We’re really busy. We have projects coming out of our ears and have been turning interesting things away that we just can’t think about. This is clearly a good problem – but we also see an opportunity for the community around us to benefit from the buzz we’ve generated about what we do and for iStrategyLabs and our clients to benefit from a pool of new partners.

We want to see how we can work together on things that are awesome.

So here’s where you come in:

1) We need project managers/producers that can start as freelancers and if it works out – potentially come on board full time. If you know how to manage web projects, marketing campaigns, multimedia productions and/or experience creation please get in touch.

You’ll lead teams of designers, developers, videographers, animators and artists for our client projects and other initiatives.

2) We need the best talent from across all manner of skill sets. We already have teams of talented designers, animators, and developers working with us – but we need more. We want to know what you’re the best at, and what you’re most passionate about doing, so we can plug you in to opportunities you’ll find fulfilling. If you are, or know, a super-amazingly-talented (ie. not mediocre) professional freelancer with the following skill sets please get in touch.

People we’re looking for:

• Web Designers and Data Visualization Specialists
  

• Web Developers (WordPress, LAMP, Ruby, Drupal, Django and social API hackers of all kinds)

• Mobile Developers (iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Mobile)

• Online Community Managers

• Social Media Marketers

• Online Marketers (Google Adwords, Facebook Social Ads primarily)

• Experience Designers (Video installations, performing arts vignettes, stunts, guerrilla marketing)

• Creative Marketing Strategists (those who generate amazing ideas for brands)

• Hardware hackers of all kinds

If you’re interested in taking the first step and getting to know us a bit better, just drop you info in the form below and we’ll be in touch.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

When we set out last year to see if the model we pioneered through Apps for Democracy could translate to a different culture like that of the U.S. Army we ran into a lot of skeptics.  As Apps for the Army was being conceived some of our detractors said the following:

• The Army is too big and slow to do something like this
• Soldiers don’t know how to code
• Soldiers don’t know anything about security
• The apps will be low quality – leave the development to the pros
• The process will kill any excitement in the program

I’m happy to report all of that was wrong.

Today, the Army has announced something very special – the first winning class of soldiers and civilians who’ve developed mobile and web solutions to address Army’s current challenges.

Of the initial 53 apps submitted a full 25 of them have passed through all security certification and are ready to be deployed today.

This program has taken the software development life-cycle down from an average of more than 1 year to roughly 90 days.

Soldiers are now empowered and incentivized to build solutions to their own problems rather than rely on outside actors to big them the tools they need.

With that all that in mind, here is the full Apps for the Army awards announcement for your consideration:

Top Five Apps for the Army Winners Recognized at LandWarNet Conference

The top five winners of the Apps for the Army (A4A) application development challenge will be recognized at the LandWarNet Conference, Thursday, August 5th in Tampa, FL.

Launched on March 1, A4A is the Army’s first internal application development challenge. In 75 days, 141 Soldiers and Army civilians registered in teams or as individuals to participate in the A4A challenge. By the May 15th deadline, 53 web and mobile applications were developed and submitted.

Fifteen winners and ten honorable mentions were selected from the 53 web and mobile applications developed and submitted by May 15. After passing a security certification, the apps were judged in five categories by a panel from across the Army. Each of the five categories has first ($3000), second ($1500) and third place ($1000) winners, and honorable mentions.

These 25 apps represent more than two times the number of certifiable apps we were hoping for and expecting from the program, said Lt. Gen. Jeff Sorenson, the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6.

Each application will help overcome mission-related challenges through the power of mobile and web devices.
This pilot program is helping define the business processes needed to make it easier to develop applications and certify software for the Army enterprise, Sorenson added.

The top five winning apps support physical training, mental health, disaster relief, mapping and recruiting:

Physical Training Program (iOS) helps Soldiers develop their own Personal Training program based on the Army’s new Physical Readiness Training program. The app provides training plans and videos of exercises. Developers are Maj. Gregory Motes, Cpt. Christopher Braunstein and Cpt. Stacey Osborn of the Army Signal Center, Ft. Gordon, Ga.

