Code Year, a project from Codecademy, promises to help the hundreds of thousands participants to learn enough code to build their own app or website by the end of 2012. Code Year bring lessons in the form of a game to participants each week through email. Participants started the year learning Javascript. The program awards badges to help keep the participants motivated.

So what connection does this have to SproutBox? Besides the fact that we think this is a totally awesome idea, we are going to host the first of many Code Year Meetups in Bloomington. Anyone who has signed up for Code Year (and yes, you can still sign up and start to learn how to code) will get together on February 7th, at 7pm at SproutBox and chat with other coders. We’ll have some developers here to help you solve that problem you just haven’t been able to figure out or give you insight and tips. We’ll give coders a chance to meet up with other coders and help each other out or show off what you’ve already learned. It’s always great to connect with someone trying to reach the same goal you are to help push you and keep you on the right track.

We are really excited to host this event. It allows our team to network and share the passion of development with participants and engage them in the Bloomington tech scene and even meet some of our Sprouts, like Squad. Code Year is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to learn how to code or even just to better your skills, so join us at the meetup and we’ll help you stick with your resolution!

Interested in joining Code Year? Make sure you sign up so you don’t get behind!

Make sure to RSVP and come join us!

Verge Winter 2011 Meetup
5:30 p.m. Thursday, December 8 at DeveloperTown, Indianapolis, IN
Verge is for all people in the Indianapolis-area working at or investing in tech startups. The Winter Meetup will highlight three new startups:

• Quipol, a cool social polling platform
• Knomingo, a unique video community
• uFlavor, a custom beverage startup, which will be launching to the world at this event!

So whether you’ve founded a startup, hack at a startup, or both, you’re likely to have a good time and make some great connections at their monthly meetup.

Click here for more information.

Drupal December Meetup
6:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 13 at the IUPUI Library, Indianapolis, IN

This month’s meeting is a hack session –there is no set topic or schedule. The topics are determined based on those who are attending. You can work with other Drupal people on your projects and get help if you’re struggling with something specific.

This meetup is great for beginners as well as experienced Drupal developers. There will be professional Drupalers present to help, so no topic is too simple or complex.

Click here for more information.

hYPe December Social Networking Event: Martinis and Merriment!
5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 14 at Serendipity Martini Bar, Bloomington, IN

The Bloomington Chamber of Commerce started hYPe in 2010 as a means to foster young budding professionals in Bloomington. hYPe will host a social networking event at Serendipity Martini Bar featuring door prizes, hors d’oeuvres, and drink specials. Bring three canned goods for admission!

Register for the event here.

Indy Media Artists Meetup
6 p.m. Thursday, January 19, 2012 at the J. Everett Light Career Center, Indianapolis, IN

Indy Media Artists provides a source of information and sense of community for local graphic designers, web designers, motion media and video creators. This month’s meeting will feature breakout groups on Photoshop, Adobe Suite 5.5 Demo, and WordPress.

Click here for more information.

Last week, I blogged and asked you for your help. Fundships needed anyone and everyone to vote for them in the Global Battle. For six days, voting was open to the public, anyone could visit the Global Battle website and vote for any of the 50 contestants. Yesterday, Fundships held their breath while winners were announced. There were over 32,000 votes cast all over the world. Over 29 countries were represented in the battle and the ideas fell into nine different industries. Of those 50 contestants, Fundships, unfortunately, did not win. AwesomeShip, from Hong Kong, which pushes notifications of shipment status to customers via twitter, SMS, Facebook, or email, won pulling in over 5,000 votes. Fundships did however, place in the top 20, coming in at 17th place. That ranked them at 4th in the US! What an awesome accomplishment for Bloomington and the Fundships team.

What’s next for them? Even though they didn’t win, they are going to continue working to finish the product. All of the support they received over the past six days has really fueled them to get things really going to get a working product up for everyone to start using. So if anyone is interested in lending a helping hand, don’t hesitate to contact one of the team members.

We are very excited for you guys and very proud of what you have done to help put Bloomington on the map, globally and with Startup Weekend!