Silicon Valley Innovation Institute (SVII)

06/13/2024

Solo Creatives of The Berkshires. Episode 067. February 8, 2024. "Howard Lieberman."

12/22/2014

Happy Holidays, SVII Community!

11/28/2013

Join us for the SVII 2013 Holiday Party, and take your own Innovation Vitality Questionnaire designed by Howard Lieberman!

http://svii.net/dec4/

It takes a lot of grit and determination to create and enter a new market, develop and apply a new process, or do anything that is new and different. There is always resistance to change that needs to be overcome. Most individuals would also like to positively adapt to the situations they ...

11/28/2013

http://svii.net/nov6/

Innovation is extremely challenging when large numbers of decision makers in a well defined hierarchical chains of command are involved. Yet some multi-national multi-billion dollar companies routinely do just this, resulting in their persisting as world leaders in their respective markets. The ...

11/17/2013

How America can continue to lead the global economy in the 21st century...

"America… cannot compete with China or India in churning out engineers. Instead, the Untied States [sic] can thrive by being more innovative. Stronger math and science skills are needed, he writes, but so are other skills, which he calls the '5C’s' — critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity and confidence."

By the way, the "twin gaps" are technology skills and technology education.

In a new book focused on the skills gap confronting Silicon Valley and the tech industry more broadly, the author, Gary J. Beach, publisher emeritus of CIO Magazine, argues that we have a bigger

09/27/2013

Don't forget to join us next Wed for this hot topic: "Perspectives on Innovations in Food (Consequences or Breakthrough?)"

http://svii.net/sept4/

This month, SVII is taking on a topic that is literally close to our hearts. Very close in fact: our stomachs. We all eat. Some of us eat to live, and others of us live to eat. Then, there are those who make their living from food production, preparation, alteration, transportation and ...

08/22/2013

Here's a question? Is it wrong to experiment on people? Sounds terrible, right, but as Blattman explains here, any time you attempt a charitable endeavor, that actually is an experiment...on people. Given that, it's a good idea to actually think about the experimental results that you are getting.

I’m breaking my blog holiday. It’s a special occasion: Planet Money reporters David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein went to Kenya to see the work of a charity called GiveDirectly in action. Instead of funding schools or wells or livestock, GiveDirectly has decided to … Continue reading →

07/11/2013

This heroic man took it upon himself to fix the potholes in his city, Jackson MS. The main problem, however, was that he took city owned asphalt to do it without city permission. We love the idea of crowdsourcing government/public problems--especially the ones that the government is having a hard time staying on top of. How about the city of Jackson works out a deal with him to give him the asphalt he needs and he starts recruiting other citizens to help him out. Jackson MS would probably soon be the smoothest city for driving in the US. Even if they don't allow him to keep on doing it, what are they going to do with the holes he already filled? tear them up because they were illegally fixed?

A Mississippi Man Fills Potholes and Leaves Behind the Message 'Citizen Fixed'

06/24/2013

At our last SVII event, we talked about good innovation and bad innovation (where innovation is defined as "doing something in a new way"--thus absent of a value judgment). I'm pretty sure that videos in instagram (so-called "vinstagrams", ha!) has so far been a bad innovation. Thoughts?

You hear that? It's the sound of 130 million people closing the Instagram app. Ok, perhaps that's a bit hyperbolic, but I'm placing my bets right now: Instagram video is a big mistake. Huge...

06/22/2013

Fighting Cancer with the AIDS virus. It's like tricking the bad guys into fighting each other in a comic book.

06/19/2013

Scientists and ranchers alike see managed grazing as the best solution to desertification, air and water pollution, and even climate change. Here's why.

06/16/2013

Join us on July 17th for "Dying Healthy: Care for Yourself Til the End of Your Days."