Tonight, March 13, 2012, at Capdeville from 5:30pm to 7pm, Michael Karnjanaprakorn (CEO/Co-Founder) and Abigail Besdin (BD/Partnerships) will be in town for New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week (If you haven't gotten the full scoop on NOEW, visit their schedule site and stare in amazement.) You can enroll in the "class" online here and enjoy some drinks with them after this afternoon's keynote speech.

Now, you might be asking yourself, what exactly is Skillshare and why should I care? Besides being highlighted by The New York Times, Forbes, TechCrunch, Mashable, and Wired, this New York startup gone national is fulfilling a niche that many have sought for a while: where can one market their skills and share with others like a teacher, but without the restrictions of universities and paperwork? Skillshare is like MeetUp, but tailored more towards the actual methods of teaching and learning rather than gathering for a variety of topics to discuss.

If you're looking to find out more information about Skillshare and what it can offer you, tonight is a perfect opportunity!

Dennis Warren Ross revealed during a recent Net2NO meeting that the city will release new datasets for people to work with at the event.  These datasets will allow developers, planners, and problem solvers to use city data for whatever project they will be working on.

Code For America Hackathon in New Orleans 2012

What Will The Hackathon Consist Of?

DAY ONE

Friday, Feb 24th: Kickoff Happy Hour at Capdeville

• 5pm: Registration, meet and greet
• 5:30pm: Releasing several new data sets from City Hall
• 6pm: Pitch potential project ideas
• 6:30pm: Form teams and mingle!

DAY TWO:

Saturday, Feb 25th: Hackathon at Launchpad

• 9am: Light breakfast (provided)
• 9:30am: Get to work!
• 1:30pm: Working lunch (pizza provided)
• 5:30pm: Time's up! Showcase your apps to our judges
• 6pm: Judging and prizes
• 6:30: Closing remarks
• 7pm: Afterparty at Capdeville

How Do I Register?

To register, check out http://codenola.eventbrite.com and see other that are going as well!

The state began cultivating IT-related economic development opportunities with GE in late 2010, and those efforts intensified in collaboration with local partners GNO Inc., the New Orleans Business Alliance and the New Orleans Mayor's Office in 2011 as GE Capital was conducting a nationwide search for its new IT Center of Excellence.

Mayor Landrieu Makes GE Capital Announcement

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, "GE's decision to bring 300 new, high-tech jobs to New Orleans is major coup for our city. GE is an international business leader, and this announcement is a decisive show of confidence in our city's business climate. I look forward to having a community partner here like GE that is rooted in renewing and strengthening our country's global competitiveness through innovation and manufacturing. This project adds to the momentum we have seen locally and is a product of the unmatched coordination and partnership between the city, the state, and local economic development agencies and private businesses, including GNO Inc., the New Orleans Business Alliance, and Ochsner."

According to LED, to secure the GE capital project, the organization had to develop a customized incentive package that includes a $10.7 million performance-based grant to reimburse certain costs associated with relocation, recruitment, office refurbishment, lease expenses and office equipment. Additionally, LED committed to provide $500,000 per year for 10 years to fund enhanced software development-focused academic programs in New Orleans to be provided by one or more Louisiana higher education institutions. These programs will be developed in a collaborative process including LED, GE Capital and higher-education leaders, with a focus on growing the future software development talent pipeline in the area. GE Capital also is expected to apply for the state's Quality Jobs incentive program.

We’ve all heard the stories of young entrepreneurs coming to the city wanting to start a new life.  Several initiatives such as the digital media tax credits, cost of living, the rich culture, the ease of setting up in New Orleans, and using the Internet to do business nationally has made the start-up community a booming industry. But one sector that has always raised eyebrows is technology start-ups being created in New Orleans.

Like regular start-ups, tech start-ups face funding and scalability challenges in addition to unique problems such as technical issues or having a viable digital product/service that sells.  Because of this, Launch Pad Ignition was created with the goal of helping tech start-ups get off the starting block and to the finish line.

