Kessler Kicks Off (and Ticks Off) Defrag

by jbreazeale on November 12, 2009

Keynoter Andy Kessler kicked off Defrag with a bang. I guess with a title like “Soylent Green“, no one should have been surprised at his controversial talk.  He started with an interesting premise (and visual) that we need to boost productivity by “defragging” the economy – reducing waste, improving efficiencies, having people spend less time on busy work and more time on value add. If he’d just stopped at that point, we would have had some interesting discussions, some pro/con chatter on the backchannels, and everyone would have gone on about their day.
But he didn’t stop there, instead he continued…
People are either creators (those who add value, making stuff)  or servers (everyone else) .
Okay…
For the lowest level servers, those who just move stuff from one place to another withouth providing value, we should automate those tasks or ship them overseas.
Well, okay, we have managed to add automation into many of these types of jobs already. Look at those huge robots in car plants or watch Unwrapped sometime.
Luxury goods companies (or pretty much any successfully branded companies) are also sucking the productivity potential dry because they’re charging way more for their products than they’re worth. (Example: Why buy a Rolex when you have a free clock on you iPhone.)
Yeah, totally disagree on this one. I mean, I’m not saying that a Rolex isn’t over-priced, but a) it’s definitely not the same as the clock on my iPhone and b) who determines that value? Where do consumers fit into this economic paradigm? Are you saying that the size of the economic pie is fixed – that if I spend my  money on a Rolex, I’m not going to spend somewhere else?
We can squeeze productivity out of the “Sponge” servers by removing the false limits on supply (i.e. licensing, education requirements, etc.)
Yippee. Let’s remove all licensing. I mean, if I want to be a doctor, I shouldn’t have to be falsely limited by a stupid medical degree, right? Who needs a reference librarian when we have Google? Teachers, smeechers, let’s just find our content online. (Yes, this is where the tweet-revolt really started heating up in earnest.)
But when it comes to Wall Street, yeah, they may be servers, but they’re critical to the economy because they “grease the gears” of capitalism. Without them, we wouldn’t have these great deals happening that are keeping the economy moving.
Excuse me? School teachers don’t add value, but the Wall Street guys are critical to capitalism? Mega company mergers keep the economy moving? (Yeah, this was one of *my* hot buttons.)
And, finally if we could just tap into that final reservoir of productivity that exists in the band of “thieves”, those industries and businesses with a government mandated reason for existence (cable, utilities, telephone, etc.)…
Ok, the cable company is not a shining example of efficiency. Nor is the telephone company, or my wireless provider, but many of these regulated monopolies were created and are sustained for the public good. I may not like my phone provider, but I can make a phone call to almost anywhere in the world. Would that have happened without government involvement? Yes, there probably are some OSHA requirements that are ridiculous, but how many lives have been saved or injuries prevented because of those same requirements.
Like many other Defrag attendees, I didn’t agree with most of Andy’s talk. Even if we were able to implement some of his suggested changes, what would we now do with those people who are out of work? Are we turning janitors into Google founders? What if the highest and best use of your time is being a waiter? Should your job be automated so you can do something “more productive”, like compose music?
But even with the fundamental philosophical disagreements, I actually gave Andy good marks for his keynote. He was entertaining and memorable. He provoked discussion (which has continued even through today). He brought people together (through their dislike of his topic, but still.)  I’d take another Andy Kessler talk over a sleepy PowerPoint product pitch any day.

Andy_Kessler_At_DefragKeynoter Andy Kessler kicked off Defrag with a bang. I guess with a title like “Be Soylent, Eat People”, no one should have been surprised at his controversial talk.

He started with an interesting premise (and visual) that we need to boost productivity by “defragging” the economy – reducing waste, improving efficiencies, having people spend less time on busy work and more time on value add.

If he’d just stopped at that point, we would have had some interesting discussions, some pro/con chatter on the backchannels, and everyone would have gone on about their day.

But he didn’t stop there, instead he continued…

People are either creators (those who add value, making stuff)  or servers (everyone else) .

Okay…

For the lowest level servers, those who just move stuff from one place to another without providing value, we should automate those tasks or ship them overseas.

Well, okay, we have managed to add automation into many of these types of jobs already. Look at those huge robots in car plants or watch Unwrapped sometime.

Luxury goods companies (or pretty much any successfully branded companies) are also sucking the productivity potential dry because they’re charging way more for their products than they’re worth. (Example: Why buy a Rolex when you have a free clock on you iPhone.)

Yeah, totally disagree on this one. I mean, I’m not saying that a Rolex isn’t over-priced, but a) it’s definitely not the same as the clock on my iPhone and b) who determines that value? Where do consumers fit into this economic paradigm? Are you saying that the size of the economic pie is fixed – that if I spend my  money on a Rolex, I’m not going to spend somewhere else?

We can squeeze productivity out of the “Sponge” servers by removing the false limits on supply (i.e. licensing, education requirements, etc.)

