 Vanessa Green, OnChip Power
Pop quiz: What’s an example of a permanent, mechanical way of joining metals? What about a temporary non-mechanical one? If you’re stumped, don’t worry – I was too. Last night I went to Greentown Labs, Boston’s premier cleantech incubator, for EnergyBar, their regular networking event. But I went early to attend the first ever session of Cleantech Prototyping Academy, where Greentown’s metalworking expert Ethan Labowitz was tutoring a group of students on the finer points of creating a prototype. The session was immediately followed by the much larger EnergyBar event, and together they served as a reminder of the critical role that Greentown plays in Boston’s cleantech scene.
Food, Drinks, and LOTS of Cleantech Innovators
I’ve been to some good events at Greentown before, but last night there was literally a line out the door to get into EnergyBar. I even got a “Can you get us in” email from someone in line who was scared the event would hit capacity. There was no formal program; just food, beer, and networking. The crowd was a nice balance between entrepreneurs, investors, nonprofit, and even government (yes, web people: in cleantech government is a key part of the scene.)
I saw Matthew Nordan of Venrock, Vanessa Green, CEO of OnChip Power, and Jason Ethier, CEO of Dynamo Micropower, who was recently named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Energy. I also caught up with Greentown CEO Jason Hanna, as well as with multiple team members from research giant Fraunhofer, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the state’s cleantech arm, and of course my former colleagues from the New England Clean Energy Council.
Kicking Off the 2012 MIT Clean Energy Prize
The MIT Clean Energy Prize is a well known, student run annual business plan competition, and Greentown is a partner. So in addition to the usual networking, last night’s EnergyBar identified Prize applicants as well as individuals seeking to enter and in need of team members. Although there was no formal announcement, the evening allowed Prize competitors to meet one another and connect to the broader community. The submission deadline for the competition is March 2, and the grand prize is $200,000.
Training Engineers to Build Better Prototypes
 Ethan Labowitz, Boston Institute for Clean Energy Prototyping (BICEP)
Prototyping new cleantech products is a critical stage for a lot of the startups at Greentown, and the Cleantech Prototyping Academy was designed to help teach engineers the unique needs of startups. “They’re really interested in saving money and saving time, and getting to market really quickly,” Labowitz told me. “We have design for manufacturing – those are courses that are taught at engineeering schools – and those are great. If you’re making a million of something.”
Compared to manufacturing, prototyping is fast, dirty, and relatively expensive. For startups, mistakes in prototyping can be costly, and young engineers often have a hard time conveying specifications for parts to the shops that will build them, according to Labowitz.
“A lot of the time I’ll see a drawing where the engineer has written out the speicficacions for what this part should be but they’ve failed to include a precise descriptoin of exactly what they’re looking for,” he said. They don’t even know the language sometimes to use to specify that part. We’re trying to make that expertise accessible to younger engineers.”
For now, the Academy is a classroom session, but Labowitz hopes to eventually take it to the shop.
Bringing Web and Cleantech Together
Hearing Labowitz explain the difference between soldering and brazing (temperature) was a forceful reminder of the differences between cleantech innovation and web innovation. The products that he’s focused on don’t get built on a laptop in a Starbucks. And yet the overlap between cleantech and the web are larger than many realize.
Last month, developers in New York gathered for the second Cleanweb Hackathon, and last night I heard rumors that a Boston Cleanweb Hackathon is being planned for May. It’s sorely needed, as the two communities don’t talk to each other nearly enough. They’re different in many obvious ways. But there’s still plenty of room for learning and collaboration.
Check out more photos from the event on Flickr:
from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/02/03/welding-drinking-networking-just-a-standard-da...
Avocados are amazing things—they're delicious on their own, but they also have a lot of healthy fats, dietary fibers, and vitamins, and despite their high caloric value, they're remarkably easy to prepare. If you have an avocado that's too firm to use for something else, or you're just in the mood for something new and healthy for breakfast, slice it in half, remove the pit, and carve out a little space in the center. Crack an egg where the pit was, and bake. In a few minutes, you'll have a delicious, protein and vitamin-packed breakfast treat that's rich enough to keep you going all morning. More »
  
from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5881942/bake-an-egg-in-an-avocado-for-a-fast-and-health...
Flying these days is an uncomfortable, difficult process, but if you're lucky enough to snag a flight with on-board Wi-Fi, or individual monitors in the back of every seat so you can watch TV or listen to music while you're in the air, it can be a bit easier. Flight search and booking site CheapAir updated its search engine this morning to help you find flights that offer those kinds of perks so you don't have to guess before you book. More »
  
from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5881938/cheapair-lists-flights-with-wi+fi-personal-tv-a...
