Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson Talks About Lessons Learned

Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson took the PopTech stage in Camden Maine on October 20, 2011, where he discussed economic crises and how to handle them in a way that will ensure long term sustainability of a country. He used his own as an obvious example, which has not only faced economic issues but natural disasters over the past year.

President Grimsson spoke about how he made a choice for his country that would either make farmers, local businesses and individuals take responsibility for their own decisions which would impact the financial health of the country OR turn to/blame the force of the market.

He chose to choose the democratic will of the people, which he says, hasn’t brought on the dark results that everyone predicted it would.

In his day, he reminded the audience, demonstrations and protests were the only way to get noticed and bring about change. “Now,” he says, “we are now seeing people power in its purest form, enhanced by social media. The fundamental essence remains to challenge political institutions as never before.”

"The power of the people through social media has dramatically accelerated change, making the traditional political decision making process has almost become a side show," he says.

Below are some lessons he has learned from Iceland: 

• Significance of China. "The arrival of China is here now, not ten or twenty years from now," he says. "The leadership of China was the one of the most successful discussions following the collapse of the banking system than any other country we talked to, including Germany, Italy, U.S., France and others."

• The banks have become high tech companies, threatening the growth of the creative sectors of our economies. He says, "What we learned in Iceland, when the banks collapsed, is that the pool of talent from the banks were suddenly all available. "Even if the banks are successful, it’s bad news for a country that wants to be a player in the creative economy," he adds.
• The importance of clean energy. The lesson learned is that if you have built up a clean energy economy, it  will help you fight against financial crisis in the future. It provides people with a lot of energy at a low cost.

 

Aneesh Chopra: Blue Buttoning Our Own Data Will Fuel Innovation & Empower Americans

If you haven't heard of the name before, Aneesh Chopra is the United States Chief Technology Officer, where he serves as an Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology within the Office of Science & Technology Policy. Whooah Nelly, that's a mouthful of a title.

In other words, he works to advance the President’s technology agenda by fostering new ideas and encouraging government-wide coordination to help the country meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland.   

I had a chance to listen to him speak at the Idea Festival recently, where his talk focused on the President's mission and goals, with a central core theme to make it happen: working from the bottom up, not the top down and opening up data so others can create and innovate with it, and we, as a nation, can thrive.

Here's what they're currently focused on within the above framework:

• Putting more people back to work
• Boosting access to capital for high growth companies
• Turning job seekers to job creators
• Unleashing the mobile broadband revolution
• Modernizing 35,000 schools  
• Making government services transparent to job creators
• Open Government aka the Start Up America initiative
• Patent reform
• Catalyze breakthroughs

Technology was a big part of his message as he echoes Obama's pitch, "for our families and our businesses, high speed wireless service and mobile is the next train station, it’s the next off-ramp..it’s how we’ll spark innovation, new investment, new jobs." He also referenced Silicon Valley start-ups on more than one occasion, including Instagram and Crowdflower.

He sees cloud computing and mobility unlocking major potential and accelerating productivity in key sectors.

Aneesh says that there's an aministration commitment to unleash market opportunities by framing current or proposed policies to inspired entrepreneurs and gaining valuable policy feedback for iteration with an emphasis on healthcare, education and energy.

Where is the puck heading?

"We need breakthroughs," he says. "The only way is to tap into new hubs outside Silicon Valley." Hear hear Aneesh.

He also talked about education dominance, pushing software that adapts to how students learn, inspiration for the proposed ARPA-ED. They want to open up the data to teachers and make it accessible to them and their students, regardless of where they are in the country.

Another challenge they face he throws the audience's way is the clean energy revolution. They're hoping that ARPA-E investments and NIST standards activities will spur creativity.

He cites the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as an example, America's center for weather data. The weather industry is worth about $2 billion he reminds and "they're fueled because of open government data." 

Aneesh adds, "we can also encourage market transparency." Healthcare.gov is a comprehensive catalog of insurance options, an effort to create more transparency than ever before. You’ll be able to find pricing data, how often an insurance company charges a premium, and how often were people rejected (denied coverage for whatever reason).

