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:
5 Numbers That Explain Why STEM Diversity Matters to All of Us
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/5-numbers-explain-stem-diversity-matters-us/
The ongoing debate about the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) diversity dilemma has a pretty low signal-to-noise ratio: Despite the constant stream of TED Talks, books, blog posts, and corporate initiatives, there’s surprisingly little consensus about what the latest statistics and trends mean—much less how we’re going to address the issues they raise. But there is consensus about the big reason it matters: Evolving ourselves and our society for the better through technology will require a far more diverse talent pool in science and engineering fields than the alarmingly resilient white- and Asian-male pool we’re running with today.
In the interest of speaking a universal language, here are five revealing numbers that paint a clear-eyed picture of the state and impossible-to-ignore implications of STEM diversity today.
8,650,000
Estimated size of the STEM workforce in the U.S. by 2018.
STEM jobs are growing faster than any other U.S. sector. Available jobs in the field are set to increase 17 percent between 2014 and 2024, while non-STEM employment will grow just 12 percent. Technology companies alone—led by giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Apple—will need to fill more than 650,000 new jobs by 2018. Two-thirds of these new hires will be STEM talent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s your advice to this year’s engineering grads?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/voice-of-the-engineer/4413281/What-s-your-advice-to-this-year-s-engineering-grads-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150522&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150522&elq=66a00d4b489748b6a0e2437333d098ff&elqCampaignId=23129&elqaid=26042&elqat=1&elqTrackId=21e3f14ca21f43d1898ac61dc3ec1b94
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is the most important invention or innovation from your lifetime so far?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/voice-of-the-engineer/4311937/5-Engineers-What-is-the-most-important-invention-or-innovation-from-your-lifetime-so-far-
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beware: Llama dung
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-insights/4439484/Beware–Llama-dung?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150522&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150522&elq=66a00d4b489748b6a0e2437333d098ff&elqCampaignId=23129&elqaid=26042&elqat=1&elqTrackId=38ebf1d823c74fac8437fec1da83d9f1
Llama alert!
We engineers are so good at solving problems that we sometimes forget to ask if the problem has been posed correctly; we just solve it. Yet questioning the rationale behind product specifications can avoid a lot of pointless effort.
Treating the saddle leather with llama dung imparted an odor that calmed the horses. The treatment, therefore, became part of the leather’s specification, which remained unchanged for a century.
So, on your next project, make sure you know the reasoning behind the specs. If you hear “We’ve always done it that way,” watch out for llama dung.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: The Chocometer
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/24/hackaday-prize-entry-the-chocometer/
Diabetes affects almost 400 million people worldwide, and complications due to diabetes – blindness, cardiovascular disease, and kidney problems – can be reduced by regular monitoring of blood glucose. The usual way of measuring blood glucose is with a pin prick of blood and a small test strip that costs about $0.30. That’s a lot of test strips and blood used by 400 million diabetics every day. Wouldn’t it be better if there was a less invasive way of measuring blood glucose?
[marcelclaro]’s project for The Hackaday Prize aims to do just that. Instead of measuring blood directly, his project will measure blood glucose by shining light through a finger or an earlobe.
Chocometer
Chocometer is an open source near infrared sensor aiming glucose measurements without pain.
https://hackaday.io/project/4642-chocometer
Tomi Engdahl says:
The innovative CIO
http://www.cio.com/article/2925992/innovation/the-innovative-cio.html
CIO’s sit at the intersection of the business and IT and there is no doubt that the CIO’s role is changing, but rather than simply “manning the engine room,” I argue that they should be on the bridge working in new ways to help their organizations identify and conquer new market opportunities.
“The CIO’s role is changing driven by Cloud and an increasing number of ‘as-a-Service’ solutions that progressively reduce the organizations dependency on maintaining a high number of specially skilled ICT staff. Under these new conditions organizations have two options – they can make their technology managers, architects and administrators redundant and reap the short-term rewards in an uptick in profits and share price or they can retain these highly skilled staff who sit at the intersection of the business and technology and create an impressive innovation team that adds considerably more value to the business.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Even Tiny Updates to Tech Can Be Obstacles for the Disabled
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/even-tiny-updates-tech-can-obstacles-disabled/
Make no mistake. Technology is playing an important role in fulfilling the equity promise that began with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act 25 years ago. But we also want to ensure these advances continue to open up access to the disability community and don’t create new barriers to our participation in society. By designing from a place of empathy, with an eye on accessibility and universal design, developers have the power to improve and enhance the lives of millions of people like me.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s Diversity Chief: Mamas Don’t Let Their Baby Girls Grow Up To Be Coders
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/05/25/191251/googles-diversity-chief-mamas-dont-let-their-baby-girls-grow-up-to-be-coders
Explaining the reasons for its less-than-diverse tech workforce, Google fingered bad parenting for its lack of women techies.
Parents don’t see their young girls as wanting to pursue computer science and don’t steer them in that direction. There’s this perception that coding and computer science is … a ‘brogrammer’ culture for boys, for games, for competition. There hasn’t been enough emphasis on the power computing has in achieving social impact. That’s what girls are interested in. They want to do things that matter.”
Comment:
heard this last millennium: little boys want a place to ‘perform’, while little girls want a place to ‘relate’.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can Bad Scientific Practice Be Fixed?
http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/05/25/2150208/can-bad-scientific-practice-be-fixed
Richard Horton writes in that a recent symposium on the reproducibility and reliability of biomedical research discussed one of the most sensitive issues in science today: the idea that something has gone fundamentally wrong with science (PDF), one of our greatest human creations. The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.
Can bad scientific practices be fixed? Part of the problem is that no-one is incentivized to be right. Instead, scientists are incentivized to be productive and innovative.
“The good news is that science is beginning to take some of its worst failings very seriously,” says Horton. “The bad news is that nobody is ready to take the first step to clean up the system.”
An Epidemic of False Claims
Competition and conflicts of interest distort too many medical findings
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-epidemic-of-false-claims/
False positives and exaggerated results in peer-reviewed scientific studies have reached epidemic proportions in recent years. The problem is rampant in economics, the social sciences and even the natural sciences, but it is particularly egregious in biomedicine. Many studies that claim some drug or treatment is beneficial have turned out not to be true.
