Fundraising for Social Entrepreneurs

Fund raising Resources for Social Entrepreneurs

Fund raising as a Process in Launching Small Business
There seem to be four stages to fund raising for social business enterprises:
1) Product/prototype development (customer/client development)
2) Finding potential sources (and researching
3) Applying for grants, projects, and funding
4) Cultivating your donor base AND creating customers for sustainable business.

One critical advantage to this process is that you are likely to be able to get 1) Direction from potential future clients on better product/market fit 2) Testimonials for people who could potentially need/want your service (Its important to note that this is loosely based on the work of Steve Blank who teaches at Stanford University on early stage customer development)

Once you get to step two (and you can work on step one and two together) hopefully these resources can be helpful
as they are my best resources for fund raising for social entrepreneurship:
1) Business week recently featured this on fundraising for social entrepreneurs.

2) Ashoka is a fantastic organization for social entrepreneurship and has monthly announcements about funding possibilities.

3) Investigate the ways you can get funding from government, banks, and more routes for funding for small business

4) Peer to peer giving is gaining some (although securing bank funding seems intuitively easier)

5) Talk to similar social entrepreneurs and gain from their expertise and experience in fund raising. (in similar sectors or even in similar geographic locales–although I imagine that much of fund raising in this area is focused on type) More generally, this will also allow you to build your network.

6) Social Edge has two resources on Fundraising for social business specific to writing letters, although a related materials as well.

7) If you are pitching individual donors, creating a great business plan and a decent pitch deck is important. You can find fantastic business plan resources at Sequoia Capital and find great pitch recommendations at Venture Hacks. With a social business plan you will want to be able to demonstrate a social impact (and probably attempt to quantify it in some fashion).

The key is to develop a great product/service (hopefully assembling a team and advisors as necessary) and a great pitch to someone who is likely to be interested in your cause.

Martin Fischer of Kickstart on Technology Entrepreneurship

Martin Fischer of Kickstart on technology entrepreneurship in the developing world:

1. Identify Opportunities ~ What ventures are profitable?
2. Design Products ~ What device or tool makes money?
3. Scale the Supply Chain ~ How do the goods get everywhere?
4. Develop the Market ~ What inspires actually buying?
5. Measure Impact & Repeat ~ Ensuring results & reinvesting!

Hopefully this model (perhaps leveraging Paul Polak’s problem solving method) can scale global business to help alleviate poverty.

Design for the Other 90 Percent Wiki

Design for the Other 90 Percent Examples

A university class at UC San Diego at created a wiki called “Design for Development: Designing Technologies for Developing Economies” which provides a catalog of info and case studies, and resources about global development technologies.

The wiki was created by Derek Lomas who runs a fantastic organization Playpower for the development of technology based learning tools for the developing world. You can follow Derek and Playpower on Twitter.

If design for the other 90 percent, the base of the pyramid, or social entrepreneurship in education is interesting to you, please check out my posts.

Appreciative Inquiry for Accelerated Learning

Here is a presentation for Teach for America, which is about Appreciative Inquiry by David Cooperridder of Case Western Reserve University, which is learning which integrates the insight from motivation research and emotional intelligence.

• ”Learn how to learn as a global family” he calls this one of the “great adventures of our time.” His philosophy Segelman, Barbara Hedrickson, and Peter Drucker.

