This showcase concentrated on educating the startup community on what organizers deemed the hottest companies in the Boston area. Spaced out around NERD at different tables, teams setup their computers to give the audience the chance at a hands-on experience with the new web products.

TECH Cocktail was founded in May of 2006 by Frank Gruber and Eric Olson as a community-building event. The event has morphed into one that now takes place in many cities across the country. Boston has been home to four TECH Cocktail events now. It’s a great way to connect the media, entrepreneurs, investors and general public to new ideas through a collaborative environment where people can amplify the ideas of the local innovators!

TECH Cocktail events encourage education through blogging, tweeting about the companies who demoed and through creating an overall connected force between the online and offline worlds. What entrepreneur doesn’t love the chance to display and talk about what their company is doing over the schmoozing of cocktails? Free cocktails that is…

Here’s a quick rundown of the companies showcased last night, many of whom we’ve already written about at length:

14 Startup Teams Showcased at TECH Cocktail Boston

Episend: Created and built by Richard DiBona, Episend is a platform that allows you to “send anything to anyone.” You can create rich media messages with pictures, videos, large files and MP3 audio and fire them to your buddies. The competitive advantage for Episend is that they allow you to create free form messages by clicking and typing on the page and sending these files how you want them to any email address and by sharing these files through social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Episend has just released a new and updated format to their website. Stay tuned as Episend is rolling out a new version of their application in the coming week.

Chargify: Grasshopper Group has done it again. They saw a need for entrepreneurs in the realm of recurring billing solutions. By creating a recurring billing application that entrepreneur teams can trust — one that is lean and creates custom branded payment pages or by integrating Chargify API, you can easily integrate Chargify to be your solution of choice when billing your customers by credit card. Stay tuned for the next company solution to come from Grasshopper in September.

Mercavo: An online marketplace where technology sales leads are bought and sold. The first time to demo to the public on their offering was at TECH Cocktail.

SocialSci: This startup was born out of local incubator TechStars, they plan to change the way scientific research is conducted by bringing it online. They have deployed the first platform that allows for a full scientific process to be done online by reaching a global audience. SocialSci is being used around the United States to help colleges in creating ground breaking research. Some of the schools currently using SocialSci include Yale University and MIT.

Dexrex Gear ChatSync: This company is working on creating the next generation of message data management. They saw the need to manage instant messaging, text messaging and social media for business communication purposes. ChatSync is standardizing IM, SMS, and social media data with present and future massing solutions. This could be the future medium for every company’s woes when it comes to regulating IT.

ALTAEROS energies: This startup is in the process of developing a cost effective solution to bring wind technology via an airborne wind turbine. By using a helium-filled ring-wing to redefine the way we view renewable energy they are able to reduce the cost of offshore wind energy by up to 60%.

izup: Mobile application developed by Illume Software group that is helping drivers to avoid being distracted on the road by their mobile phones. Who wouldn’t need a push to not use their phone on the road? Izup holds text messages, emails and calls while you drive. The company is also giving back– 5% of their net proceeds go towards organizations that are educating the public on the risks and dangers of using cell phones while driving.

Pietzo: Home to the hybrid bike, Pietzo has revolutionized the way commuters will view riding into work. The mission is to get people out of cars by supporting employers, universities, government’s organizations and other groups with an eco-friendly and effective electric bike transportation program. The bike helps you save money by not having to fill up each week, it is fun and its pedal-boosting electric engine helps you get a little push on your way into the office. Pietzo noted that a lot of their bike riders use the pedal assist mode to help them up hills; the electric boost is awesome. On the way home, don’t use the electric assist mode and get your workout on.

reper: Do you know your online reputation? Today social media, the blogosphere, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., make it easier than ever to create a picture of your personal brand online, affecting your offline image as well. This Cambridge-based startup has not officially launched, but the team is creating an open resource where users can figure out their reputations online.

thredUP: The gist of thredUP is simple. thredUP is the way America’s busiest families conveniently exchange kids clothing online. You will go to their online platform browse through the listings of gently worn clothing, pick the one you want and it will be sent to you. Put your box of kids clothing on the site, when it is picked it will be picked up to be delivered to a family in exchange.

fivi.com: This is a social networking teamed up with online fitness programs. FiVi.com is allowing runners, cyclists and others to map out running and hiking routes, and create and track workouts for free. There are already a whole slew of different workout videos and tutorials that you can try.

Her Campus:  This is an online magazine made for and by college women that focuses on building unique content from college to college. Her Campus has created relationships with 50 schools. In September they will be launching a partnership with a major publication and they have just partnered with New Balance on a fitness blogging competition.

TutorialTab: This is a service that helps website owners enhance the user experience without writing a line of code. They are focusing on giving the user of any website the ability to know what to do next, walking users through a step by step process which can be made in minutes. They are currently in the alpha stage.

Peekaboo Mobile: Would you like to receive deals specific to where you are located at the time? Peekaboo Mobile has launched in 15 different states as of yesterday. The app is currently available on the iPhone and can be downloaded on the iTunes store. Open up the app, find the deal located near you- anything from lunch to a discount at a local jean store- present it to the cashier and reap the benefits.

What did you think of Tech Cocktail? Let us know in the comments section below.

To learn more about Tech Cocktail, be sure to follow them on Twitter.

As you may remember, we first covered FutureM, an upcoming week-long, marketing menagerie in Boston at the beginning of the month of October.

This week, we had a chance to chat with two of FutureM’s creators, Brian Halligan, Founder and CEO of HubSpot and Kiki Mills, President of MITX, to get a better understanding of how this event came about and what attendees can expect.

When asked how the idea of FutureM came about, Halligan told us, “I guess the whole idea started a couple of years ago when I noticed that both David Meerman Scott and Chris Brogan, two guys that I have been following for awhile as real leaders in the marketing transformation movement, both happened to live in Boston.” Halligan said he soon realized that there were a number of revolutionary marketing thinkers around Boston that were “at the vanguard of inbound marketing, marketing transformation, marketing 2.0 — whatever you want to call it.”

For example, Larry Weber is based here, Dave Balter of BzzAgent is here, the Blue Ocean Digital folks who did all of Obama’s web work for his campaign are here, Chris Hughes who was Obama’s Internet czar in his election works at General Catalyst, etc.

Halligan saw a huge opportunity brewing for the marketing industry right here in Boston. He knew something had to be done to open other people’s eyes to the world class marketing talent currently living in Greater Boston.

Brian Halligan

Explained Halligan: “The fact that all these modern marketing visionaries were around here combined with a deep belief I have that the Madison Ave that we all know and love is going to have to go through some major changes to adjust for the fact that buyers, shoppers, and learners are just sick and tired of getting interrupted with advertisements and are getting better-and-better at blocking those advertisements out (i.e. DVR’s) led me to believe that as Madison Avenue crashes, Boston should be the next “hub” for the next generation of marketing.

“In other words, Madison Avenue is to marketing over the last 50 years as Boston is to marketing over the next 50 years.”

Realizing that their interests were aligned and knowing that MITX hosts excellent events regularly, Halligan soon connected with Mills.

Halligan gathered a small brain trust devoted to new marketing at his home with members including Meerman Scott, Weber, Mills, Balter, Brogan, Jeffrey Rayport, etc. “There was a bunch of excitement in the room, but there wasn’t a structure in place to really run with it,” he said of that gathering.

After the meeting at his house, Halligan talked about the idea with the board at MITX, of which he is a member himself. “It turns out that the MITX board was really supportive of the broad concept that Madison Avenue is going to have to go through some changes and that Boston should try to position itself as the next generation Madison Ave,” Halligan said.

Kiki Mills

Mills was immediately inspired and found the concept quite simple: “Massachusetts people, companies and their thought leadership are leading the reinvention of marketing and advertising. We created FutureM with the ultimate long term goal to establish greater Boston as a leading center of thinking and leadership around the future of marketing,” she explained.

From there, the board encouraged Mills to create a week long event series around this idea.  She formed a subcommittee that met every couple of weeks during the winter to pick the name, the week, and organize the participants.  What popped out at the end of that process was FutureM.

To get word out about the event and ensure all the right people will attend, extensive marketing will be done through their event partners. Mills told us, “Our biggest efforts are around evangelizing FutureM to the key influencers in marketing, organizations, groups and companies who are defining the next generation of marketing”

When asked who exactly should be at Future M, Mills reported, “FutureM is geared broadly towards mid to senior level marketers and technologists. The content will benefit all functions who touch marketing: creative, design, marketing, strategy, community, content product, IA/user experience, technology and web development.

“Students are a primary and important target as well, because it will provide them an opportunity to understand the vibrant ecosystem of companies in the marketing and technology space.” The city of Boston has been working hard with local colleges to get more students and recent grads involved with events and startups to keep them in-state and utilize their bright talent; FutureM is a big proponent of this movement as well.

