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:
Permanent R&D Tax Credit Long-Fought Win for U.S. Economy, Innovation
U.S. R&D tax credit here to stay
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=189&doc_id=1328906&
The permanent R&D credit will help promote U.S. innovation, job creation, and economic growth by providing reliable tax relief to U.S. businesses that invest in research.
In Washington, persistence can pay off.
That’s the lesson learned from the decades-long pursuit of a permanent R&D tax credit, an effort that reached a successful conclusion in December. A permanent R&D credit will promote U.S. innovation, job creation, and economic growth by providing much-needed, reliable tax relief to U.S. businesses that invest in research.
Enactment of a permanent R&D credit was particularly gratifying for the semiconductor industry, which had a lead role in securing passage of the original credit in the early 1980s and has been a vigorous advocate for making it permanent ever since.
To understand the impact a permanent R&D credit will have on our industry and the U.S. economy, it helps to understand how the original credit came to be. In the late 1960s, private investments in R&D in the United States began to decline
In 1981, semiconductor pioneer Robert Noyce of Intel—one of the founding fathers of our industry, of Silicon Valley, and of modern technology—testified before Congress about the need for a credit to incentivize research. Later that year, Congress enacted the original R&D credit, thanks in part to the input of Noyce and other key voices.
Since then, the credit has lapsed and been extended 17 times. Throughout these decades of erratic implementation, the semiconductor industry has been on the front lines of the effort to make the credit permanent. That work paid off on Dec. 18 when Congress at long last made the credit permanent.
Since its inception, the R&D credit has been a key driver of technological discoveries and economic growth. It has been particularly impactful for the U.S. semiconductor industry, which invests one-fifth of revenue in R&D annually—a greater share than any other U.S. industry. These investments have given rise to new discoveries that fuel our industry and the overall economy. Making the R&D credit permanent gives U.S. semiconductor companies certainty and stability, allowing them to plan research investments for years to come.
The R&D credit is also a proven job-creator. The semiconductor industry directly employs nearly 250,000 people in high-skilled, high-wage jobs across America, many of which are in the areas of research and innovation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do grandmas make the best engineers?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/measure-of-things/4441369/Do-grandmas-make-the-best-engineers-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160211&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160211&elqTrackId=9038c712f67b4288af079529661ffe20&elq=47c0069f95944aad8205fdc33fe9724d&elqaid=30798&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=26939
Motivation is driven by priorities and from quarterly earnings to making rent short-term priorities rule. So who’s going to save the world?
A demographic with fine-tuned short term priorities—focused on their families, their homes, their communities—are uniquely positioned to save little pieces of the world: grandmothers. In saving the pieces, their many small solutions may accumulate into The Solution.
The problem with men is their ambition—now, pardon my age and gender generalizations for just a few more paragraphs, at least until you see what I mean, then judge for all you’re worth—men and younger women want to solve problems, too, but their problems tend to settle around their careers.
In his TED talk (see video below), Roy said, “One lesson we learned in India is that men are untrainable. Men are restless, men are ambitious, men are compulsively mobile and they all want a certificate… they want to leave the village and go to a city looking for a job. So we came up with a great solution: train grandmothers. You get certified by the community you serve. You don’t need a paper to hang on the wall to show that you are an engineer.”
The most celebrated course is six months training in solar technology. They learn from each other and from teachers and the teachers learn from them. Since few of them speak the same language, they communicate through ad hoc sign language. They build huge parabolic mirrors by assembling dozens of tiny mirrors that focus sunlight to heat pots for cooking. They learn to solder, to use tools for welding and drilling.
Six months is a long time to be away from home and the grandmas miss their families, miss their villages—and that’s kind of the point. While most are illiterate, all the grandmothers are highly motivated. When they finish, they take home their metaphorical fishing poles and literal solar panels and an understanding of the technology, how to install it, maintain it, and fix it. Over 36,000 houses in over 1000 villages are illuminated by the work of 300 illiterate grandmas.
We all know that technology development, from implementing simple systems to designing complex components, is more about debugging than smooth sailing. The great lesson is enabling people to look under the hood with confidence that it won’t hurt them and, if they break it, that they can fix it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DARPA to Remake Itself Leaner
Goes for holy grail of unhackable IoT
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328914&
Some of the most world-changing technologies—such as the Internet—were spawned by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), but the pace of change has accelerated. Instead of concentrating on big, expensive, long-term projects, DARPA’s new aim for its $2.9 billion budget will be smaller, more numerous and less expensive innovations that better address the crowd-sourced frontier facing us in the future.
“Today we want to give you a sense of where DARPA is going with its couple hundred programs on which we work with the Defense Department, and the vast resources of the research and academic communities,” said Arati Prabhakar, director of DARPA in a virtual roundtable session in Washington D.C.
For instance, its High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) program has found a new way to make embedded systems “unhackable.” Instead of spending all a program’s security resources trying to prevent a hacker from gaining entrance to a computer system, HACMS renders the system mathematically provable to be unhackable using formal proofs—and code synthesis methods—that enable executables to meet their formal specifications “no matter what.”
To prove that these new methods are indeed unhackable, the inventors of these technologies depend on formal mathematical proofs. However, to prove to the software community that the goal of “unhackability” for Internet of Things (IoT) embedded systems is achievable, the HACMS team built a provably unhackable operating system software kernel for a drone called Little Bird. “What we want to achieve with HACMS is to take whole classes of cybersecurity problems out of the picture,” said Prabhakar. “We challenged our most talented hackers to try to take over Little Bird, but they failed. We even gave the hackers its source code and they failed. Even when we gave them access to one of the subsystems—its camera module—the hackers could not break out of it to control the drone.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Britain is Dragged Kicking and Screaming into the Digital Age
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1328933&
Only in England would they think that transitioning from vellum to archival paper would in any way qualify as “adapting to the digital age.”
