San Francisco SmartCamp Winner Revolutionizes Farming!
I loved seeing the San Francisco Smart Camp live! First I got to see Jason and then I got to see amazing solutions on style, live streaming, farmers, and more!
For farmers, understanding farm conditions can be quite cumbersome, that's why we're excited about San Francsico's SmartCamp winner FarmHub who has just made it that much easier!
In the city of tech, winning this stage of SmartCamps is no small feat, congratulations to FarmHub for their innovative solution that makes monitoring agricultural fields easy and efficient.
How does it work? With FarmHub's weather stations and web solutions, you can connect dozens of field sensors to the cloud without the hassles of cumbersome technology. Gaining remote access to real-time conditions across the farm is as simple as turning it on.
FarmHub measures conditions like: air temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, solar radition and UV Index, visible light intensity and soil moisture. The hardware even provides camera snapshots of crop fields.
Let's hear from the founder.
"The IBM mentorship was really top notch. Very seasoned investors who listened and looked at what we had done. The review team cut to the chase with very targeted, constructive criticism that we are immediately taking action on at FarmHub. We are excited to go to the next stage and continue to gain benefit from the IBM Smart Camp program." Louis Thiery
Congratulations again to FarmHub. Follow their story on Twitter at @farm_hub.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Reimagining Optometry in Chicago! Smart Camp Winner!
Just when you thought getting an appointment with your optometrist was going to take months, a new healthcare startup comes along and completely reinvents eye-care from the comfort of your own home!
Congratulations to Opternative, the winner of this year's SmartCamp kick-off event held in Chicago on August 26th!
The Opternative team has created the first-to-market eye exam and prescription company that costs less than a traditional refractive eye exam. In just twenty-five minutes or less, you can get a quick eye exam with nothing but a smart phone and a computer. A digital eye glasses prescription is provided in less than twenty-four hours, and you can then shop for glasses or contacts anywhere.
Opternative is registered with the FDA and has undergone studies that have proved it just as accurate as an in-office eye exam.
What does Opternative have to say?
"Eye exams for glasses and contact prescriptions are just the beginning. We envision a world where technology allows patients to connect with doctors to make all aspects of vision care more convenient, accessible, and even fun!" (https://www.opternative.com/about)
Thanks for participating in Chicago's SmartCamp event Opternative!
Follow Opternative's story on Twitter at @opternative. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
SXSW - let's get some great Diversity Speakers! Vote today!
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Back to school! Note in a lunch box - Is Twitter your note to your followers?
When school starts, and I pack my kid's lunches, I always finish them off with a special note to encourage them in the day.
For instance, with my youngest Kassie I did a bunch of K's that I think are special for her!
- K is for Kisses!
- K is for Krazy special -- for the special girl that you are!
- K is for Kind - be kind to your friends today -- for they are precious!
My kids say that it is a moment in the day -- among hard work, getting teased, and questioning their confidence --- that they pause to know that someone really cares for them!
As I was thinking about how my oldest daughter carefully folds and saves each note, I wondered how much we all need that encouragement.
- How could I place a "virtual note in each of my team's lunch box" ?
- What would it say?
- Would they appreciate it like my kids?
- And what would I want my note to say if someone left one for me!
But then I thought -- do we do this each day -- through Twitter? For instance, when I share quotes or welcome the beautiful sunrise, is that the same?
Is that the new form of the lunch box note?
What do you think?
IBM proudly supports the next generation of Technology Professionals
Grand Central Tech (GCT) had their inaugural Innovation Night following their new successful 6 weeks internship program. The innovative program is meant to facilitate technology education by offering high school and college students real work experience at real startups. The startups were from GCT's second year class, which has already raised 7 million USD in venture funding. NYC currently has 300,000 technology positions and in the next 5 years, it is estimated the US will have 1 million open tech jobs, so training the next generation of technology professionals will be critical to continued growth. With these dynamics in mind, Eddie Cullen (previously at Fordham University's accelerator), set out to design the GCT internship program.
On Innovation night, the Goldman Sachs auditorium was packed with interns, startups, and proud family. Interns were matched up with GCT startups based on skills and interests. The intern's backgrounds ranged from high school students with interests in technology, to college computer science majors. Students created projects that spanned from non-profit shoe donations, IoT data stream (IOBeam), payment platforms (Arthur) to 3D printing projects (Source3). However, the real outcome of these 19 startups and 33 students were the indelible memories and valuable real life work experience.