Mills hopes that attendees will find that greater Boston is a leading center for thought leadership and innovation in the marketing arena. She also seeks to demonstrate that the next generation of marketing involves technology at its core, and “is the great enabler of everything from brand engagement to product development to user interaction.”

Halligan finds himself quite enthused about the upcoming October event as well, “If it goes as planned, we should have it every year during the same week and it will grow, grow, grow. The event I’m most excited about is the Inbound Marketing Summit. It is our third year doing it and it is a rocking event.”

We suggest everyone takes Halligan’s advice on this one: “I think every marketer in the country should block off the week of October 3rd this year and every year going forward to drink deeply in the fountain of new marketing ideas.”

To keep up to date on this event, visit to the FutureM blog, follow FutureM on Twitter, like them on Facebook and pay attention to local buzz going around the city about it.

Will you be attending FutureM in October? What part of it are you most looking forward to? What can we as a marketing community do to spread the word about FutureM and generate interest across the country and around the world? What will it take to make FutureM a hallmark of Boston’s tech and marketing culture? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

“I write for the surprise of a sentence.” – Terry Tempest Williams

As an entrepreneur and lover of big ideas, I read and follow many other creative folks online. And when I say follow, I mean follow-the-work-of, yes, but I also just mean follow on Twitter.

The great thing about Twitter is that if you make thoughtful choices about who to follow, you quickly get a feel for what’s really happening in your field — what collective ideas are brewing, what kinds of projects people are working on, what kind of language people are using to talk about all of those ideas and projects.

Much of the time, people I follow write and talk about interesting things using engaging, slightly surprising language. They hook me in. Equally often though, I notice many people using what feels like old, tired language to communicate new, otherwise interesting (sometimes even groundbreaking) ideas — language so tired it has little to no chance of making me want to click a hyperlink so as to find out more.

As anyone in the online world knows, getting me to click is crucial.

Tired language is a problem because it doesn’t mean anything anymore. What sort of language am I talking about exactly? Obvious examples are phrases like “follow your dreams” or “make a difference.” I stopped caring about these phrases in my teens and instinctively move away from them whenever I see them. I delete the Email, I leave the website, I ignore the tweet. Despite being positive ideas, phrases like these turn me off rather than invite me in. They do the exact opposite of what they are intended to do.

I don’t see people using these particular two phrases very much anymore, but hopefully you get my point. As creative people, when you talk about new ideas with old language, you do a very poor job of communicating the richness and potential of whatever new idea it is you’re toying with and working hard to get out into the world.

Tired language doesn’t do big ideas justice.

Rather than make a list of present-day, commonly used words and phrases that feel tired to me personally, I simply want to encourage us all to think about this question of energy inside and behind our words — especially where new, innovative ideas are concerned.

Let me say I am guilty of tired language myself, too. We all are. There are only so many ways to say things. And if we’re in the business of ideas, as opposed to writing literature, perhaps it doesn’t make sense to spend tons of time trying to craft wonderfully fresh language. But whenever possible, out of respect for our likely very good ideas, let’s work at infusing real energy into our writing. Whether we consider ourselves writers or not, I have no doubt this will give us far better chances of getting people to listen.

Next time you find yourself writing something that makes you yawn, even just a little bit, pause for a moment and try switching some things up. Make slightly riskier choices. Ask yourself, what is it exactly that you want to say, and then stretch yourself and go reach for those words. Your readers will be grateful to you. The good news is, once you’ve got devoted readers, they’re actually quite difficult to lose.

I’ll leave you with a few writers whose work consistently energizes me personally.

• Alex Steed – @AlexSteed: Writer, Organizer, Thinker, Marketer
• Mary Churchill – @mary_churchill: Executive Director of University of Venus (@UVenus) – a collaborative venture bringing together the voices of GenX women in higher education from around the globe
• Selena Rezvani – @nextgenwomen: Author, Speaker, Consultant, Washington Post columnist
• Jack Cheng – @JackCheng: Writer, designer, maker of things

What articles, sentences, or ideas have you found especially exciting or interesting lately across the web? What startups here in Boston (or elsewhere) communicate their brand and message very effectively? What kind of writing energizes you as a reader/writer? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Alexis is a freelance writer and editor and co-founder of The New Prosperity Initiative (NPi), a media organization dedicated to knowledge sharing in the social justice field. Lex serves on the board of directors of The Writers’ Room of Boston, is a “Connector” for Boston World Partnerships, and holds a B.A. in Government from Smith College.

If you are looking for some more great content from people representing the companies, innovation and collaborative efforts changing the world make sure you visit the TED.com website.

One of these amazing efforts featured in a recent TED talk is Ushahidi, a website dedicated to real-time, crowd-sourced crisis mapping. The main connecting force in all of the TED efforts lies with the ability of the world to contribute and work together to create large projects with world wide impact. TED is allowing these innovative ideas to participate in a network of creativity connected through the digital world, crossing borders from one TED or TEDx conference to the other. From country to country we are together aligned and working as one force. TEDx, you’ll remember is a series of independently organized events modeled after the original TED conference.

Bill Staby, Resolute Marine Energy
Representing a startup that was recently selected as a MassChallenge finalist, Staby and his team are dedicated to commercializing the power of ocean waves. This is one of the most promising solutions to the question of sustainable energy. By using the stored wind energy of the waves, Resolute Marine Energy is changing the way the world will view the ocean.

The company is developing wave energy converters to take wave energy from the ocean and turn it into an energy source to be commercialized, plus the energy can be used to remove the salt from seawater. About 50% of the world population lives near the ocean front.

There are big wave energy sites across the world that are waiting to be utilized and turned into energy. The most promising locations for this in the U.S. are found off the coasts of Alaska, California and Hawaii. Although the East Coast isn’t an ideal location for wave energy harvesting, that’s not stopping Staby and his team from testing it here.

Resolute Marine Energy is starting their testing of the predictability of wave energy in Maine. How does it work? The energy is captured on a device near the shore and fed into the grid. There are many different kinds of wave converters; the engineering is not new. Resolute is utilizing a wave converter that flaps back and forth to power desalination. Their idea is competitive in terms of cost, plus it is minimally affecting the environment and helping to bring water to many areas of the world that need it.

The first full-scale project will take place in Africa. Resolute Marine will deploy the wave converters here to test their approach to commercializing wave energy. Staby attested to what he sees happening with wave energy of the future. “It will be a hybrid of current projects,” he said.

The abandoned tunnel under Tremont Street runs under the heart of Boston

Sapir Ng, Tremont Underground Theater Space
Ng and his team are working on giving new meaning to a local landmark through innovation and visionary concepts.

The team is working on transforming a space underneath Tremont Street into a world class facility connecting the theater district that will house a multi-purpose space. The tunnel already exists and just needs to be revamped.

Ng said the project is aimed at “connecting and transforming the forgotten world.” This area will hopefully be free for everyone, though Ng noted that charging a small fee could help support later operating hours for the MBTA. The tunnel could connect to the subway stations, too.

The possibilities are endless for this project. This could become a vision that would be extended elsewhere. Ng is working to turn history into something visionary and radical in thinking.

Susan Rodgerson, Artists for Humanity
Artists for Humanity is changing the way urban kids in Boston join the arts community. In 1991, Rodgerson started with a simple idea: Make large scale paintings by children, giving them a voice. These paintings would be sold in Corporate America. Artists for Humanity has helped local children make a difference and feel the encouragement of the community through the creation of art.

The program is giving children the opportunity to feel wanted, make a difference and work on something that is collaborative while being paid to create art for businesses. Last year, they completed 726 projects. The children involved today are mentored by professional artists. Artists for Humanity has created a fostering environment that enables children to work hard and strive for greatness. The art isn’t paint on canvas either. These children are creating furniture from old magazines, paintings being sold to corporate offices, bike racks to be used around Boston, and now their work can be found throughout the buildings of Boston.

“Urban kids need access to the creative process,” said Rodgerson. “These kids now are earning a wage, being part of a community — part of a culture and a civic society.”

Static Noyze Dance Company, MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew
If you are reading this and need a way to ramp up your mind in the middle of the afternoon, I suggest you google this group. To see their performance from TEDxBoston check out the videos online. Standing ovations are well deserved for dance troupes as well.

Scott Kirsner

Scott Kirsner,  The Boston Globe
Kirsner is looking to ignite a cultural revolution. New England attracts the smartest people in the world for its awesome education, but once they have studied too many are leaving to start careers. Why is this? Why aren’t we investing in the students who come to study here and focusing on ways to keep them in Boston to start companies and create jobs? These are questions Kirsner finds unsettling.

“Smart, young people are the greatest renewable resource in New England,” he said. ‘We are not doing enough for them. We need to break down the walls for them by thinking differently and connecting these students.”