• Strength elevated perspective… true, better. Finding consistent ways to lift that up. the task of leadership is to create an alighnment of strengths that make weakness irrelevant.
• Could it be all about strengths?
• ”Hope connected to hope. Inspiration to connected to inspiration.”
• Signature strengths (Its like the DSMV for human strengths–its a vocabulary) (also mentions an encyclopedia)
• Magnify the intensity of strengths
• Strength extending organization
• Three parts Segelman proposed (positive institution: magnification) extend courage, wisdom, and humanity out into the world.
• Non-deficit change in human learning
• The most exciting project I have worked on: Kofi Annan, Jeffery Sachs, etc.
• We need a new vision of business in society for the 21st century
• Business as a force for peace and eco-innovation
• Did Appreciative Inquiry on/with this project.
• Switzerland: a handoff of the project (4,000 corporations involved)
• Sachs: How can we accelerate the solutions (to extreme poverty)?
• “I refuse to miss this opportunity”
• Nano-solar in california. Solar panels on 4% of dessert, without even the tech of nano-solar. Partially funded by Google
• Coca Cola “Time to stand up, speak up, and scale up”
• Spread of strength, capacity, and innovation
• What is the name we would give to our generation?
• The most priviledged generation? Next 25 to 30 will be decisive.
• Can we accelerate?
• Can download appreciative inquiry. To find stories. In Brazil…
• Accel…Learning (VIA Instrument Website: Wisdom, Hope, Curiosity)
• Global Anticipatory Learning
• No Limits to Learning (book) #1 Agenda of our Era
• Need a whole new kind of learning–experiential learning. Can’t afford this, however, because of cost. (ie species extinction, nuclear war require anticipatory learning)
• Israel Startup scene is based on these principles. 10% of income to Israel based on these 300 companies
• Using the strengths of business.
• Used cartoons to teach
• So much potential letting up
• Looking for the sweet spot: trememdous value for business and society

You can check out the Appreciative Inquiry Commons for more on these concepts, including extensive articles and a robust bibliography on appreciative learning.

Books and Resources on Corporate Learning and Training 2.0

1) Digital Game Based Learning, By Marc Prensky

2) E-learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multi-media Learning, By Ruth Colvin Clark, Richard E. Mayer

3) How to Measure Training Results: A Practical Guide to Tracking the Six Key Indicators, By Jack Phillips and Ron Stone

4) Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to Turn Training and Development into Business Results, By Calhoun W. Wick, Roy V. H. Pollock, Andrew McK. Jefferson, Richard D. Flanagan

5) The Online Learning Idea Book: 95 Proven Ways to Enhance Technology-Based and Blended Learning
From Pfeiffer

6) Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance (Essential Knowledge Resource) By Jay Cross

7) 75 e-Learning Activities: Making Online Learning Interactive

8] e-Learning by Design By William Horton

9) Michael Allen’s Guide to E-Learning By Michael W. Allen

10) The New Virtual Classroom: Evidence-based Guidelines for Synchronous e-Learning (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals) By Ruth Clark and Ann Kwinn

11) The Social Life of Information By John Seely Brown

I might add a couple to the list which are more general in nature:

1) Self Directed Learning (SDL) and Learning How to Learn

2) Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job by Dennis W. Bakke

3) Creativity in Business: Based on the Famed Stanford University Course that has Revolutionized the Art of Success by Micheal Ray

4) Other Relevant research on creativity in business (Conceptual Blockbusting and/or the books by the creativity and innovation experts at IDEO Design)

5) Relevant research on EQ and Emotional Intelligence

6) Relevant research on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

7) Relevant research on Creating a Learning Organization

8] research on Communities of Practice

9) Relevant research on AL (not AI)

10) Relevant research on brain based learning and brain science (particularly for adult learners)

11) Internal and external research on the marketplace and your business needs

Thanks to Karl M. Kapp and Tony Karrer for the e-learning book and resource suggestions. Hopefully some business school libraries (like Owen at Vanderbilt) and education libraries (like Peabody) can stock these valuable books to be a greater force for 21st century teaching, learning, and innovation. Its an impressive list which is both based on the wisdom of experts and more generally the wisdom of crowds (by Amazon data). Additionally, stocking these books helps integrate the interdependent areas of corporate and humanistic learning (re-mixing our collective categories and ideas in helpful and intellectually stimulating ways) and helps students gain a practical edge in the marketplace, making them more likely to give back to the school.

