Dealer.com COO to Speak at Champlain

Dealer.com COO Michael Lane is speaking tomorrow night at Champlain College, as part of their BYOBiz Speaking From Experience lecture series. From the Champlain website:

Lane will talk about his innovative Burlington-based company that has experienced amazing growth since its creation in 1998. Dealer.com creates web-based marketing campaigns and supports thousands of online marketing solutions across North America for the automotive industry. The company is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2007 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 (growth) award and was listed in the 2007 Inc. 5000's "Fastest Growing Private Companies of America."

Hear him speak at 7:30 p.m. in Champlain's Alumni Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.

MicroStrain, Inc. Expands

Got a press release last week from MicroStrain, one of the companies that exhibited at the Vermont 3.0 Creative/Technology Career Jam in October. Looks like they're expanding their Williston HQ:

The new 19,000 square foot facility, formerly occupied by Qimonda, is roughly double the size of [MicroStrain's] previous location. “Our new, expanded engineering & production facilities are needed to support our rapid growth, which we expect to continue at approximately 40% per year,” said Steve Arms, President of MicroStrain. The new office space has advanced networked, high-speed workstations and provides a bright, open, high-tech working environment for its engineering, computer science, sales and technical employees. The new facility enables MicroStrain to significantly increase the production area, with additional space dedicated to increased capacity for its state of the art robotic calibration systems — which automate the process of embedding intelligence into its inertial, wireless, & micro-displacement sensing systems.

What's so great about those robotic calibration systems? Writer Kirk Kardashian penned a profile of MicroStrain back in January that explains what they do in layman's terms. From Kirk's story:

Founded 21 years ago by Burlington native Steve Arms, the company designs high-tech strain gauges that measure the stress loads on all kinds of objects, from knee joints and helicopters to bridges and Caterpillar Earthmovers.  

The gauges, many of which are housed in compact black boxes the size of a pack of Post-it Notes, allow engineers to determine the structural health of metals and plastics, and thereby avert failures. They can also help avoid premature replacement of expensive, taxpayer-funded toys such as F-18 fighter jets. In addition, MicroStrain makes $1500 orientation sensors that can navigate unmanned vehicles in any imaginable application, such as oil exploration, underwater research and landmine detection.
 

I'm sensing an increase in demand for their services...

You Know You're a Programmer in Vermont When...

Cows invade your office.

Panel Discussion Air Dates on Channel 16

Burlington's Channel 16 (RETN) filmed all 13 of the panel discussions at the Vermont 3.0 Creative/Technology Career Jam on October 25th.

Did you miss the discussions? Check them out on Channel 16. Here are the upcoming air dates:

Monday  11.17
8pm  —  Be the CTO
9pm  —  Green Up Our Energy Future

Sunday  11.23
8pm  -  Write for the Web
9pm  -  Get Into Games

Monday  11.24
8pm  -  Solve Cyber Crimes
9pm  -  Work in Biotech

Sunday  11.30
8pm  -  Build Websites
9pm  -  Be an Internet Marketer

Monday  12.01
8pm  -  Develop Software
9pm  -  Build Robots

Sunday  12.07
8pm  -  Make Music Online
9pm  -  Shoot Video and Get Paid for It

Monday  12.08
8pm  -  Be Your Own Boss

The videos may also be available on their website, www.retn.org.

Social Media and the Presidency: Has Social Media Changed Our Voting Engagement?

This is a re-post from my blog: http://champlainprofessor.blogspot.com

Social Media and the Presidency: Has social media changed our voting engagement?

As our country celebrates it's democracy today — where we can vote without fear of taking our lives into our hands — I thought it would be appropriate to consider how social media may be changing our voting engagement.

Not only have the politicians jumped on the social media bandwagon with social networking and twitters and blogs and community sites, but we've seen the conventions and the candidate debates turn into social media events through sites like Twitter and the mash-up of Twitter and CurrentTV.

Today, I Twittered while waiting in line to vote. I included #vtelxn so that my tweets would go into a "local" twitter meme for all Vermont voters.

Today, I'm seeing my Facebook friends "donate their status" to remind people to vote.

Throughout the day I'll probably watch http://election.twitter.com/ to get a flavor of what is happening around the country through people's tweets.

I'll check in at #votereport to see information about polling places — is anyone having issues? What are the lines like?

Tonight, will I watch TV? Maybe. More likely I'll be online checking the different sites and streaming live commentary from various places.

There are a growing number of ways in which I can feel more plugged in to the election process. It's not about being fed information from the candidates, but rather seeing what others in my social media sphere are doing and thinking has allowed me to feel even more connected.

So as the media talks about unprecedented voter turnout, as we all get engaged this year because of so many issues, I'm left wondering if the social media so many are using is having an impact on the voter turnout. As you see your friends writing about voting and you follow others who write about the lines and what they are doing as they wait to vote, does that pressure you into going to vote? Does it make you feel like part of a bigger movement knowing that you also voted and you can actually see others engaged the way you are? Others all over the country?

It's a known fact in marketing that word of mouth and viral marketing has more power then direct messages from a brand. Social media is the biggest WoM out there right now and part of the voter turnout may, indeed, be because of this phenomenon.

So, get engaged and plug in. Be in the know. And above all exercise your right to Vote.

Vermont 3.0 Wrap Up

I don't know about you, but I'm still recovering from Saturday's Tech Jam at Champlain College.

I was there from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. And I was sitting in front of an audiences (and, gasp! cameras) for six hours while moderating a series of panel discussions.

