By:Stephen Smith
Via: Marketplace
Last spring, Harvard and MIT announced a $60 million plan to make scores of their courses available for free online. The partnership, called edX, aims to reach a billion people around the world.

“This is the year of disruption for education,” says MIT computer scientist Anant Agarwal, the president of edX. “The time is right because the Internet is available in large parts of the world. Computers and tablets have become relatively low cost. Things are moving extremely, extremely fast.”

edX is part of a nationwide movement led by three big players. Udacity and Coursera are free education companies based in California. edX is in Cambridge, Mass. The goal for all three of them is to make education available to people worldwide for free. But Anant Agarwal says that edX also has a mission to improve teaching. He says computer technology can help tailor courses to how 21st century college students work and live.

“We are finding that most students watch video between 12 and 2 at night, but we still make them come to lectures early in the morning,” says Agarwal. “But by making available online videos with interaction built in we can make learning available at any place, any time, to anyone.”

A video that introduces one of the initial courses now online at edX announces, “This is CS50! Computer Science 50 is Harvard’s introduction to computer science and art of programming for majors and non-majors…”

Harvard Provost Allan Garber explains that the edX software can record every keystroke and mouseclick that a student makes. That means education researchers will have a fine-grained view of how learners use online lectures, study guides and quizzes.

“One of the beautiful things about online education is that as we improve the tools for teaching and learning, we also learn more about how our students are using these tools. This is a virtuous cycle,” says Garber.

The so-called massively open online course,or MOOC, may change the way students learn not only at Harvard, but also at schools across the United States. As states cut their budgets many public colleges and universities are struggling to teach more students with less money. Schools are looking for ways to cut costs. Terry Moe, a political scientist at the Hoover Intuition at Stanford, says mid-tier colleges ought to tap into the free course-ware from leading universities like Harvard to offer more and better classes to their local students.

“Suppose you have some Pulitzer Prize-wining historian who is a fantastic lecturer on the civil war? Why should they take pot luck and walk into some classroom and get some professor whose not nearly as good as this person. OK it’s that kind of thing, but applied across the full range of subjects,” says Moe.

Moe says struggling schools could teach classes and more students, but with fewer professors.

“This is just a bigger bang for buck way of providing kids with a quality education,” says Moe.

The free classes offered by big-name universities may have another unintended effect on higher education — cheaper degrees.

“There’s going top be the invention of lots of low-cost universities now that take these component parts from Coursera or from an edX and assemble it together in coherent degrees that’ll cost $1,000 or $2,000,” says Michael Horn, a technology expert at the Innosight Institute, a Silicon Valley think-tank.

Horn says these low-cost, online programs would be a “grave danger” to middle-tier colleges and universities in the U.S — those schools that are not particularly well-known nor especially affordable.

“Because why would I go to an institution that has very little brand for $15,000 a year when I could go to a low-cost model and be taking the best of the best from MIT, Dartmouth, Harvard, wherever,” he says. “That I think is going to challenge things quite a bit in the years to come.”

The elite universities experimenting with massively open online courses do not expect their free web-based programs to cut into the current demand for their traditional, on-campus experience. Plenty of students will still want to live in dorms and meet their professors in classrooms. But when the cost of college can run more than $60,000 a year at the most selective schools, a free virtual classroom starts to look pretty good.

By: Devin Thorpe
Via: Forbes

If money is the only thing stopping you from doing something good in the world, stop waiting and start doing some good!

Nothing better symbolizes entrepreneurship than fundraising. Social entrepreneurs are no different. Today, there are a host of on-line resources for crowdfunding that social entrepreneurs can use to fund their projects, films, books, and social ventures. Today, I’ll briefly profile eight.

1. Kickstarter.com: Kickstarter is the 800 pound gorilla in crowdfunding, originally designed and built for creative arts, many technology entrepreneurs now use the site, some reporting to have raised millions of dollars. The Kickstarter funding model is an all-or-nothing model. You set a goal for your raise; if your raise exceeds the goal, you keep all the money, otherwise your supporters don’t pay and you don’t get anything. This protects supporters from some of the risk of your running out of money before your project is completed.

