Virgin's Sir Richard Branson, with the help of Al Gore, has launched what he called "the world’s biggest prize to inspire innovators to develop a way to remove greenhouse gases from the earth’s atmosphere." The $25 million Virgin Earth Challenge will go to the "individual or group able to show a commercially viable design resulting in the net removal of man-made atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least 10 years, without harmful side-effects."
Every year an estimated seven billion tons of carbon dioxide are dumped into the atmosphere. Some of it right from Virgin Airlines jet engines. Branson's goal? To "get every young, creative, innovative thinker, every inventor and every scientist" to invent a technology that removes CO2 from the atmosphere. I love this. Time to get real and think BIG.
New York Magazine observes that many of us, um, older people look upon the 55 percent of 12-17 year-olds who reveal their private lives online and think, "Why would anyone do that?" But perhaps younger people are the only ones who get that "a truly private life is already an illusion." The article reviews three changes that set the younger generation apart from the older one: They "think of themselves as having an audience." They have "archived their adolescence." And "their skin is thicker than yours."
"In essence, every young person in America has become, in the literal sense, a public figure. And so they have adopted the skills that celebrities learn in order not to go crazy: enjoying the attention instead of fighting it—and doing their own publicity before somebody does it for them.
Speaking at the MIT Enterprise Forum's Brave New Web event this week, Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire advised startups not to solve cheap problems. Rafe Needleman reports that Allaire relayed the message that "if you can start a business on your Visa card, somebody else can too, and they can compete with you directly and immediately." Then again, it's easy for a serial entrepreneur like Allaire to raise money. As Needleman points out "Digg launched at a cost of $2,000."
Nike's new chief executive, Mark Parker has an ambitious plan to grow revenues by $8 billion in five years. Some analysts wonder if the plan is too bold. It "would mean revenues would need to rise 53 percent over five years, or average about 9 percent a year." To get there Nike is reshaping management and adding 100 new company stores worldwide. But "Nike's boldest bet is on the consumer." Parker says digitally-driven "consumers have never held as much power as they do today." As such Nike will undertake "new efforts to tailor products to individual consumers."
Yahoo! just launched a new service called Pipes and the tech blog echo chamber is going wild. Larry Dignan says it's a "hosted service that lets you remix RSS feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment." Huh? Well if you know what I'm talking about you're intrigued. If you don't, the big take-away is that Yahoo has established a leadership role in "turning the web into a programmable environment for everyone," as Tim O'Reilly commented. It means that web sites and feeds can simply be viewed as data sources that can be piped together visually like, well, tinker toys. It's also a big deal because Yahoo is actually doing something before Google does.
"Own a piece of guerilla art history!" That's how one eBay listing puts it. Mary Wehmeier blogs that "less than 24 hours after the Cartoon Networks guerilla marking campaign of plastering various cities around the US, shut down the City of Boston for hours, Mooninite signs are beginning to show up on Ebay."
New York State Senator Carl Kruger is reportedly set to introduce legislation that would ban the use of MP3 players, cellphones, and any other electronic device while crossing the street in New York City or other "big cities" in the state. The proposed ban comes on the heels of two recent pedestrian deaths, one of which involved a person listening to an iPod.
Engadget asks "if police can't enforce jaywalking laws in NYC, how could they possibly enforce this?" I run with my iPod, and I'm very paranoid when I cross streets. So it's good to raise awareness. But, banning them? What's next? Running with scissors?
In what appears to be a first for a food marketer, one of the biggest global advertisers, Masterfoods, the makers of Mars, Snickers, Skittles and Starburst has decided to end marketing to children under 12 by the end of the year. Masterfoods claims this "will impact magazine and TV advertising in the U.S.," but that it represents less than 5 percent of their ad buy. Hmm, while this is a start...some analysts are wondering how meaningful the ban will be? How do they define the ban? We talked about greenwashing. Is this healthwashing?
