Sency real-time search lets you see what Boston is saying about almost anything

Imagine if you could hear everything everyone in Boston was thinking. Well, everything anyone was thinking on Twitter, anyway.

With the new realtime search engine, Sency, you can listen in on the voices of your city by tapping into region-specific Twitter posts.

Based in Santa Monica, California, Sency was conceived last year when founder, Evan Britton went to a Twitter conference and recognized all the data Twitter was giving away for free. Being one who “believe[s] in real time data,” Evan set off to create a way to harness the “value in what’s being created by the user.” With the help of Boston developer, Dan Nissenbaum, Sency launched in September of 2009.

To give you the basic idea, Sency is a search engine that can mine realtime Twitter data. In this sense it’s similar to a Twitter search, but things get a little more interesting when you find out Sency takes the roughly 55 million daily Twitter updates, filters out the spam, and organizes them by city. Currently you can narrow this Twitter search specific to 14 cities, and we were psyched to see Boston on that list.

Example time: Let’s think back to Tuesday when the Red Sox beat the Yankees, I can search “Sox” just within Boston and read locals’ celebrations about the win or other thoughts about the game. Then, if I wanted to be a jerk about it, I could do that same search for New York and laugh (though probably not for long) at all the woeful teary-eyed tweets from Yankees fans.

There are far more use cases than this, however, (and many less petty) such as searching thoughts on city-specific events, politics, people or products.

Another feature of Sency is that you can scour cities by a list of “places people are at.” This is a really intriguing prospect when you consider the data that’s currently being linked to geographic locations via tools like SCVNGR and Foursquare. Granted the phrase leaves something to be desired in the grammar department, but it makes sense when you see the long list of “I’m at’s” that pop up on Twitter from sources like SCVNGR and Foursqure, it makes sense. This could be really powerful by delivering a stream of updates about more specific locations Bostonians are Tweeting about being at (I’m guessing an Irish pub or a Dunkin’ Donuts).

A future plan for this feature is to compile data so that Sency can give you a list of most popular places in the Twittersphere, so you can hear about, say, the most frequented Boston restaurants directly from the people who are going to them.

Right now, Sency is a fun site in the works toward becoming a very powerful tool. As Evan said, “getting the sense of a city’s consciousness is a powerful thing” and I have to agree. The functionality isn’t perfect, but as geotagging becomes better integrated, and the flow is refined, Sency might become the closest you can get to knowing minute-by-minute what Boston thinks.

Dogpatch brings new talent to their fratty, fratty space

Watch out Cambridge, because a new rowdy crew of startupers are moving into Dogpatch Labs.

Created by Polaris Venture Partners, Dogpatch Labs is a collection of comfy office spaces providing an open-minded environment for innovators to stretch out and flex their entrepreneurial game. It recently expanded, and has already hosted some great companies in its short, one-winter history.

On the Dogpatch website, coordinators describe the labs as “sorta like frat houses for geeks,” which immediately evokes scenes from the 1984 classic, Revenge of the Nerds (not so much Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise).

As far as I’m concerned, the guy who plays Goose in top gun is cooking up sick startup ideas just across the Charles. Joining him, is an ambitious group of fellow new recruits who will get a few months worth of rent for free and some solid mentoring without having to share equity with their new host. We’ve covered and gotten to know many of these newly-accepted companies here at BostInnovation, and we’re pumped to see them accepted at Dogpatch. So without further ado, here’s the new class of Dogpatch Labs Cambridge along with links to their BostInno features:

Baydin

These are the guys responsible for Boomerang, which helps you manage Email by putting a “snooze button” on messages.

Energesis Pharmaceuticals

A biopharmaceutical company aimed at promoting fat burn. We haven’t gotten to these guys yet but with beach weather fast approaching we might have to.

Huddlehub

A product for fantasy sports management? It doesn’t get much frattier than that.

Labtiva

This company is still in private Beta at the moment, so they’re a bit hush-hush. You tell me if you know what it does.

MyHometownLink

A site where busy parents can find young babysitters and dog-walkers that I gave a less than complimentary review of a few months ago. Whoops! Good to see they’re still iterating.

OsComp Systems

A green-minded company that makes natural gas more efficient. Alison mentioned them as runners up in the MIT $100k this week.

RelayRides

Person to person car sharing? I’m suppressing liability nightmares to enjoy thoughts of afternoon joy-rides.

Relay Technology Management

A new platform for evaluating biomedical technologies. Ali’s got this one covered.

SkillTesting

Lets employers grill potential candidates with online tests.

Textaurant

The brainchild of the Boston tech scene’s ubiquitous (in the best way) Josh Bob. Mobile, text-based restaurant reservations make this one of my favorites.

Tivli

Use Tivli to stream HD feeds of major networks right to your laptop.

Zodah

A tool for comparing and managing bills. Still trying to figure out the name though.

What do you think of Polaris’ Dogpatch Labs? Should more local VC firms invest in space for up-and-comers? What are the benefits of sharing an office space with like-minded pros? Let us know your thoughts and please share your congratulations in the comments section below.

Mayor Menino: A fan of mobile

This week, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced the launch of a new mobile-optimized version of the City of Boston’s website (www.cityofboston.gov).

True to industry best practices, you’re automatically routed to the mobile version if you enter the URL from your phone. Boston is constantly innovating to bring Gov 2.0 services like Citizen Connect to mobile platforms. With the addition of this new mobile site, nearly all online city services are now accessible on the go.