“The UK is getting closer to Social Media — maybe in another 1,000 years or so?”
I particularly like the part of this article that reads:
The House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber of Parliament, is finally moving to replace the calfskin with high-quality archival paper, calling the move which will come into force in April a necessary — and thrifty — adaptation to the digital age.”
That sounds about right. Only in England would they think that transitioning from vellum to archival paper would in any way qualify as “adapting to the digital age.”
Actually, although you may be raising a quizzical eyebrow and flashing a wry smile as you read this, it’s not as daft as it may at first appear. In the case of recording our more important writings on vellum, for example, we know that we have a proven technology that has stood the test of time for millennia. By comparison, there are many modern data storage systems that are much less reliable, such as some of the original CDS and DVDs that are starting to fail. Alternatively, in the case of some relatively modern technologies, we no longer remember how to actually access their data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coding is more important than Shakespeare, says VC living in self-contained universe
Khosla joins list of people it’s really worth not listening to
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/13/coding_is_more_important_than_shakespeare_says_vc_living_in_selfcontained_universe/
Close on the heels of Marc Andreessen’s anti-colonialism comments about India, a second billionaire Silicon Valley VC has exploded his ego all over the internet.
But whereas Andreessen’s offensive comments were restricted to a 140-character tweet, Vinod Khosla has written over 5,000 words to explain why kids should learn coding rather than Shakespeare.
Demonstrating the broad and inclusive mindset that billionaire technologists have become renowned for, Khosla’s post Is majoring in liberal arts a mistake for students? notes that “though Jane Austen and Shakespeare might be important, they are far less important than many other things that are more relevant to make an intelligent, continuously learning citizen.”
And you will be amazed to hear that key among those things is coding. Because nothing says “useful education” more than preparing a generation of people to work for companies that make people like Khosla even richer than they already are.
Is majoring in liberal arts a mistake for students?
Critical Thinking and the Scientific Process First — Humanities Later
https://medium.com/@vkhosla/is-majoring-in-liberal-arts-a-mistake-for-students-fd9d20c8532e#.dmjxrdxx9
If luck favors the prepared mind, as Louis Pasteur is credited with saying, we’re in danger of becoming a very unlucky nation. Little of the material taught in Liberal Arts programs today is relevant to the future.
Consider all the science and economics that has been updated, the shifting theories of psychology, the programming languages and political theories that have been developed, and even how many planets our solar system has. Much, like literature and history, should be evaluated against updated, relevant priorities in the 21st century.
I feel that liberal arts education in the United States is a minor evolution of 18th century European education. The world needs something more than that. Non-professional undergraduate education needs a new system that teaches students how to learn and judge using the scientific process on issues relating to science, society, and business.
The most important things for a general, non-professional or vocational education are critical thinking and problem-solving skills, familiarity with logic and the scientific process, and the ability to use these in forming opinions, discourse, and in making decisions. Other general skills that are also important include — but are not limited to — interpersonal skills and communication skills .
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quentin Hardy / New York Times:
AT&T CEO pitches employee education program, hoping to build a cloud computing business — Gearing Up for the Cloud, AT&T Tells Its Workers: Adapt, or Else — DALLAS — Thirty-four years ago, Kevin Stephenson got his younger brother, Randall, a job with the telephone company.
Gearing Up for the Cloud, AT&T Tells Its Workers: Adapt, or Else
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/technology/gearing-up-for-the-cloud-att-tells-its-workers-adapt-or-else.html?_r=0
Today, Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chairman and chief executive, is trying to reinvent the company so it can compete more deftly. Not that long ago it had to fight for business with other phone companies and cellular carriers. Then the Internet and cloud computing came along, and AT&T found itself in a tussle with a whole bunch of companies.
AT&T’s competitors are not just Verizon and Sprint, but also tech giants like Amazon and Google. For the company to survive in this environment, Mr. Stephenson needs to retrain its 280,000 employees so they can improve their coding skills, or learn them, and make quick business decisions based on a fire hose of data coming into the company.
In an ambitious corporate education program that started about two years ago, he is offering to pay for classes (at least some of them) to help employees modernize their skills. But there’s a catch: They have to take these classes on their own time and sometimes pay for them with their own money.
To Mr. Stephenson, it should be an easy choice for most workers: Learn new skills or find your career choices are very limited.
“There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop,” he said in a recent interview at AT&T’s Dallas headquarters. People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning, he added, “will obsolete themselves with the technology.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do You Know Rufus Turner?
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/15/do-you-know-rufus-turner/
It is hard to be remembered in the electronics business. Edison gets a lot of credit, as does Westinghouse and Tesla. In the radio era, many people know Marconi and de Forest (although fewer remember them every year), but less know about Armstrong or Maxwell. In the solid-state age, we tend to remember people like Shockley (even though there were others) and maybe Esaki.
If you knew most or all of those names without looking them up, you are up on your electronics history. But do you know the name Rufus Turner?
At the age of 15, he became fascinated by crystal diodes and published his first article about radio when he was 17. Rufus Turner was–among other things–the first black licensed radio operator (W3LF).
In the 1940’s, working with Sylvania, he helped to develop the 1N34A germanium diode (you can still buy these if you look around for them).
Turner wrote articles for many years covering hobby and professional topics. He also wrote about technical writing, math, and other subjects that interested him.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearable Tech Goes à La Mode
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328941&
Please hold all eye rolling until after the slideshow…
When I arrived in Paris earlier this month, the first billboard that jumped into view was an ad for the “Weareable Fashiontech Festival.”
I rolled my eyes, thinking that I don’t have time for this.