What Is Launch Pad Ignition?

In layman’s terms, Launch Pad Ignition is an accelerator program for tech start-ups in New Orleans. There are many accelerator programs around the country and in different cities.  This program gives your company the opportunity to transform an idea into a working model that will become a resourceful tool for making money and creating jobs.  Launch Pad Ignition selects companies that have a high-growth rate and the ability to generate traction. This means companies with a plan or business model that grow quickly, become profitable, and reap the benefits of longevity.

The program uses mentors who are—in this respect—people who offer start-up advice in many different areas that will be useful to those who may have trouble launching their ideas. The program’s ultimate goal is to reach Launch Fest with the ability to demonstrate traction.  Launch Fest is a culmination event where each start-up gets to demonstrate their idea to mentors, the community, and others who aspire to create their own start-up.  The tech start-ups in this program are hand selected.  Out of 50+ applications, only seven made the cut.

2012 Ignition Class

Ask anyone who has ever started a business or been an entrepreneur and they will tell you the workload is far from easy. The outcome or finished product is presented to the public, while the hard work, time and dedication remain hidden. A start-up is risky, the founders have to be a little crazy, and it requires long hours of work and continuous learning.  Because this type of commitment goes unnoticed and hidden behind the scenes, we will follow seven tech start-ups for twelve weeks in a series of articles that cover what it takes to really create a successful tech start-up.  The articles will not only look at each company and their ultimate goals, but also the personal sacrifices that each company will make in order to see their dreams come to fruition.

With that said, let’s meet the 2012 Launch Pad Ignition Class:

If you'd like to meet the founders and here about their startups, you can attend the official announcement along with a new documentary about launching a startup called “Ctrl+Alt+Compete”

• Tue, Feb 14 5:30-7pm
• Launch Pad - 643 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70130
• More info & RSVP: http://ignitionpremiere.eventbrite.com/

“Our tactical plan hasn’t changed since last year and we are still committed to four goals” said Allen Square, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of New Orleans.  The tactical plan that Mr. Square is referring to includes stabilizing the city’s IT environment, building a strong foundation of IT staff, increasing value-added services, and creating a culture innovation.  Much of 2011 was spent stabilizing the city’s IT environment.  City IT workers had their hands full with everything from virtual servers that died to losing twenty percent of the city's e-mail system.  This meant that mission critical systems such as e-mail, payroll, and another applications had to be working efficiently before other projects could take place.

While the city has made considerable progress in their stabilization efforts, they still have a way to go.  Since 2010, the number of items on the city’s IT stabilization checklist has increased.

New Orleans City IT Stabilization Checklist - Credit: City of NOLA

Critical IT Projects for 2012

The city's ITI department has seven critical projects that it plans to undertake in 2012 which include:

• 311 Service:  The relaunch of the city's 311 service with a new website and improved call center.
• Unified Communications Upgrade: Upgrading all telecommunications infrastructure.
• PC Refresh:  The goal is to upgrade 500 to 700 computers in 2012.  336 computers have already been refreshed in 2011.
• Payroll:  Improving payroll services by outsourcing to a 3rd party vendor.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System:  A new financial and asset management system.
• E-mail:  Will outsource e-mail to Microsoft cloud.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity: Putting infrastructure in place to continue city operations during outages/disasters.

City of New Orleans 2012 Critical ITI Projects - Credit: City of NOLA

A More Toward Open Gov

Denice Warren Ross, Director of Applications for the City of New Orleans also talked about departments effort to make data more available to citizens.  She describes it as a slow and steady process toward "open gov" that will allow information that once resided only in city hall to be made publicly available.   One way that this is happening is though critical partnerships with organizations such as IBM and Code for America.  The IBM Smarter Cities project, which will be a three to eight year project, is helping the city build a data warehousing strategy to improve decision making for city staff and citizens.  A recent Code for America grant sent fellows to work with city IT for the next year on an application to address common problems such as blight.  There are also a couple of software as a service (SAAS) apps already provided by the city, which include Data.NOLA.Gov and an enterprise city calendar.