I say “nearly all” only because the original press release states that users get access to “the information they want most,” which seems to imply some restriction as to functionality – a common issue with many mobile-specific websites.

Restrictions aside, it’s hard to complain about the new mobile-optimized Boston website which now allows you to instantly perform the following actions right from your phone:

• Find local activities and attractions
• See street sweeping reminders before you park
• File taxi complaints and stolen goods
• View real-time election results

The mobile version went live on April 14^th, and is designed for use with smartphones like BlackBerries, Androids and iPhones.

I don’t even have a smartphone and I’m excited. There are so many potential interactions with the city government that cause citizen frustration. It’s hard not to wind up thinking, “There’s no way this has to be so hard.” We live in an age where messages are sent in the blink of an eye, and orders are placed instantly. It’s great to know that the people running our city are working to make sure interactions with the city of Boston can happen at the same speed.

For whatever reason, I always expect government protocol to be slow and tied to outmoded rituals that leave me standing in line in some musty office for three hours. It’s great to see Boston latching on to the technological revolution and using new resources to make citizens’ lives easier. In many ways, Gov 2.0 is the biggest up-and-coming movement on the Internet today.

After all, if you have the technology, why not use it? The constant innovation supported by Mayor Menino and the Boston government really breaks my stereotype of government procedure. It even gives me hope that someday hours of time in the DMV can be replace with a few minutes playing on my phone.

Code for America Picked Boston!

Between winning tech awards and potentially grabbing super high-speed Internet, it’s clear that Boston is all about using technology to better govern our great city. That’s why it should come as little surprise that Boston was selected as one of five cities to participate in the first cycle of Code for America, a program that builds free applications aimed at improving U.S. city governments.

Inspired by Teach for America, Code for America (CFA) connects web-developers with city governments to build applications for a more connected and effective city government. For this first cycle, CFA asked cities all over the U.S. to apply with specific ideas for web applications to benefit any number of city government procedures.

Once proposals were reviewed, five cities were chosen: Boston, Mass., Philadelphia, Penn., Washington D.C., Seattle, Wash., and Boulder, Colo.

According to CFA founder and executive director Jennifer Pahlka, the final five were chosen specifically based on what they offer and the kinds of apps suggested for them.

“Each of these applicants demonstrated not only cutting-edge thinking and a willingness to invest in long-term change, but also a fantastic idea for a web app that will make their city (and any other city who wants to use it) more efficient, transparent and participatory,” she wrote in a recent blog post.

Gee. Sorry you didn’t make the cut, New York.

As reward for inspiring these great innovations, each city will have their idea made into a reality by developers hired by the CFA program. Developers will get to work in January of next year, and once finished, all the web applications will be free to use and re-purpose for other locations.

I’m constantly impressed with Boston’s commitment to utilizing technology and the rate at which government innovations are being sought out and implemented. In fact, the City of Boston is becoming so technologically advanced that I’m actually starting to worry that it’s becoming more machine than man. I hope I don’t one day have to report a story similar to Skynet becoming self-aware, but until then congratulations to the Boston city government for nailing the first cycle of CFA, and keep up the good work. We’ll worry about the robot revolution later.

To learn more about Code for America and how to get involved, visit codeforamerica.org.

Even if traffic cams can't prevent road rage like this, they can at least catch it on tape

Boston will be one of six new cities to be installed with a number of EarthCam network cameras to be used in conjunction with traffic monitoring service, Total Traffic Network (TTN), according to a press release sent out yesterday.

The good news? TTN provides real-time traffic updates that can be streamed through a number of consumer devices, and EarthCam provides advanced webcam technology – making what seems a match made in heaven for Bostonians trying to avoid hours staring at the same “clever” bumper sticker for three miles.

TTN prides itself on providing “best-in-class, real-time traffic data service for broadcast, web, wireless, and navigation consumers, with an emphasis on providing accurate, relative, and timely information.” The company is currently the leading source for accurate, real-time traffic data, serving an estimated 125M users already. Most of the monitoring, it seems, comes from their proprietary video network.

Apparently it’s a subsidiary of the always-loved Clear Channel Radio network, but hey, if it makes navigating the system of worm holes and skyline pathways in Boston, we’re all for it.

The partnership with EarthCam isn’t new either. The video capturing company has a unique system to upload video content wirelessly, and they’ve already partnered with TTN in five other cities.

Lord knows the already road-raged populous of our city could see some psychological benefits from avoiding traffic, and their steering wheels would look a lot better without a permanent hand print worn into the center. Hopefully the combination of new network cameras paired with a reputable traffic info service will mean a safer, less stressful rush hour for Boston motorists. With luck, it might even prevent a few crossbow attacks.

Meanwhile, watch for your GPS traffic alerts to get a whole lot more accurate.

What do you think of Clear Channel and the coming installment of better traffic monitoring in the city? Let us know in the comments.

Yeah, the other sites let you make the Boston-specific deals, and BuyWithMe was even founded here, but we’re just another city on a drop-down menu when you delve into what the bigger players are doing. Boston Bargains is the real deal – beantown only, and run by people who live there.

Based in Beverly, Mass., Boston Bargains was launched just a couple weeks ago and has been offering incredible Boston deals ever since. Founder, Patrick Tarmey (22), shoots for a “homey” feel, and is willing to sacrifice profits to gain a loyal Boston following. In fact, Boston Bargains has been known to push revenue back into the discount to provide an even better deal. As Tarmey says, “it’s not all about making a ton of profit.” At least not right now.

