• 18 Gennaio
• 15 Febbraio
• 15 Marzo
• 19 Aprile
• 17 Maggio
• 21 Giugno

I spent 4 incredible days at Microsoft booth inside the Maker Faire Rome 2014 and met thousands of people interested in IoT solutions and software development (as you can read here [Italian]).
During these intensive days we also hosted two BizSpark startups to show their solutions in the IoT space:

• Ynnova with their solution about the remote monitoring of assets for both industrial and commercial plants
• SpinWave with a unique supervision platform solution that allows real-time acquisition and analysis of data from any plant producing green energy.

Both using industrial and custom hardware connected with Microsoft Azure (I will write 2 different posts on that).

Moreover during the event I had the opportunity to meet a lot of startups working in the IoT space with questions about Arduino/Galileo boards integration with Visual Studio+Azure. Here is a short summary about one of the demo I run (the weather demo) showing the HW configuration and where to download the sample code.

Let’s start with this main page where you can find all information about the Windows Developer Program for IoT!

To extend your Visual Studio environment to work with the Galileo board you need to download the Galileo SDK from GitHub https://github.com/ms-iot/galileo-sdk and configure your Visual Studio (PRO/Ultimate or Express) to support the new Windows for IoT template. With the Galileo SDK installed you can find the new IoT template for C++ Projects called Galileo Wiring app

To run the sample we used an Intel Galileo board and to grants access to barometric pressure, relative humidity, luminosity and temperature we used a Arduino Weather Shield like this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12081.
You can download here the sample code for this demo and test with your HW.

After that you can connect the board with your PC using an Ethernet cable (we used Surface 3 )

But let’s give a look at the code! In the loop section (Main.cpp) you can read data (pressure, altitude, temperature, humidity) from the shield:

while here is an example of the function to read pressure from the MPL3115A2 low-cost high-precision pressure sensor.

Compile and test the solution pressing Remote Windows Debugger. In this case the code will run on the board while you can debug data in Visual Studio!

As I said, because we are using Visual Studio, we can also set breakpoints to debug your code like any other Windows program!

Very COOL , isn’t it???

Press F5 to continue and see all results coming from the Weather Shield in the Output Windows.

As you can see, with the new Visual Studio template it’s very straightforward to build and debug solutions using Galileo board and Arduino Shields just like any other Windows app

If you want to collet, manage these and other capture machine-generated data from a variety of sensors and devices in the cloud you can also use the new MS Azure service called Intelligent Systems Service (upcoming post )

Enjoy

M.

@mariofontana

I criteri di ingresso per le startup sono molto semplici:

• La startup deve sviluppare del software.
• Se è formalmente costituita, deve avere meno di 5 anni oppure la startup può essere un progetto d’impresa (quindi non ancora formalmente costituita).
• Non deve essere a partecipazione pubblica.
• Non deve fatturare più di 1 milione di $ all’anno.

Se avete risposto si a tutti I punti sopra allora potete profilare la vostra startup qui: https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/signup/default.aspx.
Alla fine della profilazione (durata massima 5minuti) vi verrà comunicato che entro 5 giorni lavorativi verrete contattati dal team BizSpark per verificare la vostra candidatura.

Cosa offre il programma?

Una volta approvati nel programma avrete la possibilità di richiedere diversi servizi. Vediamoli nel dettaglio:

• Per tre anni avete la possibilità di scaricare il software Microsoft grazie a delle subscription MSDN Ultimate.
• E’ possibile ottenere fino a 8 MSDN Ultimate per le diverse persone del team.
• Ogni MSDN vi dà la possibilità di avere un credito di Microsoft Azure pari a 150$. Quindi potete arrivare ad un totale di 1.200$/mese di uso della piattaforma Azure.
• Ogni MSDN vi dà accesso gratuito al developer account per lo store di Windows e Windows Phone.
• Community Online BizSpark Italy su LinkedIN per avere un colloquio quanto più diretto e informale tra di noi. Nell’area discussion trovate tutti I link per iscrivervi ai seminari online e offline.
• Webinar BizSpark Unplugged. Ogni 2 mesi eroghiamo un unplugged per spiegare I nuovi servizi e rispondere a voce a tutte le domande!
• Architecture Design Sessions online (Skype o Lync) con esperti Microsoft per discutere del vostro progetto Cloud o della vostra app.
• UX Design Review per le app con Windows Phone e Windows
• Supporto tecnico 7x24 erogato dalla divisione di supporto ufficiale di Microsoft.
• Accesso agli eventi online e offline dedicati alle startup BizSPark (vedi sotto)
• Supporto Marketing e di visibilità alla vostra soluzione
• Accesso agli investitori.

