Tech Tuesday: Shale Gas

Not all technology innovation is in computers and smart devices. 

In live in western New York State.  The Marcellus and Utica shale deposits are big news in our area. As an investor, one of the most interesting companies I am looking at is AbTech, a company whose polymer technologies developed for oil spills are being adopted by the fracking industry.  Once their smart sponges absorb wastes they permanently bond and cannot be squeezed out.  The fracking water problem is able to use this technology to clean and re-use water on site at wells.  

I think  one of the arguments against shale gas innovation just got silenced.

View AbTech Corporate Video

From MIT Technology Review

• View info-graphics of natural gas resources, production and consumption.
• See how a drilling rig is moved.
• View an animation of how horizontal drilling works. 

Monday Startup

Mondays are the day we get our brain back in gear for another week of racing with rats to find new cheese.  Yes, I did read "Who Moved My Cheese!" 

• This week Apple  said they are going to change the textbook industry.  I don't know about you, but with two kids and a spouse in college, every time I pay over $100 for a textbook I say to myself, "This is such a racket.  There has to be a better way."  Is the Apple initiative a better way?  Since Apple likes to control the user experience--something I detest about Apple--I can see how Apple is trying to build a dependency on their devices in the textbook market.  (FastCo.Exist)
• Last week, here in the Rochester, NY area where I live and work, Kodak finally went bankrupt.  A friend wrote me and asked why this happened.  Here is how I responded:
• Kodak was the king of film and then invented digital. As other industries and companies began to envision how they could use digital technology in personal computers, photography, and mobile devices, Kodak hesitated on putting themselves of out the old film based business. We call this cannibalization--put yourself out of business so someone else doesn't. That opened the door for competitors like Canon and Sony to leverage digital technology in cameras and mobile devices. Kodak then fell behind the curve and never caught up. There were also a bunch of financial decisions they made that Wall Street analysts punished them for. Stock options for employees dropped in value. Good managers then started leaving and the death spiral began.  Let this be a lesson about hesitation in company strategic planning and innovation!

• Last for today, CROWD FUNDING has long been used by charities and non-profits to raise money for projects.  In these days of banks being encouraged by Federal Reserve policy to not lend money to small businesses, crowd funding has faced the hurdle of Securities and Exchange Commission laws making this source of capital difficult for small business.  That seems to be changing (Entrepreneurship). 
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• 13 Crowd Funding Websites to Fund Your Business
• 13 Crowd Funding Sites for Social-Cause Entrepreneurs
• How to Find Venture Capital Investors For Your Company

Ideas...

What I am thinking about today...

•  Where Good Ideas Come From--(Ted Talk by Steven Johnson)
• What is An Idea Connector and Are You One?  (The Grindstone)
  
  This is the "open" innovation model.  Creative people are often stifled in organizations led by non-creative, non-innovative managers or owners.  Creative people are looking for a place to share their ideas and most often hang out outside of work with other creative people.  Think about your organization or company, find your idea connectors, and get connected!  It may just help you develop the next big idea!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Why Small Businesses Fail

Had to share this one via Barry Ritholtz--click this link or the graphic , then click again to enlarge

Charitable Entrepreneurship

As a CFO for a non-profit in my full-time day job, and President of a smaller non-profit in my spare time, I am a student of capital campaigns and charitable giving.  John List of The University of Chicago is a leader in studying donor giving to charities.  Read, comment, and build your organization!

Charitable giving is an increasingly important component of our national economy comprising over 2% of GDP in 2008. However, relatively little is known about what drives people to give to charities. This line of research includes large scale field experiments to investigate charitable giving.

Farming Innovation To Feed The Growing World

After all the holiday eating, I am getting back in the reading and writing saddle thinking about the economics of food.  Some of my readers may not realize this, but I am CFO for a non-profit organization that is the producer of the fifth largest branded sliced bread in the Buffalo-Rochester-Erie, PA market, and a regional player in New York, New England, and Pennsylvania market.  We also have a 1400 acre farm operation.  

• Agricultural R&D, technology, and productivity (The Royal Society) 
• Global Food and Farming Futures (Foresight).  This is some heady research, but for those who want to take the time to dig in, a feast of information.  
• Innovation in farming technology--two interesting videos.  

Tech Tuesday: New Year's Eve Edition

Things tech I am thinking about today...

• The Times Square ball countdown to the new year began in 1904, and in 1907 had a ball with one hundred 25 watt bulbs.  In 2008 LED lights saving 88% on energy and enabling designs using 16 million colors brought the ball into a whole new era.  (TMCnet)
• The Times Square Alliance, the group who bring us the Time Square Countdown on New Year's Eve, have a free app for iPhone and Droid to ring in the new year!  (Interactive Intelligence).
• With the primary season ready to rev up with the Iowa caucus next week, my son shared some tech with me that helps you find the candidate most like you! Whether D or R, you can have fun with this!  (Project Vote Smart)  Comment back--how did it work?  It was pretty accurate when I did it!  It takes about 10 minutes to answer the questions and I am sure is market research!  Fun anyhow!
  