The problem begins with the public’s rising expectations of science. Being human, scientists are tempted to show that they know more than they do.
Much research is conducted for reasons other than the pursuit of truth. Conflicts of interest abound, and they influence outcomes. In health care, research is often performed at the behest of companies that have a large financial stake in the results.
The crisis should not shake confidence in the scientific method. The ability to prove something false continues to be a hallmark of science. But scientists need to improve the way they do their research and how they disseminate evidence.
Tomi Engdahl says:
For example, China suffers from some of the worst congestion and pollution in the world. Ford Motor Co. ’s China chief, John Lawler, said such “pain points” will spur demands for connectivity in China. “Necessity drives innovation,”
Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/audi-launching-technological-offensive-of-connected-cars-in-china-1432484918
Tomi Engdahl says:
Startups … inside giant companies
http://fortune.com/2015/04/26/startups-inside-giant-companies/
Innovation belongs to the small and nimble, right? That’s what GE, IBM, Coke, and others think. They’re launching “startups” inside their walls, seeking the elixir of creativity.
Phillip Honovich spends his days like any worker at a startup. He tests software, hustles for clients, and collaborates with a nine-person team inside a sleek open-plan office in the tech sector of New York City. Failing fast is encouraged.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why PowerPoint Should Be Banned
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/05/26/2225229/why-powerpoint-should-be-banned
An editorial at the Washington Post argues that Microsoft PowerPoint is being relied upon by too many to do too much, and we should start working to get rid of it. “Its slides are oversimplified, and bullet points omit the complexities of nearly any issue. The slides are designed to skip the learning process, which — when it works — involves dialogue, eye-to-eye contact and discussions.”
PowerPoint should be banned. This PowerPoint presentation explains why.
Make these slides the last ones you ever read.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/26/powerpoint-should-be-banned-this-powerpoint-presentation-explains-why/?tid=pm_pop_b
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building Hospitable Open Source Communities (Video)
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/05/25/160236/building-hospitable-open-source-communities-video
Tomi Engdahl says:
Engineering for the internet of things.
Create a culture of continuous innovation.
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/continuousengineering/us/en/
Continuous engineering is the enterprise capability to create the connected products and systems at the heart of the internet of things.
Continuous engineering
Speed delivery of smart and connected products
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/continuousengineering/index.html
Continuous engineering is an enterprise capability that speeds delivery of increasingly sophisticated and connected products by helping businesses to evolve their engineering practices to adapt to the accelerating pace of business change.
Insight originates with data — learn from:
Your product in operation
Customer sentiment and market trends
Engineering performance metrics
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wake up to the smell of money, not farts
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/27/sensorwake-smell-alarm-clock-kickstarter/
If we were rich, we’d pay gourmet baker Richard Bertinet to rouse us every day with the scent of his freshly baked bread. Unfortunately, we’re not, which is why SensorWake’s smell-based alarm clock is such an exciting prospect. Rather than waking users up with the traffic report, the device uses a cartridge of odors to get you out of bed in the morning, from coffee and croissants all the way through to the smell of US dollars.
The project was created by 18-year-old engineering student Guillaume Rolland and was named a “top 15″ invention at last year’s Google Science Fair. Now, the company is taking to Kickstarter to raise cash for an initial production run, with deliveries expected to begin in November.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thank You, Albert Einstein for GPS
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326710&
Crazy ideas like time slowing down with velocity or mass bending the curvature of a four dimensional fabric called space-time are critical for GPS to work.
GPS was developed by the U.S. military at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s. It was primarily used by the Navy to allow ships to track their location while at sea.
In the 1980s the Reagan administration made the decision to release GPS technology for civilian purposes. The decision was precipitated by the USSR shooting down a Korean Airlines passenger jet in 1983 when the jet accidentally flew over Soviet territory while in route from Alaska to Korea.
The GPS system consists of 24 satellites in high orbit around the Earth. These satellites travel at about 9,000 miles per hour and orbit at an altitude of about 12,000 miles (for comparison the International Space Station orbits at around 250 miles). Each satellite carries an atomic clock with an accuracy of around 1 nanosecond. The satellites are distributed so that from any point on the Earth’s surface there is a line of sight to at least 4 satellites. A GPS receiver on the ground (or on an airplane in flight) receives timing and location data from these satellites on a 1.575GHz radio carrier signal.
Without Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity, there would be no GPS. Crazy ideas like time slowing down with velocity, or mass bending the curvature of a four dimensional fabric called space-time are critical for GPS to work.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Designing wearables for good
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4439539/Designing-wearables-for-good
Well-known charitable organization UNICEF and technology giant ARM are giving product designers around the world a huge challenge: to find new ways for wearable technologies to solve pressing global problems that globally prevent families from accessing basic health, education, and support services.
“We have to look at where the line is between standardization and innovation,” said Ian Ferguson, vice president of marketing, at ARM. “The good thing with our technology is you can do anything with it and the challenging thing is also that you can do anything with it. It’s good to have frog and UNICEF, which understand what the environments are like and how to do robust product designs.”
Using the battle cry “innovate for impact,” the two companies are collaborating with product strategy and design firm frog to start the multi-year initiative that will start with the Wearables for Good design challenge. ” We want to encourage the idea that all of us — makers, engineers, do-gooders, executives, computer scientists, inventors, innovators — are making things that are not just nice to have, but that people need,” the Wearables for Good site explains.
The winners will be given a $15,000 cash prize, but more importantly the winners will get incubation and mentorship support from ARM and frog to help get the two chosen projects to the pilot stage and demonstrate the potential of the idea.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chips Make Change in Emerging Markets
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326708&
The chief executive of ARM challenges engineers to put today’s technologies to use in developing markets.
It is inspiring to see today’s companies deliver immense benefits with their technologies, building a more efficient digital economy that connects people in highly imaginative ways. Now it’s time to take these technological foundations and apply them to more basic services such as health, education and safety. Today’s technology building blocks can enable new products and services in parts of the world which have not yet been able to fully capitalize on the power of the silicon chip.
