That sentence simplifies the complex argument of the article, and I think it’s a really excellent point. What author Eric Liu (who was speechwriter and deputy domestic policy advisor for President Bill Clinton), is saying is that we need to re-visit what it means to be a democracy. The democracy our founding fathers prided America on is not exactly what is running our country today. In the simplest of terms, we need to turn our democracy back toward its original meaning.  We’ve done a bit too much of outsourcing that function to the Pros.

Our original definition of democracy is a government by the people and for the people; a rule of the majority with a healthy respect for the minority.  No more of that tyranny stuff, thank you very much, to paraphrase what our founders said as they gathered during that balmy summer of 1787 in Philly.  Does that definition apply to the democracy we see today in 2012? Not so much, because our self-governing is run almost entirely by professionals. Meaning, in layman’s terms, normal citizens become bottlenecked out of the process and feel like they’re unable to make any sort of changes in our country. Liu explains that in virtually every other field – such as astronomy, medicine and literature — amateurs are able to get their feet wet and contribute. They’re being active citizens by volunteering and doing what they think will benefit everyone.

But when it comes to politics, that’s a whole new ballgame.  Increasingly, amateurs aren’t included in the political process in the United States and that essentially defeats the purpose of having a democracy in the first place. “What about caucuses and primaries?” you may ask. Take a closer look and you will find it difficult to spot  your average Joe or Jane in the meeting hall.  It’s usually the party faithful; the folks who are more than a little casual about their participation.

Now don’t get me wrong: there’s a political process and those that play it to the hilt aren’t necessarily the issue.  It’s the rest of us and how we can amp up our presence and make a real mix of professional and amateur.

If you want to be a citizen citizen, you need to ask yourself if you are a spectator or an actor.  And while I would by no means ever discourage you from attending a caucus, a town hall meeting or to vote in a primary or general election, I think these days your opportunity to be citizen citizen need not stop when you finish focusing on participation in politics and government. If you want to make this a 365 day a year affair, to really integrate it into your lifestyle, then begin your practice by practicing the support of things beyond politics and government.  By getting behind such things as Lemonade Day, or buying shoes from Oliberté (the African shoe company that provides jobs and, perhaps more importantly, a purpose for its citizens) to name just a couple of examples I’ve covered in this blog, you are an active citizen and you’re contributing to a better world.  You’re being a citizen citizen.

For those of us who aren’t high up on the political totem pole, we can at least do something about our concern for our non-democratic democracy by becoming more broadly active. Let’s re-democratize democracy by redefining what it means to be a citizen where you can find the citizen opportunity in you.

See you at the polls …

And at the soccer field …

And at the mall …

And at the local neighborhood restaurant …

I’ll be the one with the name tag that announces my amateur status.

[Photo from here].

This inhuman amount of information is called Megadata, or Big Data.  And there is a race on who can crunch the most amount with the most speed.  Every day more and more people are painting a digital picture of you; striving not only to understand you but to predict your every move and desire.  Now I’ll admit that in some ways it sounds incredibly exciting.  And in others it just seems a bit freaky.

I guess there’s a fine line between “cool” and “icky,” right?

The importance of Megadata isn’t how much of it we analyze (think quantity over quality), but what we do with it. It’s nice to collect billions of data points on billions of people, but the only thing that actually matters (to me, anyway) is the purpose for which it is translated. Here’s what I think a lot of people are missing about Megadata: It’s just a tool. And like all other tools, we need to use it with concern for implications so we can wield it for our betterment. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to envision scenarios where that might not be the case.

Let me tell you a few things about tools:

• Tools are powerful.  Not powerfully good. Not powerfully bad. Just powerful, so we need to be mindful of the intention of those that wield it.
• Tools are imperfect, so we need to remember not to become overly enamored with them.  We would be well served to be on a vigilant watch for negative implications, especially when they may be unintended.
• Tools dislocate, bringing with them big movements and the ability to crowd out other concerns. And while I have little doubt that there will be some enormous benefits to crunching all this data, I also am fairly certain, unfortunately, that not all those changes will be good.

