Jan 28
Jan 28
Really good article by James Dyson on business week. Education is key to long term success. To make the economy build to last you have to focus on education at every level…
Photograph of Lewis Hine/Redux Photo
President Obama is right: America’s long-term success hinges on its ability to invent technology the world wants. It seems simple, but getting America back in the business of making things isn’t. It’s a global process. An idea born in Silicon Valley could be engineered in Switzerland, tested in China, and assembled in Taiwan. A stimulus to boost manufacturing may help the U.S. economy in the short term, but reinvigorating postwar-style production or space-race ingenuity is impossible without an increasingly capable workforce. Business demands it. And without it, long-term success will remain elusive.
These days manufacturing extends far beyond the assembly line. It’s about inventing and solving problems: researching, testing, and experimenting with ideas and technology. The development of new products more and more defies borders. It’s impossible to make electronic goods exclusively on U.S. or U.K. soil—the supplier base, infrastructure, and often the expertise needed to produce everything from electric cars to solar panels is dispersed.
Within that context, it’s easier to understand why highly skilled jobs are going the way of assembly and manufacture. New research by the National Science Foundation (NSF) reports that more companies are taking research and development—and 85 percent of the new jobs it creates—overseas. Still, this is by no means a one-way street. As Caterpillar shifts some R&D abroad, it’s considering moving parts of its manufacturing operations back to the U.S. Creating new products is no longer one size fits all.
But constructing an economy that’s built to last depends on a ready supply of talented individuals: people who invent, create, and develop the ideas that will drive exports and those who can assemble them. China gets it. To make its economy more knowledge and technology intensive, China is investing heavily in science and engineering education, infrastructure, and R&D support. Already wages are increasing, the middle class is growing, and the country is developing new technology rather than just assembling products. And while the U.S. continues to file more patents than any other country, the Far East’s investment in R&D, fueled by China, matched U.S. contributions in 2009, according to the National Science Board’s report, Science and Engineering Indicators 2012.
Sep 28
Really cool article.
Ooh, that is a big idea, a really, really big idea. The other guys have ideas, but theirs are so small. You’d better watch out or you may hurt someone with that big thing. And I can see you’re very excited about it, too!
We know what you’re thinking. We’re just a couple of guys overly amused by sophomoric humor, making a lame attempt to get your attention and some cheap laughs, right? Well, kinda.
We admit to not taking ourselves too seriously, but before you rush to judgment, let us make a simple point that leaders too often miss when it comes to innovation: It is easy to make a big idea small and nearly impossible to make a small idea big
Jan 10
Posted on Harvard Business Review: December 29, 2010 10:00 AM
Our soon ending year, 2010, has been fascinating. I’ve had the good fortune to move to a new place (Singapore), which has served as a springboard to experience different cultures and do work in countries like the Philippines and South Korea. I’ve also had the chance to experience the world of venture capital investing through the small fund that our team in Singapore manages on behalf of the Singapore government.
Aug 16
Good Article…
A Threat to Startups
Updated August 10, 2010, 12:08 PM
Brad Burnham is a partner at Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund located in New York City. This was written with Fred Wilson, also a partner at the firm.
We believe that Google and Verizon’s proposed policy principles to preserve an open Internet came out of a good faith effort to bring some clarity to the market for Internet applications and access. But we fear that this agreement is a compromise that does not serve the next great startup enterprise well.
Aug 16
Net neutrality has been topic of discussion especially since news about Google and Verizon deal came out. More info here. I personally think Net neutrality is super important especially for startups. Our economy runs on startup and small businesses and letting Google and Verizon decide whose data is more important on web is just wrong. It means in future Google can pay to push its content for example YouTube and no one else will be able to compete. Will try to consolidate other good articles on the topic on the blog.
Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions by Internet Service Providers and governments on content, sites, platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and no restrictions on the modes of communication allowed.[1][2][3]
The principle states that if a given user pays for a certain level of Internet access, and another user pays for the same level of access, then the two users should be able to connect to each other at the subscribed level of access.
Though the term did not enter popular use until several years later, since the early 2000s advocates of net neutrality and associated rules have raised concerns about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g., websites, services, protocols), particularly those of competitors. In the US particularly, but elsewhere as well, the possibility of regulations designed to mandate the neutrality of the Internet has been subject to fierce debate.
Neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige subscribers to buy their otherwise uncompetitive services. Many believe net neutrality to be primarily important as a preservation of current freedoms.[4] Vinton Cerf, considered a "father of the Internet" and co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web, and many others have spoken out in favor of network neutrality.
Jul 05
I guess this is good news. You cannot limit patents too machinery or physical transformation…
The Supreme Court on Monday loosened the limits on the kinds of inventions that are eligible for patent protection in a case that was closely watched for its impacts on innovation.
Supreme Court relaxes limits on innovations that can be patented
May 25
Amazing Visualization of Swine flu cases. 
Makes it real…
Tracking Swine Flu Cases Worldwide
Health officials continue to report mild cases of swine flu throughout the United States and worldwide. Among the hundreds of confirmed infections, 53 people have died, including 48 in Mexico, three in the United States, one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.
New cases are no longer being reported here.
- Changes to the map: Confirmed cases will be based on figures reported by the C.D.C., W.H.O. and the Public Health Agency of Canada, not individual states. Suspected cases will no longer be tracked, as officials report them irregularly.
- The W.H.O. and the C.D.C. have reported a total of 4,780 cases in 30 countries, including 2,618 in the United States.
- Officials in mainland China reported their first swine flu case, a man who had recently flown there from the United States.