What doesn’t pique my interest, however, is “wearable” technology pitches in general, largely because they tend to be apples dressed up as oranges. I’ve had a few “wearable tech” experiences of my own. In Cannes in the early 2000’s, the Mobile World Congress organizers pioneered the mobile technology fashion show concept. Needless to say, it didn’t exactly take the world by storm.
However, thanks to advancements in sensors, 3D printers and an industry-wide push for the Internet of Things, along with the Makers’ movement, wearable devices are now ubiquitous. They’ve infiltrated our clothing and they no longer look like some sort of sci-fi parasite trying to burrow into human flesh.
Still, an absent element in most so-called “fashion tech” wearables is a point of view from fashion designers.
Tech guys may find LED-lit T-shirts “kind of cool.” But given access to the technology, artists or real fashion designers would likely conceive whole new uses for “wearable” fabrics, much different from the stuff of engineers’ dreams.
Designs exhibited at the Weareable Fashiontech festival in Paris last week included ‘spider dresses’ capable of protecting a woman’s body (some of you might have already seen this at the Consumer Electronics Show last year), fungal T-shirts that breathe and live on their own, and clothing designed to communicate with others. Yes, some of this stuff was fairly weird (wearable fungus?), but it all offers a glimpse of how tomorrow’s fashion might blend with technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How We Got Here: Advice From Women Engineers
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329040&
Being a woman in the engineering field can be isolating when you rarely meet other women in technical positions. Materials scientist Dominique Freckmann said she could count on one hand the number of women engineers she’s had technical discussions with.
It isn’t that Freckmann, TE Connectivity’s automotive engineering manager, hasn’t been on the lookout. The American Association of University Women reported that just 12% of engineers are women and the number of women in computing has fallen from 35% in 1990 to just 26% in 2015. The numbers are particularly low for women of color, where black and Hispanic women each make up 1% of the engineering workforce.
Despite seemingly unlimited possibilities for discovery and innovation, diversity and inclusion of women in engineering has been difficult.
“And because the field of engineering is changing our world every day, women working in engineering can be powerful role models for young girls pursuing an education and career in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM),” TE officials wrote in a release.
Tomi Engdahl says:
If engineers ruled the world…
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/serious-fun/4441503/If-engineers-ruled-the-world-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160226&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160226&elqTrackId=14b4ec5be01a4340a1a5250b6a222869&elq=0d21a4d8b8ef47a6aa2e95001a106e56&elqaid=31040&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27134
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making number theory relevant (& fun)
http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4441484/Making-number-theory-relevant—fun-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160225&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160225&elqTrackId=a452f6d8383944a7bd369ec4a5eac703&elq=72592c709797475691759b7e664d1b2e&elqaid=31044&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27138
Number theory is one of the pillars on which the Digital Signal Processing edifice rests, and while it is possible to do significant work in DSP without delving into these topics, most people in the field tend to, a) like number theory, and b) be fairly proficient with so-called discrete math.
Tomi Engdahl says:
20 Tech-Based Playthings that Took Toy Fair 2016 By Storm
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329041&
The toy industry is huge, giving electronics OEMs great opportunity. According to The NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service, which represents approximately 80% of the U.S. toy retail market, the U.S. toy market grew to $19.45 billion in 2015. However, when factoring up to 100% for a total market figure, NPD estimates the U.S. market size for the total toy industry to be in the $24 billion range in 2015
In fact, U.S. Toy Industry Association (TIA) in its top toy trends of 2016 pointed to drones, robots and toys-to-life as the leading trend. “The hottest robots of the year will be customizable and teach kids important concepts, including coding, engineering, problem-solving and building,” the group said in a written statement. “Younger children will also find them as, or with, their action figures, puzzles and bath toys.”
In addition, science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) products will also garner attention. “Parents and educators appreciate these toys because they help prep kids for school by building important spatial, reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills,” the TIA said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
For Some Men, Mark Zuckerberg Is a Lifestyle Guru
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/fashion/mens-style/mark-zuckerberg-lifestyle-guru.html?ref=technology&_r=2
Anyone who has ever taken to social media to announce a self-improvement project knows that your “friends” cannot be relied upon to hold you accountable. Almost as soon as you proclaim your intention to learn French or cut out carbs, the world moves on, leaving you with only your empty promises and scone crumbs on your shirt.
It’s not so easy to slack if you’re Mark Zuckerberg. Each year, Mr. Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder and C.E.O., who is now 31, has made public pledges to improve himself. His efforts have been closely tracked by the press and by users of his globe-spanning social network who seem never to forget his promises despite the Internet’s ability to reset itself every morning in the manner of “Groundhog Day.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Case Against Algebra
http://science.slashdot.org/story/16/03/03/0157204/the-case-against-algebra
Dana Goldstein writes at Slate that political scientist Andrew Hacker proposes replacing algebra II and calculus in the high school and college with a practical course in statistics for citizenship. According to Hacker, only mathematicians and some engineers actually use advanced math in their day-to-day work and even the doctors, accountants, and coders of the future shouldn’t have to master abstract math that they’ll never need.
Algebra II, which includes polynomials and logarithms, and is required by the new Common Core curriculum standards used by 47 states and territories, drives dropouts at both the high school and college levels. Hacker’s central argument is that advanced mathematics requirements, like algebra, trigonometry and calculus, are “a harsh and senseless hurdle” keeping far too many Americans from completing their educations and leading productive lives.
Down With Algebra II!
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2016/03/algebra_ii_has_to_go.single.html
It drives dropout rates and is mostly useless in real life. Andrew Hacker has a plan for getting rid of it.
In his new book The Math Myth: And Other STEM Delusions, political scientist Andrew Hacker proposes replacing algebra II and calculus in the high school and college curriculum with a practical course in statistics for citizenship (more on that later). Only mathematicians and some engineers actually use advanced math in their day-to-day work, Hacker argues—even the doctors, accountants, and coders of the future shouldn’t have to master abstract math that they’ll never need.
