FIRST Live!: A win for User Name: Awesome

One team’s winning strategy

User Name: Awesome talks about winning the FIRST Tech Challenge’s Alliance Award and PTC Design Award during the NYC FIRST Robotics Competition on March 13, 2011 at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC.

Well-known inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire student interest in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The FIRST Live! broadcast was presented by TMM.

See more coverage on Youtube.

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

Exclusive: Kapturing Facebook’s Social Graph

A new startup may show what Google – and Facebook – can’t

Ever try to mix and match social media with your friends? After getting married last year, Tejpaul Bhatia – a former ESPN exec and CEO of a struggling Internet video startup – found out it’s not so easy.

He built Kaptur to help. It could finally help you see a part of Facebook’s $70 billion social graph, as well as Twitter’s, FourSquare’s and more…

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

Exclusive: Going Digital In America’s Heartland

Sports radio station 810 WHB is swinging for a digital future

Mobile media’s coming of age. The reason: broadcasters aren’t the only ones who can send information to people on-the-go anymore.

What does that mean for radio? In the case of Kansas City sports station 810 WHB, the time for a new generation of apps has come.

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

Exclusive: A New Class For College Media

Could college media pop for a new email newsletter?

While college students spend plenty of money, there isn’t much college-specific media out there. David Rich aims to change that.

His company, Off The Quad, just launched nine college-oriented email newsletters.

Now all he has to do is convince advertisers to buy in.

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

Exclusive: Burning Up TV’s Schedule

For one start-up, a new way to sell commercial time

Why’s TV always been a good business? Because it makes gobs of money by selling just a fraction of its “air time.” But one former local NBC exec says times are changing fast.

In June, Larry Watzman started his own business to help stations keep up.

His plan? Help them sell more commercials.

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

Big Talk: The Uncommon Ground Within Facebook

When talking ad campaigns, the social network divides

By connecting everyone, Facebook sure looks like it’s going to swallow the world sometimes. But a group of heavy-hitter advertisers gave out an oft-overlooked message about it last week at a panel on Internet advertising.

Connecting with people is one thing, understanding them is quite another…

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

News Analysis: A Catch-22 For TV’s Biggest Networks

They may have to pick between over-the-air and Internet TV

The Internet’s been great for TV networks. They’ve used it to send shows to you directly, while also letting local TV stations broadcast them nationwide.

That may change. If successful, Ivi.tv could make them pick one or the other.

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

News Analysis: A Groupon-like Bid For ABC

Forget daily deals, commercials are the new hedged bet

It’s getting harder to earn a buck locally. After all, everyone’s building local media sites these days. But ABC has an idea – if it can use group-bidding to hedge its bets locally, it may earn more money.

All it needed to give it a whirl?: to see Groupon make it work first.

Maybe the popular coupon site should add good ideas to its daily deals.

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.

Spotlight: As Disney Vies With News Corp, Cable TV Yields

The not-so-sweet side of adding Internet TV to cable

Once upon a time, niche TV networks exploded because cable paid nice fees to carry them. Now Disney’s just one company to try the same trick with new Internet TV sites. Can cable control the result?

Also up: Mickey’s worldwide land grab is on…

-james

PS: Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, TMM Now.