It’s not a direct response to Vivek Wadhwa’s Boston = No. 2 post on TechCrunch the other day, but Jeff Bussgang offers up a nice counterpoint on his blog through the magic of slides, embedded above.
Among the pluses, Bussgang cites the usual suspects — apparently we’ve got some good colleges around here? — but also a few bonuses you don’t usually see listed: Boston Beer Co., maker of Sam Adams; plenty of quality companies from which to poach employees; and winter, which he markets as “four seasons of fun.”
Awardee Scott Kirsner posted his take on the proceedings last Thursday night, and we did, too. Above, view a gallery of confused — and maybe a little scared — party-goers awkwardly staring you right in your face courtesy of Greg Peverill-Conti. After the jump, check out a slideshow of the All-Star scene featuring more than just bewildered heads. (more…)
To mark the Internet’s 40th birthday yesterday, the Guardian traces the history of the Internet with a dense interactive timeline. Popular Science covers the same ground via text and photos.
Last week, Mass High Tech asked Leo Beranek, “the second B in BBN,” to sit down with MassTLC chair Steve O’Leary, in an exclusive dialogue about Beranek’s career in technology and entrepreneurship. The interview took place at the Harvard Club in Back Bay in anticipation of MassTLC giving Beranek its Commonwealth Award. In the clip above, Beranek talks about BBN’s role in developing the ARPANet, the forerunner of the Internet.
Keep an eye out for the more video of the interview and a complete transcript running on MHT soon.
TechCrunch reports StudentBusinesses.com, a social network for student entrepreneurs, has been bought by the Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs.
MHT talked to StudentBusinesses in March 2008, when it was using its platform to host the Harvard College Innovation Challenge and other college business plan competitions.
The startup-focused startup was founded by Harvard alumni Vivek Ramaswamy and Travis May. Financial details haven’t been reported; we’re waiting on a reply to an email for details.
BUToday notes the arrival of BigBelly Solar’s fancy garbage can today, with an animated feature explaining how they work. The school is adding 20 of the solar-powered trash compactors to the three already on its campus.
As many as 400 tech-minded students, bankers, lawyers, investors and entrepreneurs took to Boston’s streets in the drizzle last Friday afternoon in the Quest for Innovation.
The fundraiser and community-building exercise sent just over 100 teams scrambling through the city on a technology-themed scavenger hunt powered by Boston-based Scvngr Inc.
The event’s beneficiaries include four youth-focused entrepreneurial non-profits: NECINA Youth Entrepreneurship Service, TiE Young Entrepreneurs, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s New England chapter, and Youth CITIES. A fifth beneficiary will be chosen by the winning team, which hailed from the DartBoston young entrepreneurs’ group.
“You had entrepreneurs, VCs and lawyers competing against each other — and then you had entrepreneurs, VCs and lawyers on the same team,” said Seth Priebatsch, the founder and CEO of Scvngr. “On a rainy afternoon, you might have expected a low turnout from a different group.”
Priebatsch said Scvngr’s metrics showed an unusually high rate of participation in the activity. The company develops mobile-phone-powered scavenger hunts for events. All the teams did well on the questions, and the top 10 were all within 10 points of one another — a metric that shows all the teams got involved, he said. “Numerically speaking, everyone had a great time.”
Highland Capital Partners’ Michael Gaiss initiated the planning for the sold-out event. Sponsors included Deloitte, Foley Hoag LLP, Mass High Tech, Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center, the Museum of Science, Polachi Access Executive Search, Silicon Valley Bank, the UMass Venture Development Center, Wilmer Hale and Xconomy.
In August, Bao sold his first startup, Avecora, and launched a new company called AtomPlan, which makes a business contact management application. He has also co-founded Ramamia, a photo-sharing service for families.
Bao told MHT about his goals in May: A personal net worth of more than $5 billion, to help people who can’t help him, to enjoy life without boundaries and to change the world. For more proof he’s not messing around, check out his enjoyably profane Twitter stream. From the Startup Bootcamp @ MIT:
Chatting with a speaker afterwards? Keep your f______ chat to < 3 min and < 3 questions. G__ damn. #sb
On the Daily Show, William Kamkwamba talked about building an electricity-generating windmill for his family’s farm in Malawi, using a library book as a guide, at the age of 14. He’s since presented at TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania, and wrote a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
Toward the end of the interview, Kamkwamba explains how he found out about Google, at the TED conference: “I was like, ‘Where was this Google all this time?’”
Tonight is Game 1 of the Red Sox’ five-game divisional series against the Angels, which creates two near-certainties: Another Sox/Yankees ALCS; and “worker productivity” becoming an oxymoron at offices throughout New England tomorrow. This thing doesn’t start till 9:37 p.m., for Hendu’s sake, and postseason baseball tends to go well with alcohol.
But what baseball taketh away, it can also giveth, or whatever. The sport has inspired some nifty innovations in analytics, robotics and … let’s call it life sciences.
MIT News Office photo
• In spring training, the Sox, who even give their IT guy World Series rings, supplemented hitting coach Dave Magadan with the MIT Media Lab, naturally. For the last few years, researchers from the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments Group, has been strapping sensors to minor leagers while they’re batting at the Sox camp at Fort Myers. The info from accelerometers and gyroscopes could provide insight on differences in swing mechanics during a hot streak or a slump.
• Using an arm developed at MIT, University of Tokyo researchers have developed baseball-playing robots that could make the Fall Classic either more interesting, or entirely pointless, to watch. Think of all the time and money the Sox would save on scouting, not to mention free agency. And J.D. Drew would presumably be injured far less often if he were a robot. (more…)
Use of, registration on, this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement.
Please read our Privacy Policy (updated) A publishing partner with Portfolio
BUToday 
As many as 400 tech-minded students, bankers, lawyers, investors and entrepreneurs took to Boston’s streets in the drizzle last Friday afternoon in the 
RSS Feeds