Boston Bargains sets itself apart from other similar sites in a couple of ways. Besides it being Boston-exclusive, Boston Bargains offers what the company calls “super bargains.” The “super bargain” is discounted even more than the original, and is available to the first 15 or 30 people that snatch it up. The discounts on “super bargains” are pretty hardcore, and Tarmey says they usually take a hit on these deals. They’re currently focused more on gaining an interested audience than taking profits.

Another interesting difference is that Boston Bargains isn’t afraid to attract buyers offline. Believe it or not, Boston Bargains actually runs local TV commercials that air on ABC, NBC, CW, and a few other major networks. The added exposure helps build the Boston Bargains following and also helps participating businesses. If a strong Boston business offers up a discount of 65% or more, they get featured on their very own custom made Boston Bargains TV ad free of charge.

The thing that really sets Boston Bargains apart is that it’s run by people who know the city, and who maintain a genuine sense of community. Though Groupon and the like have great deals too, they’re getting too big to maintain any real, local sense of community, and Patrick thinks they might be “going Hollywood.” Groupon, for example, now runs unrelated advertisements and survey requests to pad their revenues – a sellout move if you ask me.

Boston Bargains may be my new favorite daily discount site, but that doesn’t mean I can’t stay on the Email list for any of the others. It seems when it comes to new players in this market, the consumer can’t lose. Boston Bargains gives that hometown feel, along with “super bargains,” and the other guys keep throwing out great discounts as well. No matter how you look at it, with more and more of these sites talking to local merchants, Boston residents only stand to find better deals on a daily basis. At least for now.

To start grabbing those “super bargains” from Boston Bargains, sign up on the website, or check out Boston Bargains on Facebook and Twitter.

Teens from 16 different public schools participated for the chance to make their ideas a reality

On Wednesday night, $100,000 in funding was awarded across 14 new innovations, all of which were conceptualized and developed by Boston teenagers.  The event was the final presentations and award ceremony of the Cloud Foundation’s ArtScience Prize.

Founded by David Edwards, who you may remember as the inventor of Le Whif, The Cloud Foundation provides Boston public school students with a voluntary after school program that not only lets them conceptualize and design their own inventions, but grants them a chance to see these inventions become a reality. A main goal, well stated by Edwards, is to “start youth on the path to scientific research, creative thinking and problem solving.”

The program encourages innovation among Boston teens by challenging them not only to dream up concepts but also to plan production, design prototypes, and articulate their mission. At the awards ceremony at Cloud Place on Boylston St., I saw Boston teens stand up in front of the crowd and announce their projects with pride and excitement after months of diligent work.

Mayor Thomas Menino was there to celebrate the accomplishments of the teen innovators, who deemed the program a powerful model for promoting innovation, and offered some inspiring words to the students. Also in attendance was Boston Public Schools Superintendant, Dr. Carol Johnson, who praised the students and the Cloud Foundation for promoting teamwork and creative problem solving in Boston public schools.

Student projects were strikingly creative, with ideas including a virtual reality music community, neurologically controlled video games, and a cafe that displays patron’s varying brainwaves as they eat.

Prizes were awarded in three categories, the first set of groups awarded $1,000 each, the second $8,000 each, and to the winning group, $50,000 and a trip to Paris to further develop their idea.

The winning project, Coachmaster, was a design for a wearable product that would allow the user to learn by absorbing information during sleep.

Congratulations to all of the participants that were honored on Wednesday and also to Edwards and the Cloud Foundation for promoting innovation and providing a space for the future leaders of the Boston tech community. If you would like to get involved with the ArtScience program, you can find more information on the ArtScience 100k website.

Baydin makes apps like Boomerang that make Email actually seem manageable

Keeping your Email inbox count at zero– We all strive for it, but for most it’s been out of reach for years. When the Internet dumps an unwieldy pile of miscellany on you, managing Email can become an impossible goal. It’s no easy task to stay on top of your Email list, and when messages are so varied in topic and chronological relevancy, it’s inevitable that a couple will be lost in the jumbled cascade of read and unread emails.

MIT class of 2005 graduate, Alex Moore (26), is attempting to solve the problem of lost and forgotten Emails with his application, Boomerang. The app currently integrates with Microsoft Outlook 2007 and a Gmail integration is in production.

True to its name, Boomerang allows users to take currently irrelevant Emails, pull them out of the inbox, and designate a more pertinent time for them to fly back in, unread.

Driven to start his own company to supply solutions like this, Alex drafted up the concept for Baydin and was accepted into the TechStars program last May.

As Alex puts it, Boomerang lets you “focus on Emails that matter now.” So if I get a message about a meeting one week from now, and I get that feeling I’m going to lose it in the Email waterfall, I can just plug in a return time (lets go with a day before the meeting), and Boomerang will throw it back, marked as unread, on that date. Messages marked for return stay out of your way in the “Boomerang Folder,” so that you can hold off on responding or deleting, while still keeping your inbox at zero.

Return times for “Boomeranged” Emails can be any day, minute, or year you want to plug in, and you can also ask for a random return if you want a little surprise within a given date range.

Alex’s company, Baydin, actually started as a different Outlook app designed to group emails automatically by content.

