Creating open industry standards always wins, by creating a larger market for all competitors and platforms. This story has been repeated endlessly in technology markets. You would think after so many proprietary failures, it wouldn’t keep repeating itself. HTML5 appears to be another case where an open industry standard has again created a win-win for all involved, including consumers.
Creating open industry standards always wins, by creating a larger market for all competitors and platforms. This story has been repeated endlessly in technology markets. You would think after so many proprietary failures, it wouldn’t keep repeating itself. HTML5 appears to be another case where an open industry standard has again created a win-win for all involved, including consumers.
We are all now hearing and reading about Edward Snowden, who is now at the center of a global political firestorm, caused by Snowden’s decision to reveal the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program, and its increasing encroachment of personal privacy. Snowden’s revelations have now also entangled the UK’s GCHQ, the secret intelligence gathering arm of MI6 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire which has also been sharing similar snooping with the NSA. A former U.S. National Security Administration contractor, Snowden was actually employed by Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management consultancy firm. Snowden’s situation should give us all pause to consider the Brave New World we have entered with zettabytes (1 Million Terabytes) of Big Data, and the uses of it.
I have written a number of posts on this blog about Big Data.. Big Data is in and of itself is benign. It has enormous potential to enrich our lives. Evidence the excellent new book, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think, by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier. But Big Data has a dark side as well. We should have known that the World’s largest spy and intelligence gathering organizations have the massive resources at their disposal to exploit Big Data on a scale not yet achieved in our open world, mimicking Aldous Huxley’s warnings to us, or the film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise
My third year UBC Management students may recall our classroom discussions on ethics, and the painful reality that there are no clear and easy answers in ethical situations, even when you want to “do the right thing.” We are all now hearing and reading about Edward Snowden, who is now at the center of a global political firestorm, caused by Snowden’s decision to reveal the NSA‘s PRISM surveillance program, and its extraordinary encroachment of personal privacy. Snowden’s revelations have now also entangled the UK’s GCHQ, the secret intelligence gathering arm of MI6 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and Canada’s Secret Intelligence Service (CSIS), which have also been sharing similar snooping with the NSA. A former U.S. National Security Administration contractor, Snowden was actually employed by Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management consultancy firm. Snowden’s situation should give us all pause to consider the Brave New World we have entered with zettabytes (1 Million Terabytes) of Big Data, and the uses of it.
So the question needs to be raised. You are a young new management graduate, hired by one of the major international management consultancy firms, and you are surprised to find yourself posted to the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service (CSIS), or the NSA, or MI6 in the UK... You have been taught in university to recognize ethical problems and you become intimately aware of programs and activities that do not feel right to you. Something in your gut says that it is wrong, a violation of our basic democratic freedoms. But of course there are no easy answers. These programs are providing intelligence that may be preventing terrorist attacks. The consequences for you personally, should you choose to reveal what you know, are potentially catastrophic. What would you do?
Whatever side you may take on this issue, I think it is important to appreciate that Edward Snowden has made his extraordinarily difficult decision. It may well cost him for the rest of his life. Would you be prepared to take that kind of stand? If not on an issue like this, on what kind of issue, or any issue?
Even in my home town of San Francisco, there is controversy. U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, from San Francisco, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has spoken out fervently that the NSA Prism intelligence gathering program is entirely “within the law.” Senator Feinstein has also joined the voices calling for Snowden’s indictment on espionage charges. In contrast, U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, also of San Francisco, has spoken up in defense of Mr. Snowden.
Bradley Manning and Julian Assange
The Snowden affair has put the Bradley Manning and Julian Assange Wikileaks matter into a much clearer perspective. Something much bigger is going on here. With multiple nations rising to support and protect Mr. Snowden, it makes it much harder for the United States to argue that they have the high moral ground.
A key issue we all need to follow is how the lightning fast advances in technology are eclipsing the “law.” I worry that Senator Feinstein, for all of her skill and knowledge, has not grasped the significance of Big Data as it applies to personal privacy under the Constitution of the United States.
My personal cut is that Mr. Snowden has done the free world a great service, at a tremendous cost to himself. It is also interesting to see the enormous support he has engendered around the World, in a matter of days. The U.S. government is looking terrible on the World Stage, as it attempts to apprehend Mr. Snowden. Only a very brave few in the United States have even attempted to defend Snowden. The Libertarian Rand Paul began a defense of Snowden and later backed off. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has also bravely spoken out in support of Snowden to a chorus of disapproval..
