Welcome to the Technology blog for Columbus and Central Ohio! Our mission is to create dynamic connections between individuals and companies, ultimately establishing strong coalitions that build awareness and grow our technology economy. We encourage dialogue, sharing, and learning. Ben
posted by Ben Blanquera at
7:50 AM
0 Comments
Wed March 4 6pm
Click here to register: http://www.meetup.com/techlifecolumbus/calendar/9626032/
This event will provide an opportunity to meet others interested in everything "Green"; from alternative fuels and energy efficiency, to environmental protection and water conservation. Of course, this is also a social event; drinks will be on special until 7pm and some appetizers will be provided.
Mayor Coleman's Environmental Policy Advisor, Andia Sangale, will be sharing information about the City's GreenSpot program and will be able to answer a few questions afterward. In addition Tad Dritz, Lead Organizer for Green Columbus, will be sharing information about Columbus Green Drinks as well as Earth Day '09 activities.
This is a networking event as well and a chance to meet new people and share ideas. We hope to build an ongoing community effort to keep Columbus on a path toward environmentally responsible growth and development, and to promote new and innovative ways to build our City's Green economy.
Please answer the optional questions as well when you RSVP, we would like to know how many related groups will be represented at this event.
. . . And as always . . . Have Fun!
posted by Ben Blanquera at
11:03 PM
0 Comments
Hello everyone!
I hope you are each having a great month. I keep telling myself that winter is just about over (I hope).
Alright, the last month for KidsLinked.com (www.kidslinked.com) went very well. It was highlighted, as you know, by winning the Tech Columbus Innovation award – very exciting! Here are the key things we are working on:
*Note: please continue to use and tell your friends about KidsLinked.com (www.kidslinked.com)
· New Family Calendar to be released on Monday: We are incredibly excited to be releasing our new, super enhanced family calendar. This is a true, on-line shareable calendar that integrates well into what we are doing on the website. The best part is it’s free for users of the site. We will need your help – when it is released please use it and let us know what you think (this will be extremely helpful).
· Next Release: We have 2 very exciting releases coming in the next 2 months – Wish Lists & Coach Pages. By late March, parents will be able to build their own wish lists on our website! This is through our partnership with Clearwish. This will be a great resource for parents to build birthday party, Christmas, new born, etc wish lists. This will be incorporated into our Birthday Party planner when launched this summer. Also, by late April we plan to release our new Coach pages – this is where a coach will be able to manage their entire team – practices, games, snacks and much more! This will be a great tool for coaches!
· Licensees for KidsLinked.com: We are starting to chat with two groups about licensing KidsLinked.com. The conversations with both groups are very productive and should be promising. Here is where I need your help – we are planning to launch in Cincinnati in April and Pittsburgh on June – if you know anyone in those two cities that might be interested in licensing KidsLinked.com please let me know. This is a great opportunity for a person to grow with our company.
· Fundraiser Card – Online Purchase Option: We recently added a new option to our fundraiser program to allow people to purchase the fundraiser card on-line. This makes it very easy for organizations looking to raise money and provide great discounts to parents (we have over 60 discounts in the total program). If you know any group that is looking for a fundraiser, as always, please let me know.
We are now moving into our next phase of KidsLinked.com – web based tools for parents. Our goal from starting the company has always been to be a tool website for parents. Now that we have delivered the core, starting with the Family Calendar, then the wish list, coach pages, and birthday party planner we will move into our first delivery of tools for parents (more to come after that).
This continues to be a very exciting time and I very much look forward to what the future holds for KidsLinked.com. Please continue your help in spreading the word and I greatly appreciate your support!
Thanks,
Greg Yoakam
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
President / CEO
Columbus, OH
(614) 354-3227
KidsLinked.com
Family life made easy
2008 Tech Columbus Innovation Award Winner
Register now - it's easy and it's free - Please tell your friends!!
posted by Ben Blanquera at
5:06 PM
0 Comments
"GroundWork group is currently our primary outsourced IT service provider! More importantly, they are also a partner and an advisor to the YWCA. From the very beginning of the relationship, GroundWork group provided educational opportunities surrounding ‘all' areas of technology. We started with an overall technology assessment of our entire infrastructure. We found the associates of GroundWork group to be both knowledgeable and approachable. Our partnership was strengthened because our values are in alignment: integrity, wisdom, community involvement, and collaboration. Their service offerings are tailored to their clients' needs, their pricing structures are reasonable and their support is scalable. Their pricing structures are reasonable and their support is scalable. In addition to the technology support, we also utilize their CIVIC Toolset to conduct registration for one of our key events every year, the YWCA Women of Achievement Awards. We are excited about the stable environment that GroundWork group has helped us establish, and we look forward to continued support!"