Martha Stewart is looking into producing web-only video programming, the TV personality and business magnate suggested on stage at AllThingsD‘s media conference Tuesday.
Stewart’s company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, is looking for new outlets for Stewart’s daytime show now that her contract with the Hallmark Channel is coming to an end. The New York Times reported that the channel did not wish to renew the series, which runs its last episode in May, because of low ratings and high studio costs.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia President and COO Lisa Gersh, who joined Stewart on stage, said that the company is now considering all of the places Stewart’s programming could live beyond TV. MSLO is already distributing video through marthastewart.com, its mobile apps and on online video platforms like YouTube.
Because Stewart has a robust ecommerce business — one that spans books, magazines, office supplies and even pet furniture — it’s possible Stewart could forgo TV in favor of a profitable web series supported by a mix of online advertising and ecommerce.
“Is a web-only presence really sustainable?” AllThingsD‘s Walt Mossberg asked.
“If the web presence is about selling products, about merging retail and media, it could,” said Stewart. “That’s the beauty of our business.”
More About: AllThingsD, Martha Stewart, martha stewart living omnimedia, Media, ONLINE VIDEO, TV For more Business coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/01/31/martha-stewart-web-series/?utm_source=feedburn...
Twitter has started rolling out its enhanced brand pages to more advertisers.
The social networking site — which announced in December that it would be introducing Facebook-style brand pages for companies to customize and highlight content — has extended the platform to National Public Radio, NBC News, Volkswagen, The Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, Anobii and others, the company told Mashable.
“Enhanced profile pages will continue to roll out to advertising partners, as well as other select partners, charities, media organizations and individuals,” Twitter said in a statement.
The latest brands are the first to get the design since it was made available to certain partners when it launched. Among the first 21 brands invited to test out the new platform included HP, Intel, Coca Cola, Dell, Disney, JetBlue, Nike and Paramount Pictures.
Although brands with enhanced profile pages will have access to uploading banners and promoting tweets at the top of their Twitter timeline, it’s up to account owners to use and make the most of the functionality.
Some companies are already making the most of their brand pages. In fact, launch partners HP and Intel hosted the first-ever live stream of a concert on Twitter with electronic music master Tiësto during the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in January.
SEE ALSO: Twitter to Host Its First Live Streaming Concert, Starring Tiësto [EXCLUSIVE] | Twitter Launches Brand Pages
“HP came to us with the idea and we couldn’t be more excited to hear how the company and Intel will be using their Twitter brand pages to reach out to the public and become destination sites,” said Rob Pietsch, Twitter’s director of West Coast sales. “It’s a first for us, and we expect in the future that more companies will integrate streaming video into their pages.”
Twitter’s expanded brand pages are expected to change the way fans interact with businesses on the site.
More About: Facebook, trending, Twitter, twitter brands 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/twitter-brand-pages/?utm_source=feedburner&utm...
Bostonians are known for their stubborn pride in everything from sports to movie stars to coffee (see: this video), so it’s only fitting that the latest crowdsourcing effort making social media waves builds off that super-intense Boston pride. Last night, Boston-based Digitas launched a social media campaign called “You Gotta Try Boston,” with the ultimate goal of convincing Top Chef to film Season 10 in the hub. In the short time since its kickoff, Boston’s Top Chef fans have voiced their opinions loud and clear across Twitter and Facebook as to why our city is so great.
We grabbed some time with Rob Rizzo, the Executive Creative Director of Digitas Boston and Detroit, to discuss the viral campaign.
1) What’s the inspiration behind the hashtag?
For a while now, Digitas has been working with the Mayor’s Office and some great people in the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District (BID) to help get the word out about all the offerings in our neighborhood. There are so many great stores, shops, pubs and restaurants a short walk from our office — everybody has their personal “You Gotta Try” favorites. It might be the cupcakes at Cakeology, a new appetizer or drink at Scholars, or a favorite jewelry store, boutique — anything! So the hashtag is just an easy device to brag about a favorite find in the neighborhood. But it goes beyond Downtown Crossing to the entire city. And beyond.
2) How quickly did it take off?
We just launched it last night, but we’re already seeing a lot of enthusiasm from Boston, particularly in the culinary and hospitality communities.
3) With all the other reality shows out there, why did you target Top Chef?