This is the the core stuff of ethical dilemmas. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Remember this in your own small way in your careers. John F. Kennedy wrote a now legendary book, Profiles in Courage, which we should all take out and read again.
Whether you agree or disagree with Edward Snowden’s actions, he has shown himself to be a person of character and determination. Think of him like Braveheart’s William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson.
God speed, Edward Snowden.
This is a short, sweet and superb SlideShare presentation with simple ideas. I would like to share it with my followers.
This is a short, sweet and superb SlideShare presentation, promoting simple ideas.
I would like to share it with my followers.
Cheers!
David
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At an absolute minimum, Google has scored a PR coup with their blog announcement of “Project Loon,” a trial of Internet Wifi via balloons floating in the stratosphere over New Zealand. You may have already seen, heard or read about this, as the story has appeared in much of the mainstream media, albeit without much journalistic scrutiny. The Loon project has also been covered extensively in the tech “blogosphere” (pun intended). From my reading, only very few journalists have delved into the devil of the details, and asked serious questions, which remain largely unanswered. It is probably not in Google’s best interest to say too much more, as they have already favorably established the Loon Project in the media. The Kiwi’s have a term for this kind of project. They are known in New Zealand as “#8 Wire” projects. Read on and I will explain.
Google Loon Balloon Over South Island New Zealand
At an absolute minimum, Google has scored a PR coup with their blog announcement of “Project Loon,” a trial of Internet via balloons floating in the stratosphere over New Zealand. You may have already seen, heard or read about this, as the story has appeared in much of the mainstream media, albeit without much journalistic scrutiny. The Loon project has also been covered extensively in the tech “blogosphere” (pun intended). From my reading, only very few journalists have delved into the devil of the details, and asked serious questions, which remain largely unanswered. It is probably not in Google’s best interest to say too much more, as they have already favorably established the Loon Project in the media. The Kiwi‘s have a term for this kind of project. They are known in New Zealand as “#8 Wire” projects. Read on and I will explain.
Google should be applauded for committing research and development dollars to a project they openly admit is “crazy.” Gizmodo called it “crazy cool.” The TechCrunch blog has called it a very long shot. Google has also explained that the project is in the very early experimental stage. We should remember that this is the company that is also developing the driverless vehicle, which is becoming more real by the day, and Google Glass. Google is also a global leader in the emergence of Big Data. The bottom line is that Google has shown commendable leadership in pursuing these Big Ideas. However, I am leaning toward the conclusion that this one is a very long shot, though it will be fun to follow.
IMHO, this may also be a very interesting story that involves Kiwi innovation, Kiwi culture and history, and the challenges of commercializing innovation. But for now, let’s just follow the story and the Google Loon Project, and see what develops.
With regard to the metaphor of Kiwi #8 Wire projects, it is part of the history of New Zealand. #8 wire is the stuff that is used in New Zealand to fence in the sheep, thousands of miles of it. The term is used loosely to describe “loony” far fetched innovation projects, probably including eccentric tinkers. For many years until PM David Lange opened the NZ economy in the 1980’s, it was heavily protectionist. The tariff burden on imports was heavy, and the economy was stuck in a South Pacific doldrum. As a consequence, Kiwi’s increasingly became known for extraordinary ingenuity with whatever found materials they could lay their hands on. A #8 wire project became the metaphor for creative thinking in NZ. Examples of this abound. There is even a prominent venture capital firm in Wellington named “#8 Ventures.”
My first exposure to this phenomenon was meeting former Financial Times journalist, Craig Oram, who had immigrated to New Zealand from the UK, and was reporting on economic topics in NZ. Oram gave a captivating presentation to our New Zealand Trade & Enterprise group. He had quickly grasped the #8 phenomenon and seized on the amazing true story of Burt Munro, the Invercargill tinker and motorcycle racer, who set numerous motorcycle land speed records in the 1950’s and ’60’s at the Bonneville salt flats in Utah. Despite these achievements, Munro never turned his high profile successes into commercial success. Kiwi’s in the know will often mention the name “Burt,” with all of the heavy implied meaning, to remind themselves. Oram used the Burt Munro story in his presentations to typify “#8 wire projects,” and a broader failure in the NZ economy to effectively commercialize their innovations. For those interested, the Burt Munro story was made into an excellent feature film (4 stars on Rotten Tomatoes) starring Anthony Hopkins as Munro, “The World’s Fastest Indian.”
