Quad Connect is hiring, and we want you!

If you have web development skills and are interested in getting involved on campus let us know! QC has tons of leadership opportunities for you to apply for.  Feel free to email emmanuel@quadconnect.com if you are interested.

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Let us know what you think.

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With the success of last year’s SMS, Wu Cypher is bringing it big. Get ready for the second installment of SHOW ME STyLez, one of St. Louis’ biggest bboy jams. Crazy cyphers, hyped exhibitions, dope battles all in one place. This is NOT one you are gonna want to miss. MARK THE DATE: APRIL 3rd, 2010!

Format:
3v3 Tournament Battle for $1,200

Schedule:
1pm to 4pm will be FREE workshops by each of our judges
Doors open at 4pm
Battles start at 6pm sharp

Admission:
Free w/Wash U ID
$10 for everyone else

Judges:
Puzzles (Supernaturalz, Toronto)
Data (Soul Mechanics/ENI, Colorado Springs)
Third TBA

1v1 Exhibition Battles:
Bridge (Supernaturalz, Toronto) vs Airsick (ENI, St. Louis)
Monki (BMF/ENI, Kansas City) vs Zeshen (Havikoro, Houston)
Third TBA

DJs:
Lester Burnem (Crooks, Chicago)
Keeno (Arch Enemies, St. Louis)

Host:
WU Cypher

PRE-REGISTER YOUR CREW BY EMAILING them  AT wucypher@gmail.com!!!

Check out the facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=290369693102

Check out their youtube video at:

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The 2nd Annual Grand Slam, being held in the Danforth University Center’s Tisch Commons, will feature 10 of the best poets at Washington University as chosen by their peers. These poets will have three rounds to put everything they have on the stage in front of their friends, families and complete strangers, all for the opportunity to make WashU’s second national slam team. The poets this year are Brian White, Sam Coster, Aaron Samuels, Lucy Gellman, Gerald Jackson, Ben Rahming, Fiona Sloan, Veronica Berger, Eric Rosenbaum and Lauren Banka. The 2010 Grand Slam will be hosted by Sathya Sridharan, a well-respected and multi-talented alumni of WashU (’09.) This event WILL BE PACKED, so get there early, bring all of your friends and experience the event the way it is intended to be experienced! Prepare to be loud, prepare to be amazed and prepare to be touched by the stories of these 10 hungry poets.

*This event is brought to you by WU-SLam in collaboration with Freshman Class Council, Sophomore Class Council, Black Anthology, Association of Black Students, PRIDE, and Drop Knowledge

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Position Description:

Product Design

A member of this team will work on the design, look, feel, and user functionality of Quad Connect. Team members will work closely with the other graphic design team members to ensure consistent branding across medias. In addition, interns will collaborate with the rest of the marketing communication staff  to ensure proper use of brand and treatment of execution of brand direction. Interns will also create storyboards outlining the front-end graphical interface and navigation process of the product.

Marketing and Public Relations
These interns will participate in advertising, marketing and public relations tasks and projects to generate brand awareness and incremental business. An essential part of Quad Connect’s marketing is our use of social media marketing. Interns will learn about the essentials of an online presence and work to build our fanbase and how to understand analytics. In addition, interns will also help develop marketing materials for potential clients and investors.

Required/Desired Skill or Attributes:
—————————————————-
Photoshop
Illustrator
html/css/java

Major in: Business, Communication Design, Website design or related fields.

Benefits:
—————————————————-
This internship will provide an innovative learning experience to at least 3 students.

Application Procedure:
—————————————————-
Please email a resume and design portfolio (optional) to morgan@quadconnect.com.  Applicants can expect a response within 10 business days.

Additional Information:
—————————————————-
* Superb verbal and written communication skills
* High energy, results driven attitude
* High customer orientation and self motivation
* PC proficiency (MS Office and web based applications)
* Strong attention to detail

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Note: This is part 1 in a series of posts on Quad Connect’s interest in the Semantic Web and Linked Data.  Stay tuned for future updates on how we believe these exciting new technologies can help us build a better experience for the Wash U community!

Hey Wash U!