He also mentioned “Blue Button”, a public/private initiative that scales, where veterans can download their personal health information from their My HealtheVet account. My HealtheVet users who receive VA health care services can also refill their prescriptions and view their appointments, allergies, and laboratory results online.

Why not transfer that kind of tool to other areas and industries he says, such as education. "Imagine if every student could get a downloadable document of his/her assessment, a personalized platform that translates from student performance to market reality. We need personalized platforms for each of our children that can translate into something meaningful. This is the kind of thing that can fuel products and services. Find where the data sits and find out a way to liberate that data.”

He adds, "We're liberating government data & if people can become billionaires because of it, God Bless." The audience laughs. 

He continued to push the open government throughout his talk including in the Q&A at the end, which was incredibly well received. (note: while the audience had visitors from the west coast, DC, the north, NYC and other places, there was a large number of locals - aka the midwest meets the south...in other words, family values and education are high priorities).

Certainly blue buttoning our own data is going to fuel innovation and empower individuals. Isn't it where we have to go? If we don't, we become victims rather than creators of our own lives and destinies in more ways than one.

 

AlwaysOn GoingGreen: How Do We Get The Rest of The Country Behind Greentech?

The AlwaysOn GoingGreen event is in San Francisco this week, kicking things off with the VC Funding Outlook for The Global Greentech Marketplace. KPMG Director Craig Lobdell leads a panel that includes:

•  Stephen Eichenlaub, Managing Director, Intel Capital
•  Forest Baskett, General Partner, NEA
•  Anup Jacob, Partner, Virgin Green Fund
•  Anand Kamannavar, Venture Capital Associate Investment Manager, Applied Ventures

Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson does a keynote on Disruptive Innovation in Cleantech. They also had a Greentech CEO Showcase session which included:  
 
•  Brad Kayton, CEO, ZOME
•  William Whittenberger, CEO, Catacel Corporation
•  CK Singla, CEO, Net4site
•  Dan Wallis, CEO, De Villiers Walton
•  Rory Faber, CEO, Strammit Strawboard

Peter Graf, Chief Sustainability Officer at SAP AG led a session on Improving profits through sustainability and Venrock Partner Ray Rothrock led a panel on how do we get the rest of the country behind Greentech with the following panelists:

•  Carrie Armel, Research Associate , Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, Stanford University
•  Gene Wang, People Power, CEO
•  Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar, Google

Nat Goldhaber, Claremont Creek Ventures Managing Director talked about China and discussed whether it would clean our "clock in cleantech."

Ed Lambert, SVP and Silicon Valley Region Market Manager of Bridge Bank Ed Lambert led a session on water technology start-ups, which included the following thinkers in this area:

•  Bogdan Serban, CEO, Epuramat
•  David Stanton, CEO, APTwater
•  Peter Frykman, Founder & CEO, Driptech
•  Peter Yolles, CEO, WaterSmart Software

Check out the full GoingGreen Silicon Valley program here.

Lopa Brunjes on Biochar & Carbon Reduction

Lopa Brunjes started her TEDxBerkeley talk by asking the audience how many people had heard of BIOCHAR, which is essentially a porous charcoal, through a process called pyrolysis.

Biochar is known to slow climate change by sequestering, or trapping, carbon that would otherwise have seeped into the atmosphere. It apparently also improves the fertility of the soil and the quality of ground water, leading to more productive agriculture.

The problem today? Organic biomass naturally decomposes and when it does, carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere. By taking that organic biomass and thoroughly cooking it at extreme temperatures in an oven without oxygen (pyrolysis), it locks the carbon inside the cooked material (biochar).

She talked about how she came to learn about the climate change, which was while meditating with ants on a small island near Lombok. It was here where she came to the realization that climate change is an interconnectivity issue. Early on in 'her search,' she jumped around a lot to find something that had meaning for her. By the time she was 24, she had already had 30 jobs.

The quote that most moves her? Work is love made visible - Khalil Gibran.