Kirsner touted “Stay in MA,” a scholarship program to make it possible for college kids to attend conferences, and other efforts, like the MITX Career Combine. Kirsner is currently invested in developing something he calls “Innovation Open Houses,” to further expose Boston students to the business and tech communities.

“We want to give students access to the 20 coolest, hottest companies in Boston where they can meet the founder, no strings attached,” he said, noting that there are already 700 students on the Facebook group.

Kirsner impolored TEDxBoston participants to help with his vision by opening up their offices to the students of Boston and helping them find the resources to propel themselves into the future of the Boston economy. He’s set up a wiki to list the initiatives that are taking place in Boston for these young people.

“We attract the smartest young people from around the world… We need to create opportunities for them,” he said.

Conor White-Sullivan, Localocracy
“Sometimes you get ahold of an idea, and sometimes an idea gets ahold of you,” said White-Sullivan, kicking off his talk.

For him, it happened at 2:00am in a library as he watched a 20-minute lecture on open economics on TED.com. He realized that the Internet has changed the way society shares and collaborates on ideas.

Across the country, users are honed in on different conversations. “We have created real-life echo chambers,” he said. By focusing locally, he wants to help to change the way people think about democracy. Localocracy is another finalist in the MassChallenge startup competition.

A graduate of UMass Amherst, he credits the school with allowing him to follow this dream and his vision. The mentoring program at UMass helped him fund his idea and put his beliefs into practice. The answer to a community’s problems are bound to come from the people around these problems. Localocracy is working on creating a social platform that enables people to interact and stand behind their ideas. They are changing the way communities identify problems in a demographic area.

Political debates are already raging on the site. “This is the start of something more significant. If we can engage in a new way of thinking, we will tackle larger problems of our communities,” he said. “This is not a left or right issue. We want to take a world of politics from promise to a world of participation.”

Frank Reynolds

Frank Reynolds, InVivo Therapeutics
Once paralyzed, Reynolds did not like the answers that were given to him. He was not interested in spending the rest of his life in bed.

“Necessity is the mother of invention. It was challenging. I have physical problems, but I can walk,” said Reynolds. After finding a way to get back on his feet — literally — Reynolds became dedicated to helping others walk again as well.

If you can get the spinal cord into a healthy state, it will find healthy tissue to help people to walk again. The product his team is working on can help people who once had bleeding and inflammation. They believe that if these problems can be stopped at an early stage, they can help people conquer paralysis. His goal is to help restore the scar tissue by creating solutions that focus on open wounds and closed wounds alike.

By working on devices that are implanted and  injected into the spinal cord, they are creating a revolutionary way to help people. This process is now being studied on monkeys. They have about nine different products at the moment.

TEDxBoston is certainly living up to the hype. Today’s speakers are doing great things here in Greater Boston, and the audience seems fully engaged in what’s being said. BostInnovation is proud to be here, and thanks the local committee behind TEDx for bringing us in to follow the excitement. The next session is the last, but unfortunately we won’t be able to stick around to cover it. For more, be sure to visit TEDxBoston.org.

We caught up with State Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki during lunch, and he gushed about how great it is to have TEDx in Boston today.

Secretary Bialecki

“I think there’s a couple great things about what they’re doing today. One is just for the community here. I’ve always felt that one of our great strengths is not only that we have a lot of great people with great ideas, but in so many different areas. If you look at where we have done really cool things, it’s really at the overlap of those areas. For example, we have a great robotics cluster. That’s part technology and software but it’s also part precision manufacturing. This event really capitalizes on our strengths and makes sure people with good ideas from different sectors are aware of what each other are up to,” Said Bialecki.

“Just sitting in the chair, you could see how the ideas that one speaker was advancing could help the ideas of another speaker,” he continued.

Here’s a quick recap of the TEDx talks that happened during the second morning session:

Cesar Hidalgo, Harvard University and MIT
Hidalgo began by pointing out that the world is full of diversity. The problem with current economic models is that the world is so complex. We look at variables like labor and resources as putty — variables where numbers can’t represent what we need to see. The problem is that diversity should play a role into how we think about economics, says Hidalgo, promoting a model that can be represented by many different colored Legos. Economies are made up of discrete bits, not just flows.

We are ready for more complex models. If the world is to work together effectively, we need to see that countries have different resources — instead of focusing on how many products a country puts out, we can look at how many resources it has at its disposal. Hidalgo looks at the capabilities of a region, not just the outputs. His end revelation?

Countries tend to innovate into new realms that require many of the same capabilities required by products they’re already making. We can work on making innovation more successful by considering these new kinds of models.

Alex Bok, Boston-Power
“Batteries are at the center of change in a few major industries in our country, specifically cars and utilities,” said Bok. Cars and renewable energy can both be dramatically improved with better batteries.

Renewable portfolio standards in many states require 20-33% renewable energy generation in the next decade. But wind and sun are unpredictable. Wind power is generally best at night, when energy demand is at its lowest.

“With energy storage, you can make renewable real,” said Bok. That’s why he and the company he represents are focused so heavily on creating better batteries.

Felice Frankel, Harvard University and MIT
Frankel makes images that help people learn and explores the value of learning from creating images. She showed a magnificent array of images in her presentation, which we could never do justice in text, but here are three of her key takeaways about how images help people learn.

1) The process of making a representation clarifies your thinking.

“Making a representation involves re-presentation,” she said. Translation and interpretation are important. This has to do with the idea of clarity and how we look at it.

2) The process of making a representation should be collaborative.

3) The process of making a representation teaches.

4) The process of making a representation cultivates critical thinking.

Muhan Zhang, Fidelity FutureStage
This current high school student at Boston Latin School performed a song called “Racing Horse” on an awesome instrument called the erhu. The instrument is over a thousand years old, but Zhang wonders what’s next for the evolution of how the instrument will be used.

“Our society is completely obsessed with discovering the next big thing,” noted Zhang. “But when we burn our roots, we are cutting ourselves short of something really, really big.”

Zhang argued that we should take the best ideas from the past and marry them to new technology. After lunch, he brought two friends onstage to play “Tempest on an Endless River,” an original score combining traditional sounds from the past with modern, digital sounds.

John Werner & MacCalvin Romain, Citizen Teachers & Swag Media, respectively
Some 30% of 9th graders will not graduate. “I knew a student so bored in school, he competed with his peers to see who could get the most Fs and he won. We’re sending our students to a box,” said Werner. Romain, a Boston University student, spoke about how great mentors and teachers illuminated a whole world he never knew of growing up in a tough economic situation. He was here as a testament to what can be done if intelligent people outside of the education sector work to educate young people.

Werner pointed out that education is leaving all kinds of community resources on the table. He challenged smart people like the ones attending TEDx to work on education. Citizen Teachers is a program that’s allowing normal people to “teach from the textbooks of their lives.” The organiztaion is staffed by Americorps. “Instead of jury duty, what if we did teaching duty?” Werner asked. “We can educate every child if everyone becomes an educator.”

Bill Walczak, Codman Square Health Center
Walczak began his talk by looking at the ways we measure success. It’s easier to define in the corporate world, but in the social and non-profit realms, measuring success is often about looking at numbers and not actual change.

Walczak’s Codman Square Association is working to change thinking about how success is measured in society. Codman Square is in the middle of the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston. In 1920, Codman Square became a dividing line between Jews and Irish Catholics, but it flourished economically. Later in the century, lower income African Americans began moving into the area as property value dropped. Once again, Codman became a dividing line. The people moving in were impoverished, and the housing was in an abundance. The neighborhood saw a fire per day in the middle of the 1970s, because so many middle class people abandoned the neighborhood. Some even burned their own homes to collect insurance money.

Walczak moved into Codman Square in 1972, and began to get involved in the community. He worked with a team of people to salvage the old library and convert it into a health center to provide badly needed health care. As a result, the project catalyzed a rejuvenation in the Codman Square area. All kinds of other things sprung up. But Walczak wondered how he and his friends could do more to change the source of the problems — the poverty running rampant.

“The most important thing any community health center can do is focus on poverty,” said Walczak noting that child poverty is most important. He encourages the formation of charter schools in impoverished American neighborhoods, because a supportive “second family” is so important to the success of children. Every graduate of the charter school in Codman Square has been accepted to a 4-year college. Only about 7% of Boston public school students go to college. Over 70% of the Codman charter school graduates are in college or graduated from college right now. Codman Square can be a national example of what can be done when members of a poor community rally to fight that poverty.

TEDx is continuing throughout the afternoon. Ali Powell and I will report on the next session, but will likely have to get back to our regular reporting duties during the evening. Stay tuned for a bit more, and please, if you have time today, consider tuning in live to TEDxBoston 2010.