I showed the book to my husband, Andrei, a computer programmer who loved math in school. He scrunched up his face. “People don’t use Shakespeare in their jobs, but it’s still important for them to read it,” he said.
Hacker attacks not only algebra but the entire push for more rigorous STEM education.
Maybe I would have found abstract math more enjoyable if my teachers had been able to explain it better.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CEOs force CIOs, CMOs into digital transformation bunker
http://www.cio.com/article/3040448/cio-role/ceos-force-cios-cmos-into-digital-transformation-bunker.html
CIOs and CMOs who value their jobs are collaborating on digital transformations that require them to map out and connect customer interactions across every touchpoint. But this isn’t happening as much as it should.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Binge work, for better or worse
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/anablog/4441570/Binge-work–for-better-or-worse?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160308&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160308&elqTrackId=4ab70c58904246dea733a41511a0881b&elq=aba3f8bcd3764b75912aee5acaf428cf&elqaid=31210&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27281
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electronic Engineers May Provide Rx for Health Care Crisis
Health care: Shape up or . . . shape up!
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329125&
Where to go from here becomes clearer: health care must embrace digital revolution and incorporate its economies and convenience
“Break things!” is the mantra in Silicon Valley today. Cool. But what do we do with vital services that are already broken?
That’s the situation of health care in America today. Everyone involved — patients, hospital managers, surgeons, nurses… — all agree the system is badly broken due to both the affordability and availability of professional services in this most vital of all vital services.
How we got here is a long and complicated story, and depends on who is telling the story. Where to go from here is becoming clearer: health care must, at last, embrace the digital revolution and incorporate its economies and convenience, although where and to what extent is still open for discussion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The future of American innovation
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4441610/The-future-of-American-innovation
When I was a young lad (circa the Late Jurassic), I used to eagerly await the arrival of my monthly electronics hobbyist magazine. As soon as it arrived, I jumped on a bus and headed out to the nearest electronics store to squander all of my meager allowance on the bits and pieces required to construct the beginner project of the month.
Those were the days when everyone seemed to be making things. In addition to the sheer fun of it, it was possible to buy a kit and build anything from a high-end audio amplifier to a color television for substantially less than you could purchase the equivalent product in a store.
By the time we reached the beginning of the new millennium, I was beginning to fear that making things in general, and hobby electronics in particular, were heading for extinction. Then, seemingly as if from nowhere, the Maker Movement appeared on the scene. No longer was I plodding along in the shadows on my ownsome. Suddenly (amazingly), it was cool to make things again.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Anablog
Fablab reveals the essence of the Millennial masses
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/anablog/4441577/Fablab-reveals-the-essence-of-the-Millennial-masses?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160310&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160310&elqTrackId=9c08eb895fff402cb96465402436a479&elq=9c5441fb89b945ac84a93fc9a1860158&elqaid=31239&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27321
I just watched a FOX TV show on Sunday called fablab which I believe has the pulse of the Millennial Generation. Their website says that their “hosts put the Fab in lab and the chic in geek. They are obsessed with finding the coolest, jaw-dropping, world-changing stories and sharing them with you. They each have a totally unique vision of the future and how bright it can be if we all get super creative and hyper-innovative.”
The so-called Millennials, numbering roughly 80 million or so US young men and women plus so many billion or so more in the rest of this small world, are the future, improvement and virtual survival of our planet as well as the largest single generation in world history.
One member of the FAB team commented that many people are not scientists or science/engineering enthusiasts, but they recognize that science can be a way to solve some of the world’s problems. A seemingly simple and obvious statement, but nonetheless profound in its veracity.
This savvy generation was weaned on wireless digital communication devices and they are connected constantly. Social media is a part of their life and if you don’t get to your point with relevant content within 15 seconds online, you will lose them. They are on the move with little time to waste and want to digest important information easily and quickly without “fluff”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
QS World University Rankings by Subject 2015 – Engineering – Electrical & Electronic
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2015/engineering-electrical-electronic#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=
Tomi Engdahl says:
Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure Technologies
https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-cloud-infrastructure-linuxfoundationx-lfs151-x
Learn the fundamentals of building and managing cloud technologies directly from The Linux Foundation, the leader in open source.
What you’ll learn
Basics of cloud computing
Characteristics of the different cloud technologies
Working knowledge on how to choose the right technology stack for your needs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are the 59 startups that demoed at Y Combinator Winter ’16 Demo Day 2
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/23/y-combinator-winter-2016/
“Food, housing, healthcare, transportation. Life essentials made better and more affordable.” These are the types of startups that partner Paul Buchheit said were demoing today at Y Combinator’s Winter 2016 Demo Day 2.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
Rising prices, declining service, and shifting business models signal that other on-demand companies can’t duplicate Uber’s unique success
The Uber Model, It Turns Out, Doesn’t Translate
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/technology/the-uber-model-it-turns-out-doesnt-translate.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Advanced Economies Must Still Make Things
Take away manufacturing and you’re left with…selfies
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/tech-careers/advanced-economies-must-still-make-things
Manufacturing has become both bigger and smaller. During the past 10 years the worldwide value of manufactured products has grown, in inflation-adjusted terms, by more than 60 percent, surpassing US $12 trillion in 2015.
Meanwhile, the relative importance of manufacturing is dropping fast, retracing the earlier retreat of agriculture (now just 4 percent of the world’s economic product). Based on the United Nations’ uniform national statistics, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to global economic product declined from 25 percent in 1970 to about 15 percent by 2015.
The decline has registered in the stock market, which values many service companies above the largest manufacturing firms.