Oltre ai servizi elencati vengono erogati anche dei workshop in classe per le startup presenti nel programma chiamati BizSpark Camp. Questi eventi sono tenuti presso le sedi Microsoft (Milano e Roma) e presso le sedi dei nostri partner (i principali acceleratori ed incubatori) presenti su (quasi) tutto il territorio italiano. I Camp hanno il seguente formato:

• Offline BizSpark Azure Camp. Workshop di 1gg che prevede il seguente format: 1.5h di overview sul Cloud, 2h di hands-on-lab su Azure e 4h di round table sui progetti dei partecipanti (max 10/12 team per evento).
• Offline BizSpark Azure IT Camp. Hand-on-lab di 1gg su tematiche emerse dalla community italiana di BizSpark

Cosa è BizSpark Plus?

Se la vostra startup ha bisogno di un uso massimo di risorse cloud, è possibile richiedere al team Microsoft BizSpark o ad uno dei nostri partner Plus (i3P, StartupBusiness e DPixel) l’ingresso nel programma BizSpark Plus che prevede un credito extra di 60.000$ di uso di Azure in un anno (con una mensilità di spending pari a 5.000$). Queso credito sarà a copertura di qualsiasi servizio presente nella piattaforma Microsoft Azure.

Inolte tutte le startup nel programma BizSpark Plus avranno diritto ad una business review mensile con il team BizSpark e maggiori servizi di consulenza architetturale sul cloud!

Quindi, che dire…vi aspetto

Enjoy

Mario

Microsoft BizSpark Lead - Italia

Follow me @mariofontana

Let’s start with prices!

we are cutting prices on compute by up to 35% and storage by up to 65% and reducing our Block Blob storage pricing by up to 65% for LRS and up to 44% for GRS, effective May 1.

On April 3, we have introduced General Purpose Instances called “Basic” that offers similar machine configurations as the “Standard” tier of instances offered today (Extra Small [A0] to Extra Large [A4]) without load balancing or auto-scaling features. These instances are well-suited for production applications that do not require the Azure load-balancer like development workloads, test servers and batch processing applications. These new instances cost up to 27% less than the corresponding instances in use today. See here for more information (starting April 3) Virtual Machines Pricing Details.

Sometimes I heard that Microsoft Azure is more expensive than Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is not true. Here a comparative table:

and storage (Blob Storage)

you can read more information here.

Enhancements in Microsoft Azure

Yesterday we unveiled several exciting updates to Microsoft Azure at the Build developer conference:

• Preview of Microsoft Azure Portal: The new portal significantly simplifies resource management, integration with billing and a rich gallery of applications and services, built-in Visual Studio Online features. Now you can easily be more agile while maintaining control of your costs and application performance.
  
  
  
• Open source partnerships with Chef and Puppet Labs: integrated in the portal
  
• New Enterprise Mobility Features: Active Directory Single Sign-on integration (for iOS, Android, Windows, or Windows Phone apps), Offline sync
  
• New Web Site options: Web Site Basic option with up to 3 virtual machine instances, and includes 10GB of storage and custom domains. Upgraded the existing Standard tier with 5-SNI and 1-IP SSL certificates, 50GB of storage and backup and restore features. The PaaS experience in Azure Web Sites now extends to Java—including pre-installed versions of the JRE as well as the ability to upload runtimes and containers. Traffic Manager too!
  
• Azure SDK: SDK 2.3, you can now easily provision and create web sites or virtual machines in Azure and publish them with ease through the Publish Web wizard.
  
• Autoscale GA: Autoscale is now generally available for Virtual Machines, Cloud Services, Web Sites, and Mobile Services
  
• GA of Azure Active Directory Premium: you can now ensure secure access for users while giving them easy single sign-on to thousands of SaaS applications. With Azure Multi-Factor Authentication and machine learning based security and usage reports, you have the ability to prevent unauthorized access to both on-premises and cloud applications.
  
• Mobile Announcements:
  
  
  
• Data Announcements: SQL Database up to 500GB!
  
   
  

you can read more info here.

M.
@mariofontana

It seems only yesterday when in May of 2013 along with two friends and adventures companions (Paolo Borella and Nicola Mattina) we launched a pilot called AppSpark (a mix between AppCampus and BizSpark) that within a few days would have assigned 190,000€ (in cash without equity) to 5 Startups and in less than 4 months, thanks to the collaboration with my co-worker Soha Hohnecker, would become an international Microsoft program operating in more than 40 countries. The Mobile App Acceleration Camp, MAAC, was born!

The MAAC, as I wrote in this post, is a fast track program to AppCampus provided by a large group of independent and experienced coaches from Microsoft, Nokia and AppCampus.

AppCampus is a mobile application accelerator program managed by Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. This is an 18 million euro joint investment between Microsoft and Nokia to foster mobile application development on Windows Phone. AppCampus operates in two ways: assigns a grant to the team from 20,000 €, 50,000€ or $ 70,000 depending on the complexity of the app and supports selected teams with training and mentorship activities during and after the release of the app!

After only 3 events (two in Rome thanks to Luigi Capello of Luiss Enlabs that since the pilot hosted and supported us and one organized in Turin with Massimiliano Ceaglio and Agnese Vellar from I3P) we were able to help 15 Italian teams to obtain funding for a total of 540,000€; a goal that is not the final point of the project, but rather the starting point for a new international adventure for the teams!

Furthermore, 27% of funded team is led by a woman, while 40% have a woman in the core team!

This experience represents also a very important signal for all young people who have a Startup or are thinking of investing their time and passion in a digital Startup because it proves, once again, that emerging teams, if properly guided, are able to impose themselves in international scenarios and attract foreign investors! Regardless of where they live or work! 
These are some of the Italian teams we have worked together with MAAC: GamePix, InteractiveProject, BadSeed, Paperlit, ShooterAssistant, Mangatar, StereoMood, ArtGuru, ... 

AppSpark/MAAC was born from a very precise requirements: understand why only ONE team from Italy was funded during the first year of operation of AppCampus while other submissions were ALL rejected! Among other things, some of these rejected nominations were made by Startups that I was following personally in BizSpark and they were distinguishing for innovation and execution capacity in Italy and abroad. So, how was it possible that none of these Startups could be financed by AppCampus? This was the situation that drove me to seek answers to these questions!

After analyzing more than 50 rejected cases and after some looong skype calls with Paolo, Nicola and Frangino Lucarini from Nokia, we realized that all these nominations had a common factor : all submissions were drawn slavishly from business plan that startups were used to give to traditional VCs. Unfortunately  AppCampus IS NOT an traditional investment fund focused on growth of Startups but, on the contrary, is a fund fully dedicated to the search for the mobile apps that, in a very short time, can become viral and relevant in the global market. Here is the GAP! What we wanted was a coaching program with the teams who had the best ideas to help them to transform the concept into a concrete global project and feasible in the short term.We had to help teams to interpret the criteria and the spirit of AppCampus…Here is the MAAC!

That’s why the MAAC model excludes traditional training focused on skill transfer and classroom training! On the contrary it gives room for an intensive coaching experience where selected teams and international coaches team up for 2 days to (re)define a concrete strategy to climb fast the global market.

