Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurship’ Category
January 26th, 2010
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Author: This month’s WIRED has an interesting article about Local Motors, an open source car design start-up.
Local Motors takes the knowledge and history of kit cars and applies open source design techniques, and Web 2.0 networking to create small batch designs for car aficionados. At $50,000 a pop, this isn’t something everyone is going to want to purchase, but if the idea catches on, it could create a whole new industry of custom car design and independent automobile manufacturing plants.
Perhaps some local entrepreneur should jump on this model and start up a Tampa Open Source Car Design shop.
The first car to roll off the Local Motors assembly line will be the Rally Fighter.
The Miami Roadster is queued up for a future build.
If we had politicians with any sense they’d be supporting independent, entrepreneurial projects like this instead of propping up the rotting corpse of the auto industry.
The last half of the article address how these low-cost tools are having a widespread affect on manufacturing.
“The tools of factory production, from electronics assembly to 3-D printing, are now available to individuals, in batches as small as a single unit. Anybody with an idea and a little expertise can set assembly lines in China into motion with nothing more than some keystrokes on their laptop. A few days later, a prototype will be at their door, and once it all checks out, they can push a few more buttons and be in full production, making hundreds, thousands, or more. They can become a virtual micro-factory, able to design and sell goods without any infrastructure or even inventory; products can be assembled and drop-shipped by contractors who serve hundreds of such customers simultaneously.”
WIRED offers some tips on how to be a part of the Maker Culture.
How to Build Your Dream
In the age of democratized industry, every garage is a potential micro-factory, every citizen a potential micro-entrepreneur. Here’s how to transform a great idea into a great product.
1) INVENT Stop whining about the dearth of cool products in the world — dream up your own. Pro tip: Check the US Patent and Trademark Office Web site to ensure no one else had the idea first.
2) DESIGN Use free tools like Blender or Google’s SketchUp to create a 3-D digital model of your invention. Or download someone else’s design and incorporate your groundbreaking tweaks.
3) PROTOTYPE You don’t need to be Geppetto to crank out a prototype; desktop 3-D printers like MakerBot are available for under $1,000. Just upload a file and watch the machine render your vision in layered ABS plastic.
4) MANUFACTURE The garage is fine for limited production, but if you want to go big, go global — outsource. Factories in China are standing by; sites like Alibaba.com can help you find the right partner.
5) SELL Market your product directly to customers via an online store like SparkFun — or set up your own ecommerce outfit through a company like Yahoo or Web Studio. Then haul your golden goose to Maker Faire and become the poster child for the DIY industrial revolution.
Posted in 
The Florida Media Co-op is a grassroots (or entrepreneurial if you prefer) effort to coordinate advertising on local blogs around Florida.
If you want to advertise on some Florida blogs, FMC provides a quick, one-stop-shopping sort of place so you don’t have to deal with each blog proprietor individually.
If you want to try to generate some money from your blogging, but Google ads isn’t generating enough income, and you are not inclined to spend your free time tracking down advertisers, consider giving FMC some space on your page. If you’re going to advertise anyway you might as well promote local businesses.
More blogs create more page views which creates more interest from bigger advertisers.
Those participating so far are -
Sticks of Fire (Tommy as SoF is also the head honcho at FMC), TampaBLAB, GNATV, Ridiculously inconsistent trickle of consciousness, Tommy in Seminole Heights, Plant City Today, and Re/Creating Tampa.
Joining up is relatively quick, painless, and straightforward.
You can buy ad space here.
And, go here to start the process for getting ads placed on your site.
The Florida Media Co-op is a grassroots (or entrepreneurial if you prefer) effort to coordinate advertising on local blogs around Florida.
If you want to advertise on some Florida blogs, FMC provides a quick, one-stop-shopping sort of place so you don’t have to deal with each blog proprietor individually.
If you want to try to generate some money from your blogging, but Google ads isn’t generating enough income, and you are not inclined to spend your free time tracking down advertisers, consider giving FMC some space on your page. If you’re going to advertise anyway you might as well promote local businesses.
More blogs create more page views which creates more interest from bigger advertisers.
Those participating so far are -
Sticks of Fire (Tommy as SoF is also the head honcho at FMC), TampaBLAB, GNATV, Ridiculously inconsistent trickle of consciousness, Tommy in Seminole Heights, Plant City Today, and Re/Creating Tampa.
Joining up is relatively quick, painless, and straightforward.
You can buy ad space here.
And, go here to start the process for getting ads placed on your site.
The Florida Media Co-op is a grassroots (or entrepreneurial if you prefer) effort to coordinate advertising on local blogs around Florida.
If you want to advertise on some Florida blogs, FMC provides a quick, one-stop-shopping sort of place so you don’t have to deal with each blog proprietor individually.
If you want to try to generate some money from your blogging, but Google ads isn’t generating enough income, and you are not inclined to spend your free time tracking down advertisers, consider giving FMC some space on your page. If you’re going to advertise anyway you might as well promote local businesses.
More blogs create more page views which creates more interest from bigger advertisers.
Those participating so far are -
Sticks of Fire (Tommy as SoF is also the head honcho at FMC), TampaBLAB, GNATV, Ridiculously inconsistent trickle of consciousness, Tommy in Seminole Heights, Plant City Today, and Re/Creating Tampa.
Joining up is relatively quick, painless, and straightforward.
You can buy ad space here.
And, go here to start the process for getting ads placed on your site.
Hey, this is what I’m in grad school for! I just never heard the term before.
“Many of big ideas that computer visionary Douglas Engelbart came up with in the 1960’s have come true, but a couple of them haven’t yet. One of these is his notion of the “Certified Public Logician.” Engelbart predicted that a new class of knowledge worker would act as front-ends to the machine-enabled collective intelligence.”
The final that I’m working on tonight is has me answering some tough reference questions. I’m doing most of my research online in various databases and returning a complete and accurate answer. I’m learning to be a knowledge worker situated between a human questioner and an electronic source full of digital information.
And if there are any entrepreneurial reference librarians out there, you might consider the following.
“I have wondered for years, as magazines, newspapers, and other news organizations have been hemorrhaging money and employees, why someone hasn’t gone into the contract fact-checking business. Like, it could be an extension of Snopes.com. There’s a huge redundancy in every publication having their own research desks, so they could lay off all of their fact-checkers and then outsource the job to the new, independent company that the best of them then all go to work for. Meanwhile, the company could also be hired by anyone else. Then, when the public sees the “Fact-Checked by MiniTrue (SM)” seal on someone’s independent blog, they know the information there has the same credibility as the big boys.
UPDATE: This fact-checking/logician team could also be a cooperative of local bloggers. Hyperlocal journalists can share their pieces among each other, each taking turns fact-checking and analyzing cogency of arguments. Pieces that are checked-off by all of them are then published by all in the cooperative (or made available to a syndicate of bloggers).
Kudos to Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman for being named two of Inc. Magazines Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30.
Friedman and Soliman started College Hunks Hauling Junk are are based here in Tampa, Florida.
“Raised in the nation’s capital, these two entrepreneurs were schoolmates of Chelsea Clinton and Al Gore III before they launched America’s first all-student junk removal franchise three years ago. The company’s “hunks” — clad in bright orange hats and green shirts — will haul away everything from construction materials to old couches, and Friedman and Soliman donate a portion of revenue from each job to local college scholarship programs. Today, the company employs more than 100 college students at nine outlets across the country and recently launched College Foxes Hauling Boxes, a spin-off based near Washington, D.C., which helps homeowners get rid of unwanted clutter. Revenue is expected to hit $4 million by 2009.”
Find out more here.
They’ve also been featured on Oprah.