Archive for the ‘innovation’ Category

Innovation : Baking a Cake for America

David Muchow, the President and CEO of SkyBuilt Power, shared an article of his with me in which he lays out his vision of how the U.S. can foster green innovation.

Entitled "How to Bake the Green Technology Cake: The Missing Key to Technology Innovation," the article analogizes the process of getting an invention from conception to marketplace to that of baking a cake.

For small inventors, in particular, Muchow observes that the necessary ingredients are scattered, the cook takes too long, and oftentimes there’s no oven. So he lays out three steps for baking the "innovation cake."

The Ingredients: According to the article, the necessary ingredients - funding, legal advice, business advice, industry knowledge, customers - have to be collected from many different sources.

: Continue reading the article :

My Ninja, Please! 4.22.11 : Open Source Hardware

Starting off as a Wiki, Marcin Jakubowski is transforming maker culture….for the better! My NINJA, Please! Oh, and happy Earth Day 2011!

My Ninja, Please! 4.13.11 : Coffee Shrooms

A couple of students learn about social entrepreneurship and mushroom farming on coffee grounds and share at TEDxPresidio:

Win Fail

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Everybody fails and its good for you…

This motley crew of entrepreneurs don’t seem to have much in common. Macy founded one of the world’s greatest department stores, Edison brought his own dreams to life, Ford took other people’s inventions and made them a commercial success, and Walt Disney captured the imagination of children and adults around the world.

The one thing these entrepreneurs did have in common though was the belief that one day, somehow, they would succeed. Instead of letting failure, being broke, and even the ridicule of others stand in their way, each entrepreneur embraced their setback as a learning experience. They knew that every failure brought them one step closer to success. (Source)

Reinventing the Shipping Container Part 5

Having delved into the background of what shipping containers are in past entries, we haven’t really gotten into the formations in which you can safely stack your containers and how you start the building process. With the help of a great article by the teenage mutant ninja hero coders, I will review some of the issues that are presented when the time comes to buy some pallets.

You can only stack containers in configurations where all four bottom corner casings of the upper container are supported by four top corner casings of lower containers.

This makes it difficult in terms of being creative with your designs.

Walking on the roof is not encouraged as the flats are merely meant for weather protection and can carry a ton of weight per square meter.

The author then goes into how to fix the containers together, creating doors, optimizing structural integrity, placing the containers, and most importantly how to move the containers.

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On which containers to get:

The only ISO containers we where able to get at decent prices where 20″ 40″ and 40″ "high cube" containers. Keep in mind that the "modular space" container type is very different from shipping containers and usually much less sturdy.

With this said if you are looking for more inspiration, check out the rest of the series.

Silicon Beach

Looking for an environment for wantrepreneurs who want to graduate, venture capital providers and pitching social circles…. look no further than…….. Silicon Beach my ninjas.

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.:brw.com.au->

Big Think : Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Women in Technology

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Who are the role models out there for women looking to get into technology…

The reason why girls are not getting involved in tech is because they are told "be perfect or don’t try" by the same noisy people who claim to be advocating for them. There are some bright spots in this whole mess— Girls in Tech does great work, as does Girl Developer IT— but most of the self appointed shepherds spend too much time deflecting attention away from imperfect women succeeding in tech and waiting for their geek messiah to appear and prove once and for all that we belong here too. (Source)

Something Ventured - Film

Watch the trailer here.

.:awillager.blogspot.com->