The MAAC program revolves around two simple ideas: best teams plus best coaches! OK, these two ingredients are not so new! So, what makes MAAC so effective? I think the reason can be found in two different aspects. The first is our ability to identify the best subject matter experts in the mobile field for each individual areas of the selected projects while the second is the positive mindset of the teams that are open to rethink everything they have thought up to that time… Anything can happen in 48 hours :-) ...

For those interested, the next Italian MAAC will be held in Rome on April the 15th and 16th.

--Mario
@mariofontana

Mi sembra solo ieri quando a Maggio del 2013 insieme a due amici e compagni di avventura (Paolo Borella e Nicola Mattina) abbiamo lanciato un pilot (AppSpark: un mix tra AppCampus e BizSpark) che nel giro di pochi giorni avrebbe assegnato a 5 startup ben 190.000€ (in cash senza equity) e in meno di 4 mesi, grazie alla collaborazione con la mia collega Soha Hohnecker, sarebbe diventato un programma internazionale di Microsoft presente in più di 40 nazioni. Era nato il Mobile App Acceleration Camp ovvero il MAAC!

Il MAAC, come scrivevo in questo post (eng), è un programma di accelerazione verso il fondo AppCampus erogato da un nutrito gruppo di coach indipendenti e da esperti Microsoft, Nokia e AppCampus.
AppCampus infatti è un fondo di investimento internazionale di 18 Milioni di euro di Microsoft e Nokia e gestito da Aalto University in Finalndia che ha lo scopo di creare e supportare l’ecosistema di developer talentuosi intorno a Windows Phone e di identificare nel mondo le potenziali killer application del futuro. AppCampus opera in due modi: assegna un grant al team da 20.000€, 50,000€ o 70.000€ a seconda della complessità dell’app e supporta i team selezionati con attività di training e mentorship durante e dopo l’uscita dell’app!

Dopo solo tre eventi (due a Roma grazie a Luigi Capello di Luiss Enlabs che fin dal pilot ci ha ospitati e supportati e uno a Torino organizzato insieme a Massimiliano Ceaglio e Agnese Vellar di I3P) siamo riusciti ad aiutare 15 team italiani ad ottenere un finanziamento per un totale di 540.000€; un obiettivo che non e’ il punto d’arrivo del progetto, ma piuttosto il punto di partenza per una nuova avventura internazionale!
Questa esperienza rappresenta quindi un segnale molto importante per tutti coloro che hanno o stanno pensando di investire il proprio tempo e la propria passione nel mondo delle startup perchè dimostra per l’ennesima volta che i talenti italiani nel mondo digitale sono tanti e son capaci di imporsi in scenari internazionali molto competitivi! Questi alcuni dei team con cui abbiamo lavorato insieme in questi mesi: GamePix, InteractiveProject, BadSeed, Paperlit, ShooterAssistant, Mangatar, StereoMood, ArtGuru, ...

Inoltre il 27% dei team finanziati ha come founder o co-founder una donna e il 40% ha una donna nel core team!

Come in tutte le storie che si rispettano, anche il MAAC è nato da un’esigenza molto precisa, ovvero capire il perchè durante il primo anno di attività di AppCampus, dall’Italia erano arrivate pochissime candidature e tutte, tranne una, erano state rifiutate. Tra l’altro, alcune di queste candidature rifiutate erano state fatte da quelle stesse startup che stavo seguendo personalmente in BizSpark e che si stavano distinguendo per innovazione e capacità di execution in Italia e all’estero. Com’era possibile, quindi, che nessuna di queste riuscisse a farsi finanziare da AppCampus? Questo è stato il vero motore che mi ha spinto a ricercare le risposte a queste domande!

Dopo aver analizzato parecchi casi rifiutati e confrontandomi con Paolo, Nicola e Frangino Lucarini di Nokia ci siamo accorti che tutte queste candidature avevano un fattore in comune: erano tutte ricavate pedissequamente dai business plan che le startup erano solite dare ai tradizionali VC. Peccato che AppCampus non è un fondo di investimento focalizzato sulla crescita della startup in quanto azienda ma, al contrario, è un fondo dedicato alla ricerca delle migliori idee capaci di diventare app mobile virali e rilevanti nei diversi mercati. Ecco identificato il gap! Ci voleva quindi un programma di affiancamento ai team che avevano le migliori idee per aiutarli a trasformare l’idea di app in un un piano concreto ed attuabile in tempi brevi, capace di scalare a livello globale! Ecco identificato il format del MAAC!

