Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
On Friday, State CIO Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia and the Office of the Governor called together several community stakeholders to update them on their ongoing initiative to transform government. The presentation came just as the state selected Socrata for its open data platform. Contrasted against the passage of SB2858, it made...
“Explore” is the theme of this year’s Springfest event, one of two signature annual gatherings of the Hawaii Macintosh & Apple User Society (HMAUS). Taking place on the campus of Kapiolani Community College, Springfest is a free, casual conference that offers presentations and workshops inspired by Apple technology. Topics include...
Startup Weekend Honolulu went down over a 54-hour jam session in Kakaako, in conjunction with other Startup Weekend events happening around the world. The goal? To pitch, design, code and launch a startup in less than three days. The event was hosted at The Greenhouse Innovation Hub on Auahi Street. On...
I love Twitter. It’s a fast and efficient social network and status stream based on short messages. And today, the Hawaii-based team at Shacked Software released an app that pairs Twitter’s modern, real-time stream of news with some vintage, old-school technology. TeleTweet [iTunes link] is a Twitter client that unearths...
Yesterday brought the fifth-annual Unconferenz, held at Kapiolani Community College. The event is a great grass-roots geek gathering, and one that has developed a reputation over the years of fostering connections and sparking ideas that have gone on to create real change in the local tech community. This year’s Unconferenz...
On the national front, we had the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), beaten back by a massive groundswell of opposition from major internet firms and grassroots geeks alike. Here in Hawaii, a proposed law that would have required internet service providers to track and save user data for two years...
A total of six teams participated in Honolulu’s first civic hackathon this past weekend, each developing anapplication that takes advantage of public data made available online by the city. The top three teams won cash prizes provided by the hackathon’s sponsors, and two of them focused on TheBus and its web...
Gov. Neil Abercrombie yesterday delivered his second “State of the State” address before the Legislature. And technology was one of the priorities he singled out as key to the state’s long-term future. He mentioned the Hawaii Broadband Initiative, consolidation of disparate state systems under the Office of Information Management and Technology,...
This year is looking to be a big year in open data, e-democracy, and Gov 2.0. More information is coming online, and more people are thinking of ways to use it. Among the most interesting areas is in mapping and location-based applications.
Nearly 150 people — including both city and state government officials and employees, as well as local programmers, designers, artists, and activists — were drawn to CityCamp Honolulu on Saturday. Even though it was the weekend, and even though there was a UH home game on the calendar, it was heartening to...
It was over a year ago when “Bartleby’s Book of Buttons,” a delightful digital storybook for iPad, hit Apple’s App Store. Created by Hawaii-born artist Henrik Van Ryzin and his wife Denise, I found the app to be a delightful, wonderful digital storybook for the iPad. That first release was dubbed...
Two middle school students from Kailua and Hilo represented the Aloha State in a national science competition earlier this week. Winners and finalists in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade from across the country attended at a black-tie gala at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C on Tuesday. Robert...
Check out this real-life “Angry Birds” game, set up by local tech company HONBLUE (and sister company JET Graphics) yesterday at the Pacific Building Trade Expo. “Angry Birds” is one of the hottest, biggest video games out there, and it was inevitable that people would start to recreate it in...
Kids love iPhones (and iPads). And kids love YouTube. The problem is, there are a lot of videos on YouTube that aren’t meant for kids. Among geek parents, it’s a nearly universal challenge, usually involving “helicopter browsing.” And it’s safe to say parents don’t always relish the prospect of watching...
Local developer and dad Mattias Atterbom has designed an iOS app to help solve a familiar family shopping challenge: remembering how old everyone’s children are. Described as “the perfect app for anyone buying gifts for kids,” Kiddori ensures that you always have the ages of your nephews, nieces, and friends’...
Honolulu-born web entrepreneur Eric Nakagawa is back in town, laying the groundwork for his next internet startup with partner Joyce Kim. Called “Simple Honey,” there are few details on what exactly what the company will do, although Nakagawa has described it as a “high profile travel project.” The “About” page tagline reads, “Making...
A federal program to train government employees, first responders, and other disaster response personnel in the use of services like Twitter and Facebook got its first trial run yesterday. The Hawaii-based National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) held a pilot demonstration of its course titled “Social Media for Natural Disaster...
In an effort to help strengthen the local software development community, the High Tech Development Corporation (HTDC) and Blue Planet Foundation are launching a monthly series of networking events called “Thirsty Third Thursday.” The first “Triple T” event is taking place Thursday, July 21, at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro. Henk...
The first ever conference devoted to the open source Drupal content management system is coming this Thursday. Drupal Camp Hawaii is taking place at ING Direct in Waikiki, and will bring together both beginners and experienced Drupal developers to explore the full potential of the platform. While WordPress gets a...
I’m always excited to see new and creative things come out of Hawaii’s tech scene. But “Sushi Star,” a new game for the iPhone, is an app that I’m especially happy to see finally launch. “Sushi Star” hit the Apple App Store last week. A beautifully designed and carefully architected...
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