Rhode Island Nexus

My first visit to Rhode Island was in 1990. I vividly remember getting off I-95 at the downtown Providence exit, and being confronted by a multi-story pile of dirt. I became lost as I wandered beneath the highway overpasses unable to find the heart of the city. Almost twenty years later, that pile of dirt is long gone, replaced by new buildings and new community. But this spirit of fostering innovation from what Bert Crenca of AS220 has called the “compost heap” of art, design, technology, science and more, has come to define my experience as a Rhode Islander.

Maker Faire is a celebration of that spirit and the impact it has on peoples’ lives, in addition to being a showcase for the cool projects people are working on in their garages and gardens, kitchens and basements, work rooms and community centers. As an affiliate of MAKE Magazine and Maker Faire, we are bringing this event to Rhode Island and New England to gather together our community of Makers and practitioners of Do-It-Yourself. Our goal is to catalyze sharing of ideas, make connections between those with similar interests, and create opportunities for learning technology through a series of workshops at Slater Mill, where innovation starts. 

Maker Faire Rhode Island consists of a series of events coordinated with other partner organizations:

• We begin with a kickoff party September 6th, during the Rocktucket Block Party, part of the Pawtucket Arts Festival.
• Then we move to the Steel Yard in Providence, on September 12th for the organization’s Iron Chef fundraiser.
• From September 14th through the 17th, we have hands-on D.I.Y. Workshops in Pawtucket at the Slater Mill, a building and museum steeped in the history of industry and innovation in this country. We’ll wrap up the workshops with a celebration at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket.
• Moving back to Providence, we’ll meet the Makers at JTJ Investment’s Eco Office, at 27 Walcott St. This is the only “Net-Zero” office building in Rhode Island, and is the new home to Alteris Renewables. Finally, Makers will showcase their projects, gadgets, inventions, products, designs, technologies, fancy foods, and much more at the Maker Faire at Waterfire. With an audience ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 attendees, we expect to have a fantastic family friendly event. 

The Iron Chef fundraiser requires a ticket purchase. All other events are free to attend. Workshop instructors may provide kits for sale at the Slater Mill D.I.Y. Workshops.

I look forward to making all sorts of cool stuff with you!

The Rhode Island Innovation Awards, presented by the Providence Business News in partnership with the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, and sponsored by Cox Business and Bryant University, are designed to honor Rhode Island-based companies, organizations and individuals that constantly replace existing methods, models and products with better ones.

The 4th Annual Rhode Island Innovation Awards has expanded to better represent the diversity of creative innovations in different industries.

In 2009, there will be six awards honoring Innovations of the Year.

Categories for Innovation of the Year Awards:

• Energy and the Environment 
• Healthcare and Biotechnology
• Manufacturing and Construction (engineering, architecture)
• Social and Community Services (nonprofits, education, government)
• Information Technology 
• Professional Services (finance, hospitality, legal)

There are four additional awards:

• Innovator of the Year
• Rising Star Innovator (under age of 35)
• Student Innovator (high school or college)
• Innovation Champion (individual or organization that fosters innovation)

A short application form is due by August 21. Apply Now!

The winners will be selected by a panel of judges and celebrated at an awards dinner and ceremony, Wednesday, September 23 at Bryant University’s Bello Center.

Where: RIEDC, 315 Iron Horse Way (ALCO), Suite 101, Providence. Google Map

When: July 22, 8:30–10:30 a.m. (coffee and light breakfast)

RSVP: Matt Mikula, matt.mikula@rinexus.com (we have a limited number of seats so RSVP soon)

FREE

The economic downturn has motivated some Rhode Island professionals to strike out on their own as consultants. Whether you're already consulting or are considering it, join us for a free breakfast discussion panel and open question & answer session featuring the following Rhode Island-based independent consultants:

 Josh Sillverman

In 1997, Josh created the award-winning, adaptive collaborative model studio - Schwadesign. Independent strategists, designers, writers, and developers convene and collaborate in project teams of one to twenty—as each discrete opportunity dictates. He is currently the Regional Development Director serving five New England AIGA chapters, and is Co-Founder and President Emeritus of the AIGA Rhode Island Chapter. Twitter: joschwa

Allan Tear

An expert consultant in new product and service launches, Allan is the Managing Partner of Aptus Collaborative. Aptus employs an interdisciplinary "hive mind" approach to assist large organizations with innovation strategy, and incubates technology start-ups. Allan is also the Managing Director of Betaspring, a mentorship-driven start-up accelerator program for young entrepreneurs. Twitter: aptuscollab

Jack Templin

In addition to being the Program Leader for RI Nexus, Jack is the President of ThoughtCap, a boutique consultancy specializing in online business strategy and web application development. Prior to moving to founding ThoughtCap, Jack was a Lead Strategist at iXL (now Microsoft), and co-founded Arc, a 100-person consultancy widely recognized as a leader in the field of customer experience design. Twitter: jacktemplin

With an emphasis on the info-tech & digital media sector, this event is for everyone interested in consulting  - moonlighting or full-time; going solo or leading/collaborating with others; providing technology, design, strategy or any sort of other consulting service; whether you are in your 20's or 60's+.

