Anthony Broad-Crawford

DataPortability is a joint effort between Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and others allows users to bring their identity, friends, conversations, files and histories with them to new platforms without having to manually add them. Each of the services can draw on this information relevant to the context. As experiences accumulate and users add or change data, this information will update on other sites and services if they permit it, without having to revisit others to re-enter it.

Data portability is a new approach, where it is easier to use and deliver services. This frictionless movement through the network of services fosters stronger relationships between people and services providers and helps build a healthy networked ecosystem.

I currently serve on the Board of directors, acting Secretary and, chair the health care task force.

GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where technology professionals – from designers, developers and database administrators to marketers and web strategists – donate their time to provide solutions for non-profit organizations. Since its inception in 2007, the GiveCamp program has provided benefits to over 150 charities, with a value of developer and designer time exceeding $100,000 in services!

I am helping organize the local Cleveland instance of this event.  We are just gearing up and this event is still in the works.  So, please stay tuned as more details emerge about date, location, and organizations.

Cleveland has a very successful young professional organization called The Cleveland Professional 20 / 30 Club.  This group is a non-profit organization created to retain Young Professionals in Greater Cleveland by providing events focused on both personal and professional development.  I have been a member for a few years and recently joined the technology committee to help re-design and rebuild their website from the ground up. 

This group is setting out on an ambitious effort to build not just a website that looks better, instead, we are building an open source platform that will provide the necessary infrastructure for any professional organization to manage membership, schedule events, and build a community.  

The platform will provide integration into all known social software providers (Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) as well as other organizations leveraging this open source platform.  The project blog can be found here.

I am a startup addict. When my current company sells, I may enjoy the fruits of my labor for a brief period. However, during that break all I will be thinking about is my next company. That being the case, when I heard Cleveland was having a startup weekend event, and the companies tagline is as follows

Startup weekend is a community building startup event. Get together with local developers, marketer's, designers, enthusiasts, and do what you do best. Start projects, start companies. Not talking, all action.

I had to get involved. So I did and, I joined the Board of Directors and planning committee.  Along with several other entrepreneurs from the Cleveland area we made Cleveland’s startup weekend the largest, most exciting, most successful venue to date.  Check my blog for updates on our next event and read about it here. 

The Open Web Foundation is an attempt to create a home for community-driven specifications. Following the open source model similar to the Apache Software Foundation, the foundation is aimed at building a lightweight framework to help communities deal with the legal requirements necessary to create successful and widely adopted specification.

Health care companies, whether they are small technology start-ups or established health care organizations, are endeavoring to create value by utilizing the internet to streamline data portability. Their ultimate goal is to package information in a way that helps consumers manage their health more effectively. However, companies are encountering time-consuming and expensive challenges presented by the myriad of standards activities and interoperability strategies clouding the industry’s innovative progress.  The Health 2.0 Accelerator is a collaborative effort between the leading technology health care companies. These companies all share a goal to accelerate value creation that can transform the industry and ultimately improve the consumer experience.

One passion of mine is entrepreneurship, and more importantly the growing entrepreneurial scene here in the Midwest and, specifically Cleveland.  Since helping start Within3 I have become actively involved in several initiatives to continue the promotion of local startups.  This blog is an extension of my passion where I find, highlight, connect, and promote local startups, entrepreneur, enthusiasts, and investors all along the rust belt.  You can find the blog here.