However, development of the original app proved time consuming and difficult to conquer. The idea for Boomerang had been knocking, but the Baydin project was monopolizing Alex’s resources. That was until he missed an important Email due to a cluttered inbox at which point he said, “I’m building this thing.”

Thus, production of Baydin was shelved and re-routed to Boomerang, while Baydin remained the company name.

Whether Boomerang is a productivity tool, or a procrastinators dream, we’ll have to see.

Personally I don’t see why it can’t be both. If used responsibly, Boomerang could be a great way to reserve Emails for times when you can best respond, and even turn your Emails into timely reminders of events. Conversely, if you throw Emails for the instant gratification of that clean inbox you’re going to have them all flying back to hit you in the face and then you’ll be back to square one.

Boomerang is set to launch May 12^th and is presenting at Mass Innovation Nights that day. I’m definitely eager to try the Gmail version once it comes out. After all, even if I get clocked by a Boomeranged Email once in a while, at least that would eliminate the chance of forgetting about or losing it altogether.

The NERDS turn piles of scrap metal into projectile launching siege machines

What did you do for your last company team building exercise? Maybe climbed some ropes, passed co-workers through a nylon-cord spider web? How about turning a pile of scrap metal into a medieval siege weapon? Didn’t think so.

It sounds crazy, but that’s the kind of thing you’ll do in a program lead by Waltham’s Jeff DelPapa, who has the engineering skills to guide you through a challenge of ingenuity that will exercise a whole lot more than your typical kayak trip. Jeff is an expert at turning piles of scrap metal into awe-inspiring contraptions that have been used in TV production, music videos, art shows and more.

Jeff is a former member of the New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society (NERDS) which was an American team featured on the British television show, Scrapheap Challenge, (Junkyard Wars to us yanks) in 2000. After catching an early glimpse of the British concept, he quickly rounded up two other teammates in the Boston area who applied, were accepted and became finalists in the contest. Today, he’s turned The NERDS brand into a chance for regular Joes to build awesome weapons out of scrap heaps. Though the televised competition is over, Jeff has taken the basic elements of the show and turned them into an exercise anyone can participate in. Sure, you might use rope here, but you could also rip through steel with a cutting torch– something that might even make uptight Jane from Accounting or nervous Ned from H.R. relax and chip in.

One of the main goals of Jeff’s programs is “getting people to think in ways they aren’t used to,” which is certainly the case when a group of hedge fund managers are presented with a pile of scrap metal and asked to launch a pumpkin 100 feet. Though there are different challenges such as “transport a cup of water x distance without spilling it,” Jeff admits that for the most part “people like to throw things.”

If you’ve ever watched shows like Junkyard Wars, or been fascinated by catapult building on the History channel, then Jeff is your man. When he isn’t challenging office workers with the construction of projectile-launching siege machines, Jeff enjoys building his own recumbent bikes, and participating in catapult and trebuchet competitions. This summer he plans to help launch boulders at a condemned Mathworks building in Framingham with the Mista Ballista (after asking permission of course).

If you’re interested in signing up for one of Jeff’s programs, you can learn more from the NERDS website and email him at dp@the-nerds.org.

Le Whif looks kind of like a shotgun shell and it's packed with micro-chocolate buckshot

I thought I had heard of some pretty crazy inventions while writing for BostInnovation, but this next one really caught me off guard. A new product, invented by Harvard Professor David Edwards, allows you to ingest chocolate, or coffee by inhalation.

That’s not a typo. Consisting of a small plastic tube, Le Whif lets you breathe chocolate, and now coffee, to get your caffeine or sugar fix. Even more impressive – it’s less than one calorie per puff. When you use Le Whif, a fine mist of either chocolate or coffee covers your tongue, but is not actually inhaled into your lungs, giving you all of the flavor, and none of the calories.

You’d think inventing something like Le Whif was enough, but not for Professor Edwards. Le Whif is only one innovation that has sprung from a network of innovation centers called the ArtScience Labs, envisioned by Edwards in 2007, then founded and structured in 2008.

Today, the ArtScience Labs have influence in both Boston and Paris, and David is closely involved with both of those locations. According to the ArtScience website, “laboratories where artists and scientists collaborate to produce unusual works of art and design have appeared in Cambridge, London, Los Angeles, Dublin, Madrid, Dresden, Copenhagen, Paris, and many other cities.”

During what was BostInno’s first international interview (Edwards was in France at the time), the ArtScience Labs founder explained to me his reasons for founding the labs.

“Creative people all have a similar kind of process…they dream and analyze…sometimes it’s hard for them to find an environment that suits them,” he said.

The ArtScience Labs are made to act as that environment, acting as an “idea funnel” to use Edwards’ term. At the top of the funnel, creative juices — ideas — are collected from students in Boston Public Schools, to college students, and toward the narrower part of the funnel, ideas are refined by experienced lab “artists” and designers, including Edwards himself. Though it could be termed an “idea factory” the non-commercial goal of the labs reminded me a lot of the guys over at The Awesome Foundation, who fund innovation solely to see the new and creative come to life.

As Edwards explained over a fuzzy international connection, “Ideas are developed not immediately as a commercial product, but for the idea process as a celebration of culture.”

Where the ArtScience Labs differ from The Awesome Foundation, however, is that they are backed by French Startup LaboGroup, which has granted marketability to inventions like Le Whif and others. Prototyped in fall of 2008, Le Whif went commercial in 2009 and has been shipping internationally since. If you want to get your hands on one, you can pick it up at Cardullo’s in Harvard Square, or buy it direct from the Le Whif website.