posted by Ben Blanquera at
2:53 PM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
2:01 PM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:05 AM
0 Comments
Prior to joining KACE, Mike Gray was a Senior Researcher in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at The Ohio State University with a focus on grid computing. Before joining OSU, Gray was the Architect and Manager of Core Engineering at AvantGo (formerly NASDAQ: AVGO, since acquired by Sybase) where he oversaw development of the AvantGo Mobile Internet service supporting more than 8 million registered subscribers and the AvantGo Enterprise mBusiness Server (now Sybase M- Business Anywhere). Gray holds seven patents in various areas relating to mobile software and systems management. Prior to AvantGo, Gray held engineering and management positions at companies including Netscape, IBM, and Healthcare Research Systems, Ltd.
Gray holds a BS degree in Computer and Information Sciences from The Ohio State University and an MBA from Franklin University.
KACE Continues Rapid Expansion in Asia Pacific with 300% Customer Growth in 2008Leader in Systems Management Appliances Appoints Martin Ryan Managing Director for Asia Pacific Region
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Feb. 24, 2009 – KACE™, the leading systems management appliance company, today announced its continued rapid growth in the Asia Pacific region, with a 300 percent increase in customer bookings in 2008. A sampling of new wins includes Philippine Airlines, Telecom Brunei, Indonesian Post Service, and Y&R Brands out of Australia.
The award-winning KBOX family of appliances is currently offered throughout Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and also Brunei. Each country contributed evenly to the strong growth result. High customer demand for KACE’s innovative technology, the KBOX Systems Management and KBOX Systems Deployment appliances, is supporting further regional expansion. In 2009, KBOX appliances are also expected to be available in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Today, KACE also announces the appointment of Martin Ryan as the company’s managing director for the region. Ryan has spent more than 15 years focused on assisting global technology companies in the development of successful business practices in Asia Pacific. Ryan will lead KACE’s expansion by providing the necessary structure to grow and support customers and alliance partners.
“I am very excited to join a company that is bringing such technology innovation to the dynamic Asian markets,” said Ryan. “Customers in Asia Pacific and around the globe are reaping the benefits of a truly comprehensive, easy-to-use, and affordable systems management solution that is enabling IT organizations to do more with less. KACE should be at the top of every CIO’s priority list in 2009 and beyond. I look forward to building on the success KACE experienced in 2008 and am excited to help further our expansion in the region in 2009.”
Momentum highlights for KACE in the Asia Pacific region in 2008 include:
Consisting of 22 countries and nearly 4 billion inhabitants, Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. The region has long been plagued by IT shortcomings, largely due to severe bandwidth-starved network infrastructures. The KBOX family of appliances offers a low-cost, high-quality solution providing affordable systems management, which includes remote systems management and deployment, software distribution, patch management, vulnerability assessment and remediation, and policy enforcement. With KBOX, customers can run mission-critical tasks from a central hub to remote offices, or to remote PCs thousands of kilometers away including low bandwidth sites.
Melbourne IVF is a leading infertility treatment centre providing access to the latest assisted reproductive technologies and techniques. The company provides a personalised and professional service within a caring and compassionate environment and helps and supports patients to explore their assisted reproductive options.
“Ease-of-use and affordability made KBOX an easy systems management solution choice for us,” says David Owen, IT Manager at Melbourne IVF. “We were able to efficiently manage our entire PC fleet within days of receiving the appliance, which is unheard of for KACE’s competitors. The KBOX appliance has enabled us to work much smarter with our limited technical resources.”
About KACE™
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:00 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
12:40 PM
0 Comments
........click here for the rest of the story
Thanks to Angela Mickley for sharing this with me. I currently faciliate a Central Ohio PMO LeadersForum and have found that "smart" companies continue to invest in the PMO concept to make sure that they "do the right things" not just "do things right"
Peace out,
Ben
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:00 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
5:08 PM
0 Comments
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/07/12/startup_weekend.ART_ART_07-12-08_C8_NPANTS5.html?sid=101
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4966987/Columbus-Monthly-SWC-2008-article
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:00 AM
0 Comments
Thornton May, Futurist, Dean of the IT Leadership Academy, and author, is conducting a global study called the ‘State of Technology Roadmaps’. Read on!