Telehealth Mood Tracker (Android/iOS) is a self-monitoring app that allows users to track their psychological health over a period of days, weeks and months using a visual analogue rating scale. Users can track experiences associated with deployment-related behavioral health issues. Developers are Robert Kayl, Scott Swim and Robert Van Gorkom of the Madigan Army Medical Center, Ft. Lewis, WA.

Disaster Relief (Android) is a web-based data survey, dissemination and analysis tool for searching, editing and creating maps viewable on Google Earth and Google Maps. The app assists Army personnel working in humanitarian relief and civilian affairs operations. Clients can be most mobile and handheld devices such as PDAs and smart phones. Developers are Andrew Jenkins and Alex Ly of the Engineer Research and Development Center, Alexandria, Va.

Movement Projection (Android) is a map-routing app for road navigation that allows Soldiers to input obstacles and threats — in addition to stops, start and end points — and calculates the best and fastest route. Luke Catania of the Engineer Research and Development Center, Alexandria, Va., is the developer.

New Recruit (Android) provides information for potential recruits. Features include military rank and insignia, Army news feeds, an Army physical fitness test calculator, and a Body Mass Index calculator. Thomas Maroulis of Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, developed the app.

The complete list of 25 winners will be available soon on the CIO/G-6 website, http://ciog6.army.mil/Apps4Army.aspx.

Apps for the Army applications will be available for DoD CAC-card holders through the DoD Application Storefront beginning August 3.

The Army provided application development teams with key resources such as a cross- platform, cloud based, secure development environment. A4A marks a shift away from traditional Army development practices by using the latest in agile development methods, while focusing on rapid deployment. Milbook, AKO, and Twitter facilitated the cross-pollination of ideas, problems and solutions among developers over the course of the challenge. The forge.mil development site served as the collaborative software repository for participating teams.

A media and bloggers’ roundtable will take place Wed, August 3 at 10 a.m. at the LandWarNet Conference in Tampa FL at the Convention Center in the Press Room, Room #2. Lt. Gen. Sorenson and several of the A4A winners will participate.

If you plan to call in, please contact: SSG Dale Sweetnam at (703) 614-0371 or dale.sweetnam@us.army.mil to get the call-in number.

If you plan to participate in person at the media event, please contact: Anthony Garcia at 703-602-9375.

With media queries, contact: Margaret McBride at margaret.mcbride@us.army.mil. Look for updates on the Army CIO/G-6 Twitter feed @ArmyCIOG6 and follow the Apps for the Army conversation at hashtag #apps4army.

This June iStrategyLabs embarked on one of its biggest experiments yet. In collaboration with Shiny Heart Ventures, we threw our full weight into producing a 10 day festival called Digital Capital Week. In 3.5 months time, driven purely by word-of-mouth, we spawned a 6,000 person experience that will shape the nations capital for years to come. This will be a 10,000+ person event in 2011. Here are some highlights then a full metrics deck:

• 5,791 total registrants
• 13,000 tweets by 2434 people generated
• 600+ blog posts created about the festival
• $125,000+ in pro-bono consulting delivered to local non-profits
• Attendees from across the country and world, with 90% of the Mid-Atlantic
• 12,000 voters cast 34,000 votes for bands to play at our closing party at the 9:30 Club
• Coverage in The Washington Post, WUSA9, and a lot more

DCWEEK 2010 Final Metrics

Facebook continues to grow and this addition of our Facebook Demographics and Statistics report shows growth across all ages:

Key insights:

1. So far this year, Facebook’s US user base has grown by 21.8 % (22,474,900 users)
2. The strongest growth remains in the 55+ segement at 35.3% (3,443,460 users)
3. This time Chicago is seeing a growth spurt – almost doubling in 5 months
4. Facebook’s Privacy issues are not causing account cancellations en-mass

Refer to “Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report 2010 – 145% Growth in 1 Year” for a full look at 2009.

