Teen Tech Day Coming to New Orleans in April!

A organization I truly love and work with is NewOrleansTech.net.  NewOrleans Tech.Net is a hyperlocal news media organization that was founded to highlight the tech movement that is going on in the city.  Our purpose is to highlight groups, meet ups, events, and provide information that make our readers think about technology in different ways.  We want people to know that there is a vibrant tech community here in New Orleans with programmers, developers, and tech entrepreneurs.  It’s our culture that makes us unique and different from everyone else in the world.We have three initiatives that come out of our organization which are the website, our tech podcast, and our community outreach projects.

A project I have worked on that is truly dear to my heart is called Teen Tech Day! Teen Tech Day will be a one day event tailored toward youth in New Orleans, exposing them to technologies such as web design, programming, photography, podcasting, videography, and game development.  Our goal is to take twenty-five teenagers between the ages of 14 – 17 and get them excited about technology as a hobby, passion, or even a career.

We are doing this because we love technology and we want to pass this on to the next generation.  Many of our youth are only exposed to technology through computers and social media websites, but they can learn so much more.  Technology also has areas of math, science, and engineering that can spawn jobs and careers for young people.  Tech Teen Day will encompass interactive workshops and talks from various technologist in and around the New Orleans community.

When Will It Happen

April 9th, 2011 from 9AM to 3PM
Continental Break, Lunch, & Snacks will be provided

Where Will It Be?

3400 Tulane Avenue, Suite 1000
New Orleans, LA 70119

How Can I Get Involved?

Parents & Guardians

As stated above, we will only accept a handful of youth for Teen Tech Day.  Our hope is that we can grow the number of attendees every year so that no one gets turned down.  Parents or guardians can fill out our Tech Teen Day application orprint it out and mail it to us before 5:00 PM on March 25th, 2011.  Team members from New Orleans Tech will review each application based on the willingness to attend the conference.

Volunteer

If you wish to volunteer to help us with the event, please contact us and let us know.

Donate!

Help us by contributing just $5 to help NewOrleansTech make Teen Tech Day a success! Your donation will go towards: The conference location, Food for youth and speakers, Educational gift bags for students, Equipment, Liability Insurance, Misc. Items (Nametags, pens, signs). Donate Here

BarCamp NOLA creates: closingthenolagap.org

On July 18, 2010, more than 80 members of New Orleans' tech community gathered with local educators to create Closingthenolagap.org. The techies were participating in the community project portion of BarCamp NOLA 2010, a two-day event of presentations, socializing and learning.

Local organizer Matt Candler expressed a need to create a rallying issue for New Orleans educators and a way for them to network and share ideas. He described the New Orleans achievement gap, pointed to its optimistic trends since 2005, and voiced the goal of closing this gap completely.

FULL STORY

BarCampNola 2010

BarCampNola 2010 arrives to New Orleans for the third year on July17th.  The "un-conference" will feature workshops and presentations from its attendees on a wide range of technology oriented topics.  BarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences around the country.  As the technology industry increased in New Orleans, the popularity for more resources and networking became of importance.  With the expanding popularity of such organizations as NetSquared New Orleans, along with technology leaders and entrepreneurs representing the local community, the need for such conferences became imperative.

This conference will provide high level content from local experts ranging from topics on techies participation in the Nola Bio Med and Film Industry to SEO Basics and much more.  In addition to learning from Gulf Coast geeks, attendees will get a chance to create a project helpful to the local community.  Last year BarCampNola attendees built Nola School Volunteers website in one day. To find out more check out Barcampnola.org!

First Annual Technology Road Show

The Louisiana Technology Council in cooperation with Louisiana Economic Development (LED),presents it First Annual Technology Road Show to educate and create a greater awareness of the technology initiatives going on in other cities  and State ; AND to help Louisiana businesses work more closely together.  Louisiana is one of the leading states in high-tech employment across the country and our objective is to educate people on what is going on in various regions of our State.

Sponsored by ORACLE CORPORATION and COX BUSINESS

N.O. tech leaders aim to impress Google, secure fiber network for city

It's a competition between small to medium sized cities across the country to secure faster -- much faster -- Internet access than is already available.

People in the New Orleans technology community believe it could lead to major computing advances, and even spark economic development.

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Bring Google fiber to New Orleans

Bring Google fiber to New Orleans from Andrew Larimer on Vimeo.

Video Games Live trying New Orleans concert for PBS again

Video Games Live plans to record a show on April 1 (no joke) in New Orleans to be aired on PBS stations in July. As this is going on the tee-vees, special guests and spectacle are planned. Ralph Baer will play Pong against an audience member on stage, with the symphony providing the sound.

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Editorial: The NOLA SXSWi 2010 Experience

We are usually confined to a handful of experiences in our entire lifetime. These experiences are usually that are inspiring and life changing. This year I shared an experience with a group from New Orleans that did just this. A group that headed to Austin, TX for a tech conference called South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) with the city on their shoulders and something to prove. I’m humbled to give you an inside look at what we shared on our trip.

A Band Of Local Tech Geeks Determined To Take Over Austin

The SXSWi NOLA trip kicked off on March 11, 2010 but the spirit of the trip is deeply rooted in last year’s experience in 2009 when locals from within the tech group Net2NO went to Austin, TX to support Matthew Tritico & Chris Schultz who were presenting on a panel. Last year’s trip was the catalyst that set off reactions which caused the New Orleans technology community to blossom into what it is today: strong, vibrant, and rapidly growing. This year was about continuing the tradition of taking a road trip style journey from New Orleans to Austin to become ambassadors for the city.

Full Story on NewOrleanstech

New Orleans Could Become Digital Hub Of U.S. With Google's Help

It offers faster Internet service and a chance to be the digital hub of the country.

