By far the most important part EDC/38 Studios failure has been laid out in an article within this week's Providence Business News. The article, "Monitoring upgrades at EDC shelved", talks about the efforts of former EDC Director Keith Stokes to bring monitoring to the loans provided by the EDC. I had heard of this effort, I believe through a previous PBN article, and had the opprotunity during Governor Chaffee recent community business forums to speak personally to Mr. Stokes about this effort; that was of course before he resigned. From this article it seems these efforts were just getting off the ground at the time the EDC/38 Studios failure occured; so to me it is inclear whether they would have better prevented the 38 studios failure or not.  But, again, this is the most important question how do we best montior and understand our investments.

This question also goes beyond the efforts of just the EDC's loan program but for all money going through this agency as it should be for all state agencies and state funds. One perfect example of this is the Community Service Grants which are designated by the State legislature and then distrubuted, but not monitored, by various state or quasi-state agencies like the EDC. A perfect example of the failure of the state, the state legislator and the EDC failing to monitor Community Service Grants funds was the Westerly- Pawcatuck Joint Development Task Force / Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck Chamber of Commerce mix-up.

Will,

I think there is some logic within the Forbes article thinking. They state the key to this phoenix effect* is a "critical mass of developers". So if there is a signifigant number of game software developers, and I will add companies, then having a large one die the possibility of many smaller companies reborn out of the ashes is likely. The question is does Providence/RI have a critical mass of developers (and companies)?

Again I don't think so in terms of game developers or companies. There does appear to be a number of game companies in Boston. But for rebirth of a game industry here in Rhode Island I don't think we had critical mass. We do have a fair number of software companies and a strong tech community combined with various companies and industries that have strong ties with the tech community.

Speaking of Boston and the idea of concentration of like-minded businesses or industry sectors, it is sometimes posed as a challenge for Rhode Island to compete with large cities like Boston and New York. These large major metro areas often are the hub of specialized industries for which smaller rural and lesser populated areas try to compete with singular focus on one or two industry areas.  Rhode Island does have some areas of specialized focus like ocean related industries and tourists based industries.  But I think one of our strengths, which should be enhanced, is our broad focus.  We will continue to focus in one those areas we concentrate on but we should also play out our brouad strengths.  This translates to "How can we in the tech industry can support the wide range of industryies within Rhode Island?" and "What areas across broad range of technology do we have within Rhode Island?"

Ed

*  The phoenix effect being, using Will's words, "the blowup of a large tech company could spawn a bunch of startups". And calling it a "phoenix effect" might not be the best description as the singular phoenix gives rise to another singular phoenix as compared to a tree  dying in a forest fire and its seeds grow multiple new trees.

I think the direct collapse of 38 studios will have little to no effect on the tech industry.  Now I am not a gamer so I am not aware what software game companies are in RI.  The only one I know of is (was?) Cronk software (whose website/ company? is no longer active).  So I don't really see this being a boost for RI.  I do wish all the employees who worked for 38 studios find jobs but I don't see much of a software game industry here in RI.  Maybe you or anyone else can correct me if I am wrong on this.

What I do see having an effect on the tech industry is the issues surrounding the EDC. There are various connections between the EDC and the tech community so this is where I expect to see the greatest impact, either positive or negative. One could delve into a deeper conversation about the possibilties there.

Edward Tufte will be back, this time in Boston, presenting his one-day course on "Presenting Data and Information".  For those who don't know Tufte's work he is widely known for his expertice in information design and statistical evidence.  You can get more information about his work and the course, which will be offered on three days Feb 28, Mar 1, 2, at his website, www.tufte.com.

Washington State is working on turning Interstate 5 into an electric car corridor. I still believe that RI, along with CT, MA, NY, NJ, DE, MD, DC (Boston-to-DC), would also make a great corridor.  Electric charging stations could be added to the Interstate/Parkway gas stations in CT, NJ and the one on I-95 heading towards Boston.

One partner in this project could be Providence's own elecar founded by Brown University student Andrew Antar.

One of the interesting examples in Ray Anderson's book "Confession of a Radical Industrialist" was their success in reducing waste by better aligning their carpets before going into the cutters. Interface makes primarily carpet squares for business buildings and thus does a fair amount of cutting their carpets to size.  And by a fairly simple and low cost pre-alignment they reduced their waste.  Sounds great for the environment right. Reduced waste.

Realize though what this also means. By reducing waste there is more material to sell as furnished goods. And what is more valuable, more funished goods to sell to customers or waste sold? Actually is it both, increased profits and reduced waste.

If I could set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal or BHAG it would be to reduce our (Rhode Island's) industrial waste in half in three years while increasing profits.

I've noticed on the Broadband Rhode Island site there is a counter for the number of tests performed.  Are these unique tests or will repeated tests show up more than once?

Last night's panel ended with the question "what interesting applications has each of the panel members seen?". Focusing on the simple app for not-so-smart phones Brian Jepson cited [Frontline]SMS Medic. FrontlineSMS: Medic is based upon the FrontlineSMS software application developed by Ken Banks (website, blog). FrontlineSMS is "software that turns a laptop and a mobile phone into a central communications hub" and "allows you to text message with large groups of people anywhere there is a mobile signal". Ken developed the software to help out NGOs communicate in Africa and other developing countries. If I had to highlight one app it would be FrontlineSMS and the projects being developed by Ken Banks.

There is also the Business Innovation Factory's Collaborative Innovation Summit which will be held Oct 7-8 this year at the Trinity Rep. And the talks from the past 4 years are located online.

Matt, thanks for checking.  After a month of occasionally checking and trying to access their site with no luck it now works for me.  Other than posting this question all I did was look at my about:config page without changing anything (I wanted to check Firefox's network timeout delay settings).

 

Oh well, sometimes just voicing a problem seems to resolve the issue. Thanks again Matt.