Digest #17

On my wish list:
+ Writers/journalists/bloggers who'd like to write about local tech events and companies.
+ Sponsors.
Please let me know if you're interested, or know of someone who might be.

Thanks,

Sara Isenberg, Curator, producer, editor

Santa Cruz Tech Beat: http://santacruztechbeat.com

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News:

Santa Cruz broadband policy overhaul moves ahead, despite divisions
"Santa Cruz County supervisors approved an eight-month time line today for rewriting plans and rules regulating new broadband infrastructure. Originally proposed by Aptos supervisor Zach Friend, the goal is a comprehensive set of policies that shortens the approval process and ensures that broadband is an integral part of future new construction projects."

Velvetwire launches Kickstarter campaign for Powerslayer product
From Jennifer Lee and Eric Bodnar: "We started with an everyday mobile charger and made it smart. We embedded an advanced system for eliminating energy waste and optimizing battery performance. The software knows to power down when devices are charged and power back on when they're not - delivering energy only as needed. Just plug in and Powerslayer does the rest."

5 questions with gaming legend Graeme Devine of GRL Games
'Mobile games gives me an opportunity to get some of the 80s feeling back in game development, short game cycles with small teams. Halo Wars was 4.5 years with 120 people. Now it's just me in a co-working office in downtown Santa Cruz!"

Free Intellectual Property workshop on Thur, Nov 14, 11:45am-1pm

IP Attorney Pat Reilly will talk on patents, trademarks, copyrights as part of the Small Business Brown Bag Series in the upstairs meeting room at the Downtown Branch Library.

Hilltromper celebrates launch of National Geographic's new "Trails Illustrated map of Big Basin/Santa Cruz Parks and Preserves" on Thur, Nov 14, 6pm
"This was a complicated map to make," says David Jay, vice president of sales and marketing at National Geographic, "much more complicated than, say, Yosemite." Event takes place at Hotel Paradox.

NextSpace founders win Entrepreneurs of the Year honors, David Haussler wins Man of the Year honors, and more
"...Jeremy Neuner, Ryan Coonerty, and Caleb Baskin launched a new way to work in fall 2008 and exported their brand of co-working to Culver City and Venice Beach near Los Angeles; Union Square, Potrero Hill and SOMA in San Francisco; San Jose, Berkeley and Chicago." "David Haussler led the team that first mapped the human genome at UCSC."

Stone Soup Magazine -- by kids, for kids ages 8 to 13 -- releases new app for iPad and iPhone

"Stone Soup Magazine was founded in 1973 for the purpose of encouraging children to read, write, and draw by showcasing their best stories, poems, book reviews, and artwork in a high quality literary magazine. Stone Soup has published more than 10,000 pages of creative work by children. Stone Soup was founded and continues to be based in Santa Cruz."

Backdrop CMS founding forkers explain why they split from Drupal
Darren Odden blogs about recent monthly Drupal Users Group meeting presentation.

Civinomicon seeks to fix public discourse, and gears up for Civinomicon, Nov 15-17
"Robert Singleton and Manu Koenig are trying to take city discussions in a different direction. Their startup tech company is hosting an event they're calling Civinomicon, which sold out early-Singleton and Koenig already raised the capacity three times to 125 people."

Fighting crime in a new era of Predictive Policing

"Data-analysis techniques first developed by retailers to predict their customers' behavior are being adopted by police forces across the country, and they're seeing encouraging results."

Santa Cruz Chamber sums up Oct 27-28 Community Leadership Visit (CLV) but says stay tuned for more
"The focus of the CLV was to engage participants from government, education, and business in a shared experience focusing on innovation with the goals of strengthening personal relationships across institutions and developing a shared narrative about the economic opportunities in our community."
Chamber's data available for download. View demographics and economic conditions in Santa Cruz County [PDF] This is the report shared with CLV attendees.

Noteworthy, but not brand new

New device harnesses sun and sewage to produce hydrogen fuel A novel device that uses only sunlight and wastewater to produce hydrogen gas could provide a sustainable energy source while improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment.