One Small Step For Man, One POWERleap for Mankind

Some of the most brilliant ideas come from the simplest of places, an apple falling out of a tree, a child playing with a kite, the every day occurrence of a bird flying through the air.

Elizabeth Redmond and her newest invention POWERleap, falls into this category it stems from the act of people walking, and it's just simply brilliant.

Elizabeth Redmond invented the POWERleap, a flooring system that generates electricity every time you move on one of the tiles. Constructed with glass and concrete, the energy generating tiles can bear a heavy load and are being designed to be placed in areas that experience high-foot traffic. It is Elizabeth's intention to have cities powered by the people who live, work, and play there rather than outside energy sources.

Elizabeth explains her invention on the Sundance Channel :

Now that it is out there this idea seems so obvious. It makes you wonder why we haven't done anything like this until now, and what other absolutely obvious things we are missing?

The science behind POWERleap from Elizabeth's website:

At rest, your body is emitting 100 watts of power. That is more than enough energy to power the computer on which this is written. Given this, imagine how much energy we are emitting while walking to [or at] work, running at the gym, or dancing at the club! It doesn’t take a genius to appreciate the thought of that energy doing something more for us than dissipating into the ground or environment…

POWERleap is currently manifested in an installation of urban sidewalk tiles designed and engineered by Elizabeth Redmond. The system utilizes the phenomena of piezoelectricity: electricity from applied stress, founded by the Curie brothers in the 1880’s. A piezoelectric material when compressed distributes a charge across the surface of the material that can be harnessed and used to generate electricity.

Project POWERLeap has come up with a solution to the problem of wasted human kinetic energy. We have designed a flooring system that will harness your exerted kinetic energy, and use it to generate electricity for us to enjoy. By integrating these interfaces that generate electricity from our daily activities in public and semi-public built environments, each individual will have the ability to generate electricity for their community.

WHERE WILL POWERleap BE USED?

CITY SIDEWALKS AIRPORT TERMINALS
TRAIN STATIONS SPORTS STADIUMS
CONFERENCE HALLS DANCE CLUBS
CORPORATE CAMPUSES UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES
FITNESS CLUBS PUBLIC PARKS

POWERleap is still in it's infancy stage and looking for backers, investors, and contributors to get it into the mainstream. Here are some other sources for more information:

Here is a link to her NPR radio interview

http://www.here-now.org

Here is a link to her Earth Keepers at Changents

("Changents is an entertainment-driven online destination that enables "change agents" to tell their amazing stories while building a network of fans around the world who want to help them. Through videos, photos, blogs, mobile messaging and podcast dispatches from the field, change agents draw in "backers" to lend a hand - virtually or in person.)

http://www.changents.com/powerleaper

POWERleap website:

www.powerleap.net

Fusing Gotta-Have-It Technology with Social Responsibility

In my previous post Sexy Bluetooth I wrote about the Jawbone 2 Bluetooth headset and how necessity, function, and fashion can all merge together in one device. The Aliph company is the owner of the JAWBONE but the designer is Yves Behar and his company Fuseproject.

Yves Behar is unique in that he believes that it is his mission to bring technology into the human experience. Behar uses design to transform every day items by considering the human need, finding new functionality, while also merging utility and beauty.

Yves Behar felt that the JAWBONE should be more than just a headset and designed it in such a way that it becomes a useful attribute rather than an annoying distraction.

Humanistic technology rests on your skin, knows when you are talking, take out all the techie and nerdy pieces and make it beautiful. If it isn't beautiful it doesn't belong on your face.

Behar's designs go far beyond a Bluetooth headset, to watches, computers, home interior and technology, footware, as well as architectural pursuits. Yves Behar proves that the merging of art with science not only enhances an object, but can improve the performance and function of that object.

The tag line for Fuseproject is Design Brings Stories To Life, watch this Ted.com video to see the story behind Behar's designs.

Yves Behar on Ted.com

From the Ted website:

Over the past decade, Yves Behar and his firm fuseproject have become the design group that companies turn to for a game-changing idea. Take the re-invention of the Bluetooth headset, for one; or the re-envigoration of the venerable but dowdy Birkenstock line; or Behar's LED-chic Leaf lamp for Herman Miller.

And yes, Behar and fuseproject are the people who put the green bunny ears on the XO laptop -- and are redesigning the next-gen XOXO laptop due in 2010. This quirky but deeply felt project encapsulates much of his recent work, fusing gotta-have-it design with a mission of social responsibility.

"[Behar] has the ability to strip something down to its basic functional logic and then apply a set of emotional and aesthetic considerations to create something unique. It's an art."

Chris Hacker, chief design officer at Johnson & Johnson

Women in Business vs. Men

We know women in business are different then men in business, but how different are they and is being different really a bad thing?

Men control the business world, men hold higher and more influential positions than women, and men get paid more. So why do women even bother? I am a woman and I am in business, and I do not worry or even think about what positions men hold, or how much they make. In business my greatest concerns are how to do business well, be ridiculously successful, while also living life on my terms. Don't get me wrong I am competitive but the competition starts with me and moves to those companies that are in my market place.

In sports if you are a basketball player do you tryout for the football team? You are both athletes but football and basketball are very different and you do not have to be good at one to be good at the other. So why would a women try to be a man, what does one have to do with other? The competition is not between men and women it is between your company and the competing company.

