http://windywire.com Technology and Entreprenurial Activity in the Heartland Tue, 27 May 2008 23:05:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In starting WindyWire, our original intention was not to be a news aggregator and publisher but to be a site that amplified the connections that people make at great events like TechCocktail and ChicagoBeta and carried them throughout the rest of the year. What we're finding is that people did start ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/27/a-news-source-alone-is-not-a-community/ The SEED Conference has announced student scholarships and still has a few tickets left for non-students as well. http://windywire.com/2008/05/20/seed-conference-announces-scholarships/ Digital mapmaker Navteq said Tuesday it expanded its agreement with AOL-owned MapQuest to provide it access to all of the 73 countries in its map database, as well as future country releases. http://windywire.com/2008/05/20/navteq-inks-new-deal/ Continuing the recent theme of Chicago companies getting writeups in national publications, Threadless and skinnyCorp got the cover treatment in this month's Inc. Magazine. It hits news stands next week: Read The Full Article Online Here http://windywire.com/2008/05/20/threadless-inc/ Ogilvy Chicago was awarded the task of redesigning Chicago2016.org should the city make the next round of cuts. http://windywire.com/2008/05/19/ogilvy-gets-the-contract-for-chicago2016org/ Planypus, the site that allows you to make and share plans with your friends, has just given a teaser of their upcoming site overhaul. http://windywire.com/2008/05/18/planypus-redesigns/ A nice writeup on Steve Misetic and SaveChicago.org a fledgling database of hyper-local deals in Chicago that donates 50% of its revenue to area non-profit organizations. http://windywire.com/2008/05/18/savechicagoorg-using-online-shopping-to-help-the-city/ Threadless has been known to do some pretty cool things and this Saturday they're holding a huge Pinewood Derby race in which TechCocktail has an entry. http://windywire.com/2008/05/16/tech-cocktail-races-in-threadle-manss/ Songza, the company founded by Scott Robbin and Aza Raskin during their time together at Humanized, has jumped into the social web frenzy. For those that are unaware, Songza is a streaming internet jukebox and music search and recommendation engine (for the record, they are in full compliance with music download ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/16/songza-rocks-on-with-api-rss-feeds-and-a-facebook-app/ BarCamp Minnesota happened last weekend and the MinneBar wiki does a pretty good job of making you feel like you were there and catching you up on what went down. http://windywire.com/2008/05/15/minnebar-recap/ Several companies with Illinois ties made the Aberdeen Group's list of the 100 Most Influential Technology Vendors http://windywire.com/2008/05/15/aberdeen-group-releases-state-of-the-market-report/ crowdSPRING, the crowd sourcing startup that made waves by allowing users to design its homepage has fully launched to public. Billed as an online marketplace that "brings the power of choice to individuals and businesses and creates a community for untapped creative talent," the site is taking the interesting approach of ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/15/crowdspring-launches-to-the-public/ uSphere, the Evanston-based company whose platform exposes Colleges to Students and Students to Colleges via proprietary matching technology, has been delving deeper into the information side of things lately as evidenced by the roll out of their parent portal. They've used the information they've gleaned through building their business to provide ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/15/usphere-rolls-out-parent-portal/ Chicagoan Roddy Richards (StartupSchwag) and New Yorker Adam Gotterer (CollegeHumor) have just recently launched the PriceAdvance browser plugin to the public. The plugin shows you what the product that you're after costs at other merchants across the web as you shop. For example, surf to BestBuy.com and look at a flat screen ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/14/price-advance-launches-to-the-public/ Gapers Block, one of the pioneers group newsblogging and one of the first efforts at Chicago-based internet citizen journalism, turns five years old this month and they're throwing a party to celebrate. The site was founded by Andrew Huff and Naz Hamid and bills itself as "an antidote to all those ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/13/gapers-block-is-turning-5/ Kevin Kometer has been appointed Managing Director and CIO of CME Group, the company behind the CME and CBOT. Former CIO James Krause is retiring after 23 years. http://windywire.com/2008/05/13/cme-group-gets-a-new-ceo/ Lisle, IL and Austin, TX based Univa UD (formed when Univa merged with Austin's United Devices) has announced a second round of financing. The company which produces hpc systems management and data center visualization software raised the round from new investor River Cities Capital Funds as well as several investors that ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/12/univa-ud-raises-series-b-financing/ Inkling Markets (YCombinator Funded and Finalist for ITA's newcomer award) is getting ready for a relaunch with a nice new look. http://windywire.com/2008/05/12/inklingmarkets-new-coat-of-paint/ The first TechCocktail Conference is scheduled to hit Chicago on May 29th at Loyola's Water Tower Campus. The event promises to be a one of a kind event for Chicago's startup community and has what appears to be a great line up of panelists with Dick Costolo (FeedBurner), Jason Fried (37Signals), ... http://windywire.com/2008/05/12/techcocktail-conference-getting-close/ FeedBurner has started rolling out Google Account Integration, one of the most anticipated features since the company was acquired by Google last year. http://windywire.com/2008/05/12/feedburner-announces-google-account-integration/