City Job Opportunities

Lastly, Lamar Gardere, Quality Control/Quality Assurance Manager for the ITI department talked about the importance of building a strong foundation of IT workers within city hall and not having to heavily depend on contractors.  In May 2010, a sizable portion of IT work for the city was done by outside vendors.  This trend has been slowly eroding away with more full-time employees taking over in these areas.  But the city is still looking for qualified IT workers in several fields to continue to build their team.

WEB (Contact: Eric Ogburn - epogburn@nola.gov)

• Content Editor for Nola.gov
• Web Application Developer to make easy-to-use tools to improve interactions between public & City Hall

DATA ANALYTICS (Denice Ross - dwross@nola.gov)

OPERATIONS (Eric Bergquist - ebergquist@nola.gov)

QUALITY ASSURANCE & CONTROL  (Lamar Gardere - lmgardere@nola.gov)

ENGINEERING (Ed Kerkow - edkerkow@nola.gov)

• 311 Operators, Supervisor, Trainer & Business Analysts supporting the Mar 26 launch
• Project Managers to lead traditional IT-centric projects

For more info on all city ITI jobs can by found on here.

Now that the “start your engine” cliché is behind us, let’s talk about Hack Dat; a code competition taking place in New Orleans on December 9th through December 11th.  Code competitions have become popular because they allow people to come together and create something with the help of others. Usually done in teams, the groups that is formed codes an application within a designated time frame for fame, money, or prizes (namely $1000 for first place and $750 for second place)

Hack Dat, will be a 48 hour code competition in which programmers, developers, designers and anyone else who is interested that can form teams to build a web application in order to win prizes.

Rules

All the rules can be found at http://hackdat.org/rules.html but the important ones to remembers are:

• Teams can be solo or up to 4 people
• No digital assets can be created beforehand (this includes ready to slice graphics, code snippets, etc)
• The application can make use of any non-paid and publicity available 3rd party web service
• Teams must be present on the night of Friday and the night of Sunday of the competition
• Judges will look at your work in the areas of completeness, usability, originality, and execution

More Info

If you already have a team in mind or if you would like to do it solo, you can register before the event.  Hack Dat will take place from December 9th at 6:00pm and last until December 11th at 6:00pm. The judging event will take place starting at 6:30 on the 11th at LaunchPad as well.

The actual event will be held wherever you are doing your work; in other words, there is no central location that you are required to be at for the duration of the contest. All we care about it that you show up for the judging event at LaunchPad at 6:30 on the 11th with an app in hand!

If you are a developer or programmer, chances are you've at least heard about Drupal. (If you haven't, its the third largest content management system available.) Well, New Orleans, we have the honor and privilege of hosting this year's Drupal summit, Drupal on the Bayou.

"It's a Drupal Summit, At a Casino, In New Orleans"

On December 8 and 9, developers from around the country will gather at Harrah's in the Central Business District, and Drupal is not playing down New Orleans' assets a single bit. For our of town visitors staying at Harrah's Hotel or surrounding accommodations, you are on the very edge of the French Quarter and the Mississippi River. There is no need to describe the French Quarter; to anyone, it is a place of legend. However, if you are looking for local shows and eats and avoiding touristy traps, the Historic Warehouse District boasts great bars and appetizing offerings at some of the best restaurants in the city. Github is even holding an event opening night at the Howlin' Wolf.

Visitors will also enjoy direct access to the streetcar and metro transit that can bring you to Frenchmen Street, Magazine Street, and more. The only sad thing I have to tell visitors is that the Apple Store is not located in New Orleans; this news surprises many, so come prepared or ready to take a cab to Metairie if you have Apple products in your arsenal.