You’ve probably been followed by someone like this at some point…

Or, maybe it’s someone that actually looks real and totally innocent:

You’ll notice the one thing both have in common, they each only have 1 follower.  New services are popping up left and right that claim to automatically build a massive following on Twitter, driving traffic to your business (and making you an overnight success, because traffic = money!).  It will look something like this:

The philosophical hook for Twitter spam relies on the same reciprocation bias that Twitter itself also uses… “if you follow me then I’ll follow you.”  The interesting segment of this ecosystem are the subsequent products that now see a clear opportunity, e.g. http://thetwitcleaner.com/ — which explains, “In the same way that Google proved the cost effectiveness of super targeted advertising, a Twitter list that is 30-50% smaller but full of actual clients & people that are genuinely interested in what you do is worth significantly more than a larger list full of junk.”

As Facebook is under fire for privacy issues and spam continues to proliferate the social web, the important thing is that we the users are at least savvy enough to know what’s real and what’s not — so we can move on.

Over the past 75 days, 141 soldiers and Army civilians registered in teams or as individuals to participate in the Apps for the Army (A4A) application development challenge. By the May 15th deadline, 53 web and mobile applications were developed and submitted, marking a prolific period of internal Army innovation. The announcement post with details about the Apps for the Army program structure can be found here.

Gov 2.0 Expo 2010: Lt. General Jeffrey Sorenson (@ArmyCIOG6), “Apps for the Army”

A sampling of submissions include apps that: support data collection in disaster relief situations, analyze threats in an area of operations, inventory property, and provide Mess Hall options. The apps submitted included 17 Android, 16 iPhone, 10 ASP.NET, 7 LAMP, 2 Blackberry and 1 for AKO.

Next, the apps must pass a security certification. They will then be judged on six criteria by a panel of judges from across the Army in eight categories. The Army plans to announce winners at the LandWarNet Conference in early August. Selected submissions will receive employee cash awards from a total cash pool of $30,000.
Launched less than three months ago, A4A is the Army’s first internal application development challenge. It was open to all Soldiers and Department of the Army civilians. The Army provided application development teams with key resources such as a cross-platform, cloud based, secure development environment.

“Soldiers and Army civilians are creating new mobile and web applications of value for their peers—tools that enhance warfighting effectiveness and business productivity today,” said Lt. Gen. Jeff Sorenson, the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6. “And, we’re rewarding their innovation with recognition and cash.”

A4A marks a shift away from traditional Army development practices by using the latest in agile development methods, while focusing on rapid deployment. Milbook, AKO, and Twitter facilitated the cross-pollination of ideas, problems and solutions among developers over the course of the challenge. Forge.mil served as the collaborative software repository for participating teams.
The pilot program will help define the business processes needed to make applications easily available to the Army enterprise.

• Listen to LTG Sorenson discuss the Apps for the Army program with media and press during Launch Week on the US Army Blogger’s Roundtable: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bloggersroundtable/2010/03/04/us-army-bloggers-roundtable-apps-for-the-army
• Watch the video of GEN Peter W. Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army endorsing the Apps for the Army challenge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZl4KR3KQmw
• Read more about Apps for the Army at InformationWeek and NextGov
• For media queries, contact Margaret McBride, 703-693-3067, margaret.mcbride@us.army.mil, Army CIO/G-6 or visit http://www.army.mil/ciog6/.

Analysis of sexual preferences for Facebook users in the United States

Key insights:

• Number of US gay males on Facebook: 457,960 or .4% of all US Facebook users
• Number of US lesbians on Facebook: 1,768,780 or 1.6% of all US Facebook users
• Highest number of gay males of any age is 27,640 at 19 years of age
• Highest number of lesbians of any age is 102,800 at 19 years of age
• The highest percentage of gay male US Facebook users is 1.72% at age 21
• The highest percentage of lesbian US Facebook users is 2.34% at age 22
• Total sample size is 111,281,280 users with 65.6 not reporting a sexual preference

Analysis of sexual preferences for Facebook users in US cities and foreign countries

Key insights:

• New York City has the highest gay male user count at 20,960, representing .94% of New York Facebook users
• New York City has the highest lesbian user count at 55,500*, representing 1.66% of New York Facebook users
• Washington DC has the highest percentage of gay men using Facebook at 1.20%
• Second only to New York City, Los Angles has the largest homosexual population on Facebook

*Washington DC’s lesbian Facebook user count is so high (128,280) it is questionable

