Lincoln Gary Kebbel sees the future of journalism – and the world – in mobile. “Cell phones and mobile devices are the one, only supreme way to bridge every digital divide I can think of,” said Kebbel (left), the Dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications and the current driving force behind its new Mobile Media Center (he is recruiting an associate dean to take over the center this fall). “If you want to reach everybody and reach everybody with the same message, you’ve got to do it on mobile devices. Some would argue you can do it on TV also, but who’s watching?” … read more

Lincoln University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism practice professor Matt Waite will serve as a speaker and mentor at Hack Omaha this weekend. The path that brought him there includes ventures as varied as a book on wetlands preservation, a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and work on the cutting edge of drone journalism. But it's a path that's perhaps best appreciated chronologically. A native of Blair, Neb., Waite entered the university where he now … read more

Kansas City One year after making the leap from part-time to full-time blogger, Shawn Blanc has no regrets. Blanc launched shawnblanc.net, his tech- and design-centric blog, in July of 2007 on the side of his full-time job as director of marketing for the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, Mo. In April 2011 he left IHOP to write and blog full-time. Silicon Prairie News conducted an email interview with Blanc this month, the one-year anniversary of his foray … read more

Austin Nevermind that he was busy participating in one panel and moderating another last month at South By Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. Jeff Slobotski, SPN's co-founder and chief community officer, still found time to put on his reporter's hat and go to work. In the midst of a whirlwind few days in Austin, he caught up with Scott Case, CEO of the Startup … read more

Airline captain Dan Stratman of Kansas City knows the frustrations of airline travel firsthand. "As a captain for a major airline for 23 years, I encountered many stressed out and frustrated customers on my flights," Stratman (left) said on Tuesday. "My uniform is like a magnet for people who need help and I'm very sympathetic to that and thought 'I'm going to put all my inside knowledge to work into (an app) and include all the features people need.' " … read more

Omaha An idea born out of a small Omaha company looking to get more exposure and return on investment from its own local self-storage facility advertising has grown into one of the nation's leading online self-storage directories. USstoragesearch.com is an Omaha-based online directory for shopping, comparing … read more

Ames Matthew Rizai, CEO and managing director of WebFilings, knows a thing or two about startups. In the 1990s, Rizai led Engineering Animation Inc. (EAI), which went public in 1996 and has since morphed into other entities. Today, his exacting focus is on scaling WebFilings, the company he built in 2008 with trusted key players from his EAI days. "Our management team is one of our competitive advantages … read more

Lincoln Earlier this month, we reported on Red Brain Inc., the University of Nebraska-Lincoln spinout company that recently introduced its first product, CrimeView NEARme. Last week, we sat down with Ian Cottingham, Red Brain’s president and co-founder, Kevin Farrell, Red Brain’s vice president and co-founder, and Alan Tomkins (left), the director of the University of Nebraska's Public Policy Center, to take a closer look at the startup. Silicon Prairie News: How did Red Brain get started? … read more