Explaining Data Visualization and Infographics to Organizations

What is Data Visualization?
Data visualization is a growing form of visual communication, especially in the business context. The helpful folks at Wikipedia have a great analysis of data visualization:

Data visualization is the study of the visual representation of data, meaning “information which has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information”.[2]

According to Friedman (2008) the “main goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and effectively through graphical means. It doesn’t mean that data visualization needs to look boring to be functional or extremely sophisticated to look beautiful. To convey ideas effectively, both aesthetic form and functionality need to go hand in hand, providing insights into a rather sparse and complex data set by communicating its key-aspects in a more intuitive way. Yet designers often fail to achieve a balance between design and function, creating gorgeous data visualizations which fail to serve their main purpose — to communicate information”.[3]

Data visualization is closely related to Information graphics, Information visualization, Scientific visualization and Statistical graphics. In the new millennium data visualization has become active area of research, teaching and development.

Data visualization seem to fall into six major categories:

1) data dashboards which include business intelligence (maps internal or external changes via line graph, bar graph, or pie graph)
2) chart pictures of data created in a 2.0 fashion (line and bar graphs with a 2.0 edge)
3) representational pictures and charts (symbols are used to represent particular tangible good. for instance a barrel of oil stands in for a million barrels of oil).
4) heat maps of a particular activity, assett, product, or service (they can also be used to map social networks, sales, foot traffic, or risks like crime or disease)
5) idea graphs which can span from line based idea graph, to more integrated pictograms which are visually compelling and embody the thematic story of the different component parts.
6) flow charts for business process optimization

The additional business case data visualization for business intelligence dashboards is created by productivity (all the data in one place) and the need to create effective feedback loops in real time. (also as the amount of free data increases online and otherwise, the cost and need to aggregate data is dramatically increased. Also, as free web 2.0 tools proliferate, the speed of web application development increases because developers no longer need to re-invent the wheel.) Many companies are providing data visualization (in the form of data dashboards) as a software as a service application.

Data Visualization and the Future
With the increase in mobile devices to input real time data, open APIs, and the personalization of data along with the increasing need to move beyond words and excel sheets for effective communication, data visualization will increase in 2010 and beyond.

Tools for visualization include Protovis from Stanford and open source solutions like Graph Viz.

Innovative Interactivity suggests these five interactive charting tools for data visualization.

For map based questions you can use Google Maps API or BIRT Report Designer to create a data and map mash up (to connect data to a particular location) or perhaps use MAP IT from ESRI. Also there are many sources of free data about important information regarding economic exchange, health results, and other key performance indicators (KPIs) for business and government.

For enterprise level solutions include Tableau Software’s solutions ($1000 to 1,800 one time fee) as well as a full range competitive options for business intelligence and data dashboards at $1000 from Dundas (primarily with .Net from what I can tell). For enterprise solutions which include Flash animation, Any Chart and Fusion Charts provide a range of solutions from $500 to $5000. However, if you only have minimal use for charts and visualization in your organzation you may prefer to find a designer to translate an existing graph, chart, or spreadsheet into a visualization for $150 to $350. Or perhaps an internal designer can add some web 2.0 design pizazz (simple: see Garr Reynold’s blog, who is the author of the best selling book on presentation design entitled “Presentation Zen” for examples) to the same chart or spreadsheet data. You should be able to create slick charts in Macintosh’s Keynote, which is part of the iWork software suite which retails about $99.

Finally, if you are looking to provide additional content streams you can use RSS feeds from blogs along with XML feeds to provide better content aggregation.

Affordable Web Apps for Data Visualization
If your organization has a real ongoing need for data and data visualization, the iPhone application Roam Bi which creates brilliant visualizations and only costs $99 a year. (for instance if you make 10 visualizations in a year, they only cost you $10 a piece). You can more about Roam Bi at their Mobile Data Visualization blog.

A somewhat similar service called Wigenie is available for $49 a month, but offers some free features. I would compare their free options with IBM’s free Open Eyes Project for data visualization. All of these are great alternatives to the $1000 to $3000 price tags companies like Corda, Software FX, and Panopticon charge–although for mid-stage companies–its solutions may provide insight which yields x5, x7, x10 or more solutions. Its also relevant to note that IBM is increasingly entering the data visualization sphere–in fact their most re-branding features data a an integral component to make the world better place to live (for the environment, health, education, business, and government).

