Daniel Leuck's Posts - TechHui2024-03-19T05:41:34ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuckhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/353339896?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2qk78ki2x67y&xn_auth=noSB 627: Continuation of the Manoa Innovation Centertag:www.techhui.com,2015-02-16:1702911:BlogPost:1334392015-02-16T22:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg?width=200" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg?width=200"></img></a> On behalf of Ikayzo, inc., formerly a Manoa Innovation Center tenant, I respectfully submit testimony in STRONG SUPPORT of SB 627, the ten year extension of HTDC's land lease agreement with the University of Hawaii that facilitates uninterrupted operation of the Manoa Innovation Center.</p>
<p><br></br> The center played a critical role in the formation and scaling of both Ikayzo and Contix. In…</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg?width=200"><img class="align-left" src="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg?width=200"/></a>On behalf of Ikayzo, inc., formerly a Manoa Innovation Center tenant, I respectfully submit testimony in STRONG SUPPORT of SB 627, the ten year extension of HTDC's land lease agreement with the University of Hawaii that facilitates uninterrupted operation of the Manoa Innovation Center.</p>
<p><br/> The center played a critical role in the formation and scaling of both Ikayzo and Contix. In addition to the facility, which is well tuned to a technology startup’s needs, we utilized their workshops, professional service provider program, CEO forum and frequently benefited from the expertise of our neighbor companies as well as HTDC’s superb staff.</p>
<p><br/> The center’s proximity to UH Manoa allowed us to easily collaborate with the university in numerous ways including working with professors, finding interns who were matches for our needs (many of whom are now employees) and working together on tech conferences that benefited the community. Together, the University of Hawaii and the Manoa Innovation Center comprise a unique innovation ecosystem that benefits both the school and the center’s technology startups in innumerable ways.</p>
<p><br/> It is my sincere hope that many other Hawaiʻi startups will be afforded the opportunity to benefit from the Manoa Innovation Center’s services and facilities as we did.</p>
<p><br/> Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony on <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=627" target="_blank">this bill</a>.</p>mbloomtag:www.techhui.com,2014-07-28:1702911:BlogPost:1313352014-07-28T19:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>I've tried to stay out of this fray, but having received a number of inquiries, and having seen some friends affected by the collateral damage, I'm going to briefly comment on the situation.</p>
<p>I want mbloom to succeed. They have substantial capital to deploy in Hawaii, and I want that capital to empower local entreprenuers.</p>
<p>I believe the people at HSDC are true believers and want to do right by our community. They may have made mistakes, but I've spent time with them, and I've…</p>
<p>I've tried to stay out of this fray, but having received a number of inquiries, and having seen some friends affected by the collateral damage, I'm going to briefly comment on the situation.</p>
<p>I want mbloom to succeed. They have substantial capital to deploy in Hawaii, and I want that capital to empower local entreprenuers.</p>
<p>I believe the people at HSDC are true believers and want to do right by our community. They may have made mistakes, but I've spent time with them, and I've never heard them talk about anything other than empowering this community.</p>
<p>That being said, I find the attacks on community members who have inquired about mbloom's deployment of tax dollars distasteful.</p>
<p>There has been a lot of noise around this, but the issue is really quite simple. In a PBN article published on July 10, Jason Ubay wrote: "Kryeziu said mbloom decided to invest in the two startups because they were familiar with their work, having identified them as seed portfolio companies when mbloom was seeking investors." He then quoted Arben, "We also know the exit strategy for those companies, so we are very confident that it will be a success."</p>
<p>Given that "those companies" were founded by Arben and his partner, this sounds like deliberate misdirection from a company with $5MM of public money. I'm not saying that was the intent, but it is clearly the appearance. That is the issue. The community is right to inquire. Those who have implied this is a witch hunt are in error. I don't condone any ad hominem attacks on Arben, but community members absolutely have the right to dig deeper.</p>
<p>The town hall meeting was a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>I suspect this maelstrom is the confluence of bad advice, being disconnected from the wider community, not reaching out to the right people, and inexperience with PR. I'm taking a wait and see approach. Either mbloom will spawn successful companies that employ people in Hawaii or they won't. That is the only test that matters.</p>
<p>Luke Tucker provided good advice in his response to Evan Nagle's inquiry, "Did @arben and @nickybee's @mbloom answers suffice? Do you support the flikdate/ozolio investments?"</p>
<p>Luke: "Invest in community relationships -Be transparent -Hire a PR firm -Be humble"</p>
<p>Well said.</p>Ban Mobile Devices for Kids Under 12?tag:www.techhui.com,2014-03-09:1702911:BlogPost:1285792014-03-09T20:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>(borrowed from a Facebook post and associated thread <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/MikaLeuck?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Mika Leuck</a> shared)</p>
<div class="_6ks"><div class="_6l- __c_"><br></br> <img alt="" class="_6m5 fbStoryAttachmentImage img" src="https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBDhX4b8c93MFbL&w=470&h=246&url=http%3A%2F%2Fi.huffpost.com%2Fgen%2F1663311%2Fthumbs%2Fo-KIDS-ON-CELL-PHONE-facebook.jpg&cfs=1&upscale" style="width: 470px; height: 246px;"></img></div>
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<blockquote><strong>10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12</strong><br></br><div class="_6ks">The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Society of Pediatrics…</div>
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<p>(borrowed from a Facebook post and associated thread <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/MikaLeuck?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Mika Leuck</a> shared)</p>
<div class="_6ks"><div class="_6l- __c_"><br/> <img class="_6m5 fbStoryAttachmentImage img" src="https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQBDhX4b8c93MFbL&w=470&h=246&url=http%3A%2F%2Fi.huffpost.com%2Fgen%2F1663311%2Fthumbs%2Fo-KIDS-ON-CELL-PHONE-facebook.jpg&cfs=1&upscale" style="width: 470px; height: 246px;" alt=""/></div>
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<blockquote><strong>10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12</strong><br/><div class="_6ks">The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Society of Pediatrics <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/132/5/958.full" target="_hplink">state</a> infants aged 0-2 years should not have any exposure to technology, 3-5 years be restricted to one hour per day, and 6-18 years restricted to 2 hours per day (AAP 2001/13, CPS 2010). Children and youth use <a href="http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf" target="_hplink">4-5 times</a> the recommended amount of technology, with serious and often life threatening consequences (Kaiser Foundation 2010, Active Healthy Kids Canada 2012)...I'm calling on parents, teachers and governments to ban the use of all handheld devices for children under the age of 12 years. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned_b_4899218.html" target="_blank">More on Huffington Post</a></div>
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<div class="_6ks"></div>
<div class="_6ks"><br/> Pediatric occupational therapist Cris Rowan makes some good points, and cites studies worth reading, <span><span class="UFICommentBody"><span>but she is missing a crucial distinction between passive viewing and interactive engagement with apps designed by education professionals. Proper and controlled use of educational apps can accelerate learning. I have seen this first hand.<br/> <br/> Additionally, I believe denying children access to "screens" until they are 12 will put them at a distinct disadvantage in a world where kids are programming at that age and even earlier. Some countries are teaching programming in the public school system to students <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/09/06/why-estonia-has-started-teaching-its-first-graders-to-code/" target="_blank">as young as seven</a>. Technologies like <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MIT's Scratch</a> and <a href="http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/?domainredir=mindstorms.lego.com" target="_blank">Lego Mindstorms</a> are drawing in more budding programmers at increasingly young ages. I think this is fantastic, because programming puts so many critical skills such as logic, math, creative problem solving and physics (via simulation) in context and demonstrates how they can be used together in exciting ways.<br/></span></span></span></div>
<div class="_6ks"><span><span class="UFICommentBody"><span><br/></span> <span>That being said, it is hard to find the right balance. We struggle to successfully manage productive use of technology with our 2yo every day. You can clearly have too much iPad, even if it is all educational.</span></span></span></div>Efficient Knowledge Transfer in Social Graphs: Meet the Flying Gurnardtag:www.techhui.com,2014-02-23:1702911:BlogPost:1281842014-02-23T20:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>Last week while strolling down the Ala Wai with my 2yo son we stopped to look at the crabs that collect around the stairs that decend into the canal. I was glancing down at my iPhone when my son suddenly yelled "BIRD FISH!" and started pointing. I looked over and saw this:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152687490923849&set=a.86560693848.98433.522153848&type=1&stream_ref=10" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587522?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="665"></img></a> In the thousands of hours I've spent walking up…</p>
<p>Last week while strolling down the Ala Wai with my 2yo son we stopped to look at the crabs that collect around the stairs that decend into the canal. I was glancing down at my iPhone when my son suddenly yelled "BIRD FISH!" and started pointing. I looked over and saw this:</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152687490923849&set=a.86560693848.98433.522153848&type=1&stream_ref=10"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587522?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="665"></a>In the thousands of hours I've spent walking up and down that canal over the years, I'd never seen anything like it. As if looking like a giant moth wasn't weird enough, it grunted like a pig, and had tiny <span><span><span>finger-like appendages at the end of those pectoral fins that where probing the bottom of the canal.<br></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flughahn.jpg"><img class="align-right" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Flughahn.jpg/440px-Flughahn.jpg"></a>Like any dad, I wanted to tell my son about his his discovery, but I had no idea what it was. I looked for lists of fish commonly found in the Ala Wai. The Mothra fish (Bob Matcuk's characterization) was nowhere to be found. I expanded to Hawaiian reef fish. Nothing. Step three: Tap Facebook for answers. I <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152687490923849&set=a.86560693848.98433.522153848&type=1&stream_ref=10" target="_blank">posted about the fish</a> and tagged fishing meister <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/HoalaGreevy?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Hoʻala Greevy</a> and <a href="http://AquacultureHub.org" target="_blank">AquacultureHub's</a> <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/TetsuzanBennyRon?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Professor Benny</a>. Within minutes my friend Karen, who I wouldn't have thought to tag, identified the fish as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_gurnard" target="_blank">flying gurnard</a>. Minutes later additional information came in from Hoʻala, Professor Benny and others - state records, information about the use of its pectoral fins that was not on Wikipedia, the answer to "can it glide like a flying fish?", etc. Days later other videos of gurnards were attached by a Tokyo-based friend. I had plenty to share with Kai.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><strong>I was struck by the immense power of FB's ubiquitous brain cloud.</strong> There is no other resource that could have provided that much information at that speed. FB friends: Thank you for restoring my son's faith in my ability to identify animal species! Now every time we walk along the Ala Wai he looks in and inquires "flying gurnard?"<br> <br></span></span></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-1"><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flughahn.jpg" target="_blank">Second photo</a> by Beckmannjan, provided under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License</a></em></span></p>Facebook: Grow Uptag:www.techhui.com,2013-11-21:1702911:BlogPost:1268092013-11-21T20:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396588577?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396588577?profile=original" width="710"></img></a></p>
<p><em>Note: I write this as a fan and frequent user of Facebook. In addition to helping my family stay connected with friends around the world, the site has helped our company find new customers and team members. I wish them well. That being said, there are many areas where FB really needs to get its act together.</em></p>
<p>Our company does a fair amount of…</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396588577?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396588577?profile=original" width="710"></a></p>
<p><em>Note: I write this as a fan and frequent user of Facebook. In addition to helping my family stay connected with friends around the world, the site has helped our company find new customers and team members. I wish them well. That being said, there are many areas where FB really needs to get its act together.</em></p>
<p>Our company does a fair amount of advertising and promotion on Facebook. We've found it to be an effective platform for acquiring new business and growing brand equity. Instead of doing traditional press releases, we use promoted posts on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ikayzo" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>. These days, a well crafted FB post gets at least as much attention as a press release, and instead of just talking at your audience you are giving them an opportunity to engage. They can ask questions, compliment and criticize.</p>
<p>The frustrating thing about Facebook is that its <em>very</em> rough around the edges. The quality of their UXD is inconsistent (good in some places, terrible in others), and they really don't know how to take care of customers. We are a pretty good customer. Ikayzo runs multiple campaigns on a weekly basis for our own brands and we bring customers to their platform.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396590798?profile=original"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396590798?profile=original" width="220"></a>A couple days ago our VP of Engineering invested time in putting together a post about our work with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ikayzo/posts/10153521862005644#!" target="_blank">Mobi PCS on their new responsive site</a>. We invested significant time in the project so we really wanted to showcase our work. The image we selected for the promotion seemed obvious: a portion of a screenshot from the new homepage. The post went up without a problem. When we promoted the post Facebook happily started the campaign and took our money. The promotion ran for half a day and got about 7K impressions with some users making comments and asking questions. That night, after the promotion was well underway I received the following email:</p>