2. StartSomeGood.com: StartSomeGood, which I used to raise some money for my book, Your Mark On The World, is great for early-stage social good projects that are not (yet) 501(c)(3) registered nonprofits. StartSomeGood uses a unique “tipping point” model for fundraising, allowing you to set a funding goal and a lower “tipping point” at which your project can minimally proceed and where you will collect the money you raise.

3. Indiegogo.com: Indiegogo allows you to raise money for absolutely anything, using an optional “keep what you raise” model with higher fees or pay less to use an all-or-nothing funding approach.

5. Pozible.com: Pozible, run from Australia, has a global platform for all types of projects, emphasizing “creative projects and ideas” and specifically precludes fundraising for charities. Pozible operates with an all-or-nothing funding model.

6. Causes.com: Causes is designed specifically for 501(c)(3) registered nonprofits to raise money. The fees are low and all donors on the site understand that all of the contributions will be tax deductible. Causes is widely used to launch “action” campaigns, like boycotts, petitions and pledges rather than fundraising campaigns.

7. Razoo.com: Razoo boasts that it has now helped 14,000 causes raise over $100 million. This site is exclusively for social good causes but is not limited to 501(c)(3), using a keep-what-you-raise model, charging just 2.9% of money raised.

8. Crowdrise.com: Crowdrise is a site for 501(c)(3) charities to raise money, with the novelty being that anyone can sign up to volunteer to launch a fundraising campaign for a charity already registered on the site. Everyone can instantly become a social entrepreneur for a cause they believe in.

All of these sites are making great things happen for real people every day, advancing the arts, entrepreneurship and philanthropy in myriad ways. Check them all out and decide which one is the best for you.

Note that in general, the tax deductibility of donations made on these sites is determined by the tax status of the organization to which you donate and not by the crowdfunding site used. Donations made through any of the sites to a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit will generally be tax deductible for U.S. donors who itemize deductions on their tax returns. Check with your tax accountant if you have questions before you make a donation.

By: Kyle VanHemert
Via: Co.Design

AN AMBITIOUS NEW MANUFACTURING COMPANY IS REPURPOSING THE SHINOLA BRAND (AS IN “YOU DON’T KNOW S**T FROM … “) TO TELL A UNIQUE STORY OF AMERICAN CRAFTSMANSHIP.


Having your brand name become part of the common lexicon is a marketing coup of the highest order. It’s debatable, though, whether or not that applies when the expression in question is “You don’t know shit from Shinola.” But with the idea that any name recognition is good name recognition, the folks at Bedrock Manufacturing decided that Shinola, the popular mid-century shoe polish brand, was just the right mark to reintroduce for their new line of American-made watches, bikes, and other leather goods. As they’ve started putting their manufacturing operation in place, however, Shinola has proven not only to be a familiar name but also a reminder of how products can benefit from the stories behind them.


The brand revival started last year, when Bedrock set out to create a new line of high-end leather accessories. From the start, the venture was not only about the products themselves but where they would be produced: Here at home, in the U.S. In Bedrock’s eyes, the new company would be a throwback to a time when goods were built to last, when customers weighed price points with quality, and, most importantly, when those customers had an interest in who was building the products–and where.

It would be a company steeped in the values of an older era, and the founding team wanted a name to match. “We didn’t want to try to invent a name that had heritage and pretend there was history behind it,” COO Heath Carr says, so they looked for inactive brands that were on the market. They eventually came across Shinola, along with the “ever-so-famous saying that comes with the name,” Carr says.

Next came finding a new home. After looking at a number of cities, the team decided to establish the company in Detroit, the former manufacturing powerhouse and something of an American throwback itself. It’s a tidy fit that, like the Shinola name, Detroit too is in the early stages of a 21st-century reinvention.


