Innovative Concepts

Day Two of Great SXSW Ideas

A few highlights from today’s journey among the best new ideas that intersected my journey around Austin.


Session with Vice-President Al Gore and Sean Parker (think Napster, Causes on Facebook, or the character played by Justin Timberlake in the film The Social Network).  (#goreparker)

  • Being “liked” by somebody online is not the same level of engagement as connecting with someone offline who is willing to action for your cause.
  • There are 800,000 meaningful political offices held in the United States.  If we want to alter the current discourse we need to realize the reach is far deeper than Washington, DC.
  • Current TV has been the leader in running user generated advertisements
  • The internet has been very successful as taking money and market share from traditional businesses
  • 30% of the broadband network activity during high usage periods is directed towards services such as Netflix.  This is an example of the mismatch between evolving and traditional media.
Dean Kamen (think Segway) spoke about Invention and Innovation (#SXdkamen)
  • Be hands on with innovation.  We do not lecture about football for nine months and then go on the field to play.  We need to be hands on and project based with education.
  • Dean co-founded FIRST which aims to make science and math competitions bigger than the Super Bowl.  This years competition has 22,000 teams.
  • The sustainability of humans is a race between technological advancement and catastrophe
  • If we could provide clean water to the 1.6 billion humans who currently have none we would solve 50% of the world wide treatable diseases.
  • Dean has partnered with Coca-Cola to instal his clean water machines in places with no clean water.  Coke wants to be the stewards of clean water and they have the most advance world wide distribution system.
  • In a free society you get what you celebrate.  Celebrate what you want.
Just a few excellent points among many yesterday.

South By Great Ideas

A day at South by Southwest can be overwhelming, exhilarating, and offer some paradigm shifts.  A quick recap of some of best ideas  from yesterday’s presenters (I have included the Twitter hashtag so you can read the tweets from attendees at each presentation).


Ramez Naam discussed Infinite Resource (#SXInfinite) 

    • Knowledge is not depleted by usage (unlike other comodities).  It can accumulate over time which actually increases the value of knowledge.  Consider the difference between a 1950’s computer and the iPhone.  Knowledge allowed us to shrink the size of the device thousands of times, it uses thousands of times less material, is more powerful, and more people can have their own.
    • The real race for the future viability of planet earth is between consumption and innovation.

Felipe Matos, Heather Cronk, Jackie Mahendra, and Joe Sudbay presented on Waging a War with Social Media (#SXStoryPower)

    •  People on the ground are often willing to go much further in confronting a situation than the organizations who have a mission to solve the same problem.
    • Confronting the moral authority of the White House was the turning moment for their campaign against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Cheryl Contee, Claire Diaz Ortiz, Ramya Raghavan, Robert Wolfe introduced 21st Century Giving: Social Philanthropy’s Rise (#SX21stgiving)

    • YouTube just launched a livestreaming platform to its nonprofit members
    • Twitter has only 2-3 third party platforms for people to give online (TwitPay is one).  This is an area that will expand.
    • Crowdrise has a mission of making fundraising fun.  It has created crests (badges) for donors and fundraisers who reach specific levels.

Brian Seth Hurst, Dina Benadon, Lance Weiler, and Tracy Fullertone discussed Multiplatform Storytelling (#SXfrontline)

    • 10 tips to developing a story:
        • Take time to evaluate the story you want to tell.
        • Ask the hard questions: why would anyone care? Ask this five times.
        • Let go of a single point of view.
        • Consider how to show rather than tell.
        • Make it easy for your audience to become collaborators.
        • Don’t let the world get in the way of your story.
        • Consider something local before you jump to the global.
        • The number of screens doesn’t equal a better experience.  It is much harder to design with simplicity.
        • Fail quickly- you learn more what didn’t work than what did.
        • Keep it simple.  If someone cannot explain it then it will die.

Random great quotes
  • If you are overworked, just do better and higher quality work
  • Optimism is the ultimate weapon, ultimate revolutionary act because it propels people into action
  • In order for people to start a revolution, people have to experience almost hysterical optimism
  • Celebrities should add to the conversation for the causes they support but being too proactive can turn people off.
  • Each technology platform has its own turn-around time for a response (consider the difference between a text message, email, and a comment on a blog post).

Education Manifesto
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If you wish to read one piece on transformative ideas in education I highly recommend Seth Godin’s manifesto which he released this week.  I am attending the National Association of Independent School’s conference and will be interested to hear the reaction to the ideas Seth has advocated, starting with Bill Gates’s opening keynote.


A sample of Seth’s manifesto:

84. The two pillars of a future-proof education:

Teach kids how to lead

Help them learn how to solve interesting problems

Leadership is the most important trait for players in the connected revolution. Leadership involves initiative, and in the connected world, nothing happens until you step up and begin, until you start driving without a clear map.   

And as the world changes ever faster, we don’t reward people who can slavishly follow yesterday’s instructions. All of the value to the individual (and to the society she belongs to) goes to the individual who can draw a new map, who can solve a problem that didn’t even exist yesterday.   

Hence the question I ask to every teacher who reads from her notes, to every teacher who demands rote memorization, and to every teacher who comes at schooling from a posture of power: Are you delivering these two precious gifts to our children? Will the next generation know more facts than we do, or will it be equipped to connect with data, and turn that data into information and leadership and progress?

Making the Leap
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Four versions of this image hit my email inbox in the last two days.  I find it powerful and yet the context perplexing.  The commitment of the fish to make the leap is inspiring.  However, many causes have used the image to address an opportunity for expansion.  Some suggest that a new location will allow them to find their purpose.  I would suggest that an individual’s or enterprise’s purpose does not change.  If we are not finding traction in the current environment then perhaps the it is time to take the message elsewhere.  If the reason for making the leap is reap the perceived rewards of swimming in a bigger pool of water, make sure it is consistent with your values.  The number one reason a nonprofit capital campaign fails is because a real estate opportunity dominated a cause’s decision-making.  The organization sees a deal that it cannot let slip away and launches a fundraising effort only to find itself lying on the table between two bowls of water.


Be true to your purpose and you will find you can swim in many different bodies of water.  

How Would You Like Me to Apologize?
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The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure continues to look for ways to steady its reputation.  They recently began polling individuals on the best course of action the organization could take to make an apology.  One thing we know about authenticity is that is must match what one believes.  If one’s actions are inconsistent from their stated purpose then they lack trust, loyalty, and authenticity.  If we are saying, ‘I am sorry,’ because somebody else believes we should then the outcome will most likely worsen the problem instead of mend the damage.  In many ways the original decision to defund Planned Parenthood exposed confusion at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  There was an immediate opportunity to reconfirm the cause’s purpose with everyone who was closely connected and then work outwards with core advocates to apologize.  Instead, the foundation seems to be trying a couple different plays from random pages in the crisis management playbook.


What would you recommend as the next step?