Blog
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Contests | Code for America
Code for America matches the needs of cities with Web 2.0 talent. Designers, programmers and product managers will work at the CfA Institute to create five great apps for five great cities while rubbing shoulders with the elite of the web industry. ... more -
Exemplars | Three games that will change the world
Changing the real world through the virtual- games that will change the world… We spend over three billion hours every week (and growing) playing games- why can’t his time be spent solving the worlds most pressing problems? This is exactly the problem Jane McGonigal, founder of AvantGame, is expressing in her extremely powerful 2010 TED ... more -
Exemplars | Happiness, health, and prosperity- on a smart phone?
There are currently over 160,000 apps available on the iphone and android combined, not to mention all of the other smart phones. What free apps are essential to the basics–happiness, health, education, career, housing and prosperity? Happiness Maximize Your Happiness There are not many apps on the market yet that claim to help you reach ... more -
Education | Middle schoolers w/ $200 do real science w digcam, GPS phone, lithium batteries, cooler, handwarmers, balloon & iPad to rescue
Students in Bill Wiley’s science elective at the Potomac School in McLean, VA signed up for a challenge: photograph the curvature of Earth for $200 or less. Thirteen 7th and 8th graders met every other week for a year, doing the necessary research and project design in preparation for the launch. They purchased and programmed ... more -
Facebook | K-factor and the new Madison Avenue
A few weeks back while indulging in an episode of Mad Men (AMC’s series about Madison Avenue advertisers in the 1960′s) I started to wonder how the advertising theory born there relates to game theory as is now being born in the labs and bedrooms of game and app designers around the world. On a ... more -
Facebook | Facebook check-in
Facebook’s social plumbing and ubiquitous membership could make check-in a prevalent component of public purpose applications. ... more -
Innovation | Five tips for the social impact start-Up
Thinking about launching your own social impact application, website, iphone app or your own nonprofit organization? These are some tips from one of the top dogs… This past Monday I attended the event ‘Start-up 101: Tips for Young, Would-be Techpreneurs’ featuring Paul Graham. Paul Graham has an impressive background in authorship, programming innovation and entrepreneurship and ... more -
Exemplars | Ass, gas or grass: rideshare goes mobile.
There’s a saying I heard a while back while hitch-hiking in Michigan. A gentleman who looked to be about my father’s age pulled his Ford LTD over to the gravel shoulder and when I approached the door, rolled the window down a little an asked, “Ass, gas or grass?”, though I’d never heard this question ... more -
Desktop web | Is the desktop dead?
It can be easy to overlook the tried and true applications in our search for mobility and connectivity. Many applications still function best on a full-sized screen with a full-sized keyboard. Data heavy applications, those that require a lot of reading and those used to create, are far more accessible on the ‘big screen’. I ... more