If you are just looking for a mind map style visualization, there are several free web based applications to create mind maps. I’m most familiar with Bubbl.Us, which is pretty easy to pick up and learn in 7 to 12 minutes. (although of course, options like Photoshop may be just as easy or even easier if you are a designer)

Alternatively, if you need a flow chart their are several specific online tools to help you create flow charts quickly and easily. The online diagram software Draw Anywhere, Smart Draw, Gliffy, and Lucid Chart are prominent examples. (of course Bubbl.Us, mind mapping tools, and Photoshop are also available solutions for creating flow charts for business process mapping, design, and optimization)

And if you have any interest in data visualization for your organization, this list of 28 data visualization tools is quite helpful from Inside RIA (an O’Reily company) as well as this extensive list of Infographics software from Wikipedia.

Resources Learning about Data Visualization
Its very much based on the work of Edward Tufte’s insight in “Visual Display of Quantitative Information” (you can purchase it for $30 used on Amazon or $40 new on Edward Tufte’s website)

If you want to learn more about this style of visual communication there are several blogs about data visualization which feature examples. Alternatively, you may prefer to check out books like “Supercrunchers” or the “Numerati” which have both been featured in popular mass media press. If your designer is looking to create more visually compelling infographics they might checkout the data visualization books suggested by Infosthetics.

I enjoyed Darlene Fichters two presentations on this subject (Data 2.0) on Slideshare. She pointed to personal data visualization like Track and Graph for personal fitness as well as the Google Visualization API, and Frappr for easy Google maps mashups. She also suggests Swivel along with data aggregators like Everyblock and Dataplace.org.

I would also check out these 175 Data Visualization resources and examples. Finally this list of data visualization companies which range the gamut may be helpful if you are looking for professional data visualization services.

Review of Key Concepts:

1) Data visualization for clear and compelling communication (internal and external)
2) Data dashboards for tracking relevant company and market data
3) Idea graphs for idea and concept mapping (facilitation and brainstorming)
4) Business process mapping with
5) Free tools for creating charts from IBM and other low cost web 2.0 companies. Low cost solutions with the iPhone application Roam Li, iWork, and Photoshop. Also included as solutions like Wigenie at $49 a month. (there is a Stock Market application thats going to move into this data visualization for the iPhone space soon according to Mashable).
6) Data 2.0 is the future. It helps individual and organizational communication, education, and ultimately improvement.
7) Finally, this table has an incredible number of uses and types for infographics and is sure to jump start your creativity.

Can you suggest other resources for data visualization? Or perhaps another category of data visualization I missed.

Articles and Resources for Parents of Gifted Learners

Articles for Gifted learners including visual-Spatial learners. Authors include Dr. Linda Sliverman, Linda Leviton, Betty Maxwell, Penny Choice, and Steve Haas.

Delicious links on Gifted Learners as well as Visual-Spatial learners.

I hope these resources help in your research on giftedness, development, and education.

Do you have a favorite resource? Feel free to leave useful links in the comments section.

Improving Self-Directed Learning in Organizations

Self-directed learning is a huge multiplier on internal training, development, and in organizations be they for-profit or non-profit. According to Boyatziz:

The signposts on the path to self-direct[ed] learning are:

1) Has the person engaged their passion and dreams? Can they describe the person they want to be, the life and work they want to have in the future? Can they describe their Ideal Self?

2) Does the person know himself or herself? Do they have a sense of their Real Self?

3) Can the person articulate both their strengths (those aspects he/she wants to preserve) and gaps or discrepancies between their Real and Ideal Selves (those aspects he/she wants to adapt or change)?

4) Has the person help their attention on both Strengths and Gaps- not letting one become the preoccupation?

