Monday, May 27, 2013

Steampunk therapy

Steampunk as art therapy for the autistic

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Unique carousel for a unique city

Flight of fancy

Newburyport, Haverhill artists creating a whimsical new carousel for children visiting Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway

Friday, May 17, 2013

The art of (and the marketplace for) notes

May 17, 2013
Startups & Venture Capital

Startup puts the art of note-taking on sale

Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

David Petruziello, pictured here at Fenway Park in the dugout, is co-founder and COO of Flashnotes, which offers an online marketplace for buying and selling college study materials.

 
Courtesy

There’s an art and a discipline to taking notes and studying. And just like anything, some people are better at it than others.
Boston-based Flashnotes aims to improve the learning experience by allowing college students to trade in a valuable commodity: study materials.
“This is students helping students,” said Dave Petruziello, the firm’s chief operating officer, who co-founded the company with Mike Matousek in late 2010. “That’s what’s been missing in education.”
Flashnotes lets students buy and sell course notes, flash cards, chapter presentations, videos and study guides. As a result, the company claims that 65 percent of users increase their GPA, determined through a case study it performed at John Carroll University in Ohio.
The startup is now actively marketing its service in six schools, but it’s also spread virally to 200 others, according to Petruziello.
“We’re leveling the playing field for college students, allowing them to find the materials they need for class so that their results go up,” he said.
At the same time, he noted, the site is also enabling students — who are often cash-strapped and will most likely face years of loan debt — to make money. The average selling price for a set of notes is $8.50, although he said he’s seen it go as high as $200 for highly specialized content.
Sellers set their own price and are encouraged to promote their materials. (The company keeps 30 percent of sales.) Like eBay, the site also has a crowdsourcing element, fostering ranking and rating.
Northeastern University student Craig Curelop said he has made about $800 over the past year using the service. A business administration student expecting to graduate in 2015, he has created study guides and flash cards to sell to classmates in three different courses (after seeking permission from instructors).
Ultimately, the process has helped him improve his grades, too.
“Naturally, as I make these flash cards and study guides, I am studying, as well,” he said. “With Flashnotes, I am forced to be proactive, make the study guides in advance, and really make sure I have a grasp on the material by the time the exams come.”
Petruziello declined to disclose the number of users of Flashnotes. But he said the site is growing every month.
Flashnotes, which currently has 16 employees, moved from Cleveland to Boston in late 2011. The startup is backed by $1.8 million from Atlas Venture and SoftBank Capital, along with angel investors including Michael Lazerow, Paul Sethi and Paul Tedeschi.
Flashnotes is currently in the process of extending that round to receive more equity funding, Petruziello said. The company is also working on partnerships with plagiarism checker Turnitin.com and education technology company Blackboard, and is pursuing various incentives and promotions — such as concert tickets — for its most active and successful sellers.

Original story link here.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Walking to learn

Walking tours tell local lore, history

Monday, May 6, 2013

Navigating the healthcare system, one program at a time

Nonprofit provides path to health services, savings

Friday, May 3, 2013

(Not just) playing around

May 3, 2013
Startups & Venture Capital

Brass Monkey & Infrared5: Startups make play for interactive games

Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal  

Husband and wife Chris Allen, CEO of Brass Monkey, and Rebecca Smith Allen, CEO and creative director of Infrared5, at their Jamaica Plain location.
W. Marc Bernsau

These days, people don’t just want more interactive experiences from their devices and technology. They expect them.
With that in mind, the goal of Jamaica Plain-based Infrared5 and its spinout Brass Monkey is to bring digital interaction to a whole new level. The separate companies have been co-founded and run by husband-and-wife team Chris Allen and Rebecca Smith Allen and their business partner Dominick Accattato.
Infrared5, a digital consulting firm founded in 2007, has worked with the likes of Lucasfilm, Hasbro and Match.com to create more-immersive digital experiences. Meanwhile, Brass Monkey, founded in 2010, offers technology that transforms a smartphone into a video game controller while turning a computer screen into a video game console.
“The goal is to continually innovate,” said Chris Allen, who serves as CEO of Brass Monkey and president of Infrared5. “We’re not the Navy, but the Navy Seals. They’re specialized and the best at what they do.”
Although the two companies share an office and management, they are operated separately, according to Rebecca Smith Allen, who is CEO of Infrared5 and a board member of Brass Monkey.
Infrared5, for instance, which has 15 employees, was funded by its founders, while Brass Monkey, with five employees, is backed by $750,000 in seed funding from more than a dozen prominent angel investors.
Of course, there is some overlap and cross-pollination, Rebecca Smith Allen said, particularly when it comes to technology and manpower resources.
In addition, members from both companies took part in Intel’s recent seven-week Ultimate Coder Challenge. The teams together created a game called “Kiwi Catapult Revenge” making use of perceptual-computing cameras, which can recognize images, gestures and voices. Ultimately, they lost out to Los Gatos, Calif.-based Sixense, but plan to release a playable version of their game.
Still, overlap seems only natural, as one company morphed from the other. Brass Monkey was born while Infrared5 was working with Lucasfilm and THQ Wireless for the browser-based and iOS game “Star Wars: Trench Run.” An employee was working on a side project using an iPhone to remotely-control helicopters; the company decided to take that a step further and create an emulator, which was later applied to the game.
Today, Brass Monkey users can browse games on its website; the company also provides a free software kit that allows developers to create games with similar features to consoles such as the Xbox and Wii. Brass Monkey earns revenue by charging for some of the games on its system and plans to soon launch a subscription service that will give players access to certain games for a monthly fee, Chris Allen said.
“The vision is certainly to become a world-class entertainment system,” Chris Allen said.
Infrared5, meanwhile, specializes in designing and developing games, interactive applications, 3-D experiences, media streaming, and collaboration tools for web and mobile platforms. Recent projects include a system allowing Match.com members to determine their chemistry by playing real-time games and a sensor-equipped batting cage for Tyngsborough-based SmartSports.

Original story link.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Check out the new Artscope

My story on Ken Gross' exhibit, "Lost Maps of Norumbega" at Monkitree gallery in Gardiner, Maine, appears in the newest issue of Artscope Magazine. Read an excerpt below. And check out Monkitree here.

Ken Gross: Lost Maps of Norumbega
Taryn Plumb
 


Monkitree
263 Water Street
Gardiner, Maine
Through May 25

A red line makes straight but shaky progress across a backdrop of solid green. Tendrils and ribbons of sand, shaped and shifted by the sea, resemble the roaming roots of a tree. A river, streams branching off in curious coils, embraces a forest before tumbling into the ocean.

This is Maine as Ken Gross experiences it, in a series of works that meld cartography and art. On display in the show “Lost Maps of Norumbega” at Monkitree gallery in Gardiner through May 25, the pieces represent his various physical and emotional explorations of the state, while also hinting at the gaps in the terrain of our minds.

In a statement, Old Orchard Beach resident Gross said, “Maps are pieces of art because each one is loaded with meaning. Usually they answer the question, ‘Where is?’ But art asks a different question, ‘How does it make you feel?’”

Read the entire article in our magazine pages...