Top Chef came about when one of our foodie friends mentioned they were about to wrap up Season 9. We wondered why in a city like Boston, with so many great places to try, Top Chef hasn’t tried Boston. So, we thought: why not get people sharing their personal favorites? We want the producers of Top Chef to be inspired by the passion around dining and drinking and bring the show to our city.
From seafood to celebri-chefs to an abundance of student interns, check out this Storify of why Top Chef needs to come to Boston.
[View the story "#YouGottaTryBoston Campaign" on Storify]
It looks like Seattle’s got a good chance at nabbing Season 10, so keep tweeting and Facebooking for Boston!
from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/02/02/yougottatryboston-digitas-launches-new-campaig...
Social media is evolving to accommodate a range of personalities. While Twitter appeals to casual conversationalists, LinkedIn attracts professional network-builders. Meanwhile, marketers think of Facebook as content-driven with brand pages intersecting with friendships and close communities. Then there are blogs that hover between the personal and professional: they’re content-driven too. And now there’s Google+ Pages, which has recently joined the scene and promises to merge SEO and social media strategies.
Across industries, a well-planned social media strategy is essential for success. For every brand, business, and marketer, an important step involves evaluating prospective channels as conversation platforms. This process can be confusing, sometimes frustrating. How do you accommodate the different “personalities” of each social media network? Consider, for example, the humorous take on posting across different social media sites shown above and the “stereotypes” associated with each network.
All kidding aside, this process will inspire some key questions:
- How should a brand’s tone vary between a Facebook page and LinkedIn discussion group?
- What’s the best way to condense a lengthy blog post into a short-form tweet?
- Should a Facebook status and tweet have the same goals for generating conversation?
- What is the ideal tone for a blog post?
- What should I post on different sites?
Take this short quiz to find out where you should be posting your content.
While the answers to these questions vary between campaigns and companies, some best practices can help clarify ambiguities:
Blogs
Unlike other types of social communities, blogs are unique in that companies own the content. As a result, blogs are effective platforms for visitor recruitment, audience engagement, trust-building, and customer education. To keep audiences interested, writers should post at least several times per week and if possible, every day.
A blog extends beyond a basic hello, providing an opportunity for people to get to know a conversation or brand. Concerning tone, a blog is like a conversational lecture with room for questions.
Blog posts should be straightforward, to-the-point, polished, and casual, providing an opportunity for businesses to build a platform for healthy community mentorship. Beyond writing a post, authors should maintain an active presence by monitoring and answering reader comments.
As for length, there is no cookie-cutter word count requirement. Still, a post should be long enough to communicate a message and short enough to keep audiences interested. Typically, 250 to 1,000 words will provide an ideal window. Short paragraphs will help deliver maximum impact.
Facebook
Like a blog post, Facebook status updates should be conversational, but they should also be response-oriented. Typically polls and open-ended questions will help facilitate engagement and interaction. A link to a landing page or blog post will help bring people to a company site.
Frequent updates are also important, with the ideal number ranging between three and five spaced throughout the day. With too few updates, brands will lose audiences, and with too many updates, brands will drive people away. For brands across industries, it is appropriate to ask fans to share and like content. When users post questions and comments, it is important to be responsive.
Length-wise, Facebook status updates should be one to three sentences in length. Audiences will likely see this content through their newsfeeds, so status updates should be short, attention-grabbing, action-motivating, and compelling.
Similarly, brands should maintain a balancing act with sales-driven pitches. Ideally, only one out of every five posts should be a direct marketing pitch.
Twitter
With Twitter, the main challenge is condensing messages to 140 characters. Keeping this challenge in mind, marketers should be careful to deliver maximum impact with each and every post, which should include descriptive and action-oriented words. To make an impression, tweets should convey complete thoughts rather than fragmented messages.
Furthermore, brands should leverage Twitter as a hub for conversations. Hashtag (#) symbols can help categorize tweets for users who are using the search tool to research topics of interest. Brands can also join conversations by monitoring trending hashtag categories. Of course, brand moderators are welcome to establish direct connections with people using the @ symbol by replying to others’ tweets and questions.
Beyond a place for sharing stream of consciousness thoughts, Twitter content should be sharp, substantive, and informative. All the while, tweeters should maintain a conversational tone.
LinkedIn
For B2B networking, LinkedIn is a powerful social media tool. Beyond a resource for networking, LinkedIn provides a platform for professionals to share knowledge. Through discussion groups, users are able to ask questions, answer questions, and exchange information. Brands can engage in this dynamic by sharing blog content and expertise.
