In recent months, we’ve begun bootstrapping our product – Grandstand – and have rolled out a new service offering called Social Machines… all the while preparing for year 3 of DCWEEK (our 10,000+ person festival).

When we saw LivingSocial and Chase Bank’s “Mission: Small Business” grant program we took the rare step of applying for a grant of $250,000. We don’t typically go after these kinds of things, but we felt that at this time, with exciting projects and a growing festival, this cash would be great to put to work in order to further invest in the future of our business.

We’re going to need 250 votes to be considered for the grant. Please help us by taking 1.23 minutes to do the following:

1. Visit https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com
2. Click the “Login & Support” button in the bottom right. Accept Facebook login.
3. Search for “iStrategyLabs” and then vote. iStrategyLabs is one word with no spaces :)

Thank you for your help!

Have a look at this 50 second recap and associated pics and you’ll see why:

Amazing photos – completely stolen from Brightest Young Things Festival Report:

Photo Credits: Joy Asico

Just five years ago, consumers turned to their phones for basic communications – placing calls, checking email and sending texts. Today, those phones have morphed into a range of mobile devices that place the power of information in the palms of our hands.

The infographic charts the exploding and varied ways mobile devices are now being used to connect:

• 792 mobile apps are downloaded each second.
• 29 million mobile users streamed music in 2011.
• Video content accounts for 52% of all mobile data traffic.
• Facebook hosts 1627 mobile status updates per second.
• Twitter boasts 13 million mobile users.
• Instagram reported a 1,900% increase in the number of photos posted in a single year

Full infographic below:

Code The Next Facebook!

“Many public-school children seem to know only two dates — 1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion”  — Mark Twain

Startup technologists are the new rockstars to be emulated, which means learning how to write code is finding its way into the changing educational ecosystem more and more.

The Academy of Software Engineering:  NYC’s newest move to become a stronghold of young technical talent is slated to deliver cutting edge curriculum for students focusing on software engineering, design, and technology.

Code Now: This program is quickly gaining traction as it aims to develop the next generation of disruptive technologists, focusing on foundational computer science skills for underrepresented high school students.

Codecademy:  Learn to write code online and at your own pace, through a series of interactive tutorials and lessons.

Hungry Academy:  In a recruiting masterstroke, Living Social will take you from “0” to “10101…” in a rigorous 5 month program, (upon signing a commitment to work for Living Social for a year that is).

Build A Company!

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education” — Mark Twain

Upon graduating high school, my parents presented me with an option:  either go to college, or use the money they had saved up to do something else (start a business, travel the world, learn to fly helicopters, etc).  I went to college*.  You don’t have to.

E[nstitute]:  This 2-year apprenticeship program is set out to provide a legitimate alternative for traditional higher education by turning startups and small businesses across New York City into classrooms.

Thiel Fellowship:  2-years + $100,000 + mentorship and connections with some of the heaviest hitters in silicon valley = a high probability of success.

EverFi: This startup focuses on delivering the critical life skill of financial literacy through a series of interactive courses and games… (and it’s 100% free for K-12 schools).

Become a Modern Day Know-It-All & Handy Man!

“It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others — and less trouble.“  — Mark Twain

Finally, the tools for servicing the largest market segment yet, the rest of us who want to stay sharp or learn something new, no matter what age.

Skillshare:  The ultimate peer-to-peer experiential learning platform.  Learn (and teach!) how to do everything from writing code to hanging a shelf properly in your house.

Udemy:  “The Academy of You”.  Quite simply, this platform allows you to take and build online courses on just about anything.

Khan Academy:  The groundbreaking platform for alternative online learning.  With a vast aray of bite sized YouTube videos, Khan boils down everything from art history to the Paulson Bailout.

Udacity:  After his CS221 class went viral, Google Fellow Sebastian Thrun of Stanford launched a platform that combines the direct instruction of Khan Academy with the interactivity of Codecademy.

