Rubber band Model of Universe : Winner of 2008 Stanford Innovation Tournament.
Last week, I wrote about the Stanford Innovation Tournament . Every year, Stanford sponsors a tournament where the participants are asked to “add value” to a common, everyday item. This year, the item chosen was a rubber band.
My favorite entry was the Artweb 2.0
However, the most educational and enlightening example was that of “failure”.
Which taught them “Fail early - fail fast!” and just because you build it, people won’t necessarily come.
BIL - the un-conference : Answer to TED
Let me start out by saying that this un-conference thing is not for me. I didn’t like the couple of these things I have attended, I don’t like the idea of it, I don’t like how they are executed and I don’t like the outcome.
Here is BIL un-conference.
BIL is…
an open, self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic science and technology conference.
Nobody is in charge.
If you want to come, just show up.
If you have an idea to spread, start talking.
If someone is saying something interesting, stop and listen.
What do you need to bring to the un-conference?
Things to bring…
A camp chair. Who knows where you’ll end up having a session. Bring your own folding chair, like this one.
A laptop.
A cell phone.
A camcorder (if you have one).
A power strip.
Funny thing is that I might actually attend the Bil2009 conference. Why? because despite its inefficiency and despite its unfocused organization, it has potential and it offers a soapbox that is interesting. Moreover, I keep thinking that a couple of un-conferences that I attended did not have a “critical mass” of people, so Bil2009 might be a part of the continued experience of exploring the un-conference format.
I don’t like un-conferences very much but I dislike regular rigid conferences even more! So see you at BIL2009. TED and BIL are coordinated so BIL happens just after the TED.
Microsoft unveils the worldwide telescope at TED
We were following the buzz about a revolutionary product that Microsoft was going to debut at the TED conference, which started on February 27th and will run till March 1st. We did our own speculation on what the product might or might not be.
Well the project is out! It is called the World Wide telescope and is an interactive tapestry that is stitched together with data from the Hubble and several terrestrial telescopes. During a demo at the conference, the project leaders Roy Gould from the Harvard Center for astrophysics and Curtis Wong from Microsoft, showed how users can zoom in on objects in the night sky, and look at incredibly detailed pictures as well as access information regarding the object from the web.
As with all good applications, the software has social networking woven into it. Anybody can design a virtual tour of their favorite part of the universe and share it with their friends.
The TED conference brings together thinkers from around the world and let them present their ideas in 18 minutes, at the conference. The big Ted prize (given to 3 people every year) is $100,000 cash plus the "granting of one wish to change the world". Winners get to unveil their wish at the award ceremony at the conference.
This year’s TED prize winners are:
Cosmologist Neil Turok, who has worked on the cosmic ray background in the universe, and its implications on the big bang theory.
Author Dave Eggers who has written the critically acclaimed "A heartbreaking work of staggering genius"
Former nun, comparative religion expert and author of "The spiral staircase", Karen Armstrong.
SimplyShe raises $600k in financing
Agility Capital recently closed a $600,000 financing to SimplyShe, Inc. The debt facility is in the form of a growth capital loan.
Located in San Francisco, California, SimplyShe, Inc. is a branded consumer products company providing fashion-based merchandise to the mass market. SimplyShe™ has multiple business units including: women’s apparel and accessories, children’s apparel 
and accessories, pet apparel and accessories, publishing and entertainment. The Company’s brands include: SimplyShe™, SimplyWee™, SimplyDog™, Lulu Pink™, Max-A-Million™, Big Paws™ and SimplySingle™. The Company is on a rapid growth path reporting over $20 million in sales in 2007.
Agility Capital provides innovative debt solutions to Venture Capital backed private companies and Small Cap public companies in the technology/ communications/ medical device and branded consumer products markets in the Western United States.
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