She's finding meaning now through her work with biochar and carbon reduction. "The bottom line," she says, "we're putting too much carbon into the atmosphere. To make a real difference, we have to put the carbon back. Lopa currently manages a comprehensive strategy at Biochar Engineering in Golden Colorado, that focus on removing market barriers to scaling biochar, via market development, attracting capital, and stakeholder engagement.

Some sad facts: 1,000 years of work and growth and modern agriculture can destroy it in 30 years.

Lopa feels that biochar, which builds soil structure, has a key role to play in climate change and the green revolution.  

Half of the carbon ends up in biochar and the other half of biochar offsets fossil fuels. If this was used on a global scale, biochar could convert 12% of greenhouse gas emissions annually. 

At a somewhat peak moment of her talk, she simply walked off the stage without saying a word and then a seconds later, came back with a wheel barrel full of biochar.

She dumped it on the stage and says with conviction: "if we don't put it back into the earth, it'll end up in the air."

Not a bad way to make an impact. Lopa believes that in order for us to really change course and make it a sustainable change, we all have to work together and that each one of us is a piece of the puzzle to the solution.

 

Walter Hood: Start With Community & Build the GREEN Around Them

Walter Hood talks and walks a green path and lives and breathes his passion. His view of what green landscape should look like in urban areas? Listen to what he said about Oakland's Lake Merritt in a Fast Company article.

"Everything seems like it's dropped out of nowhere. It's like, okay, we'll put in the grasses and the rocks and let's do the stupid green roof over a garbage-compactor thing. That's the playbook of landscape architecture. But this is the centerpiece of our community. It should add up and become something larger." The "something larger" is real nature opposed to a fabricated image of nature.

He talked to the TEDxBerkeley crowd recently about the green prints he has been working on in Pittsburg. He showed us his 'green' plans, which he called "You Live in the Woods," and within the woods is a village. He says he watches where the people go and then builds around them.

Hood has been working on a number of cities around America, not just Pittsburgh. Among others, Wood has had an impact on Buffalo and Jackson, Wyoming, where he transformed street corners and highway underpasses into public spaces.

He encouraged us to think differently about public spaces and to stop being afraid of 'green' spaces as they are 'naturally'. "We don't have to control it all the time - sometimes we can just it go." He reminded us how rare it is to see 'woods' anymore, "you know," he says, "that vacant lot where a kid can go into it and see the rainforest, get dirty, play with ants, see Africa, get away from mom and dad."

He's right. When I was a kid, I had my own woods.....I even called it "the woods," and it was there where I took dogs for a walk, built forts, climbed trees, went hunting for frogs and just sat and looked at the bush. It was a place I could seek refuge when things didn't make sense, which for a ten year old is often. And, for a 15 year old, it's even more often.

He showed us amazing photos of 'green forest' they created in Pittsburg, an area that looked more like a mini-rainforest in the middle of an urban sprawl. He says with passion, "we don't need to make a community garden and a park. We need to stop controlling everything."

With his projects, he focuses on the GREEN first and lets everything grow from that one central point. He encouraged the crowd to "think about culture and landscape together. On other words, we can bring the 'hill' back to communities.

Hood ended his talk with this advice: bring back the hill, learn about the hill and listen to stories from people in the hill. Learn more about Walter's work here.

TODAY, TEDxBerkeley Brings Leaders Together to Reveal World-Changing Projects that are Engaging the World

This morning starting at 10:30 am, nearly 1,200 world leading thinkers, visionaries, doers and students will gather for the second TEDxBerkeley event at Zellerbach Hall.

Fifteen ground-breaking thinkers and leaders in their fields will discuss issues such as: how to find personal meaning in the business world and how to scale social change in the developing world.

Within the theme of “Engaging the World”, the event will be broken down into three categories: Dream, Pioneer and Connect.

Below is a list of the 2011 TEDxBerkeley speakers. Visit the TEDxBerkeley speaker page for their detailed biographies.

