Innovation is about finding a better way of doing something. Like many of the new development buzzwords (which many of them are over-used on many business documents), the concept of innovation originates from the world of business. It refers to the generation of new products through the process of creative entrepreneurship, putting it into production, and diffusing it more widely through increased sales. Innovation can be viewed as t he application of better solutions that meet new requirements, in-articulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.
Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation article points out that there is a form of ignorance which seems to be universal: the inability to understand the concept and role of innovation. The way this is exhibited is in the misuse of the term and the inability to discern the difference between novelty, creation, invention and innovation. The result is a failure to understand the causes of success and failure in business and hence the conditions that lead to economic growth. The definition of innovation is easy to find but it seems to be hard to understand. Here is a simple taxonomy of related activities that put innovation in context:
- Novelty: Something new
- Creation: Something new and valuable
- Invention: Something new, having potential value through utility
- Innovation: Something new and uniquely useful
The taxonomy is illustrated with the following diagram.
The differences are also evident in the mechanisms that exist to protect the works: Novelties are usually not protectable, Creations are protected by copyright or trademark, Inventions can be protected for a limited time through patents (or kept secret) and Innovations can be protected through market competition but are not defensible through legal means.
Innovation is a lot of talked about nowdays as essential to businesses to do. Is innovation essential for development work? article tells that innovation has become central to the way development organisations go about their work. In November 2011, Bill Gates told the G20 that innovation was the key to development. Donors increasingly stress innovation as a key condition for funding, and many civil society organisations emphasise that innovation is central to the work they do.
Some innovation ideas are pretty simple, and some are much more complicated and even sound crazy when heard first. The is place for crazy sounding ideas: venture capitalists are gravely concerned that the tech startups they’re investing in just aren’t crazy enough:
Not all development problems require new solutions, sometimes you just need to use old things in a slightly new way. Development innovations may involve devising technology (such as a nanotech water treatment kit), creating a new approach (such as microfinance), finding a better way of delivering public services (such as one-stop egovernment service centres), identifying ways of working with communities (such as participation), or generating a management technique (such as organisation learning).
Theorists of innovation identify innovation itself as a brief moment of creativity, to be followed by the main routine work of producing and selling the innovation. When it comes to development, things are more complicated. Innovation needs to be viewed as tool, not master. Innovation is a process, not a one time event. Genuine innovation is valuable but rare.
There are many views on the innovation and innvation process. I try to collect together there some views I have found on-line. Hopefully they help you more than confuze. Managing complexity and reducing risk article has this drawing which I think pretty well describes innovation as done in product development:
8 essential practices of successful innovation from The Innovator’s Way shows essential practices in innovation process. Those practices are all integrated into a non-sequential, coherent whole and style in the person of the innovator.
In the IT work there is lots of work where a little thinking can be a source of innovation. Automating IT processes can be a huge time saver or it can fail depending on situation. XKCD comic strip Automation as illustrates this:
System integration is a critical element in project design article has an interesting project cost influence graphic. The recommendation is to involve a system integrator early in project design to help ensure high-quality projects that satisfy project requirements. Of course this article tries to market system integration services, but has also valid points to consider.
Core Contributor Loop (CTTDC) from Art Journal blog posting Blog Is The New Black tries to link inventing an idea to theory of entrepreneurship. It is essential to tune the engine by making improvements in product, marketing, code, design and operations.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Building IT for worst-case scenarios
http://www.cio.com/article/2899130/it-strategy/building-it-for-worst-case-scenarios.html
The World Bank overhauls IT so it’s better prepared to do business in global hotspots where war, disease and poverty may be among the challenges of everyday life
Six weeks later, Jim Yong Kim became president of the World Bank. He saw technology as critical to his vision of reducing the global poverty rate from 14.5 percent to 3 percent by 2030.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Next Billion-Dollar Market Opportunity Is Mobile Enterprise
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/30/the-next-billion-dollar-market-opportunity-is-mobile-enterprise/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1730_-6756628249295673238
Enterprise mobile applications – like enterprise cloud applications a decade before – are poised to become a $100 billion market opportunity. I’ve worked with enterprise technologies exclusively for more than a decade and have watched as cloud apps took the enterprise by storm, giving businesses more flexibility and power than ever before. Now, enterprise mobile is taking a page from enterprise cloud’s play book – but with a twist.
Obviously, mobile technology is less expensive, more accessible, and easier to use in many ways than cloud technology, and that makes it attractive to the enterprise. But what may not be so obvious regarding the allure of mobile for the enterprise is the degree to which it will democratize the use of technology for businesses in underserved sectors and far-flung locations.
There are more than 3 billion people globally who work in some capacity. Yet only 20 percent of them have ever had access to technology to help them perform their jobs more effectively. That leaves 2.5 billion workers not being supported by technology today.
A significant portion of those 2 billion-plus workers without technology are in the developing world, with 50 percent in Asia-Pacific, 10 percent in Latin America and another 10 percent in the Middle East and Africa. This global opportunity is enormous, and mobile technology is uniquely poised to capitalize on this market as the heavy infrastructure improvements necessary for hard-wired solutions are expensive and time consuming to deploy.
Overall, we’re talking about some pretty staggering numbers, but just how big is the mobile enterprise opportunity? Consider this quick calculation. If we take the 2.5 billion workers that don’t have desk jobs and assume we can monetize each one at about $40 per year (a mere 10 percent of what is spent today on technology for a typical desk-bound worker) we’re looking at approximately $100+ billion in annual revenue.
This opportunity is vast in many ways – and it is also unlike anything we’ve seen in enterprise technology in the past.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The End of College? Not So Fast
http://chronicle.com/article/The-End-of-College-Not-So/228937/
In his new book, The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere, Kevin Carey lays out a dystopian future for American higher education as we know it. Colleges and universities will cease to exist, with the exception of perhaps “15 to 50″ of them, and will be replaced by the “University of Everywhere
In Carey’s educational future, students will no longer need to spend tens of thousands of dollars per year for four (or often, six) years on a bachelor’s degree. Any courses they could take at an accredited institution will be available for free on the Internet, and third-party certification organizations will crop up that will attest to the learning achieved in each of these courses. These certification badges, in Carey’s model, will verify free or at very low cost the equivalent education and training that students today receive in a bachelor’s-degree program. Voila! The end of college.
While this future sounds plausible at first glance, Carey’s book requires the reader to make a leap of faith. A key assumption is that learning via a MOOC is equivalent to a traditional bachelor’s-degree program.
argument for the learning effectiveness of MOOCs begins to disintegrate.
To think that someone almost three decades younger, with only a high-school diploma (or perhaps even less education) could motivate himself to complete a large number of MOOCs is naïve, and is not borne out by the evidence.
In his claim that MOOCs and other online learning materials will replace colleges and universities, Carey also provides a very narrow view of the goals of higher education.