MITx:  In the Fall of 2012 MIT will offer a variety of its courses for free online. Sound like MIT OpenCourseWare?  It’s not.  It features interactive instruction, online labs, and individualized assessment, giving anyone the ability to earn certificates from MITx.

*NOTE:  I had an awesome time in college.  

The following video will give you a good sense for what DCWEEK is all about:

You may also want to scroll through out overview deck for metrics on the 10,000+ attendees of DCWEEK:

DCWEEK 2012 Overview

Lastly, we tracked a ton of buzz, check-ins and demographics this year. Check out these infographics (click for a bigger image):

Kudos to Mike O’brien for the infographic design, Chris Vee for the foursquare data munging and Bonnie Shaw for the foresight and follow through.

The campaign trailer can be see here:

Visit the website here or see it below:

It’s early in the game, but the frontrunner for “dark horse of the year” might just go to Grandstand. Ranked #2 at the time of this writing, Grandstand is an interesting startup in that it’s neither a game or an app — it’s a platform.

We went on to launch a Grandstand instance at the GE Garages – and coupled it with our Social Machines offering. You can see a simulation and live action recap here:

Finally, we’ve been accepted to the SXSW Accelerator as 1 of 8 entertainment focused apps. The demo deck is here:

Meet the GE Social Fridge: a Vintage 1939 Model refrigerator that has been hacked to pop open after 10 people have checked-in to it on Foursquare, revealing a cache of ice cold beer. It’s paired with a custom Grandstand instance so you can see on a flatscreen how many check-ins are still required to open it.

Time lapse of the GE Social Fridge construction:

The GE Social Fridge in Action at SXSW:


The Grandstand Real-Time Data Visualization

If you’re at SXSW on March 10th & 11th, stop by GE Garages at 401 Guadalupe & 4th to check it out. The full agenda is here, and write ups are here and here. And the overall experience the GE team has built is gorgeous:

]]> http://www.istrategylabs.com/2012/03/the-ge-social-fridge-opens-at-sxsw-with-10-foursquare-check-ins/feed/ 5 http://www.istrategylabs.com/2012/03/kickstarting-an-international-dc-tech-creative-campaign/ http://www.istrategylabs.com/2012/03/kickstarting-an-international-dc-tech-creative-campaign/#comments Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:57:42 +0000 corbett3000 http://www.istrategylabs.com/?p=4220 Last summer I spoke at Ignite DC 7 and shared my thoughts on the current state of DC’s Tech & Creative ecosystem and what I saw as the things we need to do now.

In the following expletive filled video (seriously don’t let your kid hear this) I highlight the fact that we need to do two things:

1. Tell the story of innovators in the DC Technology and Creative communities; and

2. Bring people together more densely in physical space so they can bump into each other more and collaborate.

First the video, then my subsequent question for you right now:

The setup:

Since this talk was given, GeekEasy, District.io, The Fort and Endeavor have been created. Physical places are bringing density. So much so that I don’t feel the need to put down $150k in iStrategyLabs rent money to get something kicked off anymore.

But what about telling innovator’s stories and marketing this place as an entrepreneurial mecca? We do DC Tech Meetup and DCWEEK; Startup DC, MD and VA are starting to get the word out in the tri-state area. Tech Cocktail, In the Capital, Two-Side Brain, Fosterly,The Washington Business Journal, The Washington Post and NBC4 are all doing a great job covering what’s going on in ‘the scene’.

But there’s something missing.

What’s missing is a grassroots, internationally focused campaign that draws attention to what the creative innovators of the capital region are doing. This campaign would:

1. Help fill open jobs in DC/MD/VA tech companies
2. Encourage people to come to the area to start a tech/creative company here
3. Position the DC region as a hub for innovation and creativity
4. Show DC area tech/creative companies that there is yet another reason to say here
5. Drive revenue for the tech and creative industry

Likely components would include:

1. A website for easily understanding what happens in the city/region with regard to creative/tech companies
2. Links to resources provided by the DC Tech/Creative community (like ProudlyMade in DC, Fosterly, DC Tech Incentives etc.)
3. User generated content (video testimonials) from the Tech/Creative community
4. Online media campaign targeted at creative innovator hubs around the world
5. A Kickstarter project to crowdfund part of it
6. A sponsorship and partner outreach campaign to fund part of it

iStrategyLabs is prepared to kickoff the creation of this campaign when we get back from SXSW. But before we do, we want to hear from you.