• Bryan Alvarez – Doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, researching brain-based and cognitive mechanisms of a unique form of sensory-blending called synesthesia, which he also experiences.
• Jason Atwood – Ph.D. Candidate, Activist, and Director of Ethiopia ConnectED, an education initiative inspired by TEDster Sugata Mitra’s research on self-organized learning environments.
• Anat Baniel – Founder of the Anat Baniel Method and Director of the ABM Center in Marin County, California, where she and her colleagues teach professional training programs and workshops.
• Lopa Brunjes – Biochar pioneer, passionate sustainability advocate, and Executive VP of Biochar Engineering Corp, a small Colorado company defining the leading edge of the burgeoning biochar industry.
• Chip Conley – Founder and Executive Chairman of Joie de Vivre, California’s largest boutique hotel company, Author and Entrepreneur.
• Sonja Drakulich – Musician and Singer who performs Balkan and Medieval European music, as well as Persian, Turkish, Greek and Arabic; toured nationally with the Mevlevi Dervishes as singer and percussionist and in Indonesia with the Gamelan Theater Group.
• Robert Fuller – Former President of Oberlin College and Author of Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank, coined the term “rankism” and is a leader in the worldwide quest for human dignity.
• Erin Ganju – Co-founder and chief executive officer of Room to Read, an organization that seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in the developing world by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.
• Eoin Harrington – Singer, songwriter and guitarist, described as described as reminiscent of Maroon 5's Adam Levine, James Blunt or "a grittier Elton John." 
• Walter Hood – Professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design Department. His studio, Hood Design, has been engaged in architectural commissions, urban design, art installations, and research since 1992. 
• Gopi Kallayil – Group Product Marketing Manager at Google supporting the marketing of the Company’s flagship advertising product, AdWords, in the Americas and Asia Pacific. 
• Brad Kava – Award-winning journalist, writer, blues harmonica player and co-owner of the Santa Cruz Blues Festival.
• Noteworthy – UC Berkeley all-male a cappella group unique for writing the majority of their own pieces.
• David Rose – Product Designer, Technology Visionary, Serial Entrepreneur and current chief executive officer of Vitality, a company reinventing medication packaging with wireless technology.
• Moses Sedler – Cellist & Composer of music for dance, film and concert stage, with a background in classical, improvisatory music as well as European folk and Indian music.
• David Silverman – Animator and was involved with the animated TV series The Simpsons from the very beginning, where he animated all of the original Simpsons Tracy Ullman shorts and went on to serve as director of animation for several years.
• Shore Slocum – Co-Founder of SoulNeeds, a social networking platform for the soul, and Speaker/Trainer who conducts Speakers Boot Camps which has inspired tens of thousands annually around the world.
• Marti Spiegelman – Training Professional, Mentor, Speaker, and Founder and Host of Awakening Value: Shamanic Technologies of Consciousness and Success on the VoiceAmerica Web Radio Network.
• Peter Stanley - Record producer, songwriter and guitar player extraordinaire who fronts the blues band Doghouse Riley.
• Matt Venuti – Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and TED veteran who opened the 2004 conference in Monterey with a solo. He will perform on the Pan Art Hang on the TEDxBerkeley stage.

The TEDx Berkeley team includes: Curator Kevin Gong, a translator who has volunteered for the Global Lives Project; co-curator Renee Blodgett, founder of Magic Sauce Media and We Blog the World, co-curator Ross Evans, founder of Worldbike; Director of Marketing, Jennifer Barr, VP/Operations at Northern CA Wharton Business School Club; Director of Logistics Navi Ganancial, serial volunteer and social media marketing guru; Director of Sponsorships Brent Locks, founding COO of GreenLaces.org; Director of Web Strategies Massimo Paolini, founder of MPThree Consulting Inc.; Technical Director Rocky Mullin, production volunteer for EG and TEDMED, musician & producer  and Volunteer Manager David Allen, Berkeley student studying Neural Theory of Language.

One Climate Dot Net on Accelerating Climate Change

Check out Robert Scoble's audio interview of an interesting use of social media at World Economic Forum to get people to move accelerate climate change awareness to the next level. More at oneclimate.net and on Cinchcast (for the audio file).

 

Bob Metcalfe, Bill Warner, Kiva, CarWoo, TerraPower All at 5x5

XConomy's “5×5” Forum in Boston this month attracted some of the best and the brightest in the technology industry. Below is a summary, largely taken from Greg Huang's excerpts on-site.

