Eric Martindale

I'm so pleased that +Coursefork made +Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside +Docker and +OpenStack, a true honor in my book.

If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators.  In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.

“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”

Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool

Coursefork Among Top 10 Open Source Projects of 2013
I'm so pleased that +Coursefork made +Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside +Docker and +OpenStack, a true honor in my book.

If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators.  In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.

“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”

Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool

Coursefork Among Top 10 Open Source Projects of 2013
I'm so pleased that +Coursefork made +Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside +Docker and +OpenStack, a true honor in my book.

If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators.  In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.

“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”

Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool

Coursefork Among Top 10 Open Source Projects of 2013
I'm so pleased that +Coursefork made +Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside +Docker and +OpenStack, a true honor in my book.

If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators.  In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.

“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”

Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool

2013 was an amazing year; between founding +Coursefork, building soundtrack.io and para.io, working with several amazing startups [1], and being allowed to call myself a peer to some of the smartest people I know all throughout, it has been a year of both great achievement and personal growth.  This sets an incredibly compelling stage for 2014 and everything to come therein.

Today, I'm excited to announce that I'll be joining the likes of Jeff Garzik [2], Patrick Nagurny, and Ian Patton under the leadership of CTO Stephen Pair at +Bitpay, which allows anyone to quickly and seamlessly accept Bitcoin as payment, settling immediately in any currency, including USD.

Bitcoin has become one of the biggest stories of 2013, having grown over 9000% in value [3] and even surpassing Western Union in transaction volume [4].  As potentially the most counterfeit-proof form of payment in history, Bitcoin is poised to become one of the most disruptive technologies since the invention of the Internet as society moves increasingly into decentralized systems in an era of waning trust and increasing technological awareness by growing economies like China, India, and Brazil [5].

Taking advantage of this trend of decentralization, BitPay is perfectly positioned to serve as the mechanism for BitCoin's mass-adoption as massive merchants such as +Overstock.com move to accept this new form of payment.  It's exciting to be involved with a company in this position at such an early stage, and expand the breadth of my experience to include another decentralized system, and especially to be holding the responsibility of expanding the company's open-source initiatives and engaging the developer community in a meaningful way.

After parting ways with Coursefork late last year, I've taken a seat on the Board of Advisors, allowing the amazing team we built to realize the vision of open-sourcing the world of education [6] under the leadership of CTO +Brian Marks.  Brian was previously the CTO of successful education startup WebAssign [7], and will be an excellent steward of Coursefork's team and technology as they move towards the much-needed decentralization and open-sourcing of the education industry.  My best wishes to the team as they endeavor to do so!

Exciting times all around, and I'm truly lucky to be a part of it in so many ways.  Now let's go make the world a better place.

[1]: One of which, DigaForce, was just acquired: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2014/01/02/apex-tech-firm-strategic-link-partners.html?page=all — congratulations to +Anthony Pompliano and +Matthew Cotter!
[2]: Jeff is one of the core developers of Bitcoin and a former +Red Hat team member from Raleigh.  How's that for the Triangle Company Family tree, +Derrick Minor?!
[3]: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/29/which-currency-is-up-over-9000-this-year-and-sells-for-almost-as-much-as-an-ounce-of-gold/
[4]: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-can-be-the-new-western-union-2013-12
[5]: You might recall that in March of 2013, the Cypriot government restricted withdrawals and then utilized citizens' bank accounts directly to bail out their banking system, resulting in a surge in Bitcoin prices as individuals fled the fiat currency: http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/28/investing/bitcoin-cyprus/
[6]: Here's an interview I did while CTO of Coursefork with +Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com that explains the vision: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
[7]: As a cofounder and CTO at WebAssign for 13 years, Brian took the education company from zero to over $30M in yearly revenue before becoming my co-founder at Coursefork.

Onward, and Ever Upward
2013 was an amazing year; between founding +Coursefork, building soundtrack.io and para.io, working with several amazing startups [1], and being allowed to call myself a peer to some of the smartest people I know all throughout, it has been a year of both great achievement and personal growth.  This sets an incredibly compelling stage for 2014 and everything to come therein.