Thornton says:
The skill which sets us apart from the lower orders is not our ability to communicate, to use or create tools, or to collaborate. The capacity which makes us supremely human is the ability to simultaneously entertain, evaluate and imaginatively inhabit multiple future worlds. Americans are better than most at the art of futuring. In a brilliant book, UCSB historian Patricia Cline Cohen tells us that we are - A Calculating People - ‘unceasingly weighing risks, computing advantages, and gauging the ability of any particular course of action.’
Ray Kurzweil, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, winner of the Lemelson-MIT Prize, National Medal of Technology recipient and author of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology argues that:
“‘You can’t predict the future’ is the common wisdom. But the overall progression of information technologies is remarkably predictable. The price-performance of computing has grown at a remarkably smooth, doubly exponential pace for over a century, going back to the data processing equipment used in the 1890 US Census.”
The ‘State of Technology Roadmaps’ is a global study of how organizations ‘look ahead’ and how they ‘bring the future to the present.’ It’s examining how modern organizations:
Specifically, answers to these questions are needed:
Send YOUR confidential contribution to Thornton directly: thorntonmay@aol.com.
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:00 AM
0 Comments
To help companies navigate the Web 2.0 landscape, we have identified six critical factors that determine the outcome of efforts to implement these technologies.
1. The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top. Web 2.0 projects often are seen as grassroots experiments, and leaders sometimes believe the technologies will be adopted without management intervention—a “build it and they will come” philosophy. These business leaders are correct in thinking that participatory technologies are founded upon bottom-up involvement from frontline staffers and that this pattern is fundamentally different from the rollout of ERP systems, for example, where compliance with rules is mandatory. Successful participation, however, requires not only grassroots activity but also a different leadership approach: senior executives often become role models and lead through informal channels.
At Lockheed Martin, for instance, a direct report to the CIO championed the use of blogs and wikis when they were introduced. The executive evangelized the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies to other senior leaders and acted as a role model by establishing his own blog. He set goals for adoption across the organization, as well as for the volume of contributions. The result was widespread acceptance and collaboration across the company’s divisions.
2. The best uses come from users—but they require help to scale. In earlier IT campaigns, identifying and prioritizing the applications that would generate the greatest business value was relatively easy. These applications focused primarily on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of known business processes within functional silos (for example, supply-chain-management software to improve coordination across the network). By contrast, our research shows the applications that drive the most value through participatory technologies often aren’t those that management expects.
Efforts go awry when organizations try to dictate their preferred uses of the technologies—a strategy that fits applications designed specifically to improve the performance of known processes—rather than observing what works and then scaling it up. When management chooses the wrong uses, organizations often don’t regroup by switching to applications that might be successful. One global technology player, for example, introduced a collection of participatory tools that management judged would help the company’s new hires quickly get up to speed in their jobs. The intended use never caught on, but people in the company’s recruiting staff began using the tools to share recruiting tips and pass along information about specific candidates and their qualifications. The company, however, has yet to scale up this successful, albeit unintended, use.
At AT&T, it was frontline staffers who found the best use for a participatory technology—in this case, using Web 2.0 for collaborative project management. Rather than dictating the use, management broadened participation by supporting an awareness campaign to seed further experimentation. Over a 12-month period, the use of the technology rose to 95 percent of employees, from 65 percent.
3. What’s in the workflow is what gets used. Perhaps because of the novelty of Web 2.0 initiatives, they’re often considered separate from mainstream work. Earlier generations of technologies, by contrast, often explicitly replaced the tools employees used to accomplish tasks. Thus, using Web 2.0 and participating in online work communities often becomes just another “to do” on an already crowded list of tasks.
Participatory technologies have the highest chance of success when incorporated into a user’s daily workflow. The importance of this principle is sometimes masked by short-term success when technologies are unveiled with great fanfare; with the excitement of the launch, contributions seem to flourish. As normal daily workloads pile up, however, the energy and attention surrounding the rollout decline, as does participation. One professional-services firm introduced a wiki-based knowledge-management system, to which employees were expected to contribute, in addition to their daily tasks. Immediately following the launch, a group of enthusiasts used the wikis vigorously, but as time passed they gave the effort less personal time—outside their daily workflow—and participation levels fell.