• The UK has the greatest number of gay men on Facebook at 131,800 users outside of the US – .6% of the UK user base (compared to 457,960 or .4% of all US Facebook users)
• Pakistan has the highest percentage of gay male users at 2.0%, 5 times that of the US
• The Philippines has the largest lesbian user count at 842,540, a full 6.66% of users in that country

About the data:

All data was collected using Facebook’s Social Ads platform – this data is elective, meaning users volunteer this information and are not required to provide it. A full excel spreadsheet of this information can be downloaded at Scribd:Facebook Gay Statistics 2010

A few weeks after you and Eliza are friends, don’t be shocked if you start getting messages to become a fan of random local associations, businesses, and other things you’re probably not interested in.  What’s happening here?  Spammers are creating artificial word of mouth marketing online by manipulating the basic trust people have in recommendations from their friends.

Online marketers are selling these ‘fake friends’ to legitimate companies who probably have no idea what they are getting into — and only care about the promise of fans (prospects).  They probably saw something like this…

Both the marketers selling this service and the companies buying it are doing a disservice to themselves and the health of the social web in general. Keep this post in mind when you get friend requests in Facebook – and please, keep your social media marketing efforts on the up and up.

]]> http://www.istrategylabs.com/2010/04/fake-facebook-profiles-the-new-spam/feed/ 12 http://www.istrategylabs.com/2010/03/istrategylabs-wins-a-gold-and-silver-addy/ http://www.istrategylabs.com/2010/03/istrategylabs-wins-a-gold-and-silver-addy/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:25:58 +0000 Peter Corbett http://www.istrategylabs.com/?p=1657

I’ve always shunned the ‘typical industry’ stuff associated with the advertising industry. It’s sooooo full of navel gazing and braggadocio.

Um…but when you get a call that your hard work, for two great clients, have won Gold and Silver Addys – well let’s just say it’s easy to see why awards feel so good. I guess this is my ‘traditional agency guy’ post to say I’m very proud of our team for taking home these awards. Here’s the break down:

The Gold Addy is the result of the hard work put in by Zvi Band, Alex Hsaio and me for the Washington Life Magazine site. A full post about that project can be found here.

As for the Silver Addy, here’s the story: one in six children in the United States of America, the world’s wealthiest country, go to bed each night unsure of when their next meal will come.  That’s 12.4 million children, in our country, that are chronically hungry — 12.4 million children that regularly fail to get the food they need to thrive.  It’s a sobering, embarrassing statistic — but, perhaps just as importantly, it’s also a little-known statistic.

The iStrategyLabs team built a campaign designed to change that.  On behalf of our friends at Share Our Strength, a national non-profit that seeks to end childhood hunger, we set out to raise awareness about this very real problem. This gorgeous and tear jerking video has gotten much deserved recognition:

Zach Goodwin was responsible for art direction, design and story arc.  The exceptionally talented Brock Boyts handled all After Effects animation.  Richard Thies and Nick Ross (who moonlight as indie rockers, Project ULTRA) composed the original score.

The Disruptathon is providing their innovation discovery platform (including super slick branded iPod Touch devices) to select the winners in real-time at the contest finale & party at Ben’s Next Door.  The winner gets… wait for it… a framed picture on the illustrious wall of Ben’s Chili Bowl (close by to Bill Cosby or Obama, of course), Ben’s gear, gift cards, some serious bragging rights — and even an ‘unveiling’ party with 20 friends (nice).

PHASE 1 – April
The contest kicks off on April 5th at Tech Tasters (12pm-3pm) at Ben’s Next Door.

Community votes on ideas to help guide developers - [CLICK HERE]

PHASE 2 – May
Apps are created, submitted to first round.

Finalists are announced, Apps are tweaked and polished.

CONTEST FINALE – June 20th
The whole thing will conclude on June 20th (the final event of #DCWeek) with a voting and awards party at Ben’s Next Door. Apps are presented,  the community votes in real-time, and winners are announced!

Everything you need can be found here: http://apps4bens.com

The only question is, why am I not a mobile app developer?!

