Monthly Archives: August 2011
If only people weren’t beholden to a planned obsolescence mind-set. Only if diverse resources collaborate to be collectively smarter, wiser, and richer. In the shortest 2011 TEDxKC talk of the evening, TED fellow and Polish-born fusion physicist Marcin Jakubowski shared an overview of his work just an hour north of Kansas City directing Open Source Ecology in developing the Global Village Construction Set. Its objective is a set of 50 open-sourced blueprints for the most important machines that allow life to exist. These construction and farming tools can be created from scratch and form what has been called a “civilization starter kit.” Essentially all the knowledge to build the machines can be captured on one DVD. Jakubowski and the others onsite at his farm are in the midst of rapidly building prototypes for the low-cost machines (the tractor was built in 6 days). The prototype building may have been the … Continue reading
Teens, Engineering Education and 3D Printing A vibrant innovation-oriented economy needs technically savvy inventors and entrepreneurs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of technology-oriented jobs continues to increase. Yet the number of trained and qualified engineers continues to decline and the U.S. is not doing a great job attracting youngsters to engineering-related careers. How can universities, parents and corporate employers convince teens, particularly girls and under-represented minorities, that technology-oriented careers are creative, good for humankind, and entrepreneurial? Teens need a reason to study engineering and technology-related subjects. If teens think that engineering is only about abstract theory and math-based problem solving, they likely will gravitate towards another career choice. What if it were possible to introduce teens to the joys of product design by enabling them to experience, first-hand, an entire product design cycle in less than a week? Recently, I participated …
WIRED editor-in-chief Chris Anderson and Autodesk CEO Carl Bass discuss the future of 3D printing, and how amateur designers may soon be able to build resource-intensive products like furniture using remote but cost-effective tools. The New Industrial Revolution: How Web Innovation Models Are Transforming Manufacturing. Featuring Carl Bass, President & CEO, Autodesk, in conversation with Chris Anderson. Carl Bass is president and chief executive officer of Autodesk, the world’s leading maker of design software for the architecture, engineering, and entertainment industries. The company’s products range from its flagship AutoCAD program to digital modeling and prototyping tools for industry. Autodesk’s CG apps have been used on every movie that’s won the Academy Award for Visual Effects in the past 15 years, from Titanic to Avatar. Under Bass’ leadership the California-based firm has been repeatedly honored by Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative companies. Chris Anderson is editor in … Continue reading
Variable pricing – charging different prices for the same seat depending on different variables of the particular game (opponent, date and starting time, etc.) – has come to New Jersey. The NJ Devils recently announced a three-tier pricing structure that will charge higher than normal prices for the more popular games and lower than normal prices for some of the less popular games. It’s a trend that you will see more and more in all the major professional sports as teams get more savvy as to the prices that fans will pay to attend games. What’s interesting about the Devil’s move to variable pricing is that they are basing some of the price changes on data recovered from the secondary market–including StubHub.com and the team’s own ticket exchange. Very sophisticated information compared to what they could have extracted even five years earlier. While the Devils may be one of the … Continue reading
There are some huge shifts taking place across innovation activities. The simple fact that innovation has been thrown open and organizations and individuals can simply explore outside their existing paradigms is offering us something we have yet to fully grasp and leverage. This is a W-I-P for us all. Secondly innovation is simply getting faster, better is another story, but it is expected to move from idea or concept to final launch in ever decreasing compressed time As they say ‘you can’t have one without the other’. Open innovation is potentially allowing for this compression of time but where we still ‘lag’ is within our organizations to reap the rewards. Why? We are still stuck in the previous structures, systems and processes designed for internal developments that were designed for different times. We need two really critical things really fast. The speed of change needs agility. We need to learn … Continue reading
Working with people and teams in launching new innovation programs is truly an amazing experience. You find heroes in every business who truly bring the “how” of innovation to life. I had the privilege to work with one of these American Heroes recently, and his story inspires me. He is a baby-boomer research scientist who knew in his bones his organization could innovate – they just needed a process. He took a chance and took his strong belief to the CEO. The CEO, in turn, took a chance and agreed to move forward to find a sustainable process that fit the organization. It wasn’t easy. It didn’t happen overnight. It took time and patience and more research. But in the end, it happened. What inspires me is the willingness of one person to take a chance and say yes to …
