Need a guide through the Crossroads Arts District? We've partnered with intev LLC, which has created an app to help you find the galleries, restaurants, shops and parking. It's available in the iPhone store (search "First Friday"). Once you've got it, you can read our reviews; pinpoint the closest galleries, shops and restaurants; and see schedules and hours for various gallery shows.
After the jump, our First Friday Hit List.
It's game day for Fannect.
Inside a space on Grand last occupied by the clothing boutique Method, Hunter Browning, Will Coatney and their team wait for an e-mail from Apple. Six days ago, they submitted their sports app for approval.
"We're on edge," Browning says. "I've got push notifications on every e-mail. I really wish people wouldn't e-mail me today."
"Ninety-five percent of the apps get approved within six days," Coatney says, "and today [February 13] is the sixth day."
Apple receives 26,000 submissions a week from developers hoping to be added to the more than 700,000 apps in the giant company's store. Free apps, such as Fannect, often get discarded.
"You have to be cool to get noticed," Browning says. "And if you don't do being cool right the first time, you're never going to be cool."
The Fannect team isn't afraid of a little competition. That's the heart of its app, which is meant to rank the most passionate fanbases in college and professional sports. Is Mizzou more devoted than KU? Who would win a street fight between Ohio State fans and the Michigan devout? And who exactly is the No. 1 Notre Dame fan? Fannect's creators say they can provide the answers.
Colorado-based entrepreneur Brad Feld is opening his doors to local startups. This week, Feld and the Kauffman Foundation announced a contest for young companies that would benefit from having access to Google Fiber Internet access. The winners will get to live and work rent-free in the house that Feld owns at 4437 Cambridge in Kansas City, Kansas.
Feld, along with a panel of judges, will evaluate applicants based on their "innovative potential of their startups and their companies' ability to leverage Google Fiber." Up to five startups can win and will get to spend a year in the FiberHouse, which is in the same neighborhood as the Kansas City Startup Village.
The Feld FiberHouse Contest is taking applications until March 22. The winners might be a little cramped. According to Trulia, the house is only 944 square feet, with two bedrooms and one bathroom.
Applicants must be 18 or older. You can apply through the Kauffman Foundation's iStart website.
What can you make with Google Fiber? More than 100 developers want to answer that question this weekend, when Compute Midwest holds its hackathon at the Fiber Space (1814 Westport Road).
Michael Gelphman, founder of Kansas City IT Professionals and organizer of Compute Midwest, says he isn't sure what to expect when these programmers and app developers are given access to Google's 300 Mbps Wi-Fi connection — a speed that's 30 times the national average — and a computer with gigabit speed. At 9 a.m. Saturday, though, he starts finding out when work gets under way. And a little more than 24 hours later, we see results: At 10:30 a.m. Sunday, judges examine demos and award prizes, such as an iPhone 5, an iPad and a Kindle.
"That's the most exciting part, the unknown," Gelphman says. "Who is going to show up, and what ideas can they come up with?"
More definite is how Compute Midwest begins. The four-day conference kicks off Thursday, November 8, with a party from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Cashew (2000 Grand). The party gives way to a discussion of the future, with a 9 a.m. talk Friday at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway).
Sara Davidson and former Missouri State Rep. Jason Grill host the hourlong show every week. Look for programs with entrepreneurs and techies ranging from AgLocal's Nait Jones to Backly's Adam Coomes to KCnext's Ryan Weber to Polsinelli Shughart lawyer Gregory Kratofil.
Davidson and Grill started recording the shows September 20, but the first one broadcasts today. The Kauffman Foundation sponsors the show. Here's its Facebook page.
"The reason why we're doing this is to encourage startups to move into the KC area and to make Kansas City a better place to live and work," Barreth writes on the Homes for Hackers site.
Hackers buy their own food, build a new start-up business and "pay this kindness forward." Hosts agree to offer a basement/room, utilities (including access to Google Fiber when it's installed), an introduction to KC and show "Midwestern kindness to a total stranger." And that's why your spare bedroom is now the new garage startup.
Google admitted that its records weren't up to snuff. "This process itself has been long and painful for many of you," said the e-mail, which hit my inbox around 8:15 p.m. "We simply did not have our records up-to-date with many of the apartment and unit numbers around the city."
Google noted that it's "working hard to correct the issue and update our records appropriately." The e-mail said Google has been "contacting property owners and managers, and even visiting hundreds of condo and apartment complexes to get a list of all unit numbers."
After weeks of being unable to preregister (read about it here), I was finally able to last week. My landlord told me today that representatives from Google had visited the Cres-managed Quality Hill apartments on Monday. So there's been some movement.
Read the full e-mail after the jump:
There was no time to waste. My fiberhood is Quality Hill — I live in an apartment there — and we were on the high-end of Google's scale, needing 25 percent of the neighborhood to preregister to get Fiber. That's 346 people. I tried to sign up ... but I got this error message: "Sorry... we couldn't find that address."
The maker of Google Maps couldn't find my address? How am I supposed to rally my fiberhood to preregister if I can't do it myself? This wasn't just a Quality Hill problem. I've heard from other apartment dwellers who were having the same issue.
I called up Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres, who told me that the manager of my apartment complex would have to fill out a form to get into Fiber consideration. This form. You'll want to send the link to your apartment complex or condo manager, too, if you want Fiber.
"We're encouraging residents to talk to their landlords first, and tell them that they're interested in having Google Fiber for their apartment building," Wandres said. "Then the landlord can get in touch with us online and ask us to build to the building."
So downtown apartment dwellers, if you want Fiber, talk to your landlords and send 'em that link.
Bo Fishback, founder of online marketplace Zaarly (we profiled him last year) is willing to put up $500 to sign his neighbors up for Google Fiber. Google announced Thursday morning that the neighborhoods, or Fiberhoods in Google parlance, with the most residents preregistered for the service will get the ultra-speedy Fiber first.
Fishback used his own service today to hire a door-to-door salesman to register up to 50 of his neighbors in Countryside. He's even willing to pay each neighbor's $10 Fiber preregistration fee. The posting says seven people have offered to take the job. And if he finds the right person, it could put Countryside over the top. The Fiberhood currently needs 36 more people to reach its goal of having 5 percent of its residents registered.
The Google video above explains how Google Fiber's "Fiberhood" competition to determine which neighborhoods will be the first to get the incredibly fast internet service. Residents that want Fiber must preregister with Google and pay a $10 fee. Each Fiberhood has a goal to reach based on the amount of residents in them. On September 9, Google Fiber will announce which neighborhoods will get the service first. Also worth noting: Schools, libraries and government buildings within Fiberhoods will receive free Fiber.
And with registration only being open for about three hours, the Roanoke Fiberhood is the first in KCMO to reach its goal of 5 percent of residents signing up. On the KCK side, Hannover Heights was the fastest to the goal.
Voltaire - the saloon, not the philosopher - opens tonight
Big Rip Brewing Co. expands the Northland's beer universe
WWE's Monday Night Raw returns to Kansas City October 14
A consultant tells KC that big retail could save Citadel Plaza
Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper are headed to Cricket Wireless Amphitheater
Courtney Cole, Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus executive director, answers The Pitch's questionnaire
Yo La Tengo is at Grinders tonight
Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn face two new civil lawsuits