In LinkedIn discussion groups, brand representatives should promote substantive and knowledge-driven content. They should not be sales-driven or self-serving.
Furthermore, LinkedIn provides a platform for employee recruitment and can also help companies build a reputation among job-seekers. One way to accomplish this goal is to create a group.
For marketing on LinkedIn, the tone should be professional and knowledge-oriented. If necessary, sales pitches should remain limited to private messages only.
Google +
Although still growing and developing, Google’s contribution to the social media space has already proven itself. Stylish, user-friendly and cutting edge, Google+ profiles and pages are popping up everywhere.
But how does a social media manager accommodate this new channel?
By merging social media efforts with your search engine marketing strategy. The Google+ network is integrated with Google’s powerful search engine. That means posts should not only be topical, but keyword rich as well. It isn’t enough to craft an engaging post that targets your users, but it is important that those posts be optimized for search.
Direct connect is the first benefit Google+ can offer as a social network powered by a search engine. Run a Google search for a company with a “+” before the name, and you will automatically add that company to your circles. It’s a faster way for savvy users to connect with your brand.
The Bottom Line
Each social network comes with its own strengths. By understanding best-practices, brands can better adapt to each platform’s unique needs, tone, and atmosphere.
Take this short quiz to find out where you should be posting your content.
from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/best-practices-for-posting-across-social-network...
We were told at CES last month to expect Vizio's ultrawidescreen LCDs would hit the market sooner rather than later, now we know how it will fit into our budgets, even if we're not sure how the aspect ratio will fit in our living rooms. Similar to the way its first Theater 3D TVs popped up last year, the XVT 3D CinemaWide product page reveals a 58-inch model (50- and 71-inchers are also planned) sporting its trademark 21:9 aspect ratio (compared to a traditional HDTV's 16:9) and 2560x1080 resolution will start at $3,499. It also has an array of specs, measuring the 120Hz Edge LED lit screen at 56.7-inches wide by 29-inches high and 1.8-inches deep. Just as we saw when they were first announced at CES 2011, Vizio upscales Blu-ray and other wider-than-widescreen sources to fill the screen without those black bars we've become accustomed to. If you're watching standard HD programming, the extra space alongside can accommodate tiles for Yahoo! Widgets pulling information from the internet without blocking the picture at all. Check our gallery below for a better look and a demo video after the break, we'll keep an ear to the ground to find out when and where these displays might hit the market first. [Thanks, chilipalm] Continue reading Vizio reveals $3,499 price for its 58-inch ultrawidescreen HDTV Vizio reveals $3,499 price for its 58-inch ultrawidescreen HDTV originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Vizio | Email this | Comments
from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/01/vizio-ultrawidescreen-58-inch-3499/
Jonathan Gardner is director of communications at ad company Vibrant Media. He has spent his career as an innovator at the nexus of media and technology, having worked in communications leadership roles and as a journalist around the world.
An avalanche of devices, platforms, channels, and information is crushing consumers as they go about their daily lives. I’m crying “uncle” too, wishing a corporate entity (Apple?) would take the firehose of content and channel it into a trickle of relevant info on one simple device.
Since that’s not likely to happen, and since data, devices, and content just keep multiplying, how can we marketers help consumers make sense of the world? By going back to basics, and returning to context.
Behavioral targeting is certainly valuable. Knowing what a prospective customer has recently read, browsed, watched, and bought online is definitely useful. But all it illuminates is past behavior. What if I spent the morning looking at travel sites to research a planned trip, but now I’m reading an article and thinking about buying a birthday gift for my aunt? If you want to understand a user’s likely future behavior — their intent — you need to understand their multiple contexts.
“Multiple” is the key word here. As Tom Wentworth wrote on Mashable recently, “You might be a 45-year-old technology manager who likes jazz and runs marathons, but you’re also a husband, a son, an uncle, and a friend — and your purchases reflect all those different contexts.” When you add “SoLoMo” (social, local, mobile) to the contextual mix, you begin to understand why context needs to be at the core of every smart marketer’s strategy.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to make it part of yours.
What Are You Doing?
Planning a social media campaign? Consider the contexts. A teen looking at Facebook is in the context of seeing what her friends are doing, where they are eating, shopping and hanging out. She’s watching funny videos her peers have liked or posted. She’s chatting about weekend plans. Even as the content is curated, controlled, and shared by consumers, marketers need to understand the contexts within which that sharing happens. Ask yourself: What kind of marketing message are users receptive to in these contexts?
