Filed under: Show Notes
A whole conference devoted to failure, FailCon, may be a first, but it’s looking like a success, with the likes of PayPal co-founder Max Levchin talking about how he failed repeatedly before making billions making the payment platform for the web.
via A Silicon Valley Conference About Failing is Big Success | Epicenter | Wired.com.
Filed under: Show Notes
Looking for a market to innovate in? Well here you are….
“We’re still at a pretty rudimentary stage,” Garrett said, noting educators rarely employ video, unique links, or other technological innovations.
“Will it be games? Will it be simulations? Will it be social networking? Will it be something we haven’t yet come across?” he said.
via Online education expanding, awaits innovation | Technology | Reuters.
Filed under: Show Notes
…this year, the limelight will be on the era that is to come — and a movement called Transhumanism, which supports the use of technology to improve the human condition.
via Spotlight – Woodstock – In Film Festival, Woodstock Looks to the Future – NYTimes.com.
The next phase of human evolution, IMHO, is us using technology we have developed in order to augment ourselves. Why wait for real evolution when we can evolve ourselves right now. We are already cyborgs in some sense anyways…
Filed under: Show Notes
By 2015 more than 12 billion devices will be capable of connecting to 500 billion hours of TV and video content, says chip giant Intel.
via BBC NEWS | Technology | Future is TV-shaped, says Intel.
Filed under: Show Notes
A new exhibition at London’s Royal College of Surgeons called “Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots” has displays ranging from the “da Vinci” system to prototype microbots designed to be swallowed and self-assembled in the human body.
Filed under: Show Notes
Disruptive innovation is often fraught with unknowns and assumptions. But that doesn’t mean it has to be “risky business.” By utilizing a different type of approach–an approach that systematically attacks the most critical unknowns with tailored, low-cost experiments–innovators can systematically “de-risk” their strategies and thereby increase their chances of success while lowering the associated investment cost.
Filed under: Show Notes
You too can forecast the future!
via Futures Thinking: The Basics | Open The Future | Fast Company.
Filed under: News | Tags: entrepreneur, future, innovation, tc50, techcrunch
I just spent a few days watching the Techcrunch 50 conference, where a number of startups present their ideas for cash, prizes and review from both a panel of judges, VCs, media and the public. Supposedly, these companies are supposed to be the “cream of the crop” when it comes to new, interesting and profitable ideas.
As I was watching startup after startup take to the stage and present themselves, I really saw nothing really new, disruptive and innovative. Now you are probably saying, dude, who are you to do this? I’ve worked in innovation most of my life, and I make it my business to blody go and seek new, disruptive ideas. Nothing I saw at Techcrunch 50 was like that.
A few came close, but the reality is, a lot of what was presented had been done before, and unsuccessfully. Maybe the time right right now for a barter exchange for startups (theswop.com), or a way to find a decent local service provider (redbeacon.com) or a online therapist (breakthrough.com). But I had this sense of deja vu. Nothing I saw was really cool, interesting, or even all that exciting.
Is the real innovation hidden away in the meeting rooms of VCs? Is the real disruptive stuff so wildly innovative that they won’t go to a public forum like Techcrunch 50? If that were the case, you’d think maybe 1 or 2 would have founders bold enough to expose it there.
I guess not. While I saw myself saying “I’d use that” I don’t think I ever said “I’d pay for that”. And that’s the key, right there, don’t you think?
Filed under: News
Now many people who watch/listen to my shows understand my philosophy and political leanings. i’m willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt on some things – when he mentioned that he was going to do a number of things to foster innovation, such as hold scientific summits in the White House etc, I thought, wow thats cool – maybe finally someone in the White House who understands that its innovation that is the engine of our economy – more than anything. Free markets are the foundation of a true robust economy, but innovation is the driver. The question is now however, why are we throwing billions into propping up industries that are dying due to lack of demand and mis-management, when we coudl be letting those industries die and supporting new ones that grow from the death of the old ones?
When a company goes under, the employees of that company are freed up to do mayn things. Some will go onto the unemployment rolls, some will move into other jobs at other companies, and some will strike out on their own. The people do not cease to exist, they simply do something different. For some, the job has locked them into a pattern which was comfortable, too comfortable to escape. For some, the job loss would unleash the innovation and creativity in their brains, and they could conceivably go off and create the next great product or service. And its those innovators that need to be supported, not the old-line firms which are locking up this creativity.
So I not only ask Obama not to prop up dying industries in order to save us tax money, I also ask Obama to let those people who are innovators in those companies free to innovate, and to support their innovations. Both will cost too much, one looks to the past and one looks to the future, and I think we all know which direction we should be looking in.