Today, I'm excited to announce that I'll be joining the likes of Jeff Garzik [2], Patrick Nagurny, and Ian Patton under the leadership of CTO Stephen Pair at +Bitpay, which allows anyone to quickly and seamlessly accept Bitcoin as payment, settling immediately in any currency, including USD.

Bitcoin has become one of the biggest stories of 2013, having grown over 9000% in value [3] and even surpassing Western Union in transaction volume [4].  As potentially the most counterfeit-proof form of payment in history, Bitcoin is poised to become one of the most disruptive technologies since the invention of the Internet as society moves increasingly into decentralized systems in an era of waning trust and increasing technological awareness by growing economies like China, India, and Brazil [5].

Taking advantage of this trend of decentralization, BitPay is perfectly positioned to serve as the mechanism for BitCoin's mass-adoption as massive merchants such as +Overstock.com move to accept this new form of payment.  It's exciting to be involved with a company in this position at such an early stage, and expand the breadth of my experience to include another decentralized system, and especially to be holding the responsibility of expanding the company's open-source initiatives and engaging the developer community in a meaningful way.

After parting ways with Coursefork late last year, I've taken a seat on the Board of Advisors, allowing the amazing team we built to realize the vision of open-sourcing the world of education [6] under the leadership of CTO +Brian Marks.  Brian was previously the CTO of successful education startup WebAssign [7], and will be an excellent steward of Coursefork's team and technology as they move towards the much-needed decentralization and open-sourcing of the education industry.  My best wishes to the team as they endeavor to do so!

Exciting times all around, and I'm truly lucky to be a part of it in so many ways.  Now let's go make the world a better place.

[1]: One of which, DigaForce, was just acquired: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2014/01/02/apex-tech-firm-strategic-link-partners.html?page=all — congratulations to +Anthony Pompliano and +Matthew Cotter!
[2]: Jeff is one of the core developers of Bitcoin and a former +Red Hat team member from Raleigh.  How's that for the Triangle Company Family tree, +Derrick Minor?!
[3]: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/29/which-currency-is-up-over-9000-this-year-and-sells-for-almost-as-much-as-an-ounce-of-gold/
[4]: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-can-be-the-new-western-union-2013-12
[5]: You might recall that in March of 2013, the Cypriot government restricted withdrawals and then utilized citizens' bank accounts directly to bail out their banking system, resulting in a surge in Bitcoin prices as individuals fled the fiat currency: http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/28/investing/bitcoin-cyprus/
[6]: Here's an interview I did while CTO of Coursefork with +Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com that explains the vision: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
[7]: As a cofounder and CTO at WebAssign for 13 years, Brian took the education company from zero to over $30M in yearly revenue before becoming my co-founder at Coursefork.

Onward, and Ever Upward
2013 was an amazing year; between founding +Coursefork, building soundtrack.io and para.io, working with several amazing startups [1], and being allowed to call myself a peer to some of the smartest people I know all throughout, it has been a year of both great achievement and personal growth.  This sets an incredibly compelling stage for 2014 and everything to come therein.

Today, I'm excited to announce that I'll be joining the likes of Jeff Garzik [2], Patrick Nagurny, and Ian Patton under the leadership of CTO Stephen Pair at +Bitpay, which allows anyone to quickly and seamlessly accept Bitcoin as payment, settling immediately in any currency, including USD.

Bitcoin has become one of the biggest stories of 2013, having grown over 9000% in value [3] and even surpassing Western Union in transaction volume [4].  As potentially the most counterfeit-proof form of payment in history, Bitcoin is poised to become one of the most disruptive technologies since the invention of the Internet as society moves increasingly into decentralized systems in an era of waning trust and increasing technological awareness by growing economies like China, India, and Brazil [5].