Yippee. Let’s remove all licensing. I mean, if I want to be a doctor, I shouldn’t have to be falsely limited by a stupid medical degree, right? Who needs a reference librarian when we have Google? Teachers, smeechers, let’s just find our content online. (Yes, this is where the tweet-revolt really started heating up in earnest.)

But when it comes to Wall Street, yeah, they may be servers, but they’re critical to the economy because they “grease the gears” of capitalism. Without them, we wouldn’t have these great deals happening that are keeping the economy moving.

Excuse me? School teachers don’t add value, but the Wall Street guys are critical to capitalism? Mega company mergers keep the economy moving? (Yeah, this was one of *my* hot buttons.)

Finally, if we could just tap into that final reservoir of productivity that exists in the band of “thieves”, those industries and businesses with a government mandated reason for existence (cable, utilities, telephone, etc.)…

Ok, the cable company is not a shining example of efficiency. Nor is the telephone company, or my wireless provider, but many of these regulated monopolies were created and are sustained for the public good. I may not like my phone provider, but I can make a phone call to almost anywhere in the world. Would that have happened without government involvement? Yes, there probably are some OSHA requirements that are ridiculous, but how many lives have been saved or injuries prevented because of those same requirements.

Like many other Defrag attendees, I didn’t agree with most of Andy’s talk. Even if we were able to implement some of his suggested changes, what would we now do with those people who are out of work? Are we turning janitors into Google founders? What if the highest and best use of your time is being a waiter? Should your job be automated so you can do something “more productive”, like compose music?

But even with the fundamental philosophical disagreements, I actually gave Andy good marks for his keynote. He was entertaining and memorable. He provoked discussion (which has continued even through today). He brought people together (through their dislike of his topic, but still.)  I’d take another Andy Kessler talk over a sleepy PowerPoint product pitch any day.

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Photo by Doc Searles / CC BY-SA 2.0

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Denver New Tech Meetup: The Farm Report

by jbreazeale on August 19, 2009

muuuuuuuucaI know some people still consider Denver a cow-town, but after last night’s Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup, maybe we’re more of a cow and bunny town…

If you haven’t made it to one of these Meetups yet, here’s what it’s all about:

The 1st Tuesday each month at 6PM, five people get five minutes each to demo something. Five companies each have five minutes to demonstrate their new technology, followed by five minutes for Q&A from the audience. The event is designed to provide a time and place for technologists and entrepreneurs to showcase the new technology developing in Boulder/Denver tech community (geeks, investors, entrepreneurs, hackers, etc). The event is also designed to create networking opportunities for anyone interested in new technology.

Fun, right? And since I happened to have free babysitting services last night (thank you for in-laws visiting from out of town!), I hopped in the car and made the quick trip downtown to the Tivoli.

(Note to self: Check parking maps *before* heading out. Especially when you’re headed to a college campus and school is in session.)

CowPotato Logo

CowPotato: Using Android to whack cows with spuds

After welcoming remarks from Robert Reich (OneRiot) and Brad Bernthal (Silicon Flatirons), Jeremy Slade kicked off the presentations with a demo of his Android-based game: CowPotato (yes, you shoot cows with a potato gun.)  I would have been more interested to hear about developing for Android versus for the iPhone, but that’s probably more of a Boulder Open Coffee Club topic. Crowd consensus: meh (although for some reason mooing cows does consistently cause crowd giggling.)

vPo.st Logo

vPo.st: Mobile to Social

After the cows, we moved on to…bunnies? David Rudder used these awesome electronic rabbits to demo his mobile to social networking platform, vPo.st.  With vPo.st, you can use your mobile phone to call in a message, that would then get transcribed (via Twilio) and posted to your social network (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace).  In this example, a call to vPo.st sent a message to Twitter that prompted the electro-bunnies to start lighting up and twitching their ears. Cool.  (Check out the Violet RFID Mirror package on ThinkGeek or buy the stand-alone bunnies directly from Violet.)

Boulder Digital WorksBoulder Digital Works: Transdisciplinary learning

David Slayden took us briefly out of the cow and bunny farm with an overview of the new Boulder Digital Works “60Weeks” program starting this fall. Generally, it’s a non-degree university-based program combining the schools of journalism and mass communication with engineering for a yummy art+technology blend of goodness. Anyone want to loan give me $25K to check it out?

BUNNYHEADLocalBunny: Smart and automatic responses for your business on Twitter

And then, just in case you were starting to miss them, we were back to the bunnies. This time LocalBunny wrapped it up with an overview of their keyword-based Twitter auto-responder for businesses. Think TextMarks, but with Twitter instead of SMS. It’s an interesting concept and I think it will be great for businesses… once they can get *users* effectively using keywords. Not a huge hurdle, but something to think about.

If this sounded like fun…

Join me (and 300+ others) at the next Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup on September 1st in Boulder. Tweet “presenters” to @bdnt to get up to date presenter information (thanks to LocalBunny).

Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup Logo

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Making connections

by jbreazeale on February 24, 2009

Image representing Meetup as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

Last week I attended the first Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup in Denver.  I was so excited that I could actually attend Boulder Open Coffee Club in the morning and the BDNT that evening (since I don’t live in Boulder, I can’t make both of these events when they’re in Boulder on the same day. Too much driving.)   I’d been to a couple of the meetups in Boulder and they were always loud, crazy, energetic and fun (kinda like Boulder), so I was hoping that the Denver meetup would be able to recreate some of this magic, even if it was tempered by age, experience, and a handful of suits (kinda like Denver).  I’d say we’re off to a good start with the Denver event, but I’m doubtful that we’ll see a meaningful connection between the Denver and Boulder groups without significant, ongoing efforts to make it happen.

Some quick (and totally unscientific) observations on the two groups…

New Tech Meetup – Boulder

  • 50-75% have laptops out and working during the event; if you’re not using your laptop it’s because you’re probably on your iPhone.
  • The Twitter backchannel is fast and furious, with a fair amount of heckling, but plenty of helpful questions and comments as well.
  • The energy level buzzes throughout the event, from early drinks, through the presentations, to after-event meetups and tweet-ups.
  • The content presented ranges from “we have a great idea and cool technology” to “we have a great idea, cool technology and an iPhone app.”
  • Presenters are 98% male and young.
  • Companies are tiny, almost always <10 people. Mostly <5.

New Tech Meetup – Denver

  • Out of ~300 people, I saw three laptops out and working. I’m sure there were mobile devices out and about, but I mostly saw Blackberries, Palms, and only a handful of iPhones (and those were often from the Boulder folks.)
  • There was a Twitter backchannel; mostly non-heckling; good questions and feedback, but not as integrated with the event as it is in Boulder. Of course, that could also be due to the room configuration – it was really hard to read the feed on the screen.
  • The energy level was modest at the beginning, lulled to near-death in the middle, but finished pretty well. Lots of hallway conversations after the event bodes well.
  • The content presented ranged from “we have a great idea and cool technology” to “we’re a funded, profitable company targeting specific enterprise level customers.”
  • Presenters are 100% male (okay, there’s only been one meetup, so I’m sure at some point we’ll have a woman up there!) and a little bit older (i.e. >25).
  • Companies are small to medium-sized.

Connecting the dots

We have a thriving startup hub in Boulder. We have a healthy support system (bankers, lawyers, workers) in Denver to help companies grow. How can we bring the two together?

I hope the size and popularity of the BDNT will at least help to get the ball rolling, but we’re going to need more.

More from the grassroots – the communities of designers, developers, and other tech-heads who work together on and across projects and companies and thereby expand and improve the quality of available talent.

More from the infrastructure – the schools, universities, professors, students, and alumni whose intellectual resources and discoveries could provide limitless business opportunities with the right partnership with skilled entrepreneurs.

And, more from the business community – the VCs, angels, bankers, and lawyers who hold the purse strings and therefore can use a combination of both carrot and stick to encourage “cross-cultural” activities that strengthen their companies.

Without enough of these efforts – in quantity and/or intensity – we’ll miss out on our opportunity to become a hyperconnected powerhouse of new business energy and will instead continue to spike and spark and sputter.

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Technology + Kids Nonprofits in Denver

by jbreazeale on January 21, 2009

A friend was looking for some volunteer opportunities around kids & tech in the Denver Metro organization (specifically rebuilding computers and redistributing them to underserved kids), I didn’t find exactly what she was looking for, but I did find some great organizations such as:

LifeByte Computer Ministry
Lifebyte is composed of a group of spiritual techies who use the gifts and direction of God to acquire, restore and deliver free computers to those without. We are a mission who believes in helping our local Denver and world communities. Your support will give individuals and families in the Denver area and around the world hope and opportunities through computers.

So the religious angle can be a deal-maker or a deal-breaker for many people, but this group seems to be well organized and well intentioned and very effective.

Denver Tech for All
Tech for All makes available to individuals in the community the means to become skilled and competent in computer use; to gather donations, collect and recondition used equipment, identify qualified recipients and place the appropriate equipment with them solely for their use and at no charge.

Similar to LifeByte without the religious angle. Wow, they really need a new website though!

Third Way Center
Third Way Center’s mission is to provide a continuum of services in a home-like environment where high-risk, homeless, mentally ill and disadvantaged youth can work through their problems, learn to take responsibility for their actions and become productive members of society.

This one came from a reference of a local parenting group member who had volunteered at the Center. Like many organizations of this type, funds are always tight and must first be used to meet the immediate needs of their clients. Donations of time and technology are a welcomed perk and much appreciated.

KidsTek
KidsTek connects the resources and opportunities of the technology sector with the identified technology education needs of kids in Colorado’s underserved communities.

This group focuses on directing its support to existing school systems / technology programs. I like where they’re coming from — basically, we’ve solved the hardware and accessibility problem, but if you don’t maintain that infrastructure and continue to engage the kids, you’ll end up with old computers gathering dust on the floor — but it’s a pretty new organization and still getting up and running. I’ll be interested to see where they can take it.

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