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posted by Claudon on July 1, 2008
Summer-loving Jake will finally discover winter when he visits campus on January 24, 2009! Why? Because that is when DigitalBridges2.0 and Middlebury College and Life is good Inc to do LIG's first-ever winter festival and launch a new College tradition in the process: the annual MIDDSnowbuddies Festival Series in the process.
We will join Life is good Inc to establish an...
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posted by Claudon on June 15, 2008
The Middlebury Solutions Group (MSG), the only undergraduate venture coaching service among US liberal arts colleges, is six years old and delivering on its mission well beyond our most optimistic expectations.
MSG promises to materially reduce time-to-capital, time-to-market and time-to-job-creation. The numbers say we are delivering on that promise and then some:
FORTY-FOUR = the number of MSG client engagements between 2002 and January 2008
THIRTY-FIVE... -
posted by nboillot on June 14, 2008
Dear DB2.0 Community,
I was disappointed to learn that the VP of marketing at one of our clients companies is leaving his job. He is one of the people I respect most in this business and has also become a friend.
Mike has a wealth of experience in technology marketing, ranging from semiconductors to software. Yet I think his greatest asset is not his vast experience but his incisive mind and the way he applies his marketing know-how. I have watched Mike lead numerous meetings and...
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posted by Claudon on June 13, 2008
“I gave up my entire life for the month... but it was worth it”
MiddCORE 2008 is history, and what a ride it was. To a person, mentors and students alike characterized the experience as transformational. Mentors expressed being reengaged with Middlebury College.
Yes, it was an incredible amount of work for all …. a boot camp for sure: five hours in session and group lunches daily; two group dinners with panels weekly; and an avalanche of homework nightly.
Students unanimously...
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posted by Alexanderkent on May 29, 2008
HEAL THE RIFT:
Heal the Rift is a student-run, non-profit organization which aims to promote peace and reconciliation between the Muslim World and the West. HTR was founded by four Middlebury students (including one MiddCORE graduate). Two are from the West and two are from the Muslim World. With $10,000 in seed money from the Davis Foundation Projects for Peace program, these social entrepreneurs have moved their organization from Middlebury to New York City to plan and prepare their...
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posted by jbmartin on May 8, 2008
Hey MiddCore aficionados,
A request: please let those students abroad know how or what they can help with. We are more than willing despite all logistical difficulties.
Also, great job on changing the O to Opportunity... The word Organization always did seem somewhat fishy...
Life down here is great. I´m interning at a local socio-political magazine, working for an entrepreneurial consulting firm called Endeavor (the Uruguay branch, many thanks to Sunny Bates), a Sustainable Study...
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posted by Ashley Bell on February 9, 2008
Hello Everyone,
We know that this is a little late, but we have finally decided to put our winnings towards Heifer International. Heifer is an organization that is fighting against world hunger by donating farm animals to poverty-stricken families in the third world. What makes this organization unique is the families give-away the offspring of the animal, so the gift keeps giving. We feel that this is a renewable and worthwhile cause to make a donation.
Heifer has won multiple awards for... -
posted by Claudon on January 30, 2008
Contact: Stephen Diehl
802-443-5629/scdiehl@middlebury.edu
January 30, 2008IMMEDIATE
“This is the first class I’ve taken at Middlebury that requires teamwork, time management and public speaking every single day of class. This will be really helpful for the rest of college and after I graduate.” – Pamela Yeo, MiddCORE student
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – An innovative new winter term course at Middlebury is giving students an intensive taste for the challenges and rewards of...
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posted by Alexanderkent on January 22, 2008
Hey Midd Corps,
I'd like to be a part of the CORE exhibit at the student symposium this spring along with anyone else who wants to plan and organize it with me. CORE has been one of the best, if not THE best learning experience I've ever had. I think anyone else would agree that people should know what we've been doing all month and what the implications of a class like this are. I think CORE has huge potential to expand and become a new facet of the overall Middlebury identity and I'm proud...
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posted by eparizeau on January 17, 2008
The following are comments on the previous post (and so are a bit hidden on this main page). I decided to promote them to their own thread since the concept of www.Kiva.org may inspire some interesting conversation here.
My 2 cents -- Kiva has an intriguiging idea to bring microlending to the masses and is definately worth considering. I have been using it for a while and am impressed. Ken D. feels the same way. Check it out.