TEDxBoston launched this morning with the first set of innovators speaking on everything from socialization in the world of gaming to the new generation of how housing will be built.

The event kicked off with a pretty killer bit of drumming by the Marcus Santos Group, and then accelerated into some of the newest ideas bubbling up in and around Boston.

Here are BostInnovation’s takeaways from the six speakers who addressed the audience this morning: (Remember you can watch TEDxBoston Live when it starts again.)

1.Dave McLaughlin, Boston World Partnerships: We need to build horizontal relationships to exist between vertical groupings. When those verticals come together we seed relationships across them creating idea flow. TED gives us the opportunity to spread ideas that are worth spreading. TED brings people together to allow ideas to flow and spark new thinking. These are the same goals of Boston World Partnerships.

A year and a half ago, Boston made an investment in seeding horizontal relationships with the establishment of Boston World Partnerships. By gathering high-achieving people, big thinkers who love Boston and think Boston is a capital of big ideas, Boston will soon become the innovation capital of the world. BWP helps to share expertise and contacts to help other people grow their business and achieve their dreams.

The smart cities that will succeed are the ones thinking about what will be necessary for growth.

2. Susan Avery, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: One message that Susan wanted to leave TED with today: “We have one ocean and it supports the life that we know today and for tomorrow.” Life as we know it depends on the ocean. The ocean plays a critical role in our climate system. The ocean harbors biodiversity, provides transportation, recreational and cultural resources, covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface. We must use new eyes, new tools to sustain the ocean into the future.

Avery talked about the importance of creating ocean reserve policies for the future. It is time for us now to look at it deeper and with new eyes.

3. Seth Priebatsch, Chief Ninja of SCVNGR: There are four game dynamics that you can use to influence the behavior of people for good, bad and the in-between. In Priebatsch’s view, the social layer is about connections, the game layer is about influence.

There are four game dynamics that you can use:

1. The appointment dynamic: A dynamic in which to succeed, one must return at a predetermined time to take a predetermined action.

2. Influence and Status: We all want the AmEx black credit card. Everyone wants it because that makes you cooler than others. This can be applied to games as well. Status is a good motivator.

3. Progression Dynamic: Moving through steps in a dynamic fashion. Everyone likes to advance to the next level.

4. Communal Discovery: Everyone has to work together to achieve something.

The last decade was the decade of social, this next decade is the decade of games. Lets build it together and lets have fun playing.

4. Mary Gunn, Executive Director of Generations Incorporated: Gunn’s organization is uniting older adults and children to strengthen individuals and communities.

Gunn said 67% of 4th graders are reading below their grade level, also noting a strong relationship between 4th grade literacy results and the drop out rate in high school. Her organization currently has 330 people over the age of 55 tutoring children.

The model works; students made 60% more progress than the other students, older adults had a happier lifestyle. Kids need sharp literacy skills to be successful when adults, adults need to be engaged in meaningful ways to be sharp.

If you know someone who is home and idle and still has something that they can give, put them in touch with Generations Incorporated.

5. Lynwood Walker, Matthew Gordon, Glaudia Gold of Difra, Inc: What if construction was simple? The limit of what to be built is only about what could be dreamt up. What if construction was a virtual activity?

Any 3D model, despite the complexity, could be converted into the interlocking components, construction is no longer in the same kind of bottle neck if it’s all about imagination.

This team of speakers showed an example of a 3D model house created with standard modeling software. You don’t need any nails or screws to assemble the stuff they create with this software. The pieces are jointed into each other. They simply snap in place after being packaged and put onto trucks to be shipped anywhere in the world. The only tool needed is a rubber mallet.

The societal impact is massive; The products are environmentally friendly by using wood chips so they can utilize younger trees. The buildings make it easy to develop infrastructure and for disaster relief, because digital fabrication of houses can be done to create specialized buildings.

More complex housing can be built, opening up a whole new avenue of expression and imagination. Design is democratic, anyone can design and upload it to reproduce it with obscene levels of accuracy. we will think about building a whole new way. Old buildings will become canvases for new buildings to be built upon. In the future, designs can become complex and you can live in a house that creates a greater diversity in what we live in and how we build.

Housing should become sustainable product. Designs will become something that is now the limiting factor, construction is not the limiting factor. We will be able to live in the things that we want to live in vs. what we are told we have to live in. Let’s rethink design and our environment that we live in.

6. John Harthorne, MassChallenge: The Startup Renaissance being encouraged by MassChallenge will identify the world’s most high impact, world changing startups.

This project is opening the front door to Massachusetts by inviting the worlds best innovators to the awesomeness of Massachusetts.  Recently, 111 finalist teams were selected from 446 entrants representing 26 states and multiple other countries. These 111 companies are taking part in designing the future of the entire entrepreneur ecosystem, with a focus on Boston.

Stay Tuned for more…

Unlike FourSquare and Gowalla, SCVNGR users earn points by completing challenges around the city they live in, such as the “social check-in” at Upper Crust, which is worth 4 points or the “snap a picture” challenge at The Middle East, which is worth 2 points.

The new rewards program answers the question “what do I do with all these points?” according to Priebatsch. Users will now have the ability to redeem points at participating businesses for things like free coffee, a free burrito, or deals like buy one, get one free. And who doesn’t love free stuff, especially when rewards are so fun to earn?

Before you get too excited, there are a few restrictions. Users can only earn one reward at a time at any given location. However, there is no stopping the ultra ambitious or ultra obsessed who want to attempt to get a free burrito at every Boloco location in Boston, for example.

The rewards program is not only beneficial to customers, but also to businesses. “We’re calling it a social traffic engine for local business,” said Priebatsch. Businesses can customize rewards by deciding how many points they’re worth, how many times a user can earn a particular reward, and when they expire, among other things. SCVNGR has also built a secure communication system into the application so that businesses can focus on attracting and retaining customers rather than whether a customer is trying to game the system.

The first 50 businesses in the first 10 markets that SCVNGR launches in, starting with Boston and Philadelphia on August 15, will get to use the application for FREE. SCVNGR will eventually charge businesses a small annual fee to use the application. Through the new rewards system, businesses will be able to not only increase the number of customers who visit but also continue to engage customers through measurable viral marketing. Having fun and making money – now that’s what all businesses like to hear.

To find out more about SCVNGR, visit their website, “like” them on Facebook, and follow them or Twitter.

The Tech department at BU had been sitting on the idea for an event called Tech, Drugs Rock and Roll for at least two years, but was waiting for the right time to finally unveil the event.

Boston University wants to change the way people view the school. The new motto for the Technology department of BU is to “maximize collision and minimize friction.” The goal is to get people to meet each other, creating “collisions” that may result in the formation of new ventures. There were a lot of investors in the room  as well, doing their best to cultivate the openness that is necessary to facilitate different kinds of collisions between those with capital and those with ideas.

Robert A. Brown, President of Boston University

Boston University President Robert A. Brown delivered the keynote speech, which addressed both concerns and the future of Boston University as a standout enterprise. Boston University wants to transform its image so that it is viewed as an international organization with a strong research component.

Key Takeaways From Brown’s Address:

• The creation of ideas, processes and devices are at the core of science, engineering and medicine, which puts universities at the core of the innovation ecosystem.
• Economic recovery is able to occur when we are able to give value to creation and jobs here in the United States. Boston University’s Technology and Research department is leading this effort.
• Countries all over the world are creating the same kinds of support ecosystems; we must be the leader here in Boston. By supporting great research organizations like Boston University, the United States will stand out.
• Collaboration is essential. To be the most innovative city, Boston must show the strength of its colleges and graduate schools, as well as willingness to collaborate between staff, students and professional communities.
• The entrepreneur ecosystem relies heavily on venture capital firms to engage with schools and students. The engagement factor between the VC world and industrial communities will help move  products from the research phase to the commercialization stage.

Mark Grinstaff, Winner of the First Annual Boston University Innovator of the Year Award

Boston University also announced its first ever Innovator of the Year Award. This award will be given annually to someone who uses research to create a product that can be commercialized and who encourages other Boston University faculty members to do the same. This year, the award went to Mark Grinstaff, a professor who teaches both Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering and chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. He has co-founded three companies that have now commercialized his ideas: Hyperbranch Medical Technology, Flex Biomedical and Acuity Bio, which is commercializing a new drug delivery device for the prevention of tumor recurrence after surgical resection.

Today, TED has become one of the best sources for emerging theory and its practical application online. TED conferences are happening all over the world and each one is all about the propagation of inspiring new ideas. The organization now provides a free lecture series delivered in the form of short videos. TED posts new video content featuring “ideas worth spreading,” the organization’s slogan, every weekday on their blog.

Recent “TED talks” have been delivered by people like marine toxicologist Susan Shaw, who talked about the effects of the BP oil spill on marine wildlife, and Dimitar Sasselov, who explained how his research group has been able to identify 700+ potentially Earth-like planets.