Last week, ARM and UNICEF announced a multi-year partnership to deliver innovation for impact and deliver social change for children and underdeveloped counties. As part of that, in collaboration with frog, we also launched a Wearables for Good design challenge for developers and makers to design and develop new wearable technologies to address fundamental problems facing the worlds most disadvantaged.
As part of our partnership, ARM will support UNICEF in scaling up some existing innovations. Worldwide, UNICEF’s innovation work is focused on real-time information using young people as a resource to provide access to vital information. Existing UNICEF projects making an impact include U-Report, Internet of Good Things (IoGT), EduTrac and mTrac. We are collectively looking for this level of innovative ingenuity to generate change in underserved populations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eye-Controlled Wheelchair Advances from Talented Teenage Hackers
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/28/eye-controlled-wheelchair-advances-from-talented-teenage-hackers/
[Myrijam Stoetzer] and her friend [Paul Foltin], 14 and 15 years old kids from Duisburg, Germany are working on a eye movement controller wheel chair. They were inspired by the Eyewriter Project which we’ve been following for a long time. Eyewriter was built for Tony Quan a.k.a Tempt1 by his friends. In 2003, Tempt1 was diagnosed with the degenerative nerve disorder ALS and is now fully paralyzed except for his eyes, but has been able to use the EyeWriter to continue his art.
This is their first big leap moving up from Lego Mindstorms. The eye tracker part consists of a safety glass frame, a regular webcam, and IR SMD LEDs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Australia’s Prime Minister Doesn’t Get Why Kids Should Learn To Code
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/05/29/0018221/australias-prime-minister-doesnt-get-why-kids-should-learn-to-code
The Prime Minister of Australia has come out and ridiculed an opposition policy aimed at teaching kids to code.
Tony Abbott ridicules his own party in school coding gaffe
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/tony-abbott-ridicules-his-own-party-in-school-coding-gaffe-20150528-ghbdal.html
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made an embarrassing blunder, ridiculing his own government’s investment in technology education.
During question time on Wednesday, Labor leader Bill Shorten asked the Prime Minister whether he would support coding being taught in every primary and secondary school.
Coalition MPs have publicly advocated for coding to be taught at the earliest possible stage in the past to ensure children are prepared for the “jobs of the future”.
“ICT skills such as coding should not be only subjects offered in years 10-12, that’s too late”, he said.
“We need to expose more students to coding so they are inspired to create, build and develop new technologies rather than just being passive users of it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The impact of open cloud technologies on IT
Column Open source developments are at the heart of new cloud technologies, says Jim Zemlin
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/opinion/2410317/the-impact-of-open-cloud-technologies-on-it
NOWHERE are we seeing more open source and collaborative development than in cloud computing.
From software-defined networking to application development, containers and more, hundreds of open cloud projects are emerging to accelerate the development of transformative technologies that deliver products and services on demand, at the click of a button.
Open source and collaborative development have been proven time and time again to increase the rate of development and to result in better software.
The impact on the IT industry of these development practices for the cloud is a much faster evolution of the enterprise in the cloud era than any other time in the technology industry’s history.
The industrial revolution took decades to mature with proprietary designs and pending patents for machinery, while the computer hardware era of the 1950s and 1960s didn’t materialise for the average business until the 1980s and 1990s.
We know that today computers and information technologies double their capabilities every 12-18 months. Open source software and collaborative development are driving this cycle.
The Linux kernel’s rate of development, for example, is unmatched. The latest data tells us that nearly eight changes are made to Linux every hour and that it’s being built faster than ever before.
Projects like OpenStack, Cloud Foundry, CloudStack, Docker and others are using the same practices to move increasingly fast.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s new goal: Make everything work together
http://www.cnet.com/news/google-io-2015-new-goal-make-everything-work-together/
The search giant has found a new purpose in all our lives: Bringing together the various products and services we use to work together as easily as possible.
Key to the Internet giant’s ambitions is Android, its software designed to power devices ranging from smartphones and tablets to smartwatches, home appliances, your car and more. For Google, tying these devices together will make it easier for us to use the various products, and hopefully live less digitally complicated lives as a result. The hope is that consumers will be more inclined to stick with the Google family of products and services.
“It’s about putting Google to work on important problems,”
Google’s efforts also mirror a larger trend in the technology industry. Gone are the days when successful companies released various products that hardly worked together. Nowadays, companies like Google are following the lead of those like Apple, which tightly stitches together all its various devices with the software and services that power them, offering an easy and consistent experience for customers. But instead of closing down its hardware and software, Google is trying to tie its software to everything.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Apps are NOT Desktop Applications
http://www.twinprime.com/around-the-globe-in-130-milliseconds/
Distributing software has never been easier. No need to spend years polishing a bug-free masterpiece and then physically shipping shiny CDs to a fancy retail operation. The over-the-air model shortens the initial time-to-market and modernizes the App life cycle via user reviews and software updates. From the user’s perspective, there’s no need to go through a tedious installation procedure, worry about missing drivers, or wonder which new virus is coming on board. Millions of certified Apps are just one touch-screen click away, at low-cost or no-cost, to be installed upon the exact place and time of desire. The success of mobile Apps has inspired more and more hardware platforms, from televisions through wearables and cars to adopt the App concept. In fact, having an enthusiastic developer community has became a key element for every new platform.
The impact of this new model of software distribution goes beyond technology – Mobile Apps are not Desktop Applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“We’re living in an idea economy,” she said, and it has never been easier for someone to turn a concept into reality.
For Hewlett Packard Enterprise, “Our services are the tip of the spear, where we begin the journey together” with customers, Ms. Whitman said.
Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/whitman-paints-a-vague-picture-of-hp-enterprise/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can you imagine trying to explain to a developer who is writing the software for a controller how the machine works using a text-based document?
Mindmapping is one of my favorite techniques for capturing and visually organizing my idea and thoughts.
Source: http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325557&page_number=10
Mindmapping: http://www.mindmapping.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shrews guests hackers bounce around your business? The company did so, and welcomes
Nine code group broke loose when the automation company Fastems let the experts for the weekend fms-product bundle.
It was the second industryhack event in which the machinery Engineering company searching for new ideas and a new approach to the development of a successful product on the market.
