During my workout today, I listened to a recent DFJ Entrepreneurial Though Leaders Seminar. This is a podcast that is co-sponsored by BASES (a student entrepreneurship group), Standford Technology Ventures Program, and The Department of Management Science and Engineering (Standford University). The speaker for this session was John Seely Brown.  John has a technical background, having served as a Senior Scientist at Xerox. His bio is impressive, but I was far more interested in his discussion about the ‘Collaborative Innovation and a Pull Economy‘. I was so impressed by his remarks that I download his latest book,  “The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion” (Sponsored link).   

In the space I have here, I cannot begin to discuss everything Mr. Brown discussed. His comments, contrasting the 20th century business model, to what will be required in the 21st century are insightful. In a couple of paragraphs I thought I would attempt to tie a couple of his comments back to education, and even ‘new media’.

First, an observation: The 20th century model is founded on principles taught by Alfred Chandler. Mr. Brown called it the ‘Push Economy’. This model is hierarchical, with a ‘center-out’ approach to business. The goal of business in this model is “Scalable Efficiency”. Mr. Brown noted that the infrastructure was key to creating this economy (roads, cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes .. etc). Organizational architecture were built around this infrastructure, leveraging it, generating scalable efficiency. The goals of this were (and largely still are):

- Predictability
- Hierarchy
- Control
- Organizational routines
- Minimizing variance (can you say Six Sigma).

He said, “Build a lot, use transportation mechanisms to distribute it, bah bah bah”.  What he said next ties back to my last post. He briefly contrast the 20th century education system to this model. He said:

Our K through 12 schools are built on scalable efficiency, a factory model. Basically, we can predict for you what things you’re going to need for ten to 15 years away, and we’re going to build you a stock of assets for you to learn, to acquire so that eventually, you get to use them, very much like how corporations work.

This reminded me of a chapter in Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (sponsored link) by Seth Godin: “Indoctrination: How We Got Here”. The chapter starts with this quote:

We’ve been taught to be a replaceable cog in a giant machine. We’ve been taught to consume as a shortcut to hapiness. We’ve been taught not to care about our jobs or our customers. And we’ve been taught to fit in”

There has been a fundamental and long-term change that will ripple through the business world for the next few years. In the new economy, the Pull Economy, will be built around ‘digital infrastructure’ and collaborative innovation. What we call social media today is just one element of the pull economy. This change will require that we think differently about everything from intellectual property to education. Take a few minutes to watch the video and consider what he has to say. I know it made me think hard about many things. I look forward to reading Mr. Brown’s book.

Watch the video and let me know what you think.

Rick

I have been reading “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” by Seth Godin. This is an outstanding book. Today I came across the following comment. I apologize that I do not have a page reference, I am reading it on my Kindle. 

Wikipedia and the shared knowledge of the Internet make domain knowledge on its own worth significantly less than it use to be. Today, if all you have to offer is that you know a lot of reference book information, you lose, because the Internet knows more than you do.

Depth of Knowledge combined with good judgment is worth a lot. Depth of knowledge combined with diagnostic skills or nuanced insight is worth a lot, too. Knowledge alone, though, I’d rather get faster and cheaper from an expert I find online.

… Depth of knowledge is rarely sufficient, all by itself, to turn someone into a linchpin.

I hope this hits you between the eyes. It did me. Now, I would like you to do is to think of this in terms of how we educate our children. Get that really clear in your head. Got it? Now, hold that thought for a minute. 

Last week, I attended the 140 Character Conference in New York City. This was an amazing, wonderful event, put on by Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver).  I should take a timeout to blog about how it. It had an impact on me that I can’t put into words. I will say this: If you have an opportunity to attend a #140conf, GO. Just do it. You will not regret it.

Now back to education. During the first day of the conference, Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA gave the following presentation .. listen close: 

I am going to keep this short. Yes, children need to learn to locate information. Unfortunately, what we seem to do best, or at least what we seem to focus on, is training them to take test. Chris is right, we teach subjects instead of children. We train instead of teach. We need to teach them to use their minds and to create. The future can be bright, but we must change how we educate. I love the message. Get involved in your local schools or with our youth. This is important.

Rick

I can’t believe I am blogging about this on the day after the iPad officially hit the street. I received an email the following email from Amazon yesterday:

As a Kindle subscriber to New York Times, you might like to know that effective April 2, 2010, the New York Times has raised its price to $19.99/month for new subscribers.