In a open letter on the Apple website, Steve Jobs basically tells music companies to drop dead on digital rights management (DRM). That would be the code that makes the music you buy off iTunes only work in iTunes. He says Apple would wholeheartedly embrace DRM-free music if the big four music companies' licenses would allow it. Jobs says "DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy." Apple gets a lot of heat for DRM - Jobs is trying to turn consumer fury over to the music companies and away from iPods...which, he reminds us, play all music - DRM or no DRM. Classic Jobs power play. Will it work?
Yahoo began implementing a big overhaul to its search engine this week, activating a new ad system, code-named Panama, that it hopes will make it more competitive against the behemoth Google. Some analysts think that this changeover has the potential to increase Yahoo's revenue from search by 50 percent. Where its last ad system was based on an auction model, Panama will rank search results based on historical click-through rates and keywords, putting advertisers on a more level playing field.
I grew up in Rochester, NY and my grandfather worked at Kodak his whole life. It's no secret that Kodak is struggling in the post-film era - they lost $600 million in 2006. But they have a trusted brand and they are scrappy. Here's there new tack. They're launching a new line of inkjet printers aimed at getting digital camera users back on Kodak paper. The pitch? Cheap ink. Buy a Kodak printer and pay just $25 for ink. Other printers? More like $60 - $80. I'm rooting for my home town team.
Here's my vote. And it was an ad created by a consumer.
I had high expectations for this other consumer-submitted ad. Last week I wrote about the pitch the guy made to win the ad spot. Here's how the ad turned out:
The Corporation for Enterprise Development says Connecticut and Delaware have the best economic climate for entrepreneurs and business. Both Delaware and Connecticut earned straight As on the group's 20th annual report card of state economies for 2007, based on business vitality, performance, and development capacity. Massachusetts also scored high grades in all categories. Last year, Connecticut produced more revenue per worker than any other state. On the down side, the state has a low average homeowner rate and the worst air pollution in the country.
Fred Wilson blogs that just because LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has hired a CEO to run the company, it doesn't mean it's a demotion. Rather than saying Hoffman has stepped down as CEO, we should say he "stepped up" as Chairman and President of Products. Wilson says "stepping up is hard. But it's often the right thing to do." Timing is key. "It's generally not a smart thing to "step up" before the product/service and business model is figured out. Entrepreneurs are better at the tinkering style of management that is required to get the product/service and business model right. Hired managers are often better at executing it once the plan is set."
Virgin's Sir Richard Branson, with the help of Al Gore, has launched what he called "the world’s biggest prize to inspire innovators to develop a way to remove greenhouse gases from the earth’s atmosphere." The $25 million Virgin Earth Challenge will go to the "individual or group able to show a commercially viable design resulting in the net removal of man-made atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least 10 years, without harmful side-effects."
New York Magazine observes that many of us, um, older people look upon the 55 percent of 12-17 year-olds who reveal their private lives online and think, "Why would anyone do that?" But perhaps younger people are the only ones who get that "a truly private life is already an illusion." The article reviews three changes that set the younger generation apart from the older one: They "think of themselves as having an audience." They have "archived their adolescence." And "their skin is thicker than yours." 
Speaking at the MIT Enterprise Forum's 
Nike's new chief executive, Mark Parker has an ambitious plan to grow revenues by $8 billion in five years. Some analysts wonder if the plan is too bold. It "would mean revenues would need to rise 53 percent over five years, or average about 9 percent a year." To get there Nike is reshaping management and adding 100 new company stores worldwide. But "Nike's boldest bet is on the consumer." Parker says digitally-driven "consumers have never held as much power as they do today." As such Nike will undertake "new efforts to tailor products to individual consumers."
In a open letter on the Apple website, Steve Jobs basically tells music companies to drop dead on digital rights management (DRM). That would be the code that makes the music you buy off iTunes only work in iTunes. He says Apple would wholeheartedly embrace DRM-free music if the big four music companies' licenses would allow it. Jobs says "DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy." Apple gets a lot of heat for DRM - Jobs is trying to turn consumer fury over to the music companies and away from iPods...which, he reminds us, play all music - DRM or no DRM. Classic Jobs power play. Will it work?