5) Does the person have their own personal learning agenda? IS it really their own? Can the elements of the plan fit into the structure of their life and work? Do the actions fit with their learning style and flexibility?

6) Is the person experimenting and practicing new habits and actions? Is the person using their learning plan to learn more from their experiences?

7) Has the person found settings in which to experiment and practice in which he/she feels psychologically safe?

Is the person developing and utilizing his/her relationships as part of their learning process? Do they have coaches, mentors, friends, and others with whom they can discuss progress on their learning agenda? Do they have relationships with whom they can explore each their new behavior, habits, new Ideal Self, new Real Self, new strengths and gaps as the process unfolds?

9) Are they helping others engage in a self-directed learning process?

Boyatzis, R.E. (2002). Unleashing the power of self-directed learning. In R. Sims (ed.), Changing the Way We Manage Change: The Consultants Speak. NY: Quorum Books

You can read the full article at the EI Consortium.

Best church web designers

Clover is doing a fantastic job it seems. I like their low cost model, which I believes runs about $300 per year. Its great for congregations which are below 500 members and can’t afford to fork out thousands of dollars on a website

If you can afford $1200 to $2400, I suggest looking at the work of John Saddington, Brad Ruggles, and Mitch Canter. Although, they don’t specialize in church websites, they have a fantastic comprehension of the needs of churches and have top notch design skills which they use for Christian and non-Christian web clients.

These days, churches can leverage low cost options like a blog, which provides a website and a content management system for church communications. This can help meet your church 2.0 and church social media needs in an affordable manner. Feel free to contact me if you find yourself in need of these services for $375 to $500.

Church Relevance also posted several examples from top church web designers. You can find more church web design examples at Ministry CSS.

Top Business iPhone Applications

1) Budgets and Accounting: Shoeboxed-where receipts go to assist in accounting and expense reports (or Expensify: Expense Reports that Don’t Suck)
2) Communication Dragon Dictaction-Voice Transcription from your iPhone
3) Communication: Bump-exchanging contact information efficiently (this app still has a little work)
4) Productivity: Your Getting Things Done (GTD) application of choice (for instance Jott)
5) Learning and Business Intelligence: Kindle (as well as Stanza and the RSS Reader of your choice)-reading books and blogs
6) Business Communication: Skype-free video communication
7) Business Intelligence: Gist- all the information about your friends and contacts in one place (very helpful)
8] Memory and Multi-media Storage: Evernote-note taking and saving (your second brain which allows you to use multiple forms of media). Drop box has a similar feature.
9) Social Networking Applications: Linked In, Facebook, Yammer, and Hoote Suite (or the Twitter apps you find the most helpful)
10) Travel Application: Yelp and Urban Spoon (for restaurant ranking and reviews) as well as Whats Around for business types to supplement the Yelp application. These three apps are perfect for the traveler or business person on the go.

Honorable mention: Camera, Notes, Shop Saavy, and Voice Memos for productivity, communication, and storage.

In addition, you might check out this article from Business Week on must have iphone apps.
What are your favorite business and productivity applications for the iPhone???

Technology Certifications and Training Programs

Here is a short assortment of technology certifications available:

Adobe Certification
Apple Certification
Cisco Certification
Google Certification (Adwords and Analytics
Google Certified Teacher (Education)
IBM Certification
Microsoft Certifications (Five Microsoft Certifications compared)
My SQL Certification
Oracle Certification
SPSS Certification
Sun Microsystems Certification

Also Prometric provides a whole host of technology certifications in technology/IT. You might also check out the job listings at Dice to see what other certifications are relevant to the workplace. Finally, this list of certifications focuses on companies which provide their own certification, so its worth doing a search to find other service providers (perhaps cheaper or delivered in a format thats best for you–online or offline). However, I think the credibility and trust factor in getting training directly from the source is incredibly valuable to a technology worker competing in todays job marketplace.