The Details

Drupal and local developer communities have organized two days jam packed with tons to encourage participation. Keynote speaker, Angie "Webchick" Byron, kicks off the event on the morning of December 8. Byron is described as "a rock star in the Drupal World… Director of Community Development at Acquia, core co-maintainer for Drupal 7, recipient of the Google-O'Reilly Open 2008 Source Award for Best Contributor, co-author of the O'Reilly book Using Drupal, and an open source evangelist who lives and breathes Drupal." Not only does she boast amazing credentials in the world of development, but she also defies the stereotypical male developer role. It is rumored that she is an extremely helpful lioness.

Registrants can choose between different categories of sessions, or mix and match, based on what interests them: build, design, and business. The summit also offers a range of difficulty levels in sessions, from the newly trained to the wizened veteran. Offerings include Training Your Drupal Clients with Steve Burge, A Real Time Demonstration of Scaling Drupal 7 with Nathan Goulding, and many more sessions to fill your craving for Drupal studies.

Registration for both days is a measly $125.00, but summit participants are out for their own lunch. Student and funds are low? Register for free! Looking to learn Drupal or feeling like you need a refresher? LevelTen Interactive is offering preliminary training days before the event for a fee. On Monday, December 5, LevelTen will instruct novices in Drupal in a Day. Tuesday and Wednesday, December 6 and 7, delves deeper into Drupal 7 with a complete course on site building and best practices in developing with Drupal.

This year's Drupal on the Bayou promises to be an enlightening and promising summit for developers, local and from afar. For those of you who have not heard of Drupal or have had limited experience, you should consider taking this opportunity and attending Drupal on the Bayou to introduce yourself to new horizons. With Drupal's market share rising and boasting over 13,000 developers, Drupal offers a wide frontier of opportunities open for developers of any level to explore.

NODE’s plan focuses on three strategies: 1. Infrastructure development and the creation of a High- Speed Broadband Corridor. 2. Workforce Development and Training 3. Entrepreneurship and New Venture Development. With the creation of a High-Speed Broadband Corridor, it will open up communications across businesses and individuals located in that area with increased broadband speed. This could bring more creation in innovative applications. Workforce Development and Creation will help to begin to prepare residents for this emerging industry. New Orleans Video Access Center is a perfect example of proper training bringing individuals to work in New Orleans film industry. Also, with their strategy we could see more encouragement for individuals to start digital media business in New Orleans and learn this is an emerging, collaborative movement that is bigger than just the digital media incentives.

To stay in line with the long strategy plans to focus on business attraction, retention and expansion, and marketing. Of the most important in my opinion is the marketing. NODE’s goal is to position and establish New Orleans as a hub in the global network of the Digital Entertainment Industry. Operating at the intersection of the entertainment and technology sectors, NODE will build awareness of cluster businesses and of New Orleans as a hot spot of Digital Entertainment activity. What our Digital Entertainment Industry needs more than anything is a voice to make everyone aware of the talent and amazing projects in New Orleans. NODE has a great opportunity to establish this hub that could speak volumes to the world. NODE plans to focus on retention on digital entertainment companies here by providing them resources and developing opportunities to actively support the industry, which in term will aid in bringing new businesses to New Orleans.

To aid in their efforts NODE will work closely with the State of Louisiana Office of Entertainment Industry as well as other strategic partners. This project is an initiative of the New Orleans Business Alliance which is the official public private partnership for economic development in the City of New Orleans. Its mission is to grow jobs and wealth in the city with a focus on business retention, expansion, prospect engagement, negotiation, small business services, entrepreneurship and strategic planning. NODE ties directly into their mission by most importantly unifying and creating resources to thrive digital entertainment in the city.

The city was recently chosen to receive the fellowship grant for 2012. This grant will sent fellows to New Orleans, where they will work with city government, citizens, and the technology community to build a web application. The fellows will meet up in San Francisco in January 2012 to attend the Code for America Institute, and then proceed to New Orleans in February. In February, these fellows will learn how city government works, meet with community members, the developer community, and locals. For the next nine months, they will work to develop a solution to a problem area that the city has defined. Alissa Black, the Government Relations Coordinator at Code for America and the liaison for the New Orleans fellows sees a great opportunity to help the city move forward. “Our primary goal is to help build technology that makes government more efficient, transparent, and engages the community,” Black said.