With the popularity of TED arose a spin-off known as TEDx, where the “x” signifies that the event is independently organized outside of TED, but is dedicated to creating a TED-like experience.

Tomorrow, a TEDx conference of local thinkers — business people, journalists and scientists — will be held at the Seaport World Trade Center in the Innovation District. Twenty-seven presentations will be given, each 20 minutes long. All of them are expected to reveal some of the most interesting and enlightening ideas and projects currently underway in Greater Boston.

BostInnovation will be on-hand, live Tweeting from the event, and providing coverage for those looking to learn about the topics covered at TEDx Boston in a nutshell. Needless to say, we’re really excited to be a part of the sold-out crowd at TEDx Boston. Here are a few presentations we’re most looking forward to:

Bill Warner — Building a Startup from the Heart
The President of Warner Research and Founder of the Anything Goes Accelerator Lab is expected to detail his theories on the personality-centric synergies that new companies should pursue in order to find faster traction and improve the likelihood of success. Additionally, he’ll likely talk about how internal story telling and status reporting can help the members of a founding team ensure initial company goals are met.

John Harthorn — Catalyzing a Startup Renaissance in Boston
The Founder and CEO of MassChallenge is expected to talk about how the locally-based global startup competition he coordinates is bringing a new sense of self-awareness to the local startup community in its first year. We’re expecting him to talk about how MassChallenge has taken steps to educate the startup community about potential early-stage pitfalls in an effort to get some 400+ participating companies over the initial hump of launching a business.

Dave McLaughlin — Connector Experiments
The Executive Director of Boston World Partnerships is expected to talk about how his organization is effectively crowd-sourcing economic growth for the City of Boston. We can’t wait to hear more about how this organization has rethought corporate networking in an effort to provide value to its business partners as part of a system that is helping Boston not only sustain economic activity in the city during the Recession, but actually generate new business and growth.

Scott Kirsner — What We Need is a Cultural Revolution
The tech blogger for The Boston Globe is expected to talk about the lack of connectivity between businesses in Greater Boston and the students who come here to be educated at some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world. Boston’s student population is arguably its most valuable resource to the future of Boston’s economic growth, and this is a problem we at BostInnovation are working to provide solutions to as well, by way of our coming Campus Connect events series.

Conor Sullivan — The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The Founder and CEO of Localocracy is expected to talk about how the protests and open political conversations of former generations haven’t disappeared, as has been posited by many modern thinkers and journalists. It’s simply been transported to new forums on the Internet. We’re looking forward to hearing his theories about how political conversations in social media can better impact governments being discussed online.

Seth Priebatsch — Building a Game Layer on Top of the World
The Founder and CEO of Cambridge-based SCVNGR is expected to detail how his mobile company is increasing virtual engagement with local businesses while users are actually at those locations. He’ll likely explain how Boston’s own geo-location game is setting itself apart from other geo-location games like Foursquare by allowing much greater interactivity between merchants and users.

Look for more on tomorrow’s TEDx event right here on BostInnovation. If you wanted to attend but didn’t get a ticket, be sure to tune into the live streaming video the conference is providing virtual attendees.

What are you looking forward to at TEDx Boston? Will you be tuning in or attending in-person? What should BostInnovation focus our coverage on? Let us know in the comments section below.

To learn more about TED and TEDx, be sure to follow @TEDtalks and @TEDnews on Twitter, and be sure to check out the TED blog for daily video content and regular updates about the organization.

Cambridge-based mobile startup mtiks has a solution that protects apps from pirating and makes sure developers get paid for their work. Their framework (currently in private beta – see sign up instructions here) allows developers to install safeguards against unpaid downloads of their apps on jailbroken iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.

Jailbreaking is the process of altering an Apple iOS device to unlock new functionality and enable the installation of third-party applications without having to go through Apple’s tightly controlled App Store. Although there are some good reasons for jailbreaking (wifi tethering, increased customization, downloading apps rejected by Apple) many people do it to also access “cracked” or free versions of paid apps.

That’s where the anti-piracy solution mtiks is creating comes into play. Integrating with the mtiks framework allows developers to monitor unpaid downloads of their apps and take some control of what happens in the shady app markets of the wild. For instance, the technology is able to detect if someone is running a pirated version of the app and displays an option to buy it (via the legitimate iTunes App Store) when those users launch the app – a simple yet effective measure to recover some lost revenue.

Past estimates suggest that nearly 1 in 12 of all iPhones have been jailbroken and that number is only expected to increase.

Of course, Apple has disapproved of jailbreaking from the beginning, claiming the process is illegal and a violation of customer contracts. But just this week, Steve Jobs & Co. were dealt a blow when the Copyright Office ruled that jailbreaking no longer violates copyright law. That’s crappy for Apple, cool for people that want to jailbreak their iPhones, and potentially bad for app developers both big and small.

Still, some argue that app cracking isn’t actually piracy, but rather a service. Popular online cracked app directory Hackulous claims, “Our intentions are to provide a service that helps people trial applications freely, to combat the lack of a refund policy on the App Store.”

In reality, though, cracking isn’t as noble as they might try to make it sound. This idea of a “Try before you buy” mentality was shown to be a more of an “excuse to steal” by the folks at Pinch Media. After looking at usage from over 4 million jailbroken devices, they concluded that out of all pirated app installs, only 0.43% ever lead to a legitimate purchase (too much “trying,” not enough “buying”). This is just the problem that mtiks is working to address. So besides simply thwarting piracy, mtiks helps ensure that more freeloading downloaders are converted to paying customers. Recently, in fact, a developer of a popular news app with mtiks functionality found that 21% of people running pirated copies showed interest in paying for the app.

What are the perks and downsides of jailbreaking an Apple device in your eyes? How can developers better protect their software? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Babson College has generated some of the most successful entrepreneurs and companies that the world has to offer. Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review have both named Babson as the No. 1 Undergraduate and Graduate Programs with the Entrepreneurial Edge. Alexander Debelov is one of these innovative forces to watch in the 2010 graduating class.

Debelov is the brain behind Crelligance Media, holding company of Viralskool. Crelligance Media is a social media marketing company specializing in compensated consumer-generated media. The first tool or service offering to come from Crelligance Media is Viralskool. Viralskool is a creative community employing user-generated video to help companies of all sizes build better brands and better products through the use of online video campaigns.

Debelov is a force all by himself — an early member and now part of the Executive Board of the esteemed Kairos Society would be enough recognition for most college students — but with Crelligence, he’s chasing even bigger things.

Entrepreneur of 2010 Contest

This week, Entrepreneur Magazine announced the Entrepreneur of 2010 Contest nominees — a list that included Debelov and Crelligence Media.

The idea behind Viralskool was born in 2008 when Debelov became impressed with a startup that was allowing people to create their own iPod accessories and giving their community the ability to vote on the winning accessory, which would be sold on the Apple iTunes store. The best ideas are bound to come at odd times; Viralskool was born in the middle of the night. Debelov realized that the same thing — namely, crowd sourcing ideas — could be done for the advertising world.

After attending the Harvard Entrepreneurship Idol business plan competition in 2008, Debelov decided to go with this idea. “It became less of an idea and became more of a serious business venture. The initial idea has morphed a lot and the name has changed along the way. The core idea is to make advertising fun and make it more engaging. We are helping companies to spend their money more wisely,” says Debelov

Debelov says he and his business partner started to work more seriously on the business after that. There were bumps along the way — especially in figuring out the development end of Viralskool. “We threw the end product out. If you are launching a web project, you can’t outsource it. You need to have the expertise in-house to improve the project and build something of high quality. One of our first early mistakes was hiring the developers,” he says.

Alexander Debelov, CEO and Founder of Crelligance Media

Crelligance Media aims to be the go-to social media marketing agency offering a set of tools that companies can use to promote their brands on social media sites. Viralskool claim that their online video campaigns are 10 times more effective than other advertising methods.

The belief behind Viralskool is that online video campaigns are the most effective concept of marketing today and for the future of marketing. There has been a shift in the way advertising is done over the past

200 years. Crelligance Media’s value for the companies that they work with is that they can engage with consumers and creators in a viral and groundbreaking way. Consumers are sharing information with their friends and social circles, and it does not matter how the information is created either. Crowd sourcing simply works in the eyes of Debelov and his team.

Viralskool is changing the way the industry views video and marketing. “People are creating their own viral videos. This has changed the way the industry works.  We have changed from professionally produced content to user generated content. User generated online video content will become one of the most prevalent forms of online marketing,” says Debelov.