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<p>Facebook: Your ad wasn't approved because it uses too much text in its image, which violates <span class="il">Facebook</span>'s ad guidelines. Ads that show in the Feed are not allowed to include more than 20% text. You'll still be charged for any impressions or clicks your ad received before it was disapproved.</p>
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<p>OK. We technically violated some obscure rule about text in images because there was a large title on the screenshot that was flagged by a batch process that does automated image analysis. The promotion was halted and we were given the option of letting the promotion die or deleting our post and putting up a new one. Lovely. 7,000+ people had already seen the post and there were comments. Deleting it would be disrespectful to those who commented and "Like"ed the post. Re-posting would also annoy people who had already seen it.</p>
<p>The rule was clearly created to prevent people from embedding text in images to circumvent Facebook's automated scans for things that violate rules about abusive language and other inappropriate content<strong>.</strong> Clearly that wasn't the case with us. This was a screenshot of a customer's homepage. Surely once we explained the situation, they would re-enable the promotion. We filled out the appropriate form and explained:</p>
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<p>Ikayzo: This is simply an image of the homepage for Mobi's site. There is a large title on the front page that your image analysis software is flagging. Clearly we aren't violating the spirit of your policy. Can you please unblock our <span class="il">promotion</span>?</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Facebook: Your ad was rejected because it violates our text in image policy. Ads and Sponsored Stories that appear in News Feed may not include images with more than 20% text in them. In this case, image refers to the thumbnail of the link shared, you can now upload any customized image for Page post link shares (organic or paid) via the Page composer when you post a link's URL. I encourage you to select an image that has less or no text to comply with the said guidelines.</p>
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<p>Facebook: Here is what adults would do in this situation: Take care of the loyal customer that gives you revenue on a weekly basis. Clearly the image was appropriate for the post. The best course of action would have been to simply re-enable the promotion.</p>
<p>Failing that, if you really want to dogmatically adhere to your arbitrary and ridiculous policies, let your customer replace the image rather than deleting a post that already has customer and friend interactions attached to it. Doing so is insulting to those who took the time to engage.</p>
<p>Finally, if you don't want to allow such posts, and you refuse to allow posts to be edited, <em>verify compliance on submission</em>. Fail fast / in-place verification is a canonical rule of user experience design. Allowing posts to go up and promotions to start only to be shut down mid-stride for easily verifiable technical reasons with no recourse for the advertiser is absurd in the extreme.</p>NYT on Big Data Being an Economic Dudtag:www.techhui.com,2013-08-20:1702911:BlogPost:1242432013-08-20T03:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>My friend <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/KenBerkun?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Ken Berkun</a> recently sent me a link to a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/sunday-review/is-big-data-an-economic-big-dud.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp" target="_blank">NYT article</a> that was more amusing than anything I've seen in <a href="http://www.theonion.com/" target="_blank">The Onion</a>. Mr. Glanz inquires, "…</p>
<p>My friend <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/KenBerkun?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Ken Berkun</a> recently sent me a link to a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/sunday-review/is-big-data-an-economic-big-dud.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp" target="_blank">NYT article</a> that was more amusing than anything I've seen in <a href="http://www.theonion.com/" target="_blank">The Onion</a>. Mr. Glanz inquires, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/sunday-review/is-big-data-an-economic-big-dud.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp" target="_blank">Is Big Data an Economic Big Dud?</a>" I'm not sure where to start with this article.</p>
<blockquote><p>Mr. Glanz: There is just one tiny problem: the economy is, at best, in the doldrums and has stayed there during the latest surge in Web traffic. The rate of productivity growth, whose steady rise from the 1970s well into the 2000s has been credited to earlier phases in the computer and Internet revolutions, has actually fallen. The overall economic trends are complex, but an argument could be made that the slowdown began around 2005 — just when Big Data began to make its appearance.</p>
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<p>So...you are looking for an economic impact on the day Big Data arrived? I agree that Big Data had zero impact zero days after it made its "big appearance." What you are missing is that highly sophisticated NLP (natural language processing) techniques and classification engines coupled with a massive increase in computing power only recently enabled us to do significantly useful things with this volume of data in an automated manner. 90% of data transmitted over the internet has been produced in the past two years. On a daily basis we now produce about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Why is this relevant? Because the vast majority of data we have was collected very recently, and only in the past few years could we query and classify it with a high degree of accuracy.</p>
<blockquote><p>In some cases, online companies like Amazon and eBay are fighting among themselves for customers. But in others — here is where the cannibals enter — the companies are eating up traditional advertising, media, music and retailing businesses, said Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the University of Minnesota who has studied the phenomenon.</p>
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<p>You mean the "guess how many impressions this print ad actually had" and the "I think 50% of my advertising is working but I'm not sure which 50%" traditional advertising? I think its OK to cannibalize that with interactive, trackable advertising targeted and analyzed by Big Data systems.</p>
<blockquote><p>Joel Waldfogel (cited professor): “One falls, one rises — it’s pretty clear the digital kind is a substitute to the physical kind,” he said. “So it would be crazy to count the whole rise in digital as a net addition to the economy.”</p>
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<p>No one who has ever worked in advertising would agree with this. The ability to target, measure, analyze and optimize online advertising has been a <em>huge</em> net positive. It took an industry built on assumptions and fuzzy measurements and made it evidence based. The ability to target with rich contextual knowledge, achieve conversion and measure results with interactive advertising is vastly greater than traditional media. How do you think Google built a $180B advertising business? To imply online advertising is simply a replacement for traditional advertising is...well...an adjective escapes me. Lets just say it brought about a radical disruption, reinvention and massive expansion of the industry.</p>
<blockquote><p>Some economists argue that it is often difficult to estimate the true value of new technologies, and that Big Data may already be delivering benefits that are uncounted in official economic statistics. Cat videos and television programs on Hulu, for example, produce pleasure for Web surfers — so shouldn’t economists find a way to value such intangible activity, whether or not it moves the needle of the gross domestic product?</p>
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<p>I don't follow the relevance of cat videos, but the value of Big Data analytics is by its very nature much easier to quantify than the impact of traditional advertising. The data is recorded, organized and analyzed. The amount of context and information available for each consumer is much greater.</p>
<p>Organizations ranging from the largest VCs and banks to intelligence agencies and healthcare companies are banking on Big Data having a very significant impact on everything from marketing and product design to managing public health and reducing crime. They are pouring billions of dollars into Big Data analytics companies. A quick browse around CrunchBase will paint the picture. Startups like Palantir have quietly taken in <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/palantir-technologies" target="_blank">hundreds of millions in funding</a> <em>each</em>. There are dozens of other similarly funded companies working on Big Data solutions for everything from tracking the evolution of pandemics to helping companies make huge gains in sales by doing better ad targeting, up-selling and cross-selling. Tell companies like eBay, Amazon, Apple and the travel giants that Big Data isn't having a large economic impact. They will laugh you out of the room. At a previous employer I hired people from the personalization, CEM and VoC analytics groups at those companies. I assure you, people who make those types of salaries are generating revenue for their employers. They know the question of whether or not Big Data analytics works (when done correctly) has been answered.</p>
<p>And then there is Walmart. They have <a href="http://www.custvox.org/walmart-demonstrates-the-value-of-big-data/" target="_blank">increased revenue by an astonishing $1B</a> with their Big Data based inventory control, ad targeting, cross-selling and up-selling. There have been <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/" target="_blank">very visible missteps</a>, but have no doubt, this is the future of Big Data. Consider the existing revenue boosts the aforementioned companies are already achieving, the savings governments can gain by understanding the <a href="http://www.google.org/flutrends/us/#US" target="_blank">evolution of pandemics using Google searches</a>, and the thousand other applications of Big Data analytics that will be enabled by tomorrow's NLP and classification engines.</p>The Changing Face of Software Development in Japantag:www.techhui.com,2013-04-18:1702911:BlogPost:1201612013-04-18T03:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587703?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587703?profile=original" width="320"></img></a> <strong>Our Night Out with Heroku Japan & Friends</strong></p>
<p>During our trip to Japan last month we got to enjoy an evening out with the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/the-changing-face-of-software-development-in-japan?xg_source=activity" target="_blank">Heroku</a> team. We've enjoyed using their platform for years across many projects, so it was…</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587703?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587703?profile=original" width="320"></a><strong>Our Night Out with Heroku Japan & Friends</strong></p>
<p>During our trip to Japan last month we got to enjoy an evening out with the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/the-changing-face-of-software-development-in-japan?xg_source=activity" target="_blank">Heroku</a> team. We've enjoyed using their platform for years across many projects, so it was good fun to chat with the Japan team as well as the Herokai visiting from the US. As most of you know, Heroku is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_as_a_service" target="_blank">Platform as a Service</a> (PaaS) provider known for making deployment and management of Ruby on Rails apps dead simple. Recently they added support for a slew of new languages and frameworks including Node.js, Python, Java, Clojure and Scala.</p>
<p>Heroku put together a group of local developers who use their platform for an impromptu social. Many thanks to Ayumu Aizawa of Heroku Japan for organizing the evening and giving us an opportunity to learn about recent trends in the Tokyo development community. I was surprised to find that about half of those in attendance were developing on platforms other than Rails and, more generally, Ruby. Scala, Clojure and other JVM-targeted languages were well represented. Node.js was clearly on the rise. I don't know if the group was representative, but if it was, that indicates a very interesting trend in the country where Ruby was invented and first popularized. It was clear that Ruby has continued to gain momentum in many areas where Java once ruled, but Node.js and Scala apps are popping up at a surprising rate.</p>
<p>Another group that seems to be on the rise: women techies. A decade ago, during the time I lived and worked in Japan, women in the programming field were about as common as unicorns. I always found this surprising in a country that leads in so many other areas. In contrast, I knew numerous women in China happily working in the software industry. Mika was the first techie woman I met in Japan despite the fact I'd worked with hundreds of developers and systems engineers. For the first time, Mika had company, which was great to see. Two of the women were developers with degrees in computer science. That is a healthy trend.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see where Japan's software development industry is ten years from now. Perhaps development teams will be filled with women happily coding away on their cloud-based Node.js and Scala projects!</p>
<p><br> </p>March 2013 Newslettertag:www.techhui.com,2013-02-27:1702911:BlogPost:1176472013-02-27T04:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>Aloha TechHuians,</p>
<p>I'm sending the March newsletter a few days early to make you aware of a number of interesting upcoming events as well as imminent committee votes on key bills that affect the Hawaii tech community.<br></br> <br></br> <strong><span class="font-size-4">Events</span></strong><br></br> <br></br> <strong><a href="http://unconferenz.com/" target="_blank">Unconferenz</a></strong><br></br> March 2 from 8am-4pm at <a href="http://windward.hawaii.edu/" target="_blank">Windward Community…</a></p>
<p>Aloha TechHuians,</p>
<p>I'm sending the March newsletter a few days early to make you aware of a number of interesting upcoming events as well as imminent committee votes on key bills that affect the Hawaii tech community.<br> <br> <strong><span class="font-size-4">Events</span></strong><br> <br> <strong><a href="http://unconferenz.com/" target="_blank">Unconferenz</a></strong><br> March 2 from 8am-4pm at <a href="http://windward.hawaii.edu/" target="_blank">Windward Community College</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://unconferenz.com/"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396584695?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="201"></a>Unconferenz is a grassroots technology event where instead of talking heads and product pitches, we invite real conversation and collaboration. Each of its six years to date, a number of great projects have found support and momentum at the Unconferenz. Two years ago, 'coworking spaces' were a hot topic, and in the year that followed, three of them opened up in Honolulu, led by people who had shared their early ideas at the event. Last year, tech legislation sparked the formation of an independent advocacy group, the Hawaii Innovation Alliance, which honed its voice at the Unconferenz and today continues to keep an eye on laws and policies that affect the local tech industry.</p>