The point I’m making here is that, while it sounds like a boatload of fun to analyze data until we’re in a form of paralysis, I think everyone needs to step back for a second to really understand what it is we’re doing with so much (mundane) information. It’s almost like it’s a new type of religion, the way some people are following it … we’ve got some devout Megadata-ers on our hands, ladies and gentlemen.  And just like our religious tools, I’m wary of those who carry the torch with righteousness and a feeling infallibility. History shows over and over just how dangerous that kind of hubris can be.

While we will experience new knowledge, let’s not mistakenly assume it will automatically make us wiser.  To paraphrase the poster child of those who can be both smart and wise, Albert Einstein said that not everything that matters can be counted and not everything that can be counted matters.  How true.

Now that we’ve entered the 21st century Megadata is an inevitability.  It’s not whether we will have it or not, for it is most certainly a present and growing part of our world.  The question that we must always ask ourselves when it comes to our tools is not what it “is,” but rather what it “means.”

Let’s keep a steady hand and a watchful eye on this new tool and we just might err on the wise side.  And doesn’t that sound like the smart thing to do?

[Photo from here]

Let me give you a brief summary of the piece called When Innovation Flows Uphill  by Randy Rieland. Reverse innovation, as this article defines it, is the name for the development of innovation starting in a poor, underdeveloped community and moving up to a highly developed, wealthy place. This occurs when a country like ours develops a product … let’s use the GE example Rieland used: a $100,000 ultrasound scanner. General Electric took the product to China to try to get into its market. As it turns out, Chinese hospitals couldn’t afford this type of machinery, and plus – they didn’t want it! They needed something that was portable so it could be used in remote areas. “Aha!” said GE.

What do you think happened? From this experience GE’s Vscan was born, a smartphone-sized ultrasound scanner than can be, as the Chinese desired, packed up and taken to rural areas. And now the whole world, including the rich parts of it, wants one of these.

That’s all grand and super interesting, but here’s what got to me: Rieland defines reverse innovation as moving uphill on a poor-to-rich path. While that certainly happens and is happening more and more often, I think that the real deal here is that innovation happens when borders are dropped. That’s all it takes! As we travel anywhere out of our community we see how others live, interact, and approach problems.  We see opportunity through the entrepreneur’s lens, which is: it’s not what I’m selling, it’s what they’re buying that’s important.  Or in this case what they’re able to buy.

In addition to the poor-to-rich path, we should open as many borders as possible and discover in our journeys what other kinds of needs are out there. And often times, it doesn’t even take a jet plane.  Travel to another neighborhood.  Take in activities that are out of your normal routine.  Spark up a conversation with a stranger.  They’re all ways to reach across territories, both physical and intellectual.  In that new land you are much more likely to meet others who see the world just a bit differently than you do, and through their eyes you’ll glean important ideas upon which to think, design and even produce.

The moral of this story?  It’s hard to find a new idea if you spend all your time in your same old, same old comfort zone.  So, you want to invent something? Take a trip. Even if it’s just a little way away.

Lemonade Day, a nation-wide experiential learning program that planted its roots in Texas in 2007, will be celebrated this Saturday, May 5^th in dozens and dozens of cities across the continent. Around 120,000 children will be putting their entrepreneurial skills to work as they get their hands dirty and sticky by making lemonade, convincing people to buy it, and running the cash registers (or tool boxes, paper bags or whatever is handy).

By taking part in Lemonade Day, kids are exposed to the wonderful world of venture creation. They’re learning resiliency and self-sufficiency.  They’re learning the rudiments of business planning and operations.  They’re learning about marketing.  And not unimportantly, they are learning about money: not just making it, but the power of what you do with it.  Do you save it?  Do you spend it? Or do you give it away?  Hopefully the answer is a little bit of each.  And what do you know … nationwide there is a Lemonade Day trend where kids are really emphasizing the philanthropic angle.  They’re discovering one of the wisest lessons of all, which is that putting yourself in a position to give to others is one of the most beautifully selfish things you can do for your own happiness.

So if you’re strolling along your neighborhood this Saturday and you see a little lemonade stand along your path please make sure to stop and give it big support.  Sure, I’d like you to buy a glass of that yellow goodness and throw in a tip, but how about a pat on the back to the kids who are making it happen right there on your front sidewalk?

Follow this link to see if there will be any lemonade stands in your area you can drop by to support.

And if your kids are involved, tell them way to go!