That’s why cities across America are competing hard for Google's new fiber optic network that promises to be 100 times faster than current Internet connections.

The company is looking for a test city for its improved internet network.

Several tech experts want New Orleans to be in that number.

Now, the push is on to sell the Crescent City to the Google family.

Andrew Larimer of Net Squared said if New Orleans gets the option, the city would essentially become the digital hub of the United States.

That's why many people are pushing for Google to test out its system in the Big Easy.

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New Orleans Wants to be a Variable in Google’s Gigabit Internet Experiment

Google announced February 10th on “The Official Google Blog” that it plans on conducting an experiment that will bring gigabyte fiber-to-the-home to select towns across the United States and has made an open request for information (RFI) to interested municipalities . Google’s goal is to deliver fiber-to-the-home connections to between 50,000 and 500,000 people at a competitive price. According to a 2009 report produced by Speed Matters, a project of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Union, the United States ranks 28th worldwide in average Internet connection speeds and 15th in Internet adoption among industrialized nations. Louisiana’s average download speed registered at 6.3mbps. While slightly faster than the nations average speed of 5.1mbps Louisiana’s revealed a significant digital-divide in high speed Internet connections.
What does this all mean?

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My Mardi Gras Experience: Not All About Beads & Body Parts

Crazy Wild Parties.  Boobs.  Bourbon Street. Drink ‘Till You Drop.  If somebody was playing the word association game with Mardi Gras, you’d probably hear the following words or phases pop up.  For locals, the Mardi Gras atmosphere is second nature.  I’ve never missed a Mardi Gras season in my life so things like nudity, public drunkenness, and other crazy acts aren’t out of character during this time of year.  But this has also painted a picture for out-of-towners that they may not be so fond of.

Tom Martin, President of Zender Communications wants to create an “experience” to combat this.  His plan rides on his own experience with the way social media can change people’s perception about something.  Last Mardi Gras, Tom used his cell phone to send out tweets and photos to people that could not participate in the festivities.  But instead of showing the X rated version of carnival that so many people hear of, he showed the family side of Mardi Gras. The side that welcomes families, promotes southern hospitality, and the feel good aura of the season.  He wanted to change the brand perception of what people thought about Mardi Gras because most people base it off what they hear or read.

FULL STORY AT NEWORLEANSTECH.NET

NOLA Volunteers Ban Together To Create Tech Tools For Haiti

No one has been immune to the recent news about the devastating earthquakes that rocked Haiti.  Support in the form of money, clothes, and food have already poured out to aid the the nation.  But technologist across the country have found an unique way to support the disaster.  Under a cause called Crisis Commons programmers, developers, and everyday volunteers have united together to use their skills for good.  Crisis Commons spawned from talks that happened at Transparency Camp 09 and Government 2.0 Camp.  Several “campers” exchanged ideas about how to better connect people, utilize social networks, and disseminate information through the use of technology, especially during times and places of crisis.

Full Story At NewOrleansTech.net 

LaunchPad TV: New Season, New Focus, New Hotness

After a successful run of nearly 29 web episodes, LaunchPad TV is back on January 8th for a new season with more focused goals.  LPTV originally came from the brains behind LaunchPad NOLA, a collaborative working space.  It began as an experiment with the goal of creating a campfire that the community could gather around and celebrate what was happening in NOLA.  Every Friday LPTV would host a 30 minute web show focused on entrepreneurs, tech, the arts, and music. 

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InvadeNola Issue 2

"Of course I can keep secrets, its the people I tell them to that can't."

In the second issue of INVADENOLA, we delve deeper into the dark underworld of secrets.

Kat argues the most pertinent question of the year: Should I friend my coworkers on Facebook? Shercole hips us to the 4 websites she can’t live without right now. And Lizzie looks into the underworld of pop music that we both love and are secretly ashamed of.

Click to read: http://www.invadenola.com/

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INVADENOLA is the hip indie New Orleans online magazine. We are the NEW New Orleans

IgniteNOLA: Spreading The Knowledge Of Innovators

It’s one thing to love what you do.  It’s another to be passionate about what you do.  So passionate that you would tell each person you run into, every single day of your life.  For a handful of speakers, that’s the environment IgniteNOLA provides.  The idea behindIgniteNOLA is nothing new.  Speakers have 5 minutes, 20 slides, and 15 seconds in between each to ignite the audience about a topic they are passionate about.  Not just any topic, but informative, witty, and interesting topics.

By NewOrleansTech.net

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2010 Brings New Enhancements For NOLA Tech

Yes, just like you we have our own resolutions for the new year.  Our hope is that we can continue to bring you quality information about local New Orleans technology news. Read about some of our enhancements for 2010!
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Nola Tech Social Night Friday at Whiskey Blue!

Come join us on December 4th, from 6pm to 8pm at Whiskey Blue for our NOLA Tech Social Night.

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NOLA City Council to Launch Redesigned Website and Live & Archived Streaming Video of City Council Meetings

The New Orleans City Council will hold a news conference and demonstration to launch the Council's redesigned website, NOLACityCouncil.com and NOLA GOV. Online, live and archived streaming video of City Council meetings.

From NOLA City Council Website

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Will Wright in New Orleans: Perception Is Everything

NEW ORLEANS -- Game designer Will Wright addressed a crowd of nearly a thousand SIGGRAPH attendees this morning in the city's riverfront convention center. And while Wright's track record of game creation -- actually, he prefers the term software toy -- doesn't put him directly in the sights of virtual world aficionados, there's been enough cross-pollination between entertainment sectors recently which have included virtual worlds, it seemed sacrilege not to attend Wright's presentation.
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Net2NO 1st Year Interview (Courtesy of NewOrleansTech.Net)

Net2NO 1st Year Interview from NewOrleans Tech.Net on Vimeo.