Decoders receive system descriptions in addition to for the weekend access to programming interfaces, sensing and data logging, and more or less free hand to develop what benefit they see fit.
Event roof theme is the internet of things.
Host company’s point of view, the opportunity is quite exceptional. A number of relatively unknown people, professionals will be a weekend to work for free just incomprehensible enthusiasm. Such sticks company own people.
“The most enjoyable weekend, which I spent at work,” said One person Fastems Development.
Industryhack-type of activity does not replace any of the current R & D activities companies, but at best it provides development pipe on the crest of ideas.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-06-04/P%C3%A4%C3%A4st%C3%A4isitk%C3%B6-vieraat-hakkerit-riehumaan-yritykseesi-T%C3%A4m%C3%A4-firma-teki-niin-ja-on-tyytyv%C3%A4inen-3322616.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Consensus 2015: What the Internet Can Teach Blockchain Innovators
http://www.coindesk.com/consensus-2015-blockchain-innovators-internet-protocols/
Digital currencies remain an exciting new technology striving for mainstream adoption, but their struggle is not without precedent – The consumer and technical roadblocks they face are akin to those overcome by key Internet protocols.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Mountain of Prizes For Projects Using These Parts
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/08/a-mountain-of-prizes-for-projects-using-these-parts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aspirational parents condemn their children to a desperate, joyless life
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/aspirational-parents-children-elite
Perhaps because the alternative is too hideous to contemplate, we persuade ourselves that those who wield power know what they are doing. The belief in a guiding intelligence is hard to shake.
We know that our conditions of life are deteriorating. Most young people have little prospect of owning a home, or even of renting a decent one. Interesting jobs are sliced up, through digital Taylorism, into portions of meaningless drudgery. The natural world, whose wonders enhance our lives, and upon which our survival depends, is being rubbed out with horrible speed. Those to whom we look for guardianship, in government and among the economic elite, do not arrest this decline, they accelerate it.
The political system that delivers these outcomes is sustained by aspiration: the faith that if we try hard enough we could join the elite, even as living standards decline and social immobility becomes set almost in stone. But to what are we aspiring? A life that is better than our own, or worse?
Last week a note from an analyst at Barclays’ Global Power and Utilities group in New York was leaked. It addressed students about to begin a summer internship, and offered a glimpse of the toxic culture into which they are inducted.
Where the elite goes, we are induced to follow. As if the assessment regimes were too lax in UK primary schools, last year the education secretary announced a new test for four-year-olds. A primary school in Cambridge has just taken the obvious next step: it is now streaming four-year-olds into classes according to perceived ability. The education and adoption bill, announced in the Queen’s speech, will turn the screw even tighter. Will this help children, or hurt them?
Who knows? Governments used to survey the prevalence of children’s mental health issues every five years, but this ended in 2004.
But there are hints. Mental health beds for children in England increased by 50% between 1999 and 2014, but still failed to meet demand.
The number of children admitted to hospital because of self-harm has risen by 68% in 10 years, while the number of young patients with eating disorders has almost doubled in three years.
In the cause of self-advancement, we are urged to sacrifice our leisure, our pleasures and our time with partners and children, to climb over the bodies of our rivals and to set ourselves against the common interests of humankind. And then? We discover that we have achieved no greater satisfaction than that with which we began.
English children facing low self-esteem and exam stress battles
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/news/blog/2750_english_children_facing_low_self-esteem_and_exam_stress_battles
Tomi Engdahl says:
Engineering Shortage Persists
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326810&
Lower engineering salaries means managers should brace themselves for the revolving door, especially when 3-7-year itch kicks in.
“Engineers are impossible to find,” says Frank Kern. He should know, as chief executive of product engineering firm Aricent he employs 11,000 software developers.
The cost difference is one big reason why so any companies now have software engineering centers in India
To compete, companies like Aricent are looking for new places to establish engineering centers away from the crowd.
“You don’t have to move everything off shore, but it’s the type of people you can get and number of them,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
VCs, Startups Hail Intel Diversity Fund
$125M marked for female/minority startups
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326826&
Intel Capital’s decision to create a $125 million fund for startups led by women and minorities was hailed as a small but significant step for a high tech investment sector that still largely ignores diversity.
The Intel Capital Diversity Fund will be invested over five years as part of a broad $300 million initiative. The effort includes plans by 2020 for a U.S. workforce at Intel that mirrors the national population. To qualify for the fund, a startup needs to have a founder or at least three executives reporting to a CEO who are female or members of a minority.
“The idea is the larger the diverse footprint in the executive staff, the larger the diversity will be in the employee base,” said Lisa Lambert, a 20-year Intel veteran who manages the fund.
“There’s a lack of female VCs and entrepreneurs — women need mentors and role models,”
“To get girls into STEM, they need to be inspired to be in computer science and want to create hardware,” said Morin, a former employee of Apple and Google whose new startup aims to create a community for female Makers. “There are problems in every aspect of these [diverse startup] companies,” she said.
Only 15 percent of U.S. venture-funded companies have a woman on the executive team, and only three percent of venture capital goes to companies with a female CEO, according to a Babson College study. Another survey noted only one percent of Silicon Valley venture funds go to companies founded by an African American or Latino.
“In general, the VC world does not have an open process — the challenge is that you have to know somebody,”
“Forty-seven percent of crowdfunding goes to women, and that says there are great companies that can be financed,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Should Machines Officiate at Sports?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326821&
Machines can do a better job that people at making some calls in sports. Why do we hesitate to use them or embrace the information they provide?
I feel frustrated by this inaccurate mechanism…using a human to decipher what a machine should be doing.
Why not adapt technology to do what it is best capable of doing and let the umpire handle judgments that technology can’t? We know that eventually they will.
Baseball is one of those sports that have been most reluctant to change.
Frankly, today most sport events can be seen much more comfortably in front of a big TV than actually at the game. You get all the information from an overview sense.
Accurate data flow from any game seems a given today.
Golf on TV is, frankly, much better. The TV networketwork uses technology extensively to show aspects of the game in player’s swing, driving length & accuracy, tracking ball flight, etc. You also see the whole picture of the event, not a narrow focus on a single play in front of you.
