Whether it be against themselves or within their peer groups, programmers live for a good challenge. And the competition du juor is Node Knockout: a 48-hour hackathon (inspired by last years Ruby Rumble) organized and promoted by fortnight labs.
Starting last Friday at midnight (UTC) through Sunday at midnight, over 200 different teams of 1-4 people went heads down for the weekend to build the coolest web app using node.js, an evented I/O framework for the V8 JavaScript engine with the purpose of providing an easy way to build scalable network programs.
Representing Minnesota in this battle for the best is a foursome led by Andy Atkinson who recruited complimentary talent including designer Nate Kadlac and developers Paul Armstrong and Zachary Johnson for the event.
Moments ago, judges announced GeaCom as winner of the 2010 Minnesota Cup High Tech division.
“GeaCom is committed to breaking the language barrier in critical communication. To improve service, reduce costs and to save lives we are developing an innovative new solution…Phrazer.”
Beating out Inveni (formerly known as Open Preferences) & Curation Station, GeaCom nabs $20k cash + services as the company proceeds compete against the winners of five other divisions for The Cup on Sept 13 (and an additional $20,000).
“Honestly, when it’s down to three companies like it was, out of so many, you know there’s lots good things that can emerge from a contest like this. We’re pleased to make it this far,” said GeaCom CEO Mat Johnson in response to the achievement.
Three Minnesota tech startups are one step closer to validation, cash money and a host of professional services as the Minnesota Cup announced today the 2010 High Tech division finalists.
Over the past two months, ten judges have reviewed the detailed plans of ten semifinalists and trimmed the list down to the three that will advance to the next stage — pitching the review board.
In no particular order, the 2010 Minnesota Cup High Tech division finalists are:
A few weeks ago we shared the exciting news that Startup Weekend is coming to the Twin Cities over the weekend of September 18. This 54 hour hackfest will bring together 50-100 startup enthusiasts at CoCo MSP to create and launch real products in a fun, fast and collaborative environment. Registration for the event is growing daily and early bird tickets are available here until September 1st.
We checked in with organizer Shane Reiser earlier this morning to find out how things are moving along — starting with the speaker lineup:
Whether sipping espresso over stories about work and hobbies or gathered around laptops debating the intricacies of GIT and version control syntax, the women of last weekend’s She’s Geeky unConference made possible an important milestone for the Minnesota high tech community: the first all-female gathering focused on STEM professional development.
Over two days at the Science Museum of Minnesota, women and girls gathered to discuss everything from managing one’s personal identity online to web analytics to entrepreneurship.
By Paul Schmelzer, The Minnesota Independent
“Netroots Nation, the progressive blog conference that this weekend welcomed Sen. Al Franken and state Sen. Tarryl Clark to its podium, is coming to that duo’s home state. At the end of his keynote speech Saturday, Franken announed that the 2011 edition will be held in Minneapolis next June 16-19.
“It’s a little bit less glitzy and glamorous than Las Vegas, but it’s also a little bit less hot,” Franken said. “Great fishing, beautiful scenery, and tons of energetic progressives ready to show Netroots Nation a good time.”
Startup Weekend is coming to the Twin Cities at CoCo MSP the weekend of September 18th, 2010 — starting Friday (17th) afternoon and ending Sunday evening (19th). Get together in teams with local developers, marketers, designers, and entrepreneurs to vet, pitch, build, and demo new products over a single weekend. Intense!
This weekend warriors’ event has happened in 100’s of cities across the globe from San Francisco to Athens, Greece. It’s been covered in TechCrunch, the Washington Post , ABC News and beyond.
She’s Geeky – the unConference designed to “inspire women technologists for the future and advance systemic change in tech culture” – is coming to Minnesota on August 6 & 7th, marking the first time the event will take place outside either coast.
Why Minnesota? Mostly thanks to the persistent efforts of Elizabeth Tupper, who attended last November’s She’s Geeky unConference in Washington D.C. with the goal of bringing it to her home state.
Six startups gave their four-minute pitch at the second Crowdpitch Minneapolis event hosted yesterday by Rain Source Capital and FundingUniverse, but MinuteBids stole the show.
Crowdpitch is a competition event designed to bring together local tech entrepreneurs, mentors and service providers. Winners receive in-kind services valued at about $4,800.
Jon Coudron, co-founder of MinuteBids, made the pitch. After the event he said, “This was a great experience all around—not only did we get to field some great questions and receive feedback on our pitch, but we were able to walk away with some additional validation that we’ve got a good business.”
By Steve Borsch, Minnov8
“Last night’s turnout at the James J. Hill Library for the Minnesota Cup Semifinalist kickoff was impressive and quite large for an event of its kind. In attendance were 125-140 entrepreneurs, investors, sponsors, MN Cup judges and those of us covering the event (Minnov8 and tech.mn) as well as the people who were the entire reason for the kickoff itself: the semifinalists.”
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Friday, September 3, 2010
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- Last day to vote for homegrown ‘Jackalope’ in Node Knockout competition: http://bit.ly/c1fmWd #
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