In other words, I didn't see much of the actual job expo, but I hear it went well.

Here's an initial round-up of reports on the day, in case you missed it:

• Some high tech companies are hiring, despite shaky economy (VPR, 10/24)
• High-tech firms continue growth (Burlington Free Press, 10/26)
• Career Jam Fights Back Recession (WCAX, 10/25)
• Seven Days videographer Eva Sollberger was at Vermont 3.0 last Saturday, and filed this video report.

I'll post more roundups and blog posts later in the week, and we'll be sending out a survey to participants, exhibitors and panelists to solicit more feedback.

In the meantime, please use the comments thread to share your thoughts.

What to do After VT 3.0? Check out the Film Fest!

Looking for something to do after schmoozing all day at Vermont 3.0? Check out the Vermont International Film Festival, going on all weekend at the Palace 9 in South Burlington, and at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center on the Burlington Waterfront (where we had the Tech Jam in January).

VIFF started as a human rights film fest — it grew out of the anti-nuke movement in the 1980s — but it's broadened its scope in recent years. They still show great social justice documentaries, but they also feature less serious and more local fare. On Saturday night, for example, you can watch a doc about Vermont's most outrageous drag queens, the Sisters LeMay.

Saturday's VIFF schedule starts at 12:30 p.m. Individual shows at the Palace are $8.50 each, but the films at the waterfront are free.

Vermont 3.0 Panel Previews

Earlier this week, I wrote about the first round of panels at this Saturday's Vermont 3.0 Creative Technology Career Jam. Today I want to preview the second round, which starts at 11 a.m. "So, You Wanna Get Into Games," and "So, You Wanna Green Up Our Energy Future." Click here for a complete schedule of the day.

The gaming panel features Chris Hancock of Tertl Studos (that's not a typo — it's just how they spell their name), Amanda Crispel of Champlain College's E-gaming program and Heather Kelley, a Montreal gamer who also works with Champlain.

I don't know much about Chris — his website is pretty sparse. Maybe his projects are top secret...? I met Amanda for the first time yesterday, at the grand opening of Champlain's Emergent Media Lab at the Champlain Mill in Winooski (which I've been meaning to blog about). Cool thing about her — she spent 19 years in the gaming industry, and worked on the Carmen Sandiego games!

As for Heather Kelley, she's also known as moboid. Here's an interesting line from her bio: "Her game concept Lapis won the 2006 MIGS Game Design Challenge on sex in games." Hmmm... something to ask her about on the panel. Heck, I'll be moderating. Maybe I'll bring it up.

As for the Green Up Our Energy Future panel, we've got Joan Richmond-Hall, a professor from Vermont Tech in Randolph, who's studying a manure and food-scrap digester that could power the VT Tech campus. Cool. There's also Scott Johnstone, the new CEO of the ever-expanding Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (Seven Days' neighbors — represent, Independent Block!). And Evan Osler, an employee at NRG. If you look closely, you can see him in this video that Eva Sollberger and Mike Ives produced this week.

I recommend asking Evan if everything at NRG is as hunky-dory as it seems in that video and the accompanying story. Looks like an awesome place to work. But just because their office is clean and energy efficient and beautiful, and just because they have amazing benefits, and just because they get healthy lunches every day at the company cafeteria doesn't mean they're happy. Right? Or am I just in denial?

You can talk to these fascinating people on Saturday at Champlain College in Burlington. Yep, for free.

Panel Preview: Write for the Web

How often do you get a chance to ask a national political pundit about his job and how he got it? Not bloody often. Not in Vermont, anyway.

But you'll have an opportunity to quiz a member of the chattering class this Saturday at the second Vermont 3.0 Creative Technology Career Jam. Washington Monthly blogger Steve Benen will be speaking on the "So, You Wanna Write for the Web" panel discussion, with EatingWell Web Producer Penelope Wall and St. Mike's Journalism Professor Marybeth Redmond.

What's so great about Steve? Click here to read more about this dude, pictured here in a Matt Thorsen photo from 2006. Here's a link to his home on the Washington Monthly website.

And here's a link to Penelope's stylish blog, Penelope Post.

Their panel starts at 10 a.m. and they've only got about 45 minutes, so don't be late. I'm the moderator, and I'm all about the schedule.

Click here for more info about Vermont 3.0, or pick up a copy of Seven Days tomorrow. The program is part of the paper. Check out the Vermont 3.0-related stories while you're at it. There are a bunch of 'em.

Panel Preview: Be the CTO

CTO = "Chief Technology Officer." We were going to call this panel "Be the IT Guy," but I argued that we should include the geekettes of the world (like, for example, me).

The 45-minute panel is part of the Vermont 3.0 Creative Technology Career Jam, happening this Saturday at Champlain College. You should come if you're wondering what the IT person does all day, and how one gets an IT manager job. Panelists include Ali Rafieymehr, (Dean, Division of Info Technology, Champlain College), Tim Keefe (Senior Technology Consultant, Gallagher, Flynn & Company LLP) and JDK Information Systems Director Nate Herzog (pictured).

Nate spoke at the Vermont 3.0 Tech Jam in January, and was a big hit, mainly because he delivered an impressive PowerPoint presentation. What do you expect — the guy works for JDK. He won't be able to mezmerize us with his PowerPoint prowess this time, though — the panel is set up as a Q&A with the audience. So come ready to ask questions. It starts at 10 a.m. in Champlain's Alumni Auditorium.

Nate has been contributing to this blog, too. He's writing a series of profiles of local companies finding creative solutions to IT challenges.