Another more relevant example of this type of Kiwi innovation was published in the Wall Street Journal years ago, about an innovator who had converted a Weber barbeque tub into a long-range WiFi antenna to successfully transmit a WiFi signal a record 100 kilometers. I can no longer find the story reference in the WSJ archives, but there is another connection between a Weber barbeque and WiFi. You can now buy a product online that allows you to use WiFi to control the temperature of your Weber barbeque from your remote mobile phone while you are away on errands.
But back to the main point of this post, solar powered, stratospheric balloon delivery of 3G cellular data service to remote locations. Apparently New Zealand is an ideal location to trial this kind of balloon project because the most favorable winds are at 40 degrees latitude south, directly over the North Island of New Zealand and perhaps the next trial site, Tasmania. The Google Loon project is being launched over Christchurch on the South Island, but this is a minor point.
The BBC June 15th online article is one of the better articles, that explores the numerous issues with this approach.
Read more: Google Balloon Project
The first obvious concern is how do you effectively navigate in the stratosphere and keep an untethered balloon in one place? The military apparently has tried this concept, but on a much smaller scale, and a smaller area. Tethered balloons apparently have been a failure, the most notable of these failures may be the U.S. border security tethered balloon surveillance project that was canned after spending Billions. Google says they have navigation solved, using Google’s massive databases and servers, by controlling the altitude of the balloons to take advantage of varying wind direction. Part of the justification for this approach is to provide service quickly and efficiently to areas with no terrestrial Internet infrastructure, which seems to make sense, but there are also potential geopolitical issues. A recent round-the-World balloon record attempt was vexed by their failure to obtain approval from China to overfly their territory. With nations increasingly seeking to control their Internet access, Google may be creating a technology that could be politically dead on arrival. The balloons have transponders to alert aircraft, but with potentially thousands of these Google balloons all over the globe, I could envision the International Air Transport Association (IATA), or the United Nations seeking to control the balloons. It dawns on me that powered blimp drones could potentially solve the navigation problem, but not the other problems below.
Google Loon Project Solar Panels
The second concern I have is the use of only 4 apparently standard photovoltaic solar panels (pictured above), which can generate maybe 500 to 600 Watts maximum, but only during the daylight hours. Energy storage is the key challenge of renewable energy generally, which requires batteries. Batteries of all varieties are very heavy and bulky. The stratosphere is about 15 to 20 miles up in the atmosphere. So how can a 600 Watt, daylight only, solar powered balloon deliver 3G or standard WiFi signals 20 miles and more, 24 hours a day, to cover a very large area on the ground, perhaps 50 miles in diameter? This seems implausible at best.
Wide area coverage from a distance of 20 to 25 miles also begs the question of user contention, with potentially large numbers of users all accessing the balloon antenna simultaneously. A mobile device cannot transmit upstream a distance of 20 miles. Or is there some proprietary Google radio signal technology acting as an intermediary link to standard access points on the ground. But isn’t this about delivering Internet connectivity without any terrestrial infrastructure? Does the balloon technology only work at much lower wireless bandwidth, which in such situations would be better than having nothing.
What about Internet traffic backhaul from the balloon to the Cloud, at an optical fibre multi-gigabit level, as is done on the ground? First, I must admit that I do know a bit about radio signal propagation, spectrum, and power, but a little bit is a dangerous thing. I am no expert. But a logical assumption, since this operates over areas with no terrestrial Internet infrastructure, would be that a satellite link would be the choice, but I don’t see a dish. If so this would require very stable platform acquisition and maintenance of the satellite link. If not satellite, what other backhaul link is being used? Can 500 to 600 Watts handle all of this on a balloon platform?
Another key point is that cellular data service is expensive. There is a reason for that. The backhaul from cellular towers is expensive.