• In the past 6 months 59,005 blog posts have been written with “healthcare” included as a keyword
• 47,309 of those posts have been positive
• 11,696 have been negative
• 75.3% have positive things to say about healthcare
  

Download the Digital Capital Week Overview PDF or Download the Full Details PDF

What is Digital Capital Week?

Digital Capital Week (DCWEEK) is a 10 day festival in Washington DC focused on technology, innovation and all things digital in our nation’s capital.

The first 2000 General Admission tickets will be free. Registration is OPEN here.

Modeled after Internet Week NY, Social Media Week, FotoWeek DC, Fringe Festival, etc. — DCWEEK will consist of a series of distributed events produced and hosted by individuals, organizations and community groups.

It’s a time to do the following:

• to learn from others through sessions, keynotes, workshops and panels
• to meet new friends, clients, partners, investors and collaborators
• to focus on the issues that can be addressed in new ways
• to come together to support innovative businesses, people and ideas
• to showcase the DC area as a region for technology, innovation and creativity
• to work on projects that benefit the city and the world
• to experiment with what’s possible
• to have fun at some great parties!

How much is it to attend?

• The first 2000 General Admission tickets will be free.
• Specific events will be hosted by community members and will have an entry fee

How do I connect with others participating in DCWEEK?

Join the Facebook Group

Use/follow the hashtag #DCWEEK

Follow @dcweek on Twitter

When is DCW?

DCWEEK will kick off on June 11th and conclude on June 20th, 2010. The full schedule of events is located here and will be updated frequently:http://bit.ly/dcwcal

Who is participating in DCW?

Technologists, Artists, Entrepreneurs, Communicators, Govies, and social capitalists of all kinds will participate.  Use this as an opportunity to hang out with your tribe, or connect with a new one! The schedule is segmented according to these participant groups for your convenience.

Who is behind DCWEEK?

DCWEEK is co-produced by iStrategyLabs and Shiny Heart Ventures.

iStrategyLabs is an idea foundry that brings new ideas to life in the digital and physical world for clients, communities and ourselves. We specialize in experiential, word-of-mouth, and social media marketing.

Shiny Heart Ventures is a technology company with heart and soul, focused on creating community powered products and services that remind us of the joys of life.

Who are the supporters and partners?

This thing is OFFICIAL! DCWEEK has support from the WDCEP (Washington DC Economic Partnership), DC Office of Planning, CTDC (Cultural Tourism DC), OCTO (DC’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer) and the city’s BIDS (Business Improvement Districts).

Ways to Participate:

1)  Attend! Register here: http://dcweek.eventbrite.com and build an itinerary here: http://bit.ly/dcwcal. Most events won’t be populated until late Spring.

2)  Host an event/session. What will you add to Digital Capital Week?

• Schedule your typical monthly meetup during Digital Capital Week
• Create a panel, workshop, roundtable and let us know where it will be
• Host a ‘studio tour’ to show off your stuff
• Create a demo lounge for people to show off their own stuff
• Throw a party, or host a fundraiser for a digital cause
• To submit an event it must have the following characteristics:
• It must take place in DC
• It must take place between June 11th and June 20th
• It must not have the same content at the same time as another event
• Must submitted to the Event Submission Form here: http://bit.ly/dcweform

3)   Lead/participate in a project

Digital Capital Week is not just 10 days of parties and sessions. It’s also an opportunity for you to collaborate on a project with others. If you’d like to participate in a project, please use the event RSVP to indicate your lever of interest. The following kinds of projects will be developed by DCW participants:

• Local projects – bridge the digital divide and work on civic innovation projects to make your neighborhood better
• Global projects – DC is home to innumerable global NGOs that need our help to solve the worlds problems.
• Design + Dev project – build something for someone who needs it badly! We’ll source assignments from worthy non-profits that could use your help.
• Art Project – want to create some digitally infused art, or shoot/screen a film? Lead or join an art project during Digital Capital Week.
• Hard Problems – Most problems won’t get solved during a session or even a full day conference. If you’ve got a hard problem you want help solving over this 10 day period and beyond this type of project is right for you.