And yet manufacturing is still important for the health of a country’s economy, because no other sector can generate nearly as many well-paying jobs.
The top four economies remain the top four manufacturing powers, accounting for about 55 percent of the world’s manufacturing output in 2015. China is at the top of the list, followed by the United States (whose gross national product is still nominally No. 1), Japan, and Germany.
China was at the top, with 94 percent of its 2014 exports attributable to manufactured items, tied with Bangladesh and Cambodia.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 UK Students prove their Crazy, Money-Making System, worth Millions, on live TV
http://www.start-up365.net/Pages/Top10/Ultimate4Trading.php?AffiliateID=7449&SubAffiliateID=1014-tb&zone=1025ae313e0cf197d08e0a40af6e9a
This year’s ‘Innovation of the Year’ award was won by incomparable startup sensation, Ultimate4Trading. Watch the full interview.
This incredible trading tool is the winning product in STARTUP365’s ‘Innovation of the Year’ 2015 award, and is heralding the dawn of a new age of trading.
The Ultimate4Trading founders have finally decided to make their algorithm free to the public. However, Matty has stated that there will be a limited number of places for the initial capacity of the Ultimate4Trading platform available, due to the expected high demand.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Entrepreneurs grabbed digitalisation at a price of pizza: “I have recommended to others”
South Savo SMEs were taken hackathon young people’s skills. Students’ ideas were born in the power of pizza and small pool
Plastep and neighboring business – steel plates laser cutting Pelaser – accommodated student a set of premises with extremely cold weather for a day january. It was a day-long hackathon event.
“I thought that soda drinkers day and leave,”
Larkala, however, was delighted with the most sincere students the skills and diligence. The winning student team came up with a good digital application for tracking the idea of internal logistics. So good that Pelaser plans to hire students to do the application for them.
“Now I have recommended Hackathon other entrepreneurs Pertunmaan,”
“Although the going was pretty easy-going, so everything went nicely. It was a meeting of worlds. ”
“Students had an awful lot of good ideas that we did not come to mind in advance.”
“We SMEs is a perception that digital technology is expensive and difficult. But is not it always been difficult at all, “says Ketomäki.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/yrittajat-paasivat-digitalisaatioon-kiinni-pitsan-hinnalla-olen-suositellut-muillekin-6536456
Tomi Engdahl says:
Some of My Best Friends are Engineers
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329290&
In the wake of National Engineers Week, which gave us days of inspirational quotes about, and from, those involved in engineering, let’s give thanks for the work of engineers.
It doesn’t matter which tech company you admire, engineers largely start them all, be they hardware guys like Steve Wozniak, or software guys like Mark Zuckerberg. Imhotep, who many refer to as the first civil engineer, built the pyramids. The Wright Brothers were the creators and fathers of the aviation industry, which we now take for granted. Leonardo da Vinci was quite the engineer, sometimes credited with inventing the helicopter and the parachute, and a decent painter to boot, having knocked off The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa between engineering projects.
Those people are just a few of the reasons I am proud to count myself, and many of my friends, amongst the ranks of engineers. They are the tip of the iceberg in terms of the impact that engineers have made to our lives.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Avnet Continues to Get Students Involved in STEM
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329289&
The 11th Annual Avnet Tech Games will give scores of students a chance to win scholarships and rub shoulders with industry veterans.
Electronics distribution giant Avnet has a long track record of involvement in attracting and retaining the next crop of electronics engineering and supply chain talent. And, for the company, spring brings a plentiful harvest of candidates to the company’s annual Tech Games.
http://www.avnet.com/en-us/tech-games/Pages/default.aspx
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exhibitor Innovations Competition
Medtec Europe invites you to pick the best innovation from the 2016 exhibition
http://www.medteceurope.com/europe/exhibitor-innovations-competition?cid=europe_comp_page_exhibitor_innov_driver_en
Tomi Engdahl says:
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Techies Project launches, offering photos and interviews of people from underrepresented groups in tech — Photo project aims to take cringe factor out of “techies” — Techies Project, a photo and interview project that launched today, explores the personal stories and experiences of hundreds of underrepresented people in tech.
Photo project aims to take cringe factor out of “techies”
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/04/photo-project-aims-to-take-the-cringe-factor-out-of-techies/
Techies Project, a photo and interview project that launched today, explores the personal stories and experiences of hundreds of underrepresented people in tech.
“There’s an experience that comes from seeing the word ‘techies’ and knowing that it has turned into this kind of derogatory, loaded term that kind of makes people’s skin crawl now,” Helena Price, creator of Techies Project, told me. “Now people hear it and they sort of cringe. Everybody has an image in mind of what that word is. For them, to see that word, expect one thing, and then see a grid of images that don’t look like what they expect is an experience in itself. And if that’s all they see and then they walk away, I feel kind of satisfied.”
The project focuses on everyone except for straight white dudes, Price said. Although there are white men in featured in the project, as well as straight men, she didn’t focus on anyone who is both of those things. The project explores the numerous, intersecting identities of people, including race, gender, sexuality, age, disability status, parental status, education level, immigrant status and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hyperloops and Robot Cars, A Glimpse into The Future
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/06/hyperloops-and-robot-cars-a-glimpse-into-the-future/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Silicon Valley of Transylvania
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/06/the-silicon-valley-of-transylvania/
Romania has long been a hotbed for tech companies outsourcing contact centers, software development and even research and development. Now, Romania is growing its own entrepreneurial culture.
The online database Romanian Startups lists 300 home-grown startups in the country, up from about 250 a year ago. The sector is also seeing more incubators, angel investors and founders — almost 600 total.
Although the tech startup scene is nascent, it is growing — and several of the up-and-coming companies are potential game changers. Vector Watch, which has its engineering team based in Romania, has created a smartwatch with a 30-day battery life. Axosuits is a Romanian robotics startup focused on creating affordable exoskeletons for people with disabilities.