Il modello del MAAC quindi esclude un training tradizionale focalizzato sullo skill transfer e la formazione in aula! Al contrario dà spazio ad un’intensa attività di coaching che dopo la dura selezione delle migliori idee vede conivolti circa 30 coach nazionali ed internazionali che per 2 giorni fanno squadra con le startup ed aiutano i team a definire una concreta strategia per la propria app capace di scalare velocemente il mercato globale.

Il MAAC quindi ruota intorno a due semplici concetti: migliori team e migliori coach! Questi due ingredienti non sono certo una novità nel mondo delle startup! Cosa lo rende, quindi particolarmente efficace? A mio avviso le ragioni sono due: la nostra capacità di identificare sempre i migliori mentor per le singole aree dei progetti selezionati e il mindset dei team che quando iniziano il MAAC sono pronti a rimettere in gioco tutto, ma proprio tutto quello che hanno pensato fino a quel momento... In 48 ore tutto può succedere...

Per chi fosse interessato, il prossimo MAAC si terrà a Roma il 15 e 16 Aprile.

M.

This year the Community Days event (February 25-27)  is enriched by a third day dedicated to innovation and insight in the world of digital startup.

During this day there will be various sessions about business development, LCA and testimony of startuppers while I will close the day with a session entitled: “Turn your idea into a disruptive business: the Startup Ecosystem”.

In this session I will discuss how to leverage BizSpark free resources to boost your startup in technical,marketing and monetization area and what are the best practices to create useful MVPs (Minimum Viable Product) and adopting agile techniques for Customer Development and DevOps!!

Moreover I will give an update to the MAAC project (the fast track coaching program to AppCampus to gain 20K€,50K€ or 70K€ grant for disruptive Windows Phone apps) and some tips and tricks about how to prepare good proposal.

See you there
@mariofontana

On January 29 we held the 2-day Mobile App Acceleration CAMP (MAAC) event in a very comfortable pub in the centre of ROME. If you don’t know what a MAAC, please read my previous post on the subject. This edition was characterized by a high percentage of games (60% of the candidates and 80% of the selected teams) confirming the trends of interest to MAAC & APPCAMPUS programs by indie game developers.

This is the third edition of MAAC in Italy (if we count the pilot called AppSpark ) and we are realizing that the average quality of the projects is improving considerably from edition to edition and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to select only 10 teams for direct coaching.

For this edition we reached the 100 nominations in less than 2 weeks (although the latest 80 came in one single day. Guess what? The last one ) and then we closed the enrollment. Thanks to the hard work of some BizSpark partner we did the first quality check for arriving at a short list of 20 candidates. Then together with Appcampus we have selected the best 10 teams that had more chance of getting the grant from the fund and I can assure you that it is a very hard job to identify which are the most promising team according to AppCampus criteria because the average quality of the submissions are very good.

For this reason, it’s easy to understand why the selected teams are and should be very prepared for the two days of intensive and sometimes disruptive coaching experience with our mentors.  In fact also in this edition we had 30 national and international mentors who for two days have worked side-by-side with the selected teams to help them refine their business model, go-to-market strategy, localization, UX and technical aspects. Here are our main mentors: http://www.appsparkworld.com/?page_id=101. More to come!

The 10 selected teams:

Bad Seed
Interactive Project
SpinVector
Outfitwars
E-Ludo
Thingarage
MyPhoneApps	http://myphoneapps.it/
iCubed Studios
Mastreeno
Reverse

Some startupper are also experimenting the other side of the force! In fact some special mentors are the same startuppers that through the previous MAAC events obtained the grant from AppCampus and now are happy to help other startups sharing their experience and support. A Special thanks to our “veterans” Edouard Wawra (CEO GamePix), Valerio Pullano (CMO GamePix) and Andrea Postiglione (CEO Mangatar).