Taking advantage of this trend of decentralization, BitPay is perfectly positioned to serve as the mechanism for BitCoin's mass-adoption as massive merchants such as +Overstock.com move to accept this new form of payment.  It's exciting to be involved with a company in this position at such an early stage, and expand the breadth of my experience to include another decentralized system, and especially to be holding the responsibility of expanding the company's open-source initiatives and engaging the developer community in a meaningful way.

After parting ways with Coursefork late last year, I've taken a seat on the Board of Advisors, allowing the amazing team we built to realize the vision of open-sourcing the world of education [6] under the leadership of CTO +Brian Marks.  Brian was previously the CTO of successful education startup WebAssign [7], and will be an excellent steward of Coursefork's team and technology as they move towards the much-needed decentralization and open-sourcing of the education industry.  My best wishes to the team as they endeavor to do so!

Exciting times all around, and I'm truly lucky to be a part of it in so many ways.  Now let's go make the world a better place.

[1]: One of which, DigaForce, was just acquired: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2014/01/02/apex-tech-firm-strategic-link-partners.html?page=all — congratulations to +Anthony Pompliano and +Matthew Cotter!
[2]: Jeff is one of the core developers of Bitcoin and a former +Red Hat team member from Raleigh.  How's that for the Triangle Company Family tree, +Derrick Minor?!
[3]: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/29/which-currency-is-up-over-9000-this-year-and-sells-for-almost-as-much-as-an-ounce-of-gold/
[4]: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-can-be-the-new-western-union-2013-12
[5]: You might recall that in March of 2013, the Cypriot government restricted withdrawals and then utilized citizens' bank accounts directly to bail out their banking system, resulting in a surge in Bitcoin prices as individuals fled the fiat currency: http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/28/investing/bitcoin-cyprus/
[6]: Here's an interview I did while CTO of Coursefork with +Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com that explains the vision: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
[7]: As a cofounder and CTO at WebAssign for 13 years, Brian took the education company from zero to over $30M in yearly revenue before becoming my co-founder at Coursefork.

Onward, and Ever Upward
2013 was an amazing year; between founding +Coursefork, building soundtrack.io and para.io, working with several amazing startups [1], and being allowed to call myself a peer to some of the smartest people I know all throughout, it has been a year of both great achievement and personal growth.  This sets an incredibly compelling stage for 2014 and everything to come therein.

Today, I'm excited to announce that I'll be joining the likes of Jeff Garzik [2], Patrick Nagurny, and Ian Patton under the leadership of CTO Stephen Pair at +Bitpay, which allows anyone to quickly and seamlessly accept Bitcoin as payment, settling immediately in any currency, including USD.

Bitcoin has become one of the biggest stories of 2013, having grown over 9000% in value [3] and even surpassing Western Union in transaction volume [4].  As potentially the most counterfeit-proof form of payment in history, Bitcoin is poised to become one of the most disruptive technologies since the invention of the Internet as society moves increasingly into decentralized systems in an era of waning trust and increasing technological awareness by growing economies like China, India, and Brazil [5].

Taking advantage of this trend of decentralization, BitPay is perfectly positioned to serve as the mechanism for BitCoin's mass-adoption as massive merchants such as +Overstock.com move to accept this new form of payment.  It's exciting to be involved with a company in this position at such an early stage, and expand the breadth of my experience to include another decentralized system, and especially to be holding the responsibility of expanding the company's open-source initiatives and engaging the developer community in a meaningful way.

After parting ways with Coursefork late last year, I've taken a seat on the Board of Advisors, allowing the amazing team we built to realize the vision of open-sourcing the world of education [6] under the leadership of CTO +Brian Marks.  Brian was previously the CTO of successful education startup WebAssign [7], and will be an excellent steward of Coursefork's team and technology as they move towards the much-needed decentralization and open-sourcing of the education industry.  My best wishes to the team as they endeavor to do so!

Exciting times all around, and I'm truly lucky to be a part of it in so many ways.  Now let's go make the world a better place.