A bachelor’s degree is more than just a collection of individual courses; college — when done right — also satisfies other developmental objectives, including extracurricular learning, developing interpersonal communication skills (of both the online and face-to-face variety), and instilling a sense of an individual’s role in a democratic society.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Time for the Prize: Aging in Place
http://hackaday.com/2015/03/31/time-for-the-prize-aging-in-place/
Aging in Place is a growing issue facing the world. As the population begins to live longer, healthier lives we need to continue developing assistive technologies that will facilitate independence and safe living long into our twilight years.
What is Aging in Place?
I use the “define:” search term on Google all the time and for Aging in Place it turns up the Center for Disease Control’s definition:
“the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level.”
I love this definition. How easy is it to get behind the concept of better quality of life for all as we age? Still not getting the thought process flowing?
What ideas do you have that can move the goal of Aging in Place forward?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Festival Redesigns San Francisco
Prototyping event may stir anti-tech sentiments
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326182&
The Market Street Prototyping Festival will transform downtown San Francisco’s main thoroughfare into a maker/designer space next week.
Fifty projects will be on display from a large replica of San Francisco Chronicle writer Herb Caen’s typewriter, with seats, to a micro-housing installation. Organizers hope the event will “fuel the further incubation of the best design ideas…[and even] integrate into the long-term design of the street’s sidewalks.”
“The major social issues in SF right now revolve around inclusiveness. This can’t be placemaking for the tech hipsters, it has to be program that engages many aspects of our city, including those that don’t normal have the sense of agency to participate,”
“I see this as part of a broader movement,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:
Google increases funding for its mobile-focused research group, Advanced Technology and Projects, will unveil new projects in May
Google Lab Puts a Time Limit on Innovations
Mobile-focused projects get two years to prove themselves; hiring mostly outside experts
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/google-lab-puts-a-time-limit-on-innovations-1427844751-lMyQjAxMTA1ODMzMTgzNDEzWj
Google Inc. is embracing a leaner, faster way to find the next big thing amid questions about the Internet giant’s heavy spending on long-term research projects.
Google is one of the world’s great innovators and invests heavily in research and development. Spending on R&D soared 38% last year to $9.8 billion, outpacing percentage-wise the company’s 19% increase in revenue. That commitment contrasts with a decision at many other tech companies to cut back on research.
But Google has faced increasing questions about the payoff from such spending, including on analyst calls. Anne Marie Knott, a professor at Washington University’s Olin Business School, says Google historically reaped strong returns from its research investments.
But she says Google in 2013 was nearing her estimate of the optimal investment on R&D, beyond which companies generally see diminishing returns. She has not yet analyzed the 2014 numbers.
Some Google executives share the concern. “Product cycles slow down as a company gets larger,” said Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. “All of us believe we could execute faster.”
“We like this model because it puts pressure on people to perform and do relevant things or stop,” Mr. Schmidt said. “I’ve spent an awful lot of time on projects that never end and products that would never ship.”
Analysts applaud the idea of bringing more discipline to Google’s research agenda. “If Google can make research projects shorter and with less investment, that’s positive,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. “It’s going to be less worrying if projects fail.”
The lab has killed projects, including an attempt to reduce the power used by mobile devices.
“The two-year time frame forces these decisions,”
Occasionally, a project is extended, if executives deem it important and there’s not a natural home elsewhere at Google. Ara, the modular smartphone, recently was granted an extension, and a market test is planned in Puerto Rico this year.
Advanced Technology and Projects hires specialists, and quickly—Dr. Dugan says her record is under five hours from interviews to job offer. Google typically takes weeks or months to hire generalists who can stay for years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Apple Acquisitions: What Do They Mean?
http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/digital-business/10-apple-acquisitions-what-do-they-mean/d/d-id/1319697?
Apple has a habit of buying tech companies. Let’s look at its most recent acquisitions and in what ways each might enhance the company’s future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Your Own Satellite For Less Than $30K
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/04/06/2011250/build-your-own-satellite-for-less-than-30k
An industry of new cubesat builders can now build satellites for anyone for any reason for very little money.
The innovators: build and launch your own satellite … for £20,000
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/05/build-and-launch-your-own-satellite-for-20000-pounds
Technology used in mobile phones and laptops can now be used to track planes, follow tankers seized by pirates and even spot people flouting planning laws
The 25-year-old founder of the PocketQube Shop, a Glasgow-based company which provides the components for making tiny 5cm³ PocketQube satellites, is taking advantage of a new generation of space technology that allows small businesses to join an industry previously the preserve of governments and well-funded private companies.
Dubbed ‘NewSpace’, this fresh market is based around technology which would have previously been prohibitive in cost. Now it can be bought off the shelf and small satellites like those sold by Walkinshaw can be launched into orbit at a price unthinkable in previous decades.
Corentin Guillo, the head of missions at the Satellite Applications Catapult – one of the UK government’s centres for fostering innovation – said technology used in mobile phones and laptops can now be used in small satellites. This in turn makes them more disposable than their predecessors, which were typically large and lasted for more than five years. The new generation of satellites – like the PocketQube and the 10cm³ CubeSat – also offers a common platform.
“Almost nobody builds their own satellite standard anymore – it doesn’t make sense to re-invent the wheel when there are several incredibly powerful, commoditised open source options,” said Guillo.
Where problems can arise is when the satellites are launched into space, typically as secondary cargo on rockets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fintech: how legal departments at banks are driving financial innovation
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/jan/15/fintech-legal-banking-innovation-technology
With tech startups playing an integral role in the future of banking, innovation on the legal front can help unlock vast opportunities
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hack the Home
http://hackaday.com/2015/04/07/hack-the-home/
GE is hosting a massive hackathon at their microfactory called FirstBuild which is located in Louisville, Kentucky.
The concept of FirstBuild is pretty cool. GE has created what they like to call a microfactory for innovating new products in small production runs to flush out good ideas.
The event is being sponsored by lots of big names like Intel, Atmel, TI, Freescale, MakerBot and even Autodesk
We have to wonder — what happens when GE sees an idea they like?
https://firstbuild.com/mary/mega-hackathon-hack-the-home/brief/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aging in Place Prize Projects that Made us say Wow
http://hackaday.com/2015/04/07/aging-in-place-prize-projects-that-made-us-say-wow/
The 2015 Hackaday Prize is all about solutions to problems affecting a large number of people, and aging touches everyone. This week we were on the lookout for the entries best addressing the problem of Aging in Place. This means being able to live in your home and community independently and comfortably as one ages. It is as important to the aging as it is to their friends and family; a topic well worth your hacking skills and engineering brilliance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Truck-a-bye baby: Dad invents ingenious trick to help child sleep
One man’s solution for getting his newborn baby to sleep could change the course of parenting … forever
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/virals/11505686/Truck-a-bye-baby-Dad-invents-ingenious-trick-to-help-child-sleep.html
Every parent knows that there’s one way that’s gaurenteed to make their newborn fall to sleep: putting them in the back seat of a moving car. The motion of the vehicle gently rocks the child into sleep, giving mum and dad those all-important moments of calm.