Google has made clear that expanding the global Internet to new markets that are currently underserved on not served at all, is a strategic priority for them. This initiative, as off the wall as it may be, and with its Super WiFi ground-based technology trial in South Africa, Google is putting its money where its mouth is. Google’s must grow its business beyond its current developed markets to maintain its dominance. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has been taking on the role of global ambassador for their strategy. But there are serious technical questions with the untethered balloon concept. More concerning, Google may be running into international political resistance as nations take a much more proactive role in managing and regulating the Internet in their territories, as they do with telecommunications, radio spectrum and other national resources.
UPDATE: Google Loon Project leader Mike Cassidy was interviewed by Ira Flatow, this morning on National Public Radio’s Science Friday program. Mr. Cassidy clarified that they are delivering a 3G mobile “Internet” data service from the balloons. Employing 3G has been criticized by the MIT Technology blog below, for being impractical, and expensive. Regrettably, there was no discussion on NPR of the technical and geopolitical issues, and no call-in questions.
RELATED ARTICLES: African Entrepreneurs Deflate Google’s Loon Balloon Project (Tech in America via MIT Technology Review)
Tonight I was channel surfing and stumbled on the Task One iPhone Case in a TV News feature story from an outfit called Task Labs.. Their website is up but not complete. It still has the Latin text of an incomplete webpage template, but you can buy it online if you wish. I want to emphasize that I wish to be completely fair here. I am a dedicated Swiss Army Knife aficionado and a dedicated smart mobile user. I have a simple version of a Swiss Army Knife with a corkscrew in my pocket as I write this. A corkscrew is one of my mandatory survival tools (smile). I have followed the Wall Street Journal coverage of the merger of the two Swiss companies that produce the knives. It is a great story and a great product. I have the full Boy Scout version in my tool drawer. The Task Labs people should also remember the tried and true publicity adage, “Any PR is good PR.”
The Task One iPhone Case with Swiss Army Knife Features
Tonight I was channel surfing and stumbled on the Task One iPhone Case in a TV News feature story from an outfit called Task Labs.. Their website is up but not complete. It still has the Latin text of an incomplete webpage template, but you can buy it online if you wish.
Read more: http://thetasklab.com/
I want to emphasize that I wish to be completely fair here. I am a dedicated Swiss Army Knife aficionado and a dedicated smart mobile user. I have a simple version of a Swiss Army Knife with a corkscrew in my pocket as I write this. A corkscrew is one of my mandatory survival tools (smile). I have followed the Wall Street Journal coverage of the merger of the two Swiss companies that produce the knives. It is a great story and a great product. I have the full Boy Scout version in my tool drawer. The Task Labs people should also remember the tried and true publicity adage, “Any PR is good PR.”
But I also have to admit that it took me a minute to realize that the TV story was not a Saturday Night Live parody skit, with Dan Akroyd trying get me to call and give him my credit card number. The Task One iPhone Case is a real product, though its website does not appear to be “ready for prime time.” Nor does the product concept appear to be ready for prime time, IMHO. I am certain that some of my readers will see this, and rush out to buy one, but other more discriminating consumers are more likely to start asking a lot of hard marketing questions about this new innovation. To me this product is an extreme example of everything that is wrong with innovation. Said another way, “Is that all there is?” Another great existential phrase many of us are now using says “Hey, it is what it is!”
The market positioning of this product according to the TV person, was simple. What do you do when you take your iPhone out into the woods with you on a hike, then realize that you have no cellular signal, no nothing. The Task One iPhone case is their answer. Let me know your opinion on the Task One iPhone Case.
I could probably go on for hours compiling a longer list of issues with this product, but here goes:
1. Kiss Your Phone Goodbye Going Through Airport Security: This one seems obvious. I cannot count the number of Swiss Army Knives i have personally lost at airport security. Then think about the number of Swiss Army Knives they have confiscated.
2. “Small” idea. The inspiration for this product is nothing new. It is simply trying to kludge together two things that work perfectly well on their own. So the real question is why bring your phone into the bush, when you need to leave the phone home, and bring your Swiss Army Knife? I know that some people will adamantly say that you should bring your mobile phone with you for GPS, etc. Perhaps, but no mobile phone GPS system was designed for use in the bush. Take your phone with you on a long hike, and try to use your GPS and you will see what I mean. Nor is a useful pocket knife designed to look like a phone. The Task One is a marginally useful appendage to a mobile phone, that will not fit comfortably in the palm as a knife does. It encourages a sense of complacency in the bush, when serious backcountry experts would probably laugh. Or is it for use to impress your friends, out on a Friday night at the local pub? The accessories appear to include all kinds of cool extra stuff, like a battery charger (Huh?). So as long we are brainstorming this product, it needs a compass. A mirror would be good. Remember all of the movies where the guy lost in the woods uses a mirror to signal rescuers? Any other suggestions?
