Remarkk!

Despite declining ratings for Battlestar Galactica on SciFi Channel, nearly universal critical acclaim along with robust DVD sales have led Universal Home Video to consider greenlighting a Battlestar Galactica direct-to-video telefilm. This is yet another example of how much innovation opportunity exists in television and film. Collapsing distribution windows, alternative distribution channels and enhanced opportunities for audience engagement are among the variables available for innovative content producers.

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A report by the General Accounting Office concludes that current patent law discourages drug companies from developing new drugs by allowing them to make excessive profits through minor changes to existing pharmaceuticals. Pharma R&D spending has increased 147% since ‘93, but applications for “new molecular entity” drugs, have only increased 7%

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I toil away in what is at times a lonely wonkosphere. At the end of my first year as a blogger (ok, 10 months, with an extended absence in July and August), I reflect on what I wrote.

Was I full of crap or did I come up with one or two remarkable ideas, something worthy of notice?

What follows is a list of what I feel are my most significant posts, either for content, style or the quality of the conversations they triggered.

Conclusions:

• I doubt I’m going to be nominated for a blog award anytime soon
• I like to pose a lot of questions and clearly don’t have all the answers
• Finding one’s voice as a writer and as a blog persona takes time
• I feel like I’m on a roll, but just getting warmed up

Upon reflection, these posts still resonate for me, in chronological order:

1. [mesh]: The Economics of Ideas
2. VC 2.0 & Social Microfinance
3. Ontario Budget: Cities, Creativity & Innovation
4. A Creative Renaissance?
5. ICT Toronto: Getting It Yet?
6. Future-Proofing Our Communities
7. Gender Bias in Nerdville…er…DemoCamp?
8. Open Source Innovation Models
9. A Social Mission for a Blogging Consultant?
10. Richard Florida on Public Intellectuals

Technorati Tags: bestoflist 2006, citizen wonk, wonkosphere

I recently was browsing Richard Florida’s blog and found this provocative post about the decline of the public intellectual:

…just when we need scholars and the academy to generate the large scale ideas and public debate to facilitate and accelerate this “matching” of institutional arrangements to economic, technological and social trends, academe is focusing far too [few] resources on these issues and problems.

More after the jump…

Technorati Tags: public+intellectuals, commercialization, socialmedia, open+innovation

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An experiment in social giving where you can leave a wish as a comment and a sponsor will donate a dollar to charity. Go leave your comment, blog about it, share it. Good luck to Austin Hill and crew on their experiment.

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I love big ideas, remarkable ideas, ideas that can change the world.

In this post, I share a short list of big ideas that I’d like to research and perhaps pursue this year in partnership with like-minded individuals and organizations. (Is this Consulting 2.0?) These aren’t problems I’ll solve in 2007 (or even a lifetime), but are fascinating puzzles worth pursuing right now in theory and in practice. These are the big ideas worth watching, with big implications.

What’s on your list?

Technorati Tags: economics+abundance, consulting+2.0, opensource, open+source+economics, emergence, creativity

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String theory for dummies?

Ok, I’m officially on the ropes. Somebody wake me up in 2007. It’s been a busy business and social season. Between conferences, workshops, biz-socials, lunch meetings, coffee meetings, dinner meetings, friends visiting from out of town and many friends having holiday socials, it has been a whirlwind. It’s a good thing I’m otherwise on the beach, in consultant-speak. (And of course, studies now report that social drinking has positive effects on one’s earnings!)

I’m going to have to detox for a while, and I’m looking forward to getting caught up on my research reading list over the holidays, which has been growing rapidly. I will be offline between the 22nd and the 26th, which will certainly try my patience but will probably be good for me. Unplug this season. Happy holidays!

Andrew Coyne’s recent column, “Canada’s Culture of Begging” got me riled up this morning. Coyne argues that Mayor David Miller’s claim to a 1% portion of federal and provincial sales taxes collected in Toronto shows a lack of leadership on Miller’s part and is symptomatic of a wider culture of begging that plagues our fair land. What really set me off was the sycophantic cheering section among his commenters.

I say bollocks, because bollocks seems more polite than bullshit. I share my comment to Coyne’s blog here, and encourage you to leave your thoughts on Coyne’s blog.

Technorati Tags: Canada, cities, Ontario, politics, andrewcoyne, Toronto

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Late in coming, I thought I would blog my impressions from the Global Connect conference at MaRS last week. My quick take-aways:

• IP transfer is broken, especially in Canada
• VC is broken, sort of. maybe. especially in Canada. I guess.
• Paul Kedrosky rocks and should live in Toronto, damn it
• Ross Wallace and Ilse Treurnicht of MaRS did a fantastic job
• The innovation race is just beginning
• The blogging wonkosphere is lonelier than I thought

More after the jump…

Technorati Tags: commercialization, Innovation, Toronto, ICTToronto, NAO, VC, MARS, intellectualproperty, globalconnect

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