The only problem? One parent has to stay awake to actually drive the car.
However, one resourceful father appears to have solved the conundrum. In the video above, which is titled Watch What Happens When I Leave Daddy Home Alone With Baby, a baby can be seen fast asleep in the back of a remote control miniature truck.
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 Cyberlearning Technologies Transforming Education
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-dubrow/7-cyberlearning-technolog_b_6988976.html
The year was 1984 and in addition to the chalkboards and alphabet posters, our 2nd grade classroom was equipped with an odd, beige box at a table in the back behind the students. It was an Apple II computer and over the course of the year we’d learn how to operate it – mainly to make a turtle-shaped cursor shuttle across the screen.
1. Classroom as Virtual Phenomenon: RoomQuakes and WallScopes
2. Games for Good: Learning While You Play
3. Teaching Tykes to Program: Never Too Young to Control a Robot
4. Virtual role-play and robo-tutors
5. Tools for Real-time Visual Collaboration
6. Fusing data collection, computational modeling and data analysis
7. Virtual Worlds and Augmented Reality: Increasing ecological understanding
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Wants To Send You A Plumber
http://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/google-eyes-home-services-market#.fsbK8zBm
The company is readying a new product intended to connect search users with local home-service providers.
Google has a new product in the works that highlights the company’s growing interest in the home-services market, and may herald a broader move into it.
Currently, Google searches for things like plumbers and electricians return links to service providers along with associated AdWord advertisements. Sources said the new product would go beyond this presentation format to actually connect search users with service providers, though it’s not yet clear how communication between the two parties occur. Google declined to comment for this story.
Tomi Engdahl says:
News Corp.’s $1 Billion Plan to Overhaul Education Is Riddled With Failures
Tablet computers and an online curriculum were supposed to help revolutionize schools. That hasn’t happened
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-04-07/news-corp-s-1-billion-plan-to-overhaul-education-is-riddled-with-failures
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bell Labs Opens New Doors
Celebrating its future-looking research
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326295&
Today Bell Labs celebrated its 90-year history and its return to its roots of making basic scientific breakthroughs into electronic and optical advances that transform the world. The day-long celebration is bringing together its Nobel Laureates — and local dignitaries — to its fabled Murray Hill, N.J. research facility, which is exploring the future of connectivity and communications.
“Bell Labs’ current generation of researchers are exploring the future of connectivity and communications in the new era defined by the digitization of everything and everyone. We believe these are the types of multi-faceted problems that Bell Labs can uniquely address,” president Marcus Weldon told EE Times. “Currently we have 13 Future X projects that brings together multi-disciplinary teams of Bell Labs researchers to work to invent technologies and solutions that will define the Network of 2020 and beyond, including the future of connectivity, cloud, content creation and delivery, control systems and platforms and even computing.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Launches Pilot Program to Hire Workers With Autism
http://recode.net/2015/04/06/microsoft-launches-pilot-program-to-hire-workers-with-autism/
The technology industry has already been doing pioneering work to help educate children with autism.
Now Microsoft wants to see if it can also help on the job front: The company is launching a pilot program to hire people with autism.
The effort was announced in a blog post by Mary Ellen Smith, a corporate VP who has a 19-year-old autistic son.
“People with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft,” Smith said. “Each individual is different, some have amazing ability to retain information, think at a level of detail and depth or excel in math or code. It’s a talent pool that we want to continue to bring to Microsoft.”
In 2014, Microsoft added coverage to its self-funded insurance plan to cover a pricey but promising therapy for autistic children
Microsoft announces pilot program to hire people with autism
http://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2015/04/03/microsoft-announces-pilot-program-to-hire-people-with-autism/
In honor of World Autism Awareness Day, Thursday, I had the privilege to attend and speak at an event held at the United Nations in New York City, where the theme was “Autism, The Employment Advantage.”
At Microsoft, we believe that diversity enriches our performance, our products and services, the communities where we live and work, and the lives of our employees.
We have been committed to enabling people with disabilities to be successful for a long time.
It’s simple, Microsoft is stronger when we expand opportunity and we have a diverse workforce that represents our customers. People with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft, each individual is different, some have amazing ability to retain information, think at a level of detail and depth or excel in math or code. It’s a talent pool that we want to continue to bring to Microsoft!
Our effort goes beyond autism. We are passionate about hiring individuals of all disabilities and we believe with them, we can create, support, and build great products and services. Our customers are diverse and we need to be as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
eBay Sales Patterns Show That the Maker Movement is Still Growing (Video)
http://build.slashdot.org/story/15/04/08/1939233/ebay-sales-patterns-show-that-the-maker-movement-is-still-growing-video
Meet Aron Hsaio. He works for Terapeak, a company that tracks sales through online venues such as eBay and Amazon in order to help merchants decide what to sell — and how. The five ‘maker’ categories Terapeak tracks (drones, robotics, Arduino, Raspberry Pi and 3D printing) outsold Star Trek-related merchandise by a huge amount, namely $33 million to $4.3 million, during a recent 90 day study period.
Drones are the hottest hobbyist thing going right now, Aron says, but all five of the hobbyist/tinkerer’ categories Terapeak tracks are growing steadily at a rate of up to 70% year over year, with drones leading the way and robotics trailing (but still growing). It’s good to see people taking an interest in making things for themselves.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LinkedIn to Acquire lynda.com
https://press.linkedin.com/site-resources/news-releases/2015/linkedin-to-acquire-lyndacom
lynda.com’s high-quality content provides opportunity for members to easily gain the professional skills they need to get hired and advance their careers.
Mountain View, Calif. – April 9, 2015 – LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 300 million members worldwide, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire lynda.com, a leading online learning company teaching business, technology and creative skills to help people achieve their professional goals. Based in Carpinteria, CA, lynda.com was co-founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin.
The transaction is valued at approximately $1.5 billion
“The mission of LinkedIn and the mission of lynda.com are highly aligned. Both companies seek to help professionals be better at what they do,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bubble Sessions
http://perspectives.tieto.com/bubble-sessions/
Bubble Sessions are online think-tanks where we discuss different perspectives together with experts, well-known opinion leaders and business influencers – exploring ideas at the intersection of business and technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Superstar Programmers
Do you need a talent agent?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=182&doc_id=1326302&
A talent agent for the power programmers and superstar engineers makes sense.
In the really weird department, a New Yorker article describes a talent agency for engineers. 10x, whose name comes from an anecdotal observation that some software developers are ten times more productive than others, matches what they consider the best and brightest with companies desperate for developers.