As someone who sees our measurement technology used in industrial, scientific, and medical applications to the most precise specifications, it’s in-roads into sports is a continuous assault to the old ways. The objective is to give better information for understanding how to compete. The nice part is that we are part of the process. In many ways we are better informed than the actual athlete.
Industry’s measurement technology has played a big part in this continuing evolution/revolution. I just wish they would make it happen faster, especially in baseball!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shine a light on the rogue IT that hides in the company shadows
You might even find some gems
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/10/shine_a_light_on_the_it_that_hides_in_your_companys_shadows/
The rapid development of technology over the years has brought us a culture where people use technology wherever they are and whatever they are doing.
Because most people could not afford their own computers, they relied on their employers to provide the technology.
If you were the employer, this brought a useful benefit: you had control over the applications people used because you were providing them. Defining and implementing standards was easy: the holder of the purse strings held all the cards.
Those days are gone, of course. We now carry around in our pockets and briefcases more processing power than anyone could have dreamt of then. And with high-speed mobile data services and open-source software you can do a ridiculous amount of processing on the move using phones, tablets and laptops.
In fact if you are so inclined you can run most aspects of a small business using just a biggish smartphone (as I discovered when I was asked whether it was possible).
Such progress, however, brings a problem we call “shadow IT”.
Techopedia describes shadow IT as “IT solutions and systems created and applied inside companies and organisations without their authorisation”. Analyst Gartner’s website puts it more simply: “IT activity that occurs outside of IT”.
Listen and learn
It is particularly common to see people adopting their own range of mobile apps, for a couple of reasons.
First, even if you have a policy of providing company-owned mobile handsets, it is unusual for every member of staff to be entitled to one. Those that aren’t tend to use their own handsets and hook them up to a cloud storage service like Google Drive to share documents. And if you are daft enough to allow them to sync directly with your company mail server they will use a variety of email applications that you don’t support.
Second, even if you do provide company devices it is common to support only the core applications – email, calendaring and not a lot more – so users fill the gaps with their own selections.
In an ideal world you would completely eradicate shadow IT. Dealing with the issues of departments trying to exchange documents in a variety of different formats can be a support headache.
There are five core considerations you need to take into account to address shadow IT.
1. Sort out your IT department’s GUI
2. Have an IT department that works
3. Put in policies and regulation
4. Corral the mobile apps
5. Work within the company’s goals
Sometimes people simply have to be told: “Stop doing that, it is less important than X”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WeWork:
Should You Invest in People or Technology? 5 Deciding Factors — People or technology? That’s a question countless business leaders have debated, and there’s really no definitive answer.
Should You Invest in People or Technology? 5 Deciding Factors
https://creator.wework.com/work/should-you-invest-in-people-or-technology-5-deciding-factors/
1. Augment your expertise. The product you make or the services you provide clearly mean enough to you—you did, after all, decide to create an entire company dedicated to them. But that doesn’t make you an expert on technology, or marketing, or human resources.
2. Streamline your process. As your company grows, it’s critical that business operations—such as payroll, insurance, and human resources—keep pace to support the business and its employees.
3. Become more efficient. The more efficient your business, the more productive your employees.
4. Cut costs. Spending money to save it may seem counterintuitive, but every successful entrepreneur will tell you this strategy works—if you invest in the right assets.
5. Improve customer service. Employees on the front lines bear the brunt of customer demands and complaints. It’s a stressful position to be in: one that relies on processes and established standards, and not to mention, a thick skin. How is your company supporting this critical function?
The reason you started your business is because you’re an expert in your field.
But that doesn’t mean you can do it all by yourself.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apocalypse Neuro: Why Our Brains Don’t Process the Gravest Threats to Humanity
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/apocalypse-neuro-why-our-brain-cant-process-the-planets-gravest-threats
Our brains are incredible little mushboxes; they are unfathomably complex, powerful organs that grant us motor skills, logic, and abstract thought. Brains have bequeathed unto we humans just about every cognitive advantage, it seems, except for one little omission: the ability to adequately process the concept of long-term, civilization-threatening phenomena. They’ve proven miracle workers for the short-term survival of individuals, but the human brain sort of malfunctions when it comes to navigating wide-lens, slowly-unfurling crises like climate change.
Humans have, historically, proven absolutely awful, even incapable, of comprehending the large, looming—dare I say apocalyptic?—slowburn threats facing their societies.
“Our brain is essentially a get-out-of-the-way machine,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Is Ready to Support European Digital Innovation, Says Eric Schmidt
Continent must have a single digital market or fall behind, says tech-giant chairman
http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-ready-to-support-european-digital-innovation-says-eric-schmidt-1433946280
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Launches Sidewalk Labs To Develop Smart Cities Tech
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/06/11/2233208/google-launches-sidewalk-labs-to-develop-smart-cities-tech
Google wants to join the Smart Cities movement with the launch of a new start-up, “Sidewalk Labs”, to develop technologies for cities, including IoT and mobility solutions. Larry Page and Dan Doctoroff describe Sidewalk Labs as an “urban innovation company”, geared to developing new technologies to improve city living by reducing pollution, streamlining public transportation, and effectively managing energy use.
Urban growth draws Google’s innovative eye: Sidewalk Labs is launched
http://www.citiesofthefuture.eu/google-launched-sidewalk-labs/
Google launched its first start-up focused on Smart Cities solutions, Sidewalk Labs.
“Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company devoted to improving city life for residents, businesses and city governments, in particular by developing and incubating civic technologies,” says the press release.
Sidewalk Labs arrives as the world continues to migrate toward urban hubs. By 2050, the population in cities will have doubled, intensifying existing socioeconomic, public health and environmental problems. Barcelona’s City Protocol and other Smart Cities solutions from companies such as Cisco and IBM are already putting technology at the service of cities and their residents.
“We are at the beginning of a historic transformation in cities,” said Doctoroff at the announcement of the new company. “At a time when the concerns about urban equity, costs, health and the environment are intensifying, unprecedented technological change is going to enable cities to be more efficient, responsive, flexible and resilient. We hope that Sidewalk will play a major role in developing technology products, platforms and advanced infrastructure that can be implemented at scale in cities around the world.”