In Detroit, the first order of business was finding a building to house their new watch factory, and the location they settled on was one that surprised everyone involved. The visiting Shinola team had been invited to tour the College of Creative Studies, a design school located in the historic (and recently renovated) Argonaut Building, simply to get a taste of Detroit’s young creative talent. An elevator malfunction, Carr recalls, led to a serendipitous discovery: “The elevator, for unknown reasons, accidentally stops on the fifth floor. And the fifth floor is completely empty. And we looked around and said, ‘This is perfect! You guys mind if we build a watch factory here?’”

Building a state-of-the-art watch factory above a design school isn’t what anyone had in mind, Carr admits, but “both parties said, ‘let’s give it a try.’ We didn’t sit down and talk about all the reasons not to do it,” Carr says, “we just talked about the reasons to do it.” The watchmaking logistics of the factory itself were handled by Ronda, a family operation that’s one of the last independent Swiss movement manufacturers in the world. The fifth-floor factory, staffed with Ronda-trained local workers, is currently nearing completion, built with a manufacturing capacity of 500,000 watches a year.

Making sure they partnered with a trusted name in watchmaking from the start was important, Carr says. “Our focus first and foremost is quality. If we’re gonna make it here and it’s gonna have the Shinola name on it, it’s going to be … a very high-quality product.” And of course, a good story can only get you so far if the products don’t live up to it. But Daniel Caudill, Shinola’s creative director, explained how that quality was, in many ways, a driving force behind the design of the watches themselves.

“The whole idea is to create a product that is somewhat evergreen,” he told me, “where it’s not about the bells and the whistles and all of the accessories. It’s really about getting to the base of what that product is: How do you use it, what are you using to make it, how are you making it. So it’s really about stripping it down to its bare essentials and, whatever it is, making it with the best materials and the absolute best construction.”


Of course, that dedication to quality and insistence on domestic manufacturing means a higher price-point–Shinola’s looking at the $400 to $800 range. But Carr thinks there’s another part of that equation that will work out in their favor. “Having ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ comes at a premium, there’s no doubt about that. But we believe that the consumers that are interested in our product care a lot about the story, about what’s behind it,” he says. “It’s not just a leather good, it’s not just a watch. It’s a watch that’s made in the United States that has a fantastic story behind it.”

The company’s currently finalizing the designs for the watch, and they’re planning on rolling out a line of bikes, wallets, journals, and more in coming months, each pulling together suppliers, craftsmen, and manufacturers from around the country. Now that the pieces are in place, the challenge the company faces next is equally timeless. “We’re about to begin the very first [watch],” Carr says. “So our path is ‘how do we get from one to 500,000?’”

Find out more on the Shinola site.

By: NYC.gov
Via: Mike Bloomberg

Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Economic Development Corporation Seth W. Pinsky today announced the launch of “New York’s Next Top Makers,” a competition to promote 3-D printing and innovation in New York City. The competition will act as a business accelerator for New York City-based entrepreneurs, inventors and makers, who will be judged by a panel of experts as well as the the public and will receive assistance on the path to commercialization, including studio space, business support and mentorship from industry experts including Shapeways, Adafruit Industries, and Honeybee Robotics.

Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at the ribbon-cutting for Shapeways’ new 25,000-square-foot “Factory of the Future,” a production and distribution center, in Long Island City, Queens. The space is under construction and on its way to becoming the biggest consumer-facing 3-D printing manufacturing facility in the world, with the potential to 3-D print three to five million unique products each year on high-end, industrial size printers. The facility will house between 30 and 50 industrial-size 3-D printers and create as many as 50 manufacturing jobs. The Mayor was joined by Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO and co-founder of Shapeways, Empire State Development Corporation President Ken Adams, Maureen Vogelaar, COO of Shapeways, New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Hoat and Gayle Baron, President of the LIC Partnership.

“This contest will make sure New York City stays on the cutting edge of 3-D printing, an exciting new industry with virtually unlimited potential, and which could completely revolutionize manufacturing,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “New York City – the center of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship – is a natural home for Shapeways, and we look forward to seeing what kinds of exciting products – and quality jobs – they can create.”