Ten Questions on Creative Change in Business

Creativity in Business Questionaire:

Interesting questionaire from Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers in their book Creativity in Business, which is based on the “famed Stanford University course that has revolutionized the art of success”

Introduction
Q: What would you like to get clear about today?
Q: What is it about____________that isn’t clear?

The Questions:
1) a) What is the GOAL you would like to achieve
b) What solutions have been attempted so far?
c) What was it about these attempts that didn’t work?

2) What is your feeling regarding the situation?
(Feeling means emotional state–ie anger, hurt, fear, sorrow)

3) What is your attitude regarding the situation?
(Attitude means state of mind–ie contempt, judgement, sorrow)

4) What benefits do you receive from having this situation?

For me it gets down to brass tacks here:

5) What is the reality of the situation?

6) What would you like to see happen?

7) What else would you like to see happen?

What do you need to do at this time?

9) How would your life be different if this situation were changed?

10) What one thing are you willing to change to make this be what you would like it to be?

Entrepreneurship skills for the 21st Century

Attention
Networking
Trust and relationship building
Expertise
Personal development
Leveraing relationships
Whats of value
Whats a deliverable
Product-market fit
Product development cycle
Marketing
Scaling
Technology in business
Focus and productivity
Outsourcing (process and project management)
HR/Accounting/Legal
Customer Funnel
Systems theory
Sales
Tradeshows/Event Marketing
Thought leadership marketing
PR
Bootstrapping
Fundraising

Five insights from Jack Welch on Human Resources, Recruiting, and Innovation

On innovation as a institutional and business mantra:

“We really view ourselves as a series of laboratories that share ideas, financial resources, and management people.”
-Jack Welch

On addressing solutions:

“The people who are closest to the work really do know it better.”
-Jack Welch

On the power of leadership getting out of the way:

“The way to get faster, more productive, and more competitive is to unleash the energy and intelligence and raw, ornery self-confidence of the American worker, who is still by far the most productive and innovative in the world.”
-Jack Welch

On competing in the global and multicultural context:

“Our people must be as comfortable in New Delhi and Seoul as they are in Louisville or Schenectady…”
-Jack Welch

Hiring inspiration:

“Boundaryless people, excited by speed and inspired by Stretch dreams, have absolutely infinite capacity to improve everything.”
-Jack Welch

Great insight from visionary Jack Welch on organizational management and mission who was the former CEO of General Electric, is currently a two time best selling author as well as being a regular contributor and writer for Business Week. You can read more insight at his website (which he runs with his wife) The Welch Way or in this book from Robert Slater available on Google books.

Every problem is a (blank) problem….

I hear Anil Dash speak at Web 2.0 where he said “Every problem is a scaling problem.” I thought there was a great deal of insight contained there-in….but I thought I would expand it to suggest what are the core problems of spreading products, ideas, expertise, and services.

So here is the list of the top four which come to mind for answers to the “Every Problem is a _______ problem” question:

Every problem is a scaling problem
Every problem is a product-market fit problem
Every problem is a resource/funding problem
Every problem is a data problem

What is your answer????

It seems to me that the current model–if it could be called that–is something akin to: Experiment > Customer and Ecosystem Feedback > Experiment > Customer and Ecosystem Feedback > Scale

Common Sense Social Media Policy

Common Sense Social Media Policy

I thought these suggestions social media strategy and policy suggestions from Octane and SK Murphy were incredibly on-target:

With a nod to Octane’s Report on Social Media there are five things to bear in mind when striking up conversation within social media.

1. Keep in mind your target market, Ask “Who am I writing this to (and why)?”
2. Always reach out to individuals with a personal and relevant message rather than the template approach– The default “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” is not cutting it.
3. Keep your professional head on at all times (obviously) — no flame wars, no extended arguments, etc.. Ask “Would my mother be offended by this?”
4. Rather than pushing an agenda, monitor these sources periodically and respond, respond, respond. The value is really created when you engage a customer, partner, or niche in their time of need.
5. Update as consistently as possible whether weekly, daily, or more often as appropriate for each service.

