I have argued in the past that we need an Internet Bill of Rights. If anyone doubted that, then they should look at what has been happening at and around the eG8 summit. There have been many great tweets from people there and around the world. The two that summarize the situation best for me are first Jeff Jarvis tweeting thatAt # eG8, government acts as if it should protect us from the internet. Instead, the internet needs protection from government.And then this wonderful response by Scott ...

I have argued in the past that we need an Internet Bill of Rights. If anyone doubted that, then they should look at what has been happening at and around the eG8 summit. There have been many great tweets from people there and around the world. The two that summarize the situation best for me are first Jeff Jarvis tweeting thatAt # eG8, government acts as if it should protect us from the internet. Instead, the internet needs protection from government.And then this wonderful response by Scott ...

I wrote about innovation on Android yesterday and today there is already more reason to write about innovation in mobile. This time the news is decidedly mixed. On the plus side, Amazon has opened their Android App Store (despite Apple suing them over the use of the words App Store). On the minus side, AT&T customers can’t (yet) participate because their Android phones don’t let them install apps outside of Google’s Android Marketplace. AT&T has created a website (no joke) where people can si...

I wrote about innovation on Android yesterday and today there is already more reason to write about innovation in mobile. This time the news is decidedly mixed. On the plus side, Amazon has opened their Android App Store (despite Apple suing them over the use of the words App Store). On the minus side, AT&T customers can’t (yet) participate because their Android phones don’t let them install apps outside of Google’s Android Marketplace. AT&T has created a website (no joke) where people can si...

Yesterday, a major barrier was crossed with the creation of the first artificial lifeform. Craig Venter and his team created a cell from scratch. Well not exactly from scratch: they created the DNA and inserted into an emptied cell. This is very similar to programming a computer – the hardware is the same but the software tells it what to do. When I explained this to my kids this morning, they surprisingly immediately grasped some of the potential consequences as my older son blurted out “the...

Yesterday, a major barrier was crossed with the creation of the first artificial lifeform. Craig Venter and his team created a cell from scratch. Well not exactly from scratch: they created the DNA and inserted into an emptied cell. This is very similar to programming a computer – the hardware is the same but the software tells it what to do. When I explained this to my kids this morning, they surprisingly immediately grasped some of the potential consequences as my older son blurted out “the...

Yesterday I saw a tweet from Josh Kopelman and then this morning a post from Bijan about Senator Dodd’s financial reform bill suggesting that it would impose a 120 day review period on angel investing (which would be crazy). They are based on an article on the Huffington Post by Robert Litan from the Kauffman Foundation, titled “Proposed ‘Protections’ for Angel Investors are Unnecessary and Will Hurt America’s Job Creators." The article claims:All of this would change if Section 926 of the Do...

Yesterday I saw a tweet from Josh Kopelman and then this morning a post from Bijan about Senator Dodd’s financial reform bill suggesting that it would impose a 120 day review period on angel investing (which would be crazy). They are based on an article on the Huffington Post by Robert Litan from the Kauffman Foundation, titled “Proposed ‘Protections’ for Angel Investors are Unnecessary and Will Hurt America’s Job Creators." The article claims:All of this would change if Section 926 of the Do...

The WSJ recently ran a story titled “It’s a Great Time to Start a Bank” which talked about a couple of recent local banking startups. It’s definitely true that when the existing players are on their backs it’s a good time for innovators. But it was disappointing to see the WSJ article focus about bank startups that look pretty much exactly like the banks we have had for the last hundreds of years: you take deposits from some people and make loans to others. What it is really a good time for i...

The WSJ recently ran a story titled “It’s a Great Time to Start a Bank” which talked about a couple of recent local banking startups. It’s definitely true that when the existing players are on their backs it’s a good time for innovators. But it was disappointing to see the WSJ article focus about bank startups that look pretty much exactly like the banks we have had for the last hundreds of years: you take deposits from some people and make loans to others. What it is really a good time for i...

Bijan has a post relating his recent overnight hospital stay to some of the big issues with healthcare today. Bijan rightly complains about how hospitals are a black hole for patient data. The stimulus package (PDF) contains a section 9202 titled “Investment in Health Information Technology” which states:The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall invest in the infrastructure necessary to allow for and promote the electronic exchange and use of health information for each individual in t...

Bijan has a post relating his recent overnight hospital stay to some of the big issues with healthcare today. Bijan rightly complains about how hospitals are a black hole for patient data. The stimulus package (PDF) contains a section 9202 titled “Investment in Health Information Technology” which states:The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall invest in the infrastructure necessary to allow for and promote the electronic exchange and use of health information for each individual in t...

Yesterday I wrote about how it feels to me like the economic crisis is accelerating the transition to the information society. I believe that the government stimulus can play an important part here by investing in networks as the infrastructure for the information society. The two key networks are high speed Internet and the electrical grid (see also Sam Palmisano’s Op Ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal). Our existing electrical grid is in a dismal state because regulation for many years...

Yesterday I wrote about how it feels to me like the economic crisis is accelerating the transition to the information society. I believe that the government stimulus can play an important part here by investing in networks as the infrastructure for the information society. The two key networks are high speed Internet and the electrical grid (see also Sam Palmisano’s Op Ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal). Our existing electrical grid is in a dismal state because regulation for many years...