I'm Ed Donahue. Sometimes I put words together to make sentences.

This weekend is Global Game Jam! If you follow Andrew Parsons’ blog then you’ll know that this year Global Game Jam especially exciting. If not, you can head over to his post or you can read this telling excerpt:

And this year it’s even more exciting for me because Microsoft has sponsored a number of the GGJ sites in the East Coast of the US, and a bunch of us are going to be there. For example, I’m going to be heading over to the Jams at NJIT in Newark, NJ and NYU in downtown Manhattan. And because we love Windows Phone (and secretly I want to encourage as many students to find out how easy it is to develop for the Windows Phone and maybe enter Imagine Cup too), for those specific sites we’re at, we’re going to be coming with actual phones to give away to any teams that want to try their hand at building Windows Phone games on the weekend itself. Cool!

The East Region Audience Team is going to deployed all over the East Coast in the name of game jams and Windows Phones! If you’re going to a site on the list below, give some serious thought to a Windows Phone game. Just in case it didn’t sink in the first time, here’s why:   : )

If you create a Windows Phone game your team will receive a Windows Phone!

I’m going to be at the Rockville and Baltimore jams. I’ll see you there!

Locations

• Atlanta, GA – SCAD
• Baltimore, MD – University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus (UMBC)
• Burlington, VT – Champlain College
• Charlotte, NC – University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNC-Charlotte)
• Durham, NC – Joystick Labs (pending)
• Newark, NJ – New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
• New York, NY – NYU
• Orlando, FL – Full Sail University
• Philadelphia, PA – IGDA Office
• Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Mellon
• Rochester, NY – Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
• Rockville, MD – Universities at Shady Grove
• Worcester, MA – Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

Download Official Rules (251KB PDF)
Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

We see new, amazing experiences created every day by student developers and we wanted to come up with a way to return the favor: we are partnering with the band The Gracious Few (featuring members of the bands LIVE and Candlebox) to create an amazing experience for ten (10) US college students (and their guest) in Austin, TX at SXSW: attend a private concert, receive backstage passes, go to a private dinner with the band, and be interviewed on national radio about their apps.

We’re topping all this off with two $15,000 cash awards (one for the top free app and another for the top paid app) for the two apps that will be named “Big App on Campus.”

Big App on Campus (BAOC) is open to US College and University students who build apps for Windows Phone. Each app created from August 1^st, 2011 until February 14^th, 2012 can be entered and students can submit multiple entries.

Overview of Prizes

• Top free app + top paid app get $15,000 each!!
• 10 students (and their guests) will join us in Austin, TX for SXSW Music festival in March 2012
• Transportation, hotel, $500 spending money
• Private concert with The Gracious Few
• Backstage passes and private dinner with the band

Timeline & Judging Criteria

There are a few dates of note:

• February 14, 2012 -> deadline for all entries to be submitted
• February 15, 2012 -> Round 1: Judging
• February 23, 2012 -> Round 2: Public voting
• March 1, 2012 -> Round 3: Public voting to select Big App on Campus
• March 13-18, 2012 -> SXSW Music festival in Austin, TX

Every app submitted will be judged on three criteria:

• Innovation (40%): How innovative is the app? Does it do something new or does it accomplish something in a new way?
• Experience (40%): Does it feel seamless and like a native experience on Windows Phone? Does the app have a polished feel?
• Potential (20%): Does the app have potential in the market (lots of users, making money, both) or not?

Public voting will include a combo of number of downloads of the app + “Likes” on Facebook. Semi-finalists will definitely want to think about how they can get their friends, family, fellow-students, and even complete strangers to download and “Like” their apps.

How to Enter

Obviously entering requires building & publishing an app. Each student must also complete the Official entry form (takes 49.7 seconds on average). Here’s what to do:

1. Register for DreamSpark at http://www.dreamspark.com and for an App Hub membership (both are free of charge for students) at https://users.create.msdn.com/Register/. Also check out our great Getting Started Guide for more info and resources. https://www.dreamspark.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductId=28
2. Create & publish a Windows Phone application to the Windows Phone Marketplace. Make the apps free, charge money, put ads in them…it’s up to you.
3. Visit http://wpdev.ms/BAOCApplication and complete an Official entry form. Do this after you’ve published your apps because you’ll need the App ID.