When it comes to updating your profiles with content and putting some value out into the world, the Golden Rule still applies. Also:

* Try to inject your expertise into larger topics and debates, to offer useful advice to individuals whether in the form of a blog post or comment, tweet, LinkedIn Question, Facebook status, or other formats.
* Share things that are funny, informational, insightful, or otherwise significant.
* Tell people what you are reading, working on, or care strongly about.
* When adding content anywhere, ask: “Is this something I would like to hear about?”

Hopefully this will come in handy when creating both HR, marketing, and customer development strategy.

Update: in addition to the original post, I would check out their social media guide which provides a quick overview of blogs, wikis, and social media basics.

Would you add or subtract anything?

President Obama Launches: Educate to Innovate

Educate to Innovate: America’s Education Legacy

Recently President Obama launched Educate to Innovate which partners schools with businesses and funds programs for innovation in Math and Science education:

We live in a world of unprecedented perils, but also unparalleled potential. Our medical system holds the promise of unlocking new cures — but it’s attached to a health care system that’s bankrupting families and businesses and our government. The sources of energy that power our economy are also endangering our planet. We confront threats to our security that seek to exploit the very openness that is essential to our prosperity. And we face challenges in a global marketplace that link the trader to Wall Street to the homeowner on Main Street, to the office worker in America to the factory worker in China — an economy in which we all share in opportunity, but we also share, unfortunately, in crisis.

The key to meeting these challenges — to improving our health and well-being, to harnessing clean energy, to protecting our security, and succeeding in the global economy — will be reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation. And that leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today, especially in those fields that hold the promise of producing future innovations and innovators. And that’s why education in math and science is so important.

Now the hard truth is that for decades we’ve been losing ground. One assessment shows American 15-year-olds now rank 21st in science and 25th in math when compared to their peers around the world. And this isn’t news. We’ve seen worrying statistics like this for years. Yet, time and again, we’ve let partisan and petty bickering stand in the way of progress. And time and again, as a nation, we’ve let our children down.

So I’m here and you are here because we all believe that we can’t allow division and indifference to imperil our position in the world. It’s time for all of us — in Washington and across America — to take responsibility for our future.

And that’s why I’m committed to moving our country from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math education over the next decade. To meet this goal, the Recovery Act included the largest investment in education in history while preventing hundreds of thousands of educators from being fired because of state budget shortfalls. Under the outstanding leadership of Arne Duncan, we’ve launched a $4 billion Race to the Top fund, one of the largest investments in education reform in history.

And through the Race to the Top, states won’t just be receiving funding, they’ll have to compete for funding. And in this competition, producing the most innovative programs in math and science will be an advantage. In addition, we are challenging states to improve achievement by raising standards, using data to better inform decisions, and taking new approaches to turn around struggling schools. And because a great teacher is the single most important factor in a great education, we’re asking states to focus on teacher effectiveness and to make it possible for professionals — like many of the people in this room — to bring their experience and enthusiasm into the classroom.

But you are here because you know the success we seek is not going to be attained by government alone. It depends on the dedication of students and parents, and the commitment of private citizens, organizations, and companies. It depends on all of us.

What do you think will work? What innovation does education need?

I think marrying the creative with the scientific would help engage students as well as creating project based learning. I talked to a science teacher who teachers applied physics around Thanksgiving and asked him what applied physics was and what his class was about. He said students in small groups (2 to 3) submit proposals for something to build and then test and build it. How cool is that?

This model of teaching seems very similar to the practical marrying of the practical and academic you find at Stanford. It also seems remarkably similar to the model used in Mythbusters and the one John Seely Brown talks about with respect to architecture school, where students could constructively critique others. Whether this critique was written or spoken could certainly effect the result, but misses the point that project based learning is the future of education. One only has to look to the excellent examples provided by

This model is also incredibly constructivist in orientation and appreciates the need to co-create (rather than strictly mandate) the curriculum to students. (As entrepreneur Marc Andresen and Steve Blank would say this is the best way to create product-market fit. the customers in this case being students. For too long the “customers” in the education setting have been perceived to be policy makers and technocrats, when in reality the customers are the students and parents). I hope that as curriculum and education consultants seek to alter the course of education innovation in America they take these insights into account.