Details are sparse, but at least some of their clients get $150 to $250 per hour for software engineering gigs. 10x gets 15% of that. If the average is $200/hour they’re getting $30/hour per client, not bad for a couple of young guys with fat Rolodexes and not much else. With 80 clients now, assuming each works 1000 hours per year, the agency nets a cool couple of million a year.
It’s true that many conventional recruiters are just resume mills, and one does have to admire 10x’s determination to cull the very best in breed.
The Programmer’s Price
Want to hire a coding superstar? Call the agent.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/programmers-price?intcid=mod-most-popular
The agency 10x has nearly eighty clients, mostly in North America, though one codes from India and one from beaches in Thailand.
Computer programmers with agents: Bradley was interested. So one day last month he found himself in the 10x headquarters, in midtown Manhattan, talking to Michael Solomon. Solomon has a rock-and-roll vibe: he wore jeans and a metal bracelet, and he projects a mellow air.
Bradley asked about 10x’s talent pool: did it really include “the top developers in the world,” as Solomon claimed?
“What’s your stack?” Solomon asked, referring to the layers of code that make up a Web site.
“What kind of price range are we talking about?” Bradley asked.
“Ballpark, for this role you’re talking a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars an hour.”
The rate was significantly higher than what Bradley had paid the workers in Pakistan.
The world is being rebuilt in code. Hiring computer engineers used to be the province of tech companies, but, these days, every business—from fashion to finance—is a tech company. City governments have apps, and the actress Jessica Alba is the co-founder of a startup worth almost a billion dollars. All of these enterprises need programmers. The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen told New York recently, “Our companies are dying for talent. They’re like lying on the beach gasping because they can’t get enough talented people in for these jobs.”
The computer science taught in colleges still focusses more on theory than on commercial application; the business of teaching practical coding skills has the whiff of trade school. So-called coding “boot camps,” such as General Assembly, founded in 2010, are trying to fill the gap, teaching crash courses in how to design Web sites and write code.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Slashdot: How To Introduce a 7-Year-Old To Programming?
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/04/09/2046200/ask-slashdot-how-to-introduce-a-7-year-old-to-programming
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESC, BioMEDevice Innovation Tour
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4439165/ESC–BioMEDevice-Innovation-Tour?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150410&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150410&elq=adbd4ef6aeeb4b9ba18047eab76bcc15&elqCampaignId=22503&elqaid=25300&elqat=1&elqTrackId=a2227443ec0848d7bcd4ce9c8fb3af6f
By way of introducing ESC attendees to our sister event, we at EDN are doing 2 things. First, we are moderating a panel called “The Maker Movement Meets Medical,” which will explore ways that makers and individual, independent engineers are impacting the medical industry with their designs.
http://biomedevice.mddionline.com/innovationtours?_mc=WE_EDN_LE_ESCBOS_01
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dave McClure / Medium:
High private tech valuations the result of investors betting against doomed public incumbents unable to innovate
Bubble, My Ass: Some Unicorns Might Be Overvalued, But All Dinosaurs Gonna Die.
https://medium.com/@davemcclure/bubble-my-ass-some-unicorns-might-be-overvalued-but-all-dinosaurs-gonna-die-fb0ce311a7bd
Summary: pundits argue billion-dollar startups are overvalued, but few realize why public company valuations might also be too expensive. Traditional P/E ratios of 15–20+ are likely too optimistic, relative to how long the future cash flows and operating margins of big dumb companies can be sustained. Unless they innovate more rapidly (or acquire their internet peers), expect most S&P 500 Dinosaurs to be disrupted and destroyed by an endless march of VC-funded Unicorns that will bash their tiny little reptile brains in with software and internet marketing.
Why do I believe this to be true? There are three basic reasons:
1. Dinosaur Companies Don’t Innovate.
2. Dinosaur Companies have a tough time recruiting & retaining top technical talent.
3. Dinosaur Companies don’t get how critical internet marketing is becoming.
Fundamental to all of the above is the following observation: most public companies have not taken to heart how absolutely mission-critical software technology & internet marketing have become to business competitiveness. Thus, almost every Dinosaur Company is extremely vulnerable to a Startup Unicorn eating their lunch
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Chinese Government Plans To Put 3D Printers In All Elementary Schools
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/04/13/0156209/report-chinese-government-plans-to-put-3d-printers-in-all-elementary-schools
The Chinese government has a new plan to install a 3D printer in each of its approximately 400,000 elementary schools over the next two years. Education is probably one of the areas that will benefit the most from 3D printers in the long run.
Chinese Government to Put 3D Printers in All 400,000 Elementary Schools by Next Year
http://3dprint.com/56699/china-3d-printers-schools/
Education is probably one of the areas that will benefit the most from 3D printers in the long run. The problem though is getting the machines into the schools in the first place. With prices generally ranging from $400 to $3,000 for typical desktop 3D printers, they are not cheap, and with budgets within many school districts running dry, both in the United States and overseas, the unfortunate fact is that many schools simply can’t afford them, not to mention the materials and time it takes to train teachers to use them.
Speaking with former MakerBot CEO, Jenny Lawton, at CES this year, she told me that 3D printing will become mainstream and really begin to explode as far as adoption rates go, when a full cycle of education has been exposed to the technology. Just like many of us who were exposed in school to desktop computing back in the ’80s and ’90s can’t envision not having access to a computers now, the children of today may one day think the same about 3D printers.
The United States clearly understands the importance of this technology, particularly President Obama.
According to Shen, the Chinese government has a new policy to install a 3D printer in each of its approximately 400,000 elementary schools over the next two years
Tomi Engdahl says:
Midsized Companies, Supersized Network Security Needs
http://www.securityweek.com/midsized-companies-supersized-network-security-needs
Small and midsized businesses (SMBs) are the engine of the recovering economy. According to recent U.S. government numbers, just over 60 percent of the U.S. private sector workforce is now employed by companies with fewer than 1,000 employees. Not only are SMBs significant employers, they are also among the earliest adopters of new technologies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US Dept. of Education Teams With Microsoft-Led Teach.org On Teacher Diversity
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/04/14/0322222/us-dept-of-education-teams-with-microsoft-led-teachorg-on-teacher-diversity
Citing a new study that suggests academic achievement can benefit when children are taught by a teacher of their own race, the NY Times asks, Where Are the Teachers of Color? Towards that end, the Times reports that “Teach.org, a partnership between the Department of Education and several companies, teachers unions and other groups, is specifically targeting racial minorities for recruitment.”
Where Are the Teachers of Color?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/sunday-review/where-are-the-teachers-of-color.html?_r=0
Sometimes, when trying to explain to her parents her plans for college — or even why she wanted to play softball or try out for the cheerleading team — she wished she had a mentor who shared her background.
“It would have been nice to have a teacher in the classroom who could help you bridge over and help you become a better version of yourself,” she said in a recent interview.
Across the country, government estimates show that minority students have become a majority in public schools. Yet the proportion of teachers who are racial minorities has not kept up: More than 80 percent of teachers are white.
