What is Prairie Moves?

Published Tuesday and Thursday (one day late this week), Prairie Moves keeps our readers informed about career moves, media coverage, product development and more from the companies and individuals we cover on Silicon Prairie News.

If you or your company would like to submit one of the items below for our next Prairie Moves post, please email editor@siliconprairienews.com. And if you have suggestions on how we could improve these posts or any of our coverage, please contact danny@siliconprairienews.com.

Mergers & Acquisitions

• KCNet, Inc. (Kansas City, Mo.), a full service internet service provider, acquired by Turnkey Internet – Press Release and Kansas City Business Journal

Career Moves

• Jim Duval, formerly with TitanTV, joined Syncbak (Marion, Iowa) as VP of Product Development – twitter.com
• Matthew Kirk joined SocialVolt (Kansas City) as Chief Scientist – Press Release
• John Hobbs, currently a developer at What Cheer, named a partner with the company – twitter.com/whatcheer

New Tech

• Legal Sonar (Kansas City), a site that bills itself as the best place to find Kansas City attorneys through your mutual connections, launched – legalsonar.com and Legal Sonar blog
• Phenomblue (Omaha) released beta of HelloQR, a free QR code generator that allows users to create, share and track QR codes – helloqr.com and Nebraska Creative
• QA Graphics (Ankeny, Iowa) Mobile Energy Efficiency Display Android app released – Android Market 
• Hatchlings 2 (Des Moines), a virtual egg hunt, beta went live – hatchlings2.com and Brad Dwyer on Twitter
• To My Face (Des Moines), a site that helps users collect and analyze targeted, optionally-anonymous feedback, launched – tomyface.com
• The Big Plate (Lincoln), an exclusive, membership community for entrepreneurs, artists and innovators to connect, collaborate and create, launched – thebigplate.com

New Creative

• Bailey Lauerman (Omaha) launched new company website – baileylauerman.com and Nebraska Creative

Product/Business Development

• SmartyPig (Des Moines) announced a new corporate name, Social Money Systems, and unveiled a new product, GoalSaver, a white-label version of SmartyPig.com – SPN, American Banker, Visible Banking, Des Moines Register and Des Moines Business Record
• MindMixer (Omaha) launched a site for Kansas State University and Los Angeles – K State Master Plan Update and My Historic LA, respectively
• Dwolla (Des Moines) released new versions of its iOS and Android app, adding the Instant feature to both – Dwolla blog and SPN

Mentions

• Tikly (Des Moines) – Des Moines Register: “Tikly aims to simplify band, concert promotions“
• Shawn Blanc (Kansas City) – 512 Pixels: “Writers I Read: Shawn Blanc“
• Drew Davies of Oxide Design (Omaha) – Illustrate Omaha: “Designer Spotlight: Drew Davies“
• TiBi.tv (Kansas City) – Kansas City Star: “Internet TV faces big obstacles“
• Chris Morris of Instantly In (Kansas City) – “Moonlighting His Way to the Top: How this KC Entrepreneur Does It All“
• Syncbak (Marion, Iowa) – TV Technology: “CES: What’s New Is OLED“
• Dundee Venture Capital (Omaha) – Nebraska Entrepreneur: “Dundee Venture Capital focuses on funding web-based start-ups“
• SmartyPig (Des Moines) – Kiplinger: “4 Online Tools to Fix Your Finances“

Startup America Partnership

StartupIowa, Startup Missouri, Startup Kansas and Startup Nebraska : “States ‘starting up’ with Startup Fair and launch events (Video)“

Startup Iowa

• StartupIowa: “Iowa Startup Fair- What happened?“
• StartupCity Des Moines: “Startup Fair highlights statewide entrepreneurial ventures“
• Juice Magazine: “Iowa Startup Fair” (Photos)
• Washington Post: “Q&A: Startup America CEO talks challenges, goals and four impressive states“
• Cedar Falls Patch: “Tech-Based Businesses Taking Off In Cedar Falls“
• Des Moines Register: “StartupCity DM, StartupIowa roll out more services after strong fair“
• Startup America Partnership: “Startup Fair highlights Iowa’s entrepreneurial ventures“
• Fundl (Iowa City): “Fundl Made an Appearance at the Iowa Startup Fair“
• Arch (Omaha): “Iowa Startup Fair” (Photos)
• Seed Here (Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa): “Iowa Startup Fair + Vault Ribbon Cutting + Startup Drinks” (Photos)
• SPN: “Startup Fair draws 100 exhibitors, more than 400 visitors across Iowa“
• SPN: “Tej Dhawan reflects on the inaugural Iowa Startup Fair (Video)“

Kansas

• Topeka Capital-Journal: “Small turnout for launch of startup initiative“
• Wichita Business Journal: “Kansas partnership launching today focuses on startups, entrepreneurs“

Fiber Watch

• GigaOm: “Is Google asking the FCC to allow gigabit Wi-Fi for its gigabit network?“
• SEO by the Sea: “Google Acquires Fiber Optic Networking Patents (Kansas City and then the World?)“
• FiberKC: “FiberKC Event Drives Discussion on KC Tech Talent“

Recognition

• Ben Milne of Dwolla (Des Moines) and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News named to the Des Moines Business Record’s “Forty Under 40“
• Drew Davies of Oxide Design (Omaha) named one of Graphic Design USA magazine’s “People to Watch in 2012“
• Sioux Falls, S.D., Ames and Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha named by Bank Technology News as one of the “10 Best Cities for Data Centers“

Blogged

• Bawte (Des Moines): “Get to Know Bawte” (Video)
• Tikly (Des Moines): “Tikly: Launch Month Preview #1“
• Jack Perry of Syncbak (Marion, Iowa): “Super Bowl XLVI“
• SmartyPig (Des Moines): “Meet the SmartyPig Team“
• Zapier (Columbia, Mo.): “The Frontend at Zapier“
• Nate Lowry of EliteForm (Lincoln, Neb.): “How to Think Like a Mathematician“
• CAMP Coworking (Omaha): “Fun Funds: How CAMP spent our drop-in money this month“

Misc.

• StartupCity Des Moines announced Startup Academy++ – Startup City Blog and Des Moines Register
• StartupIowa rolled out the “Iowa Startup and Entrepreneur Calendar” – calendar.startupia.org and Business Innovation Zone
• Columbia Daily Tribune: “New REDI grant will assist budding entrepreneurs“
• Des Moines Register: “Web companies’ role, value seen reflected in Facebook stock plan“
• Omaha World-Herald: “Yahoo seeks tax cuts to move facility“
• Des Moines Register: “Des Moines metro to get mention in Kauffman Foundation Super Bowl ad“
• Drake University’s Social Media Strategies class made an appearance on the foursquare blog: “Three more days to win a foursquare badge for your city! #visitUS“
• Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak visited Perceptive Software (Shawnee, Kan. – Kansas City Business Journal and Kansas City Star
• Pipeline (Kansas City) posted pictures from its Innovator of the Year event – Pipeline on Facebook

 

Image credits: Photo by Marcel Oosterwijk via Flickr.