[1]: One of which, DigaForce, was just acquired: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2014/01/02/apex-tech-firm-strategic-link-partners.html?page=all — congratulations to +Anthony Pompliano and +Matthew Cotter!
[2]: Jeff is one of the core developers of Bitcoin and a former +Red Hat team member from Raleigh.  How's that for the Triangle Company Family tree, +Derrick Minor?!
[3]: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/29/which-currency-is-up-over-9000-this-year-and-sells-for-almost-as-much-as-an-ounce-of-gold/
[4]: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-can-be-the-new-western-union-2013-12
[5]: You might recall that in March of 2013, the Cypriot government restricted withdrawals and then utilized citizens' bank accounts directly to bail out their banking system, resulting in a surge in Bitcoin prices as individuals fled the fiat currency: http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/28/investing/bitcoin-cyprus/
[6]: Here's an interview I did while CTO of Coursefork with +Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com that explains the vision: http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
[7]: As a cofounder and CTO at WebAssign for 13 years, Brian took the education company from zero to over $30M in yearly revenue before becoming my co-founder at Coursefork.

Learn about our founders' vision for open source education in our latest interview by +Anthony Pompliano.

#OpenSource   #education  

What does the future of open education look like?
Learn about our founders' vision for open source education in our latest interview by +Anthony Pompliano.

#OpenSource   #education  

Open Source is the Future of Education
If you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of +GitHub.  With my new company +Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of #education .

+Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.

Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.

Open Source is the Future of Education
If you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of +GitHub.  With my new company +Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of #education .

+Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.

Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.

Open Source is the Future of Education
If you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of +GitHub.  With my new company +Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of #education .

+Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.

Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.

Open Source is the Future of Education
If you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of +GitHub.  With my new company +Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of #education .

+Jason Hibbets from +Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.

Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.

Open Source ALL the Things!
I'll be speaking next week at +The Research Triangle Park about #OpenSource , #education , and +Coursefork.  I'm extremely excited (and humbled!) to be a part of an event that includes speakers from +Red Hat and +IBM, especially to speak on a topic that I'm so passionate about. See the full speaker list at the official site!

I hope to see you there. :)

About the Event
Open source. It's faster, cleaner, and more accurate than traditional methodologies -- and it's the culture the Triangle is fast-becoming known for. There's a reason that Red Hat, the first billion-dollar open source company, has built its headquarters here.

For September's “RTP 180," we're celebrating our region's fondness for open source with a speaker series that pulls from our three founding universities (NC State, Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill), companies and communities. On September 17, we hope you will join us from 6:00-7:30, at RTP’s headquarters (12 Davis Drive, Durham, NC), for "RTP 180: Open Source All the Things.”

Our doors open at 5:00 so you can stop in right after work to grab a snack; a reception will follow after the event. We hear there will be tacos and free beer.

#HackEducation   #RTP180   #Raleigh   #Durham  

Yes, we're expanding.  While +Wells Fargo [1] and +Wikipedia [2] start exploring #cryptofinance, we're also moving full steam ahead towards getting every company in the world to accept  #bitcoin as a payment option.

Not only have we hired the best from companies like +Red Hat, +IBM, and Visa into our senior leadership, but we've established a firm position in the marketplace–we're now performing over $1,000,000 per day in transactions with Bitcoin, and there are now over 1,000 new businesses accepting Bitcoin every week.  Now, we're hiring to support this investment in the community.

If you're interested in building anything related to  #cryptofinance, give me a shout.  We're extremely focused on  #OpenSource and  #cryptography  , and will be spending a lot of our time [3] participating in the support of developers building applications in the space.  If you want to build something that will shape the future of the world,  #cryptofinance is the right space to be in.

[1]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-wellsfargo-bitcoin-idUSBREA0D1LL20140114
[2]: https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/441632741352681472 and http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/201fa6/hello_from_jimmy_wales_of_wikipedia/ !
[3]: We've already released Bitcore (see bitcore.io for more information), but we'll be a major presence in number of events in the coming year (not the least of which was +LAUNCH most recently!).  We're on a tear to support engineers building new projects with  #bitcoin  , so feel free to reach out and let me know what you're working on.

