The ING Hartford Marathon and Community
I am not a runner but I can appreciate the ING Hartford Marathon for its positive impact on Hartford. I have a few friends running in it and have been surprised to see friends from farther away in my Facebook feed make their way to Hartford for the event. People that run have a kinship with each other that I have seen in cycling and other activities that foster a sense of community. With the absence of Whalers Hockey, I think that this event is the one that puts Hartford on the map.
Read MoreSometimes Barriers to Innovation are Cultural
When I was a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute we had to complete three projects in order to graduate. One project is called the IQP and is an interdisciplinary project designed to expose students to working with people in different fields. My project involved working with a start-up that wanted to create a social network that encouraged the installation of renewable energy systems.1 The entrepreneur had a website built and his intention was to have us spend time populating the site with information. This did not jive with the educational goals of IQP so our project advisor set it up so that we would research ways to improve the website. However retrospectively I think we were working on the wrong problem. The question wasn’t how to create a website to encourage adoption, it should have been how to encourage adoption of renewable energy generally.2
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I was not pleased when I was assigned the project at the time because other projects involved more tangible outcomes like improving water quality and sanitation in Namibia. Building a website was not interesting technically, I had made them before, and the engineers working with the company viewed it as working on a solved problem. ↩
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My general sense from interviews we conducted with installers and users during the project is that the costs in time and money are high up front for a slow payback. Government incentives do help, but if I were to do it over again besides looking at creative financing I would look at supply-chain issues and programs that target developers of new housing stock or new homebuyers that would roll the upgrade into the new house purchase. Elon Musk figured this out when creating his Tesla cars. They are not marketed to people looking to save money and invest, they are marketed as luxuy vehicles superior to the Mercedes or Jaguar the buyer is already considering. ↩
No More Geothermal System at Wethersfield High School
When I was an undergrad at WPI I worked on a project with a startup that was working to encourage the adoption of renewable energy sources. I was disappointed to learn that the system is being nixed. The cost of energy in Connecticut is high and will likely only increase. With incentives I would expect installing a Geothermal system to be a net win for the town.
Read MoreSome Plugs for my Friends
One of my favorite things to do is to hear about different people’s projects or hobbies. For the past year or so I have been posting on Fred Wilson’s blog and meeting interesting people there. Some people call this networking, but I think the term networking sounds too awkward. It conjures up forced interactions at career services events where you chat with people and then get disappointed when they don’t have jobs for you. Fred’s analogy for his blog is that it’s like a bar, and I have to agree. It’s one of the most welcoming online communities I’ve participated in.
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