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posted by davecampbell on January 16, 2008
“We’re here to talk about flatware loss,” I said frankly to Dave Lazarus, the manager of the Lake-View Restaurant in South Burlington. It felt like a conversational-crutch that someone would employ when terribly desperate at a cocktail party…
“Enough about the weather, have you heard about the flatware loss that restaurants endure these days?”
“No!? Go on!”But today this was not a crutch and this was not to pass time at a cocktail party; Ashley Bell and I were...
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posted by Claudon on September 26, 2007
I have been speaking with many alumni and friends, asking them for the top two items on their wish list for new hires other than accounting and corp fin. A stronger ability to set/formulate goals tops many of these lists.
For example, on alumnus expressed frustration with both existing employees’ and new hire candidates’ inability to set goals, “Good organizations and successful entrepreneurs make good goals. Teaching your kids to set goals would be a huge plus for them.”
As...
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posted by Claudon on August 1, 2007
I am happy to inform you that an outpouring of intensive collaboration, creativity and plain hard work has transformed the raw concept of a "Business Boot Camp" into an exciting Winter Term program that will give students one course credit combined with a career-propelling experience. To that end we believe that MIDD CORE will enjoy broad appeal and add substantial value to the educational experience at Middlebury College.
MIDD CORE – Creativity, Organization, Risk and...
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posted by nboillot on July 18, 2007
Hello Digital Bridges Community!
I'm posting to ask for your help. Hart-Boillot does PR, advertising and design/branding for business-to-business technology and biotechnology firms. We help companies that have had trouble getting media attention, that are held back by lackluster image, and that have challenges communicating complex messages to their audiences.
Over the last 8 years we have been on a slow-but-steady "build a great business" growth track. We have never borrowed money, and...
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posted by Claudon on June 14, 2007
Submitted by Claudon on June 14, 2007 - 12:29pm.
We had a super high-energy gathering at Holly ('80) and Peter Ruhlin's home in Darien, CT last night. Thank you so very much, Holly and Peter for so generously hosting the event!I received lots of great feedback, constructive criticism and ideas on how best to organize the "boot camp." However, as "Boot Camp" was stomped pretty unanimously, I am only using the term as a marker for now.
Besides some great name suggestions, which I willl...
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posted by Claudon on April 24, 2007
DigitalBridges2.0 is launching a new start-up, the DigitalBridges2.0 Business Boot Camp. The goal is to run a pilot session during January 2008. Ours is an ambitious undertaking, and delivering on that goal is going to be exceedingly challenging, but with the support we have received on campus, the wind is at our back. By late summer we will have created and staffed a curriculum and finalized the...
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posted by MariAnn Osborne on April 9, 2007
MIDDLEBURY – How do you tap into the energy of Middlebury College’s most motivated students – the ones who, on top of their regular classes, initiate non-graded projects like the organic garden and the Sunday Night Group – to create an environment that compels each and every student to similarly take the lead?
To find the answer, the college has hired Elizabeth Robinson.
As the director of the Project on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts, a new initiative encouraging all... -
posted by rriggs on March 4, 2007
If anyone has questions about this initiative please email me or Liz Robinson.
This started, as Ron said in the release, with a year long study of Middlebury's peer group. The questions we asked were simply how are creativitiy and innovation being addressed at liberal arts colleges in the 21st century. As this topic is at the heart of why one goes to a liberal arts college, were there things that could be done in the current environmnent to stimulate and develop innovative thinking in...
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posted by Claudon on February 23, 2007
What is a liberal arts college’s role in this process? Specifically what is Middlebury College’s role in this process? What is our goal? Is it creating a culture on campus that embraces thinking and behaving more innovatively, and that celebrates risk-taking? Does it mean graduating students who think and behave more innovatively and who have had personal experience with taking risks and risk management? Answering that question is at least difficult unless and until we have defined exactly...
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posted by Claudon on February 20, 2007
The Initiative that President Liebowitz announced this week represents a critical first step towards building a culture of innovation, risk-taking and risk management that truly embraces and can be integrated in the liberal arts tradition. Most important, the Initiative recognizes that we are not engaged in a zero sum game within which gains made toward building innovation, risk-taking and risk management into the culture implies a commensurate shrinking of the adaptive culture that now...