The question:

Do you agree that this is what we need? Please let your comments here or on our Facebook page in this thread.

How about a free hotel room to give to one of your friends too? Yeah…this is getting good.

We’ve been working on a social sweepstakes with our friends at Embassy Suites Hotels and BBDO to craft a campaign that delivers MORE. In fact, we’re delivering 366 days of more – from February 29th, 2012 to February 28th 2013 Embassy Suites Hotels is giving away two free hotels rooms a day. One room you get to keep, and one you get to give to one of your friends through a Facebook gifting app we built.

All glorious creative work is BBDO’s doing – we’re delivering the strategy, technology development and social advertising magic on this one. You can enter the sweepstakes here. Good luck!

Washington DC’s first annual Social Media Week (@smwwdc) kicks off on Monday with a slew of events to get your juices flowin’. The iStrategyLabs team (Bonnie Shaw, Katie Lancos, Audrey Mathias, and Erica Goodwin) have working hard to get everything off and running.

The full Feb. 13th – 17th schedule is here – there are over 5000 registrations to date so it should be packed! Follow the #smwwdc hashtag for real-time updates.

It looks like most events are at capacity – but there’s a few slots open for the Official Closing Party (RSVP) and the 1,000 person DC Tech Meetup. I gave a little overview of the week on @NBCwashington with @ohmygoff this morning. See you out there!

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

We think these kinds of hacks – what we call Social Machines – are the most interesting application of all the disciplines here at iStrategyLabs. We take strategy + creative + technology + experience and BAM! = you get an incredible way to engage people.

Today we’re adding Social Machines to our official iStrategyLabs product offering and will be playing with internal and client projects of this kind of over the next few months. Our latest prototype – the Foursquare Cooler – is below for your viewing pleasure along with other vids of our experimental Social Machines. If you like building these or want one for a campaign, email me here.

Social Machines Overview

Check out the sweet recap video:

Ford was the perfect fit of DCWEEK because they continue to push the envelope using social media to engage audiences across the web. At DCWEEK Ford also used iStrategyLabs’s brand new social data visualization technology called Grandstand enabling them to show fans photos, tweets and klout scores in real-time.

As if that weren’t enough, we collaborated with world famous Charm City Cakes to build the “Ford Tweeting Cake“. Simply, when you tweeted with the right #hashtag, the cake would say your tweet. Super fun, super social, super experiential. What else could you ask for? The mini-documentary we produced about it says it all:

The Ford Tweeting Cake is part of the inspiration behind a new product/service offering we’re working on called Social Machines. After building the cake, a FourSquare Unlock Box, Grandstand and playing with other digital + physical mashups, we’re almost ready to roll out the Social Machines offering for brands and organizations that want to infuse the physical word with social data…in order to remote-control it. Most soon!

RU a 14 yr old girl or txt like 1?

Do you love beautiful info-graphic animations?

If you answered yes to any of these then check out our most recent animation for Mobile Future – The “2011 Mobile Year in Review“. 2010′s Mobile Year in Review can be found here and has been seen over 150,000 times.

There is our gap – call it 50,000 high paying gigs that our tech companies can’t fill. Perhaps StartupVisa (more from Tech Crunch) will pass someday and “sort of” fix this. Perhaps CodeNow can teach a generation of kids to code.

Maybe college kids will stop studying things that have no hope of employing them and adding meaningfully to our economy (like finance – and all these other majors). I wouldn’t put my money on it though. The incentive to learn meaningful engineering skills are clearly lacking. Who’s got the answer? Anyone have a solid plan for encouraging more Computer Science majors in this country?