In the meantime, you can bet we’ll be keeping an eye on David Edwards and the ArtScience Labs. With breathable chocolate as the first act, we can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Boston wants that Google Fiber!

As far as local governments go, Boston is really killing it in the tech sector. Since winning two prestigious awards for iPhone apps, Boston’s local government continued to show passion for technology when Mayor Menino announced Boston “Google ready” with respect to Google’s new broadband network, Google Fiber.

Google Fiber (not a grainy cereal) is truly a new level of broadband, described by Google as “ultra-high speed,” and it boasts dizzying speeds of 1 gigabit per second. It is still in experimental stages, but Google will be testing these super-connections in a few trial locations across the country. The city of Boston has already applied to guinea pig the ground-breaking Internet service, and if/when awarded it could be one of the first locations to experience Google Fiber. That will make it one of the fastest cities on the net.

I’m certainly psyched for the prospect of enjoying internet speeds up to 100x that of the average connection right here in Boston. If you’re interested in surfing at light speed, get on the Bring Google to Boston Facebook page. Google is looking for places where people will really put their service to the test, so get on Facebook, join in on the discussion, and let Google know Boston’s ready for ‘em.

Do you see any risks for Boston should we become a testing ground for Google Fiber? What kind of impact do you foresee this having if we are selected as a testing ground for Google Fiber? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

YouCastr lets you turn video uploads into cold hard cash

Have you ever uploaded a professional looking video to YouTube? Think people would pay to watch it? With YouCastr, producers can upload videos and set prices for viewing. YouCastr not only lets you market your uploaded videos, they let you do it for free. They make money by taking a 30% cut of anything you make. That way, you can upload as many videos as you want, and YouCastr only gets paid when you get paid.

Started three years ago, YouCastr actually began as a virtual sports bar, not a video marketplace. Founder Ariel Diaz had a vision of a social media outlet focused on sports, which included the option of uploading video and adding audio commentary.

The concept evolved, however, when people started to use the site as a means to broadcast sporting events that were not televised, such as college and high school sporting events.

Today YouCastr has defined itself as a paid consumption video viewing source and marketplace. Producers upload videos, and can set whatever prices they like. Its roots are still in sports videos, with the vast majority being high school and college sports that are otherwise not available for those who couldn’t be in the stands. (The National USCAA basketball championships, for example, were shared through YouCastr.) But sports are hardly the limit to content, and YouCastr has recently started uploading conferences and documentary videos.

So at this point you may be thinking things like: “Who would pay for videos on YouCastr when they can probably find what they’re looking for on YouTube?” And “How do they screen the videos and which get in?”

To answer the first question, Ariel informed me that YouCastr has no intention of competing with YouTube. The videos featured on YouCastr are “content you can’t find on YouTube either by design, or that is withheld intentionally.” It isn’t just a video dump free-for-all like YouTube, but a “monetization channel for video producers that have a loyal audience.” To be sure, if users want to get paid for their videos, they aren’t putting them on free public outlets.

As for policing content, they probably aren’t going to want you uploading your personal rendition of Baby Got Back, but there technically isn’t any heavy policing of uploads. However, Ariel informed me that the team does react quickly to user complaints and mentioned that they had a few instances of X-rated videos that had to be taken down.

All content on the site is paid for, and examples of the videos they sell range from local sporting events to seminars to instructional videos. Videos can either be streamed live, or downloaded from the site. Some new content that has been picking up includes dirt track racing, boxing and MMA (mixed martial arts) competitions.

So do you spend your free time producing high quality videos and posting them on YouTube? If views are all you’re looking for that might work, but with YouCastr, you can upload, sell, and cash in on your digital video content.

Viximo monetizes the social net with virtual goods

As the social media scene continues to grow, more and more of real life starts to be emulated in the digital world as experiences and goods are ported over to virtual landscapes. We have virtual friends, virtual hobbies, pets, books, and lives.

It’s no wonder that the business of virtual goods has exploded from a North American market of $20 million to around $2 billion in just the last three years, according to Viximo co-founder, Brian Balfour (27).

Viximo is a company that has been riding the swelling tidal wave of virtual goods since May of 2007 by providing a platform that allows any social media site to quickly implement virtual goods. Virtual goods are the “new way to monetize the social web” says Balfour. With a background in the social media realm, Balfour watched the social media market explode in Asia, and with co-founder Sean Lindsay, created a company that would facilitate the rise of virtual goods in the U.S.

So what exactly are virtual goods?

If you use Facebook you see them all the time in the form of Facebook gifts – maybe a graphic of a puppy or a rose that you can gift to a loved one (even if you only love them on the Internet). Examples like these, along with minigames, mobile apps, and other things you can buy or give on a social media platform are all virtual goods.

You might ask “why would I want virtual goods?” and I might ask you the same question. Virtual goods can seem frivolous, but people eat them up. For someone that runs a social media site, virtual goods are not only a way to monetize your users, but also a way to encourage participation by giving a fun new way for your users to interact with one another.

That’s where Viximo comes in. These guys deliver a supply of virtual goods and a virtual storefront that can be dropped into a social media site with a few lines of code. The company provides, goods, helps you sell them, and analytics to monitor their sales. In addition to the virtual store and built-in analytics, Viximo even provides a system for users to buy virtual currency. After all, the psychology of spending sees an interesting twist when people are spending points or credits instead of cold hard cash.