3. Price. The price is $99. I can buy a comparable Swiss Army Knife for $30. Are you prepared to pay $99 for an iPhone case? Not sure about the price of the accessories.
4. The Market. The market may seem big, but wait a minute. Most smart mobile phones have different form factors, even the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. So Task One and Task Labs must address a fragmented market with multiple products. This is starting to sound very complicated and expensive. Can I get one for my Samsung Nexus? No.
5. Marketing. I think that this company, like so many of these giddy mobile market companies, is so full of itself that it hasn’t thought through the distribution issues, including a half finished website.
The very fact that when I first saw the TV story, I assumed that it was a spoof, is a warning signal.
The knee jerk joke of “There’s an app for that!” isn’t really that funny. Many experienced Silicon Valley veterans have complained loudly about the current malaise of misplaced infatuation with mobile apps, as the apparent end all and be all of Silicon Valley. Vinod Khosla, Marc Andreeson, Max Marmer and a laundry list of others have asked rhetorically how Silicon Valley could have lost its way so badly? Silicon Valley was founded on Big Ideas.
I published “Silicon Valley’s Misguided Love Affair With An App For Everything, ” and “App Development Boom’s Depressing Underbelly” after reading a New York Times story on the topic.
Read more: http://mayo615.com/2013/03/04/silicon-valleys-misguided-love-affair-with-an-app-for-everything/
Maybe three years ago, I recall hearing something about a “nuclear fusion” company starting up in Burnaby. In my mind, the thought of a nuclear fusion company in Burnaby was outlandish and preposterous. Growing up in southern California, and later northern California, I had grown up close and personal with the Space Program, and nuclear physics at UC Berkeley Lawrence Nuclear Labs and the super secret Lawrence Livermore National Labs.
California venture capitalist, Steve Jurvetson, Riding the General Fusion Containment Vessel
Maybe three years ago, I recall hearing something about a “nuclear fusion” company starting up in Burnaby. In my mind, the thought of a nuclear fusion company in Burnaby was outlandish and preposterous. Growing up in southern California, and later northern California, I had been “up close and personal” with the Space Program, and nuclear physics at UC Berkeley Lawrence Nuclear Labs and the super secret Lawrence Livermore National Labs. My next door neighbor in Moss Beach, California worked at Livermore Labs. I learned of this only because an FBI agent called on me to politely inquire about him (just a routine update of their files, apparently). My notion was that something like nuclear fusion might “someday” be real, but would require the scale of a Manhattan Project, probably after I was long gone. Nuclear fusion was pure Star Trek, so beyond current science as to be completely fantastical.
As it happens, there has already been an enormous amount of work on nuclear fusion, at enormous expense. The United States has been working on a project at Livermore National Labs, known as The National Ignition Facility (https://lasers.llnl.gov/#), which even uses the Star Trek imagery on their website. The other major project is a United Nations sponsored project, involving many nations, at the largely secret French nuclear research facility in Haute Provence, Cadarache. I happen to know the Cadarache nuclear research site extremely well, because it is situated on the main road to my wife’s home village, we know people who work there, and there are almost always Greenpeace demonstrators at the main gate. Known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, it is expected to be operational in 2022, but only after the expenditure of multiple Billions of Euros, at a time when Euros are in short supply.
Unfortunately, as often happens in such visionary research and development, both the U.S. National Ignition Facility and the Cadarache ITER projects have run into major technical and financial problems that are threatening their futures.
But then we have General Fusion, a very small startup company in Burnaby, on an infinitesimally smaller budget than the United States or the United Nations. apparently competing with the U.S. Department of Energy and the United Nations ITER project at Cadarache. How can this be? Why does this also sound like the other Big Idea startup in Burnaby, D-Wave, perfecting quantum computing, despite the enormous odds against it?
This is not to say that General Fusion is going to necessarily change the World. What it does say is that enough informed people and brave investors believe that it is possible, that they are willing to risk their careers and that major institutional investors are prepared to risk their capital on it. That is the Big Idea in action. That is what innovation in Canada needs more than anything. Money and bravery.
Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite in Vancouver, another of the shining new companies, has recently posted on LinkedIn that Canada is creating a “Maple Syrup Gang” of promising startups that are redefining entrepreneurship in Canada, his company being prominent among them. The “Maple Syrup Gang” is an amusing analogy to the real-life hijacking of millions of dollars of maple syrup by a criminal gang in Quebec. Holmes has also gone on to rhetorically ask the question, “Is Silicon Valley‘s Heyday Over?” Regrettably, Holmes articles are embarrassing hyperbole. Vancouver has had earlier promising high tech booms that have fizzled and died. Unfortunately, the complex matrix of issues affecting Canadian innovation and the potential success of Canadian startups are still daunting.
I am very encouraged by the early successes of General Fusion and D-Wave in Vancouver, for many reasons. But it is extremely premature to declare victory over Silicon Valley. I came here in 1987 to join a promising startup, pioneering wireless data.. The company died from mismanagement, when it could have been a World power in wireless data. It is a case study in how Canada has historically shot itself in the foot, or is unable to capitalize, every time it gets a good idea.
Let’s celebrate General Fusion and D-Wave and continue working to help Canadian Big Ideas succeed….here in Canada.
There is a new player emerging on the cultural and business scene today: the idea entrepreneur. Perhaps you are one yourself — or would like to be. The idea entrepreneur is an individual, usually a content expert and often a maverick, whose main goal is to influence how other people think and behave in relation to their cherished topic. These people don’t seek power over others and they’re not motivated by the prospect of achieving great wealth. Their goal is to make a difference, to change the world in some way.
Late last year I wrote on this blog about my frustration with the lack of Big Ideas driving innovation. My rant was stimulated by a New York Times article on the grim underbelly of the “an app for everything” culture: people who were working on “small ideas,” and losing their shirts in the process. I also shared the thoughts of other entrepreneurial leaders, investors, and journalists, also bemoaning the fact that we seem to have lost our way, and are no longer thinking BIG. This morning I stumbled on a post on the HBR Blog Network, entitled “Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career. I took some editorial license and added the word “Big” simply because the author was actually making the case for Big Ideas, and the hopeful sign that there may be a re-emergence of people who care about Big Ideas. Read my original post here, followed by today’s HBR Blog post.
Reblogged from the HBR Blog Network
by John Butman | 10:00 AM May 27, 2013
Read more: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/05/idea_entrepreneur_the_new_21st.html
There is a new player emerging on the cultural and business scene today: the idea entrepreneur. Perhaps you are one yourself — or would like to be. The idea entrepreneur is an individual, usually a content expert and often a maverick, whose main goal is to influence how other people think and behave in relation to their cherished topic. These people don’t seek power over others and they’re not motivated by the prospect of achieving great wealth. Their goal is to make a difference, to change the world in some way.
Idea entrepreneurs are popping up everywhere. They’re people like Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO and author of Lean In), who is advocating a big new idea from within an organization. And like Atul Gawande (the checklist doctor), who is working to transform a professional discipline. Or like Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS shoes), who has created an unconventional business model.
In my research into this phenomenon (which forms the basis of my book, Breaking Out), I have been amazed at how many different kinds of people aspire to be idea entrepreneurs. I have met with, interviewed, emailed or tweeted with librarians, salespeople, educators, thirteen-year-old kids, marketers, technologists, consultants, business leaders, social entrepreneurs — from countries all over the world — who have an idea, want to go public with it, and, in some cases, build a sustainable enterprise around it.
The ones who succeed — whether it’s disrupting an established way of doing business as Vineet Nayar has done with his company or bringing a mindset change to a small community like Maria Madison has done in Concord, Massachusetts — share the following methods:
People who have shaped our thinking and our society over the decades, even centuries, and continue to do so today — from Benjamin Franklin to Mohandas Gandhi to Hannah Salwen, an American teenager who modeled a disruptive approach to philanthropy — have followed the path of the idea entrepreneur.
These days, the model is well-defined and, thanks to the amazing range of activities we have for creating and sharing ideas, is within reach for just about anyone. If you have an idea, and want to go public with it, idea entrepreneurship can be one of the most powerful forces for change and improvement in the world today.
mayo615 