“Innovation and entrepreneurship are at the heart of Mayor Bloomberg’s economic development strategy, and with this new competition we will help ensure that more and more entrepreneurs choose to call New York home,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel. “Shapeways’ decision to relocate to Long Island City is the latest evidence that New York is a magnet for talent and ideas.”

“Rapid prototyping and 3-D printing have the potential to transform manufacturing in New York City,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President Pinsky. “Initiatives such as New York’s Next Top Makers will allow us to capitalize on this potential and strengthen this emerging industry. The winners of this competition will receive helpful resources to launch new and innovative products, and will receive access to critical mentorship opportunities, aiding them in their expansion plans.”

“We’re thrilled to support the New York City’s prototyping competition and help entrepreneurs bring their innovative products to market,” said Weijmarshausen, Shapeways CEO and Co-Founder. “New York is a creative epicenter with thousands of designers and innovators, many of whom are now using Shapeways to bring their products to life. We hope the competition further enables hardware and product innovation.”
“Adafruit has thrived in New York City as an electronics manufacturer and educational company,” Limor Fried, Founder and Engineer, Adafruit Industries. “The old saying goes if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere – but there isn’t any other city in the world we could have grown and built our company. I’m looking forward to working with the next generation of makers, business leaders and New Yorkers who want to make the next big thing in New York City!”

“NYDesigns is thrilled to sponsor this competition, which aligns perfectly with our mission to support design and manufacturing entrepreneurship in New York,” said Natalia Argüello, Director, NYDesigns at LaGuardia Community College / CUNY.

The competition will be organized into four phases over the course of the next year:

• From approximately mid-November 2012 through February 2013, entrepreneurs will upload submissions, including filmed pitches of the product they plan to bring to market.

• Following the submission period, qualifying entries will be posted online. While expert judges select the five most promising entries, and the public will vote for a “people’s choice” entry.

• Over five months, from approximately April 2013 to August 2013, the six selected finalists will participate in a five-month design studio, to further develop their product ideas. During this process they will receive studio space provided by competition sponsor NYDesigns, as well as technical support, materials, access to equipment and mentorship from industry leaders such as Shapeways, Adafruit Industries and Honeybee Robotics.

• At a final public pitch event and expo in September 2013, during the second annual Maker Week, judges will assess the success of the emerging businesses and award additional cash prizes the most promising business.

The competition resulted from a New York City Economic Development Corporation study of the New York City 3-D printing and fabrication ecosystem. Rapid prototyping and fabrication enables designers, engineers, and tech entrepreneurs to use computer-controlled fabrication tools such as laser cutters, 3-D printers, and milling machines to develop new products quicker and at a lower cost—lowering the barrier of entry to many industrial fields. While New York City is already a hub of this emerging technology, “New York’s Next Top Makers” is one of several initiatives the City’s Economic Development Corporation identified to further build on the existing community by connecting designers, engineers and entrepreneurs with rapid prototyping equipment, educational resources, and potential clients.

“The City Council celebrates the important contribution of 3-D printing to the future of advanced manufacturing and the creation of good paying jobs right here in New York City,” said City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “In February, we announced a substantial investment to reuse and modernize underutilized industrial space to attract more cutting-edge manufacturing companies that don’t require the same large spaces industrial companies once did. I thank Mayor Bloomberg, Economic Development Corporation President Pinsky and Deputy Mayor Steel for their continued dedication to diversifying our economy and creating jobs, and Shapeways for helping to bring this new technology to our city.”

“Shapeways’ ‘Factory of the Future’ is a welcome addition to our neighborhood, bringing new jobs and increasing Long Island City’s prominence as a hub for technology, business growth and economic development,” said State Senator Michael Gianaris. “I thank Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg and the Coalition for Queens for their efforts to build the tech industry in western Queens and look forward to welcoming more job-creating companies like Shapeways to our community.”

“Whenever we open a plant that adds jobs, creates new opportunities and expands a business, we are deeply grateful to all those involved,” said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. “I am certain that Shapeways will do well here in Long Island City, home to more than 30,000 residents and a dramatic growth in housing and economic activity.”

“Shapeways is an important example of a growing industrial & tech business in Long Island City,” said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. “Western Queens is booming, thanks to policies and practices put into place to help these businesses succeed. Assuring continued job growth for start-ups and mature companies alike is essentially important.”

Partnering with the City on the competition are Shapeways, Adafruit Industries, Honeybee Robotics and the competition will be managed by ChallengePost. Shapeways is an online 3-D printing marketplace headquartered and producing in New York City after moving its facilities here from the Netherlands. Adafruit Industries is a New York City-based company that sells kits and parts for original, open source hardware electronics projects and was founded by MIT graduate Limor Fried. Honeybee Robotics is a Manhattan-based technology and product developer focusing on advanced robotic and spacecraft systems, such as componentry for NASA’s latest mission to Mars. ChallengePost is a competition platform focused on driving innovation and engagement, and with previous experience managing similar competitions such as BigApps.

NYDesigns is sponsoring this program by providing free studio space, at their facility at 45-50 30th Street in Long Island City, for all of the six winners. NYDesigns is an economic development program within the Adult and Continuing Education Department at LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York. NYDesigns was founded in 2004 to support the economic competitiveness of design and creative businesses in New York by conducting small business and entrepreneurship research and providing counseling, education, and technical assistance. Since its creation, NYDesigns has served over 8,000 design entrepreneurs in the fields of product and industrial, fashion, interior, graphic, web, and communication design, as well as architecture.

The competition builds on 22 initiatives announced in June 2011, by Mayor Bloomberg, in partnership with the City Council, that will revitalize, modernize, and preserve up to 9 million square feet of underutilized industrial space, and create and retain up to 30,000 direct and indirect industrial jobs, generate annual payroll earnings of more than $900 million and more than $150 million in City tax revenue. The industrial sector is an integral part of the City’s economy that has faced serious challenges in recent decades, but now offers real opportunities for growth and development.

The initiatives resulted from an inter-agency review of the City’s industrial policies, led by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Steel, New York City Economic Development Corporation President Pinsky, Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Robert W. Walsh and City Planning Commissioner Amanda M. Burden. The review found that while the City’s industrial sector has been declining in line with national trends of 8 percent annually over the past 10 years, there are certain subsectors showing stability and growth. As offshoring costs increase, it is anticipated that industrial activities will continue to grow nationwide. New York City in particular offers unique location-based advantages for industrial activity, including a population of about 8.4 million, access to a large workforce and highly-skilled labor, and one of the nation’s busiest ports based on import volume. The review also found that industrial businesses in the City are challenged by a lack of building stock appropriate for modern industrial uses, higher costs, and difficulty maneuvering City processes. Industrial sectors account for 15 percent of New York City’s overall private employment and more than 23 percent of employment outside of Manhattan, and industrial jobs have a mean wage of $67,000.

By: Karen Bossick
Via: Times-News

SUN VALLEY • The Wood River Valley needs to build businesses that do not depend on tourism, a consultant told Sun Valley-area businessmen Wednesday.

“You have arguably one of the great resorts here. You have to ask: Who could be profitable here?” Austin-based TIP Strategies director Jon Roberts asked 178 people who turned out for a day-long economic summit at the Sun Valley Inn. “Innovation is going to be the economic driver. Those communities who do not embrace innovation will not be successful.”

The summit was organized by Sustain Blaine, a public-private partnership promoting economic growth. It brought out the valley’s CEOs, including Cody Langbehn, CEO of St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center, and Sun Valley Co. owners Carol Holding and her daughter, Kathleen.

Harry Griffith, executive director of Sustain Blaine, said sales in the county increased $38 million in 2011 over 2010 but that tourism, lodging and eating receipts were flat in 2012. The residential sales volume is stabilizing after four years of decline, and the rate of decline in property values is slowing.

Hotel occupancy rates were 60 percent in 2011 and 2012 with a few weeks in summer approaching 100 percent. Seasonally, occupancy rates average 57 percent in winter, 85 percent in summer and 36 percent during fall.