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posted by Claudon on February 20, 2007
The following is a story from the Wall Street Journal-Printed Feb. 17, 2007
Why does the American economy keep confounding the Jeremiahs (and the Dow Jones Industrial Average keep soaring)? It is the appetite for innovation, the extraordinary capital to support risk, and the political framework of freedom for the individual. I recently asked Sergey Brin and Larry Page, through their search engine Google, what they could discover about American chief executives and innovation. They gave me...
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posted by kellykerner on February 19, 2007
Professor Claudon, everytime I visit this site, I am impressed by the information that is posted. Most importantly, I am pleased to see the number and diversity of participants. This is becoming a great storehouse for contacts and relationships. I hope that people are visiting regularly and taking advantage of the wealth of talent involved. Please share this site with others and keep stiring the pot. One of the strongest Middlebury affinity groups I have seen is the Midd Alumni Lacrosse...
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posted by aaronabend on February 6, 2007
Technical skills are a great way to get into a startup. The position below is a great opportunity for a web developer.
And if you are already thinking of starting your own company, this could be your first gig. Get a second client and you are on the way to launching a real company. I started my first company with a contract at Oracle Corporation. I arranged to work 4 days per week - which made for less cash but it gave me that critical day for marketing, which led to landing 5 contracts 6...
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posted by Claudon on February 1, 2007
Here is one review of the DigitalBridges2007 conference.
About MIDDBLOG:
Mission
We attempt to provide students of Middlebury College with a place to keep up to date with various happenings on campus from Chief Justice Roberts' visit to the college to the latest temperature drop. MiddBlog balances the ability for all to submit announcements for the... -
posted by Claudon on January 31, 2007
The iBridgeSM Network, a program of the Kauffman Innovation Network, Inc., and its accompanying Web site, recently launched a beta version of its new launch venue for new products, technologies and companies. University researchers, industry representatives, and entrepreneurs can use the iBridge Web site to search for university-innovations.
With over 700 research projects listed, the iBridge Web site is designed to ease the transaction burden on...
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posted by kellykerner on January 30, 2007
"Bridges" may be the foundation from which to build the perfect liberal arts education. Take the finest liberal arts college in the world, add the most creative and forward thinking faculty, add students who are interested in having an impact in the real-world and mix it together with interested, capable, talented, and giving alumni/parents/friends and you have the making of a community that can build business, educate, motivate and effect change....not to mention write run-on sentences. The...
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posted by ward fowler on January 30, 2007
Look at me blog! I feel like I'm 20 again! Congratulations to all you Bridgers who made the conference a success and a lot of fun. Can I just mention one critical housekeeping item...... the conference room was about 60 degrees, and my core body temperature fell about three degrees as a result. It took several beers to return adequate circulation to my fingertips!
Have a look at Nicholas Kristof's op/ed piece in the NYT this morning and realize how prescient you Midd professors and...
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posted by tkottler on January 29, 2007
This year's conference was, in my humble opinion, a true success. More than anyone, the students did an exceptional job covering their topics with the candor and humor only a student can project. Each and every session was interesting and insightful, and certainly got my creative, entrepreneurial juices flowing. I left the conference and drove to Stratton to meet with my family and on the way (a mere 90 minute drive), came up with two distinct new business ideas from conference topics. I...
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posted by Margy Levine Young on January 27, 2007
Here are sites mentioned during the session about how the Millenial generation affect the corporate world:
- Flight Club New York: 80/20 consignment, vintage and limited sneakers
- Threadless.com: Designers submit designs and the online community votes for what design gets produced each week
- Amazon.com: Started with books, now everythin. "Tending to the...
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posted by Margy Levine Young on January 27, 2007
I thought that Chris Charron, an emerging technology consultant, made some great points. Here's my summary.
Online advertising model looks a lot more like newspapers (with 18% fees, 82% ads) than like magazines or TV/cable/satellite (stats from Forrester Research). As users create content, they are less willing to pay for it. Some kinds of content are neither the kind of content that people will pay for nor good venues for ads. News may be one of these. These kinds of sites need to...
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posted by Dave Nicholson on January 27, 2007
The second to last presentation of the day is based around the changing markets that are evolving around the rise of the millenial generation. We're admittedly extremely difficult to reach on the one hand but there is now a whole range of new opportunities that have been brought about thanks to new technology.