<p>The agenda for each Unconferenz is set on the fly, the morning of the event, so anything goes. But leading the early voting for next weekend's topics are MakerFaire planning, open government data, health apps, and finding a technical founder for your new startup. For more information, visit <a href="http://UnconferenZ.com">UnconferenZ.com</a>.<br> <br> <strong><a href="http://honolulu.startupweekend.org/" target="_blank">Startup Weekend</a></strong><br> April 12-14 at <a href="http://www.theboxjelly.com/" target="_blank">The Box Jelly</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://honolulu.startupweekend.org/"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396584841?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="184"></a>Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where participants are able to collaborate with like-minded individuals outside of their daily networks to create working startups. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurs and mentors. Whether you are looking for feedback, a co-founder, specific skill sets, or a team to help you execute, Startup Weekends are the perfect environment in which to test your idea and take the first steps towards launching your own startup.</p>
<p>Startup Weekend Honolulu will take place on April 12-14 at The Box Jelly in Kaka'ako. We have a fantastic lineup of judges to include: Slava Rubin, Indiegogo, CEO; Henk Rogers, Blue Planet, Founder; Dan Leuck, Ikayzo, CEO; Tina Fitch, Switchfly, Cofounder; Tim Dick, Adama Materials, CEO; Evan Nagle, Mentalpez, Cofounder; Kelly Mitchell, Agent Caffeine, Founder. <a href="http://honolulu.startupweekend.org">Purchase Your Tickets</a>. To learn more, check out our latest <a href="http://vimeo.com/57520174">video</a>.</p>
<p>Other interesting events and classes including the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/founder-institute-ideation-bootcamp-free">Founder Institute Bootcamp</a> and <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/wetware-wednesday-8">WetWare Wednesday</a> can be found in the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events">event calendar</a>.<br> <br> <strong><span class="font-size-4">Tech Bills<br></span></strong> <em>(courtesy of <a href="http://htdc.org">HTDC</a>'s <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/lenhigashi?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Len Higashi</a> and <a href="http://www.bytemarkscafe.org/" target="_blank">Bytemarks Cafe</a>'s <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/Burt">Burt Lum</a>)</em></p>
<p>HB0071. Requests an extension of the land lease to HTDC for 25 years. As most of you know, the MIC is scheduled to be turned over to the University of Hawaii in April 2015. Oahu will be left without an incubation center, and HTDC which gets most of its State funding from operating the MIC will be in jeopardy. HB71 passed through the House EDB/HED and FIN committees and will now be reviewed by the Senate. HTDC is supporting this bill and asking for testimony from our partners who support it.</p>
<p>HB0858/SB718SD1 Hi Growth Initiative. The bill appropriates $20 million ($10 million in FY 2013-2014 and $10 million FY 2014-2015) to the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation for the HI Growth Initiative. The HI Growth Initiative will provide $20 million of investment capital that will focus on the critical building blocks of new business formation: research commercialization, entrepreneur mentoring and the mobilization of startup investment capital. The House bill passed through EDB and FIN committees. The companion Senate bill passed through EGH and WAM committees. Now they will cross over and be heard again by the other side. HTDC is partnered with HSDC on this initiative and asking for testimony from our partners who support it.</p>
<p>DBEDT is holding an Entrepreneurs Day at the Capitol on March 6<sup>th</sup> from 10-2pm. If your company would like to participate, please register at <a href="http://investhawaii.eventbrite.com/" target="_blank">http://investhawaii.eventbrite.com</a>.</p>
<p>HB0200/SB1061 Budget bill. HTDC is requesting 54.8M in CIP funds to build a new innovation center. We are in the process of retaining a planner/architect to help us find the most suitable location. While these funds are intended to provide a new incubation center, we view this as an expansion to the MIC and are supporting both. Budget bills do not usually allow testimony, but please contact your representatives and help them understand why this is vital.</p>
<p>SB1349 and HB0559/SB0736 and SB0736 Tax Credit bill. There are several forms of this bill aimed at renewing the R&D tax credit. The different forms outline different restrictions, sunset date, and reporting requirements. HTDC will be supporting the intent of these bills, with the same comments as last year on best implementation and reporting requirements.</p>
<p>SB448 & HB632 Open Data bills. See <a href="http://hawaiiopendata.com/2013/02/open-data-bills-sb448-hb632-update/">Burt Lum's post</a> for details.<br> <br> --- --- ---</p>
<p>We hope to see you in the blog, forums and event calendar in March. Make sure to check out interesting recent posts such as <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/is-facebook-s-new-graph-search-engine-a-danger-to-google">Is Facebook's New Graph Search Engine a Danger to Google?</a> and <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/will-hawaii-startup-accelerators-succeed-or-fail">Will Hawaii Startup Accelerators Succeed or Fail?</a></p>
<p>A hui hou,<br> Dan</p>TechHui in 2013: 3,000 Strong and Countingtag:www.techhui.com,2013-01-18:1702911:BlogPost:1152312013-01-18T21:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>We enter the new year with <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/members/" target="_blank">over 3,000 members</a>, a full <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events" target="_blank">event schedule</a>, a <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blog/list?promoted=1" target="_blank">newly reinvigorated blog</a>, active <a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/categories/tech-jobs/listForCategory" target="_blank">job boards</a> and plenty of great discussion about everything from…</p>
<p>We enter the new year with <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/members/" target="_blank">over 3,000 members</a>, a full <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events" target="_blank">event schedule</a>, a <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blog/list?promoted=1" target="_blank">newly reinvigorated blog</a>, active <a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/categories/tech-jobs/listForCategory" target="_blank">job boards</a> and plenty of great discussion about everything from <a href="http://www.techhui.com/group/techworkforcedevelopment/forum/topics/stem-education-v-stem-visas-conflict-or-complement" target="_blank">STEM Visas</a> to <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/america-spends-more-money-on-slower-internet" target="_blank">why the US spends more for slower internet access</a>*.<br/> <br/> Having emerged from the ashes of 2009-2011 (a faltering economy, Act 221 fallout, etc.), 2012 saw the emergence of a new set of scrappier startups, a slew of co-working / maker spaces (<a href="http://www.theboxjelly.com/" target="_blank">The Box Jelly</a>, <a href="http://www.hicapacity.org/" target="_blank">HI Capacity</a>, <a href="http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/" target="_blank">Maui Makers</a>, <a href="http://www.higreenhouse.com/" target="_blank">HI Green House</a>, and <a href="http://www.htdc.org/virtual-incubation.html" target="_blank">MIC's shared office space program</a>), as well as incubators such as Henk Rogers' <a href="http://www.bluestartups.com/" target="_blank">BlueStartups</a>, Mike Prasad’s <a href="http://kinetiqlabs.com/" target="_blank">Kinetiq Labs</a> and Darius "Bubs" Monsef's Nalukai Foundation. The <a href="http://www.hsdc.hawaii.gov/" target="_blank">Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation</a> (HSDC), an agency of the state, invested $1.6M in support of these accelerators with considerably more funding allocated in the Governor's proposed budget. New regular events such as <a href="http://honolulu.startupweekend.org/" target="_blank">Startup Weekend</a>, <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/wetware-wednesday-7" target="_blank">WetWare Wednesdays</a> and <a href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/" target="_blank">Ignite</a> demonstrate the energy of a new generation of developers and interactive designers while <a href="http://unconferenz.com/" target="_blank">Unconferenz</a> and <a href="http://www.hawaiigeek.com" target="_blank">Hawaii Geek Meet</a> continue their tradition of providing a venue for stimulating conversation and geeky socializing.<br/> <br/> <strong>Highlights from December/January Blog Posts</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/remote-debugging-mobile-web-apps" target="_blank">Remote Debugging Mobile Web Apps</a> by Mike King</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/how-i-learned-to-love-some-interruptions" target="_blank">How I Learned to Love (Some) Interruptions</a> by Tzyh Ng</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/learn-something-new-in-2013" target="_blank">Developers: Learn Something New in 2013</a> by George Lee</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/add-two-factor-authentication-to-your-rails-app-with-devise" target="_blank">Two-Factor Authentication in your Rails App with Devise & Yubikey</a> by Chris Sass</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/ubuntu-for-phones" target="_blank">Ubuntu for Phones</a> by Douglas Ching</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/america-spends-more-money-on-slower-internet" target="_blank">America Spends More Money on Slower Internet</a> by Marcus Sortijas</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/time-to-buy-apple" target="_blank">Time to Buy Apple?</a> by Joseph Lui</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/football-stats-analysis-with-ruby-and-r" target="_blank">Football Stats Analysis with Ruby and R</a> by Daniel Nishimura<br/> <br/> <strong>Upcoming Events</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/wetware-wednesday-7" target="_blank">WetWare Wednesday at Yogur Story</a>, Wed., Jan 23 at 6pm</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/hvca-entrepreneur-and-deal-of-the-year-luncheon-january-24-2013" target="_blank">HVCA Entrepreneur and Deal of the Year Luncheon at Pioneer Plaza</a>, Thurs., Jan 24 at 11:30am</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/git-workflows" target="_blank">Git Workflows at The Box Jelly</a>, Thurs., Jan 24 at 7pm</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/responsive-web-design-for-the-mobile-web" target="_blank">Responsive Web Design for the Mobile Web with Ka’a Kihe at UHM Sakamaki C-104, Sat.</a>, Feb 9 at 9am</p>
<p>Don't miss the great classes and workshops from <a href="http://www.outreach.hawaii.edu/pnm/" target="_blank">UH Pacific New Media</a> and <a href="http://www.hpu.edu/" target="_blank">HPU</a> posted in the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events" target="_blank">calendar</a>.<br/> <br/> As TechHui enters its fifth year, we hope the site can continue to improve as a community facilitator. As always, your comments, questions, ideas and creative insults are welcome :-)<br/> <br/> <em>* On a related note, if you know something about broadband in Hawaii and want to help a UH researcher working in this area, consider participating in the <a href="http://www.broadbandhi.com/?r=user/indiv_user&code=techhui" target="_blank">Future of Broadband in Hawaii Study</a>.</em></p>Is Google Stifling Innovation?tag:www.techhui.com,2012-12-07:1702911:BlogPost:1137942012-12-07T17:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><em><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396583028?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396583028?profile=original" width="220"></img></a> Should US and EU regulators step in to curb the search giant's influence? </em></p>
<p>In one of the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/andrew-keen-google-antitrust" target="_blank">worst editorials</a> on CNN this year <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Keen" target="_blank">Andrew Keen</a>, a man who once compared the social web to a…</p>
<p><em><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396583028?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396583028?profile=original" width="220"></a>Should US and EU regulators step in to curb the search giant's influence? </em></p>
<p>In one of the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/andrew-keen-google-antitrust" target="_blank">worst editorials</a> on CNN this year <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Keen" target="_blank">Andrew Keen</a>, a man who once compared the social web to a "communist society", suggests US and EU regulators solve the "Google problem" (read: success) by filing lawsuits against the company and telling them what they can put on their own site. He makes the completely unsubstantiated claim that Google "undermines entrepreneurial innovation" and implies they are an impediment to the Internet of things being discussed heavily at Le Web. Mr. Keen writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As the future arrives on all our devices and "the Internet of things" becomes a reality, it is essential that this Google problem, which is undermining entrepreneurial innovation, is resolved. An Internet of things must be a place of all of our things, not just Google's things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Google has been a champion of open platforms, net neutrality and data democratization. Their many excellent open source projects have enabled thousands of tech entreprenuers (including this author) around the world. They've used their money to lobby against laws that stifle innovation and free speech, fought censorship in countries that intimidated other tech giants and enabled thousands of small businesses to flourish by making them discoverable. </p>
<p>Mr. Keen continues:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And as Google products such as its self-driving cars and data goggles pioneer this brave new world of intelligent devices, it is essential that the FTC and the commission guarantee that the ubiquitous Google search engine doesn't degenerate into a platform for this increasingly powerful company to hawk its own intelligent products and services.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A company is using its own site to hawk its products and services? Unthinkable! Would I prefer Google make all preferential rankings clearly marked? Yes, but I don't want the government to dictate this to a company that is providing me with a valuable free service. If I don't like the way Google promotes some of their other products and services in search results I can vote against them by using Bing or Yahoo.</p>
<p>Is Google a perfect altruistic champion of all things good and holy? Of course not. Its a company responsible for creating value for shareholders, but as tech giants go, Google has done an admirable job of balancing profitability with being a good corporate citizen.</p>
<p><strong>Mr. Keen and US / EU regulators: If you don't like Google's search results feel free to use Bing.</strong> Google has arguably done more to enable innovation, free speech and transparency than any other company in history. To suggest we are all suffering from a "Google problem" that is stifling innovation is the height of absurdity.</p>
<p><em>Photo by <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://flickr.com/people/35034362831@N01">Joi Ito</a></em></p>A New Hawaii Accelerator: Blue Startupstag:www.techhui.com,2012-11-21:1702911:BlogPost:1134232012-11-21T21:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/HenkRogers" target="_blank">Henk Rogers</a> has launched a new Hawaii-based venture accelerator called <a href="http://www.bluestartups.com/" target="_blank">Blue Startups</a> focusing on capital-efficient and scalable-technology companies, including Internet, software, mobile, gaming and e-commerce. They are also interested in tech companies selling into Asian markets.</p>
<p>I'm excited to see Henk and friends making this sort of investment in our…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/HenkRogers" target="_blank">Henk Rogers</a> has launched a new Hawaii-based venture accelerator called <a href="http://www.bluestartups.com/" target="_blank">Blue Startups</a> focusing on capital-efficient and scalable-technology companies, including Internet, software, mobile, gaming and e-commerce. They are also interested in tech companies selling into Asian markets.</p>
<p>I'm excited to see Henk and friends making this sort of investment in our innovation economy. I hope they are able to nurture some winners!</p>