Nevertheless, the fact that Google has decided to launch a whole new company to focus on urban issues demonstrates the importance of the smart cities movement. New technologies are continuously being developed to help cities manage their resources and improve the quality of life of citizens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Should you make a pilgrimage to Silicon Valley?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/views-from-a-young-electronics-engineer/4439683/Should-you-make-a-pilgrimage-to-Silicon-Valley-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150612&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150612&elq=435f371f3a0c47958ea3dc3a5970c9f7&elqCampaignId=23435&elqaid=26432&elqat=1&elqTrackId=28ecf88ba2cd448b969abe75b27658dd
I had an opportunity to talk to him and he bases his analysis on the premise that any passionate and focused attempt at bettering the quality of our lives can be considered a spiritual endeavor. Mr. Upmanyu got an opportunity to visit Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and the offices of Oracle, Apple, Facebook, and Google. He feels that educational institutions and companies like these are the pillars (Mahasthambas) of modern civilization, that make Silicon Valley a unique place to live.
Interpreting Mr. Upmanyu’s philosophy, these modern day categories of pillars of knowledge might very well be:
Institutions of higher learning like Stanford, Berkeley, and Santa Clara University are pillars of wisdom
Hi-tech companies like IBM, Intel, and Apple are pillars of technological prosperity
Companies like Yahoo and Google are pillars of online learning and acquiring information
Companies like Cisco, LinkedIn, and Facebook are pillars of global connectivity
So, if Silicon Valley is a Maha Kumbh (a large peaceful gathering of very knowledgeable and expert companies and people who make up these companies) of a passionate and focused attempt to innovate life-changing products of better and better quality, then the world looks to us for connecting with their loved ones throughout the globe, for learning, acquiring knowledge and enjoying the latest electronic gizmos.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sci-Fi Helped Inspire Elon Musk to Save the World
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/geeks-guide-elon-musk/
Tech journalist Ashlee Vance once thought of South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk as a guy who talked big but failed to deliver. It was an opinion shared by many in Silicon Valley. But in recent years Musk has scored some big successes, including building the first private rocket to dock with the ISS, releasing the first all-electric sportscar, and co-founding one of the country’s largest solar energy companies.
One thing that stands out in the book is how heavily Musk’s outlook was shaped by his childhood reading.
“The science fiction stuff was what really grabbed him,”
As a teenager Musk surveyed a wide range of religious and philosophical texts, but ultimately found the most inspiration in a humorous science fiction novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
“He always points to Hitchhiker’s Guide as his guiding principle for deciding that you should find out what the big questions are, and once you do, that’s what you go tackle,” says Vance.
Musk also credits superhero comics with inspiring him to save the world, which is fitting since many in the press have dubbed him a “real-life Iron Man.”
So which of today’s young science fiction fans will be the next Elon Musk? Vance notes that Musk possesses unique gifts that make him a hard act to follow—in terms of intellect, memory, and stamina—but that everyone can take a lesson from the way Musk sets clear goals and pursues them with dogged determination.
“I don’t think any of us can be like Elon totally,” says Vance, “but you can apply some of it in your life.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
FTC announces it will go after scummy Kickstarter projects that steal backers’ money
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/11/8765557/ftc-kickstarter-deceptive-fraud-doom-that-came-atlantic-city
The consumer protection agency wants people to feel safe giving to crowdsourcing sites
Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGogo have grown rapidly over the last five years, taking in more than $1 billion in pledges for project creators. Naturally a few projects failed to deliver on their promises, despite taking people’s money. Sometimes it was the fault of honest errors, other times backers alleged creators had abused their funds. Today the FTC announced it has taken its first action against a fraudulent Kickstarter project, The Doom That Came to Atlantic City, a board game that raised $122,000 from 1,246 backers, but failed to deliver any of its rewards.
“Many consumers enjoy the opportunity to take part in the development of a product or service through crowdfunding, and they generally know there’s some uncertainty involved in helping start something new,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But consumers should be able to trust their money will actually be spent on the project they funded.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘It’s irrelevant whether Elon Musk is a dick or not. At least he’s trying to make things’
Musk biographer on stalking Musk
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/16/elon_musk_biography_interview_ashlee_vance/
I’m depressed about millennial so-called entrepreneurs. Part of the reason I wanted to do the book was to shame them.
Do you think Musk shames Silicon Valley? There’s a great quote from one of your Business Week articles in the book, that gets quoted a lot, that this is will be the first tech bubble to leave nothing behind: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” Was that a motivation?
Vance: Part of the reason I wanted to do the book was to shame them. It’s irrelevant whether Elon is a dick or not: at least he’s trying to make things. If I couldn’t have done the biography, that would have been the whole book. I’m depressed about millennial so-called entrepreneurs. A lot of them are just playing the game to make money.
Vance: I definitely think Elon has been pretty masterful how he plays it, but the idea that he designed it all from the outset to get subsidies is just not true. Tesla tapping a loan was a desperation move. He was a software guy, and the hardware ended up being so much more difficult than he anticipated. If you look at their original numbers for how much the factory would cost, it was laughable to everyone else in the automative industry.
With SpaceX, the problem was that their ambition kept growing. The current contractors who were assembling stuff were asking for tons of money and SpaceX wanted to do it cheaper
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who Says Engineers Don’t Think?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326839&
What is it about liberal-arts majors that makes them think they’ve cornered the market on thinking?
One person, of about the same age, said that the bride, an accomplished writer and journalist, inspired him to study “the classics” in college. He then made a comment about how doing so made him learn to think, as opposed to what engineers do (I’m paraphrasing here).
What are we to “think” of this? Perhaps the speaker was making an inside joke to an engineer in the crowd. Did he consider studying engineering and changed his mind? Does this person consider himself somehow “saved” from being an engineer?
The comment made me ponder—as opposed to “think” because I’m apparently incapable of that—the attitude that some non-engineers have towards engineers, scientists, and mathematicians. You know, that we’re all “geeks” who are clueless about the world outside of technology and who prefer to be around computers than around people.