The presentation is introducing two examples of small businesses and two major corporations that have found a niche where they can achieve success in the wild millenial market. The...
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posted by Jason Rosenberg on January 27, 2007
The third panel today is about business philanthropy or "doing good with profit." The students who introduced the panel spoke about corporate partnerships and giving programs such as the Red Campaign and Play Pumps. These are for-profit companies who give money to do good, but aren't charities.
Jim Laughlin, Director of Communications, Life is good, Inc. is telling the story about the Life is good's...
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posted by Margy Levine Young on January 27, 2007
Here are some of the sites that speakers mentioned during the discussion of politics:
- Institute for Democracy Politics & the Internet
- New Politics Institute
- Generation Engage youth civic engagement initiative
- Apple's videoconferencing service
- Technorat-...
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posted by Margy Levine Young on January 27, 2007
In the old days (not that old!), when a kid went off to college, the apron-strings were cut -- the student was on his or her own, usually for the first time in their lives. We met whoever we were standing in line with to get a post office box, registering for classes, etc. If we couldn't figure out how to use the washers in the dorm basement, we asked other students. It was a new life.
Now, the first thing that freshman do when they arrive at college is to set up their laptop, email...
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posted by Claudon on January 27, 2007
Ron Liebowitz's contended that Millennials are risk-averse. In his welcoming remarks. I disagree. My experience is that they take risk and manage it well when challenged to do so. It's more about the framework. Too much of the liberal arts setting places students in spectator roles as professors drone on, however passionately, in the front of the room.
But give them their heads in service learning environments that challenge them to...
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posted by Jason Rosenberg on January 27, 2007
The 11:30 panel started. The topic is about technology changing the face of politics. How is new technology changing the shape of politics? When Sen. Hillary Clinton posted on her website that she is running for president, thousands visited the site and joined her website.
The student panelists say this kind of immediate results can't be seen through direct mail or robo-calls.
"The everyday citizen can take action because of technology."...
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posted by Claudon on January 27, 2007
Welcome to the DB2.0 Conference, January 2007
I thank Michael Claudon for conveying to all of you my words of welcome and greetings, as I am not able to be with you today for what promises to be an exciting and important conference. My congratulations to the students in the Winter Term class that worked so hard to make this conference a possibility; I would extend those congratulations as well to Michael, but I know he would quickly say, “don’t congratulate me; the...
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posted by dlarocca on January 27, 2007
A trend I have noticed amongst the millennial generation is the impressive competition students experience when trying to get into college. Do you feel like this results from an increased desire to learn or rather in external pressure to stay conventional and attend college? ...
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posted by Jason Rosenberg on January 27, 2007
I'm at the DigitalBridges2.0 Annual Conference. The opening session, "Generation yOUR" is a discussion about the Millennial Generation and the technology that dominates their lives and influences other generations.
The discussion team talked about how easy it is for anyone to be connected at all times. They put together this video to demonstrate their point.
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posted by sneukam on January 26, 2007
Meet the Millennials- a demographic also known as Gen Y, the Echo Boomers, the Net Generation and the iGeneration. While many political and popular culture events have influenced this generation (including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of Apartheid, the O.J. Simpson Trial, the reign of Britney Spears, the Columbine Shootings and September 11th), unlike the generations before the Millennials are uniquely defined by their relationship to technology. The wealth of names used to...
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posted by Jason Rosenberg on December 29, 2006
I. BRONCHOBATS – PETER BINGHAM
BronchoBats possesses a rare combination for a Vermont-based business. It appears high growth potential and social responsibility need not be mutually exclusive. The growth aspect is fairly obvious: expanding this product beyond the initial customer of people who suffer from cystic fibrosis and to the general gamer can reduce the critique against video games that they simply waste time and distract kids of all ages. Addressing this problem...
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posted by Dave Nicholson on December 29, 2006
DigitalBridges2.0 Entrepreneur's Forum
Saturday December 9, 2006 -- If you've never been to a DigitalBridges Entrepreneur's Forum then you are missing out on one of the most exciting annual events at Middlebury. The event seems to be perennially under-advertised but every year the program director, MariAnn Osborne, manages to wrangle a crowd of interested spectators. This was my fourth time attending the event and the crowd was the largest to date that I can remember so kudos to...
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