Most of us in the tech industry know there’s a huge issue in America with regard to engineer scarcity, as well as the broad digital divide between the digerati and the under-served.

CodeNow is a DC startup non-profit that aims to solve both problems by teaching disadvantaged kids to code.

This holiday season CodeNow is pushing to raise money to buy kids netbooks so they can teach more students crucial programing skills in DC. iStrategyLabs is a huge fan – we were CodeNow’s first sponsor – and so is the Whitehouse (read here).

Buy a kid a netbook. Contribute anything – even $10. Donate your latte fund. Whatever. IT WILL ACTUALLY MATTER. Watch the videos below and contribute to this great program.

If you do…please comment on this post or email me (peter at istrategylabs dot com) to tell me – I’m going to invite every single donor this season to a super secret VIP happy hour on me just to say thank you. The donation link is http://codenow.eventbrite.com.

We’re cranking away on our products over here – and it got me thinking about the dating life of tech entrepreneurs. Which one do you like best?

1. Freemium models are your competition at the bar.
2. When you’re talking, they’re thinking about users.
3. When you’re laying in bed, they’re thinking about #winning.
4. They think lusting after 22 year old programmers is okay for grown men/women to do.
5. They make awkward sexual remarks like “I’d call that API”.
6. They think a startup consists of not having a job, while programming.
7. They think they have multiple startups in the form of multiple unfinished apps.
8. If they’re from NYC, they grow really silly mustaches and wear really tight jeans.
9. If they’re from SF, they wear really tight jeans and grow really silly mustaches.
10. If they’re from DC, they’ll wish they could grow a really silly mustache and have tighter jeans.
11. If they’re in Austin, they’re probably puking on something during SXSW.
12. They think you care about their monetization strategy.
13. They don’t care how hot you are – if you don’t “get it” then you’re toast.
14. They think referencing Paul Graham essays in causal conversation is normal.
15. They have to schedule dates spontaneously 3 weeks in advance.
16. They’re too tired for a booty call.
17. Their exit strategy includes paying him/her.
18. You’ll be signing a prenup.
19. You’ll learn the meaning of the word manic.
20. You’ll need to follow them on Twitter to know what they’re up to.
21. You’ll need to follow them on Foursquare to bump into them randomly.
22. You’ll need to pretend you’re not jealous of the quality time they spend with their Siri.
23. Their idea of a date is meeting you at starbucks for 30 minutes.
24. They keep pushing you to hire a team to manage and grow your personal blog
25. They won’t talk to you if you don’t believe in agile/lean everything.
26. Pillow talk sometimes includes references to Jack Dorsey.
27. Pillow talk also includes “when I raise that round baby…”
28. Ship early, ship often does not include gifts on your birthday
29. Fail fast applies to your relationship.
31. Vacation includes co-working sessions, networking, skype, and writing proposals.
32. When they wake up, the first thing they reach for is their iPhone.
33. You’ll get friend requests from people even they’ve never met in person.
33. They’re just weird people.
34. Their alcohol tolerance is that of a pre-pubescent teenager.
35. Their their tantrums are also like that of a pre-pubescent teenager.

Social Media Week is a global platform that connects people, content, and conversation around emerging trends in social and mobile media. Delivered primarily through a network of internationally hosted biannual conferences and online through social and mobile media, Social Media Week brings hundreds of thousands of people together every year through learning experiences that aim to advance our understanding of social media’s role in society.

Event planning and promotion will begin mid-November, upon the wrap-up of our second annual Digital Capital Week (@DCWeek).

Stay up to speed on new Social Media Week DC developments by Liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter (@smwwdc).

Want to get involved? Let us know.

Check out the full demo here:

Flip through the deck here:

Come talk to us @getGrandstand, and big ups to @laurenkerwell for the killer design and @cvee for killer dev of our shiny new microsite!