You can read more about the event here:

http://roma.startupitalia.eu/9138/ecosystem/event/mobile-app-acceleration-camp/

http://agenda.startupitalia.eu/mobile-app-acceleration-camp-tappa-roma/

http://www.chefuturo.it/2014/01/brianza-startup-your-future-crescere-e-innovare-maac-a-roma/

#MAAC_ROME

Are you interested in participating in the next MAAC? Please give a look at our site in the apply section: www.maac.ms and via twitter @maac_it /@mariofontana

See you at the next MAAC…

@mariofontana

Do you have a GREAT idea for a new mobile app? Do you think it will be a disruptive success?

Take a challenge and try to propose your idea to Microsoft, Nokia and AppCampus through the MAAC program! 

What is MAAC?

Mobile App Acceleration Camp (MAAC) is a 2 day-event to fast track mobile startups for AppCampus grants.
During MAAC your entire team will work with 20/25 international mentors from the mobile industry that will help you to prepare  your application for the AppCampus program and help turn your new app idea into a big business. At the end of the second day you will receive final feedbacks to increase your chance of being accepted for AppCampus!

MAAC experience is a hard experience :-)

To qualify for a Mobile App Acceleration Camp event, your team must possess the following minimum set of skills:

• Design. To build a great app, you need to be able to carefully plan the user experience and every detail of the interface.

• Mobile Development. You need someone who knows how to develop for Windows Phone 8/Windows 8.

• Business and marketing. We want to help you to build a business, not only an application. That’s why the team needs someone who can design a business model and implement a marketing campaign.

What is AppCampus?

AppCampus is a mobile application accelerator program managed by Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. It is an 18 million euro joint investment between Microsoft and Nokia to foster mobile application development on Windows Phone and other Nokia platform. Successful applicants to AppCampus will receive awards varying from 20,000, 50,000 to 70,000 euros. In addition, AppCampus also provides training in mobile technology, design and usability, coaching and marketing support. AppCampus doesn't take any equity or commission from the investment. The only requirement is that successful applications are expected to be available exclusively on Windows Phone Store or Nokia Store for the first 90 days.

More information here: www.appcampus.fi  

MAAC: How does it work?

The process is quite simple:

1. Starting from December 1st, 2013 to January 13th, 2014 we have a public call for submissions. You can apply here
2. All teams applying to MAAC must attend Windows Phone technical events (online or devcamps) or demonstrate an equivalent understanding of the Windows Phone platform and UX patterns. you will receive an email with all online and offline resources.
3. If your submission is accepted, your team will be invited to participate in the 2 day-event in ROME to work on your project with our mentors!
4. If the final feedbacks are positive, you will have 15 days to submit your final application to AppCampus with a special referral code!

more info here: http://www.appsparkworld.com/ 

How to apply to a MAAC!

1. If you are a digital startup, register your idea/startup to BizSpark to access all Microsoft resources for free for three years!
2. Download the  Application Kit
3. Fill the document “Application Form”. We strongly recommend that you review our selection criteria and general recommendations before submitting your application.
4. Send your application to itadpemaac@microsoft.com by January 13th, 2014

NOTE: We receive hundreads of applications so please be sure to use the right naming convention because we wil accept only application with the following format:“AppName – MAAC ROME January 2014 – ApplicationFORM.ZIP” or “AppName – MAAC ROME January 2014 – ApplicationFORM.DOC”

Hope to see you in Rome :-)

Mario

@mariofontana

The goal of this whitepaper is to put you on the road toward continuous delivery. By continuous delivery, we mean that through techniques such as versioning, continuous integration, automation, and environment management, you will be able to decrease the time between when you first have an idea and when that idea is realized as software that's in production.

Whitepaper: https://aka.ms/ReleasePipeline-PDF

Source Code: https://aka.ms/ReleasePipeline-HOL

@MarioFontana