Until now, Viximo has been dealing in virtual gifts made by in-house designers, but they are about to make a big move in the next month by bringing goods from third party designers.

With this addition, designers will have a unified space to deal their virtual wares, and social media site operators will have a marketplace to find them. Viximo will simply play the middle-man, connecting these two parties, providing analytics for implementers, and taking a cut of this huge market.

Having seen “unbelievable growth” since the foundation of Viximo, Balfour is convinced that virtual goods are “the hot thing right now” and Viximo is on top of the game. To be honest I can’t see the appeal in most of these virtual goods, (though I’m not quite as opposed as our neo-luddite, Dave) but it’s hard to argue with a $9 billion global market. Like Madonna said, “we are living in a material world,” even if those materials are digital. People living in a digital world want to buy digital stuff, and who are non-consumers to say they can’t?

Foos and Brews were had at HubSpot!

Last night was the third episode of the Tech Hub Foosball League, and the HubSpot team was gracious enough to hold the event at their Kendall Square office this week.

The event was held in the office lounge, and the atmosphere perfectly maintained the fun, laid back attitude the weekly event strives to achieve. Completing the setting, was a full blown fantasy baseball draft taking place in the middle of the room.

Though there was a group huddled around the foosball table, participants also enjoyed getting to know one another over ping pong, or beers and a slice of pizza.

HubSpot co-founder, Dharmesh Shah made an appearance, relaxing with the group and flexing his ping pong skills (I put up a good fight but he put the burners on in the second half of our match).

I had a lot of fun and met some interesting people, and that’s exactly what Tech Hub Foosball continues to accomplish. Trading business cards in a hotel banquet hall is one way to get Emails and phone numbers, but if you’re looking to get more than that, there’s nothing like getting to know someone over brews and foos.

Want to get involved? It’s not too late, and the weekly gatherings being hosted at various company locations over the next few weeks will be just as informal as the previous three. Teams are not expected to attend EVERY gathering, but by forming a team now, you can set your company up to participate in the grand finale tournament at Microsoft N.E.R.D. on April 21st.

To get involved, simply join the Facebook Group or follow @TechHubFoos on Twitter.  If you would like to host an event please contact Jabu Mguni njabulo@echoditto.com

The Awesome is spreading...

I hope you remember The Awesome Foundation, one of the coolest organizations in Boston that funds ideas based not on the business model behind them but on “awesomeness.” The Awesome Foundation (AF) gives the wacky, fun, and completely novel a chance to materialize.

Awarding $1,000 grants each month, The Awesome Foundation recently announced their March winner: DIY biologist Charles Fracchia. What’s

Fracchia’s awesome idea?

Bioengineered inks derived from different colored plants that can be grown and used as ink in pens.

If Charles’ goal is met, it will be possible to grow your own pen inks at home. Not only this, but the inks can be engineered such that colors only show at certain temperatures or under other specific conditions. Not only is the idea of growing ink cool, but writing eerie messages and turning the heat off would be a great way to prank my roommate Sixth Sense-style.

This idea fits perfectly with the Awesome Foundation mission. With no suitable comparisons that I know of, it would be difficult to judge how a product like this would fare in stores, but it is nonetheless an awesome idea, and that is what AF is all about.

In addition to awarding their new March fellow, The Awesome Foundation recently opened a chapter in San Francisco. This puts them at four chapters: Boston, Providence, New York, and now San Francisco.

With chapters popping up all over the country, and ideas like grow-able pen ink, you can bet we’re going to be keeping tabs on AF and their fellows.

If you’d like to learn more about AF and the awesome project’s they’ve funded, you can check out the Awesome Foundation blog, or hit up their main site for general details and application info.

KG rocking the "space leg" to boost recovery

Wandering the Charles River Museum at Mass Innovation Nights this month, I laid eyes on what I consider one of the more intriguing contraptions I’ve seen demoed recently. What I saw was a volunteer sitting on a chair with his leg extended and wrapped in what looked like a big, inflated pant leg and boot. From the boot ran a white tube into a bucket shaped machine plugged into a nearby outlet.

Though I initially thought the man in the chair was getting fitted for a less than flattering spacesuit, what was in fact going on was a pulsating air massage by the NormaTec MVP (Most Valuable Pump).

Headquartered in Newton Center, NormaTec MVP has gotten its inflatable sleeves on some big names in the sports world. Among them, Celtics All-Star forward Kevin Garnett, 2009 Ironman winner Craig Alexander, and uber athlete Lance Armstrong. You can see pictures of them and other pro athletes wearing the nicknamed “space legs” on the MVP Facebook page.

The purpose of the NormaTec MVP is to naturally promote circulation via a technique called peristaltic pulse. By rhythmically inducing pressure on a limb, the MVP gives both the circulatory and lymph systems a kick in the butt, resulting in increased circulation of nutrients through the blood and as a result, faster recovery.

The effects of the MVP (and peristaltic pulse in general) make it ideal for athletes who are injured or just need a bit of muscle recovery after practice. Though I only saw an instance of a leg massage, there are also sleeves for the arms, and Gilad Jacobs, VP of NormaTech’s Sports Medicine Division, tells me a midsection wrap is coming soon.

The concept of promoting circulation through pressure intervals has actually been around since the 1960s, but NormaTec brings new innovation to the concept by creating a relatively compact, versatile product deigned to closely mimic the natural functions of the body. The “bucket shaped machine” mentioned earlier is the control center, allowing users to dial in the exact, optimal rate for the patient’s pulse and meaning the difference between increased natural circulation and simply getting squeezed by a leg-shaped balloon.