Google is an instructive case to the contrary. It has modified the way work is typically done and has made Web tools relevant to how employees actually do their jobs. The company’s engineers use blogs and wikis as core tools for reporting on the progress of their work. Managers stay abreast of their progress and provide direction by using tools that make it easy to mine data on workflows. Engineers are better able to coordinate work with one another and can request or provide backup help when needed. The easily accessible project data allows senior managers to allocate resources to the most important and time-sensitive projects.
Pixar moved in a similar direction when it upgraded a Web 2.0 tool that didn’t quite mesh with the way animators did their jobs. The company started with basic text-based wikis to share information about films in production and to document meeting notes. That was unsatisfactory, since collaborative problem solving at the studio works best when animators, software engineers, managers, and directors analyze and discuss real clips and frames from a movie.4 Once Pixar built video into the wikis, their quality improved as critiques became more relevant. The efficiency of the project groups increased as well.
4. Appeal to the participants’ egos and needs—not just their wallets. Traditional management incentives aren’t particularly useful for encouraging participation.5 Earlier technology adoptions could be guided readily with techniques such as management by objectives, as well as standardized bonus pay or individual feedback. The failure of employees to use a mandated application would affect their performance metrics and reviews. These methods tend to fall short when applied to unlocking participation. In one failed attempt, a leading Web company set performance evaluation criteria that included the frequency of postings on the company’s newly launched wiki. While individuals were posting enough entries to meet the benchmarks, the contributions were generally of low quality. Similarly, a professional-services firm tried to use steady management pressure to get individuals to post on wikis. Participation increased when managers doled out frequent feedback but never reached self-sustaining levels.
A more effective approach plays to the Web’s ethos and the participants’ desire for recognition: bolstering the reputation of participants in relevant communities, rewarding enthusiasm, or acknowledging the quality and usefulness of contributions. ArcelorMittal, for instance, found that when prizes for contributions were handed out at prominent company meetings, employees submitted many more ideas for business improvements than they did when the awards were given in less-public forums.
5. The right solution comes from the right participants. Targeting users who can create a critical mass for participation as well as add value is another key to success. With an ERP rollout, the process is straightforward: a company simply identifies the number of installations (or “seats”) it needs to buy for functions such as purchasing or finance and accounting. With participatory technologies, it’s far from obvious which individuals will be the best participants. Without the right base, efforts are often ineffective. A pharmaceutical company tried to generate new product ideas by tapping suggestions from visitors to its corporate Web site. It soon discovered that most of them had neither the skills nor the knowledge to make meaningful contributions, so the quality of the ideas was very low.
To select users who will help drive a self-sustaining effort (often enthusiastic early technology adopters who have rich personal networks and will thus share knowledge and exchange ideas), a thoughtful approach is required. When P&G introduced wikis and blogs to foster collaboration among its workgroups, the company targeted technology-savvy and respected opinion leaders within the organization. Some of these people ranked high in the corporate hierarchy, while others were influential scientists or employees to whom other colleagues would turn for advice or other assistance.
When Best Buy experimented with internal information markets, the goal was to ensure that participation helped to create value. In these markets, employees place bets on business outcomes, such as sales forecasts.6 To improve the chances of success, Best Buy cast its net widely, going beyond in-house forecasting experts; it also sought out participants with a more diverse base of operational knowledge who could apply independent judgment to the prediction markets. The resulting forecasts were more accurate than those produced by the company’s experts.
6. Balance the top-down and self-management of risk. A common reason for failed participation is discomfort with it, or even fear. In some cases, the lack of management control over the self-organizing nature and power of dissent is the issue. In others, it’s the potential repercussions of content—through blogs, social networks, and other venues—that is detrimental to the company. Numerous executives we interviewed said that participatory initiatives had been stalled by legal and HR concerns. These risks differ markedly from those of previous technology adoptions, where the chief downside was high costs and poor execution.
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:00 AM
1 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
12:22 PM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
8:05 AM
0 Comments
Next Meeting: February 25th, 2009 Agenda: 11:30-11:45am Networking 11:45- 12:00pm XP discussion topic of the month: Group discussion on experience with TDD and refactoring 12:00- 1:00pm Using TDD and Refactoring Practices on Existing Code? Date and Time: Next XP User Group meeting will be held 11:30 am to 1 pm, February 25th, 2009 at the OCLC Kilgour Building presentation room.
posted by Ben Blanquera at
2:41 PM
0 Comments
Canal Winchester technology consultant iBeam Solutions Inc. has signed on to manage a high-security data center in Columbus.
