Category: Events

Drones, Natural Disasters & the Blockchain

Posted on by itops

At the annual AngelHack Boston Hackathon, one of the founding members of Voatz ended up utilizing the IBMs Hyperledger Blockchain for an unusual use case – DroneLine – a decentralized adhoc drone network for emergency deliveries during natural disasters. The network would enable drone owners in the vicinity of a natural disaster to participate in recovery efforts, emergency medicine delivery, etc by loaning their spare drones to DroneLine.

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DroneLine won the IBM Challenge for the ‘Best use of IBM Bluemix’.

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And the Startup Most Likely to Develop a Cult Following Is….

Posted on by itops

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Aspiring business moguls representing a cross-section of the region’s innovation economy gathered at the Microsoft NERD Center on June 6 for the 2016 MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge’s Startup Spotlight. Showcasing their products and services to more than 350 would-be customers, partners, investors, business development and technology experts, the 30 startups addressed markets ranging from medical devices, agriculture, transportation and even private napping.

In addition to making valuable contacts during the night’s interactive networking, the firms vied for bragging rights for 3 prizes:

  • Company I Want to Have a Beer With
  • Future Unicorn
  • Most Likely to Develop a Cult Following

The Voatz team was deeply honored to win the ‘Most Likely to Develop a Cult Following‘ award.

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We also showcased the latest addition to our product lineup — the Voatz Mobile Ballot Station which enables voters without compatible smartphones to vote securely in events organized via the Voatz platform.

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Voatz in Action at the 2016 Massachusetts Democratic Party State Convention

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Nearly 2000 delegates interacted with the Voatz platform at the 2016 Massachusetts Democratic Party State Convention held at the Tsongas Center in Lowell MA on June 4, 2016.

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The delegate badges were specifically tagged with Voatz QR codes to simplify the process of authentication, and direct scanning was enabled via the Voatz Event Manager (VEM) application.

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Voatz in Action at the Massachusetts State House for Generation Citizen’s 2016 Spring Civics Day

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At Generation Citizen’s Spring 2016 Civics Day held on Friday, May 13, 2016 at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, around 150 eminent judges used the Voatz platform to vote via their mobile devices.

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Nearly 350 students from Boston, Malden, Brockton, Arlington, Newton, and Lowell took their first step in becoming lifelong active citizens by presenting their action civics projects from the Generation Citizen semester.

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The Voatz Analytics Dashboard was also used for real time scoring.

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Several prominent organizations were involved in supporting the event.

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Voatz Showcased by the Samsung KNOX Team at SDC 2016

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Voatz’s award winning mobile voting election technology was showcased at the KNOX booth as part of the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco this year.

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We’re grateful to the Samsung SEAP team for giving us this unique platform and for all their assistance so far.

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Voatz Wins the Audience Favorite Award at Mass Innovation Nights

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The Voatz team was honored to receive the Audience Favorite award at the Mass Innovation Nights #84 at District Hall in Boston on March 8th 2016. Many thanks to the Mass Innovation Nights team and Microsoft for sponsoring the event and to District Hall for hosting us.

Voatz @ MIN 84

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The event brought together all facets of the civic tech ecosystem, from the big players like our sponsor Microsoft New England, to the grassroots participants like our featured startups, to the Massachusetts government. The night featured experts from Microsoft, Business Insurance & Benefits Services of MA, Resilient Coders and a representative from Emerson College. The government also announced a new initiative called GovNext. From their website: “GovNext is an intrapreneurial initiative that works with state agencies, municipalities, and constituents to deliver high-quality, modern technology to the public, driven by a shared mission with our partners. GovNext projects are low-cost and high-impact for the Commonwealth”.

Voatz Is Selected to Present at Harvard’s #Tech4Democracy Showcase and Challenge

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The Voatz team is honored to be selected to participate in this event as part of HUBWeek.

The “showcase” features students and alumni from Harvard University and other area universities, as well as civic tech startups, entrepreneurs, and passionate citizens from across the Greater Boston area. Each presenter will demonstrate their idea through posters, prototypes, and other creative demonstrations.

The “challenge” features an esteemed panel of experts and leaders in the local civic tech movement to select the best idea/demonstration. In addition, everyone will be invited to vote for their favorite idea.

The #Tech4Democracy Showcase and Challenge was organized with support from:

Boston Civic Media Consortium
The City of Boston
The City of Cambridge Budget Office
The City of Somerville
The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate
The Engagement Lab, Emerson College
FWD.us
Microsoft
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Here’s some feedback we received on social media.