Is Higher Education Dying?

Higher education is increasingly being put under the microscope by the media and analysts curious if its delivering on what it promises to. (so if you’re looking for the pain points in the traditional university system, this may just be what you need to pay attention to). For more check out Newmarks Door:

Professors are not themselves, for the most part, terribly practical people, and practical skills are not what they are trained to teach. They are trained to teach people to do what they do and to know what they know. Those skills and that knowledge are not self-evidently transferable. The ability to analyze Finnegans Wake does not translate into an ability to analyze a stock offering. If a person wanted to analyze stock offerings, he should not waste his time with Joyce. He should go to business school. Or get a job analyzing stock offerings. . . .

Put in less personal terms, there is a huge social inefficiency in taking people of high intelligence and devoting resources to training them in programs that half will never complete and for jobs that most will not get. Unfortunately, there is an institutional efficiency, which is that graduate students constitute a cheap labor force.

So what are the pain points in higher education and how can they be fixed or at least improved? How can the incentive system be altered?

Americas Smartest Cities Ranked for 2009 to 2010

1) RALEIGH-DURHAM
2) SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND-SAN JOSE
3) BOSTON
4) MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL
5) DENVER
6) HARTFORD-NEW HAVEN
7 (tie), SEATTLE-TACOMA
7 (tie), WASHINGTON, DC
9) PORTLAND, OR
10) BALTIMORE
11) PHILADELPHIA
12,)AUSTIN
13) NEW YORK
14) SALT LAKE CITY
15) MILWAUKEE
16) CHARLOTTE
17 (tie), KANSAS CITY
17 (tie), COLUMBUS
19, NASHVILLE
20 (tie), SAN DIEGO
20 (tie), INDIANAPOLIS
22) PROVIDENCE
23) ATLANTA
24 (tie), ST. LOUIS
24 (tie), CHICAGO
26) ROCHESTER, NY
27 (tie), PITTSBURGH
27 (tie), LOS ANGELES
27 (tie), RICHMOND
28) GRAND RAPIDS-KALAMAZOO-BATTLE CREEK
31 (tie), CLEVELAND
31 (tie), WEST PALM BEACH
33) TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG
34) TUCSON
35 (tie), OKLAHOMA CITY

You can see the rest of the smartest cities that The Daily Beast compared, ranked, and evaluated.

To see the top industries for each city, you might check out City Data. In fact, they have a top 101 cities listing for several key issues like size, adjusted gross income (AGI), and the greatest percentage walking to work. Somewhat relevant to the above numbers might be their greatest percentage of MA and PhD in the population (for cities over 50,000). I also found, the forty best cities for young professionals as well as the best cities for businesses and careers by Forbes to be interesting.

Its too bad they haven’t ranked Nicest cities in a long while–some print publication needs to bring that back and perhaps even provide different criteria for smartness. (it would be cool if you could customize the city information like you can the university data at PhDs.org)

A tangentially related report called the Creative Industries 2008 report, which is analyzed versus data in 50 cities could help professionals target cities to live and work in. Also, helpful could be the creativity index created by Richard Florida.

On Information Overload

A poem about knowledge, wisdom, and information overload by TS Elliot

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

– T.S. Eliot, “The Rock”

Thanks to Caterina

Play Magic Eight Ball

Who doesn’t love the game magic eight ball? Well, if you want to play magic eight ball (and possibly get smarter in the process), there is a very cool site called Hunch which can answer your questions and provide real answers.

Hunch can help you pick a Christmas gift, a university, a career, bible passages, or something to do. (It hopes to become the wikipedia of personalized question answering.) They seeded it with 500 decision trees and now it has over 6000.

For a longer explanation of Hunch check out this conference interview which explains it magic eightball-esque qualities.