For more on the NormaTec MVP, check out their website: normatecsports.com, or follow them on Twitter @NormaTech_MVP.

Citizens Connect nabs 1st in Web and E-Government from PIT

Boston continued to define itself as a technology hub when it was announced by Mayor Menino on Tuesday that the city of Boston was awarded top honors twice from the Public Institute of Technology (PIT). Recognized were Boston’s iPhone app, Citizens Connect, and GIS (geospatial information system) Data Hub.

The PIT is a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. focused on promoting and perfecting the use of technology in local government. Backed by federal, governmental, and industrial organizations, the PIT makes it their business to learn the newest technology solutions and share these with the local governments of the nation.

The PIT also recognizes local governments for technological achievements in government affairs, and as a Bostonian I’m proud to report that Boston took gold in the Web and E-Government category, as well as the award in GIS.

Web and E-Government Award: Citizens Connect

Mentioned in one of our all-time most popular posts, 10 iPhone Apps from Boston, Citizens Connect is an iPhone app that lets citizens instantly report any infrastructure issues like road damage. Now commuters sick of hitting that same pothole day-in and day-out can notify the city about it easily.

GIS Award: Data Hub

The GIS system, Data Hub is like a Google map that plots all kinds of Boston government information in a geographical context. With the interactive interface, users can visualize information like stimulus projects complete with locations and associated investment. It’s also a great way to see the locations of Boston public computing centers.

The BostInno team is very excited Boston is pulling in awards like these. Congratulations to our local government for killing it in the tech department and keep up the good work!

What’s the next thing Mayor Menino could do that would be useful for residents? What kinds of governmental technology would you like to have at your fingertips in the future?

SCVNGR gave me the run-around, so in the future I'm leaving my phone behind

For those of you who haven’t heard of SCVNGR, it’s a Boston-based startup that allows users to create and deploy interactive scavenger hunt games hosted on mobile devices. These so-called SCVNGRs aren’t like the ones from your middle school birthday party, and can take you anywhere from a tour of the MFA, to an exploration of the whole city and beyond.

There are a lot of applications and themes for these interactive mobile adventures, one being fitness.

Since the sun was out and the thermometer was pushing 50 degrees, (unlike the last few days during which I seriously considered building an ark) I decided to sign up for a SCVNGR workout along the Charles River yesterday. All you have to do it sign up on SCVNGR by entering your cell number and some other info, then you can make your own SCVNGRs or find one someone else made. I didn’t see much fun in working out to a route I made, so I signed up for SCVNGR’s own, called Exercise Endeavor: Boston.

Unfortunately, I would soon find out that when it comes to a workout, SVNGR is a lot more like a needy girlfriend than a personal trainer.

Before I get into my experience with SVNGR, I should mention that I do not have a smartphone. My phone is, in fact, pretty dumb. That being said, SVNGR does provide options for people like me, resulting in a fully text-based experience. Other alternatives include using your phone’s web browser and a downloadable iPhone app, both of which probably would have been somewhat easier.

Ok, so armed with my dumbphone I head out the door and jogged to the starting point (Harvard Bridge on Mass Ave.) This wasn’t too bad for me since I live about a half mile away in Back Bay. It might not be worth the trek for others, but this isn’t the only SVNGR of its kind, and anyone is free to design one for his or her area.

From the base of the bridge I texted START to the number designated, and waited for a reply. After about thirty seconds I got a return text, but it definitely wasn’t telling me to start anything. Instead, it familiarized me with the HINT command, which prompts exercise descriptions during the workout, and asked me to reply with the word HINT. Ok, helpful I suppose. After sending HINT, getting a reply, texting the word SWEAT, another reply, and finishing with GO, the workout finally began… with stretching!! I had texted five messages so far and, besides the jog to the starting point, hadn’t exercised anything but my thumbs and my patience.

I stuck with it though, and after getting the stretching done, I sent STRETCH, and was instructed to run until I saw a playground. After texting to let it know I was there, and waiting about 15 seconds for a reply, I was instructed to do lunges in a specified area. Once I finished, I texted LUNGE as instructed, but SVNGR didn’t seem to believe me, and asked how many benches there were in my lunge area. I answered correctly, being rewarded with a “fun” fact about how many calories are on the back of a postage stamp. By this time any heart rate I had built up had now faded.

The next exercise was pull-ups in the playground, but I wasn’t the only one inspired to spend some time outside, so I opted out of a creepy inmate workout in front of toddlers and their parents. It was pretty easy to fake — I just texted PULLUP and answered the subsequent question to confirm the number of swing sets in the playground.

I won’t detail every exercise, but things continued like this for pushups, crunches, more running and squats. At the squats, however, my patience gave out. Upon finishing the 3 sets of 10, I texted SQUAT, and received a question so vague that I couldn’t answer it correctly (something about a shape on the pavement).

After fifteen minutes of guessing wrong, asking for hints, and guessing wrong again, I was informed that I did not successfully perform the squat portion of the workout — awesome. I actually wasn’t too disappointed because the squats were a good workout, but I wondered how the creator of this SCVNGR decided that identification of shapes in asphalt is proof of physical activity.

After walking back to the finish for cool-down, I texted WALK, and the workout was over.