Do journalists think? Perhaps not and where’s why.
“We are not a trade school. We teach people to think.”
Well then. If neither journalists nor engineers think, what does that say about someone who writes for an audience of engineers?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why the California Ruling on Uber Should Frighten the Sharing Economy
http://time.com/3924941/uber-california-labor-commission-ruling/
The question at the center of several similar cases is likely worth billions
This week a ruling from the California Labor Commission was made public because popular ride-sourcing company Uber appealed it. A San Francisco-based driver named Barbara Ann Berwick brought a case alleging that she is an employee, not an independent contractor as Uber claims.
it could set a binding precedent for a multi-billion-dollar question plaguing the booming on-demand economy: Do such companies have employer-employee relationships with tens of thousands of American workers?
That might sound like a mundane bureaucratic distinction, but it’s a concrete reality for the drivers, personal shoppers and lunch deliverers who enjoy the flexibility of setting their own hours but do not get standard employee benefits like overtime pay and worker’s compensation.
“Uber has essentially shifted to its workers all the costs of running a business, the costs of owning a car, maintaining a car, paying for gas,” says Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston-based attorney who has a class-action case pending against Uber in California federal court. “Uber has saved massive amounts …. It’s important that the labor laws be enforced so that the companies can’t take advantage of workers that way. Uber’s a $50-billion company and I think it can afford to bear the responsibilities of an employer.”
In a statement to TIME, an Uber spokeswoman said that its drivers embrace their status as independent contractors. “It’s important to remember that the number one reason drivers choose to use Uber is because they have complete flexibility and control,”
The growing independent-contractor workforce is a key reason that companies like Instacart and Uber have been able to grow so quickly, because the cost of organizing independent contractors is much less than hiring employees. There’s no requirement to pay unemployment tax or ensure that workers are making at least minimum wage. In many cases, the companies don’t have to pay for the smartphones or data plans workers use on the job.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Geeks Scrapbook
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1326917&
To what geeky hobbies do you subscribe? Do you sometimes worry that you would stand “proud in the crowd” at a geek convention?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Life With Spock: When Your Father Is an Engineer
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1318896&
The pain and pride of growing up STEM: Here are some hints about what your family may be going through from someone who has been there.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t buy into the negative stereotypes that say an engineer is socially inept, insensitive, or geeky. I prefer capable, intelligent, devoted, steady… Your family loves you and is proud of your achievements, but sometimes they have to compensate a little, especially if they did not inherit the engineering gene.
Here are some of a family’s coping mechanisms and the behavior (of yours!) that inspires them
Life With Spock, Part 2: When Your Child Is Born an Engineer
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1319177&
Some people are born engineers. Their behavior dictates it from the moment they can walk, and you have to treat them accordingly.
All parents can identify with being subjected to relentless and unyielding questioning by their child. Often the inquisition begins with simple questions such as “What is rain?” but quickly spirals out of control until you can no longer bear to hear the words “But why?” anymore.
You may be wondering to yourself, “How do I know if my child is an engineer?” I believe you can break it down into these three categories: Connections, Obsession, and Destruction.
Lets start with Connections.
A perfect example of this would be with the popular toy K’Nex. In this hypothetical situation, I hand a few K’nex parts to each of my boys.
The Artist: He would immediately cram two long pieces in his mouth, exclaim he was a sabre-toothed tiger, and charge out of the room.
The Engineer: He would inspect the parts closely. He would stare at them for quite some time, noting how they fit together. Then he would ask, “Why do the long ones have ridges?” In a few hours he will have built a structure as tall as he can manage.
Obsession
The Engineer: The engineer child easily becomes obsessed with data. If something is cool, he has to know everything about it.
The Artist: He looks at the SR71 with mild interest. It is really kind of a boring plane compared to all the curvy and colorful ones in the building.
The Engineer: The SR71 is located outside the entrance. It is literally the first airplane we see. At this point we might as well just go home. The other airplanes are merely scenery to the engineer while he tries to pry as much information as possible out of mom and dad.
Destruction
To put it simply, the best way to see how something works when you’re nine years old is to disassemble it. Many children destroy their toys eventually, either through curiosity, neglect, boredom, or perhaps even malice. The engineer skips the part that involves actually playing with the toy.
The Artist: He loves Cruncher immediately. This crass and ridiculous dinosaur is colorful, loud, automated, and it farts. What more could a child want? Cruncher lasted nearly two years before the artist bashed its skull in because he wanted to use the eyeballs in an art project.
The Engineer: Cruncher is removed from the box. The features are scrolled through. The programming feature is attempted, which causes frustration because it doesn’t quite function as it should based on the description in the manual. The box that Cruncher arrived in — and has only been free from for a few short hours — soon becomes the holding pen for the screws and parts as Cruncher is savagely disassembled.
The engineer’s tendency toward destruction can be startling at times, especially when the object at hand is a high-dollar item that the parent would rather not see rendered to pieces in minutes flat.
I suggest that the parent adopt two methods when giving an engineer new items:
“The deal”: Tell them you’ll get this thing for them if they promise not to disassemble it for a pre-determined amount of time. The disassembly is inevitable, you just need to find a time period that will make you, the parent, feel better about what feels like money down a rat hole.
Acceptance: For items of lower value, just accept that you aren’t paying for it, but rather you’ve just invested in a learning opportunity for your kid. You’ll be happier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What A New Class Of Worker Could Mean For The Future Of Labor
http://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/meet-the-new-worker-same-as-the-old-worker#.jy03gaVNd
Faced with lawsuits that could threaten their business models, tech companies are pushing for a new classification of worker that would combine the flexibility afforded to contractors with the protections afforded to employees. How that new worker is defined could impact American labor for years to come.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ACE Awards Finalists Recognized for Innovation in Electronics
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4439732/ACE-Awards-Finalists-Recognized-for-Innovation-in-Electronics?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150618&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150618&elq=26f07b84e3064f93bd4bc597a75bbc03&elqCampaignId=23510&elqaid=26538&elqat=1&elqTrackId=e8a442f54f8e4dbaa959d98066fe022c
UBM has announced the finalists for the EDN and EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards that honor technology innovators who demonstrate global electronics industry leadership.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Are Girl-Focused Engineering Toys Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/06/22/0213238/are-girl-focused-engineering-toys-reinforcing-gender-stereotypes
VentureBeat’s Ruth Read casts a skeptical eye at the current rage of toy segregation meant to inspire tomorrow’s leaders in STEM: “Toys geared at girls serve to get them interested in coding and building when they’re young, hopefully inspiring their educational interests down the road. But these gendered toys may be hurting women by perpetuating a divide between men and women.”