<p>This is the announcement sent to us by Blue Startups Managing Director Chenoa Farnsworth:</p>
<p></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.bluestartups.com/"><img class="align-full" src="http://www.bluestartups.com/images/bluestartupslogo.png"/></a></p>
<p><strong>Blue Startups is Accepting Applicants for its Spring 2013 Cohort</strong><br/> <br/> <a href="http://www.bluestartups.com/" target="_blank">Blue Startups</a>, a new venture accelerator located in Honolulu, Hawaii, is<br/> accepting applications for its Spring 2013 cohort of startup companies. Blue<br/> Startups was founded by Henk Rogers of <a href="http://www.tetris.com/" target="_blank">Blue Planet Software</a> (sole agent of<br/> Tetris®) and has received funding from the State of Hawaii. The Spring 2013<br/> program will run from February 8-May 9, 2013. Demo Day is scheduled for<br/> May 10, 2013 and will feature Brad Feld Co-Founder of Foundry Group and<br/> Techstars.<br/> <br/> <a href="http://www.bluestartups.com" target="_blank">Blue Startups</a> is targeting capital-efficient and scalable-technology companies,<br/> including Internet, software, mobile, gaming and e-commerce. The program<br/> is also recruiting companies that focus on Asia. A network of more than 50<br/> mentors has been developed by Blue Startups reaching from China and Japan to<br/> Silicon Valley. Our premise is that people make innovation happen, that growth<br/> follows effective execution, and that sustained success requires access to global<br/> resources.<br/> <br/> Companies entering the Blue Startups program will receive $20,000 as an<br/> up-front investment, and access to more than $100,000 in in-kind services<br/> . Workspace for the founding team (up to three people) will also be provided<br/> at Blue Startups offices in Downtown Honolulu. Blue Startups is a prospective<br/> member of the <a href="http://globalacceleratornetwork.com/" target="_blank">Global Accelerator Network</a> (GAN), which provides extensive<br/> resources to a network of more than 50 accelerators globally. In exchange for<br/> the capital and in-kind services provided, Blue Startups will take an equity stake<br/> in each company.<br/> <br/> For more information, visit: <a href="http://www.bluestartups.com" target="_blank">http://www.bluestartups.com</a>.<br/> <br/> Twitter feed:<br/> Blue Startups, a new Hawaii-based technology accelerator, is<br/> accepting applications for its Spring 2013 cohort. For more<br/> information, visit: <a href="http://www.bluestartups.com" target="_blank">http://www.bluestartups.com</a>.</p>Building a Tech Company in Hawaiitag:www.techhui.com,2012-09-18:1702911:BlogPost:1118932012-09-18T02:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><b><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594485?profile=original" width="360"></img> When Mika and I started Ikayzo seven years ago I got everything wrong.</b> Because I enjoyed a good relationship with my previous two employers I was confident they would become my first customers. Surely I could easily sell to local companies as well. Although we were a new company, I had a solid software development resume and some experience with business development. I thought recruiting would be easy because we could offer the ability to do interesting work in paradise. I…</p>
<p><b><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594485?profile=original" width="360">When Mika and I started Ikayzo seven years ago I got everything wrong.</b> Because I enjoyed a good relationship with my previous two employers I was confident they would become my first customers. Surely I could easily sell to local companies as well. Although we were a new company, I had a solid software development resume and some experience with business development. I thought recruiting would be easy because we could offer the ability to do interesting work in paradise. I also thought I would be programming and doing interactive design work most of the day with maybe 20% being allocated for...well...CEO stuff.<br> <br> Wrong, wrong and wrong.<br> <br> About two months after launching the company I realized I was not going to be able to sell back to my previous employers. At my last two jobs I had very solid right-hand men and women. As a manager I had worked hard to build redundancy in my department because, as with mission critical software system, its important not to have any single point of failure. When I left the redundancy kicked in and best practices continued to be followed. The idea that these companies would need me for the same reasons they had when I was originally hired was a conceit. I had to start looking elsewhere for our first customer. That company turned out to be a neighbor at the Manoa Innovation Center. Over the years we ended up working with <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/graduating-from-the-manoa-innovation-center">five other companies at MIC.</a> Next came jobs from UH Manoa, which is just down the street.<br> <br> Selling to local companies turned out to be harder than expected. The approach I had taken when I worked for companies in Tokyo and San Francisco didn't work in Hawaii. I needed to develop localized sales skills (e.g. a healthy amount of talk-story) to sell in the Hawaii market. Without local references it was hard to earn people's trust. It quickly became clear that building a healthy base of local customers was going to require years of reputation and relationship building. It took us about three years to get to where I had expected us to be in one, but persistence eventually paid off.<br> <br> <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/developing-a-viable-software">Recruiting top talent also turned out to be difficult</a>. Many of Hawaii's brightest students move to the mainland for college and don't return. They don't think there are any interesting well-paying positions locally, and our industry doesn't do a particularly good job of advertising such positions. Its hard because there is no easy way to target all the top performers from Hawaii who are now scattered across the mainland. You have to network, network, network. <br> <br> Getting people from the mainland to move to Hawaii is often surprisingly difficult, especially if they have families. Many potential recruits are concerned about being so far from family, the cost of living and the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/you-cant-have-innovation">local school situation</a>. I remember a Washington-based developer I really wanted to hire asking me, "I live on an acre of land in a five bedroom house. My three kids attend top performing schools. How much will that cost me in Honolulu?" As you can imagine, that conversation didn't go well.<br> <br> We had to start on a long journey of finding a mixture of local people who left to attend college on the mainland and people from outside of Hawaii with a healthy sense of adventure. It was important to find people who considered our location to be a significant plus when evaluating offers. In those cases we could actually wrestle them away from the likes of Google and Apple, something that a company our size could never do if we couldn't offer the differentiator of working in paradise. Over the years we got better at finding these people via social media and traditional networking. Developing a good working relationship with local universities was also a big help. Being down the street from UH Manoa ended up being advantageous for many reasons.<br> <br> I don't want to talk too much about Ikayzo specifically because this post isn't an ad. My intention is to share my experience with other Hawaii entreprenuers. Suffice to say that we've grown to a point where we are competitive in our target markets both locally and on the mainland. My average day isn't what I thought it would be. Most of my day is recruiting, selling and managing. Every once in a while I get to do a little development and design :-) That being said, its been, and continues to be, an awesome journey. There is nothing better than being able to get up in the morning and look forward to working with a great group of people in a beautiful place on interesting projects.</p>Graduating from the Manoa Innovation Centertag:www.techhui.com,2012-08-31:1702911:BlogPost:1114172012-08-31T22:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg?width=200" width="200"></img></a> It was with a heavy heart that we gave notice to our friends at the Manoa Innovation Center yesterday. Its time for Ikayzo to graduate to a larger commercial space. We are excited about having a new office, but we will miss the MIC community and our corporate home tucked away in beautiful Manoa valley.</p>
<p>Ikayzo has been at the …</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg"><img class="align-left" src="http://www.htdc.org/sites/default/files/micpics.jpg?width=200" width="200"/></a>It was with a heavy heart that we gave notice to our friends at the Manoa Innovation Center yesterday. Its time for Ikayzo to graduate to a larger commercial space. We are excited about having a new office, but we will miss the MIC community and our corporate home tucked away in beautiful Manoa valley.</p>
<p>Ikayzo has been at the <a href="http://www.htdc.org/incubation-techcenter-mic.html" target="_blank">Manoa Innovation Center</a> since 2005. Our first customer was a fellow MIC company and we have worked in varying capacities with numerous other tenant companies including Pukoa Scientific, Concentris, Island Pacific Energy, Kuehnle AgroSystems, Undefeated Games and Sprout. In some cases they were providing us with advice on research grants. In others we were providing them with creative and technical services. Having all these great companies in proximity has been invaluable.</p>
<p>Ikayzo has collaborated with HTDC and fellow MIC companies on many community efforts including TechHui.com. HTDC CEO Yuka Nagashima and her staff have been invaluable resources during our journey. A note to our governor and legislators: We sincerely hope HTDC will continue to operate the Manoa Innovation Center and receive the funding necessary to continue their work. This is a uniquely inspiring place. It wouldn't be the same in some nondescript block of office spaces. On a related note, HTDC needs more funding! We finally have decent connectivity at MIC but things like redundant power and reliable AC are a must at an innovation center.</p>
<p>To those entreprenuers thinking about setting up shop at MIC - we highly recommend it. HTDC (the agency that operates MIC and is headquartered on premise) does much more than operate the center. They provide assistance to Hawaii tech companies looking to secure SBIR grants along with partial matching of awards. They have business consultants on staff, do workshops on everything from marketing to hiring, provide a program that gives you access to affordable service providers for legal and accounting services, operate a co-working space on the second floor and even provide testimony at the state legislature in support of our industry. Finally, you will find it invaluable to be surrounded by other startups that can provide advice, assistance and partnership opportunities. To all our friends at MIC - Mahalo nui loa!</p>April Newslettertag:www.techhui.com,2012-04-05:1702911:BlogPost:1080792012-04-05T04:28:30.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>Aloha TechHuians,</p>
<p>Apologies for being a bit late this month. I just returned from New York and I'm prepping to leave for Tokyo in a couple days. I'm getting too old for this :-)</p>
<p>This month we had some excellent blog posts including:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/security-wargaming-capture-the-flag" target="_blank">Security Wargaming: Capture the Flag</a> by Dan Nishimura…</li>
</ul>
<p>Aloha TechHuians,</p>
<p>Apologies for being a bit late this month. I just returned from New York and I'm prepping to leave for Tokyo in a couple days. I'm getting too old for this :-)</p>
<p>This month we had some excellent blog posts including:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/security-wargaming-capture-the-flag" target="_blank">Security Wargaming: Capture the Flag</a> by Dan Nishimura</li>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/expressing-ideas" target="_blank">Expressing Ideas</a>, <em>Why simplicity is essential to good system design</em> by Nathan Dwyer</li>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/the-asp-net-web-api" target="_blank">The ASP.NET Web API</a> by Douglas Ching</li>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/restful-data-with-microsoft" target="_blank">RESTful Data with Microsoft</a> by Tim Little</li>
</ul>
<p>You can help HPU student Anže Žnidaršič with his research on agile development methodologies by responding to his post "<a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/do-you-use-scrum" target="_blank">Do you use Scrum</a>?"</p>
<p>Notable events this month:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/hawaii-social-media-seminar-2" target="_blank">Hawaii Social Media Seminar</a> presented by <a href="http://www.tnblive.com/" target="_blank">Technology News Bytes</a>: April 11, 9am to 5pm</li>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/hawaii-geek-meet-v" target="_blank">Hawaii Geek Meet V</a> by Ryan Ozawa: April 15, 9am to 3pm</li>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/mongodb-users-group-first-meeting" target="_blank">MongoDB Users Group (first meeting)</a> by Patrick Kelly: April 19, 6pm to 8pm</li>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/tech-monday-in-west-hawaii-4" target="_blank">Tech Monday in West Hawaii</a> by Rod Hinman: April 23, 5pm to 7pm</li>
<li><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/startup-weekend-honolulu-1" target="_blank">Startup Weekend Honolulu</a> by Daniell Scherman & David Pascua: April 27 at 6pm to April 29 at 9pm</li>
</ul>
<p>I look forward to participating as a mentor in Startup Weekend Honolulu. <a href="http://honolulu.startupweekend.org/" target="_blank">Startup Weekend</a> is an intense 54 hour event that focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over a weekend. The weekend brings together software developers, interactive designers and business people to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.</p>
<p>Fifteen new jobs were posted to the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/categories/tech-jobs/listForCategory" target="_blank">tech jobs forum</a> including <a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/topics/looking-for-a-webmaster-at-uh-maui-college" target="_blank">Webmaster at UH Maui College</a>, <a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/topics/software-engineers-needed" target="_blank">Software Engineer - Java, C# and C++</a> (Referentia), and <a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/topics/systems-administrator-it-division-012469" target="_blank">Systems Administrator</a> (Kamehameha Schools).</p>
<p>A hui hou,<br/>Dan<br/>TechHui Chief Lemur </p>
