortably into the role of the host of “The Open Mind,” a program that made its debut during the Eisenhower administration with a format that has endured — a simple black backdrop, a guest and a host at a table and a discussion of topics like “Why Liberal Education Matters” and “Race and the Fourth Estate.”
“A lot of people interrogate guests, but don’t interrogate ideas,” Mr. Heffner said.
He was born for the job, one might say — learning at the footsteps of his grandfather, Richard D. Heffner, a pioneer in broadcasting who hosted the show for 56 years, until his death in December. It has been broadcast for the last 34 years on the PBS station WNET (Channel 13) at noon on Saturday. It also is broadcast on CUNY-TV on Sundays and Mondays.
“My grandfather was my mentor,” Alexander Heffner said. “His conviction of the importance of public broadcasting and elevating our discourse into something substantive and meaningful were values that were instilled in me.”
The elder Mr. Heffner gave significant, uninterrupted airtime to people and topics that were controversial, including Malcolm X, Helen Gurley Brown, McCarthyism and homosexuality.
The younger Mr. Heffner, who first appeared on “The Open Mind” as a guest in 2012 to talk about the presidential election while still a college student, says his focus is on finding a new generation of guests who will stand up over time and often discuss public policy from an oblique angle — musicians, technologists, humorists, as well as writers and university presidents.
Fascinated since childhood by broadcasting and civil discourse, Mr. Heffner hosted a public affairs radio show in high school and as an undergraduate. During school and since graduating, he has reported on young people in politics for newspapers and the PBS program “Need to Know.”
Elaine Heffner, a psychotherapist and the widow of Richard Heffner, is the executive producer of “The Open Mind.” She said her grandson would help bring the show to a new audience. “Part of reaching a new demographic is to evolve in the way you reach them,” she said. “You continue the name, meaning and content, but the form will evolve.”
Even before he became the host, Alexander Heffner said, he advised his grandfather to use social media to build the program’s audience. “When I said to him that we should create a Facebook page and Twitter feed, he said that is for you to do,” Mr. Heffner said. “He saw the potential for perpetuating the values he believed in, but it was a hard sell, due to our different vintage and his being steeped in the written word and the value of books.”
Still, a final act by Richard Heffner was to digitize and upload to the Internet much of “The Open Mind” archive of more than 1,500 episodes, many of which can be streamed.
In one episode from 2003, Richard Heffner had Adam Bellow, a son of Saul Bellow, appear to discuss the son’s book “In Praise of Nepotism.” Mr. Heffner said he would replace the term nepotism with “family values,” that is “loving one’s children; loving one’s relatives; loving one’s friends and being helpful to them.”
His grandson said he was not “joining the family business,” but “more like the family vision — the vision of communications and media serving the public interest.”
