NextLabbers,

Welcome back from Spring Break. This week we have Milestone 3; all details regarding what’s expected were posted in my 20 March blog entry. Please review it to make sure you are fully aware of the logistics for the week.

You can print your posters at Necsys, which is the technical support department of the Media Lab, located on the 4th floor of E15. Just come in, and say you are a NextLab student (MAS.967), and that you need to print a poster; the staff there should show you how. If printing becomes a problem, then bring in your laptops, and present your poster in the screen of your laptop, though it’s obviously not going to be as accessible as if it was on paper. Use this option only as a last resort.

On Tuesday, you are also welcome to bring in your prototype. On Thursday, don’t bring in your prototype, as discussion on that day should centered on your venture’s business model.

Let me know if you have any questions. I look forward an exciting week.

NextLabbers,

Based on your feedback and ideas discussed in class yesterday, we’ll do a new format for Milestone 3, which is the week of March 31st and April 2nd. This time you will not need to prepare slides; you will need to bring your work on a poster (2′ x 3′) for feedback from members of the class.

On Tuesday, March 31st, you will bring in a technical poster describing in full your technical solution, which we’ll put around the classroom for everyone to see and give you feedback on. This should be simple, as you will already be producing that poster for Mobile Monday, which, as you know, requires you to hand it in to them on exactly that same day.

On Thursday, April 2nd, you will bring in a separate poster that describes your venture, and all the stakeholders around it, as well as all the relationships between them. From that poster it should be clear how you will scale, create impact, and become sustainable by showing your possible sources of income.

As I’ve mentioned in class, there are some projects whose team members have not given them enough attention, work and thoughtfulness – and it shows. NextLab staff has observed this in the technical aspect, in the venture aspect, and in some cases, both. We’ve given teams enough time to consolidate and mature, both professionally and socially. So, in addition to the feedback of your peers, NextLab staff will go to all poster stations to speak to Officers in each team accountable for the weaknesses observed. This will be an exercise to tease out the clogs in your projects, and ensure you can deliver your Deliverables by the end of the semester, which is less than 8 weeks from today.

We will continue uploading the feedback for all teams online, within the milestones pages of their blog. I will explain details in the beginning of class on Tuesday, March 31st, so please, make sure to arrive in time.

Have a great spring break!

NextLabbers,

This is Milestone presentation week. We are eager to see the advancements that each team has achieved in the last 2 weeks. Please pay attention to the following points:

1.- This is the first time you will be presenting your technical milestones separate from your venture milestones. From now on, teams will present technical milestones on Tuesday, and venture milestones on Thursday

2.- It will stay like this until the last milestone. Please note that during the May 14th event, you will present all your work for the semester in one shot (more on this later on).

3.- Like last time, you will have 10 mins total to present your advancements, as measured against your own standards, as stated in your 2009 Strategy Document. We’d generally expect that you present 5 mins and 5 mins for Q&A, but you may go over until 7 mins presentation and 3 mins Q&A.

4.- Laptops will not be admissible in class. You are expected to pay attention to your fellow classmates, and think of ways in which your personal Expertise (as stated in the survey you filled out) can actually add value to the projects in the class

5.- Come to class prepared to take notes so that you can later upload your “m-feedback” (milestone feedback) on the corresponding pages of the other projects.

6.- You are not required to give feedback to both the technical and the venture presentations, though you may do so if you wish. You are only required to give feedback to one of the two, depending on your own skills and experience. Technical people are highly encouraged to upload technical advice to their peers in the other NextLab teams.

7.- Upload your technical slides no later than noon Tuesday and your venture slides no later than noon Thursday. The Assignment Upload link can now be found on the right side column of this page, under the “Pages” title. Please note that this is a new location for this link; you will no longer find it in the “Lectures” page of this site.

8.- Deadline for uploading your personal feedback (technical or venture) is Friday noon. However, you are encouraged to upload your feedback asap, so that you get that out of the way while it is fresh in your mind from the live presentation.

Good luck!

NextLabbers,

I have just finished posting 9 items in the “Opportunities” section of this website. Please make sure all of you see these opportunities and that your Sustainability Officer is fully aware of their deadlines. In particular, I expect all teams to participate in the Seed Awards, whose deadline is on March 16th.

I have also just finished posting 9 items in the “Talks and Activities” section of this website, and 2 items in the Resources section. All of these sections can be accessed using the corresponding links under the “pages” title on the right side of this page.

I urge you to post all information of “Opportunities”, “Talks and Activities” and “Resources” you come across and that you feel may be relevant to your peers. The objective of these sections is to enable all of us to crowdsource.

Good luck!