  
   

Is There Magic Sauce?

I just found out my friend Sarah has launched her own business start up!  This is for Sarah!

Invention v. Innovation: What's the Difference?

Invention is the idea, and innovation is bringing the idea to market.  As we claw our way out of the Great Recession toward recovery, invention is needed to generate new economy.

Enjoy today's reads as we head into the Christmas weekend! 

Question of the Day?  Do you still think there are great American inventors?

 

• Invention v. Innovation (IP Frontline)
• Invention is The Mother of Economic Growth (Bloomberg)
• Malcolm Gladwell on the difference between invention and innovation (Tech Dirt). 

• Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor of the Telephone
• Though he was born in Scotland and spent some time in Ontario, Alexander Graham Bell didn't actually start inventing until he settled in Boston and became an American citizen...
  John Moses Browning: Inventor of the Semi-Automatic Shotgun
  With over 30 million firearms based on his designs, great American inventor John Moses Browning is one of history's most accomplished weapons designers...
  Willis Carrier: Inventor of Air Conditioning
  If someone made a list of everyday innovations that Americans just couldn't live without, Willis Carrier's invention might be at the top...
  Samuel Colt: Inventor of the Colt Revolver
  Nothing says "Old West" more than Samuel Colt's revolver invention. Originally patented in 1836, many historians have gone so far as to say that Colt's invention changed the course of American history...
  Henry Ford: Inventor of the Moving Assembly Line
  Contrary to popular belief, great American inventor Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. The invention of the first automobile is generally credited to Karl Benz...
  Robert Fulton: Inventor of the Steamboat
  Famous American inventor Robert Fulton didn't actually create the machine he is most commonly associated with (the steamboat), but his innovations did make it commercially viable...
  Charles Goodyear: Inventor of Vulcanized Rubber
  By the mid 1830s, it seemed as though the rubber industry in America was going under. Miraculously, it was saved by a great inventor who had no knowledge of chemistry...
  Cyrus McCormick: Inventor of the Mechanical Reaper
  Not long after Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin, Cyrus McCormick invented another significant agricultural invention that revolutionized farming...
  Samuel F.B. Morse: Inventor of the Telegraph and Morse Code
  Like many other great inventors throughout history, Samuel F.B. Morse was fairly eclectic in his interests. This diversity would lead him to his most famous accomplishment..
  Dr. Jonas Salk: Inventor of the Polio Vaccine
  While there is still no actual cure for Polio, thanks to inventor Dr. Jonas Salk there is a way to prevent the infectious viral disease...
  Eli Whitney: Inventor of the Cotton Gin
  If some people are born with the natural ability to invent, Eli Whitney certainly was one of them. From a young age, Whitney had an innate understanding of machinery...
  Orville & Wilbur Wright: Inventors of the Airplane
  On December 17, 1903, a pair of great inventors from Ohio named Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the world's first airplane. The invention, known as the Wright Flyer, took to the skies for 12 seconds...
  
  

Tech Tuesday

My Tech Tuesday reading:

• As Banks Start Nosing Around Facebook and Twitter, the Wrong Friends Might Just Sink Your Credit (Beta Beat)  
  
• What is a Brand Worth Online?  (IdeaLab)  
• Mobile App Trends 2012 (IT Business Edge)
• A look back on what PC World said the hottest new innovations would be in 2009.  How did they do in their predictions?  (PC World)
• 2012 Innovation Honors (International CES)
• The NTSBs Proposed Phone Ban: Tech Policy Goes Off The Road
  (Consumer Electronics Association)
  * 2017 Update: The Truth and Consequences of Districted Driving (Best of Bikers). 

Question of The Day: Do you support the proposal by The National Transportation Safety Board to ban use of all portable electronic devices while driving?  Post your comments.

How I see it: While it always seems like a good idea to make laws to protect human life, we must think before we act.  Freedom of American citizens on the one hand, and the regulatory powers of government on the other, are always the politics of lawmaking. 

Adult Americans do not need a nanny state.  What we need is to learn how to be safe drivers and use technology responsibly.  Banning modern communication technologies will hurt jobs and business growth in this fragile time of economic recovery.  There must be a better way. 

If we all make our personal safety, as well as that of others a main priority while driving, and remember a motor vehicle is a powerful, and potentially deadly machine when not operated properly, we might pay a little more attention while driving.  Each of us making a choice to drive safely so we do not end a human life is one we should all make right now.   

Think about if you die from doing something stupid driving.  Who will be hurt by your death?  Think about killing another person.  Someone's father, or mother, or brother, or sister, or grandparent?  What child will suffer the loss of their provider and caregiver?  How will that change their life?  

Let's stop being stupid and drive smart from this day forward!

Stat of the Day:  In 2010, 32,885 people lost their lives in motor-vehicle accidents; “distraction-affected crashes” caused 3,092 of those fatalities, while 10,228 resulted from drunk driving.

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