The Author of "What Men Don't Tell Women About Business," Chris Flett, believes that women are missing the boat by not studying successful businessmen, learning from them, and conforming to them. Mr. Flett recently appeared on Donny Deutsch's The Big Idea to plug his new book and to take on some pretty opinionated women. I watched the episode and I must say that Flett didn't do too well, in fact there were times when he looked downright scared. So much for the "Alpha Male" dominating the "Submissive Females"!

The biggest problem Flett has is that he is naive which makes him seem condescending. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt here, really he could be just clueless or worst case a pompous ass, but let's just go with well meaning in a bungling sort of way. Flett portrays women as being weak in every manner possible, yet the demographic he is targeting are those women who had the strength to get where they are and now just need help getting to the next level. News flash Chris you wrote this book for women to learn from and yet you do not know women at all do you?

Chris contributed to The Big Idea Blog after the show and there a few points that I find interesting so let's look at them and discuss...shall we?

When a woman says, "It's us against them, I don't need to know what men think", you know that at some point in her past, she has been excluded from the conversation and is not happy about it.

How like a man to think that? I personally do not treat business like a war, where there is war there is turmoil and plenty of casualties, I am not looking for either in my business. I also do not need to know what men think. I need to know what successful entrepreneurs think, and then I need to incorporate that into who I am and how I do things.

One guest said that she couldn't "get into the board room so she left to form her own company". Having knowledge like we talked about today IS only available in the board room, but some are so furious about past experiences that they disregard it and refuse to even listen to what is being offered.

Chris, Chris, Chris - you make this sound like a bad thing! A woman who chooses to create her own successful company as opposed to trying to do it on someone else's terms is inspirational not weak. If I am not wanted in that boardroom then you are damn right I am going to create my own. Work on your weaknesses but play to your strengths, that is how you win the game. Chris did you have this same opinion of Steve Jobs, when he wasn't being listened to in the Apple boardroom and went his own way in 1986? I don't think so.

There is one area I agree with Mr. Chris Flett and that is knowledge is power, you should keep yourself educated, informed, and never be afraid to learn from others be they men or women. I am not that interested in reading this book and is not that he doesn't make some good points, rather that there are other books out there that would provide more value for me.

Choosing people to learn from and business acumen to incorporate into your company should be done based on your industry, business style, and ultimately your goals. I will say Flett seems to spread his naivety beyond the female gender and into the corporate domain by insuating that all boardrooms are equal. Fortunately all men and women are not created the same. Warren Buffet and Donald Trump are two very successful men but I would wager that they are very different in the boardroom. Martha Stewart, Susie Orman, and Oprah all very successful women and how much alike do you think they are behind closed doors?

I know I could learn from all five of these individuals but what I would choose to take from each would be dependant on who I am and what I want. Business is not about conformity it is about inspiration, innovation and just getting out there and doing it. Mentors are important but they are meant to be learned from and improved upon, not cloned. So by all means go out there and learn from others, there is no reason to recreate the wheel, but don't forget who you are in the process.

www.getsmartwomen.com

Do You DIGG it?

So it looks like DIGG is changin it up a bit!?! Hallelujah! I am a DIGGer but I have not really DUGG as much as I should. The idea behind this site is great:

"Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online."

I find that the reality doesn't meet up with the concept, what I mean by that is that the site is a bit congested and convoluted. When I joined DIGG I thought it would cut down on my web scroungin. I search the net for interesting information, and enjoy it-can we say nerd! This site touts the discover and share component, ergo no need to spend hours searching the web right? Aaah no!

There so much stuff on this site that doesn't interest me it is hard to find the stuff that does. Also if I find something out there I like unless the site has a DIGG button I wont DIGG it, and though I have DIGG Bro's that shoot me shouts that doesn't lead me to those interesting tidbits I am looking for. DIGG, DUGG, shoot, shout if you need the primer for the DIGG Lingo let me know?

So what are they changing over there in the DIGG world? On June 30th the DIGG Blog announced the roll out of the Recommendation Engine

"Now that there are more than 16,000 stories submitted to the Upcoming section every day, it’s difficult to sort through everything to find the best content." The Recommendation Engine uses your past digging activity to identify what we call Diggers Like You to suggest stories you might like.

It's like they read my mind!!

But what exactly does it do and how does it work, will I meet more people-this is a social site right, and will I finally be able find the good stuff?

Well I think that Technology Review's article answered my questions the best: Technology Review: Digging a Smarter Crowd.

Every time a user digs a story, the system compares that action with the actions of everyone else in the system, and it finds which users have the most digs in common. To keep recommendations from being all over the map, the system calculates connections for each topic separately, so that two users who share an interest in video games won't necessarily be thought to have, say, like opinions on political stories. To keep recommendations diverse, the system shows only a certain number of stories from each compatible user and, each time the user requests recommendations, fills out its quota of suggestions employing stories selected by less compatible users. The recommendation engine also limits the effect that a single dig can have, so that someone who digs a very popular story won't suddenly become connected to thousands of other users. Because the system calculates correlations in real time, using separate servers devoted to performing the computations, Kast says that a new dig will affect the recommendation system within one or two minutes.

That was a mouthful, well in essence they are trying to cut down the clutter and get people connected....good concept. I will wait to see the reality of it though, in the meantime I guess I will get back on the DIGG train and see how this new feature plays out. How about you?

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