kathleen forden

This is my friend Lisa and her love story

by Thomas Bartlett
The Chronicle of Higher Education

John G. Sperling, as he often reminds those around him, is running out of time. At 88, he is in relatively good health, despite a weak kidney and back problems. He still walks the dog, drives himself to meetings, and seems to have no shortage of nervous energy: Forced to sit still for any length of time, he twirls his cellphone between two fingers or distractedly peels the label from a bottle of water, leaving it in shreds on the table.

Even so, he feels the tug of mortality, and he has a lot left to accomplish. Like, for instance, saving the world.

He’s had big ideas before. In 1974, at the not-so-tender age of 53, he left a tenured position at San Jose State University with $26,000 in savings to start an academic program for working adults. In the beginning, he ran the operation out of his house. It soon outgrew those humble digs and later relocated to Arizona, adopting the name of that state’s capital. Now the University of Phoenix has close to 400,000 students, more than 200 campuses and 26,000 faculty members, and is valued at roughly $10-billion.

http://www.phoenix.edu/news_room/releases/2009/07/phoenix-risen.html#

Acrossair has developed an amazing augmented reality app for the iPhone 3GS, New York Nearest Subway which helps you find the nearest subway lines as you move and tilt your iPhone.

This is one post/chapter in a serialized book called Startup 101. For the introduction and table of contents, please click here.

If you have kids, you will often hear (or use) the phrase, “That is not  age-appropriate behavior.” Young ventures need age-appropriate systems and processes, too. Too little process, and the venture descends into chaos. Too much process, and the venture becomes a slow-moving bureaucracy, and that is equally deadly. For example, having an accounts receivable process that was designed for a company with billions of dollars in sales is pointless when your venture is just starting out. So, how do you build age-appropriate systems and processes?

the shifted librarian has an awesome blog entry that offers a stream of consciousness approach to discussions about innovation in libraries

it stopped me for several reasons

one – i love the flow of ideas
two – i write in the same style when i write on my blogs
three – i believe libraries need to become unhinged

check it out and let me know what you think

July 12, 2009

Innovation at DOK

Shanachies Erik, Jaap, and Geert talk about the DOK Library

Jaap is the “head of innovation” at DOK – love that title

DOK = Library Concept Center

video of library manager Eppo touring DOK
- showed Bluetooth download station
- music pods
- video games (”The library can’t be without games.”)

it’s all about people – share the stories to tell and make the stories

DOK sits on one side of “culture square” – they named it that because they’re across from a movie and theater
there’s a lot of color in DOK because they believe this is important to lift people up, help motivate them to share their stories
the staff offices on the top floor are totally open – not just open source, but open access to staff
have a “reading cafe” with the magazines
they put the timely reading materials right near the food and coffee/cafe

the building is a converted supermarket – it’s concrete but made attractive

10 Powerful Success Strategies – Stepcase Lifehack.

Know what success is. If you don’t know what success is (for you), how can you possibly create it? Success is different things for different people and one person’s success (a pregnancy for example) might be another person’s catastrophe. That’s because success (or failure) is not so much about the situation, circumstance, event or outcome as it is about what that “thing” means to the person in the middle of it. In order to create success, you must first define it – and far too many people haven’t. Be very clear about what you want and don’t want for your life.

A startup company is taking a customized approach to knee replacement surgery, creating knee implants on demand that exactly match a patient’s anatomy. The company, ConforMIS, based in Burlington, MA, is bringing the technology of rapid prototyping, which converts a three-dimensional computer design into a physical object, into the field of orthopedics. The company believes that such custom-made implants can make knee replacement surgery faster, more accurate, and less traumatic to the patient.

Customized knees: A depiction of a knee implant designed to cover one part of the knee joint. Credit: ConforMIS

Multimedia Watch how a customized knee implant is made.

Knee replacement surgery repairs damage and relieves pain in patients with severe osteoarthritis or knee injury. Total knee replacement involves removing diseased cartilage and bone from the surfaces of the knee joint–the thigh bone, shin bone, and kneecap–and replacing them with an artificial joint made from a combination of metal and plastic. A partial knee replacement can also be performed on one part of the joint.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22988/

Rewarding Failure - Moral Obligation

The federal government has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the banking system, and most experts seem to agree that the financial crisis is closer to its end than its beginning. But as attention shifts from fire fighting to rebuilding, many are worrying about the “moral hazard” that may remain, with an apparent government safety net encouraging a new round of foolish risk taking.

Not everyone thinks the problem of moral hazard has grown, underscoring the continuing debate about what exactly caused the crisis and how key players will behave in a financial world that is still taking shape. But several Wharton faculty members interviewed say the government response to the crisis could lead to new problems down the road.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2282

Radiolaria Pavilion: Printed scale model sandstone structure

3-D printing may soon expand beyond the small scale. In 2010, the world’s largest 3-D printer will build the Radiolaria Pavilion, a 10-meter-tall structure in Pontedera, Italy. Made out of sandstone, the building will be printed one 5-10mm layered sheet at a time.

The thin layers of the structure are held together by an inorganic binder, not the normal steel reinforcements that most buildings have. This allows for strength and design freedom not available before. The structure was designed using CAD/CAM software and then exported directly to the printer. Once printed, it only takes about 24 hours for the material to fully set. The process is also pretty environmentally sound, and if any of the building material remains unused, it can be recycled.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/print-out-your-next-building