4)   Sponsor or Partner with DCWEEK

To explore sponsoring/partnering with Digital Capital Week, please contact DJ Saul:

dj@istrategylabs.com, 541-521-1349, http://twitter.com/darienjay100

Disclaimer: iStrategyLabs does not represent the views and opinions of the US Army. The views and opinions contained in this post are to be taken solely as those of Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs.

Ever since we launched Apps for Democracy for DC’s Office of the CTO back in September 2008 the world has been a-buzz with “Apps for” contests. We recently released a guide for how to create your own in order to make this kind of innovation method more accessible to people around the world. There are now about a dozen of these innovation contests being run by cities, national governments and various non-profits.

Today I’m happy to announce a new Apps initiative – one which iStrategyLabs has been contracted to create with the Army’s CIO/G6. A special thank you goes out to Tim O’Reilly – who envisioned this program and served as an advisor/connector to make it happen. Below you’ll find full details from the Army’s official media advisory (download as .DOC), and a summary is as follows:

1. A media and bloggers’ roundtable will take place March 3 at 1:30 pm in the Pentagon, Room  1E462.  Lieutenant General Jeffery Sorenson (Army CIO) will discuss Apps for the Army and take questions. To attend the roundtable in person, or if you plan to call in, please contact: Ms. Ashley McCall-Washington at 703-614-1649 or ashley.mccall1@us.army.mil
2. The competition runs from March 1st to May 15st 2010
3. There are 40 employee cash awards totaling $30,000 for mobile and web apps
4. Only 100 initial teams can participate
5. Awards will be announced in June, with public demonstrations at LandWarNet
6. Registration forms and other details can be found on AKO: http://www.army.mil/ciog6/armyapps
7. Forge.mil will serve as a collaborative software repository
8. RACE – a cloud based development sandbox will be provided. Participants can access a Windows server, Linux server and mobile app emulation software for Android and Blackberry. iPhone apps will need to be developed outside of RACE.
9. MilBook’s Apps for the Army group will serve as the core collaboration space for all participants
10. If you’re on twitter, use the hashtag #apps4army to follow the conversation

Video Overview of Apps for the Army:

Apps for the Army Logo & Banner:

Full text of the media release:

Army Launches Software Application Development Challenge “Apps for the Army”

The Pentagon, Arlington, VA (March 1^st, 2010) – Today the Army announced its first internal applications development challenge, dubbed Apps for the Army or A4A.  Open to all Soldiers and Department of the Army civilians, A4A offers Army personnel the opportunity to demonstrate their software development skills and creativity.  In return, the Army hopes to improve its current capabilities or to add new ones – all through the ingenuity of its people.

“We’re building a culture of collaboration among our Army community to encourage smarter, better and faster technical solutions to meet operational needs,” said Army Chief Information Officer/G-6 Lt. Gen. Jeff Sorenson.

“Soldiers and Army civilians will be creating new mobile and web applications of value for their peers—tools that enhance warfighting effectiveness and business productivity today,” Sorenson said.  “And, we’re rewarding their innovation with recognition and cash.”

Participation in A4A is limited to the first 100 Army personnel (active duty, Army Reserve and Army National Guard on active duty, and civilians) who enroll.  Teamwork is encouraged but not required.  The Army will recognize the top submissions at the LandWarNet Conference in August 2010.  Winners will receive monetary awards; the total cash pool is $30,000.

A4A applications may tackle any aspect of Army IT – distributed training, battle command, career management, continuing education, or news and information distribution, for example.  A4A will further deviate from traditional development practices by utilizing the latest in collaborative development media.

“Apps for the Army features an innovative cloud computing service for participants to use during software creation,” Sorenson noted.  “This is key because it eliminates the constraints of hardware provisioning prior to prototype evaluation.”

The service, provided by the Defense Information Systems Agency and known as the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE), offers access to on-demand virtual Windows and Linux development environments.  Participants will be able to pursue Web application development using all available programming languages supported by Windows Server and the Linux, Apache, MYSQL and PHP (LAMP) frameworks.  They also will be able to build emulated Blackberry, iPhone and Android applications.

Forge.mil will serve as the collaborative software repository for competing teams.  The tools inherent in milBook and AKO will facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas, problems and solutions relevant to the Apps for the Army initiative.