I’m a huge advocate of turning sticks into carrots, or giving people an incentive to do things like exercise, vote, or eat well. That’s precisely why I love this new product I just read about called 999Bottles. It’s a reusable bottle made by the Artefact Group that has a dial at the bottom. Each time you fill up with water, you turn the dial once. Eventually this will amount to your 999^th bottle, and you can start over if you so desire.  Think of it as pedometer for your thirst.  It measures little steps that lead to big, meaningful changes.

So what does this mean for you? Well nowadays a cutting-edge product like this wouldn’t be complete if it weren’t equipped with a complementary app, and that’s where you learn the importance of the number of times you fill up your bottle. The app calculates how many plastic water bottles you are avoiding and what that accounts for in landfills. Each time you turn the dial you divert the need to produce and dispose of one plastic bottle.  Neat.

Long-winded studies and hard-core advocates can sometimes be difficult to listen to and don’t appeal to all.  But a nifty bottle and an app that provides facts with a bit of fun can make you feel involved, even if it’s just 999 small moves.

Check out this piece in Huffington Post for pictures and a great video about the 999Bottle. Also, if you love this idea so much that you want to support it, here is the Kickstarter page.

So, what are we going to do with that empty wall now that we don’t have bottles on it?

Cheers!

[Photo from here].

I run into it every day: people are becoming much more conscious of the stories behind their purchases. Sure they know what the thing “is” but increasingly they’re also asking about what the thing “means” in a bigger sense.  They want to rest assured that the steak they are eating didn’t come from a tortured cow, or that children didn’t pick the cotton their jeans are comprised of, or that the toy they just bought wasn’t made in a way that wantonly damages the environment.

While in the past it may have seemed that it was a fringe element that walked around with these deeper concerns (and maybe in actuality it was a tiny minority), today it sure is easier to get a sense of the size of the growing crowds that actually care about these kinds of opportunities.  And the real point isn’t necessarily the size of this group as much as the fact that it’s growing in numbers and influence.

But again … wanting it is one thing.  How about the ask?

As but one example, you may have noticed that in recent years grocery stores have started to carry more products with “certified organic,” “free-range” or “grass-fed” labels on the food. That didn’t happen because the government mandated markets to become more responsible. It happened because consumers wanted it and the grocers delivered.  One asked and the other listened.  Nice, huh?

You see, when people demand values they in turn create a valuable marketplace for everyone. What we saw in the food world recently is now taking root in the fashion world. Last month I wrote about Catalytic Clothing, the clothes that actually clean the air when you wear them, and back in February I spoke of Levi’s Water<Less jeans, which are made with between 28 and 96 percent less water than Levi’s originals. This is becoming a trend my friends, and it all started with a couple of asks.

What we need to do is realize how much asking matters. Too often people think that their voice isn’t powerful enough and that what they say could never make a difference. But if five customers ask the same boutique owner if she carries any organic cotton, that notion will start to stick with her. And through tools like social media it’s never been easier to find those who want what you want, right?  One by one the “asks” will be stored away until eventually there are enough to make a difference. Moving from the notion of wanting something to the act of asking for it just isn’t that big of a leap in this day and age.

Oh and by the way … when you go about asking, remember what your mom told you when she said “honey goes a lot farther than vinegar.”  Or put more exactingly: asking someone for something that you’re ready to reward them for (i.e. your patronage) is a lot more effective than threatening someone to give into your demands.

So let’s be nice out there and ask for some good stuff!

[Photo from here]

It’s quite possible that both may be right.

In the age-old debate about what separates man from beast,  this study shows that perhaps the one thing human beings possess that other species don’t is the ability to build knowledge on top of knowledge. And it’s not just that, but it’s the instinct to take that knowledge and make something better out of it. This study is fascinating … and maybe even humbling to all those “I did it my way!” crooners.

As you can read in the link, the study monitored the performance of children, monkeys and chimpanzees when faced with a puzzle (and rewards for getting it right). What the behavioral scientists saw was the humans watching and interacting with one another while in the problem solving process.  In short, they imitated each other. Conversely, the animals were competing with one another, even stealing the winnings from the deserved participants.