Are girl-focused engineering toys reinforcing gender stereotypes?
http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/20/are-girl-focused-engineering-toys-reinforcing-gender-stereotypes/
Another startup touting educational toys for girls recently wrapped a Kickstarter campaign and is likely on its way toward a formal launch.
Linkitz, a programmable bracelet, joins the growing number of toy startups devoted to getting girls involved with technology, an effort that has no doubt been inspired by the egregiously low number of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
In 1985, women comprised 37 percent of computer science students; now only 18 percent of women graduate with computer science degrees. Every major tech company, from Facebook to Google, is seeking to expand the number of women in their ranks.
“We see the real problem as being the way that construction, science, and technical toys are promoted, packaged and merchandised in a way that excludes girls. If GoldieBlox aims to disrupt the ‘pink aisle’ — we’re doing our best to make sure there’s no such thing,”
GoldieBlox makes a builders kit (similar to Tinkertoys, but more advanced) aimed at girls. Each toy comes with a book and instructions for how to build a particular contraption, though girls can make anything with the toy set.
Since then, other toy companies have emerged with the aim of getting girls on the STEM bandwagon. For example, Roominate lets girls make electrically wired buildings and rooms, while Linkitz teaches girls to code a programmable bracelet. These toys focus on using social mechanisms and narrative storytelling to make science and tech more intriguing to young girls.
Sure, maybe I was a bit of a tomboy. I liked collecting Matchbox cars, and playing with toy trucks, Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, and Legos. Then, as now, I hated the color pink. But I also played “social games” like make-believe and had a ton of Barbies
The difference, I think, is that those computer games and the various car and building sets I adored didn’t come across as being gendered. At least no one told me they were for boys.
“What we’ve seen is a noticeable increase in the use of gender in marketing [of] toys since the 1970s/80s,” says Day. For example, less than 2 percent of Sears catalogue ads from the 1970’s assigned toys to a specific gender, research shows.
“If a ‘girl science’ toy gets a girl interested, that’s one thing,” Day says. “But is it at the cost of giving her the idea that science isn’t really for girls? And where is she supposed to go next if all the more demanding toys/equipment is in a part of the shop labeled ‘boys’?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
IPD: What’s in it for the engineer?
http://www.csemag.com/single-article/ipd-whats-in-it-for-the-engineer/1d37cfa6176ef231d68f6d872c8d14cc.html
Integrated project delivery (IPD) requires a team approach and buy-in from all players, including the architect, engineer, and contractor.
The motivation behind the integrated project delivery (IPD) model is to align the interests of the owner, architect, engineer, and contractor to encourage the collaborative setting of priorities and provide a vehicle for organizational integration. The ultimate goal is to create high-performance buildings that meet the owner’s needs while working within the constraints of time and cost.
Engaging the entire team early facilitates a common understanding of project goals. The contractors are invested in the design from the outset, and the design team develops a respect for the budget. Committed to collaboration, the project will see fewer requests for information (RFIs) and change orders should be limited to those related to program changes. Schedule and budget are therefore controlled.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gaming the system: exploring the benefits of intranet gamification
By Melanie Baker – March 10, 2014
https://www.igloosoftware.com/blogs/inside-igloo/gaming_the_system_exploring_the_benefits_of_intranet_gamification?utm_source=techmeme&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=blog
Gamification isn’t just playing games, and is increasingly becoming a useful corporate tool to increase employee productivity and intranet engagement
By Melanie Baker – March 10, 2014
Gamification isn’t just playing games, and is increasingly becoming a useful corporate tool to increase employee productivity and intranet engagement.
Gamification.jpg
Gamification is showing up in an increasing number of areas in business, from employee training, to social elements on the corporate website, to the intranet. According to Gartner, by 2015 up to 40% of Global 1000 organizations will be using gamification in business operations. Gamification doesn’t necessarily refer to actually playing games, however. There are many different gamification elements, but not all are relevant to the intranet, so we’ll focus on the ones that are.
Points, badges, and voting/ranking are three of the most common gamification elements that can be implemented on the intranet.
Make sure that the requirements to achieve rewards are clear and easy to find, especially for the introductory ones like badges for new member activities.
An important consideration in designing your intranet’s gamification is the reward parameters and thresholds:
For what actions will members be rewarded?
How many points are different activities worth?
What will the interval be between rewards? (E.g. how many points must be accrued before you earn the next badge.)
How many levels of rewards will there be?
Do the rewards have any peripheral effects on member prominence or feature access?
Are there real world bonuses for accruing points? (E.g. gift cards.)
According to Gartner, up to 80% of intranet gamification efforts fail due to poor design, so it’s important to work through these considerations before implementing anything.
Marketing intranet gamification
Which brings up the question of what to do about those who are less encouraged by public recognition, or who simply don’t want to participate in gamification. It’s important to remember that it’s the participation that’s most important, not the rewards. The main goal is to train and encourage people to be active on the intranet and to contribute regularly. If they get rewards for that, great. Be careful not to create a situation wherein you are at a loss how to encourage people without extrinsic rewards, but they don’t respond to anything else.
What can intranet gamification do for your company?
Gamification can help enable staff to learn how to complete tasks, feel good about their achievements, and publicly recognize their successes. For example, to an employee who isn’t normally a writer, completing a first blog post could be a pretty daunting exercise. It’s worth recognizing when the post gets published correctly, the information shared is useful, and other employees engage in discussing it. After all, the employee has created user-generated content, improved the company’s knowledge base, and catalyzed internal communication.
While you want people to mostly appreciate the feeling of success from doing good work, external recognition is valuable, too. According to Gabe Zicherman, gamification can increase employee productivity by 40%.