The registration form, rules and instructions are located at the Apps for the Army Web site on the AKO portal: http://www.army.mil/ciog6/armyapps.  Rolling registration begins March 1, 2010.  Apps must be submitted by May 15, 2010.  Questions can be addressed to CIO/G6ArmyApps@conus.army.mil.

A media and bloggers’ roundtable will take place March 3 at 1:30 pm in the Pentagon, Room  1E462.  To attend the roundtable in person, or if you plan to call in, please contact: Ms. Ashley McCall-Washington at 703-614-1649 or ashley.mccall1@us.army.mil

For general media inquiries, please contact: Margaret McBride, 703-693-3067, margaret.mcbride@us.army.mil.

##

We’ve been working ardently on a new campaign for Intel and Microsoft called “Minds in the Cloud“, which is a special content edition of Fedscoop – a federal IT media company – which seeks to capture insights from technologists, innovators, and government IT leaders around the topic of cloud computing. Each week, for 25 weeks starting February 8th, we will post a new hi-def interview to http://www.mindsinthecloud.org.

Initial interviews which we have completed include those of Aneesh Chopra (Federal CTO), Linda Cureton (CIO, NASA), Tim O’Reilly (Founder, O’Reilly Media), and Teresa Carlson (VP, Microsoft Federal).

Zach, Brock and Zvi worked hard on the site design, animation and technology. Have a look at the mind bending intro animation that leads into each interview:

Photos:

Photo Set 1 (Courtesy Barry & Heidi Page)

Photo Set 2 (Courtesy Jen Consalvo)

Photo Set 3 (Courtesy Jen Consalvo)

Photo Set 4 (Courtesy Kathleen Smith)

Photo Set 5 (Courtesy Nick Witmoyer)

Posts:

http://cjnblog.squarespace.com/blog/2010/2/4/big-ideas-big-action.html

http://ericaamerica.com/2010/02/03/big-ideas-big-action-capital-ideation/ [Video]

http://blog.mydailylesson.com/?p=107

Presentations and Videos:

BIBA Presentation: Any Carvin, Sr. Social Media Strategist, NPR

BIBA Presentation: Philippa Hughes

BIBA Presentation: Peter Corbett – “Ideation and Concepting Techniques to Help You Conquer the World”

BIBA Presentation: Mark Drapeau, Director of Innovative Social Engagement, Microsoft

BIBA Presentation: Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial

BIBA Presentation: Steve Moore, CEO, WDCEP

10 Tools in 10 Minutes to Help You CRUSH-IT at Marketing

Check out the guide below or download a PDF here. A map of where the Woolly Mammoth Theater is located can be found here.

See you soon and use #gobiba for all social media tags!

Key Insights:

1. Facebook’s US user base grew from 42 million to 103 million in 2009. That’s a 144.9% growth rate!
2. The 35+ demographic now represents more than 30% of the entire user base.
3. The 55+ audience grew a whopping 922.7% in 2009.
4. Atlanta had the highest growth rate in 2009 at 267.6%

You can download an excel spreadsheet of this data here

What most people don’t know is that they own a super awesome piece of technology called AddThis as well – which allows publishers to easily distribute their content to something like 230+ social networks and book marking services.

The real power in AddThis is the fact that their sharing widget is embedded in over 550,000 Web sites, touching over 600 million people world wide per month,  loaded over 1.3 billion times per day. That kind of reach enables them to know which content is being shared the most, and to which services.

The following is the a list of the top 15 most shared pieces of content on the web in 2009 according to their data:

1. Santa Yourself – 71,848 shares

2. The Kim Komando Show – Video of the Day – African thunderstorm – 50,008 shares

3. Pawnation – “Suprised Kitty” Rampages Across Nation – 32,270 shares

4. disinformation – Cannabis College Now Enrolling Students –  24,338 shares

5. Pawnation – Viral ‘Extreme Shepherding’ Ad Campaign Lights Up the Welsh Hills – 18,165 shares

6. TMZ – Michael Jackson Dies – 13,481 shares

7. Mercola.com – Swine Flu — One of the Most Massive Cover-ups in American History – 12,722 shares

8. lemondrop – Best. Wedding Entrance. Ever. – 12,693 shares

9. Pawnation – Faith the Two-Legged Dog Turns Seven This Christmas – 11,546 shares

10. CNBC – Santelli’s Tea Party – 11,020 shares

11. tom’s hardware – Best Graphics Cards For The Money: November ’09 – 10,802 shares