Outsourcing continues to be a big draw in Romania. Companies, including Intel and Oracle, have set up shop there, investing in call centers, software development and support services.
They’ve been drawn to Romania by the same forces that will help drive the development of Romania’s own tech industry
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > Measure of Things
You can’t think out of a box built of TLAs
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/measure-of-things/4441760/You-can-t-think-out-of-a-box-built-of-TLAs?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160407&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160407&elqTrackId=14d8ffb329a14c9295a44c100cb1c47e&elq=9d6dd7061f1a46d5a4535eb93af1da75&elqaid=31714&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27703
You’re in a meeting and the presenter uses as TLA that you don’t recognize. Do you:
Stay quiet, pretend that you know the TLA because everyone else seems to.
Risk being called out as the ignorant novice by asking the speaker to define the TLA.
Recognize that if you don’t know the TLA, at least 20% of the others don’t either, so you ask the speaker to define the TLA so the meeting isn’t a waste of time.
Ask for a definition of the TLA and tell the speaker to avoid industry jargon and other NIH symptoms so that the company geniuses, like you, can unleash their creativity.
Since it happens so often, most of the time we go with (a) Just ride it out and hope that you decipher what the TLA means before you’re called out.
Jargon is a necessary evil that is too often mistaken for the language of experts. Speaking in jargon specific to a company or an industry can give the illusion of speeding things along.
But do the extra two syllables spent saying “printed circuit board” instead of PCB or “analog-to-digital converter” instead of ADC really waste that much time and energy?
In the 21st century, every profession and nearly every vocation relies on the ability to innovate. If we know one thing about creativity and innovation, it’s that innovation emerges when concepts from one field are introduced to a disparate field; when established methods from one discipline are modified for a different discipline. Here’s how Marc Tucker, CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy put it:
One thing we know about creativity is that it typically occurs when people who have mastered two or more quite different fields use the framework in one to think afresh about the other. Intuitively, you know this is true. Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist, scientist and inventor, and each specialty nourished the other. He was a great lateral thinker. But if you spend your whole life in one silo, you will never have either the knowledge or mental agility to do the synthesis, connect the dots, which is usually where the next great breakthrough is found.
In other words, lateral thought is the birthplace of innovation and creativity and it tends to happen when people switch fields.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to switch fields, especially if your new field has a particular affection for TLAs—of course, every field likes its own jargon. Job descriptions for every profession end with a litany of TLAs. The beautiful irony is that human resources software filters resumes that contain the desired TLAs and HR officials might know what the TLAs stand for but rarely know what they mean.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeff Bezos: AWS Will Break $10 Billion This Year
https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/07/2334254/jeff-bezos-aws-will-break-10-billion-this-year
Jeff Bezos is bullish on the cloud, pegging AWS’ sales for this year at $10 billion in a recent letter to shareholders. But he said there was a surprising source of that success: The company’s willingness to fail. That said, with AWS now spanning 70 different services, Amazon can afford to fail some as long as few, like EC2 and S3, keep winning.
Bezos wrote: “One area where I think we are especially distinctive is failure. I believe we are the best place in the world to fail (we have plenty of practice!), and failure and invention are inseparable twins.”
Jeff Bezos: AWS will break $10 billion this year — driven by Amazon’s failures
In Jeff Bezos’ recent letter to shareholders, the Amazon CEO said that AWS is hitting $10 billion in sales
http://windowsitpro.com/cloud/jeff-bezos-aws-will-break-10-billion-year-driven-amazons-failures
Tomi Engdahl says:
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein
Source: http://internetofhomethings.com/homethings/
Tomi Engdahl says:
To be, or not to be: more STEM education funding
http://www.csemag.com/single-article/to-be-or-not-to-be-more-stem-education-funding/3ab54f55087511b73087030da6803990.html
While more funding for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is certainly needed, we shouldn’t ignore other educational pursuits.
Fast-forward to today. I just read an article in the New York Times that highlights an idea being floated about students not receiving state funding unless they’re obtaining a STEM degree or something deemed “useful” to today’s economy. While I’m still not sure why my brother chose to study the classical languages (Latin and Greek) or what he’d ever do with them (he’s a paralegal today), I never would have discouraged him from trying to obtain a college degree just because it wasn’t useful to America’s economic growth. Not all degrees in college are vocational in nature. Some are just interesting, and make us more well-rounded (I’m looking at you, game designers, morticians, and other unusual high-paying jobs that include puppetry and racetrack management).
Job training should definitely be aligned with the job market, no question.
Funding will follow the job market; there isn’t a doubt about that. However, I recommend that state educators not stray so far away from the basics (reading, writing, and arithmetic) that we wind up with a horribly lopsided workforce. We need more doctors, electrical engineers, and genetic researchers. But at what cost?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oracle is donating $200 million to Obama’s program to teach kids computer science
http://uk.businessinsider.com/oracle-gives-200-million-to-cs-program-2016-4?op=1?r=US&IR=T
Oracle on Wednesday announced that it was joining President Obama’s Computer Science For All program by committing to spend $200 million in donations and technology in the next 18 months.
The White House announced the program last January. The goal is to turn computer science into a regular subject taught at American schools from kindergarten through high school.
The plan called for a $4 billion budget for states and $100 million budget directly for school districts to train teachers and give schools the tech and resources they need.
Computer Science For All
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/01/30/computer-science-all
Summary:
Learn about President Obama’s bold new initiative to empower a generation of American students with the computer science skills they need to thrive in a digital economy.
In the coming years, we should build on that progress, by … offering every student the hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one.
