AOL and Rally Up Joined Forces to Boost Palo Alto Mobile Team

PALO ALTO, California –  AOL Inc., a leading global Internet services provider acquired Rally Up, a top mobile apps provider and the team behind the popular Rally Up and FacePlant mobile applications to boost their mobile team. The new mobile team will be headed by David Temkin, the Vice President of Mobile at AOL and will be based n AOL’s new West Coast office in Palo Alto.

The additional  mobile application development talent from the Rally Up team will bolster the success of AOL’s mobile-first initiative. The Mobile-first approach will bring AOL’s popular desktop and web services into the mobile market and will also add all-new products to be launched first in the mobile platforms.

“Within the last year, the Rally Up team has demonstrated its keen understanding of the way that people want to use their mobile devices to interact, share and better communicate and of the tools necessary to address those needs,” said David Temkin.

“We are excited to join the AOL team for the opportunity to work with great leaders like Brad and David and because we are impressed with AOL’s drive to innovate on mobile devices,” said Sol Lipman, CEO of Rally Up.

Visit AOL Mobile Website for More Information.

http://mobile.aol.com/

Reston-Based comScore Acquires Nedstat for $36.7 Million

RESTON, VA, September 1, 2010 comScore, Inc.- a Reston-based global Internet information provider acquired NedStat, a leading provider of web analytics and innovative solutions for online business optimization for $36.7 Million. The acquisition will help comScore’s expansion plans especially in the European markets and boost the UDM (Unified Digital Measurement) platform which is a panel-based audience measurement with census-level data collection that determines consumer behavior.

According to Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO, The acquisition of Nedstat is another important step towards fulfilling the vision of making the Unified Digital Measurement platform the global standard for digital measurement and that clients are asking for a new class of business applications to maximize the monetization of their audiences using the UDM platform.

Michael Kinsbergen, the CEO of NedStat will be joining the advisory board while Fred Appelman, Nedstat’s Chief Technology Officer, and Michiel Berger, Nedstat’s co-founder and Chief Innovations Officer, will join comScore in senior strategy and technology roles.

Read  comScore’s Official Press Release For More Information.

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/9/

DC-Based EverFi Raises $11 Million in New Round of Funding

Washington, DC – EverFi, a DC-based learning platform developer raised $11 million in VC funding. The funding came from Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and was supported by Tomorrow Ventures and individuals including the CEO of Blackboard Michael Chasen.

Everfi uses different platforms such as 3D gaming, animations, videos, messaging and social media applications in delivering their topics. Everfi’s product focuses on financial literacy and student loan management. There are currently more than 2,000 public school in more than 40 states using the Everfi’s products.

Everfi’s top customers and partners includes the United Negro College Fund, U.S. Bank, Capital One, Genworth Corporation, PayPal and BB&T.

Visit Everfi’s Website for more information and list of their products.
http://www.everfi.com

George Mason University Offers Game Design Degree

Washington, D.C. – George Mason University, a top public university located in Fairfax County, Virginia added a Video Game Design Course to their list  of academic  courses offering. GMU decided to open the program to address future video gaming needs, combining creativity with technology, and offering a full four year bachelor degree in Video Game Design.

Core subjects under the Video Game Design course include “Culture and Theory of Games,” which explores the theory, history, culture and lore of computer games. Other subjects includes on computer programming, digital arts and graphics and motion capture, which are commonly seen in animated movies and media that uses 3d technology and computer generated effects.

According to Andrew Flagel, GMU Dean of Admissions, the school have received inquiries from around the world and there are currently more than 200 students enrolled since the course opening last fall. The expected enrollees was only 30 full-time students and 5 part-time students but the response was beyond their expectations.

George Mason University is the only academic institution that offers full 4 year degree in Video Game Design in Virginia and in the area.

Visit GMU’s (George Mason University) website for more information.

http://www.gmu.edu

Read the Washington Post Article for more details.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/28/AR2010042802324.html

Gannett of McLean VA Plans 100+ High School Sports Sites

McLEAN, VA – Gannett Co. Inc., an international news and information company announced that  its subsidiary HighSchoolSports.net will be launching more than 100 high school sport-oriented microsites and a national high school sport pages on USATODAY.com.

HighSchoolSports.net upcoming microsites are expected to generate approximately 9.4 million unique  visitors every month and will provide deeper and broader sports content to its subscribers and advertisers.