Where Are You?
Local creates amazing opportunities to examine context. If I’m checking in on Foursquare, I’ve chosen to share my real-time, local context. Smart companies like Local Response understand the resulting data and harness it to create powerful, relevant marketing. I’m sure this will evolve further, as devices (wearable and not) get more intelligent and NFC-enabled. Marketers will have simplified my life and performed great acts of contextual relevance when they can send me a waffle coupon as I arrive in the frozen-foods section of Whole Foods.
Who’s Mobile Now?
We all are. Social and Local are mobile. With mobile Internet usage expected to soon surpass desktop, at some point in the future, nearly all media consumption will be untethered. And as with So and Lo, more Mo means more constantly shifting contexts.
As users, we all understand these contexts. And as technology advances, marketers will begin to be able to leverage these new contexts as well. Our contexts change dozens of times a day: In the morning, you’re an athlete, working out on the elliptical — while at the same time you’re an executive, watching the early business news. Then you’re a cook, making breakfast. Then you’re an executive again, making decisions at the office. Then you’re a friend, consoling a colleague who had a bad day. And so on.
Think of the possibilities for marketers and consumers who want relevant, personalized brand engagement in the right context. Ford and other auto companies are pushing forward with new telematics that can understand your health and wellness. Google’s self-driving car concept is not only logical but possibly inevitable. After all, in-car marketing really isn’t a huge leap from what we do now — looking up rest stops and gas stations from our GPS devices or smartphones. “The time is ripe for the next generation of contextual branding — the art of sending the right message, to the right audience, at the right time,” Martin Lindstrom has written about marketing in cars. But this could apply to any other context, too.
Regardless of the platform or strategy, we must not forget that content may be queen, but context is king in the future of marketing. We have seen brands such as Lowes and Jeep build this in the core of their in-image, in-text, display, and toolbar strategies that reap the benefits. They have taken branded content, dynamic creative, valuable information and special offers into relevant contexts where their customers can (and do) choose to engage with them. As David Doty of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has said: “[Contextual marketing strategies] are rich, relevant, and indicative of what the future of all advertising is going to be.”
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Maliketh
More About: Business, contributor, features, Marketing For more Business coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/context-digital-marketing/?utm_source=feedburn...
HBO is partnering with Miso to bring Game of Thrones fans an awesome second screen experience.
Miso launched its new SideShow platform at the end of 2011. The idea is to allow fans or networks to create customizable, synchronized content to go alongside what airs on TV. This can include trivia, character information, quotable moments, polls and more.
This is not the first use of the SideShow platform — USA Network recently launched official SideShows for the show White Collar. But HBO is taking a slightly different approach. Recognizing that Game of Thrones has a fanatical following, the network is asking fans to create their own SideShow content for each episode of the first season of the show.
Fans can vote on what SideShows they like best and the top three entries for each episode will win Game of Thrones swag and other goodies. When Game of Thrones season 2 premieres on Apr. 1, 2012, HBO and Miso will announce the winning SideShow for each episode. Those winners will get additional prizes, social mentions and have the honor of having their SideShow dubbed the “official” pick in the Miso iOS app.
Sabrina Caluori, VP of Social Media/Marketing at HBO, told us that the idea is not only to embrace the diehard fans of the show but to encourage viewers who may have missed the first season to catch up on what they missed.
HBO is re-airing the first season of Game of Thrones every Thursday night at 10:00 p.m., leading up to the season 2 premiere on Apr. 1. Caluori says HBO is using this as an opportunity to experiment with Miso’s SideShow platform and to look at other ways fans can connect via the second screen. If this promotion takes off, she says HBO will look into bringing the concept to other shows, including my personal favorite, True Blood.
To help fans get started with the SideShow platform, HBO and Miso reached out to fan sites Winteriscoming.com and Westeros.com to create SideShows for the first two episodes of the series. To us, this is brilliant outreach and a great way to encourage fans to get more involved.
What we like about this promotion is that it gives fans a reason to tune into the show a second or third time, while also creating worthwhile second-screen content for viewers that might not be fanatical enough to create their own experiences.
We’re impressed with what Miso is doing with its SideShow platform and hope to see other networks embracing the possibilities of fan interaction in the future.
More About: game of thrones, hbo, miso, miso sideshow, second screen, social tv, trending For more Entertainment coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/hbo-miso-game-of-thrones/?utm_source=feedburne...
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