Disclaimer: I work in Google's Policy Team, developing multistakeholder cooperations for internet governance & policy themes, hence I want to point out that all the opinions and ruminations on this blog are mine, not Google's.


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Ideas For MicroEntrepreneurs

Don't you also keep wondering how many peddlers are selling this super-cheap toys, candy and roses? So quite some time ago i had the idea to start a collection of business ideas (products and services) for mirco-entrepreneurs. I started to take pictures of things & services that can (more or less) be easily build (bricolaged) by oneself.

Unfortunately i never really catalouged these pictures (so most are on some backup somewhere ;-( BUT i just recently took a couple which i now uploaded to start this collection.

For now you will find some examples of (1) inspiring and not-standard masks, (2) artsy objects like colored stones, a mobile; (3) furniture and some other things i thought might transpose well into other micro-entrepreneurial contexts.

You are more than welcome to send me your ideas and pictures. I plan to develop a more comprehensive web-knowledge-base on the subject of micro-entrepreneurship over the next years.

Some years ago i visited the DrapArt festival in Barcelona and they had a whole product range of things that could be build with some simple tools and materials that were thrown away. Check out their website @ www.drapart.org/en/

Edit: i dont know what's up with this picasa embed, but i edited twice and it doesnt show up nicely in my browser - so if it doesnt work for you please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/maxsenges/MicroEntrepreneurship?feat=directlink

Thursday, February 12, 2009

US Idealism Pragmatism vs. French post-modern meme archiology

Still one of the best YouTube videos i have ever found, this Noam Chomsky | Michel Foucault debate from 1971 is an intellectual delicatess (and the awesome hippie atmosphere adds even visual appeal).

Sidenote: Isn't it cool how these two über-intellectuals claim to talk to each other, while speaking on completely different subjects ;-) Chomsky first elaborates on conditions/components for an ideal social order - then Foucault counters by saying he doesnt even understand the current system and speaks about power - to what Chomsky replies he needs the ideal to inform his actions. Or might there be a connection after all??


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Entrepreneurial Learning Article co-authored with JSB and Howard Rheingold

Last year, while working and living in the Bay Area, i had the pleasure to get to know John Seely Brown and Howard Rheingold and the three of us stuck our heads together and co-authored an article entitled "Entrepreneurial learning in the networked age: How new learning environments foster entrepreneurship and innovation" which has been published in the Paradigms Journal of the Catalan Ministry of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

this is soo microsoft.... and the real world has a sense for humor

The german mag "der spiegel" just made me aware of a super funny story: Microsoft has released a pretty interesting new software called SongSmith. It records your singing and adds more or less "harmonic" rythems and instrumental sounds around it. The result is a more or less song-like piece of music. Quite frankly i like the idea and the resulting product does produce bearable songs that seem to be fun and creative to produce (see below). But before i show you what the web community used it for - awesomly funny re-makes of blockbuster classic songs in exemplary creative commons re-mix style - you have to check out this incredibly stupid, dull, old-school advertisment Microsoft dared to publish:



and here a pretty cool Queen re-make: