Chester Bateman

Bestselling author Richard Florida was our keynote speaker at Greenlight Greater Portland summit “Pursuing the Future: The Outlook for Greater Portland.” I enjoyed podcasting with Richard and learning about what’s on his mind these days and hearing his admiration for the City of Portland.

Place + Happiness = Portland Prosperity, Richard Florida, The Oregonian
Author Richard Florida to Headline Greenlight Greater Portland’s Economic Summit

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Speaking of creativity…I’m looking forward to Corvallis’ da Vinci Days 2008 podcast with Tom Hager and talking about his writing and telling the story of Linus Pauling.

The Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University

It’s a special experience and privilege to hold Linus Pauling’s Nobel Prize medals during visit by Steve Arnold from the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Much thanks to the staff at Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers at OSU. We’re in a re-creation of Linus Pauling’s office from back in the day. Note we’re holding TWO medals…one for chemistry and one for peace.

Great podcasting with Joe Born CEO at Neuros Technology International. Joe shares his learning in creating open source hardware and coming soon is our podcast with Lars Bo Jeppesen at Danish User-centered Innovation Lab.

Neuros Podcast

Check out Neuros innovation efforts with “nTube” video browser.

Neuros Technology International

Open sesame, The Economist Print Edition Jun 5th 2008
A good example is the OSD, a “media fridge” made by Neuros Technology of Chicago which acts as a repository of video from DVDs, camcorders, cable boxes and so on. Neuros made the OSD’s technical specifications available, and a group of users then wrote software to add a new feature that many users had requested: the ability to stream video from the OSD to another device across the internet. To access this new feature, users simply had to download a software patch. “It’s harder for my device to get antiquated,” says Aaron Crum, an OSD user, “and I don’t have to buy another $200 device next year.”

What This Gadget Can Do Is Up to You The New York Times

I enjoyed podcasting with Oregon 4-H’s state program leader Roger Rennekamp last week and learning more about 4-H’s Science, Engineering, and Technology initiative (SET). Roger and the Oregon 4-H team bring a great program to youth across the state.

“Currently, 4-H SET projects reach more than 5.9 million youth in urban, suburban and rural communities across America. In order to address our nation’s challenge, 4-H is committed to involving 1 million new young people in SET projects over the next five years.” More here…

Amazing efforts underway in Oregon to meet SET goals….check out our podcast:

“Currently, 4-H extends the knowledge and research base of Oregon State University to more than 150,000 young people across Oregon through a network of 5000 volunteers and 120 faculty and staff. Through strategic deployment of resources and curriculum, 4-H offers a unique and powerful solution to the country’s shortage of scientists and engineers. For years, 4-H has utilized an experiential, hands-on approach for helping young people learn science content. But, being ready for new century careers involves more than academic competence. Young people must possess life skills necessary to navigate complex human systems while acting with integrity and character.”
~~ SET.pdf

Patty Seybold is involved in great work with Uganda Rural Development and Training Program and Founder & CEO of Patty Seybold Group. Uganda Rural University for Women is first Uganda university to offer educational opportunities in integrated rural development. In our podcast Patty and I discuss this amazing story of grassroots innovation, learning celebration, and community empowerment. We’re looking forward to having her in Oregon May 22nd 2008.

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Great podcast with Jessica Flannery co-founder and director of Kiva.org and Charles Best founder of DonorsChoose.org. We discuss their world changing work and innovating in the world of Internet-enabled microfinance.

DonorsChoose.org and Kiva.org

A Wikipedia of Hope - New York Times
ABC 20/20 DonorsChoose Facilitates Gifts That Keep Giving
DonorsChoose.org TIME 50 Best Websites 2007

Kiva.org in The Wall Street Journal, Microlending for Microbankers
Kiva.org top ideas by the New York Times Magazine
Kiva humanizes microlending to third-world entrepreneurs - CNET

I’m excited about our partnering with Oregon Business Council. We’re collaborating on Oregon Business Plan podcast channel and expect interesting results as we explore using the Internet as our open platform in fostering ideas/learning among communities moving Oregon Business Plan forward. We had a great experience podcasting at the Sixth Annual Oregon Leadership Summit. Thanks to everyone on our summit podcast team in making our pilot project a success.

Oregon Business Plan

Very interesting podcast with Peter Semmelhack founder and CEO at Bug Labs. Peter and I discuss exciting developments underway with open source hardware and insights from his experiences attending and presenting at ETech 2008 Conference.

Bug Labs Podcast

Bug Labs BUGbase
Bug Labs: Build your own dream gadget CNET CES Award Winner 2008

“What we are really trying to do is turn the consumer-electronics industry on its ear,” says Bug Labs founder Peter Semmelhack. “Why can’t anyone build whatever electronics they want? Anybody can snap together the hardware. My six-year-old should be able to do it.”

Danish User-centered Innovation Lab

It’s a real treat to podcast with Jeff Howe contributing editor at Wired Magazine and author of upcoming book Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business (July 2008). Jeff and I discuss his learning journey in writing the book and exactly what all this buzz around crowdsourcing means for him. Thanks Jeff, enjoyed the conversation!

See Jeff’s great blog for more on the Rise of Crowdsourcing.

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The book jacket was “coversourced” in a fun competition over at Random House UK. Check out other designs in the Top 20. The winner - Hans Van Brooklyn’s Ants.

I like Kluster’s crowd platform and look forward to podcasting with them in the future….learning from the crowd to make a difference in the projects you care about. Cool.

New York Times article about Kluster: Putting Innovation in the Hands of a Crowd.

Great workshop with LEGO Education USA sending experts in use of LEGO robotics in learning. Check out great story from GT’s Theresa Hogue about the workshop. I’ve been getting great feedback from educators and expect more from our College of Education around use of LEGO platform to support learning. It’s amazing how many ideas I’ve heard after the workshop…users of LEGO technology offering novel applications in learning. A current of user innovation is underway.

Gene and Nell from College of Education and James Isom from LEGO Education USA

Peter Diamandis, X PRIZE Foundation Chairman & CEO, and I enjoyed our podcasting together and I think you will find his story very interesting. Congratulations Peter on X PRIZE Foundation being named Policy Leader of the Year by the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Board of Editors as part of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 50! Also check out Peter’s venture at ZERO G.

X PRIZE Podcast is a great addition to our innovation series — people learning to innovate their approach to product innovation.

X PRIZE Cup brings outer space to New Mexico

X PRIZE Foundation Makes Commitment to Action at Clinton Global Initiative

“The success that the X PRIZE Foundation has achieved so far with minimal resources is astounding. It is the kind of leverage that we all look for. The X PRIZE model has huge potential to unlock innovation around the grand challenges that are important to each of us.”
~ Larry Page, co-Founder and President of Google

Legendary spacecraft designer Burt Rutan won the $10M Ansari X-Prize for SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded craft to enter space twice in a two-week period. He’s now collaborating with Virgin Galactic to build the first rocketship for space tourism.

We’re lovin’ our late summer veggies and Levi is into a bit of veggie installation art.

Oregon is blessed with growing organic vegetables and we waste no time to enjoy. The Corvallis Riverfront Market is a happening place Saturday morning.

OSU President Ed Ray marches with Class of 2011 … nothing like starting the year with a positive vibe. Read the GT story, “New student walk follows same route used for OSU’s graduation march.”

(Courtesy of the Corvallis Gazette-Times)

Check out President Ray podcast from earlier this year…podcasting with Grassroots Learning Project.

Great podcast with social historian Dr. Bruce Piasecki last week and I find the thesis in his new book World Inc provocative as we think about changing climate of global business, The S Frontier, and recipe of cooperation needed to help foster a sustainability vision for our planet. Oregon already leads the way in many of the ideas presented in the book 8 years in the making and now translated in Japanese. Piasecki says capitalism is transforming, companies going global, will confront the issue and learning around going green as well, or risk going extinct … enjoy the podcast!

• Of the world’s 100 largest economies, 51 are corporations, not nations
• The top 300 multinationals own 25 percent of the world’s total assets
• More than 40 percent of all world trade takes place among
  multinational corporations

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“In the growing, global business, there are new grounds for hope in this century.”
- Bruce Piasecki

Oregon State and Wave Energy: Video

Corvallis celebrated its 150th Birthday in concert with Oregon Business is Good! Tour 2007 joining in the celebration. Grassroots Learning Project added to the celebration by podcasting with Duncan Wyse president of Oregon Business Council.

Our podcaster is Aaron Selvig … a business major at OSU. Thanks Aaron!

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Oregon 2007: The Business is Good! Tour

Tinkering with Box.net widget embedded in WordPress blog. Download, upload, and share media. Kind of Web 2.0/social mediaish thingie. Use the widget and listen to my podcast with Randy Huber owner/manager Corvallis’ Timberhill Athletic Club. As a member of the club and being a neat place in our community, I was curious about the club expansion. And I wanted to hear about Randy’s trip to Omaha and seeing OSU Beavers win a second consecutive world series title. The 15GB Box.net online storage comes in handy when traveling around and using various devices to connect to the Web. Also useful to connect with stored media via my Internet-enabled BlackBerry Pearl. When you hear ‘network is the computer‘ … our Box.net widget example is what this notion means … work and play on a computer is becoming less tethered around software on your PC … today for many of our computing services we launch a Web browser. Listen to my podcasts with Intel’s Rob Rueckert, Scott Gatz at Yahoo!, and Gary Flake at Live Labs for more on the topic.

Please let me know if you have any issues in listening to the podcast or downloading the files via the widget. Thanks for your help if you have a minute to spare.

A wonderful summer evening in Corvallis … enjoying our garden tomatoes (we’re canning for winter sauces ) and a lot of watering underway. Levi and Brock are building robots with Levi’s LEGO MINDSTORMS. Levi (our son) likes building robots (interests include marine biology, writing, painting, gaming) and looking forward to LEGO robotics club this fall.

Levi-L, Brock-R

You can hear Levi and Brock podcast with OSU’s world-renowned whale researcher Bruce Mate here.

Gary Flake, Director/Founder, Microsoft Live Labs, “I am a scientist, author, and technology executive, who spends a lot of time architecting pieces of the Internet. Yet, I am oddly embarrassed by having a blog. Go figure. - GF”

Gary and I discuss Microsoft Live Labs and the evolution of the Internet … among other things. It was a great trip to Redmond campus and meeting folks at Live Labs. Gary is a great guy and with wonderful sense of humor and robust intellect to match.

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See Gary Flake at Microsoft Strategic Account Summit 2007 and catch up on the Live Labs team and learn about their collaboration with NASA in producing images via “synth” … people around the world can take part in the NASA experience.