Viralskool’s value proposition for all sized businesses lies with four main areas of customer attention:

First, the quality of the video campaigns must be evident to the customer. The Viralskool community is comprised of 3,000+ film makers — independent professionals who are building their portfolios by working on Viralskool campaigns. Crelligance has built a large enough community of engaged film makers so that when the video campaign contests are announced there is plenty of quality content made to meet the demand. The Viralskool community was built through inbound marketing methods using Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

Second, there has to always be the ability to control the message. Viralskool’s customers need to be able to gauge the videos for distribution to make sure they are in line with their overall mission and strategies.

Third, exposure is key. The exposure that these videos generate can be up to 300,000 hits per campaign running over a two month time period. With the ability to reach the end consumer through blogs and forums that they have partnered with, Viralskool can attract the customer’s targeted demographic. The business is all about using a tribe to create great content and building partnerships to make sure that content gets distributed all over the web.

The last part of Viralskool’s commitment to their customers is to analyze the data and compute the return on their investment. One of the key differentiators lies here. They have tools to analyze demographics and effectiveness through location based buying and viewing of video. Companies will be able to compute the increase in sales.

The neat thing about Viralskool is that they put their mission to work in their beta, a case study approach to their service offering. Viralskool decided to test their theory that user generated video campaigns do create virality and do make sense investment wise for companies to engage in. Viralskool created their own video campaign contest with the simple task of creating a contest to see who could make the most viral video using the punch line, “Come on! Spread Me!” The simplicity of this contest was genius. This video campaign is used as a case study when presenting to potential customers today. The “Come On! Spread Me!” campaign generated many video submissions and found national and international TV coverage. The contest cost $3,000 and generated over 2 million views.VIralskool Beta Test Video: Crazy Basketball Tricks

Debelov and his holding company, Crelligance Media are on BostInnovation’s radar. Viralskool is currently growing their customer base and working on raising venture funds.

The Interactive Awards, now in their 15th year, aren’t just MITX’s biggest annual shindig…

“The Awards are the largest competition of its kind in the country that honors web innovations developed by or created in New England,” noted MITX President Kiki Mills in a conversation with BostInno yesterday.

The MITX Interactive Awards recognizes the best and brightest in new technology. To keep it ultra fresh, MITX requires that all applicants launched no earlier than September 1, 2009. Of course, new products from pre-existing companies are also eligible — the Interactive Awards are all about everything that’s new and exciting in the local tech scene.

As a result of their focus on the cutting edge, the MITX Interactive Awards are unlike other ceremonies in that they have to update the categories to reflect current market trends.

“We revamped the categories this year to better mirror the evolution of the industry,” said Mills. “This year our categories are divided into three sections: Industry, for web sites and online projects within vertical industry categories; Usage, for non-industry-specific projects and campaigns executed by specific channel (social media) or technology (mobile); and Digital Media, for online media campaigns primarily driven by paid media strategies.”

In previous years, the MITX Interactive Awards have honored local heavy-hitters like Monster.com (2001), Staples (2000, 20005, 2007) and Brightcove (2007). Last year, it was all Zipcar, Dunkin’ Donuts, Overdrive Interactive and Sapient.

This year, the MITX Interactive Awards are being held on Thursday, November 18 at the Boston Mariott in Copley Place — the same venue that hosted this year’s MITX Tech Awards, a smaller but equally prestigious ceremony held by the non-profit each spring.

If you launched anything your team feel has made some serious waves since last summer, we encourage you to apply. There is an entry fee of $150 for MITX members and $300 for non-members, but the recognition and attention showered on the companies that take home these awards each year make the risk well worth taking in our book, because the brand recognition — at least in the circles we travel in — is really almost instant for winners.

“We typically honor over 100 finalists, and about 35 winners,” said Mills, also noting that winners are selected “through a two-part judging process that brings together over 100 judges from different areas of expertise in branding, design, strategy, user experience, marketing, analyst and investment communities.”

The deadline for entry to the Interactive Awards is Friday, September 10.

What do you think about MITX and their Tech Awards and Interactive Awards ceremonies? Are you definitely going to apply? Thinking about it? Let us know in the comments section below.

To learn more about MITX, follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook.

It all started in 2008 when Keeler received a grant as a student at Lehigh University for a new backpack closure system he designed and prototyped. Soon after, Keeler teamed up with his high school friend, Schultz, and began learning how to operate manufacturing grade sewing machines while Schultz handled the communications and marketing. The two-man team that emerged was a new backpack and bag company: George Guest. At long last, the two are launching their first product on July 30 at the new Annie Mulz pop-up shop on Newbury Street in Boston.

What do you think of George Guest’s first line of backpacks? Is their price point too high? Are they unique enough to grab the attention of high-end retailers and consumers? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Get into a BMW Z4 from RelayRides with your CharlieCard!

No, it’s not a new device for thieves. On the contrary, the team at Cambridge-based startup RelayRides are working hard to build trust and community across the Charles River.

The company is taking car sharing we were introduced to by another Boston startup, Zipcar, and making it even more eco-friendly and sensible. With RelayRides, Cambridge residents can rent a myriad of privately owned vehicles on an hourly basis thanks to a quick hardware addition the RelayRides team installs. It allows customers to unlock the vehicles they reserve in advance. People volunteering their cars for the program choose when to make their vehicles available, and get paid each time someone rents them.

Recently, the company made it possible for people identify themselves to RelayRides vehicles using the CharlieCards they already use to pay for T and bus rides around Boston and Cambridge.

“RelayRides membership cards and CharlieCards use similar smartcards, so our technology can read the unique signature of a CharlieCard,” says RelayRides CEO and Founder Shelby Clark, a recent Harvard Business School grad. “This doesn’t allow us to access any personal information for the user, but it does provide a unique identification card that we can associate with the member’s RelayRides account.

“If you have a CharlieCard, we have you swipe it over the sensor on a RelayRides car, we capture the signature of the CharlieCard, and your CharlieCard can now function as your RelayRides membership card as well. We’re pretty excited about this because this means that one card can satisfy all of your transportation needs, making it even easier for Cambridge residents to live without a car. Also, this allows you to rent a car the same day you sign up — otherwise, you’d have to wait up to a week to receive a membership card in the mail before renting.”

Of course, customers cannot actually pay for the car they’re renting with their CharlieCards, and only the specific CharlieCard of the renter will allow access to the rented vehicle. The CharlieCard feature simply lets the company identify that you’re there to rent the car. Users simply place the CharlieCard (or, alternatively, the RelayRides membership card) on the windshield above the dash and the RelayRides card reader inside will sense the unique signature of that card, unlocking it.

If you haven’t heard of RelayRides yet, you’re missing out on one of the hottest local startups launched in 2010.

The company officially launched this summer with a full-time staff of four, and the project was founded after Clark found himself pedaling past hundreds of privately owned cars on his way to a Zipcar he rented; biking to your rental car is not ideal, especially when there are so many cars in the city that go unused for long stints. He admits he’s a fan of Zipcar, but says he thinks RelayRides just makes more sense for some people.

For those of you concerned by the thought of renting your car to customers through the Internet, consider the fact that RelayRides kicks approximately 65% of the rental fee back to you. That can add up to as much as $8,000, says Clark, and even if you just rent your whip occasionally, you can use that dough to pay off your car faster or offset the cost of insurance.

Speaking of insurance, if you’re worried about putting your car in the hands of unknown motorists, Clark says don’t be.

“After over a year and a lot of work, we finally secured a $1M insurance policy that protects us, our car owners, and our car renters,” he says. “Securing the insurance policy was certainly the biggest challenge. This was uncharted territory, so we actually had to invent a new insurance product that worked perfectly for us. Finding a carrier to underwrite this was incredibly difficult as insurance companies are, by definition, risk adverse.”

Additionally, RelayRides provides 24-hour roadside assistance and phone support to renters, just like any other rental car agency.

Clark says renters love RelayRides because it’s straight-up cheaper than Zipcar, and there’s no annual membership fee. Most of the cars in the RelayRides fleet go for $6-$12 per hour. Plus, your selection is not nearly as limited as it is when you use Zipcar.

Says Clark: “We have enough cars to provide most people who live in Cambridge (and some surrounding areas) access to a car with less than a 10-minute walk. We only launched about a month ago and we’re adding new cars every week. This week we added a Honda Civic Hybrid, a Nissan Versa, a BMW Z4, and an Audi A4. So, we should continue to expand our reach and availability with every passing week.”

Because the operating costs for RelayRides are so much lower than those of Zipcar, the company looks like it has more potential for expanding into more dispirately populated regions of the United States. For now, it’s only available in Cambridge, but Clark says he hopes that will change over the next few years.

“Right now we’re completely focused on our operations in Cambridge,” he says. “We’re trying to learn how to run a great service that our members love. We’ll likely raise a Series A round of capital towards the end of the year, then begin to think about what other cities RelayRides would serve well.”