As an existing subscriber to New York Times, you will continue to be billed at the previous rate of $13.99/month for six more months (until October 2nd, 2010) after which you will be billed at the monthly rate then in effect.  We believe that the Kindle edition of New York Times continues to provide excellent value for customers with a free 14 day trial period, wireless delivery via Whispernet, no long-term commitments, and substantial savings vs. regular print subscription rates.

As always you are free to cancel your subscription at any time.  If you are still in the 14 day free trial period of your subscription you will not be charged, otherwise you will receive a prorated refund for the unused portion of your subscription. 

I enjoy reading the Times. The new rate is still less than what it would cost me to have it delivered to my home (I can subscribe for about $7.40/week on nytimes.com). And since I travel a great deal, I value being able to access the daily issue from any location. That said, I find I am getting more and more news via other channels and at lower prices. It will be had to justify this new price. What do you think? Would you pay the new rate?

Rick

Between travel, family activities, and a couple of bad days with the flu, I have not been able to post for a few days. I have been able to read and spend some time thinking about education. I will share that in a separate entry.

While researching the topic, I came across this great video clip from The Ohio State University. This is a project for 1st year engineering students.

Learning does not need to be boring .. it can be engaging and fun. Why is this simple principle so difficult for so many.

Rick

Remember when oil prices peaked out in 2008? Check out this chart:

Just looking at the prices in 2008 brings back all the angst of that summer. Today, prices seem to have stabilized. Credit a combination of reduced demands, driven down by the economic crisis, and a glut in supply. While I am not a global warming zealot, I think there are many strategic reasons to develop alternative energy sources. 

A good friend sent me a link to the following video. I wanted to share it because I think we are just begining to see the leading edge to significant innovation that will change the game.

If you want to get a better understand of this technology, check out this Fast Company article: “Bloom Energy Unveils Its Ultra-Secretive Bloom Box Fuel Cell.” It includes a clip from 60 minutes that is worth checking out.

This is only one area of technological wonder. Bill Gates spoke at TED 2010 about the world’s energy future. He talked about the need for a miracle technology (or technologies).  Check out his remarks, especially his comments about nuclear power: 

I have gone on a bit long here …. but the point is this: The world is about to see significant advances in alternative energy technology. This is a good time to be an entrepreneur. Keep watching the news – should be a great ride.

Rick
 

In a December 30, 2009 blog entry, I shared a few thoughts regarding TSA effort to implement full-body scans at airport security at major US airports. Recall that the TSA claimed to protect privacy and that the images cannot be stored. There are a number of other claims, refer back to the blog entry and the links to read more background details.

I just read an interesting article in the Industry Standard that was pointed out by @VentureOutlook (Mark Bailey). The title of this article says it all: “Documents refute TSA privacy claims on body scanners, group says”.  According to a ‘leading privacy advocacy group, many of the TSA privacy claims are not accurate and there are privacy concerns. I am not surprised. These devices, contrary to earlier reports, have means to store images. No that my image has any value, but you can imagine where this could go. Additional, these systems are built on Windows XP.  That leaves a few more questions about security. I could go on … I recommend you read the article. It’s very interesting.

Rick

Remember the scene in True Lies (1994) where Arnold walks behind the ‘screen’ and you see his skeletal image? Well, welcome to True Lies, 2009. I read an article in a Fast Company blog today titled “Full-body Scanners at Airports: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly“. It included a few sample full-body images, include these: 

I am not sure where to start. Given how much I travel, I know my body is about to be viewed by male and female TSA agents everywhere, and very soon. And the ‘viewing’ will be in MUCH greater detail than I care to think about. It is not like the scanners are new. In fact, a June 2006 report in USA Today discussed 10 airports (including Dallas, Las Vegas, NY Kennedy and others), that installed 38 units. To date I have never been through one. I have been in airports that have them, but I have avoided the scan! Well, after the Detroit event, airports everywhere are about to install the technology.  Reports earlier today indicate that even Nigeria plans to install this technology. (No, I don’t plan to visit Nigeria). 

By now you realize that I am not too excited about about this opportunity. I am even less excited when I think about other family members being scanned. Yes, I would prefer knowing they are safe, but I am still not comfortable with this invasion of privacy. The price of ‘safety’ continue to go up, and I am not sure we are lowering the risk.  

Applied properly, I believe we can use a mix of technology to improve security. I think we can do it as a lower cost to privacy, but that’s my opinion at this point. Watch the news as there will be a great deal of discussion regarding this issue in the next few weeks and months.

So, what are your thoughts? 

Rick