BitPay Expands, Fueled By Bitcoin Demand
Yes, we're expanding.  While +Wells Fargo [1] and +Wikipedia [2] start exploring    #cryptofinance  , we're also moving full steam ahead towards getting every company in the world to accept  #bitcoin   as a payment option.

Not only have we hired the best from companies like +Red Hat, +IBM, and Visa into our senior leadership, but we've established a firm position in the marketplace–we're now performing over $1,000,000 per day in transactions with Bitcoin, and there are now over 1,000 new businesses accepting Bitcoin every week.  Now, we're hiring to support this investment in the community.

If you're interested in building anything related to  #cryptofinance  , give me a shout.  We're extremely focused on  #OpenSource   and  #cryptography  , and will be spending a lot of our time [3] participating in the support of developers building applications in the space.  If you want to build something that will shape the future of the world,  #cryptofinance   is the right space to be in.

[1]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-wellsfargo-bitcoin-idUSBREA0D1LL20140114
[2]: https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/441632741352681472 and http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/201fa6/hello_from_jimmy_wales_of_wikipedia/ !
[3]: We've already released Bitcore (see bitcore.io for more information), but we'll be a major presence in number of events in the coming year (not the least of which was +LAUNCH most recently!).  We're on a tear to support engineers building new projects with  #bitcoin  , so feel free to reach out and let me know what you're working on.

BitPay Expands, Fueled By Bitcoin Demand
Yes, we're expanding.  While +Wells Fargo [1] and +Wikipedia [2] start exploring    #cryptofinance  , we're also moving full steam ahead towards getting every company in the world to accept  #bitcoin   as a payment option.

Not only have we hired the best from companies like +Red Hat, +IBM, and Visa into our senior leadership, but we've established a firm position in the marketplace–we're now performing over $1,000,000 per day in transactions with Bitcoin, and there are now over 1,000 new businesses accepting Bitcoin every week.  Now, we're hiring to support this investment in the community.

If you're interested in building anything related to  #cryptofinance  , give me a shout.  We're extremely focused on  #OpenSource   and  #cryptography  , and will be spending a lot of our time [3] participating in the support of developers building applications in the space.  If you want to build something that will shape the future of the world,  #cryptofinance   is the right space to be in.

[1]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-wellsfargo-bitcoin-idUSBREA0D1LL20140114
[2]: https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/441632741352681472 and http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/201fa6/hello_from_jimmy_wales_of_wikipedia/ !
[3]: We've already released Bitcore (see bitcore.io for more information), but we'll be a major presence in number of events in the coming year (not the least of which was +LAUNCH most recently!).  We're on a tear to support engineers building new projects with  #bitcoin  , so feel free to reach out and let me know what you're working on.

BitPay Expands, Fueled By Bitcoin Demand
Yes, we're expanding.  While +Wells Fargo [1] and +Wikipedia [2] start exploring    #cryptofinance  , we're also moving full steam ahead towards getting every company in the world to accept  #bitcoin   as a payment option.

Not only have we hired the best from companies like +Red Hat, +IBM, and Visa into our senior leadership, but we've established a firm position in the marketplace–we're now performing over $1,000,000 per day in transactions with Bitcoin, and there are now over 1,000 new businesses accepting Bitcoin every week.  Now, we're hiring to support this investment in the community.

If you're interested in building anything related to  #cryptofinance  , give me a shout.  We're extremely focused on  #OpenSource   and  #cryptography  , and will be spending a lot of our time [3] participating in the support of developers building applications in the space.  If you want to build something that will shape the future of the world,  #cryptofinance   is the right space to be in.

[1]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-wellsfargo-bitcoin-idUSBREA0D1LL20140114
[2]: https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/441632741352681472 and http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/201fa6/hello_from_jimmy_wales_of_wikipedia/ !
[3]: We've already released Bitcore (see bitcore.io for more information), but we'll be a major presence in number of events in the coming year (not the least of which was +LAUNCH most recently!).  We're on a tear to support engineers building new projects with  #bitcoin  , so feel free to reach out and let me know what you're working on.