Though the deadline to enter the MIT IDEAS Competition 2009 is midnight April 15, 2009, March 15 is the final opportunity to submit an initial proposal. Doing well in this competition is important, as it has Development Grants and Mentors readily available.
http://web.mit.edu/ideas/www/submit.htm

These are the important deadlines for the IDEAS competition:

March 15th – Last chance to submit initial proposals – We’re here to help! The initial proposal review process is an opportunity for teams to have their projects reviewed by IDEAS staff, who know what the judges will be looking for.

April 2nd – Letters of intent due – If teams plan to submit a project to the IDEAS Competition but don’t take part in the initial proposal review process, IDEAS staff needs to know about planned participation by midnight on April 2nd. Letters of intent must be e-mailed to ideas-admin@mit.edu and include a paragraph with the following information, at a minimum: Team name, team lead(s), and project scope.

April 15th – Final proposals due – Each team’s final proposals must be submitted by midnight on April 15th for consideration in this year’s competition.

April 27th – Poster session and Judging – The world wants to learn about all these great IDEAS, and this is when they’re exhibited!

May 4th – IDEAS awards ceremony – The judges’ choices will be revealed at this exciting event, and the winning teams will tell us all about them.

NextLabbers,

Tomorrow we will have David Reich in class, the founder and CEO of Assured Labor (www.assuredlabor.com). His company is a perfect example of the process from idea to product to company, incubated within the MIT ecosystem. Please come to class prepared with your questions for an entrepreneur who has fresh answers for the questions you’ll be confronting in the next few months. One year ago, he was exactly where you are now. Don’t miss it!

Also, please be reminded that the following is due by tomorrow 12pm.

1.- Your individual feedback of Milestone 1 to your fellow teams in class. Though due last week, only a few people have completed this as of today. Please remember that this counts as 25% of your grade for the course.
You can find the details at: http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/main/2009/02/feedback-to-the-teams/

2.- Blog personalization:
* About section
* Team section
* Image on top of page
* Additional Buttons/links you may want to add
* Byline: Have it read “Can you make a cellphone _________________ ?”
You can find the details at: http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/main/2009/02/due-tuesday-march-3rd/

See you tomorrow!

NextLabbers,

Please customize the following items of your project journals/blogs by next Tuesday, March 3rd.

About section
- Upload the 6 slides – 6 minutes (and additional materials, videos, flash animations, etc.)
- State your vision, mission and milestones
- Talk about your approach

Team section
- All team members: name, photo, small bio, and office

Image on top of page
- Have it reflect your mission, and personality

Buttons/links
- Add as many as you like, but don’t delete any of the existing ones

Byline
- Have it read “Can you make a cellphone _____________________ ?”

NextLabbers,

Based on your stated Expertise, please input your feedback to the other 5 teams that presented today in addition to yours. You can access the feedback form by going into each team’s project blog and clicking on “m-feedback” or directly, through the following links. This is due by Friday noon, in order to allow teams enough time to take in and analyze your feedback before the next milestone.

1.- Mobile Logistics Management (Hammock): http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/hammock/m1/

2.- Mobile Diagnostics (Moca): http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/moca/m1/

3.- Mobile Rural Market Prices (Zaca): http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/zacatecas/m1/

4.- Mobile Banking (Dinube): http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/mpayments/m1/

5.- Mobile Literacy (Celedu): http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/celedu/m1/

6.- Mobile Citizen Reporting (CitiRep): http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009/citirep/m1/

Please let me know if you have any comments, suggestions or problems with it.

NextLabbers,

Please have the following things ready asap:

1.- Input your Expertise for the NextLab Incubation Process Spring 2009 no later than Wednesday, noon. The link is: http://nextlab.mit.edu/expertise

2.- Make sure you have your team blog up on the NextLab site up and running, ready for use. Deadline is Thursday noon.

3.- Prepare your Executive Summary presentation for class. You’ll have a total of 10 mins, including Q+A to present. Deadline to upload it in the NextLab website (Milestones section) is Thursday noon.

4.- Finalize your Executive Summary , to submit for the MIT $100K Business Plan Competition in full form (2 Page Executive Summary and 12 Slide Pitch Deck). Due Thursday 6pm.

5.- Come to class ready to give feedback to all other NextLab teams based on your stated Expertise.

See you all in class Thursday. In the meantime, if you have any pointers, tips or advice to the Incubator team (n3eight @ mit), please direct them to nextlabspring2009-teamn3eight (at) mit (dot) edu.

Thanks!

Teams,

It’s time to start blogging your project!!!
Please create your own project blog and personal account on the project blog website below.

mit nextlab • Spring 2009 – http://nextlab.mit.edu/spring2009

Instructions to create account and blog can be found under the Latest News on the same page.
Feel free to contact NextLab Staff if you have any questions.
Good luck!