President Obama in his 2016 State of the Union Address
An Investment in Knowledge Pays the Best Interest
Benjamin Franklin
Tomi Engdahl says:
US teacher could not believe his Finnish schools reached this information: “It can not be possible”
- In the United States are very interested in the Finnish school system. Resident in Finland and worked in schools, I experienced one of the duty to tell the local school system are also Americans.
An American teacher could not believe his ears when he was told the Finnish school system
Walker says it has received a foretaste of the differences between Finnish and American school system even while living in the United States. At that time, his wife told the class teacher to his friend that day the school was able to terminate a number of days from one in the afternoon. Around the same time Walker slapped himself hard primary school teacher at an average of 50 hours per week.
- I was really hard to believe him. I thought that a good teacher can make some short days.
“I said no, it can not be possible. Good teachers do not do so.”
The notion resolved only in Finland, when Walker got himself into the Finnish education system Desperado’s in grade school. The change was great, Finland, compulsory teaching a school class is a minimum of 18 hours per week – an average of 30 in the United States.
- I arrived in a completely different teaching environment, and I began to notice that things can be done in a different way than what I was used to, but excellent results can still be achieved. The teacher does not need to work 50 hours a week in order to get students to learn.
Pauses in amounts big difference between the United States and Finland
“visiting Finnish schools, Americans will pay attention to the fact that here the students do not seem to be crumbling under pressure.”
- Generally speaking, the American School, however, is much more stressful. School days are longer, the time to break in is not, and tests and homework is more. Effects can be seen in the fact that students are stressed and burned out teachers at worst.
Source: http://www.iltasanomat.fi/kotimaa/art-2000001159023.html
More: http://taughtbyfinland.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Clive Thompson / New York Times:
The Minecraft Generation: How Mojang’s virtual sandbox, which sells 10K copies per day, is teaching millions of children to master the digital world
The Minecraft Generation
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html?_r=0
How a clunky Swedish computer game is teaching
millions of children to master the digital world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The best practices for innovation within news organizations
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/strategy-studies/best-practices-for-innovation/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=footer&utm_campaign=20150610
It is not one thing or product; innovation is about how your organization works and moves forward.
During these discussions, several key areas of innovation rose to the top, and are the focus of this study:
Leaders must set, enforce but also nurture priorities.
How to create a culture and structure for innovation.
How to generate and pursue ideas.
How to gather feedback, measure and iterate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Canny Canadian PM schools snarky hack on quantum computing
If only US legislators had the same skills
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/15/canadian_pm_schools_hack_on_quantum_computing/
Video The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has humiliated a Canadian journalist who assumed he was clueless about quantum computing.
“OK, quite simply, normal computers work by…” Trudeau started before the room erupted. “No, no, don’t interrupt me, when you walk out of here you will know more, well no, some of you will know far less about quantum computing,” he said.
“Normal computers work, either there’s power going through a wire or not. It’s one or a zero. They’re binary systems,” the PM explained.
“A quantum state can be much more complex than that because, as we know, things can be both particle and wave at the same time, and the uncertainty around quantum states allows us to encode more information into a much smaller computer.”
As explanations go, it’s a pretty good one.
If only American politicians displayed the same knowledge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How an Army of Deadheads (And Their LSD) Invented Silicon Valley
http://www.wired.com/2016/04/heads-jesse-jarnow-excerpt/
Apple founder Steve Jobs accepts the acid from Daniel Kottke, and they go their separate ways.
Even without Steve Jobs tripping at the Frost, the linkage between the rainbow underground and the burgeoning computer culture grows more robust and high-speed by the day. Kottke remains active on the circuit of Deadhead cybergeeks going strong since (and still including) the SAILers and MIT Media Labbers of a decade ago.
The Internet is a far-off unsettled place in the ’80s, more a collection of various text-based technologies that don’t add up to much in most places. But, yet, here are these Deadheads, new kinds of citizens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Minecraft: Education Edition launches beta in May
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-04/15/minecraft-education-edition-beta-launches-may
Microsoft has revealed it will launch a beta for its educational Minecraft splinter in May, allowing teachers to use the phenomenally popular sandbox game in the classroom.
Announced on the Minecraft blog, the beta will encompass more than 100 schools in 30 countries around the world, allowing educators to provide feedback on the project and help develop a final version and “fine-tune the experience across a diverse set of learning environments.”
The freeform nature of Minecraft makes it highly adaptable to lessons in many subjects, from accurate (if blocky) recreations of historical sites, through to molecular science
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Great Debate
America’s secret weapon
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/04/18/bill-gates-americas-secret-weapon/?utm_source=twitter
This presidential election has the country captivated. As many commentators have pointed out, the primaries are more focused on personalities than policy. While the parties focus on who is going to represent them in the fall, I want to make the case for something that I hope every candidate will agree on in November: America’s unparalleled capacity for innovation. When the United States invests in innovation, it creates companies and jobs at home, makes Americans healthier and safer, and saves lives and fights poverty in the world’s poorest countries. It offers the next president a tremendous opportunity to help people in America and around the world.
Of course, America’s capacity for innovation is nothing new. We have been inventing for more than two centuries: think of Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Knight, Thomas Edison. By the end of World War Two, the United States led the world in automobiles, aerospace, electronics, medicine, and other areas. Nor is the formula for success complicated: Government funding for our world-class research institutions produces the new technologies that American entrepreneurs take to market.
What is new is that more countries than ever are competing for global leadership, and they know the value of innovation. Since 2000, South Korea’s research and development spending (measured as a percentage of GDP) has gone up 90 percent. China’s has doubled. The United States’ has essentially flatlined. It’s great that the rest of the world is committing more, but if the United States is going to maintain its leading role, it needs to up its game.
