Des Moines The Technology Association of Iowa has announced the finalists of its fifth annual Women of Innovation Awards, which honor women leaders in science, technology … read more

New York City In the past five weeks, former Hurrdat Social Media intern and recent Lincoln Southeast High School graduate Ethan Horne has moved to New York City, started working 40 hours a week and gained 11 new roommates. That’s because Horne, a 19-year-old from Lincoln, was recently accepted into the first class of E[nstitute], a national apprenticeship program based in New York City that focuses on business, technology and design. The two-year program, founded in February, does not require a college degree. It's first class is comprised of a diverse group of 11 fellows who range in age from 18-24 and hail from nine different … read more

Omaha Financial services publication Bank Technology News on Tuesday published a profile of Bill Fisher, a veteran of Omaha's tech scene. "You have heard of the Oracle of Omaha," wrote BTN reporter Sean Sposito, who visited Omaha for the piece. "Well, Fisher, the founder of Treetop Ventures, a consulting and investment firm, is the patriarch of the city's burgeoning tech scene." The 2,000-word story provides insight into Fisher's approach, background on … read more

Kansas City Rodrigo Neri, creator of the MyHomework app, on Tuesday released a side project he calls Better Nest, a Chrome and Firefox extension that adds features, such as a recent follower list, to the current Twitter.com layout. "I've tried all kinds of Twitter clients for my Mac and didn't find one that really satisfied me," Neri said in a personal blog post, "so when Twitter created the #NewNewTwitter I decided to … read more

Kansas City Silicon Prairie News has occasionally chronicled the work of Kansas City, Mo. application developer Handmark and regularly reports on the exploits of Handmark's social media app spinoff, OneLouder. (In fact, we published a story on OneLouder's latest offering, Slices, just last week.) We've had less frequent opportunity to report on the man … read more

Kansas City Google announced today it would begin offering its Google Fiber network in Kansas City, Kan. and central Kansas City, Mo. to residential neighborhoods that expressed the most interest. To show that interest, residents have the opportunity through Sept. 9 to pre-register for Google Fiber, paying a $10 deposit and providing basic information. … read more

Kansas City In 2008, Michael Gelphman established a grassroots group with a modest goal: to connect people in the Kansas City tech scene. Four years and nearly 9,000 online members later, Gelphman's group is doing that at a larger scale than he could have imagined. Gelphman founded Kansas City IT Professionals (KCITP) four years ago as a Linkedin group. At the outset, he says, there wasn't much of a plan for the group beyond facilitating connections. Today, KCITP, which is described as "a grassroots effort to build and strengthen the local tech community," puts on an array of events including happy hours, educational talks and hackathons. KCITP's Linkedin group is knocking on the door of 9,000 members. … read more

Kansas City Aaron Sloup, entrepreneur and co-founder of KC Hub, recently announced that he has left his job with Cerner to go full time with his startup Lantern, which makes an app designed to help consumers find deals. Of the six people currently working on Lantern, Sloup is the first to pursue the project on a full-time basis. We conducted an email interview with Sloup (below) to find out what motivated his move and learn what else has happened with the startup since we last checked in, when Lantern launched its app in Google Play in May. Silicon Prairie News: What helped you make the decision to quit your job with Cerner and go full time with Lantern? Aaron Sloup: Lantern is ready for the next step, which is expansion to more … read more