Currently, HighSchoolSports.net is U.S.  #1 internet site devoted to high school sports and with the upcoming 100+ microsites, subscribers can now access national and local high school sports coverage, video, schedules and statistics and expanded coverage of local high school sports events.

Visit Gannett’s Official Press Release for More Details.

http://www.gannett.com/news/pressrelease/2010/pr081810.htm

AOL’s Patch.com Launches 100th Community Site and Plans to Expand to 500 more communities

NEW YORK, NY – August 17, 2010 – AOL Inc. AOL launched morristown.patch.com, its 100th site for their community-based news and information platform patch.com.

AOL also announced that Patch.com is planning to rapidly expand to more than 500 communities in 20 U.S. states by the end of 2010. The expansion will also mean hiring more than 500 professional journalists in different U.S. states to administer the upcoming 500 patch communities.

Patch sites are already up and running in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia. The 2010 expansion includes plans to extend Patch’s reach into more than a dozen new states including Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

Visit AOL’s Official Press Release For More Information.

McLean-based Clearspring Faces Lawsuits

McLean, Va. –  Clearspring, a widget syndication service provider based in McLean, VA is being sued by a group of parents for illegal tracking of their children’s web activities. According to the lawsuit filed in California, Clearspring tracked their children’s activity illegally by installing Flash-based spy cookies without the user’s knowledge and permission. The cookie, referred as “Zombie Cookie” will also recreate itself after being deleted. Web users who prefers to keep their privacy by deleting cookies regularly were not able to remove cookies from Clearspring.

The lawsuit also cited that Clearspring harvested personal information such as video viewing habits, gender, age, race, education level, geographic location, sexual preference, what the users like to read, home address, phone number, health condition, and more.

For further details on the lawsuit, please visit:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news

DC-based Startup Citrrus Launches Panoramic

Washington, DC – Citrrus, a startup mobile application developer located in DC announced the release of the new and free mobile application called Panoramic. Panoramic allows users located in DC area to send and receive updates on relevant and timely information such as major events, announcements or minor stuff like clearance sale, free pizza or coffee tasting directly to their mobile phones.

Panoramic currently only caters to DC-based users and only supports iPhone but there are plans on expanding to other locations and supporting other platforms like the iPad, android and blackberry.

Download Panoramic for free in the iPhone store.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/panoramic

Visit Panoramic Official Website
http://www.getpanoramic.com

Visit Citrrus Website for other Product Updates.
http://www.citrrus.com

Google Analytics 101 Training by Viget Labs at Falls Church, VA

Falls Church, VA – Viget Labs, a full-service web consultancy and analytics firm will be conducting a Google Analytics 101 Training this coming Sept. 23 at Viget Labs Headquarters, 400 S. Maple Avenue, Suite 200, Falls Church, VA.

The training will be spearheaded by Paul Koch, a Google Analytics Qualified Individual and an AdWords Certified Professional and with comprehensive knowledge of Google Analytics.

Registration is $199 and an early bird promo up to Aug. 15 for only $149. The event is limited to only 30 participants and registration is already ongoing. Register today to get a reserved spot.

Visit the Viget Lab’s Website for more information.

SpeedGeek Show and Tell

U Street NW, Washington, DC – A meetup called “SpeedGeek Show and Tell” will be held on August 17 at the U Street Affinity Lab (920 U Street NW, Washington, DC 20001) at 7pm.

Here is one of the press releases with links regarding the upcoming meetup

If any of you happen to have a socially conscious project/startup you’re working on, you can get feedback from about 40+ people on Tuesday, August 17th at the U Street Affinity Lab (920 U Street NW, Washington, DC 20001) at 7pm.

It’s called “”SpeedGeek Show & Tell,”" and it will feature presenters who will pitch projects they’re working on, with an emphasis on getting feedback. The rest of us will break into groups and rotate among the presenters.

Presenters will explain their idea for a few minutes, then spend a few minutes listening to feedback and maybe even recruit volunteers. After 10 minutes we’ll rotate again so that everyone is exposed to all sorts of cool projects and new ideas.

Apply to present here: http://bit.ly/cYqOb5

Join the Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/net2dc/calendar/14082042/?from=list&offset=0

Hope to see you there.

-Aaron Titus”