I have some exciting news to report.  In one week I will be headed off to MIT to participate in a Semantic Web and Linked Data workshop with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web! Now, you may be thinking “Micah, you’re just bragging, it’s not like this semantic whozawhatzit has anything to do with Quad Connect or Wash U.” But that’s not entirely true.  I mean, I may be bragging, but, honestly, that can’t be helped. However, this workshop may indeed hold exciting things for QC and for WU. Listen up…

To begin with, the Semantic Web and Linked Data are part of this newfangled conglomeration of technologies that we’ll just go ahead and call “Web 3.0″.  Basically, the idea is that Web 1.0 got us all to throw our information online – it allowed us to find any movie on IMDB, the ins and outs of every video game at GameFAQs, and the best price for Native American arrowheads at eBay. Then Web 2.0 came around and on top of all this information about the world, we added “people” information.  On Facebook, you can find out what and who people “like.”  On Geni, you can find out Brad Pitt’s family history (or post your own). And of course over at Twitter, you can take “the pulse of the planet.”  Not to mention the thousands of blogs, niche papers, and rumor sites, that have allowed people to turn down careers as doctors in order to make money uploading their thoughts on everything under the sun.

The one thing missing in all of this, though, is some sort of meaning and organization.  Sure we have Google, but while Google is helpful for many things, it’s still not very smart.  Have you tried asking it “what’s the weather”?  I just did. It told me:

Web definitions for weather
	face and withstand with courage; “She braved the elements” wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn - Definition in context

Not exactly what I was going for.  You could almost say, it’s not “semantically” what you’d expect from such a question.  Surely we can do better.  And in fact, you may have heard of a little engine called WolframAlpha.  Enter the same query there, and you get:

Now we’re talking. WolframAlpha’s got this “Semantic” thing down to a T.  Let’s see how it does with the “Web” part.  Let’s say I’ve heard lots of people talking about Tiger Woods lately, and I want to know what all the hubub is about.  Let’s compare these two sites again:

Not bad… now let’s try Google:

Just from scanning these two pages alone, there’s not really even a competition, is there?  Now of course you’re saying “Ok, Micah, I get it, Semantics can do cool things, and the Web, obviously, can do cool things, but this is getting boring and you still haven’t said why this is relevant to ME.”  Well, hold your horses, alright? I’m ready to tell you.

What if we put these two technologies together? What if we made something that understood your Semantics, and was built with the power of the Web? Not only would we get to make a cool new phrase – Semantic Web – we’d get to make really smart, powerful programs that helped you live your life more simply and more efficiently.  This new world of smart and connected information is what Quad Connect is all about; and this is exactly what I’ll be working to build at this workshop.  Not only will I get advice from some of the top people in this field, I’ll have the chance to get some VCs on board to help Quad Connect be the smartest and most connectedest place on the net (good thing Manny, Morgan, Justin, Josh, and the rest are here to work on the smartestness part).

And here’s where WU comes in.  Ever heard about some cool party, speaker, game, or meeting after the fact?  Ever wanted to organize your friends in LK basement to watch a movie but worried that maybe someone else had reserved the room? Ever needed to meet with a professor or TA but didn’t know when their office hours were and, for the life of you, couldn’t find their website? (Some profs don’t even post hours on their website!)  Ever get interested in a job or internship but all the deadlines for the cool ones had passed?  So many frustrating college experiences occur simply because we aren’t given the relevant information at convenient times.  At Quad Connect, using the Semantic Web and Linked Data, we aim to solve these problems.  In the process, we think we can build a foundation for a better college experience by connecting you to the parts of the campus community you didn’t even know that you didn’t know about.

Sound a bit lofty and high-fallutin’?  So sue us.¹
–
¹Lawyer’s Note: Micah does not actually recommend suing Quad Connect, any of its subsidiaries, or any of its co-founders. Happy Manny?

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The QC Marketing Team wants your opinion.  Vote below to let us know which T-shirt and logo colors you like. Feel free to leave comments below about color variations. T-shirts should probably be available in February. Have a great holiday break.

- Morgan

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Walk a few feet from your study spot at the library to Whispers Cafe and get some Dominos Pizza!

Kappa Sigma / Kappa Kappa Gamma Thurtene will be selling Dominos Pizza all week long in Whispers Cafe after it closes from 12am-2am.
(We will not be selling pizza on Friday night).

Pizza will be $2 per slice, and this year we have decided all proceeds from our Thurtene efforts will be donated to Nurses for Newborns, a local charity that provides a safety net for families most at-risk in order to prevent infant mortality (http://www.nfnf.org/). Unfortunately, we will not be able to take campus card, so you need to bring cash.

We will update this page with more info, we may be selling pizza until 3am some nights!

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Imagine if every event were as well attended as WILD…

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
-Tuesdays with Morrie

We at Quad Connect find purpose in building the Wash U community to its fullest potential. Let us know what’s important to you at WU and we’ll do our best to spread the word!

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Show us the WHAY

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Did we mention it’s all FREE?!

Location: DUC Funroom
Time: 11-1

Checkout the facebook event:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184921792900

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