1. Bill Warner emphasized his more unconventional approach to startups. “I intend to help people follow their heart,” he said. “I believe people are pushed to follow their head.” A startup’s philosophy boils down to what he calls the “negotiated invention” model—what most entrepreneurs follow by leading with their idea or technology and making compromises based on the market and egos versus from their soul and heart.

2.Client CarWoo provided tips on how to become the next Groupon. Founder and CEO Tommy McClung, from the Bay Area, talked about targeting established business models in big markets, which are “usually ripe for disruption”; riding the emerging trend of “online to offline” and balancing incentives for customers. 

3. Kiva Systems is cash-flow positive and now gets business from 10 of the top 100 retailers, including Amazon (Zappos,Diapers.com), Staples, and Gilt Groupe.  

4.  TerraPower has a 20-year goal: cheap, safe, and plentiful energy for everyone, and the eradication of poverty.  For Greg's full write-up, click here.

Disclosure Note: I am a consultant for CarWoo.

The Top "Internet of Things" for 2010

ReadWriteWeb has a great round-up of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is a term for when everyday ordinary objects are connected to the Internet via microchips. Technologies used include sensors, RFID and smartphone standards like NFC.

Companies ranging from HP and IBM to Nike and Pachube are launching products and apps using these technologies.

Below is ReadWriteWeb's picks for the top 10 Internet of Things developments of 2010.  Original post with more extensive detail can be found here.

HP's CENSE Network - One of the leading Internet of Things projects is being built by HP, in the form of a platform called CeNSE - which stands for "Central Nervous System for the Earth."

IBM's Smarter Planet - IBM's Smarter Planet campaign is about connecting objects to the Internet and applying intelligence and services on top of that. Like HP, IBM uses the central nervous system analogy."

Government Internet of Things: China & EU - The Internet of Things was a strategic interest for both the European Parliament and the Chinese government this year. RRW had a Parliament of Things post which covered the EU's resolution to endorse the development of the sector that is worth reading.

In the middle of the year, China announced a plan that will "fix a clear positioning, development goals, timetable and roadmap of the IoT industry." China plans to strengthen policy support of IoT, including financial and taxation measures.  

DASH7 (RFID) - The amount of electricity it takes to power a trillion nodes, or things, that communicate with the Web is significant. Yet battery life and battery production costs have not declined at the same pace as processing power. RFID is well positioned to address this. Thing Magic's 100 uses of RFID campaign was an an effective awareness raising tool in the second half of 2010.

Emergence of the Smart Grid - In 2010 the more practical uses of IoT began to take shape, such as ways to conserve energy - a.k.a. the Smart Grid. For more including a full read on the above listings and the rest of the top ten, check out RRW's extensive round-up.

Meet the 2010 PopTech Fellows

Watch their PopTech talks - Sinan Aral on social contagions • Kim Cobb on how climate changes • Ben Dubin-Thaler on science-by-bus • Casey Dunn on evolving diversity • Gidon Eshel on the impact of food • Sarah Fortune on fighting TB • Justin Gallivan on custom bacteria • Sean Gourley on tracking innovation • Amro Hamdoun on cell self-defense • Brian Hare on peace and bonobos • Amishi Jha on building attention • Beth Shapiro on why species go extinct.  Lauren Abramson on better justice • Yasser Ansari on citizen science • Rush Bartlett on safe drug delivery • Matthew Berg on mobiles for health • Nina Dudnik on Seeding Labs • Brian Elliot on friend power • Brooke Betts Farrell on waste as treasure • Leila Janah on fighting poverty with jobs • Ben Lyon on mobile microcredit • Raj Panjabi on post-conflict health • Kel Sheppey on fighting HIV/AIDS • Ryan Smithon turning sewage into plastic • Laura Stachel on saving lives with solar energy • Salinee Tavaranan on micro-energy.  PopTech's Science and Public Leadership Fellows program is building a corps of visible and trusted scientific leaders who encourage science as a way of thinking and engage with the public about issues of critical importance.