12. PopEater – Ukrainian Has Definitely ‘Got Talent’ – 10,620 shares

13. Telegraph – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed to have Jewish past – 10,502 shares

14. The Kim Komando Show – Video of the Day – Man’s surprising laugh – 7,340 shares

15. El Caso Mascherano – Investigación – Parte 1 – 7,149 shares

One of the more fascinating things you can do with AddThis is compare which sharing services users from individual countries use most. For example, it’s no surprise that Facebook tops the list of overall most popular place to share content to globally. What’s interesting in the comparison below, though, is that Twitter is actually more popular in the UK then Email for sharing – that’s not the case in the US.

In keeping with the iStrategyLabs tradition of doing things differently, we decided to create a conference to help people generate new ideas, and bring them to life with others who can help. This is the kind of thing we do for our clients/ourselves everyday – and we want to teach you how to do it too.

A deeper explanation follows, but if you’re running short  on time, here are the short cuts:

• Download the Overview PDF
• Visit the BIBA website (hand crafted by @zbgoodwin and @skeevis)
• 

So…the details:

What is BIBA?

BIBA (Big Ideas Big Action) is a conference – soft of. Sure, technically BIBA is a conference. But it’s way more than that. BIBA is a place for big brains to explore big ideas and plan for big action. It’s one day you won’t want to miss.

Who is behind BIBA?

BIBA was created by iStrategyLabs for the sole purpose of helping people understand how to create new and important ideas and bring them to life. BIBA is co-hosted by FedScoop – a full-service government media and marketing company, specializing in government IT.

Who are the sponsors?

BIBA has been made possible by the generosity of our platinum sponsors Intel, Microsoft, and Citrix. Other sponsorship tiers are available. Please contact dj@istrategylabs.com for more details.

What else should I know?

The participants at BIBA will help you build something new, or refresh something old. You can attend, but you must share ideas and plan for doing something that matters.
You will leave excited, invigorated, and connected to a group of people that will support your .com, .gov, and/or .org initiative. This is an event that will help train you to think creatively, generate new ideas for your business/organization, and bring those ideas to life.

How do I register and what is the cost?
You can register to attend at http://biba.eventbrite.com. Government employees can attend for free (valid .gov or .mil email address required upon registration). 50 tickets will be available for $100. The remaining tickets will be $250. There are 265 tickets available.

What’s the format?

The Morning

The morning of BIBA is meant to teach and inspire you. You’ll hear about some “Big Ideas in the Wild” – these are stories of real doers who’ve brought something new to life and changed the world. You’ll also learn how Ideation (the act of creating ideas) works, and how to take raw ideas and shape them into robust concepts. The idea-focused sessions will be followed by “Big Action Planning” sessions meant to help provide insight into project planning, budgeting, and management approaches for digital and physical projects.

Lastly, participants from Intel and Microsoft will share with us their own internal innovation methods that help their companies remain at the forefront of the tech industry. By lunch time, you’ll be jumping out of your seat, ready to start sketching your ideas, concepts, and action plans with fellow BIBA participants.

The Afternoon

This is where the rubber meets the road. We’re going to split the massive and elegant Woolly Mammoth Theatre space into distinct sectors where participants focused on .com, .org/.edu, or .gov initiatives can collaborate together. You’ll also use a sticker to indicate if you’re generally an ‘idea generator’ or ‘idea needer’ – this method will let people find one another to help them think through specific issues and build new ideas, concepts, and action plans.

Mid-afternoon, you’ll check back in with the group in the main theatre – presenting initial concepts and connecting with new collaborators who will help you during the rest of the conference, and beyond. By 5pm, we’ll be a bit exhausted, but those ready for a second wind will venture out into Chinatown for happy hour and/or to grab a bite to eat.

What’s the schedule and roster of speakers?