When Brad Dwyer founded Hatchlings Inc. in an Iowa State University dorm room in 2008, he couldn’t have predicted what the social media landscape would become. Dwyer’s mobile games company requires a few basic permissions for users to play using Facebook’s API (application programming interface): Hatchlings needs a user’s name, email address and Facebook social […]

Facebook is pledging to train 1 million workers and small business owners across the U.S. in digital marketing and labor skills by 2020. The announcement comes just after Facebook publicized a new partnership with the Des Moines Area Community College, which will expand DMACC’s current digital marketing course into a 30-credit-hour certificate that includes Facebook’s […]

Google reported 8,200 Iowa organizations generated $899 million in economic activity using Google search and advertising tools in 2017. Iowa nonprofits received $1.13 million in free advertising through the Google Ad Grants program, the company said in a statement. Google’s Grow with Google initiative aims to give individuals free tools to build digital skills and businesses through […]

Buckle up: 2025 is only seven years away. Last week Aaron Proietti, founder of Adaptivity Enterprises and a self-proclaimed futurist, offered EntreFEST conference attendees in Cedar Rapids several thoughtful predictions of what to expect from the world in less than 10 years. “The technologies that I’ve shown here are not inherently good or evil, but […]

Des Moines game developer Brad Dwyer is keeping an eye on Facebook. Small business owners have been watching since news leaked in March that Cambridge Analytica, a third-party provider, was able to purchase Facebook user data from a rule-abiding personality profile application. The user data was then sold to President Donald Trump’s campaign team in […]

Cedar  Rapids-based Rockwell Collins demonstrated fail-safe data links to the U.S. government recently during two weeks of critical testing for the NASA Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management Program, the Corridor Business Journal reported. During the test program, Rockwell Collins served as the UAS Service Supplier for the safe management of a UAS flying beyond […]

When Marc Meyer founded the video security management startup Inteconnex in Cedar Rapids eight years ago, it was expected that the web-based cameras could serve security needs for systems like Mercy Medical Center, or Lincoln, Nebraska’s traffic surveillance needs. Today, Inteconnex’s biggest growth is with universities and k-12 schools in Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado, CBS2/FOX […]

More than 300 candidates who filed for federal, statewide or legislative races in Iowa get an unusual gift from Secretary of State Paul Pate: the “Cybersecurity Campaign Playbook,” created by the bipartisan initiative Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P). Iowa has not experienced cyberattacks in the state election system, but political campaigns should be prepared to […]