Clark says some RelayRides users are even renting out their own cars at the same time they rent a different specialty vehicle they need — like a van on moving day. These users are essentially trading vehicles for the day if they earn what they pay. It’s a use-case that gets to the heart of the community-centric model RelayRides operates on. When a customer gets into one of the privately owned vehicles in the RelayRides fleet, they’re met with a personal welcome letter from the owner about the vehicle. Clark calls it person-to-person sharing, and BostInno loves it because it’s all about the people involved in the transaction.

Give it a whirl. You might find yourself unlocking your neighbor’s car with your CharlieCard.

Have you tried RelayRides yet? What was your experience like? Is your car in the fleet? Tell our readers what you think in the comments section below.

To learn more about RelayRides, follow the company on Twitter or like it on Facebook.

Published bi-weekly by the media group that operates the Boston Phoenix and WFNX Radio, STUFF Mag is the go-to read for the Bostonian “trendsetter and tastemaker.”  Their summer feature is filled with mention of top innovators we’ve covered here on BostInnovation, alongside trends like the anti-Facebook movement, Shit My Dad Says, boat shoes, beer in a can, bike lanes and the KFC Double Down.

The 44-page cover story reads:

“We found the people, places, trend, and ideas that have passions burning around Boston …  We’ve distilled everything worth talking about (and tasting, wearing, watching…) into one feature that takes the temperature of the Hub.”

Congratulations to all the innovators in the Hot 100 – here’s a rundown of the companies BostInnovation has covered who also made the feature:

• Hot Way to Look Like a Mutant: The Vibram Five Finger shoes, which are toe-tally trendy
• Hot and Getting Hotter: Fort Point and the Seaport, the region we happily call the Innovation District
• Hot And (Maybe) Headed for Mainstream: iPads, with a shout-out to Raiz Labs, a local app developer
• Hot How We Like It: Custom Fashion Sites, with shout-outs to startups Gemvara and Blank Label
• Hot and Helpful: TaskRabbit, which connects people who need errands run with runners up to the task
• Hot Wheels: RelayRides, which is making car sharing a la Zipcar way more communal
• Hot Shop: Kazbah, with a shout-out to Karmaloop
• Hot App: Foursquare, with a shout out to HubSpot
• Hot News: Pinyadda, with a shout out to BostInnovation

We couldn’t agree more with STUFF’s Editorial Director Erica Corsano in her Letter from the Editor:

“As always, we’ve found Boston to be full of innovators and tastemakers – people who are launching utterly cool products, transforming neighborhoods, and setting trends with their forward-thinking.”

Make sure to pick up a free copy of the issue and congratulate all our Boston trendsetters!

What do you think of Stuff’s list? Did you find out about anything in that article you think BostInno should write about? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

The Greenway runs through the heart of Boston

The company helps equip communities with free or low-cost wireless. Co-founders Kenneth Carnesi and Jonathan Rust originally conceived of the idea after becoming sick of dealing with internet service providers and paying high monthly fees in college. Anaptyx is also the company behind the free wireless made available in Harvard Square two years ago.

“Harvard Square allowed us to be creative with the way we integrate technology into the city environment,” said Brendan Burroughs, the Chief Product Developer. Another exciting development for Bostonians is that Anaptyx is currently working with the City of Boston to set up wireless in the Boston Common.

According to Burroughs, studies have shown that one of the main things people look for when moving into a new community is data connection and whether wireless Internet is offered. “Wireless technology is now almost equivalent to heat and hot water,” said Burroughs. Many people are not even aware this option exists because it is such a new concept, so part of the challenge is educating the public, which Anaptyx have done by attending trade shows and condo board meetings.

The wireless Internet the startup provides is faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than that of traditional wireless providers such as Verizon and Comcast.

The company has created a product called Anaptyx Mesh that integrates wireless networks in large-scale apartment complexes and condo buildings. Its wireless networks are hosted remotely in a cloud rather than on a physical server. Managers log in to a website to manage and tweak the network. There are several advantages to this system including no additional equipment to purchase, no monthly leasing fee, and no setup. Additionally, using Anaptyx saves managers money since all residents are able to access the same network. Furthermore, Anaptyx monitors the network in real time and provides round the clock support.

In terms of core business, Anaptyx installs a 200 MB business class line into residential buildings, which is much faster than the 3 MB line residents would typically install and pay for on an individual basis. “It’s a no-brainer when deploying a wireless network on a large scale,” said Burroughs. “In the past, people have spent twice as much to get a similar quality on a lesser wireless network.” Residents also save money on their electric bills. A typical home network modem uses 30-48 watts of electricity. Each access point or router on Anaptyx only uses 7-14 watts of electricity. Furthermore, each access point can cover 3-4 apartments.

Anaptyx is also exploring solar powered wireless, which is currently used in Harvard Square and at the Greenway. Burroughs sees solar power as a way for companies to reinforce and solidify a “green image.” Anaptyx donated four wireless solar access points to fill in the gaps in service on the Greenway.

One of the biggest industry challenges, according to Burroughs, is providing a true mesh network that can operate on an 11n (currently the fastest) or higher data network. Phones and other services like cable cannot be offered on networks with g level (i.e. lower level) speeds. Over the past several months, Anaptyx has been researching and developing a 802.11 mesh product, which it hopes to release by the end of the summer. If successful, Anaptyx would be the first company to provide this technology to consumers and would be much more capable of competing with big service providers like Verizon and Comcast. However, it’s a race to the finish line since all providers are trying to be the first to develop networks that function at this faster speed.

What do you think about the company’s ability to leverage the cloud and network meshing to deliver more wide-spread WiFi connections? How will the mobile landscape change when WiFi is available in entire cities? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

For more on cloud computing and the wireless revolution in general, be sure to follow the Cloud Computing topic on Pinyadda.

For the first time, the museum plans to recognize recent innovations specifically by inventors in the New England area with its “Invented Here” event. Nominations are currently underway for the February 15^th event, where guests can expect to see everything from high-tech medical devices to household gadgets; the only requirement is that the invention be patented within the past five years, and developed in the New England region. The museum hopes that by casting a wide net for technology that is implemented and relevant, Invented Here will actively encourage inventive thinking in the Boston community as much as it delights and educates.

The format of Invented Here ventures into some new territory for the MoS, but Liz Callanan, Corporate Relations Manager and project leader, says that the concept has been almost two years in the making amongst museum leadership. Callanan has much to say about how occasions like Invented Here offer insight into some of the museum’s broader goals of being what she calls a “convener of innovation” for the region.

As Callanan explains it, the MoS seeks to offer “a valuable experience that can touch people’s lives” – one that emphasizes not just history but the excitement of what is happening here and now – so as to directly inspire a new generation of innovators. That transformation is enhanced by a sense of direct connection with inventors themselves. With this event the museum hopes to take that one step further by honoring inventors from the New England area to make them more relatable than ever.  To that end, she considers “Invented Here” an expansion of what the museum strives to be for the greater community.

Moreover, a focus on accessibility runs deep in the DNA of the organization. Though this competition represents an exciting pilot for the MoS, it turns out that this isn’t the first time the first time the museum has run challenges where inventors can volunteer their own work.

Because the museum has always sought to be as much a collaborative space as a curated collection, there is a history to this type of event, of which the roughly two-year planning of “Invented Here” is only the most recent iteration. Callanan even divulged that one such competition, one of the “Adventures Weekends” of the past, boasted current MoS Director Yannis Miaoulis as a participant.

In addition, the museum has drawn enormously on the broader community for support in preparing the event, reaching out to local patent attorneys, universities, technology firms, and media outlets – anyone with an ear to the ground in terms of what inventors are up to.  Callanan credits Mark Solomon of the Boston Patent Law Association with being particularly instrumental in bringing Invented Here to fruition; before pursuing a legal career path, Solomon studied engineering at Tufts with then-professor Miaoulis, and is “now pushing the project on behalf of Boston attorneys.”

Invented Here promises to be an awards event that also educates and inspires the curious – or, as Callanan puts it, “focuses on the ‘aha’ moment…[and] shows that inventing is addictive, that patent-holders are fountains of ideas.” She stresses that this is a pilot year from which Invented Here could evolve in any number of directions, but it appears that in any case, the MoS is continuing to creatively solidify its position as a neutral, inclusive gathering place for dialogue around science, technology and innovation in general.

Nominations for locally-created innovations to be showcased at Invented Here can be submitted in writing through a form found at this link until August 20.

What do you think about Invented Here? Are you going to attend? Please share your thoughts on this and other efforts by the Museum of Science in the comments section below.

Learn more about the Museum of Science by following them on Twitter and liking them on Facebook.

BWP consists of a three-person staff, led by Executive Director David McLaughlin, who act in concert as the core of a vast network of business professionals in the Boston area, called “Connectors.” These Connectors are dedicated to working with the BWP staff to foster economic growth through introductions and communication. The idea is to help companies expand into Boston and work with already-existing companies to remain rooted in the Boston community by helping them find new business in the region.