<p></p>WebKit, Mozilla & IE: Please Support the Dart VMtag:www.techhui.com,2012-02-10:1702911:BlogPost:1059612012-02-10T03:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595296?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595296?profile=original" width="268"></img></a> For the past week I've been experimenting with writing a Flex/WPF/Swing-like widget framework on top of HTML5 using Dart. Dart is what I've always wanted for client-side web programming. Its a class-based optionally typed programming language that is, in the words of Dart team member Lars Bak, "high performance, structured yet flexible, familiar and natural." Anyone who knows…</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595296?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595296?profile=original" width="268"></a>For the past week I've been experimenting with writing a Flex/WPF/Swing-like widget framework on top of HTML5 using Dart. Dart is what I've always wanted for client-side web programming. Its a class-based optionally typed programming language that is, in the words of Dart team member Lars Bak, "high performance, structured yet flexible, familiar and natural." Anyone who knows C++, C# or Java can look at Dart code and immediately understand what is going on. Here are some <a href="http://www.dartlang.org/samples/" target="_blank">examples</a> and a <a href="http://synonym.dartlang.org/" target="_blank">comparison to JavaScript</a>.<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; display: inline ! important; float: none;"><br> <br> For projects such as widget libraries, inheritance and other modern language features are extremely useful. APIs are also much easier to decompose into a nicely organized class hierarchy. I can't picture working on this project without the benefit of a modern class based language.<br> <br> Dart can be run directly on a Dart VM (coming soon in Chrome) or translated to Javascript for browsers that don't have native support. Obviously the Dart VM approach has much better performance characteristics. Because of differences in the languages designs, Dart VMs will always be faster than Javascript VMs. Amusingly, the high performance Javascript VMs do <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/v8/design.html#mach_code" target="_blank">backflips</a> to make Javascript behave like a class based language.<br> <br> Its unfortunate that the WebKit, IE and Mozilla teams currently don't intend to incorporate the Dart VM. From Wikipedia:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<As of January 2012, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari do not have plans to implement support for Dart. Microsoft's JavaScript team has stated in Nov. 2011 that, "Some examples, like Dart, portend that JavaScript has fundamental flaws and to support these scenarios requires a 'clean break' from JavaScript in both syntax and runtime. We disagree with this point of view." Apple engineer Oliver Hunt, working on the WebKit project (which powers both Safari and Google's own Chrome browser) has stated, "Adding an additional web facing language (that isn't standardized) doesn't seem beneficial to the project, if anything it seems harmful (cf. VBScript in IE)." Mozilla's Brendan Eich, who developed the JavaScript language, has stated, "I guarantee you that Apple and Microsoft (and Opera and Mozilla, but the first two are enough) will never embed the Dart VM. <br />
<em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_%28programming_language%29" target="_blank">Full article</a></em><br />
</blockquote>
<p><br> <br> I sincerely hope the WebKit, IE & Mozilla teams rethink this position. Native Dart support on all major browsers would make the web a better place for coders. Hunt and Eich clearly think Dart is a political move for Google, but I don't see any evidence of that. Google has pushed Javascript to its limits. Google Apps is a <em>tour de force</em> of Javascript programming, as is Google+. They know better than anyone that there are inherent limitations to its performance and ability to be easily tooled for large-scale projects. Anyone who has worked on a large component library knows exactly what I am talking about.<br> <br> Dart can probably survive as a great platform for Chrome and a workable platform for the other browsers (via Javascript as an intermediate language), but wouldn't it be nice to have a language on par with Java and C# that runs lightning fast on all clients? If you agree, join me in writing the developers of these browsers.</p>Hawaii Lawmakers' Assault on Web Privacytag:www.techhui.com,2012-01-26:1702911:BlogPost:1050652012-01-26T21:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594430?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594430?profile=original" width="171"></img></a> As I write this <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/Bills/HB2288_.pdf" target="_blank">HB 2288</a>, which requires anyone providing internet connectivity to keep detailed records of users' browsing history, is being <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/hearingnotices/HEARING_ERB_01-26-12_.HTM" target="_blank">heard in front of the Committee on…</a></p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594430?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594430?profile=original" width="171"></a>As I write this <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/Bills/HB2288_.pdf" target="_blank">HB 2288</a>, which requires anyone providing internet connectivity to keep detailed records of users' browsing history, is being <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/hearingnotices/HEARING_ERB_01-26-12_.HTM" target="_blank">heard in front of the Committee on Economic Revitalization</a>. This is arguably the most aggressive privacy invading internet data retention measure introduced by any state.The ill conceived HB 2288 was introduced by <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hsemaj/mizuno_john.html" target="_blank">Rep. John Mizuno</a> and championed by <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/memberpage.aspx?member=pine" target="_blank">Rep. Kymberly Pine</a>. Companion bill <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/bills/SB2530_.HTM" target="_blank">SB 2530</a> was introduced in the senate by Sen. Jill Tokuda. These bills, which are vaguely worded, could easily impose onerous requirements on not only ISPs but also every coffee shop and internet cafe in the state. They provide no privacy protections or rules with regard to how the data is handled. HB 2288 and SB 2530 open up every resident of the state to the possibility of their browsing history being subpoenaed not only in criminal cases, but also in civil matters. This is no different than the state requiring telephone companies to retain all your conversations.</p>
<p>I submitted the following testimony to the committee:</p>
<p>"<strong>I write in strong opposition.</strong> I wish to provide testimony with regard to HB 2288, which requires ISPs to capture and store all customers' internet traffic for a period of two years. In these times, the record of a person's browsing history is as close as you can get to a record of their thoughts. Even forcing telephone companies to record everyone's conversations, which is unthinkable, would be less of an intrusion. This bill represents a radical violation of privacy and opens the door to rampant Fourth Amendment violations. As with a phone tap, the state should be required to seek a warrant to record a person's browsing activities. Internet traffic can be far more personal than a phone call. Why should the protection of access be held to a lower standard?"</p>
<p>Although techies can obviously get around this by, for example, using a proxy server to hide destinations and SSL to make data opaque, this is a clear assault on the privacy of the average users' browsing history. The assault is also happening at the federal level thanks to SOPA author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamar_S._Smith" target="_blank">Rep. Lamar Smith</a>, who introduced a similar (although less aggresive) bill which he calls the "<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c112:2:./temp/%7Ec112I7DGk1::" target="_blank">Protect Children from Pornographers Act</a>". The name is, of course, ludicrous given that it has absolutely nothing to do with protecting children from pornography.</p>
<p>The bill currently has support from both sides of the isle (Pine is a Republican, Mizuno a Democrat), so it will take a concerted effort to defeat it. Lets fight the good fight to protect our privacy. We are already getting <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57366443-281/hawaii-may-keep-track-of-all-web-sites-visited/" target="_blank">national attention</a>.</p>
<p>Many thanks to <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/ArynNakaoka" target="_blank">Aryn Nakaoka</a> for bringing this bill to our attention, <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/YukaNagashima" target="_blank">Yuka Nagashima</a> for providing in-person testimony on behalf of our industry, <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/faleafine" target="_blank">Neenz Faleafine</a> for helping spread the word and <a href="http://www.cnet.com/profile/declan00/?tag=mncol" target="_blank">Declan McCullagh</a> for giving it national attention.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> HB 2288 has been tabled and we've heard from multiple sources that it is effectively dead. SB 2530 is likely DOA, but it could be revived with modifications based on testimony. See the comments below for discussion regarding the numerous other bills that have been introduced relating to internet regulation and interference with business activities including the odious <a href="http://capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=2762" target="_blank">HB 2762</a>.</p>
<p>Two new bills, <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=1788&year=2012" target="_blank">HB1778</a> & <a href="http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=2147&year=2012" target="_blank">HB2147</a>, promote unauthorized computer access to a class A felony. Class A is normally reserved for crimes such as rape, kidnapping and murder.</p>Japanese UX: Everything Works a Little Bettertag:www.techhui.com,2012-01-08:1702911:BlogPost:1036292012-01-08T00:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>Normally when we discuss user experience design on TechHui we are talking about web or mobile apps, but UX design is a much broader field. Wikipedia defines UXD as, "Creation of the architecture and interaction models that affect <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience" title="User experience">user experience</a> of a device or system."</p>
<p>During my time in Japan over the past two weeks I've been struck by how much attention is paid to UX for everyday things ranging from…</p>
<p>Normally when we discuss user experience design on TechHui we are talking about web or mobile apps, but UX design is a much broader field. Wikipedia defines UXD as, "Creation of the architecture and interaction models that affect <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience" title="User experience">user experience</a> of a device or system."</p>
<p>During my time in Japan over the past two weeks I've been struck by how much attention is paid to UX for everyday things ranging from bathrooms to ketchup dispensers. Lets start with bathrooms. When I walk into the bathroom the light comes on. When I leave it goes off. When I get into the shower I can control flow and temperature independently and precisely with clearly labelled controls. Why do western showers always have some mysterious unlabelled handle that controls two unrelated concerns - flow and temperature?</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396592612?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396592612?profile=original" width="640"></a>If I want to shave after my shower I can because a small heater behind the mirror prevents it from fogging. When I use the toilet the controls for the bidet and flush options are in front of me on a panel next to the toilet paper. Why make people reach backwards to flush?</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594439?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594439?profile=original" width="650"></a>Now on to another trivial but illustrative example. When I buy a food item that normally goes with ketchup and mustard it comes with a dispenser that allows me to apply both condiments at once just by pinching - no tearing of messy little packets with your teeth.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595505?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595505?profile=original" width="650"></a><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396597490?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396597490?profile=original" width="650"></a>Then there are the vending machines. They use machine vision to make recommendations on beverages based on assumed age, gender and time of day (and for me at least, they are usually spot on.) They are always full because they call home when they are low on an item. I can pay with my phone. I could write paragraphs more on Japanese vending machines, but you get the idea.</p>
<p>This all begs the question, why is so much more attention paid to user experience design in Japan?</p>January 2012 Newslettertag:www.techhui.com,2012-01-07:1702911:BlogPost:1040362012-01-07T23:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><span class="st">Aloha TechHuians,<br></br></span></p>
<p><span class="st">Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! I hope the holidays treated you well.</span></p>
<p><span class="st">Many thanks to all the participants in last month's TechHui conference including the speakers, panelists, sponsors and organizers. It was a tough time of year to do a conference (my fault for being in NY and Tokyo on business during the usual time), but we pulled it off. This year I was overwhelmed with work and being a new dad so I…</span></p>
<p><span class="st">Aloha TechHuians,<br/></span></p>
<p><span class="st">Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! I hope the holidays treated you well.</span></p>
<p><span class="st">Many thanks to all the participants in last month's TechHui conference including the speakers, panelists, sponsors and organizers. It was a tough time of year to do a conference (my fault for being in NY and Tokyo on business during the usual time), but we pulled it off. This year I was overwhelmed with work and being a new dad so I especially appreciated all the help from UH <a href="http://www.outreach.hawaii.edu/pnm/" target="_blank">Pacific New Media</a>, <a href="http://hicapacity.org/" target="_blank">HI Capacity</a>, <a href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/" target="_blank">Ignite,</a> <a href="http://thinktechhawaii.com/" target="_blank">ThinkTech</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/IGDA-Honolulu/149048338496095" target="_blank">IGDA</a>. I also want to thank our sponsors, <a href="http://htdc.org/" target="_blank">HTDC</a> with <a href="http://hawaii.gov/dcca" target="_blank">DCCA</a>, <a href="http://ikayzo.com/" target="_blank">Ikayzo</a>, <a href="http://migrationcounsel.com/" target="_blank">Migration Counsel</a>, <a href="http://www.pubcon.com/pubcon-paradise-honolulu-hawaii" target="_blank">PubCon</a> and Hannah Miyamoto from the UH-M Mechanical Engineering / Business SAE team who were kind enough to share their inventions with us at the conference. <br/></span></p>
<p><span class="st">I thoroughly enjoyed Garrett's keynote and all the sessions. Session organizers Dan Zelikman, Todd Robertson, Gordon Bruce, Forest Frizzell, Yuka Nagashima, Robert Brewer and Rama MacIntosh did a fantastic job as did all the panelists. I'm very happy Christine Koroki, Chris Ota and their friends from <a href="http://hicapacity.org/" target="_blank">HI Capacity</a> brought <a href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/2011/11/ignite-honolulu-two/" target="_blank">Ignite</a> to the conference this year. The Ignite presenters covered a wide variety of interesting technology and design topics. We've decided to make it a tradition so look for Ignite at all future TechHui Conferences.<br/></span></p>
<p><span class="st">As always, we appreciate feedback to help us improve future conferences. <br/></span></p>
<p><span class="st">Coders - Don't forget to register for <a href="http://cchnlhackathon.eventbrite.com/" target="_blank">CityCamp Hackathon</a> happening on Janurary 20. Prizes for civic minded coders will range from $500 to $1,000.</span></p>
<p><span class="st">Next month make sure not to miss search, social media and eCommerce conference <a href="http://www.pubcon.com/pubcon-paradise-honolulu-hawaii" target="_blank">PubCon</a> at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on <span>February 14</span> and 15, 2012. The conference features industry leaders such as Travelocity founder and e-commerce pioneer Terry Jones. Pubcon is also offering <span class="st"><span><a href="http://www.pubcon.com/pubcon-paradise/seo-smo-training" target="_blank">intensive educational search and social media training</a></span> programs on <span>February 13, 2012</span>. To get the 20% TechHui discount go to <a href="https://secure.pubcon.com/" target="_blank">https://secure.pubcon.com/</a> and enter th-2004620 in the "Offer Code" box after you click on the "Register Now" link.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="st">Finally, don't forget to watch Maui TechHuians Garret Lisi and Reichart Von Wolfsheild's new show <a href="http://www.history.com/shows/invention-usa" target="_blank">Invention USA</a> on the History Channel.<br/></span></p>
<p><span class="st">A hui hou,</span></p>
<p><span class="st">The TechHui Team<br/></span></p>
