Now in NJ Tech: New Jersey Tech List, IT Survey, StartupNJ, Coworking
New Jersey Tech List: At the Asbury Agile conference on October 3, 2012, Chris Ackermann, Kevin Fricovsky and Bret Morgan introduced New Jersey Tech List, which they hope will become a 
comprehensive resource for all things tech in N.J. The founders are asking for companies, coworking spaces, incubators, accelerators and meetup groups to add their names to the list, which grows every day. Individuals will be able to include their information soon. The object is to bring the N.J. tech community closer together and provide a one-stop resource for who’s who in N.J. tech.
IT Industry Survey: Montvale-based global IT solutions and software provider Data Inc. is conducting an industry survey to determine the direction in which the IT software and services field is going. “This year, with a critical election looming and a continuously evolving yet still-volatile economy, your opinion on where the industry is headed is vital,” the company said. The survey results will be presented in a webinar and conference call to take place in December 2012. In addition, a full report on the results will be available for download from the Data Inc. website. The survey can be found here.
StartupNJ: Some NJIT entrepreneurs appear to be trying to get a chapter of the Startup America Partnership going in N.J. They say the Partnership, which launched from the White House on Jan. 31, 2011, with AOL cofounder Steve Case as chairman, wants to provide valuable resources to build and strengthen regional startup ecosystems. That includes free software for accounting and planning, which can lower costs for advertising and marketing; local and national connections; virtual learning sessions; and live events. The team has a survey for entrepreneurs here and asks those interested to email them at startupnj@gmail.com.
Coworking: NJTechWeekly.com has some news about two N.J. coworking spaces, Launchpad Creatives and Cowerks. Woodbridge-based Launchpad Creatives is closing, but co-owner Noelle Stary is taking over and moving the concept upstairs to a larger space. We profiled Launchpad here. In an email Stary said she had wanted to find a venue that fits the demographic for the kind of user who worked well at Launchpad, “which hasn’t been the young entrepreneur right out of college but the older programmer or consultant.” With several accelerators opening, she thinks this kind of place will be right for those not going into accelerators. It will be called The Coworking Space.
Cowerks, the Asbury Park coworking space that hosts meetups and Cowerks University, is moving to a larger venue. Founders Bret Morgan and Danny Croak wrote, “We’ve been keeping it (not so) under our hats that Cowerks will be moving to a bigger location later this fall/winter. Construction is heavily underway, and while we do not have an exact time frame as to when we can make the final move, we’re shooting for late November/December as the launch date.
The new office will boast amenities such as private offices, a conference room, stand-up desks, common ‘lounge’ areas and a walk-out balcony that overlooks Lake Wesley, on the Asbury Park/Ocean Grove border. The new office is only two blocks from our current location, so it’ll provide the same easy access to NJ Transit and all the restaurants and bars the city has to offer.”
Hackathon: The NJ News Commons at Montclair State University is planning a hackathon, involving both journalists and coders, for January 2013. The theme is N.J. information needs, so if you have an idea about the intersection of journalism and computing, this might be for you, NJ News Commons director Debbie Galant indicated. The Commons is now recruiting cosponsors as well as coders and journalists interested in taking part. Contact Debbie Galant at debra.galant@gmail.com.
