Sue Lebeck's Blog (79)

Our readers know that Alvin Toffler invented the word, but I might be the first person to "verb" it.  From our friends at Wikipedia:

The term [Prosumer] has ... taken on multiple meanings in business and economics: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer…

These days such a statement might make one a little jumpy.   But in this case, there is no need to panic. Nature is not jones-ing to downsize your position.  Instead, as a result of an increasing number of human apprentices, Nature's genius is on-deck to help YOU look brilliant.





As regular readers have detected by now, I am an unabashed fan of the concepts and potential of Biomimicry, the human practice of…

News from our friends at B-Lab -- Woohoo!

Check out also our new Video addition to the B-Labs innovation story!…

One of my favorite organizations reaches out in collaboration for yet another great-looking event.  Check out the Biomimicry Institute at the Cal Academy of Sciences on October 13!





From our Biomimicry friends:

Great design often takes cues from nature— get your hands on real products inspired by natural forms and speak to the folks at Ask Nature and the…

Like many, I have become discouraged, even angry, in the wake of Silicon Valley solar manufacturer Solyndra's filing for bankruptcy. 



Unlike many others in the blogosphere, I am not angry with the government loan guarantee program for backing Solyndra.  I am not even angry with…

This past weekend, our Airbnb guests had come to town for the Mechanicrawl 02011 event hosted by the Long Now Foundation, whose mission is balancing “faster/cheaper” thinking with its “slower/better” counterpart.   It prompted me to take another look at my copy of…

Sometimes you just cannot be everywhere you want to be.  The eighth of September was one of those days for me, as Sustainable Silicon Valley (SSV) held a workshop on Designing for Sustainability through Biomimicry, and I was not available to go.  I heard from colleague Diana Lee of the Biomimicry Institute that SSV Executive…

SMART innovator Eddie Leung of Secured Environment will be setting up a degree program in Hong Kong on nuclear risk engineering and give a seminar on pollutant valuation.  A description of that Seminar is below.

 …

In the wake of Fukushima, I can hardly believe I’m saying this. 

Nuclear energy – that field I’ve loved to hate, that clean-energy-with-the-out-sized risks, that “nuclear” word which nearly dissuaded me from having children back in the 1980’s – nuclear energy (of a not-often-heard-of type) could come back out of hiding to address our urgent need for clean, plentiful energy in the 21^st…

Brian Huey from Sprint took the time to answer InnovatingSMART's questions regarding communications support for Smart Grid innovators and entrepreneurs.   Check out Brian's detailed answers below.  THANK YOU, Brian! 

And check out The Sprint Open Solutions Conference Nov. 2-4, 2011, in Santa Clara, Calif. Registration is now open for the conference -- Half-off…

My husband and I are repainting our historic Victorian home, and hold grand visions for what will emerge.  Today, the workmen came to put up the scaffolding necessary to get the job done. 

After a day of them erecting metal structures and laying down planks into strategic and stable configurations, I behold in amazement the result.  There now exist pathways and bridges providing access and support to the painters for every stage of their work to come -- whether removing…

This past weekend, my husband and I had the pleasure of hosting guests from London who came to town to participate in the annual San Francisco Marathon.  As a former three-miler (make that two) and a current hill-climber (the urban kind), I fell naturally into a state of awe and admiration. Twenty-six-plus mile-markers to be overtaken by foot in the terrain of the cable-car seems…

While musing about independence on the 4^th of July, I found myself inside of an unexpected but provocative question.  Asked then: “What is our modern tyranny -- the ‘arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power’ from which we seek freedom” today?

After sitting with this question for a couple of weeks, I…

Expressions of stakeholder-driven triple-bottom-line value creation can be found at Wikipedia and from Andrew Savitz, author of the book The Triple-Bottom-Line.



Additionally, the following slide identifies some of the forms of triple-bottom-line value I work to help create myself, directly and indirectly, through the innovation alliances work of…

Innovation, or creating new value, is a key driver to success in today’s business climate.  Innovation is a very human activity, which can occur along many dimensions.  These correspond to the dimensions of human activity itself. Modern psychology tells us that the dimensions which comprise a…

With today’s spotlighted story,  I find myself thinking about myths.  What is a myth?  Myths are  powerful narratives, which both validate and guide human experience.  Myths are sometimes held as lies, and other times held as the things most true.  Dying myths tend toward the former, living myths enjoy the latter.   

With 4th of July celebrations just behind us,…

In Vinod Khosla’s tough-love speech, delivered to the electricity storage community at their own annual conference earlier this month, and expertly reported by GreenTechMedia, he focuses on the concept of Certainty.  



When it comes to energy in America, Certainty has most certainly become…

Last month at the SVII Innovation Society, which I program directed before taking up my current initiatives, Bill Veltrop of MISA made a compelling presentation invoking the important and timely distinction between finite and infinite games.

Finite games, our cultural habit, succeed when a winner and a loser…

Great title, yes?  It's not mine!  This title and the inspiring book behind it belong to Bob Johansen, Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future.  The full title, published in 2009, is Leaders Make the Future:…

Last week, our editor took a mini-vacation to honor the birthday of a family member.   I decided to take that opportunity to give him – and our cast here at InnovatingSMART – a break. So instead of issuing our usual weekly “Brief!”, we experimented with a change in our publishing rhythm.   We are pleased to return to you today.

But our experiment begs a larger Community Question about working…