<p><span class="st"><br/></span></p>December Newslettertag:www.techhui.com,2011-12-03:1702911:BlogPost:1026202011-12-03T05:51:50.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>Aloha TechHuians,<br></br><br></br>There are only a few more days to <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/2011-techhui-conference" target="_blank">register</a> for the TechHui conference happening on Dec. 10 at UH Manoa. The conference features everything from Garrett Lisi presenting his <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-geometric-theory-of-everything" target="_blank">Geometric Theory of Everything</a> to an …</p>
<p>Aloha TechHuians,<br/><br/>There are only a few more days to <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/2011-techhui-conference" target="_blank">register</a> for the TechHui conference happening on Dec. 10 at UH Manoa. The conference features everything from Garrett Lisi presenting his <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-geometric-theory-of-everything" target="_blank">Geometric Theory of Everything</a> to an <a href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/2011/11/ignite-honolulu-two/" target="_blank">Ignite</a> session covering mobile app design & development, game development, 3D printing, lost technologies and more. Other sessions include Kukui Cup (Gamification of Energy Conservation), Social Media, Gov. Tech and 3D CG & Animation. We've posted the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/page/2011-techhui-conference-schedule" target="_blank">schedule, speakers and bios.</a><br/><br/>Maui TechHuians <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/GarrettLisi" target="_blank">Garrett Lisi</a> and <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/Reichart" target="_blank">Reichart Von Wolfsheild</a> have a new show on History Channel called <a href="http://www.history.com/shows/invention-usa" target="_blank">Invention USA</a>. The show premiers next Friday Dec 9th at 8pm HST. Its exciting to see two Hawaii guys making it happen. Thanks to <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/JerryIsdale" target="_blank">Jerry Isdale</a> for the heads up.<br/><br/>We have a number of great events coming up including <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/city-camp-honolulu" target="_blank">City Camp</a> and <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/code-retreat-hawaii" target="_blank">Code Retreat Hawaii</a> happening tomorrow. <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/flash-camp-hawaii" target="_blank">Flash Camp</a> is running on Sunday. The <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/hawaii-inventor-s-club-unconventional-funding" target="_blank">Hawaii Inventor's Club</a> and <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/hi-capacity-soldering-workshop" target="_blank">HI Capacity's Soldering Workshop</a> are happening on Dec. 13. HTDC is hosting the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/wetware-wednesday-1" target="_blank">WetWare Networking Event</a> on Dec. 28. <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/unconferenz-2011" target="_blank">Unconferenz</a> is coming up on Feb. 26th. Don't forget to <a href="http://www.techhui.com/group/unconferenz/forum/topics/topics-for-unconferenz-2011" target="_blank">submit your ideas</a> for sessions.<br/><br/>Congrats to the HPU team for <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/hpu-wins-hawaii-site-of-acm-international-programming-contest" target="_blank">winning the ACM International Programming Contest</a>! Now we have two schools in Hawaii winning prestigious programming competitions.<br/><br/>The blog has a number of interesting posts this month including Julian Yap's <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/apple-is-going-to-be-huge" target="_blank">Malware on the Rise on Android</a> and Peter Kay's <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/platform-first-engineering-a-robust-government-web-ecosystem" target="_blank">Platform First: Engineering a robust government web ecosystem</a>.<br/><br/>We hope to see you on TechHui and at all the great events this holiday season!<br/> <br/> Hau’oli Lanui,<br/> Dan</p>2011 TechHui Conferencetag:www.techhui.com,2011-11-05:1702911:BlogPost:1003152011-11-05T02:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/2011-techhui-conference" target="_blank"><img class="img_left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587536?profile=original" style="margin-right: 10px;" width="173"></img></a> It's <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/2011-techhui-conference">TechHui Conference</a> time! The goal of the conference is to highlight interesting Hawaiʻi-based people, projects and organizations working in technology and interactive design. We seek to facilitate education and networking within the Hawaiʻi tech and design communities as well as educate people about the latest developments and…</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.techhui.com/events/2011-techhui-conference"><img class="img_left" style="margin-right: 10px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396587536?profile=original" width="173"></a>It's <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/2011-techhui-conference">TechHui Conference</a> time! The goal of the conference is to highlight interesting Hawaiʻi-based people, projects and organizations working in technology and interactive design. We seek to facilitate education and networking within the Hawaiʻi tech and design communities as well as educate people about the latest developments and trends in these fields. <strong><a href="http://www.techhui.com/page/2011-techhui-conference-schedule" target="_blank">Schedule and Speakers</a></strong><br> <br> There are a number of new twists to the conference this year. The <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/IGDA-Honolulu/149048338496095?sk=wall">local chapter of the International Game Developers Association</a> will be gamifying the conference. Christine Koroki and her partners in crime from <a href="http://hicapacity.org/">HI Capacity</a> will be running <a href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/">Ignite</a> as a session. Participants will be talking about everything from UX design on mobile devices to robotics.<br> <br> <a href="http://outreach.hawaii.edu/noncredit/courses/programdetail/1456" target="_blank"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396588439?profile=original" class="align-right"></a>The <a href="http://kukuicup.manoa.hawaii.edu/about/">Kukui Cup</a> team will share how they are gamifying energy conservation at UH using a mixture of technology, events and excursions. Philip Johnson, Robert Brewer and George Lee will talk about the software systems they built to support the competition. It's an exciting experiment that could become a model for other universities seeking to move toward net zero campuses.<br> <br> In the Apps for the People session Honolulu DIT Dep. Director Forest Frizzell will cover <a href="http://codeforamerica.org/">Code for America</a>, <a href="http://citycamphnl.govfresh.com/" target="_blank">City Camp</a> (coming Dec 3, <a href="http://citycamphnl.govfresh.com/">sign up</a>), the <a href="http://can-do.honolulu.gov/">Honolulu Transparency Portal</a> and mobile apps the city is developing to make Honolulu a better place. I was excited to read that Honolulu is already <a href="http://www.digitalcommunities.com/survey/cities/?year=2011">rated the number one digital city</a> by Digital Communities. Congrats to Forest and Honolulu CIO Gordon Bruce for their part in making this happen. <a href="http://htdc.org/" target="_blank">HTDC</a> CEO Yuka Nagashima will close the session with a status update on the new Hawaiʻi broadband initiative and a discussion of what new types of apps ubiquitous gigabit connectivity can facilitate.<br> <br> <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/GarrettLisi?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/353364186?profile=original" class="img_left" width="64" height="64"></a>This year our keynote is theoretical physicist and adventure sports enthusiast <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garret_Lisi">Garrett Lisi</a>. He will explain how every elementary particle in our Universe may be facets of the most beautiful structure known to mathematics, dancing over spacetime according to the laws of quantum mechanics. If you've seen Garret on the Discovery channel or at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_everything.html">TED</a> you'll know that he has a talent for explaining aspects of his work to any motivated, intelligent person, even if they are not a physicist. For our design community, I think you will find the visual representations of his theory inspiring.<br> <br> The conference is organized by the <a href="http://www.outreach.hawaii.edu/pnm/" target="_blank">University of Hawaiʻi Pacific New Media College</a>, <a href="http://ikayzo.com" target="_blank">Ikayzo</a>, <a href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/" target="_blank">Ignite Honolulu,</a> <a href="http://hicapacity.org">HI Capacity</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/IGDA-Honolulu/149048338496095?sk=wall">IGDA Honolulu Chapter</a>, and <a href="http://thinktechhawaii.com/" target="_blank">ThinkTech</a>. Sponsors include <a href="http://htdc.org/" target="_blank">HTDC</a>, <a href="http://ikayzo.com/" target="_blank">Ikayzo</a>, <a href="http://migrationcounsel.com/" target="_blank">Migration Counsel</a> and <a href="http://www.pubcon.com/pubcon-paradise-honolulu-hawaii" target="_blank">PubCon</a>.<br> <br> A full list of speakers with bios will be posted shortly. We've posted the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/page/2011-techhui-conference-schedule">schedule for labs and sessions</a>.<br> <br> Have a great weekend!</p>September Newsletter: Sprout Acquired, Ignite & Startup Weekendtag:www.techhui.com,2011-09-03:1702911:BlogPost:939622011-09-03T00:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/kevcom?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" height="96" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/353338637?profile=original" width="96"></img></a> August was an exciting month for tech in Hawaii. Honolulu startup Sprout (formerly ChipIn) was acquired by InMobi, a mobile ad network that has served over 100 billion mobile ads to date. The combined companies will be able to serve HTML5 mobile ads constructed with Sprout to 165 countries. Read about…
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/kevcom?xg_source=profiles_memberList"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/353338637?profile=original" width="96" height="96"></a>August was an exciting month for tech in Hawaii. Honolulu startup Sprout (formerly ChipIn) was acquired by InMobi, a mobile ad network that has served over 100 billion mobile ads to date. The combined companies will be able to serve HTML5 mobile ads constructed with Sprout to 165 countries. Read about <br />
<a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/we-ve-been-acquired-local-startup-makes-good" target="_blank">Sprout's journey as a Hawaii-born web startup</a> on Kevin Hughes' latest blog post.*<br />
<br>
<p><br> <a target="_blank" href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396586882?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="200"></a>Christine Koroki and friends brought the first <a href="http://ignitehonolulu.com/" target="_blank">Ignite event to Honolulu</a> at the newly opened <a href="http://theboxjelly.com/" target="_blank">The Box Jelly</a> coworking space. I had a lot of fun working with the Ignite / Pecha Kucha presentation format - 20 images that auto advance every 15 seconds. It makes you feel a bit like you are running an auction but it lends itself to concise expression and a high energy atmosphere. I was impressed by many of the presenters. <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/JayFidell10" target="_blank">Jay Fidell</a> of <a href="http://thinktechhawaii.com/" target="_blank">ThinkTech</a> did a <a href="http://thinktech.staradvertiserblogs.com/2011/08/23/ignite-a-new-phenomenon-springs-up-on-kamani-street/" target="_blank">great writeup</a> and <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/JohnGarcia" target="_blank">John Garcia</a> of <a href="http://www.nonstophonolulu.com/" target="_blank">Nonstop Honolulu</a>'s video will be up shortly. The <a href="http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/talk/bytemarkscafe" target="_blank">Bytemarks crew</a> was there with photo and twitter coverage.<br> <br> <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/DanielleScherman" target="_blank"></a><a target="_blank" href="http://www.techhui.com/events/startup-weekend-honolulu"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/353366740?profile=original" width="183" height="183"></a>Danielle Sherman is bringing <a href="http://www.techhui.com/events/startup-weekend-honolulu" target="_blank">Startup Weekend to Honolulu</a> on September 16. "Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets - primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people - to build applications and develop a commercial case around them."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Its great to see <a href="http://www.techhui.com/group/womenintech" target="_blank">TechHui women</a> shaking up the scene!<br> <br> The City and County of Honolulu released the new <a href="http://can-do.honolulu.gov/" target="_blank">Can-Do transparency portal</a>. In addition to making city data searchable, the portal contains an area to <a href="http://can-do.honolulu.gov/apps" target="_blank">feature resident-built mobile apps</a> that utilize C&C data. I enjoyed chatting with <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profile/DanZelikman" target="_blank">Dan Zelikman</a> of Civil Beat about <a href="http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2011/08/24/12623-newsmaker-talk-live-with-hawaii-technology-leader-dan-leuck/" target="_blank">technology facilitating greater transparency in government</a> and the state of the innovation economy in Honolulu.<br> <br> Thats it for this month. We hope to see you on TechHui! <br> <br> Best regards,</p>
<p>Daniel Leuck</p>
<p>TechHui Coordinator</p>
<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/dleuck" target="_blank">@dleuck</a><br />
<br>
<br> * We received some inquiries about the Sprout post relating to our policy of not allowing posts that are primarily commercial promotion outside of the
<a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/categories/announcements-1/listForCategory" target="_blank">Announcements forum</a>. Kevin's post wasn't promoting a product or service. He is candidly sharing the journey of a Hawaii tech startup and providing information of general interest to the community.US Social Networks in Japantag:www.techhui.com,2011-06-27:1702911:BlogPost:863342011-06-27T00:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><em><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396584905?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396584905?profile=original" width="196"></img></a> After initial failures in the Japanese market, Facebook and LinkedIn may have caught their second wind</em><br></br><br></br>For years US based social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn have had very poor penetration in Japan despite having more features and better UX design than local competitors. Homegrown networks such as Mixi and Gree dwarf the Japanese localized versions of…</p>