The full details are in the Official Rules so make sure you check them out.

Eligibility & Rules

• Open to all US college/university students (18+)
• Rules:  http://www.microsoft.com/student/bigapponcampus/
• Entry Form:  http://wpdev.ms/BAOCApplication

This may have already made its way to you, but if it hasn’t, use this infographic to figure out if you’re a geek or a nerd. I didn’t keep count, but I’m definitely a little lot of both. : )

From: MastersInIt.org

I find myself looking up the values of these colors a lot, so I thought other people might as well. If you want copy/paste-able color codes, see the table below.

Adopted from Pew Researchers Scott Keeter & Paul Taylor, the generation of millennials are pretty rad. Our politics, lifestyle, education and work make us the ‘it’ generation. This infographic illustrates their research. (via @ohtinytony)

Created by: Online Graduate Programs

As social media continues to evolve, Facebook leads the front and also plays one of the most critical roles in tomorrow’s education. This collaborative infographic illustrates the most thorough data to this date on the topic from leading social media researcher, Reynol Junco. (via @ohtinytony)

Via: OnlineEducation.net

This Tuesday, Dec 13th there will bea special Learn Windows Azure training event for developers.  It will provide a great way to learn Windows Azure and what it provides.  Attend the event either by watching it streamed LIVE online, or by attending in person (on the Microsoft Redmond Campus).  Both options are completely FREE.

Learn Windows Azure Event

During the Learn Windows Azure event attendees will learn how to start building great cloud based applications using Windows Azure.

Scott Guthrie will be kicking off the day with a 90 minute keynote that will provide an overview of Windows Azure, during which he’ll explain the concepts behind it and the core features and benefits it provides.  He’ll also walkthrough how to build applications for it using .NET, Visual Studio and the Windows Azure SDK (with lots of demos of it in action).

The rest of the day will be spent drilling into more depth on Cloud Data and Storage, how to use the Visual Studio Windows Azure Tools, how to Build Scalable Cloud Applications, and close off with an Q&A panel with Scott, Dave Campbell and Mark Russinovich.

Register Now for Free

The free Learn Windows Azure event will start at 9am (PST) on Dec 13th.  Watch the entire event live on Channel9 or attend it in person.  Both options are completely FREE.

• Register now to watch online or attend the event in person for FREE

Does your bot have what it takes to win? There is one more week to try and find out, now through December 16th, 2011. Visit the Rock Paper Azure Challenge site to learn more about the contest and get started.

Remember, there are two ways to win:

Sweepstakes

To enter the sweepstakes all you have to do is enter a bot, any bot – even the pre-coded ones we provide – into the game between now and 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 16th. No ninja coding skills need – heck, you don’t even need Visual Studio or a Windows machine to participate!

At 6 pm ET on Friday, December 16, 2011 the “Fall Sweepstakes” round will be closed and no new entries will be accepted. Shortly thereafter, four bots will be drawn at random for the Grand Prize (trip to Cancun, Mexico), First Prize (Acer Aspire S3 laptop), Second Prize (Windows Phone), and Third Prize (XBox w/Kinect bundle).

Competition

For the type-A folks, we’re keen on making this a competitive effort as well, so each week – beginning Nov. 25th and ending Dec. 16th – the top FIVE bots on the leaderboard will win a $50 Best Buy Gift card. If your bot is good enough to be in the top five on successive weeks, you’ll take home a gift card each of those weeks too. Of course, since you’ve entered a bot, you’re automatically in the sweepstakes as well!

Note: As with past iterations of the challenge, even though you can iterate and upload updated bots for the competition, you will only be entered into the sweepstakes one time.

You know what they say… you gotta be in it to win it! Good luck to all players in week #4!

Just a reminder to folks in the contest, be sure to catch Scott Guthrie, Dave Campbell, and Mark Russinovich live online Tuesday, 12/13/2011, for the Learn Windows Azure event!

One of the quickest growing industries in the US and one of the most important to the growth of our economy is taking a hit. Why are Students being turned off by STEM? Perhaps the difficulty? Maybe something else? Take a look at this beautifully hand-drawn infographic that explores why students are being turned off. (via @ohtinytony)