On Monday, President Obama gave a major policy speech announcing his official innovation policy. Countless folks I’ve talked to across Silicon Valley have been urging him to lay out his agenda and address head-on his plans for one of the most important sectors of the American economy.
I’m still catching up on the details of the announcement. And it comes with a long white paper mapping out all the nitty gritty. You can press and the white paper here: Read the rest of this entry »
Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra came to Silicon Valley this week. Above is the video from his talk at the Churchill Club. He later appeared at the Computer History Museum where the 463 Tech Policy blog says he got a “rock star’s welcome.” Read their summary here.
And from that evening, here’s a short interview he did with Kamla Bhatt:
Google VP Marissa Mayer was speaking on a panel: “The Growing Pains on Innovation” at the AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford. The moderator asked each panelist for their thoughts on why the aren’t more women leaders in technology.
This past weekend, I took the family to Maker Faire at the San Mateo County Expo Center.
“What is Maker Faire?” is perhaps one of the easiest and hardest questions to answer. On one hand, the answer is as simple as, “It’s a place where people make stuff.” But it’s also an incredibly complex question due to the sheer scope of stuff that gets made.
How do you boil down an event where someone spent 13 years building a life-size working version of the Mouse Trap game? Or built a steam-driven motorcycle out of wood? Or a solar-powered recycling unit that processes fish poop to fertilize a vegetable garden? Or teaches people how to re-purpose their old clothes with its variety of sewing and craft techniques?
It’s tech, but it’s more than that. It’s geeky, but it’s for everyone. It’s an overwhelming sensory experience that’s still one of the most family-friendly events I’ve ever attended.
On a basic level, it’s one of these events that reminds me why Silicon Valley is one of the most thrilling places on earth. It’s easy to get cynical about this place sometimes when it seems everyone gets wrapped up in chasing money, status, and success. But strip that away, peel back the sometimes stiffling hand of the corporations, and the heart of Silicon Valley looks something very much like Maker Faire.
At that core, Maker has a very powerful message for everyone who is ready to listen. It reminds us of the simple joy of creating.
To some degree, we have all felt that the building blocks of our world seem increasingly outside our grasp. Everything is increasingly complex, whether it’s our cars, the gadgets in our homes, or the computers that run our lives.
We look at these things and feel intimidated by them, baffled by their inner workings. We react by outsourcing the creation of just about everything in our lives, from our clothes, to our food, to our machines. We buy more and more pre-packaged stuff. The result is that we are growing more and more disconnected from the fundamental things that surround us every day.
Maker Faire’s simple mission is to reverse that tide. It reminds us that the ability to create and participate in the world around us is still well within our grasp. And it does that by gathering this fantastic group of people who have embraced that simple joy.
Wandering around Maker Faire, you can see the wonder in the eyes of these people. It doesn’t matter what the ultimate product is, whether it’s a fire-breathing robot, or a whimsical putt-putt golf course or a human-powered merry-go-round. If you ask any of these folks why they built these these things, the answer you’d likely get is, “Because we can.”
Because it’s not the thing that matters. It’s the ability to create and participate more fully in the world arround us. The joy is in the process and the act or creation, not value of the end product.
That is what Maker Faire is. And that’s why I already can’t wait to go back next year.
It’s been fashionable for years to knock Microsoft for not being hip, cutting edge, innovative. Choose your dart. The folks at Redmond have heard it all. But, of course, the picture is more complex. In its most recent fiscal year, Microsoft spent $8.2 billion on research. That sum makes it one of the largest research organizations in the world.
So when I was offered the chance last month to chat with Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, I jumped on it. Mundie spent a day at the University of California at Berkeley as part of a week-long visit to universities across the country.
According to his official bio: “Mundie is responsible for directing the company’s technical strategy and long-term investments. In this role, he oversees Microsoft Research and other technology and research initiatives, the company’s health and education businesses, and a number of technology incubations. Mundie also works with government and business leaders around the world on technology policy, regulation and standards.”
On a basic level, Mundie is the guy in charge of figuring out the future for Microsoft. So, what he thinks matters. He’s been at the software company since 1992. And Mundie makes a convincing case that the conventional wisdom about Microsoft and innovation is wrong.
During a presentation to students and faculty at Berkeley, Mundie began by demonstrating the World Wide Telescope. And if you haven’t downloaded this yet, you should. Especially if you have a five-year-old at home, like me. The WWT pulls together almost every astronomical image in the world to create a kind of “Google Maps” for the universe.
There were a few highlights from Mundie’s official presentation to students and faculty: Read the rest of this entry »
The panel didn’t disappoint. I’ve embedded the full video above. But let me highlight a few of the important points that struck me during the session. Read the rest of this entry »
In case you forgot to mark your calendar, today is OneWebDay. That means today is the day we all do, um, something, or other. Okay, I’m not really sure.
I’ve had several folks ask me about OneWebDay. And I feel like it’s something that as a good citizen and a mediocre business columnist in Silicon Valley that I ought to know about. Certainly, all the cools kids seem to be talking about it today.
But I’m still trying to figure out what it’s all about, and what I’m supposed to do, or think about, or not do, as the case may be. So here is what I found. Read the rest of this entry »
After a nice late-summer vacation, I’m back posting on a (hopefully) daily basis. And first up is news that Technology Review, the influential magazine published by MIT, has released its annual list of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35.
At the head of this year’s class is Silicon Valley’s JB Straubel, a co-founder and chief technology officer at Tesla Motors, who was named “innovator of the year.” Straubel was recognized for his efforts to engineer the Tesla Roadster, the electric sports car.
“Discovering the amazing young men and women who make up the TR35 is one of the highlights of the year for us,” said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review. “The innovators on our 2008 list have made truly remarkable and valuable contributions.”
Seth Hallem:co-founder, president and CEO of Coverity, for developing an improved method of finding software bugs.
Sundar Iyer: founder of Nemo Systems acquired by Cisco Systems in 2005; recognized for developing a technique that combines the benefits of SRAM (static random access memory) with DRAM (digital random access memory) to make routers faster, cheaper, and more efficient and reliable.
Adam Smith – co-founder of Xobni for developing the plugin to Outlook that simplifies email searches and turns the inbox into a social networking tool.
Eric Wilhelm – CEO of Instructables, a SquidLabs company (Eric is also a co-founder of SquidLabs) for the Instructables “how to” company.
Christopher Chang – Assistant professor of chemistry at Berkeley for developing a new way of cellular imaging by changing the way biologists tag cells.
Michelle Chang – professor of chemistry at Berkeley for research into biofuels. .
Bilal Shafi – recognized for developing a company to commercialize technology that can help prevent congestive heart failure.
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