<p><em><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396584905?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396584905?profile=original" width="196"></a>After initial failures in the Japanese market, Facebook and LinkedIn may have caught their second wind</em><br><br>For years US based social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn have had very poor penetration in Japan despite having more features and better UX design than local competitors. Homegrown networks such as Mixi and Gree dwarf the Japanese localized versions of their American counterparts, but change may be afoot. Over the last year I've noticed my Japanese friends and colleagues starting to appear on LinkedIn. A friend of mine who owns a Tokyo-based recruiting firm recently told me LinkedIn has started to become a useful recruiting tool for him, where previously it was useful only in their Singapore branch. One of our Japanese team members was just telling me that local software development interest groups have started to spring up on LinkedIn. This is interesting because, due to LinkedIn being embarrassingly late to the Japanese market, numerous other companies attempted to create viable business social networks (most notably Yahoo! Japan's CU) but all met with failure. It was presumed that this was because of cultural barriers such as membership indicating a lack of loyalty to one's current employer.<br><br>While Facebook Japan has also met with very limited success over the past few years they've seen considerable growth in 2011. In August of 2010 penetration stood at a paltry .6% with 1,348,860 users - about 1/20th of their largest Japanese competitor. This year they have jumped to 3,059,000 users. Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook paid close attention to localization issues from the beginning including a strong mobile play and introduction of features that are of interest to Japanese users. After arriving in Japan the night before last I logged into Facebook to find several clever subtle localizations. For example, in the featured profile information area at the top of my profile page (i.e. the area with birthday, hometown, languages, etc.) there is an "Add your train station" link.<br><br>Its clear from their Tokyo office and considerable expenditures on Japan-specific development that Facebook is serious about making a dent in Mixi. It will be interesting to see if their rewards are commensurate with their investment. Over the past ten years I've watched many, many failed attempts by US web companies to enter the Japanese market. Twitter made it here, but they didn't have any significant local competition in the microblogging space and, despite doing an initially poor job of localization (using byte rather than character limits and not supporting Japanese hashtags), they benefited enormously from a popular Japanese movie that was basically, "You've Got Tweets".<br><br>Finally, Japanese adoption of Foursquare, which I <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1702911%3ABlogPost%3A70016" target="_blank">wrote about during my last trip</a>, has continued to grow at a furious pace. My first check-in in Tokyo suggested 32 specials nearby. This isn't surprising given the fact Japanese companies have been experimenting with location based social apps for nearly a decade.<br><br>Update: The launch of Google+ certainly changes the game in terms of non-native social networks in Japan. In addition to the Japan-friendly strict isolation and clear indication of post visibility provided by circles, Google is already a household name in Japan. Facebook, on the other hand, will have to invest considerably more to build their brand equity within the country.</p>Developing a Viable Software Development Workforce in Hawaiitag:www.techhui.com,2011-04-02:1702911:BlogPost:786452011-04-02T04:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396590862?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="img_left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396590862?profile=original" width="220"></img></a> Yesterday I was asked to chair a committee on workforce development for the software industry in Hawaii. Our committee was specifically tasked with coming up with suggestions on how to bring the number of senior software developers in the workforce closer to meeting the demands of software companies in our state. The suggestions are to be presented by the Workforce Development…</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396590862?profile=original"><img class="img_left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396590862?profile=original" width="220"></a>Yesterday I was asked to chair a committee on workforce development for the software industry in Hawaii. Our committee was specifically tasked with coming up with suggestions on how to bring the number of senior software developers in the workforce closer to meeting the demands of software companies in our state. The suggestions are to be presented by the Workforce Development Council to the legislature. At this point some people will raise their hands and say, "But there are already many senior software developers who can't find jobs." To this I generally respond, "No, there aren't, at least not in the in-demand areas - GIS, mobile development, RIAs, etc." I know the companies trying to find these people (Ikayzo is one of them), and these types of positions are very hard to fill. There are a lot of software developers looking for work, but there isn't a sufficient number of top notch senior software developers - the kind who can design complex systems with modern technology stacks, train junior engineers, lead projects, etc. One of the reasons for this is the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/the-great-20092010-hawaii" target="_blank">Great Hawaii Brain Drain of 2009 and 2010</a>, but its always been an issue. Sure, we can also use more innovative technology companies, so there is a bit of a chicken and egg issue, but the fact remains that there are many companies who are in our state actively looking for senior software developers and are unable to find them. As such, my post will concentrate on this area.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 10px;">I admit, with all respect to my friends in government, that I approach government sponsored events of this nature with some trepidation. Often they end up being a huge number of people in a room (I firmly believe in meetings never having more than 8 people), involve a lot of complaining, a healthy amount of general disarray, long pointless speeches by bureaucrats and politicians, and produce zero tangible results. This isn't a dig on Hawaii, its just often the nature of government. This event, however, was free of long pointless speeches and included a number of smart, motivated people who produced interesting ideas, some of which I'd like to share with the TechHui community. Feedback is always appreciated.</p>
<p><b>The Three-Prong Problem</b></p>
<p>1. Hawaii doesn't develop enough senior software engineers. In other words, companies aren't investing in graduating junior engineers into senior engineers via mentoring, training programs, etc. Often this is because small and medium size companies can't afford it.</p>
<p>2. Hawaii doesn't import enough senior engineers. Top programmers don't view Hawaii as a place they can move and continue their career.</p>
<p>3. Hawaii doesn't retain enough senior engineers. The few we do develop or import don't stick around.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><em>Note: Education is also a major issue, and</em> <em>I've <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/you-cant-have-innovation" target="_blank">written a number of posts about public education in Hawaii</a>,</em> <em>but that was addressed by another committee that deals with entry level developers and, as such, is out of scope for this discussion.<br></em></p>
<p><b>Solutions</b></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.techhui.com/group/sbir"><img class="img_right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/294216002?profile=original"></a>A. Subsidize Mentoring: Many Hawaii tech companies get their funding from federally funded SBIRs and STTRs. These are tiered grants that provide money for projects in areas of interest to departments ranging from the DoD to the FDA (see the <a href="http://www.techhui.com/group/sbir" target="_blank">SBIR / STTR TechHui Group</a>.) The state could provide a partial matching program for these grants if the company awarded the grant agrees to have the PI (principal investigator) mentor a junior resource while working on the project. This would create a strong incentive for companies to invest in workforce development thereby producing more senior developers / researchers.</p>
<p>B. School Registry for Top Students: Create a registry for top students who graduate from our schools (public and private) but go to undergraduate or graduate programs on the mainland. Several CEOs who attended the committee meeting noted that bringing talented kamaʻaina back to Hawaii is a good, low risk relocation strategy. Often people want to return but aren't confident they can find a job. If they can be found and presented with a good offer, they will often return. Currently its hard to find these people, but the state could easily maintain such a registry (which would of course be voluntary.)</p>
<p>C. Attract a Major Conference: Conferences like Google I/O, Microsoft TechEd, etc. often attract 10K+ attendees. If HVCB was able to lure one of those conferences to Hawaii it would create a great opportunity to market to both engineers and companies (e.g. Why not code in paradise?)</p>
<p>D. Make Hawaii a Reward for the Best and Brightest: Create incentives to encourage larger software businesses to place advanced research and development facilities in Hawaii. We could position the state as a place you can work if you are at the top of the R&D game. This would of course require a tax incentive to attract the R&D centers.</p>
<p>E. An Industry Funded Non Profit for SBIR / STTR: A number of successful tech companies in Hawaii (Oceanit, Referentia, etc.) were built partly on SBIRs and STTRs. Often smaller companies are afraid to dip their toes in the SBIR water because it takes an investment to write the proposals and, if you aren't experienced at writing them, you probably won't win. HTDC provides assistance in this area, but their resources are limited. Peter Kay put forward the idea of having an industry funded non-profit who collected profiles for all member companies, monitored SBIR / STTR solicitations, and proactively pushed matching solicitations to the appropriate member companies along with assistance in writing the proposals. This would mitigate the risk of a large investment in writing the solicitations and perhaps allow more Oceanits and Referentias to be born.</p>
<p><em>*Note: This is more to industry development than workforce but, as already noted, they are clearly intertwined.</em></p>
<p>F. Market Hawaii as a Place Tech Happens: Most people who visit Hawaii have no idea that we have companies designing iPhone apps, software with neural interfaces, software for UAVs, and systems used by the world's largest banks. Other cities advertise their technology industries in the airport. Why not us? Our own students aren't aware of all the great technology being invented all around them.</p>
<p>Many other ideas were discussed. Hopefully I'll have more time to enumerate them over the weekend.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Related Group: <a href="http://www.techhui.com/group/techworkforcedevelopment" target="_blank">Innovation Economy Workforce Development</a></em></p>Micro-Aquaponic Sculpturetag:www.techhui.com,2011-02-22:1702911:BlogPost:762822011-02-22T06:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>When I was in high school I read about research at the University of Hawaii in small scale self contained ecosystems. The idea fascinated me so I started doing research on how I could build one. In Des Moines, Iowa, where I lived, there is a small rain forest contained in a geodesic dome called the <a href="http://www.botanicalcenter.com/" target="_blank">Des Moines Botanical Center</a>. A scientist at the center helped me with a design for a miniature version of the center with the addition…</p>
<p>When I was in high school I read about research at the University of Hawaii in small scale self contained ecosystems. The idea fascinated me so I started doing research on how I could build one. In Des Moines, Iowa, where I lived, there is a small rain forest contained in a geodesic dome called the <a href="http://www.botanicalcenter.com/" target="_blank">Des Moines Botanical Center</a>. A scientist at the center helped me with a design for a miniature version of the center with the addition of a cave environment below the terrestrial and lake environments. My design, which I built with help from my dad, was a Plexiglas dome mounted atop a box with a cylinder in the middle that served as a lake environment. The idea was to support three mini-ecosystems in one small enclosure - a terrestrial environment, a lake environment and a cave environment. I was successful with the first two but had trouble with the cave environment because I didn't have access to any caves from which to harvest the cave animals, fungi and bacteria necessary to build a cave biom.</p>
<p>A few years later I designed a new system consisting of a much larger dome atop a cylinder atop an octagonal pyramid. Inside were cascading fresh and saltwater waterfalls. Unfortunately when I priced the design it came to $18K, which I couldn't afford on a 16 year old's grass-cutter's salary. To this day I remain very interested in the idea of aquaponics and self contained ecosystems that are both functional and beautiful. Right now I'm concentrating on growing our software development and design business, but for my next venture I'd like to build aquaponics sculptures that bring small scale aquaponics into more people's homes. Perhaps the various biomes (saltwater, freshwater, terrestrial, cave, bog, etc.) could be like lego pieces that people put together in unique configurations to create their own little biosculpture worlds.</p>
<p>On a somewhat related note, here is my latest water garden creation. It has three terrestrial plants, eight seaweeds, catfish, loaches, guppies and two types of shrimp.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595533?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595533?profile=original" width="600"></a><br> <br></p>Publishers: Apple Wants 30%, Forevertag:www.techhui.com,2011-02-16:1702911:BlogPost:754882011-02-16T05:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-daily/id411516732?ls=1" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595383?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="236"></img></a> With Apple's new <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/15/apple-in-app-subscriptions/" target="_blank">iTunes subscription feature</a> publishers can publish their digital content via the App Store and collect a recurring subscription fee. Users can easily organize, browse and manage their subscriptions in one place. That sounds great until you hear about the cut Apple is taking: 30% for the…</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-daily/id411516732?ls=1"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396595383?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="236"></a>With Apple's new <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/15/apple-in-app-subscriptions/" target="_blank">iTunes subscription feature</a> publishers can publish their digital content via the App Store and collect a recurring subscription fee. Users can easily organize, browse and manage their subscriptions in one place. That sounds great until you hear about the cut Apple is taking: 30% for the lifetime of the subscription. That sounds a little steep to me. It makes me wonder, given the fact iPads have an excellent high performance browser with the latest HTML5 capabilities, why wouldn't publishers just deliver the same subscription content on the web? In addition to keeping 100% of the fee they would be targeting multiple devices. The coming onslaught of Android tablets also have state of the art HTML5 browsers.</p>
<p>The answer I've been hearing is the convenience of browsing and managing subscriptions from one place and the need for offline viewing. I can see the convenience argument, but loosing 30% of their subscription fees may be enough to motivate a group of major publishers to back an HTML5 newsstand. The offline argument doesn't hold because you could facilitate this with regular web content via the new <a href="http://diveintohtml5.org/storage.html" target="_blank">local storage API</a>.</p>
<p>The next few months will be very, very interesting. Will publishers line up for a 30% spanking from Apple or stand their ground with HTML5? Now would be a really good time for an HTML5 bookstore start-up that has the right connections in the publishing industry. If you could get a handful of the big guys it could start an avalanche.</p>HTML5 Widgets: FAILtag:www.techhui.com,2011-02-12:1702911:BlogPost:740972011-02-12T00:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>I realize its sacrilegious to say anything bad about HTML5, but I have to say I am really disappointed in its handling of widgets (i.e. combo boxes, lists, sliders, etc.) HTML5 introduces new form input types such as range, date pickers, color selector, etc. but they are completely opaque and have very narrow APIs. This is due to HTML5's approach of punting to the browser to render and manage the widget. Often the browser in turn punts to the OS. This was the approach Java AWT took when it…</p>