IBeam parent iB3 Networks Inc. (OTC BB:IBNW) said Tuesday that it signed a 10-year agreement to operate the data center, which has about 10 clients. IB3 CEO Eric Schmidt declined to disclose details on the center’s previous operator or name its clients, but said they range from retailers to Web hosting companies. The data center is downtown but Schmidt wouldn’t be more specific.
The company, which expects to have clients notified of the change by next week, expects to disclose financial details of the deal in a later filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Schmidt said the company expects the center to benefit both IB3 and its shareholders.
The firm late last year closed a deal to buy NYC Mags Inc., owner of online dating startup MadisonAvenueMatch.com, and is working on due diligence for a deal to acquire social networking site plugmeister.com.
“Having a platform that we can host our other business units on is critical for the future of the company,” Schmidt said. “Secondly, it will be a very good revenue stream for our shareholders.”
The company estimated revenue from the facility could exceed $100,000 a month by the end of the year. IB3 through the first nine months of 2008 earned $261,395 on $986,990 in revenue, according to documents filed with the SEC.
The center will be run under 24-hour supervision by iBeam employees and local interns pursuing information technology degrees, Schmidt said. IBeam has 12 employees.
“With a lot of the high-end hosting, customers really want a data center that’s hands-on, 24/7, and many centers aren’t staffed 24/7,” he said. “This will give us a competitive edge.”
IB3, which hosts networks of tech-based and Internet-based companies, is the new face of the former Language Access Network Inc., which bought iBeam in late 2006. When Language Access sold its principal subsidiary in July, the company changed its name and stock ticker when Schmidt stepped in.
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:37 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:21 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
7:07 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:00 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
10:10 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
9:13 AM
1 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
9:12 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
5:28 PM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
4:56 PM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
4:30 PM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
7:17 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
10:53 PM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
3:55 PM
0 Comments
XPColumbus
Next Meeting:
February 25th, 2009
Agenda:
11:30-11:45am Networking
11:45- 12:00pm XP discussion topic of the month: Group discussion on experience with TDD and refactoring
12:00- 1:00pm Using TDD and Refactoring Practices on Existing Code?
Date and Time:
Next XP User Group meeting will be held 11:30 am to 1 pm, February 25th, 2009 at the OCLC Kilgour Building presentation room.
Using TDD and Refactoring Practices on Existing Code?
Many times the Key XP practices are discussed in the context of Greenfield Projects where code does not yet exist. That is interesting but since I tend to be extending existing systems not that useful to me. This presentation will discuss the unique challenges using these practices within existing application code in place. It will review specific tools and techniques that will accelerate your ability to use these practices against your existing systems.
About the Presenter
Mr. Van Vleet holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Information Systems from Ohio University. He joined Pillar in 2005 as Vice President of Fulfillment for the Ohio Valley Region after years of notable accomplishments. Matt has developed a testing practice focused on functional test automation and application performance management. Mr. Van Vleet founded a company, Solstice Software, that wrote Automated Unit and Integration Testing Products and continues to push the envelope of what is possible with test automation. Within Pillar he is one of the key innovators around our approach, Speed To Value, focusing on the critical areas of project management practices, requirements management, and test driven development. Due to Matt¹s skills and experience, he has developed Pillar¹s Practice Management model that maximizes the impact of productivity by enforcing those proven concepts and training.
posted by Ben Blanquera at
5:58 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
6:00 AM
0 Comments
Here were the winners of the various categories. Congrats to all who won and were nominated.
Mark Mahaffey (Dublin Coffman High School) and Claire Allen (Columbus School for Girls).
Mark founded mtek Media, Inc., which specializes in converting customers’ VHS tapes to DVD and creating custome videos for special events. Claire is active in Engineering, exploring various types of wind tunnels to investigate small model cars and airplanes. I would have been bummed if I were Mark or Claire since the Columbus Dispatch left out their accomplishment in their brief mention of the awards.
.....click here for the rest of the post - http://the270.com/2009/02/09/winners-of-the-techcolumbus-innovation-awards/
posted by Ben Blanquera at
5:55 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
5:53 AM
0 Comments
posted by Ben Blanquera at
8:41 AM
0 Comments
Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]