A few studies have suggested a link between academic performance and children being taught by a teacher of their own race, although the effects are quite small.
Other researchers who have found similar academic effects say more than test scores are at stake. “When minority students see someone at the blackboard that looks like you, it helps you reconceive what’s possible for you,” said Thomas S. Dee, a professor of education at Stanford University.
Fewer African-Americans, particularly black men, graduate from college than whites, shrinking the pool of prospective black teachers.
Teach.org, a partnership between the Department of Education and several companies, teachers unions and other groups, is specifically targeting racial minorities for recruitment.
Some school districts are also more deliberately trying to hire teachers from underrepresented racial groups.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yahoo Answers Is Not Research, Or How Two Startups Are Fighting For The Future Of Knowledge
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/11/yahoo-answers-has-no-answers/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_1893043664059767555
We’re told never to forget the ultimate laziness of humans, but when it comes to research in the internet age, sometimes that laziness can shock even the most prepared of minds. Students in grade school have grown accustomed to “remixing” internet sources to create their research reports, copying a line from here and a line from there into a massive kludge of plagiarism often bereft of a single original thought.
While the internet has made those original thoughts ever more precious, it has also provided new communication channels that can cultivate originality. Through social networks, researchers can connect and share their work quickly, avoiding dead ends and speeding up the process of finding answers to our most pressing challenges. Unfortunately, much of this research remains locked behind paywalls charging $45 an article, in marked contrast to the open nature fundamentally advocated in the web’s design.
Research – the original use case of the web – is still transforming, and two startups evince the remarkably different challenges facing it today.
While Imagine Easy Solutions is rethinking the way we educate about research, ResearchGate, the well-known academic social network, is beginning to rethink the way that science should be conducted in the 21st century. What does an academic publication look like when we can publish with the push of a button? How do we ensure that knowledge isn’t bottled up and is freely available to those who could benefit from it?
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Makerspace Is the Next Open Source Frontier
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/04/14/1748250/the-makerspace-is-the-next-open-source-frontier
Jono Bacon explains that in the same way open source spawned millions of careers and thousands of companies, the same openness has massive potential when applied to products. It could potentially jumpstart a revolution in how we conceptualize, build, and share things and how we experiment and innovate to push the boundaries of science and technology. He outlines some steps for adapting open source principles to physical creations: “…we will need to create a premise of a blueprint bundle.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU bods Oetti and Ansip: We must digitise EVERYTHING
Gov, cars, manufacturing, cars, geo-blocking, cars, and cars
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/15/oettinger_and_ansipin_agreement_shocker/
The EU’s warring digi-chiefs — Vice President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner Gunter H-dot Oettinger — finally seem to be singing from the same hymn-sheet.
On Tuesday, both gave speeches highlighting the need for the wider industry to “get digital” as well as bemoaning the Digital Skills Gap™.
Ansip and Oettinger quoted the same figures saying that only 1.7 per cent of EU companies make full use of digital tech such as mobile, social media, cloud, big data, while 41 per cent say they are not using any of them.
According to Ansip, a “digital by default strategy” across the EU public sector could save €10bn a year and e-invoicing in public procurement could save up to €2.3bn.
Speaking at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, robo-veep Ansip once again reminded listeners that an EU-wide digital single market is essential to Europe’s economic recovery. Market barriers must be removed, he said and “consumers could save €11.7bn per year if they could choose from a range of goods and services from across the EU’s 28 countries when they shop online.”
Of the two, Ansip is much more positive about the benefits of “technical progress” heading off arguments that destroys jobs at the pass: “We should not forget that the IT sector [has the power to destroy jobs], but I believe there will still be a net gain in employment.”
“A global SME survey showed 2.6 jobs created for every one that was lost. The potential from digitising industry is huge – just think of automation, sustainable and clean manufacturing, processing technologies, for example. And not to forget the potential for increasing flexibility, efficiency, productivity, competitiveness – all helping to create jobs,” he added.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Europe Blog:
Android has helped create more choice and innovation on mobile than ever before
http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.be/2015/04/android-has-helped-create-more-choice.html
It’s hard to believe, but smartphones barely existed ten years ago. People used feature phones, which had very basic functionality, and were a nightmare for developers. The only way to build apps was device by device and platform by platform—Google had a closet full of hundreds of phones that we tested one by one each time we wanted to launch new software.
Android was born from this frustration. We hoped that by offering a great, free open-source operating system, we could turbocharge innovation by allowing manufacturers and developers to focus on what they do best. At the time, most people thought this plan was nuts.
Fast forward to today. The pace of mobile innovation has never been greater. Smartphones are being adopted globally at an increasingly fast pace, with over hundreds of millions shipped each quarter, and the average smartphone price fell 23% between 2012 and 2014. It’s now possible to purchase a powerful smartphone, without subsidies or contracts, for under $100. And the app ecosystem has exploded, giving consumers more choice than ever before.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hello Alfred Raises $10.5M To Automate Your Chores
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/14/alfred-series-a/
Under the name Alfred, the company won the Startup Battlefield at our most recent Disrupt SF. It lets users sign up for weekly automated chores, or text in spontaneous requests, and those chores are fulfilled by Hello Alfred’s own employees while the user is at their job or away during the day.
Customers are assigned their own home manager, also called an Alfred, and those managers take care of the work — in part by using outside services like Handy and Instacart. Your Alfred hangs out with the home cleaner, delivers the groceries and puts them in the fridge, and unwraps dry-cleaning from its plastic to hang in the closet. You can even have your shoes shined.
The $99-per-month service originally launched in Boston and has since gone live in New York. The company says it has already made 18,000 runs for its customers, covering tasks like dry cleaning 57,600 shirts, delivering 3,326 pounds of dog food and placing 1,280 flower arrangements.
“So many people in the professional ranks are leading lives that are incredibly unmanageable,” said NEA’s Scott Sandell in the funding release. “Hello Alfred gives them back control over their home life and frees up their time to live.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese Government to Put 3D Printers in All 400,000 Elementary Schools by Next Year
http://3dprint.com/56699/china-3d-printers-schools/
Education is probably one of the areas that will benefit the most from 3D printers in the long run. The problem though is getting the machines into the schools in the first place. With prices generally ranging from $400 to $3,000 for typical desktop 3D printers, they are not cheap, and with budgets within many school districts running dry, both in the United States and overseas, the unfortunate fact is that many schools simply can’t afford them, not to mention the materials and time it takes to train teachers to use them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
Technological shifts may over time weaken the rationale for EU’s antitrust case against Google, like they did for the case against Microsoft
Case Against Google May Be Undercut by Rapid Changes in Technology
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/technology/case-against-google-may-be-undercut-by-rapid-shifts-in-tech.html?_r=0
The antitrust case against Google filed by European Union regulators on Wednesday will inevitably draw comparisons to the long-running prosecution of Microsoft, in which regulators on both sides of the Atlantic pursued the software giant for anticompetitive behavior.
But Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s competition commissioner, may not find the comparison entirely flattering. With more than a decade of hindsight, the theories supporting the case against Microsoft have all but fallen apart, and the pursuit of the company that makes Windows may suggest a reason for skepticism about this fight against Google: The tech marketplace is fluid and unpredictable. The giants that look most unbeatable today could falter in ways that may once have seemed unthinkable — and without a lot of help from the government.
“In the Microsoft case, if they’d just waited a while, the problems they thought they saw would have disappeared because technology, consumer behavior and the market demand changed enough to correct those problems,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Brain Pacemakers Treat Parkinson’s Disease
http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/04/15/1812230/how-brain-pacemakers-treat-parkinsons-disease
Pharmaceutical research for neuropsychiatric disorders hasn’t produced many breakthroughs lately, which may explain why there’s so much excitement around “electroceutical” research. That buzzy new field encompasses deep brain stimulation (DBS), in which an implanted stimulator sends little jolts through the neural tissue. DBS has become an accepted therapy for Parkinson’s and other motor disorders
Psychiatric Drug Discovery
Revolution Stalled
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/155/155cm11.full
Tomi Engdahl says:
We Have a Problem: Health Care Where There Are No Health Care Workers
http://hackaday.com/2015/04/16/we-have-a-problem-health-care-where-there-are-no-health-care-workers/
Hackaday, we have a problem. There are a lot of people on this earth and not a lot of health care workers. Let’s use our skills to help alleviate this problem. What can we do to give medical professionals a wider reach, to bridge the distances between hospital and patient, and make it easier for bystanders to administer lifesaving care.
It’s safe to say we’ve all seen engineering solve part of this problem already. Over the last decade, Automatic External Defibrillators have become ubiquitous. The life-saving hardware is designed to be used by non-doctors to save someone whose heart rhythms have become irregular.
What can we build? What problems need to be solved right now?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prodigu Vows to Offer Affordable 3D Printed Prosthetics
http://www.intuitlabs.com/blog/prodigy-vows-to-offer-affordable-3d-printed-prosthetics/
LaChappelle’s tenacious commitment to creating affordable prosthetics came after meeting a 7-year-old girl with an $80,000 prosthetic limb. Knowing she’d need multiple throughout her lifetime, he vowed to design a robotic arm for under $1,000.
“My goal is to help people,” LaChappelle said. “I saw an opportunity to change this industry and make the world a better place by giving back. And it has turned into something I never expected. I believe it’s the future.”
The wireless EEG-capable headset senses 10 different channels of brainwaves, which control the arm. The arm is more functional than a traditional prosthesis and stronger than a human hand. LaChappelle said the next generation of the arm will be capable of sustaining 50 pounds of pressure on each finger.
“We’re confident in our ability and wanted to create a control system, which is open-source,” he said. “All of the modeling, electronic design, 3D printing and software is new. Somehow everything worked flawlessly.”
“There is very little that will limit you,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Real Reason Open Source Startups Fail
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/12/the-real-reason-open-source-startups-fail/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_3978066030093187523#.b5imzi:ltOn
The recent news around Nebula shutting its doors has stirred speculation that OpenStack startups are struggling because of the state of the OpenStack market. There is even a piece claiming that the OpenStack dream is on “life support.”
This couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that winning in open source requires a playbook that is drastically different from one that most VCs investing in technology today are used to.
“We raised money and it’s all about building product for us now,” he said. “We have this deal to do an OpenStack deployment for Internap – do you have people to subcontract for us?”
Where did Cloudscaling and Nebula miss the mark? They used the wrong playbook. A typical IP-based company playbook goes something like this:
A product wizard creates a differentiated technology;
The founders and the sales team sell a handful of deals to show proof points;
The company is sold for several hundred million to someone with existing distribution channels; or
A number of major growth rounds are raised to build out distribution channels in order to IPO
This playbook works for innovation markets. The VCs are buying into partial ownership of the differentiated technology and monetize on the leverage when the technology is in demand.
Open source ecosystem markets behave differently and therefore require a very different playbook. There, the differentiation is not in the technology you build; it is in the process and expertise that you slowly amass over an extended period of time. All of the successful entrants (Red Hat, Cloudera or Hortonworks, etc) have followed the same playbook. It works like this:
Start selling services engagements around the ecosystem and build customer intelligence;
Invest heavily to build influence in the respective upstream communities by contributing directly to the code base you’re betting your business on (In OpenStack, it’s easy to see who is and who is not contributing on Stackalytics.);
Start offering training;
Add commercial packaging of the technology;
Optional: Build value-added components above and around the technology.
Building an open-source company requires operational excellence and staying power, not just genius hackers with a vision of taking down VMware. Startups and VCs that run the company by the innovation playbook fail, while those that focus on expertise first — and thus the open source playbook — do well. This is what we are witnessing in the OpenStack space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s how to solve the ‘simple’ high-school math problem stumping everyone on the internet
http://uk.businessinsider.com/answer-to-singapore-high-school-math-problem-2015-4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can High Intelligence Be a Burden Rather Than a Boon?
http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/04/18/1521222/can-high-intelligence-be-a-burden-rather-than-a-boon
David Robson has an interesting article at BBC on the relationship between high intelligence and happiness. “We tend to think of geniuses as being plagued by existential angst, frustration, and loneliness,” writes Robson. Think of Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing, or Lisa Simpson – lone stars, isolated even as they burn their brightest.” As Ernest Hemingway wrote: “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
The surprising downsides of being clever
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150413-the-downsides-of-being-clever
Can high intelligence be a burden rather than a boon? David Robson investigates.
If ignorance is bliss, does a high IQ equal misery? Popular opinion would have it so. We tend to think of geniuses as being plagued by existential angst, frustration, and loneliness.
Much of our education system is aimed at improving academic intelligence; although its limits are well known, IQ is still the primary way of measuring cognitive abilities, and we spend millions on brain training and cognitive enhancers that try to improve those scores. But what if the quest for genius is itself a fool’s errand?
Terman concluded that “intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated”. Nor did their smarts endow personal happiness. Over the course of their lives, levels of divorce, alcoholism and suicide were about the same as the national average.
As the Termites enter their dotage, the moral of their story – that intelligence does not equate to a better life – has been told again and again.
That’s not to say that everyone with a high IQ is a tortured genius, as popular culture might suggest – but it is nevertheless puzzling
One possibility is that knowledge of your talents becomes something of a ball and chain.
many reported that they had been plagued by the sense that they had somehow failed to live up to their youthful expectations.
Another common complaint, often heard in student bars and internet forums, is that smarter people somehow have a clearer vision of the world’s failings. Whereas the rest of us are blinkered from existential angst, smarter people lay awake agonising over the human condition or other people’s folly.