Get insights and advice from our experienced panel on consulting in the downturn. Topics will include - Why this is (and isn't) a good time to start consulting. How to position and package your services. How to find, land and keep clients. How to become part of a network of collaborating consultants. How to best leverage the Internet.

Coffee and light breakfast will be provided. Space is available on a first-come first-serve basis. RSVP to Matt Mikula at matt.mikula@rinexus.com.

Erica Driver is Co-Founder and Principal of ThinkBalm. She is a leading industry analyst and consultant with 15 years of experience in the IT sector. Prior to co-founding ThinkBalm, Erica was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. Erica will be presenting at the July Providence Geeks Dinner. Her presentation will include a live tour of the ThinkBalm Data Garden in Second Life. Details here and RSVP at Facebook.

In June of 2008, I left my job as an IT industry analyst at Forrester Research to join the free agent nation. My husband Sam Driver and I founded ThinkBalm – a tiny next-generation analyst firm focused on work-related use of the Immersive Internet (virtual worlds and campuses, immersive learning environments, and 3D business applications). We offer independent IT industry analysis and strategy consulting services. 

Lots of people thought I was crazy to go off on my own, especially focused on such an early stage market. But we just celebrated our first anniversary in business and there’s no turning back now! Being a free agent focused on an emerging technology market has given me permission to experiment and innovate in all sorts of ways.

• We’re breaking the mold in how we perform our industry analysis. Rather than study a technology market from afar, every day we use the emerging technologies we cover. We hold nearly all our meetings in immersive environments. We use immersive environments to hold training sessions, brainstorming, and role-playing sessions. We have learned how to build out and administer various immersive environments, and know first-hand about the issues involved.
• Rather than gather information from occasional conversations and interactions with practitioners, we founded and operate the ThinkBalm Innovation Community. This community, which currently has about 280 members, has a mission of advancing adoption of immersive technology in the workplace. The community has evolved into a mix between a social network, a collaborative laboratory, and a guild. Members of the community are Immersive Internet advocates, implementers, explorers, and technology marketers.

One of our recent experiments is the ThinkBalm Data Garden on ThinkBalm Island in the virtual world of Second Life. The ThinkBalm Data Garden is a data visualization experience built around the ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009, which we published on May 26, 2009. Creation of the data displays was a collaborative effort between me and Sam and several members of the ThinkBalm Innovation Community, including Jeff Lowe and Jonas Karlsson. This display is open to the public — feel free to come by and visit. You can also watch a 9-minute video tour on YouTube.

I hope to see you at the Providence Geek Dinner on July 15th!

Click here to read Erica's interview with PBN. 

Update: See the good news below - thanks, everyone, for your support!

This bill proposes to do away with the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation you know today with NO PLAN to put anything in it's place. Yes, do away with economic development in the midst of the state's biggest recession in recent years.

This includes all of the business development, community creation, social networking and other programs that EDC has sponsored over the last few years to help the ITDM community crystallize including RI Nexus, Every Company Counts, and the new Green Economy efforts we are undertaking, as well as the sector specific work that I and other my business development peers do with your individual companies.

If you (like me) believe this is a bad move for RI, particularly in a down economy, which will set us back even further than we are today and sends a bad message to both businesses inside and outside the state please contact your local representatives and let them know!

This bill is scheduled to be voted in the house Wed (June 24) and in the senate after that. Make your voice heard and help save the programs and organization that has been central to the coming together of the Geeks community and ITDM sector in this state.

Shawn Wallace is the Director of AS220 Labs - the year-old "tech arm" of AS220, which among many other things is home to the Providence Fab Lab (in partnership with MIT). At the next Providence Geek Dinner, Shawn will be presenting an overview of the Labs' amazing programs and projects. Details here and RSVP at Facebook.

Tools foster conviviality to the extent to which they can be easily used, by anybody, as often or as seldom as desired, for the accomplishment of a purpose chosen by the user.

-- from Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich

In our current mode of production, technologies progress through three watershed moments when rules change and opportunities mushroom and flower. The first watershed is when a technology is formulated in a way that can actually be realized (e.g. that first ugly lump of a transistor back in the 40s). The second watershed is when it is commoditized (e.g. consumer electronics). The third is when the technology becomes accessible to everyone (folk electronics).

AS220 Labs works in the realm of folk technology; making tools accessible and indulging in the opportunities presented by the current watershed moment in history as all sorts of computing and fabrication tools become common and the knowledge of their use becomes commonly shared. Everywhere I go it's happening; it must be a Zeitgeist. See the hundreds of spaces listed at hackerspaces.org for wikification (sniglet for "verifying fact via wiki"). In fact, if you connect all the dots for the various hacker spaces pictured on that web site's Google map, you can spell out "Meme Bucket" (try it!).

So AS220 has become kind of a local hub in this global network of hacker spaces. For example, this weekend we'll be hosting a 3D Printing Summit featuring demos and howtos by Zack Smith from NYCResistor/Makerbot and Bruce Wattendorf from the RepRap Project. We're also training a new generation of artist hackers with our Introduction to Arduino classes that resume on June 23rd.

To learn more about what's going on at AS220 Labs, come to the Geek Dinner on July June 17th for burritos, beer, and conversation. Details here and RSVP at Facebook.

Click here to read Shawn's interview with PBN.