What Will The Grant Provide?

During the application process of the grant, the city stated that it wanted a system to"allow community stakeholders to submit bulk information to the city about their neighborhood, view existing relevant city data, and receive statuses for each of the ongoing issues in their neighborhood". Many cities' already have systems like this in place. Residents in Portland, Oregon use a PDX Reporter Android App that allows them to report graffiti, potholes, plugged storm drains/inlets, street light outages, and park maintenance issues right from their mobile phone.

New Orleans wants to build something similar called the Batch 311 Reporting System where neighborhoods can submit lists of complaints and get back results that show the status of each, sending those that are not already being worked to the appropriate department to fix the problem. The focus will be on reporting lists of blighted properties, but the application will be adaptable to take in reports of broken street lights, abandoned cars, clogged catch basins, and more. Once the list of blighted properties has been uploaded, the addresses will be compared to addresses already in the pipeline for blight remediation. Those addresses not already in the system will be routed to the Code Enforcement & Hearings Bureau for inspection. The resident will receive back from the application the status of each property in their list.

How This Can Help Our City

The city has repeatedly said it would like to reinvest in a 311 service to provide residents with more tools that will make the city efficient. Many of these projects such as AskNOLA, NOLAStat, and eCity Hall are in the works. The Batch 311 Reporting System coupled with other public-related IT services could help citizens better communicate problems to city hall. “This competitive award and support will to allow us to enhance our work with neighborhood groups and individual residents in the fight on blight,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “I’d like to thank Code for America for choosing our city on this initiative. As we roll out 311 next year, the tools these fellows develop will continue to improve our customer service interactions and responsiveness with residents.”

The Design

I’ve reviewed many apps for New Orleans Tech, and some of them have been questionable when it comes to design. When this happens, I do my best to focus on the functionality of the app and how it will help the user. However, the Naked Pizza app is not only user-friendly, but the design is beautiful. It was built with design standards in mind: stunning topography, usability, and crisp images.

Start Screen

The start screen shows three boxes to begin your order, login for returning customers, begin making your pizza, or the option to learn more about the company. The app also asks you to turn on location services so it can select a Naked Pizza shop near your location.

Begin Your Order

When you begin your order, you can choose to start building, view favorite pizzas that are already built, and get extras such as salads, bread sticks, drinks, etc. Because I am not that familiar with Naked Pizza, I liked the “View Favorites” area. I was presented with six different styles of pizzas that had preselected bread, meat, and toppings. From there, I could select the pizza size--10, 12 or 14 inches--and proceed to checkout.

Recommended Pizza

Other Naked Stuff

In the “Other Naked Stuff” area of the app, I was able to choose from a range of sides and drinks. Selecting an item would allow me to add it to my current order or review my completed order once I was done.

Other Naked Items

Build Your Own

Picking my side items and having the app select a pizza for me was fun, but the entertaining part was when I had the chance to build my own pizza. Unlike most pizza-building apps, the Naked Pizza app uses simplistic 2D graphics during the ordering process. In my opinion, this made the app better than most because it was straightforward and very user-friendly. There are only three pages to build your pizza throughout the entire process. On page one, I selected my crust, sauce, and cheese. One page two I selected my vegetables. I noticed that there is a large variety of vegetable toppings, ranging from bell peppers to spinach. On the last page, I selected my meats--chicken, ham, hamburger, pepperoni-- and more cheese. Also, when selecting a topping, there is a sleek circle pop-up that allows you to place toppings on the left or right side of the pizza, the whole pizza, or enables you to add extra toppings if desired.

Selecting A Topping & It

Wrap Up

My two favorite geeks words are functionally and usability. The Naked Pizza iPad app excels at them both. If you are already a Naked Pizza customer, you’ll definitely want to use their app over and over. They just made ordering pizza fun again.