So if you haven’t gathered it from my description, my number one complaint with this particular SVNGR workout was that the texting took too long! There were way too many texts to send and half of them weren’t close to necessary. It’s kind of fun to answer questions about the spot you just ran to, but who is cheating on these things? First of all, counting benches does nothing to prove I did any lunges, and secondly, why would I get dressed up in workout gear and run to the Charles just to BS a robot through my phone? Though answering questions about where you are might be fun during a tour of Boston, during a workout it’s frivolous and borderline insulting to the athlete.

So if you’re going to try SVNGR I’d suggest going for tours or other activities. Though iPhone or web apps might make the workout a little less painful, you’ll still have to answer Exercise Endeavor’s meaningless questions. You can try other SVNGRs, or make your own, but on my next workout, the phone is staying home where it belongs.

Despite this difficult single use-case, we think SCVNGR is one of the coolest startups in Boston and you can bet we’ll continue to follow their activity here on BostInnovation. For more on the company, be sure to check out their website, scvngr.com, and follow them on Twitter @scvngr.

Pop a couple chiclets for all your social media sharing needs

It’s actually a white paper, but if you want to know about chiclets, Boston based Overdrive Interactive has written  everything you need to know about using chiclets with Facebook, Twitter, blogs, video and anything else you want to share across the web. Check out the recently released whitepaper Chiclets: The Social Glue of the Web to learn all about how chiclets bridge the gap between social media and the rest of the net.

Wondering how candy coated chewing gum helps you share web content? You’re thinking of the wrong chiclets. The kind we’re talking about are buttons that let web surfers link articles, videos, and products to social media apps with one click. If you want to see an example, just check out those shiny buttons to the right of this post. Those are chiclets. We’ve got Facebook, Twitter, and Reader but there are over 40 total according to Overdrive Interactive’s chiclet guide. If you haven’t before, try one out and see how easy it is to link articles like this one to your social media outlets.

In the whitepaper, Overdrive calls them the “social glue” (social gum perhaps?) of the web. The web is a dense forest of content. With chiclets, you can explore as deep as you like and never lose sight of your friends back in social media town. They’re kind of like social media breadcrumbs, if I may coin my own chiclet analogy.

So if you want an easy way to plug your favorite web media into your social media scene, be sure to keep an eye out for these one-click linking tools. If you’re a business trying to expand your social reach, you better stick some chicklets to that company website or blog.

Chiclets are becoming essential to the way we filter web content and keep our social media platforms up to date. Social media and web continue to mesh, but there are still a few cracks. With their new whitepaper, Overdrive Interactive has done a great job relaying the marketing value of chiclets, and spreading the “social glue” that can plug the gaps.

Enjoyed the white paper?  Want to turn your marketing dollars into an investment rather than an expense?  Check out Overdrive Interactive’s blogs. Their site is also full of Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing insights.  Founder Harry Gold also displays his knowledge as a ClickZ Expert Columnist.

MIN 12 was back in Waltham with a new setup

Last night, Mass Innovation Nights was back at the Charles River Museum in Waltham and they made a few changes for the 12th installment of the monthly startup showcase. Presentations were moved to the ballroom which was a great improvement from the old presentation corner that brought out the worst in my claustrophobia. Demo tables were dispersed throughout the museum which was a bit fragmented but well worth the space created for the main presenters. As always we’ve got all you no-shows covered with a recap of main presentations and the demo tables.

Main Presentations:

Tomophase

You don’t often see medical tech at MIN, but Tomophase broke the mold with their new tissue imaging technology. With it, they are able to get a view beneath human tissues without traditional biopsy and without radiation. This could very well change the way certain medical practices are performed including asthma research, cancer research, and certain surgeries.

Tweetworks

Tweetworks makes it easy to track conversations on twitter by letting you name and describe groups and conversation topics. It also threads tweets between multiple people so you can view the whole story, not fragmented responses. Plus their logo has a toucan, which is sick.

thredUP (kids)

ThredUp was there to showcase their upcoming kids section. ThredUp provides a used clothes exchange site, and while this can be a fun hobby for adults, it becomes a much more practical application for children, with kids constantly outgrowing their clothes. With thredUP kids, parents will be able to swap ill-fitting clothes instead of buying a whole new kiddy wardrobe every 2 years.

Searchandise Commerce

Product placement in physical stores is a pivotal variable for what gets bought. Searchandise lets manufacturers bid for top spots on big online shopping sites like Buy.com. Since online buyers are more inclined to go for what’s at the top of the list, Searchandise lets companies buy their way to the top.

Demos:

Bite – You might use reusable grocery bags at checkout, but what about those plastic baggies for your fruits and veggies? Bite showcased some trendy reusable produce bags to keep you eco-friendly throughout your entire shopping list.

NormaTec MVP – NormaTec brought along a space-aged looking contraption designed to boost athlete recovery by promoting circulation with pulsating air compression. Check out their site to see pics of Kevin Garnett and Lance Armstrong using it!

Proportions – If you really want to pamper your dog, Proportions allows customizable gourmet meals designed to meet the nutritional needs of your pet.

Raizlabs – For mobile app consulting, Raizlabs had some fun and functional apps they had designed themselves.

Zoiray – New technology that delivers more comprehensive and detailed protein identification tests.

Dan Hermes Digital Art – Art designed for display on digital mediums like digital picture frames or flat screen TVs.

Careinnovators – A community to learn about, discuss, and attempt to improve health care.