Constant worrying may, in fact, be a sign of intelligence
Alexander Penney at MacEwan University in Canada found that those with the higher IQ did indeed feel more anxiety throughout the day. Interestingly, most worries were mundane, day-to-day concerns, though; the high-IQ students were far more likely to be replaying an awkward conversation, than asking the “big questions”. “It’s not that their worries were more profound, but they are just worrying more often about more things,” says Penney. “If something negative happened, they thought about it more.”
Probing more deeply, Penney found that this seemed to correlate with verbal intelligence – the kind tested by word games in IQ tests, compared to prowess at spatial puzzles (which, in fact, seemed to reduce the risk of anxiety).
Mental blind spots
The harsh truth, however, is that greater intelligence does not equate to wiser decisions; in fact, in some cases it might make your choices a little more foolish.
Keith Stanovich at the University of Toronto has spent the last decade building tests for rationality, and he has found that fair, unbiased decision-making is largely independent of IQ.
The more enlightened approach would be to leave your assumptions at the door as you build your argument – but Stanovich found that smarter people are almost no more likely to do so than people with distinctly average IQs.
People who ace standard cognitive tests are in fact slightly more likely to have a “bias blind spot”. That is, they are less able to see their own flaws, even when though they are quite capable of criticising the foibles of others.
A tendency to rely on gut instincts rather than rational thought might also explain why a surprisingly high number of Mensa members believe in the paranormal; or why someone with an IQ of 140 is about twice as likely to max out their credit card.
Indeed, Stanovich sees these biases in every strata of society. “There is plenty of dysrationalia – people doing irrational things despite more than adequate intelligence – in our world today,
So if intelligence doesn’t lead to rational decisions and a better life, what does? Igor Grossmann, at the University of Waterloo in Canada, thinks we need to turn our minds to an age-old concept: “wisdom”
High scores turned out to predict greater life satisfaction, relationship quality, and, crucially, reduced anxiety and rumination – all the qualities that seem to be absent in classically smart people. Wiser reasoning even seemed to ensure a longer life – those with the higher scores were less likely to die over intervening years. Crucially, Grossmann found that IQ was not related to any of these measures, and certainly didn’t predict greater wisdom. “People who are very sharp may generate, very quickly, arguments [for] why their claims are the correct ones – but may do it in a very biased fashion.”
In the future, employers may well begin to start testing these abilities in place of IQ; Google has already announced that it plans to screen candidates for qualities like intellectual humility, rather than sheer cognitive prowess.
Fortunately, wisdom is probably not set in stone – whatever your IQ score. “I’m a strong believer that wisdom can be trained,”
The challenge will be getting people to admit their own foibles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can we trust makers with medical?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4439228/Can-we-trust-makers-with-medical-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150417&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150417&elq=77fc12d607ad45a8b068597fe5a74700&elqCampaignId=22606&elqaid=25423&elqat=1&elqTrackId=65da727fe6194691ad672f40a0d210b9
When we think about makers, we sometimes think about off-the-wall devices from Maker Faires, like unicorns with flaming horns or cars covered in mechanical fish. But there are plenty of other projects from makers that show good engineering.
As more and more projects tend toward such good engineering (and less toward burning mythical creatures), maker designs and devices are finding their way into various verticals with application in markets other than consumer and DIY.
We’re even beginning to see maker designs and devices entering those markets once thought to be off-limits, like medical. But that begs the question: Can we trust makers with medical?
Medical can mean life or death. Its designs and devices need longevity. It requires heavy testing not only for safety but by enforcement of groups like the FDA. So can we trust designs and devices that came out of the minds and home workbenches of makers, working independently and often with open-source hardware and software, a continually evolving section of design? And could there be benefits from looking to makers in the medical space?
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Messy Business Of Reinventing Happiness
Inside Disney’s radical plan to modernize its cherished theme parks.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3044283/the-messy-business-of-reinventing-happiness#!
Iger planned to pump nearly $1 billion into this venture, called MyMagic+, a sweeping plan to overhaul the digital infrastructure of Disney’s theme parks, which would upend how they operated and connected with consumers. At the core of the project was the MagicBand, an electronic wristband that Iger envisioned guests would use to gain entry to Disney World and access attractions; make purchases at restaurants; and unlock their hotel room doors. It would push the boundaries of experience design and wearable computing, and impact everything from Disney’s retail operations and data-mining capabilities to its hospitality and transportation services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BBC: We’ll give FREE subpar-Raspberry-Pis to a million Brit schoolkids
Shades of the 1980s Micro, says Beeb director general
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/12/bbc_coding_kids_1_million_micro_bit_giveaway/
The BBC is to dish out tiny primitive computers to all 11-year-olds in the UK this autumn.
Under its “Make it Digital” campaign, designed to get kids into writing software and getting hands on with electronics, the broadcaster will hand out one million of the “Micro Bit” gadgets.
The child-palm-sized Micro Bit hardware, aimed at Year 7 school children, is intended to act as a springboard for more advanced products such as the Arduino, Galileo, Kano and Raspberry Pi, BBC staff said.
The device is being developed in partnership with 25 organisations – from ARM and Samsung to Microsoft and Barclays.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EAT: How business intelligence from ex-CERN bods keeps sandwiches stocked
Firm tells us how predictive analytics are making your lunch break nicer
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2404595/eat-how-business-intelligence-from-ex-cern-bods-keeps-sandwiches-stocked
WHAT HAVE THE CERN laboratory, big data and a bowl of soup got in common? In an occasional new series, The INQUIRER looks at how the concepts of business-to-business technology are being rolled out in everyday situations.
In this particular instance, we talk to EAT chief financial officer Strahan Wilson about how the firm uses business intelligence (BI) to ensure that everyone gets what they came for.
EAT, for the uninitiated, is a chain of food-to-go sandwich shops. The company opened in 1996, and has expanded in and around London with an emphasis on fresh produce.
The firm is currently running a pilot with Blue Yonder, a predictive analytics software company founded by ex-CERN researcher professor Michael Feindt.
Tomi Engdahl says:
No More Expiration Dates: MIT Is Developing Sensors To Detect When Food Is Going Bad
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3045113/no-more-expiration-dates-mit-is-developing-sensors-to-detect-when-food-is-going-bad?partner=rss
Forget dubious dates on containers. These sensors could tell when food is starting to rot and reduce food waste.
One reason the U.S. wastes 40% of all the food it harvests is that we don’t have a good handle on the status of that food. As consumers, we rely largely on best before and use by dates that are notoriously conservative, and often flat-out wrong. Actual food decays at variable rates that aren’t reflected in that information.
That’s why new types of food quality sensors could be so useful. If we can assess the actual state of each food item, that should allow us to make more informed choices and thus manage our fridges better. All things being equal, better information ought to lead to better decision-making.