But even without that study, it’s pretty simple to understand that we are a product of the generations before us, and that is because each of them piled their knowledge on top of what already existed. What we have today is an accumulation of human knowledge since the first humans graced the planet. So while other species may have been around for longer than we have, we seem to be the ones that fly to space and perform brain surgery.  We are wired very differently from other beings on this planet.

As an entrepreneur, the idea of collaboration is a really interesting one to me. I’ve heard so much about collaborative workspaces lately, and that’s not to mention meetups and other organized information sharing events that can be found everywhere. Collaborating is something we’ve done since the beginning of time and will undoubtedly do until the end of time.

Today we are at the top of a sedimentary rock. Layers upon layers are visible below us, but where we are now is the end product; the result of years of growth and accumulation.

And to think what the next generation will lay on top of what we already have.

[Photo from this website].

Given that dour economic environment, I found great interest in this article at Forbes.com by Peter Cohan (author and former professor at the epicenter of entrepreneurial education, Babson College) in which he says Europeans are turning to entrepreneurship in lieu of traditional employment opportunities.

He mentions that just last week he was in Spain at a business school. Many students expressed the sentiment that they don’t want to wait for someone else to open up an economic path for them; they’re going to do it now and they’re going to do it themselves. And Spain just so happens to have an unemployment rate of a whopping 22.9 percent.  In other words, the boss ain’t hiring and they aren’t waiting.

These students and a growing number of unemployed European aren’t waiting for a 180-degree turnaround in the job market. Instead they’re rolling up their sleeves and choosing to take the reins of their destiny. And it’s happening here, too. This study shows there’s a surge in baby boomer entrepreneurs right now. Not just that, but this generation of independent workers is reporting very high satisfaction. Nice.

In past postings, I’ve pointed out that we should be more concerned about the need of passing on knowledge and wisdom and not be so dogmatic about what is classically defined as an “education.”  Similarly, we should keep our eye on the ball of being economically productive rather than being tied to a narrower definition of what is a “job.”  Employers just aren’t hiring like they used to.  But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways of producing, and for a growing group that means doing it as your own boss.

I think it’s safe to say that entrepreneurship will continue to grow and become a solid part of the economic environment, comfortably existing next to corporate America instead of just being a fallback option.  And when it comes to growing the economic pie, I’m pleased to see that a bunch of folks are not waiting for the next train to leave the station, but are starting off down the tracks right now under their own steam.

[Photo from Antique Trains]

What’s not to love about tapping into natural resources like wind to produce the electricity that we just can’t seem to get enough of? Well there are a few things, actually, such as the wind doesn’t always blow when and as hard as we’d like. Or that wind farms to some are kind of an eye sore. Or perhaps even more disturbingly, wind farms sometimes have the effect of working like a Cuisinart food processor on birds.

Now the basic wind turbine design is pretty simple. Even I get the gist of how it works. Wind turns the rotor blades, which in turn rotates the shaft of the turbine that converts the rotational energy into the electricity that is fed onto the grid. And if you’ve ever seen a modern wind farm you’ll note that the blades are huge on those turbines. That’s because the higher up the blades are, the more exposed they are to wind. OK, I admit that I’m spelling this out in crayon and oversimplifying matters, but you get the picture right?

Well check out this huge new beauty at TheVerge.com that makes standard wind turbines look like child’s play and miniature toys. Altaeros Energies (a Massachusetts-based company led by MIT and Harvard alumni) has created a wind turbine at a truly grand scale. This new product is called the Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT for simplicity’s sake) and will be the zeppelin of the turbine world. In order to reach ultimate heights and therefore ultimate winds, the turbine is to be suspended in the air by means of a helium-filled shell that can reach up to 1,000 feet, and tethered not only by anchoring cables but by high-voltage wires as well. And while the article doesn’t mention it, I’m guessing that’s above where most of our avian friends are hanging out too. Nice.

According to Altaeros, the airborne turbine will produce abundant, low-cost and renewable energy at a more consistent rate than the typical wind turbines are capable of. The construction is simple and quick: it takes just a few days for setup and requires minimal maintenance, which will be specifically beneficial for remote locations, as The Verge mentions in this article.

But really, if it works as intended I don’t see why we wouldn’t want more of these electricity-producing sky sculptures hanging around our neighborhoods, too. Years from now I’d like to look back and say that we got the Led out and launched a bunch of these wind grabbing Zeppelins …