Sixteen marquee events, such as the Sun Valley Wellness Festival, bring in 94,000 people and $48 million each year. The median number of registered participants per event is 2,700; the median total economic impact per event is $2.2 million.

The 15-day Sun Valley Symphony brings in the most people and has the largest impact money-wise, followed by the Nordic Festival, Sun Valley Wine Auction, Wagon Days, Ride Sun Valley and Trailing of the Sheep. Allen and Co.’s annual gathering of media and technology CEOs has the biggest direct financial impact per registered participant. The Sun Valley Wine Auction is next.

“Events are big business,” Griffith said. “We have to ask: Can we expand some of these events to bring in more people and more money? How can we extend events across the year? We’re a winter sports mecca — why can’t we have more marquee events during the winter? Can we add new events to the shoulder season? Can we get multi-event package sponsors? Can we form an incubation organization?”

In response, Sun Valley Mountain Manager Peter Stearns said Sun Valley is eyeballing hosting the Alpine Nationals to add to the number of winter events.

“We need to decide as a community what we want to go after instead of taking what’s brought us,” he added.

Ketchum developer George Kirk told the group that he has the appetite to create the kind of innovation ecosystem that Robbins talked about. The question, he asked, is who is going to do it?

“With all the economic doom and gloom on the horizon, there’s no cavalry coming, so it’s time for us to engage,” said Steve Mills, who chairs Sustain Blaine’s board of directors.

By: Zak Stone
Via: Co.EXIST

The co-working network The Hub’s L.A. outpost just opened, but it’s already taking off. The model: Less leased office space than collaborative space for people with shared values.

If you find yourself at the Hub L.A. on a post-industrial block of downtown Los Angeles, you’ll encounter all the features you might expect from a co-working space: Raw-wood planters and ample natural lighting. Zig-zagging communal tables, ready to host a row of MacBooks. Wall-sized white boards marked up with words like “inspire” or “collaboration.”


But click “Apple + F” on the Hub’s website, and you won’t find the word “co-working” written a single time. Rather, co-founder Nick Kislinger calls the Hub a “members’ space for people who give a shit.” While the 4,000-square-foot former warehouse may be ideal for cranking on a laptop all day, those in charge of Hub L.A. insist that the physical space is just the beginning of an exclusive social experience and community–portending a model of co-working spaces that’s more like a Soho House for social impact professionals.

While many co-working spaces feature business accelerator workshops and social events, CEO and co-founder Elizabeth Stewart says that the Hub will go beyond that to serve the “whole person” with programming for “personal development or professional development.” And they’ll attempt to create a new community of urban entrepreneurs united around sustainability and digital media.

That means putting a cafe on-site, and organizing events like a release party for a book about “changes in consciousness,” a lecture on permaculture, a workshop on sustainable infrastructure, or a short-film festival.


And it also means letting the right kind of person in. On the application, members must demonstrate a commitment to social impact through their professional aspirations. Individual memberships range from $25, which gets an open invitation to the events, to $510, for unlimited access to the space (about twice as much as full-time access to more typical co-working spaces downtown). According to Kislinger, a “dedicated impact media lab” geared at “Inconvenient Truth-style” media-makers will soon open.

So far, the concept seems to be working. Despite only being officially open for little more than one week, nearly 100 of 600 slots for members have already been filled, according to Stewart. Two four-person mini-offices, called “hub-lets”–which require at least a six-month lease–are already occupied by OkCupid Labs and Verynice, a consultancy for social design.

And it also means letting the right kind of person in. On the application, members must demonstrate a commitment to social impact through their professional aspirations. Individual memberships range from $25, which gets an open invitation to the events, to $510, for unlimited access to the space (about twice as much as full-time access to more typical co-working spaces downtown). According to Kislinger, a “dedicated impact media lab” geared at “Inconvenient Truth-style” media-makers will soon open.

So far, the concept seems to be working. Despite only being officially open for little more than one week, nearly 100 of 600 slots for members have already been filled, according to Stewart. Two four-person mini-offices, called “hub-lets”–which require at least a six-month lease–are already occupied by OkCupid Labs and Verynice, a consultancy for social design.