Words like creativity, perseverance, innovation, and great code were used to describe the outcomes of the program. Nurturing the next generation of tech entrepreneurs benefits NYC, the economy and creates better lives for all. Most of the students started the program with fledgling technical skills. However at the event most interns prided themselves to have learned HTML, CSS and JavaScript, creating web forms and simple mobile applications. A few students even went above and beyond, chasing leads and customer, successfully demonstrating mastery of advanced tech skills, and thriving in the fast paced reality of a genuine startup.
IBM is a corporate sponsor of GCT. IBM Cloud Ecosystem Development makes available business and technical support to GCT startups and offers Bluemix for cloud apps and services. IBM is also part of Digital.NYC initiative, a unique public/private partnership between the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Gust, and over a dozen leading NYC-based technology and media companies..
Are you the next CitiMobile Challenge Champion? Registration is open now!
Can you help to transform banking as we know it? The answer is YES and here's how...
IBM is proud to be a strategic sponsor of the Citi® Mobile Challenge - a quest to find developers and designers to create new and innovative FinTech solutions with Citi's digital platforms. After successful events in the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa, the Citi® Mobile Challenge is now starting in Asia Pacific and is hosting Demo Days in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangalore and Sydney - and registration is open now!
Using Bluemix, you can apply your skills to develop, design and impress in two categories:
Consumer solutions: create innovations which give consumers personalized, intuitive products and services that transform how they think about banking.
Business solutions: develop new financial technology tools and services to meet the needs of small businesses, large corporations, institutions, organizations or governments.
Developers using Bluemix will be ahead of the game with a platform as a service (PaaS) that gives them simplicity, speed, agility and critical tools - all without the overhead of setting up the underlying architecture. And, as strategic sponsor, IBM is there each step of the way, giving Challenge participants a wide spectrum of face-to-face and virtual product education, consulting and coding assistance by top experts - throughout the competition.
Finalists will compete for an opportunity to take their technologies into production with Citi’s support, plus a share of USD $100,000 in cash awards and a suite of services from Citi Mobile Challenge sponsors. Selected participants will showcase their concepts at live Demo Day events.
So, be a part of the banking transformation! Go to http://www.citimobilechallenge.com/ to register for the Citi Mobile Challenge (registration closes September 2, 2015). Rally your team and get everyone registered to use Bluemix here: https://ibm.biz/IBMCMCAP15
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Introducing IBM Cloud Developer Certification in India!
What do you get when you take a skilled cloud developer, an open by design cloud architecture, and IBM professional certification? You get the new Cloud Application Developer Certification program! http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/certs/50001601.shtml
Today, I'm announcing the launch of a very special new program which offers significant benefits to both developers and business. We are creating campaigns customized around the geographic needs and opportunities of developers, starting in India, to accelerate the adoption of the certification program. Stay tuned as we progress delivery and enablement worldwide in October.
Through this new program, all developers will be able to showcase their expertise by designing, developing and deploying secure applications using open technologies, to the IBM Cloud. For systems integrators, the program allows them to convey their differentiation to customers in creating open Cloud solutions. Business, too, will realize the benefits of this program as it will help to quickly identify developers who have proven that they have the skills to deliver scalable, secure and open Cloud solutions. As IBM's Cloud integration platform, Bluemix competencies will play a central role in the certification content.
So, if you're interested in
- Planning and implementing secure, cloud-ready apps
- Enhancing your cloud apps with managed services
- Using devOps services and tools to manage apps
...then, come get certified using the Cloud Application Developer Certification program to showcase what you can do!
Interested? Learn more, today! http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/objC5020-285.shtml
SXSW voting has started! I love SXSW!
Campaign season has begun and no, I’m not talking about the presidential race. I’m talking about South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual festival that is to innovation what gadgets are to CES.
Every March, professionals from the film, music and tech industries make a pilgrimage to Austin, Texas for a melding of the minds, and every year, the world watches in anticipation as new innovations emerge and trends are established.
While SXSW may be months away, voting has already begun to determine who is most qualified to speak at the festival. 30% of the decision process is by public vote, and thousands of submissions are currently under consideration.
Follow these simple steps to cast your votes:
Step 1: Create an account on the SXSW PanelPicker
Step 2: Cast your votes NOW by giving your favorite panels a “thumbs up”
Step 3: Add a thoughtful comment below each panel - this weighs heavily in the vote
TIP: anyone can vote for SXSW panels - so consider sharing these steps with broader groups of friends, family and professional networks. Voting ends September 4.
Lastly, here are my panel submissions - I appreciate your vote!
- The Game Invasion
- Magnifying the Moment of Engagement
- Digital Dynasty: an Empire of Innovation