Candles repurposed February 13, 2007
Posted by jefft in Case studies, Technology.1 comment so far
The last couple classes we’ve talked about how the invention of the lightbulb obsolesced the candle as a primary source of artificial light but also flipped the candle into an environmental feature. Exhibit A: this recent newspaper article on candle safety:
To most of us, candles are simply a finishing touch — a bit of wax and a wick to create the kind of mood enhancement that, until recently, electric light could not hope to equal.
But to the candle industry, which sold about $2 billion worth of pillars, votives, tapers, floaters and other candle styles last year, the increased popularity of this ancient item raises safety issues. Consumers, eager to use candles as an integral part of their decor — a kind of jewelry for the home — sometimes forget that they are literally playing with fire.
The cost of micro-enterprise February 11, 2007
Posted by jefft in Change, Micro-enterprise, Technology.add a comment
. . . is pretty cheap, according to this consultant:
New technologies that give people access to tools and knowledge that previously was only available to a select few. These new technologies give people universal and direct access to markets. They allow people to create and maintain collaborative knowledge bases. They lower the cost of communication. They remove or greatly diminish the overhead cost of doing busniess on many levels.
New decentralized concepts and technologies of cooperation and collaboration that allow solo enterpreneurs to join together and fashion themselves as an outsourcing option for corporations, governments, communities and general markets on all scales.Ideas like “micro-investing, micro-lending, and micro-enterprise” are not just for developing world contries. The same concepts can be applied here in the United States on local levels, working directly with people in communities and neighborhoods of all types. As more “traditional” employment roles are outsourced and offshored, a new opportunity has arisen that can allow any individual to create and grow personal wealth and enrich their life.
How Yahoo didn’t blow it February 9, 2007
Posted by jefft in Case studies, Technology, Web biz.add a comment
Yesterday we talked about the Wired article (linked on the class calendar) re Yahoo’s failure to keep pace with Google. The issue: a management focused more on marketing than the company’s core technology.
That may be changing. Yahoo has just released Yahoo Pipes, a cutting-edge content mash-up site. Probably not a Google killer, but still, it’s reviving Yahoo’s reputation as an online innovator.
Xerox PARC the next Google? February 9, 2007
Posted by jefft in Case studies, News, Technology.add a comment
The past couple classes we’ve talked about Xerox PARC, the origins of the mass market GUI and the rise of Apple. The New York Times has an update on what has happened to the PARC since then. Here’s an excerpt:
Early in the decade, a struggling Xerox Corporation was trying to sell off a stake in its Palo Alto Research Center, which it could no longer afford to support. But with the technology bubble bursting, the price that investors were willing to pay for a piece of PARC, as the center is known, kept going down.
So in 2002, Xerox switched to Plan B: it spun off the center into an independent subsidiary and sought to prove that it could sustain itself by licensing technology and forming partnerships with outside companies.
On Friday, PARC is announcing a deal that underscores that strategy. It is licensing a broad portfolio of patents and technology to a well-financed start-up with an ambitious and potentially lucrative goal: to build a search engine that could some day rival Google.
The start-up, Powerset, is licensing PARC’s “natural language” technology — the art of making computers understand and process languages like English or French. Powerset hopes the technology will be the basis of a new search engine that allows users to type queries in plain English, rather than using keywords.
In the fall, Powerset raised $12.5 million in its first round of financing from venture-capital firms and individual investors. The challenges facing it are immense, and the odds of success are long. But the PARC technology, which is a result of 30 years of research, is certain to lend it an aura of credibility.
Lonelygirl15 February 9, 2007
Posted by jefft in Case studies, Technology, Web biz.add a comment
Here’s the first video in the series created by a group of Hollywood entrepreneurs as a means of breaking into the film industry:
More here.
Web 2.0 in a nutshell February 6, 2007
Posted by jefft in Technology, Web biz.add a comment
Web 2.0 is the buzzword of today’s internet entrepreneurship. Here’s a short video explaining the collaborative web:
, from Boingboing.
Four million dollar financing for web layout service February 5, 2007
Posted by jefft in News, Technology, Web biz.add a comment
Read about this new deal and more at Mashable.com, a news service on social networking ventures.
Web 2.0 for the entrepreneur February 5, 2007
Posted by jefft in Technology, Web biz.add a comment
In class last week one of you pointed to web-based applications as a cutting-edge entrepreneurial sector. If you’re not familiar with them, there’s a nice introduction in the latest Entrepreneur Magazine, and it’s now up on the web.
Also, here are a couple of apps I use pretty regularly: Zoho and Google docs.
Coooooooooool February 2, 2007
Posted by jefft in Change, Hubs, Technology.add a comment
I mentioned in class the role of the elevator & air conditioner in making the real-world shopping hub (malls, department stores) a ubiquitous part of our retail environment. Helpful resources on this include The Harvard Design Cool Guide to Shopping and this fun history article: Keeping Things Cool: Air Conditioning in the Modern World.
Can you think of any technological changes happening now that provide new business opportunities?
(I’d put my copy of the Harvard book on reserve, but a burst pipe turned mine into a mildewed mess. #$@?! technology!)