State Street: $100k to Boston World Partnerships

Today’s press conference will be held at the Mullen advertising agency offices — the local ad agency is just one new partner BWP is announcing.

State Street Corporation Chairman Ronald Logue will join Menino to announce the donation of a $100,000 grant from the banking giant.

“The Boston World Partnerships Connectors are changing the way business gets done in Greater Boston,” said Menino in the release. “We couldn’t be more proud to have this group as our ambassadors, sharing their expertise and contacts to help other businesses grow. The BWP formula is simple, but effective.”

BWP has conducted a sort of trial run in their first year in existence thanks to a $1M grant from the Boston Redevelopment Authority and $400,000 in seed funding from Proctor & Gamble. According to McLaughlin, The organization now boasts 175+ Connectors, all of whom receive nothing but social capital in return for their efforts. Additionally, BWP has been able to cull the herd in their first year, releasing some 40 Connectors for a lack of involvement.

The organization, it seems, has been able to convince nine new investors of its viability and ROI value by way of a series of case studies BWP conducted over the course of its first year, all of which will be detailed at today’s presser.

One case study focused on Rue La La, a local members-only Internet shopping network owned by Network Convergence, Inc., that’s grown in popularity incredibly of late. Apparently Rue La La executives were considering relocating the business outside of Boston, but with the help of BPW and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, were able to secure a new office space and stay in town. Since relocating in the city, Rue La La hired 100 new employees and anticipates the addition of 100 more in the near future. According to BWP, this single-case scenario will mean $14M in immediate salary for Bostonians employed by Rue La La.

As of right now, BWP estimates that the organization has created 362 jobs — 2.4 per Connector — through similar work so far.

Additionally, BWP reports aiding businesses in the United Kingdom and Turkey to bring new business to Boston, as well as guiding a Harvard University innovation curriculum into Boston’s public schools when the institution was considering launching the program outside of the region.

Boston World Partnerships operates on an annual budget of $500,000. We at BostInnovation hope the announcements made today will further catalyze other local businesses to invest in the project so it might continue to expand its efforts and reach within the city and abroad. As a publication dedicated to spreading news about the great emerging and established businesses in the region, we have seen the impact of BWP first-hand: One of our own contributing writers, Alexis Schroeder, is a BWP Connector, and her efforts to facilitate communication among businesses have been readily apparent to the rest of our team.

What do you think of Boston World Partnerships and its efforts to generate business for the city through direct social connections? Please share your thoughts on the organization and the new funding in the comments section below.

Casual Gaming appeals to a different demographic

I have a confession to make. I am a casual gamer, and, if I am being brutally honest, prefer solo action to anything social.

Trying to fit gaming time into my fast-paced 21^st Century existence can be a struggle. The constant demands of being available 24/7 either through my smartphone or the joys of constant Internet access means that the majority of my console access is taken up by short bursts of activity. Thirty minutes here and there — occasionally I treat myself to an hour of Batman: Arkham Asylum and if there is nothing pressing in my life I can lock myself away in Grand Theft Auto for an undetermined time.

Even when I get the chance to travel with my PSP, the limited battery life means that extended play is not always possible.

But are Casual and Social Gaming taking over Nation’s collective idea of what videogaming is all about?

My gaming time is precious and important to me. The chance to pick up and play on a daily basis is what matters and I make time to enter an immersive world at least once. However while I game on a casual basis, I am not a Casual or Social Gamer.

Recently, the casual gaming market has exploded into gaming consciousness. Hugely popular social games such as Farmville, Pet Society, Bejeweled Blitz and Mafia Wars have ensured that Facebook is quickly becoming a major player in the gaming industry. Some 80 million unique users are busy tending their crops and telling their friends when they have purchased a cow in Farmville, if you would rather be a fashion superstar or create your own superhero, then there are opportunities to do this too.

In Seattle this week, 3,000 developers descended upon Casual Connect 2010 to discuss the next steps in casual gaming and how best to continue to hook the public into a genre that relies on the simplicity of pick-up-and-play games. Companies such as Blue Fang Games in Waltham, Mass. — a traditional game developer — recently introduced Zoo Kingdom onto the social networking site and already have 1.5 million monthly users. Speaking this week, COO Scott Triola said that “Its just an additional revenue stream that can be used to support the business,” adding, “The ability to create and launch a game direct to consumers in a reasonable time frame with a level of resources we can self-fund makes this very attractive to us.”

Studies have shown that an estimated 200 million users play casual games online a month (although industry estimates put that figure to nearer 400 million), most of whom would certainly not consider themselves to be “gamers” in the traditional sense of the word. Facebook’s top 200 games reported 600 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) in April (Source: Edge Magazine, July 2010) and that is certainly an impressive amount of gaming traffic. The demographic of those playing games online differs greatly from the traditional hardcore player, with a predominance of female players and individuals who like to grab ten minutes of game-time either in the office or at school. Add into that figure the amount of people who play games on either their smartphones or other mobile media devices and the possibilities for games developers are seemingly endless.

Jon Radoff of locally-based Disrupter Beam sees that as a positive development and believes that “the social game environment is an interesting space for creating new types of game narrative, meaningful decision making and real character building over time.” He says he hopes “the whole idea of only ‘gamers’ play games is going out of society.”

The appeal of these casual/social games is obvious. They have simple gameplay, can be played using a one-button mouse or cell-phone keypad, require no long term commitment, allow the player to game in short bursts and, due to the low production values are comparatively cheap to produce and distribute.

But I still find this genre of the industry to be unedifying.

For me, the casual game is a low hanging fruit, inexplicably popular and capable of being quite irritating. I have numerous friends on Facebook who play Farmville, and being constantly told about their latest acquisitions takes up space in my day. Games on the iTunes store are unsatisfying and while they may give a quick burst of gaming, the apparent lack of story development and narrative means that the brevity of the experience is a turn-off.

However I am probably a lone dissenter.

Casual gaming is here to stay, and the social gaming space will continue to be populated by simple games that do not take up to much time. For the gamer that still wants to be transported to an another world, the immersive nature of MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft or locally-based Turbine’s Lord of the Rings will still draw the committed enthusiast. Moreover, the possibilities that exist through the online portals such as Xbox Live, Playstation Home or recently launched OnLive.com – which does boast BostInno fave title AaaaA – will ensure that the traditional gamer is not overlooked.

Who knows. maybe the people who only ever play Facebook games might decide to expand their own horizons and actually purchase a console. If that is the case, then the influence of social or casual gaming might benefit the entire industry as opposed to a single social network.

After all, the joy of gaming should not just be limited to those of us who prefer solitary pursuits.

What do you think about online Social Gaming’s rise? Is it bad for the scene for it’s non-traditional experience, or is it good for gaming because it’s getting more people involved. Let us know in the comments section below.

On Thursday, July 22, Kidoc LLC announced an exciting new product for iPhone iOS4 users: PlanHawk.

This mobile app fixes a serious problem many iPhone users face on a monthly basis: Exceeding their data plan coverage.

With the new AT&T capped data plans, users face the problem of going over their limit, and being charged excessive fees. PlanHawk’s $.99 application monitors the phone’s data usage, allowing people to avoid steep charges.

This application is especially useful to iPhone 4 users, who now can use HD video and stream rich media. These new features eat up data at an alarming rate, and could force you way over your limit very quickly without you knowing.

And honestly, do you really know how much data certain applications and functions take up? There is no sign that says, “HD video will use 25 MB in 30 minutes.”

This is where PlanHawk can help you start to understand what takes up data.

While PlanHawk does not monitor what each application uses, you can easily analyze what you have been using, and how it correlates to your recent amount of data usage.

The app doesn’t just monitor monthly, but weekly data usage as well. Along with that information, it provides the predicted amount of data you will use based on the amount used so far — that way you can change your plan if need be, before it’s too late.

PlanHawk will not only save you from going over your data plan by accident, but also help you decide what plan you need. The app provides the data plan they recommend using (if change is necessary), and the amount you would save if you switched, as well.

If you are an iPhone user with an unlimited data plan, you may find with PlanHawk you use less than the maximum one of the other plans offer. Doing this could save you up to hundreds of dollars per year.

Getting recommendations from an application is all well and good, but it is easy to forget to translate that into changing your account later on.

Fortunately, one of the best features PlanHawk added to their application is the fact that you can connect to your AT&T account right in the application. This allows you to put their recommendations into action immediately.

Don’t let AT&T’s new capped data plan get you down, because we think this $.99 application will allow you to avoid over usage, better understand the functionality of your phone, and save money by knowing your data usage.

Is this a application that will help you? Were you screwed by the recent change in AT&T’s data coverage? Let us know what you think about all this in the comments section below.