<p>I realize its sacrilegious to say anything bad about HTML5, but I have to say I am really disappointed in its handling of widgets (i.e. combo boxes, lists, sliders, etc.) HTML5 introduces new form input types such as range, date pickers, color selector, etc. but they are completely opaque and have very narrow APIs. This is due to HTML5's approach of punting to the browser to render and manage the widget. Often the browser in turn punts to the OS. This was the approach Java AWT took when it was introduced in 1995 and we all remember how well that went :-/ There is a reason it was nicknamed the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A</span>wful <span style="text-decoration: underline;">W</span>indowing <span style="text-decoration: underline;">T</span>oolkit!</p>
<p>In HTML5 there is, for example, no way to extend a range to provide two nobs for a price range. You also cannot style it with CSS aside from doing things like putting a border around the outside. If you want to create a custom widget you are left to start from scratch and do all your own painting and event handling with a canvas component or SVG elements. This is a non-trivial endeavor for all but the simplest components. Every other modern RIA platform (Flex, Silverlight, JavaFX, etc.) provides a nice OO library of extendable and skinnable components. What not HTML5?</p>
<p>Of course there are third party libraries that have nice components such as <a href="http://jqueryui.com/" target="_blank">JQuery UI</a>, but the whole point of HTML5 is to create a solid foundation for RIAs that allows you to create great user experiences without having to use a bunch of third party libraries that bloat page loads. This is particularly important on mobile devices that don't benefit from high speed connections. It wouldn't be that hard for HTML to define some basic, skinnable, extensible widgets that can be styled with CSS and extended with Javascript in a standard way. This would facilitate lightweight RIAs that perform well everywhere from the desktop to the phone.</p>
<p>There are a lot of things I like about HTML5 - CSS3, semantic tags, local storage, etc., but the lack of a standard widget library that can be extended via Javascript and CSS is a major failing. The other is the lack of a standard intermediate language, which I <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/google-please-save-web" target="_blank">ranted about in a previous post</a>.</p>2011: Apple's Dominance, Facebook to Go Public, Groupon's Billions, Google: More than Ads?tag:www.techhui.com,2011-01-08:1702911:BlogPost:718402011-01-08T03:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p>Apple stock jumped again today. The company is now worth $336 billion. That is almost $100 billion more than Microsoft and well over twice the value of Oracle. They are now the largest technology company that has ever existed. Apple is also the largest content distributor and the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the United States. There are over 325,000 active apps in the App Store. They have been downloaded almost 10 billion times. Gartner expects the App Store will generate a stunning…</p>
<p>Apple stock jumped again today. The company is now worth $336 billion. That is almost $100 billion more than Microsoft and well over twice the value of Oracle. They are now the largest technology company that has ever existed. Apple is also the largest content distributor and the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the United States. There are over 325,000 active apps in the App Store. They have been downloaded almost 10 billion times. Gartner expects the App Store will generate a stunning $27 billion over the next two years. With Verizon coming online as a carrier, 2011 is looking good for Apple.</p>
<p><img class="img_left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594610?profile=original" width="250">2011 may be the year tech IPOs make a comeback. SEC regulations on investment will require Facebook to disclose detailed financials or go public by April 2012. Goldman Sachs puts their value at $50 billion. The worlds largest social network boasts over half a billion active users, each of which produce an average of 90 pieces of content per month. 20 million Facebook applications are installed by users every day. Use of mobile devices to access Facebook is rocketing. 200 million users access Facebook via their phone. I'm guessing 2011 will be the year mobile access to Facebook will surpass access via desktop browsers. That is already the case with social networks in Japan. I also believe Facebook will become even more distributed with a significant amount of access occurring via widgets on other sites. It will be the end of the walled garden.</p>
<p>Web companies like Groupon are raising enormous amounts of capital. Kleiner Perkins' latest investment puts Groupon past the halfway point in a $950 million round that puts their value at $4.75 billion. Apparently they weren't crazy to walk away from Google's offer. I think 2011 will be the year we see a massive push back from vendors. Groupon better figure out how to handle this or the folks who gave them their billion dollar round will be very unhappy.</p>
<p>In 2011 we will see Google put an enormous amount of its resources into graduating from being an advertising company. Advertising revenue currently dwarfs all other streams combined. I think 2011 will be the year of Google Apps, Android and Google location based services. This year Google Apps will become the defacto standard for email, calendaring and document management for small and medium size organizations. Thousands are switching every day. Getting the majority of larger organizations will take a little longer, but it will happen. No other company is in a position to dominate cloud based core IT infrastructure for the majority of companies in the world. Google has the platform (over a million servers that handle, among other things, over a billion searches per day), the technical expertise and the capital to make this happen. For this reason, and many others, I think they are currently massively undervalued.</p>
<p>Finally, 2011 will be the year Twitter is bought by Facebook, Google or Microsoft. I'm rooting for Google because I'd love to see real time search come to the search tool I use everyday.</p>Google: Please Save Web Developerstag:www.techhui.com,2010-12-11:1702911:BlogPost:706182010-12-11T23:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<p style="font-size: 1.1em;"><em>How a new suite of unencumbered technologies could elevate web development today and better prepare us for HTML5 tomorrow</em></p>
<p style="margin-top: 14px; font-size: 1.1em;">The web development world is in an interesting place. HTML5 is the future, <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/microsoft-screws-up-again" target="_blank">but its not quite ready</a>. Javascript is the lingua franca of this brave new world despite the fact it lacks many basic…</p>
<p style="font-size: 1.1em;"><em>How a new suite of unencumbered technologies could elevate web development today and better prepare us for HTML5 tomorrow</em></p>
<p style="margin-top: 14px; font-size: 1.1em;">The web development world is in an interesting place. HTML5 is the future, <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/microsoft-screws-up-again" target="_blank">but its not quite ready</a>. Javascript is the lingua franca of this brave new world despite the fact it lacks many basic features of modern OO languages and was never intended to be used for sophisticated desktop-like apps (think Google Apps.) Apple has accelerated the move away from plugin based RIA technologies such as Flash/Flex. In the iOS world that is increasingly dominating high end mobile apps you have two options - mobile web apps using a subset of HTML5 or native apps written with an antiquated language. The future of Java, the language of Android and millions of lines of server-side code, seems uncertain as a litigious Oracle increasingly looks like a <a href="http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/one-vm-to-rule-them-all" target="_blank">suboptimal steward</a> and pillars of the JCP such as Apache walk away. The only company with a high performance modern VM, solid standard library and support of modern OO and functional languages in the browser is...roll the drums...Microsoft!</p>
<p style="margin-top: 14px; font-size: 1.1em;"><img class="img_left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396594319?profile=original" width="250">Google - This is the perfect time for you to save the web from an icky future. What we need is a new standard, lets call it Plex, that provides a standard abstraction facilitating the use of multiple modern languages (OO, functional, etc.) with a standard library on everything from the cloud to the desktop to the phone. This may sound a lot like Java or .NET but a universal VM approach isn't possible, at least not at first, because these apps need to run on the server _and_ in the browser without the benefit of a plugin. On the client we need a GWT-like abstraction layer that, in the short term, cross compiles any Plex compliant language to HTML5 and Javascript - basically a GWT compiler with GCC-style pluggable front ends (i.e. languages.) Simultaneously a push should be started to incorporate an efficient intermediate language in the HTML5 specification so the Javascript step in the Plex compilation pipeline can be removed.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 14px; font-size: 1.1em;">Plex should be designed to accommodate popular languages (Ruby, Python, etc.) in the future but out of the gate it should introduce a flagship language optimized for the Plex environment. "G" should be an optionally typed language supporting OO and functional models with all the goodies we've come to expect. It takes a lot of resources to write a new language, a new server and mobile VM, a new cross compiler for HTML5 and all the quality tools necessary to support development, but if anyone can do it, it's you. I bet your friends at the ASF and other former JCP members would be willing to help.</p>December 2010 Newslettertag:www.techhui.com,2010-12-02:1702911:BlogPost:702232010-12-02T02:00:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
I just returned from a business trip to Tokyo. Its always fun to see whats happening in Japan's tech mecca. Every year the vending machines and mobile phones seem to move closer to sentience. In case they are already self aware and are reading this newsletter, I want you to know I welcome our new vendoketai skynet overlords.<br></br>
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Tokyo is the most wired city in the world. If you've ever seen the Simpson's episode where Homer gets restaurant recommendations from his hotel toilet - well,…
I just returned from a business trip to Tokyo. Its always fun to see whats happening in Japan's tech mecca. Every year the vending machines and mobile phones seem to move closer to sentience. In case they are already self aware and are reading this newsletter, I want you to know I welcome our new vendoketai skynet overlords.<br/>
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Tokyo is the most wired city in the world. If you've ever seen the Simpson's episode where Homer gets restaurant recommendations from his hotel toilet - well, that isn't far from the truth. Vending machines now incorporate facial recognition and have recommendation engines that make drink suggestions based on gender and age. Middle aged man? Coffee. Older guy? Tea. Young woman? Something sugary. No, I'm not kidding.<br/>
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On the home front, as many of you have already noticed, there have been quite a few upgrades to Ning, the platform used by TechHui. Update emails now contain the content of the update (finally!) and new members can join with their Facebook, Google or Yahoo acounts. This is all very good news and should assist growth.<br/>
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We have some great conversations going in the blog about <a href="../blogs/the-foursquare-japan-lesson">Foursquare's growth in Japan</a>, <a href="../blogs/tsas-enhanced-screening-why">bad touches from TSA</a>, <a href="../blogs/facebook-unfriends-google-via">Facebook and Google's battle</a>, and <a href="../blogs/microsoft-screws-up-again">Microsoft's HTML5 / Silverlight blunders</a>. Swing by today and join the conversation!<br/>
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We have about a <a href="../../forum/categories/tech-jobs/listForCategory">dozen new tech jobs</a> on the job board and some new posts for positions with the Governor's office coming soon, so make sure to check back regularly if you are in the market.<br/>
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Finally, there are a lot of <a href="../../events">great tech events in December</a> ranging from a Web Analytics class from Rob Bertholf to a Maui Techies meetup tomorrow night.The Foursquare Japan Lesson: Lightweight Localizationtag:www.techhui.com,2010-11-24:1702911:BlogPost:700162010-11-24T23:30:00.000ZDaniel Leuckhttp://www.techhui.com/profile/dleuck
<span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 1.1em;">Even if you can't afford to localize right away, don't get in the way of your Japanese and Chinese users</span><br />
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<img alt="" class="img_left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396592680?profile=original"></img><br />
<p style="font-size: 1.1em;">I'm currently in Tokyo on business. As I travel around the city I've been spot checking Foursquare's coverage. To my surprise, coverage is excellent. Most popular eateries and nightspots have already been added. Many already have mayors. Foursquare specials…</p>
<span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 1.1em;">Even if you can't afford to localize right away, don't get in the way of your Japanese and Chinese users</span><br />
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<img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/396592680?profile=original" alt="" class="img_left"><br />
<p style="font-size: 1.1em;">I'm currently in Tokyo on business. As I travel around the city I've been spot checking Foursquare's coverage. To my surprise, coverage is excellent. Most popular eateries and nightspots have already been added. Many already have mayors. Foursquare specials abound.<br><br>Interestingly, Foursquare's UI has not been localized to Japanese. There is no Foursquare office in Japan and no substantial marketing efforts have been made. You might think that would significantly limit adoption but it hasn't. Tokyo is one of the most checked-in cities in the world. Some of the factors that are likely in play:<br></p>
<ul style="font-size: 1.1em;">
<li>The UI is so simple that normal English proficiency in Japan (i.e. what you learn in school) is sufficient to operate the app.</li>
<li>Unlike early versions of Twitter, Foursquare handles multibyte character encodings correctly. This means you can add locations, descriptions and tips in languages such as Japanese and Chinese. I've often ranted on this subject: <a href="http://www.techhui.com/forum/topics/utf8-or-death">UTF-8 or Death!</a> Twitter still doesn't fully support Japanese. The fact hash tags don't work in Japanese or Chinese shows a lack of basic understanding on the part of whoever wrote the parser.<br></li>
<li>Most access to social apps in Japan happens on phones. The mobile social experiment was happening in Japan a decade before Foursquare and Gowalla.</li>
<li>APIs and docs have been <a href="http://tdoc.info/foursquare-API/">translated into Japanese</a>. This invigorates the local developer community.<br></li>
</ul>
<p style="font-size: 1.1em;">There is a lesson to be learned from all of this. Even if you don't have the budget to fully localize your app to locales like Japan and China, it pays to make sure you don't hinder motivated potential users from participating. We've observed Chinese users on Japanese web apps a number of times because they can happily add their Chinese UGC (user generated content.) Globalize your app even if you can't localize it. Use UTF8 for your character encoding <span style="font-style: italic;">everywhere</span>. This will allow Japanese and Chinese users with a modicum of English to use your app and it will make it easier when you decide to enter the market with full force.</p>
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