Investing in R&D isn’t about the government picking winners and losers. The markets will do that. It’s about doing what we know works: making limited and targeted investments to lay a foundation for America’s entrepreneurs. This approach has been fundamental to U.S. leadership for decades, and it will become only more important in the years ahead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner uses a Venn diagram to illustrate the ideal employee
http://www.businessinsider.in/LinkedIn-CEO-Jeff-Weiner-uses-a-Venn-diagram-to-illustrate-the-ideal-employee/articleshow/51883206.cms
In a recent interview with Business Insider, Wadors explained that the best LinkedIn employees are “constantly curious, able to learn, solve problems,” are very ambitious, and think on a global scale.
According to the diagram, the LinkedIn employee Weiner most enjoys working with dreams big, gets sh– done, and knows how to have fun.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why you should pay employees for free-time Open Source contributions
http://futurice.com/blog/year-2015-in-company-sponsored-open-source
Late in the year 2014 we at Futurice began to sponsor employee free time open source contributions. What has happened since? Let’s take a look at the year 2015.
Our sponsorship model has remained the same. €15 paid per reported hour, max 30 hours monthly. Anything goes, as long as it is Open Source.
In 2015 we paid sponsorship money based on 400 reports by 60 different people, working on 150 different projects, spending a sum of 2500 reported hours. This cost the company €37500. In 2015 Futurice had about 240 employees.
Competence development
We did a learning survey recently, focusing on these sponsored free time (open source) activities.
Recruitment
We now systematically collect information in the recruitment process to help us assess the impact of different things, such as the open source sponsorship. This is fairly new and we don’t have enough data yet to publish any results.
Here’s an actual quote from our lead recruiter that I have not asked for permission to use:
After two days at a job fair in London, the Spice Program works really well in our favour in attracting developers. Since the job market here is challenging and relies heavily on headhunters, it’s of great value.
– Tuomas Paasonen, Lead Recruiter, Futurice
Employee engagement
We had the pleasure to provide data and contacts to Erik Stenberg’s graduation work for the Hanken School of Economics last year with the apt title: “Spicing up employee engagement – A case study of an open source program”.
Erik’s study looked into how work-related extra-role activities, such as that exemplified by the Spice Program, could affect employee engagement.
Erik found the following positive effects to employee engagement:
An improved sense of membership in the work community
Alignment with the values promoted by the program
Personal attachment to the program identity
Competence improvement and increasing confidence
Autonomy to pursue interests and needs
Signals of approval from the employer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data is the key. In a perfect world, sales and marketing would work together through customer engagement, surveys and so forth to collect enough data to make decisions. In reality, this is no longer enough for many businesses to make investment choices on.
However, running a business still requires common sense. Today’s CEOs still need to filter what the computer says against what the people say. If you rely only on machine-provided data, you end up building Windows 8.
At the end of the day, however, evidence-based decision making is crucial for businesses that want to survive. And evidence-based decision making requires both having the right data and the right tools to provide appropriate evidence. Does your business have those tools?
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/22/how_does_a_business_make_decisions_how_should_a_business_make_decisions/
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Hackathon Expected to Draw Over 15,000 Coders
https://science.slashdot.org/story/16/04/23/2141235/nasa-hackathon-expected-to-draw-over-15000-coders
Saturday NASA began live-streaming footage of their “Space Apps Challenge” hackathon, which they’re describing as one of the largest hackathons on earth. “Together, citizens like you have developed thousands of open-source solutions,” says the event’s site, while Fast Company reports that last year 14,264 people gathered in 133 locations to create apps using NASA’s trove of open data.
Space Apps is Happening Now!
https://2016.spaceappschallenge.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Google Developing New ‘Area 120′ Corporate Incubator
https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/24/2111246/report-google-developing-new-area-120-corporate-incubator
The Information has released a new report about how Google is developing its own “startup incubator” called “Area 120.” According to sources, the incubator will be helmed by Google executives Don Harrison and Bradley Horowitz. The way it will work is teams of Google employees will pitch their ideas for inclusion in Area 120. If a team’s idea is approved, they will then be able to work full-time on their idea, and eventually start a new company after the business plan is created. The timing is unclear but the whole process will likely take several months.
“The ’120′ in Area 120 is a homage to Google’s famed ’20 percent time,’ which asks that employees spend one-fifth of their working hours on projects that excite them.
Report: Google developing ‘Area 120,’ an in-house startup incubator to keep talent from leaving
http://thenextweb.com/google/2016/04/24/google-area-120-in-house-incubator/
Google is preparing its own in-house startup incubator, according to a new report from The Information
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can ‘Technomeat’ Live Up to Its Promise?
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2004936-can-technomeat-live-up-to-its-promise/
A small group of Silicon Valley-funded tech companies is out to disrupt factory livestock farming with plant-meat alternatives that are better for the environment than meat, better for our health, and just as tasty as the real thing.
With a staff of not chefs but mainly chemists, biochemists, and physicists, they are engineering alternatives to meat that look, cook, and impress just like the real thing—blood and all—using only plant ingredients like yellow pea, soybean, spinach, beets, carrots, and the like.
By 2054, meat alternatives will comprise 33 percent of the overall protein market, up from just 2 percent today.
A Growing Industry
While the market for plant meat is still nascent today, it is growing at a healthy rate of 8.4 percent annually, according to Allied Market Research data obtained by the Good Food Institute, nearly triple the overall growth in the food industry.
Already, a surprising variety of meat alternatives can be found at natural grocers. Meat substitutes made from seitan (a wheat product), and tofu and tempeh (made from fermented soybeans), have been around for decades and are associated with incumbent brands Tofurky, Yves Veggie Cuisine, and Gardein.
Lux researcher Sara Olson says soy’s dominant 95 percent market share is expected to reduce to just 22 percent by 2054 as other meat-alternative options develop.