One promising technology: the sensors being developed by Timothy Swager’s lab at MIT. Swager is testing an electrically-conductive material that changes resistance in the presence of gases called amines, which are released when food starts going bad. By reading that resistance from outside a package, you can figure out how edible the food is inside.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tap Tap Tech – Episode 2 – The Maker Movement
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/onlinecomponentscom/tap-tap-tech-episode-2-the-maker-movement/
Hey there, Josh here for OnlineComponents.com, this is Tap Tap Tech. Today, we’re going to discuss the Maker Movement, otherwise known as The Coolest Thing in Technology ever. Just like the garage computer explosion of the 70’s through the 80’s, which brought us such things as Apple, pong, Bill Gate’s hair, and the proliferation of personal computers, the maker movement is the new garage hardware explosion. While Making is strongly associated with electronics, it really is more a matter of scale, particularly small scale. Making is about individual Do-It-Yourselfers being able to design and create with tools that were, as of a decade or two ago, only available to large, cash-rich corporations. CAD tools, CNC mills, 3D printers, low-quantity PCB manufacturing, open hardware such as Arduinos and similar inexpensive development boards – all items that have made it easier and relatively cheap to make whatever we imagine.
For individuals, maker tools can change how someone views their home or their hobbies. If you want to make a little custom widget that holds your favorite bluetooth speakers onto your bike frame, you can quickly design it, print or make it, and then use it – almost immediately and perfect for your application.
I imagine there are many Makers out there who would love to be the next Lady Ada or even Nathan Seidle. Upcoming Maker inspired companies aren’t just the fulfillment of personal dreams, they’re making a serious impact on our economy. On Kickstarter alone, there has been over one point three billion dollars pledged to successful projects and the money pouring in has been increasing wildly since 2009.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Predicting the future is a dangerous and impossible, futurist Elina Hiltunen says. Still, he has written a book about what life is like in 20 years.
“If a man of high standing authority says what is to come as people believe it and not be prepared for other options,”
Three scenarios
The most pessimistic Hiltunen’s vision for the scenario, technology has betrayed society. People are afraid that they will be monitored. Launch cyber-attacks will take place online without a break, and the infrastructure is waning, while climate change is driven moving massive amounts of refugees.
Middle Way scenario Web works well in 2035. Daily Life of all kinds can be 3D printed as needed: houses, jewelry, candies, human organs for transplantation to patients. Extinct species of animals have been cloned back to life.
Food production has been solved for meat ethics and climate-friendly breeding.
The explosive rapid development of the scenario, artificial intelligence has surpassed the limits of human intellect. People communicate with the network in the brain of the implant through and it is normal to be a cyborg. Quantum computers have become commonplace.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-04-19/Nettiin-aivolinkill%C3%A4-ja-laboratoriossa-kasvatettu-pihvi-lautaselle—T%C3%A4lt%C3%A4-el%C3%A4m%C3%A4si-n%C3%A4ytt%C3%A4%C3%A4-2035-3220034.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ascending “knowledge generation” is revolutionizing business
“We found only over a year ago that our events began to accumulate a totally different crowd than before. All bothered the same basic question: how digital company to develop,”
“Besides, inquirers often do not have the IT people, and never the IT infrastructure builders. For us, new acquaintances were business unit heads, who had additional responsibility with some kind of research and development tasks,”
The vast majority, or 96 percent of business executives believe that new technologies have changed the business rules of the game permanently.
Information has become more equal, while customer expectations have risen dramatically.
Customers are demanding faster and round the clock service, which can be accessed anytime, anywhere and on any device. The service will be personal and unique experience.
EMC calls all these new and more demanding digital citizens “information generation”i.
Burton believes that a digital company to develop an organization should, among other things, to know how to anticipate market opportunities more accurately.
“Innovation from and inventions required flexibility. This will require a proactive analytics and real-time run data streams,”
While business leaders recognize their IT skills, of necessity, a grant companies deficiencies.
Only 12 percent of respondents are satisfied with their company predictive analytics. Suppleness, speed, and customers’ trust and transparency requirements were equally low levels.
Research houses Gartner and IDC predict that by 2020, more than seven billion people to produce at least 30 billion device business and public organizations as much as 44 zettabytes (44 trillion gigabytes) of data.
EMC’s respondents business leaders of half of a good understanding of the data value
The respondents, 70 per cent receive information tips for decision-making, but only less than a third are able to take tips heed in real time. In addition, 52 percent considered their own business big data processing ineffective.
“It will not be long when the intelligent car will be able to communicate with the insurance company on accident. Insurance arrange for repair, as well as space for the site of the towing vehicle and the über-taxi,”
“Digital Business requires speed and pace of change, far from slowing down. Even now survives, if you know how to innovate. But tomorrow the company leaders must manage the entire networked ecosystems. Digitalization of the ball does not stop once issued after leaving,”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/CIO/2015-04-20/Nouseva-tiedon-sukupolvi-mullistaa-liike-el%C3%A4m%C3%A4n-3220074.html
Why digital transformation is a make-or-break proposition
http://www.cio.com/article/2911195/it-management/why-digital-transformation-is-make-or-break.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Incredible Jun: A Town that Runs on Social Media
By William Powers and Deb Roy
https://medium.com/@socialmachines/the-incredible-jun-a-town-that-runs-on-social-media-49d3d0d4590
We recently visited a small Spanish town that is using social media in a new way. Our research lab is studying the town to learn how these technologies might help communities around the world become more responsive to their citizens. This is a brief report on what we know so far.
For the last four years, a town in southern Spain has been conducting a remarkable experiment in civic life. Jun (pronounced “hoon”) has been using Twitter as its principal medium for citizen-government communication. Leading the effort is Jun’s Mayor, José Antonio Rodríguez Salas, a passionate believer in the power of technology to solve problems and move society forward.
Since launching the initiative in 2011, Rodríguez Salas has been recruiting his 3,500 townspeople to not only join the social network but have their Twitter accounts locally verified at town hall. This extra step isn’t necessary to participate in the conversation — Twitter is open to anyone — but it helps town employees know they’re dealing with actual residents.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Engineering school never taught you this
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-insights/4439253/Engineering-school-never-taught-you-this?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150421&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150421&elq=77b0cfead7a0444a94b6c51ef69ad93f&elqCampaignId=22642&elqaid=25466&elqat=1&elqTrackId=b050da7ed1064aed9e6b0ddd78414c09
In business school they use case studies to see what works and what doesn’t. In law school they study old court arguments. But it’s not often that an engineering school uses failure as a teaching tool.
“In any of a number of professions,” Dave told me, “you study failures to learn how to recognize impending disaster and avoid it. But in engineering we don’t. That’s a peculiar thing to our field.” Yet in his experience most engineering projects that are trying to do something original don’t end up well, for very unoriginal reasons.
I have had dozens of courses on engineering theory, a few involving hands-on design, and only one that even touched on the topic of learning from past failures.
“How NOT to do…” is a serious effort at learning from past mistakes, but not a grim one.